tomtaylor.co.uk

A wheel of the climate change denial wagon came off yesterday at Congress’ hearing on the Bush administration’s tampering with the work of climate scientists.
At a hearing of Congress, scientists and advocacy groups described a campaign by the White House to remove references to global warming from scientific reports and limit public mention of the [...]

PC World no longer sell floppy disks. No tears from me, but if you need to reinstall Windows 2000/XP and have an SATA/RAID controller, you’re out of luck.

The universe in a .gif file.

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, we’ve got less than 10 years to to save the world.
The stark warning comes from scientists who are working on the final draft of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report, due to be published this week, will draw together the work [...]

It’s exam season. With one down, three to go, the temptation to have a breakdown and answer questions in a ridiculous style is getting ever larger.

via robmonroe.net

Appropedia is a living library wiki, focused on success in two global initiatives:

Reduce poverty through International Development
Increase Sustainability through the use of Appropriate Technology

Cool projects include:

Solar Powered Food Dehydrator - There are SO MANY mangos rotting away in Malawi. If people could build one of these, which doesn’t seem too complex, they could sell dried [...]

Just to clear up some misinformation about the carbon dioxide impact of various types of travel in the UK.
London to Manchester

CO2 emissions
per passenger
per journey (kg)

Aviation
44.9

Rail (Class 90—modern electric train)
5.2

Car
36.6

Coach
4.3

Lorry (per tonne)
60.4

London to Edinburgh

CO2 emissions
per passenger
per journey (kg)

Aviation
96.4

Rail (Class 91—modern high speed electric train)
11.9

Car
71.0

Coach
9.2

Lorry (per tonne)
116.9

The source is the answer of a parliamentary question in 2004.

Good to see the Government’s e-Petition system being put to good use.
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to provide free monkeys on the NHS.”
A disappointing response from the government…
While we are aware of similar initiatives already in existence, the Government does not currently have any plans to make monkeys available to people with disabilities.
Amazing.

Public transport seat patterns. Hypnotic. London Bus #148 looks like the work of someone quite unstable.

I’ve just finished reading George Monbiot’s book ‘Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning‘. In it, he explores, using the UK as a model, how the world can reduce it’s carbon output by 90% before 2030, the currently believed ‘tipping point’ for irreversible damage.
He explores various aspects of our lives that output carbon, such as [...]

Hurrah!
A generation of environmental activists is set to emerge from Scotland’s schools after it was agreed every pupil in the country will hear Al Gore’s “powerful message” about the dangers of climate change. The Scottish Executive announced yesterday - as the former US vice president flew in to Glasgow to address business people, environmentalists and [...]

I’m currently reading George Monbiot’s book ‘Heat’, exploring ways we can actually make a 90% reduction in carbon emissions (which is what’s needed by 2030) without destroying our comfortable lives. I’ll reserve comments and opinion until I’ve finished, but I’m a big fan of Monbiot’s work, and seems like a well thought out and supported [...]

Can’t be bothered with design any more. The other one was too cramped and didn’t make enough use of the space available. This site is all about the content (don’t laugh), and so I’ve gone for something simple and straight forward. Let’s face it - you probably read this through an RSS reader or something [...]

If you’ve paid any attention to the news today you might have spotted that M&S are winning the supermarket eco-brinkmanship game at the moment, with their announcement of a £200 million plan to do good shit. It looks like a good start (albeit quite late), with even Greenpeace and WWF grudgingly agreeing it’s a step [...]

Useful information about how to talk to a climate skeptic, including typical denialist arguments.

Through the magic of Google Earth, you can see the CCAP Hut (photo 1, 2) on Mount Mulanje where I spent New Year’s Eve 2006 watching the sunset. For those who fancy a play, it’s at 15°58′10.58″S, 35°32′6.32″E (kmz file).

Someone, somewhere, is making shirts covered with crazy patterns. Usually these are coloured, but from time to time you spot one with a famous person’s face on.
My favourite shirts are:
5. Euro bank notes
4. The Terminator
3. Rambo
2. Mike Tyson - Nothing like wearing the ugly face of a convicted rapist.
1. Saddam Hussein - This one was [...]

Minibuses in Malawi are adorned with a variety of crazy slogans. My general rule was to not step into a bus that was “powered by Jesus” or anything, because driving with “will of Allah” type drivers is generally not a good plan.
Anyway, here goes:
5. “Born Slippy”
4. “I stop for nothing.” - Surely a bad business [...]

The bizarre world of Soviet roadside bus stops.

Finally aboard the Ilala, and with the sun high in the sky, there was little else to do other than grab some shade and zone out for the next 18 hours. Our destination was Likoma Island in the north east of Lake Malawi, technically in Mozambican waters but Malawian territory. Every couple of hours we [...]

I’ve put some of my photos up from Malawi. There’s a couple more that need stitching together sometime when I’m less busy, but this is most of them. All done now. Story telling to resume soon.

There’s an interesting piece being broadcast on Newsnight tonight at 10:30pm, BBC2, about the impact of mobile phones in Kenya. They explore how people are using it in many difference scenarios, from urban rich kids to poor farmers. You can watch it online now - (link at the bottom).
I was amazed at the reach of [...]

A good introduction to the sights and sounds of any country is the public transport. Malawi is no exception, and an early bus ride from Lilongwe to Nkhotakota would prove to be… formative.
Naively we enquired about when the bus was expected to leave. Answers varied between 7 and 9am. Was there a timetable? Who knows.
Rushing [...]

I’ve been keeping a notebook of our adventures in Malawi over the last few weeks. Having read way too many travel books recently, I’m going to compose some overly melodramatic prose about our adventures. I’ll try not to embellish too much, but for the sake of a good story some details may be tweaked!

I’m home. I feel quite broken. I think Malawi won. Storytelling to follow.