Around

Carbon sequestration

Seasonal variance.

Lots of talk on climate change. Lots of talk on atmospheric Carbon Dioxide concentration. Geosequestration of carbon dioxide seems like an expensive and tech-heavy operation.

One voice said 'Want to reduce carbon dioxide concentrations? Simple: plant lots of trees.'

Or, bamboo. Apparently eucalyptus is good, too.

Also good for sequestering Crouching tigers and Hidden dragons.

Carbon - hungry species versus potentially invasive plant. Does Australia have any native bamboo species? Would eucalyptus be a better, indigenous option?

Humphrey

memebase.com comments policy:

'Moderators reserve the right to replace swears with whatever word amuses them at the time.'

Leak! the musical

[Julian Assange]
Swedish lovin' had me a blast


[Anna Ardin]
Swedish lovin' happened so fast


[Julian Assange]
I met a girl crazy for me


[Anna Ardin]
Met a boy cute as can be


[Both]
Swedish days driftin' away, to uh-oh those Swedish nights


[Media Scrum]
Uh Well-a well-a well-a huh


[Swedish Prosecution]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens]
Why is your hair so white? 


[feministing.com]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Marty]
Does he have a website?


[Media Scrum]
Uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh


[Julian Assange]
She swam by me, she got a cramp


[Anna Ardin]
He ran by me, got my suit damp


[Julian Assange]
I saved her life, she nearly drowned


[Anna Ardin]
He showed off, splashing around


[Both]
Swedish sun, something's begun, but uh-oh those Swedish nights


[Media Scrum]
Uh well-a well-a well-a huh


[feministing.com]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Frenchy]
Was it love at first sight?


[Swedish Prosecution]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Kenickie]
Did she put up a fight?


[Media Scrum]
Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh


[Julian Assange]
She took me home, I had a condom


[Anna Ardin]
We had sex, it was lagom


[Julian Assange]
We made out under the dock


[Anna Ardin]
We stayed out 'till ten o'clock


[Both]
Swedish fling, don't mean a thing, but uh-oh those Swedish nights


[Media Scrum]
Uh well-a well-a well-a huh


[Swedish Prosecution]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Putzie]
But you don't gotta brag


[feministing.com]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Rizzo]
Cos he sounds like a drag


[Media Scrum]
shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop,shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, YEH


[Anna Ardin]
He got friendly, holding my hand


[Julian Assange]
While she got friendly down in the sand


[Anna Ardin]
He was sweet, just turned thirty - four


[Julian Assange]
Well she was good, she was quite the (rhymes with four)


[Media Scrum]
Woah!


[Both]
Swedish heat, boy and girl meet, but uh-oh those Swedish nights


[Media Scrum]
woo, woo, woo


[feministing.com]
Tell me more, tell me more


[ Jan]
How much dough did he spend?


[Swedish Prosecution]
Tell me more, tell me more


[Sonny]
Could she get me a friend?


[Anna Ardin]
It turned colder - that's where it ends


[Julian Assange]
So I told her we'd still be friends


[Anna Ardin]
Then we made our true love vow


[Julian Assange]
Wonder what she's doing now


[Both]
Swedish dreams ripped at the seams, (THIS FIGURE OF SPEECH IS IN THE ORIGINAL LYRICS, PEOPLE)
bu-ut oh, those su-ummer nights....


[Media Scrum]
Tell me more, tell me more! 

Candling

Sent by Steve, candling on Main Ridge. Backburning to reduce forest fuel in the even of a bushfire

It's not the Reformation

Right, so Julian Assange is being accused of rape molestation by two Swedish women. Apparently based on a Swedish law that forbids condomless sex. From In Mala Fide:

According to Newsweek, the basis of the rape charge was not actual rape, but Assange’s violation of a Swedish law that forbids condomless sex:

Borgstrom said that specific details about the the allegations had not yet appeared in Swedish media. But he acknowledged that the principal concern the women had about Assange’s behavior—which they reported to police in person—related to his lack of interest in using condoms and his refusal to undergo testing, at the women’s request, for sexually transmitted disease. A detailed, chronological account of the women’s alleged encounters with Assange—which in both cases began with consensual sexual contact but later included what the women claimed was nonconsensual sex, in which Assange didn’t use a condom—was published on Tuesday by The Guardian; a Declassified item included a more explicit reference than The Guardian to Assange’s declining to submit to medical tests.

From the Daily Mail

According to a police source: ‘They had a discussion and decided it would be OK to share the living space, then went out together for dinner.

‘When they got back they had sexual relations, but there was a problem with the condom – it had split.

‘She seemed to think that he had done this deliberately but he insisted that it was an accident.’

Assange apparently said 'Uh, the condom leaked?' Ms Ardin went to the hospital to go get checked out for STDs, and remarked 'that's not what I meant when I said I wasn't starting a smear campaign'.

A Pentagon spokesman said 'Damn you, Julian Assange and your Wikileaks website. Nobody is allowed to leak the names of our CIA operatives but us!'

Which brings me around to a subjunctive conversation I was having with my housemate today. He had just gotten over a cold and had some energy back. He was enthusiastically cooking some potatoes 'Gonna bke some potatoes, yeah! Gonna stick 'em in the microwave for five minutes!'

'For five minutes! Then whatcha gonna do?'

'Gonna bake 'em, yeah!'

Later on I said he should open a baked potato - selling table down on the main street. Right out front of my Insurance office where I explain insurance policy offers and adjustments in Randy Newman style meter:

Gonna adjust your insurance,
You're travellin' to Sweden,
in the hapless event
of condom breakage
insurance is something
you'll be needin'.

'cause if you're drivin' in your car,
and the tyre burst,
You got car insurance,
so you don't come off worst.

You don't want them to able to jail ya,
Due to a manufacturer's failure.

-cheesy piano obligato-

Despatches from Garstang

Horse yard

Around our place

Insanity Wolf says

Brighton

St Peter's church

We tried driving at first

Charles and I walked to Amy's place after deciding that it was too snowy to drive

Left a nice warm fire to go out

Charles; we had a few beers on the way

Mildred looking guilty for drinking from the basin

More despatches from Scotland

Roads closed

Meanwhile in Scotland

Snowman wearing the InHealth company jacket

Pictures sent from Dundee

Morning Mr Strauss, what's for breakfast?

Southampton

Lakes District

Lakes District

Ellie on Lake Windemere

Nerd alert: Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope

Bust of Copernicus there

The radio telescope is mounted on circular rails. The tilt mechanism (best seen at the bottom of the middle arcs in the first picture) were taken from the 15-inch gun turrets of dismantled battleships Royal Sovereign and Revenge. The entire structure was built by Sheffield bridge engineers. Apparently the problems of budget blow-out were soon forgotten when Jodrell Bank intercepted the radio echo of the Ballistic missile that the Soviets used to put Sputnik into space.