Re: Ecotricity

There seems to be a bit of a windmill backlash building from unexpected sources. A lot of people (including alternative energy types) are saying that they'll never generate enough power. I was thinking about this stuff the other day, and it occured to me that we should be investing loads in providing solar power in Africa -- doing our R&D there and basically giving it away to them in vast quantities. Also, I still think they should add dynamos to treadmills and exercise bikes in gyms across the world...

Seumas, I'm sure you'll disapprove of me posting this, but I just read a speech by Bill Gates for a thing I'm doing at work, and thought it might be of vague interest for John, workwise: Bill Gates' Speech Transcript: Microsoft CEO Summit May 2004.

Doonesbury at war. Just in case anyone missed the Gruaniad piece yesterday.

Kissinger Tells Of A Drunk Nixon. Hope Monkeyboy isn't back on the sauce - choking on pretzels, falling off mountainbikes etc...

Well, it's something I suppose.. I've just switched electricity suppliers to http://www.ecotricity.co.uk

It only takes a minute.

Unexpectedly, Shaun Woodward has probably got the best MP's website. It's a blog basically, and he gets stuck in. I've had some reasonable chat with him.

http://www.shaunwoodward.com

Best. Geek-Gift. Ever.

Hiya all,

Neither John nor myself will be able to make this Second Tuesday. He's off to the sunshine and I'm off to the cold. Anyway, we thought maybe a Final Thursday might do the trick if you're available for that? Thoughts?

Best headline of the day - Swedish elk steals bicycle.

James Lovelock in today's Independent. Reading this rather spoiled my bus journey in this morning... :-/

Pandaf Golf

The Onion infographic on Electronic Voting Machines -- includes button sequence for God mode, giving user unlimited votes (R2,L2,Triangle,Circle,R2,R2), and pop-ups reading "People who voted for John Kerry also ordered these products from Amazon.com"...

What stupendously nice weather we're having!

:-D

The new Hari Kunzru novel is all about an Indian in Silicon Valley writing computer viruses.

Rainy-day voice of a generation. Anyone see Morrissey on Jonathon Ross on Friday? Saw it was on but missed it...

Test....chosen a new username to go with email account...

Ebay is just weird....

eBay item 3292008773 (Ends 21-May-04 13:03:52 BST) - Monopoly Quiz Machine

Cold Turkey -- In These Times

Donna out of Elastica has a new band.

Turning the Pages

Hubble sees 'planet' around star

Good chat last night. Sorry I got there late. As I remember, here were the major themes:

Coming to terms with the absence of free will
A collective bout of "we told you so" about Iraq, tempered by total despair over the situation
John's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Seamus's theism

What the hell is going on in the world? Islamist website shows 'beheading'

Tomorrow evening

Who's up for the Fitzroy tomorrow? Seeing as Colin can't make it, maybe we should postpone to next week?

Have you seen the End of Story thing they're doing on BBC 3 website? A bunch of authors have written two thirds of a short story, and now they're running a competition to see who can write the best ending...

Don't think I can make it next week
Sorry, I've managed to double-book myself. Perhaps we can hold an extra session later in the month? Apart from general socialising, I was hoping to pick your brains about Linux...

Scottish update

Apologies for the lack of promised photoblogging action - I didn't bring my laptop so can't transfer pictures from digital camera to interweb. I've also not taken very many pictures though will try and post a panoramic shot of the East Lothian coast from the hills above Musselburgh (just what this blog needs) when I get back to London.

Apache killing video becomes viral news

I saw this horrible video of an Apache helicopter shooting Iraqis a few months ago. Something about it didn't seem right - surely it couldn't be real - and I decided that it must be some kind of sick simulation.


In light of all the torture pictures and videos that have come to light in the last couple of weeks, this has been checked out, and apparently it's genuine. My sources tell me it might turn up on the news this week...