TheMet office provides some useful statistics showing weather trends across the UK, and that show that the snowfalls in recent years have not really been extrordinary, and the general trend is still very much one suggesting global warming.
Here's a chart showing the average annual temperature in the UK in winter, for every year since 1910 - and although there's been a slight dip recently the trend since the extreme cold winter in 1963 has been upward.
The summer average temperatures are even clearer, showing clear higher average temperatures in recent years.
This analysis was helpfully prompted by a nice piece today on the Full Fact fact-checkers blog, titled 'Is the latest weather of snow consequence?' - well worth a glance, as is their blog generally.
...and here's a strange song to sing in Mumbai, but beautiful nonetheless.
William Seward Burroughs II (also known by his pen nameWilliam Lee) b 5th February 1914, died 2 August 1997) - American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer
Some quotations -
"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape."
"The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values."
"Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means."
"The face of evil is always the face of total need."
"Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind"
"The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do."
New statistics on alcohol use and abuse were published todayby the National Health Service Information Centre,and they make fascinating reading. Of course, the stories in the newspaper in the morning will be full of the usual horror stories of x percent of thepopulation who are consuming more than y units per week/day/hour, but the
actual data contains some more interesting facts: 1. Although the methodology changed, so it's not that easy to compare the latest years, it appears that drinking levels are pretty stable, and if anything may have reduced in the first half of this decade.
2. Binge drinking by men aged 16-24 has actually fallen considerably. The percentage who drank more than 8 units at least one day in the week before interview (the definition of binge used here) fell from 39% in 1998 to 27% in 2006. Headline writers take note: that's a drop of around 30 percent in binge drinking by young males.
3. Women's consumption is still lower than men's, but it's intriguing to note that since the change in methodology, the difference in drinking patterns between the age groups has reduced considerably. It's no longer just young women and men who drink heavily. Don't know if that's down to the methodology or due to a real levelling in drinking habits across the generations.
4. It's not the council estates and tower blocks who drink to excess. Possibly because they're all strung out on smack, or locked indoors watching the Shameless box-set they lifted from HMV (joke). No, really, the working classes drink less than the middle classes. (see chart)
5. One of the most significant changes in our alcohol consumption has been the long-term decline in drinking outside the home. Basically, the decline of traditional pub culture. We still drink more beer outside the home, but only just - whereas only 5 or 6 years ago the difference was around 50%; that is we used to drink around half as much beer again in pubs as we would do at home, but not any more.
Wine consumption has grown massively, but only at home, not in pubs or wine bars.
We also appear to be drinking more spirits at home in the last few years, but less in pubs, according to the data.
6. Price might be a factor, but the statistics suggest that the real price of drinking has been pretty stable over many years, once inflation is taken into account. Household disposable income has however risen significantly. Basically, we could afford to drink a good deal more than in the past, so its a miracle more of us aren't more drunk more of the time... Clearly there's more to life.
7. Of course, alcohol abuse is a serious matter, and can have a terrible impact on many areas of life: personal, family, social etc. But for the majority of people most of the time, it's not an issue. We can handle it, basically, and we do.
8. Hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions have been increasing according to these statistics. The largest numbers (and biggest contributor to the rise) relate to mental illness linked to alcohol but it's hard to disentangle administrative data of this sort, as the changes could easily reflect a greater focus on alcohol-related problems by the services tasked with dealing with them. Basically, cases previously ignored may now be being picked up by the system, and this could be responsible for the rise in hospital admissions. It's hard to tell. But alcohol-related hospital admissions appear to be rising in every category, including those which might be less affected by policy changes and practitioner focus. So there may be some substance to their rising numbers and the suggestion that for a minority alcohol abuse causing severe problems is a social issue of increasing importance.
Every successful new technological innovation in music recording and playback has led to an expansion of the market for recorded music.
MP3s are showing the same trend, their curve beginning in the late 1990s with Napster etc. There is a price effect, as new technology reduces the unit cost of a recording. There is also reported to be a replacement effect - people who bought vinyl, downsizing their record shelves to CD-size. And I think also a generational effect, as the children of the 60s and 70s continue to purchase new music in their middle age, where the generation before them did not, thereby expanding the market.
Obviously, Eyeore gets a bad press. There's nothing wrong with being morose, but it's more a question of how to live.
Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Life just happens, and we all die sometime. Who'd have thought? I'm not one for motivational books or videos but this is good stuff, no matter. It takes effort and constant vigilance, but nothing really to sweat over.
Live life right, be open to experience, and the dreams will come to you.
It's a good message. They might not be the dreams you hoped for, but they'll be the ones you remember.
Randy Pausch died yesterday.
Two tracks for Will (and anyone). These were the extras on the double album single CD deal, from an early single, and I think I prefer them to all the tracks on the first two Bill Fay albums.
I love this latest cover of the British satyrical magazine Private Eye, mainly because it is so irreverent. Clearly it is untrue, and wouldn't possibly be dared by any American magazine, but it is so obviously untrue that I find it hilarious. The two Democratic candidates are neither rude nor stupid nor malicious. Either one would make a good President, and lord knows American needs a new one.
So why do I like this cover so much? I think it's just because it is funny because it can be. Sometimes the powerful need to be brought down to earth whoever they are.
The victim of a witch-hunt during the McCarthy era in the United States, Chaplin was already in his 60s when, in 1953, he chose to live in exile in Switzerland with his family. But the artist did not retire. He continued to make films, composed the musical scores to accompany re-releases of his silent movies and wrote his autobiography.
The Manoir de Ban is now destined to become the "Charlie Chaplin Heritage Site". A museum devoted to the film pioneer and the early days of Hollywood, the site will also include a movie theatre, an outdoor stage and a film school. "There had been plans for a museum in London and for one in Hollywood," says Chaplin, the driving force behind the Swiss proposal. "So when we came up with the idea for the Manoir de Ban, we had to persuade everyone that Switzerland was the best place - in the house where he spent the last 25 years of his life."
India's 60th Anniversary demands to be celebrated. It's an amazing country with an amazing people whose influence stretches far beyond its borders. I have never visited, but it's on my list. Anyway, congratulations to India and also Pakistan, although that country's success is arguably a little more distant at present.
I can't recall any recent western pop songs that have offered a tribute to this country, so I'll have to rely on two from around the time of the 20th Anniversary in 1967...
I'm rubbish at it, because I don't put the hours in (too easily distracted, or too busy). However, this blog gets it right. Of course, there's still next to no money in it...
If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe flickr photograph content based on your local Terms of Service so won’t be able to turn Flickr's SafeSearch off.
In other words that means, that German users can not access photos on flickr that are not flaged "safe" ... only flowers and landscapes for the Germans ...
This is the most ridiculous application of censorship on the internet - from a website that is otherwise awesome. If you're a flickr member - join the protest!
Interesting election results yesterday in my maverick part of the wood.
Brighton was the part of the country with the highest proportion of its population registering their religion on the census as Jedi! We're a bit odd like that.
Now, in the latest elections - which will change little, but are mainly the population's chance to tell Tony Blair how disappointed we are with him and how little we trust him now - the bit of East-Central Brighton where I live has decided to buck the national trend and gone green. Not one, not two, but three wards here elected wholelyGreen Party councillors.
Why? because I was going to post a picture of my breakfast this morning and discourse on the lack of conversation over the fry-up plate, but then I remembered I'd done a breakfast picture not that long ago. So instead, we get these cute little fellas - souvenirs from a visit to Spain a few years ago, and potential cover stars - and one track that is nothing much about breakfast, and another that is nothing much about conversation. Or then again.
Also caught Jeff Green's The Green Side of Life on BBC Radio 2, which was an amusing compilation of loads of great comic clips - this week on the theme of co-habitation, which basically was an excuse for half an hour of wonderful comic turns on the war between the sexes.... It's all about conversation apparently - women live for it, men abhor it.
You can listen to the show here, or else, some more B... comedy:
Went to see Richard Swift play in Brighton last night but the gig was cancelled because the useless venue managed to double-book the room. Odd then, that as I was wandering around my local supermarket this morning, RS's beautiful heart started playing over the in-store music.
Some God is trying to tell me something but I don't know what it is. (I think I want someone to make me a t-shirt saying that!)
We are indeed all going to hell. I'll see you when I get there.
Some of the other faux-statistical cartoons on the indexed blog are equally great! You can subscribe from the main page, as well as check out previous indexed posts. I have at long last worked out that I am a democratic monarchist !
I dislike AC-DC intensely, but this song kinda works...
A short distraction that's taken up far too much time, I've been tagged again by Always Double Back (held to a wall with a gun pointed at my head more like). This time, it's to list five fantasy careers I might choose. So, here goes...
1. Singer-songwriter
in the John Hartford mould, where your first release is so mega-selling that it pays enough to keep you free to do whatever you want to do for the rest of your life.
Obviously, I have this career plan plotted out already with the pinnacle being playing the million people anti-racism festival in Central Park organised by President Angelina Jolie, where my versions of Toots and the Maytal's Funky Kingston and Justin Timberlake's The Whole World's Turning Spanish (soon to be recorded) go down a storm. 2. Bubble man on Santa Monica beach
This job exists, or rather it's been invented, see here. This guy is my hero (until I read the court reports).
It's a bit like being a Punch and Judy man on Brighton beach, which is a job I also used to fancy, although setting up a small portable theatre to tell crowds of children stories about an anti-hero who beats up his wife and runs away from the police seems to be frowned upon these days. Cannot imagine why.
Anyway, I'd rather be somewhere warm. 3. Barman (in England)
This is obviously well within my grasp, although unfortunately doesn't pay enough.
It would have to be in the UK, because American bar staff need to know far too many cocktails and strange drinks, and have to do that polite thing no matter their mood. In England, you get to keep your own emotions (not that they're always worth keeping). It would be in a nice bar with a youthful clientele and a boss who tolerated my 'individuality'. That kind of cuts down the options. Also, it would have to be after July 1st when smoking in public spaces is outlawed.
I might own my own bar although that sounds like less fun - full of delivery schedules, stock control and tax returns. But I was never happier than when I was working behind the bar at the Lion in Crouch End and got to choose the musical soundtrack for the slightly drunk but appreciative regulars.
4. Radio DJ
Just imposing my musical tastes on anyone who cared to listen is attractive. In fact, I do it anyway. But I also really like the physical act of playing records on a deck, cueing them up, pushing those faders etc. "Where it's at! Two turntables and a microphone..."
I've been a club DJ twice - once at my friend Will's political benefit night in a small upstairs room in a pub in Hackney, and once at a friend's party when the hired DJ decided he had to go down the pub to meet some friends. I loved it both times.
I was also briefly a DJ on my college radio station, and my friend Craig had the tape to prove it. I am reasonably sure that nobody actually tuned in, because we kept holding more and more outlandish competitions to entice people to phone in, but they never did. Nowadays they have a webcam and web radio, but I bet it's broadcast out of the same pokey little room with the egg carton walls. 5. Director of a small arts charity
A small grant of money, being paid to help people, no pressure, in charge of your own little team and space... It could be anything really, but that has to be an ideal.
Either that, or being paid professionally to tell other people to F*ck off. Perhaps being a character actor that specialises in someone with Tourette's Syndrome who swears a lot, having a small but critical role in a mega-popular TV sit com, always present but never needed for much apart from random and hilarious swearing! Yes, that's my dream job defined right there!
There are just so many possibilities.... I just never seem to get to pick the right ones.Is early retirement a respectable ambition?
And I'll try to pass the baton on to two random flickr contacts, just to test the possibility of randomness on the web. So, come in Tamelyn Feinstein who doesn't actually have a blog that I know of, but her comments make me laugh anyway and I reckon she'd be game, and Billy Law who does have a blog and possibly has an ideal job.
Your task is to give the world five dream jobs of your choice, blogged with text, added as a comment to this entry or illustrated by photographs on flickr - doesn't matter which. And then pass the task to someone else, as "You've been tagged" -
Obviously if you ignore this request you will spend eternity in hell
...well, at least that's what some humorous french folk decided. Genius!! Down with optimism. More gallic miserabilism!
Actually, I think it was an artistic-philosophical statement against the inevitability of death. If we can make time stand still we can live forever. No, to 2007... No to aging. No more birthdays. No more new year... Non. Non. Non.
A random pile from my CDs, occasional tracks landing here.
Bit of a Brian Wilson and Miles Davis theme in this stack. Thank goodness I didn't sort them by music type or alphabetically!
Count how many you've heard of, count how many you own. I don't particularly crave order, it's just the statistician in me. Total out of 36.
Do go and search them out at Amazon. They're all great!
Every generation has 36 righteous people (the "Lamed Vav Tzadikim") in whose merit the world continues to exist (according to judaism). So this post is in honour of the 36...
