Google Earth

If you never have, then I suggest you have a look at Google Earth.

Pretty amazing really.

Download here.

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch

Well yesterday was RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch Day.
I duly sat in my kitchen window for an hour and this is what I saw:

6 Starlings

3 House Sparrows

1 Robin

2 Blackbirds

1 Song Thrush

1 Pied Wagtail

1 Great Tit

1 Blue Tit

1 Blackcap

The Blackcap apparently is very rare in Britain at this time of year.

I'm not a bird watcher but I do watch birds if you know what I mean.

Stick some food out for them and have a look - you'll be surprised just how many different species come into your back garden.

Football Contracts

Apparently, according to TalkSport this morning West Ham have received an offer of £6 million for Carlton Cole.

Now a few weeks ago I'd have said 'take it' but now with Bellamy gone and Cole in fine form I'd say 'tell 'em to stick it!', but that's not the point, the point is that Cole has just signed a five year contract with West Ham.

Do legally binding contracts count for anything in football nowadays?

Seemingly not, but they should, and if they really don't count for anything then why have them in the first place?

Kaka

Kaka is not going to Man City after all then.
Good.
Money is not everything then - even in football.
So now City will have to rely on Mr Reliable himself Craig Bellamy.
Good luck to them!

Craig Bellamy

Confession time - I'm a West Ham fan.

That wasn't hard.

Craig Bellamy has left the club today (of particular interest to me because like Bellamy I'm Welsh).

Good riddance I say, and after Sunday's great result - who needs him?

I believe he's going to be made a mug of going to Man City because with all their money he's only ever going to be a stop gap or fringe player.

You reap what you sow I'm afraid.

Another Fake Big Chill

Another 'big chill' is on the way according to the press today.

What nonsense!

I read about it in The Daily Mail and they then quoted some temperatures for the coming few days the lowest of which was 2c!!!!!!

The average daily low for this time of year is 0c, so what they are actually predicting is temperatures 2c above the norm - some big chill!

I think the media should desist in talking about the weather forthwith!

Cows on Mars?

Widely reported in the press today is the fact that methane has been detected on Mars.

Now this means, according to the scientists, that the methane is produced either by geological activity - or life.

Life!

Does this mean (and I may be mistaken) that there are cows on Mars, farting?

Kate Winslet's Tears

Kate Winslet was SO upset at winning her Golden Globes (she certainly has) that I don't know why she bothers.

Why put yourself through it love?

If it upsets you that much don't do it.

Give it up.

Go and work in a supermarket or something.

Bad luck for Somali Pirates

Oh dear, read here for details.

Bad luck or Karma?

Although I must admit to having a sneaking sort of admiration for these fishing boat gunmen who seem to be holding the world's multinationals to ransom.

UFO's in Lincolnshire

There's UFO's in Lincolnshire then.
link
A giant wind turbine has been severely damaged, two of it's blades being bent and a third actually severed.

UFO's seem to be getting the blame, with most bizarre of all Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, the company who own the turbine saying "Until we have some idea, some plausible explanation that it was not a UFO, I don't think we should rule it out".

It is a perfectly rational explanation of course. Technically superior beings fly billions of miles to have a look at us and despite all their technological wizardry that must be far beyond our comprehension they (after all that skill, time and effort) crash into a giant wind turbine and scuttle off home with their tails between their legs (if they have tails or legs) utterly embarrassed.

The clumsy bastards.

The Freezing Weather in Perspective

Well, all this 'Big Freeze' talk in the press and on TV (local media seem to be going nuts over it) is getting me down.

I've been keeping weather records since 1980 when I was just seventeen and I've decided to look back at these to put this cold snap into some kind of perspective.

I have a maximum minimum digital thermometer in a home made Stephenson's Screen and keep records of temperature only. So here goes.

(I live in Wales by the way so that's obviously where the temperatures are taken).

Record Low: -25.1 Dec 1981.............Lowest this winter so far: -7.6

Most Frosts: 1985/86, 75 frosts............Frosts SO FAR this winter: 28

Most below -10 minimums: 1981/82, 6..........Below -10 minimums this winter SO FAR: 0

Most Sub Zero Maximums: 1985/86, 11..........Sub Zero Maximums this winter SO FAR: 4

You get the picture, it's cold but not exceptional.

The winters this century have been remarkably mild so far but even then there have been lows of -10 in Dec 2000

-9.1 in Jan 2002

-10.1 in Mar 2006

and -8.3 in Febs 07 & 08.

The average number of frosts annually between 1971 and 1990 for my part of Wales according to the Met Office was 62.

The average according to my figures since 2000 is 46. Quite a drop. That's why this year when we're getting probably somewhere near average again it seems a lot.

The most this century is 59 in 2000/01, and the least was 31 in 2006/07.

We'll see how many this year brings.

That record of -25.1 in Dec 1981 has never been touched. The closest to it (according to my figures) was -13.1 in Jan 1985, and I reckon it'll be pretty safe this year.

Sorry for all the geeky stats but I hope you'll agree that the media (as usual) are getting carried away.

It's winter and we're having some frost - hold the front page?!

Cheryl Cole's Battle of the Bulge

So Cheryl Cole has been having her own personal 'Battle of the Bulge' according to reports today (no doubt circulated by her).

Battle of the bullshit more like!

The only bulge she's got is her nose (and that's quite a bulge) - notice you'll rarely see a picture of her face side on.

The woman is a stick insect creature and thus in my view a bad role model, but the press for some bizarre reason seem to love her and are putting her up as a role model for vulnerable young girls, which is wrong.

The same press will next week be banging on about the horrors of anorexia.

Keep smiling that forced smile Cheryl - all the way to the bank - and mind you don't eat anything on the way pet.

Global Warming and The British Weather

What do the global warming lobbyists make of the current cold snap in Britain?
I went for a walk today with my daughter Olivia (left) and everything was coated with frost at 2.30 in the afternoon!

And what do they say about last years appallingly cool summer? Yes I know that last summer's overall average temp wasn't far below the norm but that was because there was so much cloud cover that the temperature didn't fall much at night. The daytime highs were extremely poor.

Last years cool summer and this current cold snap it could be (and will be by some) argued, are proof that global warming is a sham.

My own opinion is that the earth is warming, and has been warming and cooling and warming and cooling since time began.

Politicians, I think, have somewhat discredited global warming by making it a cynical tax raising vehicle.

Global warming is happening but that doesn't mean that it's man made. It may or may not be.

The cool summer and current cold snap in Britain is to do with weather and not climate.

Weather is all important. Last summer the weather was dominated by westerlies which equal cool (in summer) and wet weather.

Currently high pressure prevails over the country, which means (in winter) cold cold cold.

Global warming doesn't come into it one way or another. This is good old fashioned weather!