I've had an interesting time with environmental awareness, concern and/or action over the last couple of years. I am, basically, a believer. We do everything a western family realistically can to reduce our footprint - we recycle, use cloth nappies and "green" light bulbs. Over the last few months I've begun wondering exactly how much of our environmental panic is for real. Certainly there are some truly stunning environmental catastrophes taking place round the world right now but there is also some fudging of figures and (knowing the scientific establishment) some somewhat desperate scrabbling for research grants. Hmmm.

So in the middle of this someone takes a hugely fast offshore powerboat and starts shining lasers in the eyes of a ship's crew and throwing stink bombs on the deck. Regardless of your feelings on whaling this is both not-exactly-friendly and in clear violation of international law. Then yesterday there's finally collision between a Japanese whaling vessel, the Shonan Maru, and said offshore powerboat and both sides come out shouting "wahhh wahhh wahhh" as you might expect - the crew of the Ady Gil claiming they were rammed and the Japanese whalers showing video evidence to the contrary.

And it is to the contrary. The video starts with the Ady Gil dead in the water and maybe 20-30 degrees off the starboard bow of the Shonan Maru. As it approaches the Japanese fire water cannons on to the Ady Gil and after a few seconds the crew of the Ady Gil engage their engines and accelerate forward into the path of the ship. Crunch. The still above shows the Ady Gil just before the collision - note the significant wake from both the engines (showing power was applied) and the hull itself (showing the craft was moving at the time). Idiots. The reverse view from MV Bob Barker (standing off at a sensible distance) shows the Shonan Maru not exactly holding a steady course, either but it does show that the Ady Gil covered a good 2-3 boatlengths in just a few seconds - something that the captain of the Shonan Maru would not have been able to avoid under any circumstances.

It pisses me off. There is clearly no need for whaling and it's just another example of mankind doing frankly immense damage to the planet but Sea Shepherd's actions are exactly the kind of pitiful toss the environmental cause does not need to be associated with. Idiots.

Because Steve Ballmer never creates a half-arsed clone, never, Microsoft are supposed to be unveiling a "slate PC", ahhh, tomorrow. Bags I call it "Zune PC".

Wing sails were starting to become news while I was a budding naval architect. Initially they were being used by the crazies doing the "Little America's Cup" in C-class catamarans, the technology was used in the infamous "Cat and Dog" America's cup by Stars and Stripes and by the time I left the field, the speed sailing record was held by a wing sail boat - Yellow Pages Endeavour. They always held a lot of promise, but the main promise was one of almost unending maintenance and vast vast expense, particularly if one were to capsize.

So I was a little surprised to hear that BMW Oracle are now running a wing sail on their 90ft square trimaran. Built by two Kiwis, no less. I mean, gawd, look at that thing - 190ft tall (80% bigger than a 747 wing) and presumably almost entirely carbon fibre. And what an entirely beautiful boat. I so want a go :)