[glacier adrift] do you understand what's happening

I’m adrift on this issue – I just don’t know what to think.

The news: The 41 square miles Ayles Ice Shelf, one of six remaining in Canada's Arctic, broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, with ice that is more than 3,000 years old. Within days of breaking free, the Ayles Ice Shelf had drifted about 30 miles offshore before freezing into the sea ice.

Issue 1: The obvious question is about global warming and there are opinions for and against.

Issue 2: So, having read the above document, - if scientists can’t agree, then why do laymen use the expression: “It’s been scientifically proven?” It seems less and less has been proven as we go along. Stephen Hawking might also agree with this.

Issue 3: I’m confused. How does an economic and political fisking of the Stern Report translate into the statement by certain bloggers that there is no global warming when it is as plain as the noses on our faces?

In an effort to understand, I came up with this:

After dropping for about 15 years, the amount of sunlight Earth reflects back into space, called albedo, has increased since 2000, a new study concludes. That means less energy is reaching the surface. Yet global temperatures have not cooled during the period. Increasing cloud cover seems to be the reason, but there must also be some other change in the clouds that's not yet understood.

The explanation continues here ...

[friday afternoon] new year weekend is upon us

Cartoon by Pritchett

From the 10th floor you can get a magnificent view of the four laned road below with the dividing strip. From my flat, a short time ago, I took a look from the balcony and a number of things were interesting.

Firstly, there’s been more or less constant light snow today and the roads, houses, trees and everything else is covered in white. Secondly, there is total gridlock at 6.30 p.m. as far as the eye can see, in both directions, both service roads, the main artery in the distance and all connecting roads.

Total.

To give you an idea, I just saw my own car, which should have been safely in the carpark a kilometre away, down below instead, attempting to go past. Winter jacket donned but still shivering on the balcony, I wished I had binoculars. Everything appeared to be the same, even down to the spoiler on the back.

Then I realized the one down below didn’t have the rear window spoiler and I breathed a sigh of relief and got to the toast in the kitchen just in time to stop it burning [for once]. Some time later I went back to look at the traffic and guess what – that car was still there. That’s gridlock.

Time to do the blog rounds in order to gather for the Blogfocus tomorrow.

[film] the 100 greatest films of all time

Let’s make a start on this thing.

The problem is, essentially, that the Brits and Yankies look at these things from different sides of the pond. While critics try to be unbiased, national interest still creeps in.

I took four lists – two American and two British and even then, we are leaving out the French and other Europeans; plus Asia and local areas such as Australia.

Then we have the problem of ‘what’s a film?’ There were some fabulous Czech anti-war animations on celluloid many years ago. Do they count? What about Bond, James Bond?

Full text here.

[may-december] for and against

Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones faced the question in Entrapment.

Much has been written against and some for the chances of May-December:

1] I speak with authority. I spent 41 years of torture with a man 20 years older than I did, because I did not believe in divorce. Older men have their mind-set established and the wife can either follow or be miserable. I have yet to see a happy May - December marriage.
2] Almost half the couples in the United States divorce, and most of them are close in age. It is love that is the center of everything, not the number of years since your birth. It is love which creates alignment and balance between two people.
3] More reasons against and a fairly dispassionate view here.

Given, for argument’s sake, a 20 year old difference, that neither was a cheat, an egoist nor had personal problems, it seems to me it might work if:

1] It was 55-35, not 40-20 and her children were late teen;
2] They were both drawn together, [as in Connery-Zeta Jones in Entrapment], by some common thread or through some joint work or passion;
3] The love came more strongly from her, he wasn’t a sap for her and was a bit of a catch anyway;
4] She already knew his limitations and he was as honest with himself ;
5] They agreed to let go and review it every, say, five years.

I think it would have no chance if:

1] Her motive was for money, a father figure or a ticket to ride;
2] He lusted after her or loved her far more;
3] Their interests were quite different;
4] Their body language vastly differed e.g. her bouncy, he ponderous;
5] She was too young.

[wal-mart] opens communist party branch

Wal-Mart has set up a new branch of the Communist Party at its China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen after allowing unions to operate in its stores earlier this year. Chinese law makes it compulsory for any company or institution with 25 or more staff to set up its own trade union if staff request one.

Its first Chinese store was opened in 1996 and now employs more than 35,000 people in more than 60 stores in 34 cities across China and plans to open dozens more.

Difficult to see them destroying local retailing in China or creating poverty as they seem to have done back home.

[russian hijack] silly season demands sensation

So, it was a beat up. The headline proclaimed: Aeroflot Flight Hijack Attempt Foiled by Passengers. But the text said differently:

A Russian Aeroflot A-320 airliner with more than 100 passengers onboard was en route from Moscow to Geneva but had to land in Prague shortly before 11 a.m., after a hijacker tried to attack the crew. Reportedly the plane's passengers subdued the would-be hijacker. The Itar-Tass news agency said an unidentified man who was drunk picked a fight with two other passengers, threatened the crew and demanded the aircraft alter its course.

In other words, a drunken Russian acted in character. Subdued? Fell over more like.