Common Sense. R.I.P.

Here we go although it's really someone else's rant :

My parents told me about Mr Common Sense early in my life and told me I would do well to call on him when making decisions. It seems he was always around in my early years but less and less as time passed by. Today I read his obituary. Please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance, for Common Sense had served us all so well for so many generations.

Obituary
Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a Band-Aid to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home but the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap whilst driving a car with the said coffee cup lodged between her thighs, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know my Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm a Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Arise, Australia Fair !

I received this email from my cousin the other day. I can't help wondering if it's the start of a bit of a backlash against the British chattering classes and their misguided obsession with multiculturalism. I've yet to meet one who understands the difference - and the importance thereof - between multicultural and multiethnic approaches to coping with immigration. It is absolutely clear that multiculturalism has failed most immigrants into Britain. Consider the lunacy of having 27 languages being spoken in one school alone; teach them English and they'll integrate better and make far more progress in generations to come. We don't need ghettoes of ethnic groups living as almost totally enclosed communities. Britain has been a successful melting pot for a couple of thousand years and has done so by gradual accretion and evolution. Our language is a melange of many others - and long may it be so. Please don't start me on the issue of two legal systems either - British law for all Britons NOT just for some and Sharia law for others.

Anyway, the email reads as follows :

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you", he said on National Television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia : one the Australian law and another Islamic law that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option", Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off. Basically people who don't want to be Australians, and who don't want, to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can basically clear off", he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.

Quote: "IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians."

"However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the 'politically correct' crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia ." "However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand." "This idea of Australia being a multi-cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. And as Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle."

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom"

"We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society .. Learn the language!"

"Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture."

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us."

"If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like "A Fair Go", then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep your culture, but do not force it on others.

"This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom,

'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'."

"If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."

Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, BRITISH citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths!

"An Inconvenient Truth" - debunked all too easily !!

Somehow, I can't believe I've taken so long to get around to making this point. Al Gore is, apparently, really fond of inconvenient truths. The Keynote (NOT Powerpoint by the way) presentation he made is atrocious. Don't blame Apple. The software's good but the content's rubbish. It shows what a lack of good scientific training does for a man. The rest of the show is self-publicity !

Well here's one for him. 50 years ago I had to learn the basics of the Geological Ages. Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian etc. I spent ages learning an acronym "Poor Cuthbert Ordered Six Devon Cream Puffs Though John Couldn't Even Order Mince Pies Properly - Hopeless ! That gave me everything up to the Holocene - although, now that we know the Ice Age (Pleistocene) may not have finished, the Holocene may be redundant - for the next few million years at least.

However, we then learned the main features of each Epoch. What do we know about the Cretaceous ? It was probably the hottest period ever on Earth. No ice anywhere. Not even at the Poles. If anything, the world had its most even temperature gradient of all time. Fossils of tropical plants were found within a few degrees the of the (then) Poles. Ocean temperatures were so much hotter.

Best estimates from sediment cores suggest that tropical sea surface temperatures were between 9-12°C warmer than today, whilst the deep ocean temperatures were anything up to 15-20° C higher than today's.

Any 4x4s ? Any massive burning of fossil fuels ? Evidence of human activity ? As usual, bearing in mind the Cretaceous Epoch was 144 to 65 Million Years ago, answers on a postcard please ...................

Well, Al Gore, c/o Apple Inc, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA - where's your response to this ?

Retraite Entrante en France, as they say ......

I've been rather more remiss than ever I intended. I originally thought I would be able to blog at least once each week. However, I'm finding time is slipping by rather faster than I thought it ever could. I'm finding it ever more difficult to stay abreast of my specialities; even more difficult to find time to refute the idiocies of the 'Fiends of the Earth' brigade and fellow-travellers. Monbiot, I just long to meet you face to face. As for Porrit, well HoH, the Duke of Rothesay is welcome to him !

My Ultimate Other is desperate to get the gite complex up and running so we can earn income to finance her property ambitions. I suppose it's not out of order. She supported us through the bad times when my income was rather less than necessary to keep her and two growing little 'uns in the luxury she would have loved so much. It's only right I should put the effort into helping her to achieve her dream now - the world is not enough ! Now where did I hear that ? Here in France we are building our little launching pad into a property empire which may well span several countries. If all goes well, we should be buying some properties in eastern Europe in the next couple of years. Is this what I would like ? Answers on a postcard. as always, please .........................

Finally, we are emerging from the long dark financial tunnel of the last 35 years. If all goes well we should be able to pay off the property in the UK in the next few months. Add to that the results of some really careful planning and we are set up for life - even if the speculation in eastern Europe goes dreadfully and horribly wrong.

If all goes well "Her Indoors" may well be able to set herself up as a site agent on a small complex near the Black Sea. That should leave me rather more time time to get on with the Ph.D. I should have completed in the mid-70s. Even as I blog, I am in negotiations with a couple of universities back home. Somehow, the filthy lucre I've accumulated over the years seems so very unimportant now. OK, I've visited so many parts of the world I never thought I'd see but I've stopped stretching the only part of me that really matters. So few years left.

What gives me the greatest satisfaction these days ? Doing things I never thought I could. The gite complex progresses. The inner walls stand neat and strong - brick-laying skills I learned from a former class-mate who bullied me appallingly but who taught me so much in that line years later. The roof trusses are almost in place now - I taught myself so much from a set of books and watching joiners working on a project in Japan in the 90s. As for electrics they're almost finished: I learned those from Morris who was one of my few friends at school. Plumbing - well if anything is simple, then that's the job.

As for now, well, I've just got a short commission in Asia Minor. Looking forward to that - a part of the world where I've not spent too much time. It gives me a reason to learn another language. Oh well, here goes ............

Rural Ramblings

Perhaps there are those who wonder what's so special about chrysolite ?

I spent much of my childhood in rural Suffolk. If I had ever been interested in football (and I never have been, not even remotely) I would have been more or less mid-way between the choice of being a 'Tractor Boy' or a 'Canary'. I'm glad I never had to make that choice at least. If I had chosen the former and then given up, would that have made me an ex-tractor fan ?

I have so many memories of Lavenham, Horringer, Debenham, Wenhaston, Bramfield, Halesworth, Beccles and Oulton Broad. Amazing how far you can get on a bike in a day, even those days and on the bikes of the 50s and early 60s - lovely cycling country. However, the memories that have stuck are mostly of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. I remember the plaice and chips from the shop just round the corner from my aunt's. I've since learned that if plaice is almost transparent as you clean it, it's really fresh and tastes SO good. Hated the bones. That's one of the reasons I rarely enjoyed eating fish. I have so many memories of going to the harbour in Lowestoft and fishing off the harbour wall. Never actually caught anything though. I remember the boats in Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, crowded in the harbours, the raucous sea-birds, the salty tang of the sea and the smell of fish.

Strange. I never actually really liked to eat fish until I was in my forties. I ate it though. We were never that well off when I was young. It didn't matter which meal it was or what was in it - if it was put in front of you, you ate it - truly, end of story. Mum used to tell us of the times that, as a young girl, she had things that were put in front of her and, if you didn't eat it, they reappeared at the next meal-time - and the next ad infinitum - until you ate it. She had really great loving (and, I guess, hungry) brothers who would eat what she left so that she didn't have to suffer. When I went to Goshwhatta University in the far north I had a friend Ken from the Western Isles. I mentioned that about my mother. He told me how he had to eat his porridge. A huge pot was made at the start of the week. Nearly all was poured into a lined drawer, allowed to cool and cold slices were served up at every meal for the rest of the week. Horrible.

Near Beccles was where my Mum's nan, Auntie Mabel Bo lived. She lived in a small-holding with apple trees (where, as she kept telling me, she and my mum were strafed by a German warplane during the war as they collected apples). My brother and I used to share this tiny bed in the attic whenever we went to stay. She had hen houses where they kept bantams. I only just remember her husband, Sergeant. Early every morning in the one year I remember him, he took my brother and me out to collect eggs. Just before we were to leave at the end of our holidays, we went downstairs and found a fox had got into the shed and slaughtered all of the bantams. How many were eaten ? Why, only four out of the one hundred and fifty killed. My brother and I wept for ages over that. Now ask me why I have such a strong hatred of foxes (and, incidentally, minks which share the same murderous tendency). Not too long after that, Sergeant died and Auntie Mabel Bo lived on alone - sans bantams - for nearly another 45 years.

Anyway, I developed a love of sailing in the Norfolk Broads. My aunt worked for a restauranteur who had a boat; genuinely sea-going but he only ever sailed it in the Broads. He took a bit of a shine to my brother and me and so he used to take us sailing quite a lot in our summer holidays. I have so many happy memories of that. Even now, I enjoy any form of sailing.

We used to go to other places for holidays. I remember staying in a bed and breakfast in Keswick one year. The sun never shone. It was cloudy and misty all of the time. It rained a lot too. I didn't mind. One of the things that made my holiday - a Lotus Seven parked out in the street. It had a chrome-plated body and made a fantastic growl when it started up. I still have occasional longings for a Caterham (modern equivalent) even now.

However, Chrysolite. One summer we went to Port Seton near Edinburgh. If I remember correctly the swimming pool was called the Pond Hall. It was open and, being unheated, was five times colder than a witch's heart. My brother and I spent nearly all of the fortnight in there - blue but happy. Afterwards, each day, we went into a big cafe owned by some Italian family just up the slope for something to eat and drink. The chips were so good ! Did you know Scots don't ask for fish and chips ? It's a fish supper ! Anyway, we used to walk around the harbour and look at the fishing boats before they went out in the evening. One in particular, used to catch my eye. It's name - Chrysolite. It was so much more nicely painted than the rest with a deep green banding. I just loved that name.

When we got home I looked up the meaning of the name and found it to be a mineral. Shortly after, I was stricken with a monumental bout of bronchitis. My Mum and Dad had just bought Encyclopedia Britannica so I was not short of reading material for the 9 months I was in bed. I spent an awful lot of time reading up on minerals and, what did I do at university - Geology. Strange how the name of a fishing boat can influence your life.

Oxymoron Of Our Time : Microsoft Works

I use Apple Computers. There. It's out in the open. I do use Windoze but only if there's absolutely no choice. At one point, my employer retrenched from Apples to Dell/HP machines. After several years in this technological Hell, we're gradually seeing Apples reappearing especially when we're given the choice. That may not be too surprising. One or two of the key and very influential techs use Apple at home, regardless of the third-rate stuff they're forced to use at work and they're beginning to have an influence. There are a few who cannot and will not discuss anything other than Windows. For "I.T. Specialist" read "Windows Apologist". At the end of the day it's not too surprising. Windows machines, according to most independent surveys, require nearly 60% more I.T. support than Apple computers. Intelligent turkeys would never, ever, vote for Christmas.

I recently received an iBook - yay. That's complementing the 20" Intel Duo iMac I just purchased, my 800MHz 'sunflower' iMac (the one with a flat screen on top of the upturned white fruit bowl), and my little Mac Colour Classic which I just love to bits. If and when its circuit board finally goes to that great silicon heaven in the sky I'll replace its innards with the Mac Mini and link it up to the existing screen. Could be quite a long time though: Apple computers are built up to a standard rather than down to a price.

I also love playing with words hence the title of this post. Oxymoron and Litotes were the last two figures of speech we studied before we left Year Seven. Loved oxymorons. Military Intelligence, Microsoft Works (who remembers that package now ?). My current favourite - "Change is the only constant"; actually I think I used a version of that in my first post on this blog. I noticed that Easyjet and Virgin are considering setting a cheap airline for asian destinations ; will they call it "Easy Virgin' ? Now there's an oxymoron.

My English teacher in the Upper Sixth - a fearsome brute with tombstone teeth, a bristling sandy beard, one arm attached to a barrel chest and a truly savage manner - scared seven colours of something out of me. He never missed an opportunity to rip into us and point out our lnadequacies in using the written word (not to mention our lack of proficiency in spoken language). "You fool, Barbarian. Is that the best you can do ?" (Actually my choice of 'Barbarian' as a blog-name dates back to him calling me a barbarian on various occasions and is, partially, a tribute to him. There is, however, another reason too.) The 'bald' adjective came along later. No prizes for working that part out though.

Actually, now I look back and see I was one of the few he ever addressed pejoratively. The rest were only ever called by their surnames. With hindsight I've decided he probably thought I was just a total chancer or waster. I would always argue or try to talk my way out of trouble. More fool me. It just brought calumnies and vituperation down on me. Everything had to be just so to meet his standards. Infinitives unsplit, no mixed metaphors, the correct use of pronouns, no aberrant apostrophes, foreign words - all had to be used appropriately. I, me, myself - woe betide you if you used them wrongly. So now, when I see words like 'embonpoint' used by journalists to describe a woman's 'balcon' instead of a man's corpulence I get quite annoyed.

He told us to go away and read a worthwhile book - no hints what "worthwhile" actually meant - once and gave us 10 days to do it. I went away, looked in the library and found "The Worm Ouroborous" (Eddison) and "Lord Of The Rings" (Tolkien) jumping off the shelves into my hands. I read "Lord Of The Rings" in four days (All of the Saturday, Sunday, the Monday and Tuesday evenings after I'd done my homework.) As for the 'Worm' I have started it about nine times so far and still, 45 years on, I have never reached the third chapter. By now, a little bit like Christopher Lee who reads it annually, I have read the 'Lord Of The Rings' more times than I've started 'The Worm'. I have absolutely no idea what that says about me other than I like the story.

I went into class on the due day. Needless to say, the others had all found works of serious literature and were able to give some sort of precis. For some reason I was last to say what I'd chosen. I started into what should have been a few minutes' summary and after 10 minutes I had only reached Weathertop when he stopped me. He asked me some questions about the various characters and about one or two incidents in later sections then asked me - very quietly by his standards - "Is this really a worthwhile book ?". I knew the answer would be "no" and, crumpling inside, said "I suppose not". I fully expected to be punished then sent away to find something else - but - he looked around the class and said that any book which which got someone so wrapped up in it for four days, gave them so much enjoyment and gave them so much to think about was definitely worthwhile. I was dumbfounded. Normally the butt of so many of his scathing comments, I was - for that one time at least - able to walk out of his room with the merest hint of a smile.

Anyway, over the year I became more and more interested in language in all of its forms. He never ever eased up on me. Yet somehow it never felt too bad. All bar one of my previous English teachers were a waste of space as far as I was concerned. He got me fired up and interested in an area of the curriculum I had previously trudged through. Even his most vicious baiting made me ever more determined to match his standards. He was really into the precision inherent in language. "Fool, Barbarian. Language is a scalpel. You use it like the bluntest instrument imaginable."

He, and one other English teacher I learned from, both instilled a lot into me. Thanks A.R., J.W. They're probably sitting on a cloud now, looking over my shoulder and wincing at my less-than-deathless-and-disjointed-prose together with my comma-splices. Yet, in so many ways, the fact that I blog is largely down to them getting me into the disciplines and enjoyment of writing.

It was a combination of these disparate streams of thoughts that came together when I read another blog.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/microsoft_tries_1.html

I perceived a certain irony in the following :

"It seems that Microsoft and AMD have partnered to hand out some nice Christmas presents to select bloggers. Microsoft has reportedly sent out new AMD-equipped Acer laptops in an effort to get prominent bloggers using Microsoft’s new Vista operating system," Michael Calore blogs for Wired.

Calore writes, "If Microsoft were to give away copies of Vista that would make sense and probably raise no eyebrows at all, but giving away a whole laptop understandably strikes some as little more than bribery... Dan Warne a journalist at APCmag left a comment at the site linked above in which he points out:"

It’s bizarre for one of the world’s largest PR companies, Edelman, to think it could get away with this. Perhaps they don’t know bloggers as well as they thought they did… now that some of the bloggers have disclosed the receipt of the gift, the public knows. Whatever the subtleties of the offer were, it comes across as nothing more than a bribe, and that is a very bad look for Microsoft.

Calore writes, "As Warne says, now that the word is out, expect the negative publicity to be every bit as shrill as the positive which means Microsoft’s PR move may well end up backfiring."

The irony, to me, is that if it had not been for Apple we would still be using an updated version of DOS with key commands or command lines to operate computers - a bit like Linux now I suppose. Apple saw the potential for an effective GUI in Alto Palo and the desktop we now know and - in Apple's case, love - was born. Then it was bastardised by Microsoft for Windows but let's not go there.

That's not the main irony though. The real irony though, is that Bill Gates wrote the Word package for Apple, together with the elements that went on to become the Office suite and a large part of the early income for Microsoft. Now you hear people expressing doubt as to whether to buy a Mac "because I need to use Word/Excel" . Well my dears - you can ! (Pages and Numbers, the Apple applications are far better though).

All I can say is that Microsoft must be getting really desperate. Windoze is, and remains, seriously flawed even after all of these years. Office is an over-hyped and bloated piece of software - how many people use more than 25% of the features ? Zune is a total brick with hopelessly restrictive DRM. X-box loses money hand over fist. From what I've seen so far, Vista is more like another Service Pack for Windows with some cosmetic additions. Most of the features they've touted over the last couple of years have been dropped. As for Windows, well we all know that the Windows Operating system has even more viruses than your average NHS ward on one of its better days. I'm just glad that I chose an operating system that actually works and has features that won't be seen on Vista for a long time. As for getting a present of a laptop for blogging ? Mr Jobs, I know I'm not a particularly widely-read blogger, but if you're reading this in Cupertino I would just LOVE a 17" MacBook Pro with Aperture and more memory than a large herd of elephants !!! A just reward for having been into Apple computers from the very beginning, no ?

Footnote 1 :
If I were a betting man - and I'm not - I would suggest that this is possibly the last operating system that will ever come out of Redmond. We are almost at the stage of the browser (Safari, Firefox, Camino, Opera, Omniweb and, yes, even Explorer) being able to access all of the software eg from Google that you'll ever need. Add to that virtually universal access to the internet, broadband speeds, plus on-line storage in frighteningly large amounts, and we are at the stage of the home computer being simply a terminal.

Footnote 2 :
This probably seems weird to modern kids but, as boys, we were always referred to by our surnames - Smith, Johnson - whatever from Year One until the end of Lower Sixth. The exception was in Upper Sixth when we became Mr Johnson, Mr Smith. The girls, on the other hand, were always called by their Christian names eg Christine, Deborah. I never understood that.

Saharan Sandstorms Sloughing Seawards

I was talking to a friend who, like me, has a background in Geology. I'm more into the palaeogeography and climate change, he's more into rocks from the structural and engineering side. However, we were talking about the sudden spells of stormy weather we're getting just now. My thought was my day would only be complete when someone from Fiends of The Earth or some other eco-nasty group was on tv, spluttering 'global warming' or 'climate change' as is their wont. He absolutely threw me when he said "Bet he" - it's nearly always a he, isn't it - "never even mentions the effects of dust storms from the Sahara."

At that point I stopped in my tracks. I realised a long time ago that desert sand gets everywhere. Usually it's into places you don't want it. Inside cameras, clothes, eyes and ears (look at how camels have evolved to keep it out) plus others too delicate to mention as well ! That fine, silky stuff is in the air around you all the time. Often you don't realise how much there is until the sun starts to set. Then that golden orb suddenly changes to a hazy reddish ball which becomes ever more indistinct as it settles through the last 15 degrees of arc down to the horizon, its rays passing through progressively more and more dust-laden air and their angle becomes more oblique. I'm almost willing to bet that's why camel are so tall - keeps their heads above the worst of the air-borne sand. That and keeping their bodies above the really hot air immediately above the day-time sand would be my best bets.

I found out quite a bit more about its movement 30 years ago from general curiosity. In 1976, that lovely hot dry summer, my car was rained on by a heavy convectional shower (near Pratt's Bottom, of all places. No rude comments please). Drying rapidly, it was covered by fine red blotches. On taking a few samples and testing them I found it was Saharan sand. (Red is the colour of the desert, more or less - oxidised iron, once again). Intrigued by this I actually spent some time with my nose in a book on weather and found out about air streams. It seems that we were being affected by 'cT air' (Tropical continental) from the Sahara. Why they reverse the name compared to the letters is lost on me I'm afraid. It seems that large blobs of air 'sit' over source areas such as the Sahara and take on the temperature and moisture conditions of the source area. After a while they start to stream out. In this case, over us. They take their characteristics with them and modify the weather we would normally get. In the case of 1976, we had that really long spell of hot dry weather. So that fine dust can travel all the way from northern Africa to Britain.

From my studies into the effects of volcanoes I knew a fair amount about the various cooling effects of dust from eruptions. Tambora in 1815 put so much of the stuff into the air that there was no summer and it was known as 'Eighteen Hundred and Frozen To Death'. Turner's paintings with their spectacular skies are about the only real evidence we have of the global spread of that dust since photography didn't exist. Krakatoa in 1883 wasn't quite as devastating but it still caused significant cooling and incredible sunsets. Did you know that the background in 'The Scream' by Munch is that of a sunset affected by volcanic dust, not long after Krakatoa blew its cone away ? I was surprised to find that out. It's one of those stupid little factoids I'm liable to use from time to time. For what it's worth, my favourite factoid of the moment is that Pietro Mascagnia was so proud of his Intermezzo in "Cavaliere Rusticana" that he used to rush up to people whenever he heard it being played and tell them he wrote it. Mind you, I'd be proud to have written anything even half as good at that: it's really stood the test of time. It must be on the radio several times a week.

Dust in the air is also a contributor to the variation in sun's energy reaching the surface of the Earth. At the Equator the sun's rays are close to vertical all the time. They reach the surface and are concentrated into a small area, giving strong heating. At higher latitudes the sun's rays are quite oblique so they have to pass through a lot of atmosphere. On the way through the insolation is reduced significantly by the dust. That plus the diffusion of the sun's rays over larger areas make higher latitudes quite a lot cooler.

Anyway, once I'd thought it through, I wasn't so surprised. On reading up various articles while I've been unwell, I've found that there is an amazingly strong correlation between hurricanes in the Atlantic and the absence of sand blown from the Sahara. When there is no dust there are hurricanes and vice versa. It looks as though these sand storms can blow up in as little as five days and they smother hurricanes by depriving them of the heat and moisture they need to grow. Some years it seems to happen, others not.

Now there's something constructive to build into the analysis and forecasting of hurricanes.

Snowball Earth ? Cool, Baby !

Anyone reading my first post in this blog will know that there have been four Great Ice Ages with varying amounts of evidence to support their existence. I was reading the Daily Mail yesterday and, to my great surprise, found an article about scientists who've been researching various deposits which confirm the theory of the Cryogenic Era. They were from St Andrew's University and had been researching ancient Irish rocks. According to the journalist, the theory was first 'coined in 1992' (sic) to explain the existence of massive glaciers at sea-level in the equatorial regions of that period. Also according to the journalist, the period lasted for about 10 million years. They are publishing findings which appear to give more detailed support to the theory.

The article was fairly short and it would appear that, as usual, a journalist has been given details on a topic they know little about, an article was written and then, thereafter, sub-edited down to fit the space available. In the process inaccuracies have crept in. I may be wrong on this but I wonder if the journalist was given a reference to the coining of the name of the epoch by Kirschvink (C.I.T) in the 1990s rather than the actual concept which was bouncing around a lot earlier.

Actually, the first Great Ice Age was thought to have been a Snowball Earth as there is some evidence which is replicated in the geological record during the period we now refer to as the Cryogenic period. That is a topic for another post.

I had to smile as I read the article. I first came across the concept/theory of the Snowball Earth in the 1960s as I studied Geology and Geography. There was quite a fair amount of discussion about it at the time. One thing was obvious though - the 10 million years mentioned above simply doesn't cut it for the length of time the Snowball Earth existed. As a matter of interest, this period and the whole issue of ice ages is dealt with in his usual superb inimitable style by Bill Bryson in his book "A Short History Of Nearly Everything". Well worth reading in my opinion. It's also worth mentioning that the theory is not without its critics - which is as it should be; any theory worth its salt should be challenged to within an inch of its life as far as I am concerned. That, of course, is why I militate so strongly against the "conventional wisdom" - based on limited knowledge as far as I can see - nonsense and scaremongering being peddled as facts about global warming / climate change by the media, those with certain political or 'green' agendas plus a certain 'wannabe' US president ('I don't plan to run again'. Oh yeah ?).

There are two points which can be made categorically. There is no 'unanimity' of world scientists. There are many, many climatologists, geographers, geologists who do NOT agree - many extremely well-known if not actually pre-eminent in their fields. Secondly, the science is NOT settled. In fact, ALL of the respectable science across a range of disciplines tends to refute all of the claims. For example, in "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore is correct to point out a correlation between CO2 and global temperatures. However, close examination shows he is wrong in his claim of which causes which. The CO2 levels actually follow climate trends not cause them ! Sunspot activity also gives a much closer correlation than CO2 and is considerably more co-terminous, suggesting sunspot activity is much more likely to be the cause than CO2. The problem is that he is likely to be dead before he is discredited.

Anyway, enough of the polemics. Back to the ranch.

The Snowball Earth Theory suggests that the Earth was covered in ice from the Poles to the Equator, hundreds of metres thick over most of the Earth, thinnning to perhaps only tens of metres in the equatorial regions. Most interpretations of the theory suggest that, based on biological information, some areas of ocean must have remained unfrozen. There is also the suggestion that there were local 'hotspots', possibly volcanic in origin, which kept some places just warm enough. Another suggestion is that there may have been places where the ice froze but remained clear enough for sunlight to penetrate. That's not common in nature but it does happen. I also read somewhere that nunataks [jagged horn peaks protruding through the ice - as opposed to mass onslaughts by little women in black dresses] may have been places with daily thawing and nightly refreezing. All offer the niches that life could have clung on to.

Why did it happen ? No-one's sure. A drop in solar radiation is thought to be one of the main causes. However, it is likely that that had to be combined with a fall-off in the production of greenhouse gases. Equally, in some way, the earth was unable to hold on to those it had already. It should be noted that greenhouse gases are essential to sustain us. Without them the earth would be a lifeless ball of ice.

What's the evidence ? Well, on to one of my favourite bits. Palaeogeography. We know that the continents have been moving about through the Earth's history. We can track them by looking at the orientation of iron particles in volcanic rocks for one thing. The Earth is a giant magnet with a field that stretches from Pole to Pole. It reverses from time to time, at fairly regular intervals. Again, a topic for another blog. The iron particles tend to align themselves with the earth's magnetic field whilst still molten. When the magma or lava begins to set that's them fixed. From the rocks we analyse, we can date them and work out where they were at various points in time. One of the pieces of evidence for continental drift / plate tectonics.

At this time, the continents were mostly in the area of the Equator, forming a clustering which is called Rodinia. Where do they get the names ? Rodinia, Pangaea, Laurasia, Gwondanaland ......... The evidence - the usual sort of glacial debris, markings, erratics etc - is sufficiently widespread to make it extremely compelling evidence. However, there's more. One interesting piece of evidence relates to iron. In our air iron oxidises ("rusts" to you and me). That's down to oxygen. Deposits of iron in non-glacial periods are oxidised. During Ice Ages - it's not, because oxygen levels are so much lower. Deposits from the Cryogenian period are unoxidised. Conclusion - Great Ice Age.

How long did it last ? Well it's far more than the 10 million years mentioned in the Daily Mail. Best estimates are around 170 million years viz. from 750 - 580 million years ago. Some estimates suggest even further back - to about 880 million years ago. The devil, as they say, is in the detail.

Why did it end ? How could it possibly have ended is actually a better question. The Earth reflects sunlight in various ways (The Albedo Effect). A giant snowball, 40,000 km in circumference, is going to reflect virtually everything. There would have been a clear blue sky without clouds. Nothing could stop heat being radiated back out into space. In theory, once having achieved that state, the Earth should have remained as a giant snowball thereafter.

One suggestion is volcanic activity. Look back a decade or so to the volcano beneath the Vatnajokul glacier which erupted, melting hundreds and hundreds of metres of ice which eventually poured down into the Atlantic as water. Could volcanic heat have begun punching through the ice ? Could volcanic emissions of Carbon Dioxide have begun to reconstitute the greenhouse gas layer needed to retain solar energy ? Once melting began, was there some form of feedback cycle which maintained and increased the melting process ? It's possible that Milankovitch's 3 cycles coincided positively towards the end of this period to begin the earth's temperatures rising again. Quite possibly all of these factors conspired. No-one's sure but we may find out eventually I suppose.

Footnote :

British geologists of yore were fascinated by the various rocks we call erratics today. They postulated floods and various other mechanisms to account for their movement. A suggestion was even made about a mythical race of giants carrying them as I recall. However, it was the Swiss who knew the mechanism was ice. From then theories and knowledge about glaciation have advanced, not without set-backs it has to be said. Noteworthy was Louis Agassiz. He became one of the best-known protagonists of the theory of glaciation although neither really feted nor well-known until he went to the USA and became a professor. Unfortunately, he tended to see more signs of glaciation than he was able to prove. Seeing signs of glaciation in equatorial zones was a step too far. He fell from grace when he proclaimed that ice had once wiped out all life before divine intervention restored it. He was actually closer than he knew. Time to rehabilitate him ?