Cosy

Wind warning for the Eastern side of Vancouver Island means the rain and wind are howling round the houses this evening. I can hear it washing the last of last weeks warble gloaming into the ditches. Never mind, we're due for some more sometime around the weekend. Feels like that first snowfall was just a rehearsal.

Inside the Sticker household all is cosy. Log fire pumping out heat while I laze on the sofa. Dog snoozing at my feet, ear half cocked at the clicking of my old laptops keyboard. I'm having a nice evening after a pleasant supper of Cottage pie. Although if you listen to some creeps currently chuntering at Cancun, that should be a crime. They want WW2 style rationing to 'save the planet'.

Well I've got an idea, why don't we ration climate conferences? You know, on the WW2 basis of 'is your journey really necessary?' Let's have austerity level budgets for certain faculties. Post office bicycles only for tenured professors, research assistants have to get a bus with all the heaters removed. Perhaps if it's getting so warm, globally speaking, let's make some 'carbon friendly' savings by cutting off the heating and air conditioning to particular Climate research faculties. Set an example you chaps. Put your money where your mouth is. Show us how to live in austerity. Do some actual physical poverty research to calculate real-world impacts. A proper empirical study should do the trick. Say a ten year programme to monitor specific effects of long term austerity programmes. This is stuff we need to know. Do climate scientists make good popsicle material when you've removed all their doors and windows? I'm sure there are many who'd like to see what happens to those at Hadley CRU and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change when the notorious East Anglian 'lazy wind' blows unfettered through their department all Winter. This is cutting edge stuff here, and in addition it's truly, eco-virtuously 'carbon neutral'. Come on guys, show us how it's done. You never know, we might even follow your example. On the other hand of course.........

In the meantime, I'll just keep on being cosy. Ho hum. Time for another log on the fire. Life is so hard.

Hottest year on record......... Not

Keep on hearing that this year is apparently the 'hottest on record'. Where? Certainly not locally or in the UK, despite hearing that politicians with all the intellectual nous of roadkill are committed to the 'low carbon economy'. Or should that read 'should be committed'. What with the current cold snap, the declarations that it's been the 'hottest year ever' look increasingly like someone's 'avin a larf.

Summer was definitely cooler this year, both in the UK and on Vancouver Island, not to mention in the southern hemisphere, where sub tropical rivers lost half their reptile population to the cold. Sorry guys, I just can't see this global warming that's going to kill my grandchildren. I can forsee them having to take up Winter sports for much of the year, but drowning because the sea levels are rising, or dying of heat exhaustion? No.

Tell you the truth, I'm more concerned that the North Korean business will turn into a real shooting war with genuine value added nuclear fallout with a side order of Iranian attack and Israeli pre-emptive strike. That Ahvegottadinnerjacket character with all his talk of 'Ambassadors of Death' might just prove nutty enough to pull the nuclear trigger, as might the North Koreans. The fallout from that little show would definitely put a crimp in everybody's day.

Although having looked at the situation a bit more closely, I get the impression that the current North / South Korea spat is one of those high testosterone bits of sabre rattling that the North Koreans appear to be fond of. Same for the Iranians.

Perhaps we'll all get lucky and one of their cheap 'n nasty missiles will detonate on the pad, demonstrating to the world how flaming dangerous these things truly are, and why little boys should not play with such fireworks. A few square kilometres of vitrified landscape might prove a sober reminder to such regimes that Nuclear war is the biggest lose-lose scenario going, and besides dahlings, it's sooo twentieth century.

On the upside, such an event would certainly put the whole global warming bandwagon on the back burner. With even the loony Huhne in Cancun and cohorts might be given pause. Additionally I'm told the weather down there ain't so hot as it usually is. Currently cloudy and wet all week, according to the local forecast. Those delegates who'd planned to hit the beach are in for a disappointing stay methinks.

You know, on reflection, it would be even more apposite if Al-Quaeda managed to smuggle a warhead into the climate conference and set it off. A bit of a shame for Cancun, as I'm told it can be very nice down there, but getting rid of all those delegates would mean that the average intelligence of politicians might go up a percentage point on average and take people's minds off the current wikileaks scandal.

Hmm. There's a thought to conjour with. Think of it as evolution in action.

A man I have a great deal of time for...

P J O'Rourke.

'Nuff said.

H/T Theo Spark

David Cameron's party just lost my vote for good

I wrote to my UK constituency MP (A Conservative) raising a concern. Specifically about the funding of torture child porn on the taxpayer dollar. Particularly the recent controversial 10:10 video. By way of a reply I was deliberately insulted. In an official reply on House of Commons notepaper. I was patronised as well, but that I can cope with.

Now having taken gigatonnes of verbal crap on the streets of Britain for three years, you might think that I'm relatively immune to insults. Not so. You develop a thicker skin for the workaday, but there are places you don't expect abuse from. Your MP is one. It comes as a bit of a shock. Revelatory even.

As for returning the insult a la swearblogger, I think not. I will not return that specific insult because to play that game I'd have to turn my brain off.

If that particular MP wants votes at the next election, he might have to work very hard indeed to win his safe seat back. Reputation counts for a lot in my old stamping ground, and I'll be busy spreading the word in private. Disrespecting your constituents, even expatriates, is a lose-lose game.

By contrast, my local Canadian MLA and MP are both NDP, and although I don't agree with their politics, they are both splendid people who put constituency first. In the absence of a worthwhile opposition, they will have my vote. When I finally get one, that is.

In Britain it seems views not in keeping with party policy are often treated with open contempt. By Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dems, anyone not an independent. Gordon Brown did it in public, the rest of them do it out of the public view. So long as they're in power it seems, they don't give a monkeys.

A good reason not to use Facebook

One of the news services I subscribe to is the specialist legal site Out-law.com run by legal eagles Pinsent Masons which can be pretty useful for keeping up to date with the latest on legal matters pertaining to the jolly old interweb.

One of the latest wheezes with regards to using those apparently oh so user fiendish friendly NHS services is if you have a Facebook profile. The bulk of the story is here, and includes this quotation*:

"Facebook capturing data from sites like NHS Choices is a result of Facebook’s own system," said a Department of Health statement. "When users sign up to Facebook they agree Facebook can gather information on their web use. NHS Choices privacy policy, which is on the homepage of the site, makes this clear."

Apparently if you haven't logged out of your Facebook profile properly (Just closing the browser window doesn't count), then go browsing the NHS database for details of an embarrassing little ailment you'd rather no-one else knew about, Facebook get to know all about it. Isn't that sweet?

Now you know why I went to extremes to delete my entire Facebook profile.

*Published under the 'fair use' provisions of the copyright act to draw attention to or comment upon the article in question, so there guv'nor, gor blimey, luv a duck, it's a fair cop, innit?

Activism masquerading as news

Blood and sand. Just when you thought that it was all over, the hydra of catastrophic man made climate change grows another head. No doubt those very clever chaps over at Wattsupwiththat will take one look and go "Nonsense." before systematically deconstructing the paper in question. In the meantime, lazy cut and paste journalists will repeat the assertions without fact checking, but what's new?

It's just another example of activism masquerading as news. Blatant misrepresentation if you will. No wonder trust in the lamestream media is draining away faster than water from a plugless bathtub.

You don't see the far more well constructed work of Henrik Svensmark given such uncritical treatment in the press. Well, maybe it doesn't fit the agenda, eh? Anyone who doesn't agree with said agenda is automatically tagged with the sub literate soubriquet 'denier'. Which just goes to show that the whole catastrophic meme is politics rather than science, activism rather than real news.

"Nooooo, it's still getting warmer!" Claim the activists as they see the money tap begin to run dry. Yet the weather continually makes mockery of their assertions. Single weather events like the current cold snap may not be climate, as the activists are fond of telling everyone, but climate eventually becomes made up of weather. There have been too many colder than usual years recently to blithely dismiss like that.

Oh well, throw another log on the fire. Have to keep from freezing to death somehow.

Melting

A minor thaw has set in this afternoon, which has meant tranches of snow is sliding off the roof with a sound like someone is shifting particularly heavy items of furniture about up top followed by mini avalanches grumbling down onto the deck. Dog is fretting, and has taken to skulking in the bathroom with his head tucked behind the toilet. God knows why he does this, because this fright of loud noises isn't anything he got from us.

It being what we call a 'snow day' when everything bar essential services shuts down, I've been upping my intellectual input by watching 'Jude the Obscure'. Unfortunately, our technology has given up in protest, and our cheap little DVD player refuses to play any more. Got to the scene where Jude's illegitimate son is paraded in front of his new wife to be before it stopped and the power light began to flash rapidly. Who says machines don't have some sensitivity? Apparently ours baulks at overlong BBC productions of Thomas Hardy novels, although it will quite cheerfully play Ciaran Hinds' performance in the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'. Yet stuff what is a visually unblemished copy of Jude the Obscure in and the damn thing goes on strike. Definitely weird.

Yet another post on intrusive security checks

Now as far as I'm concerned, if one person has to go through a full security screening, there should be no exceptions. No politician, celebrity, anyone should be spared the indignity of a full body scan / 'pat down' if all the rest of those passing through an airport have to do so. This includes their entire entourage.

If there's no discrimination for us 'lower orders', then there should be no exception for anyone else. Only fair isn't it? Anything else is just elitist, and isn't that very bad?

What use is a dog?

Now I'm a 'dog' person (I also like cats, but that's by-the-by), I grew up with a dog in the house, and feel that a dog is the best barometer of a household. I've also formed the opinion that a place where people live is less of a home without a dog. They are a symptom of life and useful gauge of happiness. Especially a crossbreed or 'Mutt'. Pedigrees are a bit more tricky, having been bred mostly to a specific function and generally speaking host to a temperament which can be best described as 'Mercurial'.

Notwithstanding, my own preference is for a 'Mutt', with all their eccentricities. If dogs can be used as a reflection of their owners nature, then mine is a friendly and sometimes over enthusiastic goofball. However, when it comes to being useful, that ball of fur slumped in the office doorway earns his home and comfort just by being who he is.

My dog more than earns his keep as guardian and friend. Apart from his predilection for silent but deadly farts when Mrs S and I decide to watch a little televisual entertainment, he makes a great footwarmer on cold evenings. His hearing is many times more sensitive than a humans, warning of visitors before they get halfway up the drive. His sense of smell has an acuity many times more than the most accurate human, and possibly way more discriminating than any man made device. Although what is Chanel No 5 to him (Bear and Deer droppings) are something he and I will have to disagree on. Yet his sense of smell has prevented household fires and several other potentially hazardous situations. Yes, a good mutt is hard to beat, and mine is a good 'un.

It matters not that his lifespan is much shorter than mine, and that I will grieve terribly when he dies at the age of 17 or so years. More so because it will be me who finally has to hold him in my arms as he draws his last doggy breath. We will have had the shared joy of life, and a new pooch will have been found before then both to give him company and for him to train in the ways of master and house in his declining years, and so our parting will not be such a yawning chasm of loss.

On a slightly connected topic, having watched the growing furore over the invasive and insensitive TSA body searches and scans wonder why the hell more dogs have not been employed in US airports. Yet for all their shortfalls, as a first line of defence they are the best tool in the box. Instead of the tiresome 'everyone has to be scanned' mentality, why aren't the Yanks using a more layered response? At Vancouver airport there's always a dog or two on patrol, and being walked past a trained animal who can detect explosives more readily than a human with a backscatter x-ray device should be more effective. One or two animals walked around the departure gates are not only a first line alert for filtering out the bad guys, but also get round the massive queuing issues that make air travel such a chore.

I'm sure there are people out there who are cynophobic, or have a cultural bias against dogs, but they are in a minority and would have to go through the body scanner regardless. I know dogs aren't infallible, but they're a good first line of defence. If everyone goes through the metal detectors anyway, the airport queues move faster and still filter out the nutters who think that blowing aircraft out of the sky with them on board is somehow very intelligent. This may be unfair to some, but far better a little unfairness to a few, than a great deal to many, as at present.

A well placed dog can help get round quite a number of security issues on a number of levels. Either as a detector or deterrent. So, dogs are useful. Even flop eared, goofy, and occasionally smelly pets like mine. We need more of them. Especially when the enemy doesn't like them much.

Brrr!

Just picked this little weather warning up for the next 24 hours. Now the guys on the prairies will view 5-15cm of snow as risible and barely worth a mention, but they tend to get a more powdery snow than us in our more maritime climate. Snow over on the Island tends to be heavy and wet by comparison to the stuff they get further east. It also compacts into ice very quickly, which compounds any hazard.

However, chez Sticker is fully equipped for all eventualities, even student protests, although the one we mainly get is along the lines of "Awwww Mum!" Our two have their flights booked and paid for, and are busy trying to get themselves organised enough to spend the festering season with us, grandparents, Aunts and friends. That's Canada, Northern England and France. All right for some, eh?

Them that's fightin words

The following rebuttal is mine alone. I do not speak for my husband, for my friends, for my children, but solely for myself.

I am tired of being told to sit down and shut up.

I am tired of being told what I can and can not say.

What is “acceptable”, while my ideas and values are mocked and trampled.

Wow. That's one pissed off military mother. The lady's plain, no-nonsense eloquence is quite frankly startling.

H/T Celestial Junk

Baby it's cold outside

Minus six to be precise, and no surcease forecast for the next day or so. Now I know for our hardier brethren out on the prairies that's still shorts and T-shirts weather, but for us softies here on Vancouver Island it's cold!

Log fire is lit 24/7, and yesterday our venerable old Battlebuses starter solenoid was frozen solid, so last night I rigged up the block heater to prevent the wind chill freezing the engine. For those not familiar with the device, a block heater is an electrical heating system you plug into the mains which keeps the engine compartment above freezing for easy cold starts.

Aside from that, it's business as usual. The new Winter tyres are making easy travelling on the snow and ice, and we're getting where we need to be. No problemo.

Oh no they're not....

From the seemingly never ending archive of warble gloaming pantomime, this blast from the past.

The view from my kitchen window 21st November 2010 around eight in the morning....

Yeah, right....

Respect and H/T to Donna Laframboise

Temperatures went below minus five Celsius this afternoon, and are prophesied to hit below minus 12 tonight. More warble gloaming expected on Friday and Saturday. My snow shovel is at the ready, all weather tyres are on the Battlebus, and the log store is full of seasoned wood. Warm clothing has been purchased. About the only thing we haven't got for the cold weather is a pair of skis and we're on the same damn latitude as here.

No more snowfalls - my arse!

Unnecessary

Picked up via Drudge. They employ perverts at airport security checks now?

Is this real? What half witted excuse for a perverted paedophile thought they should strip search a child in public for heavens sake? What the hell do the TSA think they're doing? There's a classic class action waiting for an ambitious Tort lawyer right there.

It goes without saying that the child in question was not an 'ethnic'. The cack-handed TSA is becoming America's shame.

Our girls are coming over for Christmas, and one connection on a very reasonably priced flight, meant that they would have to go through such a security check as the connection was at Chicago's O'Hare airport. Needless to say, we went for the very much more expensive direct flight option. My Sister in Law will be here for Christmas, and she's talking about driving all the way from Minnesota rather than submit to these unnecessary procedures.

For crying out loud, one guy got arrested for stripping as a protest at the crotch level pat downs. This situation has gone past satire into WTF! territory without breaking step.

One is minded to remark at this point that Israeli flyers have the highest security risk in the world, and their checks are far less intrusive, and far more cost effective.

P.S. Here's the Eyetube version if Youtube shut the vid down.

Winging it

Well, if you listen to some sources, those who believe in the sovereign rights of the individual are filthy 'right wing' scum. Ookay, does this mean that the following tenets of liberty are evil, such as the right of individuals to;

a) Control their own lives and bodies
b) Own pretty much what they want from their own efforts
c) Talk to who they like, when they like
d) Go where they want

So long as no one does witting harm to others, and makes reparation for same if they do.

So that belief set is somehow very bad, eh?

Hmm....... Yet when you weigh up the alternatives, like;

a) Cradle to grave subjugation by others
b) Collectivisation, regardless of contribution
c) No right to opinions or associations but those approved by 'superiors'
d) Travel and recreation only if sanctioned by 'superiors'

Well, that doesn't seem so great to me. Besides, hasn't this type of society been tried several times during the 20th century and failed miserably? If it was so great, then why did the Soviets need Gulags for dissidents?

No, if Liberty and belief in the rights of the individual is 'right-wing' then I'm a filthy right wing scumbag (Swivel-eyed only when specifically called upon - as my Mum said; "If the wind changes you'll stick like it") and proud of it.

Here endeth the Sunday sermon.

Comment moderation

Following yet another attack of comment spam, my reader is reminded that comment moderation only applies on posts over 48 hours old.

Usual rules apply; pointless ad homs and commercial spam, no matter how disguised, will be deleted without publication. Pertinent, even opposing views, will be published providing they play the ball, not the man. How much more simple do you want?

Won't work mate.....

Much as I share some of the widespread distaste for Bankers' economic misdeeds, I can't help but feel Holby's latest wheeze won't work, even if it is sanctioned by such luminaries as Eric Cantona.

The plan appears to be that everyone should go to their bank or building society on the 7th of December 2010 and withdraw as much money as they can, thus causing the banking system to implode or collapse. The idea presumably is to somehow punish all those greedy bankers for causing the current economic crisis.

If anyone can be bothered to read this, might I say that everyone withdrawing all their money might turn out to be a massive economic own goal.

My reasoning is as follows; Because money is the means of exchange, it's value is relative. In itself, it is not a commodity, but rather an enumeration of work done. Linking it's value to a specific commodity, say gold, is only useful as long as gold is esteemed at a certain value. If gold were to become worthless because it was no longer considered as a valid means of exchange, then any currency linked to it would also lose it's purchasing power. Therefore; money is not a commodity in itself, more a measure of relative value. In short; a currency is only worth what is agreed. If enough people decide that a currency is worthless and sell lots of it for other currencies, its value drops like a rock into a gravitational singularity.

Furthermore, if people do like Holby suggests and withdraw all their money, in order to safeguard the interests of those people who own the banks and various politicians will take steps to 'safeguard the money supply' by ordering the printing of more money so that the banks don't go short. The resulting inflation will only hurt those who withdraw their money only to stuff it into a metaphorical mattress. Likewise, buying items that may hold their worth against inflation, such as land or other commodities, will only protect their investment so long as those commodities are 'agreed' to be worth that much.

So making an assumption that Holby and chums do manage to crash the banking system, the money they've withdrawn, without the backing institutions as personified by those 'eeevil bankers' automatically becomes valueless, and all the poor buggers still with savings lose everything. Take enough money out of an economic system and you end up rather like in Weimar Germany. Because, rather like Space and Time are inextricably bound together, so are Banks and Money. Whether you like it or not, the Banks are the money.

Kind of like trying to stop time, and then finding out all the rules supporting your little pocket of space / time no longer apply, and so by proxy, neither do you. Especially true for those with an urban lifestyle and no real material holdings in land or foodstuffs. That's if you ask me. Not that anyone will of course.

Snow

We have snow, at sea level. Yesterday, on the road from Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan and Duncan we saw snow up on the logging roads, this morning it's down at our level to the waterfront. Only a couple of inches, but we don't normally get snow this early.

As all our neighbours say with a derisive laugh; "Global warming, eh?"

No-one is fooled any more. Man made Climate Change / Global Warming / Climate Disruption was never about science, only politics and the biggest theft in history. Anyone who still claims it will be the death of us all deserves a snowball in the face. With a rock in it as a courtesy extra. Just to drive the message home.