A Small Blow For Common Sense

I'm delighted to read that an American judge has ruled against the teaching of so-called "Intelligent Design" in science classes in publicly funded schools. Surely if this pseudo-scientific trojan horse creationism has a place to be taught at all, it's in religious education with all the other fairy stories.

Why am I bothered about this anyway? This case is over on the other side of the pond, but I've no doubt that we have plenty of our own bible-bashers who'd like to try the same trick here.

TOO LATE: A quick google has turned up this tale of near brainwashing in a city technology college :-(

Merry Christmas, Mr Blair ?

There's an opinion poll in this morning's Guardian which must have sent an icy chill through the corridors of 10 Downing Street. I think that the article sums things up perfectly - Labour's run out of steam. So what is the Labour Party equivalent of the men in grey suits?

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est-pas Le Pur Sang!

I was entranced watching last night's Top Gear by the "race" between a Cessna light aircraft and the Bugatti Veyron.

That car is an engineering tour-de-force! There can't possibly be a petrolhead anywhere on the planet who wouldn't want to get behind the wheel of one, definitely including me...However, I don't think it should have been called a Bugatti.

I can forgive the fact that it's been made by Volkswagen, but what I have a problem with is the look of the thing. In their illustrious past, the "real" Bugatti company gave us the Type 57 Atlantique - surely one of the most beautiful cars there has ever been or will ever be. This wunderwagen is hideously ugly.

Actually, I reckon that VW have missed a chance here - they could have used one of the other brand names they own and proved for once and for all that Germans DO have a sense of humour. Skoda Veyron, anyone?!!

Paging Bruce Willis!

There's a small chance that an asteroid, Apophis, could collide with the earth in 31 years time. If it does begin to look likely, I wonder how long it would take the international community to decide on what to do - am I alone in being pessimistic about the chances of such decisions being taken without an interminable degree of wrangling?

"Klipped" Wings ?

I've just seen a report in the New Scientist suggesting that the European Space Agency will not invest funding in the development of Russia's new Kliper space-plane. This is, to my mind, rather shortsighted. There are real question marks over the chance that the US will ever fly the shuttle again and their proposed Lunar and Martian manned exploration plans may quite possibly not get off the paper they're written on, still less leave a launch-pad...

Enjoy It While It Lasts

The cold spell of weather we've had over the last couple of weeks seems to have gone and I woke up this morning to find a milder, but duller and damper morning. However, reading this article in today's Times, it looks like the cold could come back in the future with a vengeance, if the Gulf Stream shuts down.

So, whilst the rest of the world faces global warming, looks as if it's the big freeze for us....bl**dy typical!