GLOBAL Warming Solved

Researchers in Argentina are currently studying the effect of methane produced by livestock on global warming, and to measure the amount of gas produced by cows, they outfitted the animals with pink tanks to collect their farts. No, I’m not kidding:

The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse emissions. As one of the world’s biggest beef producers, Argentina has more than 55 million cows grazing in its famed Pampas grasslands.

Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology, said every cow produces between 8000 to 1,000 litres of emissions every day. One of the researchers said that by feeding cows clover and alfalfa instead of grain, we could reduce methane emissions by 25 percent. How cool is that?

THE WIND in the Willows

Looking through GB’s bookshelves a few weeks ago I came across this copy of “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. This is the copy we had at home when I was a tiny tot. Mum obviously had it from when she was at Calder High School around 1924. It was my favourite book for many years and I read it time and again.



The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie. The Wind in the Willows is alleged to have been saved from obscurity by the then-famous playwright, A. A. Milne, who loved it and adapted a part of it for stage as Toad of Toad Hall in 1929. (But note that Mum had it as a school text at least five years earlier - I have no doubt it would have become a classic without the adaptation.) The book made Grahame's fortune, enabling him to retire from his bank job, which he hated, though it was respectable and well-paid. He moved to the country, where he spent his time by the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do; namely, as one of the most famous phrases from the book says, "simply messing about in boats".
 

DO NOT FEED the Animals

SMart

If I am in the kitchen on a Sunday morning between 10 and 11.30 I tend to watch (or half watch) a programme called “Something for the Weekend” which includes cookery, guest appearances, new gadgets on the market, and clips from current and old TV shows. I especially like the gadgets bit – there must be a bit of the GB in me.





If I’m in the kitchen earlier than that I watch a children’s art programme called SMart. It is cleverly done and despite not having been a child for a few years I usually manage to learn something. On Sunday’s programme they showed how to make a Tibetan prayer thingy. (I use the word thingy in its most common form - i.e. I cannot recall the name. I thought it was a dohl but that doesn’t Google!). They also showed some children’s art that had been sent in. And played with camera effects. They used the fact that light travels slower through water than through air (refraction) to create some funny effects.

CLOUDS

Following on from my post about clouds on Friday – this was a satellite view of Merseyside in the middle of the afternoon. Somewhere under that lot was the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and me!