Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Why there will never be another Monty Python.....

As very lucidly explained by Eric Idle.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Current weather & current reading

More 'global warming' in the shape of snow and sleet today. Having seen the stupid people who insist that man has any appreciable effect on the worlds' climate, despite clear cut evidence to the contrary, (Polar Bears fine, No predicted cataclysmic climate effects evident, rather chilly don'cha think) are so blinded by their own scientifically illiterate dogma that they think anyone with an alternative opinion is mentally ill; I've given up commenting on other climate related blogs. Only a new ice age will convince the pro AGW crowd, but even if that were to come to pass I have the horrible sinking feeling that even when the last of them is being hunted by hungry Polar Bears across the Icy Tundra of just for the sake of a laugh, let's say Florida, they will still think that the climate is all the fault of those nasty SUV driving bunch of 'deniers'. Oh gawd.

By the by, Have picked upon this Ayn Rand meme that is going around and begun to read her work to see what all the fuss is about. Have completed 'We the Living' (Movie link here) and 'Anthem' and heard her speaking in old interviews about her philosophy of 'Objectivism'. I find her work surprisingly easy to read despite it's literary reputation, and extremely hostile to any authoritarian collectivist doctrine such as communism or socialism, yet I do not feel so far that the policy of enlightened self interest as espoused in her novels is any more attractive than Anarchy. This opinion may change.

Current book open on the bed stand is 'Romanitas' by Sophia McDougall. Like the story, but her style is a little opaque for my tastes. Still plugging away at it nonetheless.

Friday, March 13, 2009

But what about....?

The less evidence the advocates of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change have for their case, the more their fellow travellers seem to want opposition to their views sidelined or muzzled. A sensationalist media and a distant political elite throughout the western world seem to be obsessed with the meme that the fact that the climate is in a near constant state of minor fluctuation is it's-all-our-fault-and-we're-all-gonna-die-won'cha-think-of-the-children! One would highlight the following; The IPCC conference gets almost all the mainstream coverage, and the resultant sensational assertions of things that might happen if their base premise that man made CO2 is to blame for all the changes in the world's climate were true. Yet a conference attended by 600 people with more Ph.D's in climate science (and therefore more highly qualified to speak on the subject) over the water in New York gets labelled dismissively as a bunch of redneck 'Deniers'.

Look guys, the climate changes and no-one is precisely sure why it does what it does (Although I get ever more convinced that solar influences are a pretty hefty component). That is not under dispute. It's this big expensive eco-guilt trip I don't understand.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

An important comment on the scientific method


As reported in the mainstream media. Draw your own parallels.

Monday, March 9, 2009

A picture speaks a thousand words

Wife managed to get into work this morning despite several inches of snow. I'm working from home today, but it might be worthwhile dragging our little 4x4 up and down the road a few times to help keep things clear for her on the way home this afternoon. Neighbour prophesised blandly that 'this crap' will be gone by tomorrow. I hope so. My diary is full of meetings and schedules this week, and all this white global warming stuff is inconvenient to say the least.

Image taken of our view over the southern end of Dodd Narrows at 10:50am PST.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Telegraph website

News that the UK Daily Telegraph website has been hacked, allowing those who broke the security to see 700 people's e-mails and passwords does not bother me overmuch, as the moderators there have been blocking my comments for the past four weeks. Not really for four weeks, as I noticed that even quite innocuous comments weren't getting past the moderators. Perhaps it was my propensity for pointing out the blindingly obvious that they didn't like.

Who cares, I never use the same username and password for more than one site at a time. Whosoever hacked the site are welcome to do what they like with the ID they find there. I've already changed the password for this and my e-mail.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

All seasons in a day

This morning when I took Dog for his tri-yearly shearing, I was wearing sunglasses and the sky was a brilliant blue with nary a cloud in sight. When I drove to pick him up from the dog groomers at lunchtime, the sky was a solid light grey. Two hours later, it was raining, then the sky closed down and it snowed. It is now 3:30pm PST and the sun has just come out again.

Dog has been defurred, the house has been cleaned top to bottom, and Wife is currently sitting reading Ayn Rand's 'Anthem'. Not so much a novel, more a long polemic poem against the evils of collectivism. A Good read, and despite her 'literary' reputation, pre-eminently readable. Have yet to read 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged', but was impressed by the power of 'We the living'.

Me, I am struggling with the theme of mental infidelity against the backstory of burgeoning space colonisation. Time for tea and a break from the keyboard methinks.