Looking for buses from Waterlooville?

I seem to get a lot of visits from people trying to find info and timetables about buses. Oh the wonders of Google Analytics!

So here is some basic information about the local buses. There are two bus companies that operate most of the routes. Generally First operate most of the routes into Portsmouth, whilst Stagecoach operate routes that don't go into Portsmouth. There is of course overlap between the companies and routes.

All the info you need about the timetables and routes can be found on the bus companies web sites:

Stagecoach South

First Bus Hampshire

Also I have these links permanently in my 'Other Links' menu.

Apart from that general info, bus users might also be interested to know that another new bus service will be starting later this year (i forget when). The X43 will operate between Clanfield, Waterlooville, QA Hospital and Portsmouth. Probably using the motorway into Portsmouth like the other 'X' routes.

Monckton gets a pasting

I came across this presentation by Prof John Abraham this week (via Climate Shifts) and was very impressed by the thoroughness of the research. Christopher Monckton has been doing presentations himself, touring the planet and addressing the US government. Monckton also recently joined UKIP.

Anyway, I strongly recommend watching and listening to Johns presentation, it takes a while to get started, but it is astonishing how many errors John finds in the various slides Monckton uses. When you think of the small and minor errors found in mainstream climate science, it is astonishing to think that Monckton has the courage to even show his face, let alone make any presentation to an audience.

The presentation uses Adobe Presenter, which I believe is based on Flash and should work in most browsers.

John Abraham Presentation

Waterlooville photos

I have been doing this blog for a while now and have focused on stuff that interests me, which inevitably means most posts have an environmental bias. The other thing is that I get a few people visiting the blog from outside the area, including foreign locations.

So I thought I would show some photos of locations around Waterlooville that are sort of connected to the history.

First of all, we have two pubs, The Heroes and The Wellington, that are linked to the Battle of Waterloo (by name) and the soldiers that camped in the area on their way back from the battle.
The Wellington:

The Heroes (i think the sign has a picture of heavy cavalry of the period)
Actually, isn't the foot soldier French?? I'll have to have a closer look in future!
(Added: having looked at some uniforms, the soldier on foot by the horse is closest to the uniform of the Kings German Legion):

As well as the two pubs, a few years ago the local government spent some money re-paving the town centre and created a bus only route through the centre. When they did this they got some artists to create plaques that are embedded in the floor, including this one that commemorates the Waterloo heroes (the text says "The infantry from the Battle of Waterloo camped here on the way back to barracks in 1815"):

Another plaque celebrates the ancient forest of Bere. Which of course is almost non-existent now (well you knew the environment would creep in some where didn't you!). Actually it does still exist as remnants in Jubilee Park, Park Wood and The Queens Enclosure, all of which are within walking distance from the town centre:

The plaques are located along some mock tram tracks that the same artists thought were a good idea. Trams once travelled along tracks from Portsmouth up to Waterlooville and on to Horndean. The mock tracks look nice, but I think I would prefer to see some real trams:

Then there are the new obelisks. Oh dear, does anyone really like them?
On each face they have a picture that is supposed to be linked to Waterlooville, some make sense, others are a bit tenuous:

New Cycle Path from Denmead

The new cycle path from Denmead up to the new Dukes Meadow development is almost complete. Work is being done to finish it off. Sustrans have been involved in the development, although I am not sure if they provided any funding. I understood they were providing matched funding, although this isn't clear.

The original path to Denmead has been widened. The original curb remains, the darker tarmac will be for cyclists, the older light coloured tarmac will be for pedestrians. This is a shot looking towards Denmead, the work on the path is causing congestion, but that's OK!:

Entrance to the path at 'South Downs View', a few bits to finish off:

Love Your Bike

Recently visited Palmerston Road in Portsmouth for a meeting, the first time in a few years. Turned up a bit early, so had a look around.

First thing I noticed was an interesting display of cycles in a Debenhams window. It was for the Portsmouth Love Your Bike event later this month. They seem to have a lot of sponsors this year and the web site is professionally designed. Quite impressive. You can check out custom bikes and stalls on 30th May at various locations, including Southsea Skatepark, Ian Parmiters Antiques and Little Johnny Russell’s.

Actually the main thing that caught my attention in the Debenhams window was the Go Cycle electric bike. Wow! An electric bike that has been designed from scratch and looks the part. The battery is integrated into the frame, but is easily replaceable. The frame is a light magnesium moulded structure, with a built in kick stand. According to the company web site, a shop in Winchester allows test rides.

Whilst waiting for the meeting, I popped into 'Heidi's Swiss Patisserie'.  I thought I was going to experience some continental pastries etc. But was confronted with Chelsea buns, Cornish pasties, iced buns, jacket potatoes, steak pies and donuts. There is a section called Continental breads, but other than standard British tin loaves, the only continental bread I could see was 'Greek' and ciabatta bread. People seem to spend a lot of time thinking up names for their businesses these days,  it's a pity that they can't also put some effort into a business plan that actually matches the name!

If small businesses want to compete, then at least be honest and straight forward, don't pretend to be something your not. Or maybe that is what society is about today, being flash with no substance?

Solar Battery Charger

Bought this solar battery charger/cycle lamp/torch over a year ago. At first I didn't use it much, however I now use it almost exclusively for recharging batteries.

Works really well, although in the current sort of weather (overcast) it takes about a week to charge batteries. But since I am only using it to charge batteries for remote controls and the batteries last years in those things, a week of charging is OK. It came with two adapters for charging AAA batteries (seen in photo). It does AA and AAA NiMH batteries. However these don't seem to work so well with the torch option the unit has, probably need more charging??

I have thought about getting a more powerful solar charger (bigger surface area), so that it is quicker. But since my main use for batteries is in remote controls, I don't see any justification for the expense.

There is something 'cool' about using free energy! At least as long as the charger and batteries are reliable.

Is all carbon the same??

I wrote two posts previously about why Carbon Dioxide was a greenhouse gas and why it was misleading to think of it as a 'trace gas' in the atmosphere.

In this post I thought I would have a look at the Carbon atom. Aren't all carbon atoms the same?? After all an atom is an atom isn't it?

Well no they aren't. In fact plants prefer some carbon atoms to others and fossil fuels have more of one type of Carbon atom to another. So what makes one Carbon atom different to another?

The difference occurs in the nucleus of the Carbon atom, which is made up of Protons and Neutrons. The most stable versions of Carbon (Isotopes) have similar numbers of Protons and Neutrons, when there are to few or to many Neutrons, the Carbon atom tends to be unstable and so doesn't hang around in the environment for long.

The two stable versions of Carbon are Carbon 12 (6 Protons and 6 Neutrons) and Carbon 13 (6 Protons and 7 Neutrons), these are what we find in our environment.

The atmosphere in current times is known to have a certain ratio of C13 to C12. Also we know that plants prefer C12 to C13 in the photosynthesis process. This is also reflected in the Carbon composition of fossil fuels that are made up of ancient plant materials. Compared with the atmosphere, fossil fuels have a lower C13/C12 ratio.

Hence by analysing changes to the Carbon Isotope composition of the atmosphere, it is possible to also determine where the increasing amounts of carbon are coming from. It turns out that the Isotope ratio is changing, showing that more Carbon from fossil fuels is remaining in the atmosphere.

But that isn't the only part of the environment where the Isotope ratio is changing. The same changes are happening in the surface of the Oceans, corals, sponges, and even our food.

So, we have another 'fingerprint' showing that we are changing our environment in many ways and altering the climate by burning fossil fuels.

More Climate Science