October 18, 2010
10:10 - The Quacks are on board - No Pressure!
10:10 climate campaign gains support from four medical associations | Environment | The Guardian
Royal colleges of general practitioners, nursing and psychiatrists, and Great Ormond Street hospital all sign up
One of the bodies, the RCPsych, said that research showed a low-carbon lifestyle could improve mental health.
I would love to see the evidence.....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:01 AM
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October 16, 2010
Climate change skeptics often ask for evidence and proof, - The Bastards
How fear of bias frames climate change debate | Simon Lewis | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Comment : KnowThankYou
We must be careful to not let the suspicions and emotions surrounding climate skeptics impact ourselves or our work. Doing so plays into their hands, distracting us from our work and potentially delaying life-saving research.
Climate change skeptics often ask for evidence and proof, and point to conflicting modeling as a means of discounting theories. This may be a valid argument in other sciences, but perhaps not when attempting to determine future climate changes. It is hard to imagine where stock markets might be today if investors required such evidence and proof of the future. We have ourselves created conditions of greater risk, and in future even the more risk-averse among us will need to embrace change. Hopefully before not too many tipping points have been passed the human race shall have to take a variety of actions based on a spectrum of theories rather than evidence and proof.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:14 AM
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October 15, 2010
Friday Night is Music Night (5-0 Edition)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 PM
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Washing up tea cups after the party
America's dish detergent wars | Amanda Marcotte | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The fuss over phosphate bans provides an object lesson in the paranoid politics of the Tea Party's anti-liberal backlash
...
As soon as Spokane County in Washington banned phosphate dish detergent in response to oxygen depletion in its rivers and lakes, many residents rebelled by actually driving to Idaho to purchase the same kinds of dish detergent they'd been using before.
And while the big cities in Washington often pull the elections to the left, the countryside and suburbs of the state are stuffed with embittered reactionaries who are eager to believe they're being victimised by a bunch of dumb environmentalists who are incapable of thinking through the ramifications of a policy like this.
Rightwing bloggers gleefully seized on this story of dish detergent smuggling, gloating that Washington residents were sticking it to the environmentalists by using more gas to buy detergent and using more water to wash dishes. Of course, the ugly reality is that wastefulness has a larger impact than upsetting environmentalists – it means fewer resources for the future and a dirtier environment, of course – but the sheer glee of potentially inflicting stress on demonised environmentalists was enough to distract from these facts.
The commenters at Free Republic also enjoyed gloating over the possibility that this would lead to more water use, showing those dirty hippies (their term) how stupid and short-sighted they were. In a telling exchange, one commenter asked, "I'm not exactly sure what the greenies are trying to accomplish, here…", and another replied, "It feeeeeeeeels good, and it demonstrates their 'concern'. That's all that really matters with the libs, not actual results."
Except, of course, that a short Google search would have resulted in immediate knowledge of what the "greenies" were trying to accomplish: reducing the amount of oxygen depletion in Spokane rivers and lakes that was killing off the fish. But the first rule of reactionary politics is: don't learn about the issues, or else you might find your kneejerk anti-liberal reactions weren't as smart as you thought they were.
Large parts of America have been primed through little issues such as phosphate bans to believe they don't need to know the actual facts behind an issue because they can simply substitute their paranoid hostility towards liberals for understanding.
Worse, they've given up any sense of responsibility as citizens towards the common good. Once people have absorbed the idea that wiping off an occasional glass is too much of a sacrifice to save the environment for the good of everyone else, it's not much of a leap for those same people to think that it's a travesty if someone poorer than themselves has decent access to healthcare, that they should have to take public transportation rather than leave the next generation with a planet wrecked through global warming, or that it's worse to raise the taxes on the richest Americans by 3% than have widespread unemployment.
Yes Dear, so a little Prohibition is rebelled at because not all the people are sheeple and it proves the end of civilisation is nigh. Those bastard anti-Greens hate the poor and society and me.....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:02 AM
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Cancer in the wild
Wildlife Extra News - 7 mountain gorillas die of natural causes.
3 killed by another gorilla, one unknown cause, one an infected abscess, two of cancer.
All in the wild in Rwanda in a couple of weeks.
(Story chosen as 1st on Google)
Cancer caused by modern man as it was virtually non-existent in ancient world - Telegraph
“In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death," said Professor Rosalie David, a biomedical Egyptologist at the University of Manchester. "There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.
"Cancer appears to be a modern disease created by modern life."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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October 14, 2010
Hurrah to a Species Extinction
Scientists eradicate deadly rinderpest virus | Science | guardian.co.uk
Researchers at the UN said today that rinderpest, a virus that causes devastating cattle plague, has been wiped out, the first time such an announcement has been made since the end of smallpox more than 30 years ago.
John Anderson, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, called the success "the biggest achievement of veterinary history".
A monumental success story, a good day for humankind.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:27 PM
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Global Warming - The Basic Problem
Sometimes it is good to get back to basics on Global Warming, it is too easy to get carried away with debunking sophistry and statistics.
One of these graphs shows dangerous man-made global warming caused by CO2 over about a thirty year period. The other shows a natural temperature variation over about a thirty year period.
We are spending trillions of dollars to prevent one whilst accepting the other as just one of those things. I'm sure you can see the difference and which one is which.
Source:
Confused - the answer is below:
Continue reading "Global Warming - The Basic Problem"
Posted by The Englishman at 7:43 PM
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Cats Action Trust N&W; Wiltshire - Condescending Cunts
No cat for you: you're disabled - Live your potential
I get a phone call from the administrator.
"I've got some bad news. The fosterers of the two cats have been talking and they have decided you cannot have a cat. You won't be able to change its litter tray".
I'm shocked. "None of you have ever met me. How do you know what I can or cannot do?"
"I'm sorry. Life must be hard with your condition and I don't want to make it any worse. Do you have a carer?"
I'm getting angry now. "Not that it's any of your business, but no, I don't have a carer. I live alone and independently"
"Well, you won't be able to catch the cat if it escapes. You might run over it with your wheels. And you didn't tell me that you were a wheelchair user when we first spoke. You should have told me"
Posted by The Englishman at 3:47 PM
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From The Castle's Kitchen Window - Am I Missing Something?
Posted by The Englishman at 3:29 PM
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Call that a Bonfire?
BBC News - Quango list
You could barely warm a sausage over the flames, most seemed to be just being re-organised.
We want to feel the heat..
Now this is a bonfire:
Posted by The Englishman at 3:02 PM
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Yardarm to the ready
Royal Navy destroys Somalian pirate boat - Telegraph
The suspects were taken into custody and their boats blown up.
More like it - thought I fear the pirates will be quietly let go. Some might feel it a pity they were taken off the boats.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:51 PM
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Scottish Geography From Wikipedia
Kemnay (Gaelic: Ceann a' Mhuigh) is a dump (similar to the size of John Elricks mums' bum ring) 16 miles (26 km) west of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:38 PM
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October 13, 2010
Your Transitive Telegraph
Police to train gamekeepers
Police are to be trained by gamekeepers
The sub heading is correct as it is plod what is to be trained. Don't they have any English sub-editors?
(The photo is from last year in what was my field - before they arrested the man with the gun they came looking for me. I had a bit of a tense conversation with some tooled up men in black persuading them I knew nothing.)
Posted by The Englishman at 11:47 AM
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What you are not missing in your Times - We is still right on about Globular Warning sez old boys
Whoever said global warming was dead? | The Times
Lord Rees of Ludlow is Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and President of the Royal Society. Lord Giddens is former director of the LSE, a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge and author of The Politics of Climate Change
Our core scientific findings remain intact. But there are opportunities in that inconvenient truth...
A report produced by the NOAA last year analysed findings from some 50 independent records monitoring temperature change, involving ten separate indices. All ten indicators showed a clear pattern of warming over the past half-century.
A renewed drive is demanded to wake the world from its torpor. The catastrophic events noted above should provide the stimulus. The floods in Pakistan have left some 20 million people homeless. Pakistan cannot be left to founder — world leaders should accelerate the current discussions to provide large-scale funding for poorer countries to develop the infrastructure to cope with future weather shocks.
The US and China are far and away the biggest polluters in the world, contributing well over 40 per cent of global emissions. The EU is pursuing progressive policies in containing the carbon emissions of its member states. Yet whatever the rest of the world does, if the US and China do not alter their policies there is little or no hope of containing climate change.
Above all a renewed impetus to international collaboration is required...
And so on....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:34 AM
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Customer Choice in Education
Browne review: Universities must set their own tuition fees | Education | guardian.co.uk
Lord Browne said students would dictate which universities flourished and which did not.
"The word is out - students talk to each other. I want to encourage that. This is about the student experience, and if people are pulling a fast one, it will come out very quickly."
Different courses cost different amounts, Browne said. Institutions will have to persuade students that the charges they put on their courses represent value for money. "Institutions are all different and they provide a wide range of different courses. We want this diversity to flourish," the review says.
Arts and humanities degrees could become more expensive and potentially less popular under Browne's proposals.
Under Browne's plans, popular universities would be able to expand, while others may be forced to contract.
I seem to remember upsetting a tutor at university when I was a student by reminding him that I was employing him to teach me, and he should be grateful of that rather than me being grateful he condescended to do it.
I didn't get good grades from him, but I was right and his type, with luck, will get a reminder of this soon.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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When the going gets tough
Chile Miners Rescue: Live - Telegraph
Fantastic - I failed to notice any use of divining rods, prayers to Gaia to look after her entombed visitors or reliance on wind turbines in the rescue.
Just good old hard engineering and technology. Clever men, hard men, brave men, big engines and steel.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM
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Sticks and Stones
Auntie bans 'humiliating' humour - Scotsman.com News
Under new guidelines, comedians and BBC staff will be prohibited from entertaining audiences with "unduly intimidatory, humiliating, intrusive, aggressive or derogatory remarks for the purposes of entertainment". The guidelines state: "This does not mean preventing comedy or jokes about people in the public eye, but simply that such comments and their tone are proportionate to their target." The dead, and historical figures, remain fair game.
How lucky we are that the guidelines don't apply to the blogosphere - yet.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:14 AM
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Die, you bastard, die!
John Simpson says BBC news was never left wing - Telegraph
"Thirty years ago I was the BBC political editor and there was absolutely nothing either left wing or right wing about our coverage. We were as straight as a dye then and I think it is absolutely as straight as a dye now.
It is "die", the singular of dice, not dye -
- The OED puts it under the “gaming cube” sense of die”
(f) In comparisons: as smooth, true, straight as a die.
...
f. 1530 PALSGR. 629 Make this borde as smothe as a dyce, comme vng dez. 1600 HAKLUYT Voy. (1810) III. 256 Goodly fields..as plaine and smoothe as any die. c1710 C. FIENNES Diary (1888) 151 Ye tide was out all upon the sands at Least a mile, wch was as smooth as a Die. a1732 GAY Songs & Ball., New Song on New Similies, You’ll know me truer than a die. 1877 SPRY Cruise Challenger xiii. (ed. 7) 226 Arums climbing fifty feet up large trees as straight as a die.
(I hesitate to blame John Simpson as he may be the victim of a cloth eared transpositor - and his touching naïveté is a wonder to be pointed and marvelled at in this age of lost innocence).
Posted by The Englishman at 12:20 AM
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October 12, 2010
Franny's Friend Emily is Making a Film
Emily James: Lights, camera, activists - Features, Films - The Independent
Emily James, who was an executive producer on 2009's climate change wake-up film Age of Stupid, has now committed herself to a project which her former commissioning editors won't touch with a bargepole.
Her film Just Do It – Get off your arse and change the world! follows the frequently criminal exploits of people taking direct action on climate change, shadowing three organisations – Climate Rush, Climate Camp and Plane Stupid – as they strive to bring attention to their causes. Due for release early next year, it promises to be an unashamedly sympathetic portrait of the activist community by someone who has been given unprecedented levels of access.
"We are often portrayed as just crusty hippies, posh kids with trust funds, hopeless dreamers or domestic extremists," ...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:07 AM
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October 11, 2010
Anything Once
A late lunchtime sandwich, what to have?
Oak-smoked peanut butter from some welsh hippies and some fresh homemade Damson jam were both on the counter.
At my advanced age I realised I had never tried our colonial friends' favourite of "Jelly" and Peanut Butter as a mixed filling.
As we say down here, a faintheart never fucked a little pig, so I tried it.
Remarkably good.
I think that only now leaves morris dancing not to be tried.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:10 PM
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I'm proud to be a stereotype
First, we take Berlin
The freedom to smoke in private establishments has become a signature issue for proper liberals. It is one that we should continue to push, not because it is the most popular, but because it is one of the most flagrant attacks against the ability of people to choose the kind of life one wants to lead.
While most smokers in other European capitals have caved in under pressure from their governments, the Germans have simply ignored the legislation.
Onerous government legislation combined with public subservience has dramatically undermined that most glorious of stereotypes: The freeborn Englishman.
In this country schools are indoctrinating generation after generation to hate smokers. A counterculture is being formed in reaction to the nanny state, which might in time subvert the statist status quo. But better to turn off the tap of hate, relax, and live and let live (or die for that matter). If not, we might as well be learning German.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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Yummy Mummies Cost More
Ethical labels add millions to cost of food
The Soil Association, the leading organic certification body, for instance, charges about £650 a year to a food company, while the Marine Stewardship Council, which promotes sustainable fishing, charges up to £1,200 a year.
Many charge a royalty fee on each item sold as well as, or instead of, an annual fee. This involves the food producers having to pay a small cut of the sale price.
These include a fee of 0.03 per cent levied by the Soil Association, 0.5 per cent by the Marine Stewardship Council, and 0.3 per cent levied by Freedom Food, a scheme run by the RSPCA, the animal charity.
Next they will reveal that designer labels make shoes and clothes more expensive...
Luckily Lidl labels are so full of Polish and Greek there is little room for such fripperies in my larder.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 AM
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Buy it cheap and pile it high
Review uncovers 'staggering' waste - Yorkshire Post
A review of Government efficiency by a leading businessman has uncovered a "staggering" waste of money, it has been revealed.
Sir Philip Green, the owner of Topshop and Bhs, will tell ministers they can cut swathes of waste from public services.
His report, to be published later today, will say that the Government has consistently failed to make the most of its scale, buying power and credit rating.
Sir Philip was appointed by the Prime Minister in August to review Government efficiency, focusing on the procurement of goods and services such as IT, travel, print and office supplies, and the management of the Government's property portfolio.
These are the hidden cuts that business apply all the time and the civil service needs to. Give the staff a good lashing and hide some bad news elsewhere.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM
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October 9, 2010
10:10 Franny wants your photos
Climate-friendly recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Food | Life and style | The Guardian
This Sunday – 10/10/10 – I hope you'll consider a Sunday lunch with a twist. Tomorrow is the 10:10 campaign's global day of doing, designed to get us thinking about how we might cut our carbon footprint by 10% over the next year. The campaign, started by Franny Armstrong, director of The Age Of Stupid, is now a worldwide movement.
10:10 wants as many people as possible to send in pictures of their low-carbon Sunday lunch tomorrow – email photos@1010global.org.
I'll see if the dog brings up something low carbon to photograph.
Update - From the comment below:
Posted by The Englishman at 9:58 PM
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Postman Pat to Deliver the Goods for Red Ed
Clever move, apart from keeping the poisonous pair away from the levers of power a bluff man-of-the-people will play well on the TV against Georgie and his whiney demands for prudence. "Forget the technicalities this posh banker is spouting - this is what it means on the streets today" sort of guff. I hate to say it but the Tories will need to wheel out Ken Clarke against him to neutralise this presentational problem.
On another note it is nice to see an old squeeze of mine being promoted to the shadow cabinet - what a lucky escape I had...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:07 AM
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Jakarta Sinking Shakedown
Climate change 'may force Jakarta to be moved'
Indonesia is considering moving its capital, Jakarta, because of global warming, the head of the country's delegation to the UN climate change negotiations in China, Prof Rachmat Witoelar, said in an interview yesterday.
Actions already taken, he noted, included prosecution of senior officials found to be complicit in illegal logging - which a recent independent study estimated had been reduced by 60 per cent.
He stressed that the UN climate negotiations would be “useless” unless vulnerable countries were helped to deal with the effects of climate change.
Jakarta - 10 million people, 23 ft above sea level. So why are they worried?
The Tides: Efforts Never End to Repel an Invading Sea | The Jakarta Globe
...the sea level off Jakarta Bay rose by four centimeters from 1998 to 2007.
....a multibillion dollar threat to the capital’s northern areas because these areas are continually sinking due to excessive extraction of groundwater by industry.
According to the Jakarta administration’s own estimates, the city has sunk by as much as 1.5 meters in the past decade — and not coincidentally, by about 2 meters near the site of the former Bintang beer factory in Pluit. (Take a guess why.)
So they are trying the Global Warming Guilt shakedown because they are sinking the city by sucking the groundwater out - nothing to do with us naughty westerners at all.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM
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Hal Lewis: My Resignation From The American Physical Society
As requested by Antony Watts I'm spreading the word - complete text below:
Continue reading "Hal Lewis: My Resignation From The American Physical Society"
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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