Blogging from the Bog

   The depths of winter will soon be upon us as November comes to a close, the daylight hours will continue to dwindle for still another month, and already the leaves have abandoned the trees here in the bog.

   Most cultures in the Northern Hemisphere mark the dark season of the year with some sort of event or celebration in either a spritual or natural way and have done so throughout the millenia.  Many of us today will spend time this season visiting friends and family, exchanging greetings cards and gifts, enjoying the fruits of the year’s labour, and looking forward to the rebirth of nature in the spring.

   A lot of us will also spend more time on the PC and Internet over the winter months what with emails, blogs, social networking, online poker, and alas even work for those of us that cannot hibernate like Grizzly bears.  Usually each winter I also contract at least one monster cold or virus that turns me into a bear for at least a week or two.  With all the online communicating going on this winter there are other viruses to watch out for…the computer ones.

   There are few in CyberSpace that have less knowledge than me when it comes to things technical; but, you don’t have to be a physician either to know the effects of pneumonia.  A dear friend of mine is struggling with one such virus now, it is called  NewDotNet and it is raising havoc with her Word documents.  I also found on Charnell’s blog a post about the Storm Worm virus which is a curiosity in that it causes no apparent harm to your pc but it is slowly accumulating millions of linked computers into it’s network and apparently under it’s control.  What would they do?  What could they do, with millions of linked up computers?

   One vector for the Storm Worm is through blogging and another is EGreetings cards so be careful this winter, drink lots of fresh juice and pay attention to suspicious emails and blog entries!

   There is nothing more enjoyable after a long hard work week than to have a late lie in under the duvet on a Saturday morning.  Now, I do not make €200 an hour like Brendan Drumm or €6,000 a week like Bertie Ahern; but, what I do earn I work hard for, and I look forward to not hearing that dreadful buzzing so early in the morning.

   So it was with great dismay that I had to hear the thumping and banging going on outside my bedroom window too early on a grey misty morning this weekend.  When I parted the curtains and rubbed my eyes a bit I could see a row ensuing among three jackdaws.  These are black scavenger birds a lot like crows and rooks yet smaller.  Two of them were beating the beans out of the third and it was causing an almighty uproar.  It wasn’t the first time I have seen such fights in the last few weeks, the politicians and press might tell us that it is gang or drug related; but, there is really no telling what fowl crime this lad had committed.

   Because they are smaller than crows and rooks these jackdaws, like us, will often fight amongst themselves as they have a fair chance of winning.  And, like us they will cease and desist in the presence of a common and more dangerous enemy, which is exactly what happened when a fox walked into the picture.

   The birds flew onto the flat roofed extension and were still within view as the fox nosed around and tried to act casual in the hopes that the loser would fall off the roof and she could claim her prize.  It wasn’t to be.

   The vixen was magnificient, a classic example of a wild Red Fox with rusty red fur, a few black and white markings, a big fat tail and tiny feet.  She loped around outside the window for nearly five minutes as the birds were continuing the punishment beating above her, she was as light on her feet as a cat.  But the most remarkable thing about this animal was her eyes.  They were a sparkling bright golden amber colour and almost hyptnotic in their flourescence.  I would imagine that any wild rabbit or field mouse who meets the stare of this creature would have a bowel releasing experience on the spot. 

   The birds flew off with no casualties and the fox drifted away with no breakfast and I was glad the racket caused by the jackdaws got me out of the leaba in time to see such a great creature within a few feet, close enough to see her eyes and live to tell about it.

   As the current political establishment is busy filling their own pockets with pay increases, while the going is good and before the new budget is announced early next month, it doesn’t seem as if this generation of politicians has any chance of showing any conscience or inclination to work for the common good.  All they are interested in is their own selfish greedy ambitions and corrupted aims.

   The kind of political correctness we need in this country is the kind that comes from politicians acting correctly, and it looks as if we will have to wait until the next generation of politician comes into their own.

   The Political Princess of the Kingdom of Kerry, and former Mayor, Councillor Toireasa Ferris, has left a group of politicos, who were meeting to try to get some answers out of the Health Service Executive, because of the frustration in dealing with the stonewalling and evasive representatives of the HSE.  Commenting in the Evening Herald she said that the committee was "all mouth and no teeth" and that she felt guilty accepting the €400 per meeting when no answers were forthcoming from the HSE.  Herself and other councillors walked out of meetings as far back as February in protest of the farcical and dysfunctional nature of the situation and now suggest that the monies  be better put to use providing medical services for those in need.

   The future is looking bright.  Fair play to ya Ferris!

   The governments of both the North and the Republic, in co-ordination with their respective electrical energy providers, met their target today of having the Single Electricity Market come on line.  As mentioned in the April 21st post, this North-South interconnector puts aside any doubt that we are now operating on nuclear generated electricity.

   How odd that there was barely a mention in the media of this event even though, to sweeten the pot, the Electricity Supply Board announced a five percent reduction in the rate of household electric prices.  It got bumped out of the headlines I guess by a similar drop in house prices.  The €1 per week per household savings is not a big headline grabber; but, for the ESB to deny itself approximately €100 million a year should have been, they have never done that willingly before!

   Noel Dempsey was Minister of the Department at the time of the negotiation announcement I commented on in Ireland’s Nuclear Winter and if you follow the SEM link you will find that he promises cheaper electricity prices for the future because of these arrangements.

   In the early days of nuclear energy it was promised that the electricity generated in this fashion would be so inexpensive that it would hardly be worth metering.  Well that was the first big lie of the Nuclear Era and there have been many since.  Today both France and Japan are littered with nuclear generating stations and both have among the highest electricity prices in the world.  In 2001 we were up there with them for the dearest consumer costs and we were burning peat and coal!

   Japan, which continues to have the highest rates, despite having over fifty nuclear generators, also has 16 active volcanoes and several earthquakes a week.  It’s largest reactor Kashiwazaki Kariwa has been shut down since the earthquake in July which caused radiation leaks, deaths, and destruction to the plant, with a follow on fire that was scarcely reported on.  Look in that direction for an inevitable nuclear disaster.

   In addition to the interconnectors with the North and eventually with Wales, the ESB has had to promise to restrict energy production contrary to our national interest.  Great news all around.  It will not be too far into the future before the ESB is going to want to scrape back some of that one hundred million a year they are forfeiting for this Public Relations effort.