Why green small steps are important

So leaving your phone charger plugged in is bad they would have you believe. Realistically I can leave my phone charger plugged in all year is not even a spit in the ocean of electricity consumption, compared to cooking or that 15 minute shower (10,500 Watts) every day that people are so fond of. So why is that kind of minor economy being being pushed, why should it be pushed.


Green small steps are important, not because they make any real difference though. But because it changes the mindset, so that the real big steps that need to be made by government and major corporates can happen.


There are two energy related issues to be concerned about, carbon emissions and consequent global warming, and the imminent scarcity of fossilised carbon to burn. What we really have to do to redress the ensuing issue of carbon emissions is so big and unacceptable that we need to be softened up so as to accept the inevitable impact on us the consumer. Small steps are going to be important in moving people to a mindset where these bigger steps become more acceptable.


What are these bigger steps? Well there's a book (available free online) by David J.C. MacKay called 'Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air' which covers this in some depth. Its available at www.withouthotair.com. There's also a short 4 page summary of the book if you are in a hurry.


Am I right about the mobile phone charger? Well take a look at this.

Michael Moorcock interviewed by StarShipSofa

This is the interview with Michael Moorcock that Tony and Ciaran from StarShipSofa did when they spent the day with him in Paris.

The Audio for this is going out on the podcast feed at StarShipSofa.com today

Fleet Foxes - Excellent Music

Today @dbspin on Twitter pointed out this excellent band, Fleet Foxes. They have just recently released their Debut album "Fleet Foxes". Their music is kind of choral folk pop, deceptively gentle with a powerful undercurrent, nice harmonies, good melodies. What do I know about music though, just go listen to the samples on their myspace page. If you've succumbed to the temptation to get yourself a myspace account you can download one of the tracks for free, otherwise they are available on Amazon.

Dennis Liu's Apple Mac Video

Saw this, blogged about it here

See Dennis's own Blog http://dennisaliu.blogspot.com/

Nice story on an excellent beer mat

I came across this beer mat, from a local pub. It a great piece of marketing for Hobgoblin.

This is the story on the back (via the scanner, this modern OCR tech. is magic).

JUST 3 WEEKS AFTER THE WEDDING, HOBGOBLIN WAS BORN.

It was in a shadowy corner of the old malting: in Witncy that the first gurgle was heard: a delicious, dark, rich ale pouring from the cask. A local landlord called Phil had commissioned a special brew to celebrate his daughters wedding. Our founder, Chris Moss, bless his soul created the ale of his life - a dark, rich, and mysterious brew. What to call it though?

There was far too much for the wedding, so Chris sold a firkin of our still nameless beer to a local grog shop. It went down so well that customers came back asking for another fug of 'that stuff. In recognition of its character, the student behind the counter drew a picture of a goblin and stuck it on the barrel Customers started asking for the 'Hobgoblin' beer and so the legend was born.

Six Point Five - Smart new band with a great attitude

My son went to the local youth club today to see the band Six Point Five. At the end of the gig they were selling their 4 tracks EP Earthquake. Since my son only had £1 left they let him have the disk at that price on the condition that he copy it for his mates. That's just a fantastic new media attitude.

Their music is a little like Capdown, ska, brass, rock, seems pretty good.

myspace.com/sixpointfive

The proof of the pudding is in the eating

Why are people getting this wrong, in a recent BBC news article about Microsoft's Live Mesh service, an interviewee is quoted as saying "The proof is in the pudding but at the moment it's all demo ware and advertising.".

I keep seeing and hearing this more and more, and every time its more annoying. There's no proof of any thing in the pudding itself, all that's in the pudding is the fruit, you've got to eat it to know if it's good. It should be "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".