Ex-Wife #1

It is good to see my first wife doing well.  She runs the stroke unit at her hospital, Northwick Park, which has just been voted the most effective stroke unit in the country.

She has – on the same day – just picked up yet another degree – an MSc this time.

Clever

Flying Home

It was a clear day as I flew back to South Australia from the Northern Territory yesterday afternoon, and I was sitting in a window seat, so I took some photos with my mobile phone.

Lake Torrens is a salt lake. Unlike some, this one is above

Weather? It’s nobler.

For a remarkably reasonable price, I have aquired a weather station. Although there was no global warming for the first decade and a half or so of this century, there is some evidence of a modest rise in average temperatures in the last year or so. Far short of the warnings of runaway scorching as we went past some supposed tipping point. But something to watch for. Personally, I am all for a bit of global warming, especially since we now enjoy the beneficial effects of a bit more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – worldwide vegetation has increased a fair bit, almost certainly because of the extra carbon dioxide rather than the temperature. If the average global temperature were to rise to, say, the levels enjoyed by the Roman Empire or even more recently during the Renaissance, there would be huge benefits to mankind.

We no longer get bombarded by hysterical nonsense on the subject from the media quite as much as a while ago. The public at large seems to have rumbled that the scientists whose grant money depends on scary stories about iminent disaster are not to be trusted, and global warming has slipped way down the ratings of issues that the public now worry about.  In the USA

Dr Johnson’s Dancing Dogs

What with the Super Moon event, I bought a coupler which allows me to take photographs through my telescope. I though it might be fun to photograph the super moon.

I am not sure I have got the riding of it so far. Here is a picture of a farm building about 3

Quiz of the Day III

In which Royal Palace does it take longer for 5 days to pass than 6 days?

There might be a supplementary to this question if

Quiz of the Day II

What is illustrated by this map?

No clues

The Black Order of the Hooded Plover

What was this chap doing just off Myponga Beach over the weekend?

Perhaps it had been chartered by the Beach Nutters, who had agents on board armed with rifles with telescopic sights? Perhaps they were planning to kill anyone with the temerity to take their dog for a walk on the beach?

The hooded plover is an evil pest, not because of the poor animal itself, but because of of the messainic creed of those who want to persuade it to move from Tasmania (where they bred like rabbits, and where they seem to be perfectly happy) to the Fleurieu Peninsular.

If I were a hooded plover (I am not, so this is a bit far-fetched) I would not

Old Power

This being South Australia, the land of renewable energy, I had 3 power cuts last week.

I had warning of one them.  Not only do I have a generator which powers my computer etc, but I also have my dear departed mother’s old candle-burning plate warmer. So I used my coffee machine to make a whole pot of coffee, and was able to keep it hot all morning.

There are advantages to

The Neo-Clergy Against the Wall

In some parts of the world, old-style religion based on what might have been said by someone the millennium before last still holds sway.  But it most parts of the western world, it is now the neo-religions, staffed by a neo-clergy, which have had the more impact.  There are several overlapping sects; in (roughly) chronological order, we have

• The Unilateral Disarmists
• The Feminists
• The Global Warmists[1]
• The Refugists.

The neo-clergy preach, not from old fashioned pulpits, but through the modern media.  They pack the press galleries of the western world. Inherently hostile to the notion of doing anything for profit, they prefer to work for governments or, even better, charities or NGOs[2]. They have all but wiped out dissent in