My Travel Plans for 2014

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my children, friends, family and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too good with physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt! That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get!

I may have been in Continent, and I don't remember what country I was in. It's an age thing. They tell me it is very wet and damp there.

And there you are.

May the force overpower you.

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Double meaning

Fracking crazy

I’ve just been perusing DesSmogBlog’s (spits) latest iteration. This is an article by that crazed fearmonger David Suzuki about the danger of water shortages caused by Fracking.

Here he goes:

One of the most disturbing findings is that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is using enormous amounts of water in areas that can scarcely afford it. The report notes that close to half the oil and gas wells recently fracked in the U.S. “are in regions with high or extremely high water stress” and more than 55 per cent are in areas experiencing drought. In Colorado and California, almost all wells – 97 and 96 per cent, respectively – are in regions with high or extremely high water stress, meaning more than 80 per cent of available surface and groundwater has already been allocated for municipalities, industry and agriculture. A quarter of Alberta wells are in areas with medium to high water stress.

Of course  the casual reader of that article would recoil in horror from the thought. However what he doesn’t mention is that large quantities are only used in the initial fracture process.

See vid below

http://www.europeunconventionalgas.org/hydraulic-fracturing

What he won’t tell you is that fracking water can be recovered and purified using centrifuges, reverse osmosis, and filtration. (Centrifuge separation has been successfully  used for seventy years or more, and reverse osmosis and sophisticated filtration have also been available for the last two decades.

On my last ship I had two RO plants that were capable of producing between them, 200,000 litres of potable water per day. Both plants would fit comfortably in your average sitting room.

Of course the Luddites at DesMogBlog will just put their fingers in their ears and collectively go La La La La La..

Fixed

 

40

I worked for forty years (Actually 43 to be precise)

I paid tax for forty years.

I paid the bills for forty years.

I paid into a pension for forty years.

Alright I accept that this is the norm, but:

Why have I had to buy an anniversary card and flowers for Mrs FE for forty years, given these so called days of gender equality?

As you may have guessed, Mrs FE and myself were married forty years ago on this day in 1974 at 1400.ish.

DO NOT POINT HER TO THIS POST.

Troll baiting

I’ve just been having great fun with a Troll on Spiked who is a greenie that hates fracking. Of course he links to blogs such as Desmogblog (I’m not going to link to that moronic site. For your own good), and spouts complete utter garbage.

Must get back.

PS

He posts under the nom de plume of “HopeForpeaceNow”

Beware

Public service message

The voice of reason

An article by Brendan O’Neill on why second hand smoke really isn’t as hazardous as those who are hard of thinking think it is.

If there really were such a thing as a bullshit detector, a machine that bleeped upon encountering nonsense, it would probably go into meltdown whenever someone talked about second-hand smoke.

In the modern public sphere, there are few issues that are as riddled with myth, misinformation, contradictory claims and outright claptrap as the scare about what smokers' foggy puffing is doing to us innocent non-smokers.

In recent years we've been told that second-hand smoke, or passive smoking, as some people call it, is as bad as smoking itself and can give you lung cancer. And apparently if you are surrounded by it in a car that has its windows closed that is like being in the most smoky, nicotine-stained bar you could ever imagine (if such bars still existed, which of course they don't).

Yet it turns out that these claims about the toxicity and cancer-causing powers of other people's smoke are either untrue or unproven. So how do prissy anti-smoking campaigners and health-freaky politicians continue to get away with churning out tall tales about second-hand smoke? Why won't this panic die under the boot of actual facts? What gives it its Michael Myers-like ability to keep coming back, in a crazier form every time, wagging its warning finger at humankind?

The evidence-light nature of the second-hand smoke scare was on full display during British politicians' recent mean-spirited attempt to outlaw smoking in cars in which children are present.

Last week, the House of Lords, our unelected second chamber, gave its nod of approval to a new Bill that would make it an offense to smoke in a car with kids, even if the windows are open. The Bill is now working its way back to the House of Commons, and if a majority of the members there agree that coppers should have the right to stop and threaten with arrest any motorist who has that apparently deadly combination of a lit ciggie and a child in his vehicle, then the Bill will become law and another bit of Brits' everyday freedom will be stubbed out.

Do read the rest of the article at Reason.com. It’s a cracker

E cigarettes and smoking in cars.

Last week the House of Lords voted to ban smoking in cars carrying children.

It’s interesting to note that at the same time the anti-smokers are campaigning  to have E cigarettes banned from enclosed public spaces. 

It might seem a coincidence, but I feel that their slippery slope of bans would come to a halt without a ban on E-cigs. After all how can you tell that a driver passing you with a child onboard is smoking or vaping?

As we all know this ban is just the start. I personally think that the ban on smoking in cars with children would be impossible to police anyway and would soon be amended to no smoking in cars at any time. Just to get around the vaping issue. That’s why they have to ban vapers from enclosed spaces.

As others have pointed out this is a major erosion of liberty, in the fact that they are at last managing to get their jackbooted laws into peoples own private property. Of course this will soon lead to “Think of the cheeeeeldren” in smoky homes. Your home will no longer be your own when the Nu puritans have the full force in law to inspect your home at a moments notice.

Be warned, other anti everything enjoyable groups are watching as this template unfolds.

So if you like a drink, sugar, soft drinks or anything else that public health deplore, then you will be next.

Count on it.

Where I woz

Been away for a while and attended a wedding in the land of the scots.

The Venue:

My bedroom:

And the best bit of all is that we had exclusive access to a section of the battlements from the room. Ideal for a smoke.

Anyone like to name the castle?

The witches of Ashwick

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The witches of Ashwick

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