Scargill

Despite absolutely atrocious weather, we took the grandkids down to Wark Apple fair on Saturday.. and they had a great time as you’ll see below.

Don’t you just love seeing the smile on their faces?

Oh, well, maybe not…

We have 4 kittens right now from our cat Rosie who herself isn’t a year old yet. Rosie is a Maine Coon, one of the oldest natural breeds in the USA (these are the “official state cats” of Maine apparently. Rosie has 3 light-coloured and one black kitten (see cats section) and they are marvellous fun. She has been a superb mum spending most of her waking hours wandering around making sure her kittens are ok – while never giving any of us any impression that we’re unwelcome to play with them. Such a shame this only lasts a short while 🙂

Very rarely does anyone put our energy problems into perspective – and still manage to speak in a language the layman can understand. This fellow has succeeded. Sadly most of the comments in the original YouTube video are mindless. This is worth watching.

He’s right, switching off phone chargers is silly – the mere effort of making the change could be used to make more relevant change, like taking showers instead of baths or turning the heating down just a touch -  or in the winter making sure windows and doors are properly sealed…

I still see people in shops looking at disgust at low-energy light bulbs, I see countless lampshade designs which are unable to take any but the very smallest of these.. I see the likes of B&Q still way overcharging for compact fluorescents that the supermarkets now sell for pennies.

I think personally that the 100w incandescent lamp ban was too little – we should have scrapped the 60w lamps as well – there really is no reason not to convert unless you use dimmers.

Ive no facts in this but I can’t help thinking that if we stopped importing cheap crap from China – and found tax incentives to encourage people to buy locally produced electronic goods and cars that are designed with repair-ability in mind, we’d be doing a lot for the environment. Many of today’s goods are simply impossible to maintain or repair – deliberately… and that’s silly.

This is just So amazing….. after a couple of laughs at the start the robot does the most superb navigation..

I had to put this in here. Wouldn’t you just love one of these….

After endless sunshine in Spain over August I figured that was about our lot for the year… but no, until Sunday we’re in Jersey at an annual conference at the hotel L’Horizon in St Brelades… and loving the seaside. My job yesterday was to answer a load of IT questions – that out of the way I spent the afternoon enjoying a really nice walk along St Brelade’s Bay (bottom left on the map), beautiful sunshine, nice breeze. This place really IS nice. To me it’s how a seaside SHOULD be (as against some of our abysmal and often cold efforts).

Now if INCOMPETENT ORANGE would just stop sending me endless text messages…. “Hi from Orange,. Browse the Internet and keep in touch while in Jersey…. for just £2.94 per megabyte” – CAN YOU IMAGINE – nearly 3 quid for 1 email if it has an attachment.  Well, the first 5 identical texts yesterday morning had me going so I rang up Orange to complain – the usual “we really value your custom” just before they bombard you with crappy music… to cut a long story short I was PROMISED I’d get no more texts AT ALL from them. So by the end of the afternoon when another 5 or 6 had turned up I rang them up again. This time they were PROFUSELY sorry and gave me 10% off my bill for the next 3 months… “you will DEFINITELY get no more texts from us”.

That was teatime – since then I’ve had another 8 identical texts from them – including one at 7.01am this morning!!  I’m going to give them HELL when they open shop!

Well, we were up anyway, so off we went this morning to the sea… I can tell you – the water was FREEZING cold… thankfully after a short swim the hotel has the most amazing pool, sauna, hot tub etc… so now we’re ready to face the day… and breakfast!

Muntadar al-Zaidi who threw a shoe at former US President Bush, has been released.  The act made him a hero in the Arab world and beyond.

Let’s reflect on that a moment. Under the rule of the dictator Saddam Hussein who is no longer in charge thanks to Mr Bush and other western leaders, had he done the same thing to Hussein, does anyone want to take bets as to what would have happened? Perhaps he would have been shot immediately and his family shot shortly thereafter?

The fellow attempts to physically assault a leader of the free world and what happens?  A jail sentence and how he’s out and about to enjoy his popularity! Come to think about it even the Russians would have sent him of to Siberia for the rest of his days.

We’re getting soft and we WILL regret it.

As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, I find this deeply, deeply worrying…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html

In case you’re short of time – an extract…

“Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as “a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder”. His “half-baked theory” directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to “atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering”, the site stated.”

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as “a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying”

So I’m guessing the mountains of fossils etc are just a theory. It’s hard to fathom how such blind ignorance can flourish in a “free” country. As for Hitler, they can’t even get that right! He was a member of the Catholic church. Most trouble-spots in the world today involve countries who are highly religious.

Can you believe such an attitude can be prominent in the Western World in the 21st century?  None of which would matter if America was not in military terms the only remaining “superpower” – as our religious friends would say… “Lord help us”.

We’re on our way back to the UK after 5 weeks of incredible weather in Spain (see the Spanish blog) to rain, recession, flu and on a brighter note, 4 new kittens – which is quite exciting. I’m assuming our cats have forgotten all about us by now – I think this is the longest single stretch we’ve ever left them alone (well, not alone, friends have looked after them at our place in Wark).  I’ve a week of intense meetings to come one after another so maybe I won’t notice the tan disappearing.. got the phone packed with stuff to watch on the plane. All that remains is to turn off the computer, package it up and put it in the car.. it all seems far too final… but then, it’s only a matter of months before we’re back in the sun. Maybe just 10 minutes more tanning….

On the subject of Global warming and what part we play – I found this item very interesting. Worth reading to the end… http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3460191.html