Friday, December 19, 2008

Solar Powered Ship Launches In Japan

When I saw that headline, I thought to myself, wow, way to go; on opening the article from CBCNews, I have to admit that I felt a little crestfallen. Seems that the photovoltaics used to provide supplementary power to the vessel's 440V electrical system are capable of providing just 0.2% of the ship's energy consumption.

Ahhh so, grasshopper, remember that big trees from little acorns grow.

Impacts of the smoking ban

These seem to be rather open to debate and interpretation at the moment, as NHS spokespeople claim it has helped significantly, especially in helping people to quit (though if you look at the numbers, I find it difficult to figure out how they substantiate this claim), whilst other evidence suggests, well, exactly the opposite, especially amongst younger people.

And as our Gov ponders the banning of display advertising for all tobacco products, essentially making them a 'hidden behind the shelf commodity' ('anything for the weekend, sir?'), I will pass on this amusing (well, I found it amusing) little story from our local evening paper the other night. The correspondent wrote that he no longer ever visits any of his local pubs and bars because 'bad body odours' (yes, I know exactly what he means, someone with BO is now extremely noticeable) from other people make it insufferable for him to enjoy a beer any more. He makes the point that smoke at least obscured a lot of what he considers to be far worse smells. (To reinforce the point, when asked why she had stopped going to local nightclubs, my eldest surprisingly opined - 'they just stink of stale sweat, puke, and foul farts now, they're horrible places'. )

The thing is, as almost all teenagers are inately rebellious, putting a ban in place on anything seems almost always to encourage them to go against it anyway, doesn't it? But nanny state knows best. Ho hum.