Dutch marriage proposal

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30462825 .

In the Netherlands, a man proposed to his girlfriend from an unsecured crane which managed to topple over onto a neighbour's roof causing great damage.  By the way, I understand the girl accepted. Not sure if the roof damage would be covered by insurance.

Meteor shower peak

Meteors should be good overnight as we are at the peak of the Geminids shower. The weather here is overcast, so I probably won't see anything

Computer glitch we are told

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30454240 .

We are told that UK airspace has been restricted due to a "computer glitch". The cynic in me says there may be a far more sinister explanation: either terrorists have compromised the NATS computers or there was a terrorist threat to a plane or planes and the "powers that be" closed  (some of) the airspace.  Of course it could all be perfectly true and there really was a computer glitch.

Also we have still not seen a single piece of evidence that Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 crashed in an ocean. Surely, after all this time something of the wreckage would have been seen?

NS&I Pensioner's Bond

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30452877 .

Starting in January, pensioners over 65 years old can apply for a Pensioner Bond  up to £10k with a return of 4% before tax. This is a better rate than anything available currently. Interest will be paid at the end of the term. For 4% gross, this is in 3 years time.

Lighter evenings from next week!

Even though the mornings get darker for a while yet, the evenings start to get a little bit lighter here just before the winter solstice.  I think this will depend on your location.  By the end of next week the evenings here stay lighter by 1-2 minutes. By the end of January it is very noticeable. The change is slow at first but speeds up: by early March it is light until 6.30pm. I think the rate of change follows a sine wave with the fastest change around the equinoxes.

Although there is something nice about cosy evenings in, I prefer light nights.

More on over-wintering swallows

Well, apparently it did happen in 2008 and again in 2009.

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3336271/Climate-change-confuses-migrating-birds.html . This details BTO observations of a single swallow in a Cornish village between December and the following February. As our climate warms more swallows may decide to give the 12000 mile round trip south a miss. It is a chancy thing, as a cold snap could see off all the insect food.

The image of the swallow is actually located on the RSPB page linked below. It will be deleted immediately if so linking infringes any copyright. I don't think it does as it still "resides" on the original site.

See also http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/swallow/ .

From a Yahoo group in 2009:

Records of birds hanging on (over winter) include single Swallows at Penzance and Marazion in Cornwall. The latter site was home to four birds until recently, with an earlier cold spell killing three, and the last bird is surviving on insects in a 20m by 4m patch of seaweed washed up against the sea wall. This is remarkably similar to the earlier winter occurrence of four Swallows at an oil refinery in Pembrokeshire, with a single bird surviving until at least 6 January.
Mark
N Ireland

Labour policies

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30417955 . I don't much care for many Labour politicians such as Ed Milliband and Yvette Cooper. I am totally skeptical that Labour would really cut the underlying deficit. On the other hand I quite like David Cameron (Conservative) but feel the coalition could do more to help those in genuine need and be harder on those with inherited wealth and privilege: the Tories still come over as a bunch of toffs.

At the moment I have no idea who I'll be voting for in the General Election next spring.