rashbre central

Wednesday, 25 January 2017

200 million years of bird migration


After the Trump administration told the US Environment Protection Agency to shut up, I thought it was time to have a peek at what they are doing. It appears to be quite fascinating long term research which provides all manner of indicators about climate change.

There's a superb climate change report available from their web-site, at least until the on-boarding of their new digital strategist decrees whether or not it will still be available.

In the shorter term they have been forbidden from press releases, no blogging, reduction of webinars, no new content to be released and more. I suppose they need to be consistent with Trump's viewpoint on climate change, which may require some further adjustments somewhere.

I decided to take a look at the section about bird migration. Birds are supposed to be descendants of dinosaurs, which learned how to survive by small size and use of flight. It has seen them do pretty well for the last two hundred million years or so, as they scaled back from the velociraptor and adapted to the use of feathers. This little Scientific American graphic illustrates the story.

So when the centre of abundance for multiple species of birds moves northward over 40 miles during the last 50 years, it suggests that things must be getting warmer. And some of the species (about 48) have moved northwards by around 200 miles. Here's a little graphic from the EPA report.

Of course, if the birds are among nature's survivors then another interesting chart would be one that covered the effect of whatever is happening on human health. That gets covered in the report as well, along with one of those cause effect graphics, to show some of the main interdependencies.

But I'm wondering if this well-produced report, reviewed by plenty of industry experts, is about to be given the heave-ho? It doesn't seem to support the direction of some of the new administration's executive orders, so perhaps the new digital strategist will be making some adjustments?

Perhaps we will be told?

Update: I was going to post this tomorrow, but have brought it forward because the Trump Administration has now asked the EPA to remove its climate change section.

turbo cycling and watching goliath


I've been watching that Goliath series on box-set over the last few days whilst I try to get my cycling legs working again.

I suppose the show would be classed as a legal procedural and is about a big business doing something that may not be entirely law-abiding. I suspect they used the entire effects budget in the first scene.

The neo-noir show has Billy Bob Thornton as the lead character playing a broken hotshot lawyer who now lives in a motel in Santa Monica. There's several plot points that many of these legally derived shows have in common. In Better Call Saul, (the Bob Odenkirk show) there's an ex partner lawyer who has had a breakdown and now lives in a darkened room with an annoying aversion to electricity.

Check. In this show we get Thornton as the busted ex-partner and remarkably William Hurt as the melodramatic still-in-place partner with a sooo annoying habit who, yes, lives in a darkened office at the top of his tower block.

There's the Grisham/Badalucci-esque spirited female assistants on hand to help Thornton with the case, most of whom seem to work for nothing. Then there's Thornton's broken marriage, savvy teen daughter and ex-wife with a new lover who works for the opposing council.

The thing is, formulaic as it may be, I'm enjoying the show. Thornton's switches from slightly drunk to razor-sharp in the courtroom. The stealth of the big business trying to quash investigations. The brown lighting of Thornton's world to the sterile glass cubes within glass cubes where the Goliath action plays out.

And behind it all is a very good sense of coastal Los Angeles. It was genius to give Thornton a beaten up convertible (red Mustang, of course), because when he drives around you see so much more of the neighbourhood. Even I could recognise real streets and areas from my own experience so there was that quiet 'been there' thought through some parts of it.

I've still about three episodes left to watch, but with Thornton's understated play of the dialogue and great ensemble casting, this is really quite entertaining. I'd even watch another series, if they ever made it.

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

where to point the track?

Within a second of that Supreme Court ruling on Article 50 the tweetsters pulled their own triggers.

The score was on every pundit's door and moments later there were dooks and hisses about the sovereignty of Parliament.

In practice, everyone has been positioning their 'amendments' to the trigger for days. Even Mrs May said she'll put the final deal to Parliament as a kind of stress test. Labour will harrumph rather than block although Farron's lot will try to stall things unless the whole kit and caboodle goes beyond Mrs May's promise and to a second referendum.

Oh yes, a canvas bagful of ferrets is breaking into song.

The process is starting to run on rails now, starting with David Davis at 12:30 in the Commons.

There's still many awkward points, like the US/UK trade only being one third of the value of EU trade and China needing to get beyond the trouble at the power station let alone Tony Xia's Chinese-owned Aston Villa transfer news.

So, although track is being laid, the trick will be to know which way to point the self-laying track machine, before it runs over an edge.

Monday, 23 January 2017

pedal power, sunshine and doublethink

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Last May was the first (short) time that the UK ran its entire power grid without coal all the way since 1882, although there was some subsequent scurrying to find enough power from other sources.

And last year, when I was out cycling, I would sometimes pass the edge of a nearby field, being converted for solar power. My picture at the top of the post is a frosty morning snapshot of one of the fields, taken a few days ago, when I passed it on the train.

Yes, by now, it is complete and in service, and I believe each of two nearby schemes is capable of producing a few megawatts of power. Compared with a 2000-3000 Mw power station, this isn't a lot, although it is sufficient to power the adjacent 1000 or so homes, at least when there's enough sunshine.

These local field schemes have been somewhat contentious. In one case the original site wasn't used, although an adjacent one was found and seems to suit the local population as well as the farmers. It changes the nature of some of the farmland, alongside the increasing poly-tunnels for fruit growing and now these mainly flat solar panels.

Most advertising of them add a few sheep running around to make it all look more picturesque. Eagle eyed may spot German sheep in this particular photo. German farmers soon discovered that the sheep were by far the best way to manage the grassland around the panels.

So now the UK's big energy agenda is to move from coal to natural gas, towards renewables (biomass) and to wind, tidal and solar power. Nuclear is still in there, assuming the fabled French/Chinese/British plants ever get built and don't just follow the Trumpian example of driving busy diggers around a muddy plot of land.

This British and European route towards decarbonisation is quite different from the new one advertised by America on their White House web site. Although their same description also expresses the need for responsible stewardship of the environment.

You can tell, I'm still getting used to the idea of post truth, alternative truth, newspeak and doublethink.

Sunday, 22 January 2017

with cat like tread

EM570196 Thames, South Bank
Wandering around London is never dull, and over the life of this blog there's been many changes that start from an original glimpse or drawing and finish with the actual delivered item.

A quick example would be the new American Embassy, which was still a sugar cube sketch back in the day and now looks almost ready for use.

I see it more from the train than the roadside, because there's still building site paraphernalia around the actual area.

The taxi drivers are always full of stories of the price of the apartments opposite and although it is right next to the Nine Elms fruit and veg market, the market somehow seems to get edited out of most of the pictures.

The old embassy in Grosvenor Square is to become another Qatari-owned luxury hotel, like most of that particular part of Mayfair. So I'm not sure if yesterday's big protest will be the last one to convene in Grosvenor Square.

The route from the old US embassy to Trafalgar Square is just over a mile and fairly straightforward.

A new route from Nine Elms to Traf. Square would be more than twice as far and additionally would logically pass the Palace of Westminster itself. This could be tricky because of all of the rules about marches near to Parliament.

But, come to think of it, our Prime Minister is visiting the US President on Friday, so perhaps that will clear up any misunderstandings about respective roles and positions?

Meanwhile, here's one of my cheeky low sunlight snapshots of Parliament, from the currently uncrowded Westminster Bridge, featuring Charles Barry's architectural designs, and ahead of Parliament's own rebuild.
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Saturday, 21 January 2017

swamp replacement strategies?


Wading through the words and gestures...

Not sure that the swamp got drained exactly. More an overhaul of its inhabitants.

Now everyone blamed his old man
For making him mean as a snake
When Amos Moses was a boy
His daddy would use him for alligator bait
Tie a rope around his neck and throw him in the swamp

Friday, 20 January 2017

from mathematical to bridge of sighs


Anyone who has ever been punting along the Backs at Cambridge will know the wooden bridge that joins the two halves of Queens' College. The myth was that Sir Isaac Newton built it entirely from wood. When students dismantled it, they were unable to rebuild it without bolts.

Untrue, because its mathematical design was later than Newton, by William Etheridge, and built by James Essex in 1749. The whole saga is still a good story, and even if Newton didn't build it, he did say "We build too many walls and not enough bridges."

A useful message for today, this January 20th, as another so-called builder is installed. What's that other bridge just north of the Wooden Bridge? Oh yes, The Bridge of Sighs.

Choose the type of doomsaying techno fear only seen in the letters pages of a Home Counties gardening circular #LWL


I enjoy the film reviews at Little White Lies. Always high quality, in depth and considered.

Their recent one for Trainspotting T2 made me laugh on an actual train. Below is a short extract.

"Choose a film that feels like the ageing, obese foreman at a mayonnaise factory explaining the plot and characters of the original Trainspotting to his pet canary.”

It got a low 2.1.1 for Anticipation, Enjoyment, Retrospect.

Oh dear.

Thursday, 19 January 2017

we're gonna need a bigger thumb

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Every time I walk past this fourth plinth sculpture I can't help but smile.

David Shrigley's "Really Good" gives the extended thumbs up to positivity. It is made of the same bronze as the other statues in Trafalgar Square, yet, to me, somehow this one looks as if it could be a collection of balloons rather than something weighing 4.5 tonnes.

Like Shrigley says, it is supposed to inspire positivity.
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Okay then, Everything's fine right now.


last day of america?

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

i get tricked by the supermarket twice


Dear Tesco,

Some time ago you sent me one of your on-line surveys about our local store.

I was generally positive, but did comment that occasionally, particularly with bakery items, I'd pick up something that was on its best before timeout date.

I didn't hear from you again about this and honestly I don't really think about it and still usually pick up the first available item without perusing all the date stamps.

I've also partially changed my shopping to use a nearby Waitrose, which doesn't suffer the same dates problem.

So imagine my surprise this week when I popped into your store on Sunday for some bread, got it home and noticed it was 'best before' the date I purchased it. Okay, it is still edible, and best before is only guidance, but somehow it didn't feel right.

Then, on Tuesday, I dropped into the same store after a train journey. Just some milk and a couple of other bits. This time, once home, I noticed that the long date 'Pure' milk was dated use by 17th. That's the date I bought it. I'll let you know if it makes me ill.

I looked in the fridge at my last long date Pure - it was dated 30th January. This time you'd somehow sold me long shelf life milk that was already about to expire.

That's twice in three days. I know I should pay more attention to the stuff on your shelves. I suppose you want to rotate the almost expired stuff out to the customers. Really it's a false economy. Others like me will just break the habit and buy stuff elsewhere.

Tuesday, 17 January 2017

tune in, drop in

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It was business as usual around the central part of London whilst Mrs May was giving her Brexit speech in Lancaster House, just across the road from the Queen's place.
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I'd already passed a yawning Downing Street, quiet like the whole of Whitehall and Parliament Street, particularly since the newer traffic measures.

Usually when there's something big going on involving politicians around Westminster, there will also be a static helicopter or two overhead. The police will have one and sometimes there will be news agencies as well.
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Nothing this time until I counted three Apache attack gunships flying purposefully into the central area before making their way westward along the Thames.

Their flypast close to Lancaster House was around the time that all the diplomats would be emerging from the session. Coincidence, security measures, practice for something else or making a point?