Weekend Status Update
This weekend has been quite a bit more low-key than initially anticipated, as my lovely wife's head cold really put the whammy on her. We met up with Dougly and the CBC briefly to give them the tickets for the hockey game, as we were not in any condition to go. We were likewise forced to pass on Wing's birthday celebrations.
On the plus side, my lovely wife is feeling somewhat better, if still not out of the woods. I seem to have dodged this bullet, despite feeling distinctly off on Friday (knock on wood).
CBC++; Wing++;
Happy birthday(s)!
Stuff On TV
Still watching Stargate S2. I continue to greatly enjoy this show. The last one that we watched yesterday, in which the gate is accidentally connected to a gate on a planet being consumed by a black hole, was awesome. Seriously, it rocked. Old school SF represent!
Also, is it just me or did they get a special effects budget this year? It's not as noticeable as Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered in Buffy S2, when all of a sudden the rubber monsters are replaced by whiz-bang CGI effects, but still.
Weather Worries
It's awfully nice outside. Eight degrees (ish), sunny, no snow on the ground. Me, I like it. Others, maybe not so much.
It's distressing, if not terribly surprising, how many people are taking the recent weather and exploiting it for all it's worth in the name of their own particular gripes, namely climate change. I've actually seen people on the CBC website claim that this is observable evidence of climate change.
That bugs me.
First off, climate is a large, complex system. Every bell curve has its leading and trailing edges. One season of unusual weather (which is only half over, mind) is not evidence of anything except the variability of weather, which is hardly a shock. String a couple of consistently off-kilter seasons together in a row and you might have something. Possibly.
Second, go to BC and tell them that things are unseasonably warm. You'll be lucky if they just strip you naked and shove you into a snowbank.
Third, the entire subject of climate change is riddled with fuzzy thinking. The Earth's climate is not a constant; it has changed dramatically over the history of this planet, and hasn't demonstrated much of a tendency to settle down for very long. Inevitably, the climate is going to continue to change, regardless of human impact. Before we even start thinking about what to do about it, we need to figure out what we want to have happen. What's the goal here?
Is it to maintain, forever, the climate conditions which were prevalent during early Human history? That's not going to happen. Are we going to try to divine what changing conditions would have happened in the absence of human activity and industry and aim for that? How on earth do you figure that out? The only approach which makes any sense at all is to try to determine what climate conditions are most beneficial to humankind, and aim for that; but even then, how do we determine what those conditions are, let alone how to get there, given how little we understand about the behaviour of our planet's atmosphere?
But it seems that nobody wants to talk about these things, and certainly nobody wants to have to think about them. No time for thinking! Something Must Be Done!
Well, I do intend to do something. I intend to enjoy the sunshine, in the full expectation that mother nature is going to hit us with a whammy of cold and snow the next time around. If there's one thing you can count on, it's nature having a mean sense of humour.
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