Wednesday, July 29, 2009

IDEA - Composter


I have not been 'down the shed' for a while. Pity. That's where I do my best... er... better work.

But I thought this was an idea en route to the shed worth sharing.

Well, Barnes Wallis may have liked it.

POOH CORNER - Flushed with inspiration

Over at My Zero Waste: How to reuse your toilet

So, there are reuses for the hardware as well as the ...ahem.. software.

Funnily enough, in her post Rae mentions washing machine drums, and I have a new idea coming up on these soon. Watch this (well, Junkk.com's) space.

Well...

I must take this opportunity to blog on the trails and tribulations of making changes to a system that seems more finely tuned and jittery than an Arab stallion on speed driving a 60's Ferrari.

For a start, when we uploaded the new upgrades, it all also got moved to a new server, and that's just where the 'fun' started, and looks like it continues.

Because for a magic period the system seems to have posted to an ancient test page which, ironically, uploaded in a heartbeat. And then buried itself in the cache of some who logged on while it was up.

However, in sorting that out, it looks like we are currently bouncing off Mars via Uranus, and if the site loads at all , it is coming by man with cleft stick being towed by a three-legged tortoise.

Not. A. Good. Day!

Playing Chicken Little

Today there was a classic example of how rushing out notions in support of your beliefs can end up doing more harm than good.

It cannot have escaped most folks' notice that of late, the weather has been less than clement. As I write a cold drizzle decorates my window. I can only imagine how those in the campsite opposite are feeling.

And this has been picked up by the 'news'. So we have the odd spectacle of the BBC reporting crew exchanging barbed commentary with the weather guys. 'How did you get it so wrong', was about the most polite interrogation.

To which, reasonably, the reply was that such things were almost impossible to predict.

Trouble is, a lot of folk seem to make a lot of noise based on predictions. And this summer was going to be long, hot, and non-stop BBQ. It may yet get there, and I am hoping for something nicer for our camping trip in a few weeks' time. It's hard to keep kids entertained under wet canvas for long.

But for now, there is quite a lot of egg on faces, and I rather fear more sober cautions on climate will get rather swamped by overly enthusiastic folk - using what they think will 'prove' their case - getting a bit of a hammering from those equally keen to 'prove' the exact opposite.

Frankly, from floods to heatwaves to hurricanes to even melting Greenland glaciers (some have used a piece on this to enquire as to how this country acquired its name, pre-Humvee), I think those advocating caution, moderation and even reduction might be better tasked looking at ways to motivate other than 'the sky is falling'. Especially when they put quantitative data on it all which proves unsound.

Telegraph - NEW - Start with the Met Office, Dave - It seems others have noticed, and views

BBC - NEW - Met Office cools summer forecast - Ten ways to beat the heat

Indy - NEW - The Big Question: Why did the Met Office get it so wrong?

Guardian - NEW - Rain puts dampers on 'barbecue summer' - the inevitable exchanges have rather made my point

QUOTE OF THE DAY - Keep taking the blue pills

Worth sharing: Human activity is driving Earth's 'sixth great extinction event'

If only for this quote post which at the time I thought was curiously sympathetic to the 'baddies' in the Matrix:

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure".

Agent Smith

(worth also checking out Titan AE to feel the Drej might have had a point):