text:
Ocean Circulation: New evidence (Yes), slowdown (No)
— gavin @ 31 October 2006
Sometimes journalists are so focused on a particular story that they 'hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest'. There was a perfect example of this last week in the Guardian reporting from the RAPID Climate Change conference in Birmingham (UK) which I was attending. The conference, whose theme was observations, modelling and paleo-climate related to the Thermohaline and Meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the North Atlantic, could have been expected to attract media attention (particularly in the Europe) and indeed it did. However, the Guardian story, which started "Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate" was in complete opposition to the actual evidence presented and I wasn't the only person to notice. How could the reporting be so wrong?
First, a bit of background: RAPID is a focused research program being run mainly out of the UK, but with contributions from Norway, the Netherlands and from the US. One of their main achievments has been to set up a mooring array (which consists of a dozen or so permanently attached monitors of temperature, salinity and pressure) that can continuously monitor the circulation in the North Atlantic across a section at 26°N. Measurements taken as the moorings were first installed were highlighted in the Bryden et al paper last year. As readers will no doubt recall, that publication, suggesting that a long term decrease in the MOC was underway, was greeted by a media storm. We cautioned at the time that the results were preliminary and, specifically, that the internal variability was probably high enough to make it unlikely that the changes had risen above the noise.
At the meeting this week, Bryden and colleagues gave an update of the work, specifically focusing on the first year of data from the moored array. This is the first time that there has ever been such a continuous set of estimates across the whole Atlantic and so reports of the size and nature of the variability were eagerly anticipated. And they did not disappoint! There were two key observations: first, that the approximations that had been used in the Bryden et al study were actually valid, and secondly, that the variations day by day varied by around 5 Sv (1 Sv is about 10 times the flow of the Amazon). The mean over the year for the MOC was 18 Sv – very close to what was expected and in the middle of recent estimates – and significantly, larger than the value seen in the 2004 snapshot. Given that degree of 'noise', this implies that no conclusions about trends over recent decades can be supported.
Other results presented supported this basic picture: transport estimates at different latitudes were not coherent with the initial results, model variability in the best ocean models was large (suggesting that detectability of a MOC slowdown before 2030-2050 was unlikely), and temperature, salinity and velocity changes in the overflow waters between Greenland and Europe showed significant connections to the North Atlantic Oscillation but no obvious trends. A number of records that had seemed to be trending strongly when first looked at, now seem to be simply more variable than first thought. This was something of a theme at the conference – the closer we look at the ocean, the more dynamic it appears.
So why was the Guardian story so wrong? Well, the nature of variability invariably implies that there are periods when the values are above the mean, and periods when it is below the mean. The minimum values appeared to be during a 10 day interval in November 2004 when the inferred deep western boundary current appeared to be very weak indeed. But then it came back. Now, recall that we have never seen this quality of data before and explanations for the variability (deep eddies? waves?) are not yet available. Thus, no-one has any clue whether this is normal or unusual – right now it's simply an interesting phenomenon. Picking this out of the results is therefore a little perverse. The big story should have been the phenomenal effort that has gone into exploring this important issue, the much improved context for previous measurements and a welcome reassessment of the significance of previous results. It's a shame the Guardian missed it.
37 Responses to "Ocean Circulation: New evidence (Yes), slowdown (No)"
Ed Arnold-Berkovits says:
Ah, you scientists and your….science. The fear the Guardian is stoking arises not from numbers, variability and noise. The fear is of this unknown. Your point is well-made that the unknown needs to be made into the known, but presently it's still a bit 'scary'. A single letter from Professor Visbeck means someone agrees with you, but the Guardian is for us lay people – and we have our fears. I have my fears.
Is it a fact the for 10 days the current practically shut down? Then there's something going on, which may or may not be a big deal.
It is important not to be alarmist, but it is important to be alarmed.
From the post:
"the inferred deep western boundary current appeared to be very weak indeed. But then it came back."
From the Guardian article:
"He added: "It only lasted 10 days. But suppose it lasted 30 or 60 days, when do you ring up the prime minister and say let's start stockpiling fuel? How can we rule out a longer one next year?"
"Is it a fact the for 10 days the current practically shut down?"
"…. explanations for the variability (deep eddies? waves?) are not yet available. Thus, no-one has any clue whether this is normal or unusual"
"… the variations day by day varied by around 5 Sv (1 Sv is about 10 times the flow of the Amazon). The mean over the year for the MOC was 18 Sv ….
Can you imagine a flow of water 180 times the Amazon river could have "almost stopped" and restarted without causing a ripple or splash?
Take a large turbulent variable flow, 180 times the Amazon.
Put a handful of little instruments out in it:
http://discover.edventures.com/images/termlib/t/turbulent_flow/support.gif
Some of the instruments will be in waves, some will be in vortexes, some will be pointing up, down, sideways and backwards in a turbulent flow.
On average — over time — you'll get enough numbers to do the math and have what statisticians will consider a valid result saying it's going thataway and that fast.
pete best says:
Let us state that at the presnt time there is little evidence in the available data for a slowdown in the atlantic current which contributes to Europes relatively mild winter climate. Maybe in years to come when we have more data that situation may change but for now realclimate is right, journalists when they do not know should not tell.
Ed Hawkins says:
The BBC seemed to do a better job:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6081458.stm
Re #4: The BBC article quotes Professor Bryden (emphasis added):
Professor Bryden, from the UK's National Oceanography Centre, was the lead author on a paper published in the journal Nature last year that suggested the overturning circulation had declined by 30% over the past 50 years. That was based on a snapshot of data from the array.
The findings were based on five historical "snapshot" measurements of overturning in 1957, 1981, 1992, 1998 and 2004.
"The issue was how big was the variability in the five snapshot measurements, and that was something we needed to know," he said.
Using the first year's data from the array, the researchers were able to adjust their calculations.
"We concluded that there was some evidence of a small decrease but not as big as we reported in the Nature paper last year," Professor Bryden observed.
"But we have had a decrease… in the order of 10% of the overturning circulation in the past 25 years."
By the way, the notorious sci-fi fantasy movie The Day After Tomorrow featured an array of ocean temperature / salinity monitors in the North Atlantic just like this one, and in the movie it was sudden anomalous readings from those instruments that alerted a somewhat Professor Bryden-like scientist character that catastrophic changes were imminent. I wonder whether the filmmakers based that part of the film on the actual RAPID research program or did they just make something up that had a coincidental similarity?
Jeff Weffer says:
Here is an animation of the Gulf Stream – the Atlantic Thermohaline – over a two year period.
It is not exactly chaotic, but you would need measurements over very long time scales covering most of the Atlantic at various ocean depths before you could really say what was happening.
http://www.psc.edu/science/OKeefe/OKeefe-movie.mpg
wacki says:
Heh, this website doesn't seem to have of the basic info. There doesn't seem to be a map of where the moorings are located, a picture of the mooring, etc. Heck I can't even find a list of the number of moorings.
Am I right in that this website is lacking or am I just blind?
[Response:Try: http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/rapidmoc/ -gavin]
Ken Rushton says:
From what I can see in the satellite images, e.g. NOAA SST Anomolies, the flow volume has, perhaps, not changed in the North Atlantic/Arctic ocean, but the turnover point has definately moved north – the blue areas to the north west of Asia look to be areas that were previously ice and are now an ice/sea water mix that is a bit cooler.
OPEC says British climate change report "unfounded"
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-10-31T101400Z_01_L31174050_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-STERN-OPEC.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
Britain to push for global climate deal by 2008
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1935552,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
David Fanning says:
I guess one could argue whether a 10% decline in the overturning circulation in the past 25 years was "dramatic" or not, but from the perspective of a person living in England, I guess it could be. In any case, I'm not about to quibble with the term.
I didn't find the Guardian article particularly offensive or alarmist. From my experience it is just about what science editors want from their reporters when faced with dramatic circulation decreases in newspaper readership. (I didn't mean this as a pun, but perhaps it is. In any case, it might explain why a reporter sees a 10 percent decrease as "dramatic.") The story is simply told from a particular point of view. Granted, from the point of view of someone who had seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow, but I bet this applies to a number of Guardian readers. I prefer the BBC article, too, but I doubt the BBC cares as much about circulation (as in "newspaper") as the Guardian.
We shouldn't be too hard on newspaper science reporters. There are damn few of them left, and the trend is not in their direction. Who thinks working with the entertianment reporter is going to be any easier once they are gone?
[Response: Your point is well taken. The issue here is really the signal-to-noise ratio. A potential 10% decline (2 Sv) is clearly within the sampling error of the data – thus no clear conclusion can be drawn. After another few years of monitoring we might be able to say something, but given the other evidence (different arrays, SST, water mass properties) that nothing that unusual is going on (so far), the balance of evidence suggests little or no trend. With respect to newspapers and reporting, I am usually a big fan of the Guardian and they generally do a good job – but it's cruicial to get the right context, and blogs like this can help both lay readers and journalists to get a better grip on that. If we criticise this, it's because we expect that they can do better. By contrast, we're not bothering to critique the Daily Mail piece by Melanie Griffiths yesterday because that was just rubbish, and we've got no expectation that they are interested in doing better. – gavin ]
Gene Hawkridge says:
The newspaper business, especially now days, is a tough business. Newspapers don't get sold with the hypercautious version of events that scientists often tell. People who buy newspapers want drama. Certainly the possibility of an ocean current stopping, and leaving Europe much colder provides such drama. It is also why one should read newspapers with a lot of skeptism, as this Guardian story illustrates. They are often more entertainment for the masses than carefully written acccounts of events: in other words, they come close to being fictional accounts with just a shred of truth in them.
This is not all bad, of course. Without the drama, people will not get excited about global warming and its sometimes counterintuitive consequences. We need people to be concerned. It is also true, however, that to maintain the credibility of the scientific community, we do need to point out when newspaper stories run seriously amiss.
Richard Ordway says:
re. 1 "Ah, you scientists and your….science"
Please draw three things from this article.
1). Real scientists openly disclose their findings, no matter what the potential ramifications.
2). A solid consensus exists and has existed for years now that global warming is happening (Unlike the conveyor belt slowing up in the long term), and that humans are causing a large part of global warming and that we are most likley in deep doo-doo if we don't so something to stop global warming.
3.) Messy scientific studies, like this MOC one, must first be debated, analyzed and tested before a consensus is reached. This is a seemingly messy study (to the public) but is necessesary to reach eventually, hopefully, a consensus on whether the meridonial overturning circulation (MOC, ocean conveyor belt, thermohaline, etc.) is indeed showing long-term slowdown or not.
rocky collins says:
I don't know where else to post this comment, so I'll try here…
Can anyone at realclimate.org please respond to this article?
The author challenges Gavin Schmidt by name.
http://www.rocketscientistsjournal.com/2006/10/co2_acquittal.html
[Response: That's pretty confused. He neither understands the physics of CO2, nor the implications of the Vostok record, nor the concept of positive feedback. We've discussed each of these issues before, and I would refer you there. – gavin]
Martin Visbeck says:
Gavin's account of the meeting and my letter in the Guardian are not ment to offend the maybe declining? species of science reporters. I know this is not easy and I don't expect that articles should be just pleasing to the scientist, debate is good and heatly. What I objected to was the selection of the most speculative part of one talk at the meeting and setting it into an 'alarmist' context by quoting words from an obvious non expert, who apparently was not even aware of beeing "interviewed".
What was actually shown was a change in one part of the deep flow that could have been more than made up by a stronger transport in a shallower layer or further into the ocean away from where the current meters where. These are actually quite common phenomna that have been seen in several similar boundary current arrays at other places along the so called deep western boundary current. So initself this is not even "dramatically" new. But such an explaination could have been provided by an expert in field, if they would have been asked (several were at the meeting speaking in the same session….).
Maybe some exageration is needed to make a story interesting, but is this really also true for the science page of a what I was told is a respected paper?
I was also told by the reporter that one aspect of the story was cut by his editor that had set the Bryden Dec 2005 result into the variability perspective… so why was that cut and not the 10 day apparent halt? The answer is simple: Variability of climate is much less interesting that the possibility of a dramatic change event…
And from a selling the paper point of view this is hard to argue with… we get told the news we want to hear. No offense but that is exactly what comment #1 was telling us… but please don't abuse the science section of a paper for such speculations.
I sympathize with Martin Visbeck's point of view regarding what goes into the newspaper. I really do. But having decided to break out of my own little scientific niche and moonlight as a reporter for my local radio station I am beginning to see (and appreciate) the other side of the coin.
I recently attended a tamarisk conference. Tamarisk is an invasive species of tree and is said to consume massive amounts of water as it out-competes native vegetation in riparian habitats. A big deal in the part of the world I live in. I diligently read the conference program and abstracts of the talks and posters before I arrived, but I didn't know this crowd, and it was EXTREMELY hard to know who the "experts" were. In fact, everyone, including me, was wearing the exact same badge. (It would really help if the experts would identify themselves with a gold star or something! :^)
Faced with a deadline, I did what I could. I tracked down a conference organizer and asked who the honchos were. He pointed out a few of them, and gave me the names of a few more, most of whom I couldn't find at the breaks between sessions, so I never did end up interviewing them. I got some tape, but the story, from what I could tell, was that tamarisk actually use about as much water as the cottonwoods we use to replace them. (The extremely high figure everyone cites was a wild guess someone pulled out of the air years ago and had no scientific basis.) Not the sort of thing our listeners (as represented to me by my editor) really wanted to hear, apparently. The story exists only on my computer.
My point is this. Being a diligent science reporter isn't enough. Stories have to be sold. To your editor, to the public, to the advertisers who keep the paper/radio/magazine on the air. As scientists, we need to think about this and help the poor science reporter do his or her job. Don't blather on, as one "expert" did about the nuances of how shade affects the succession of plants found in the vicinity of tamarisk. I'm sure it's a great research topic. But I need four minutes of something exciting in about three hours and that dunderhead over there by the cannoli talking about the "idiots at the BLM" is looking more and more interesting to me!
[Response: From what I've seen of the best science reporters, they tend to build a base of people who they trust to get things right and who don't have personal agendas. Ideas then get bounced around them and interesting (and credible) experts on specifc topics suggested. Since this takes time, it isn't always available for newbies or reporters for whom this isn't their usual beat – thus assessment reports from IPCC or NAS, or blogs like this (potentially) must serve instead. As for some scientists' inability to talk to journalists at an appropriate level, that is something you only get better at with a lot of practice – and most of us don't get that much practice. -gavin]
Nick Riley says:
Readers may wish to know that the RAPID website is at
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapid//rapid2006/
Nick Riley
Gavin writes:
As for some scientists' inability to talk to journalists at an appropriate level, that is something you only get better at with a lot of practice – and most of us don't get that much practice.
My mother used to tell me that with a little attitude adjustment I wouldn't mind piano practice so much. I wonder if the theory applies here, too. Less distain and more sympathy, like a lump of sugar, makes the medicine go down. :-)
Re #13: Gavin is being nice. Your rocket scientist does not even seem to understand basic accounting:
Since the industrial revolution, man has been dumping CO2 into the atmosphere at an accelerating rate. However the measured increase in the atmosphere amounts to only about half of that manmade CO2. This is what National Geographic called, �The Case of the Missing Carbon�. Climatologists claim that the increases in CO2 are manmade, notwithstanding the accounting problems.
OK, so I put 100 bucks a week into my bank account, but it only grows by 50 bucks a week. I may have an "accounting problem", but are you going to tell me that the 50 bucks that is left does not come from me at all, but is a weekly gift from the bank?
It is not rocket science.
savegaia says:
1 Nov 2006 at 1:24 AM
The movie got more similarities… to bad its like the same scenario.
(Science warns and politic does nothing than catastrophic event and all act (panic). Than with time they figure its to late to prevent catastrophic climate change. Well the plot takes place during the panic phase — becoming aware of uber changes. The solution was to go to mexico, though a part 2 movie would feature americans in mexico. Without anything. )
How high is the chance that other species encounter exactly the same problems with a planets climate change — leading to unnatural global warming — antrophogenetic global warming?
How high is the chance, we ride into the chaos and only a few breeding pairs will be left at the poles and eg. 95% of life extinct, as happend in earlyer events of natural gw?
How high is the chance, that we will limit ressources per person and change limited engery(fossil) to renewable energy?
There are many ways on the pathway to a planet which is habitable and has a big human population on it.
The best way i think is, to regulate systems. And this will not work while nations act in diffrent ways, it will only work when all team up, as its a global threat. And it will only work if ppl change their godly lifestyles (comsumeing and not renewing).
It will only work if we change the way we use energy global, and this can be only made in numbers by the biggest polutioners.
I recently heard a talk by one of the authors of the ICES Report on Ocean Climate. You can find the most recent annual report here: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/ICES_WGOH/CRR280.pdf .
She explained that there were a lot of uncertainties about any changes in the ocean circulation, but that the one clear trend over the past few decades was warming and increase in salinity in the surface waters, particularly in the far north. The way I understood her talk (and sorry if I didn't pick it up right!) it suggested that the much-reported long-term freshening in the northern North Atlantic was only found in the deeper waters, not close to the surface. She also said that her team had previously found an apparent weakening in the deep water circulation between Shetland and the Faroes, but that an overall weakening of the circulation was not consistent with the much clearer trend towards greater warmth and salinith in the far north.
Does my summary of what I understand the ICES findings to be sound similar to what the RAPID conference discussed? As a lay person, this actually sounds like a strengthening of the overturning circulation (and the extra warmth which that would bring to the northern latitudes sounds pretty scary in its own right), although I must stress that this is not a statement which the speaker I heard made.
John Monro says:
Yes, I first heard about the "dramatic ceasing" of this North Atlantic circulation the afternoon in a discussion here on the radio, when a New Zealand blogger, media commentator and keen supporter of the need to deal with global warming, Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury, used this information to back his thesis and support the sort of action needed following the Stern report. You can hear his comments here on the Radio NZ site for the next seven days.
I was quite concerned to hear his using of this information "The Stern report is remarkably optimistic …..it could be a lot worse…. the North Atlantic COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN FOR TEN DAYS last year. It shut off for ten whole days. That's crazy. If this current shut off altogether, the whole northern hemisphere would be plunged into an ice age. That's the climate concern…. within a ten year period". I have posted here previously about the way global warming deniers can twist and misuse scientific information. It is really important that people who are genuinely concerned about global warming don't fall into the same trap in a misguided effort to reinforce their arguments in debates with others. The science of anthropogenic global warming is actually very robust, and becomes more so with each passing year. We don't need contentious findings taken out of context to support our thesis. Hence this realclimate site of course. Bomber Bradbury was reasonably criticised by the other commentator on the programme for being unduly alarmist and a harbinger of doom. She was right to do so.
What is concerning is that a so-called quality newspaper should have to resort to such simplistic headline grabbing reports to "sell a story". It says a lot about the commercial imperatives that drives so much of the media, and the problems our society is going to face in debating and dealing with the real issues, if we can't access sensible information from the popular and quality media, or that good science can so easily be trivialised and distorted.
Did the scientists presenting this data spell out in words of single sylables, on at least several different occasions, that this information is new, that the variation in circulation discovered is more than expected and that no conclusions in regard to global warming can be drawn, nor should they be. And if not, why not? Have they, or will they, write to the Guardian, pointing out the paper's misinterpretation of the actual data and it's insupportably alarmist tone.
Craig Hubley says:
"Since the industrial revolution, man has been dumping CO2 into the atmosphere at an accelerating rate. However the measured increase in the atmosphere amounts to only about half of that manmade CO2." It's dishonest to argue that this is in any way a problem for the greenhouse effect thesis.
That thesis certainly includes the fact that warming causes additional carbon release and triggers processes that absorb more CO2 than previously. For instance, warming in the Arctic releases previously frozen CO2 in melted permafrost and melts frozen CH4, but global warming also stimulates plant growth and especially algae growth which absorbs CO2. If the stimulus to the plants causes them to absorb more CO2 than was released by melt or other physical reactions, then, that explains the so-called discrepancy. But it doesn't mean that the land-based plants can keep doing it – especially not if they suffer drought, wind damage, fire or flood due to other effects of the warming atmosphere. It's hard to see how the sea-based plants would stop though.
Chip Knappenberger says:
1 Nov 2006 at 11:15 AM
Thanks for the update, Gavin.
1 Nov 2006 at 12:57 PM
The thermohaline circulation (THC) is a term for the global density-driven circulation of the oceans. Derivation is from thermo- for heat and -haline for salt, which together determine the density of sea water. Wind driven surface currents (such as the Gulf Stream) head polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows downhill into the deep water basins, only resurfacing in the northeast Pacific Ocean 1200 years later[citation needed].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermohaline_circulation
Dr. James Hansen says it takes up to 1000 years till the ocean heat up from gw, as human greenhouse gases are excelarating at the fastest rate ever recorded (in compare to planets history climate events.). The point is, once the ocean reach a tipping point from heat up — methan sailed in ocean sediments will bubble up to the surface and than trigger an massive methan push into the atmosphere — such event would bring more greenhouse gases (methane levels) which gives global climate a major shift.
gengar says:
Just for clarification – when you say 'the variations day by day varied by around 5 Sv', do you mean that the difference between consecutive measurements was up to 5 Sv, or that the calculated flow fell within a 5 Sv range over the whole measurement period?
[Response: The latter. By eye I'd estimate that the variability was happening mainly at multi-day timescales, so you could have big swings over a couple of weeks or so. – gavin]
First we have William quoting The Clash, then Gavin disinterring Simon & Garfunkel (The Boxer). What next? Mike channeling Burt Bacharach? Stefan travelling down Kraftwerk's Autobahn?
[Response: We're just trying to demonstrate how in tune we are with the zeitgeist…. (admittedly, the zeitgeist of the 1970s, but it's a start!). Kraftwerk's 'The Model' would have been a better choice for Stefan though! – gavin]
Dear John Monro
I did write a letter and it got published.. and I know of a second letter that was sent from Bruce Warren of Woods Hole to the Guardian. But not all papers have the ability to publish all those letters. They have to pick and choose. Furthermore such letters receive less attention than the alarmist story did. Part of the issue is that (environmental) science is only in a very few cases clear cut. So stating in "single sylables" that the ocean circulation is not changing would be just as dishonest as saying it did. What we can say is: in most all places we were able to look carefully the chages are smaller than the "natural variability"… that is an honest statement but not BIG NEWS… plus it is hard work and costly to make those measurements so we have done it only in a few places …
I hope that sites like REALCLIMATE can provide a forum for non experts to at least get a feel for the state of debate… and where important NON NEWS can become relevant information for the interested.
Thanks for your reply – much appreciated. In my comments about the scientists saying things in single sylables, I was being facetious, which isn't always easy to convey in print, perhaps I should've used a smiley! I know you don't say things quite like that. But sometimes I wonder if the press aren't like children, they only hear exactly what they wish to hear, and not to be misquoted you just have to be so pedantically careful, hence my comments, journalists seem to need to have things exactly – spelled – out – for -them. Also, I didn't actually say that scientists shouldn't say that the ocean circulation isn't changing, I actually said "that the variation in ocean circulation was more than expected and that no conclusions in regard to global warming can be drawn". I think this statement is fair? The problem is for you, I imagine, that global warming sceptics will now be flinging what they regard as your alarmist position back in your face, even though it wasn't you at all.
But I am pleased you were able to get one letter published, but as you say, correspondence doesn't get anything like the same prominence as the original, and mischievous, article. I don't live in the UK, and I don't read the Guardian, so unfortunately I haven't been able to read your letter either.
George Roman says:
What this discussion has not yet touched on is that the Guardian story was actually framed by referring to the incorrect and widespread assumption that ocean currents are the main cause of Europe's relatively mild winters:
"Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in THE VAST OCEAN CURRENT THAT GIVES BRITAIN ITS RELATIVELY BALMY CLIMATE" (emphasis added)
This 'myth' has been analyzed by Richard Seager in the Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society and described in a more popular story here:
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/51963?fulltext=true
and also here:
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/gs/
So, it's ironic…if 'The Guardian' wasn't framing their story based on a popular incorrect perception in the first place then they probably wouldn't report on a conference like this at all. Instead all this would just be a scientific curiosity boring to the layperson and not likely to make it into the newspapers.
[Response: You are misreading Seager's work. His claim is not that the THC doesn't impact Britain and Europe, but that it isn't responsible for the difference in temperature across the Atlantic. Not the same thing at all. -gavin]
Regarding Martin Visbeck in #14, I suspect it's not that variability was less "interesting", but that the editor has a POV that must be served for a fact to make it into his paper.
After reading a recent article in the New York Times on the paucity of research investment into CO2 abatement and alternative fuel technologies, I e-mailed the writer to inquire about his exclusion of a mention of the algae-to-biofuel research that is being conducted by several companies using private funds. The goal of these companies is to treat CO2 at the source as food for algae grown in bioreactors.
At least one of the companies has reported that they have been able to measure a 40% reduction of CO2 at their test site on the MIT campus. This sort of reduction, if credible and scalable could result in the production of enough biofuels grown off the exhaust of the coal and natural gas power plants in the US to replace all of the current petroleum consumption by the US.
This is the response I got: "we tried to focus this piece on options that can be done at scale sufficient to avert 10s of billions of tons of emissions. unless i'm mistaken, direct absorption at a power plant cant' come close to handling that scale".
40% reduction would seem to contradict his conclusion, or would had he done any reporting…
But his agenda was revealed when he continued: "we don't want to imply something is a big part of limiting climate impact if it can't (partic
because that might cause readers to 'relax' a bit and think the whole thing is solved."
The piece he wrote was littered with technologies that will never be a "big part of limiting climate impact", but they all had the commonality that their limitations were so obvious that it was clear to any reader that there is no solution, except to increase spending on "research" into dubious ideas.
So there you have the explanation both for the content and tone of both the Gruniard piece and the Times piece. The points of the articles are less to inform opinion than to drive it.
Re #13 and #18:
I see that my name was used (without my knowledge) in the same article. I think that the main error the author made is using the pre-industrial correlation between temperature (as cause) and CO2 (as effect) to explain a no-effect of CO2 since the industrial revolution (as cause) on temperature. Further, the "missing sink" meanwhile is found in increased uptake by land/ocean biota (which gives less O2 change than calculated from fossil fuel use and land use changes).
While in most cases there is an overlap between temperature changes and CO2 changes in the Vostok ice core, the effect of a ~40 ppmv CO2 change on temperature at the (non-overlap) first dip of the last ice age is small (non-detect in the temperature proxy). This may indicate a rather small influence of CO2 on temperature (at or even below the low side of the IPCC 1.5-4.5 K range for 2xCO2).
At the other side, it is quite sure that the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is from human emissions, there are a lot of indications for that (d13C ratios and CO2 levels in air and upper oceans, O2 levels in the atmosphere and pH of the oceans), which exclude other sources than human emissions. And last but not least, the fact that the change of ~1 K in global (ocean) temperature since the LIA can not give more than a 10 ppmv CO2 increase, if the Vostok temperature-CO2 correlation still holds, while in the same period the measured (ice core) levels increased with 60-70 ppmv…
Alon says:
Given this work by Richard Seager and David Battisti:
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/51963?fulltext=true&print=yes
Couldn't we be a bit less worried about MOC slowing?
I guess this will still have impact on climate, but not the doomsday scenario we hear so much about.
olle w says:
How can yiu be alarmed with out knowing what´s normal. Maybe the current pause all the time. If you have not bin messuring in the past how the hell should you know then.
Re: Gavin's comments and #32
Please note that Seager's comments in the American Scientist hark back to his earlier work with Battisti. Their analysis used a model which did not include a computed model of sea-ice, instead proscribing a seasonal cycle based on historical areas. They compared this model with an earlier model experiment which did include sea-ice, which suggested an increase in the area of sea-ice in the North Atlantic Sub Polar Gyre. The model which included the impact of increased sea-ice due to a shutdown of the THC produced much cooler conditions over Northern Europe. Projections based on experiments without a dynamic se-ice model are likely to be inaccurate, IMHO.
As an example, consider that there is data which points to a freshening of the Sub Polar Gyre. (see the link at comment #16 for the abstracts of the conference). At the same time, we now learn that the flow thru the Faroe Bank Channel has exhibiting an "substantial increase" in salinity (1). The implications of this change might be that the recent increase in yearly cycle in sea-ice extent (2) may be producing more salinity induced THC as brine is rejected below the new sea-ice. This process is different from what has been seen in past years and the location of the sinking may be shifting from the Greenland and Labrador Seas to the Barents Sea. If so, it might be expected that the minimum extent of sea-ice will decline even faster as more warm water flows into the Arctic Ocean below the sea-ice to replace that water which sinks.
Just last August, there was a noticeable change in the ice to between the North Atlantic and the North Pole, as reported by the ESA (3). And, we learned a few days ago that the Northwest Passage was much easier to traverse this October than in pervious decades (4).
1. Theme 1 Poster No. A11. "Faroe Bank Channel overflow 1995 – 2005",
B. Hansen, S. �sterhus, D. Quadfasel.
2. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/seaice_meltdown.html
3. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Summer_Ice_Anomaly_Shocks_Scientists_999.html
4. "Melting Arctic Makes Way for Man", Washington Post, 5 November 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110401173.html
The oceans affected by naval and merchant ships operating and sailing the seas back and forth should have been the hottest topic in the debate on climate change since meteorology was established as a science in the late 19th century. Instead of that, oceans were ignored up to the late 20th century and not even today do they enjoy the significant position they deserve. Oceans are a decisive climatic force, the second after the sun.
I emphasize with the idea that Naval War had a great impact in the climate change. I suggest visiting this thesis
HGH says:
Gavin. I don't see why you are so shocked. We could find thousands of similar examples of the media reporting a story inaccurately.
Richard Kerr from Science Magazine has picked up the story this week…
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5802/1064a


Is nursing a career or a calling?
Can somebody tell us the requirement to open up a Nursing Homes or Home care facilities in Lagos?
Our practice was established by Nursing and Midwifery Registration, etc. [Amendment] [decree 83 of 1992 section 23 [1&2] which is an act of parliament]. The above section permits Nursing and Midwives to set up a private Nursing and Maternity home after 5 years post qualification (like in other professions) and practice according to the training curriculum prescribed and approved by the Nursing and midwifery council of Nigeria. With evidence of having prompt access to a practicing obstetrican & gynecologist or and experienced medical practitioner in case of serious emergencies.
The said curriculum among other things expects a Nurse or Midwife to diagnosing and treating frequently occuring medical and surgical conditions including simple obstetrical care.
With these constitutional responsibilities, we provide preventive, curative and supportive health care independently at the primary care level and bridging gap between primary and secondary level.
(3)	REGISTRATION:-	Since the commencement of the Lagos State Health Sector Reform Law, no person is authorized to establish, carry on or run a health facility in the state on any premises not registered with HEFAMAA.
(20)	Other Health Care Units in Special Categories.
(b)	APPLICATION: application to register a private health facility involves writing a letter of application addressed to the Honourable Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja and application forms are obtainable from the Secretary to the agency on presentation of a treasury receipt for a prescribed sum paid into the State Government Treasury.
(1)	the medical practitioner in charge of, and any other medical practitioner connected with the health facility or any part thereof is qualified to practice any special branch of medicine there dealt with and is in all other respect, a fit and proper person.
(4)	the premises are satisfactory and in conformity with the requirements approved by the Authority.
(6)	the health facility with in-patient facilities contains the maximum numbers of beds allowed under the Law.
(7)	Where a health facility or a clinic in operation engages in compounding of drugs, such health facility or clinic shall employ and retain the services of a qualified pharmacist who shall be registered and licensed by the Pharmacy Board of Nigeria.
NOTE:	Conditions for the operations of the various schedules apply for are stated categorically in the brochure purchased during registration.
(3)	photocopy of evidence of Current Practicing License of each doctors in the facility.
(4)	photocopy of credentials and practicing license of Nurses/Midwives.
(7)	diagrammatic sketch of the Institution, room with labels and measurements in metres.
(10)Monthly Data are to be completed and submitted to our officer, according to the category of the Health facility and returned every month.
FOR 2011 RENEWAL OF REGISTRATION OF HEALTH FACILITIES.
3.	Letter of Introduction from NMA, AGPMPN, or Guild of Medical Directors.
4.	Photocopy of Certificates and Practicing License of (Nurse, Doctor).
- Identification Letter from NANNM.
-	Photocopy of Certificates of Supervising Doctor and Current Practicing License.
-	Current Practicing License and Certificates of other Medical Staff.
Laboratory: - Letter of Introduction from the Association of their zone.
- Photocopy of Current Practicing License of Laboratory Scientist.
******	TAX CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE FOR ALL FACILITY PROPRIETORS.
All Operating Officers who did not submit the renewal form for 2010 will be liable to pay #10,000 penalty, non collection of renewal certificates attracts a penalty of #10,000.
Deadline for renewal for 2011 is 31st March, 2011.
The Agency shall issue a certificate of registration to any person who applies under the Law and has satisfied the conditions in respect of premises to be used for health facility.
A certificate of Registration issued by the Agency shall be signed by the Secretary and shall contain the Seal of the Agency.
Subject to the provisions of the Health Sector Reform Law, no medical practitioner shall be in charge of more than one registered health facility.
A certificate of registration may be renewed every 12 months on the provision of Medical Records and Statistics.
f. REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL FEES FOR 2011.
Note: ALL FACILITIES HAVING MORE THAN TWO BEDS WILL PAY THE FEE FOR AN HOSPITAL.
LETTER FROM VARIOUS PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS ARE YEARLY AND WILL HAVE TO BE SUBMITTED WITH THE RENEWAL FORM AND TAX CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE/ RECEIPTS OF PAYMENT OF TAX.
(3) Professional Certificate of the head of the facility.
- Photocopy of Certificates of Supervising Doctor and Current Practicing License.
- Current Practicing License and Certificates of other Medical Staff.
(c) You have demonstrated unequivocally that there is prompt access to a practicing obstetrician and gynaecologist or an experienced medical practitioner at all times, who has legal responsibility for attending to any emergencies.
23.Nursing or midwifery duties, etc.
(1)A nurse or midwife registered under this Act shall be entitled to carry out nursing or midwifery care as provided for in the training curriculum prescribed and approved by the Council.
(c)he has demonstrated unequivocally that there is prompt access to a practising obstetrician and gynaecologist or an experienced medical practitioner at all times, who has legal responsibility for attending to any emergencies.
Read more advice from experience nurse.


text:
Belleza, Complementos y accesorios, JOYERÍA, MODA, Rings
CARTIER - The LOVE IS ALL cast share their seasonal bests
The LOVE IS ALL cast share their seasonal bests What is the best gift? Best place to spend New Year's Eve? Best holiday memory? Behind the scenes of the LOVE IS ALL film set, Maisie Williams, Willow Smith, Troye Sivan, Mariacarla…
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Accesorios y Complementos, BEAUTY, Collares, DESTACADOS, Diamantes, Emociones, Especial, ESTILO DE VIDA, EVENTOS, Exposiciones, Ferias, Joyas, JOYERÍA, Joyería, MyEvents, OCIO, Pendientes, Perlas, REPORTAJES, Rings
2021 actresses Léa Seydoux and Ana de Armas attended the world premiere of No Time To Die wearing jewelry by Chopard
On Tuesday September 28th, 2021 actresses Léa Seydoux and Ana de Armas attended the world premiere of No Time To Die wearing jewelry by Chopard Léa selected to wear a pair of "Nuage" earrings featuring brilliant-cut diamonds…
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Accesorios y Complementos, Belleza, Collares, Diamantes, Especial, ESTILO DE VIDA, EVENTOS, JOYERÍA, MODA, Mujer, MyEvents, Oro
'Magnifica' Opera d'Arte - Discover Bvlgari's new High Jewelry Collection
'Magnifica' Opera d'Arte - Discover Bvlgari's new High Jewelry Collection The vibrant inspiration of Rome returns to lift the hearts of the world. Shining into Italy's fashion capital like a blinding ray of sunshine, Bvlgari presents its…
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HAPPY DIAMOND: CHOPARD'S ADN, JULIA ROBERTS INTERPRET THE JOIE DE VIVRE They whirl, they waltz, they twirl, they appear to float as if weightless and almost make one forget the passing of time. There is nothing more mesmerising than the…
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Operators may request approval by submitting an online application in the NCAA Scouting Service Approval System.
The application is only available between March 1 and 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on May 31. An email is sent annually when the application goes live to all services approved the previous year and any service that has requested to be notified when the application is available. This email is merely a courtesy and regardless of the email's receipt, the applicant is responsible to apply prior to the specified deadline. Late submissions are not accepted. Failure to apply while the application is available online will require the service to wait until the application is available again the following year.
A recruiting/scouting service operator only needs ONE user account for the Scouting Service Approval System. Once an account is created, that same account should be utilized each year. Contact information can be update at any time; so, operators should NOT create a new account if edits need to be made to the address, phone number or e-mail.
The applicant will be asked to answer a series of questions that correspond to the NCAA legislated requirements and will need to provide ECAG a sample of the published data and/or login credentials (username and password), if the service is an online service.
ECAG will evaluate each application in the order they are submitted. Due to the volume of application submitted in a very concentrated window of time, you should anticipate a minimum of two weeks for our staff to process your application. As in years past, approvals will not be granted/posted until after April 1.
If ECAG needs clarification regarding your submission, you will receive an email requesting additional information and will have 10 days to address those issues. Failure to respond by the deadline will result in a denial of your application. Again, all deadlines are strictly enforced; so plan accordingly.
If the service is determined to be compliant, you will receive an approval notification via email. The list of approved services is available at http://web1.ncaa.org/scouting/school_search, but access is limited to NCAA institutional staff with a MyApps login. Once approved, institutions can subscribe immediately, and the approval will be valid until May 31 the following year.
If the operator has applied, but a decision has not yet been rendered, OR the operator has not yet applied in the current season/year, no claims of NCAA certification/approval are permitted. False claims of certification/approval may impact future eligibility to be NCAA-certified/approved.
Service operators are responsible for ensuring that their recruiting/scouting services AND all staff or individuals contributing to the service product/success are compliant with NCAA requirements. Therefore, it is advisable as a service operator to make sure you know and understand these requirements and have plans/procedures to successfully meet these expectations.
You are responsible for educating and monitoring your staff/contributors and if those individuals fail to conduct themselves within the NCAA requirements, it could result in the loss of current or denial of future approval for a period of up to five (5) years. Violations of NCAA requirements/expectations are subject to penalties described in the ECAG Adverse Actions guideline.


United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have all come out with Back to School shopping promotions, offering bonus miles/points when specific spending levels are made through their respective online shopping portals.
Here's a look at each airline's promotion.
A few times a year, the United MileagePlus Shopping portal will offer bonus miles for certain spending thresholds.
This is a great way to increase your United miles balance by simply using the MileagePlus Shopping portal for purchases you were going to make anyway.
And if you participate each time these bonuses are offered, you could easily add anywhere from 1,000 up to 10,000 United miles just from the shopping portal.
The bonus offer is valid 7/21/17 through 8/18/17.
Purchases made during this period through the United MileagePlus Shopping portal will count toward bonus mile earning.
Qualifying purchases are measured cumulatively, meaning you can make multiple purchases throughout the bonus period, and the grand total of all your purchases will determine the bonus miles you'll earn.
Bonus miles will post to accounts 8-10 weeks after the bonus period ends.
Here's an example of earning potential with this deal, factoring in a strategically used credit card to maximize points earning.
Sign in to the United MileagePlus Shopping portal using your MileagePlus account log in info.
Make your $600 laptop purchase on Staples.com using your Chase Ink Cash credit card to pay.
Earn a ton of Miles and Points.
So for this one approximately $600 purchase, you'd earn 3,600 United miles via the MileagePlus Shopping portal and roughly 3,000 Ultimate Rewards points via the Chase Ink Cash card (that can be transferred to United at a 1:1 rate), making your total United miles haul 6,600 miles!
Of course, the amount earned via the credit card will vary depending on the card used and retailer at which you shop.
The Purchase Example aside, the current United MileagePlus Shopping portal bonus is a great way to earn extra United miles simply by using the portal to do your online shopping over the next month.
The American Airlines AAdvantage Shopping portal is out with its Back to School bonus.
The shopping bonus runs 7/23/17 through 8/18/17.
Spend requirements are cumulative, meaning total spend is based on all purchases made during the bonus period. You don't have to spend $500 in one shot to earn the 2,000 bonus miles.
Here's the fine print in case you're interested.
Personally, I don't find this deal as enticing as the United shopping bonus. Not because the bonus miles offered are less, but because – at least right now – American miles are much more difficult to use at an economical rate.
Trying to find low-level award availability – whether it's domestic or international – on American Airlines is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. And if you do find MileSAAver availability at the rate it should be – 12,500 one-way/25,000 roundtrip in economy – the flight times are usually not the most desirable.
But, if American is your airline of choice, and AAdvantage miles your preferred award currency, then this deal will help boost your balance for your next award redemption.
Southwest Airlines has joined the Bonus Miles party.
Beginning 7/24/17 and running through 8/18/17, Southwest Airlines is offering these bonuses for shopping through the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping portal.
As with the other airline shopping portals, there are a wide variety of retailers from which to choose, each earning a varying amount of Rapid Rewards points per dollar spent. These earned points are in addition to any bonus points you might earn during this period. Here are just a few.
And also as with the other airline bonus miles/points promotions, the bonuses are based on cumulative qualifying purchases, meaning multiple purchases at multiple retailers are lumped together to get your total spend during the promotion period. It is this number that determines which bonus you'll receive. No need to spend $550 at one retailer in one purchase to get the 2,000 Rapid Rewards points…unless that's what you want to do.
In case you're interested, here's the fine print associated with the Rapid Rewards Shopping promotion.
While the Rapid Rewards bonus points deal isn't bad, I, personally, would go after the United miles. Although, the same Chase Ultimate Rewards play I outlined in the United bonus miles blurb could apply here as well.
Use a Chase Ink credit card to purchase at a retailer earning 5x Ultimate Rewards points – or 3x with the latest version of the Ink card – per dollar spent (think office supply stores or major cell service providers) and those Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 rate to Southwest Airlines, greatly increasing your overall earnings rate.
You'll earn the multiple points with your credit card, additional Southwest points based on the specific retailer's points/dollar payout and any bonus points you'll receive from this promotion.
If you're a fan of Southwest Airlines and its Rapid Rewards program, this just might be an offer you want to jump on to add to your stash of Rapid Rewards points.


text:
Q: Java Servlet & jQuery AJAX - unable to retrieve object from session Not sure how to solve this, need some help here.
Ajax call brings user information to servlet, I save user object in HttpSession and control goes back to Ajax from where i redirect control to next JSP page via controller servlet. However, if i try to retrieve object from HttpSession it is null .. not sure how to solve this issue.
here is my code for firstservlet:
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {

    // get values from http request
    // persist "user" object to database

    HttpSession session = request.getSession();    //
    session.setAttribute("user", user);            //setting session variable

        Gson gson = new Gson();
        JsonElement jsonElement = null;
        jsonElement = gson.toJsonTree("/nextservlet");
        response.setContentType("text/plain");
        PrintWriter out=response.getWriter();

}

here is my Javascript / AJAX code to redirect request to nextservlet
    $.ajax({
                type: 'POST',
                url: 'firstservlet',
                dataType: 'json',
                contentType: 'application/json',
                data: JSON.stringify(quiz),

                success: function(result) {
                  //result = /nextservlet
                  window.location.href = result;

                },
                error:function(data,status,er) {
                    console.log("Error:",er);
                }
              });

and finally control comes to nextservlet - where i would like to process data and  then show new JSP page.
  public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {

    response.setContentType("text/plain");
    response.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");

    HttpSession session = request.getSession();
    User user = session.getAttribute("user");        //<--- this is NULL

    LOG.warning("User id is  : " + user.getId());    //<--- hence error here

    RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher
    ("/anotherpage.jsp");
    dispatcher.forward(request, response);

}
is issue because i am using -> window.location.href = result  to send request to nextservlet .. and it goes to  doGet??

A: I am not sure it but I see in Ajax
url: 'firstservlet',
type: 'POST'

and control goes to doGet method of nextservlet. It should be nextservlet of post method so use method doPost.

A: 18.12.22
i'm not sure... but try it
success: function(result) {
    // result = /nextservlet
    var form = document.createElement('form');
    form.action = result;
    form.method = 'GET'
    form.submit();
}

18.12.26
Javascript
$.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: '/firstservlet',
    dataType: 'json',
    contentType: 'application/json',
    data: JSON.stringfy(quiz),
    success: function(result) {
        console.info(result);
        var form = document.createElement('form');
        form.action = result;
        form.method = 'GET';
        document.body.appendChild(form);
        form.submit();
    },
    error: function(data, status, err) {
        console.log("Error: ", err);
    }
});

Servlet
HttpSession session = request.getSession();
session.setAttribute("test", "test");

Gson gson = new Gson();
JsonElement jsonElement = gson.toJsonTree("/nextservlet");
response.setContentType("text/plain");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.print(gson.toJson(jsonElement));

It can read session attribute in doGet Method try it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Our board of directors Our executive team What we do Stakeholder e-newsletter Stakeholder e-newsletter thank you
We are governed by a board of nine directors. A third of the board are tenants, two members are nominated from Wiltshire Council and four are independent people who have an interest in the work that we do.
Our board of directors meet on a regular basis to:
set future plans
decide policies
watch how we spend our money
look at how we are providing our services
Board meetings in 2022 will take place on the following dates:
We hold an annual general meeting, or AGM, of our members once a year.
Our next AGM will be held on 6 October 2022.
You can find the AGM notice and the minutes for the 2021 AGM below.
Notice of AGM 2021 AGM draft minutes 2021
Sheila Lewis, chair
Sheila is the chair of the Selwood Housing board, and has worked in the housing sector for more than 40 years, where she began her early career in development and major repairs.
For the past 30 years she has been a management consultant working with housing associations, local authorities and charities. Sheila has been a non-executive director for different housing associations for over 10 years.
Cllr Richard Britton
Following an early career in the computer industry, Richard progressed to become assistant general manager of a substantial mutual fund. He then became an entrepreneur, launching and acquiring a number of businesses.
Richard has held a host of governance roles in public bodies including the NHS, Salisbury College, Wiltshire Police Authority and also serving as Leader of Salisbury District Council.
Steve Oldrieve
Steve is a professional engineer by trade and recently retired as a senior manager for a regional utilities company. He has lived in Trowbridge for over 30 years and is a Wiltshire councillor and Trowbridge town councillor. Steve will use his experience as a chartered engineer, his knowledge of the local community and working in a regulated organisation to support the work of Selwood Housing.
Chris Butters
Chris is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with around 30 years of commercial and professional experience. He was a corporate finance partner with PwC, has held various commercial board positions and now leads the Ventures Services team at Resonance Impact Investment where the mission is to arrange capital for charities and social enterprises.
Chris is also an independent advisor to the Cornwall Council Audit Committee and Governor/Treasurer to Taunton School. Chris lives in Taunton and is married to Janet, with three grown-up children.
David Knight
David is Chair and Director of Innovation at DEfactoED, a digital education business which provides online training in digital transformation for people working in private and public sector organisations.
Before co-founding DEfactoEd in 2017, David spent the larger part of his professional career with PwC, becoming a Consulting Partner in 1995 and spending over 20 years supporting a large number of organisations around the globe on their business transformation programs.
David is passionate about the opportunities that digital presents to revolutionise our lives and about preparing people for this new revolution.
Richard is a Selwood Housing shared ownership customer living on our new Edmund Park development in Frome. He has 30 years of customer service experience working in medium to large companies in commercial and higher education sectors. He most recently worked as the service manager for Citizens Advice in Bath.
He has a passion for all things customer and will be working to ensure customers voices are always heard and considered in his new role on our board of directors.
Stella Shepherd
Stella is a business studies graduate with 20 years of industry experience, which includes a background in accounts for distribution, law and property companies, and experience in purchase to payment process improvement.
Stella currently works as a bookkeeper for a local accountants and is a Selwood Housing shared ownership customer.
Valerie Lee
Valerie has over 30 years commercial experience with many well-known retail and FMCG brands across both the private and public sector. She has lived in Bath and North East Somerset for the last 20 years with her husband who is a primary school teacher and her two girls, who attended school in Wells and Radstock.
Valerie is passionate about supporting businesses that strive to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities across the South West. She is currently Chair of Sphere Leisure, a subsidiary of the Circadian Trust charity which operates leisure centres in the South Gloucestershire area, and she is also a board member at Plymouth Community Homes.
Neil Hales-Owen
Neil is a Selwood Housing shared ownership customer living on the new Callaway Gardens development in Westbury with his wife, Annette.
Neil has been working in transport for a local manufacturer for the past 15 years. He has previous experience working in sales and middle management amongst other roles. He has lived in Westbury for 18 years and likes to be involved in local community events.
Neil enjoys walking and cycling and cares about issues affecting his local countryside and environment.
Why not get involved?
Did you know that our tenants can become a member of Selwood Housing which means that you can vote on decisions made at our AGM.
Becoming a member is free. Just complete and sign the form below and send to:
Selwood Housing
Bryer Ash Business Park
Bradford Road
BA14 8RT
To find our more about becoming a Selwood Housing member, email Mark.Mayler@selwoodhousing.com or call us on 01225 715 715.
As a tenant or member of the public you are welcome to attend a board meeting if you wish. Contact us for more information.
Take a look at what our board have been discussing.
December 2021 board precis October 2021 board precis July 2021 board precis
March 2021 board precis December 2020 board precis October 2020 board precis
July 2020 board precis May 2020 board precis February 2020 board precis
October 2019 board precis July 2019 board precis May 2019 board precis
March 2019 board precis February 2019 board precis
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email: info@selwoodhousing.com
Selwood Housing is a registered charity (1141124). Selwood Housing Society Limited is a company limited by guarantee (4168336). We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority reference no 739372. All rights reserved.
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New Research Shows Wimbledon Keeps Serving Up a Winning Combo for Brands and Fans
With its clean image, positive associations and strong appeal amongst the coveted urban millennial demographic, Wimbledon remains a wonderful opportunity for brands and fans to mix.
Watched by 300 million viewers across 200 countries, and with almost half a million spectators in attendance over the two week period, yesterday saw the start of Wimbledon, the biggest tennis Championship of the year.
The All English Lawn Tennis Club are striving to infuse it with new technologies from Artificial Intelligence to Augmented Reality, and push it beyond the bounds of a two week tournament, so as it continues to evolve, we asked people across the UK about their views on this iconic sporting event.
To start, we asked 562 people whether they planned to watch Wimbledon this year.
Will you watch Wimbledon this year?
71% of respondents said they did plan to watch Wimbledon this year, with men more likely to tune in than women (76% to 67%).
Londoners were also particularly keen to watch the action happening in their backyard at SW19, with 78% of those working in the Capital saying they would watch at least some of the tournament.
It holds less sway with the younger generation though, with just 61% of those aged 18-21 planning on viewing any of the tournament.
With the push towards using an array of advanced technologies for increasing engagement, it will be interesting to see if this approach can re-engage Gen Z.
We then asked only those who were planning on watching the tournament more about their thoughts on tennis, and their Wimbledon viewing habits.
First we wanted to know, apart from tennis, what people most closely associate with Wimbledon.
Just under half of respondents (49%) said the simple yet satisfying combination of strawberries and cream was at the forefront of their minds when thinking of Wimbledon.
Served up at the first-ever Wimbledon tournament in 1877, this winning combo has since become a symbol of British summertime, especially when it comes to Wimbledon.
7% of respondents think of hot weather and summertime. Nostalgia also plays on people's minds when it comes to Wimbledon, with 5% of people associating it with the popular childhood show from the 70s, The Wombles.
Watching Wimbledon
The data shows that for most of the nation, catching live coverage of Wimbledon is hard to beat, with 81% opting to watch matches live on TV.
How will you watch Wimbledon?
9% will opt for the on-demand/recorded option, with 7% primarily watching online and a further 3% taking up the
recently announced Twitter service
, which will see the social media giant streaming games through its service.
Millennials (those aged 22-35) are particularly keen on this service, with almost 7% saying that they'll tune into the Championship via Twitter. They are also more likely to watch online.
This is a similar profile to those working in London, where they are also more than twice as likely than the national average to watch a tennis match during the tournament on Twitter.
For Millennials working in London, the popularity of Twitter's streaming really sky rockets, with 13% of this demographic planning to watch their tennis live stream service.
This seems like a perfect match for a heritage brand looking for new and interesting ways to connect with a younger generation, while it provides Twitter with popular, exclusive content that it can serve up to its users.
The results also show that on-demand and recorded viewing is much more popular with women than men (12% versus just 5%).
All eyes on the court
For two weeks, many of us will be fixated with what is happening on the courts, with 47% planning to watch as many games as possible.
Will you watch…
That is, unless you're 18-21, where just 26% of Gen Z are aiming to watch as much tennis as they can. Instead, they're far more likely to aim for 'just the highlights' – 21% versus the national average of 8% – a collective response that very much plays into the stereotype of younger generations having a short attention span.
It stands in even starker contrast when compared to those over 55, where 67% will watch as much as they can.
We also see that viewership is split across gender lines, with those saying they would watch only the men's final being 59% male; and those who will watch only the women's final being 60% female.
Brands serving an ace
At Wimbledon, some brands are probably as well known as the players.
When it comes to winning the competition for unprompted brand recall relating to tennis, Robinsons takes the trophy, with 16% of respondents thinking of the thirst quencher, showingtheir dedicationto sponsoring the event for the past 80 years has paid off.
Slazenger, which has actually sponsored Wimbledon for even longer than Robinsons (over a century), took the third spot. They were pipped to second by rivals Nike.
Another sporting goods manufacturer, Wilson, is featured in the Top 5 spot with a 6% share of unprompted brand recall.
Fred Perry, the clothing brand founded by thetriple Wimbledon champion after whom the company is named, takes the fourth spot.
Brands associated with Wimbledon. % Recall
Robinsons 16%
Nike 12%
Slazenger 11%
Fred Perry 7%
Wilson 6%
May the best player win
Of course, Wimbledon may enjoy some iconic brand partnerships, but it is still the players than make it such a storied and exciting fixture of the sporting calendar.
So we couldn't help but ask the most contentious question – who's the greatest ever player?
Rather than offer a free form answer, we instead selected 8 well-known and indisputably successful male and female players (4 of each gender). Of course, this meant we had to leave off many famous and arguably equally worthy names (though we did leave open the option to name someone not on the list).
Who do you think is the best ever tennis player?
Taking a clear position at the top of the results is Roger Federer.
Having won a men's record 18 Grand Slam singles titles, it's no surprise that his legend is well secured.
Taking second spot is Serena Williams, and deservedly so, with her total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles meaning she holds the record for the most Grand Slam wins by a tennis player in the Open Era.
As you would expect, age changes things somewhat, with those aged 55 and over more than twice as likely than the national average to pick John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova as the best ever.
Clean points
Do you think tennis has a doping problem, or that it is generally a clean sport?
Despite some of the controversies
surrounding former Wimbledon Champion and former tennis poster-girl Maria Sharapova, a large majority of the public remain confident that the sport is clean.
Wimbledon 2017 is set to be another smashing success, with large swathes of the UK keen to tune in and watch as much of the action as possible.
This can only continue to benefit those brands who support the tournament year-after-year, while new partnerships – for example with Twitter – appear to have an eager audience ready to embrace new ways to watch the stars.
If you'd like to dig deeper into these results, view the original data, or run your own survey then book a free consultation with our team today.
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Monsoon Standard twin pumps are designed for installation into vented systems to pump both hot and cold water supplies - boosting both equally. The S4.5 Bar Twin pump is suitable for positive head applications only.


Magellan is dedicated to conducting business in an ethical and legal manner. We are committed to preventing, detecting and reporting fraud, waste, and abuse across various categories of health care related fraud.
Send possible fraud cases for investigation.
Medical services that are not needed.
Billing for services that were not provided.
Billing for services not covered by Medicaid.
Using a billing code to get extra payments.
Using another person's identity to get Medicaid services.
The date of service for a claim.
Paying or taking a bribe.
If you think an individual or provider is committing fraud, waste and abuse, please report it.
The Magellan Corporate Compliance hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is handled by an outside company. Callers do not have to give their names. All calls will be investigated and will remain confidential.
You can also report fraud, waste or abuse to the LA Department of Health & Hospitals (DHH) fraud reporting.
1-800-488-2917 for Provider Fraud complaints.
1-888-488-2917 for Recipient Fraud complaints.
Complete the appropriate form below, and submit it electronically.


Do something a little different with your hen weekend: Design a Fragrance in a professional perfumery! You'll learn to match scents, design a fragrance that goes with your personality, and bottle it up in a presentation package to take home with you. There's one for each of the girls, and the bride leaves with a special presentation diffuser!
Your tutor for the afternoon will greet you with a complementary glass of fine fizz, to get you in the mood for some refined creativity. Learn the scent spectrum and begin to match the delicate notes of flowers with the fresh fragrances of spring; or combine the heady aromas of spices with deep, warm fruit notes. As you master the spectrum, you'll begin to understand how a scent is made to match a specific personality. It's like colour matching, but for your soul!
This is a great activity for hen parties that want to do something a bit original. It combines some light champers quaffing with a burst of real creativity and fun, doing something most of the girls in your group are unlikely to have done before. It's indoors, so there's no need to worry about the Great British weather putting a dampener on things, and you get free gifts at the end to remind you of your wonderful day.
Design a scent for a hen party that really lives on in the memory. If yours is a success, you'll be able to wear it on your wedding day too!


Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) Viveport, a virtual reality app store of Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp., will now support a VR headset developed by its rival Oculus VR, according to HTC.
HTC said its decision to made Viveport content available for the Oculus Rift headset showed its commitment to "connecting content creators to global audiences."
Oculus VR is a division of the social media giant Facebook, one of the global tech companies that have invested in the VR business.
"By adding support for Oculus Rift, we're doubling the potential user base for Viveport developers," Viveport president Rikard Steiber said in a statement. "Viveport continues to offer the most opportunities for developers to monetize their VR content. From Viveport and Viveport Subscription, to availability on Amazon and in Viveport Arcade, we're going to continue to expand and reach the largest global audience possible on developers' behalf."
The full launch of the content is set for Sept. 4, HTC said, adding that developers can now opt for their titles to be displayed as Oculus Rift compatible.
Currently, there are almost 500 titles in the Viveport Subscription library and adding Viveport's support for Oculus Rift is expected to create a diverse and engaging range of experiences and appeal to a wider audience base, HTC said.
While HTC has intensified its efforts in VR development, its VR operations account for only a small fraction of its total sales, which remain in the doldrums amid escalating competition in the global smartphone market.
HTC reported consolidated sales of NT$1.4 billion (US$45.45 million) for July, down 77.41 percent from a year earlier and 37.26 percent from a month earlier. The July figure was the lowest since August 2003, when the company's revenue was NT$1.33 billion.
In the first seven months of the year, HTC's consolidated sales were down 53.98 percent year-on-year at NT$16.96 billion.
In early July, the company said it would lay off of 1,500 employees, about a quarter of its worldwide workforce, by the end of September.


JP Research is a Japanese consulting company based in Tokyo Japan, which provides standard market research and custom reports. In order to provide high quality services to satisfy the client requirements,JP Research established an advanced surveying system, which has the primary resources from supply chain,experts,R&D technology,government agencies,distributors and the secondary resources from public company data, import data, export data,industry association data,the third part data,government data,etc. With the highly experienced team, JP Research fully understands the needs of clients and provides the services as required.


Howard Schultz sealed Seattle's fate by selling Sonics to Oklahoma's Clay Bennett, but Allen committed his resources to keeping the Blazers in Portland.
The political wit and wisdom of Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Clay Bennett.
The week in review through the eyes of political cartoonists Lisa Benson, Tom Toles, Tim Campbell and Clay Bennett. News/Business.
The week in review through the eyes of political cartoonists Tim Campbell, Clay Bennett, Lisa Benson and. Signe Wilkinson.


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KUT Voices
Jenoa Meagher
THE HOUSING CRISIS AND THE CASE FOR EXPROPRIATION
By Ivan Stoiljkovic, Doug Yearwood and Romy Sugden
The defeat of the Soviet Union caused misery and death to millions of Soviet people and ushered in the increased immiseration of the working class in capitalist countries. Without the threat of a workers' superpower, Western capitalist powers quickly set out to dismantle social provisions and squeeze as much profit as possible from the working class.
Governments at all levels stopped building social housing and eliminated funding for investing and maintaining it. They scrapped rent controls and transformed rental tribunals into instruments that are inaccessible to the tenants and function as eviction factories for landlords. More people are now living on the street, while others are forced to navigate very complicated and stressful situations with people often being forced to remain in abusive relationships in order to keep a roof over their and their kids' heads. Housing became fully commodified.
Governments have responded to the housing crisis with promises to increase the housing supply, transferring billions of dollars into the pockets of the large landlords and developers under the pretext that this will naturally create affordably priced rental units. In Kingston, Ontario, city officials concluded that building more housing "at all levels of affordability" would create enough affordable housing to house everyone at their own level of affordability. However, despite increased vacancy rates over the past two years, rents in the city continue to climb.
The federal National Housing Strategy Program transfers billions of public dollars to enrich private developers who often receive still more subsidies, such as tax forgiveness, through municipalities.
"Existing strategies have failed, and we now need "innovative" solutions to the housing crisis…" This sentence appears at the beginning of almost every policy and city staff report. These "solutions" vary from band-aid approaches (sleeping pods and containers for homeless people, encouraging homeowners to allow people to camp in their backyards or making it easier for homeowners to rent out every inch of their property and living space) to home ownership schemes that would help people who are already (or nearly) able to buy a home. Rent-subsidy programs which flourish under widespread "housing first" strategies give landlords money that used to go to public housing and shelters.
The result of this "innovation" is that landlords and developers get richer while the wages of working-class tenants are squeezed and siphoned back to the capitalists through rent extraction.
The good news is that there are signs of a powerful countermovement appearing all over the world. Some bright news has come out of Germany, with the recent overwhelming vote for expropriation of large landlords in Berlin. This victory is the result of a long struggle by local activists, which continues as they work to ensure implementation of the demand by more than a million people to shift to socialized housing.
Specifically, the referendum called to expropriate 240,000 apartments owned by some of the regions' largest corporate landlords. While the current model of privatized housing concerns itself primarily with providing a hefty return on investment, activists involved in this referendum seek to establish a public agency that would be banned from realizing profits and democratically run by the tenants. Indeed, the wording of the referendum question ensures that the former landlords will not be receiving market value for their seized assets.
A recent study written for the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations (FMTA) shows how expropriation could be accomplished in Canada. Focusing on Toronto, author Grayson Alabiso-Cahill points out that there is an unresolvable contradiction in a commodified housing market, with the competing interests of the landlord ("to squeeze money out of every square foot of the units they own") and the tenant ("to live with security and stability"). Under capitalism, the interests of the landlord – specifically of the corporate landlords and Real Estate Income Trusts (REITs) which currently own over a fifth of rental units and homes – takes precedence. This causes a collective power shift in favour of the corporations when it comes to public policy.
But Alabiso-Cahill claims this can be reversed with a targeted expropriation of the largest landlords, using tools available to municipal governments. He proposes four measures: 1) expropriation in lieu of inclusionary zoning, in which new privately-owned residential buildings can be made to include a certain percentage of affordable units; 2) expropriation of buildings with repeated health and safety violations; 3) expropriation of abandoned buildings, including those which landlords are waiting to appreciate in value and 4) expropriation of large landlords such as REITs. The last measure would involve setting a limit on how many units a single landlord can own, which Alabiso-Cahill and FMTA propose should be 1000 units.
These measures are not revolutionary – neither the Berlin referendum nor the FMTA proposals call for complete elimination of landlords. They are strong reforms and a welcome intervention into the landscape of a housing crisis which reached those proportions partly because the "solutions" on offer have been far less ambitious and threatening to landlords and their bourgeois-politician friends.
Reforms can serve as important rallying cries in building class power but should not be sought as an end in and of themselves. It is very important not to be satisfied with reforms and allow them to become "the solutions" (that is, to become reformist). Reforms are only concessions by the ruling class and, as we've seen very clearly with housing over the long history of capitalism, they get reversed as soon as the balance of class forces is altered.
The only thing that has ever done anything for workers is organizing. The working-class revolutions of the 20th century paved the way for massive social housing construction programs in non-revolutionary Western countries. In the 1960s and 70s, working-class and organized tenants across Canada mobilized to demand rent controls and co-operative housing, which resulted in huge campaigns that built hundreds of thousands of affordable rental units in this country.
Over the past few years, tenants in Ontario have resisted the capitalist government's agenda by participating in rent strikes, clogging up the Landlord Tenant Board, supporting encampments and more. Governments at all levels have supported home ownership and suburbanization as a means of downloading fiscal responsibility for housing onto individuals rather than the state. Home ownership and landlordism can be considered as a part of a powerful private interest agenda whose resolution can only be provided through working class-led public ownership of housing, which needs to be treated as a human right and not a commodity.
It is time again for tenants and organized labour to stand up for housing. Today we need to use expropriation as a means of resolving the crisis.
[Photo: Housing advocates in Berlin march in support of expropriation]
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Kingston ON, Canada
katarokwitenants@gmail.com
Katarokwi (Kingston) Union of Tenants
© 2021 All Rights Reserved Katarokwi Union of Tenants


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Anorak News | Islamic State: Jewish Holocaust surviror saves the Christians who saved him
Islamic State: Jewish Holocaust surviror saves the Christians who saved him
by Anorak | 14th, July 2015
In 1938 George Weidenfeld arrived in the UK from Austria. 1938. The Times says the young Jew had "only a few shillings in his pocket". But now he has grown rich from a publishing business, the former BBC man is repaying a debt:
Now aged 95, he is funding an organisation to rescue up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq and resettle them elsewhere. In the first phase of Operation Safe Havens, one group of 150 Syrian Christians was flown to Warsaw on Friday to seek refuge in Poland.
Christians are being persecuted in the Middle East. In areas controlled by Islamic State they are being slaughtered.
Weidenfeld, a committed Zionist, is repaying those who showed him kindness:
He credits his survival to the generosity of members of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian group, which took him in, fed and clothed him.
"I had a debt to repay," said Lord Weidenfeld. "It applies to so many of the young people who were on the Kindertransports. It was Quakers and other Christian denominations who brought those children to England. It was a very high-minded operation and we Jews should also be thankful and do something for the endangered Christians."
"Isis is unprecedented in its primitive savagery compared with the more sophisticated Nazis," he said. "When it comes to pure lust for horror and sadism, they are unprecedented. There never was such scum as these people. My main concern is — and this is terribly important for me as a member of the generation that can look back to the time before World War Two — the lack of will to defend oneself; to get boots on the ground and to get rid of these people. The lack of desire to fight the enemy, to slay the dragon in his lair.
"I am appalled by the lack of action. The brave Kurds have shown in the battle for Kobani that you can defeat them. In a disunited world, the road is wide open for the terrorists."
"I can't save the world, but there is a very specific possibility on the Jewish and Christian side," he said. "Let others do what they like for the Muslims."
Everyone can do their bit for humanity.
"An SS man or a Gulag attendant justified their cruelty in the name of Hitler or Stalin. A jihadist thinks he has Allah in his pocket. It is very difficult to fight. It is cruel and international. It does not only affect the so called Arab Spring countries, but also Africa, Boston Massachusetts, the suburbs of London. It has to be fought very systematically. It must not be the subject of attenuating circumstances. They have to be seen as enemies of mankind and punished accordingly."
You beat them by defeating their culture and championing your own.
Posted: 14th, July 2015 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink