Thousands say goodbye to migratory birds

Thousands say goodbye to migratory birds: "Despite stormy weather across Europe over the past weekend, more than 63,000 people set out to bid farewell to birds."

If you have any doubts about how important bids are to so many people read this...

Climate Change: Are the Models Good Enough?

One of the key tools in foreseeing the effects of any changes in global temperature are the climate models that are used by scientists to predict how the climate will look a number of years ahead.  The central importance of such models is clear.  Indeed the whole of the argument about the devastation that global warming will bring is solely based on such models.  But are these models good enough?  Do they really predict the future?
The efficacy of climate modelling depends on two key things.  First are the data that are fed into the models accurate and reliable and secondly are the underpinning assumptions and algorithms sufficiently logical, robust and comprehensive to produce reliable conclusions.  The trouble is the world is such a complicated place with so many interactions that even our best models can only produce very simplistic conclusions.  Unfortunately we simply don't know enough about how the World ticks.
Today the Economist publishes an excellent article Errors of Omission that tackles these exact points.  Easy to read and understand (like all Economist articles - what a joy they are!), the article points out some of the difficulties we have in relying on such models that take no account of geopolitical and diplomatic trends, for example.  The conclusion is that the models must become even more comprehensive if they are to be of more use.  We know from our own experience how difficult it is to get a totally reliable forecast of what the weather is going to do.  Forecasting the global impact of a change in temperature is therefore a big ask!

The Connie: Beauty was not Enough

Of all the airliners that have graced the sky I think one of the most beautiful, ranking with Concorde, is the Lockheed Constellation the last and greatest of the piston-engined airliners.  First flown in 1943 for TWA the Connie served for many years in both civil and military forms.  Powered by four immensely powerful but fiendishly complicated Wright Turbo Compound Cyclones it was boss of the walk, despite the aspirations of its competitors, the Douglas DC -7C and Boeing Stratocruiser.
With its characteristic triple fins and gracefully swooping lines it was gut-achingly beautiful and made its competitors look,well, dowdy.  But beauty wasn't enough.  The advent of jet airliners, like the de Haviland Comet and Boeing 707, killed it stone dead as an airliner although it soldiered on in the military until the '70s, and several restored aircraft still fly today.
Sic transit gloria mundi 

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US Army Reduces Carbon Footprint

The US Army is taking delivery of a self-contained "energy-from-waste" installation produced by Qinetiq in the UK.  The plant is designed to produce more energy than it consumes by converting waste to storable combustible gases using a process of pyrolysis involving an oxygen-free environment.
This plant, easily deployable in two ISO containers, will enable the US Army to significantly decrease the carbon footprint of management waste plants.  Already successfully operating in HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy helicopter assault ship, the plant shows much promise and is a great demonstrator for the application of new technology to combat global warming and climate change.
Fortuitously it enables me to blog about two different interests in the same post!

HMS Ocean

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Only Nuclear Can Save the World

The new Chief Scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Professor David MacKay, has presented a pretty compelling argument that we must move to nuclear power as our source of energy (through electricity generation) as quickly as possible if we are to stave off the the worst effects of climate change and global warming.
Nuclear power has had a bad press as a result of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, so many are wary and worried about more of the same.  This is understandable but the historic disasters will rank as nothing against the apocalyptic impact of a 4 degree temperature rise (literally as it will, apart from making life uncomfortable, unleash the Four Horsemen: War, Famine, Pestilence and Death).
So we should go to a nuclear future says Professor MacKay.  A nuclear future would guarantee a bulwark against global warming and a way of providing large-scale desalination of seawater for drinking, vital if we wish to save cities like Adelaide SA and Perth WA and many others,
So we need to get the technology right, the economics sorted and the disposal of waste solved.  But this is not beyond the resources of Mankind.  So I am all for it - the sooner the better!

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Global Warming in the Greater Mekong

The WWF is warning that the Greater Mekong countries (Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand and the South West provinces of China) will need to take action if ecological apocalypse is to be averted as a result of global warming.  A temperature rise of 2 -4 degrees Celsius would spell disaster for the ecosystems of these countries.  The report comes hot on the heels of the WWF's December 2008 report First Contact in the Greater Mekong which identifies a host of new species and biodiversity.  Whilst action needs to be taken locally, developing countries must play their part in reducing carbon emissions as well.
You can read the full report here.
Now I have commented on this blog before about global warming (see Global Warming and Climate Change - Still a Mystery? and Inconvenient truth) , so you may think that I might be sceptical about the WWF report.  Of course I am:I am sceptical - but not doctrinaire - about all global warming and climate change predictions but I support absolutely the recommendations made by the WWF.  Even if there is no global warming the actions need to be taken to preserve the biodiversity of this amazing region and best of all it will do no harm!

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The Geese

One of the great wildlife spectacles in Central Scotland is the geese.  From about now they start tracking across the sky in long spindly skeins as they move to their Winter feeding grounds.  Each skein is usually led by a group of three birds who lead for a time and then drop back as another group take over the lead.  The skeins are arranged so that each goose flies just behind and outboard of the bird in front, to minimise drag, and flaps in synchrony with it.  As the lead changes the change in phase of flapping ripples down the skein like a wave.  Truly a glorious and uplifting sight.
I saw my first flock for the year at Airth near Falkirk yesterday and although they were too far away to visually identify I am pretty sure that from the cacophony of honking that they were making they were Canada Geese Branta canadensis.  The flock was about 100 strong with three separate skeins moving quite quickly.  Where they were heading was unknown.  How they were navigating there a mystery.  How they figure out how to fly in a V astonishing.  Is there a gene for it?  Do parents teach their offspring?
Over the coming months we will see more and more geese.  It will be wonderful to see "the Universe unfolding as it should" without the influence of Man.

 Photo by Chuck Szmurlo

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Good News at a Price

Good news for the troops - upgraded Pumas, upgraded Chinooks and Warthog Pr - ATVs.  Hundreds of millions of Pounds worth. (About 858 Million Pounds by my reckoning)
And for the civilians care in their homes if frail. (Alan Johnson says this will cost 200 Million Pounds in the first year) So that's a another Billion Pounds of new expenditure committed this week.
All of this is very welcome but where is Macavity going to get the money and worse how are we going to pay for it?  Higher taxes?  More National Debt?
We should be told! 

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REPORT: Aston Martin in jeopardy as parent company Investment Dar in financial turmoil

REPORT: Aston Martin in jeopardy as parent company Investment Dar in financial turmoil: "
Filed under: Performance, Aston Martin, Earnings/Financials, Luxury


Is Aston Martin on the brink of insolvency? Britain's Guardian is reporting that the Kuwaiti fund that owns half of Aston is having trouble refinancing the debt it's incurred during the recent global economic crisis. It hasn't help that the fund failed to report its 2008 financial records on time and subsequently had trading halted on its shares. All isn't doom and gloom, however. Kuwait's Investment Dar says that it recently inked a deal that will at least buy it some time in working out a new plan to get out of its mess, but oil prices just aren't what they used to be, and money is hard to come by - even for wealth funds.

When Ford sold Aston Martin in March of 2007, times were better for the consortium that bought David Brown's legacy. Along with ex-racer Dave Richards, banker John Singers and Adeem Investment, Investment Dar bought the Bond-ride firm for $925m (£480m). Fast forward to late 2008 and Investment Dar was itself trying to borrow $1B (£630m) to refinance debt, and iteven defaulted on a $100m Islamic bond in April. So, the Dar finds itself in a position of having to keep its creditors at bay while it seeks to right the ship. The agreement they've reached now is known as a standstill agreement. That means creditors won't make any new individual claims for a while. The arrangement will continue until the end of the year and hopefully Aston Martin will survive the financial storm.

[Source: The Guardian]

REPORT: Aston Martin in jeopardy as parent company Investment Dar in financial turmoil originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh dear...could this be the end?  A-M has had so many owners over the years but has still managed to produce the quintessential British GT car.  Let us fervently hope that Dar can weather the storm.

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PICTURE: First A400M fitted with flightworthy engines

PICTURE: First A400M fitted with flightworthy engines: "Airbus Military has released this image of the first A400M fitted with four flightworthy engines and propellers. This marks another step forward in the development of the long-awaited transport aircraft, which had its formal roll-out in June 2008.


Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, Airbus’ parent company, said yesterday that it was looking increasingly likely that the A400M would make its debut flight in December. He also expressed confidence that the countries involved in the project will all commit to continuing it when they meet for negotiations in October. “Our hope is to fully convince them" by the end of this year, he said.



Well they're slowly getting there.  What a waste of taxpayers money when more C-17s and C-130s would do a better job.  MoD procurement strikes again!

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Deathly owl scares Zimbabwean family

Deathly owl scares Zimbabwean family

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Well at least they didn't kill it and try to eat it.  I have it on good authority that owls are absolutely disgusting to eat (fortunately!)

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Birds of the Kakadu

Being an Australian (that will come as a surprise to some of you!) I have always thought that one of the natural jewels of Australia is its avifauna which is rich and extensive.  One of the best places to see birds in Australia is the Kakadu National Park - a World Heritage site.  There are so many different birds to see in this amazing wetlands situated in the northern part of the Northern Territory.  Some of the more unusual highlights include Brolga (a species of crane), Jabiru (a species of stork), Magpie Goose, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Great Egret and a myriad of smaller birds.  Here is a small collection:

Magpie Goose (Anseranus semipalmata)

Magpie Geese in flight

Jabiru (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus)

White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)





To see more pictures of the Kakadu go to Flickr

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Global Warming and Climate Change - Still a Mystery?

I have posted before on climate change and the contradictory evidence (Inconvenient Truth).  Now hot on the heels of Latif's work, which suggests the Earth will cool for a while, comes published research from the Met Office Hadley Centre which claims that the Earth's average global temperature will rise by 4 degrees Celsius.
Who are we to believe?  How can policy makers make informed choices when the scientific community seems at odds?  Worse what are ordinary people like us to make of it all.  And should we believe the politicians?

Where Have All the Birds Gone? (On the Mekong at Least)

In 2006 I travelled down the Mekong River from Houayxay in the North, close to the Golden Triangle, to Louang Phrabang in the centre of Laos, a journey taking two days with an overnight stop at Pak Ben.  For pictures of this journey see Flickr.  I had always wanted to do this journey and it did not disappoint.  We travelled by rice boat which took passengers down river and returned with a cargo of rice from the more fertile rice fields of the South.  

As the miles quietly slipped by it was easy to imagine that you were on a boat a thousand years ago (except for the sound of the diesel engine!) or living out Apocalypse Now without the war.
One of the things that really struck me was the absence of birds on the river. You could be forgiven for anticipating many new species in such an idyllic location but it was not to be.  During the two days we spent on the river I saw only 3 Pacific Swallows (Hirundo tabitica)!  There was absolutely nothing else.
This state of affairs is hard to reconcile with the results of the WWF’s report First Contact in the Greater Mekong which covered the discovery of many new species in this region including the bald songbird which I have mentioned in my previous post Extinction is Forever .
I have puzzled over this disparity for some time and have concluded that it might be because of the proclivity of people in Indochina to eat anything that moves flies or swims.  In those parts of the country that are more heavily populated like the villages along the Mekong it is certainly the case that local markets sell huge quantities of small birds for food.  Could this be the explanation?

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AMC testing for semi prepared runway ops increases C-17's deployed capabilities

AMC testing for semi prepared runway ops increases C-17's deployed capabilities

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The C-17 is quite a stunning aircraft with extraordinary short field performance for such a huge beast.  Much of the rough strip testing of the C-17 was done in Australia in 2007 where the Australian Army, RAAF and the USAF built and operated a dirt field strip for C-17 operations from scratch at Bradshaw Field Training Area in the Northern Territory.  For some more of this undertaking and some great photos see the DoD article here.

Christmas shoppers hit by iPhone ban on Vodafone - Times Online

Christmas shoppers hit by iPhone ban on Vodafone - Times Online

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We all want an iPhone but looks like Vodafone customers will have to wait at least until after Christmas.  But will they be in the sales?

The Great Thespian

One might expect that having said he could work with the Tories, Peter Mandelson would be excoriated and reviled at the Labour Conference.  Words like kiss of death and rat deserting sinking ship come to mind.   But no!  In a bravura performance that master of political theatre brought whistles and a standing ovation during his speech to Conference.
You may not like him or his values but you have to admit he is by far and away the most engaging, colourful and charismatic character in politics today.
It must irk Macavity greatly!

photo by peter gallina www.photofashion.com

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New Wine in Old Barrels?

I see that Alenia is planning to sell more re-furbished G.222s to countries such as Peru and Libya above and beyond the current sales to Afghanistan.
The G.222 (originally built by FIAT) first flew in 1970 and was brought into Italian service as a medium transport.  The US selected it also as the C-27 Spartan for in-theatre work.  Powered by two RR Tyne engines it had plenty of poke and excellent STOL performance.
So where is Alenia getting its airframes for refurbishment?  I don't know but I do know that for years there were lots and lots of Regia Aeronautica G.222s mouldering away at Galileo Galilei Airport, Pisa.  Dispersed all over the airport  they made an incongruous sight for incoming tourists anxious to enjoy the Tuscan scenery. 

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Singapore F1 Grand Prix - Curiously Uninvolving

It was with great expectation that I watched the Singapore F1 Grand Prix on Sunday.  The scene was set for a great experience. Fresh in our minds was the debacle of Crashgate when in 2008 Nelson Piquet jnr, evidently under team orders deliberately crashed to help his team mate's prospects.  This disgraceful episode cost Favio Briatore and Pat Symonds dear and didn't half help Renault either.  Would 2009 throw up similar drama?  Well it did - sort of.  By one of those extraordinary coincidences one sees in motor racing a Renault crashed in almost the same place, but in practice.  However the scene was still set: night race, on a fairly physically gruelling  circuit; last year's champion on pole and this year's putative champion back at tenth on the grid.

But to me the race delivered very little. I found it curiously uninvolving and anodyne, boring even.  The night setting produced a spectacle that was more  like a video game than a motor race.  There was little sense of speed (street circuits seldom look fast) and the race soon became one of those dreary processions that nowadays typify F1.  Once more victory seemed to be won by the best race strategy and the slickest pitstops.  Where was the drama?  Where was the nail biting tension as the aspirant champion diced with the reigning champion finally overtaking him  under brakes on the last corner of the last lap to win the race and the crowd.

I have been following F1 since the halcyon days of Moss, Stewart, Clark and Brabham and whilst it gets bigger and bigger in commercial terms it seems to get less and less exciting.  The problem is there isn't enough racing!  So the next FIA President needs to think long and hard about how he can make F1 once again the most exciting sport on Earth.

National Disgraces - It's Time to Go

The Daily Telegraph is to be commended for running a campaign that focuses on MP's expenses and what military equipment could be purchased with that money for troops in Afghanistan.  Although not a Telegraph reader I am impressed with the courage and persistence with which the Telegraph has pursued this issue.

These articles highlight two National Disgraces perpetrated by Government:

• Troops being sent to fight a war without the means to protect themselves or finish the job; and
• MPs corruptly claiming expenses and then making weasel excuses like: I wasn't any good at arithmetic; I didn't know that I couldn't do this; I thought it was OK etc. etc.

As Gough Whitlam, Australia's famous PM, said before the 1972 general election as Leader of the Opposition: "It's Time".

Well It's Time now too in the UK.

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2010 Infiniti EX35 holds the line on pricing but gets gobs more equipment

2010 Infiniti EX35 holds the line on pricing but gets gobs more equipment: "
Filed under: SUV, Crossover, Infiniti

Infiniti EX35 - Click above for high-res image gallery

Infiniti has announced its pricing and options list for the 2010 EX35 lineup this week, and the news is all good. The Japanese luxury brand has mirrored last year's MSRP on all four models, yet spread some additional icing on the cake to sweeten the deal on the 297-horsepower crossover.



The standard rear-drive EX35 rolls with a base price of $33,800 (all prices exclude destination, tax, and fees), while the range-topping EX35 Journey with all-wheel drive starts at $37,400. The automaker hasn't touched the exterior, so the new equipment is all found under the skin. All models now benefit from standard heated outside mirrors, auto on/off headlamps, and a USB connection port for iPod and MP3 players. The EX35 AWD model gains heated front seats, while the EX35 Journey models are fitted with heated front seats and Bluetooth hands-free phone connectivity. Models with the Bose Premium Audio package (but without the Infiniti Hard Drive Navigation system) pick up a 2GB Music Box.



The option packages now include a new Bose and Around View Monitor package (which includes nav at no additional charge), and the Navigation package has been upgraded with Bluetooth Streaming Audio, XM NavWeather and a Zagat Restaurant Guide. The 2010 Infiniti EX models are currently on sale nationwide. The full press release is after the jump.

Gallery: Infiniti EX35

[Source: Infiniti]






Continue reading 2010 Infiniti EX35 holds the line on pricing but gets gobs more equipment

2010 Infiniti EX35 holds the line on pricing but gets gobs more equipment originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now most drivers of powerful cars imagine that they have balls. If you buy an Infiniti you can show the World that you have with your grill.

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It's a Dirty World

The ABC has just released satellite photos of the Great Sydney Dust Storm.
By all accounts this storm was a worthy rival to the Great Melbourne Dust Storm of February 1983.

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Who Hates Oz?

You could be forgiven for thinking that someone (God?) has it in for Australia at present.  What other country in the World can boast:

• Severe bushfires
• Dust storms
• Earthquakes
• Tornadoes
• Hail storms
• Heavy rains
• Flash Floods

And all on the same day!  The varied and extreme weather that Australia is currently experiencing could be as a result of global warming or it could be a coincidence.  All of these events have happened before - regularly in same cases but you don't often see them happening simultaneously.

Perhaps aliens are preparing to invade next.  Good news is that the Ozone hole is on the mend and may be shut by the end of the Century.  That might help to keep the aliens out.

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BREAKING: Fisker gets $528.7 million loan from U.S. DOE for Karma, Project Nina

BREAKING: Fisker gets $528.7 million loan from U.S. DOE for Karma, Project Nina: "
Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Government/Legal, Fisker, Alternative Fuel

Fisker Karma - Click above for high-res image gallery

Fisker's goal of becoming profitable by 2011 received a shot in the arm today thanks to the U.S. Energy Department's announcement that the upstart automaker will receive a $528.7 million conditional loan. The DOE says the loan, 'will create or save about 5,000 jobs for domestic parts suppliers.' Highlights of the DOE's announcement include confirmation that the money will go towards 'two lines of plug-in hybrids' ($39,000 PHEV, here we come?) and that at least some of those jobs will be 'to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the U.S.' Fisker will perform final assembly of its first car, the high-cost Karma, in Finland with partner Valmet.

When we spoke with company head Henrik Fisker about a low-cost model back in January, he told us once DOE funding came through, it wouldn't take long to get the lower-cost plug-in hybrid on the road. The DOE loan specifies that $169.3 million is to be used for engineering integration costs, working primarily with U.S. suppliers to get the Fisker Karma finished, with the remaining funding to be used on Fisker's Project Nina. Project Nina? There's a name we haven't heard before, but

the DOE says it will involve 'the manufacture of a plug-in hybrid in the U.S.' Fisker says the name was chosen as a reference to Christopher Columbus, and 'is symbolic of the automobile industry's transition from old world to new.'
Earlier this year, the DOE gave conditional loan commitments to Ford ($5.9 billion), Nissan ($1.6 billion) and Tesla Motors ($465 million). The money comes from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan program. All the details are available in the press releases below the fold.

Gallery: Fisker Karma

[Source: Fisker, DOE]






Continue reading BREAKING: Fisker gets $528.7 million loan from U.S. DOE for Karma, Project Nina

BREAKING: Fisker gets $528.7 million loan from U.S. DOE for Karma, Project Nina originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good to see small specialised manufacturers utilising hybrid technology being supported but Fisker needs to do something about its style. This looks like one of Freddie Mercury's "Fat Bottomed Girls" sat on it.

Typhoon vs Veyron - A contest?

Just watched Top Gear's "race" between Hammond in a Bugatti Veyron and an RAF Typhoon.  The deal was that from the same standing start they would both accelerate away.  The Veyron would drive down the runway to the end turn round and come back again.  The Typhoon would take off, climb vertically up, execute some high G manoeuvres in the length of the runway  and return over the start point.  First one there would win. Obviously Hammond had never seen a Typhoon do its stuff or he wouldn't have bothered getting out of bed.  Anyone who had would know that the Veyron wouldn't even be at the event let alone in the race.  Still it made good telly.

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Frankfurt 2009: Brabus E V12 Black Baron is where light goes to die

Frankfurt 2009: Brabus E V12 Black Baron is where light goes to die: "
Filed under: Frankfurt Motor Show, Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Specialty, Design/Style

Brabus E V12 Black Baron -- Click above for high-res image gallery

Fancy yourself as a real-life Bruce Wayne with the financial wherewithal to match? Have we got a workaday sedan for you. German tunemeisters Brabus have just lifted the sheet off their new E V12 Black Baron sedan, although we almost didn't notice, as the matte-black überBenz swallows all beams of light that dare go near its carbon fiber flanks.



Packing a twin-turbo'd 6.3-liter V12, this one-of-ten wonder spits out a tidy 800 horsepower and 1,047 pound-feet of torque (no, that's not a typo). So equipped, Brabus says the demon tweaked E-Class will lunge to 62 mph in 3.7 seconds and hit 124 mph in a sliver under ten ticks. Thanks to the axe murderer of a powerplant underhood and the aerodynamic-at-all-costs design, the Black Baron will reportedly top out at 230 mph - and when operated at saner speeds, it still manages to return 15 mpg. Won't your neighbors be pleased.



What price for Gotham glory? Check out our high-res gallery below and then check with your financial adviser about cutting a slush fund check for $875,000.

Gallery: Frankfurt 2009: Brabus E V12 Black Baron

Gallery: Brabus E V12 Black Baron

[Source: Brabus]




Continue reading Frankfurt 2009: Brabus E V12 Black Baron is where light goes to die

Frankfurt 2009: Brabus E V12 Black Baron is where light goes to die originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This must be the ultimate in mean machines - efficient, even ruthless. If you saw that in your rearvision mirror approaching at high speed (Warp Factor 3?) you would be bound to get out of the way!

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