Inside Story

I've just been to Basric's blog, and she has some interesting news which leads me to believe that, if we can put enough pressure on USA, the outcome of this disaster might still be averted.

http://basric.blogspot.com/

Happy Family

Such a dark episode. I really don't like it.

Sticking it to USA

I was too upset to talk about losing Vincent from LOCI yesterday. The first I knew was when I read Snarkangel's email, and my heart almost stopped.

I eventually decided to try to tell USA what I thought. I went to their website http://www.usanetwork.com/

At the bottom of the Home Page, I clicked on Feedback. I filled in the form and told them what for. The more of us that do it, the more chance someone will listen. Though I daresay they think they are right. Bastards.

Grow

I have been absolutely ruthless.

And I still have 13 pictures.

Carbon Footprints

The figures in my paper yesterday were from 2006. But the number of metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per person in that year were:

India 1.16
China 4.58
Japan 9.78
EU 10.22
Russia 12.00
US 19.78

I'll bet my house that that figure has not reduced.

The rest of the world can do what it can, but unless the US stops its selfish destruction of the planet, there will be no Earth left for anyone to live on. It's not a case of not being able to afford to do anything. Neither you nor the rest of us can afford for you not to.

Elephants, rhinos, all sorts of endangered creatures dying in the various African droughts, not to mention the humans and their livestock. Rainforests (the lungs of the planet) destroyed to make furniture, or extract mineral to make new mobile phones (goodbye gorillas). If we want to save them we just cannot wait any longer.

The best thing that could happen to this world would be for the human race to die out now.

I'm terrified, not for me, but for the wonderful creatures being sacrificed on the altar of human greed and waste.

Dear readers, what can WE do, to help, in no matter how small a way?

I've turned my thermostat right down. Almost every appliance is switched off at the mains when not in use. I use my own cloth shopping bags instead of those vile plastic carrier bags that float down our lovely landscaped river. Everything possible goes in the recycling bin. I'm going to double-insulate my loft.

I'd really like to have solar panels on the roof, but they really are out of reach of my pocket.

It's not much. Any ideas as to how I - and you - can do more?

Weird Words

I just received from Amazon a book I saw an article about in the newspaper and ordered right away. It's called "The Wonder of Whiffling", and it contains unusual words in the English language, including regional dialects, old words, wrods from the US, Jamaica, and other English-speaking places around the world.

It is full of the most ostrobogulous (bizarre and interesting) words, very useul for the person with onomatomania (vexation in having difficulty finding the right word). I am quite pysmatic (always asking questions), but when I found that my fore-buttocks (breasts) were in a dead heat in a Zeppelin race (admiring description of large breasts), I thought it must have been written by a lovertine (someone addicted to sex).

Great Barrier

Beautiful and sad. Bobby needs me.

Upon Westminster Bridge

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear



The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air,



Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth (Sept. 3 1802)

Picture 1 is the west front of Westminster Abbey.

Picture 2 is the apse of Westminster Abbey.

Picture 3 is the Jewel Tower, one of the few remaining parts of the original medieval Palace of Westminster.

You didn't think I'd go to Westminster and not take piccies, did you?

The view Wordsworth wrote about has changed a bit over the last 200 years. Not many fields or rocks, and the air may be more smokeless than it was 50 years ago, but it's still choked with exhaust fumes, and silent and bare it ain't. As for being asleep, well, like so many big cities, the centre of London never sleeps.

This is the view from Westminster Bridge looking south-east


This is the scene to the north-west


And this is the south-west.

Well the sun is still shining and the the river glittering.

Graansha

I STILL haven't capped this episode. I suppose the truth is that I just don't like it. Some episodes are yucky, some are average, but this one just leaves me cold. One day I'll have to cap it, but meanwhile I just avoid it, and I'm really not sure what it is that repels me.

So instead, I'll just post some of those Utah pictures that Diane treated us to. I don't think it's possible to see too much of them.






















Thanks to the dear man who snapped these and shared them.

The Good Child

This is not the best episode ever for pictures of Bobby. I didn't make it to 10!