Fast goose

A Barnacle Goose has smashed the North Sea crossing record, previously held by Godzilla at 8 hours. The goose Barbow completed the Scotland to Norway in a mere 5 hours; an impressive feat indeed.

The green dilemma

So, we need to be green. CO-2 levels are hockey-sticking, global temperatures are rising, polar ice caps are melting as a consequence, and the Maldives are sinking. To combat this situation, we're installing Argon-filled double glazing units, which may cut heating bills with up to 15%. Every little bit helps, eh.

In terms of energy generation, the choices appear to be pretty simple, really. All the greens agree that we need to stop burning coal, oil and gas. So, let's build some wind farms! Eh, no. The same greens complain that they represent an eye sore in the environments where you can conceivably expect some windy conditions. Well, let's make etanol from rapeseed or sugar beet, and burn that - it's carbon neutral. Sorry. Taking over farmland to grow energy crop will impact global food prices and make starving people more hungry. Fair enough. Let's expand the civilian nuclear program and get super-clean, efficient, safe, zero-carbon energy capable of supporting the planet's energy needs for generations to come.

No. The same greens are opposed to nuclear power for reasons that are a bit muddy at best, and at worst based on outdated dogma with no basis in either science or fact. Even the godfather of green, Mr Gaia himself, James Lovelock advocates the use of nuclear power for the good of the planet, but the hippy green movement resists on dogmatic grounds.

Cuddle a polar bear. Embrace nuclear power. Save the planet. Stop the west's oil dependency. Install Argon windows.

Choose life.

Vision thing

It takes a lot to impress me on the web nowadays, but this one left me slack-jawed:

http://flickrvision.com

Exchange

So, the house saga is actually nearing its completion - exchange today, and Well Done Sarah for doing all the heavy lifting. We're looking at moving a week today. This process was started in October..really looking forward to move now.

Meanwhile, there's been a push at work to join the various social networks that abound, both to be seen to be active around the web, but also to - eh, find inspiration for our own projects. Facebook is actually very good at what it does - streets ahead of Myspace and a bit more jolly than LinkedIn.

Chris's Swedish stag do was survived by the stag, and a good time was had. The water was cold, but we all managed to swim to Ayres Rock and back. The stag himself swam to the other side - it was touch and go if he'd manage to return by his own steam, and he looked remarkably blue when he came out.

Me and Sarah are spending the weekend back down at the Hatch ranch for some more gardening duties in preparation for the Hatch-Ayres wedding real soon now. I'm still suffering with tennis elbow, this time on my left, and a dodgy right shoulder that harks back from a fall skiing in Sweden.