The week just gone..

Another busy week with work.  Lincoln Monday and Tuesday, Bournemouth Wednesday to Friday..

I was able to sample the beach...this is looking back towards the town and pier after walking for sometime

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words..

this is one of my favourite English villages...home to Lord Montagu, the Beaulieu estate and the National motor museum.
Located in the New Forest you have to be aware of some of the local residents..

 very surreal..as though some hidden force has turned the residents into...Donkeys!

"If you want to pass you have to give me the password...Ee-aaw"

Things are not much different in the New Forest itself..

Lunch at the Montagu Arms, Beaulieu

Next to Beaulieu is 'Bucklers Hard' - where amongst other ships, Nelson's favourite ship HMS Agamemnom was built.

This view is loking dwn the one street of ship builders cottagers to the slip ways where the ships were built and launched into the Beaulieu river.

'D' is the position of the photo above.  'K' is where the ships were built and launched including the Agamemnon which fought in the battle of Trafalger.  Turning left at 'G' heading towards 'M' is a lovely riverside/woodland walk to Beaulieu of aprroximately 2 miles.

Yesterday Ollie and I went to St Ives estate and took different paths to the ususal ones we take..

...where you happen across some very strange things..

we also went to my old stomping ground of East Morton where Ollie became a 'Dimps' boy and played on the Dimps where i grew up and played.

 we played by the stream..

..and 'New Age' Ollie wanted to meditate...!

Back in a week after my visit to France.

Happy Mothers Day ...MUM!

Have a great day Mum and I'll see you on the 11th (or thereabouts)!

Honest, I'd do the cooking and cleaning up if I was there today...lol (God bless the English Channel lol)

And here's Ollie, chuffed with his pressies for his mum!

Have a look at this...

This is a normal house....what's going through your mind when you look at it..?

Clue:  Apparantly he only has one ball....(the house btw is in Swansea)

Wow..the week that was..!

Myself and two others have had...erm...an interesting week!  Leaving Baildon at 5.30am on Monday I've spent my time in Swansea and Carmarthen getting home at 7.30pm on Thursday.  The reason?  an I.T. release that went live on Monday morning and I was managing a Business Confidence Testing programme over the three days.  At the end of day 1 we still had not seen one live example of what we were expecting!  Days 2 and 3 were both over 12 hours long but the testing we did identified and proved the 'bug' causing the issues.  Test, phone conference, test, phone conference, test, phone conference, test, phone conference....Day four was busy presenting to the senior management team on completely seperate issues, then came the 5 hour drive home!

Anyway, you get the gist.

Monday night when all seemed depressing, one of our colleagues made us guests at his Yacht club for a well desired and well earned pint or two.  Before that he took us down to the marina to view his yacht..

'Bob's yacht moored in Swansea marina. Jo, Dawn and myself walking the plank!

Captain Bob, Dawn and myself just glad we made it aboard without ending up in the drink..

The view for three nights from my hotel room...who said it was all glam?  Though you cannot tell in this photo, the mist is obscuring the top of the hill.  If I had been on the other side of the corridor my view would have been of the rejuvenating dockside area..

After a long week away it was time to relax tonight.  Those that know me best will know that means good food...so, into the kitchen I went

Course 1

King Scallops with Spanish Chorizo on a bed of rocket leaves in balsamic vinegar sprinkled with fresh corriander

Course 2

Baked Sea Bass with slow roasted plum tomatoes, Charlotte potatoes with salad leaves (splash of Sambucca in the cooking of the fish for that special zing)

Course 3

Courtesy of Morrisons...Pecan, toffee and Bramley apple tart served with lashings of Double cream..

Later, French Brie or Red leicester with Sweet Chilli  biscuits at the ready with fresh coffee follwed by Sambucca or Bushmills to aid a restful nights sleep...ahhhhh sleep...

Conspiracy Theory... part 2,012

Probably the number one Conspiracy Theory of all time is who shot JFK?

Was it Oswald?
Was it a shady government operative?
Was it Kristin Shepard (google it)
Was it the grassy knoll?

or was it the Driver of the limousine........?

Have a look at this new video footage* and decide for yourself....

*thanks to Ed for sending me the vid

Now then, I,m looking for the hidden Elvis in MacDonalds and ET on the White house lawn videos....anyone got a link :) ?

A couple of days...

Oliver 'Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn' Lodge-Smith'  at his 'Yamaha Music Schools' lesson last night. 

Day off today.  Drove over the tops through Ilkley...

Another view, in the shadow of the 'calf..'

FAO PETE!

Where ever I went today mate, they were buzzing me!  Time to go underground....lol

Well done Ollie

Ollie's Beaver team came second in the District Sports day on Saturday.  They were very very close to winning the team event. 

Here's Ollie and his team of six recieving certificates celebrating their 2nd place.  Ollie has just been awarded his 'Global Challenge' badge too.

Ollie showing off his badge and certificate pulling his usual 'daft' photo face! Where does he get that from?

Running out of space Ollie!

Did you See the Super moon on Saturday?

Here's two pics of Saturdays Super moon

St Michaels tower on Glastonbury Tor

The Super moon rising over the Lincoln memorial in Washington

So, what is a Super moon?



The supermoon phenomenon occurs when the moon passes closest to Earth on the two bodies' orbit and the moon is full.  Ordinary supermoons occur about five times a year but events such as last week's are known as "maximal perigee" – when the two heavenly bodies are particularly close – and only happen about every two decades.

On Saturday the moon came closer to Earth than at any point in almost 20 years, making it look much bigger, although it was still 221,567 miles away.

This diagram shows the relative difference in size from an Apogee moon (Apogee is the moons furthest point from the Earth in it's orbit) and a Perigee moon (the moon is at it's closest point to earth in its orbit)

It was calculated that the moon looked 14% larger than normal on Saturday.

The week in Pictures

And were off!  Tuesday and it's first class all the way to London.
 As you can see I'm studiously working hard on behalf of all you taxpayers!  :)

When I visit the offices in London my walk to the office always takes me through Covent Garden.
 The Royal Opera House is down the left.

Covent Garden, always a bustling place.  The people round the railings are listening
to an Opera singer performing on the lower floor.

Wednesday, the office in Newcastle.  The architect had previously designed prisons!
 It's actually a very comfortable place to work with great on site facilities
 - unlike my home base of Shipley.

Thursday, ollies been painting at school - can you tell?

Saturday, and I bump into my Uncle and Auntie in Otley

Saturday night, Dinner with friends.  Here's the Tapas and anti pasto starter.
Mains was Chargrilled Rib- Eye with Dauphinoise potatoes
and a Rocket and pea leaf salad in balsamic with parmesan shavings
and the wine reserves of a small nation!

Science v Religious Faith

Thought this was quite apt and amusing considering some of the articles of late..

Conspiracy theory or reality....YOU decide!

Simple question - are the US behind the following natural disasters?

Pakistan Earthquake
Haiti Earthquake
Japan Earthquake

If so, how?

One answer could be Project HAARP.  What is Project HAARP?

Some of you will know I've been banging on about this for many a year and even raised the eyebrows of an army major when raising this question with him at Steve Corcorrans wedding many moons ago. "We'll have to keep our eyes on you.." he jokingly said.

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes (such as missile detection). The HAARP program operates a major Arctic facility, known as the HAARP Research Station,on an Air Force owned site near Gakona, Alaska.  Here is my laymans explanation for the reasoning behind HAARP.

One of the early reasons for this development was that radio waves travel in straight lines, the problem with this is that you need to communicate over the horizon on the battlefield.  By resonating the ionosphere you can heat up and vibrate this layer of the earths atmosphere which allows you to use it for transmitting radio waves and thus getting round the obstruction of the horizon line of sight by bouncing signals off this vibrating layer.

However, HAARP has also proven to be very succesful in weather modification.  Why is this important?  Well as well researching under the guise of modifying weather for the advancement of crop production here is an extract from a research paper expalining the benefits of battlefield weather modification

DEGRADE ENEMY FORCES	ENHANCE FRIENDLY FORCES
Precipitation Enhancement	Precipitation Avoidance
- Flood Lines of Communication	- Maintain/Improve LOC
- Reduce PGM/Recce Effectiveness	- Maintain Visibility
- Decrease Comfort Level/Morale	- Maintain Comfort Level/Morale
Storm Enhancement	Storm Modification
- Deny Operations	- Choose Battlespace Environment
Precipitation Denial	Space Weather
- Deny Fresh Water	- Improve Communication Reliability
- Induce Drought	- Intercept Enemy Transmissions
Space Weather	- Revitalize Space Assets
- Disrupt Communications/Radar	Fog and Cloud Generation
- Disable/Destroy Space Assets	- Increase Concealment
Fog and Cloud Removal	Fog and Cloud Removal
- Deny Concealment	- Maintain Airfield Operations
- Increase Vulnerability to PGM/Recce	- Enhance PGM Effectiveness
Detect Hostile Weather Activities	Defend against Enemy Capabilities

Quite a list of benefits..

As Iraq and Afghanistan have ably demonstrated in the last 20 years, the USA cannot win it's wars, even against limited opposition, with ground forces and air attack.  A new weapon has to be developed.

What better than being able to manipulate nature, to generate natural catastrophy.  No, use of ground forces, no need for air attack, no need for insurgency, no great expensive military campaigns.  Just consider for one moment the posibilities for such a weapon and the immediate widescale result as evidenced by Japans current disaster....is it really beyond the realms off possibility?

It has been suggested that the testing of HAARP, has whether by deliberate intention or as a consequential accident, been responsible not only for the above mentioned disasters but also for massive Power Outages and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  The link to the earthquakes is referrenced to the apparant link of HAARP research to that of the work of Nikola Tesla (particularly potential combinations of HAARP energy with Tesla's work on pneumatic small scale earthquake generation or Teslas Oscillator.

According to Gen Gordon Sullivan, former Army chief of staff, “As we leap technology into the 21st century, we will be able to see the enemy day or night, in any weather — and go after him relentlessly.”A global, precise, real-time, robust, systematic weather-modification capability would provide war-fighting CINCs with a powerful force multiplier to achieve military objectives. Since weather will be common to all possible futures, a weather-modification capability would be universally applicable and have utility across the entire spectrum of conflict. The capability of influencing the weather even on a small scale could change it from a force degrader to a force multiplier.

 

Adys blog - opening your mind

 

Who will get to me first do you reckon, the shadowy Men in Black from Menwith Hill or the less shadowy men in white coats...

 

 

Blast from the past

My broken arm!

Here is an X-ray of my broken arm.  Can you believe it was broken during a genteel game of cricket?  Yup, as well as the reverent sound of leather on willow was the sound of bone breaking and marrow mashing.  The injury was sustained whilst fighting for the never ending, everlasting glory of the Central YMCA team from the Bradford Sunday League though we played on Saturdays, work that one out?! 

Now before you all start singing "Young man, theres a place we can go, I said Young man.."  I just want to point out that as a new team entering the league we had to take up the name of the vacated 'Central YMCA' as they were one of the founder members of the league and so the 'name' had to live on.  The fact that we took the wicket in  Cowboys, Policemans, Steel workers and Indian Chiefs outfits has nothing to do with it .

Anyway, back to the arm.  I broke it by trying to reach the wicket from the boundary in one throw.  It was a long boundary. So, i thought,i need to flex my arm when i throw this, bad mistake.  SNAP.

I go down like a pack of cards as my team mates saunter over to me to see why I've decided to have a lie down.  The Asian team we are playing continue to run between the wickets, 22, 23, 24....So, whilst writhing in agony on the ground, my captain asks if anyone has any pain killers to which pipes up one of my team mates "I've got some Strepsils..?" 

Long story short, I'm out of action for 8 weeks, mostly in agony as I was told not to sleep laid down but to sleep upright...ok, try it..you can't.  Every time i got the 'noddy dog' the jerking awake movement split the bones apart again so the 'knitting together' process took longer than expected.

I still have the offending cricket ball as a macabre trophy of the day.  The hospital gave me the x-ray of my arm as keepsake as the breaking of the upper arm is quite unique.  I became a case study of one of the nurses!

Ouch!

Coincidence?

Here is a news story from 9th March...Yes, two days ago, before the japanese earthquake.....Coincidence?  (Daily Mail)

 

Could 'supermoon' next week disrupt Earth's weather?

Moon comes at its closest approach for 19 years

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 3:25 PM on 9th March 2011

• Comments (215)
• Add to My Stories

It doesn't take much to get the Internet's lunar-tics out in force.
The web was yesterday awash with apocalyptic warnings that the movement of the  moon will trigger tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and even earthquakes next week.
The conspiracy theorists claim that on March 19, the moon will be closer to Earth than at any time since 1992 - just 221,567 miles away - and that its gravitational pull will bring chaos to Earth.

Earth will be at its closest point - some 221,567 miles away - to the moon in 19 years on March 19. Some fear the 'lunar perigee' will affect our climate pattern

However, astronomers have dismissed the claims as pure nonsense.
The bizarre rumours centre on a phenomenon called the 'lunar perigee'.

More...

• How Satnav Britain could be paralysed in an instant by cyber terrorists
• There's no such thing as a dormant volcano, scientists warn

The moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle, but an eclipse. At its closest approach - the perigee - the moon appears brighter and larger in the sky. When it is furthest away - the apogee - it is smaller and dimmer.
A lunar perigee occurs once a month. However, next week's perigee coincides with a full moon - a combination of events that happen just once every two or three years. 
Although it makes a good photo opportunity for astronomers, scientists say it has no impact on Earth.

Previous supermoons took place in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005 - all years that had extreme weather events

Dr David Harland, space historian and author, said: 'It's possible that the moon may be a kilometre or two closer to Earth than normal at a perigee, but it's an utterly insignificant event. '
But the Internet is awash with conspiracy-minded amateur scientists warning that such a 'supermoon' could disrupt Earth's climate patterns and may even cause earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Previous supermoons took place in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005 - all years that had extreme weather events, the conspiracy theorists say.
The tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia happened two weeks before the January 2005 supermoon. And on Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy laid waste to Darwin, Australia.

Coincidence? Banda Aceh, Indonesia, was devastated by the December 2004 tsunami which took place two weeks before a supermoon

But Pete Wheeler of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy greeted warnings of an impending apocalypse with scepticism.
'There will be no earthquakes or volcanoes erupting, unless they are to happen anyway,' he told news.com.au.
'Earth will experience just a lower than usual low tide and a higher than usual high tide around the time of the event, but nothing to get excited about.'
Australian astronomer David Reneke agreed, pointing out that conspiracy theorists will always be able to find a natural disaster to link to a certain time and blame it on a supermoon.
'If you try hard enough you can chronologically associate almost any natural disaster or event to anything in the night sky - comet, planet, sun,' he said.
'Remember in the past, planetary alignments were going to pull the sun apart. It didn't happen. Astrologers draw a very long bow most times.
'Normal king tides are about all I would expect out of this supermoon prediction.'
During a full moon, the sun and the moon are pulling on Earth from opposite sides - making the chances of any dramatic tidal events unlikely.
On average the moon is 235,000 miles away. At its furthest it is 248,000 miles away.
During a lunar perigee and full moon, the lunar surface can appear up to 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than other full moons.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1364124/Lunar-perigee-Supermoon-cause-weather-chaos-Earth-week.html#ixzz1GKb0NUJD



As the bible says..

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring"


DEC 21, 2012.....

All hail Discovery..

A bittersweet day today as the Space Shuttle Discovery made her final landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the completion of her 11 day mission to the International Space Station.  Most of you reading this will have seen her pass over your home as we've all been aware of the fly past times these last 11 days.  I think the most spectacular view was on Monday night when after undocking from the ISS and having a degree of seperation of a few hundred yards you could clearly see Discovery and the ISS as seperate entities as they flew overhead as if joined by some invisible thread.  A memorable sight.

Discovery making her final landing today

Today reminded me of my visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida...here are just a few snaps of that visit

The mock shuttle at Kennedy...it's actually bigger than it looks in this photo!  It has three decks in the cockpit section!

The Shuttles engines, brought into play when the Solid Rocket Boosters are exhausted after take off

The transporter that takes the Shuttle to the pad

A treasured pic...Atlantis on the pad.  She will be the last ever Shuttle mission, due to take off in June.  It was a priviledge to get so close to the pads with a Shuttle loaded ready for take off.

My fellow cohorts with resplendent pink VIP passes on lol  This was my first day in Florida after flying in less than 24hrs earlier.  The reason for the sweatshirt top is that my brother advised me that "it's quite chilly at the moment Ady" - the git

Final approach...

Nailed it!   Straight down the center line.
Some of you have had a go on the Shuttle Landing Simulator App on my I-pad, and crashed and burned.  Well that's how you do it!

part of the Rocket park at Kennedy.....as you can see, still chilly!  eh Ed

As big as the Shuttle is, they don't make em like they used to! 
The Saturn 5 exhibit.  The whole rocket is laid out in sections end to end.  It's a very long hangar!

Well, roll on April and June as we watch the evensong on a marvelous era of space travel.  God speed to Endeavour and Atlantis.

Thought for the day ....The Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox - what is it?

I came across this during my research into Ufology.  Most of you know my views on the existence of extra terrestrial life and is a debate on it's own that cannot yet be won by either side of the argument.  It still amazes me that more people believe in Religion for example than the possibility of exta terrestrial life.  What of religion, of which there are over 40 main different religions in the world, so does that mean that some of them must be wrong? Can you have more than one omnipresent God? 

Most are based on what? what FACTUAL evidence is there?  Using Christianity as an example, isn't it based on collections of writings that were written over 300 years after Christs death...the Gospels, which contain many contradictions. Myths, twisted by time some might say like Chinese Rumours.  But where is the evidence?  Is Religion based on belief in faith, a belief based on stories?

On the other hand, believers in Ufology and the existence of other worldly entities might argue that there is more factual evidence for UFO's and therefore the argument is surely stronger?  What evidence?  Most will point to the millions of reported sightings since the dawn of man, from images of UFO's in Mayan and medieval art, images of 'UFO's in Egyption writings, all through history to the modern capturing of images from photographic material, radar traces, gun cameras on Air Force fighters etc.  The point being made that here, the argument for actually has 'evidence'.  The argument for also states that if there are for arguments sake, one million reported sightings then it only takes one of those to be true and the case is proven.  The odds appear to be in their favour? 

Just listen to Proffessor Cox in his latest tv series Wonders of the Universe and you will hear that there are 200-400 billion stars in the milky way and 70 sextillion (7x10 to the power of 22) in the visible universe. 
Even if intelligent life occurs on only a minuscule percentage of planets around these stars, there might still be a great number of civilizations extant in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

And this where the Fermi paradox comes in ...in essence it states 'the apparant size and age of the universe suggest that many technilogically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist. However, this hypothosis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it'

A compelling paradox indeed...

Thoughts?