Friday, April 18, 2008

Global Censorship

Picked this little item up via my daily perusal of Drudge Report. It's about the censorship in the media about mans alleged effect on the climate. The Business & Media Institute report outlines how the voice of the sceptics like myself is being deliberately sidelined.

My point of view is this; the climate changes as it always has, with or without a contribution from mankind. For proof, one only has to look at the fossil or historical records. Mankind has very little effect on the global climate compared with the other major factors; which are the sun's variations in output, vulcanism, deep ocean temperature, orbital tilt, and magnetosphere variations. Mankinds contribution by comparison is like trying to heat an olympic size swimming pool with a travel hair dryer. It just doesn't stack up. The energy levels are too small.

As for the current state of things over here on the Island; for the past few days we have been graced with Hummingbirds. Speedy little critters that zip past, performing incredible aerobatics. Late yesterday afternoon I took Dog for his usual post prandial stroll, to be greeted by a high speed display. The Hummingbird, not sure of the species, came to a complete stop four metres away, made a noise like a child tooting a tiny plastic trumpet, then jinked upwards twenty centimetres. The following manouvre would have made an aerobatic pilot sick with envy. The Hummingbird dived in a half metre semicircle before flying dead level for five or six metres, turning ninety degrees into a five or six metre vertical climb. At the top of the climb neatly turning another semicircle and diving vertically before another smooth ninety degree turn and level flight brought it back to where it began. For a second or two it hovered before repeating the tiny trumpeting noise and almost exactly the same flight as before. I watched it perform the same aerial dance three times before Dog, being less endowed with patience than I, pulled me onwards to his next sniffing point.

The black tail deer are haunting our back yard this morning, and simply looked somewhat surprised when I opened the back door. They didn't run, just fed off the Tulips and Daffodils, little tinkers. Should have chased them off, but I didn't have the heart to do it. I could shoot one, but our freezer isn't big enough for all that Venison.

I hope the Hummingbirds are going to be okay, because we've already had a nasty dose of sleet this morning, and snowfalls are prophesied for this afternoon. The snow is clearing off Mt Benson, but I have an awful feeling it will be back with a vengeance before long. The leaves may be back on the trees, but Winter awaits it's cue for a dramatic late cameo appearance. Think I'll layer up for this afternoon.

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