World's fastest diesel car
JCB has broken the world land speed record for a diesel, for the second time in a week. Previously, the record had stood at about 235 mph, set back in 1973. Earlier this week, JCB Dieselmax set a new record of 333 mph, and has now topped this to reach an average of 350 mph. And they’ve not even used sixth gear yet, so this car (powered by two JCB diesel engines that together produce 750 bhp) looks set to go faster still!
pax et bonum
Track with co.mments
Track with del.icio.usPluto no longer a planet
The Register is reporting that the IAU has (contrary to earlier expectations) decided that Pluto is no longer officially a planet – it’s “dwarf planet”. The decision means that our solar system now has eight planets, and only eight. None of this nonsense earlier of 12, 15, 19 or even more. The decision in full runs as follows – a planet has to orbit the Sun, be round and be the only such body in its neighbourhood. It’s this last qualification that rules Pluto out (because it crosses the orbit of the much-larger planet Neptune).
The IAU therefore resolves that “planets” and other bodies in our Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:
1) A “planet”1 is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and© has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
2) A “dwarf planet” is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape^2^, (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
3) All other objects^3^ except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as “Small Solar-System Bodies”.
^1^The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
^2^An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either dwarf planet and other categories.
^3^These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies.
Update
Alastair linked to this rather amusing contest 
pax et bonum
Stupid security
The Register is reporting the 2006 Stupid Security awards.
The “Stupid Security” awards aim to highlight the absurdities of so-called security procedures that make little contribution to real security improvements. The international compo aims to unearth the world’s most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.
Privacy International’s director, Simon Davies, said the organisation had taken the initiative because of “innumerable” security initiatives around the world that had “absolutely no genuine security benefit”. This will be the second competition in the series, following inaugural awards in 2003 which attracted 5,000 entries…
Gongs will be awarded in five categories: the Most Egregiously Stupid Award, Most Inexplicably Stupid Award, Most Annoyingly Stupid Award, Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award and Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award. Privacy International cites a few choice examples of the sort of pointless measures it is seeking to hold up to ridicule; including an airport that this month emptied out a full plane because a passenger was drinking from a lemonade bottle, to the British schools that fingerprint their children to “stop” the theft of library books, to the airline company that refused to allow passengers to bring books or magazines onto the plane.
There are real concerns about security, of course. Privacy International argues that unworkable security practices and illusory security measures do nothing to address issues of real public concern. They only hinder the public, intrude unnecessarily into our private lives and often reduce us to the status of cattle.
pax et bonum
Writely open for business
Writely, the online word processor, is open for new registrations. It works rather well, although it’s still officially in beta. Big advantages include being able to work one the same documents in many places (as long as they’ve got web access) without carting memory sticks around – and even in places like libraries that don’t let you put your documents on their machines. It also supports popular formats like RTF, HTML, OpenOffice and MSWord. The facilities for sharing work on a documents with other people are excellent. And it’s still free
pax et bonum
The Algebraist
I read a few books by Iain M. Banks years ago, then gave up despite the high standard of the stories, because he was simply too depressing (he has a tendency to be very, very hard on his characters, and to make the entire Universe go wrong). But I decided it was time to give him another try. The Algebraist is Banks on good but surprisingly mellow form. The story is strong and the world nicely painted. But when I reached the end, I wasn’t sure I’d just read a book by Banks – after all, I didn’t feel the urge to slit my wrists!
The story focuses on Fassin Taak, who is a Seer – one of a group of humans who travel into a gas giant planet to talk to the enigmatic Dwellers. The relationship between the Dwellers (who seem to have been around for billions of years) and the Quick (normal species like humans) is at the core of the book, especially the tension between the legends of awesome Dweller technology and their apparent low regard for technology itself. Through sneak attacks, war, journeys and discussions, Fassin must seek a lost secret in order to serve his new bureaucratic masters and to save his home system.
Although it’s a good book and well worth reading, it fails of excellence. It’s quite long and, although it never drags, I also didn’t feel that the story really justified the length. Parts of the world (like the origins and motivation of the Bad Guys) were never clear to me, which just niggled slightly. The general feel was, to me, of a book that could have been even better with stronger editing.
Paperback: 544 Pages
Publisher: Orbit (04 July 2005)
ISBN: 1841492299
My Rating: 
Buy from Amazon
Perdido Street Station
Always one to be up with the latest trends, I finally read this book a couple of months ago. What surprised me most about it was how it wasn’t quite what I expected. Mieville’s books are usually described as dark and even twisted, but I don’t see that all in this book. New Crobuzon (the city in which it’s set) is decadent and corrupt, but there’s almost an innocence to the way the story proceeds. I think that this is partly due to the fact that Mieville never editorialises, never passes judgement on his characters – he leaves that to the reader. In clear, readable, articulate prose, he guides us through the maze (both literal and metaphorical) within which the story’s events unfold. We see horrors and joys, demons and monsters, lovers and criminals. And, at the story’s end, we are not handed a “happily ever after” or anything like it. But, despite the bleakness, it’s not depressing. Mieville presents his characters too well for that.
In the world of New Crobuzon, magic works, and is studied as we study science. There are many (and unique) intelligent species living together in a city resembling a blend of 19th and 20th Century Londons with a character all of its own. The story centres around Isaac, a kind of freelance scientist-wizard who, while trying to help a client fly (he’s a sort of man-bird who’s had his wings amputated), accidentally releases a flying horror onto the city. As we discover the true nature of this monster and its kin, we learn how the city works and why. In the course of defeating the monsters, Isaac loses much that he values but learns a great many new things about himself and his world. In all, a truly excellent book with few flaws, none of them too jarring, that deserves every page of its length. Essential reading.
Paperback: 880 Pages
Publisher: Tor (23 February 2001)
ISBN: 0330392891
My Rating: 
Buy from Amazon
Mass murder in the skies?
The Register has an excellent summary of the current state of our “national security policy” – the furore over “binary liquid explosives” that can be brewed from safe liquids that can be disguised as cosmetics is based almost entirely on Hollywood science rather than real science. In other words, it’s impossible. The fuss is over nothing and reveals the almost total ignorance of the “experts” guiding our countries.
Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who’ve employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace…
The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn’t be as much fun if we didn’t…
The Register has got to ask, were these [supposed terrorists] for real, or have they, and the counterterrorist officials supposedly protecting us, been watching too many action movies?...
The other thing that strikes me again and again when hearing about all the new security procedures in our airports is this – whatever happened to “proportionate response”? Even setting aside the implausibility of the threat, the new strictures on travellers are ridiculous. We’re simply playing into the hands of the real terrorists (by letting ourselves be persuaded into terror), as well as of the mass media (who just want to sell more newspapers and make money) and politicians (who exploit the hysteria they generate to gather more and more power to themselves and their inheritors).
If we give away the things that we value in the name of “security”, we lose everything and gain nothing. For total security is impossible. And if we truly wanted to save human lives, we’d get a far better return if we focused on the real big killers – AIDS, cars and poverty.
pax et bonum
12 planets? 15? 19?
The International Astronomical Union (the body officially responsible since 1919 for naming planets, stars etc.) has proposed a plan for dealing with the problem of Pluto. What problem? Well, we all learned that there are 9 planets in the solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. However, Pluto’s always been an anomaly. It’s far smaller than any other planet (indeed, it’s smaller than 9 moons, including our own Moon), it’s basically a lump of ice, it doesn’t orbit in the same plane as the other planets, and its orbit actually crosses that of Neptune.
What really pushed the issue, though, was the discovery in recent years of several “trans-neptunian objects” – large icy bodies orbiting in roughly the same area as Pluto. And, in particular, the discovery in 2003 of the object called UB313 (or “Xena”), which is actually larger than Pluto. If it’s bigger than Pluto then surely it has at least as much right to be called a planet? The problem was that no one really wanted to think of it as a planet, because it’s just one of (literally) billions of similar bodies in the outer regions of the solar system.
Now, according to the BBC, after 2 years of deliberation, the IAU have proposed a basic definition of a planet – it must be round owing to its gravity (i.e. it’s got to be pretty big) and it must orbit a star (so round moons don’t count, because they orbit planets). The new problem, though, is that the solar system suddenly contains at least 12 planets – the eight “classical” planets Mercury to Neptune, Pluto and Pluto’s “moon” Charon (which so large in comparison to Pluto that they’re often regarded as a twin planet) and Xena (which are together to be known as the “plutons”), and even more strangely Ceres. Until now, Ceres has just been the largest of the asteroids. However, it’s large enough to be gravitationally rounded and orbits the Sun, so it counts.
So, the solar system now goes: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto/Charon, Xena. And it gets even more confusing, because there are several other bodies already known that will probably pass this new definition – the four trans-neptunian bodies Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar and 2003 EL61, and the asteroids Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea. The solar system looks set to keep getting bigger.
Update
New Scientist has more details on the story, including a nice summary of the proposed new definitions of planet, pluton and so forth, and a diagram of the new solar system.
pax et bonum
Back from holiday
Yes, there’s a reason that things have been quiet around here. We spent a week visiting family – two night with my parents, then up to Blackpool to visit my brother and his family, then two nights with Anne’s parents. Or, at least, that was the plan. When we arrived at Anne’s parents’, we were struck down with stomach bugs so stayed an extra day to recover. Apart from that, it was a good holiday. Anne has posted some photos and stuff if you’re interested
pax et bonum
Trials for Guantanamo prisoners?
So, Bush (finally) wants to have trials for all the dangerous terrorists he’s got locked up in Guantanamo Bay. Trouble is, he’s been told by the Supreme Court that it would be illegal to use military tribunals as he wanted (they’re so convenient, because the usual rules of due process don’t apply). So, like any good leader of a free democratic nation would do, he’s going to change the law so that he can hold trials that are even less accountable than normal military tribunals would be! Indeed, his proposals are apparently so extreme that even the military lawyers are opposing his plans as unduly unfair. (Quotations from an article in the Washington Post.)
A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such “commissions” to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.
The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court’s jurisdiction…
Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.
Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.
As Ed at Dispatches from the Culture Wars says:
This isn’t the ACLU objecting (though they do), it’s the JAG corps [the legal arm of the US military]. In particular, it’s their top uniformed officers in the JAG corps, one of whose recently retired members summed up the administration’s position this way:
“We know you’re guilty. We can’t tell you why, but there’s a guy, we can’t tell you who, who told us something. We can’t tell you what, but you’re guilty.”
Can you imagine anything more contrary to our constitutional system than that?
(Thanks to Chris for the tip.)
pax et bonum
Secure passports?
We’re being sold the idea of biometric, chip-based passports because they’ll be more “secure” than existing paper-only ones. But it’s already being demonstrated that they’re not. The Register reports that security researchers are already able to copy a secure passport chip simply using publically available documentation and legal chip readers. Nothing suspect, nothing illegal – simply following the instructions.
security consultant Lukas Grunwald of German company DN-Systems demonstrated the cloning of a biometric passport, observing beforehand to Wired that the “whole passport design is totally brain damaged.” But should we be surprised? Not exactly, because that’s precisely what it says on the tin…
ICAO...stresses that machine checking of the document is not intended to substitute for ID checking of the bearer. The ICAO systems are designed to impede the forgery or falsification of the document itself, and not to give any kind of guarantee that the bearer matches the document…Whatever ICAO says, however, using machines as substitutes for ‘fallible’ human checkers is a major part of the exercise for some governments, and opportunities for forgers can be seen here…
Which, really, leaves us dealing with the baseline ICAO security, the obvious vulnerabilities in its specification, and sufficiently porous borders for these vulnerabilities to be exploited. Kind of like the good old days (i.e., today), isn’t it? Except it costs us more.
pax et bonum
Extremists
Heather at Driftwood has been rewatching some West Wing. Now, I’ve never seen it (not really into American drama on TV) but this quotation she mentioned struck me as good.
A group of high school students are visiting the White House and question the senior staff about terrorism and Islamic extremism. Josh Lyman asks them, “Islamic fundamentalism is to Islam as BLANK is to Christianity?” His answer? The Ku Klux Klan. Fundamentalist terrorists are to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity.
pax et bonum
Bad writing
Nice article in The Observer Magazine about some of the horrors perpetrated by authors. Well, it made me smile, anyway!
pax et bonum
