Jokes off the seawall

I am adding more things to my jokey journal - got loads more to put in. Go and have a laff.

Tuesday 7 April

It is pouring with rain this morning, although the odd bright spell does pass along. Winds are strong, but that does not help to move the rain away. April showers and no mistake.

At least 179 people have died in the earthquake in central Italy. Rescuers are still combing the rubble of collapsed buildings in the city of L'Aquila and surrounding towns, occasionally withdrawing when an aftershock occurs. Another severe earthquake occurred near the Kurill Islands in the Pacific (northeast of Japan) at around 0430 GMT this morning; although measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, there are no reports of damage or tsunami waves.

Obama - either way

I am interested to note the starkly divergent views on Barack Obama, now that he has been in office for some 10 weeks. I cannot help but notice the distrust and cynicism with which he is being greeted in some sections of American society - and I am not being personal towards anyone on here. As far as I can tell, people in the USA are deeply mistrusting of all politicians. Even a new broom like Obama appears to be instinctively treated with that approach. The man is a great speaker, but the final reckoning will lie in his actions, and the results of those actions. From my position, 3,500 miles away in Europe, it is not possible to judge whether what I see on the TV or on here is a reliable guide towards Mr Obama's actions.

At the moment, the president is in Europe and Asia, and seems to be hitting the right notes most of the time. Everybody is falling over him, and probably quite relieved to see a new broom who is speaking a different tone to his predecessor(s). Again, actions speak louder than words. But, 10 weeks is a very short term to judge any politician newly in power.

Hurricane season

On May 15th, just over 5 weeks from now, the East Pacific hurricane season will start. The North Atlantic season, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, will commence on June 1st. If you live in an area likely to be affected by hurricanes, please start to review your preparations now. As per usual, the National Hurricane Center in Miami has an excellent article of advice. Do review.
When the season starts in earnest, I will copy details of hurricanes approaching land on this journal. Regular updates will be carried on my Tropical Cyclones blog, but ALWAYS go to the NHC site for the latest information.

A hurricane is a useful mechanism for our planet to syphon the sun's energy, beamed onto the tropics to higher latitudes. There is enough energy in one average system to power planet earth's human population 200 times over. In other words, nothing can be done to divert a storm's path. Apart from strong wind, the other dangers associated with hurricanes lie in heavy rains (causing flooding) and a tidal storm surge, which in extreme cases can be as much as 25 feet high - as demonstrated at Galveston last year. Follow all official orders and advice. Trying to ride a hurricane against official advice is jeopardising your life.

Monday 6 April

Increasing cloud heralding the arrival of rain this afternoon. As if we haven't had enough rain yesterday; it never stopped.

An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale has reportedly killed dozens of people in the Italian town of L'Aquila, 60 miles northeast of Rome. The deathtoll is set to rise further, as remote villages are accessed. Nearly thirty years ago, a strong earthquake killed 3,000 near Naples. Italy lies across a major faultline in the earth's crust, giving rise to 4 active volcanoes and much seismic activity.

Locally, it is reported that the Arnish Fabrication Yard, a mile from my position across Stornoway Harbour, is set to reopen in the next few weeks or months. This means a welcome boost to a dire employment situation, where at one point 600 people were chasing 6 jobs at the local job centre.

More later.

Helicopter tragedy - update

The bodies of all the people who died in the helicopter crash off Aberdeenshire last week have now been recovered.

Blogger Community Photo Challenge

Signs of spring
Taken on 27 March 2009 at Stornoway, Scotland (position 58 degrees North, 7 degrees West).

Helicopter tragedy

Search teams have located the wreckage of the Super Puma helicopter in 330 feet of water, off Rattray Head in northeastern Scotland. It went down last Wednesday, with the loss of all on board. Eight bodies were found in the immediate aftermath of the crash, another seven were recovered from the wreckage on the seabed this afternoon. The 16th body is yet to be found. The black box recorders of the aircraft have been retrieved as well.

/AOL

That is me finished for good with AOL. I just had a warning from the Resident Shield on my AVG Virus scanner, saying a Trojan (Trojan horse Agent2.ceg) had been found on my computer. It had infected a file on AdAware, and AVG had shunted it to the virus vault. The Trojan had come in on the back of an unsolicited download from AOL called Triton_uk_2.2.25.1\setup.exe. As I said I have not asked for this b****y download at all.

My apologies for anyone who got plagued by my emails from Bebo.com as well. AOL shunted its user profiles over to Bebo in January, and I cannot cope with yet another social networking site. My account with Bebo will be closed down today. I have quite enough to keep up with on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter.

Sunday 5 April

With thanks to Sugar for providing this image of spring, which is still some way off in the islands. Particularly today, when heavy rain and strong winds are strafing the Hebrides.

Found a story about a youngster in southern England who had told an Facebook contact he had taken an overdose. The girl, in Maryland USA, contacted police. They in turn, through the UK Embassy in Washington and police channels in this country managed to locate the boy in time to get him to hospital for treatment. Makes a difference to the horror story from the last few years when chatters in a chatroom sat by and let someone take their life on webcam.

Northern Madagascar is hopefully bracing itself for tropical storm Jade, which is bearing down on the region. I am dismayed at the differing forecasts; the regional forecasting centre on the French island of La Reunion shows the storm veering south down the east coast of Madagascar, whereas the Pacific-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center sees Jade continuing on a westbound course. I tend to agree with the latter, as JTWC's forecast has been shown to be more accurate over the last day or so.

Saturday 4 April

Grey and wet this morning - headache has gone, thank you. Ferry service appears to be back to normal, now that the southeasterly wind has dropped. Plenty of wind in the South Pacific: tropical storm Lin is making its way through the kingdom of Tonga with stormforce winds battering the tropical paradises. This is a late one; the season closes later this month.

My sympathies go out to the friends and family of the 13 victims of the gun siege in Binghamton, NY. Another 40 people were injured; the gunman himself was found dead after police entered the compound. The debate about guns across the pond was revived and remains as divisive as ever, with those in favour pointing to the Constitution and the right to self-defense as well as incidents like Binghamton, and those opposed pointing to the many instances like this to call for tighter control.

An elderly lady in Cornwall took off on her mobility scooter, and she was finally found 5 miles away on a busy road. It took an hour for the machine to be driven back to the point where she got separated from her husband.

Jade Goody's funeral is on today - and that is positively the last I shall say on that subject. It is the top subject on the BBC's News website. Says enough.

Closing notes

And I'm shutting up shop for tonight, as my headache developed into the nasty variety this afternoon. Shame, but the bright sunshine did not help at all. More tomorrow.

Ferry troubles

Our ferry had a spot of bother with an on-shore stiff breeze this pm. Upon reaching the harbour, the MV Isle of Lewis could not safely berth at number 3 pier, so she shunted round to the far side of the pier and disembarked and embarked footpassengers. At 2.50pm, she moved to number 1 pier, from where MV Muirneag had meanwhile departed to wait outside the harbour, to repeat the process for cars. Nonetheless, the ferry has just returned from the evening crossing from Ullapool, 80 minutes late.

Friday 3 April

Trying to shake off a developing headache, but with the weather being what it is, I'm probably not going to succeed: Brilliantly sunny today, but with a hazy in the distance and a brisk southerly wind. We are once more defying the forecast for a maximum temperature of 12C: the mercury has inched up to 14C in actual fact and could go a degree or so higher yet.

A very sad story today about an elderly man who lost his home to a lottery scam. We are all familiar with scam emails, saying we have won a huge amount in a lottery - that we never bought tickets for, or submitted any details towards. Letters to that effect also do the rounds, and at least two people in southwestern Scotland have fallen victim to that.
General advice: ignore emails and letters like that. If it seems too good to be true: it usually is.

Evenings opening out

The ferry came in at 8.10 pm this evening, practically in full daylight. Now that the equinox is past, and the clocks have gone forward, the evenings are really lengthening. At 9pm, there was still a little light in the sky. It never ceases to amaze me.

I read somewhere this week that with the advent of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, the emphasis is shifting away from blogs. In our community, kicked out of AOL last October, this is particularly in evidence. In a way, it is a shame. Facebook has gone through a revamp, which is not exactly an improvement. Twitter is something that can easily overwhelm you.

Earlier this week, I received a copy of my photobook Lewis Light. And it was less than perfect, with blotches and all. So I complained, and I am getting a new copy, for free, from Lulu.com. Good service, but I'll hang fire until I receive the new book.

Thursday 2 April

Nice sunny if blustery day. Temperature no great shakes, 10 degrees, but then we are surrounded by the cold, cold Atlantic.

In the North Sea, 200 miles east of here, an operation is now underway to recover the bodies of 8 men still missing from the helicopter which went down off the Aberdeenshire coast nearly 24 hours ago. The remains of the 8 found yesterday were brought ashore at Aberdeen overnight. AIS Aberdeenshire is showing a clutter of vessels off Rattray Head. All flights with the type of helicopter involved in this incidents have been cancelled today.

Police have confirmed that the body recovered from Loch Bi in South Uist a few weeks ago is that of Simon Macmillan, who went missing on Boxing Day 2008. His funeral will be held in the island on Saturday. He was 21; his death is not treated as suspicious.

Closing notes

Approaching midnight after a day of experimenting with Flock (too cluttered, although potentially useful) and monitoring a tragedy some 200 miles from here. I think all hope is now fading fast for the 8 people still missing from that helicopter that went down off Rattray Head, north of Aberdeen. Eight bodies have been recovered from the water and are currently en-route to Aberdeen on board MV Caledonian Victory. The AIS for North East Scotland told its own story, with a clutter of ships in the area of the accident earlier this evening.

More tomorrow.

Helicopter crash - update

Latest reports suggest that all 16 on board the helicopter, which crashed into the sea 40 miles north of Aberdeen, may have died. The bodies of 10 were spotted in the water, indicating that the aircraft crashed rather than made a controlled landing on the water.

These reports are as yet unconfirmed.

Aurora Borealis

The Northern Lights should become more noticeable over the coming few years. In the year 2012, the sun should reach a maximum in a 11-year cycle of activity. This means that areas of Earth near its poles (both North and South) will see an increase in the Northern / Southern Lights. Apart from it being pretty, the Aurora can accompany severe magnetic storms in the earth's atmosphere. This is caused by charged particles being blasted our way by the sun. As they are captured by the ionosphere (a layer in the atmosphere), they can generate a magnetic pulse. In an event in March 1989, this pulse was so strong that it tripped out electricity networks across the USA and Canada. The accompanying Aurora was visible as far south as Cuba.

Flock - part 1

The one thing I am not liking about Flock is the way they handle imported feeds. I downloaded my feeds from Google Reader, and I have those categorised into two sections for  J-land (blogs I read regularly, and others I have on file), news, Scottish blogs, etc. Well, that got messed up a little on uploading into Flock. Can live with that though.

You can also write blog posts through the browser, monitor Twitter as well as Facebook. I am getting less enthusiastic about Facebook, but that is nothing to do with Flock.

Blogged with the Flock Browser