What's missing from this headline...

..is 'Probably Man-Worsened...', my preferred prefix.

Found after 300m years: rainforest fossils show how climate change could look

Mainly because we are looking some 299m years before the first Humvee.

A point not missed by some already or, I suspect to come, others.

Doesn't make things easy, does it?

PROF'S POSER - Where's an actuary when you need one?

The other day these bits of paper arrived.

At first I was going to bin them, but then I had a read, and as a consequence of that called up the sender.

You see, our washing machine is at last 10 years old. Still doing a sterling job, bar a few hiccups year on year that have been resolved.

Thing is, I don't recall ever seeing such an insurance before, so they must n=know what they are doing.

The deal is not cheap, coming in at well over £100 a year. But the up side is tempting. They either fix it if...when it dies, or give us a new one.

Now, my main aim is environmental (no, really) in that I like the notion of repair if at all possible (lord knows what the enviROI on a call-out is), but I was also wondering about the numbers.

Being that a new one is around £2-300, does it make any sense to take out such a policy at this stage?

Oh, what a tangled web...

Now I am the first to admit that this little spit 'n sawdsut operation is more than prone to the odd IT-boo-boo.

You don't want 'em, or like 'em, but they happen.

So it is always reassuring when someone oodles bigger cocks up.

Assuming they didn't mean to address me this way, of course.

How to get in the news: screw up a bit less

Or, 'Stats they way, uh-huh, I like it'.

I know it is good to big up positives and if it's local it has to be good, but you have to wonder what basis news rooms shape their stories. Mabye just a great press release?

Seems our very own Severn Trent water service is the most improved for complaints with some measure or other (I'd never heard of it before). I know this thanks to BBC Midlands Today (will try and get the link - er, good luck via the awful BBC search feature).

Great.

Thing is, as far as I could gather, this accolade is more a matter of the % they have improved from a rather dire level before. So, from god awful to just awful gets you in the media, it seems.

I wonder if there are any out there just doing well and no better than before, and how they feel?

I even had a category ready

This deserves its own gig. More so by being in the Guardian:

Elitist evangelists

I am hard-pressed to figure out what the £30k 'damage' was/is, but 'if you commit the crime, you do the time', etc, I guess.

However, this is one CiF I'll watch from the sidelines.

Telegraph - NEW - Climate change chicanery - The author is a major climate optimist, and hence all written should be viewed in this light but, if true, the point about the function of an expert witness in a legal trial is a good one, and I'd like that question on how two advocates came to be used in this role was allowed.

CATEGORY - TV SHOWS

Haven't created a category in a while. Here's a new one.

BBC

Earth: The Climate Wars - one down, 2 & 3 next Sunday and the one after

ITV

A Rubbish Service -

I might even get round to a re:view every so often. Mind you, I keep missing 'em! Most najors now have a week long follow-up window. Then... YouTube/iPod is your friend?

Where does what we recycle go to?

Of course our local authorities ensure that all recycled rubbish is accounted for and properly and usefully handled, don't they?

Well, not so, according to this from the Telegraph a few days ago.

200 authorities DO know exactly where recycled rubbish ends up.....
but, 135 are unable to confirm where recycled rubbish goes......
and 20 have no idea whatsoever where it goes to!!

I had cause to be briefly back at home when the recycling lorry made it's collection last week, and my eyebrows rose considerably higher as I watched the guys empty our carefully separated paper, glass and metal into, you've guessed it, one single mixed container! On top of this, now it seems that no-one can genuinely account for where it goes too!

Its beginning to make me wonder whether the weekly rubbish sort out is worth the effort.

Addendum (JM) -
Telegraph - Do we waste too much?
Telegraph - The European Union's recycling regulations are a failure

ITV - A Rubbish Service - Missed it, but really there are too many these days. Sounds like more of the same. Worth doing, but the lack of change in the face of such exposes is telling.