Arguments for gun control (1)

E-ink phone: I want one!

The problem: mobile phone visuals are terrible when you use them in a mobile way, outdoors or even in some lighting conditions indoors.

The solution: read them with ambient light, using the same sort of technology as Amazon's Kindle.

And like the Kindle, battery power is used only to change what's on the screen, so a full charge should last a week.

See reviews from the Mobile World Congress in February here and here.

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Climate change: the role of ash, and volcanoes

The excessive zeal of some scientists has made it difficult to discuss climate change (which, amusingly, was first headlined simply as global cooling, then global warming). But it's universally agreed (I think) that the Earth has been a lot hotter, and a lot colder, in past millenia. The question is, what's happening now?

Up in Greenland, they're now growing strawberries and potatoes; and last month the albedo of the ice sheet was lower than in any April in the last dozen years, hinting at an even bigger melt than before.

Yet there is still debate over whether Earth's total ice cover is growing or decreasing, as a Dutch study reported last month. It seems that while the Arctic's is melting, the Antarctic is piling on more.

The network of causes and effects is complex: CO2 and high-altitude water vapour (quite a lot from planes, I think) interrelate with air and sea temperature (which vary around the globe). An explanation as to why ice is melting in one place and melting in another is that particulates from burning forests and fossil fuels are settling on Northern glaciers, absorbing energy from sunlight and conducting extra heat into the ice below.

The ash can also come from volcanic eruptions - but the causal connection goes both ways. Another study, published last December by researchers in Germany and the USA, seems to show that as ice cover decreases and sea levels rise over long periods, tectonic plates are warped by the changes in their burden and volcanic activity increases.

And the causes can sometimes oppose each other. I recall how in 2010, when flights over the UK were banned because of the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, we saw not grey, cloudy days but brilliant sunshine and chilly, starry nights. I wonder what is the relative importance of hydrocarbon emissions and water vapour?

Enough brickbats have been thrown at those who forgot their professional scientific objectivity in the debate. It's time for both sides to reexamine evidence and hypotheses with open minds.

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Greenland: Accelerating ice melt?

Jason Box's Meltfactor blog reports that albedo (ability to reflect light) of Greenland's ice sheet was significantly lower in April than it has been since before 2000.

If there is a self-reinforcing feedback system here we may have to reconsider our scepticism on climate change.

We don't necessarily accept that it's all the fault of humans, though it's still possible (as reported earlier) that the additional melt may be influenced by a light-absorbing darker layer on top of the ice, of atmospheric particles from the burning of forests and fossil fuels.

UPDATE: The Guardian newspaper has caught up with the story (12 June 2013).

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UK local election results 2013

UK (Cornwall): Shelterbox

Once a year, the Tregothnan Estate near Truro, Cornwall, opens its gardens to the public. Aside from being being a botanical safe haven for many rare plants and trees, it's the only tea-grower in England. So we visited.

The charity they sponsored this year was Shelterbox. This is a truly brilliant idea, the brainchild of Rotarian Tom Henderson OBE. It's a survival kit packed into a sturdy plastic box, and the stroke of genius was to work backwards from external constraints: what was the most weight two airline baggage handlers would be prepared to carry, and how many boxes could be fitted into a standard steel shipping container.

For £590 a pop, you get this:

Contents can be varied according to need, but the basics include a waterproof tent with raised door (protects against floodwater and creeping creatures), stove with cooking and eating equipment, and most importantly, an ingeniously designed water filter. The filter is to help prevent the outbreak of disease that tends to decimate the survivors of the initial disaster, and it can be flushed out and reused in case of prolonged encampment.

Thousands of these boxes are stored in places around the world, for maximum speed of delivery in emergencies. But the stores need topping up and you can not only sponsor a box but track where it's gone.

Fabulous. I'm contacting them to see if a local Rotarian can do a show and tell for a school; maybe you can do something, too.

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UKIP quote of the day

Peter Hitchens:

I think UKIP is not a conservative formation, but Thatcherism in exile.

Don't know if it's right, but it flies off the page.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy.