In the normal course I would not plagiarise anybody else’s work, but given that this is an open letter published in its entirety in the Spectator on 3rd of December, I am sure that it is in the public domain.

Recently the President of the Maldives held a Cabinet meeting underwater.  This was a publicity stunt to bring to the world’s attention that the Maldives are under threat from rising sea levels.  Given the body of scientific evidence that at worst, is a threat that predicts a sea rise of some 20cm by the end of the century and at best, is not under threat at all, inasmuch as the islands are actually higher now than a hundred years ago.

I am happy to reproduce this open letter, taken from a recent climate change supplement of The Spectator, in which Nils-Axel Mörner, a former lead reviewer for the IPCC, and head of Geodynamics at Stockholm University until his retirement in 2005, reassures President Mohamed Nasheed that his country is safe:

Dear Mr President,

You are obviously very concerned about the effect that sea level rises may have on the Maldives. Your Cabinet has been photographed meeting underwater, and you have even declared that ‘we are going to die’ if the climate change summit in Copenhagen fails. I am now writing with what I hope will be some good news. The scientific side of the situation is quite different to that which you imagine. You are, in fact, not going to die.

Before I continue, I should perhaps state my credentials. I have been a sea-level specialist for 40 years. I launched most of its new theories in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. I solved the problem of the gravitational potential surface, the theory that it changes with time; the rotation of the earth, how it affected the redistribution of the oceans’ masses — and so on. Last year, I was awarded a prize from Algarve university for my ‘irreverence and contribution to our understanding of sea level change’.

We both know that the 1,200 islands of the Maldives are all low-lying with the highest point only some 2.5m (8ft) above sea level. Hence, your nation is vulnerable to extreme storms, tsunamis — and, of course, any possible sea level rise.

The IPCC vision is a rise that by the year 2100 may amount to between 30cm and 50cm. This is based on model calculations. Our figure is a 5cm rise, plus or minus 15cm. In a newspaper article, you have suggested that sea levels may rise by between one and eight metres. Those figures, however, do not concur with the physics and known rates of ice melting. So those figures must be dismissed as impossible.

I have been on no fewer than six different field expeditions to the Maldives. We worked in the lagoon, we drilled in the sea, we drilled in lakes, we looked at the shore morphology — many different environments. We have always found the same thing: a total stability for the last 30 years, preceded by a 20cm drop in sea level in the 1970s.

We have presented a detailed documentation of the sea level changes in the Maldives over the past 4,000 years. The record of the last 500 years may be of special interest to the situation of your islanders. It shows:

The people of the Maldives had no problems surviving the 17th century, which was 50cm higher than now. Nor the last century, where it rose by 20cm. This bodes well for their prospects of surviving the next change.

I recently visited Bangladesh, a country cursed by floods. In the Sundarban delta, I documented very strong coastal erosion despite zero changes in sea level. So, even here, there is no global sea level rise going on today — just as in the Maldives, in Tuvalu and in Vanuatu, to mention a few famous sites claimed already to be in the process of becoming flooded.

By the end of this century, sea level may have risen by between 30cm and 50cm according to the various IPCC scenarios. Our records suggest a maximum of 20cm. Neither of those levels would pose any real problem — simply a return to the situation in the 17th and the 19th to early 20th centuries, respectively.

So why the scare-mongering? Could it be because there is money involved? If you inhabit a tiny island and can convince the world that its very existence is under threat because of the polluting policies of the West, the industrialised nations will certainly respond. The money is likely to flow in more quickly than the ocean will rise.

This is the fourth time I have written to you. Unfortunately, I think there is a problem with your email service because so far I have not received an acknowledgement. For this reason, I have decided to write this open letter in the pages of The Spectator.

So, Mr President, you and your ministers in the Maldives really don’t need to worry about a future life beneath the waves. You should pass on this message to the people of the Maldives. It is high time to release them from this terrible psychological burden.

Yours,
Nils-Axel Mörner

I’ve just learned this courtesy of BCS, (British Computer Society).
If you use Facebook, then you WILL be interested in this, their latest potential privacy invasion.
Facebook has agreed to let 3rd party advertisers use your photos in their ads without asking your permission.   If you don’t think that they can do that, then check the small print you signed up to when you joined.

However, all is not lost.
TO OPT OUT of this practice:
Click on ‘Settings’ (in top navigation bar, next to logout).
Drop down to ‘Privacy Settings’
select ‘News Feed and Wall’
select the tab for ‘Facebook Ads’
select ‘No one’ in the drop down.
Save changes.
PASS THIS ON.

On the other hand, you could always do as the BCS suggests, “…bombard Facebook Chief Execs for knowledge of with whom the pictures are being shared, where the potential advert might be placed and demand a fee…”

You can read the full story on the BCS website.

I’d like to wish all the cabin crew at BA a Merry Christmas.

I’d like to; but I won’t, because my personal opinion is that they are a Bunch of Arseholes, (BA).

The only saving grace is that amongst the 1 million disappointed non-travellers this Christmas, there might be a few postal workers!

Bullshit, exaggeration and distortion of the truth seem to go hand in hand with this lot.

YouTube DirektOfficial Copenhagen Conference Video

I’m NOT saying that global warming is not happening.  I only question the real cause.  I totally understand that something needs to be done, but I don’t believe that we are tackling the real problem.  Of coarse tackling CO2 emissions can only be good, but is it tackling the real issue?  This sort of crap does absolutely nothing to answer the questions that need answering.  If we have gone too far, it is in politicising and commercialising a serious scientific problem.  That is  the real tragedy.

How appropriate that they use products of a computer’s fictitious modelling, (CGI), to illustrate the product of a computer’s fictitious modelling, (CO2).

YouTube DirektPlane Stupid...

Anybody who knows me will acknowledge that I am not a  football fan.
I will watch the occasional game if England are playing a crucial match.  I always look to see what Cheltenham has scored. But nobody could be less interested.

However, I do sympathise with Ireland for being put out of the World Cup because of a cheat.  Of the cheating there is no question.  The player acknowledges that he cheated.  His Manager acknowledges he cheated. The FIA acknowledges he cheated, and God knows how many people around the world know that he cheated.
Crucially, FIFA, football’s governing body know he cheated and they are the only ones that could do anything about it. But they refuse!
What does that tell you about them?  What does it say about football?  What does it tell children about cheating?

Any other sport, if cheating is revealed AFTER the event ends, it is dealt with.
Formula One, you get fined and penalised.
Athletics, you get your medal stripped and penalised.
Cricket, yes even cricket, where cheating was almost written into the rules until the abolition of the ‘Gentlemen-Players distinction’ in 1963.

But not football.
Pathetic!

I have just seen an article in 5 News, (news?), asking if people can tell which one’s which in ‘JEdward.

Easy!

John is the really annoying little shit whilst Edward is simply his identical twin.

Sacked for telling the truth by a Government that does not want to hear it.

So home secretary wrote: “I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as chair of the ACMD…”

The italics say it all.

In my opinion, anyone who quotes someone else out of context, or selectively edits is telling lies.  So what do you make of the criticism on Price Edward?  The BBC headline reads “Death risk alluring, says prince “. Click here for the story

There is no question as to what was said, however, the circumstances are not explained at all.  I heard a longer version of this on Radio 4 and the sentence before it put it into context.  In essence, what he was saying was that ironically, in 1956 a youngster had died on the coarse and the effect was that youngsters of the day then saw the trust as something ‘real’ and not just for kids.  He was NOT referring the death in 2006 of David Iredale as the news article implied.

It does make you wonder why the BBC has chosen to edit the conversation in this way. Also, the question that was asked was not reported, and that could completely alter the meaning of what was said. 

Finally, if you listen to the quality of the recording, you will quickly realise that this is NOT broadcast quality and you could speculate in what circumstances the conversation was conducted.  This to me sounds like a private conversation rather than a ‘formal’ one. Sadly, protocol has it that the Royals may not respond.

To my mind, this was a deliberate attempt to distort truth and the BBC should be ashamed of itself.

I like to think that I am a Christian with all its association with good morals, justice and fairness at the core of my life. It’s a pity that the Church does not practice what it preaches!

A couple are being forced to sell their farm in order to pay for the churches repairs, originally to the windows, but now extended to bulging walls and the roof.

Does the church give a damn?
Not a bit!

Martin Sheppard, spokesman for Coventry Diocese dismissed it with, “The sale in itself does not yet resolve the need to fund repairs to the parish church.”

Just for the record, it’s reassuring that the church’s estimated £4,300,000,000, (£4.3bn), land and property holdings returned them 19.1% on their investments last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3023276.stm June 2003

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/6329335.stm February 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/8316340.stm October 2009

Now look at the Coventry Diocese website to see what they have to say about their social responsibility.
http://www.coventry.anglican.org/socialresponsibility/

Worth a quick look at what’s missing from their News pages.
Pathetic!

We all complain about price rises and with good reason, but sometimes one really stands out.

Remember when you used to get a ‘tub’ of ice cream at the cinema?  There was always an element of disappointment that the bottom of the tub was hollow and you didn’t get as much as you were expecting.
That’s not changed, but last night at the Gary Moore concert in Oxford we were charged £2.50 each for a small tub.
£2.50!

Most of the TV channels and Radio have reported a story today.

“A 14 year old girl has died following a vaccination against Cervical Cancer”, they lead, but here’s the bit, “No connection with the Vaccination has been established”!

So why mention it you idiots?  If there’s no connection, what’s the story?  It is totally inappropriate, unreliable and shows a total lacking any sense of responsibility.  I see this as a deliberate attempt to create a scare story.  They did it with MRSA and Swine Flu.  Now there’s a new target.

All it needs is for a few people to not have the vaccination because of the implied link and there’s a serious problem.  Okay, it’s not infectious, but if somebody contracts the disease and dies as a consequence of not having the vaccine, then the media is guilty of contributing to that death.

There may well be some link, but until there is, it is NOT a story.  If and when a link is made, then there IS a story.  At that time, the responsibility is to report it factually, accurately and supported by proper expert analysis.

POST UPDATE – 6:15pm Here we go.
Already on the BBC News the story has escalated into “Parents of Children are being urged not to panic”, together with ‘Computer Generated’ images of what a Cervical Cancer Cell looks like.  Now I wonder why they need to show that.

In addition there are  graphs to illustrate how many children have ‘side affects’.  What they don’t say is that these side effects include reports of   ‘a sore arm’ and ‘tingling in the arm’  while  some have complained of feeling ‘faint’.  I know what you mean mate, I feel faint at the thought of a needle!

Watch this space…

Eating watermelon has a similar effect on the body to Viagra, according to researchers in the US.#

Does this mean we can all expect endless Spam offering black-market Watermelon?

Sometimes some people’s use of the english language baffles me. Talk Talks’ new message is:

“Brighter Phone and Broadband”.

The Institute of Marketing reports, “To launch the new campaign, TalkTalk has produced a manifesto focusing on keeping customers’ bills low, making their lives simpler, and delivering the highest performing connection, which 90% of customers rate as better than other providers”.

Fair enough. But what the hell has “Brighter Phone and Broadband” got to do with that?

I’ve just seen an advert for Oxford Notepads.
The selling point?

“Made from ‘optia’ so that you can write on both sides of the paper”.

Right. Now that’s one hell of a technological breakthrough.
Think of the potential!

“Yes there are more jobs, Yes there are more people in work, yes there are less people out of work, but this is going to take a long time before it affects unemployment”.

I didn’t catch the author of this but I think it was Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation.