[Publish Date updated to restore to front page]
Okay as an experiment here it is. Discuss your favourite generals here!
Well perhaps… Really this is simply the place to post news-items, fun-items or whatever takes your fancy. In short just post what you want here.
It’s just another wee experiment – comments welcome.
Squonk.
[Image: General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry)]
Ben, panspermia. I’ve never understood the assumption that life must have arisen on Earth.
Hey, highly encouraging news on the possible (probable?) changes to cannabis laws in US states. If the UK follows the US n this, I might end up not being a criminal for quite all of my adult life.
Keeping an eye on that, and the Pluto encounter
panspermia…. Its Fact…. Asteroids Land…Comets Gave us the Oceans
Wonder how Matthew Steven Gould, the MI6 agent on loan to MI5 who helped make the 7/7 suicide bombings by so interfering with those Crawley IT users during Operation Crevice that some of them became terrorists, will observe the 10th anniversary of the massive cockups?
The paranoid reaction to them not only resulted in domestic assassinations but also ones in Iran where Gould then served.
Perhaps he, now the UK’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel, can persuade the IDU to shoot up some more Palestinian boys on a Gaza beach as part of the implementation of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue.
Did anyone like my lightning photos?
I don’t know the interest level but anyone questioning the standard hoo-ha of 9/11 should find a copy of the film Closed Circuit make sure you watch the modus operandi of law enforcement/security services .
It’s somewhat reassuring that these bureaucracies are so slow to change and adapt. Especially since its ahighly successful program that needs no revision since we simpletons keep prat-falling for the same gags made at our expense.
Clark,
Thanks for the pics. Nice images http://www.killick1.plus.com/pictures/2015-07-03-lightning/
lightning photos are super Clark.
i hope you were on the safe side of a window. 🙂
really love the last image … well done, great captures
They are pretty good, Clark – the 7th one in particular is rather, erm, striking…
Now we learn from Edward Snowden’s leaks to Wikileaks that NSA has been spying on Angela Merkel for a very long time on the strong suspicion that she was formerly the Stasi and KGB spy ‘Anita’.
It all started for fear that she was influencing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s defense policy on accepting medium range missiles in the non-nuclear showdown with the USSR which was to be triggered by Olof Palme’s assassination, and continued after the end of the Cold War for fear about Chancellor Kohl’s motives for wanting her to be his successor.
Little wonder that Merkel has compared this spying by NSA to that of the GDR’s Stasi, especially after the Agency and NATO used similar tactics to fix up Andreas Lubitz as the perpetrator of the Germanwings crash.
Thanks folks. Brian, I went to bed and left the camera running. It took over nine thousand pictures in two sessions, the break being to change battery and memory card. The story of the storm is above; July 4, 8:39 am.
Ben, did my answer address your concern about inconsistency? I do try and hope to be consistent, and if I’ve got something wrong I’ll try to put it right.
Clark: No worries. I’ve found it’s better to have low expectations from comments.
Ben, language is always ambiguous at best. When I was young I yearned after some sort of telepathy, such that whole ideas could be transferred mind-to-mind. Now older, having realised how horrible some of the contents of some people’s minds must be, I’m glad of the barriers. But I’ll always try to clarify, time permitting. Discourse is an iterative, cooperative process.
Damn Weather.. Heavy on the Breathing .. Weighs doon on yir Lungs.
And if the midgies, don’t drive ya mad..and the Hornets don’t re-arrange one’s Texture, the it’s the Exposed Cable for the Hedge Trimmer…Happily i am Hotter than Electricity, And AC/DC..but maby not them Lightning bolts, or the Sparks from my Flint Key….Or the Glow from Fireflies, Ah, it mist be the ( Chi ), or in Japan ( Ki ) Energy
Some kool images in from New Horizons at Pluto, Geology.. Mountain ringed craters, Very Dark patches… Good stuff –
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-image-of-pluto-houston-we-have-geology
A wee Catchy coon for the Musical interlude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmCJEehYtU
Ben
And Clark.. Great……Thank You for Peace…..With Hopes…Bros And This Blog Master too
Stay Kool all..
Now the Australian Federal Police are investigating the probable threat of Isis-influenced pilots, crashing planes in suicide missions – thanks to what it has learned about two AirAsia pilots, the airline based in Malaysia, and suffered a still unexplained crash, through mass data-mining of their lives.
How long will it be before the Aussies, who are still looking in the totally wrong area for MH379, claim that its pilots and those of the AirAsia one were so influenced?
Brian: Your comment at cm reflects my own feellings for the climate there. Craig loves the infusion of new posters but something has been lost. I’ve cut way back on my visits but find it depressing to see how it has deterioated. I think it began when craig decided to use it as a platform for (imo) political office, the most decrepit avocation on the planet. By their fruits shall ye know them.
Ben, Craig wants political office because he wants parliamentary privilege. There are a whole lot more beans he could spill under such protection from libel suits.
Clark; You seem to have some insight into Craig I haven’t seen. If his primary persona is as a dissident and that is the overarching motivation, he has no chance in politics unless he is keeping his head down in the weeds to curry favor with the permission gate-keepers, only to turn on them when power is achieved so he can even old scores without fear of legal costs. That would, unfortunately, make him a garden-variety politician to switch positions with such ease of conscience. Ends justify means.
If Craig has other motivations for seeking office and has decided he can’t win without committing to the current discredited system, and has convinced himself it’s not just best for him, but for the rest of his country to buy into establishment rhetoric about the EU, then he will lose the support of those who are most passionate about revising the game plan. My opinion is the latter is true. Dissidents are a minority and Craig has already publicly boasted he doesn’t need their support. I think Craig, in spite of the record of dissidence, is just as deluded about his motivations as any other human bean.
Ben, Craig’s motivations are all in his articles, speeches and comments. He’s made it all quite clear. He wants Scottish independence as best for Scotland, but also because he sees the break-up of the UK as the only kick to the Establishment big enough to effect long-term improvement in the whole of what is presently the UK. He supports membership of the EU for the commitments it has made to human rights, freedom of movement and employment, and its strong economy and consequent improvement of living standards for its populace. He wants radical reform of, or exit from NATO to counter its dominant US-Neocon influence. He’s made all this clear to the SNP membership in his speeches. He’s stated that he would accept rejection as an SNP candidate by a vote among the members but objects to being denied such a vote by the party bureaucracy. He hasn’t “kept his head down”, and consequently the gatekeepers have kept him out – “no chance”, as you said, and as we’ve just seen regarding selection of SNP candidates for Westminster.
Craig doesn’t want to be a dissident; it’s a role he can’t avoid in the current environment of corruption and hypocrisy. He wants to change the political environment into one in which he wouldn’t be a dissident.
Ben, I, too, miss the friendly atmosphere that used to prevail at Craig’s blog, but things were bound to change as more people started commenting at the site. I wish some of the old-time regulars would make more effort to get on with the newcomers; I see that Suhayl struck up a decent conversation with Habbabkuk on the Zionism is Bullshit thread. Habbabkuk, for instance, gets people’s backs up with his escalation of personal flame-exchanges, but in the realm of political argument, Habbabkuk often gets criticised for positions he’s never advanced.
” I wish some of the old-time regulars would make more effort to get on with the newcomers;”
Clark; With respect let me say that the newcomers come with their own baggage and should respect the need for civility as newbies. It’s quite difficult to separate meaningful expressions from the extreme narcissism (Over here! Look at Me!) when the insecurities continually spill over the dike. It makes for a nasty and brutish venue for expressing yourself clearly. There still seems to be some brittle cooperation within the little cliques of temporary alliance, but for the most part it’s a street brawl with chaos being fanned with some glee as the fire spreads. Hab and Anon seem to deserve the lion’s-share of credit for the state of affairs, but they have had lots of firebugs helping. Hey, Craig! It’s healthy, wot?
Ben, we’re all guilty to some extent. “Should” is a troublesome word:
CLIVE: Wh-, I’ll tell you what is more important than life itself and that is raspberry jam.
DEREK: Up the arse. With a plate of spam.
CLIVE: Raspberry jam should not go up your arse. It should go down-, it-
DEREK: It shouldn’t, but it does! It fucking does, mate! Oh-h, you put raspberry jam out, mate, and you take your drawers off, fucking stuff goes WHA-AAY!! (blows raspberry) Right up the arsehole!
CLIVE: No, I, I wish that was true. I was that was tr-
DEREK: Oh-h, you don’t know, you don’t know the nature of raspberry jam, mate.
CLIVE: Oh, I know the nature o-. Perhaps you’re confusing it with strawberry jam.
DEREK: I’m not confusing it with- ….. no, I’m not, mate.
CLIVE: Oh, yes, you’re con-fucking con-strewing, y-, y-, you’re confusing it with strawberry jam.
DEREK: No, I’m not con-strthrrp-thrrp wrrhp wrrhp with any-pthp-thing.
CLIVE: Str-, oh, yes, yes, yes, that jam goes up your arse …..
DEREK: Oh, fuck off. Cunt.
CLIVE: Strawberry jam goes up your arse. G’an fuck’ell …..
DEREK: Loganberry jam is another kettle of fish.
CLIVE: Well, don’t talk to me about loganberry jam.
DEREK: WHY NOT!!
CLIVE: Who brought up the subject of loganberry jam? It wasn’t me.
DEREK: I brought up the loganberry jam, you brought up the strawberry jam! I don’t care who brought up what!
CLIVE: Well, the fact you brought up the loganberry jam is nothing to do with me.
DEREK: Well, I don’t care! Frankly …..
CLIVE: Well, why do you fucking bother then?
DEREK: Frankly, I don’t fucking care!
CLIVE: Listen, if-, …..
DEREK: Listen you-, what you saying, you cunt?
CLIVE: ….. Listen, you fucking cunt, …..
DEREK: Who you talking to?
CLIVE: ….. you can’t even fucking argue, you can’t talk rationally, …..
DEREK: You cunt! Who you-, who you telling to the- fucking listen?
CLIVE: ….. you’re so stupid, …..
DEREK: You stupid- . You c- …..
CLIVE: ….. you can’t talk rationally, …..
DEREK: RATIONALLY??
Not sure of the context clark. Unless you include Craig as a shoulda woulda coulda.All are guilty of being human beans? Granted. What makes Craig or yourself conclude he might make enough difference to motivate he voter?
Great Photos Clark I slept right through it, bar a distant bit of rumbling, come to mention it.
when you say ‘ Discourse is an iterative, cooperative process.’ I can wholly agree. Sometimes its beyond all of us to find the right words, indeed we are so enthralled by the here and now, that we forget to communicate at all.
I sometimes fail to communicate when I’m confronted with breath taking beauty, whether its the landscape, the intricate facile of an insects eye or my grandson. I also fail to communicate when I’m very angry, as if reaching a different level of consciousness.
Nobody is perfect, we can only be judged by what we say we’re going to do, whether we do it or not.
Ben:
Well I can speak for myself; Craig’s arguments have motivated me to various things.
As for Craig, well, he ran as an independent candidate in Blackburn and Norwich North, so he knows how many (or few) voters he definitely motivated there – we’ll never know how many were motivated but thought they’d best vote otherwise due to the voting system. But I think that isn’t the question. Given the chance, he’ll present his arguments to the voters and let them decide. Certain parties do not want that to happen, eg. the Labour party urging the SNP not to accept him as a candidate – he must be doing something right! Labour must have thought he could win a seat. If they were sure he’d lose they’d have had no incentive to mention him to their SNP rivals at all.
Nevermind, thanks, and good to see you here.
You’re very connected to the inside or so it seems, clark. All I can assess is by my limited vantage point. Ego and vanity have consistently made their impact on politics and I see no trends that don’ t promise to continue the dominance. I’m not expecting perfection from human beans. I prefer to think I am discrininatory toward those who actually embody public service. I think Craig is more for Craig and I’m sure that’s the rub between us.
Ben, Craig does a lot of human rights work, too; advising and advocating against deportations, for instance. If he was all for himself in politics he could climb the greasy pole much more successfully if he didn’t piss off the powerful and the media so frequently. He could support Israel, which seems to open a lot of opportunities. He could put advertisements on his blog. He didn’t have to throw away money standing and campaigning for election. Yeah, Craig’s for Craig, but the Craig he’s for (and is) really is for decency. He’s also great to work with in person – friendly, cooperative, humorous, light-hearted, compassionate, industrious. He has his faults, of course, but I won’t expound on those in public lest others use them as a stick to beat him with. But really, he’s just a nice bloke, which is probably why he’s had zero success at becoming a politician despite over a decade of effort.
Ben, my connection, apart from sporadic involvement with the blog, has been working with Craig at the festival (I wired the bar tent, changed a lot of barrels, rearranged the side canvases for warmth and set up the space heater, made shopping runs for bar supplies etc.) and driving him to various Scottish Independence events.
Thanks, clark.
My buddy finally remembered the strain of three of the girls. Tangerine Dream is hard to find, but I have three 30 inch getting some pre-flowers. It’s a cross between Haze a-5 and G-13, the famous afghani import designed by USdotgov according to legends.
They are gorgeous and I love walking amongst them. Quite pleased with their progress in spite of my black thumb. 🙂 As my buddy says ‘they’re just weeds, man. Don’t pamper them.”
El Nino, you little bastard. Can you break our drought?
“Exactly how this all gets kicked off is an area of active research, but it’s clear that big El Niños need deviant trade winds to maintain the feedback loop. During especially strong El Niños, like this year’s promises to be, the trade winds can sometimes reverse direction—and this week’s off-the-charts wind surge is at record-strength for so early in an El Niño event. Since all this takes place in the tropical Pacific Ocean—the planet’s biggest bathtub—a fully mature El Niño has the power to shift rainfall odds worldwide and boost global temperatures. That’s exactly what’s happening this year.
As proof: An area of the central Pacific, straddling the equator, is now the warmest on record for this time of year, crushing the previous record. So far, the 2015 El Niño is strengthening at a rate equal to, if not slightly greater than some of the strongest El Niños since comprehensive ocean recordkeeping began in 1870.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/07/el_ni_o_typhoons_in_the_pacific_ocean_will_have_global_consequences.html
Of course, no mention of HAARP heating up El Nino in the Western Pacific to make tropical storms into cyclones which circle around the Pacific rim, and ultimately bring the rain to drought-strcken California, the only way that the Alaska facility can do so.
Low sunspot activity could lead to a Maunder minimum such as experienced in the late 16th century.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11733369/Earth-heading-for-mini-ice-age-within-15-years.html
Now the fucking scientists are predicting a new ice age while still complaining about global warming.
I’m no engineer or meteorologist but I think the aberrant trade winds are like the coils/compressor of an air-conditioner. The hot air is transferred out and cool air remains inside the insulated structure (refrigerator or house). This is where climate change denial gets it’s energy. How can the earth be warming and cooling at the same time?
“Scientists say…” – oh how my heart sinks whenever I read that opening.
The Daily Telegraph is well known for global warming denial, which is presumably why they have given prominence to a single report from Prof Valentina Zharkova of the University of Northumbria. She’s predicting a solar minimum that will last about ten years. No link is given to her original paper, however, a prominent link is given, after the first paragraph, to another Telegraph global warming denial article with a record number of comments:
This stinks of corporate propaganda to me.
Let’s hope Prof Zharkova is right; it may buy us time in the race against global warming which the world’s governments seem supremely reluctant to enter let alone run. But we’re talking about a presentation by a hitherto unknown solar physicist at a National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, not a prominent Cambridge climate scientist presenting at the Royal Society. And even if Zharkova’s new model proves accurate, it does nothing to prevent the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere so when the Sun returns to normal, global warming will resume with increased vigour.
Conversely, Ben’s Slate link fits with long-standing mainstream predictions of increasing extremity of meteorological and climactic conditions; this El Niño looks set to break all records, with Pacific typhoons inflicting unprecedented damage. This is exactly what the climate scientists have been warning us about for decades.
Trowbridge, HAARP has a declared output power of 3.6 megawatt. The total electricity generation facility amounts to 12.5 megawatt. The variation between El Niño and La Niña and is about one billion megawatt. Really, you’d have more effect attacking a rhino with a toothpick.
” How can the earth be warming and cooling at the same time?”
That wasn’t truly a rhetorical question. But it should inspire some critical thinking, clark.
The idea is that there are enclosed spaces which by way of pressure systems and windage could be like a refrigerator, while a neighbor is getting the vent exhaust.
Making complicated things simple is the way I think. Limited, as that may seem.
Ben, good analysis; it was Trowbridge’s comments that got me fired up.
Trowbridge, thanks for getting me thinking. The info I looked up proved useful at Craig’s:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/07/the-embargo-on-the-truth-about-the-iranian-arms-embargo/comment-page-1/#comment-539299
“scientists say…”
I know, Clark, I know. What a useless, lazy way to introduce a straw man.
” How can the earth be warming and cooling at the same time?”
It’s True Ben… i’m Fifty … Never has a Scottish Summer Been so Cold.
Sqounk’s Absence as wee Reminder..as i read…. Stay Srrong AA
Ben It is real…. Our summer has been like a Winter.. And Now we have a Fkn Heat wave on…. We Know El Ninio Was on
“Scientists say… ..as if all scientists speak with one voice. As if science wasn’t an adversarial process within the scientific community. An utterly false appeal to authority.
“O’Grady says do this…”
WHICH BLOODY SCIENTISTS?
Squonk, get on a plane or train and get down here in the warm. I’ll drive you back in three weeks.
I cant get warm this Fucking Summer…. But they Say a Heatwave is on,,, Squonk Stay The fuck STRONG…..you put this blog together.. and i / we respect what you have done….. peace Bro
Clark did you see That Exon Spent 27 years Buying off Scientists……..Peace Bro
What if Iran already has nuclear weapons which are deeply hidden, like in that test chamber, east of Hosseinabad, which was conveniently collapsed, apparently by the NRO, to gain Senate approval of the new START treaty?
All discussions about the treaty seem to be based on the unstated, unverified assumption that it doesn’t.
We will probably only find out if the West starts dropping bunker buster bombs to destroy them.
Here’s the press release from the Royal Astronomical Society.
http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/2680-irregular-heartbeat-of-the-sun-driven-by-double-dynamo
It is important to note that this mathematical model makes no temperature predictions and it is still just a possible model. The mini ice age stuff has been added mainly by the press not the solar scientists although some previous work has shown that some areas of the planet could be cooler during a grand solar minimum but that increased CO2 forcing still dominates over the slight solar drop.
Here’s a comment from the admins at realclimate
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2015/07/unforced-variations-july-2015/comment-page-2/#comments
Brian nothing really in sight on the mid range forecasts to give us a settled period of warmth in Scotland. Bloody jetstream just won’t stop blowing over us bringing in waves of low pressure systems. However a lot of heat is trapped south of the jet in Europe and there is still a possibility that finally makes it up here in August and stays there. I’m crossing my fingers!
Here’s some previous work from NASA on how such a small drop in solar irradiance can have a much greater effect on surface temperatures
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7122
Whew! That was quite an effort to draw you out, AA. 🙂
So many variables involved in weather it boggles the mind. It reminds me of the secret life of plants. Humans only see through a glass, darkly.
Cheers, Brian. Look on the bright side. Next time you go to the Hebrides you might get there with ice skates and avoid seasickness. 🙂
Squonk, good to see you – on your own blog! You’ll be welcome at Writtle Park during the solar minimum.
Looks like I have hit a raw nerve by suggesting that Iran already has nuclear weapons, as The Local in Sweden, where I have posted for years, has suddenly prevented me from even logging in there. much less starting a thread there about it.
There is no other way to explain how Iran would have gone along with these strict demands so happily unless it already has them.
Now the IAEA can look high and low, around the clock, as much as it wants, and still come up with nothing.
The old Supreme Leader has really pulled off a gigantic one.