Dry-Erase Board Paint for the Home | Kids Room Paint Ideas | IdeaPaint

via ideapaint.com

This idea is just brilliant. Instead of a pin board, a blackboard or a white board, just cover the walls in a dry-marker paint and get to it. We've got a blackboard in the kitchen that we made by painting a patch of wall with blackboard paint and surrounding it with a wooden "frame" but a whiteboard that took up the whole wall would be a very much better solution.
This paint isn't available in the UK yet (they're apparently arranging European distribution at the moment) but as soon as it is I plan to cover parts of the kitchen and office with it and I'm thinking about whether or not we could use it in the office (we have whiteboards everywhere). Note-taking will never be the same again.

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HP iPAQ H2200 Pocket PC. Want one?

What do you do with old computer components or electronic items? I've got an HP iPAQ H2200 with case, dock, charger, Wifi adapter and flash card and I literally can't give it away. Admittedly it's a bit old and it's runing an obsolete version of Windows, but there's nothing wrong with it and it would do a perfectly good job for someone prepared to use an out-of-date bit of kit. Know anyone who might be interested? Neither do I. 

Just in case you're tempted, here is a photo:

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Visa restrictions: No visa required

Britain often finishes near the top of the charts published by The Economist but normally that's a bad thing. This time (http://www.economist.com/node/16885221?fsrc=rss&story_id=16885221) it is a good thing; British citizens can travel without visas to 166 countries making us, on this measure at least, the world's least restricted travellers. I think that's pretty cool.

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Flowers from the Lake District

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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UK economy grew 'more than first thought'

Shadow education secretary Ed Balls said that the previous Labour government could take credit for the most recent expansion.

"Those figures are for the period for April, May and June, which are absolutely determined by what was being done in the previous year," he said.

"The question is whether that pattern, which you see confirmed today, which I think is a vindication of what we were doing in government, whether that pattern continues or whether it goes into reverse."

via bbc.co.uk

Ed Balls sounds pleased with the performance of the economy as a result of the policies of the previous Labour government, almost as if they didn't preside (and, indeed, create the conditions for) the most serious recession of the last two decades. Astounding.

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New Mexico GOP candidates deny global warming reality

It's a bit scary, really. The idiots listed in the article linked below exhibit a key failing of politicians; they accept only the evidence that supports their current set of beliefs and policies. This isn't too serious when you're deciding how you set your income taxes but is a bit of a bugger when you're deciding your environmental policy.   

 
New Mexico GOP candidates deny global warming reality
http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/24/new-mexico-gop-candidates-deny-global-warming-reality/

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HDR Photo of Southampton Airport Parkway

Ok, so the subject might be a little dull, but the image is mildly
interesting because of the way it was taken. Pro HDR for the iPhone
takes two shots at two different exposure settings (one to capture the
dark area of the subject, the other to capture the bright) then
combines them into a single High Dynamic Range image.

The results can be quite dramatic (present example excluded).

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Anti-Littering Campaigns in Turkey and Iran

Litter is on of my pet hates. Why would anyone think it was ok to drop their rubbish along the side of the road or in a park? I can't work it out, and it seems that it's a problem in some parts of Turkey and Iran as well.

Anti-Littering Campaigns: An Idea Whose Time Has (More Than) Come in Turkey and Iran : TreeHugger
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/anti-littering-campaigns-turkey-iran.php

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Quote of the day, Leo Tolstoy

I don't really agree with Mr Tolstoy on this (there aren't that many people to whom quantum mechanics could be explained, for example) so I'm posting this because it isn't often that I get to disagree publicly with famous authors. I look forward to reading this reply. The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already; without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him. - Leo Tolstoy, 1897

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Disposing of a body on the cheap

What do you do if you're an Eco-conscious serial killer with a stack of bodies to dispose of? You can't bury them (dog walkers always find shallow graves, sooner or later) or cremate them (too much CO2 released into the atmosphere) or feed them to cattle, but fear not, New Scientist have a neat, green way of dumping bodies (see link below).   

Dissolving your earthly remains will protect the Earth - environment - 19 August 2010 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19333-dissolving-your-earthly-remains-will-protect-the-earth.html

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Quick update on the state of my car

Looks like only the tyre was damaged but I haven't yet heard from the garage that they've fixed it. This is a bit of a worry; if it isn't fixed by Monday I won't be able to get to work.

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Tyres, motorways and priority recovery

It's all fun and excitement on the M27 this afternoon. Coming home from the station the wife and I hit an obstruction in the road which seems to have comprehensively destroyed the nearside rear tyre (see photo below). We are now sitting at the edge of the motorway waiting for the AA (we are apparently a priority, so they'll be here in an hour) to tow us home. I don't think we'll be repairing this one.

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The slow, whiny death of British Christianity : Johann Hari

I hadn't come across Johann Hari before, but this article (http://www.johannhari.com/2010/08/10/the-slow-whiny-death-of-british-christia... is really good. I don't really like to make fun of minorities; it normally feels a bit wrong, especially if the minority in question is defenceless, exploited or disadvantaged. None of that applies to the Church of England and, as Johann points out, the Church has various political and legal advantages, an entrenched position at the heart of Government and policy-making and a great deal of wealth; they're fair game, especially when they make comments about Government policy.

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TweetDeck Not Available for Android; A Warning

You probably haven't heard of TweetDeck but it's a Twitter client and it is pretty good and, when I was using Twitter, I like using TweetDeck. If you have a look at their website you'll find that they have version of their client for various desktop and mobile operating systems, the exception being Android (although they're working on it). That hasn't stopped someone else creating a "TweetDeck" app and uploading it to the Android marketplace:

"Someone has uploaded a "TweetDeck" app to the Android Market and is charging for it. THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL APP. Do NOT download."

From TweetDeck's Twitter stream.

The suspicion, of course, is that someone has uploaded a malicious app of some sort that masquerades as a genuine version of TweetDeck. I have no idea what this app does, but would you install it, knowing that it wasn't what it purported to be? Lots of people will install it without seeing Tweetdeck's Tweet, of course; let's hope they don't lose too much data. I know a lot of people don't like the way Apple control the App Store, perceiving the restrictions to be bad, but a complete free-for-all market without quality control and with low cost of entry isn't a manifestation of freedom; it's anarchy.

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It's the strangest thing...

...but about an hour ago we had a burst of rain of unnecessarily dramatic proportions. That's not the strange bit. Someone, who shall remain nameless but was, in fact, the wife, left the door from the dining room to the garden open so, when I went downstairs a few minutes ago, I almost drowned in the pool of water that had gathered by the dining table. I've cleaned it up, of course, pumped out the sideboard, wrung the curtains, mopped the floor and walls, but this will doubtless turn out to be my fault (I should have known that the door was open) sooner or later. Sooner?

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West Quay, Southampton, very bored

The wife is buying a coat and I'm sitting outside John Lewis waiting for her. I'd go to Waterstones but I don't want any books, or Starbucks if I wanted coffee; instead I wait and hope that she will tire of shopping.

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Largest tidal power device unveiled

via bbc.co.uk

It's an impressive piece of engineering, but at only one megawatt it isn't exactly world-changing (at least, not on it's own). A few thousand of these things might make a difference, but are there that many sites around our coast?

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Erroneous road signs

There's something not quite right about this sign, from North Carolina:

Source: BBC

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More solar power plants take shape

As if the Abengoa Solar Collecting plant wasn't good enough, here is news of another, even larger plant to be built in California's Mojave desert. It's only one plant, of course, but it's better than nothing. Oh, and they seem to have a solution to the problem of not being able to generate power at night, which is pretty good for a solar power station.   

BrightSource to build largest concentrating solar power plant
http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/08/brightsource-to-build-largest-concentrating-solar-power-plant/

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A new Worst Film Ever

SyFy is really good at finding bad films. Actually, they excel at finding truly awful films that should never have been made. Tonight, for your delight and delectation, I give you Riddles of the Sphinx, a new candidate for Worst Film Ever. I won't bother to explain the plot (it makes no sense) or the characters (they're dreadful) or the special effects (unimaginably awful). Suffice it to say that you can learn from my mistake and avoid this film if you ever have the misfortune to stumble across it.

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Petermann Glacier, Giant Ice Island, Breaks Off Into The Sea

I am no expert, but to me this sounds like further evidence of the ongoing effects of global warming and I can't imagine that it is good news. Maybe it is time to cut our car use...  

Petermann Glacier, Giant Ice Island, Breaks Off Into The Sea
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/petermann-glacier.php

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Quote of the Day

Today's quote is from the report into Columbia accident. I seem to remember that Richard Feynman's work on the Challenger accident highlighted similar issues with NASA's approach to risk, but I may be mistaken.

“When a program agrees to spend less money or accelerate a

schedule beyond what the engineers and program managers

think is reasonable, a small amount of overall risk is added.

These little pieces of risk add up until managers are no longer

aware of the total program risk, and are, in fact, gambling.

Little by little, NASA was accepting more and more risk in

order to stay on schedule.”

‒ Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report, 2003

In my experience, there is often a conflict between conservative engineers, who wish to minimise risk and maximise the chances of success, and managers, who will accept a rather higher risk and hope that things go well. Things don't always go well, so one definition of a Good Manager is someone who, having thrown the dice, accepts his loss with trace and takes the blame; a Bad Manager will blame the team and duck responsibility.

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Solar Power Tower - neat, very neat

via abengoasolar.com

We know solar power isn't going to save us (it doesn't work all that well at night, for example) but it could still be pretty useful. Abengoa Solar are building concentrated solar power stations in Spain and other warm countries and although they take up a lot of space they also generate clean and fairly reliable electricity.

It doesn't look like we'll be able to use this technology in the UK (for obvious reasons) but at least there is a viable alternative to photovoltaic cells for countries with enough sunlight. Maybe the oil exporting countries of North Africa and the Middle East could supplement their fossil fuel income by exporting power to Southern Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nearby countries.

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Deep oil in Gulf appears to have vanished

This news isn't really a surprise (I'm sure the oil released into the Gulf after the first Gulf War disappeared far faster than had been predicted, and for similar reasons) but it is still good news (broadly speaking, although there may be a sting in the tail for oxygen consuming critters at large in the area).

I like the idea of using the presence of oil-eating microbes in the deep seas to help identify potential sites for drilling (it has an appealing elegance) but I can't help feeling a little uneasy about our improving ability to unearth a resource whose consumption is so conspicuously damaging to our own prospects.

Deep oil in Gulf appears to have vanished - environment - 04 August 2010 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19264-gulf-oil-slick-in-disappearing-trick.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

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Reforestation projects capture more carbon than industrial plantations

I like the idea of replanting forests to capture carbon - it just feels (I really hate to use that word) like a good solution (or part thereof) to the ongoing problem of how to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This research (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/w-rpc073010.php) doesn't suggest that we should all rush out and plant trees on every bit of green space we can find, but it does make clear that rain forests are better sinks than plantations. It would be interesting to know if something similar applies to temperature forests.

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Mild rant about uninteresting topics

Sleeping on the train is not always easy as it could be. Even this morning, when the 06:38 is only half full (school holidays, maybe?) and the atmosphere is quite relaxed, sleep proves elusive and I am reduced to writing inane blog posts on my blog. If there was a 3G service in this part of the country, or wifi on the train (these are both recurring complaints, familiar to any long-suffering readers) I could browse the web looking for interesting topics to rant about. Instead you're getting a sort of aimless dribble, a low-grade stream of consciousness which is bound to deteriorate when we reach Woking (since everything looks worse when you're in Woking - this is another recurring theme).

If that weren't enough, the skies have clouded and the nice weather of Southampton has been left behind, which is a trifle frustrating. Will it be raining by the time I reach London? There's no way of knowing because, as previously mentioned, there's no 3G service around here.

Ok, that's enough for now. Time to read email. Oh, wait...

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So I'm on the 06:38 to London Waterloo...

... instead of my usual train (the 06:50) and it's a really nice morning. Apart from the fact that I'm hurrying into the office for an early morning conference call (hence the earlier train) it looks like being a really good day and the carriage isn't even crowded, which makes a nice change. Now for a quick snooze before we reach town.

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