So what's the deal? We have a nuclear missile system that is designed by, manufactured by the US. Aldermaston, which produces the warheads, is co-managed by Lockheed. The submarine maintenance base at Plymouth is 51% owned by Halliburton. So we're hardly talking an independent deterrent here. The capital cost for replacing trident will be £20…

The idea that in the next 50 years we will hit the maximum oil production rate, and after that it's all downhill.  Calculations (guesses) about total oil resources vary from 1-2 trillion barrels.  That's a big difference if you consider that an extra trillion barrels would keep the world economy ticking over for another few…

I'm not shy to admit when my intellectual influences derive from TV.  JB wrote Simulacra and Simulation, the book that appears in the Matrix (hiding place for Neo's minidiscs), about "hyperreality" -  the world of media driven images and symbols that actually drowns out reality.  The film also quoted him: "Welcome to the desert of…

  There were never strawberrieslike the ones we hadthat sultry afternoonsitting on the stepof the open french windowfacing each otheryour knees held in minethe blue plates in our lapsthe strawberries glisteningin the hot sunlightwe dipped them in sugarlooking at each othernot hurrying the feastfor one to comethe empty plateslaid on the stone togetherwith the two…

A weird story, kind of topical. Easter is the first weekend after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  In the early days of Christianity, deciding which was the right weekend was tricky and contentious.  So it was eventually agreed on by the Synod at Whitby in the 7th century. This was the time…

OK, so I didn't who this guy was but interesting (courtesy of Pa) – Born in Glasgow, trained as a chemist, during the war intercepted German communication about a chemical toxic to insects but not to humans – he called it DDT, and distributed it to the armed forces to kill mosquitoes and lice.Then helped…

Never read any of his books but he spoke marvellously on 1 Giant Leap about life and music.  His most famous book, Slaughterhouse 5, was based on his war experience of being a prisoner in Dresden on the night in 1945 when Allied bombing raids flattened the city, creating a firestorm that killed an estimated…

by Dan Plesch.  Good title, but disappointingly not much humour. a) Control the corporations by removing limited liability.  Limited liability means that if your company gets sued, you can only lose what you paid.  It was intended to encourage enterprise, but of course what it means is that companies chance a lot and never really…

Seen as the tragic end to a nationalist, popular campaign but of course it wasn't.  Bonnie Prince Charlie was lucky to win at Prestonpans, overestimated his strength ever after.  His supporters were Catholics or Episcopalians and deeply conservative, plus he was funded by France – so no one south of the Tay wanted anything to…

View from lounge More 70s country house than a cottage, but hey, there's a fire and a swing seat on the porch, plus a view down to the loch. Gorgeous weather.  Tobermory/Ballamory from kids' perspective, with Connolly-esque commentary by bus drivers. Tobermory Tesco's in Oban many, many times.  Nice cafe at the back of the…