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Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4 If not Latin, then what? Please see the links at...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3 Plants and the moon. For thousands of years, people...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2 An i for an i ? Not nymphs: women! There are...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #1 Tom, Dick and Harry explain a statistical method. ...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 73 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in language acquisition and computational linguistics. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge... Read More »

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Can The UK Met Office Weather The BBC Contract Storm?

Can The UK Met Office Weather The BBC Contract Storm?

Jan 20 2010 | comment(s)

Can The UK Met Office Weather The BBC Contract Storm?

The UK's Met Office could lose its contract with the BBC, according to recent media reports.


To the general public there is no difference between a weather forecaster, a media weather forecast  presenter, a meteorologist and a climatologist.  That is most unfortunate, since errors in forcasting tend accordingly to be taken as evidence against a person's personal choice of climate prediction.
Join The Navy : See A Nuke

Join The Navy : See A Nuke

Jan 19 2010 | comment(s)

Join The Navy : See A Nuke

There was a time when a navy, merchant or military,  consisted of hundreds of ships, each manned by hundreds of crew.  When I was a child in the 1950s, Sheerness was a thriving dockyard town.  Everyone in town knew at least one soldier or sailor, either as a relative or as a friend.
The Greening Of Domestic Arguments

The Greening Of Domestic Arguments

Jan 18 2010 | comment(s)

The Greening Of Domestic Arguments

It seems that trying to go green can be a cause of domestic arguments.  I can see why.  Not everyone has the ability to see the big picture.  From a global perspective, a 'green' measure can seem to be a good thing.  From a parochial perspective, it can appear to be a complete waste of time and money.  I take it as fairly certain that our remote ancestors didn't evolve mating rituals and family support practices from a global perspective.

Therapists report increase in green disputes

Credit:
The Crooked Casino Pension Payments Paradigm

The Crooked Casino Pension Payments Paradigm

Jan 17 2010 | comment(s)

The Crooked Casino Pension Payments Paradigm

Imagine going to a casino and winning six equal bets in a row. You then lose a bet.  After winning six more bets in a row, and then losing one, you go to collect your winnings, only to be told that the casino owes you nothing according to the house rules. You would think the rules were absolutely designed to favor the house most unfairly, wouldn't you? Well, rules like that are being used in the U.K. to determine who gets, and who does not get, extra benefits payments for extreme cold weather.

Cold weather payments are paid out when the average temperature where the recipient lives is 0oC or below for seven consecutive days during the period from 1 November to 31 March.
Global Cooling : Beyond Parochialism

Global Cooling : Beyond Parochialism

Jan 16 2010 | comment(s)

Global Cooling : Beyond Parochialism

During the next 10 years, climate science and climate science reporting will, I believe, change the public perception of climate change.  More people will come to understand the difference between parochial weather and global climate.  As more and more people become directly affected by climate change, former deniers will begin to ask why "they" didn't do something about the problem.
Global Cooling : How Wrong Can You Get?

Global Cooling : How Wrong Can You Get?

Jan 15 2010 | comment(s)

Global Cooling : How Wrong Can You Get?

Despite media reports to the contrary, the Antarctic ice is still melting, as noted here:
Climate change is warming the Amundsen Sea, which is at the southern margin of the Pacific Ocean. As rising sea levels push the warm water beneath the ice shelves, it melts them from below, pushing the grounding line higher up the continental shelf.