Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Reflections on the Arctic Sea
Originally uploaded by wili_hybrid

Today is October 15th, 2009 or Blog Action Day. The topic for this year's event is climate change. Even British PM, Gordon Brown has contributed with a blog post stating "climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures".

I've always been worried about climate change. How could 6 billion people not have an impact on the planet? There has never been this amount of living beings on the planet and we do not live in harmony with nature. We consume resources, spew emissions and show very little consideration to this rock that we call home.

Today, Professor Peter Wadhams from the University of Cambridge, who has been studying Arctic ice since the 1960s, warned that the Arctic could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during summer months in as little as 10 years.

Isn't that scary? Arctic ice is old, it's old in geological terms. And yet in one generation, we have managed to erode the Arctic ice to the potential point of non-existence.

Pause for a moment to ponder this and then do something.

A Beautiful Evening Sky

We were driving from Waterford to Dublin yesterday evening, when I spotted this beautiful evening sky. It's taken about 5 miles south of Thomastown in Co. Kilkenny.

Damages - Season 1

Glenn Close is an illustrious actress with an imposing screen presence. But she has waited until 'Damages' to make her regular appearance on our television screens, delivering a modern and dramatic take on the traditional lawyer genre. In the vein of '24' and other modern series, Damages focuses on one court case, with many subplots and undercurrents.

Patty Hewes (Close) is a leading and feared litigator. She is currently spearheading a civil suit against billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) whose company collapsed with 'accounting irregularities' leaving his employees without their pensions. Hewes hires recent graduate Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) who turns out to be more than a match for Hewes' manipulations and ploys. Parsons' involvement with Hewes will drag her family and friends deep into a web of corporate deceit and high stakes litigation.

As the series draws to it's gripping close, it becomes clear to the viewer that everything you've seen on screen matters. There are no wasted scenes or screentime in this high-paced, intricate drama. An exciting and moden soundtrack makes this the best legal drama in years. And interestingly, we never see the inside of a courtroom!

Milano and Pizza Express Exchange Rate

Milano's have been offering good value deals to Irish diners for the last period of time now. An email popped into my inbox today offering two pizzas for €15. Very tasty indeed.

That is until the equivalent English offer from Pizza Express (the same company) plopped in - two pizzas for £10.

That is a good old-fashioned exchange rate of 1.5 Euro to sterling, but we do have different VAT rates etc to the UK, and the thing is that it's hard to be really peeved-off. Two pizzas for €15 is still good value.

Candy Everybody Wants - Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Candy Everybody Wants is a light-hearted and easy-t0-read book, set nostalgically in the early 1980s. Jayson (with a distinctive "y") Blocher wants to be on T.V. He wants to be really famous. The only problem, he lives in Wisconsin where he films his own soap operas using an old video recorder with a separate tape recorder for sound. Oh, and he's gay, with a somewhat dysfunctional set of family and friends.

When events in his home town don't end well, Jayson finds himself in New York, where he sets himself firmly on the path to fame. However, things aren't quite that easy, and Jayson has to learn to come to terms with himself and his family.

The book is an easy read and makes a perfect flight or beach read. It is quite funny at times, but has the overall lightweight feel of candyfloss. There's something to watch with this author - he clearly has a flair and wit (well, he was a very famous drag queen).

Diagnosis - Lisa Sanders

Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries is a collection of case studies and thoughtful insights into the technique of diagnosis. Lisa Sanders is a medical doctor, staff member at Yale University School of Medicine and technical advisor to the hit T.V. show, House. She is the author of the popular monthly Diagnosis column in New York Times Magazine.

Diagnosis focuses on the challenges faced by doctors when attempting to diagnose the cause of a patient's illness. Sanders explores tools such as the traditional physical exam, the knowledge accumulated by individual doctors and the ever-increasing use of diagnostics such as CAT, MRI and echocardigraphs.

Interpersed between all these aspects are a collection of short tales - each recounting a particular medical mystery. Each case study clearly illustrates and highlights the relevant topic under discussion. From West Nile disease to the uncommon CannabinoidHyperemesis, Sanders takes the reader through a wide range of medical puzzles and the challenges facing today's doctors.

In an world with an ever-increasing amount of medical knowledge, a large dependence on technology, and decreasing use of the traditional exam, how will tomorrow's doctors fare? It makes the reader aware of the fact that doctors are human too, not all-knowing oracles of truth. Diagnosis is written in clear English, and is more than suitable for a non-medical person to pcik up and read. A very interesting and honest book.

Gougane Barra, Co. Cork

I drove down to Cork recently to spend a few nights with my parents. On Friday morning, I got up early and drove to Gougane Barra with the intention of spending a while taking some photos. Unfortunately, the heavens opened while I was driving over the mountains, and I was only able to take a handful of shots as everything was damp.

The mountains surrounding the valley were shrouded in fog and the little church sat silently on the island in the middle of the lake. Even in the middle of the pouring rain, the lake was smooth and there was such a sense of peacefulness and calm. It really is such a gorgeous spot and it reminded me strongly of maternal grandmother. Late in life, when she found it hard to walk, she loved to be driven to Gougane Barra where she would pray in the car.