Below are the most recent 6 friends' journal entries.

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
perdita_fysh	8:47p	Screwball Scramble I decided to get this game for our godsons for Christmas. As we were seeing them in early december (until the stomach flu put paid to that) I got it sorted early. I also got them Downfall and because they've changed the design to a crap one I got a lightly used second hand one which was hard work, but getting Screwball Scramble was easy. Tonight I need another small piece to add to a present for another child and decided that actually this would be suitable there too. Can't get one anywhere on the interweb AT ALL. WTF? (Comment on this)
Friday, December 18th, 2009
perdita_fysh	10:10a	The end of an era I've not listened to as much as I would have liked lately, but I did catch the last half hour of Wogan's last show. I shed a little tear. Probably would have been more except the person next to me was blowing raspberries into her water at the time which dissipated the mood somewhat *&) I hope Chris works out. Him taking over the breakfast show at Radio 1 was my reason for leaving. We had a brief stint at Virgin and liked the presenters but the adverts drove us mental and then we found Radio 2 and we've been there ever since. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 14th, 2009
_nicolai_	12:15a	Real heat So, the BBC reports that "draft text... final deal... call on developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25-45% from 1990 levels by 2020" First of all, "developing" nations, which are already pretty far developed from a couple of decades ago, will soon surpass "developed" nations in carbon emissions if they keep going as they are, and they do seem determined to be allowed to do so. So serious climate change is on the way because even if Europe stops emitting any carbon at all tomorrow, China and India will keep going and growing, and the US likely too. Meanwhile, let us consider what a 33% cut in carbon emissions from 1990-levels for "developed" nations could mean. If you take the zero-sum view that every part of life has to suffer equally, some of the things you get are: Aviation: In 1990, people took maybe one medium-distance flight a year each. Aircraft are more efficient now, so you'll be down to taking maybe one medium-distance, or a couple of short haul flights a year, maximum. Forget affordable breaks to the sun, or seeing anywhere outside Europe regularly. Air freight: in 1990, tropical airfreighted organic vegetables didn't happen, nor did air freight of electronics to you, or other things. Forget out of season vegetables and flowers, rapid delivery of electronics, etc. Sea freight: Also forget your cheap electronics from China, cheap hardwares from China, etc - you need to buy local to cut that by the above amount, so you'll be back to expensive computers, TVs, etc. Electricity: by 2020, most of our nuclear power stations will be end-of-life and closed. If replaced by gas, we would have to remove something like 40% of our electricity generating capacity for the above carbon cuts. Wind won't replace that reliably; we have no hydro or solar worth a damn in the UK. Power cuts, and/or very expensive electricity. Domestic heating: In the UK, is nearly all carbon-emitting (oil or natural gas). You could insulate houses a lot more, but how does anyone plan to reduce domestic carbon emissions? Home fuel rationing, or very expensive home fuel? Motoring (personal): Car efficiencies won't improve much more without either very much more expensive fuel, or very strict laws on fuel efficiency right now to get most of the national fleet replaced by 2020 with only small diesel engines. High fuel prices are very socially regressive, and upset people greatly. Biofuels are both expensive, and can be extremely regressive if they raise edible crop prices. Motoring (commercial): Truck efficiencies are already high, they won't improve much. So we need less transport, of anything. Much less stuff delivered for you; much less variety of food; much less choice in shops, or higher prices. And finally, those developing countries who develop by using advanced technologies made in developed nations and pay us good money for them? That decreases sharply too. That's the zero-sum options. There is another way: Build nuclear power plants and some wind farms on the side for electricity; electrify home heating, increase house insulation, use hybrid vehicles in towns, use electric trains - all reducing electrical generation carbon emissions by 80% from now, let alone 1990. Enforce vehicle fuel efficiency increased for new cars and use some biofuels that don't affect food prices, to replace some petroleum. Enforce aviation fuel efficiency increases for new aircraft, and use some biofuels. Build and use more rail/truck combos for long distance transport Enforce shipping fuel economy increases Generate more energy from waste by incineration or reuse in an energy-positive fashion, not a recycling-for-the-sake-of-recycling fashion (paper is particularly dubious on the recycling vs incineration balance). So far the NIMBYs and fact-free greens with unrealistic pet projects are pushing us to a future where we're poor, cold, immobile, and get few manufactured goods. The lead time for serious solutions is 5-10 years. We should have started now already. Finally, new rule for any comments on this topic in a forum I edit: if you're going to say "no" to some carbon-reducing idea, or propose another, you have to analyse the consequences - just "no" won't be tolerated, and nor will unacknowledged social or economic consequences. Current Mood: pissed off (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
perdita_fysh	11:31p	Child Trust Funds I'm looking at investments for George tonight, how much to put away each month for uni? how much more would it take to consider independent schooling (11-18)? where to put it? etc I asked some friends about it and mentioned that I'd heard CTF was a bad investment idea and they wondered on what grounds and I can't remember. But I also have this uneasy feeling about them. I thought maybe it was because I'm worried that as they are entirely in the child's name and control once they turn 18 they might go off the rails and blow it all on pr0n or something but I don't think it's that. Thinking about it more though I wonder about that generation, when they get towards 18 it's going to be a topic of conversation in school isn't it? How much is in your CTF then? What are you going to spend it on? I'm going on holiday/buying a car/doing some really cool drugs. And they're going to be clear prey for people are they? Knowing that every single 18 year old will have some cash to burn, up to £35k if their parents have done their loving duty and stuck the lot in there. There's going to be some variation of the african 'help me get my money out' emails that targets them dead square isn't there? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 7th, 2009
_nicolai_	11:28p	Why buy from the difficult option? As we approach another year's seasonal retail peak, I feel that many retailers have still not realised that making it hard to purchase from them, will result in my not purchasing from them if I have any sort of choice (in supplier, with rough pricing equivalence). In the real world of media, gadgets, and technology, that means you must not be harder to buy from than Amazon. Delivery only to the cardholder address is not useful to me; Amazon will send items to my office which is where I am to receive them during office hours. Delivery to an alternative address after much extra effort such as faxing details to the retailer, is far more effort than Amazon. I, as the consumer, don't care about your card merchant agreements, or fraud, because I'm not bound by those, or liable for those. I just want my stuff, delivered to me. Current Mood: annoyed (5 Comments |Comment on this)
perdita_fysh	10:17p	Font snobbery My osteopath was telling me about a local independent day school he's been considering for his son and it sounded like a nice place and I didn't know we had one that local so I thought I'd have a look at them on the web. I found the website and decided to have a look at the newsletters to get a feel for the place. The most recent one opened in preview and... the whole thing is written in Comic Sans MS!! My eyes!! I don't think I can seriously consider it now, however good the education *&) (10 Comments |Comment on this)