Time for colour

Not sure that it was worth the effort, but this is done from a photo with some "painter" style software that came with a cheap tablet. (Graphics tablets are a lot of fun if you enjoy doodling.)

I just like to add some colour here occasionally anyway.

Oh great...

Iran takes new nuclear step - Sunday Times - Times Online

From The Times story:

IN A show of defiance against western efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the new phase of a heavy water reactor project yesterday, prompting an Israeli warning that Tehran had taken another step towards producing a bomb.

The Arak plant in central Iran can now make eight tons of heavy water a year, with output expected to rise tenfold.

Heavy water aids nuclear fission and the plutonium by- product could be used to make warheads. But the reactor to produce plutonium is still under construction. ...

Arak’s construction was kept secret until the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed its existence along with the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2002.

An Iranian nuclear official claimed there was no need for the International Atomic Energy Agency to supervise Arak as it did not have a military purpose. But experts warned plutonium production could pose a greater threat than uranium enrichment.

“With uranium it’s much easier to put in safeguards to monitor the atmosphere and instruments,” said Paul Ingram, a nuclear analyst with the British American Security Information Council. Arak could produce enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons a year.

For a look at this facility, see here. It appears to be an easy target. I therefore wouldn't be bragging about such advances if I were the Iranian President.

Hard to believe

The Observer | UK News | Offset your carbon emissions with a text

This short story from the Guardian relates a very hard to believe scheme:

Mobile phone users will be able to offset their carbon emissions by sending a text message using a scheme launched by conservation charity the World Land Trust.

For each text received, the WLT will offset 140kg of C02 through various reforestation projects worldwide. This is the equivalent of the amount of C02 produced by a return flight from London to Paris, 16 people sitting down for a restaurant meal, eight nights in a hotel, two nights on a cruise ship or 120 school runs in a 4x4.

The texts will cost £1.50 plus network charges.

Something is wrong with those figures, surely!

Grumpy parenting advice

Booze, boys and other headaches - Opinion - theage.com.au

Parents and teenagers today, I dunno. The article above (from The Age) relates a mother's attempt to "do the right thing" in the way she manages her daughter's party for a bunch of 15 year olds (some 14).

Maybe I will regret some of these comments when the time comes that my children are teenagers, but at the moment, here's how I feel:

1. There are 57 year nine students invited to this party. Seems quite a lot of invitees, doesn't it? Why do school kids, or their parents hosting, want to have a party at which (surely) they don't know a significant proportion of the invitees very well at all? A smaller party is a more controllable party, and 60 people over is pushing the limits.

2. The mother gives up on the idea of banning alcohol entirely, because she has learnt from experience that it will be smuggled in anyway. (And the effort to police a ban is too overbearing.) The end result was allowing each guest to bring "2 or 3" drinks.

She seems well intentioned, but isn't this attitude just waving the white flag of parental responsibility way too early? There are 14 year olds at this party. What parent should care that a 14 or 15 year old resents going to an alcohol free party? What 14 year old should expect to be able to drink at a party?

3. The limited alcohol option fails anyway, with a few impostors getting drunk, a fight (apparently not alcohol related) and some damage to the house.

What is it with this teenage party gatecrashing phenomena? It puzzles me in several respects. What's the typical reason the gatecrashers want "in"? Because they were not invited and they want to prove a point? What sort of point would that be usually - fail to invite me and I'll come and smash up your house (or your friends)? Is it that they don't want to go to the party at all, but are just out to pick fights with someone they know there? Or is it that it is because some parties are alcohol free-for-alls that is the attraction?

Anyway, it's a disturbing thing that parents these days live in fear of gatecrashing teens. I expect, however, that parents allowing consumption of alcohol is not the way to reduce the likelihood of it happening.

Teenagers: you don't run the world. You have decades ahead of you to drink. You can wait.

Parents: when did you start letting teenagers set the rules? You don't have to be buddies with them. Make yourself unpopular for a change.

Pull the other one, Tim

Braving the cold for a talk on warming | Science & nature | The Australian

Environmentalist and global warming author Tim Flannery spoke at the Melbourne Writers Festival and claims this:

"Writers' festivals are a really good opportunity to talk to a great number of people who might not usually be exposed to this issue, and this kind of discussion," said Dr Flannery, who won this year's NSW Premier's Book of the Year award.

Oh come on. As if the typical person who attends a writers' festival would not be interested and well versed in this already.

Caroline does Cuba

Caroline Overington: Land of rum and rumba blighted by communism | Opinion | The Australian

Pamela Bone used to write for the age, as did Caroline Overington. Funny how they now appear in The Australia, both sounding rather right wing.

Caroline short article on how bad she found Cuba just a couple of years ago is worth a read.

US Catholics not so wussy after all

GOP dips in religion poll - Yahoo! News

This snippet from the above report is interesting:

Bush got 78 percent of the white evangelical vote and 56 percent of the white Catholic vote in 2004, according to exit polls.

I kind of expected the Catholic vote to be significantly less than that for Bush in 2004. Certainly, the liberal side of the church is the one that gets all the publicity.

Next year's Survivor format predicted

NYC officials want new 'Survivor' pulled - Yahoo! News

Not that I have ever watched it for more than 10 minutes, but it's interesting to note that a decision by the makers of "Survivor" to use racially based competing teams is controversial.

Of course, if they really want controversy, next year's teams will be based on religion/philosophy: The Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhist, and Hindu teams.

I would then have a few secular humanists to be added into the teams at random. Have one of them gay, and watch the tension in the first episode as they draw straws for who will get into the Muslim team.

I could go on, but readers can supply their own fantasies of this scenario.

Some interpretation needed

This paper on arxiv seems important. (It talks about the very nature of space, gravity, black holes and dark matter.) Beyond sensing its possible importance (and that it is not written by a complete nutter, unless they are still allowed in the physics department of Flinders University,) it is otherwise very difficult to understand.

I need a science journalist to do an interpretation of it.

UPDATE: OK, here's a page that explains more about what Cahill is on about. Can't say I have heard about "process physics" before.

Pamela goes right

Pamela Bone: Muslim sisters need our help | Opinion | The Australian

Pamela Bone writes on the Western feminists' general silence on the plight of Muslim women in Iran and other rabidly Islamic nations. Good reading.

Drink your tea

BBC NEWS | Health | Tea 'healthier' drink than water

More research (even if it is paid for by the "Tea Council") seems to show how tea is very good for you.

On a personal note, by working with a Chinese guy who is very fond of good quality green tea, my green tea consumption for many years now has been perhaps 2 cups a day average. This should ensure I live to 110.

A strange China story

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China acts on funeral strippers

More fun via the BBC:

Five people have been detained in China for running striptease send-offs at funerals, state media say....

"Striptease used to be a common practice at funerals in Donghai's rural areas to allure viewers," Xinhua agency said.

"Local villagers believe that the more people who attend the funeral, the more the dead person is honoured."

As well as ordering an end to the practice, officials have also said residents can report "funeral misdeeds" on a hotline, earning a reward for information.

If I had a readership, I would invite nominations for the worst "funeral misdeed" you would have liked to be able to report.

And that would be a bad thing?

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Syria warns over UN peacekeepers

From the link:

Syria has reportedly threatened to close its border with Lebanon if UN peacekeepers are deployed there.

Finland's foreign minister made the claim after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Helsinki.

"They will close their borders for all traffic in the event that UN troops are deployed..." Erkki Tuomioja said.

Earlier, the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, said the stationing of UN troops in the border area of Lebanon would be a hostile move against Syria.

"This is an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and a hostile position," President Bashar Assad told Arab TV.

Go Nuclear

The Nuclear Option

See above for a lengthy, optimistic, article on the expansion of nuclear power as a way of helping reduce CO2.

My favourite under-discussed type of reactor, the Pebble bed, gets a favourable mention too:

The pebble-bed modular reactor introduces the interesting prospect of modular nuclear plants. Instead of building a massive 1,000-megawatt plant, modules each producing around 100 megawatts can be built. This approach may be particularly attractive, both in developing countries and in deregulated industrial countries, because of the much lower capital costs involved. The traditional large plants do have the advantage of economy of scale, most likely resulting in lower cost per kilowatt of capacity, but this edge could be challenged if efficient factory-style production of large numbers of modules could be implemented. South Africa is scheduled to begin construction of a 110-megawatt demonstration pebble-bed plant in 2007, to be completed by 2011, with commercial modules of about 165 megawatts planned for 2013. The hope is to sell modules internationally, in particular throughout Africa.

(By comparison, here's a list of Queensland power stations giving their generating capacity. It's clear that an indivdual module generating 165 megawatts is fairly modest in size, but it looks as if the big power stations here are comprised of smaller units anyway - eg Tarong's power is listed as 4 x 360 MW. I guess if there is a natural limit to the size of a pebble bed module, you just add more modules on site as required.)

Anyway, the whole article is good and interesting as a review of where nuclear power is likely to go. The problems are not ignored, but if Greenies want us to believe the worst global warming scenarios, then they should also figure that they are making nuclear look more attractive as part of the solution.

The happiest mice on Earth

ScienceDaily: Ever-happy Mice May Hold Key To New Treatment Of Depression

Interesting story on genetic manipulation leading to very happy mice.

As usual, I wonder about this:

Mice without the TREK-1 gene ('knock-out' mice) were created and bred in collaboration with Dr. Michel Lazdunski, co-author of the research, in his laboratory at the University of Nice, France. "These 'knock-out' mice were then tested using separate behavioral, electrophysiological and biochemical measures known to gauge 'depression' in animals," says Dr. Debonnel. "The results really surprised us; our 'knock-out' mice acted as if they had been treated with antidepressants for at least three weeks."

Just how closely does depression in a mouse represent depression in a human?

Anyway, apart from the drug development implications, it does raise the question as to whether "designer babies" in the future could be tailored to never suffer depression. What unknown effects would this have on personality or culture if it ever became widespread? Just wondering.