Excellent, and interesting resource on Physics – http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ – well worth a visit.

Living over here in the UK, it is far from easy when it comes to finding out about new TV series. Does anyone know if there is going to be a new series of 24 this year?

Shane from Distro of the Month posted an interesting comment about the different “flavours” of Linux.

Now, we at Distro of the Month have a vested interest in reminding people that there are more than just one or two distros. We ship a different one each and every month. It is important to remember that unlike Windows, Linux isn’t just a one manufacturer operating system. There are many different manufacturers out there with many different products. That’s why we are here. To introduce our subscribers to as many different products as possible. The idea is that the more Linux products that you try, the more you will learn Linux as a whole. And the more you learn Linux, the more you will like it.

And I must say I agree. As I said in a comment on his blog, one of the strengths of Linux is the variety of distros and how you can get them designed for all manner of purposes – including fully fledged ones taking up less than 50mb. That this variety is then all brought together under a common architecture really does make Linux stand out.

If you are not a linux convert already but are interested in trying it out you could do worse than checking out FrozenTech’s Live CD list at – http://www.livecdlist.com/. Live CD’s are versions of Linux that you can download (as an ISO file) burn to disk and then run from the CD (or DVD). They contain all the tools etc., that you would get with the OS but provide a way for you to try it out without risking any of your current data (and without messing about repartititioning hard disks etc).

One excellent use for LiveCDs is for system utility disks that you can use in the event of your windows installation going belly up.

For all its importance, biodiversity turns out to be another one of those ideas that humans can’t be trusted with.

As reported by the BBC, today (22 Jan 06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4635330.stm there is about to be a massive cull of grey squirrels in the name of biodiversity. Grey squirrels are suddenly not just a threat to red squireels and tress but to hedgehogs. And they must be killed.

This seems to completely ignore the clear fact that the biggest threat to biodiversity is us – human beings. We brought the grey squirrels in the first place. There are very many ways to address the loss of red squirrels – including protecting the locations where indigenous creatures thrive; stopping turning their habitats into housing and road developments; or doing less poisoning of the countryside – all of which would be inconvenient for at least some of us. Killing grey squirrels is only inconvenient for them, and they don’t exactly have votes.

The killing approach represents a common “solution” to loss of diversity. Badgers swing from being a protected species to being “cullable” because they are allegedely killing hedgehogs (Guardian 21 Jan) or spreading TB. The survival of badgers is in itself a miracle but they are cute enough to have human supporters. Grey squirrels are also cute so they may have some chance. Uncute unfurry animals and insects and plants that don’t make good soft toys have very little chance.

Surely solutions to encouraging biodiversity – where it involves undoing human damage that has limited species numbers – must be more sophisticated than handing out death sentences.