An Inconvenient Truth, falling from the sky

Friend John L. remarked with dry humour, in regard to the held-up airline passengers whose planes have been cancelled and who - or some of them - complain of the no doubt great inconvenience, that few things in air travel are as inconvenient as your plane falling from the sky with engines seized and shutdown by volcanic ash.

I have the luxury of remaining ground-bound with no immediate plans for being airborne.

On Wikipedia I read through the article on the geology - or volcanology - of the Chilean volcano (Puyehue) which is causing all the damage. It puts matters in better perspective. This is not just a single-vent volcano. More like a multiple complex of vents converging near the surface. A veritable four-for-the-price-of-one. No wonder it's a big 'un.

Its previous blow-out in 1960 triggered the BIGGEST earthquake in recorded history, not so much reported at the time only because of the combination of remoteness, deaths of any nearby witnesses, lack of media access and hence absence of TV coverage which we nowadays take for granted, plus this was all pre-internet and pre a lot of things.

Here's to mere inconvenience.

Airbus concept video

Airbus has unveiled for the Paris Air Show its concept for a hi-tech passenger craft before 2050. You can find a viewer friendly video here. I might not still be around but hey -  maybe I can pencil in a booking, just in case.
The Channel Nine News page  opens with the Airbus story screen, and you can click ('Next') quickly through the eight still concept-images: the ninth one will activate the video.

New Crop Circle in Oxfordshire

A new crop formation appeared in the past twenty four hours in Oxfordshire, U.K., identical to one a year ago in another part of England. This in itself is unusual. The design seems to be a mathematical model of a three dimensional object or system. It is too soon for viewing better-informed opinion and articles which these early notices generate: go back in coming days to the Crop Circle Connector website if this interests you.

Green Door by Jim Lowe 1956

Well, if you watched a few videos of Simon's Cat from the last blog post then you get an idea of its innocent and chuckle-worthy humour. The artist does the sound effects too... purrs and miaows. Look for the video (on YouTube) where he talks to camera about the phenomenon which is the worldwide popularity of these Simon's Cat movies.

Thanks to Gwenda I am reminded of the 1956 song Green Door and you can check out the link to a nice YouTube clip of the Jim Lowe song. There were increasingly odd versions of the song in the 60s and 70s... then much later another "performed" by muppet Fozzie Bear, and I seem to recall a link to it on this blog about a year ago. The most iconic performance was probably that by British crooner Frankie Vaughan (1928-'99). Until this re-encounter - because like everyone else around at the time I did hear it often in the U.K. following its first release (in the U.S.) back then in September '56 - I had never until now heard that it stayed at the top of the charts for 22 straight weeks until replaced, eventually, by Elvis's 'Love Me Tender'. Curious and compelling as the little tune and its lyrics may be, I tire of it much sooner than five months. In fact, being made to listen for that amount of time would surely qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. But if you can stand a briefer listen, here it is, and if you stick around the link will offer you many more versions

Simon's Cat this month, and Beyond the Fence

If you do not already know Simon's Cat as a screen star, check out the May 2011 offering on YouTube. It is for cat or rabbit lovers, and my acquaintances have numbers in both cat-egories or rabbit-gories. Here 'tis.

However, a personal favourite is Beyond the Fence (starring Cat), and there are heaps more clips to entertain.

Owen Waters. World affairs... guns vs tennis racquets

One of the authors I quite like ('New Age' if you insist on labels) is Owen Waters, with whom I had some conversations when he lived in SW England before returning to his home in California. I try to keep up with his writings which are available either as physical books or online - often free. He sent me a newsletter this morning and I smiled at his take on the recent embarrassment of one hellfire preacher whose proclaimed dates for "the end of the world" have been frustrated several times. Each to his own.

Weather's turned cold and wet. What a surprise - it's winter. Big decision... shift gravel outside, or stay indoors by the cosy fire! Everyone seems to be busy, whether with elections in Peru and Portugal, or starting new political parties (Independent MP Mr Bob Katter in Australia), or maintaining the mayhem in the Near and Middle East and North Africa. Of course, we tune in to the truly engaging events such as Rafa beating Roger for the Men's Singles tennis grand slam title in Paris; and what about the Women's Title going to Li Na, first ever Chinese winner of a grand slam tournament? Sign of things to come.

Wilton Windmill Wiltshire - where? New Crop Circle is a Snake

It's just over twenty four hours since Olivier Morel posted his latest aerial shots on the website of Crop Circle Connector. You can visit here:
 http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2011/Wilton/Wilton2011a.html
Many in-crop designs have been suggestive of creatures - birds, fish, jellyfish... even spermatozoa - but here's a frank wavy snake, in the field alongside the windmill at Wilton, Wilts.

Goodness only knows how it's done, but certainly not by one bloke, or even a couple of blokes, in the darkness of a single night. The overnight appearance of all such phenomena - with no signs of other crop damage - during the past twenty odd years has never been plausibly accounted for by the skeptics, few of whom ever visited the sites in the flesh or tried to talk intelligently with researchers.

At the very least, the designs are open-air artworks, and their makers are entitled to be mysterious. The farmers are entitled to be grumpy, but the smarter ones recoup crop-damage costs by charging admission.

P.S.  You can check the 30 May blog entry, at the foot, for the answer to our quiz question on "the bridge to where?"