Pedigree Chum

A new book by New Zealand authors Robert and Brenda Vale urges pet owners to "Eat the dog", since the carbon footprint of a year's dog-food is too awful to contemplate.

Dog-lovers desert RSPCA over 'inhumane' killings

This from The Times:

"The dogs, which had been kept indoors for several weeks and were said to be aggressive and in poor condition, were killed with a captive bolt gun of the kind used in abattoirs to stun livestock before slaughter. The use of captive bolt guns is deemed “inhumane” and “unacceptable” for the destruction of dogs by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)."

Why do we owe dogs a more humane killing than livestock? Humane killing for all I say. Better still - no avoidable killing at all! We don't need to eat meat.

What happened to global warming?

This is the perhaps surprising headline of a report by Paul Hudson, Climate correspondent at the BBC.

Average temperatures have not increased for over a decade

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

Staring stupidly

The revelation (to me) by Penny Smith on Countdown that 'gove' is an old English verb which means 'to stare stupidly' might at least moderate the childish fun that one Michael GOVE, Shadow Children's Minister, and his colleagues have been having at the expense of Gove's opposite number in government, Ed BALLS.

I doubt it though. An election is pending. Not a time for grown-ups.

Celia again

"There is an interesting possibility that Christ was not only not paranoid, but that he was not sane at all."

A question never answered

It's become a doctrine increasingly felt as a fact that the Blair/Bush war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein was immoral and illegal.

What I wait in vain to hear is what the war's opponents would do if Saddam was still in power, and what would they say to the loved ones of those, already thousands before he was stopped, he would still be free to persecute, torture and kill.