I saw Gandalf

On the tube this morning.

I toyed with the idea of standing in the doorway as he disembarked and shouting

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

But I thought the better of that and didn't bother. Strangely enough he was on the Victoria Line and that doesn't go to Mordor, I think the Northern Line does though... or is that Morden?

The Litany Marches Ever Onwards

Fucking hell is it just me that finds the whole "litany" put forward about global warming is getting sillier and sillier and seemingly more desperate as time goes on?

I am listening to the Today Programme on Radio 4 when some bint from the Worldwide Fund for Nature come on to tell us that not only are Polar Bears drowing but now the penguins are in danger too.

http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=119060

Now apparently the Antarctic Peninsula, the bit that sticks up towards South America, is warming up and the poor little loves are running short of food. Ok fair enough, penguins are lovely little animal and noone wants them suffering. The fact that penguin populations have always fluctuated historically and that not all population were being hit, some were even expanding, was not mentioned. The Antarctic Peninsula represents a mere 3% of the Antarctic and is the only bit that is actually warming, this also was omitted from the report.

The Larsen B Shelf collapse was also mentioned and linked to a possible rise in sea level despite the self evident fact that this shelf was sea ice and as it was already floating in water is cannot affect sead levels but hey let's not let the scientific facts get in the way of a good story.

But listen it gets worse. Some student in America has discovered a new species of Dinosaur which was 8 metres long with teeth "like bananas". Roamed the earth in the mid cretaceous period when the Earth was much warmer than today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7138782.stm

Do you think they could resist that fucking open goal? No way. In pitches the interviewer and asks if there was any possibility, with glabal warming and all, of creatures like this roaming the Earth again as the Earth warms? I shit you not they actually discussed the possibility of this, on FUCKING RADIO 4 !!! .

"The dinosaur seems to have evolved because these shallow seas divided up the land so it led to different groups of dinosaurs in different places - that has implications for how life reacts to high temperatures and high sea levels," explained Brusatte.

I give up.

Swaztika Laundry, Dublin

I was talking to the kids about their grandfather this morning and I mentioned that he once drove a van for the "Swaztika Laundry" in the 1960's in Dublin.

They of course thought I was making this up so , Google to the rescue, I found a Wikipedia entry on the Swaztika laundry but what I really wanted was a photo.

And here it is. I do have a vague memory of seeing these electric vans driving in Dublin when I was very young but I was great to find an actual photo.

Did you hear the one about the Irishman...

Who thought he had discovered a source of unlimited free energy?Well it might sound daft but this guy has certainly put his money where his mouth is. he took out a full page advert in The Economist challenging the scientific community to validate his company's claims.

Several eminent scientist are now currently working on validating their findings.

Moresources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steorn
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6283374.stm
http://www.steorn.com/news/releases/

Well they may be crackpots, who knows. But let's say for a second they are not and they have stumbled upon a discovery that provides unlimited and entirely emission free energy.

Changes the environmental debate somewhat doesn't it?

I will watch developments with interest.

Live Earth - Pointless?

I am inclined to agree with Bob Geldof when he says the holding of the Live Earth concert today was pointless. It is just another example of people taking the easy way out and convincing themselves that they are making a difference. Well the bad news is you’re not.

Attending a concert and having a good time is NOT a sacrifice.
Playing to thousands of adoring fans for free is NOT a sacrifice.
Listening to the droning of pontificating pop stars is NO…well actually that is a sacrifice but not one that will make a difference.

We really need to move away from tokenism that gives the illusion of action and if we are serious about tackling these problems start to do things that actually make a difference. What’s that you say, “we are up for it, lead us, lead us…”

Ok how about these measures for starters:

• Double the price of petrol tomorrow to £2 a litre.
• Let’s have a £500 surcharge on any flights above a single flight in any given year.
• Let’s have some serious road pricing.
• Let’s quadruple the road tax on the cars that use the most fuel.

Like the sound of that? No didn’t think so. I am sick to death of people bleating that the government should do something about Global Warming. When you ask them to do something the reality is that YOU have to do something and to date you have been spectacularly unwilling to accept even the smallest sacrifices.

So let the pop stars, whose entourage and lifestyles have a carbon footprint the size of T-Rex carry on preaching to us but I am afraid it will make little difference. If Global Warming is coming, buy a boat or a house on a hill because humans will do fuck all to avert it.

Utterly Pointless Green Tokenism from Capital FM

http://www.lightsoutlondon.co.uk/home.asp

Even supposing that a good number of people do as they suggest and turn out their lights for an hour on 21st June, it will actually have zero effect on carbon emissions. Why? Well the power companies have to maintain a certain level of generating capacity during the day to be sure they can serve peak demand. If they fail to serve peak demand then you get brown outs in various areas and anarchy usually ensues.

So on 21st June when all these well intentioned people switch off their lights it will have no effect other then to waste the electricity which is at that time being generated to service their requirements. You cannot simply store electricity in the same way as you can store gas and other fuels, when you generate it ti must be used immediately or it is lost. The power you are drawing from you socket as you read this was generated now, barring the distribution delay getting it to you (electricity is transmitted at the speed of light)

Large generation plants can take up to two days to run up to speed and the same amount of time to run down and I think you can be sure that the normal maximum generating capacity will be on stream on 21st Jun in London. net result on carbob emissions? Zero. Number of people requiring hospital treatment because they fell over in the dark? Quite a few I think.

I can understand that people want to feel they are "doing their bit" to help the environment and stave off Global Warming but surely the things they choose to do must actually be effective and not be designed to make them feel better. The real problem is that governments engage in this kind of nonsense also and damage the future prosperity of the world's economy by focussing thier attentions of the wrong issues.

Sad, Funny but Brilliant

Just in case you missed this:

http://www.giveafewbob.org/

Go on, give them a few bob or if you are a man over 50 let the doctor stick his finger up your arse and have a rummage about.

Lost iPod Classics

I do a lot of driving, up to 500 miles a week. I use a combination of my iPod and Radio 4 to keep me amused.My iPod has over 9000 songs, I went on a mad acquisitive splurge when I realised I had 80GB to use up and begged , borrowed, encoded and generally got hold of as much music as I could, as quickly as I could.

Now almost 80Gb of music is 28 days worth non-stop. Checking on iTunes I discovered that there are almost 2000 songs I have never listened to so I created a play list of all the songs which are unplayed and have been faithfully working my way through this for the past week or so.
It's been great. I have albums on there that I had almost completely forgotten about and also highlighted some shite that will not last out the week too.

Give it a go if you have a big iPod collection give it a go.

Question about Arctic Ice Melting

Hopefully we some amateur scientist on here who can tell me if I am correct about the following.

If I chuck a great big block of ice into a bath tub which is a quarter filled with water the ice will displace the water and the level in the bathtub will rise. It normally understood that 90% of an iceberg is hidden below the surface of the seas and I assume the same would apply to my block of ice. With me so far? OK. The ice melts. What will the effect be on the water level in the bathtub? Common sense tells me that there would be very little if any difference in level as ice is less dense than water, which is why it floats.

So to the Arctic. We are currently getting ourselves into an environmental lather over melting sea ice in the arctic, but surely as this ice already floats on the seas the effect on seas levels would be very slight even if it all melted? Have I got this right and if I have why is it never mentioned by the environmental scientists?

This alarmist piece by the BBC would seem therefore to out of all proportion. The real danger, so far as I can see, is land based ice melting and running off into the sea. This would raise sea levels definitely.

For example the majority of ice in Antarctica is over land. Problem is that most projections relating to Global Warming predict an increase in precipitation over Antarctica which will serve to thicken the ice and that thickened ice will also reflect back more of the sun's heat causing a cooling effect.

Complicated this climate stuff isn't it?

Blair's Legacy

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower - April 16, 1953

It made me feel quite ill watching Tony Blair grinning like a Cheshire cat yesterday as he basked in the glory of the historic step towards peace in Ulster. He has been desperately flailing around looking for a legacy and this seemed like a God sent opportunity to bask in some glory before he departs from office.

Blair’s true legacy will be and deserves to be the Iraq war. The cost of the Iraq war is now nudging $400 billion. Oh what could have been achieved with that money? We could have ensured that the entire population of the Third World had clean drinking water, access to education, a chance to turn their fortunes around. What did we get? A totally fucked up Iraq which is orders of magnitude worse that it ever was under the Saddam Hussein regime. Currently 1000 Iraqis a week are being killed and the Allies are desperately seeking a way of pulling their troops out and leaving “security issues” to the Iraqi government.

Iraq is your legacy Mr Blair not Northern Ireland.

The Miracle in Belfast? Really?

Quite a lot of newspapers are today covering and event that few people ever thought they would see. Sinn Féin and Ian Paisley sharing a platform, laughing convivially like old mates, and about to enter into a power sharing administration in Northern Ireland. Whilst this is an event to celebrate as it is a tangible manifestation of the recent peace process we should not get too carried away with the supposed magnanimity of either side. Politics has truly come of age in Ulster and this event demonstrates that better than any event in the past 70 odd years.

So why did they do it? Why did they bury the hatchet (well cover it with dry leaves anyway)? The answer is simple. The greatest desire of any and all politicians is to exercise power. That is why they become politicians in the first place. From the lowliest parent who wants to be a school governor to councillors and MPs. What is the point of holding a popular mandate if you cannot exercise the power that this mandate bestows upon you?

Looking at the possible motives of either side.

Ian Paisley, now 80 years of age, has an eye on his legacy and how he will be viewed by history. A man whose nickname was “The Abominable No Man” would not have been viewed favourable by the history book writers had this legacy been based on his antics over the past 40 years. Ian Paisley’s motives are twofold; he wants to leave behind a positive legacy when he finally leaves this mortal coil and he has come to the same realisation as David Trimble did. Namely that the demographic shifts currently happening in Ulster will lead to an effective Catholic, and ergo Republican majority with 20 years. Holding out longer was simply not an option as he requires a seat at the table to ensure that the needs of his broad constituency are served. Realistically he has nowhere else to go

But what of Sinn Féin? Well they are very canny political operators and Adams and McGuiness wield absolute power within that organisation. They are mindful of the demographic shifts also and if there is one thing that Sinn Féin are famous for it is playing the long game. They too want to exercise power, not the brute force power they wielded in the past where a word from either of them and you would lose your kneecaps or worse, but proper respectable political power. One thing is for certain this development demonstrates, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that political violence can buy you a place at the negotiating table. Does anyone have any doubts at all that this agreement would have ever happened had the IRA not turned to an armed struggle in the late 1960’s?

So who will eventually prevail? Well I personally have no doubt that you will see a consensual United Ireland within the next 20 – 25 years. The Unionist people will happily agree to this union because they will see that it is in their best economic interest and political advantage to do so. Sinn Féin’s task in the intervening period is to lay to rest the ghosts of past acts and build a genuine trust between the communities in Northern Ireland and they will do this, not out of any sense of altruism, but because they must if they are to achieve the long stated aims of their organisation. That, more than any other reason, is why the current process will work. The dynamics are now in place for true and lasting peace and for that I am very grateful but let’s not get carried away with talks of “Miracles”. It’s politics pure and simple and thank God for that.