Infrared landscapes by Gary Robertshaw.   

More infrared photography by Andy Finney. (h/t, Dark Roasted Blend.) 

Further to recent comments on the curious overlap of ecological hysteria and authoritarian urges, here’s another example. Via Kate, from Local Transport Today:

Transport policy-makers should start preparing now for a dramatic reduction in motorised travel that will be brought about by carbon rationing, one of the country’s leading environmental thinkers told LTT this week. “Just start reading the runes because what’s going to happen is the demand for road, rail and air travel is going to start falling away just as soon as we have rationing,” says Mayer Hillman in an interview with the magazine.

Hillman, senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute, says carbon rationing is the only way to ensure that the world avoids the worst effects of climate change. And he says that the problems caused by burning fossil fuels are so serious that governments might have to implement rationing against the will of the people. “When the chips are down I think democracy is a less important goal than is the protection of the planet from the death of life, the end of life on it,” he says. “This has got to be imposed on people whether they like it or not.”

Hillman’s anticipated Tyranny That Cares™ will, reassuringly, also apply to its author, as reported in a glowing Guardian profile from 2002:

He and [wife] Heidi have an old Citroën 16 in which they’ve driven 150 miles so far this year. Yet still he exceeds the carbon ration he expects to be allocated, and says that they ought to consider sharing their family home with others because, despite its solar panels and low heating levels, it now accommodates only the two of them.

According to his own publicity material, Mayer Hillman is a “thorn in the side of the political establishment” and is noted for his willingness to “speak truth to power.” Mr Hillman’s stated areas of expertise include “walking and cycling”.

Related.

The HTV-3X hypersonic Scramjet could travel from New York to Tokyo in two hours. “If it works.”

The world’s fastest jet, the Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over an hour. That’s about the limit for jet engines; the fastest fighter planes barely crack Mach 1.6. Scramjets, on the other hand, can theoretically fly as fast as Mach 15 — nearly 10,000 mph.

More. And. Also. Plus.

Behold the oddly resilient Japanese pig toy.

$2.50. More. And. Via.

Evil Dead: the Musical. // Wheelbarrow racing. Wait for the cunning manoeuvre. // Human marvels. Including Stefan Bibrowski and the two-headed boy of Bengal. // Natural phenomena of note. The Catatumbo lightning and the rain of fish. // The big-eared thingamajig. Video. // Photographs of the Iron Curtain. (h/t, Things.) // Fareed Zakaria interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali. “In Europe, when radical Islamic movements use freedoms to destroy freedom, they seem to get away with it.” (h/t, Cookslaw.) // Efraim Karsh and Rory Miller on Edward Said. “Said’s substitution of politics for scholarship in the name of ‘speaking truth to power’ has spawned scores of students, professors, and journalists who seek to emulate his path to fame.” // Oliver Kamm on Stockhausen. // Deogolwulf on the Feminist Association of Iceland. // Radioactive condoms and beauty cream laced with radium. // Pepsi: Ice Cucumber. The goodness of Pepsi with the taste of cucumber. // “Sometimes a cigar is [not] just a cigar.” (h/t, Maggie’s Farm.) // How to spot a cylon. // Concealed hearing devices of the 19th century. Canes, hair-bands, the acoustic beard. // Aaron Duffy’s film of wool and forbidden love. (h/t, 30gms.) // Chris Cunningham’s video for Aphex Twin’s Monkey Drummer. Looks fun, sounds like a pile of arse. // The design work of Kashiwa Sato. (h/t, Coudal.) // More Japanese vending machines. Beetles, porn, toilet paper. // Shaolin: Temple of Zen. // How to be a ninja. // Superman and Jesus. Together at last. // The good bit of Superman Returns. // Map of space in Star Trek. Some dimensions not shown. // How to explode a star. // Ray guns we have known and loved. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Ray Anthony.