Ossetia War - three contexts in pictures

Here's the first context - the Caucasus is a messy place, ethnicity-wise. Lots of different peoples living cheek by jowl:


Here's the second context. Let's call it the Russian version of events. The key to this map is to look a little to the right of the conflict zone in Ossetia. Yup, that really is Chechnya right next door:


One final context to this conflict. Let's call this the Georgian version of events. Key to reading this one is awareness that all other pipelines go through Russia to the West, with the obvious knock-on effects on Western Europe's energy security:

there are more interesting maps relating to the energy issue and the Georgian conflict from Nosemonkey, well worth reading on this issue.

Have the crazy Paddies saved the world?

Remember the crazy Paddies who claimed last year that they had accidentally invented a revolutionary source of infinite free energy?

The gist of their claims violate one of the known fundamental physical principles of the universe - that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can only change form.

After scientists publicly derided their claim, they placed an ad in New Scientist asking for experts to come and examine their technology and either confirm or refute their claims.

Well, they got inundated with responses, and have now commenced that process of validation. The technology even has a snappy name - Orbo - and they've promised to release details of the technology into the public sphere by the end of March.

Either they're stark staring bonkers, or they've happened across a technology that could literally solve the energy crisis overnight, rewrite the laws of physics, and usher man into a whole new era of prosperity, no longer hampered by energy limitations.

And if you look here, you'll see that they don't seem mad. Have the crazy Paddies at Steorn accidentally saved the world? It seems like we'll have to wait until March to find out.