Focalplane

Disconnected!

2011-03-20T09:36:00.001Z

If you follow this blog (you are one of three people!) then it is now only available using the direct link. Focalplane.com has been isolated and a new site uploaded to promote my professional photographic services.

Libya

2011-03-05T21:58:00.001Z

Ronald Reagan, where are you?

Blues win Carling Cup!

2011-02-27T17:59:00.002Z

The real, original Blues, a.k.a. Birmingham City Football Club, just won the Carling Cup, beating Arsenal 2-1. I am over the moon!

But I had to follow the match on the internet, with no broadcast TV to watch. And I have to say that the Telegraph was pathetic, the BBC OK and the Guardian incredibly one-sided. When Blues scored the winning goal a minute from full time, this is what was posted:

"What a disaster. Birmingham have surely won it!"

It is possible that the disaster referred to a mix up between Arsenal defenders, but I didn't have the benefit of a TV screen to work that out.

And in the first few minutes, Blues were denied a red card and a penalty with a foul that was deemed not a foul because the player was offside. Except the replays apparently showed he was on side. Doesn't matter now, of course.

Well done, Blues - KRO!!!

New MacBook Pros announced

2011-02-25T14:50:00.002Z

Some interesting boundary-pushing innovations, indeed. But I do have a problem with the language:

"All three models are now up to twice as fast"

That doesn't mean a whole lot!

Just how virtual have we become?

2011-02-21T17:41:00.002Z

I am listening to Philip Sheppard's score for the movie "In The Shadow Of The Moon", a documentary movie covering the Apollo Mission to land men on the moon. Uplifting music, as it should be, given the incredible feats that were accomplished at the time.

Then I wondered what the response to Jack Kennedy's urgings on winning the space race would be today. I suppose modern society could achieve the same success, but at the same time I think the engineering practicalities have been thrown out with the baby and the bathwater. We think we can simulate better than we can act these days, though typical models seem to fail at even coming close to reality these days. Just think "global warming".

So, while I applaud NASA's commitment to forward planning in space, I do have to wonder if the capabilities of the 1960s have been lost by a generation accustomed to doing everything as a simulation.

Ashton Park and Woodville

2011-02-19T09:40:00.002Z

I have started a blog for the grandchildren which relates the building of a small model railway. Here is the link.

Progress varies, but there will be a new post this weekend!

The future of personal computers

2011-01-08T11:17:00.003Z

I recently acquired an 11.6" MacBook Air (MBA). Weighing in at just over 1 kilogram (2.3 pounds) this is a fully functioning Mac capable of running heavyweight software such as Aperture. It is not a netbook lookalike.

It is missing some functionality, however. No optical drive! No Firewire! No mechanical hard drive! No ethernet port! Instead it uses wi-fi to load software, the two USB ports provide fast access to the solid state drive (128BG) which itself is way faster than a conventional mechanical hard drive. And an ethernet/USB dongle is available should you need one.

The processor speed is relatively slow but as noted above, disk access more than compensates. And the same SSD provides almost instant wake up from sleep mode. Even booting up is much faster.

The fear I had was that the lack of an optical drive would be a problem. It isn't, particularly from the perspective of future software purchases. First, the MBA can "borrow" an optical drive from another Mac or PC. Software loading takes a little longer but the advantage of course is that I do not have to carry the extra weight if a drive around with me. But now the Mac App Store has arrived and the delivery of most Mac software will be through an iTunes style download system. Some software prices have come down considerably (Aperture from $200 to $80, for example) and the ease of buying and updating could not be better.

In short, this is the personal computer concept for the future. Well done, Apple!

No more comments

2010-12-18T19:42:00.001Z

It's quite simple. I am fed up with stupid comments to certain posts. So from now on there won't be any. This blog stays on line only for the archival value.

Social? Hardly.

One Classy Lady!

2010-07-20T16:44:00.002Z

Yes, Mary Chapin Carpenter has done it again. Her latest album, The Age of Miracles, is another milestone in her career and it is packed with good stuff. My favorite at the moment is Mrs. Hemingway, a soulful ballad set in Paris as a young American couple (the Hemingways) find their feet in a strange and wonderful city. Unfortunately, the new bride finds herself marginalized as Ernest falls in love with her best friend and discards her. But the song reminisces about those heady days. I quote a few lines:

there’s Sancerre and oysters
and cathedrals and cloisters
and time, with its unerring aim…

Good stuff indeed but there's more, so I'll let you buy the album to find out!

And to top it off, we have tickets to her concert in Town Hall, Birmingham!

iPhone 4 - what's the problem?

2010-07-16T10:10:00.002Z

OK, I don't own one and I have only picked one up in the local Apple store and admired its looks. So I haven't actually used one, but I still very much want to upgrade to one when I can work out the best plan (why do they make them so compliqué?)

The point is, I will buy a case for mine so that when it accidentally falls on a concrete floor it won't get damaged. Apparently a case (or bumper as some want to call the device that separates sweaty palm from antenna strip) is all that's needed to prevent calls from dropping. Problem (what problem?) automatically solved!

And I was sure other smart phones have similar problems. A search revealed several models do indeed have similar problems.

England and the World Cup

2010-06-27T16:12:00.003Z

After all the hype, all the money, all the bullshit - England goes out with a bang against their old nemesis, Germany. There was even a disallowed goal to assist their demise. Do I care. Not a bit. Why? Well, here's a short list.

Football in England is owned by the Premiership, with some teams fielding 11 foreign players. This is clearly a big mistake if England is ever to foster talent.

Too often player power gets in the way. Players are team players, though you often would not know it.

The media is England's worst enemy when it tries to be its best friend.

Fabio Capello was a mistake. Notice that he renegotiated his contract days before the World Cup started. Talk about an incredible insurance policy! The FA will pay up. Never is a lesson learned when an organization believes its own bullshit.

English fans deserve better after all that hype but maybe they should just start to recognize the truth and boycott a few internationals.

I am honestly pleased that England are out of the World Cup - not for the fans who truly believed, but for my own sanity. I can now follow my priorities and "get a life"!

Letter to the Telegraph

2010-05-19T07:48:00.001Z

SIR – Mr Simmons is correct that the weedkiller sodium chlorate has been banned throughout the EU (Letters, May 17).
Consequently it is widely available throughout France.

Computer Models and the Met Office

2010-04-20T06:52:00.002Z

The criticisms of the UK Met Office's handling of the Iceland volcanic ash problem are rolling in. This once august enterprise has fallen on hard times, it seems, and much of this is because the scientists based at the new centre in Exeter seem to rely upon computer models rather than gather empirical data.

It is often the case that, if you happen to be in the Exeter area, the weather you experience is quite differenet from that which the Met Office is reporting. Do they have windows in their buildings? Possibly not, because computer screens are more easily viewed in darkened, inside rooms.

Here is a damning list of errors the Met office has made in recent years.

What needs to be added to the list is the fact that computer models are also the main criteria used to predict climate change. Huge political decisions have been made on the backs of spurious computer models that furnish similar predictions to those failures in the linked article. Some of these computer models were generated and promoted by the Met Office.

So why is it that politicians put so much trust in them?

Iceland

2010-04-18T08:04:00.003Z

Some thoughts from a geologist on the impact of the latest volcanic eruption on Iceland.

Iceland is entirely built of volcanic material. It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a plate boundary that is pulling apart, allowing new crust to form. Unlike most of the ridge, Iceland is above sea level and represents a "hot spot" along the ridge where there is exceptional activity.

We have known about Iceland's volcanoes for several centuries but only in the last 50 years have we understood the underlying plate tectonic mechanism. Iceland's volcanoes have been studied in much detail and there is good historical evidence for the frequency of eruptions, etc.

Volcanic ash is composed of very fine particles produced by violent eruptions within the volcano's vent. Much of this ash is derived from basalt or andesite lava and can be very finely crystalline. Sometimes the lava can cool so quickly it does not crystallize at all but becomes a glass (the mineral and semi-precious stone called obsidian). This glass component would appear to be one cause of mechanical degradation within machinery such as jet engines.

Because the eruptions eject vast amounts of ash directly into the upper atmosphere, the ash becomes subject to wind currents. In the upper atmosphere the jet stream, which flows from west to east, carries the ash in a general eastward direction. In summer, the northern jet stream migrates further north, which may have important ramifications for the months ahead should the volcano continue to erupt.

There is no easy way to determine when the volcano will cease its current activity. It will dissipate its internal pent up energy, so we can expect a general slowing down of activity. Days, weeks or months? No-one can be really sure but the chances are that ash content should fall to a manageable level sooner rather than later.

Can mankind do anything about this situation - why aren't we able to control this problem? Plate tectonic activities - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis - are the most powerful forces on earth. There is nothing we can do to prevent them and there is no reason why we would think that we could stop or control them. We can't even predict them with any certainty.

The situation many people find themselves in today is difficult, to say the least. The problem is, we have been lulled into a sense of well-being and a belief that somehow we can be in control of Nature. Nowhere is this belief more pronounced than in the debate on anthropogenic global warming, a creed that is universally adopted by politicians and most of the media. It is therefore no wonder that so many lay people are taken in by the concept that we should not be hindered in our every day life by the machinations of Mother Nature.

Recently I read that scientists want to create a new geologic period. The Holocene (a.k.a. a time period considered to be "Recent") should now be relegated to geologic history as we are now in the "Anthropocene" Period, a time when Homo sapiens dominates the planet.

Only problem is, we don't dominate the planet. We barely influence a very small part of it.

Finally, I noticed that one BBC article on the volcanic ash story refers to some people who predicted rotten vegetables and flowers stuck in East Africa as "experts". I was so pleased to see that geologists are not referred to as "experts". Some of us may be experts in our particular field, but we remain, first and foremost, geologists.

Google Street View and the SAS

2010-03-19T21:42:00.004Z

I just saw this report that has the UK Government worried that Google's Street View images of the SAS HQ in Herefordshire could compromise security. Actually, I have little sympathy for the government's position. As a country, the UK has more surveillance cameras pointed at its citizens than even the Soviet Union did in its heyday. "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" comes to mind.

Besides, numerous books have been published about the SAS HQ and it would not be difficult for a would be terrorist to work out where the SAS is headquartered, regardless of Google Street View.

But the most significant point in defense of Google's position is that all its street-view images are photographed from a public space. That alone means that it has done no wrong and in no way should Google bow to pressure to remove the images from the internet. The ramifications of doing such a thing would be far reaching.

Besides, the entrance to the SAS HQ doesn't exactly show very much about what may or may not be going on inside!

My take on High Speed 2

2010-03-18T13:14:00.003Z

The recent announcement in a pre-election atmosphere that a short (120 mile) route of 250 mph high speed rail will be ready to board in 2026 is supposed to have us all in raptures.

First some, questions:

Q. Is Britain’s rail system creaking, under-financed and in some areas hopelessly over-subscribed?

A. Yes, the system is near breaking point and many (but not all) of the current problems appear to be related to privatization and compartmentalization of the once under-funded national system. Train ridership has increased dramatically over the last ten years but train frequency and train capacity has not. As a result the number of available cheap fares have been reduced, causing a huge increase in revenue that the public doesn’t believe is being re-invested.

Q. Most commuters feel that more needs to be done to improve their lot and that is certainly understandable - imagine paying thousands a year for a season ticket that never provides you with a seat in the rush hour. In a moment of self-serving pique, most commuters would rightly surmise that money needs to be thrown in their direction.

A. Commuters have a strong case in being disgruntled (I was one in the pre-privatization era and hated every moment of being on a London commuter train - or was it a sardine can on wheels?) The problem in commuterland is that the trains can’t get much longer and they can’t go bi-level due to the historically restricted loading gauge. The money required to improve commuter services may be even more than the budget for high speed rail.

Q. Britain is a relatively small country in terms of high speed rail issues. Is 250 mph really necessary or is this a game of future one-up-man-ship over other countries’ plans? Why not simply upgrade existing lines to go a bit faster?

A. I don’t think 250 mph is necessary. 186 mph would be fine. A decision to pare down the speed below that would allow existing tracks to be used but that would go against the above points - the existing system is already at bursting point in many areas. Dedicated high speed lines rated to 186 mph (300 kmph) as in Europe would make sense in that off the shelf technology is available at a much reduced component cost and trains would work over a wider network.

Q. Britain is generally considered to be London-centric. Are other UK cities important and should they be connected by high speed rail to Europe? If they should be, then how?

A. Herein lies a major problem with the new High Speed 2 plan. Suppose you want to travel by rail from Brussels to Birmingham? Eurostar to St. Pancras, High Speed 2 from Euston to Birmingham. Say what? You lop a few minutes off a rail timetable and expect people to walk or tube from St. Pancras to Euston? That’s a crock. Why not, just as a suggestion, consider trains that originate in Birmingham or further north which stop in London before continuing on to Lille/Paris/Brussels? Hardly a rocket science suggestion. Britain is London-centric but this does not benefit a majority of the population in any way, even if Londoners can’t see it!

Q. Can Britain afford to even think about a new rail system when its economy is apparently almost as bad as Greece’s? Why wasn’t something done when the country had the funds available?

A. Britain has a track record of wasting the good years. All that revenue from North Sea oil seems to have disappeared with no evidence of any benefits to the country’s infrastructure. Heck, they don’t even build roads any more! The cost of building High Speed 2 is supposedly 30 billion at around 2 billion a year. It’s going to cost a lot more by the time it’s done but maybe the economy will rebound at some time such that the investment can be afforded in the long run.

After considerable thought I have decided to support and argue for a new high speed system in the UK, built to European loading gauges and capable of taking bi-level trains, etc. Euston should be abandoned as the London terminus of High Speed 2 and a through station should be introduced that would also link High Speed 1 to High Speed 2. The top speed doesn’t need to be 250 mph but should match existing speed limits in Europe so that through trains could run from one system to the other. (The point is that the trains could go at speeds up to 250 mph but there could be speed restrictions where they save money on infrastructure.) Commuters in London and elsewhere (there are commuters in other places besides London!) also need to see improved services and a cost benefit study is needed to see if the existing infrastructure could be expanded in terms of its loading gauge restrictions, allowing bi-level commuter trains to begin operation.

Finally, High Speed 2 doesn’t stop in Birmingham! It needs to serve both Lancashire and Yorkshire as well as the Midland Valley of Scotland. Existing routes should be used for connecting services and freight. The entire investment should be linked to and invested out of road tax and petrol receipts!

Well, my 2 cents, FWIW!

Wind Turbines Kill

2010-03-14T17:17:00.002Z

Birds. Yet many of the leading organizations that supposedly protect our feathered friends are saying little and doing less. Why? Because they are in the pay of those who build wind turbines. Another useful insight by Christopher Booker here.

As a keen birder I find this lack of support from people like the RSPB and Audubon Society, well, sickening.

It snowed today!

2010-03-08T14:21:00.002Z

Science-speak?

2010-02-24T11:30:00.005Z

I've been busy lately, a lot of traveling, rarely in one place for very long. But here is an excellent John Cleese video on how us scientists are probably perceived by most laymen (or it is laypersons?)

iPad "future shock"

2010-01-30T18:51:00.002Z

My initial comments on the iPad have been supported by this informative blog entry, reproduced in MacWorld. The author notes how computers in general frighten people who are otherwise in control of their lives. The iPad could change that.

My 2 cents on the iPad

2010-01-28T17:28:00.002Z

The techie gurus who have decided they don't like the iPad, announced yesterday, are missing the point.

It's not for them! It's for the rest of us, and they simply cannot understand such a notion. It's going to be wildly successful with the far greater majority of future users simply because they are not, and don't want to be, techie gurus!

Congratulations, Annise!

2009-12-13T18:00:00.004Z

Just as she did 12 years ago, Annise Parker has won a political run-off but this time she won the race to be Mayor of Houston. The report in the Daily Telegraph gets the names mixed up but even so, this is obviously world news!

I worked with Annise about 10 years ago and have been a supporter ever since. Well done, Annise!

Philip Stott's Inverted Pyramid

2009-12-05T18:35:00.002Z

As I was driving up the M5 on Thursday morning, the Today Programme was finally coming to terms with Climategate. A useful debate ensued with the "skeptics" corner bravely manned by Professor Philip Stott. I really liked his contribution, not just because I think he talks a lot of sense, but more because his measured reasoning was hard to fault.

The crux of his argument rests with the notion that all of the anthropogenic global warming "fact" rests on a very small collection of temperature data. Thus all the models that have been created rely upon statistical manipulation of this data set. Stott likened this to an inverted pyramid and that if you remove or damage the upside down pinnacle of the pyramid, everything based on the small foundation will collapse.

In addition to this, Stott also introduced the observation that most of those involved with climate research are not necessarily the best qualified. Among other disciplines, he noted that most geologists have a difficult time accepting global warming as a man made problem. Although he didn't pursue this, the reason is obvious - most global warming scientists and all the politicians who accept their findings have little idea of geological time and processes. If only they would open their minds . . . . .

Denying is not always anti-green

2009-11-30T19:02:00.003Z

OK, I'll briefly weigh in on Climategate, as it is now coined. And my best point of reference is George Monbiot's blog in the Guardian.

Poor George, he found himself in a bind. But at least he recognized it, unlike most of his followers who could only chastise him for "making things even worse". Good science is what is needed, not clever fabrications now revealed by hacked e-mails. Climate science has demonstrated itself to be far from good science, as I have often claimed. As a PhD scientist myself I am deeply saddened by some of the comments made in the e-mails - it sort of becomes a "buyer beware" mentality which pure science should never bow to.

Coming just before the 100% political Copenhagen climate change summit, this may be good news for us "deniers". Of course, we never were deniers, that was just a moniker applied by those with more faith than science, who now find themselves in a similar situation.

The conference itself will prove to be an interesting exercise in politicized science. Meantime, let the show begin!

Don't do this with your average point and shoot. . .

2009-11-30T17:37:00.002Z

Waterproof and shockproof, it says on the label. Well, it is certainly waterproof, having been dipped in the Rieve Heric for a close up of the stream bed! The Pentax Optio W80 may not be the best point and shoot but it does do some things rather well.

The other French Apple Store

2009-11-30T09:46:00.001Z

At the Odysseum, Montpellier. Very impressive.

I Duz Windoze (7)

2009-11-30T00:02:00.004Z

Yes, I do. Courtesy of Parallels 5.0 and the installation was relatively easy once I had worked out which version of Windows I really needed (hint, read the box and decide what you will never use). The Coherence Mode is interesting in that you can literally switch from Snow Leopard to Windows 7 with a click of the mouse.

Why bother with Windoze? Well, there are those programs that Microsoft has chosen not to port to OS X, such as Project. And there are still software designers out there who honestly think that the Mac OS isn't important. Example? IKEA - but at least they are honest enough to admit the shortfall.

A new camera!

2009-11-07T07:14:00.004Z

During the summer my Canon SD1000 failed me. Apparently this is a common feature with small Canons that have a mechanically protruding lens. One speck of dust and the mechanism fails. Whole websites are dedicated to the problem but Canon refuses to accept any responsibility.

So I decided that a more reliable camera should replace it and a waterproof, shockproof camera seemed to be the best solution. There are a number of them out there but the one that suited me best was the Pentax Optio W80. This was partly because I would be able to use my existing SD memory card. The W80 has formidable specs but it remains a point and shoot camera, so it is always interesting to see what happens when it is pushed to the limits. The photo below was taken at the telephoto limit (5x) of a jack up rig some 24 kilometers off shore from Pointe Noire, Congo. The fishing boats in the foreground are much closer. Conditions were not ideal for good photography, so the result really isn't bad at all. If you click on the photo you will see a maximum quality jpeg which is 9MB large.

Steve Jobs, CEO of the Decade

2009-11-06T08:49:00.000Z

The man who saved four industries? Well, there's a lot of truth in that. But for a retrospective, here is a link to Jobs' 2005 Stanford Graduation Address. Says more about the man than all the eulogies, mainly because the man is saying it himself!

Back by Popular Demand!

2009-11-02T16:51:00.000Z

Four and a half months, but the time has really flown. Lots of other priorities came along and in many ways it was good to say au revoir to the internet for a while. While "gone" I did renew my Flickr membership, thereby retaining the 4000 plus images. It has been interesting to see that the photostream still gets lots of visitors.

I think I am going to revamp and simplify focalplane.com but I will not start on it just yet.

And now I have made 1,000 posts to this blog!

Blogged out

2009-06-12T11:18:00.001Z

This the 999th post on this blog.

Namibia Wildlife

2009-05-18T23:23:00.001Z

Last week I had a brief opportunity between the completion of business meetings and catching the plane back to Europe to visit Okapuka Game Reserve, 30 minutes north of Windhoek. What a pleasure!

I had carried my Nikkor 300mm f4 lens with me "just in case" and it proved to have been worthwhile (even if it did garner the attention of security personnel at Frankfurt Airport).

Here is a link to the Flickr Slide Show of 29 photos.

Should I throw in the towel?

2009-05-16T19:45:00.003Z

A quick look at Blogger statistics reveals that I have posted 996 times to this blog since 2003.

I thought I would be looking forward to reaching a major milestone but in fact I am not. I might just be getting bored with the whole internet thing. Twitter doesn't interest me at all, and maybe the entire social thing is not what I need. Flickr has been a great influence on my life but even there I am finding it difficult to stay tuned and involved.

I am trying new avenues and for a short while now the member-only trainorders.com has kept me informed on what is going on in North American train circles. But I again feel no compulsion to get involved in a big, lasting way. A useful resource for things I want to do but not something I want to devote a lot of my time to in "giving back". That last sentence sounds very selfish to me.

I have a number of features running in parallel at the moment. Too many, perhaps.

I am seriously thinking about dropping out of Flickr when the membership renewal comes up.

I am seriously thinking about dropping, or at least mothballing, this blog.

The focalplane pages I maintain have not been receiving enough care and attention and there is a backlog of material I don't have time to add. There is no reason for them to disappear altogether.

I would like to expand on my "Snaps and Crackles with Pops" blog, dedicated to the grandkids.

So, should I throw in the towel?

Book recommendations to put on your expenses

2009-05-16T19:04:00.003Z

I have been following, at a distance, the Daily Telegraph's campaign that has exposed the ugly side of the "Mother of all Parliaments", also known as the Palace of Westminster. It would seem that the MP's Expenses exposé has awakened a sleeping giant otherwise known as the electorate.

Some essential reading for these troubled times:

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

1984, also by George Orwell

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

These tomes (well, Animal Farm is actually a very short read) all dwell on the premise that power corrupts. Furthermore, those in power will also do almost anything to maintain their status quo, including passing laws that keep them in power to the detriment of the people they are supposed to represent and serve.

As Yogi Berra might say "It's like déjà vu all over again."

National Train Day

2009-05-16T17:32:00.003Z

This link includes a slide show of hundreds of photos taken at and near Portland Station, Oregon the other weekend. Southern Pacific GS-4 "Daylight" No. 4449 figures prominently; it was the star attraction.

I was going to fly with this pilot

2009-04-27T09:09:00.001Z

Glad they caught him before he "took off".

Moral Guilt

2009-04-24T06:23:00.004Z

I have been looking for a simple phrase to sum up what I see happening in the political world of climate change.

Climate change activists are on a mission. Not to save the world, though that is their mantra. No, it is to elevate themselves up the political structure of our society, to become recognized and then to control.

This they have done with incredible success, largely supported by politicians clutching at straws. And the way it has been achieved is through the manufacture of Moral Guilt.

Where is John Galt when he's needed?

2009-04-23T18:03:00.005Z

I have been following the UK Budget from a distance and it appears that the Government has really got things in a mess. Sure, the banks started the ball running down hill but you have to ask where was the Government when all this was going on? I mean, bankers making huge bonuses just for moving money around (and not necessarily in the right direction most of the time) should surely have triggered a few alarm bells?

Well, they obviously didn't. One of the things I've noted about governments these days is that the peoples' representatives mostly come from a legal background, have only worked in service industries, and rarely have much inkling about how ordinary people make a living. They are consummate politicians, being capable of lying and then not apologizing when things go awry. They are not the peoples' representatives at all.

So I wonder if there will be a revolution in the UK. Probably not, the British stiff upper lip will prevent such a calamity.

Ayn Rand's question "Who is John Galt" seems more and more appropriate to the situation.

Remembering St. George

2009-04-23T07:52:00.003Z

Poor St. George. All he did was slay a dragon and save a maiden in distress. And today is his day, not that you'd actually know it. Reports that the Government is spending all of £116 on raising a flag adds up to the sum total of its interest. Cousins Andrew and David, never mind Patrick, all get huge celebrations. Even if green beer is hardly celebratory.

The irony is that the English Flag of St. George, a red cross on a white background, is more associated with soccer (and by inference hooliganism) than it is with patriotism.

We bought a St. George's flag in Houston many years ago. Over the counter, just like that. I should try to find it and fly it.

But this brief post is my contribution for St. George in 2009. Happy St. George's Day!

(PS, it is also the day William Shakespeare was born (possibly) and the day he died)

Global Confusion

2009-04-22T19:51:00.003Z

I understand that today has been named Earth Day. For the rest of us, every day is Earth Day. It's where we live, after all.

But the recent reports on what is happening to the planet are anything if confusing. That's the trouble with trying to analyze something that is so complicated with too many variables.

Today we learn, for example, that pollution is slowing down global warming!

I for one don't believe most of what is purported to be a scientific "finding" if it has anything to do with climate change. The climate will change, that's the only given we can work with. Meantime the scientists and politicians continue to speculate what will happen ten, twenty, maybe a hundred years from now, and, unfortunately the politicians are using this speculation to adversely affect our quality of life and ability to get through a recession. That's a risk they should not be allowed to take.

Obama's People in Birmingham

2009-04-21T19:37:00.004Z

This just in - a photographic exhibition at the BMAG, on until August. Tip of the hat to Ash10.

Secret Papers

2009-04-21T12:20:00.003Z

Yet another example of showing secret papers to the public (via photographers, naturally) has emerged today. It will be interesting to see if a resignation follows. As a Minister of the Realm, I will place safe money on the outcome - Hazel Blears will not resign (though she can prove me wrong if she wants to!)

When on a long distance flight there is always the concern that bringing out work will compromise any secrecy that may be necessary (I sign confidentiality agreements all the time). The first thought is "I wonder what he/she sitting next to me does for a living - could he/she work for a competitor?"

That's why some of us use shredding machines, file folders, etc. etc.

Carbon Dioxide, the dangerous pollutant?

2009-04-18T18:42:00.002Z

You know, it really bothers me that the EPA has come to heel with the environmentalist lobby and pandering Obama administration and made the declaration that carbon dioxide (CO2) is now to be considered a dangerous pollutant and major cause for global warming.

This is such tosh that it makes my scientifically trained brain positively hurt.

Don't any of these people know basic botany, biology and meteorology?

Botany: photosynthesis needs carbon dioxide to work.

Biology: without photosynthesis we would run out of oxygen, essential to life as we know it on Planet Earth.

Meteorology: water vapor is the major "pollutant" in the atmosphere when it comes to controlling the atmospheric temperature. Carbon dioxide is only a minor constituent.

So, why doesn't the EPA and everyone else declare water vapor a dangerous pollutant? Humans make an awful lot of water vapor. After all, the "smoke" escaping from thermal power station cooling towers is actually water vapor even though the environmentalists will have you believe it's the product of combustion.

Coming back to Earth, for a moment, water vapor in the atmosphere has always been around - think clouds!

Electric Car Subsidies in the UK

2009-04-16T09:41:00.002Z

Well, I suppose I have to comment on this, the latest "move" by the British Government in support of their "carbon-reduction" policies.

Let's see how this works. You trade in your existing gas-guzzler and buy an electric vehicle or hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle. The new car comes with a fat subsidy. I wonder where the money comes from?

The new car also has batteries. Heavy batteries that contain toxic materials. So large and heavy that a four seater car becomes a two seater car. No room for the kids, then?

The all-electric car will have a range of around 150 miles, maybe less, and all of £20 million will be invested in providing charging stations around the country. But charging takes many times longer than re-fueling at the pump, so journeys will take longer, assuming there is a charging station handy. In this case the hybrid does seem the more sensible option.

Of course, electricity is still largely produced from burning carbon-based substances - oil, coal and gas. The amount generated from "environmentally friendly sources" is woefully small and unpredictable. So the point of generating carbon emissions will change but the amount of carbon emitted will not. If anything the amount of carbon emitted will increase because of energy losses down transmission lines and the fact that electricity is generated whether or not we choose to use it.

Which is why gasoline remains the world's most efficient and portable energy source.

Finally, one more thought. That old clunker needs to be scrapped, disposed of, even re-cycled, requiring even more energy, just as the new vehicle also requires energy to be built.

If people wish to buy an electric or hybrid vehicle, let them do so. That's their choice. It is the incentive that's ill-conceived.

Stupid but Honorable

2009-04-09T13:54:00.002Z

The top policeman in charge of anti-terror in the UK, Bob Quick, emerged from a car yesterday carrying secret papers that were in full view of reporters and photographers. The contents of the papers, once revealed, caused an accelerated action to pick up suspected terrorists. It seems the plan was compromised by its leader's stupidity.

(Hardly an original concept in the UK these days)

What is unusual about this event is that within 24 to 48 hours the man responsible has quietly resigned.

Ian Tomlinson

2009-04-08T13:42:00.005Z

I have been following the London G20 Meetings from a distance and with little real interest until the reports of Ian Tomlinson's death began to emerge.

Mr. Tomlinson was not a demonstrator but a worker on his way home from work. Initial reports stated that he had collapsed and had been carried into relative safety by police officers because missiles were being thrown in the vicinity. He died shortly thereafter.

The Police issued some bland statements that a report would be issued in due course as to whether an investigation was justified.

Then came the video. This shows Mr. Tomlinson being pushed to the ground by a police officer (in full view of several other officers) where Mr. Tomlinson suffered a blow to the head from which he is presumed to have died.

Only now, several days after the event and the release of the video, have the police admitted that an internal investigation is necessary.

It is inevitable that certain parallels can be made to the de Menezes shooting in South London several years ago. Then it was the shooting of an innocent person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time it was a police baton, not several bullets, but the result is the same. No doubt there will be those who say it was all an unfortunate accident, that there was no malice and that the push to the ground was not supposed to be life threatening. Look at the video.

I am not one to judge from my distance but surely an investigation is necessary from outside the structure of the Metropolitan Police? An independent inquiry would seem to be fully justified. I don't like to use irony when an innocent death is involved but is it not strange that the police officer has not yet been identified, either from the video (think image enhancement techniques that work so well in identifying terrorists, etc.) or by fellow officers?

In reviewing various entries made over the years, this blog carries frequent observations that the police in Britain have ceased to be public servants, hiding behind CCTV cameras, rarely interfacing with the public they are supposed to serve (and who pay their salaries and pensions).

Remember, Ian Tomlinson was a worker, dressed down as advised by the authorities so as to be safe from demonstrators' ire. Thinking, no doubt, that as an innocent bystander, he was protected by the law, he walked in front of the police officers, no doubt in a hurry to get home. If he had mistrusted their intentions and walked behind them, he would be alive today.

This all comes at the same time that the Hungarian website (linked to yesterday) displayed a series of images of low life in Cardiff, Wales. Those leaders who sit in their ivory towers, whether Parliament or Scotland Yard, need to get out and about in the real world. Like Ian Tomlinson did.

The New Society?

2009-04-07T13:57:00.003Z

Quite why it takes a Hungarian website to publish these pictures, I know not, but if you really, really want to know what could be happening in the cities of the UK after dark, then visit this page. Be warned, it is not nice.

Science and Earthquake Prediction

2009-04-07T13:06:00.006Z

The recent earthquake that has devastated central Italy and caused hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and much property damage was inevitable. The area sits atop a major fault that is known to be active. The problem with earthquakes has always been man's inability to predict when they might occur.

So earthquake prediction is something that seismologists actively pursue, often without much success. The nature of earthquakes can be summed up in the words "few, if any, foreshocks, many aftershocks". The biggest shock is usually the first, coming with no warning.

So an Italian scientist decided to try to define earthquake activity using emanations of the gas radon. He had good evidence that the technique could work and when radon emissions changed in and around L'Aquila he spoke up. But the local government didn't listen. Worse, they suggested he was scaremongering and should keep quiet.

The Apennine Fault was not paying attention, however, and the scientist was proved to be right.

Why didn't they listen? Perhaps it's because science has been dumbed down in recent years to the point that scientists are no longer taken seriously as experts in their chosen subjects. And where do we look for evidence of this? In the great Anthropogenic Global Warming debate. Joe Public has become so disenchanted with the rhetoric surrounding global warming that all science is being discounted. The best science is rarely reported, the worst science is making all the headlines. And researchers know this, to the point that many who need funding are cheating.

Looked at this way, there is a reason why the local authorities made their mistake in ignoring the evidence of an impending earthquake.

Will we learn from this?

Unfortunately I doubt it.

Birmingham is not in the Black Country!

2009-04-06T21:08:00.001Z

The BBC gets it wrong!

Revisiting the Maldives Question

2009-04-06T17:19:00.002Z

Today I read that the president of the Maldives is to ask the Queen of England to help him stop his archipelago nation from disappearing under the ocean due o global warming and rising sea levels.

Hasn't he heard of King Canute?

But seriously, the Maldives are not going under at all. Scientific studies that have been suppressed by the Maldives government show conclusively that in recent decades the islands have been rising relative to sea level. You can read about it here.

The main problem in the Maldives is coastal erosion due to over development. But no-one on the tourism gravy train wants you to know that.

OFCOM fines BBC £150,000

2009-04-03T10:15:00.005Z

Last year there was an unfortunate incident broadcast by the BBC that stirred up public outrage. Today we read (on the BBC's website) that the government regulatory body OFCOM has fined the BBC £150,000.

This is interesting as, with all government regulatory body fines, it is the government that levies the fine but someone else who has to pay. In this case, the TV license fee payer is the piper that pays the tune.

It would be interesting to know how many such fines are levied each year and exactly what happens to the money collected by the various regulatory bodies.

Postscript; A government minister is suggesting the fine be paid by those who caused the incident. Good luck!

Post Postscript: Sunday, this report. Seems only the TV license fee payer is liable to pay the fine. Perhaps it is time for a mass revolt against the TV License Fee.

The Wire on BBC

2009-04-02T19:44:00.005Z

The big news these days emanating from the "Beeb" is that they have bought rights to The Wire, HBO's series based on and in the City of Baltimore, Maryland.

I have watched every episode (something like 60, I believe) and in some cases watched several of them several times over. This really is adult* TV at its very best. So my advice is, go and get hooked, you won't regret it. One caveat, though, is that you will have to work at it, The Wire is not easy entertainment.

(*Adult for the language and some pretty raunchy sex scenes)

Whatever happened to ribbed containers?

2009-04-02T13:02:00.003Z

This piece concerns the frightening mistake a young woman made when she reached for a bottle of eyedrops but instead squeezed the contents of an identical bottle into her eye which contained cosmetic nail glue.

We hear so much these days about Health & Safety. Yet 50 years ago, for the purpose of assisting those who are blind, all poisons and toxic substances had to be sold in ribbed bottles.

Let's exchange climates!

2009-04-01T02:25:00.004Z

One of the facets to emerge from the G20 gathering is that I have come to learn that the European Climate Exchange exists! What exactly is this?

Well, their website sometimes shows trader types on the telephone, no doubt arranging lunch or some other boondoggle. Or maybe they are actually trading climates:

"I've got this warm spell in the Maldives. Trouble is, the tourists think sea level is rising so they won't go there. But the good news is that hotel rates have plummeted and I can offer you a really good discount."

Or:

"Icebergs aren't melting as fast as we had hoped. I'm offloading a ton of paper that says they would. Interested in buying some at a discount?"

Or:

"You remember that good summer we had a few years ago? Well, my neighbor next to our second home in the country is a bit of a yokel but he swears this summer is going to break all records. I'm buying water utilities on the side, suggest you do the same."

It's a carbon economy, stupid!

2009-03-31T12:23:00.002Z

As G20 week unfolds in faraway London and the politicians and leaders gather to discuss the world economy, it might be appropriate of me to remind them that our economy is essentially based on carbon (coal) and hydrocarbons (oil, gas). Without our dependence on carbon-based fuel then civilization as we know it is not going to survive.

Idealists may not like a dependence on carbon-based fuels but they would soon understand my (and many others like me) concerns that the politics of the day are moving ever closer to calamity. Under the disguise of a "new religion" called global warming, those who would control the rest of us believe they have found a solution in environmentalism.

Don't be fooled. This is a red herring.

Stay tuned.

Rising Sea Levels?

2009-03-30T14:03:00.005Z

Experts, i.e. those who study sea level changes, not those who think they do like Al Gore, are likely to know what they are talking about when it comes to predicting the future of our coastal cities.

As a geologist I have my own take on the subject. Since the last ice age began to recede there has been a significant global rise in sea levels. This has tailed off in recent centuries as there is simply very little ice left to melt compared with the huge thicknesses of ice that accumulated on the continents during each phase of the four ice ages. The only significant ice sheets left are Greenland and Antarctica and these are tiny compared to the huge sheets that covered the northern hemisphere during the peaks of the ice ages. (To illustrate, the Matterhorn in Switzerland was completed covered by the Alpine Ice Sheet, while the peak of Everest was likewise shaped under moving ice sheets in the Himalayas).

The Greenland ice sheet is but a remnant of its former area and thickness, so it is reasonable to state that there is relatively little left to melt.

Much of the Polar ice that can melt is resting on water. It is, to put it another way, already a part of the oceans.

So consider this simple experiment. Take a full glass of iced water. The ice cubes float on the water and just like icebergs, stick out above the rim of the glass. Let the glass warm up and watch the ice melt. No water flows over the side of the glass! When all the ice has melted there remains a full glass of water. Go back to the reason why icebergs float - ice is less dense than water.

Apply this to the oceans and it becomes obvious that whatever happens to the polar ice regions there will be no effect on sea level change.

But this, of course, is too simple.

Why? Because some parts of the Earth's surface are rising, some are falling, mostly due to tectonic forces within the Earth's crust. Relative sea level changes can therefore be measured and found to be different all over the globe. An unscientific quick look at the problem can easily focus on those areas that are drowning and draw the wrong conclusions.

Another factor that influences many coastal cities is subsidence due to additional loading (buildings in London, for example) or to extraction of water from deep wells (a problem in the Texas Gulf Coast). Such subsidence has nothing to do with global sea level changes.

Which is why I trust a real expert like Nils-Axel Mörner.

Earth Hour - the point?

2009-03-30T13:54:00.003Z

I will freely admit to switching ON all the lights at home during Earth Hour. I was protesting a protest that I believe to be false and pointless.

False because the basic premise that humankind would be better off in a carbon-reduced society is unproven. Pointless because the exercise was introduced as a "fun" thing to do, having a candlelit dinner or, in warmer climes, a beach barbeque.

The organizers should have considered the idea of Earth Week or even Earth Month. But it would have been a complete failure for their purpose in that Mr and Mrs Joe Public would have soon begun to realize (possibly in the second hour) that this was not going to work.

No emergency room at the hospital. No street lights to ward off burglars. No office or factory come Monday morning. No telephone system. Etc.

Atlas Shrugged gains popularity

2009-03-10T02:19:00.003Z

This just in from the pages of the Daily Telegraph. It is interesting that Ayn Rand's book is enjoying better sales at the present time. Ironic perhaps in that I was recommending the book just a few weeks ago to several people who had never heard of it!

It would appear that the book has quite different effects on different people. Personally I enjoyed the book and its outcome. I can only imagine that many of the today's world leaders find it all quite difficult to swallow. The article states that Reagan was an admirer. It doesn't mention that Thatcher has also been a strong supporter of the Rand philosophy.

Ayn Rand lives on within the portals of the Rand Institute.

Safari 4 and Updated Websites

2009-03-10T01:31:00.003Z

One of the new features of Safari 4 is a curved panel of recently visited or bookmarked pages:

The star in the top right corner means that Safari has noticed that the page has changed since it was last viewed. Which means that those pages that update, or simply change, frequently are going to get the star whereas those that don't will probably be ignored. I think that's a good move and I hope it means that more website designers will embrace the "converse with your audience" concept of site design.

Vintage Amtrak Commercials

2009-03-08T21:57:00.004Z

A whole 6 minutes of Amtrak commercials dating back to the 1970s. Those prices were very reasonable!

Inter City 125 Ad - the Speed trap!

2009-03-08T21:35:00.003Z

A hilarious TV commercial from another age. The Inter City 125 continues to provide excellent service on the "modernized" British Rail.

The Authoritarian State

2009-03-08T19:11:00.002Z

A new book has been reviewed in the Daily Telegraph which claims some interesting statistics about daily life in the UK. For example, twenty five percent of the World's CCTV cameras are located in the UK.

I have noticed something else about many British CCTVs, particularly those owned by "Big Brother". They can photograph you but you cannot photograph them. The cameras, that is! So I may have unwittingly broken the law when I took this photo last year:

Estacio de Franca - Improving the image

2009-03-06T15:31:00.004Z

The previous post shows the end result of some photo manipulation so I thought: why not show the steps I took from rather poor, dull image to a better end result? Here is the original:

The first step was to modify the color temperature to warm things up a bit:

Next, the exposure was increased by about 70%:

And finally the shadows and highlights were adjusted quite dramatically. This brought out the details of the roof and made an almost pseudo-HDR image effect.

These small images don't do the details any justice and in fact the final version looks a bit washed out. The full sized image can be viewed here.

Estacio de Franca, Barcelona

2009-03-05T14:57:00.003Z

When in Barcelona in January we stumbled upon the French Station, an impressive but under-used terminus which is in remarkably clean condition. Compared to the sprawl of commercialism that surrounds a typical London station, the original architecture has been nicely preserved and cleaned. The train shed is a beautiful structure.

The photo was rather dull due to the weather being cloudy. So I have tweaked it a bit in Aperture and the result is almost a pseudo HDR effect. I basically adjusted the shadows and highlights to bring out details that would otherwise be invisible.

Train Orders

2009-03-03T21:59:00.004Z

I've just joined Trainorders.com, a US railfan site with lots of useful railroad resources. One posting pointed me to this site which contains realtime movements of Amtrak's western railroad services. These are the really long distance routes that take days to complete and can be hours behind schedule. However, a quick look suggests that Amtrak is doing quite well today, no doubt because there are fewer freight trains running during the recession. (An estimate 200,000 freight cars are currently idle).

I wonder if there are similar sites catering to UK railfans (anoraks)?

Safari 4

2009-03-01T22:01:00.002Z

Some interesting developments in the "browser war". I rather like the changes between Safari 3 and 4 though I gather not everyone does and it may not the fastest browser after all.

On Panhandling

2009-03-01T00:21:00.002Z

Street people hurt when the temperature is below -20ºC and it really is not too difficult to reach into your pocket when their request is for your "spare change". But recently in Calgary I was faced with a lesser demand. "Could you spare a penny, Sir? I need to get together the bus fare to ---------."

A penny, I thought, why only a penny. Then I looked at the man, possibly in his twenties but cold and down-shouldered, hunched against the cold wind, his face unshaven, his clothes ill-fitting. Why would anyone ask for just a penny? I have to suppose it was a complete lack of self-esteem.

I gave him more than he asked for and as I walked away I suggested that in future he might set his sights a little higher. I wonder if he will.

The mirror gun

2009-02-27T15:30:00.002Z

It would appear that the global warming lobby is getting more and more desperate if their ideas for combatting climate change are anything to go by. The latest concept is reported here.

Personally I find such schemes very frightening. Scientists have yet to make a climate model that actually works but are "going ahead" with schemes to stop something they have yet to prove is happening. And the costs! $350 trillion is no small sum, in fact it is unimaginably huge.

Let's just suppose that the climate does change but in the opposite direction, heading straight for another ice age (there have been four cycles already so that is not as unpredictable as you might think). So there are a trillion mirrors up there, acting as a giant sunshade and hastening the cooling. It doesn't take much imagination to work out that the mirrors are not going to be removed in a hurry.

The iPhone's camera

2009-02-26T20:30:00.003Z

Just how good is the iPhone's camera function? If you compare it to a $1,000 plus digital SLR, then the truth is it is a very inflexible piece of kit. The literal "point and click" camera with absolutely no user control.

Even so, given the right conditions, the iPhone can take reasonably good photos. Ideally the sun should be behind the camera and the range of light contrast should not be too great. For example, two thirds sky will bias the exposure setting, making the landscape or headshot much too dark.

This is an example of what can be achieved.

Down Memory Lane

2009-02-22T18:48:00.005Z

Another "heads up" from Pete. This time it's a link to a group called 28 Days Later who investigated an open factory door at 3, Legge lane, Birmingham and went inside to take photographs and report to the world.

If that address isn't familiar (why should it be?) then I should explain that it was the location of Ashton & Moore (Metal Colourers) Ltd. until very recently. They've upped sticks and moved to another location in Hockley.

But this is the location I knew and in fact I really grew up there, spending many a day during school holidays. I actually thought that was what most school kids did! And when I was old enough I went to work as the maintenance man's assistant (he was a Polish refugee named Joe).

The place looks a bit worse than I remember, what with the inevitable industrial decay. But it's good to know that the business has moved on and hopefully up.

I wonder what will become of it? The rather fine Victorian terracotta frontage is the only thing worth saving so I suppose it will all come down in the name of progress. The chemicals used (see photos) probably mean that the building could never be used as a loft style residence.

For more history on the site, try this. And the A&M site is here.

Tiger Oil - the memos

2009-02-16T07:58:00.004Z

Pete sent me this link. He also asked me if I knew the owner of Tiger Oil but I am pleased to say that I never met him, never mind worked for him!

That is not to say that some of his demands from his employees don't ring a bell. One owner I worked for had very similar views and could express them just as succinctly! But his language was slightly more in tune with today's terminology - he didn't fire me, he "let me go".

Whistleblowers

2009-02-15T11:29:00.003Z

No steam trains here, just honest people who see wrong and want to do the right thing.

It seems to me that the term "whistleblower" is viewed as derogatory by many people in society. This seems to be strange but perhaps most of us simply do not like to see our boat rocked. There is nothing quite like the status quo even if this means we are losing out on something important.

Whistleblowers tend to create mayhem if the aftermath of their revelations are anything to go by. Think Enron in 2002 or HBoS in 2008. In each case the primary whistleblower opened up a can of worms that reverberated through society. The real perpetrators of the mayhem haven't exactly got away scot fee but why should the whistleblower carry any of the burden?

I knew several of the key players in the Enron failure and had friends in both Enron and Vinson & Elkins. Friends lost all their savings though misguided loyalty to the company and its ever-climbing and then rapidly plummeting stock. I am sure similar events surround the collapse in the various (many) banks during the current crisis of confidence.

Confidence is the problem. So often the houses of mirrors that reflect a supposed confidence start to implode and when a concerned employee sees what is happening and tries to do something, the collapse is inevitable. In the worst cases it would appear the the whistleblower approached senior management who denied the problem and maintained business as usual. Regulatory agencies likewise ignored the tell-tail signs while the politicians merely hoped the inevitable would not happen on their watch.

I say "Raise a glass to the whistleblower, revere him or her as the custodian of sound capitalism!"

Beehives and Black Horses

2009-02-14T12:55:00.004Z

This rather strange title refers to Lloyds Bank, much in the news today. Lloyds was founded in Birmingham in 1765 as a private bank to assist manufacturers and traders in the city, then a major player in the period of Enlightenment. This was the zenith of the Lunar Society's activities.

Lloyds has gone from strength to strength and, together with Barclays has been a survivor. How it will weather the current banking crisis will be interesting to say the least.

Gordon Brown apparently brokered the take over of HBOS by Lloyds to create was was then called a great opportunity. I doubt if Lloyds shareholders would now agree, particularly as the truth about HBOS' reckless business model is still emerging. As an Enlightenment start-up, Lloyds was probably also anti-Establishment. Present day management has obviously joined the Establishment.

So what of the beehive? It was the bank's first symbol, representing hard work and industry (and I bet bees don't earn bonuses!) Later the bank took over premises that had a black horse as its symbol. The black horse was possibly adopted simply to save money!

Oh how things have changed.

IEP - lots of new trains by 2015!

2009-02-12T11:34:00.003Z

The Intercity Express Programme (IEP) has made a major step forward with the award of a significant order. Good news but perhaps we should also note that this is almost certainly too little too late for solving growth problems within British Railways. By the time they are introduced the demand will be even higher than it is today.

The winning group includes Hitachi which is building the high speed Kent trainsets; this may well have been a deciding factor in the selection. Comparison of various modern trainsets (the HS125/HS225 is hardly modern and yet gives a better ride than more recent designs) suggests that Bombardier probably should have been passed by; they built the Virgin Voyagers, with the stinking toilets! While the Adalente design by Alsthom, ugly as it is, has also not been a big hit because of reliability issues.

I only hope the winning design is as good as the HS125/HS225 design it will ultimately replace.

Charles Darwin - 200

2009-02-12T09:31:00.004Z

Wired.com celebrates Charles Darwin's 200th birthday with a very useful piece on the history and details of evolutionary theory. Some comments:

I am pleased that Alfred Russel Wallace gets a mention - he made similar observations and drew the same conclusions as Darwin while traveling through the East Indies. It was his determination to publish his findings that finally drove Darwin to put pen to paper. In this way Wallace is the other hero of evolutionary theory.

The teaching of evolution in schools should not be too difficult. Children love dinosaurs, heck they often know more Linnean names for dinosaurs that many fully qualified geologists (including me!) Evolution should be taught within their context, both the ability to adapt as well as the forces of natural selection can be easily applied. (That's a dinosaur's footprint taken in a stream bed in Central Texas, © focalplane.com)

My own recollections of learning about evolution started in primary school when we were shown pictures of a moth that was light colored in the country but dark in industrial areas so that it blended with its background. Such subjects should be taught early, not left until too late!

Obama's scientific support

2009-02-12T04:28:00.003Z

The BBC once again demonstrates that it has an agenda on climate change without questioning the source or providing an alternative point of view. Professor James McCarthy, president of the AAAS, makes this statement:

"We have a moment right now of extraordinary opportunity, with a new president, positioned with scientific leadership that has known no equal in recent times. The calibre of scientific advice that is close to this man is truly exceptional. If in his first term, in the next four years, we don't make significant progress in these areas, then I think the planet is in huge trouble."

So it may be worth considering two of Obama's inner circle.

1. The Vice President, Joe Biden, said this on climate change during the VP debate:

BIDEN: "If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is man made. That's the cause. That's why the polar ice cap is melting."

(At least that "dumb candidate" Sarah Palin knew something about climate cycles)

2. The previous VP, Al Gore. He won a Nobel Prize for his "Inconvenient Truth" film that has since been barred from showing in UK schools because it is flawed. His own carbon footprint is full of hypocrisy, while his carbon trading schemes are designed to add riches to his personal coffers.

As someone I know often says: "We should be scared, very scared."

Good Timing?

2009-02-10T16:55:00.002Z

It is interesting to see a chief scientist at Britain's Meteorological Office predict that Scotland won't have a ski industry in 50 years. I suppose that the time to make global warming predictions is when the weather is at unusually cold levels - that way it is hard to be proved wrong, but it is strange that a Met Office specialist can predict the weather fifty years from now yet usually gets it wrong to the next day.

Of course he does have a point - there is a difference between weather and climate, though this is not entirely obvious to many people, including, unfortunately, the politicians.

Mountain Rescue

2009-02-08T15:21:00.003Z

The news has been littered recently with stories of British hikers and climbers who have succumbed to the elements while tackling normally well-signed trails in dangerous conditions. Now the authorities are asking that only the experienced and well-equipped should even contemplate being out on a mountain.

Quite right.

But there are some unanswered questions here. As we have pointed out in several of our hiking trail travelogues (particularly Big Bend, Texas and Cader Idris, Wales), it is imperative that hikers set out with the right equipment and knowledge, that they do not underestimate the conditions that may exist hours from starting out, and that they turn round and head for home before it is too late.

We personally know far more about survival in a desert environment (Big Bend) than on a cold British mountainside but the basic rules are not very different. We noticed several people hiking up Cader Idris with minimal equipment, the idea being that with less to carry it is possible to get up and back in next to no time. The problem with this is that an unexpected sprained ankle or a sudden change in the weather leaves the hiker fatally exposed to dangerous conditions.

But there is another side to this debate. Unfortunately there is a complete lack of education on dealing with these situations nowadays. The primary reason I can think of is that H&S dictates that such activities should not be encouraged because by explaining the risks we may be encouraging the taking of those risks. I am not sure what the answer is here, but one story I recently heard in Cornwall is that schoolchildren were only allowed to go on a field trip to a well known and safe summer holiday beach if they kept their shoes on. This sort of protective mentality is not only sending the wrong message, it is also limiting the experience and education of how to cope with risk.

Great Britain, the nation that sent explorers to the poles and the highest mountains, is losing its ability to explore.

Tornado in London

2009-02-07T17:56:00.004Z

No, this is not a weather report. The brand new steam locomotive, A1 Class 60163 "Tornado" made its first long distance revenue earning trip from Darlington to London. This report makes much of the fact that it took "twice as long" as a modern train. However, to be fair to the steam locomotive's timing it had to stop three times to replenish its water supply. When steam trains regularly pulled main line expresses they had the capability to scoop water up from troughs or pans laid down between the tracks. These have been long removed.

If you would like to see a particularly good photo of the locomotive, Flickr member freefotouk has one! Should you be wondering, Peppercorn was the name of the chief engineer who designed the original A1 Class.

Tobogganning

2009-02-07T12:19:00.000Z

Snowy Somerset

2009-02-07T11:49:00.002Z

It's been a snowy week in the UK. This photo was taken on Friday morning on top of the Brendon Hills near Bathealton. Blizzard conditions overnight with a strong north wind created these drifts.

Further down the lane we came across a tree blocking our way. The heavy wet snow caused a lot of trees and limbs to break and fall. This one completely blocked access for the local farmer trying to get hay to his cattle (he did manage to get to the field the long way round).

Sticks and Stones. . . .

2009-02-07T11:27:00.002Z

There seems to have been a plethora of "celebrity" name-calling in recent months and the BBC is generally at the center of the storms-in-a-teacup.

First we had the despicable behavior of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross (neither of whom I have ever seen or heard on TV and radio) which caused Brand to be banished (and his career perhaps enhanced) while Ross was forced to take three months off without pay. And now Ross is back he has shown that his style of humor hasn't been tempered by the mild slap on the wrist he received.

Last week we had two interesting events that both had a political twist. Carol Thatcher and Jeremy Clarkson, both on the payroll of the BBC, have fallen foul of its rules. The former, daughter of ex-PM Margaret Thatcher, appears to have been rather stupid in using the term "golliwog" while on the BBC's premises. She has refused to apologize and has been fired.

Then Jeremy Clarkson referred to the current PM as a "one-eyed Scottish idiot". He subsequently apologized but tempered the apology with the statement that he still considers Gordon Brown to be an idiot. He hasn't been fired (as least not yet, and probably won't be).

What is interesting about all three events is that the BBC demanded an apology as if this would set everything to right. Make an apology that has no sincerity (as I think Ross did) and you are back at work. Refuse to apologize and you've lost your job. Make a politically correct apology and you will probably be OK.

Readers of this blog will know I think the BBC should be pared down with a large hatchet into two radio channels and one TV channel. Everything that they do in competition with commercial radio and TV should be privatized. In other words, the BBC should be more like America's PBR/PBS. But for as long as celebrities like Ross and Clarkson earn high ratings and (for Top Gear at least) overseas earnings for the BBC they will no doubt continue to be excused.

So what is the big picture emerging from all this? The BBC appears to be a law unto itself and doesn't always represent or cater to the wishes and demands of the license fee holders. It is damned difficult to opt out of the license fee and still own a TV (even if it may only be used to view non-broadcast material). But in reality the BBC is simply an extension of the way the present government (and future ones of any color if their manifestos are to be believed) has manipulated the way society works.

I grew up in a world where you said "Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but names will never hurt me". Sometimes the words did hurt, it's true, and in today's terminology they were not politically correct. But we were no less tolerant then; in fact I think today's elites are hopelessly intolerant of anything they feel they must disagree with.

Good News from Brum!

2009-02-02T08:17:00.000Z

Read all about it here!

Free Wi-Fi Hotspot - Calgary Airport

2009-01-30T23:36:00.001Z

And it's a strong signal as well - European airports please take note - FREE, EFFICIENT, NO HASSLES!

Bear with me!

2009-01-29T15:28:00.002Z

I assume this is what the (mainly) women in call centers mean while they struggle to handle a request. But I can't help thinking that they could imply baring all - except that with the sound-only medium of the telephone this hardly makes a lot of sense.

But the thought for today is to come up with the best retort.

"Please bare with me"

"I will if you will"

Surely I am not the only one to think along these lines?

More on Carbon Trading

2009-01-28T15:34:00.002Z

Yet more hot air emanating from the EU, as they (who are they) insist that the US must now join forces to save the planet from global warming.

How?

By adopting carbon trading (a mechanism firmly rejected by the Bush Administration but likely to be embraced by the Obama Administration). As I have stated before, carbon trading is a bureaucratic crock, an excuse to let the rich nations continue business as usual at the expense of poorer nations. It could also be thought of as bribery and corruption, with the corruption being firmly in the control of the bureaucrats. A license to make money with no material gain for society.

We don't need carbon trading. It's a waste of time and money. Built on an unproven premise (anthropogenic global warming) to satisfy politicians needing to do something, the concept is hopelessly flawed. Essentially, the idea is that Peter will pay Paul not to generate carbon so that he can continue to do so. Paul, by the way, is likely to be a poor nation that desperately needs to industrialize to feed its population. Peter, on the other hand, is a rich old world nation saddled with traditional business practices and that refuses to modernize and streamline its business.

China and India, of course, can see no benefit from carbon trading. For as long as they remain outside the trading circle the entire concept means less than nothing. Nada. Zilch.

The "other" Greenhouse Gas

2009-01-27T15:01:00.003Z

All this talk about carbon dioxide, man-made global warming and the cost of controlling the planet is beginning to make me giddy. But then a colleague reminded me that it is no wonder that scientists cannot get their global warming models to work when meteorologists cannot even predict the next seven days of weather with any precision.

So what's the connection, you ask?

Simply this. By far the largest component of the so-called greenhouses gas effect is water vapor.

The Green Bandwagon

2009-01-27T14:51:00.003Z

In the week following President Obama's inauguration there has been a surge in press releases from the global warming crowd. Most of these predict some form of future calamity, but conditional with the liberal use of the would "could". Examples include the wiping out of Emperor Penguins (could happen), the stagnation of oceans (could happen), while climate change is (probably) irreversible.

I have linked to the last one because it is worthy of additional comment. The irony of the scientists' conclusion is that is doesn't matter what we do to prevent climate change, it won't make much difference. Yet from those same mouths comes the quote:

"Climate change is slow, but it is unstoppable - all the more reason to act quickly, so the long-term situation does not get even worse."

If ever there was a two-faced plea for additional research funding, there you have it.

Joseph Needham and China history

2009-01-26T01:38:00.003Z

I've just finished reading Simon Winchester's "Bomb, Book and Compass" which introduced me to the lifelong ambition of a brilliant scientist to document and then attempt to answer why China once lead the world in invention and progress and then around 1500 AD ceased and slipped ever backwards until about 15 years ago.

The answer came in the epilogue and I believe it contains a frightening message for Western society. It would appear that all reason for invention was subsumed by the ambition for anyone bright enough to rise up the ranks of the all important empire bureaucracy. The need for progress diminished accordingly, indeed change was seen to be positively dangerous to anyone involved in maintaining the Emperor's status quo. Ironically, communism was no different, Mao simply becoming an authoritarian emperor in a drab tunic.

It would seem that Asia is gaining the upper hand. China now "owns" much of the West and is learning what the West needs. Much of the manufacturing that used to be concentrated in places like Birmingham, UK or Pittsburg, PA has been lost to China but to a large degree the products are still designed in the West. How long will it be before China takes over the R&D?

I would think that the recession we find ourselves in can only accelerate the transfer of power toward China. More and more jobs in Europe are already moving into bureaucracy. Does this mean that Western innovation will cease?

25 Years of the Mac

2009-01-23T17:54:00.003Z

This article should bring back the memories. Though I must admit that my own Mac journey is only around 20 years old. My first Mac was a "wicked fast" IIfx with some impressive specs for its day (1990). I even had a super-large 1 GB full height hard drive installed, making this a computer worth around $12,000 at the time. The computer was hooked up to an extremely heavy 21" Ikegami monitor that was priced at $3,500.

I obtained this Mac by default. It was loaned to a startup company, New Wave Exploration, of which I was a 50% partner. The idea was to sell seismic processing software but my business partner turned out to have personal financial problems (he filed for bankruptcy) and I decided to fold the company, buy the system and start using it as my main computer. It replaced an 80286 PC by another start up company, PCs Limited, later renamed Dell. I have never looked back. And it is possible that this computer also set Pete on his way to being a social media consultant (he also uses a Mac today).

The IIfx lasted a long time but eventually I moved up through a variety of mostly portable PowerBooks, right up to the present time.

In the early days Apple Computer had an office in Houston and also sponsored an Apple Petroleum Group which met once a month. One of the things I remember was handing in my business card to the receptionist who immediately scanned it into her Mac Plus and printed out a sticky label for my lapel. At one of the meetings we were shown an early version of Quicktime. It was the time of the First Gulf War (1991) and the demonstrator admitted that he could watch CNN in a small window while at work. That all seems so simple today but at the time it was mind-boggling!

Apple's flirtations with the oil industry went into decline and fewer and fewer of the large companies supported Macs. At one time the exploration departments of BP, Amoco, Conoco, Chevron, Arco and many others all had Macs but their IT managers couldn't handle more than one operating system at a time. The messages went out and with them the creative tool so many geologists had at their desks. In retrospect the opportunity for Apple was killed by the very complexity and unreliability of Microsoft's systems that required huge manpower support.

For me the Apple OS has rarely been a problem. Being in a minority can be difficult but in recent years Apple has endeavored to help out by providing export capability from iWork so that I can send Word and Excel files to colleagues who have never used a Mac. Ironically my Mac has saved the day on a number of occasions, including being able to set up quickly with a strange presentation projector in Africa and being able to rescue a PowerPoint file that no-one could open by importing it into and exporting it out from Keynote.

Microsoft have tried hard to scupper this ability to collaborate - they have never produced a Mac version of Project, for example, forcing me to buy Virtual PC. All that did was persuade me never to buy a Windows machine. I do recognize that the difference between operating systems is closing but Apple always seems to be one step ahead where it matters most - ease of use and ability to be productive.

So the question now is, after 25 years of the Mac, where do we go next? I really haven't a clue but I am looking forward to whatever comes down the runway from Cupertino.

Maybe I'm "old school" too?

2009-01-22T04:21:00.004Z

A year or so ago I was sitting in a meeting listening to some wise words from a man who has maybe 50 years hands on experience doing what he does. Two young "turks" sitting next to me looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Old School", said one.

"Yeah", agreed the other.

At the time I let it ride. But the comment festered inside me. Just what is so wrong with being "old school" anyway, I thought?

And to be truthful, there is nothing wrong with experience. Goodness knows, the way we don't learn from past mistakes is living proof that as a society we don't put a whole lot of stock in experience.

I think I'm reasonably good with new fangled technologies and I have certainly embraced the social media thing with a modicum of enthusiasm. But recently I have been researching and quietly monitoring some of the new concepts, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. and I simply don't get them. I usually feel I'm eavesdropping at a party when reading a Twitter "stream", a sort of public SMS that maybe I shouldn't be reading at all. Certainly, I have no desire to join in and correspond with what appear to be sound bites.

That's not to say I disagree with these social media tools. It is simply not my scene. In fact one of my (rarely broken) rules is never to mention what I am doing until I can talk about it in the past tense. I suppose I don't really want anyone to know exactly where I am as I write.

People much younger than I don't seem to have this problem. Good for them! It must be a generation thing.

Cleaning up the eco-friendly environment

2009-01-21T21:46:00.004Z

Modern eco-friendly light bulbs are not that ecological or friendly, apparently. When they explode, as they sometimes do, all sorts of nasty substances are let loose into the environment, requiring the ten steps above to be used to remove them to the local specialist recycling center.

Quite what happens to you if you don't follow the instructions I am not sure. Tip of the hat here.

Seriously Alarmed

2009-01-20T15:04:00.003Z

This is the title of an article in today's Telegraph. The author, one Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, has his photo on the page and he's smiling. The article is anything but amusing so perhaps he should change his stock photo.

That aside, the article carries some stunningly bad news about Sterling and the UK economy. But Mr E-P, I have to ask you a question. How is that you, along with everyone else in the City of London, never saw this coming? Which ever way you answer the question, shame on you.

Welcome to the Real World, Obama!

2009-01-20T14:55:00.002Z

So the honeymoon is over. Being President-elect must have been an easy job with everything waiting for today. But now the clock on the first 100 days will start ticking. Being President in these troubled times will not be an easy job and I rather fear that President Obama has been given an near impossible task by many of his closest supporters - the American (and foreign) media.

Many moons ago I wrote this. My feelings on Obama haven't changed much but I am saddened by his choice of running mate (Biden) and Secretary of State (Clinton). Neither sum up "change" for me, just the "same old".

But in the spirit of the day, Hail to the Chief!

MacWorld on Video Downloads, etc.

2009-01-19T21:35:00.001Z

A useful insight into what is wrong with the business model(s) for video sales.

RipIt

2009-01-19T02:07:00.002Z

The previous post discussed a problem with ripping Narnia. A quick search suggested I try RipIt. So I downloaded the 7 day trial and. . . it works! Looks like RipIt.com will be getting my business.

The differences between Mac the Ripper and Ripit appear to be twofold. First, the RipIt interface is even simpler than MTR. A few preferences but that's it - load the DVD and start to rip. Second, the result is not a folder of files with strange acronyms and extensions, but a single file that can be played with Apple's DVD Player and which has the extension .dvdmedia.

But the real difference is that RipIt coped with the copy protection crap as if it didn't exist.

When I loaded the .dvdmedia file into Apple DVD Player it was like playing the DVD itself. For example, several annoying trailers for other movies, etc. But when I loaded the file into Elgato's software I simply deleted all but the main feature and created a single m4v file of what I wanted!

Elgato Turbo.264

2009-01-18T17:56:00.004Z

I am slowly working toward a hard drive based media center. The latest acquisitions include a 1 TB Western Digital hard drive which will be connected to an Apple Extreme; this will store all the music and videos and will be connected by ethernet to our Apple TV, whose 160 GB hard drive is nearly full.

But the real subject of this post is an interesting simple co-processor on a USB stick by Elgato.

If you own an old, relatively slow Mac, as I do, then ripping DVDs is slow and tedious. The Elgato Turbo.264 makes this an almost realtime process (but note that with the latest speedy processors there isn't going to be much difference).

The DVDs (which, of course, I own) were first ripped to the computer's hard drive using Mac the Ripper, an open source application easily downloaded. This puts all the contents of the DVD in a folder but this then needs to be converted to the right format for the Apple TV. I only convert the main feature (if I really want to see the extras, I still have the DVD). This takes up around 1GB of storage space per movie and the Elgato device speeds things up to around 2 hours (Handbrake, excellent open source software, takes maybe 3-1/2 times longer).

The screen capture of Elgato's elegant software controller is shown above, ripping Narnia, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Earlier I ripped Fargo, a superb movie for the collection, which cost me a bargain $4 (Canadian) at Calgary's HMV store. (Note: Narnia has a particularly insidious copy protection device built into it and the ripping failed, so this one will require more research)

Prince Harry and the media

2009-01-13T08:41:00.003Z

Not being a royalist I am almost reluctant to weigh in on the subject of Prince Harry using the nickname "Paki" in referring to a fellow soldier. But my point is not about royalty as much as the absurd degree to which the media pick up on and abuse language.

The term Paki is not abusive to everyone - listen to South Asians speaking and it becomes apparent that a person from Pakistan is a Paki just like someone from the province of Baluchistan (in Pakistan) is called a Baluchi. Following the logic of the British media and others, someone from this area of the world can be a Baluchi but not a Paki.

I would guess that the nickname "Paki" has an unfortunate etymological history in the media's coining of the term "Paki-bashing" several decades ago when racial tensions in Britain's cities were high. If so, then Prince Harry is actually being judged by the very originators of the "racist language" he is accused of using.

A case of the pot calling the kettle . . . .

Brian Gorge, Minerve (New Hiking Trail Guide)

2009-01-10T18:02:00.002Z

As well as slowly upgrading the hiking trail guides to iWeb, I have also added a new one today - the subject is a half day hike up the Brian Gorge, Minerve, in southern France.

Apple Software Upgrades

2009-01-10T09:02:00.002Z

Unless you are in the market for a 17" screen laptop (I'm not!) then the big news from Apple this month is that both iLife and iWork and getting meaningful upgrades. These two packages are disappointing in one way in that I don't really use all the components and if I could buy just Pages, Numbers, iPhoto and iWeb, then I would. I don't think iMovie will even work on my 4 year old PowerBook.

One interesting business solution is the introduction of the iPhone App "Keynote Remote". If only Keynote was the de facto presentation software in place of god-awful PowerPoint! Keynote Remote allows you to control the presentation with your iPhone while either reviewing your notes in portrait mode (on the iPhone) or the next slide in landscape mode. I'm going to try this App even if I don't actually use it at work. Sometimes I simply forget what the next slide is going to be, talk about its content and then realize that I should have clicked forward several minutes ago.

Again, why has the business community allowed PowerPoint to be omnipresent? That's a rhetorical question.

I am hoping that iWeb is going to be a more sophisticated package, even as I gradually convert focalplane.com's content over to it. (Update, five hiking trails are now converted to the new format).