The blueprint for Scottish independence was released a few days ago - you can read a summary here. For most people, whether or not independence is a good thing largely revolves around the economic costs and benefits of dissolving the union. What currency should an independent Scotland use? In the blueprint, Alex Salmond states that "the pound is Scotland's currency just as much as it is the rest of the UK's". See the super video below produced by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research which explains what money is, the alternatives facing an independent Scotland, and why Salmond's proposal may not be workable (hat tip: Chris Colvin).
The Berkeley Earth Project , an independent study of global warming, has found that the earth has become a degree warmer over the past half century. However, the statistical uncertainty surrounding pre-1920 estimates makes it very hard to say much about long-term trends - click here for graph . This is one of my concerns with the global warming debate - we simply don't have trustworthy long-run data which looks at temperature changes over the last millennium (or two). My second concern with the global warming debate is that it is very hard to prove any sort of casual link between global warming and human activity. The scientists may be able to show correlation between global warming and our production of carbon dioxides etc., but correlation is not causation. My third concern with the debate is that those who are sceptical or agnostic are stereotyped as flat-earthers or intellectually-challenged crackpots. This only stifles debate and the progress of science itself.