The Sun. Our own personal star. The energy output of this giant is not constant. It is variable. The Sun is in a constant state of flux. The Sun goes around in cycles, the smallest of which is about 11 years, and some larger ones are as long as 8000 years. Energy output during these cycles can severely change. Not only that, but our planet is constantly moving towards and away from it, in various angles and speeds. Just the angle and distance of us to the Sun creates the temperature differences between summer and winter. The way we face the sun influences the temperature difference between day and night.

It has been shown that the temperature changes in Earth’s history closely follow the Sun’s cycles. When the Sun has a long interval of relatively large energy output, the Earth experiences global warming.  When the energy output by the Sun is low for an extended interval, the Earth cools off.  If such a quiet interval lasts for a very long time, the Earth experiences an ice age.

One of the main parties interested in making a living of the man-made-global-warming hoax are governments.  They love “global-warming” because the public’s acceptance of the hype constantly provides new means to collect new taxes and to ram through its agenda for socialization and world-income equalization, until we all are at the same level of poverty, or until the economy collapses in ruins, whichever comes first.

> better than > ???

Why environmentalists insist dumping ton after ton of potentially toxic materials into a big hole in the ground is somehow better for the environment than using plasma gasification to produce heat and electricity is beyond me. You would think, since it reduces CO2 output due to less reliance on coal-burning plants, the environmentalists would welcome such a plan. The City of Ottawa, in partnership with the Plasco Energy Group (http://www.plascoenergygroup.com) are about two weeks away from starting up their new Plasma Gasification plant to convert MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) into Plasma gas to drive turbines to generate electricity. Their unique process has NO EMISSIONS.

For every tonne of solid waste they generate 150 kg of slag which can be used for paving, 1400 KwH of electricity, and 5 kg of saleable sulfur. Nothing else.

It is this, versus a 10 story deep hole in the ground with God knows how many tons of toxic waste just eating through the liner every day seeping into groundwater, and polluting the air with bad odours and methane. What seems less polluting to you?

Next Survivor is to be filmed in China. What, they are going to make all the candidates pactise Falum Gong in public, and then we’ll get to see who will survive? Or maybe they’ll send them grocery shopping and show them the shortcut through Tiananmen Square. How about converting them all to Buddhists and have them visit the Dalai Lama for tea and scones? Surviving in China, that should be fun.

I am in a conundrum: I loathe hypocrisy, yet I may have to do something that is so hypocritical it makes me sick. I am ecstatic that my favourite band, Genesis, is going to tour again, not for the money, but for the fun (yeah, right). Got my ticket for Ottawa, dished out my 200 dollars (where’s the fun?), everything is honky-dory. However, now I learn Genesis is going to open, with a 20 minute set, the London Live Earth concert in July. If you know me at all, you’ll know that puts me in a very difficult position: I would like to watch it on TV, record it, and play it over and over again, but since it is organized by Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, and whoever else wants to jump on the bandwagon, and concerns the notion that humans are responsible for the incredibly minute 0.6 degree warming of the earth in the past 125 years, I’ll have to boycot. But I don’t know if I can.

Live Eath is billed as: The concerts for a climate in crisis, 7 Concerts across 7 countries in 1 day. First of all, I didn’t know the climate is really in crisis. I mean, a rise in temperature of 0.6 degrees in 125 years is not exactly what I would call a ‘crisis’. Apparently, forests will be on fire within the next 20 years. How hot does it have to be for a tree to spontaneously combust? 3000 degrees? At the current rate of temperature rise, that makes…. 3000 divided by 0.6 times 125… 625,000 years. Whoop-de-doo. I’d better run and turn off a light or two.

And last but not least: 7 concerts, with about 20 bands each, about 80,000 people each watching it live. Recording it, transmitting it. Billions of TV’s displaying it. How much are these concerts contributing in CO2? 140 bands flying in private jets, 560,000 people driving and idling to the venues. High power consumption for the music, recording, beaming up to satellite, beaming down, running cable stations, TV’s etc. etc. I think the combined CO2 emission number will closely resemble Al Gore’s energy consumption at his four mansions, it may even eclipse it. Oh, but that’s all right: he’ll plant some trees, and send some money to China. Thanks, that’ll save us.

You know what? I will boycot it. There. And I am extremely disappointed my favourite band fell into the Global Warming scare trap. Shame on you.

Okay, okay, I admit it. I love Knut. He’s cute, he’s cuddly, he’s adorable. When he first became popular, animal activists wanted him destroyed, because being raised by humans isn’t a polar bear thing to do. I suppose being euthanized is. Anyway, he survived that attempt on his life, and led a happy few little weeks, being his sweet and adorable self. But unfortunately, Knut has gotten himself in some hot waters recently. First he was suspected of killing his next door neighbour Yan Yan, the lethargic panda. Seems like Knut generated some long line-ups, and bored people at the end of the line decided to visit Yan Yan instead, who promptly died from all the attention. It appears that Pandas can’t take camera flashes. Go figure. So now, after delightful little Knut survived that character assassination, I just spotted him on the evening news as the poster boy for Global Warming. What an orphaned son of a zoo raised polar bear has to do with global warming, I don’t know. But there he was, amongst melting icecaps, and burning forests, there was Knut, jumping off his little floe into a little pond. Making a cute little splash. And back to flooded streets, and desiccated deserts, fleeing people.

Born in a zoo in Berlin. Shunned by his mother, accused of murdering his neighbour, now he’s rooting for David Suzuki. I think he would have been better off dead.

So, me and my wife were outside our place of business pickin’ some weeds (that time of year again), when Stu Whatshisname drove up in his CBC van. He jumped out, said ‘Hi’ and answered a cell phonecall (what are we, chopped liver?). After he hung up, he explained to us that he was doing a feature on the new Garbage Gasification plant near our business. He had just interviewed Rod Bryden and was now cruisin’ the neighbourhood for some local peasants’ perspectives on the whole operation. Since I had done some research on my own, and I follow Lowell Green’s 24 hour rant on the Carp Mountain, I threw in some comments regarding Plasmafication, Gasification and the whole garbage burning thing. He asked me if he could interview me on camera and I said ’sure’. After an awkward ‘interview’ wherein I could have said much, much more than I actually did (it was more like: how short can you make your answers?), he asked me if he could film me pulling weeds. ‘Sure’, I said again (man of many words), and pulled some weeds. Great action shots. After this pathetic display, he packed up his camera and made his way to his van. ‘Hopefully, this will be on the news tonight’, he said.

Six o’clock comes around, we’re all ready to laugh our heads off at my tongue-tied, uncomfortable presentation, and what do we see? An awkward interview with Rod Bryden (I was almost better!) and then a quick ‘back to the studio’. No little old me on this national channel, which is watched by literally tens of people. My almost 5 minutes of fame ended up on the cutting room floor.

Given my performance, I think it was for the better.

I was eagerly awaiting the 6 o’clock news yesterday. I was waiting for Jack Layton to come on again. I saw him on that very same news show on January 12ish, when it was a nice and balmy 10 degrees out. He was sitting on his Toronto rooftop patio in his summer jacket, and he said “I am here outside, in the middle of January, with my summer jacket on. Clearly, there’s something wrong here. This is a global catastrophe!”. So, since yesterday was the coldest March 6th EVER in eastern Ontario, with Pembroke going down to -32 overnight, I thought I’d see Jacky on his Toronto rooftop again, with sixteen winter coats on, freezing his ass off, saying “It’s March 6th! I’m freezing my ass off! Clearly there’s something wrong here!” But alas, Jacky did not show. There was no segment on the cold weather. Jacky had gone into hiding. He will emerge, no doubt, when the next global catastrophe occurs. To fight it… for the people.

March 6th, Ottawa, ON. 11 am. The mercury is stuck at -26 C, overnight it was -27. This is the coldest recorded temperature on March 6th EVER. We have just finished the coldest February in the last 10 years. Where are the reports of ‘Global Cooling’? One abnormally hot day in June will get the Global Warming nuts have their say. Where are they now? I know where they are. They are hiding, hiding in their caves, until the first hot day of spring comes around, and then they’ll emerge. Sweatting and triumphant, shouting ‘Global Warming is here again!’

CSI Miami: a lunatic has a nuclear bomb. Ryan is sitting behind a computer, Caine is standing behind him.
Caine: Ryan, can you find out the most optimal location and weather condition to detonate a nuclear bomb in downtown Miami with maximal damage?
Ryan types in: “optimal weather condition” onto a computer search engine. Computer comes back with “Blue Lakes Park, 4 p.m.”
Caine: That’s fifteen minutes from now… let’s roll!

I certainly do. Is it annoying when you’re talking to people and they do this sort of thing? It sure is. Should people that constantly asking themselves questions and answer them be in an insane asylum? I don’t see why not.