The Campblog

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The World Has Changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Link

Sauron, eat your heart out.

Forget chatter about CO2 v aerosol emissions, this is simply one of the most amazing pics I have ever seen -- the heat from the Chaiten (Chile) volcano eruption ash plume causing lightning. Bloody Brilliant! Mother Nature, I don't care what anybody says - you rock!

OS-X 'Leopard' - 6 Months Old Link

Timely, as I've just ordered it. Surely you've worked the bugs out by now, Steve?

Playlist suggestion: Songs from First Albums Link

John Gushue's Weekend Playlist series got me thinking of a few more playlist ideas. I recall getting the '3:00 Songs' playlist idea via John.

So, here's one -- songs from an artist or band's first album. Can it be from an EP? Maybe, it's up to you. Try for first 'album' but EP stuff is fine. Basically, songs that capture the artist or band as they were at the beginning. It is true that many artists play gigs for years before getting a record deal. The first effort captures them at this stage, before their careers, the music business, pop-media and all that goes with it either effected/affected them or didn't.

Artist/Album/Song

The Cars / 'The Cars' / "Bye Bye Love"
Dire Straits / 'Dire Straits' / "Down to the Waterline"
The Beatles / 'Please Please Me' / "I Saw Her Standing There"
The Byrds / 'Mr. Tambourine Man' / "Chimes of Freedom"
The Tragically Hip / 'Up to Here' / "When the Weight Comes Down"
XTC / 'White Music' / "Statue of Liberty"
Big Country / 'The Crossing' / "Fields of Fire"
Simple Minds / 'Life In A Day' / "Life In A Day"
The Clash / 'The Clash' / "Remote Control"
Genesis / 'From Geneis to Revelation' / "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet"
Bob Dylan / 'Bob Dylan' / "Talkin' New York"
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band / "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. / "Growin' Up"
Elvis Costello / 'My Aim Is True' / "Alison"
The Who / 'My Generation' / "My Generation"
U2 / 'Boy' / "I Will Follow"
No Doubt / 'No Doubt' / "Trapped In A Box"
The Replacments / 'Sorry Ma! Forgot to Take Out The Trash!' / "Takin' A Ride"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers / 'Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' / "American Girl"
Joe Jackson / 'Look Sharp!' / "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"

Send me more, I will add them. Or just meme it, you know.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Top Five Non-violent Things You Can Do in GTA-IV Link

In case you're ever interested, Popular Mechanics lists them.

What Do They Know of England? Link

Well, the British Conservative Party, whose symbol is, naturally, a green tree, trounced Labour in Britain's council elections the other day. Red Ken lost the London mayoralty race to Boris Johnson who seems somehow to fit the bill as a London mayor (not your basic pinstriped Tory). Council elections may not necessarily translate into seats in Parliament, but it doesn't look great for Gordon Brown. I bet Tony Blair is enjoying himself this week.

Billy Bragg has raised some leftist hackles by talking about progressive English nationalism, along the lines of the SNP.

As socialists, we are all too familiar with the tactic of opponents who are quick to portray those who question the free-market system as supporters of the worse excesses of Stalinism. It's a blinkered mindset that refuses to accept that there are different strands within socialism, preferring instead to dismiss as a commie anyone who argues for a more compassionate society. Such simplistic attempts at stifling debate are mirrored by those on the left who fail to recognise that there are different types of patriotism, some adamantly opposed to that voiced by the xenophobic minority.

Billy mentions the BNP which has gained its first seat in the London assembly (from what I can tell, due to reaching a certain threshold in a proportional representation type thingy).

Anyway, it's an odd thing to see an Englishman being criticized for talking about his wanting to see more people talking about what being an Englishman is all about.

What we lack is a confidence, not so much about who we are, more about whether it's okay to celebrate being English. We need to stop being embarrassed about our home and find a way to celebrate the things about it that we love - both to respect the locals and to build bridges with newcomers.

Multiculturalism isn't about celebrating everybody's culture but our own. We have to be present, not least because as hosts we provide the framework for our diversity to flourish. If you accept the idea that national identity is personal, then it is down to each of us to find something to celebrate on April 23. Let those people who feel strongly about the traditional ideas, celebrate them in their traditional way. Let others find aspects of Englishness they feel comfortable with.

My hunch is that Englishness has more to do with space rather than race - and by having a day when we can celebrate the things that make us feel we belong, we can begin to reclaim our identity from those who would use our flag to intimidate and divide.

Sounds familiar. I certainly don't see what there is criticize about this idea. Interestingly, the issue, as presented by Billy, is perhaps a twist on the Canadian problem that we tend to hear about ~ that instead of knowing who we are but unsure how to celebrate, we Canadians are supposed to not know who we are yet celebrate it anyway. But I always tend to think this Canadian identity problem is always vastly overstated; it certainly isn't something I worry about.

The Algae Economy Link

Interesting stuff on the potentials of using algae in biofuels. Heck, not many of us eat it. (Via Instapundit)

Comments relating to '10% of New Mexico', etc may be useful to provide some sense of scale, but wouldn't necessarily be taken as the way that we should or can accomplish this alternative fuel future. Lomborg, if you'll recall, talks about putting solar panels on 2.5% of the Sahara to provide for our 21st century energy needs. Getting there is another matter ~ it's interesting to know that these possible solutions are out there and that we'll likely see them in some form in future.

Mmmmm, algae.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Everton in at #21 Link

Via Toffeeweb, Everton FC are in at #21 worldwide in terms of wealthiest club. Toffeeweb also suggests that the debt estimate should be higher. Dare we note that Everton's cross-park rivals Liverpool FC have five times the valuation and 2.5 times the revenue. But for a bad call or two, including AJ's disallowed 'offside' goal vs Blackburn Rovers, Everton could have reeled in the Reds this season. Oh well, there's next year.

So, if you are shopping for clubs, who do you choose. Why not Bayern Munich or AC Milan who appear to have not debt to speak of. Actually, if I was rolling in it and wanted a good buy, I would pick a club in the Coca-Cola League Championship and throw some money at them and get them promoted -- you'd have to pick a club in a fairly good-sized population center. Heck even a League One side if you can wait a few years to get to the Premiership moolah.

2 games remaining, Gunners and Barcodes: doesn't look overly hopeful, as fellow Basque Mikel Arteta will be resting due to injury. Arsenal have 3rd spot locked up and still have a shot at least 2nd or even the title should ManU and Chekski stumble.

Relative to the NFL, the EPL is not as wealthy overall. Forbes ranked Dallas Cowboys as the top team at $1.5b value last year, with Washington coming in 2nd at very close to $1.5b. The lowest NFL club was Minnesota at $782m.

So, here's a tip to owners -- if you want to bump up your club's value, borrow heavily and build a brand-spanking new stadium. As for Everton's stadium saga, I've lost track.

Time for a cool change Link

Later: Gman writes: By the way...that has been some fine bloggin lately...first we have that awesome meatloaf video and now cool change video...bravo...I say 3 points for you. Yup, I'm all about Quality.

If I am the only blogger to link this video together with these stories, then 2 points for me!

It is pretty amusing seeing these articles, first on the PDO cool phase and then another study showing that the Atlantic oscillations are pointing toward cool/neutral.

It's also amusing to see all the talk about "yes, Global Warming is true, it's just that these natural cycles can hide/mask it".

So then, what exactly *is* true about AGW?

Isn't man-made CO2 in the atmosphere supposed to drive temperatures and be the necessary component of global temperature models supposedly because natural processes do not fully explain observations?

As global temps and AGW emissions become increasingly divergent and uncorrelated, how important becomes CO2 in the IPCC models? Isn't it increasingly obvious that CO2 as 'the necessary part of the explanation' is no longer required? It's still part of it, but is it the key?

If you still maintain that CO2 is the key driver, then it obviously must be continually present - what would global temperatures be over the next decade or so without the increased CO2? If the climate sensitivity of a CO2 doubling is as high as you think, then you must concur that natural variations are much greater than you've imagined.

Where is the CO2/AGW footprint in the tropical troposphere? Why isn't it detected?

And isn't it interesting that just when this projected period of naturally-induced cooling (no warming) is supposed to end, Solar Cycle 25, projected to be the weakest in over a century, is scheduled to begin?

Are people in 2035 going to be sitting there after 37 years of no warming and still be thinking/talking the way they are now? As Lubos Motl points out, if the temperatures projected by these groups are accurate, then one-third of humans currently living will see no Global Warming during the remainder of their lifespans; perhaps it's an even higher percentage of us.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

PDO Flips Link

This could be flippin' big - NASA announces that the PDO cool phase may have begun (via Lubos Motl). If the PDO has shifted to a cool phase, then it would tend to mean twice as many La Ninas as El Ninos over the next 2-3 decades, as opposed to the other way around. The global temperature trends during this period would tend toward neutrality or slight cooling. We'll see.

There will be years when it is warmer than the previous one. But will it be warmer than the 1998 high over the next few decades? As the PDO warm vs cool phases of the 20th century have matched the warming and cooling trends, we can expect this to continue during the 21st, can't we? A big difference, though -- the 20th century saw basically a warm phase, a cool phase and a warm phase. The 21st will see the opposite pattern -- cool, warm, cool. (Yes I know I'm guessing and I'm no expert.)

I know that some alarmists are already attempting to blame global cooling and/or whatever weather incident occurs on global warming, but what will be the line if the planet just doesn't warm? I'm thinking by 2018. Right now, it's been 10 years since the global high but the partisans are nowhere near conceding any points. If another decade passes with no net warming, there will bound to be some people rethinking their beliefs on this. Given the rightful reluctance of developing nation governments to brook any imposed emission controls (yes, I just wanted to use the word 'brook') and, despite the US presidential candidates rhetoric, given the fact that American public opinion on this ranks climate change about as low as you can go in terms of problems being faced, there will be more and more pressure to really take a more unbiased look at this very big issue. Just because the PDO shifts to a new regime -- I can't see this or even associated global temperature implications having any effect on the debate for at least another five years.

Will mainstream media start to pick up on it? We can only hope. Skeptics just have to keep reminding people that they can't just blame every weather incident on human activity, evil human activity ~ that you have to start showing some causality in this relationship that you are professing. We're seeing it everywhere now, the 'manmade CO2 = looming disaster which we're already seeing signs of' stuff is stated as a matter of fact and as a matter of course in just about any discussion on any topic. More people need to step up and say 'hold on, can we please just give our heads a shake and talk about what is really happening in global climate and what has been/is/will be the causes?' People are doing this, we just don't hear it enough and the msm is largely ignoring it.

Later: And, 'yes', you can be an AGW skeptic and yet still be environmentally conscious. I happen to believe the environmental movement made a huge blunder in hooking its wagon to the CO2/AGW issue and making it World Enviromental Issue No.1.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Source of the Danube and other source-ical stuff Link

Genetic Ancestry Month continues at the McGregorblog/Campblog with a pic of cousin Ewan. I think you can probably work Star Wars into just about any post, Dear Reader.

I cannot recommend Stephen Oppenheimer's "The Origins of the British" highly enough. Here, Oppenheimer comments on myths about British origins, discussing Celtic cultural origins in this case,

Central Europe during the last millennium BC certainly was the time and place of the exotic and fierce Hallstatt culture and, later, the La Tène culture, with their prestigious, iron-age metal jewellery wrought with intricately woven swirls. Hoards of such jewellery and weapons, some fashioned in gold, have been dug up in Ireland, seeming to confirm central Europe as the source of migration. The swirling style of decoration is immortalised in such cultural icons as the Book of Kells, the illuminated Irish manuscript (Trinity College, Dublin), and the bronze Battersea shield (British Museum), evoking the western British Isles as a surviving remnant of past Celtic glory. But unfortunately for this orthodoxy, these artistic styles spread generally in Europe as cultural fashions, often made locally. There is no evidence they came to Britain and Ireland as part of an invasion.

Many archaeologists still hold this view of a grand iron-age Celtic culture in the centre of the continent, which shrank to a western rump after Roman times. It is also the basis of a strong sense of ethnic identity that millions of members of the so-called Celtic diaspora hold. But there is absolutely no evidence, linguistic, archaeological or genetic, that identifies the Hallstatt or La Tène regions or cultures as Celtic homelands. The notion derives from a mistake made by the historian Herodotus 2,500 years ago when, in a passing remark about the "Keltoi," he placed them at the source of the Danube, which he thought was near the Pyrenees. Everything else about his description located the Keltoi in the region of Iberia.

and later follows up responding to questions from readers.

The MacGregors had lost their lands in Argyll, thanks in no small part to Robert the Bruce favouring the Campbells with grants of land. Several centuries after they had largely left Argyll (name-wise anyway) the MacGregor name was banned by the Crown.

One variant of MacGregor is Greer. Who knows if this was a clever twist on the name to avoid the long arm of the law, or simply your typical anglicization. Below is featured cousin Jane Greer, who was born Bettejane Greer in Washington DC in 1924. She played quintessential femme fatale Kathi in the 1947 film noir "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas.

Watched "Out of the Past" this week. Excellent. She's great. Mitchum absolutely rules the screen. The dialogue, settings and story are top-notch. Jane Greer, in fact, was cast as Rachel Ward's mother in "Against All Odds" which was a remake of "Out of the Past". Steve at Noir of the Week Blog thinks "Out of the Past" is the greatest noir ever made.

To me, the film’s greatest strength is of its mysterious characters, who they really are behind their facades. The reasons behind both Jeff’s and Kathie’s actions are ambiguous, there is no monologue provided to explain where each other’s loyalties and goals lie. The lack of explanation works to its advantage, its adds to the mythic feel of these ideal noir characters. I never feel for a moment that Jeff, Kathie, Whit et all are not complex and human (due to the astounding performances of the leads), but it’s quite an accomplishment that they can be so and yet remain ambiguous in their nature.

Other noir just recently watched include:

* Murder, My Sweet (1944). I didn't really like or 'get' this one. I didn't feel Dick Powell was a great Philip Marlowe although apparently Raymond Chandler liked him in the role. I just didn't imagine this guy sitting alone in his office with a bottle of bourbon, but then he's being compared to Bogart. The plot for this one is pretty confusing.

* Gun Crazy (1950). Sort of a Bonnie and Clyde type story. Certainly keeps your attention, but you won't really think of this as a noir. Good filmmaking.

* The Asphalt Jungle (1950). A great John Huston film, definitely one to watch. A fatalist, ensemble descent into doom. As NotWk puts it, this film could be seen as part of the Huston triology of "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". Contains great noir lines such as ""If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town." and when Emmerich's wife complains about "all those awful people" her successful lawyer husband comes into contact with, Emmerlich spells it out: "There's nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor."

Thursday, April 10, 2008

MacGregor of Craignish Link

As The Flea notes, this could well be McGregorblog.

I had mentioned previously below that there seems to be a Craignish connection in my genetic matches, a distant Campbell connection to that area of Argyll.

However, one Campbell with whom I am very distantly related is himself more closely related to the MacGregors. For his relation, he believes it was around the time when the MacGregor name was banned (early 1600s) and his MacGregor ancestor changed his name to Campbell. (Note, Rob Roy McGregor's legal name was Campbell as he used his mother's family name).

But, I thought it odd that I would have Argyll Campbell connections further back yet be paternally related to this MacGregor-turned-Campbell.

As Kevin Campbell has noted, the Campbell Clan is not from one line (Diarmaid O'Duibhne or whoever) but rather a tapestry of lines including the founding chiefly line, the landed 'gentry' from that area of Scotland, and mostly farmers and commoners from Western Scotland and Ireland. If you weren't part of the chiefly line, as it appears I am not, then you were something else.

For me, it looks like MacGregor. I have written the head of the MacGregor Clan in the UK and he has looked at my genetic markers. He believes that I would be a MacGregor clansman, but distantly related from the time before surnames were used. So, perhaps I never had an ancestor with a surname MacGregor. By the time surnames were adopted, my family line had been absorbed by the Campbell group.

As for my afore-mentioned Campbell distant-cousin, I can imagine a scenario where there were two brothers -- one was my ancestor whose line would adopt the Campbell name in Argyll, the other remained a MacGregor and his line moved out of Argyll as the MacGregors lost their lands to the Campbells.

I guess I didn't mention below that the R1b-9 (Rox) haplotype is also known as the 'Basque' haplotype due to its strong resemblance to the present day Basques. Only Basque Region wines in my house from now on!

So, MacGregor of Craignish. And my son's name would be Ewan ... McGregor.

This DNA stuff is wild. A week ago, my family roots stopped at the shores of Cape Breton Island in 1839. I suppose I wasn't really looking to follow it all back. However, I did want the deep ancestry and I did want some of the mists to clear. I have the deep ancestry and now some of the mists from the long past have begun to clear. This is where my family lived, this is where they had laid down their roots, quite possibly for thousands of years.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Rox Link

Update: my remaining 37 markers are now in. Making a few matches with relatives in the database, although few and distant ones. "Craignish" appears to be popping up for me, from a Campbell whose line came from Craignish, but I'm also matched with a MacPherson gent who has some Campbell matches and has roots in Craignish, and also with a McInnes whose family went to Australia (I note on the wiki page for 'Campbells of Craignish' that there is a connection with the McInnes clan). I'll have to update my letter below, as this would make me a distant cousin to Her Majesty and Princess Di via the Barons of Saxe Coburg Gotha.

Further to this, I received DNA results on my first 12 y chromosome str markers yesterday. I am of the R1b group -- not all that surprised to see that, but there could have been other results.

As per Kevin Campbell's analysis of Stephen Oppenheimer's genetic analysis of the British Isles (see Table 2 in particular), my results for the six markers that Oppenheimer used exactly match Oppenheimer's R1b-9 group, which Oppenheimer calls 'Rox'.

Rox was among the first migration north from the Iberian ice age refuge and followed the shoreline (the British Isles were just a peninsula of the continent then due to much lower sea levels - there was no English Channel or North Sea) up along the west coast of Ireland and into Scotland.

So, my paternal lineage is from this indigenous group, the first people of Scotland.

from the desk of Mike Campbell

Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II

Buckingham Palace

London UK

Dear Majesty,

I trust this email finds you well.

I am writing to you as a member of the indigenous Scottish community, Oppenheimer's R1b-9 'Rox' clan in particular.

May I take this opportunity to apprise Your Majesty regarding the matter of certain North Sea oil revenues ...

Please note that any humour, intentional or otherwise, associated with this post in no way relinquishes any of my claims on North Sea oil revenues or anything else I got coming to me as an indigenous Scot (insert joke here, I guess).

In all seriousness, though, I am really quite awed by this finding. To think my family had been kicking around those monroes and glens for such a long time. Yesterday was quite a momentous day for me and my family, it's quite something to be provided with this kind of information on your roots.

I do have more markers coming in the next few weeks, as well as the mitochondrial dna test results, so more later.