For a minute I thought these "super toilets" could only be found in six-star hotels, but in Japan they are apparently a little more commonplace. While they sound like fun, these "always on" toilets are starting to take their toll on the environment though. Japanese toilets are super-bidets. As well as warming and washing one's bottom, they whisk away odours with built-in fans. Female-only ones play water noises that ... Read full entry

A drop in pollution levels in Europe over the last 30 years, resulting in cleaner and clearer skies, is apparently contributing to rising temperatures in the region, as more of the Sun's radiation is now reaching the Earth's surface. Since 1980, average air temperatures in Europe have risen 1°C: much more than expected from greenhouse-gas warming alone. Christian Ruckstuhl of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland ... Read full entry

Scientists believe they have accounted for a dip in global ocean temperatures recorded in late 1945, and it was down to the way temperature data was collected, and by whom. US ships recorded the temperature of ocean water as it was drawn into the ship to cool the engine, and it was mainly US data that made up global temperature readings during the early 1940s. British ships took water temperatures by ... Read full entry

The Time Machine: first there was the The Internet Archive, or WayBack Machine, which currently stores snapshots of some 85 billion web pages. Now Internet Archive creator, Brewster Kahle, has an even bigger goal in mind: "We're out to help build the Library of Alexandria version 2, starting with humankind's published works, books, music, video, web pages, software, and make it available ... Read full entry

Apparently "global warming" is on hold for the next two years, according to an article in today's paper. Powerful computer simulations used to create the first global warming forecast suggests temperature rises will stall in the next two years, before rising sharply at the end of the decade. Not in Sydney, buster, not today. We are told we can expect the temperature to reach 25°C by this afternoon. The "average" August ... Read full entry