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Saturday, May 23, 2009
New Blog
Shelley and I started up a new blog today. We will display our photography there, along with various happenings in our life together. Feel free to stop by and take a peek if you take the notion. It is new - and a work in progress - so stop by now and then to see what's changed. It's called
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
New Ice Age?
Global warming is changing the currents in the Atlantic, according to a 2005 National Geographic News article. So much so, that fears are emerging that we will encounter a mini ice age much like that of the 1300's. We have already been in a cool-down cycle for a couple of years.
Interesting, isn't it? The self-regulating nature of the Earth. The Earth warms a bit for a while, then it finds a way to cool itself. When it does, it will counter that with a warm-up cycle. This cycle is never ending, just like the thermostat in your house. That's why there have been several ice age scares over the last 100-150 years, alternating with global warming scares. Recently, the global warming crowd even recognizes this happens. It's why they changed the terminology to "climate change".
More recently, a National Geographic News report dated May 4, 2009 indicated that the sun's activity is the lowest it's been in decades and the dimmest it's been in 100 years. This tends to support the cooling statistics over the last couple of years. What will happen? We shall see. It won't be catastrophic though, either way. You can bank on it.
Do I buy the ice age theory? Nope. No more than I bought the man-caused global warming hysteria. I have no doubt that the Earth is self-regulating. It's all part of the natural order of things. Us silly humans have to be just a bit arrogant to think that we can actually control the climate. We can't even control it on a very minimal scale - day-to-day weather. In the grand scale of things, we are nothing.
Interesting, isn't it? The self-regulating nature of the Earth. The Earth warms a bit for a while, then it finds a way to cool itself. When it does, it will counter that with a warm-up cycle. This cycle is never ending, just like the thermostat in your house. That's why there have been several ice age scares over the last 100-150 years, alternating with global warming scares. Recently, the global warming crowd even recognizes this happens. It's why they changed the terminology to "climate change".
More recently, a National Geographic News report dated May 4, 2009 indicated that the sun's activity is the lowest it's been in decades and the dimmest it's been in 100 years. This tends to support the cooling statistics over the last couple of years. What will happen? We shall see. It won't be catastrophic though, either way. You can bank on it.
Do I buy the ice age theory? Nope. No more than I bought the man-caused global warming hysteria. I have no doubt that the Earth is self-regulating. It's all part of the natural order of things. Us silly humans have to be just a bit arrogant to think that we can actually control the climate. We can't even control it on a very minimal scale - day-to-day weather. In the grand scale of things, we are nothing.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
A Leap
We have been talking about getting rid of our landline and DSL service over recent weeks, maybe months - just kind of toying with the idea. A recent brochure in the mail piqued our interest again. Friday, I went down to our cable provider to ask about cable internet. The offer sounded promising with 6 times the speed we were getting, not to mention saving a fair chunk of money each month. I came home with the starter kit and got it all hooked up with our router and all was well. Much faster, indeed!
Since we'll be shutting off our landline, we'll need phone service of some sort - besides our TracFones. I have been using Skype for outgoing calls because we didn't have long distance with our AT&T service and have been well pleased with it. I opted for a very cheap yearly subscription with Skype that would give us unlimited US/Canada long distance service. That, along with the higher speed internet service, will still yield us a fair savings per month.
There is one little thing, though. Ole "Murphy" is paying us a visit now and then. Occasionally our cable internet will lose synch and drop connection. Don't know why yet, but we have a tech coming out to check things out. I hope it's nothing serious and they can fix it quickly. I won't be able to shut off our landline until we can have some reliable service. If we can't get it, we might have to go back to DSL.
Since we'll be shutting off our landline, we'll need phone service of some sort - besides our TracFones. I have been using Skype for outgoing calls because we didn't have long distance with our AT&T service and have been well pleased with it. I opted for a very cheap yearly subscription with Skype that would give us unlimited US/Canada long distance service. That, along with the higher speed internet service, will still yield us a fair savings per month.
There is one little thing, though. Ole "Murphy" is paying us a visit now and then. Occasionally our cable internet will lose synch and drop connection. Don't know why yet, but we have a tech coming out to check things out. I hope it's nothing serious and they can fix it quickly. I won't be able to shut off our landline until we can have some reliable service. If we can't get it, we might have to go back to DSL.
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