Last winter was pretty cold in Xàtiva – temperatures down to -6°C at night. And we had some cold winters in the last 2-3 years in Schmitten as well. It looks like that could be the trend. The Guardian ran … Continue reading
I was up about at about 7 this morning and the view was like Heathrow airport, only with house martins swirling around above our pool, rather than aircraft landing. We’ve often seen them in the evening, drinking from the pool. … Continue reading
Last year when we filled the pool and started running the filtration system, the first thing that happened, was that the filter for the pump filled up with snails. Since then we haven’t seen any more of them in the … Continue reading
The above is a “must watch” video. It shows in 30 minutes why we are almost certainly going to be grappling with huge problems in the very near future due to the ongoing exponential growth (in use of resources, in … Continue reading
There’s interesting article in Wired about how the source of the E.coli outbreak in Europe, that killed at least 44 people and infected over 3700, has been tracked to a supplier in Egypt. And why the outbreak is likely to … Continue reading
I watched an interesting film on Arte last night, about planned obsolescence. I liked the title in French – Prêt à jeter (ready to throw away), a play on the phrase from the fashion industry, “prêt à porter” (ready to … Continue reading
If one thinks about it at all, then one tends to underestimate the size of Africa. In fact it is big enough to fit in most of Europe, the USA, Japan, India and China and then some. … Continue reading
The Daily Telegraph points to thorium as a way out of the energy crisis. Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday – … Continue reading
BP has been quite tight-lipped about what is going on at the Deepwater Oil Spill site, so it is difficult as a member of the public to understand the issues about the spill. There is a web site, The Oil … Continue reading
If global warming hasn’t frightened your socks off yet, then take a look at these two news items: 1. The UK is likely to run out of soil in the next 60 years. Other countries are similarly affected: An estimated … Continue reading