Surf's up!

Here are two surf pictures shown in this article entitled "Coast surfer tackles Tahitian monster" in Sunshine Coast Daily online with author unidentified. The surfer's name is David Scard of Caloundra who was surfing in the round four heat of the Air Tahiti Nui Von Zipper trials leading to the World Championship Billabong Pro event in Teahupoo (Tahiti ) that begins next week.

According to the article

With the swell peaking at 5m late yesterday afternoon and 8ft to 12ft slabs at dawn yesterday, Teahupoo created a perfect arena for the world-class barrel riders to showcase their skills.

When everything's right, the surfer certainly makes it look easy:

Of course that's not always the case, and here's a "heavy wipe out"

My thumbs up for the photographer Steve Robertson of Surfing Australia for capturing these exciting pictures -- too irresistable not to post them again here!

Happy Earth Day 2008!

It is not always feasible for a blogger to do something timely, but today I think it is appropriate for this blog to celebrate the "Earth Day" appropriately -- to introduce a newly published book entitled "The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them" by Iain Murray. I don't know the author and I don't have the book yet. But this appears to be a terrific book nevertheless!


Here's an excerpt from the Introduction: Al Gore: Savior of the Planet? The question mark at the end is thr key:

The scientific case for global warming alarmism is based on a series truths that, far from being inconvenient, are actually trivial. First is the basic physical principle that certain gases absorb heat, and so, all things being equal, the more of these"greenhouse" gases like carbon dioxide there are in the atmosphere, the warmer it will be. Second, greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, have steadily increased in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Finally, we have indeed seen a small increase in global average temperatures -- about one degree Fahrenheit -- over the last one hundred years.

Out of this molehill of scientific truth has been built a mountain of the catastrophe theory that Al Gore and the green lobbyuse to advance their case for a complete realignment of the world's economic system.

This mountain building starts with scientists who use the correlations they have identified between greenhouse gases and temperature rises to build computer models of what might happen to global temperatures if greenhouse gas concentrations accelerate as fast as some other economists and scientists estimate they will. These models find different suggested increases, based primarily on what happens to global development this century.

On top of these models, other scientists develop yet more computer models, trying to determine -- if the first models are correct -- what might happen to say, pine trees, sea levels, crops, or tropical storms. In turn economists have developed computer models that assess whether the world will suffer or be better off.

From these computer simulations, Al Gore and his colleagues have advanced the argument that we face catastrophe very soon if we do not drastically curtail our use of the fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases when we burn them. They have suggested national emissions caps, taxes on energy use, and even personal carbon dioxide rations. (Want to drive Junior to his Little League game? Tough luck, you used all your monthly CO2 rations on your flight to grandpa's funeral last week.)

Yet if doesn't take a genius to realize that all those computer models are guesswork based on guesswork. Let's go back to the very first step, the correlation identified between greenhouse gases and temperature rise. While it looks quite strong, there is uncertainty even there . . .

. . .

These sort of uncertainties exist throughout the science. It only take a moment's thought to realize that heaping uncertainties upon uncertainties results in a much greater uncertainty at the end. Even so, these uncertainties are routinely dismissed by Al Gore and his friends. Uncertainty can not be an excuse for inaction, they say. It's a line worthy of Wizard of Oz . . .

Now based on the Table of Contents of the book, here are the seven past, present, and future environmental catastrophes:

1. Malaria: The plague of environmentalists.
2. Ethanol: Save the planet, starve the world.
3. The Pill as Pollutant: And other environmental menaces the left ignores.
4. Yellowstone in Flames: The dangers of liberal dogma.
5. Cuyahoga Burning: How progressives set a river on fire.
6. Endangered Species Act: Shoot, shovel, and shut-up.
7. Communism's Environment Record: The death of Aral Sea.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on this book. Go for it. Happy Earth Day 2008!

P.S.
Iain Murray, an Oxford graduate, is the Director of Projects and Analysis and Senior Fellow in Energy, Science and Technology of the Competitive Enterprise Institute among other things. At least two of his articles readily available online are: Gorey Truths: 25 inconvenient truths for Al Gore and Hockey Stick Slapped. And, of course, this latest one: The Truths Shall Set You Free tells why he wrote this book. A fabulous one indeed!

Whither hothouse earth?

The New Scientist magazine (issue 2652, 20 April 2008, page 14) carried an interesting news item yesterday about a new research result on the consequence of a huge rise in atmosphere temperature:

WHAT would it take to jam a planet's tectonics? It seems that a huge rise in atmospheric temperatures would do the trick, causing continents to grind to a halt, mountains to stop growing and earthquakes to cease.

Wait a minute, "earthquakes to cease" !? Isn't that a good thing ??? No more earthquake, there will no more tsunamis !!! How many lives that will save? Millions may be! How many people have the IPCC/Chickenlittlealgore and their fellow alarmists saved ??? Hey that's a politically incorrect question to ask!!! How dare you.

According to Adrian Lenardic of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and colleagues, a very hot atmosphere can trigger this effect by slowing heat loss from the mantle. The team's model showed that for such effects to occur on Earth, average atmospheric temperatures would need to rise by 60 °C (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.031).

Though this is unlikely to happen on Earth in the foreseeable future - it could be caused by a huge rise in volcanic activity but not by human-made climate change - defining this upper limit may help determine if and when other planets, such as Venus, experienced tectonic plate movement.

So it is unlikely to happen and it certainly can not be caused by our SUV driving or Exxon-Mobil with or without Chickenlittlealgore's tiny, tiny fat carbon footprint.

Now if in the ultimate extreme case there can be nice things to happen, why can't we explore the beneficial effects instead of only alarms? If the earth is going to follow the fate of Venus at some point, do you really think IPCC/Chickenlittlealgore can save us from it's happening???

Freaque wave in Loch Glencoul

Here's a simple news from BBC News today:

Three sea kayakers have been rescued after capsizing in Loch Glencoul at Kylesku in Sutherland.

The trio were in a party of seven making their way to a bothy just after midnight when they overturned after being hit by a freak wave.

They were rescued by the Lochinver Lifeboat.

However, one of the men was winched onto a coastguard rescue helicopter and taken to Stornoway on Lewis with suspected hypothermia.

Here's a picture of Loch Glencoul:

Now how can such a tranquil, peaceful place in the North Highland of Scotland can still have freaque waves? The best answer is probably another question: Why not?

There's no details about the freaque wave that caused the capsizing. It just happened. Well, the best news is that they were all rescued. Thank God for that.

The truth of the matter is that freaque waves, as always, can be any place and any time, in storm or in calm tranquility, and we really know nothing about it!

A rock in a raging sea!

Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the U.S. this week. I followed his celebration of Solemn Papal Mass at Noational Park in Washington, D.C. this morning on the internet (EWTN). The Responsorial Psalm at the Mass was "Lord send out Your spirit and renew the face of the earth!".

According to Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review:

Last night was a terrific celebration at the White House of the pontiff, religious freedom, and Catholicism. President Bush said two important things:

a) That he "appreciates [Benedict's] rejection of moral relativism and religion as a pretext for violence."

b) The Catholic Church has been a rock in a raging sea and it is my prayer that it will never change."

A rock in raging sea! I like this expression. As a matter of fact I think there is an equivalent expression in classic Chinese as

中流砥柱

[Chung(1) Liu(2) Dee(3) Chu(4)]

At any rate on this nice day of slow freaque wave news, I took the appropriate liberty of entering this non-freaque wave item for my blog today.

Freaque wave hits shark cage diving boat

I have seen shark cage diving on television. I know it has become tourist attraction in San Francisco, California and Cape Town, South Africa. According to this About Cage Diving page, a shark cage is a special metal enclosure designed to keep dangerous sharks a safe distance away, so that it allows one to come eye to eye with some of the ocean's most feared predators. Humans are not a shark's first choice for a meal, but clear shark is not that smart and there is distinct possibility that without a cage the shark might mistaken a human for an elephant seal or giant fish.

Well, a shark cage protects a shark attack. How does one gets protection from freaque wave attack? There isn't any! Today's news from South Africa of the capsizing of a shark cage diving boat after an encounter with a freaque wave is rather troubling to read:

Cape Town, South Africa: Two Americans and a Norwegian tourist hoping to get close to great white sharks on a cage-diving adventure drowned Sunday when their boat capsized after it was hit by a freak wave, officials said. Sixteen people suffered minor injuries.

The accident happened in Gansbaai, a small town about two hours from Cape Town that calls itself the great white shark capital of the world. The area's clear waters teem with great whites, each year attracting thousands of tourists who go out on shark-spotting boats and enter the water in sturdy metal cages in hopes of encountering the mighty predators.

The boat that capsized Sunday had just anchored and was preparing to lower the first cage, though no one was yet in the contraption, said Mariette Hopley, head of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation, which groups cage-diving operators in the area.

"The sea was flat and conditions were perfect to go out," she said. "Out of nowhere, a freak wave washed up right up against the boat and made it capsize."

While there is no details about the freaque wave, the last description of during flat sea conditions, "out of nowhere a freaque washed up" removes any doubt of whether or not it was really a freaque wave they encountered.

There were no sharks in the near vicinity at the time because the boat operators had not yet put out any bait for them, Hopley said. She said it was the first accident since the cage diving industry started in the town in 1991.

"We are all so shocked," she said. "This is an act of nature. There was nothing we could do about it. We just prayed together."

All 10 passengers and 9 crew members were flung into the water, but 16 were rescued by nearby boats and taken to hospital suffering from shock and minor injuries, Hopley said.

We certainly can not disagree with the statement that "This is an act of nature. There was nothing we could do about it." Three lives lost unnecessarily is a true human tragedy indeed. But even though this is the first accident since the cage diving industry started 17 years, the discouraging part of the story remains that we can be safe from the shark but we don't know how to prevent the same kind of freaque wave from happening again. Hey all you generous philanthropists out there, why not invest some on the needed freaque waves research?

Update:

The day after the tragic event this article from News24 by Verashni Pillay with the title "Freak wave 'totally unforeseen'" was shown up on the internet. Here are some useful quotes:

Cape Town - The "freak" wave that capsized a shark diving boat on Sunday killing three tourists could not have been predicted, according to experts, despite the fact that the sea looked choppy to the untrained eye.

National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the NSRI supported statements by White Shark Projects, the company which operated the boat, saying that the sea was flat.

"To our understanding it was relatively calm conditions yesterday," he told News24 on Monday, adding that shark diving in those conditions was not unusual.

It looks like the argument or discussion of the sea conditions has just started as

"Two metre swells and 10-15 knot winds sounds like rough seas," said Lambinon, referring to the weather conditions before the accident. "But that doesn't mean it was rough."

However eyewitnesses said the sea was choppy in contrast to statements from industry body, the Great White Shark Foundation, that the sea was "absolutely flat".

Marili Esterhuyse who was on the boat at the time with her boyfriend, Cheetahs' centre Hendrik Meyer, said that the sea was "turbulent" when the boat set off from Kleinbaai near Gansbaai early on Sunday morning.

An anonymous resident of Kleinbaai told Beeld that the sea was rougher than usual on the morning of the accident.

However Lambinon pointed out that to the untrained eye the sea may have looked choppy but was in fact calm enough.

"You've got to put it into perspective - how well does that person know the sea? What might be rough seas to one person might be calm seas to another."

While the argument seems to have centered on describing the sea condition as either "flat" or "choppy". To me that's just a non-issue. Even given the condition as "rough" or "turbulent" or "rougher than usual", the key point is that non of these condition will cause capsizing at any rate. So I have to agree with National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon who emphasised that there was no way to anticipate the "freak" wave that capsized the boat, causing the three tourists to drown, and said that

"You have to be humble to the ocean, it's a place where the unknown happens."

which is just a brilliant statement of fact that no one can dispute.

Update II:

Here are two accounts on the wave event from the ones who were there. First one in The Sun:

“I’ve never seen anything like that wave. Nothing in the world would have stood a chance, except maybe an ocean liner. We are lucky to be alive.”

“It looked like a freak wave, something like the wave on the video of the 2004 tsunami.

“The captain shouted for us to grab hold of something, which we did. You don’t even have time to think.

“I just tried to get to the surface. Fortunately another boat was there to rescue us by the time I did.”

Another from someone in another boat in the Manchester Evening News:

"Preparations were underway for the clients to go down into the cage when suddenly this wall of water just came out of nowhere.

"Our boat went on to its side, but the other one simply capsized, and people were in the water floundering about. We managed to get a number onboard, and I sent out a mayday.

"Rescue boats were on the scene very quickly, and I doubt anyone was in the water for more than two or three minutes or so."

According to The Sun, where the tragedy happened was around 100 miles offshore – in an area known as “The Great White Shark Capital of the World.”

Can freaque waves sever leg?

This news from livenews.com of Australia last Friday is a little hard to take in:

Police believe a severed leg that washed up oa a beach at Phillip Island in Victoria on the weekend may belong to one of two missing Pakistani students.

Police will use DNA samples sent from Pakistan to try an identify the leg, which was found by a couple walking at Cape Woolamai at about 3.30pm on Saturday.

The process will take a while, said Sergeant Robyn Heal, but police believe the leg may be the partial remains of one of two Pakistani students who were hit by a freak wave last month.

'We literally have to wait for the DNA sample to come back from Pakistan, and it will then take one to two weeks or even longer for the comparison to be made,' Sergeant Heal told Fairfax media.

The missing students Omer Habib, 22, and Wasim Akram, 19, were washed from rocks while taking pictures between The Nobbies and Penguins Parade on March 24.

Mr Habib was hit from behind by a wave and was dragged backwards into the water. Mr Akram tried to save him but both men disappeared when another wave washed over the rocks.

Can freaque waves sever a human body? I certainly have a hard time to think that's possible. The tragic story itself is too sad to report in the first place. But it's happening is by no means a surprise or unexpected from this blog. But two young foreign students, far from home, enjoyed a beach outing and encountered the freaque wave while taking a picture on a rock and lost their life is just too depressing a news to think that's really happened. Now can freaque waves really severed a leg? Well, the only scenario I can think of would be the force of the freaque wave somehow injected the helpless body onto a underwater rock with a very sharp edge. At any rate, it was a sad story without this aftermath. Our prayers go to the family and love ones of the two students. Telling their story should really bring home the warning that one just can not be too cautious to be on the beach, anything can happen any time and any place!

Wild winds cause chaos!

Wild winds cause chaos! Wild winds are things never welcome, especially when it is not necessarily expected. Just when we enjoy the return of spring season in North America, the news from South Australia is sobering:

Killer weather cause chaos
Winds wreak havoc in southern states (of Australia)
High wins buffet Victoria
High winds expected to close bridges

are just a few headlines that describes what's happening in the peaceful wonderland of Southern Australia this morning. Here's the picture of a yacht losing mooring:

Now here's a thought: the planet earth is not a small globe. One part of the earth may enjoy something while another part of the earth suffers other thing. We don't even have the same season at the same time. So does the code word "global" really mean anything in the real world? Next time when you heard the mumble jumble of global something, keep in mind it most likely just full of nonsense, uh, hot air!

Lifeline for nature, etc.

I come across an interesting article this morning entitled "Lifeline for Nature" by Francis Dass in NSTonline of Malaysia, I believe. The article is really aimed at commenting on the pollutions in mainland China. But I was attracted by the abundance of proverbs, quotes, and citations in the article. It starts with:

"There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs, there’d be no place to put it all!” — Robert Orben, American author and comedy writer.

Then he proceeded with the current events:

The country is already in the limelight, what with the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the recent Tibetan uprisings. But it’s no secret too that the country suffers massive pollution.

(Coincidentally, at the moment, China is at the centre of the world’s media attention for a few interesting reasons: the upcoming Beijing Olympics, the Tibetan uprising and, of course, the country’s seemingly perennial struggle with pollution.)

And it led to his main theme:

Traditional Chinese thinking has always respected Nature and the awesome power it wields. Take the Chinese adage, for example, that says: “Not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.”

Yes, I know exactly that Chinese adage. Come to think of it, it is even appropriate to freaque waves. Somehow this is the first time I ever thought about the connection.

Decision-makers the world over may do well to pay heed — the damming of rivers and the clearing of forests, for instance, have caused untold damage to lives and property in almost every corner of the globe over the years.

Other Chinese sayings allude to Nature’s power: “A spark can start a fire that burns the entire prairie” and “Man’s schemes are inferior to those made by heaven.” “Heaven” here can be interpreted as Mother Nature.

Again I am familiar with the two Chinese sayings he cited. I may wish to argue that for Chinese people the word "Heaven" tends to mean God more than Mother Nature.

Clearing a hill indiscriminately of its forest for more development? Then, decision makers have to seriously think of the landslides and mud avalanche that have befallen men, women and children around the world during rainy spells, as a result of deforestation.

Do development planners ever give a thought to the consequences of deforestation: the landslides and the havoc they create in the lives of people?

Perhaps they should ponder on this lovely Chinese proverb: “Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps a singing bird will come.”

Here, finally, I am stunned. I must confess that I have no idea off hand what the proverb was in Chinese originally.

The 19th century American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson takes that notion one step further when he said, “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

New York’s famed Central Park is testament to the great beauty man can create, if he so chooses.

Made famous by American cinema and television, Central Park was created in 1853 and is a sprawling, 344-hectare park.

“One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade” declares yet another Chinese proverb. And we might add that all future generations are usually very appreciative of forefathers who leave them a legacy of nature. Ask any young New Yorker about Central Park and you would know how true this saying is.

I definitely know this proverb, but off hand I am not certain about the exactly saying in Chinese originally. Now here again, I lived near New York City's Central Park for a while many years ago, I never thought of making the connection between the Central Park and a Chinese proverb. I do remember though, looked out from my 17th floor apartment window, those beautiful tree tops of the Central Park -- as compared to the ugly roof tops of the city buildings adjacent to the park.

Mr. Dass continues with his vast knowledge of famous sayings:

Saint Basil the Great who lived during the fourth century was reputed to have said that “a tree is known by its fruit, a man by his deeds”.

Local politicians, take note. Respect can be gained by simply following this advice by the 18th century Linnaeus: “If a tree dies, plant another in its place.”

Then you have Aristotle, one of history’s greatest philosophers, observing that “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit”. How much better the world will be if all of us heeded this pearl of wisdom!

But in reality, Greed is the god the world worships and this insight is what India’s most famous son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a.k.a. Mahatma Gandhi, saw right from the start. His sobering dictum is: “There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need, not for man’s greed.”

Native Americans also celebrate Mother Nature by giving voice to its beauty and force in language.

“When a man moves away from nature, his heart becomes hard” is one penetrating observation.

So is this eye-opener: “The rain falls on the just and unjust.”

And we could go on and on with sayings of old.

He also pointed out what most American politicians and drive-by medias don't have the guts to even whisper:

Sadly, China is one of Earth’s worst polluters.

Mercifully, Chinese leaders are now trying to undo the damage they have done.

They are now taking serious measures to curb pollution in preparation for the Beijing Olympics in August. How good it would be to see a China the way it was!

Ah! How good it would be to see a China the way it was! But the two sentences leading to it were only wishful thinkings at best. I guess Mr. Dass may or may not know that the Commie thugs destroyed millions households in the famous Peiking alleys that preserved thousands of years of history and traditions in the old city for the sake of Olympics.

"To see a China the way it was!" Yes, sadly that can only be done now probably in your dreams. But this is not the world and era made for dreams. Open your eyes wide, you can only see spineless politicians kowtow to the rowdy, bully thugs all over the world.

A tiny, tiny minority?

Since I have stopped watching TV news for years, I don't usually pay attention to what's going on with them. By chance I just noticed a sort of advertisement news -- a pre-announcement of what's going to be on the program called "60 Minutes." The title that attracted my attention is "Gore's Message to Climate Change Skeptics" with subtitle "Tells 60 Minutes that doubting global warming is man-made is akin to believing earth is flat."

The drive-by CBS News obvious plays game with their title. There is no such thing as "Climate Change Skeptics." Climate changes constantly, no one skeptic about the fact climate is changing at any rate. Their subtitle about "doubting global warming is man-made" at least brings up the key point.

Global warming is man-made is simply junk talk. I don't think that it is even qualified to be called science of any kind because there is no creditable science in there whatsoever.

I don't have any patience to read the advertisement article about their show on Sunday. I only caught the part that Algore comments on the people not convinced that global warming is man-made:

I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view . . .

Now that is really junk talk I regret I wasted my time even to pay attention to it. Since I have come this far, I would like to challenge Algore to put a number or a definition to let us know just exactly what does he consider to be"a tiny, tiny minority"?

I am reminded of Galileo Galilei, he was all by himself against the whole world of ignorant hierarchies. Was a lonely Galileo a "tiny, tiny minority" Algore?

There's a list on Wikipedia entitled "List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming" with names of truly prominent scientists who were academically accomplished and well-known long before Algore dropped out of divinity school. On that list there are 3 of them believe global warming is not occurring or have ceased; 3 believe accuracy of IPCC climate projections is inadequate; 22 believe global warming is primarily caused by natural processes; 10 believe cause of global warming is unknown; and 3 believe global warming will benefit human society. Are these famous scientists all a tiny, tiny minority, Algore?

At the beginning of this month, there was a conference on global warming in New York City aimed at examining the question "Global Warming: Crisis or Scam?" I blogged about it here. It was attended by over 400 participants and 98 speakers on the theme "there is no scientific consensus on the causes or likely consequences of global warming." Would 98 speakers and 400 participants a tiny, tiny minority?

Algore, I know you have gained a lot of weight, does that really make you an overwhelming majority in your own mind?

Update:

Well, I wasn't the only one among the "tiny, tiny minority" that noticed and being offended by Algore's junk talk. The editorial of Investor's Bussiness daily (IBD) today has this to say:

In addition to being gratingly sanctimonious, Gore is wrong. A study conducted by Texas A&M professors found that the more Americans know about global warming, the more likely they are to dismiss it.

In other words, the "tiny, tiny minority" is ever growing by the seconds. Pretty soon it will easily burst Algore's ego into tiny, tiny pieces.

The article cited by IBD editorial can be found here and here and full text here.

By the way, the super video "The Great Global Warming Swindle" is back online. Check it out!

I particularly appreciate IBD's comments on "this weekend's asinine Earth Hour" as

. . . when we were all expected to turn off our lights, and realize it was a metaphor for the darkness that global warming alarmists have been operating under.

Algore, eat your tiny, tiny heart out!

Not safe even just walking!

Here's a simple news, from Charleston, Oregon, that may have often repeated at different places around the globe and at different times, but the story is more or less the same:

(CHARLESTON, Ore.) - Coast Guard officials reported today that one of their helicopter crews airlifted a man near Charleston, Oregon. It is reported that 39-year old Frank Schneidle sustained injuries while walking along the beach close to the Cape Arago Lighthouse.

Perhaps the next paragraph can be used as a universalized message in general:

The Oregon coast is known as a treacherous location for beachcombing and even just walking during storms. Officials frequently talk about "sneaker" or rogue waves that take people by surprise and often drag them out to sea.

Just be ready to replace the location of "Oregon coast" by any other coastal area, the above will be a very good warning advice. The message that should never be ignored is that coastal area is never a safe place for beachcombing by any means even just walking!

It happened in Assissi, Italy

There are still quiet along the ocean freaque waves front. I thought I'll take my blogger's prerogative to present a rather pleasant freaque news that's not wave, science, or climate related. May be they are all implicitly related. Especially as today is the Good Friday of 2008.

I am talking about this picture:

Yes, that was the historically famous face in the middle accompanied by two Franciscan friars. I got this picture from the email from Dr. Robert Moynihan of the Inside the Vatican magazine with this captions:

The former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, walks in Assisi, Italy, with Franciscan friars. Gorbachev visited Assisi recently to pray at the tomb of St. Francis, who lived 800 years ago, from 1181-1226

and this news:

Mikhail Gorbachev, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi. The visit, which reportedly took place on Saturday, March 15, was evidently a surprise. It is not clear whether there was any preparation whatsoever, even informally. The Italian news agency AGI launched the story on March 15 with these words: "A pleasant surprise today for the friars of the Sacro Convento (of Assisi): Mikhail Gorbachev, accompanied by his daughter, paid an unexpected visit to the Basilica of St. Francis."

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper.

"St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus [the Latin for "another Christ"], the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians.

In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer."

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview "nature is my god."

Here's a picture of the tomb of St. Francis of Assissi, beneath the Basilica of San Francesco in Assissi, Italy:
Since I don't watch or read drive-by media in general, I don't know if they have reported this case. The news will certainly not be appreciated by the politically correctness gang. The U.K. Telegraph and Times Online among others have reported the news.

My rather biased notion that "a commie is always a commie" may need to be revised. Gorbachev's historical position is still to be developed in history. Especially hearing these of his words:

"I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity."

Dr. Moynihan pointed out common misconception which I share:

That press report got one significant detail wrong. Francis was never a priest. A deacon, yes. A priest, no.

I guess when you become a saint, earthly title is really not that important anyway!

Missing heat in "Global warming" ??

There's global warming but heat is missing? How about that, a heat-less global warming or talking on both side of the mouth by the mainstream scientists.

This NPR article yesterday entitled "The mystery of global warming's missing heat" by Richard Harris reports that:

· Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

No, it's not George Bush's fault, blame it on El Nino:

In recent years, heat has actually been flowing out of the ocean and into the air. This is a feature of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. So it is indeed possible the air has warmed but the ocean has not. But it's also possible that something more mysterious is going on.

That leaves the scientists to agree that:

. . . a few mild years have no effect on the long-term trend of global warming. But they say there are still things to learn about how our planet copes with the heat.

Hey Algore, are you listening? There are "still things to learn about how our planet copes with the heat."

Rescue and a happy ending

What would be the best outcome for a search and rescue operation? Rescue and a happy ending, of course! Here's such a news from the Sydney Morning Herald by Jordan Baker that makes a nice reading for a Sunday morning:

TWO fishermen have survived 34 hours at sea after a freak wave capsized their boat off the South Coast.

Relatives raised the alarm yesterday morning after the men failed to return home.

Helicopters searched an 1430 square mile area from Kiama south to Bawley Point.

The men, aged 40 and 45, were found in the early afternoon clinging to their overturned boat off Burrill Lake. A trawler rescued the men and towed the boat to Ulladulla. The pair were flown to Wollongong Hospital for medical treatment.

What a wonderful relieve for their family and relatives. Deo gratias!

Scenic dread from latest Britain news

What's the latest?
May be this news from thisislondon.co.uk providess the answer:

Storms battered parts of Britain again yesterday - and closed one of the country's most popular race meetings.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup festival was abandoned as gales up to 85mph lashed western areas.

The news article was mainly reporting the cancellation of the racing but it also included the following rip-roaring pictures:

This scene at the Blackpool sea front:
And this crashing waves on to a lighthouse in Newhaven, East Sussex
And this one at Porthleven, Devon:

All the hats tip to the photographers. As much as I would like to see roaring waves, I certainly will not wish to be out there when all those wave things are indeed roaring.

The Pi Day

In the blogger's world, a date is usually just something to identify the beginning of a new blog. The fact that 3/14 is known as the International Pi Day just came to my attention. As someone who fancies himself always interested in math things, I have to add this post to honor this day though there's not much direct connection between pi and freaque waves. Of course, being in the late afternoon now I missed the Pi minutes which is 1:59 am on 3/14 (1:59 pm will do, but that's 13:59 for many). Anyway, today is the 20th anniversary of the celebration of Annual International Pi day.

Additionally scientists generally remember that this day is also the birthday of Albert Einstein. Not much of a phyicist myself, this is of less significance to me but still worth to mention while I am at it.

What's the big deal of of pi? Well, multiply pi to the diameter of a circle gives the circumference and multiply pi to the square of the radius gives the area of the circle which are the things we memorize since elementary school days. This interesting site here reminded me that Pi was discovered by Archimedes in the 2nd century BC and this old joke: "Pi r-squared? No, pie are round. Cake are squared."

Have a happy Pi day! (In a few hours, it will be "Beware the Ides of March!")


Update:

It is of interest to take a look into the history. It may not be entirely true to say that Archimedes "discovered" Pi. According to the NOVA site:

In Archimedes' day, close approximations of pi had been known for over 1,000 years. An Egyptian document dated to 1650 B.C., for example, gives a value of 4 (8/9)², or 3.1605. Archimedes' value, however, was not only more accurate, it was the first theoretical, rather than measured, calculation of pi.

So Archimedes was the first one to provide more accurate value for Pi. The efforts to obtain more and more accurate Pi value have been continued ever since as this site show:

Ptolemy	(c. 150 AD)	3.1416
Zu Chongzhi	(430-501 AD)	355/113
al-Khwarizmi	(c. 800 )	3.1416
al-Kashi	(c. 1430)	14 places
Viète	(1540-1603)	9 places
Roomen	(1561-1615)	17 places
Van Ceulen	(c. 1600)	35 places

I was particularly interested in the not so very well-known, but a great Chinese mathematician nevertheless, by the name

my prefered translation is Tsu Chung-Tze, which they say "about whom next to nothing is known." But he was well accomplished in mathematics, astronomy, and mechanical devices among other things during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period in Chinese history. I found from this site here, that there was some indication on how it was done in getting the value equivalent to Pi by Tsu in the 5th century A.D. China:

It happened in La Coruña, Spain

In this concise report of www.tv3.co.nz that entitled "Freak wave washes over beach wall in Spain":

A huge wave washed over a sea front in the north-western Spanish port city of La Coruna, surprising cars and pedestrians . . .

One can probably get a general idea of what had happened. This www.metro.co.uk news reports the following with some more detail (but they misspelled the City's name):

Unsuspecting motorists got a shock when a freak wave washed over a beach wall in Spain.

The wave washed away cars as it crashed over the wall La Caruna, Spain.

It also hit a few unsuspected passers-by.

The dramatic moment was captured on amateur video.

It happened earlier this week during storms in the region - the same weather pattern that battered Britain and France.

The waves of up to 7m injured several people and damaged cars and boats, Spanish media said.

Yes, it only happened in seconds and it was captured on video, otherwise no one would ever readily believe what really had happened. Beyond the truly freaque nature of the totally unexpected happening, the incredibly amazing part of the whole thing has to be that how can someone be at the right place, at that very moment and had the video camera ready!?

While both Metro and NZ's tv3 articles used the word "freak wave" in their titles, they are certainly not the kind of deep sea freaque waves the word usually implies. I usually call those cases on the beach or in the nearshore area nearshore freaquewaves or onshore freaque waves. This case in La Coruña is certainly much inland than those nearshore or onshore cases. This may or may not be a semantic problem, we are simply running out of descriptive expressions for the continued surprising cases the nature hurling at us.

By the way, La Coruña is a Spanish city located in the north-western corner of the country surrounded by ocean. It is in a region of vast green landscapes. According to Tourspain, the region has a Celtic and Roman heritage which keeps, still today, a "mystic and magic" allure. Here's an areal view of the city I found from here:

Winter storm's final fling

We the people in North America are poised to welcome back spring in due time, the world outside of us are not as lucky. Here's a news today in www.redorbit.com by Miles Davis with the hopeful headline "Great winter storm to have its final fling today!" in the Plymouth (U.K.) Western Morning News:

The Westcountry is today expected to be pounded by yet more strong winds as the storm which has raged for three nights - leaving a trail of destruction - finally begins to fade out.

Gusts of up to 60mph are forecast for this morning and were expected to sweep over the region last night - but forecasters say the force of the wind will be nowhere near the strength of the storm which has so far caused widespread damage across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset.

The forecast for a calmer day ahead today will be welcome news to the thousands of people across the Westcountry whose lives have been turned upside down by the worst storm for as long as many can remember.

Among victims of the storm yesterday were residents in Bude where the giant waves, driven by hurricane-force winds, wrenched off the town's sea-lock canal gates.

The walls of the canal are understood to have been badly damaged and there are fears that thousands of pounds worth of fish - a key attraction for course fishermen - could have been washed into the sea.

Mike East, technical services director of North Cornwall District Council, which owns the canal at Bude, said: "One of the gates was wrenched off its hinges and it has caused fundamental damage to the canal walls."

And here's how it was a couple of days ago:

The drama began on Monday night when the combination of spring tides, low pressure and gale-force winds brought in massive waves.

The district council said it was impossible to say how much the damage to the lock would cost but the gates were installed in 2000 at a cost of pounds600,000. The canal and wharf area is currently being regenerated as part of a pounds5 million scheme.

The environment agency and local companies worked together to create a dam further up the canal to drain the water and assess the damage done.

Further down the coast a couple who should have been celebrating the purchase of their new restaurant watched as flooding overtook the building.

In this U.K. Daily Mail article there are some frightening pictures of the storm with this headline: "Britain braced for new storm front as forecasters warn 'the worst is yet to come.'" For instance:
and
Furthermore this news on cruise ship Artemis being damaged by freaque wave written by Corey Stephenson is also part of the storm:

A ROGUE wave has damaged the Southampton-based cruise ship Artemis as she battled against gale force winds in the English Channel.

The towering wave crashed over the ship's bow in the early hours of this morning hitting the anchor storage area and forcing the ship to change course and head for the shelter of the Cornish port of Falmouth.

The good news is:

A P&O spokeswoman said the ship was due to leave Falmouth later tonight after repairs were complete.

"The damage was only minor and was restricted to the anchor storage," she said.

"The damage does not affect the safety of the ship in any way, but will require some work before continuing into the Atlantic."

All these happenings in the world, but American people heard almost nothing about it. Fortunately we have no need to read or hear the drive-by media ever again, and we are more well informed than ever. All the power to the internet. Dan Rather ate his heart out, but still couldn't understand why fake is no longer true as he was brought up.

Anyway, the nature is changing and the climate is restless, but beautiful spring still comes back every year. Let's just be primed to enjoy it !

Lake Michigan iceberg

I blog only when something or some news struck my fancy, so I don't do it every day. My friend Rob Stormer is a very disciplined daily blogger and always have something interesting as well as exciting to say. Today he posted something extra I find it's too irresistible not to copy it here:

An iceberg in Lake Michigan:

with this explanation from Senior Forecaster/Meteorologist Marc Kavinsky:

The warmer temperatures, sunshine and brisk west winds have caused the ice to break away from shore and float several miles away from shore. The above freezing temperatures expected the next several days should cause these floating ice "bergs" to shrink and disappear.

At least there will not be a Titanic in Lake Michigan for us to worry about!

Riverdance rescue lingers on

The ferry Riverdance has been in the news since the beginning of February which I have blogged here. Rescue efforts have been mounted ever since. But discouraging news came this morning from BBC with a discouraging headline "Bad storms defeat ferry salvagers"

Storms and high tides have delayed hopes of refloating the stricken Riverdance ferry on Blackpool beach.

Salvage experts, who were hoping to have moved the vessel by this week, have been defeated by the weather.

The ferry had been heading from Warrenpoint, County Down, to Heysham, Lancashire, when she was hit by a freak wave on 31 January.

along with this rather depressing picture:

and these further details:

She is now almost on her side with a list of 87 degrees and has sunk into the sand on the Lancashire beach.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is still optimistic the vessel can be refloated over the next couple of weeks.

Twenty-three people were lifted to safety from the ferry when it ran aground six weeks ago, including 19 crew and four passengers.

We wish the best of luck to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Hope the final defeat is the BBC's headline writers. Storms are bad, but Riverdance will be refloated! At any rate, the fact that all four passengers and 19 crew members are safely rescued is something to cheer. There is just no simple solutions against nature's agilities. But human ingenuity will ultimately prevail!

I might add this observation: The Riverdance case has command worldwide attention of objective journalists except those drive-by media. That's why people in U.S. have heard very little about those severe storms in Europe in recent days. If it can't be blamed on ExxonMobil or all you SUV drivers, why should the New York National Enquirer, umm, the N. Y. Times care?