valiant

Snow has just reached here ....

Just starting snowing here ......

Don't know whether I'm east or west mids ... but we've had the first snow flurry here.

First snow flurry here ......

There was an interesting debate on R4 yesterday about the Victorian schools knocked down to be replaced by schools made of wood and dripping with "eco-bling" in the form of self opening windows, bio mass boilers, grass roofs, etc. They have to have the security lights on all night to get insured. The bio mass boilers go wrong and simply don't do their job. They have to be backed up by gas boilers. My first school had town gas, manufactured 400 yards away. It wasn't pumped from Siberia via Ukraine. The roof has slipped off its frame. The caretaker hasn't got a masters degree in advanced electronics - and so can't fix anything. When an independant energy consultant was brought in to compare the energy efficiency of an existing Victorian school to a new Eco school - there was little difference. Except there is a difference. The hidden national debt masquerading as the PFI initiative means that my children will be paying through the nose to rent back the new schools from the private contractors at the cost of billions per annum. Politicians have conned voters concerned about the environment into paying for pre-election propaganda in the form of pointless new, over complicated public buildings and other environmental fashion statements such as wind turbines.

It's all about control. One way or the other.

Looks like the less carbon we pump out, the warmer Europe gets. How ironic. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7838358.stm Bring back the pea soupers I say.

“This coming week, maximum daytime temperatures will be between 2C (36F) and 4C (39F) but temperatures at night could be well below zero for many places,” said Stephen Holman, forecaster at the Met Office. What's "Siberian" about that? I could be a daft journalist. I could do that. Gizza job. Go on. I could do that.

The Horribly White BBC is biased in virtually everything it does because it has been politicised, like most non-elected organisations. These organisations attract the un-electable and those into propaganda and control freakery. From Robert ("You've never had it so good as under New Labour") Peston to the weather men talking ever so slowly to us as if we were 5 years old - they have lost all credibility with me.

10 minute, bigflake snowfall here. Continuing.

I'd be quite happy to let the AGW proponents have their way IF they could come up with a way to cut carbon emissions without the cure having a bigger carbon footprint than the savings. If it costs more (eg wind turbines) then it must cost more because it's obviously consuming more. Roll on the world recession. Perhaps when too many people have stopped producing too many goods and services we don't need and stop riding around the world delivering them - maybe we'll reduce pollution. But who am I? I don't have a relevant degree or, better still, a doctorate to cement my credibility. Just a nobody really. "He's as blind as he can be, Just sees what he wants to see, Nowhere Man can you see me at all?"

Here are typical odds if you fancy putting your cash where your predictions are .... http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/white-christmas.htm But don't give up the day job.

So uncomfortable that research suggests a net gain to the human race in terms of increased food production and reduced deaths due to cold weather. Also, a net increase of up to 5% in global GDP over the next 70 years. Given that my standard of living has been plummeting by 10% pa in real terms over the last 2/3 years .. climate change is well down the list of real problems affecting me - or the human race as a whole. After that, the scenario may switch. I'll wait for more accurate updates in 2078 before I make my conclusions in the Great Global Change Debate. Will I still be posting when I'm 121?

It's cheaper to buy healthy food but people are too bone idle or tired to cook it. Don't fall for the "people are living longer" myth. People who were born in 1923 and eat a starvation diet until 1955 are living longer ... not the bloated individuals I see lumbering out of their 4WD's on the supermarket carpark. People are living shorter lives .. they just haven't died yet to make up the statistics.

We'll have less of that, thankyou :huh:

I passed my driving test in May 1976 and immediately got myself a job as ... an ice cream van driver. On commission .... ££££££££££ B)

My open fire is invasive. It heats my room by a catastrophic 10 degrees within an hour. I sit 10 feet away from it all night - but I don't boil inside my pajamas. Has this post raised the interlectual bar in this discussion?

Is much of it to do with projections on population growth? If so, then I've read that the biggest drag on population growth is an increase in wealth, coupled with the education of women - based on African studies. China and India's problems down the line may be catastrophic recessions caused by a sudden drop in the birth rate and an ageing population. A bit like Britain.

We had an escaped colony of Wallabies for a number of years in the Staffordshire Moorlands near the MOD firing ranges. Imagine one of those appearing in the cross hairs after a heavy night on the beer :lol: .

Isn't it the ethanol that produces 20% more CO2? People need to carry out a full cost benefit analysis on these PC panaceas. I wonder if the propoganda words "sustainable" and "renewable" will be enough to convince the public about wind power for example ... when they realise that it will put UP everyone's electricity bill. If "free" wind is more expensive, everything else probably will be too. If it costs more, it's probably because it's consuming more.

Did my parachute jump there. They made me insure myself for £10 million in case I dropped down the chimney of the tractor factory.

Don't add fish at all ... they will eat all the mini-beasts in the pond. A water supply to drink/bathe in attracts the birds as much as food . I keep my feeders under tree canopies or large shrubs. Otherwise it's a killing field for Sparrowhawks.

Cat scarer Save the wild life you've got.

My wife tells me that c.1972 she was staying in a caravan in Saundersfoot, South Wales when there was a hail storm that broke windows, followed by a night storm that tossed caravans around like matchboxes. She slept through it - but in the morning the site was a scene of utter devastation. Is this a well documented event? It took place in "Potters holidays" ie the June fortnight when the pottery workers of N. Staffs took their summer break.

I passed my driving test in '76 and foolishly got a summer job driving an ice cream van! I was on 18% commission with cornets 8 p each - but didn't earn a higher weekly wage until I was 35