BBC Contradictions

Watching BBC News this morning (no, I don’t know why either). Had a good laugh as they did a piece on the abundance of flowering wild plants in and around Cardiff, UK, this January. No frost to kill ‘em off yet, you see.  So they are interviewing some ‘experts’ and both of them trot out the old global warming theme, conveniently forgetting that last winter was absolutely freezing. Of course, last winter was a ‘weather system’ but this winter it’s ‘climate change’.  Anyway, it’s set to freeze this weekend as the wind swings round to come from the north-west, so bye-bye sweet flowers… see you in spring.

The very next item on the news was the huge snowfall in Alaska. Not a mention of the probable cause, of course – errant weather systems at work again, no doubt.

Nature – They Call Themselves Scientists

From the scientific journal, Nature, this made me chortle:

“Results confirming climate change are welcome, even when released before peer review.”

was the strapline of an article following on from BEST’s premature release of data supporting global temperature increase. Really? The results confirming global warming are welcome? You people aren’t biased in any way then. The article goes on with more jubilation,

“Global warming is really happening — really. There was no conspiracy or cover-up. Peer review did not fail and the scientists who have spent decades working out the best way to handle and process data turned out to know how to handle and process data after all. Thank you Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) study.”

In fact, the figures are somewhat suspect, as Dr Fred Singer (professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and director of the Science & Environmental Policy Project) points out in the article comments section. The data covers less than 30% of total land area and the weather stations are predominately clustered in North America and western Europe. Significantly, the data shows no atmospheric warming when we have been told for years that the atmosphere is affected by temperature changes before the land. The data has not been peer-reviewed, therefore there are likely to be corrections and adjustments made before it can be taken as concrete evidence. Even more significantly, in the research papers produced by the peeps at Berkeley and submitted for peer review, the conclusion they reach is, “The human component of global warming may be somewhat overestimated.”

Somewhat, indeed. Doesn’t that make some journalists look very, very silly? Not to mention Mr Gore and his ilk.

So nuh, nuh, nuh, Nature, you can stick it where the sun don’t shine!

 

 

Oh Al…

Al Gore a couple of weeks ago on his blog:

How Deniers Work – September 23, 2011 : 3:11 PM

A report Saturday demonstrates how the climate denial movement manipulates the political process, laundering their money, influence and phony science through think tanks, advocacy groups and event academic institutions.

Yeah, Al, overused maybe, but pot, kettle, black. You are the master of all those things, especially manipulation and phony science.

Who are these “climate denial” people? What is a “climate denier” anyway. Do you deny the climate? I certainly don’t. Looking out of the window and, yep, there’s definitely some kind of climate out there. Sort of damp, cold and, well, autumnal. Keep up the name calling, Al; it’s your main line of attack, is it not? Trouble is, we’re all so used to you by now, that your continuing emissions of hot air are simply wafting up to the big carbon cloud in the sky, eliciting no more than an occasional snigger from the slaving classes.

By the way, your grammar and spelling is rubbish. Do you mean “A report published last Saturday, demonstrates…” and “even” rather than “event”? Dear me. Write 100 times, “I must proofread my blog posts.”

A later entry made me LOL all over my laptop:

“Companies Working to Solve the Climate Crisis October 7, 2011 : 5:26 PM

The Climate Reality blog points to companies that have discovered solving the climate crisis makes good business sense.”

Of course. Absolutely. It certainly does in the UK where, this morning, we heard that energy companies have increased their profits per customer from £15 per year to £125 in the last four months. Good business sense indeed. Yay for them.

Oh Al, have you ever, ever suggested that we simply plant more trees?

Royal Mail Revenge

Freepost Royal Mail
Customer Services
Plymouth
PL9 7YB

6th October 2011

Dear Sir,

I enclose a birthday card and envelope sent to my son. You will see that I was obliged to pay £1.12 in order to have it delivered. The envelope is 13.5 x 19mm, and the card and envelope are approximately 4mm thick. The person who sent it had already bought, and applied a 46p First Class stamp to the envelope.

It is absolutely ridiculous that this card was deemed to be too large for regular letter post and I feel that this is simply another way to grab as much money from the public as possible. I checked your website and the price for a large letter is 75p, so I have no idea how the extra 12p was calculated, as there is no 58p postal tariff listed. It appears that we all need psychic abilities when working out postage costs.

Not only that, the sorting office had to have someone add a sticker and note to the envelope, fill in an excess postage charge card and then have it delivered to me. Incidentally, that excess postage card is much larger than the birthday card. They might as well have delivered the birthday card in the first place!

Please arrange to refund the cost of the extra postage and the handling charge.

Yours faithfully

XXXXXX XXXXXXX

PS Ironically, this complaint is being sent Freepost in a very large envelope. Hope you are happy to stand the cost of the excess charge!

Zentangle(R) Zendoodle Workshop

I would love to attend a Zentangle(R) workshop with Rick and Maria. In fact, I yearn to do so. However, it is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, given that I am in the UK and have many other priorities to wave my cash at before I can indulge in a trip like that.

So, like many other, I glean my Zentangle knowledge from Zentangle.com and from various artists’ blogs as well as developing my own work.

However, the best way to learn is to teach someone else. It’s the way we gain new insights, both directly from the person we are teaching and also from discovering new ideas and methods of imparting the information.

I recently built a five-page ‘lens’ about how to create Zentangles. It has lots of info, plenty of links and a gallery of work and examples. I learned a lot from it, I hope you do too.

Zentangle Workshop

The Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

British Native Pony Characteristics

When I was a kid, up to the age of… er.. 30, I was pony-mad. That completely crazy, head-over-heels, OCD sort of pony-mad. Drove my mother around the twist from the time I was seven years old. Knew stuff about horses that only came from the most in-depth study. I could have done an A-Level in ponies. If only.

Well, you can’t really ever get the little devils out of your system, can you?

Anyway, I made this page, ages ago, just because I wanted to. It was the easiest and most enjoyable piece I’ve ever written. I laughed while I wrote it and I still laugh when I read it. Not least because my dear and very talented cartoonist sister-in-law, Jan, drew these great cartoons to help it along. The page has never received much traffic and that doesn’t matter because it was for me.

However, in the last few days, someone has posted it on Facebook, I know not who, but the traffic has risen almost as fast as the number of people exiting the Labour party! So, thank you, unknown Facebooker!

If you like little fat ponies, reminiscent of Thelwell, please visit: British Native Pony Characteristics.

Excerpt: “All in all, the Highland pony is a pretty nice representative of our native breeds. However (and you knew there was going to be a ‘however’, didn’t you?), one of the nasty traits of this breed is its disgusting habit of spitting. I’m sorry to say that Highland ponies have been witnessed spitting in the street, especially around pub closing time. After a few pints of beer, he is likely to lose his sense of decency, shouting and singing incomprehensibly, demanding kebab and chips, attempting to muscle his way into nightclubs and leering at females of any species. And spitting.“

 

 

Chocolate Cookie Indulgence

This one’s for Brian, one of my favourite accountants. Well, ex-accountant really as he is now retired and enjoying life to the full. He is an artist who cooks. He is someone who knows where his bliss is and is constantly navigating his way in that direction.

Anyway, Brian, I thought you might like this lens. Perhaps you could even try the recipe and treat your Polly to a chocolate indulgence, courtesy of the luscious Nigella. I hear that you are expected to provide care and comfort this coming weekend… so these might do the trick!

Nigella’s Ultimate Intense Chocolate Cookies

Fabric Journals

Idling around YouTube a couple of weeks ago, I fetched up at Tracey Moore’s videos of his wife, Teesha, demonstrating how to make fabric journals. As I’m not interested in sewing much I only watched them to see if I get catch a glimpse of her incredible art. However, these cool little journals completely grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go until I’d had a try at making one. Well, several of them.

I immediately scoured eBay for fabric and thread and waited impatiently until they arrived. Once they did, I gave up real life for a few days while I indulged in a riot of Kaffe Fassett and hand-dyed silky perle thread. Then, of course, I built a Squidoo lens on the process: Fabric Journals

Maybe Freegle Should Change Their Name?

I help run a recycling network called Realcycle, based on Yahoo! Goups. I am only running my own local group and one other nowadays. The other group is located in the north of England where the stazi-like Freecycle moderators are legend. It seems that Freecycle’s rule-makers have infiltrated the up and coming Freegle. Confused? Don’t worry about it. They all know who they are.

Anyway… over recent months we have been contacted by Freegle moderators who seem to be overly concerned about the dreadful (not really) ‘problem’ of cross-posting. This is when a group member has the temerity to offer their item, or asks for an item, on more than one group. They have strict regulations about how you must only post to the group nearest your home first and then wait a certain length of time before posting to the next nearest. These moderators have been wanting to monitor *our* non-Freegle/Freecycle group for crossposting! Of course, they were told where to put their monitoring.

Realcycle only care that people have a place to offer or request items, thus keeping usable somethings out of landfill. We don’t care if people post to other groups. We don’t care if people ask for items more than once a month. We don’t care about cross-posting one little bit.

Yesterday, I was contacted by another Freegle moderator from the same area, asking me for information regarding an individual. She gave me his full name, email address and the groups he belongs to (surely breaking the Data Protection Act there, lovey?) and requested that I confirm if he is a member of our group and if we’ve ‘had any trouble with him’. Apparently he has contravened their ‘three groups only’ rule. What?

Yep, the Freegle police have decreed that you can only belong to three recycling groups, whether they be Freegle, Freecycle or Realcycle. So it doesn’t matter if you live in one area and work in another. Or if you have family who are not on the internet in a different group catchment. If your email name/Yahoo ID is spotted in more than three groups (bear in mind that these groups are free of charge because they are hosted by Yahoo, not by the organisations concerned) then you will be told to choose only three and remove yourself forthwith from the others.

Bloody nonsense.

So yeah, Freegle, from now on you are named RULEGLE!

Happiest Day of the Year?

Is it happening for you right now? According to one university researcher in Cardiff, June 18th is definitely the happiest day of the year.

I can only speak for myself but, yes, I am having an extremely happy time. Our house is spotless and up for sale. My wonderful DuH and I are on the verge of the adventure of a lifetime. My online income from writing is increasing. My kids are playing, the sun is shining, it’s Friday… what more could a woman want?

I hope your day is as good or even better!

The Happiest Day of the Year

Photo courtesy of mikebaird under the Creative Commons License.