About that flu that’s going around…
I’ve got it. That’s why my posts have been sporadic lately. I seldom get sick and have never had a cold but I do get the flu now and then and this is one of those times. Wash your hands. Stay away from coughers. Keep your gloves on in the grocery store. I do that, except when I have to pick up wet produce or something because I’ve seen people cough into their hand and then grab the handle of the shopping cart. It looks weird, but whatever works because you do not want this. Five days and I’m still running a low grade fever. I’ve also lost 7 lbs.
It started with a burr in my throat, so I started eating Zicam, and Halls cough drops, by nightime I was drinking TheraFlu. Great stuff. I almost thought I was going to be all right until it wore off. Besides the burr, water just poured out of my eyes. There was no going to sleep and getting rest because of constant coughing. I was trying desperately to keep it from going into my chest, but that didn’t happen. I’m looking at severe bronchitis now. Oh and the other thing about this weird flu, when the burr went away and my eyes stopped watering, it felt like someone took a baseball bat to me. Three Alleves and I still felt bad and I think Alleve is a great painkiller. I know others that had this that also had either a severe headache and/or neck pain. It’s nasty stuff and somewhere along the line I just wanted someone to shoot me, please!
I’ve got a doctor’s appointment for the bronchitis and should be posting again soon because a lot of things are happening.
Take care. Stay well. This is a countrywide epidemic.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Good moring Sir,
Interested to hear your comments on an articule published
2-25-08 in the National Post by Lorne Gunter regarding Global “Cooling.”
The articule says amoung other things that:
Snow cover in North America, Siberia, Mongolia and China is the most since 1966.
U.S. avg temp in Jan of this year was .3 F cooler then the 1901 - 2000 avg temp.
1st two week of snow fall in Toronto was 70 cm’s breaking the old record for the WHOLE month of 66.6 cm.
Arctic Sea Ice, which records date back to only 1972 is back. Now 10 - 20 cm’s thicker then last year.
Those are just a few things. I’d be interested for you to read it and comment as you seem to very versed in this subject.
Thanks
February 27th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I sent Keith my reply by e-mail but figure it would benefit everyone to read my notes about Global Warming and another possible ice age as a result. The movie “Day After Tomorrow” where North America experienced a sudden deep freeze is not all that unlikely. Global warming doesn’t mean we will necessarily be scorched everywhere. The Northern Hemisphere may freeze over due to the Gulf Stream shutting down. It’s already slowing. I have random notes on the subject I will post here. Siberian snow and ice had been melting rapidly, which gorged 3 tributaries with freshwater that dumped into the ocean near the Gulf Stream and Britain. The Gulf Stream is like a giant conveyor. The heavy saltwater content normally forces the warm water down where it cools and comes back toward us from Britain. It keeps circulating this way. Well it’s slowing because the Siberian freshwater and ice melting has diluted the salinity in the water. If that Gulf Stream stops, Britain will freeze instantly and that cold will spread around the N. hemisphere. The Gulf Stream is the only thing that gives Britain a decent climate to begin with. Scientists are really worried about this. Here are the rest of my random notes on the subject and how scientists are keeping track of its slowing:
The deepwater formation in the N. Atlantic part of the gulf stream is called the conveyor belt. In the past it turned off. This isn’t the age of global cooling but global warming 8 of the past ten years is higher in temp. Dr. Richard Wood going back 100,000’s years. Our understanding of global warming may be too simplistic. Great Britain is gearing up for a possible ice age due to global warming.
Team of NASA scientists inside the artic circle over the past ten years. Arctic circle is covered with ice 1000 miles long, 400 miles wide and 2 miles thick. If it melts the ocean waters will rise 6 to 7 meters overall. Big sheets have already broken away with the biggest glacier moving at a doubled rate in the last five years. It now moves at 12 kilometers a year, melting as it moves, causing it to be lighter, causing it to move even faster.
Global warming has affected the dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet making it easier for the ice to float.
Scientists began to wonder what affect that newly melted freshwater had on the conveyor. Salt is diluted so the conveyor won’t sink. Terry Joyce: Just a 1 percent change in dilution rate may cause the conveyor not to sink. They don’t know how much freshwater it will take.
There is even a bigger supply of freshwater heading for the northern hemisphere in the form of rain. There is increasing rain in the Northern Hemisphere in the past decade. 3 rivers in Siberia are swelling by 128 cubic kilometers a year. That’s a lot of freshwater. ½ degree in 100 years has also caused snowmelt in that area. In the next decade 10 times more global warming. Approx 50% increase in discharge in world’s biggest rivers diluting the sea’s saltwater content even more. Freshwater 1000 cubic kilometers more may empty into the ocean just from the Siberian Rivers. If saltwater content drops the movement of the conveyor is weakening. Salinity (saltwater content) is falling at alarming rates beginning in the 70’s. Worse yet. Measurements from the return conveyor at the bottom of the ocean has decreased by 20%. If the conveyor stops, o The process that can cut off the conveyor has begun. The probability of the conveyor stopping is a major concern, 50% probability. The probability of the earth’s greatest source of heat the gulf stream equal to 1 million power stations, may stop. There will be an ice age that quickly moves across the entire northern hemisphere. 62 and 63 was the coldest winter recorded in England. There were power failures across the entire SE. Once every 7 years. The gulf stream conveyor shuts off in 20 years.
The coastline of Britain would become unrecognizable. Sea ice would be seen along the coast of SE Britain. Winter blizzards would bring new hazards. Ice storms would be prevalent building up on power lines. Large snow falls. Infrastructure would be in danger of collapse countrywide. With enough warning plans could be made to adapt, but there will be no warning and it won’t be a fluke. It will last 100 years with snow on the ground 100 days per year with drops down to 20 below.
There are even worse scenarios if the conveyor shuts down. Link between conveyor cutoff and increased precipitation. Rainfall in tropics will shift farther south. Central America could lose up to 40% of its rainfall. the Rain Forests will die. It happened before. The clues came from Alley’s ice cores. bubbles of ancient air were found. Methane was found in the bubbles. It appears in the tropics when there is plentiful rainfalls. Conveyor cutoff made the world dryer. The monsoons are life lines. Agriculture depends on heavy rains. Disaster on unimaginable failure, famine, economic collapse, and refugees in the million on the move. Switching the conveyor off is easy. Turning it back on would take forever with nothing in the meantime. We are preparing for more heat and more rain. Our defenses are pointing the wrong way.