Thoughts of a mondpanther

2009-04-13T19:57:00.001Z

The evolution of religions...as ever so often nobody could explain it better than Jared Diamond. He also seems vastly better at saying these things without antagonising people as much as Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett.

2009-04-03T23:08:00.001Z

Hidden traces in world full of sand.

2008-05-10T16:05:00.000Z

Watch...if u dare

2008-04-30T09:16:00.002Z

The Cylons are closer than we think....: RepRap

2008-04-16T22:13:00.001Z

The perfect song......

2008-04-04T10:35:00.000Z

...pretty meat..

2008-03-19T14:24:00.000Z

Possibly of interest to the world: Noam Chomsky on most wanted lists...

2007-12-14T11:33:00.000Z

What is the likelihood that the US accepts a post Kyoto greenhouse gas pollution target?

2007-09-05T13:32:00.000Z

The Klaxon's won the Mercury price...good choice!!

2007-07-30T15:02:00.000Z

Something to keep in mind: according to Ernest Moniz, biofuels can deliver about 0.5 Watt per square metre of land planted with bio fuel crops. Considering that currently the world consumes about 12.9 terra watt from fossil fuels this implies that replacing fossil fuels with bio fuels requires about 26 million square km of land. That would correspond to about 1.3 times current arable land; i.e. even if stopped eating there is not enough land to support current energy needs, let alone future ones...

2007-06-24T13:48:00.000Z

Gaza...a prime location for sailing holidays.

2007-05-30T13:07:00.000Z

With the congestion charge and the recent proposal to charge lorries which do not meet pollution standards £200 per day London has clearly been at the forefront of tackling the evils of congestion and pollution. Now New York seems to be closing. Mayor Bloomberg wants all taxis to go hybrid. To convince cabbies he is telling them that this will lead to a net benefit to them as they will save petrol....why aren't they using hybrids already one wonders?

2007-03-07T19:17:00.000Z

Electrifying news...

2007-02-21T20:19:00.000Z

Yesterday Ryanair paid for full page advertising space in several major UK daily newspapers to introduce us to the idea that Gordon Brown is more of a road side - or rather mid air - robber rather than the UK governments treasurer. The statement can also be read on Ryanair's Webpage.

Interesting, how did Ryanair come to that conclusion? It's all about a suggested increase of the so called air passenger duty (APD). In the last pre-budget report Gordon "greedy" Brown announced that the APD will rise from £5 to £10 for economy-seat passengers taking domestic and European short-haul flights and from £20 to £40 for economy-seat travellers on long-haul flights. Business and first class passengers will face bills of £20 for short-haul flights and £80 for long-haul.

Ryanair: "This is just skyway robbery and will do NOTHING for the environment."

Do they have a point? Indeed it could be that demand for air tickets is - at least partially - very inelastic. Thus whether or not you pay 10 or 20 pounds more on your ticket won't change your mind about travelling. Thus you fly and pollute anyways and the only thing that is different is the treasury's revenue (I made a related point before here). However, if this case applies is an empirical matter. To make progress we should get some data on air travel demand and prices and do a bit of statistical analysis.
But then again...just because time is scarce we can try to answer this question with some economic theory. According to economic theory, firms maximise profits. Assuming that Ryanair is a firm they should only spend money on expensive advertising space if it increases their profits. The trouble is that if Ryanair's claims are true and the tax won't reduce travel then they have nothing worry about because they can fully pass on the cost of the tax to passengers. But then running a costly campaign against it is a waste of money.

Therefore Ryanair should admit either of the following:

Gordon is actually doing a little bit of something for the environment, or
It's actually them that are wasting air traveller's and shareholders money by running pointless campaigns.

2007-02-20T09:01:00.000Z

Well done Ken on getting cheap oil from Venezuela...am sure it's only the oil delivered by nasty American oil companies that is creating carbon dioxide when combusting....

2007-02-18T17:51:00.000Z

Scary movie part ||.....could somebody tell me that this is not representative and we should not worry about it??

2007-02-17T15:57:00.000Z

Using technology is easy if you have a good helpdesk..

2007-02-17T14:27:00.000Z

Debate: is Tony Blair better as a musician or as a politician?

2007-02-13T00:23:00.000Z

Plug the hybrid....don't crush it!

2007-02-11T21:32:00.000Z

Here is a little piece of evidence for all those self righteous London bus users....according the Transport for London's environmental report the average CO2 pollution per bus passenger km (103 grams per passenger per km) is not much better than that of cars: 124 grams....so there is no way round it: get out of the bus and on your bike....Don't believe it? Check out table 4 in here...

2007-01-23T23:28:00.000Z

There are many things one might critisise about George Bush. However, one thing one cannot deny is that he is very very funny. His never ending enthusiasm to enact real world satire seems to continue in the forthcoming State of the Union address. According to the BBC he plans to announce an additional $1.6 billion of spending on alternative energy source research over 10 years. That's the master at work. What a genious joke. Public energy R&D spending in the early 80ies stood at more than 8 billion dollars per year in current values (according to data from the International Energy Agency). Today, when even Bush acknowledges that carbon pollution from energy hungry economies such as particularly the US threatens to alter life on this planet as we know it the same figure is at $3 billion per year. It's probably safe to assume that those extra 160 million per year won't do much harm to the oil industry......

2007-01-18T09:35:00.000Z

Who would have thought the Kyoto Protocol could be sabotaged even more? Miracles happen everyday...

2007-01-13T19:53:00.000Z

Some remarks on Stern....

2006-11-06T09:31:00.000Z

Europe is having power problems....why is this only happening now? Networks have been integrated for many years? Would more disintegrated renewable capacity help?

2006-10-17T20:56:00.000Z

A timely book...

2006-10-17T20:43:00.000Z

2006-09-15T08:23:00.000Z

Don't get rid of your bacteria yet...u might need them soon to run your car...

2006-08-09T17:54:00.000Z

The long way forward..

2006-08-08T02:56:00.000Z

A quick lesson on root causes..

2006-07-31T17:13:00.000Z

Is Germany a place to look for productivity leaders in the retail sector? If the market is too competitive for WalMart that might not be a crazy idea.

2006-07-23T09:35:00.000Z

About justified grounds and foul means...

2006-07-16T11:42:00.000Z

Some peopnle are not only excellent saxophone players...

2006-07-06T15:16:00.000Z

For some people the definition of a Human seems to depend on how often u move.....but then maybe these people are not serious? Who knows the truth? But maybe it does not really matter in this case...

2006-04-30T08:47:00.000Z

Economists eventually deal with what really matters...

2006-04-13T10:50:00.000Z

hehe...we don't have to travel to Egypt anymore to spot pyramids...

2006-04-03T22:04:00.000Z

The UK media seems to crazy about climate change...e.g. ITV....or the Independant....well, well done.

2006-04-03T13:09:00.000Z

Peace is cycling again...

2006-03-09T18:28:00.000Z

You think the air in London should be cleaner? You wanna create incentives for car manufacturers to put more money into research for cleaner transport options? Support the Low Emission Zone Initiative for London. First thing you can do is complete the questionaire on the Transport for London Web Page.

2006-01-26T09:32:00.000Z

In need of a new brain? Try buddhism...

2006-01-20T15:55:00.000Z

As if rents in London were not high enough already. After city sharks have made sure that most of our income goes to the landlord now a new fashion among whales to move to London is threating to remove the last pockets of affordable housing around here....

2006-01-07T19:24:00.000Z

Who is kidding here?

2005-09-13T20:00:00.000Z

Londoners can now get recycling advice sent direct to their mobile phones thanks to a new text message service, according to This is Local London.

"The new service means residents will be able to request details of when their recycling is collected or where their nearest recycling facilities are by texting the word RECYCLE and their full postcode to the number 63131."

2005-07-22T13:41:00.000Z

..need some stress relief?

2005-07-12T23:54:00.000Z

What are u not afraiad of?

2005-07-10T11:28:00.000Z

...on how to use cars cleverly...

2005-06-05T11:42:00.000Z

yipee....mondpanther is back! Because DeServer did a major server upgrade mondpanther got offline for a while....bad news...the good news is that now mondpanther is back with doubled server size, which means lots more content in the near future....

2005-05-10T16:33:00.000Z

Natural capitalism? Does that mean that things are for free like this book?

2005-04-14T15:27:00.000Z

Are biofuels a disaster?..and a blog of an interesting person...

2005-04-03T08:36:00.000Z

You think Gotan Project is cool? Check out Bajo Fondo...hotter and more authentic...

2005-04-03T08:30:00.000Z

The first entry for the "how does a mondpanther actually look like" competition has arrived....

2005-02-27T12:50:00.000Z

Peter Benenson has died...

2005-02-19T09:57:00.000Z

More scientific evidence on global warming...

2005-02-13T13:21:00.000Z

What makes a genuis a genuis? This article in the Guardian magazine about an autistic man who - among other things - knows pi until th 20 thousands decimal, gives a somewhat new perspective...

2005-02-10T10:49:00.000Z

I certainly like shopping at Ikea....however the requirements of hip urban livestyle seem to have moved on to a higher level....die for IKEA

2005-02-02T16:08:00.000Z

Some useful tips from the Dude

2005-02-02T14:19:00.000Z

For a while I have been living now at Aldgate East....however only now I realised that we are not alone cyberly...

2004-12-02T16:36:00.000Z

You think Bush won the popular vote? Better think again.

2004-11-28T16:34:00.000Z

Birthwarming party pics.

2004-11-27T10:48:00.000Z

Fed up with Microsoft Office? Looking for a cheap solution? Open Office is the answer. It's free and better than MS Office....at compatible if you really need it to be.

2004-09-30T09:42:00.000Z

It seems like the Kyoto Protocoll is not dead after all.....Russia about to sign? Check out the BBC web page for more.

2004-09-27T21:56:00.000Z

Clinical tests have shown that consumption of large quantities of monster pizza causes severe cases of smile.

2004-09-22T10:43:00.000Z

As some people might now....I recently became addicted to hydrogen. According to a recent BBC report that might become an increasingly common phenomenon.

2004-09-21T23:40:00.000Z

People came and packed my stuff....a white van came and swallowed my packs
and myself and spit me out in Hackney again. Now nothing is how it used to be......

2004-08-20T21:01:00.000Z

What to do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
A friend of mine thinks that weapons of mass cycling are the way forward.

2004-05-27T23:48:00.000Z

As a late victim of the internet hype my web site suffered from temporary dissapearance because the my hoster (global interactive) went bankrupt. Luckily I managed to be back onweb....and not only that: I am now running my own vserver supplied by DeServer. That means things will be much better in the future but a bit bumpy in the short run until I understand how everything works....apologies....

2004-02-22T16:59:00.000Z

...a weekend in Berlin....

2004-01-17T13:57:00.000Z

London is not exactly at the sea. But who says it cannot have a beach nevertheless? And if there is a beach you need beach parties. To find out if there is one happening check here.

2003-12-21T17:31:00.000Z

Its graduation ceremony time at the LSE

2003-11-22T16:02:00.000Z

A site to keep an eye on for good indian food: Massala Zone's recipe of the month

2003-09-17T16:09:00.000Z

An article by Joseph Stiglitz I came across this morning. With all the mess the Bush administration has created in Iraq we should not forget that they are creating comparable mess in other areas as well.

2003-09-07T23:44:00.000Z

Rajastan. The complete experience

2003-09-07T23:36:00.000Z

Recently I had the pleasure to go to Hong Kong. Check my digshots about here.... and can somebody explain why they did not give away London instead of Hong Kong?

2003-09-07T23:08:00.000Z

The latest catch of my digital camera:
Susanna's and John's 3rd wedding

2003-04-06T10:55:00.000Z

Another trial...

2003-04-06T10:54:00.000Z

To understand the internet is sometimtes not easy.

2003-04-05T18:59:00.000Z

Don't know what a mondpanther is? Well come back to this space in the future to find more about him. For the time being mondpanther recomends another blog: Dear Raed