Aside Post
two pics from latest trip and two for guessing what they are
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boswellia_sacra
This incense is under threat according to news i heard, the Boswellia Sacra tree produces incense when tapped like a rubber tree. It grows in north East Africa, Yemen and Oman. Cited causes of decline are climate change, over tapping and over grazing.
From Yellow taxi, ” well you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”, and Elton ” its sad. so sad, its a sad sad situation” its all in the songs but we don’t learn from them or any other medium.
Been trying to get the Science magazine that has an article on the plight of …
I have been trying to follow this Euro pack debate and economists make some sense as you can follow their line of thinking be it with a slant from banking to industrialists. While the politicians make little sense, unless you happen to be that naive to believe them. Recently PM Cameron is both lauded and denounced particularly by the word press and I have to say on the radio, much my preferred news medium. But although it’s obviously complicated why is it so difficult to predict where the UK will be now Cameron has dealt his (our) veto card? and …
Status
Very happy with this new blog design and the new logo, Im sure everyone can guess the bird in the logo, I know Dad can!
Well as you can see I have revamped your blog with my brand new theme (still in beta)! You will see in the admin that you have some “theme options” and when writing posts you can now use a variety of formats (I’ll show you what these are all about).
This is a belated birthday gift as I just couldnt finish the damn thing in time (probably because I didnt start it early enough). Its still a work in progress however so updates will be fairly regular!
Ive also upgraded to the latest version and done all your plugins too.…
Dec 2nd by Ian under Miscellaneous
When you see a crowd of photographers around a celeb or person notorious, you see/hear many £k’s worth of cameras on multishot or continuous shot. I just wondered about the number of photos now taken daily in the digital age? Most phones have cameras, ipods, tablets all take photos. Lets have an estimate just to get a number, lets say a quarter of the population have a means to take a photo, 7 billion/ 4 = 1.75 billion and they take a photo at least once per week, that’s 91 billion annually, and for a range say once per day …
Nov 10th by Ian under Bird Watching, Miscellaneous
On leave from the Shetlands, the mist at home lifted, the sun came out and I wheezed up Kinnoul hill in Perth. Heard long tailed tits with blues and greats, a pair of jays and a buzzard. Saw ravens, longtailed tits, jackdaws and a peregrine that obligingly went into a stoop over Barnshill and disappeared from my view. Meanwhile I was snapping with my panasonic DMC FZ7 and my Canon EOS 550 D, you can see the comparison above, the canon shots are on top and the brighter less real shots are the panasonics below. The canon camera to my …
Jun 19th by Ian under Miscellaneous
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0120dm1
This link to Newsweek Scotland woke me from the reverie of warm downy cosiness, minute 18 to 36 is the poignant part. Nothing less than the downfall of the euro zone. The reason I bring it to your attention it is that I believe it, and I am not so sure why, perhaps it is because I believe politicians (in general) do not understand economics. The non control of the banking system is testimony to even the monetary erudite Mr Brown’s failure to understand the system, he understood how to fix it, just as well. But what this 18 …
May 30th by Ian under Miscellaneous
I well remember the library opening in Eaglesham in the 60′s, our house didn’t have any readable children’s books. The library’s written words in accessible books made me a reader, a learner, an open door to understanding. Audio books? books on Kindle? who cares just absorb more words.
Words waiting
Hidden on closed pages
Latent power, latent influence
Just words; waiting
Waiting to be read
Waiting to be understood
Poetic words; patiently proscribed
Novel words; creative
Factual words; educative
But just print on a page
In your language
Waiting to be read
Waiting to be understood…
http://climatecodered.blogspot.com/2010/01/pine-island-glacier-loss-must-force.html
use link, and yes there are probably too many climate warnings and failed global meetings for this or any other disaster climate warnings to be heeded. But surely there is now ( apart from G W Bush and followers) a realisation, in the West, that the planets climate is changing, it is more unpredictable and the cause is rising CO2 levels.
From the failed global meetings, emergent nations are not going to voluntary reduce their economic advancement in line with the the emerged nations wishes who have obtained economic strength by the present levels of CO2. They are on …
Feb 14th by Ian under Miscellaneous
Well here is the update from my previous post on buyer beware on buying car insurance. Here’s the summary, did not receive new proposal one month before renewal date, did not realise we had automatic renewal, did not know we had re insured a car we nearly had sold until I noticed the bank statement, had a phone barney, followed up by diatribe letters (from me) So had £269 taken from my account and was given back £131 for the pleasure of insuring a car for 14 days, or less depending on the date the insurance was cancelled.
I have …
Jan 30th by Ian under Materials and Construction, Miscellaneous
http://trustart.org/projects/109-bamboo-bikes
This caught my attention during the week, this is entrepreneurial Americans at their best. I am no lover of America or Americans but this project is just superb. Now we need bamboo towers that when properly anchored can support a turbine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8257153.stm
see above link if you think I was dreaming.
Everything is possible
If the “system” allows…
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/01/electric-superbike-kicks-some-gas-bike-ass
No wonder the gulf states are trying to build futures for their population beyond oil. How soon a F1 electric car? or a diesel running on chip fat, sometimes I feel good about Homo Sapiens and the possibility of a technology fix for our planet. It usually stops when I hear/read about the unacceptable face of capitalism, or in short, bankers. Remember the instability in 30 countries in 2008, food riots? well guess who figures in the cause of the instability? none other that Goldmann Sachs, plus others no doubt. Allegedly by “betting” on the future price of core …
coral reefs
straight forward and honest politicians (could be too late)
Pandas in the wild
polar bears in the wild
bankers without bonus
cuckoos
much of Bangladesh
Non Chinese patents and copyright in China
cheap petrochemical fuel (America, Middle east ? this should be last on the list as it may last longer than the others, it is in fact causal in the others demise)
Bees ( and then the plants they fertilise)
I would welcome other suggestions…
Dec 29th by Ian under Miscellaneous
Beware these, that is even if you know you have one, I didn’t, and became aware when the money was removed from my account absolutely to my surprise. The perpetrators of this deed are Quote Mart, they are a trading name of BISL Ltd, the real insurers are ABC insurance, and get this they are a trading style, yes style, of the Liverpool Victoria group of companies. It is even more complicated as the courtesy car is by another insurer and the motor legal protection is yet by another.
Although new to me this type of automatic renewal has been …