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Weather for ducks and Drakes

Posted on 21st August, 2008 by Heather

According to wingnutdaily a baptist preacher - whose name (Wiley Drake) suggests that he is really a cartoon character - is praying for his god to rain on Obama.

DENVER – The call for prayer for a rainstorm on this city’s football stadium when Sen. Barack Obama delivers his nomination-acceptance speech there next week, dropped by a Focus on the Family Action personality, has been picked up by a former official of the Southern Baptist Convention. (from wingnut World net daily)

(The pastor’s worldview is almost glorious in the depths of its craziness. The logic seems to be:
Beg hard enough and the “creator of the universe” will take the side of the political party you support.

Despite believing that he’s asking for help from a being who commands the power of the universe, Drake doesn’t ask his deity to relegate Obama to the Delta Quadrant or turn him into a snail.

No, Drake asks his god to use his supposedly infinite power just to make Obama’s supporters bring umbrellas. What? Call that smiting? How unambitious is that?

I foresee a bit of danger here for the Wiley Drake. Surely, if god expresses his political views through the weather, a sunny day would show that the maker of the Universe actually supports Obama?)

Wiley, as it happens, your prayers were answered, but your inept rain-god missed and smited the UK with the biblical rain instead. Call off the hallelulahs now, please. We don’t even have a vote in your election. The UK “summer” is traditionally shit, but, for the past few years, it would be more accurate to just refer to it as the “rainy season.” (Except that every other season could already lay good claim to the title.) Northern Ireland was the most recent place on these islands to undergo widespread flooding.

The people who first called for this action were Focus on the Family. They’ve now claimed their call for torrential rain was “mildly humorous”. I love the novel use of the word “mildly” when accuracy might have demanded the use of “not at all.”

Drake, an activist who has been targeted by opponents of his Christian ministry for using his own radio program to discuss moral issues in the public arena, said he was saddened to see Focus pull the video………
“I, too, am still against killing babies and allowing sodomites to marry. Anyone wishing to join those of us who believe in imprecatory prayer (for divine justice) are invited to join,” he said. (same impeccable source)

“Imprecatory prayer?” That’s just pastor jargon for cursing.* Obviously, the word “moral” is also being used in some new counter-intuitive sense.

Luckily for any Democrats who might forget to bring raincoats or umbrellas to Obama’s Denver acceptance speech, cursing is no more effective than praying…..

The BBC has a direct line straight to the mind of the weather god. They’ve published a Denver prophecy that 3 of the next five days will be sunny and two will be rainy. However, the omens aren’t clear enough for the BBC’s chief weather-augur to predict more than 5 days ahead.

Demconwatch have an even better prophecy - better in that it refers to the actual date of the nomination-acceptance, if I’m interpreting it rightly. And that prophecy is for really good weather.

* Don’t just take my word for it. The free online dictionary defines “imprecatory” as the adjectival form of :

im·pre·cate (mpr-kt) tr.v. im·pre·cat·ed, im·pre·cat·ing, im·pre·cates
To invoke evil upon; curse.

Popularity: 5% [?]


Popularity: 5% [?]

Question for the experts

Posted on 30th July, 2008 by TW

What is the weather like in central Florida in April and in May? I have looked at Weather.com, but frankly the information seems a bit sterile and hard for me to put into perspective. Are there any Floridians who read this blog and can give me a feel for what that time of year is like? All information welcomed.

Popularity: 10% [?]


Popularity: 10% [?]

Sunny Easter

Posted on 8th April, 2007 by TW

Thanks to the wonders of Global Warming, the rainy, miserable (obviously offset by Chocolate) Easter weekends of my childhood really are a thing of the past. On Saturday I went out to Stourhead (National Trust property) and the weather was fantastic. Just so you don’t think I am lying, here are some photos:

Stourhead - 7 Apr 07 - Pic 1Stourhead - 7 Apr 07 - Pic 2Stourhead - 7 Apr 07 - Pic 3

As you can see the weather was brilliant. Shame about the polar bears though.

On a more serious note, it amazes me that anyone can deny climate change. Just goes to show how much people can cling to a belief… One of the other reasons to make this post was to try out a geocode plugin I have recently installed. Let me know what you think.

Popularity: 33% [?]


Popularity: 33% [?]

More on the Weather

Posted on 16th February, 2007 by TW

Old Sarum 1 - 25 Nov 06 - ThumbnailA while ago I posted about how “uncommonly warm” the weather was for February. This got me thinking about the recent weather in general, and it seems fairly safe for me to say that despite the one or two days where it was cold enough to snow it has been very warm this winter.

As some more examples, this is a picture taken at Old Sarum on 25 Nov 06. Although you cant see how warm it is, trust me it was warm - and English Heritage sites such as this are not known for their nice climate…

Normally, when you visit an English Heritage site which dates back to the iron age it is like taking a holiday in a fridge. Only windier and colder.

Old Sarum Picture 2 - ThumbnailThis year, it has been very different. The weather has been nice all winter, the skys have been clear and while there has been a fair bit of rain, it has not been anything major. The sun, on the other hand, has been brilliant.

Now I am not going to make the same mistake as last time, so I wont joke about the “joy” of Global Warming, but having such a nice, warm winter has been…. fun…

Popularity: 23% [?]


Popularity: 23% [?]

Benefits of Climate Change

Posted on 3rd February, 2007 by TW

Today’s news papers (for example the ) have been talking about the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on which says that, for those really slow on the uptake, climate change is influenced by human behaviour. How this is news is beyond me, but there are some unreported aspects which I thought people should be aware of.

Today is 3 Feb 07. It is . February is traditionally the coldest, snowiest, month of the year in the UK. When I was younger, there would be so much snow schools would close. Dont even get me started on the rain.

However, this is today (Photos taken at Old Sarum, an Site in Wiltshire):

Old Sarum - Inside the Castle View Old Sarum - Looking towards the Sun Old Sarum - looking down at the cathedral ruins Old Sarum - View along the top

Today it was clear, very sunny and really warm. No wind. Not a cloud in the (perfect blue) sky. Fantastic. On Flickr there are a few more pictures which are worth checking out:

Sunset 03 Feb 07 001Old Sarum 03 Feb 07 029

(before anyone gets all hyper, the title was a - it is not trying to imply there are any “good things” about Global Warming. If you were offended - get over yourself.)

Popularity: 29% [?]


Popularity: 29% [?]

America got Europe’s winter

Posted on 16th January, 2007 by Heather

Further to the post on No winter, it seems that the Americans are currently getting the winter for 6 other countries.(Typical Americans, you might say.) There are some pictures on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6267273.stm showing beautiful snow scenes in unlikely locations.

Americans use even more resources than we do in Europe. They are responsible for a disproportionate share of the activities that are seen as responsible for climate change. They are also fairly forward in refusing to accept any responsibilty for restraining human impact on the climate.

Appalling as the impact of freak weather - such as the ice storm and last year’s New Orleans disaster, is on individual Americans, maybe some general good could come out of it. The US population might start applying some political pressure on its leaders to take the issue of climate change more seriously.

(No smugness, here. Europe is hardly blamefree or immune from the impact of changing weather patterns.)

Popularity: 17% [?]


Popularity: 17% [?]

Praying Mantis?

Posted on 12th January, 2007 by Heather

Just got this picture from another member of the blogging team at WhyDontYou.org.uk. After exhaustive research (Google images then) I think it’s a praying mantis? If anyone sees this and recognises it, please let us know.

Possible praying mantis

Popularity: 26% [?]


Popularity: 26% [?]

Wintery Negatives

Posted on 31st December, 2006 by admin

As part of the drive to improve the quality, and quantity, of the photos on the blog, here are two more - taken in December 2006, with a Nokia N73 mobile phone with the first using the “negative” settings.
Let us know what you think.

Popularity: 37% [?]


Popularity: 37% [?]

Lightbox

Posted on 31st December, 2006 by TW

WhyDontYou has added a few new features to it’s posts - the main one is a “light box” for inline images (note: this does not include the images on Flickr and the like).

To see how this works, click on these images:

Winter Berries Storm Clouds

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Popularity: 43% [?]