Interesting things you should know...
(the following numbered points are copyright BBC Top Gear magazine - buy the June 2007 issue for more. Italicised sections are my comments)

1) According to Euro NCAP, an Audi Q7 (SUV, villified) is less harmful in a pedestrian impact than a Ford Fiesta (small, 'safe' family runaround).
2) A season of F1 racing burns less fossil fuel than a single transatlantic 747 flight.
3) The Stern Report found that cars make up less than half of all transport emissions in the UK.
4) The average British home emits 1500kg more carbon dioxide per year than a Ford Focus.
5) A car carrier (the ocean-bound variety) burns 1756 tonnes of heavy fuel oil one way from Japan to the UK (that's a lot, and the worst kind, and makes the Prius - made in Japan, shipped worldwide - not suddenly so environmentally friendly. According to an earlier article, that journey adds 1 tonne of carbon dioxide emission to an average 16.5 tonnes for 100,000 miles of Prius driving, a significant amount).
6) Oxford Street is the UK's most polluted street. Most of Oxford Street's length is closed to cars.
7) Like trains, cars are only efficient when they're full. A fully loaded Discovery emits less carbon dioxide per occupant than a fully loaded Smart (of the two-seat variety).
8) Acid rain from mining nickel for Prius batteries has destroyed the landscape of Sudbury, Ontario to such an extent that NASA now uses the area to test drive its latest lunar vehicles.
9) The average saloon car is responsible for its own kerbweight in carbon dioxide per year. The average Brit accounts for 30 times their own body weight.
10) The UK's superminis emit three times as much carbon dioxide as its SUVs.
11) While 85% of cars are recycled by law, trains go unregulated with much of each heading to landfill.
12) A domestic flight emits 400g/km of carbon dioxide, four times that of a small diesel car with only the driver onboard.
13) Despite being smaller and emitting LESS CARBON DIOXIDE THAN A PRIUS, the Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion is not exempt from London's Congestion Charge.
14) Farting cows are responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gases, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.
15) A Landrover Discovery has a smaller carbon footprint than a London cab.
16) A Boeing 747 emits 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 24 hours. It would take 250 cars a year to achieve this.
17) Some electric cars aren't governed by today's safety legislation - I urge you to buy the magazine and see what happens when they crash test a G-Wiz. A technician is apparently heard to utter: "I see these tests every day but I've never felt sick before". Alternatively, the footage is available at www.topgear.com/gwiz.

This isn't going to persuade anyone who's already made their mind up that cars are evil, but banning them from the roads based on emissions is not going to solve the problem. It won't even make us meet the more stringent Kyoto targets. How about targetting homes and businesses instead, environmental lobbyists? Get a clue...

Every so often the little paperclip thing looks at me and raises its eyebrows, then looks at me sympathetically. It's like it knows more than a simple Office assistant should. [sigh...]

It's plausible, nay likely, that I've completely run out of steam with the whole blogging lark. Through four years (or something) of existence, there have been large periods without any entries at all, but never before has there been a period with quite such an irresponsible lack of humour as that in which we currently reside. I never said the bloody thing had to make you laugh, but invariably at least one post in four (87% of statistics are made up on the spot, remember. Also worth noting 87 is my favourite number) had some humourous element. I've sacked all that off now, though, haven't I? It's dropped down to 1 in 14,000 or so (roughly. I've not broken out the Casio on that particular calculation), which is frankly lame. I put it down to working too hard, and also to a lack of sunshine, an imposition forced by my current office-based work schedule. I therefore plan to remove the upper layers of my office building, and work in the glorious sunshine in which we currently bask, like basking sharks without all the fins.
Sometimes I go out by myself, and I stare across the water. Except that I'm not actually one of the Zutons, and I only know a couple of people called Valerie (my aunt, my landlady), and I don't live near all that much water. Unless you count the pond, and let's face it, staring out over three feet of murky, tadpole infested water isn't really what they're getting at, right? I think what I'm trying to say is that I'd like to go out sometimes, and stare across the water.
I raised the idea of moving to Australia recently, in a roundabout sort of way. Which is to say I said I wanted to live there, and that it was great, and Jen said 'do you want to move there?'. On sunny days, when I'm working for someone else's profit, I wonder what it would be like. I love my life here, to be honest. I don't love my work, but then that's nothing unexpected. Sometimes I desperately want to write. Oh shit, it's all gone a bit random and directionless again. I'm out of here.

Ever get the feeling that everyone around you understands things a little better than you do, that you're missing the point somewhat and not really getting things? I've felt that way since I was about 12. Every day of my life. I don't know what it is, but I'm constantly out of my depth. People think I'm getting it, but I'm actually just very good at making you think I know what I'm talking about. I'm not really getting anything much at all. I'm constantly swimming against a tide of incomprehension. Seriously need to be doing something with my life that doesn't tax my brain, because I think I left it behind a long time ago.
We have a rabbit, called Arthur. This is new. A picture of Arthur will almost certainly appear here if I post one. It might not, even if I do, but there's a good chance.
We also went snowboarding. It was fun. Lots of fun. No pictures will appear here unless they give me one of those clever CDs of pictures, because I took my old film camera away, it being much smaller and lighter than my digital behemoth, and thus more suited to the alpine ranges. I might get one of those clever CDs of pictures, just in case. You never can tell. I tried and failed to break myself. No-one else was seriously injured, although I doubt Fi's knees will ever be the same again. More snowboarding, now!
T' weather has become spring. This is not entirely unusual, since the season, too, has become spring, and we are into the months generally regarded as 'spring'.
My car needs a good clean, but I really can't be bothered. Maybe I'll save it up as a treat for the weekend, when I also have to run 10k for charity. I don't know which I'm dreading more. Probably the car cleaning, because at least the run just involves running, not going down to the cellar (to get the car cleaning stuff, of course). I don't like the cellar, it's too short for me by several feet, and a few hands and the odd head, too. Kafer seems to get on well enough with the place, but then she's barely two hands high, not likely to bang her head. Jen's generally ok, although she still has to duck a bit at the bottom of the stairs. We've not tried Arthur down there yet.
I have to go now, because I've run out of 'interesting' things to say. Goodbye.

Whale attacks boat in Japan
Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Hee hee!!!

(this blogs vehemently opposes the practise of whale hunting in communities where it is unnecessary, such as Japan)

It's really annoying trying to write a 3 when you wrote a 2. You have to scribble out the 2, because it looks really crap when you try to put the 3 over the top. Sometimes things are ok - turning a 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 or 9 into an 8 is easy enough, as is 1 to 7, or 1 or 7 to 9, and you can almost get away with 7s into 4s if you've not made the top bit too big. But don't even try turning anything into a 1 or a 0, unless it's a 1 into a 0. And 8 can't become anything, and nothing can become 1. The whole thing would be easier if I was incapable of writing the wrong number in the first place...

(disclaimer: the above list may or may not be exhaustive. The author bears no responsibility for people wasting time/paper/ink/graphite trying to turn numbers into other numbers without making them look crap)

Here's a pic, linked to the story below:

Honda Genius Strikes Again (well, actually, it was Simon Fuller, but he's a prat)
Nobody, but nobody, else in the Formula 1 paddock saw this coming. It's just a simply brilliant idea. I love it. I looked around the net a bit, and even the usually cynical Top Gear lot couldn't bring themselves to say anything too bad about the move. I can't wait to see this thing on the grid and on the track, tearing around and generally looking both cool and somewhat menacing. There's a coherence, a flow to the shape of the car which is entirely down to the paint-job. In a sport where most of the cars are beginning to resemble the Batmobile, this design has changed everything, hiding the monstrosity beneath. Hats off to Honda, and (begrudgingly) to 19.

Why when I type 'resistivity' into Word does it assume I've made an error? Why does the annoying little office assistant thing pop up its little lightbulb and suggest a method for 'moving between errors in your document'? It's not my bloody error, it's Microsoft's. It's not as though 'resistivity' is a masssively obscure word - it's used in physics, chemistry, engineering (mechanical and electronic) and geology, to name but a few.

For the second time in as many weeks (just about) Internet Explorer has just crashed, taking with it another f***ing huge article. This time it was for my model aircraft blog, and it was by no means quite the opus that my previous lost post (about the awful Grand Scenic) had been, but it had still taken some time and effort to produce. Not... a... happy... bunny...