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

As very lucidly explained by Eric Idle.

Global cooling?

Quiet start to the New Year, with much to do come Monday morning.

Am getting increasingly peeved with the "Global Warming Denier" tag, although there is an element of perverse pride in being identified as one not taken in by the whole alarmist nonsense. Notwithstanding, I'm not one of the "coming ice age" faction either, although the Weather phenomena would suggest that we are in one of those cooler cyclic climate events. To be honest, there's so much delusion, obfuscation and downright dishonesty going on that it's hard to know what the damn truth of the matter is anyway.

Being a cynical soul, I try not to 'believe' in much at all when it comes to the climate. Cooling or Warming, it's all the same, and that humankind has precious little to do with the global climate, the main drivers of which appear to be Solar activity, volcanism, the water cycle, and electromagnetic variations. To suggest that an atmospheric trace gas currently measured around 385 parts per million is responsible for it all sounds very shaky from even my limited layman's perspective. Especially when the estimated total human contribution of this gas is a mere 19.25 parts per million. By comparison, there's much more Argon in the atmosphere, just under three times more. CO2, I would say, is the least of our worries. As it gets cooler, if my reading of physics is right, then we should see Atmospheric CO2 levels begin to drop in the next few years as the oceans cool.

My concerns regarding current weather trends are being raised by the number of incidences of ice crystal related phenomena being observed around the world; Nacreous clouds, icebows, and various other ice crystal refracted phenomena. Norwegian observers I am reliably informed, are seeing far more Nacreous cloud formations this year, and Icebows have been reported in the national and international media quite late in the year. Using the simple logic that says "Ice crystals are evidence of cooling" I tend to be swayed more towards the viewpoint that we are currently in a cooling phase of the Earth's climate cycles. Although I fervently hope we are not in for a Dalton type minimum. That would be worse than everything the doomsayers predict.

Those who still deny that these cooler weather phenomena truly exist really need to step away from the keyboard and get out a bit more. Rather like those observed trudging along in the snow holding banners reading 'stop global warming'. The past two years have been cooler than usual, and rather give the lie to the 'Man is responsible' standpoint. They cling to inaccurate assertions like CO2 rise leads temperature change (Which it doesn't), and think that applying political logic in a scientific debate will change the weather (It won't). In addition they seem to be suffering from the delusional belief that Man as a species has much significance when it comes to the weather (We don't).

Anyway, no-one's going to read this. Humans as a species don't like logic much. Fantasy appears far more preferable. That's what it looks like to me.

Get over it

My favourite Eagles track from the 'Hell freezes over' tour. Which funnily enough it feels like it might be doing tonight with a very un-Nanaimo like minus thirteen Celsius prophesised. Last I checked our thermometer outside the kitchen window it was minus five and sinking. Brr.

Great line in the song "I'd like to find your inner child and kick it's little ass." Oh yes.

Managed a trip into town for a 'Do' we got invited to although any sudden acceleration or deceleration threatened to put our little 4x4 into a tailspin (Despite good snow tyres). One pedestrian just stepped straight off the kerb on the other side of the road and made a rude gesture because we didn't pull an emergency stop to let him all the way across. I know pedestrians and buses generally have priority, but had I tried to stop quickly on that precise stretch of compacted snow and ice we would probably have broadslid across to the left hand side of the road and into him, there was that little traction. Not a happy thought.

All Christmas presents are wrapped and ready to be delivered. We have invitations for drinks and stuff over the festive season. Six days left to Crimbo. It could well be the first white Christmas I've seen since the 1960's. Yay.

Paradise found - on YouTube

From the ultimate Demigods of comedy. Utter brilliance and terrific news.

Standing in the rain

Ah, good old ELO. I once lived around a mile up the road from their drummer, Bev Bevan. Nice bloke, and still breathing. He had a big place, think it was called 'Cornerways' or something like that, near the Warwickshire village of Rowington. Big old mock tudor house with a lawn the would give a New Brunswicker palpitations of jelousy (They like acre sized yards in New Brunswick. That and big decks. "Hey, honey, come sit on my big deck." or "Look at the size of my deck."). Wonder if he still owns it.

Damp foggy day all day today here on our part of Vancouver Island with visibility around 100 metres. Not a Sunday for getting out and about, just a day for snuggling down and keeping warm. Oh, and trying to fine tune the Synopsis for the current MSS. Next is the sequel, followed by an attempt to re-draft my half finished Cerberus trilogy.

Am watching the current financial crunch with a certain heaviness of heart. It had to come, but I would rather that it wasn't taking such a bite out of our capital as it is. No matter, we have to earn our way in this world, and that is what I and Wife are doing. Standing in the rain. Doing our best.

Real Comedy

The physical, in the shape of the infamous Morcambe & Wise mimed 'Breakfast sketch'.

And arguably one of the best verbal comedy sketches of all time from Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker.

A couple of blasts from my past

Fire on High. Track one, side one from 'Face the Music'.



'Big wheels', from the 'Out of the Blue' double album. Can't remember the track off the top of my head. Think it was on the same disc as 'Mr Blue Sky' and 'Summer and Lightning'. Web searches bring it up as track 11, side one, disc one. Lost my copy in the move from England. Heavy sigh.

I like these videos.

A musical interlude

Just found this old Moody Blues track on Youtube. There are a lot of good memories associated with it, and I will be passing the time while waiting for a few people I know to take a little walk in fancy dress in London. Cannot be there, so I'm going to stay up late and watch the fun, or lack of it, via webcam. If of course the webcams aren't shut down for some reason.

Being a Comedy connoisseur

While I'm dredging through the records of Volcanic activity, working and living etc, one of my little joys of life is finding Comedy gems. Stuff which is really funny. For example, I was perusing Youtube and came across an old favourite of mine from "At last, the 1948 show", a lesser known direct ancestor of Monty Python. Starring John Cleese, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graham Chapman.

Now I may be getting old and prejudiced, but there are few shows since which come even close to sending me into paroxysms of screen splattering mirth. Here are a couple of the better sketches:
The classic "Let's Speak English" (Note the quick cameo by Barry Cryer)

And the original "Four Yorkshiremen sketch"

Happy thoughts.

A quick happy trip down Memory lane

Ah, memory lane. Two of my favourite Monty Python sketches together. The Dead Parrot sketch and the Lumberjack song. Yet to be surpassed. An absolute gem.

Connections

Back in Britain, from the 1960's through to 2003, there one was a series of programmes called 'Tomorrow's World'. The series showcased inventions that could and sometimes did change our lives, although sometimes not in the ways first envisaged. Some of the inventions demonstrated were a little wacky and too off beat for words and some failed spectacularly during the show's notorious 'live' demonstrations.

I was reminded of the show because I've been watching DVD's of James Burke's 'Connections', in which the ex Tomorrow's World presenter detailed the source of inventions that underpin everyday life. A sort of Historical Science show.

In episode ten of the first series, James asked a question about what we should do about the ever accelerating changes in technology and discussed the four main possible answers, citing pros and cons for each. In the end he asked whether we wanted the benefits of technology without being able to understand it or to destroy it in an attempt to go to a sort of technological "Year zero" so that everyone can understand what is going on.

As a society in the West, we have to ask these hard questions again. There is a drift towards religion for answers, and although belief is a fine thing, the answers provided by the self perpetuating hierarchies of the various religions are more to do with keeping the religion(s) in question going than making our lives better. People who do not understand technology are rebelling against it because they do not understand how things work, or how to control them, this attitude begets fear which begets closed mindedness and irrational responses.

Two classic examples of how religious type belief provide the wrong answers when it comes to science and technology are; Intelligent design, a modern reworking of Paleys Watchmaker fallacy, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the postulation of Anthropogenic Climate Change, which when the wheels finally come off it will prove as big a hoax as Piltdown Man. Both these 'theories' require more belief than fact. Both are supported by fragile assumptions and dubious evidence; I cite the ignoring of geological facts by the 'Intelligent design' supporters, and the massaging of climate data by the supporters of 'CO2 causes Anthropogenic Climate Change'. Both factions are wrong, simply because we still do not fully understand the forces behind how species adapt or not, and our ideas of how the climate operates are inadequate to say the least, and to say our ever changing climate is all down to one trace atmospheric gas is a bit of a reach to put it mildly. As with 'intelligent design', the theory doesn't fit the ever changing facts, even if you use a shoehorn.

So why in the name of all man has ever held holy are our politicians preparing to commit economic suicide in the name of Climate Change? I'm no expert, but the fallacies are obvious to even me. We need some form of modern King Canute to set matters right.

It's fun to charter an accountant....

My favourite part of the old Monty Python Movie "The meaning of life"

The Earth is fine

I'm with George on this one. The planet is fine. It could shake us off as a species all too easily.

A bittersweet post this; George Carlin, comedian died June 24th, 2008. I never got to see his act live. This is both a source of much regret and relief. Regret that I never got to see his full act, and relief in the knowledge that had I done so, I would probably have died laughing shortly thereafter.

RIP George, and thanks.

Canada Day

Today, July the first has been a very nice Canada day. Not too hot but very sunny. Popped down to Maffeo-Sutton Park on the seafront and mingled with the crowds, dribbled ice cream, mended fences with Wife, of whom I have been neglectful of late.

Unlike a British event it was populated mostly with relaxed smiling people, apart from the one heavily tattooed guy we saw the RCMP leading away. He looked pissed off, but everyone else simply got on with enjoying the music and the day. There was a local Kayaking club recruiting new members, the Army, RCMP, local utility companies, and some community and conservation minded folk garnering support for their objection to the Cable Bay development, which will take badly needed funding away from downtown Nanaimo and spend it building a new suburb instead of tidying up the city. Downtown needs a bit of cosmetic treatment if they want the tourists to come.

A few of the local Beauty contest winners were handing out free flags and badges, and just generally being real people. Noisy, but well behaved kids all over the place. A really good humoured affair. Nanaimo is that kind of place. I found myself wryly reflecting that if this were Britain, and Union or St Georges flags were being handed out to all and sundry, then the local council would be round in a jiffy to nip all this damnable subversive patriotism in the bud matey, citing 'elf & safety' or a complaint from someone who is basically in the wrong country.

For myself, I believe that when in Canada, do as the Canadians do. Which is very nicely thank you. Happy Canada day.

Climate change bitch fight

Being an outdoor sort, I'm a keen observer of the Birds and beasts of the field. No sign of our local Deer herd, the Bald Eagles, or the Sea Lions, so I just sat me down to write and browse through my list of favourite blogs and web sites.

After a thousand words or so, I took a break and pootled over to Mr Eugenides to see what his latest amusing rant was about. Took a few minutes out to comment that all this Anthropogenic Global Warming was, at the latest reports inference, more likely to end up as a global cooling, only to get a little scorched by a flame from a person who, on the scantiest of evidence, called me an ignorant so and so. He obviously didn't like what I had written, and posted a couple of hundred words of pretty ill founded invective against my good self for saying I thought that AGW is a bit of a con. I took it in good part, and in a return post observed that if we could stretch the dog analogy a little, I was not so much a "British Bulldog" as a Border Collie, or sheepdog. Also that I was a 'Practicing Environmentalist' and habitual recycler rather than some short sighted Colonel Blimp, as he inferred.

Shortly afterwards I googled "Climate Sceptic" and found site after site, and post after post devoted to the subject of how to 'deal with' those who spoke out against the political dogma of Human Centred Climate Change. To be honest it was a sobering experience. Previously I had no idea of the propaganda campaign being waged against such doubters as myself by the 'believers'. For propaganda is what it is, because it makes little room for honest doubt or discussion of the evidence. The sheer unthinking zealotry of the pro AGW camp left me a little unsettled. They accept the dogma of anthropogenic climate change unquestioningly, which appears to have taken the place of religion for them. It's very sad for them. Maybe they should go out and get lives instead. Perhaps we could do a Golgafrincham 'B' Ark on them. Now that really would be an environmentally useful solution. Although we could do without the telephonically transmitted disease.

Much craftiness

Today, Wife and I have been doing a craft fair, which over here means visiting ten other houses and perusing all the stuff they have to sell. A complete volte face on the UK where the suppliers come to you, here in Canada, you end up going to them.

Any old road up. We saw this cute Christmas tree beladen with fretwork and this serious log cabin to end all log cabins. All Wife had to say was, "Jones, when are you going to write that best seller. I want one of those." I was so gobsmacked I was lost for words, and that doesn't happen very often.

Elizabeth the movie

Bit of a choppy day out in the Narrows this morning. Plenty of whitecaps marching northbound. The good part being that it is clearing all the floating logs from the channel that towed logboom left behind yesterday. Most of them are now washed up on the shoreline. Probably enough to build a small log cabin.

This afternoon, Wife and I went to see 'Elizabeth the Golden Age'. Not bad as works of fiction go, but hardly worth the fuss the Vatican has made about it. Cate Blanchett worked well as the lead, but I found Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh a bit watered down. In real life, Walter Raleigh was a bit of a rake and is thought to have seduced more than just the one lady from Elizabeth's Court. There is one where he is supposed to have pinned one lady in waiting up against a tree and had his evil way with her as her protestations went from "Sweet Sir Walter!" to "Swizzer-swatter!".

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't include the line from Elizabeth's speech to her troops at Tilbury "I may only have the body of a weak and feeble woman." etc. Still, visually stunning, and well worth a look. Not a bad way to spend a rainy British Columbian afternoon.

Red Cross Fridays

I enjoy my Friday afternoons delivering stuff for the Canadian Red Cross. They seem to like me too, and I have been asked to go on another course in two weeks. This time it's to do with missing person searches during disasters. Mainly administrative stuff, but it's all grist to the employment search mill. This stuff looks good on your CV, and I enjoy it as well.

On our rounds today, my oppo and I chatted about Elizabeth the golden age, Cate Blanchetts latest movie. This is the one the Vatican is up in arms about, saying that the movie is amongst other things 'Anti-Catholic'.

Sometimes methinks that all these religious types don't get it. You point something glaringly obvious out to them, and they are worse than Socialists, who take it as an extreme personal affront that you have noticed a factual error in their dogma. Perhaps it is because they are weak of faith, because those who are strong in their faith blithely ignore contradictions raised by their religion.

The point is that the movie is a fictionalised account of events during the reign of Elizabeth the 1st of England. It is a work of entertainment and therefore not something that is worth taking too seriously because film makers always take liberties with history. A lot of historical revisionists do too, but that is besides the point.

We drove past the local Islamic centre, where a number of young men were standing outside in a group, eyeing everyone who passed by with suspicion. Don't see why they feel they have to do that, as it only antagonises people. Canadians are the most inclusive people in the world, at least as far as I can see, and these cliquish little enclaves of whatever religion do themselves and their belief system no favours by behaving so defensively. Shame really.

Anyway; I'm looking forward to tomorrow night when my love returns. The dog has missed her too, and in all our transatlantic phone conversations I keep on telling her that the dog is bored with just my company, and can she hurry up and get back here please. I think I get a bit bored with my own company as well.