Remember the Polar Kayaker?

The chap by the name of Lewis Gordon Pugh? You know, the guy who wanted to show how the pole was pretty much ice free by setting off on the 30th August?

Apparently, according to Wiki:

The attempt was abandoned on 2nd September, when the team were still in excess of 1,000 km from the North Pole. In his weblog, Pugh confirmed that despite several attempts, they were unable to find a gap in the ice.

Pugh claims on his website that this was the furthest North anyone has ever travelled by Kayak, (81 degrees N) however critics point out that in 1895, explorers using Kayaks reached 86 degrees North, and their expedition records show that one of them swam to retrieve a Kayak, thus exceeding Pugh's trip and preceeding him by 113 years. Pugh has not chosen to respond to these accusations.

So, 100+ years ago with far far less technology, a group got half as far away, for that is what 86N is vs 81N, 500km instead of the lycra'd one's 1000km. Bearing in mind that the distance from the pole at the start of the latest expedition was 1200km to start with brings it all into context.

Just to show you what it means graphically...

Now, that to me says he was more than twice as far from the pole than some chaps in sealskins and straw boaters.

Funny that we did not see this event splashed across the pages. POLES NOT FREE OF ICE would have been a good start, or even "POLES AT WORST HAVE MORE ICE THAN 100 YEARS AGO!!!". I suppose it would have been filed along with the "WWII Bomber found on moon has DISAPPEARED!" headline of the Sunday Sport in its heyday.

Balance? Nah, remember, we are talking Religion here.

Toyota Plug-in Hybrid Prius is pathetic

Take a look here (video) for the trial of a plug-in hybrid Prius. I must say this really exposes the feebleness of this car's "green" credentials. This is "news"?

It has only six miles of electric range. Yes, SIX. It then takes 1.5 to 2 hours to recharge the battery.

The Prius has always been a monumental dud, but works as an eco ego trip for the owner, who can prance about in a cloud of smugness exhibiting how green they appear, but in truth they are not in the least. Dust-to-dust carbon output, if you worry about such things, is higher than a Hummer, due to the highly complex powertrain.

The Prius has a complex powertrain as it is a parallel hybrid, in that it has both the electric motor and petrol engine mechanically connected to the wheels which, in my view, overcomplicates matters enormously. The petrol engine runs when the electric motor is not powerful enough or you need more range than a trip to your, erm, nearest petrol station. In truth there is no need to have such a feeble electric motor, but I suppose if it were any more powerful the range of the Prius in electric mode would be even more pathetic. It is a shame, however, for such a feeble motor is, unfortunately, incapable of absorbing much in the way of regenerative power. The excellent Mini prototype by PML Flightlink, which I blogged about some time ago, showed what a series/plug-in hybrid could be and the true extent of the energy that can be reclaimed from braking. The Mini has four 160bhp motors, one in each wheel and no friction braking. The 640bhp is needed for the motors to absorb the energy peaks in braking, giving 200 miles range in electric-only operation. In other words the Prius is literally throwing away energy. Not only that, the Mini uses a 250cc motorbike engine to hum away in a corner somewhere to give it 900 miles in total range, such is the effectiveness of the regenerative braking, series layout and motor control technology. Remember, this Mini with a 900 mile range from a 250cc engine has 640bhp on tap. 

The lesson here is that a series plug-in with a small, efficient generator is far preferable to some complicated parallel dinosaur compromise like the Prius. There is no need to keep the petrol motor connected mechanically to the wheels unless you are in the thrall of the various Mafia that runs Engine Management Unit, transmission, brakes, cam profiles and exhaust modelling fiefdoms and related ricebowls - all of which will have little to do of an evening once the ideal steady speed of the generator is arrived at, for who needs a motor that is "responsive" and "flexible" with high revs but low down torque when all it needs to do is convert fuel into electricity as efficiently and as smoothly/quietly as possible? All these roles will become far less glamourous, boys, so get used to it. 

Talking of glamorous, the PML technology has been chosen for the new Electric Lightning. 

This is nothing fundamentally new in concept, for Ferdinand Porsche was involved in one of the first series-hybrid electric sports cars...back in 1908. It could do 70mph, faster than the Prius can today. What makes the Electric Lightning an advance is the light, efficient and highly intelligent hub motors, removing the need for friction braking and the safe, rapid-charging and dense-enough battery technology, which is getting better by the day.

If you want to really understand how people can move to plug-in hybrids, give them a vehicle that actually makes SENSE, otherwise you just skew the results to suit your own parallel agenda.

UPDATE: Patrick, in the comments, reminds us of the EV1 by GM. This is an interesting though depressing situation. GM had, IIRC, a majority shareholding in the battery company that had some nice patents around NiCad battery packs, giving a range up to 150miles. They sold that shareholding to Chevron. I suspect this was not part of an "oil conspiracy" directly, just that GM feared its servicing revenue would be whacked, and correctly, so it decided to sell on to the last company that would want to see the battery tech widely adopted. While this was going on, Panasonic produced batteries that either used or infringed patents now held by Chevron. These batteries were installed in a Toyota RAV4 EV, fully electric vehicle. It had 120mile range, costing around £2 to recharge. Yes, £2. Most of us could survive on 120miles for a commuter car and the RAV4-EV could be upgraded to contain a small on-board generator to take over when battery power flagged, i.e. 95% of our journeys would be electric with overnight recharging and the rare long trips would be assisted by the on-board generator turning the RAV4-EV into a series hybrid. Chevron sued Panasonic and Toyota and the RAV4-EV production was rapidly halted. The chap "liveoilfree" on Youtube has some vids of him trolling around in his 2 RAV-EVs and, in particular, reviewing the Prius and its barking mad powertrain.

Golden Age of Flying: Two contrasting comments

An article in the Telegraph today talks about the end of a golden age - the golden age of flying, brought about in part by the crash of Flight038 to Heathrow which, miracle of miracles, belly-flopped onto the edge of the runway instead of into the back garden of il Castillo di Thornhillaggio - situated near the border of Ealing and Chiswick, natch. It could just as well have landed a few miles up the road in even denser populated Southall, ruining the day just as intensely for my fellow West Londoners as it would have had for me.

I am biased. I declare an interest in wanting a new airport in the Thames Estuary, as I live in West London. I don't want to have a plane land in my garden and crumple my Apple tree and rose bushes*. The shed needs replacing, but that is not an excuse. An airport in the Thames would cut the impact of noise pollution upon people immensely. Yes, for Nature as a whole it just moves it a tad, but then most of the noise will be over water. Importantly the approaches would be too. Over water, not over row upon row of Victorian, Edwardian and inter-war terraces and semis**. Pollution would be dispersed over the Channel, not over London. London gets a vast new area well connected by transport links to build new housing - the old Heathrow site.

Back to the article, it basically talks of the lost golden age not just because of Flight038, but also due to restrictions on the horizon caused by carbon hysteria and synthetic costs created by the EU and other agents of World Government. Two comments leapt out at me. Polar opposites, if you pardon the expression.

The first, by a self-loathing, likey pinch-faced killjoy who needs to do us all a favour and log on to Bebo and get chatting...

Each Western baby selfishly conceived will have a "carbon footprint" over its lifetime equal to several thousand transatlantic flights.
Posted by Michael Purches, Abingdon, Oxon. on January 24, 2008 8:33 AM

So, Purches, be faithful to your belief and go stick your head in the oven, ok? Do us all a favour. Oh, and before you do that, cut off your sultana sized nads, roast and eat them so you need not worry about your DNA being used to produce selfish vile western carbon producing babies in future. Today would be nice.

The second is a cracker and I reproduce it here and give kudos to the writer, Ian May.

There is a golden age coming to an end: the golden age of global warming. The rise in surface temperatures over the past thirty years or so are as much apparent as real, these records being contaminated by the climatology community's refusal to take proper account of the urban development effect. The least bad measure currently of global temperature is the satellite reading of the lower troposhere. The recent downtrend in the chart on this referenced web page speaks for itself:
link
Incidentally, this decline in global temperature probably explains the shift of emphasis within Greenspeak from "global warming" to "climate destabilisation", or "climate impact". This is quite a smart move on the part of the socialists in the Green Trojan Horse as thanks to New Labour's ongoing assault on the educational tradition, not many people will notice the corollary. That is, anything we do beyond growing potatoes and hand basket-weaving, whether it results in temperature increases or not, shoves Mother Nature off her perch. This is axiomatically "bad", and activities thereof must be banned, or preferably regulated and taxed. (Regulated and taxed more, I should have said.)

Posted by Ian May on January 24, 2008 8:04 AM

Spot on. I wonder if Ian is a Libertarian?

Let us not allow the AGW creeps off the hook. Climate Change has occurred for 4billion years. Don't you miserable worms try and kid us that was what you were really on about you wretched Authoritarian scumbags!


* Noise is less of an issue, before you yell NIMBY. It is annoying, but not enough for me to demand the airport move, as I gain from being a 25mins drive or tube away. And before you say why drive if you have the tube, I do so because the intellectual pygmies who constructed the tube placed the stations as far as possible away from any of the terminals and put innumerable passages, stairs, lifts, gates and gratients between it and them.

**I know some greenies almost get a semi over the prospect of shutting down Heathrow, but not for the basic reasons such as safety, but for synthetic and soon-to-be-discredited reasons put out by a lying religion.

The Air Car Moves Forward!

A project I have been following for some time is the Air Car. It has been making progress and I am a happy bunny on more than one level.

The Air Car is an invention by a Frenchman, Mr Negre, it uses a lightweight but safe tank to store energy in the form of compressed air, produced via an electric pump. This is then released to drive a motor. As most kids educated before New Labour screwed up our schools and banished basic things like physics would know, when you compress something it heats up and when you decompress it cools down. The Negre innovation is to also have the decompressed air in the motor as the car runs absorb heat from the surroundings and so get a second bite at the cherry, i.e. it absorbs heat from the environment and then gains some additional pressure. This is used to assist in expelling subsequent decompressed air ready for the next charge.*

Tata is involved. India is a good place, I would say as it is highly likely the decompressed air would be able to absorb plenty of heat from the surroundings. Could probably provide a nice supply of air conditioning, too!

Newer models use full hybrid aspects, much as a very interesting Mini does, to provide an on-board fuel-powered compressor to extend the range even further. The article says up to 900 miles on a single gallon, but something there rings an alarm. Typo, I think - 900 miles on a single air tank + fuel tank, with 100mpg sounds more like it to me, unless the heat from the engine is to be used to assist in compression...maybe it is. Anyone?

What I like about it is, it is another step in busting the Antediluvian ambitions of the Sandalistas and Watermelon crowd who basically hate cars for being cars - the use of fossil fuels is a convenient stick, the real hatred I suspect is this personal private freedom and related aspects of individualism, "consumption" and rejection of the "egalitarian" herd/clay.

Go read the article.

* This is an example of simplicity that is obvious when explained yet is devilishly hard to realise beforehand and/or implement elegantly. I bet a number of you are saying "yeh so what, that's easy/obvious" - well, where were you, eh? Why didn't you do it? It is VERY HARD to invent/realise things like this. People who do not appreciate hard-won simplicity like this are the ignorant, unappreciative, contemptible swine.

The Milk of Human Blindness

The Times reports today (via, Tim Worstall), that faceless interfering ricebowlers at DEFRA are seriously suggesting that the milk industry shift, as they so quaintly put it "to ensure that some 90 per cent of milk on sale will not require refrigeration by 2020".

This means we will be expected to switch to that god-awful UHT. Currently 93% of our milk is fresh. We consume fresh milk despite all the inconveniences because it is infinitely better than UHT, which, to me, has one purpose, to both colour and reduce the bitterness of bad warm drinks sometimes passed off as tea or coffee. Fresh milk is better to me because it tastes good. I can drink a pint of fresh milk and sometimes get a primordial desire to do so, but I can barely tolerate 5g of UHT. However, DEFRA wish to change consumer behaviour and force us to go backwards, to accept substandard food and drink in the name of the Great Green God. No, not really, but upon the dogma of that "religion" in reducing our sin carbon footprint.

DEFRA appears to have been infested with that mind virus, the Green Religion of Unthought. This is "Global Warning" - not Global Warming, but the trend now for using the threat of some future as an excuse and cover for, basically, totalitarian, authoritarian or just plain Robber Baronetcy.

What I see, apart from the blatant social engineering, undermining, guilt, bullying, memes, insults and just plain Fascism, is a convenient way to destroy our fresh milk habit and industry. The aim, I suspect, is to turn the UK into a market for ghastly UHT from anywhere in the EU. Right now, European calcified water and fat emulsions UHT is pretty much ignored in the UK and rightly so. One reason, apart from the fact that UHT is just plain shyte, is, I suspect, tea.

The UK are tea drinkers. Unlike coffee, tea is almost always drunk with milk and that milk needs to be fresh milk unless you are a self-flagellating zealot who is happy to train your taste buds to accept mediocrity or worse in the pursuit of your punishment dietary regime.

One of the excuses for this issue is the energy used in refrigeration. I suspect this is a bit of a con, really. A refrigerator is just a mover of heat, not a creator of cold. If you chill the contents you are warming the outside. If you want to reduce the amount of pumping losses, then you create more efficient refrigerators using such wonderful devices as Stirling Engines or, duh, put DOORS ON THEM. You do NOT use the PATHETIC excuse of "carbon footprint" to try and destroy an industry which exists solely due to consumer choice (note that) so that the world can bend to fit the prejudices, plans and non-sequiturs of a bunch of imbeciles at DEFRA.

Pound to a penny there is an EU directive at the bottom of this.

UPDATE: The BBC covered this at 1PM today, but just parroted the government lie line and had no real exposure, almost like a softening up exercise. Self-loathers!

Blueprint for a Groan Economy

The report is a beast (500+ small font dense pages). It would be great to get some bullet points from somewhere to see what exactly the report really suggests to do.

That there is no summary is a monumental red alert. Management Summaries are ESSENTIAL to enable the document to have structure, if only the for the benefit of the authors to see the overall message and to act as a framework for their thought. The readers need it to. It is all part of conveying the message - tell 'em what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you have told them, as the mantra goes.

By having such an inaccessible tome, the authors indicate that they do NOT want people at large to access their thoughts. They do NOT want wide scrutiny or to have to defend their views to all comers. They want this document to remain within a clique and to be discussed only by a select group. They want to spare themselves the trouble of raising the drawbridge by not bothering to lower it in the first place.

In trying to locate summaries and bullet points, the tips of the icebergs I perceived indicate rampant expansion of Statism, stifling bureaucracy and meddling interference. Moving authoritarianism from the centre to the regions or to localise authoritarianism is not to remove it, but shove it even closer into the faces of the population and hand power to amateur yet no less petty and zealous dictators. If this document was about freedom or liberty, about opening up and not about regulation and interference, it would not be so detailed and would almost certainly contain broad statements on intent.

An example is the document bemoans the lack of multi-use communities, you know, those sorts of places that were created BEFORE the State got involved in interfering in our lives and planning housing, towns and cities. This report seems to think that to reproduce them needs either more or a new kind of planning. Has it occurred to them that it happened in the long past because the State was NOT involved? Has it occurred to them that heterogeneous communities form organically and by themselves and have done so for millennia without Town Planners? No. When the patient is suffering, their remedy is more disease.

I smell a whiff of 1946, the heady aroma of Town Planning. Great for the control-freaks and those wishing to remain arbiters within the Establishment presiding over the spending of Other Peoples' Money.

In contrast, an example has popped out over the domestic flight tax as an indication of the "mutton headed factor" that is contained therein.

Too many domestic flights, they say. Bad for the environment they say. They suggest...tax the flights. This means UK efficiency goes DOWN. You are punishing taxing people who want to move faster and cheaper. This is plain daft.

The Roger way is: build more high-speed rail capacity so people CAN move faster and cheaper between centres. Europe has done this and seen domestic and short-haul flights dwindle. Precisely when the State could do some good - building large infrastructure projects to improve national efficiency and productivity and they prefer to pander to the rabid frothings of the retrograde lobby.

The document thus appears to be something from the 1940's and '50s but using the excuses and trendy language of the Green Religion of Unthought to give further force to its mindset.

That whiff and heady aroma appear to have been combined and cunningly obscured in this document by the pungent farmyard pong of the environazi's waterless privy. The document is not discussing "if" the State is involved everywhere, only "how".

p.s. see the Taxpayers Alliance for a sound response to the reports findings.

I'm going green...

..cos I'm about to hurl my breakfast:

From the Sunday Times:

Zac Goldsmith inherited his concern for the environment from his Uncle Teddy, his political zeal and fortune from his father James and his looks from his mother Annabel.

Shame he ran out of relatives in the common sense, wisdom and brains departments, then.

The report is out. I will be reading it before commenting further.

Eco-village with a stark warning (track changes: ON)

NotBy Jon Kelly, BBC News, Heathrow

As the workshy tanned, wasted cheerful twenty-somethings set up their tents, you could be forgiven for thinking this was the summer's latest music festival.
But the lines of able bodied, working burly police officers around the site, not to mention the bleedin obvious 747s roaring overhead, give a clue as to the true purpose of this gathering.

Flanked by Heathrow Airport on one side and west London's outer suburbs on the other, this is an unlikely setting for an impromptu econazi-village.

Collectivist, self-obsessed, delusional Environmental campaigners have assembled here not just to oppose a third runway for the airport but to ram their own crackpot ideas down the throats of everybody, with force if necessary.

With their pestilential compost toilets, tokenistic but useless wind turbines and faux-leaderless command structure, they are also keen to present the charade demonstrate that an alternative, more sustainable way of living is possible.

But despite the inevitable privations they face (aw, diddums!), not all the protesters conform to the typical econazi-warrior twattish stereotype.

Brenda Hatton, 60, a retarded retired head teacher from an inner city Soviet hell-hole central London, says she woke up to the issue of climate change after her 29-year-old gullible son began being indoctrinated studying geography at university.


"I'm not here for me much - I'm here for my cats children and my grandchildren," she said with a thousand yard stare.

"I've just arrived It's all been very good-natured so far. I hope there won't be any trouble for us, and if there is we are all going to live in denial and blame-shift it won't be because of the people on the camp."

The police, however, are collecting their overtime not so sanguine.

Some 1,800 officers have been dragged away from their BBQs mobilised, almost matching the 2,000 campaigners who are expected over the coming week.

All vehicles approaching the site are searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act and photographs are taken of anyone who enters so just like driving down the M4, then.

Campaigners - who insist their protest will be peaceful - want a free hand to cause mayhem so disingenuously complain that the police approach is heavy-handed.

"We've had to shuttle all the supplies in here using stolen wheelie bins. It's not exactly high-tech," laughs barely shaved gibbon volunteer Tony Chambers, 35, a forestry worker from Ceredigion, mid-Wales.

"But we've managed to set everything up without any problems so far. The attitude of the authorities just smacks of parental resignation over a screaming tot desperation, really."

So far only about 250 sponging, disingenuous collectivists activists have gathered at the camp, but organisers are preparing for cholera an influx they expect to join them as the weather improves week progresses.

Protesters pitch their tents alongside others from the same area - Oxford, London and Nottingham already have settlements, each with their own kitchen serving sanctimonious, inedible, methane generating vegan, high carbon-footprint organic food.

More than 100 propaganda fests workshops are due to be held on subjects like carbon denial offsetting and building tokenistic wind turbines.

But despite their faux-leaderless structure - where all decisions are taken by the first sheep to move consensus at regular meetings - reporters must follow the censorship and control protocol of going through a dedicated media politburo team before setting foot on site.

On Sunday - expected to be one of the airport's busiest days of the year - they plan opportunistic lawlessness and vandalism "mass direct action", although all insist this will be non-violent as long as everyone lets them do precisely what they want and there will be no attempt to blockade runways because the terminal buildings will be razed to the ground.

"We have to think first do something," says Gary Dwyer, 34, a care assistant from Southport, Merseyside.

"Climate change is the biggest issue I've been told about we face and we haven't got I don't know how long to act.

"I can't tell you what will happen, because I will be wasted we'll decide collectively when everybody gets here, but it will be a peaceful protest as long as everyone lets us blah blah blah"

As they wait for more hypocritical parasites reinforcements to arrive using carbon-producing tranport, the campers say they are enjoying the camaraderie of pulling together and committing a blatant act of trespass setting up their temporary community.

"It's been fun so far - I've been topping up my tan while I don't work," laughs Claire Blatchford, 20, a "full-time parasite protester" who has spent four months claiming benefits and increasing the burden of law enforcement at a peace camp outside Faslane naval base in Scotland.

"I've brought lesbian day-wear sturdy boots and my waterproofs, though. I'm sure I'll need them after the summer we've had."

Even the most ardent climate change protester, it seems, is forever at the mercy of 4bln years of climate change British weather.

Climate Camp My Aunt

A Unisex Greenham Common for the current decade has finally sprung up outside Heathrow.

Right off the bat it is a cynical, disingenuous act of spin. They are against the expansion of Heathrow, they say, and are duping getting local groups to support them. I pity these local protest groups - talk about spoiling the pitch for them! Well, I suppose if a major hijack is to occur, where else than an airport, eh?

What is not said is how many of these people are against flying, the consumption of hydrocarbons and even electrickery.

Protester Gary Dwyer, 34, said "there are many carbon criminals to think about who are driving climate change."

"Carbon Criminals" - a manifestation of the whole carbon footprint irrationality. Creation of "the other". Creation of nameless, faceless enemies. Guilt by association. Collectivist authoritarian newspeak.

Fact is, I am against the expansion of Heathrow, but my answer - building a new Airport on an artificial island in the middle of the Thames estuary - is equally abhorrent to these people. Forget that such an airport would remove the need for vast numbers of planes to fly right over the Capital. Forget that it would be easy to defend from terrorism compared to the current location. Forget that the fumes from the airport would be blown out to sea instead of right across the streets of London. Forget that the lack of housing and a sea approach could permit near 24 hour operation. Forget that the site of Heathrow has good communications and would be a very viable location for desperately needed new housing. Forget all that. Forget it, for we must HATE travel, HATE consumption and place our recycled organically smelted tin-foil hat on our heads and curse the global conspiracy of "carbon criminals".

I want this "Climate Camp" to fess up to what it really wants to do - restrict air travel to all but essential movement. I wonder if that would be their kind of holidays in "outreach" or "aid" trips or to visit other "climate camps" elsewhere? I wonder if the likes of Gore will be permitted, or "Aid Workers"? First to go would be cheap holidays and air flown produce and they would not have even started yet.

The protesters are, at heart, collectivists. I oppose them, not just for that, but for their duplicity and disingenuous sanctimony. They are not even juvenile - this is ab-dabs on the supermarket floor, toddler ranting, red in the face "I want my way" childishness. Any more of this and I might even call them Islamic.

p.s. climate campers, Roger is no "right winger" but is a Libertarian and thus anti-collectivist. If you can't tell the difference, you should be ashamed.

UPDATE: The NUJ are upset about media restrictions, which I also found irritating but not surprising, given their mindset of collectivism. Media control adds another pillar to the Fascist tent. Being militaristic and violent? We shall see.

I am Glad it is Gore

...because it makes it more obvious what a total fraud AGW is.

Climate change? Yes, for the last 4bln years or so.
Global Warming? Maybe...or maybe not, depends on your timeframe.
Anthropogenic Global Warming? Possible.

What do do?

a) Tax people into the stone age, oppress them with "Sactimoaning" and control their lives even more.
b) Subsidise feeble, impractical "alternatvies" like biofuel (10x the land needed to fuel the car than feed the driver...) and ugly windmills?
c) Invest in research for Fusion power - e.g. the Bussard electric containment system
d) Build the infrastructure and arrange the nation to cope with the consequences of climactic unpredictability.

I am a c) and d) man, myself.

Over at the Telegraph, they report some Gore Sanctimoaning. In the comments I noticed this gem:

Al Gore reminds me of a second hand car salesman and a fairground shouter!
Want an easy answer? too stupid to understand the complex issues? are you a guilt ridden self hating middleclass handwringer? Are you jelous of people who have more than you? Then Al Gore is the man for you! He will tell you all you need to know in easy to understand words! He will tell you who you should blame and persecute! Roll up, roll up folks, come and see the greatest con on earth, all you have to do is listen and obey without question and good ole Al will save you all from the evil capitalist swine who swan around in their big cars and fancy homes! CO2 is to blame for all your woes he shouts! If someone is not convinced, heretic he cries!
Al Gore will stir up the mob and tell them who to blame as long as you DO NOT question his wisdom and he will lead the huddled masses to a socialist utopia and paradise just as long as you do exactly what he says with no questions asked! Hail the great and all knowing Al Gore! Hail the greatest scientist the world has ever seen! Vote for Al and you need never bother to think for yourself ever again because he will do all your thinking for you! HOORAY! - Stephanie Clague, 10:18AM.

Well said, Stef.

Gore and his ilk know how religion works. They want a piece of that mind-control pie.

Look and Feel

I have revised the look and feel of the site to a less doom-laden countenance, eschewing what might appear to be an eco-friendly blackle look to a more polar-bear roasting look.

Frankly, considering most people view blogs via LCDs, the more light from the backlight set free is more likely to help REDUCE power consumption, not raise it, as an LCD is a subtractive form of display and a black rendering just shuts up the light behind closed pixels.

Just shows what a bunch of misguided numpties the eco-nazis are.

UPDATE: I have switched back to black for the moment, using the layout and font changes picked up as part of a fleeting Pipaluk moment. An aggressive, in-yer-face reminder of our Governments Fascist ambitions is an important point to make. A colour scheme can be considered distasteful, but in light of the hard, systematic, premeditated, cynical, authoritarian and treasonous actions by the Government, it is just a mirror exposing their crimes.

The Green Religion Attacks Heresey

Here we have proof of the rabid frothing mouth that is Environazism. "Dozens" (should that be "Covens"?) of Climate Scientists are attempting to ban or significantly edit down the "Climate Change Swindle" DVD.

Thy hypocracy is staggering. It would be staggering even if the fraudulent, manipulative Gorezilla: Attack of the Disingenuous Icecores DVD was not being thrust upon young impressionable minds by our State Apparatus.

If the proof were clear and the objectives rational one would not need to attempt to ban contra-arguments. Michael Moore can curl out Farenheit 9/11, so why not this DVD?

hat tip: luckylucky via Samizdata.

HIPs - a "license to sell"?

Tim Worstall beat me to it on HIPs (my fault, I was being lazy). Pretty much says what I feel - it can work well as a voluntary code. The State is useful as an enforcer of "weights and measures", with the State ensuring that anyone saying they have an HIP is holding a kosher one.

In the case of HIPs, it is becoming a "license to sell". Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

BBC, the EU/Sociofascist/Statist Mouthpiece - Recycling.

The BBC is spinning the move to 14-day rubbish collections to be a boost to recycling (30% vs 23%...), utterly disregarding the fact that councils moving to fortnighly tend to introduce their enhanced recycling plans at the same time...I wonder why? Nice diversion, justification. The BBC is meant to be there to Fisk the hell out of these people, but I momentarily forgot - they ARE "these people"!

The reality is an increase in "bad smells, maggots and vermin". No change at New Labour head office then.