Utopia, you are standing in it!

It has been all over the financial news that Elon Musk made an offer last week to buy out Twitter for $54.20 per share, which is well above its recent stock price. And also, that the board quickly stiff-armed Musk by adopting a “poison pill” provision. What are poison pills, are they a good thing, and how does this particular one work?

Major decisions for a corporation are made by its board of directors. In theory, they are supposed to direct operations for the benefit of the company’s shareholders, who are considered the actual owners of the corporation. The members of the board are elected by the shareholders in annual meetings.

In practice, the board largely does what it wants, and has an outsized influence on who gets elected. The board sets the agenda of the annual meetings, and proposes successor directors. In theory, shareholders can propose resolutions and alternative…

Original Air Date: October 13, 1966
Stardate: 1329.8
Writer: Stephen Kandel and Gene Roddenberry
Director: Harvey Hart

“But men will always be men no matter where they are.“

In “Mudd’s Women” we find the USS Enterprise chasing an unregistered Class J cargo ship which ventures into a dangerous asteroid belt (with a “three-five Shiller rating”) and the engines suddenly begin to overheat. A distress signal is received from the cargo ship so Kirk decides to extend the Enterprise’s deflector shields in order to beam aboard anyone from the cargo ship –a risky act which unfortunately expends several valuable Lithium crystals. Just moments before the rogue cargo ship collides with an asteroid and explodes, Scotty manages to beam aboard one man and three women.

This strange man is none other than a comical but shifty Irishman named “Leo Francis Walsh” and he arrives with three…

Picked this up in a charity shop for £2. I’d like to read a more up-to-date history of the period, for example The End of the Roman Republic 146 to 44 BC: Conquest and Crisis by Catherine Steel, part of the multi-volume Edinburgh History of Ancient Rome – but I can’t afford to fork out £20 on new books and it’s not in my local library system to borrow.

But then a little research revealed that Scullard’s text is a classic account of the period, has been a staple of A-level and undergraduate Classic courses for over 60 years and has gone through numerous editions. The publishers proudly display glowing reviews:

‘Still the best introduction to Roman history.’
– Miriam Griffin, University of Oxford

‘The fundamental modern work of reference for teachers, sixth-formers and university students still … the best and most reliable modern account of the period.’
– Tim…

Despite overblown promises, offshore wind power is as meaningless as its onshore cousin. Centuries of sailing the high seas provided the clue: when the wind stops blowing, the boat ain’t going.

So, if seafarers had nothing but curses for their days in the doldrums, why would offshore wind power be any different?

Not only is offshore wind power just as fickle as the onshore kind, it is insanely expensive. Not least due to the exponential increase in operations and maintenance costs, thanks to the salt-laden marine environment in which these things operate offshore.

But, as the pitch goes, the insane cost is purportedly offset by “wind that is always blowing out at sea”.

Paul Homewood tackles that grand mistruth below.

How Volatile Is Offshore Wind?
Not a Lot of People Know That
Paul Homewood
17 March 2022

It is commonly claimed that the wind is much more constant and…

Frost fair
Natural climate variation has always been, and still is, a fact of life, regardless of minor changes to trace gases in the atmosphere.
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Extreme weather not just a modern phenomenon as study reveals how British towns experienced drastic climate during ‘Little Ice Age’
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Extreme weather caused by global warming is one of the biggest threats facing the world today, claims the Daily Telegraph.

However, a research project has thrown light on the catastrophic climate shift endured by England just a few centuries ago, which brought snowstorms that lasted weeks, flooding which washed away entire villages and winds that sank flotillas of ships.

From the 1500s to the 1700s, England went through an unusually cold and stormy period, nicknamed the Little Ice Age, which was possibly caused either by reduced activity from the sun, volcanic eruptions or atmospheric changes.