Climate change hits Mars-News-UK-TimesOnline
Harry Erwin's Letter from England: "Over the last five years in the UK, recruitment of students into computing, engineering, and technology programs has crashed to about 20% of what it was in 2000. This has affected the teaching universities in particular, as they serve as insurance schools for many students. The main problem is not students responding to a perceived downturn in the job market, but rather appears to be uninteresting (to students) course content. The university is considering elimination of our programs in these three areas (math and statistics were similarly eliminated about ten years ago) as not economically viable, but the school has been given a reprieve to see if we can turn things around in the next year."
And so the West's long slow march into darkness passes another milestone.
Microsoft admits Vista failure
ADAMANT: The Green's Black Secret
Texas has deregulated the electric market, so consumers can pick one of several power companies to provide their electricity.
TXU, having been caught manipulating the power grid ala Enron, is now trying to sell itself to a holding company, and is running a disgusting PR campaign hyping the "New TXU" promising "reliable, affordable electricity for everyone" with a background image of windmills!
Wind is neither reliable or affordable, but it makes the greenies go all dewy eyed when you show windmills spinning away. The ones in the TXU commercials are spinning fast enough that the blades are blurred, indicating that they are in runaway condition, and probably near the mechanical self-destruction point.
At the power-to-choose site, power companies are graded on their generation methods, i.e., how much coal, how much natural gas, how much nuclear, how much "renewable" etc.
I am looking for one that is all coal and nuclear, no natural gas, no "renewable energy". I want the one that makes sense, not sound bites.
If the greenies are so upset by CO2 emissions, I suggest they hold their breath until they drop dead.
Later Of course it's not possible. Other than the moon beam and fairy dust plants that sell 100% wind power, there are only a very few actual power producers in Texas, and a look at the generation mix reveals that every one has around 50% natural gas in the mix.
Those TXU commercials are still disgusting.
So - my wife keeps telling me to buy a laptop ( so I'll quit complaining about not having one), but everytime I think I might have decided to get one, I come up against a stark brick wall that stops me dead:
They only come with Microsoft Vista.
The stories of Vista user horror stories are multiplying on the internet like the mosquitoes in the rain puddles in my back yard, and I am not going down that path, ever.
I am going to have to sit down and decide what apps only run on Windows, and how I will live without them when I get my new Macbook.
Update: Dell is now offering systems with XP preinstalled, a breathtaking reversal of longstanding Microsoft policy. Michael Dell must be very sure of his position to go against the Beast from Redmond.
Early U.S. Daylight Savings a bust in power savings | US News | Reuters.com