drplokta

A meme.

List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from home during 2008. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays.

( List )

Apparently, we live in the only part of the UK where prices of new-build flats are increasing.

Strangely enough, this product, which is supposed to stop insect bites from itching by zapping them a few times with a piezoelectric shock, appears to actually work. It's good for 2000 bites in a tiny package, and you can even take it onto aeroplanes without any hassle (I presume, haven't actually tested this), as it contains no liquids.

I am deeply impressed to see that autopope has accomplished the unprecedented (as far as I know) feat of getting his own picture on the front cover of one of his novels, the UK paperback of Halting State.

All these attempts to micro-manage carbon emissions are futile, and in fact probably counter-productive by associating environmentalism with a new puritanism. If international agreement can be reached, the fix is relatively simple.

1. Determine the actual marginal environmental cost of an extra tonne of CO₂ emissions -- current estimates are between US$10 and US$80.

2. Tax fossil fuels at this level at the point of extraction -- it's a lot easier to tax a few hundred mining and oil companies than it is to tax a few billion consumers. Also tax deforestation and other activities likely to put more CO₂ into the atmosphere. Guarantee the tax level for at least 15 years (possibly with an inflation adjustment) so that people and companies can make long term investments based on it.

3. Rebate the tax to any user of fossil fuels who can demonstrate that their use will keep the CO₂ out of the atmosphere for at least 500 years. Give a similar rebate to anyone who demonstrably removes CO₂ from the atmosphere for at least 500 years.

4. Keep 10% of the funds raised for UN programmes to help countries who are especially affected by climate change. Pay the remainder to national governments in proportion to their population as at 1 January 2009. Permanent migrants get their share transferred from their old country to their new one, so you need to recalculate the shares every ten years or so. It's up to the governments if they use the money for subsidising fuel for poor people, climate change mitigation, or fancy new presidential palaces.

5. Do nothing else -- leave it to the market to decide how much to insulate homes, what kind of light bulbs to use, how many airports to build, whether or not to use patio heaters, etc.

A one-way flight to the US from the UK produces about 1.25 tonnes of CO₂ per passenger, so the fuel for such a flight would be taxed at between US$12.50 and US$100. Air Passenger Duty for such a flight is currently £40, and will be £150 from November 2010, so it's currently about right, and the increase is not necessary.

A litre of petrol gives off about 0.0025 tonnes of CO₂ (2.5kg), and so should be taxed between 2.5 cents and 20 cents -- UK fuel duties are a lot more than this, so drivers are more than covering their climate change costs.

Just got an email saying the the Open Rights Group had put together some custom badges for its first 1000 paying members. I didn't realise I was quite this early.

Having been through a few server moves on high traffic websites, I wouldn't count on LJ coming back up smoothly after this afternoon's move. I'm expecting some teething troubles on the new platform.

At last, a suitable property for use as Dr Plokta's secret base, housing the cloning vats, death rays and OMCL controls.

I have a shiny new MacBook sitting in its box under my desk. Unfortunately, it's for flickgc and not for me, as I can't really justify ditching my entirely serviceable 2½-year-old MacBook Pro.

The joke about the UK bank bailout is that the taxpayer is going to lend money to the banks so that they can lend it back at a higher interest rate and make a profit on the difference. But it seems more likely to me that the taxpayer is going to lend the banks money so that they can lend it back at a lower interest rate, and make a loss on the difference. Warren Buffett's similar (if private sector) bailout of Goldman Sachs pays him 10% interest, well above the rate of most bank loans and mortgages. And the banks don't need extra profitability at this time, they need extra liquidity, and if it makes them a loss that's a small price to pay for being able to keep going until they can rebuild their balance sheets and pay back the government loans.