August 13, 2007

Global warming? Look at the numbers National Post - In his enviro-propaganda flick, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore claims nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the last decade. That's been a common refrain for environmentalists, too, and one of the centrepieces of global warming hysteria: It's been really hot lately -- abnormally hot -- so we all need to be afraid, very afraid. The trouble is, it's no longer true. 5:48:51 PM

SCO never owned UNIX copyrights, owes Novell 95 percent of UNIX royalties. A federal district judge has issued a ruling declaring that Novell is the owner of the UNIX copyrights. This will effectively put an end to SCO's litigation campaign. The judge has also determined that Novell is entitled to 95 percent of the UNIX licensing royalties SCO collected from Microsoft and Sun. [Digg / Technology] 5:43:39 PM

May 22, 2007

Canadians support talks with Taliban: poll OTTAWA: Canadians still think it's a good idea to negotiate with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents as a way to end the violence there, a poll finds. Negotiate what exactly? What are we willing to give up? Democracy? Woman's rights? Children’s rights? How about rule of law, or freedom of expression? Neville Chamberlain's... all of them! 5:19:22 PM

May 19, 2007

THIS SOUNDS KIND OF INTERESTING: Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India's largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility. The MiniC.A.T is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fibreglass. . . . Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph. Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 1.5 Euros, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometres. As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours. Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000 Km. The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power. Adiabatic air conditioning. Cool! Er, literally . . . If this catches on first in India and China, that's okay -- that's where the growth of auto sales is likely to be fastest in the coming decades. I wouldn't mind having one for commuting, though.  [Instapundit.com (v.2)] 11:00:07 PM

The Filipino Channel Canada TFCko in Canada is a hassle-free way of getting ABS-CBN Global satellite quality and weatherproof programming over the internet. 3:37:02 PM

May 17, 2007

Google Experimental: Try Out New User Interface & Other Experiments (NEW). Want to test the latest layouts Google is trying? Want results on a timeline basis? This new service at Google lets you have fun. [Digg / Technology] 10:27:34 AM

A SPOT OF GOOD NEWS: "The first crude oil pumped by a foreign company in Iraq in decades will flow into the global market next month." The amount is small, but it's coming from Kurdistan. The Kurds -- who have kept order and freedom in their part of Iraq -- deserve to be the place where this gets going. Peace and order should be rewarded. [Instapundit.com (v.2)] 9:31:58 AM