From where do these so called environmentalists and psuedo ecologists come ? Global warming and cooling have been going on for millions of years. Just what causes the earth to warm and to cool and how much warming or cooling takes place is totally unknown, but the information that is available cannot possibly lead to the conclusion that the present day warming is a consequence of human endeavor.It is known that the solar system is moving through a portion of the galaxy, presumably revolving about an unknown event. As the earth passes through the galaxy, many different and varied forces act upon each of the bodies in the solar system, earth included. How these forces act upon the sun, the major extraterrestial source of heat, is not known. It is known, however, that the poles of the earth are not fixed but actually have a wobble. It has been calculated that this wobble may account for increased or decreased exposure of the northern and southern hemispheres to the sun. The wobble closely mirrors the periods of glacial activity.It has also been known that within these very large cycles there are smaller cylces of heating and cooling. These seem to be related in some manner to the occurence and frequency of sunspots. Just what the climate may have been before the advent of civilization is not well established. However, The Mediteranean areas were quite warm as was nearly all of Europe compared to today. The city of Herculaneum, destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was a seaport town. Today it lies a short way inland. By 1000 A.D. the Norse were sailing the northern oceans. Greenland was warm enough that it was settled by farmers. By 1200, Greenland was getting too cold to support farming and only its fishing industry survived . The period encompassing 1650 A.D. is known as the Little Ice Age because of the cold that came over most of Europe. This was also a period of very low sunspot activity as recorded by the scientists of the period. This period lasted from about 1300 to 1800. It was accompanied by crop losses and famine throughout Europe. It has been warming since that time and sunspot activity has been at an all time high during the last few years.How long the warming trend will continue is a matter of conjecture, but judging from the past, which is not an accurate predictor, it will possibly reach its high around 2050 A.D., and end around 2300.The continents are not permanent. They move, even if it is very slowly. Topography is altered because of this movement. Whether forces from other bodies in the Galaxy produce greater movement at times is also not known, but as the continents shift, wind patterns change as do ocean currents, both of which affect climate.As the earth warms, greater amounts of water vapor are put into the atmosphere. Heat that is captured by the water vapor is released into the upper atmosphere when it rains, and much of the heat is lost to outer space. In addition, the clouds, formed by the water vapor, reflect more and more radiation from the sun, contributing to a cooling at ground level. In fact, the Little Ice Age was accompanied by torrential rains at the beginning of the precipitous temperature decline.Because of the many interactive forces at work, it is impossible to determine what is affecting climate at any given time, but, as an influence on earthly conditions, man is very small, indeed. .gif){kind=small}
Industry and cars are usually the things most commonly blamed as being the major culprits in polluting the atmosphere with hydrocarbons. No one mentions the amount of hydrocarbons released from the millions of tons of asphalt laid on the highways each year. Not only are these being released when the material is being laid, but it is also released during its lifetime. Is it because roads affect too many people? Is not pollution from any source a problem, or is it a problem only if the solution does not affect us directly?Farmers and industry are promoted as being the major contributors to the pollution of rivers and streams. How is it that no one considers the tons and tons of salt spread on the winter roads to be a problem? All of this salt from city streets goes directy into the rivers and streams. Frogs and turtles hibernating in the beaches of these streams must be affected, and the decline in their numbers could be related to saturation of the shoreline with salt. Is it that because non-use of salt would inconvenience too many people?Electrical cars are considered to be "environmentally neutral" by many. Unfortunately they neglect the problem of generating the electricity to charge the batteries. Most electrical generation comes from burning fossil fuels. Generating losses, line losses, and electrical motor losses leaves us with the situation that it is as economical, and no more polluting, than using fossil fuels in the automobile. Pehaps it is time to reevaluate some of the reasons put forth with regard to pollution.
It is widely accepted that Grey squirrels and Fox squirrels are different species. However, if this is true, then the chances of interbreeding would be small and the chances of non-sterile off-spring would be negligible.We had a population of Fox squirrels where we live in Illinois for about 14 years. Each winter they fed under the bird feeders. Then one cold day, with a snowy ground cover, a grey squirrel arrived. It stayed far away from the group and only came to feed after the others had left. This went on until spring, and then we lost track of the grey as we quit feeding the birds for the summer.That fall, when the squirrels returned, there were four strangers having reddish brown backs and tails but with white ears, bellies and tail fringe. They were oviously crosses. As we never saw the original grey again, and we fully expected to see the crosses disappear. That, however, was not to be. Twelve years later, there are still about the same number of crosses, but the colors have changed slightly. For pictures of the squirrels, press the red star.
It is a sad state of affairs when the language upon which we depend for communication is being ruthlessly corrupted. I am not talking about dialects. Dialects have to do with the spoken word and, if not too foreign, add to the character of the language. Besides, if you do not quite understand what is spoken to you, you can ask for an explanation.Quite the contrary with the written word. There is no one present to ask for the meaning of what is written. We must therefore rely upon the writer to be precise with both the language and the punctuation.There have always been some changes to the language, but most have had to do with spelling, such as changing the British spelling of words like colour to color or fibre to fiber.German has had a great influence, and has probably been responsible for sentences that end with prepositions. As far back as the 1930's, teavchers were trying to correct this type of usage.Beginning some time in the1960's, or maybe the 1970's, when it was decided, by who knows whom, that we should lower educational standards to the level of the greatest under-achiever, was the beginning of the language denegration.As a consequence, we now have wide speread misuse of grammar in both the written and spoken versions, as the first often follows the second.It began rather quietly with the substitution of adjectives for adverbs. It would not be uncommon to see the previous sentencce begin, "It began rather quiet with...". Next came the use of nouns for adjectives. The Alaskan Highway is now reffered to as the Alaska highway, and the Japanese Current is the Japan current. How long before you are called an America citizen rather than an American citizen?Then too, we have a shift in tenses, with the present tense being use as the past tense and the past participle as the past tense.Even now it is difficult to decifer some of the things that are being written, but how will it be when you pick up something to read and it reads something like the following:"Last year we goes to Europe and we seen the Austria Alps. They is absolute the finest sight ever."Oh well! Send them an email and ask for a picture.An oft heard expression is that people change. We certainly know that some of the things about us change, e.g. technology, politics, etc., but do people really change?Below is a poem, probably Scottish, that was written in the 11th or 12th century. As it is old, an explanation of sorts is provided.As you read, think of a somewhat similar situation today and compare it to the actions of the wife and husband in the poem, and then decide if people have changed much in the past 800 to 900 years. November 11th, in honor of St. Martin, a sainted Bishop of Tour, France who lived in the early fourth century.
I am of the old school which adheres to the time honored definition of poetry. While it is true that Carl Sandburg called his piece, entitled, "Fog", poetry, he later said that he wished he had never written it. While poetry does not necessarily require rhyme, it must have meter, which differentiates it from prose.Writings that do not have meter, but do not follow the normalFollowing is a creation which you may enjoy even those it is not "Modern".
