Young sports fans

Get a load of this 12 year old kid from Invercargill (NZ) who has a witty little ditty for the All Whites this satruday
Well done son!

Mozart

I've probaby posted this video before. These guys are goodies.

Climate Change - some of the science

I read today, that some very recent research seem to suggest that the proportion of CO2 being absorbed by non-atmospheric receptors (i.e. water, trees, land) has not chnaged since the 1850's. This is surprising news, seeing as it has long been predicted that the rise in CO2 emissions from human activities would change this balance so that it was skewed in the direction of the atmosphere.

Now, the OVERALL amount on Co2 in the atmosphere is still going up. It's the proportion of capture that is revised by this research. What's good about this research is that it is dependent on empirical results, rather than modelling, which is the mechanism by which much of our climate predictions have been made.

So does this mean that climate change might not end up being as bad as many fear? I don't know. The question to be asked now is, when do the non-atmospheric sinks reach capacity?

Literally, some video clips for you to enjoy

Swine Flu: Who won?

According to various media outlets, swine flu appears to have peaked and reported cases are possibly on the decline. Now that the "end of the world disaster" is over.... Who won?

Well, undoubtedly, the pharmaceutical companies won. And the media outlets who are in co-hoots with them. The sales of non needed vaccines for Swine Flu have started arriving, just at the time that the flu is reducing in virulence and infection rate. And who pays? We do the tax payers. Thanks to the media for stoking the panic and fear (and forcing governemnts to spend up large on precautionary measures/ vaccines), we all came out worse off. All, that is, except the pharmaceutical companies. ..  and the media outlets.

SHAME!!!

High Speed 2 Railway

Sir David Rowlands (HS2) published, in September, a letter to stakeholders outlining progress on the development of the High Speed Two project. Of note is this section:

APPRAISAL OF SUSTAINABILITY

Consultation on the scope of the Appraisal of Sustainability was completed in August and this included valuable contributions from the AoS Reference Group. This will help inform the work to identify referred options. Linked to the AoS work, we have set up two specialist groups to advise on noise and climate change impacts. Both groups comprise a wide range of experts in their respective fields and will provide a peer review/technicalsupport function to the work being carried out on these areas by our sustainability consultants, Booz & Company and Temple Group.

THFC: Northumberland Park Development

Back in October, Spurs submitted their planning application for the redevelopment of White Hart Lane, and the surrounding area. The plan is about much more than just a new stadium. It will include housing regeneration, public space, commercial and hotel buildings also. The planning application is available online at the Haringey Website.  Due to the lack of imagination from the press (regurgitating the same images over and over), I have decided to start a series of posts describing the development and looking through the submitted application.

First up, the stadium plan. The proposal is for around 56,000 seater ground. The club has stated that the design brief of the stadium was for "atmosphere". I think they've (KSS) done a great job with this design. The club are proposing a single tiered 6000 seat stand at one end of the ground, which will apparently be the largest single tiered stand in England (and possibly europe?). Of note also is the plan to bring the Spurs retail (club shop) within the stadium structure. This will be a welcome change from the rather grotty high street shop they currently have.

Here's an extract from the application showing the basic ground-floor layout of the stadium. Click to enlarge/ view the whole image.

And here's an elevation drawing. Note the roof height of around 50m.

Less crap on the internet

Woohoo, not only is Ruper Murdoch going to charge for his 'news' content, but he's planning to block his outlets' news stories (fabrications?) from being viewable on serach engines, such as google. This is undoubtedly great news for all of us, as it means less crappy nonsesne blocking up our internet pipes.

Thanks Rupert, thanks for putting your crap back in the dark where it belongs.



I love this quote "It costs us a l lot of money to put together good news papers"... uhh? How would Murdoch know that? Newscorp and "good" newspapers? That's a contradiction, surely.

this is a goodie

 Click image to see all of it.

HT to Richard Beck for this find.

VfB weekly - was passiert hier?

"Richtungsweisendes Spiel"

Trotz einer langen Verletztenliste und der Sperre von Timo Gebhart aufgrund seiner fünften gelben Karte aus dem Bayern-Spiel machte VfB-Cheftrainer Markus Babbel vor der Partie am Samstag bei Borussia Mönchengladbach seinem Team Mut. . . . . continued here.
 
And here's the Table, not so good for VfB right now. ..  what's going on guys??