Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

I visited the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle this afternoon. Overall the place is really strong on the more intellectual and literary aspects of science-fiction - I'd snobbishly thought it might be just a load of movie props. Lots of early edition books and magazines on display with intelligent accompanying notes. They have the orginal draft of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - he wrote it in longhand and it's a stack of foolscap about 4 foot high. Best of all, London Transport's "Safe Beneath..." poster has made it into the "Brave New Worlds" section!

A bank for wind power

Here's one for the wind power naysayers - various methods of storing off-peak wind-generated energy to use during peak times. Including 'flow batteries', whereby once the battery is fully charged they move the chemicals to a storage tank, fill the battery up again, and charge that - resulting in huge tank of stored energy. And hydro-schemes which pump water up to the reservoir using wind power, then open the sluices for hydro power when needed. Which goes to show that you can't write wind power off - the more we invest in it, the more we'll learn about how to make it more productive and practical. (Log-in required I'm afraid.)

Scottish Taleban

Well Scottish Highlands may lead the way on renewables, but they're clearly not entirely up-to-speed with 21st century

Aaaargh they got the no. 29

Help, I've become a running dog of the reactionary right

Help.

Pee-cycling

Pee-cycling! Is there nothing we can do that isn't harmful? Will we have to start using bed pans again? Note the new NS environment section - pretty good.

Happy new year, by the way. Back at work today - bah!

Best of the Fitz 2006

Happy 2007! It was another vintage year for Fitzrovian Tuesday, though going back over the archives for the last twelve months, geo-political and environmental concerns do seem to have dominated much of the chat. Below, in no particular order, is my traditional personal selection of favourite posts/threads of 2006.
1. How to talk to a global warming sceptic
2. Monkeys
3. End of an Era
4. Retro police state
5. Imagine Earth without People

Beware the christmas party season

Poor old bishop of Southwark - getting hammered at the Irish embassy, then ending up climbing into the back of a parked car and throwing the kids toys he found there out onto the street. It says here that when challenged he shouted, "I'm the Bishop of Southwark! This is what I do!".

Creationism museum

These people are completely mad - a molecular geneticist who belives in a literal interpretation of genesis, including the 10,000 year timescale.

New thread for the purpose of discussing Scottish Independence

I need to do some reading up on the economic pros and cons, but at an emotional level I'm all for the Union.

I wonder what the Lowland / Highland split is with regard to the issue? Arguably in evidence in Fitzrovian Tuesdays?

1% owns 40% of all wealth

World's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers. While richest 10% owns 85% of global assets.

Threat Assessment Severe

I think I've discussed my distaste for John Reid before, but this has hardened recently - particularly after watching "V for Vendetta", in which he is basically played by a sinister Tim Piggott-Smith.

His last-but-one announcement at the weekend (just before his 'crack down' online paedophiles) was typical Reid. Other than terrifying the population, I really can't see what point there is in saying that a "Christmas terrorist attack is highly likely". What is anyone actually meant to do with this information?

I've been hacking around with the blog's design

I wanted to get away from the standard blogger template we've been using up to now. It's probably going to be a work in progress over the next few weeks...

Perle's Non-Wisdom

I cannot believe the nerve of Richard Perle, on the radio this morning talking about how the Iraq Study group report is naive. Like, advocating going to war in the first place in the belief that it would bring about a smooth transition to Western-style liberal democracies across the Middle East wasn't naive, then? Total git.

More internet tv stuff

Channel 4 is making its content available for download. Not had a chance to play with this yet but it potentially looks pretty good (if only I had time etc etc).

Pathetic

Totally unimpressed by Brown's efforts today on going green. As if an extra fiver on air fares is going to make any difference at all. He's going to get completely out-flanked on this by the Tories.

Wine offer update

If you buy any 6 bottles of wine at Sainsbury's you get 25% off! Given that a lot of Sainsbury's wine is already marked down to the magic £4 a bottle price point this is pretty good. Offer ends Monday tho...

European Fields: The landscape of lower league football

These are great (another post culled from the wonderful Metafilter).

Playboy townhouse

Not a bad pied à terre...

Thresher web discount

Definitely viral marketing I reckon. The discount isn't particularly amazing given that Threshers have a "buy two get one free" offer permanently in place and their wine is pricey compared to the supermarkets.