A standard world news week. Terrorist attacks in London and Paris and global warming effects in the West create banner headlines, whilst far worse in the third world goes largely unreported. Little minnow North Korea pretends it's competing with mighty America by firing a deadly arsenal nearer and nearer to the US. TV dramas obtain audiences of millions by simulating terrible murders, searing explosions and eulogising gun-toting 'heroes' who think nothing of killing as many people as possible. So thrilling! Children's stores are ludicrously eliminating all gender-defining clothing (and schools now allow boys to wear dresses if they want to), whilst continuing to sell rubber guns, water pistols and armed warfare toys, thereby setting up children's mindsets that killing others is a fun game! Forget gender dressing and learn that it's 'macho' killing and schadenfreude that must be eliminated once and for all. Hasn't the world learned anything? Maybe that's why my latest book is doing so well - currently ranked #1 in its category in the UK, #10 in the US. Does it contain any murder, killing or schadenfreude? No! It's light and full of man's humorous exchanges with other cultures. Do yourself a favour, relieve all that stress and grab your copy of Pensioners in Paradis now by clicking the picture opposite. You know you want to.
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
27th November 2011
....so Monday morning we set off in good time for the test drive. Don't have GPS, so mappy.fr gave me the directions. Looked easy enough. Came off the motorway o.k. But then, oh no - isn't this the slip road to the motorway again? Look, there's a big sign 'Land Rover', but unfortunately it was behind the barrier at the side of the A20! How far to the next exit? 30 km. Nothing for it. Need to get off there and return and try again. 30 mins later, unbelievably, it happened again! Eventually, with the aid of a very patient postlady, we found the garage - wasn't a road at all, just a dirt track leading to an industrial area, the garage hiding behind another building.
It's done. We've ordered Him indoors' dream car, but he'll have to wait until April for delivery from Solihull. I wanted the manual version, but they all carried that impossible 'Stop:Start' system. Imagine starting the engine on a cold morning, only to have it deliberately stop at the first set of lights. All in the name of global warming. Nonsense. Yes, the world's ice-caps are melting, but it's all probably just a natural planetary phenomenon. Meantime we're all suffering from the scientists' unproven nonsense. So, ordered the automatic Freelander model, without that stupid system. And, of course, with GPS - complete with a Brummie (B'ham) voice. Where am ya? Turn roight at the next loights..... Now we're sorted.
It's done. We've ordered Him indoors' dream car, but he'll have to wait until April for delivery from Solihull. I wanted the manual version, but they all carried that impossible 'Stop:Start' system. Imagine starting the engine on a cold morning, only to have it deliberately stop at the first set of lights. All in the name of global warming. Nonsense. Yes, the world's ice-caps are melting, but it's all probably just a natural planetary phenomenon. Meantime we're all suffering from the scientists' unproven nonsense. So, ordered the automatic Freelander model, without that stupid system. And, of course, with GPS - complete with a Brummie (B'ham) voice. Where am ya? Turn roight at the next loights..... Now we're sorted.
10th January 2010
Bienvenu to all new readers. You're very welcome indeed. Me and Him indoors need all the help we can get in this new year. His aches and pains are getting worse, but when the doctor says it's his age, he says his other shoulder's just the same age and that doesn't hurt!
So, I wonder what this new year will bring to we hardy souls? We've actually got snow outside. Imagine. It's supposed to be the south of France, but no-one told Him upstairs. Of course, everyone's sceptical about global warming and saying someone's having a laugh. But my feeling is that - just maybe - all that melting Arctic ice has made the Atlantic waters rise just enough to skew the warming Gulf Stream away from the UK and western Europe. You've only got to look at an atlas to see how far north the UK is - much further north than, say, Maine in the US, yet look at the winters they get. Maybe the days of mild English winters are changing. On verra.
More certain French changes in 2010 are: new Ryanair flights from Leeds to Carssonne and Montpellier; Parisians will be able to use their mobile phones on buses instead of travel passes; you can now use the internet to vote, replace your carte grise, carte vitale, French driving licence etc.; and mobile phone manufacturers will use the same kind of adapter (micro-USB port) to simplify life for users. We need some welcome, helpful news. The doctor tells us we're not getting any younger. Him indoors says: it's not younger I want to get, but older.....
So, I wonder what this new year will bring to we hardy souls? We've actually got snow outside. Imagine. It's supposed to be the south of France, but no-one told Him upstairs. Of course, everyone's sceptical about global warming and saying someone's having a laugh. But my feeling is that - just maybe - all that melting Arctic ice has made the Atlantic waters rise just enough to skew the warming Gulf Stream away from the UK and western Europe. You've only got to look at an atlas to see how far north the UK is - much further north than, say, Maine in the US, yet look at the winters they get. Maybe the days of mild English winters are changing. On verra.
More certain French changes in 2010 are: new Ryanair flights from Leeds to Carssonne and Montpellier; Parisians will be able to use their mobile phones on buses instead of travel passes; you can now use the internet to vote, replace your carte grise, carte vitale, French driving licence etc.; and mobile phone manufacturers will use the same kind of adapter (micro-USB port) to simplify life for users. We need some welcome, helpful news. The doctor tells us we're not getting any younger. Him indoors says: it's not younger I want to get, but older.....
11th October 2009
Global warming and its effects are still much in the news. Despite the fact that many, including me, cast serious doubt over whether it's caused by man's actions at all, we are still going to have to deal with each government's alarming hysteria over it all.
I read that UK households can expect £2,000-a-year energy bills over the next decade if the country is to hit 'greenhouse gas targets' and build enough new power stations — and thousands of wind turbines — to secure the nation's energy supplies.
And even normally slow France has caught the fever too. A new taxe carbone will put up vehicle fuel and domestic energy costs from January. It will cost the average family 74 euros extra per year. However, before the excitable French race to block the barricades, Sarkozy has promised tax rebates. Each adult will get 46 euros if they live in an urban area, whilst those in rural areas like me will get 61 euros back. For those who pay French income tax, the rebate will come off next year's first provisional payment in February. For those who don't pay income tax because of poverty or criminal intent (!), a cheque will be sent.
PM Francois Fillon calls all this "a real ecological and fiscal revolution". I call it a load of rubbish, trying to 'fix' something as elusive as global warming, which could well be a result of normal astrological development, well out of man's ability to fix. But, comme d'habitude, it's the ordinary man in the street who always has to pay.
I read that UK households can expect £2,000-a-year energy bills over the next decade if the country is to hit 'greenhouse gas targets' and build enough new power stations — and thousands of wind turbines — to secure the nation's energy supplies.
And even normally slow France has caught the fever too. A new taxe carbone will put up vehicle fuel and domestic energy costs from January. It will cost the average family 74 euros extra per year. However, before the excitable French race to block the barricades, Sarkozy has promised tax rebates. Each adult will get 46 euros if they live in an urban area, whilst those in rural areas like me will get 61 euros back. For those who pay French income tax, the rebate will come off next year's first provisional payment in February. For those who don't pay income tax because of poverty or criminal intent (!), a cheque will be sent.
PM Francois Fillon calls all this "a real ecological and fiscal revolution". I call it a load of rubbish, trying to 'fix' something as elusive as global warming, which could well be a result of normal astrological development, well out of man's ability to fix. But, comme d'habitude, it's the ordinary man in the street who always has to pay.
3rd November 2008
I was watching the highly-educated Stephen Fry on last-night's English TV. It is an interesting travelogue mini-series, commenting on each of the US States as he drives through. One particular comment he made, though, in Montana wasn't quite right in my eyes. Looking at the glacial waters in front of him, he referred quizzically to the number of detractors of global warming in the world. No-one can deny global warming is happening at the moment, even here in France. Just yesterday torrential rains forced hundreds of families to evacuate their homes in east-central France. Access to the A6, France's main north-south highway, was closed as was the A46 between Lyon and Saint-Etienne to the south. Train services in the area have been cancelled at least until Tuesday.
French regional representatives are trying to get to grips with it all by gathering against climate change in the city of Saint-Malo, in the Atlantic region of France. 'We need to take a stand against climate change', said one representative. But yet again, as with Stephen Fry, their comments grated with me. The point I'm trying to make is that no-one denies that global warming is happening; rather, it is how to deal with it that is important. My own view is that it is caused by a catastrophic natural event in our planet's solar activity, a previous one being the ice-age. So, what we need is world leaders to discuss how we can deal with its destructive effects, both after and before they happen, rather than argue interminably on its cause. Get weather forecasters to predict the worst of the weather in areas that are vulnerable and evacuate people from those areas likely to be flooded, e.g. in constantly devastated regions like Bangladesh. Use computer models to predict which coastal areas are at risk of high waters as a result of glacial melts. Look at coastal erosion around the world and compensate people living near cliff-edges to force them to move further inland. Only build houses safe distances away from such areas.
So, if you're planning to move home, don't even think of buying a house on the coast - particularly if that coast is prone to wild water, or you may find your very own real-estate reduced to just a few worthless grains of sand.
French regional representatives are trying to get to grips with it all by gathering against climate change in the city of Saint-Malo, in the Atlantic region of France. 'We need to take a stand against climate change', said one representative. But yet again, as with Stephen Fry, their comments grated with me. The point I'm trying to make is that no-one denies that global warming is happening; rather, it is how to deal with it that is important. My own view is that it is caused by a catastrophic natural event in our planet's solar activity, a previous one being the ice-age. So, what we need is world leaders to discuss how we can deal with its destructive effects, both after and before they happen, rather than argue interminably on its cause. Get weather forecasters to predict the worst of the weather in areas that are vulnerable and evacuate people from those areas likely to be flooded, e.g. in constantly devastated regions like Bangladesh. Use computer models to predict which coastal areas are at risk of high waters as a result of glacial melts. Look at coastal erosion around the world and compensate people living near cliff-edges to force them to move further inland. Only build houses safe distances away from such areas.
So, if you're planning to move home, don't even think of buying a house on the coast - particularly if that coast is prone to wild water, or you may find your very own real-estate reduced to just a few worthless grains of sand.
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