Julia writing her name on Bonfire Night.

The UK energy minister Charles Hendry has called for (among other undesirable things) a capacity payment for low carbon electricity. Capacity payments are a market distortion that increases the cost of electricity. The way it works is that you're paid for being available to generate electricity, even if it's not …

I disagree with the government's decision to remove child benefit from higher rate tax payers. They should have taxed child benefit instead. As Stephanie Flanders writes:

Mr Osborne could have [...] raised a similar amount, £1.1bn - by simply taxing child benefit.

This would have meant that:

• The benefit would still …

After reading Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days I got another Alastair Reynolds out of the library. This is the final book of the revelation space sequence. Now I've just got to read the middle one!

People say he's a Gothic writer. What does that mean? Is it people who put …

My question is simple. If time were stopped, would people carry on feeling the same sensation as when time stopped? Or would they stop feeling anything? Or some other answer?

I tell you why I ask. I was going for a jog and it was really cold. I was cold …

The headline for Chris Huhne's ministerial statement published yesterday on nuclear power was, 'No Nuclear Subsidy'. Really? That would be good if true, but the small print says that the UK, 'currently caps operators’ liability at £140m'. Why does the tax-payer have to pick up the bill if something serious …

I've just released Imprimatur 018, the changes are:

• GETs don't follow redirects by default.
• Fixed example given in tests directory.
• If no arguments are given on the command line, throws an exception saying no file specified.

This is a book of two short stories by Alastair Reynolds. I've read and enjoyed his work before.

My question is, are the stories linked? Is the bulb of toxin from the spire in the Diamond Dogs? I felt that the text hinted at that. Am I reading too much …

I've just read the DECC Green Deal press release about how it'll create loads of jobs. My economic hackles always rise at government job creation schemes. Call me old fashioned, but productive jobs are created when there's a genuine demand for goods and services, and companies need people to fulfil …

We went to Aberystwyth in May this year. Here are a few photos. This first one is of Clarach Bay where we stayed.

And some shots looking out from the bay:

We went to a bike race that our friend Mike was taking part in. They had a dance tent …