Wormhole found in Havant

Whilst looking around for 'anomalies' in the region, I found this phenom... fenonimem... phenomenon along Wilverley Avenue in Havant (note when Google update the satelite images in the future, this 'live' view of the wormhole might disappear):

Alternative transport event at Havant

Havant Borough Council are displaying an electric car, electric bicycle, electric motorbike and an electric delivery truck at the Civic offices today. The idea is to encourage staff and the public to use alternatives to petrol and diesel cars. Other stuff will include Nordic walking, an eco-driving simulator, bike maintenance etc.

Event details

x42 bus route

Actually used the new bus service today. It is quite impressive, took about 10 minutes to get to the QA hospital. The route is different to what I had suggested in my previous post.

At Waterlooville you have a choice of taking the bus to South Downs College or to Portsmouth and Gun Wharf Quays. The buses to Portsmouth are 5 minutes past the hour and 35 minutes past the hour. The South Downs College buses are at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. These times are for most of the day, however the early morning and evening timetable is a bit different. All the x42 buses stop at the same bus stop, whether they are going to the college or Gun Wharf, so make sure you check the time or the destination on the front of the bus before getting on!

The journey is great, because the bus doesn't stop at many places and the route is direct. Basically if you're going to Portsmouth, you will only stop at Purbrook, QA Hospital, the Ferry Terminal, the City Centre and Gun Wharf Quays!

The motorway bit is from the Marriott hotel into the city. It means the bus avoids the city traffic and all those city stops. The journey time from Waterlooville to City Centre (Commercial Road) was about 25 minutes.

The bus also adds a service to South Downs College, supplementing the 37 and 39 that go to Havant. All in all, an excellent addition.

Robert Llewellyn interviews Ecotricity boss

This is a really interesting video where the Red Dwarf and Scrap Heap Challenge star talks to Dale Vince about his wind farm electricity business and The Nemesis electric car:

On the journey of eco-friendly-ism

The term 'It's Not Easy Being Green' is highly appropriate in my journey through the maze of eco-friendlyness.

You come across some really strange ideas about climate change, energy, food etc. and encounter people with the odd screw loose. I have found that in the effort to being green, both the 'left' and the 'right' don't really like you that much. Or rather, by making some statements that are from a purely pragmatic green POV, anyone on the left of the political spectrum thinks you are a right wing person that doesn't care about the environment, whilst anyone on the right automatically thinks you are a part of a left wing conspiracy. It depends whose den you happen to be wandering through at the time. I have taken flak (and survived) from both sides of the political spectrum.

But that's the game really, we don't yet have political and economic 'theories' that can cope with the serious environmental problems we face today. It is gradually being worked through, but it's a long drawn out process which is at the moment being outstripped, speed wise, by the environmental changes we are witnessing.

I often come across people that believe in some sort of climate change conspiracy, fuelled by poor media reporting, or a poor understanding of science, or no real knowledge of the organisations that are really involved.

One typical mis-understanding centres around the IPCC and the data used in the analysis of climate. A person I recently came across was convinced that the 'scientists' kept their research and data secret.
This isn't at all true, in fact the data is some of the most publicly accessible, ice cores, tree rings, CO2, temperature records etc. are all freely available here and here.
Which means anyone with a little knowledge of computers can plot graphs and do what ever they like to them. Which also means that they can do some really bad science or some really good science, as can be seen in many discussions on blogs about the subject.

The other misconception is that the IPCC is the only source of science on the subject. It may get a lot of press coverage, but it isn't where the core of the science is born. The core science is researched in numerous university institutions around the world, then published in peer reviewed journals. Much of this science is actually far more worrying than the conservative IPCC reports suggest. Because the IPCC is a big body of people that tries to sum up the the climate science research as it stands, and is funded by many governments that have different motives, it tends to be cautious in its pronouncements. So this means that ever since the last IPCC report, the science has moved on.

Anyway, here's a histogram I created earlier this year from Hadcrut temperature anomaly data:



The graph shows the temperature anomalies for the globe since 1850, it has had no smoothing or processing applied to it, so you can make of it what you will. It's not exactly science and it took hours to produce, but it was very satisfying getting the raw data to actually display as a graph!

New Waterlooville to Portsmouth bus service (x42)

It's not often that a new bus service starts up. We are used to services being cut and other bad things. But a new service between Waterlooville and Portsmouth has started, using the motorway to speed things up.

The x42 takes a route between Waterlooville and Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, the nice thing about the service is that it stops at South Downs College, a real plus point for any students that live in Waterlooville or Portsmouth.

As more details become available, the route info will become clear.
x42 timetable

Using buses

This post is partly in response to a posting by Steve on the Garden Hens blog, but also something worth posting about in any case.

There is an art to using buses, although, having been brought up as a child using buses regularly, it hasn't been so difficult to go back to using them. Also if one makes do with buses for a long time before learning to drive, then returning to them later isn't such a big deal.

I do think that some people learn to drive because they think it means they are more competitive or that they are more likely to get a job. But really i think that is more to do with the sad state of affairs in society today, rather than any absolute reasoning.

I use the buses all the time, to get to work, shopping etc. Last year I took the bus out to the Roman Villa at Fishbourne (the 700 Coastliner service from Havant). Quite a day out! On the way there, the other passengers were very helpful and pointed out the stop I needed to get off at for the museum. On the journey back I had to wait for the bus and decided to have a beer in the nearby pub whilst waiting. Then on the bus back, I went on the top deck and watched the fantastic scenery go by. It was a great day out and because I used a weekly ticket I was using at the time, it didn't cost any extra.

You certainly have to change your concept of time and life when using buses. A newspaper, magazine or book are handy whilst waiting for a bus. I don't tend to plan much using a timetable unless of course I have a meeting at a specific time, so I can find myself waiting at the bus stop for up to half an hour. I suppose the worst case scenario is that I would have 'wasted' an hour in a day.

But is it really wasted time?
I have met numerous people at bus stops and got into some interesting conversations, although you never usually learn other bus users names, you do tend to 'know' them and their quirks after a few years, annoying as they may well be. In the past, discussions on buses and at bus stops have included TV soaps, climate change, rubbish on the streets, supermarkets, the loudness of the chimes of St Georges church etc.
Given that most people waste a lot of time using computers, watching TV etc. Actually talking to locals at bus stops must be a positive thing.

An alternative to waiting at the bus stop reading a magazine, is to pop into a nearby cafe for a coffee or tea. After a while you can end up being a 'regular' at a bus stop or cafe. Life is certainly different when using the buses, but it doesn't have to be unproductive or frustrating.

If you haven't used the buses much, it can be quite daunting to change and start using something that seems alien, especially if you have heard so many bad things about them. It can take weeks or months to get your head around what is or isn't possible using buses. After a few years, you just take them for granted and curse all the car drivers that pull alongside the bus in busy traffic!