Posts by Martin Coule

Windfarm Britain means (very) expensive electricity

Ooh look, vested interest in the nuclear industry!

Job advert - "Poyry Energy (Nuclear energy recruitment site)

We are delighted to be supporting Poyry in their Staffing solutions across sites at Devonport Naval Base, Sellafield Cumbria, Warrington Cheshire and Aldermaston Berkshire. We are constantly looking for Mechanical and Electrical Engineers"

Gosh, who would have thought that the nuclear industry (with all its billions of pounds PR budget) wanted to diss the fledgling green market with it's PR budget of approximately zero? "Energy too cheap to meter" was the boast with nuclear power. Perhaps the same will happen in reverse with wind power - once we start spending the billions in development that was spent on nuclear power (and will continue to spend in decommissioning costs - thanks guys) instead on decent wind turbine designs, then perhaps wind and solar will become too cheap to meter, rather than these "Big Lie" nuclear jokers.

I haven't seen so much blatant propaganda since I last read the Daily Mail.

Microsoft and Linux trade patent words in Europe

Totally one sided or what?

I'm sure this topic has been dealt with extensively elsewhere, but it seems wrong to me that a computer program can be patentable. A patent is for an invention or for a process - something is produced. You cannot patent an idea - so Einstein could not patent his equations, which to my mind are every bit as complicated as a program.

Already we have significant lock out of the market for small/lone developers - it seems wrong that foreign corporations can impose their will on the EU for their competitive advantage. We already see this in GPS, where the US has all the toys and won't let the EU play properly. To the extent that the EU has to launch its own satellites. To allow the US to consolidate it's monopoly on operating systems would be criminal, and totally against the long term interests of the EU - as well as stifling innovation.

That'll be a "no" to patents then.

Jedi officers enlist with Scottish police

And atheists get lumped in with?

I remember the form, and the Census people decided in their infinite wisdom not to have a separate box for us atheists, so it could be argued that we got lumped in with the Jedi.

It was really badly received by a lot of atheists I know, considering how many people in Britain have no faith - more people than the fourth largest religion, by most counts.

Hats off to the Jedi though - from no believers to hundreds of thousands in no time!