Zephyrist's Sunday night briefs

Well what with it being a busy week for me and one thing or another there are a few articles I have just not had the time to write. As they relate to current events I thoughts I would write some quick briefs and thoughts on some headline news and some lesser news items you may not have caught.

Wave farms show energy potential (BBC)

A BBC article telling us about a plan by Scottish engineers to deploy an offshore wave farm off Portugal.

This has plenty of implications for the UK as we have lots of suitable ocean waves off the West coast of Scotland and indeed there are plans to build an offshore farm soon. Unfortunately, unlike wind power this technology is very much in the development stages but with our own home grown engineering talent and a bit of investment from the government wave power could soon be a viable, renewable form of energy.

The political power of the network (BBC)

This article is an interesting piece about the power of the internet and how it relates to democracy and politics.

In the article there is a note of caution that although the internet stimulates debate, it doesn't always translate to involvement in the democratic process.

Is e-democracy now a reality (BBC)

This is on the same lines as the previous article and explores how much the internet is moving into mainstream politics. You can now read politicians blogs, watch youtube videos and sign electronic petitions, how far will e-democracy go?

US time switch set to save energy (BBC)
Y2K again? Daylight time may baffle computers (CNN)

The US have changed their summer time schedule. They now go to daylight saving three weeks earlier in the spring and end it one week later in the autumn. The idea behind it is to save energy, cut costs and as a side effect cut emissions.

I always like to visit CNN for the American prospective on stories. Two things of note from the CNN article, first I love the little summary at the top because Americans obviously cant even manage to read a short internet article and second note the cynical tone of the article regarding the energy saving idea.

"This is nice for after-dinner strolls and might even save some energy (which was Congress' motive)..."

My final thought on the story is that if America can do it why cant we, that would help towards our 20:20 target (20% by 2020).

Don't mention the polar bears, Bush tells US scientists (Independent)

This a long running saga where the bush administration censors the scientific community and forbids them to mention anything that might be at odds with bush policy. It tends to be around things such as the environment, global warming and carbon dioxide emissions.

This story relates to a leaked memo from the US department of the interior which suggested that matters not up for discussion in Arctic region countries included climate change, polar bears and sea ice. So whatever you do don't mention the polar bears.

The US department of the interior is currently in consultation to decide whether the polar bear should be listed as an endangered species.

That concludes my briefs on Sunday.