Save the Planet!

Am I the only one who finds the disclaimer at the end of this little item a tad disturbing?

(Ah go on, read it - it's not very long, I promise!)

Granted, I haven't done much investigation into this at all - I just happened upon it today - but I just love the way they put it, something like this:

"Install our software because we're telling you it'll help Mother Earth. You won't see what it's doing, but it will do something - namely collect certain data from you PC - and when it's done it will send the information back to us without you even knowing.
PS we can't be held responsible if it crashes your computer or accidentally bankrupts your company."

Ahem. I'm sure our IT Security people would love it.

I know what we're doing this Summer

We've booked our next holiday in the form of ferry tickets from Ireland to Cherbourg in France. Come August, Hubby and I will saddle up the Bluebird of Happiness, put her on a Ferry and go for a little drive.

Two weeks and more than 3000 kilometers later we will have visited 7 countries: France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and back through France.

This is more-or-less our proposed route - the White line with the red dots on it. I got this messing around on Google Earth. It is very much a first draft and will be refined a LOT to cut down on mileage and ensure we have enough fuel stops.
We have a full set of panniers so there should be more than enough packing space (the wife of the guy we bought it from assured me one can fit 12 pairs of shoes in one of them), but they are bound to mess with the aerodynamics a bit. That, and the extra weight, will no doubt play havoc with fuel consumption.

But oh boy are we gonna have fun!!! If ever a vehicle was destined for the Autobahn, this is it :-)

So far, the plan is to take it slow the first day and see a bit of Normandy. Hubby is very interested in WW2 stuff so he wants to see the beaches there. I have a more personal mission in the area. My father was born there, and my great-aunt (who also happens to be my Godmother) still lives in a small town in the region. I need to find out if someone in her family speaks English, because I'd love to visit her. Last time I saw her I was a kid, and I know she doesn't speak English any more than I can speak French.

After that, we have friends to visit in Rotterdam, then it's down to the Black Forest region of Germany, where the other side of my father's family is from.

Those are the only Definites so far, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or drop me an email (under the Flickr box in the sidebar).

It's all very exciting, so no doubt you'll be hearing plenty more about it closer to the time.

why did I take it?

No, I haven't turned into a thief. I'm talking about this photo: Now before you go and get all philosophical, the answer is not that deep. In fact, it's almost rhetorical.
Because I felt like it, that's why.
I went outside to have a cigarette (Yes, I know. Let it go.) and I just felt like it. That plastic bucket thing has been in that very spot since we first moved in two years ago. It was there when we arrived and it will be there when we leave. I don't know why I never bothered to throw it out. Perhaps because it isn't mine?
Anyway, I just thought the ivy looked cool on the wall and taking photos makes me happy so clickety-click and there you go.

Here's another one I tried to take of a raindrop in between showers yesterday: I'll keep trying on that one because it's not quite what I had in mind. Don't you just love digital photography?! I can take as many pictures as I like and the results are instant and don't cost anything.
Can you tell I have nothing of interest to say today?
Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.

State of Fear

I've been fighting off a cold this week - it's been a losing battle. Today is my 3rd day at home. On the bright side, it's Friday which means I still have another 2 days off after today before I have to go back to work. Now to get better so that I can enjoy them...

But I'm not here to complain today. One good thing about the time off is that it gave me time to read a book. A novel. An entire novel. Something I haven't done for a while, despite the fact that I have always loved reading.
The novel in question is "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. Great writer. He gave us "Prey" and "ER" - really, what more could we ask for?

I found it in my bookshelf and had no idea how it got there until my li'l sister owned up to having left it there the last time she visited. She does that - brings over books she's read and sneakily leaves them behind because she doesn't have space for them in her own bookshelf. She was recently saying that her bookshelf was so full that she was considering moving to a bigger apartment. Most people would just buy another bookshelf, but hey, nobody ever accused my li'l Sister of being like most people. Reminded me a bit of a fellow blogger (no names mentioned) who was considering moving because her bookshelf was getting dusty. Or of Hubby, for that matter, who bought a new car once because the old one needed a wash. See? My li'l Sis is not alone in her, uh, eccentricities.

Enough about that though, back to "State of Fear"...
(Is it just me or am I taking a very roundabout route to get to the point here? Must be 'cos of all the cotton-wool inside my head.)
I'm trying to fathom why this book hasn't made headlines the way the Da Vinci Code did.
OK, they're about two totally different subjects but both are of global interest.
We all know about the Da Vinci Code, so let me tell you about State of Fear. It's about Global Warming. Or rather, the lack thereof. Yes, that's right - if the facts and references quoted in State of Fear are to be believed, then it turns out we've been panicking for nothing because Global Warming is a myth. Bummer, and here I thought Summers in Ireland might improve over time.

Am I the only one who thinks this is possibly even more news-worthy than any of the revalations in the Da Vinci Code? I mean yes, I really enjoyed that book. It was very thought-provoking. Dan Brown very, very cleverly took a bunch of facts and references and wove them together to make up a story... the operative phrase here being "make up". The thing is, it is fiction. I find it slightly amusing that it has been taken up by various people as being fact and thus caused such an outcry.

OK, so State of Fear is fiction too, only... Crichton is not trying to sell the story part as fact. The part I found disturbing are the facts stated - if they are accurate, that is, and if they're not then this post is completely pointless. For argument's sake then, let's assume they are correct. Antarctica is not melting. The earth is not getting hotter. In some places it's actually getting colder. Blah blah blah - I'm not a scientist and my head is too stuffy to go into details here but why has this stuff been left out of the news? Because good news doesn't sell as well as bad news? Because governments function better when the general population is afraid of something that they believe the government can do something about? Communism, terrorism, global warming... hoo boy this could turn into quite an interesting discussion, no?

I tell you why this has my knickers in a twist: Because I don't like being misled. Every day the newspapers tell you something else has been found that will kill you or make you sick. I must've been about 14 when I read an article saying it had been discovered that eating potato skins can give you cancer. That was when I stopped believing them. If 'they' are to be believed, we should all be dead already. This is the thing that annoys me - we are fed all sorts of information every day by the media. Scary stuff, about all the things that could go wrong. But they never make as big a deal about the good stuff... or in this case, after scaring the crap out of everyone for decades about Global Warming, is it true that oops! Someone made a mistake and it isn't really a problem?
Well thanks for telling us.

In short: I recommend this book. I found it a bit difficult to get into in the beginning for some reason but it turned into a pretty good book and very thought provoking. Oh and if anyone reads it and has the energy to check out the references in it, let me know what you think. Maybe we should start a revolution...

And if this subject interests you at all, check out what the author has to say about this whole thing.