I’m currently wondering what’s happened to the spring, having worked today in blizzard conditions over at Hastings and it being the 5th of April, it has kind of prompted me to post something. Driving to work I notice an odd show of rather sad daffodils, looking like they wish they hadn’t bothered. Other than that, glancing across the horizon and over the wooded hilltops there is not a leaf in sight, as if spring is emerging in slow motion. Wildlife is suffering with bird eggs remaining unhatched because of the cold weather, farmers have lost 100,000 sheep this winter due to either the inability to access them with feed, or they are being literally buried by blizzards, either way… they’re dead and not much cop, unless you happen to be hiking in Snowdonia with a shovel, a butcher and a backpack full of cooking equipment. These grey skies and bitter winds tend to suck out the serotonin and spring is welcomed by many with relief as the landscape explodes in to colour, the smell of blossom fills the air and longer brighter days evaporate away the mental mould accumulated throughout the long winter months, this year however, the mould lingers for many and the onset of warmer, brighter weather couldn’t come sooner. I could begin to babble on about my thoughts on whether or not I think this prolonged winter is a by-product of global warming, but my feelings are, that there are so many variables scientifically and such diverse opinion on the subject, it would be pointless. All I will say is, ‘The weather is different.’
Snow is forecast at the weekend which is good as I have made a bet with the other half, if it snows in January I get a no holds barred night out with her holding the fort, if it doesn’t, she gets the night out. The snow has to settle outside our house, which is fine but the forecast is a bit wishy washy, some stating snow, some rain, and some say bursts of snow, sleet and rain, none of which sets the perfect conditions for a blanket of snow accumulating. Anyway will keep an eye on the weather as I always have and maybe post some pictures if there’s anything worthwhile.
Been checking out some old posts back in my days of packet radio and realised I seem to have lost a lot of enthusiasm in the things that interest me. I need to be aware of it so I can counter it, I still have lots of stuff going on in my head, just less time now to mull over it and maybe produce something of fruition along the way. The Bible says to put aside childish things to become a man, and wise up to your responsibilities, yeah fine, but I haven’t had an Action Man since I was eight, even then I tried to make him bionic. Confusious (on the other hand) said: “If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?” Class philosophy matey, so if I feel some of my ambitions may be just an echo of a childish venture, I really should ignore that thought and carry on anyway! I can live with that, tell me I have to awake every morning at 5.30am sharp and work till 7pm doing a job that just distracts me from what I really want to be, or else I will not be able to pay my bills, and I might get a little anti-establishment. I could get enthusiastic at that very level, now I see how people can hone their enthuse into something a little more sinister. The thing is it’s nearly 2013 and we should all be dead really, and we’re not. So should I now do something? Or shall I continue blaming PKU and the complications involved with concentration ..blah blah bla!!! Bollocks? No.
Lake Ellsworth is a sub glacial lake in the Antarctic and presently there are a group of British Scientists drilling 3.2KM through the ice to reach it. The mission is result of years of preparation to conclude whether life in bacterial form can exist in such extreme conditions and to explore the very boundaries at which life can exist. The lake itself is in liquid form mainly because of the enormous pressure above it, not only being below sea level it has a 1.8 mile ice block on top of it, these factors raise it pressure to 310 Bar or 4,496 psi, so the researchers have concluded (oddly the freezing point of water at that pressure is much the same at atmospheric so I’m guessing that was misreported), the heat from the earth’s core probably plays a significant role. Samples of the lake’s water will be brought to the surface and analysed as well as a core sample from the bed of the lake, these studies along with carbon dating techniques, may give us information as to whether the Antarctic has always been frozen and clues to climatic conditions millions of years ago. If no life is found at all it will give us a boundary of the very limits of life, if however life is discovered, it opens endless possibilities of the existence of extra terrestrial life in places such as the icy moons of our solar system.
A team at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois have successfully used a beam of the near-massless particles to transmit the word “neutrino” to a detector 1 km away, including a 240-metre journey through solid rock. Read Article
I’m currently wondering what’s happened to the spring, having worked today in blizzard conditions over at Hastings and it being the 5th of April, it has kind of prompted me to post something. Driving to work I notice an odd show of rather sad daffodils, looking like they wish they hadn’t bothered. Other than that, glancing across the horizon and over the wooded hilltops there is not a leaf in sight, as if spring is emerging in slow motion. Wildlife is suffering with bird eggs remaining unhatched because of the cold weather, farmers have lost 100,000 sheep this winter due to either the inability to access them with feed, or they are being literally buried by blizzards, either way… they’re dead and not much cop, unless you happen to be hiking in Snowdonia with a shovel, a butcher and a backpack full of cooking equipment. These grey skies and bitter winds tend to suck out the serotonin and spring is welcomed by many with relief as the landscape explodes in to colour, the smell of blossom fills the air and longer brighter days evaporate away the mental mould accumulated throughout the long winter months, this year however, the mould lingers for many and the onset of warmer, brighter weather couldn’t come sooner. I could begin to babble on about my thoughts on whether or not I think this prolonged winter is a by-product of global warming, but my feelings are, that there are so many variables scientifically and such diverse opinion on the subject, it would be pointless. All I will say is, ‘The weather is different.’
Lake Ellsworth is a sub glacial lake in the Antarctic and presently there are a group of British Scientists drilling 3.2KM through the ice to reach it. The mission is result of years of preparation to conclude whether life in bacterial form can exist in such extreme conditions and to explore the very boundaries at which life can exist. The lake itself is in liquid form mainly because of the enormous pressure above it, not only being below sea level it has a 1.8 mile ice block on top of it, these factors raise it pressure to 310 Bar or 4,496 psi, so the researchers have concluded (oddly the freezing point of water at that pressure is much the same at atmospheric so I’m guessing that was misreported), the heat from the earth’s core probably plays a significant role. Samples of the lake’s water will be brought to the surface and analysed
