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(Jo James)
Owl Lover 2012 calendar project is the encore of our last year's "Owl Lover" calendar project - a collaborative project between My Owl Barn and 30 international artists. The project was featured on several reputed blogs like decor8, poppytalk, and the calendar was downloaded by almost a hundred thousand owl lovers all over the world. The calendar page received more than 10,000 likes on Facebook.
After receiving such an overwhelming response and numerous requests for 2012 calendar we couldn't possibly resist the idea. So again, "My Owl Barn", and this time 45 artists (likes of Suzy Ultman, Jo James, Juliette Crane and Night Owl Paper Goods) from all over the world are proud to present you our "Owl Lover 2012 calendar". The artwork (and hard work!) by all these amazing people makes this calendar a perfect Christmas gift to your family and friends or even a gift to yourself!
Like before, you can select the images you love the most and create your own free calendar or you can simply download the pre-made version, whatever you do - I'm sure you will love taking a peek and exploring all the wonderful images.
We have improved the customization a lot better this year; now, you'll be able to download any number of calendar months you want. If you want to print just one month and use it as a gift tag, you can do that or you can print the entire calendar. This will not only allow you to print quickly, but will also save paper and ink :)
I am sure you will cherish the calendar all year long and won't hesitate to share it on Facebook or Twitter or your blog.
Select the month from the drop down below each art work and hit "Download Calendar" button at the bottom of the page. You'll be prompted to download or open the PDF file. Make sure you choose to download it. Once you have the file, you can open it using Adobe Acrobat Reader and print it.
In a rush? Click here to download our pre-made calendar.
In a rush? Click here to download our pre-made calendar.


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Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church is the one Church founded by Jesus Christ and his apostles, begun at the day of Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Spirit in A.D. 33. It is also known (especially in the contemporary West) as the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church. It may also be called the Orthodox Catholic Church, the Orthodox Christian Church, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, or simply the Church.
The bishops of the Orthodox Churches trace unbroken succession to the very apostles themselves, therefore ultimately receiving their consecrations from our Lord Jesus Christ. All the bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, no matter their titles, are equal in their sacramental office. The various titles given to bishops are simply administrative or honorific in their essence. At an ecumenical council, each bishop may cast only one vote, whether he is the Ecumenical Patriarch or simply an auxiliary bishop without a diocese. Thus, there is no equivalent to the Roman Catholic papacy within the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
As with its Apostolic succession, the faith held by the Church is that which was handed by Christ to the apostles. Nothing is added to or subtracted from that deposit of faith which was "handed once for all to the saints" (Jude 3). Throughout history, various heresies have afflicted the Church, and at those times the Church makes dogmatic pronouncements (especially at ecumenical councils) delineating in new language what has always been believed by the Church, thus preventing the spread of heresy and calling to repentance those who rend asunder the Body of Christ. Its primary statement of faith is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
Very brief history
- More information: Timeline of Church History
Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth and founded the Church, through His Apostles and disciples, for the salvation of man. In the years which followed, the Apostles spread the Church and its teachings and founded many churches, all united in faith, worship, and the partaking of the Mysteries (or as they are called in the West, the Sacraments) of the Holy Church. The churches founded by the Apostles themselves include the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome and Constantinople. The Church of Alexandria was founded by St. Mark, the Church of Antioch by St Paul, the Church of Jerusalem by Ss. Peter and James, the Church of Rome by Ss. Peter and Paul, and Church of Constantinople by St Andrew. Those founded in later years through the missionary activity of the first churches were the Churches of Sinai, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and many others.
Each church has always had independent administration, but, with the exception of the Church of Rome, which finally separated from the others in the year 1054, are united in faith, doctrine, Apostolic tradition, sacraments, liturgies, and services. Together they constitute what is called the "Orthodox Church", literally meaning "right teaching" or "right worship", derived from two Greek words: orthos, "right," and doxa, "teaching" or "worship."
The Orthodox Church historically stands in direct continuity with the earliest Christian communities founded in regions of the Eastern Mediterranean by the apostles of the Lord Jesus.
The destiny of Christianity in those areas was shaped by the transfer in A.D. 320 of the imperial capital from (Old) Rome to (New "Rome") Constantinople by Constantine I. As a consequence, during the first Eight Centuries of Church history, most major cultural, intellectual, and social developments in the Christian church also took place in that region; for instance, all ecumenical councils of that period met either in, or near Constantinople.
Missionaries, coming from Constantinople, converted the Slavs and other peoples of Eastern Europe to Christianity (Bulgaria, 864; Russia, 988) and translated Scripture and liturgical texts into the vernacular languages used in the various regions. Thus, the liturgy, traditions, and practices of the church of Constantinople were adopted by all and still provide the basic patterns of contemporary Orthodoxy.
Developments were not always consistent with the evolution of Western Christianity, where the bishop of Rome, or pope, came to be considered the successor of the apostle Peter and head of the universal church by divine appointment. Eastern Christians were willing to accept the pope only as first among patriarchs. This difference explains the various incidents that grew into a serious estrangement. One of the most vehement disputes concerned the filioque clause of the Nicene Creed, which the Western church added unilaterally to the original text.
The schism came slowly. The first major breach came in the Ninth century when the Pope refused to recognize the election of Photius as patriarch of Constantinople. Photius in turn challenged the right of the papacy to rule on the matter and denounced the filioque clause as a Western innovation.
The growing disputes between East and West reached another peak in A.D. 1054, when mutual anathemas were exchanged. The sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade (A.D. 1204) intensified Eastern hostility toward the West.
Attempts at reconciliation at the councils of Lyon (1274) and Florence (1438-39) were unsuccessful. When the papacy defined itself as infallible (First Vatican Council, A.D. 1870), the gulf between East and West grew wider. Only since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) has the movement reversed, talks are bringing serious attempts at mutual understanding.
Beliefs and Practices
- More information: Introduction to Orthodox Christianity
The Orthodox Church recognizes as authoritative the decisions of the seven ecumenical councils that met between A.D. 325 and A.D. 787 and defined the basic doctrines on the Trinity and the Incarnation. In later centuries Orthodox councils also made doctrinal definitions on Grace (1341, 1351) and took a stand in reference to Western teachings.
The Church keeps the early traditions of Christianity, infants receive the Eucharist and confirmation, and the episcopate and the priesthood are understood in the light of Apostolic succession. (Apostolic Succession is understood to be the passing on of the Holy Tradition by right-believing Bishops). Both married men and monks may become priests, but priests, bishops, and monks may not marry. The veneration of Mary, as Theotokos (Mother of God) is central to Orthodox Incarnational Theology, and the intercession of saints is also emphasized in the Orthodox Holy Tradition.
After an early controversy on the subject, the Icons, of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints are now seen as visible witnesses to the fact that God has taken human flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Liturgy used by the Orthodox Church has been translated from Greek into many languages. It is always sung, not just spoken. The faithful receive Holy Communion on a spoon. They are given both the consecrated bread (NIKA), and the sanctified wine from the gifts offered and sanctified at the given Divine Liturgy. Holy Communion is never taken from any "reserve."
Monasticism, which had its origins in the Christian East (Egypt, Syria, Cappadocia), has since been considered in the Orthodox Church as a prophetic ministry of men and women, showing through their mode of life the action of the Holy Spirit. The monastic republic of Mount ATHOS, Greece, is still viewed among Orthodox Christians as a center of spiritual vitality.
Current Church structure
- More information: List of autocephalous and autonomous Churches
The Eastern Orthodox Churches of today consist of a family of fourteen autocephalous churches and five autonomous churches, sometimes referred to as jurisdictions. The number of autocephalous churches has varied in history. Autocephalous churches are fully self-governing in all they do, while autonomous churches must have their primates confirmed by one of the autocephalous churches, usually its mother church. All the Orthodox churches remain in full communion with one another, sharing the same faith and praxis. There have been occasional breaks in communion due to various problems throughout history, but they generally remain brief and not developing into full schism. It is hoped that the Great Schism, with the Church of Rome, will someday be mended too.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople is also the Ecumenical Patriarchate and has the status of "first among equals" among the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Church is not a centralized organization headed by a pontiff, but an organic community guided by the Holy Spirit in the world. The unity of the Church is visible in, and held together with, common faith and communion in the sacraments. No one but Christ himself is the real head of the Orthodox Church.
Number of Adherents
The most common estimate of the number of Orthodox Christians worldwide is approximately 225-300 million individuals.[1].
Other estimates, such as in The Encyclopedia of the Developing World,[2] place the number of overall Orthodox worshippers in 1996 at 182 million individuals, including the following breakdown:
- Russian Federation: 70-80 million
- Ukraine: close to 30 million
- Romania: 20 million
- Greece: 9.5 million
- United States: close to 7 million
- Serbia and Montenegro: close to 7 million
- Bulgaria: 6 million
- Belarus: 5 million
- Kazakhstan: 4 million
- Moldavia: 3 million
- Georgia: 2.8 million
- FYROM: 1.2 million
- Uzbekistan: 900,000
- Poland: 800,000
- Germany: 550,000
- Australia: 480,000
- United Kingdom: 440,000
- Latvia: 400,000
- Estonia: 300,000
- France: 260,000
- Lithuania: 150,000
- Austria: about 70,000
- Switzerland: about 70,000
- Finland: 56,000
- ↑ Eastern Orthodox Church: Number of Adherents at Wikipedia.
- ↑ Thomas M. Leonard. Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Vol 3, O-Z Index. Taylor & Francis, 2006.
See also
Further reading
Published works
The following are published writings that provide an introduction or overview of the Orthodox Church and its teachings:
From an Orthodox perspective
- Alfeyev, Hilarion; Rose, Jessica, ed. The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church. (ISBN 0232524726)
- Bajis, Jordan. Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian. (ISBN 0937032816)
- Bulgakov, Sergius. The Orthodox Church. (ISBN 0881410519)
- Cunningham, Mary. Faith in the Byzantine World (IVP Histories Series). (ISBN 0830823522)
- Chryssavgis, John. Light Through Darkness: The Orthodox Tradition (Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series). (ISBN 1570755485)
- Coniaris, Anthony M. Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life. (ISBN 0937032255)
- Constantelos, Demetrios J. Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church. (ISBN 0917653505)
- Florovsky, George. Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View. (ISBN 0913124028)
- Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church. (ISBN 0140146563)
From a Heterodox perspective
- Binns, John. An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches. (ISBN 0521667380)
- Fairbairn, Donald. Eastern Orthodoxy Through Western Eyes. (ISBN 0664224970)
- Fortescue, Adrian. The Orthodox Eastern Church. (ISBN 0971598614)
- Roberson, Ronald. The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey. (ISBN 8872103215) - (also available online)
- Parry, Ken, ed.; Melling, David J., ed.; Brady, Dimitri, ed.; Griffith, Sidney Harrison, ed.; Healey, John F., ed. The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. (ISBN 0631232036)
External links
Overviews of the Orthodox Church
- Orthodoxy: The Narrow Path
Byzantine Studies

subset: commoncrawl


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I made mini and many cake pops for you this past weekend. I had this idea I wanted to try just using basic round pops and color to make a sweet little display. So I set out to dip enough cake pops to get the job done. That turned out to be 350 plus. Yikes. Not quite sure what I was thinking … Around number 70, I was really starting to reconsider. I thought … oh my gosh I have to make five times that many. But when I start something I can't let it go until I get to the end and see how it works out. I know this project doesn't help you much for this year, but I thought the heart display could totally work for a lot of other things besides Valentine's Day.
So keep reading below for the how to… or check out my big "mini" giveaway at the end of this post. It's a mini way for me to say Happy Valentine's Day!
Okay, here we go.
You can't tell in the picture, but these cake pops are tiny. Like Cake Dots instead of pops. So tiny that you use a toothpick to dip them with instead of a lollipop stick. Yes a toothpick. The cake balls are actually about the size of a penny. But they are small for a reason.
- Regular size cake pops would take up a lot of table real estate.
- The lollipop sticks would be much taller and people would have a harder time viewing the design from above.
- I figured the proportions out so they would work on a pretty standard size piece of styrofoam to make it easier to recreate and transport.
- I only had to make one cake. Score.
- Mini is major cute.
I based the display design off of a template (see below) I made so that it works with a 12X18 inch or 12X20 inch sheet of styrofoam you can find in craft stores. Then I worked backwards to figure out how many cake pops you'd need to make the the shape look right. Once I had that, I knew how big to make the cake pops. Or how little.
- Crumble cake and mix with frosting
- Roll into tiny cake balls. (basic cake pop instructions here) You can use the circles on the downloadable template as a guide for the right size. They should be slightly smaller than the circle so that when you add the coating they will still fit together nicely.
- Keep rolling and rolling until you have enough
- Dip a toothpick into melted coating and then insert into a chilled cake ball.
- Dip entire cake pop into the coating and then sprinkle with non-pareils. They are tiny and will be the best size for these tiny treats.
- Place in styrofoam to dry.
A couple of things to note.
- Use a small plastic bowl to melt the coating. You can work with a smaller amount of coating when dipping. Just melt the coating in batches as you go. Then you can take breaks and watch the Walking Dead marathon on AMC in between.
- Buy more than one sheet of styrofoam. You'll need more room than the display size so they aren't touching each other as they dry.
- Invite a friend over to help you. It will go faster and maybe your neck won't hurt like mine does right now from looking down and dipping for so long.
- I'd try Mercken's candy coating for this project. It melts nice and fluid – you don't want thick coating on these. It will add too much volume.
- I've probably discouraged you already. Kind of like I felt as I was starting making these. But I had a feeling they'd be cute when I finished so I went on… like I'm going to do now. And by the way, these completely make me giddy when I see them finished on the table (looking at them now), so I guess it was worth it. And it will definitely be worth it if one of you decides to try it out some day. Hope you do… with a friend.
Use multi-color non-pareils for the second candy coating color. Minus the static.
Super cute.
When all the pops are done, prepare your display.
- Wrap a 12X18 inch or 12X20 inch sheet of styrofoam with paper. I used the 19X25 inch single sheets you purchase at the craft store. You could also use wrapping paper though.
- Packing tape worked best on the styrofoam to tape the paper down.
- Print out the template provided centered on an 11X17 sheet of paper at somewhere like Kinko's. The design is created for a 12X18 surface area but it is set up on 11X17 paper since that is a standard size to print. You'll notice that some of the circles on the template are getting cropped off when they print, but that's okay, you'll have enough information to figure out where the pops on the perimeter should go. I hope that makes sense.
- Tape the template down temporarily and use a safety pin to poke holes into the paper.
- Remove the template and start arranging the cake pops using the template as a guide. Start in the middle and work your way out from the center. More than likely some of your pops will be bigger than you think and if you start at one end, left to right, they will start to tilt too much to make room as you place them in position. But if you start in the center, they will angle out equally all the way around. Again I hope that makes sense.
Full of heart.
But you can also rearrange them for a different look …
And spread a little love…
… Or some sweet hugs and kisses.
Here are the 11X17 inch templates for each.
And because I love you guys and all things mini, here's a little giveaway for you.
Happy Valentine's Day!
- To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me who your Valentine is, what your plans are (or were) for the fourteenth or just say hi.
- Deadline to enter is
Sunday, February 17th at 7:00 p.m. ET.Sorry, Time's Up. Winner Announced below. - One winner will be chosen at random and announced sometime Sunday evening on this post.
- Winner will receive a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad mini.
Good Luck.
We have a winner! YAY!
Congratulations to Brenda! Hope you and your Peanut Butter Man enjoy the mini iPad!
Giveaway sponsored by me.


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A collection of responses to pickup lines, and just bad ones in general!
We've just released huge update to the iOS app! Now, access all your favorite text and photo sites like Anti-Joke, DIYLOL! A few things didn't make the original cut (like comments) but they'll be back soon. Best of all, the app is now FREE! Get it here.


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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
And I'm Audie Cornish.
The most populous city in the country is drying out, and beginning a long and complicated recovery. One positive sign: Tomorrow, some New York City subway routes are scheduled to reopen. But today, gridlock ruled as people took to their cars. And that means it's carpool time.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: You have to have three people in the car. I know it is inconvenient for a lot of people. But the bottom line is the streets can only handle so much.
CORNISH: That's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who laid out restrictions for most people driving into Manhattan.
SIEGEL: Still, carpooling is low on the list of troubles caused by Sandy. In a few minutes, we'll hear from Hoboken, New Jersey, which remains flooded. And the big picture is tragic too. Sixty-six people confirmed dead: 30 in New York state and eight in New Jersey.
CORNISH: Earlier today, President Obama flew to Atlantic City. He got a look at hurricane damage, along with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and pledged his support.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are here for you, and we will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you've rebuilt.
SIEGEL: NPR's Scott Horsley traveled along with the president, and he joins us now. Scott, what did the president see today?
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Well, first, he got an aerial view of the damage from a helicopter. He took off from Atlantic City where the damage was not so bad. But as he flew north over some of the coastal communities, such as Seaside Heights, the effects of the storm were much worse. Not wholesale destruction of neighborhoods, but certainly some very severe property damage.
Then back on the ground, he visited a community center that's been serving as a shelter. He met with some families who've been staying there now for three days. Some had been able to go back to inspect their homes, but many are staying at the shelter because there's no electricity where they live.
One mother of an infant worry that she was running out of diapers and baby formula. The FEMA administrator who was traveling along with the president managed to get some diapers and baby formula sent over to the shelter. And then on a lighter note, Mr. Obama himself passed out some White House M&Ms to the children who were missing out on Halloween.
SIEGEL: Mr. Obama was accompanied, as we said, by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican. They've become sort of a political odd couple of this story.
HORSLEY: Yeah, they really have. Governor Christie, of course, has been a vocal supporter of Mitt Romney and a vocal critic of the president in the past. But he's really worked closely with Mr. Obama, both before and since the storm. They've spoken on the telephone about half a dozen times. They've spent some quality time face-to-face in the helicopter today. And both men have really gone out of their way to say nice things about the job the other is doing.
The White House is saying that this is a time to set politics aside in dealing with a big storm like this, and that seems to be Governor Christie's attitude as well.
SIEGEL: Tomorrow, President Obama will be back in the swing states campaigning for re-election, but he's done very little politicking there for the last three days. How has that affected the presidential race?
HORSLEY: Well, it's hard to say for sure. But overall, it certainly does not seem to have caused him in the standings. There's an ABC/Washington Post poll out this evening that shows eight in 10 people think the president is doing a good or even an excellent job in dealing with the storm. Now, obviously, that could turn south in a hurry if people start to feel as if the government's responses is not adequate.
But for now, this has really been an opportunity for Mr. Obama to demonstrate leadership, to show compassion for the people who've been affected by the storm, and, frankly, to score some political points without the explicit appearance of playing politics.
SIEGEL: OK. That's NPR's Scott Horsley. Thank you, Scott.
HORSLEY: My pleasure, Robert. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Meet the Liliana: our classic Flores midi with a cap sleeve. The dress is adorned hand-embroidered flowers in the upper bust area, and flowers and vines surrounding the neckline. Hand-embroidered detail runs down the center of the dress.
If you have further questions, please email email@example.com. We would love to help you find your perfect piece.
Olivia is 5'9 wearing a size Small.
The Flores pieces come from the community of San Antonino Castillo Velasco. It is a community in Oaxaca that is known for its traditional floral hand embroidery, which dates back over 200 years. These blouses and dresses can take over one month to make, and specialty pieces can take up to six months to complete. As each garment is entirely handmade, these pieces are one-of-a-kind works of art. The designs are made by first stamping the pattern onto the chosen fabrics with ink using a large iron stamp. From there, the artisans use a small hoop to stretch the fabric and embroider the designs using selected threads. Once the embroidery is completed, the garments are sent to another community where they finish the smocking detail. The design that this community creates is known as "Hazme Si Puedes," which literally means "Make Me If You Can." This design showcases little people, known as "La Familia." A third community then completes these garments by adding hand crocheted detail to the neckline. These designs are part of these artisan communities' identities and heritage and are intended to last for generations.
Due to the intricate embroidery work, we recommend washing and drying on delicate settings, iron on low.


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Educate your audience
Originally published on The Next Web by Sharon Greenberg (CEO of Crypto Next).
The first thing you need to do is educate your audience. Establish your target market, then provide informative materials using engaging media such as infographics, videos and simplified guides to effectively communicate the problem that your product is solving, and explain why your audience needs it.
Don't assume any foreknowledge, but don't talk down to your audience either; use images, analogies, graphs and figures – and if possible, humor – to avoid sounding patronizing.
Providing informative materials and engaging on online forums or platforms such as Quora will not only help explain your product but will also generate interest from the right people, and quickly establish you as an industry expert in a field which is not yet saturated with digital content.
Put the horse before the cart
Often, it is not your just product that requires explanation but the system on which the product is based. For example, my company provides platforms for digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Before I can market my platform, I often have to explain digital currencies and their merits; only then can I sell the products that complement their use.
As above, providing informative materials, giving talks, blogging and sharing industry news will make people associate your brand with this new area of business, giving you a strong first mover advantage.
Repetition, repetition, repetition
When your product is not well known or understood, purposely making your target audience hear about it often will create a level of familiarity that can add credibility and spark the curiosity to learn more. There are plenty of inexpensive online advertising solutions that are designed to re-appear, thus planting your brand firmly in the consciousness of your customer.
Make sure you post content regularly on social platforms and repost some of your more successful entries. You can use time-saving tools and applications to schedule social media posts in advance.
Try to attend conferences and events regularly and put your name on everything you can get your hands on – cheap sponsorships at local events can get your brand seen by the right people and in a new market that can actually work.
Keep it light hearted
Humour is a great way to break the ice, and with products that are unfamiliar, this persona is even more important. The emergence of social network platforms as important marketing tools has affected the type of content that is acceptable in business.
Lighthearted materials with a good blob of personality are no longer seen as unprofessional – just be cautious and keep them tasteful.
Quote facts and statistics
You can't argue with well-researched, carefully-sourced facts and figures. This will add credibility to your pitch or marketing materials and inspire confidence in both you and your product.
Remember to include the source of any external information that you use, as well as the date or broader context if applicable. When using images, graphs or figures, make sure that you are not in breach of any restrictions on use.
Create excellent materials. Be social about it
There is nothing worse than marketing materials that contain mistakes, or a poorly-designed website. Take the time to create professional-looking tools that keep with the latest technological developments, and ask for help with proof-reading.
Consumers expect hi-tech companies to have a broad understanding of social networking and online marketing tools. Regularly maintaining social network profiles, posting intelligent content, having a kick-ass website and polished presentations will show your consumers, investors and community that you know what you are doing.
Even if your product is brand new, there will always be a small community of people who understand it. Connecting with them on social outlets can open doors and provide invaluable insights.
Use online and offline methods to engage with those who do understand your product, or the technology it is based on, and find out how they came to discover it, why they are drawn to it and what their concerns are. This can help you better understand your target audience, adapt your marketing strategy and engage your community to build a fan base.
Be approachable
Be friendly in your messaging and encourage consumers to communicate with you by sounding open and approachable. A great example is a charming message that I received from Buffer when I signed up for the service:
I'm guessing it's not every day that you sign up for a new service. That's why I want to make sure everything is in place for you to feel welcome and at home. On the slightest whim, please drop us a line or Tweet us.
Social platforms may seem to have taken over traditional methods of communication, but sometimes consumers just want to pick up a phone. Make sure that your telephone, fax and email details are available on your website, and provide extra communication tools such as live chat or a quick contact form.
Where possible, provide personal email addresses and direct telephone numbers for staff members so that they can be contacted directly.
Remain open minded
Test different strategies for online and offline marketing and keep in mind that you may have to adapt your methods. Analytics are an essential tool for tracking real results not just perceived successes, and are provided by most online platforms.
Tools such as SimplyMeasured provide free social media analytics reports across a variety of platforms. Importantly, create your own analytics based on what motivated you to try new marketing strategies and record your rationale, methods and results for every time you make a change. You may be surprised by the common denominator of your successes.
Share the love
A new thing is an exciting thing, and your enthusiasm will rub off on your consumers if you share it. Don't hold back on your affection for your product – let it shine through and others will love it too.
Good luck!


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Butterfly Stencil
Size: 25.5 x 11.5 cm
Insect Bug Butterflies Border Stencils
If you don't have the stamina for a whole wall a combination of like stencils can add a bright splash of color. Large stencils make a stunning accent on an empty wall, try them near a sofa or table or even by the skirting board of almost any wall space that needs that extra something.
- Reusable Wall Stencil Template - Use on Posters Cards Scrapbooking Journals WALLS Floors Fabric Furniture Glass WOOD
- Stenciling is one of the easiest and CHEAPEST ways to decorate - update your look by using different colors, motifs and patterns.
- ECONOMICAL alternative to wallpaper and decals - you only need to buy one and you can cover a whole wall.
- Suitable for use with ANY PAINT or stenciling method - use 1 color or a mixture of colors and clean up with soapy water.
- Made from 190 or 250 micron Mylar, the ORIGINAL stencil film NOT clear plastic you only see once you start painting.
- FREE Stencil Included with Every Purchase! CHECK SIZE BEFORE ORDERING!
Using laser cut Mylar film and paint; it is easy for even the beginner to produce stencil work of very HIGH QUALITY on Furniture, Walls, Floors, Fabrics, Windows and almost any other flat surface. Also your stencil comes with either registration marks or overlaps for easy line-up.
Our Rice Paper is perfect for both beginners and advanced crafters! It is much easier to work with than classic napkins. The paper is handmade, 100% natural and acid free. It is water and fade resistant as well as being very thin, lightweight 30gsm, semi-transparent and naturally white.
Mulberry rice paper is the original decoupage paper. It typically contains clearly visible fibres of irregular size, arranged in all directions all over the paper surface, giving it an original and interesting look.
You can use these papers for decoupage, scrapbooking, collage art, journaling, and furniture, whole or cut up. If you tear rather than cut, the edges will blend beautifully into the background. The colours of the images appear most vibrant when applied over white or light backgrounds.
WHAT YOU GET: 6 images measuring 8 x 10.5" inch printed onto 6 sheets of A4 Mulberry Rice Paper. The images are all different but adhere to a theme, like colour, style or type. Just remember colour varies greatly from screen to screen.
PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT food grade rice paper and is NOT edible! We cannot guarantee that the colour you see on your screen accurately portrays the true colour of the product.
DECOUPAGE is the art of decorating an object by gluing coloured paper cut-outs onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and other decorative elements. Commonly, an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cut-outs from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnish (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30 to 40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish.
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text:
This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.
Back then, everybody was writing about Iraq, but it's surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn't what's on anyone's mind. This was why I returned to that country before the recent 10th anniversary of the Bush administration's invasion and why I feel compelled to write a few grim words about Iraqis today.
But let's start with then. It's April 8, 2004, to be exact, and I'm inside a makeshift medical center in the heart of Fallujah while that predominantly Sunni city is under siege by American forces. I'm alternating between scribbling brief observations in my notebook and taking photographs of the wounded and dying women and children being brought into the clinic.
A woman suddenly arrives, slapping her chest and face in grief, wailing hysterically as her husband carries in the limp body of their little boy. Blood is trickling down one of his dangling arms. In a few minutes, he'll be dead. This sort of thing happens again and again.
Over and over, I watch speeding cars hop the curb in front of this dirty clinic with next to no medical resources and screech to a halt. Grief-stricken family members pour out, carrying bloodied relatives—women and children—gunned down by American snipers.
One of them, an 18-year-old girl has been shot through the neck by what her family swears was an American sniper. All she can manage are gurgling noises as doctors work frantically to save her from bleeding to death. Her younger brother, an undersized child of 10 with a gunshot wound in his head, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomits as doctors race to keep him alive. He later dies while being transported to a hospital in Baghdad.
According to the Bush administration at the time, the siege of Fallujah was carried out in the name of fighting something called "terrorism" and yet, from the point of view of the Iraqis I was observing at such close quarters, the terror was strictly American. In fact, it was the Americans who first began the spiraling cycle of violence in Fallujah when US troops from the 82nd Airborne Division killed 17 unarmed demonstrators on April 28th of the previous year outside a school they had occupied and turned into a combat outpost. The protesters had simply wanted the school vacated by the Americans, so their children could use it. But then, as now, those who respond to government-sanctioned violence are regularly written off as "terrorists." Governments are rarely referred to in the same terms.
10 Years Later
Jump to March 2013 and that looming 10th anniversary of the US invasion. For me, that's meant two books and too many news articles to count since I first traveled to that country as the world's least "embedded" reporter to blog about a US occupation already spiraling out of control. Today, I work for the Human Rights Department of Al Jazeera English, based out of Doha, Qatar. And once again, so many years later, I've returned to the city where I saw all those bloodied and dying women and children. All these years later, I'm back in Fallujah.
Today, not to put too fine a point on it, Iraq is a failed state, teetering on the brink of another sectarian bloodbath, and beset by chronic political deadlock and economic disaster. Its social fabric has been all but shredded by nearly a decade of brutal occupation by the US military and now by the rule of an Iraqi government rife with sectarian infighting.
Every Friday, for 13 weeks now, hundreds of thousands have demonstrated and prayed on the main highway linking Baghdad and Amman, Jordan, which runs just past the outskirts of this city.
Sunnis in Fallujah and the rest of Iraq's vast Anbar Province are enraged at the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki because his security forces, still heavily staffed by members of various Shia militias, have been killing or detaining their compatriots from this region, as well as across much of Baghdad. Fallujah's residents now refer to that city as a "big prison," just as they did when it was surrounded and strictly controlled by the Americans.
Angry protesters have taken to the streets. "We demand an end to checkpoints surrounding Fallujah. We demand they allow in the press. We demand they end their unlawful home raids and detentions. We demand an end to federalism and gangsters and secret prisons!" So Sheikh Khaled Hamoud Al-Jumaili, a leader of the demonstrations, tells me just prior to one of the daily protests. "Losing our history and dividing Iraqis is wrong, but that, and kidnapping and conspiracies and displacing people, is what Maliki is doing."
The sheikh went on to assure me that millions of people in Anbar province had stopped demanding changes in the Maliki government because, after years of waiting, no such demands were ever met. "Now, we demand a change in the regime instead and a change in the constitution," he says. "We will not stop these demonstrations. This one we have labeled 'last chance Friday' because it is the government's last chance to listen to us."
"What comes next," I ask him, "if they don't listen to you?"
"Maybe armed struggle comes next," he replies without pause.
Predictably, given how the cycle of violence, corruption, injustice, and desperation has become part of daily life in this country, that same day, a Sunni demonstrator was gunned down by Iraqi security forces. Lieutenant General Mardhi al-Mahlawi, commander of the Iraqi Army's Anbar Operations Command, said the authorities would not hesitate to deploy troops around the protest site again "if the protesters do not cooperate." The following day, the Maliki government warned that the area was becoming "a haven for terrorists," echoing the favorite term the Americans used during their occupation of Fallujah.
Today's Iraq
In 2009, I was in Fallujah, riding around in the armored BMW of Sheikh Aifan, the head of the then-US-backed Sunni militias known as the Sahwa forces. The Sheikh was an opportunistic, extremely wealthy "construction contractor" and boasted that the car we rode in had been custom built for him at a cost of nearly half a million dollars.
Two months ago, Sheikh Aifan was killed by a suicide bomber, just one more victim of a relentless campaign by Sunni insurgents targeting those who once collaborated with the Americans. Memories in Iraq are long these days and revenge remains on many minds. The key figures in the Maliki regime know that if it falls, as is likely one day, they may meet fates similar to Sheikh Aifan's. It's a convincing argument for hanging onto power.
In this way, the Iraq of 2013 staggers onward in a climate of perpetual crisis toward a future where the only givens are more chaos, more violence, and yet more uncertainty. Much of this can be traced to Washington's long, brutal, and destructive occupation, beginning with the installation of former CIA asset Ayad Allawi as interim prime minister. His hold on power quickly faltered, however, after he was used by the Americans to launch their second siege of Fallujah in November 2004, which resulted in the deaths of thousands more Iraqis, and set the stage for an ongoing health crisis in the city due to the types of weapons used by the US military.
In 2006, after Allawi lost political clout, then-US ambassador to Iraq neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad tapped Maliki as Washington's new prime minister. It was then widely believed that he was the only politician whom both the US and Iran could find acceptable. As one Iraqi official sarcastically put it, Maliki was the product of an agreement between "the Great Satan and the Axis of Evil."
In the years since, Maliki has become a de facto dictator. In Anbar Province and parts of Baghdad, he is now bitterly referred to as a "Shia Saddam." Pictures of his less-than-photogenic face in front of an Iraqi flag hang above many of the countless checkpoints around the capital. When I see his visage looming over us yet again as we sit in traffic, I comment to my fixer, Ali, that his image is now everywhere, just as Saddam's used to be. "Yes, they've simply changed the view for us," Ali replies, and we laugh. Gallows humor has been a constant in Baghdad since the invasion a decade ago.
It's been much the same all over Iraq. The US forces that ousted Saddam Hussein's regime immediately moved into his military bases and palaces. Now that the US has left Iraq, those same bases and palaces are manned and controlled by the Maliki government.
Saddam Hussein's country was notoriously corrupt. Yet last year, Iraq ranked 169th out of 174 countries surveyed, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. It is effectively a failed state, with the Maliki regime incapable of controlling vast swaths of the country, including the Kurdish north, despite his willingness to use the same tactics once employed by Saddam Hussein and after him the Americans: widespread violence, secret prisons, threats, detentions, and torture.
Almost 10 years after US troops entered a Baghdad in flames and being looted, Iraq remains one of the most dangerous places on Earth. There are daily bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations. The sectarianism instilled and endlessly stirred up by US policy has become deeply, seemingly irrevocably embedded in the political culture, which regularly threatens to tip over into the sort of violence that typified 2006-2007, when upwards of 3,000 Iraqis were being slaughtered every month.
The death toll of March 11th was one of the worst of late and provides a snapshot of the increasing levels of violence countrywide. Overall, 27 people were killed and many more injured in attacks across the country. A suicide car bomb detonated in a town near Kirkuk, killing eight and wounding 166 (65 of whom were students at a Kurdish secondary school for girls). In Baghdad, gunmen stormed a home where they murdered a man and woman. A shop owner was shot dead and a policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in Ghazaliya. A civilian was killed in the Saidiya district, while a Sahwa member was gunned down in Amil. Three government ministry employees in the city were also killed.
In addition, gunmen killed two policemen in the town of Baaj, a dead body turned up in Muqtadiyah, where a roadside bomb also wounded a policeman. In the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, gunmen killed a blacksmith, and in the northern city of Mosul, a political candidate and a soldier were both killed in separate incidents. A local political leader in the town of Rutba in Anbar Province was shot and died of his injuries, and the body of a young man whose skull was crushed was found in Kirkuk a day after he was kidnapped. Gunmen also killed a civilian in Abu Saida.
And these are only the incidents reported in the media in a single day. Others regularly don't make it into the news at all.
The next day, Awadh, the security chief for Al Jazeera in Baghdad, was in a dark mood when he arrived at work. "Yesterday, two people were assassinated in my neighborhood," he said. "Six were assassinated around Baghdad. I live in a mixed neighborhood, and the threats of killing have returned. It feels like it did just before the sectarian war of 2006. The militias are again working to push people out of their homes if they are not Shia. Now, I worry everyday when my daughter goes to school. I ask the taxi driver who takes her to drop her close to the school, so that she is alright." Then he paused a moment, held up his arms and added, "And I pray."
"This Is Our Life Now"
Iraqis who had enough money and connections to leave the country have long since fled. Harb, another fixer and dear friend who worked with me throughout much of my earlier reportage from Iraq, fled to Syria's capital, Damascus, with his family for security reasons. When the uprising in Syria turned violent and devolved into the bloodbath it is today, he fled Damascus for Beirut. He is literally running from war.
Recent Iraqi government estimates put the total of "internally displaced persons" in Iraq at 1.1 million. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis remain in exile, but of course no one is counting. Even those who stay often live as if they were refugees and act as if they are on the run. Most of those I met on my most recent trip won't even allow me to use their real names when I interview them.
My first day in the field this time around, I met with Isam, another fixer I'd worked with nine years ago. His son narrowly escaped two kidnapping attempts, and he has had to change homes four times for security reasons. Once he was strongly opposed to leaving Iraq because, he always insisted, "this is my country, and these are my people." Now, he is desperate to find a way out. "There is no future here," he told me. "Sectarianism is everywhere and killing has come back to Baghdad."
He takes me to interview refugees in his neighborhood of al-Adhamiyah. Most of them fled their homes in mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods and towns during the sectarian violence of 2006 and 2007. Inside his cobbled-together brick house with a roof of tin sheeting held down with old tires, one refugee echoes Isam's words: "There is no future for us Iraqis," he told me. "Day by day our situation worsens, and now we expect a full sectarian war."
Elsewhere, I interviewed 20-year-old Marwa Ali, a mother of two. In a country where electric blackouts are a regular event, water is often polluted, and waste of every sort litters neighborhoods, the stench of garbage and raw sewage wafted through the door of her home while flies buzzed about. "We have scorpions and snakes also," she said while watching me futilely swat at the swarm of insects that instantly surrounded me. And she paused when she saw me looking at her children, a four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. "My children have no future," she said. "Neither do I, and neither does Iraq."
Shortly afterward, I met with another refugee, 55-year-old Haifa Abdul Majid. I held back tears when the first thing she said was how grateful she was to have food. "We are finding some food and can eat, and I thank God for this," she told me in front of her makeshift shelter. "This is the main thing. In some countries, some people can't even find food to eat."
She, too, had fled sectarian violence, and had lost loved ones and friends. While she acknowledged the hardship she was experiencing and how difficult it was to live under such difficult circumstances, she continued to express her gratitude that her situation wasn't worse. After all, she said, she wasn't living in the desert. Finally, she closed her eyes and shook her head. "We know we are in this bad situation because of the American occupation," she said wearily. "And now it is Iran having their revenge on us by using Maliki, and getting back at Iraq for the [1980-1988] war with Iran. As for our future, if things stay like they are now, it will only keep getting worse. The politicians only fight, and they take Iraq down into a hole. For 10 years what have these politicians done? Nothing! Saddam was better than all of them."
I asked her about her grandson. "Always I wonder about him," she replied. "I ask God to take me away before he grows up, because I don't want to see it. I'm an old woman now and I don't care if I die, but what about these young children?" She stopped speaking, looked off into the distance, then stared at the ground. There was, for her, nothing else to say.
I heard the same fatalism even from Awadh, Al Jazeera's head of security. "Baghdad is stressed," he told me. "These days you can't trust anyone. The situation on the street is complicated, because militias are running everything. You don't know who is who. All the militias are preparing for more fighting, and all are expecting the worst."
As he said this, we passed under yet another poster of an angry looking Maliki, speaking with a raised, clenched fist. "Last year's budget was $100 billion and we have no working sewage system and garbage is everywhere," he added. "Maliki is trying to be a dictator, and is controlling all the money now."
In the days that followed, my fixer Ali pointed out new sidewalks, and newly planted trees and flowers, as well as the new street lights the government has installed in Baghdad. "We called it first the sidewalks government, because that was the only thing we could see that they accomplished." He laughed sardonically. "Then it was the flowers government, and now it is the government of the street lamps, and the lamps sometimes don't even work!"
Despite his brave face, kind heart, and upbeat disposition, even Ali eventually shared his concerns with me. One morning, when we met for work, I asked him about the latest news. "Same old, same old," he replied, "Kidnappings, killings, rapes. Same old, same old. This is our life now, everyday."
"The lack of hope for the future is our biggest problem today," he explained. He went on to say something that also qualified eerily as another version of the "same old, same old." I had heard similar words from countless Iraqis back in the fall of 2003, as violence and chaos first began to engulf the country. "All we want is to live in peace, and have security, and have a normal life," he said, "to be able to enjoy the sweetness of life." This time, however, there wasn't even a trace of his usual cheer, and not even a hint of gallows humor.
"All Iraq has had these last 10 years is violence, chaos, and suffering. For 13 years before that we were starved and deprived by [U.N. and US] sanctions. Before that, the Kuwait War, and before that, the Iran War. At least I experienced some of my childhood without knowing war. I've achieved a job and have my family, but for my daughters, what will they have here in this country? Will they ever get to live without war? I don't think so."
For so many Iraqis like Ali, a decade after Washington invaded their country, this is the anniversary of nothing at all.
Dahr Jamail is a feature story staff writer and producer for the Human Rights Department of Al Jazeera English. Currently based in Doha, Qatar, Dahr has spent more than a year in Iraq, spread over a number of trips between 2003 and 2013. His reportage from Iraq, including for TomDispatch, has won him several awards, including the Martha Gellhorn Award for Investigative Journalism. He is the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
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text:
De sceptische blogger Tallbloke van tallbloke.wordpress.com heeft een gratis PR boost gekregen van de Britse politie: die hebben namelijk zijn computers geconfisceerd en inmiddels laten weten dat alles netjes terugkomt zodra de harde schijven zijn gekloond. Cartoonist Josh maakte er bovenstaande plaat bij (trouwens: welke Nederlandse catoonist wil pro bono bij ons aan de slag?). Tallbloke was de eerste blogger die Climategate 2.0 – een nieuwe batch e-mails van de mysterieuze FOIA – bekend maakte.
Hieronder ten overvloede wellicht nog eens de "poverty is a death sentence" READ ME van FOIA:
Message to 'FOIA'
Thank you, whoever you are, freedom of information is a principle worth upholding.
Here's the README contents:
/// FOIA 2011 — Background and Context ///
"Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day."
"Every day nearly 16.000 children die from hunger and related causes."
"One dollar can save a life" — the opposite must also be true.
"Poverty is a death sentence."
"Nations must invest $37 trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to stabilize
greenhouse gas emissions at sustainable levels."
Today's decisions should be based on all the information we can get, not on
hiding the decline.
This archive contains some 5.000 emails picked from keyword searches. A few
remarks and redactions are marked with triple brackets.
The rest, some 220.000, are encrypted for various reasons. We are not planning
to publicly release the passphrase.
We could not read every one, but tried to cover the most relevant topics such
/// The IPCC Process ///
<1939> Thorne/MetO:
Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical
troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a
wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. We need to communicate the
uncertainty and be honest. Phil, hopefully we can find time to discuss these
further if necessary […]
<3066> Thorne:
I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it
which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run.
<1611> Carter:
It seems that a few people have a very strong say, and no matter how much
talking goes on beforehand, the big decisions are made at the eleventh hour by
a select core group.
<2884> Wigley:
Mike, The Figure you sent is very deceptive […] there have been a number of
dishonest presentations of model results by individual authors and by IPCC […]
<4755> Overpeck:
The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what's
included and what is left out.
<3456> Overpeck:
I agree w/ Susan [Solomon] that we should try to put more in the bullet about
"Subsequent evidence" […] Need to convince readers that there really has been
an increase in knowledge – more evidence. What is it?
<1104> Wanner/NCCR:
In my [IPCC-TAR] review […] I crit[i]cized […] the Mann hockey[s]tick […]
My review was classified "unsignificant" even I inquired several times. Now the
internationally well known newspaper SPIEGEL got the information about these
early statements because I expressed my opinion in several talks, mainly in
Germany, in 2002 and 2003. I just refused to give an exclusive interview to
SPIEGEL because I will not cause damage for climate science.
<0414> Coe:
Hence the AR4 Section 184.108.40.206.2 dismissal of the ACRIM composite to be
instrumental rather than solar in origin is a bit controversial. Similarly IPCC
in their discussion on solar RF since the Maunder Minimum are very dependent on
the paper by Wang et al (which I have been unable to access) in the decision to
reduce the solar RF significantly despite the many papers to the contrary in
the ISSI workshop. All this leaves the IPCC almost entirely dependent on CO2
for the explanation of current global temperatures as in Fig 2.23. since
methane CFCs and aerosols are not increasing.
<2009> Briffa:
I find myself in the strange position of being very skeptical of the quality of
all present reconstructions, yet sounding like a pro greenhouse zealot here!
<2775> Jones:
I too don't see why the schemes should be symmetrical. The temperature ones
certainly will not as we're choosing the periods to show warming.
<1219> Trenberth:
[…] opposing some things said by people like Chris Landsea who has said all the
stuff going on is natural variability. In addition to the 4 hurricanes hitting
Florida, there has been a record number hit Japan 10?? and I saw a report
saying Japanese scientists had linked this to global warming. […] I am leaning
toward the idea of getting a box on changes in hurricanes, perhaps written by a
<0890> Jones:
We can put a note in that something will be there in the next draft, or Kevin
or I will write something – it depends on whether and what we get from Japan.
<0170> Jones:
Kevin, Seems that this potential Nature paper may be worth citing, if it does
say that GW is having an effect on TC activity.
<0714> Jones:
Getting people we know and trust [into IPCC] is vital – hence my comment about
the tornadoes group.
<3205> Jones:
Useful ones [for IPCC] might be Baldwin, Benestad (written on the solar/cloud
issue – on the right side, i.e anti-Svensmark), Bohm, Brown, Christy (will be
have to involve him ?)
<4923> Stott/MetO:
My most immediate concern is to whether to leave this statement ["probably the
warmest of the last millennium"] in or whether I should remove it in the
anticipation that by the time of the 4th Assessment Report we'll have withdrawn
this statement – Chris Folland at least seems to think this is possible.
/// Communicating Climate Change ///
<2495> Humphrey/DEFRA:
I can't overstate the HUGE amount of political interest in the project as a
message that the Government can give on climate change to help them tell their
story. They want the story to be a very strong one and don't want to be made
to look foolish.
<0813> Fox/Environment Agency:
if we loose the chance to make climate change a reality to people in the
regions we will have missed a major trick in REGIS.
<4716> Adams:
Somehow we have to leave the[m] thinking OK, climate change is extremely
complicated, BUT I accept the dominant view that people are affecting it, and
that impacts produces risk that needs careful and urgent attention.
<1790> Lorenzoni:
I agree with the importance of extreme events as foci for public and
governmental opinion […] 'climate change' needs to be present in people's
daily lives. They should be reminded that it is a continuously occurring and
evolving phenomenon
<3062> Jones:
We don't really want the bullshit and optimistic stuff that Michael has written
[…] We'll have to cut out some of his stuff.
<1485> Mann:
the important thing is to make sure they're loosing the PR battle. That's what
the site [Real Climate] is about.
<2428> Ashton/co2.org:
Having established scale and urgency, the political challenge is then to turn
this from an argument about the cost of cutting emissions – bad politics – to
one about the value of a stable climate – much better politics. […] the most
valuable thing to do is to tell the story about abrupt change as vividly as
<3332> Kelly:
the current commitments, even with some strengthening, are little different
from what would have happened without a climate treaty.
[…] the way to pitch the analysis is to argue that precautionary action must be
taken now to protect reserves etc against the inevitable
<3655> Singer/WWF:
we as an NGO working on climate policy need such a document pretty soon for the
public and for informed decision makers in order to get a) a debate started and
b) in order to get into the media the context between climate
extremes/desasters/costs and finally the link between weather extremes and
<0445> Torok/CSIRO:
[…] idea of looking at the implications of climate change for what he termed
"global icons" […] One of these suggested icons was the Great Barrier Reef […]
It also became apparent that there was always a local "reason" for the
destruction – cyclones, starfish, fertilizers […] A perception of an
"unchanging" environment leads people to generate local explanations for coral
loss based on transient phenomena, while not acknowledging the possibility of
systematic damage from long-term climatic/environmental change […] Such a
project could do a lot to raise awareness of threats to the reef from climate
<4141> Minns/Tyndall Centre:
In my experience, global warming freezing is already a bit of a public
relations problem with the media
I agree with Nick that climate change might be a better labelling than global
What kind of circulation change could lock Europe into deadly summer heat waves
like that of last summer? That's the sort of thing we need to think about.
/// The Medieval Warm Period ///
<5111> Pollack:
But it will be very difficult to make the MWP go away in Greenland.
<5039> Rahmstorf:
You chose to depict the one based on C14 solar data, which kind of stands out
in Medieval times. It would be much nicer to show the version driven by Be10
solar forcing
<5096> Cook:
A growing body of evidence clearly shows [2008] that hydroclimatic variability
during the putative MWP (more appropriately and inclusively called the
"Medieval Climate Anomaly" or MCA period) was more regionally extreme (mainly
in terms of the frequency and duration of megadroughts) than anything we have
seen in the 20th century, except perhaps for the Sahel. So in certain ways the
MCA period may have been more climatically extreme than in modern times.
/// The Settled Science ///
<0310> Warren:
The results for 400 ppm stabilization look odd in many cases […] As it stands
we'll have to delete the results from the paper if it is to be published.
<1682> Wils:
[2007] What if climate change appears to be just mainly a multidecadal natural
fluctuation? They'll kill us probably […]
<2267> Wilson:
Although I agree that GHGs are important in the 19th/20th century (especially
since the 1970s), if the weighting of solar forcing was stronger in the models,
surely this would diminish the significance of GHGs.
[…] it seems to me that by weighting the solar irradiance more strongly in the
models, then much of the 19th to mid 20th century warming can be explained from
the sun alone.
<5289> Hoskins:
If the tropical near surface specific humidity over tropical land has not gone
up (Fig 5) presumably that could explain why the expected amplification of the
warming in the tropics with height has not really been detected.
<5315> Jenkins/MetO:
would you agree that there is no convincing evidence for kilimanjaro glacier
melt being due to recent warming (let alone man-made warming)?
<2292> Jones:
[tropical glaciers] There is a small problem though with their retreat. They
have retreated a lot in the last 20 years yet the MSU2LT data would suggest
that temperatures haven't increased at these levels.
<1788> Jones:
There shouldn't be someone else at UEA with different views [from "recent
extreme weather is due to global warming"] – at least not a climatologist.
<4693> Crowley:
I am not convinced that the "truth" is always worth reaching if it is at the
cost of damaged personal relationships
<2967> Briffa:
Also there is much published evidence for Europe (and France in particular) of
increasing net primary productivity in natural and managed woodlands that may
be associated either with nitrogen or increasing CO2 or both. Contrast this
with the still controversial question of large-scale acid-rain-related forest
decline? To what extent is this issue now generally considered urgent, or even
<2733> Crowley:
Phil, thanks for your thoughts – guarantee there will be no dirty laundry in
the open.
<2095> Steig:
He's skeptical that the warming is as great as we show in East Antarctica — he
thinks the "right" answer is more like our detrended results in the
supplementary text. I cannot argue he is wrong.
<0953> Jones:
This will reduce the 1940-1970 cooling in NH temps. Explaining the cooling with
sulphates won't be quite as necessary.
<4944> Haimberger:
It is interesting to see the lower tropospheric warming minimum in the tropics
in all three plots, which I cannot explain. I believe it is spurious but it is
remarkably robust against my adjustment efforts.
<4262> Klein/LLNL:
Does anybody have an explanation why there is a relative minimum (and some
negative trends) between 500 and 700 hPa? No models with significant surface
warming do this
<2461> Osborn:
This is an excellent idea, Mike, IN PRINCIPLE at least. In practise, however,
it raises some interesting results […] the analysis will not likely lie near to
the middle of the cloud of published series and explaining the reasons behind
this etc. will obscure the message of a short EOS piece.
<4470> Norwegian Meteorological Institute:
In Norway and Spitsbergen, it is possible to explain most of the warming after
the 1960s by changes in the atmospheric circulation. The warming prior to 1940
cannot be explained in this way.
/// The Urban Heat Effect ///
<4938> Jenkins/MetO:
By coincidence I also got recently a paper from Rob which says "London's UHI
has indeed become more intense since the 1960s esp during spring and summer".
<0896> Jones:
I think the urban-related warming should be smaller than this, but I can't
think of a good way to argue this. I am hopeful of finding something in the
data that makes by their Figure 3.
<0044> Rean:
[…] we found the [urban warming] effect is pretty big in the areas we analyzed.
This is a little different from the result you obtained in 1990.
[…] We have published a few of papers on this topic in Chinese. Unfortunately,
when we sent our comments to the IPCC AR4, they were mostly rejected.
<4789> Wigley:
there are some nitpicky jerks who have criticized the Jones et al. data sets –
we don't want one of those [EPRI/California Energy Commission meeting].
The jerk you mention was called Good(e)rich who found urban warming at
all Californian sites.
<1601> Jones:
I think China is one of the few places that are affected [urban heat]. The
paper shows that London and Vienna (and also New York) are not affected in the
20th century.
<2939> Jones:
[…] every effort has been made to use data that are either rural and/or where
the urbanization effect has been removed as well as possible by statistical
means. There are 3 groups that have done this independently (CRU, NOAA and
GISS), and they end up with essentially the same results.
[…] Furthermore, the oceans have warmed at a rate consistent with the land.
There is no urban effect there.
/// Temperature Reconstructions ///
<1583> Wilson:
any method that incorporates all forms of uncertainty and error will
undoubtedly result in reconstructions with wider error bars than we currently
have. These many be more honest, but may not be too helpful for model
comparison attribution studies. We need to be careful with the wording I think.
<4165> Jones:
what he [Zwiers] has done comes to a different conclusion than Caspar and Gene!
I reckon this can be saved by careful wording.
<3994> Mitchell/MetO
Is the PCA approach robust? Are the results statistically significant? It seems
to me that in the case of MBH the answer in each is no
<4241> Wilson:
I thought I'd play around with some randomly generated time-series and see if I
could 'reconstruct' northern hemisphere temperatures.
[…] The reconstructions clearly show a 'hockey-stick' trend. I guess this is
precisely the phenomenon that Macintyre has been going on about.
<3373> Bradley:
I'm sure you agree–the Mann/Jones GRL paper was truly pathetic and should
never have been published. I don't want to be associated with that 2000 year
<4758> Osborn:
Because how can we be critical of Crowley for throwing out 40-years in the
middle of his calibration, when we're throwing out all post-1960 data 'cos the
MXD has a non-temperature signal in it, and also all pre-1881 or pre-1871 data
'cos the temperature data may have a non-temperature signal in it!
<0886> Esper:
Now, you Keith complain about the way we introduced our result, while saying it
is an important one. […] the IPCC curve needs to be improved according to
missing long-term declining trends/signals, which were removed (by
dendrochronologists!) before Mann merged the local records together. So, why
don't you want to let the result into science?
<4369> Cook:
I am afraid that Mike is defending something that increasingly can not be
defended. He is investing too much personal stuff in this and not letting the
science move ahead.
<5055> Cook:
One problem is that he [Mann] will be using the RegEM method, which provides no
better diagnostics (e.g. betas) than his original method. So we will still not
know where his estimates are coming from.
/// Science and Religion ///
<2132> Wigley:
I heard that Zichichi has links with the Vatican. A number of other greenhouse
skeptics have extreme religious views.
<4394> Houghton [MetO, IPCC co-chair]
[…] we dont take seriously enough our God-given responsibility to care for the
Earth […] 500 million people are expected to watch The Day After Tomorrow. We
must pray that they pick up that message.
<0999> Hulme:
My work is as Director of the national centre for climate change research, a
job which requires me to translate my Christian belief about stewardship of
God's planet into research and action.
<3653> Hulme:
He [another Met scientist] is a Christian and would talk authoritatively about
the state of climate science from the sort of standpoint you are wanting.
/// Climate Models ///
<3111> Watson/UEA:
I'd agree probably 10 years away to go from weather forecasting to ~ annual
scale. But the "big climate picture" includes ocean feedbacks on all time
scales, carbon and other elemental cycles, etc. and it has to be several
decades before that is sorted out I would think. So I would guess that it will
not be models or theory, but observation that will provide the answer to the
question of how the climate will change in many decades time.
<5131> Shukla/IGES:
["Future of the IPCC", 2008] It is inconceivable that policymakers will be
willing to make billion-and trillion-dollar decisions for adaptation to the
projected regional climate change based on models that do not even describe and
simulate the processes that are the building blocks of climate variability.
<2423> Lanzante/NOAA:
While perhaps one could designate some subset of models as being poorer in a
lot of areas, there probably never will be a single universally superior model
or set of models. We should keep in mind that the climate system is complex, so
that it is difficult, if not impossible to define a metric that captures the
breath of physical processes relevant to even a narrow area of focus.
<1982> Santer:
there is no individual model that does well in all of the SST and water vapor
tests we've applied.
<0850> Barnett:
[IPCC AR5 models] clearly, some tuning or very good luck involved. I doubt the
modeling world will be able to get away with this much longer
<5066> Hegerl:
[IPCC AR5 models]
So using the 20th c for tuning is just doing what some people have long
suspected us of doing […] and what the nonpublished diagram from NCAR showing
correlation between aerosol forcing and sensitivity also suggested.
<4443> Jones:
Basic problem is that all models are wrong – not got enough middle and low
level clouds.
<4085> Jones:
GKSS is just one model and it is a model, so there is no need for it to be
/// The Cause ///
<3115> Mann:
By the way, when is Tom C going to formally publish his roughly 1500 year
reconstruction??? It would help the cause to be able to refer to that
reconstruction as confirming Mann and Jones, etc.
<3940> Mann:
They will (see below) allow us to provide some discussion of the synthetic
example, referring to the J. Cimate paper (which should be finally accepted
upon submission of the revised final draft), so that should help the cause a
<0810> Mann:
I gave up on Judith Curry a while ago. I don't know what she think's she's
doing, but its not helping the cause
<3594> Berger:
Many thanks for your paper and congratulations for reviving the global warming.
<0121> Jones:
[on temperature data adjustments] Upshot is that their trend will increase
<4184> Jones:
[to Hansen] Keep up the good work! […] Even though it's been a mild winter in
the UK, much of the rest of the world seems coolish – expected though given the
La Nina. Roll on the next El Nino!
<5294> Schneider:
Even though I am virtually certain we shall lose on McCain-Lieberman, they are
forcing Senators to go on record for for against sensible climate policy
/// Freedom of Information ///
<2440> Jones:
I've been told that IPCC is above national FOI Acts. One way to cover yourself
and all those working in AR5 would be to delete all emails at the end of the
<2094> Briffa:
UEA does not hold the very vast majority of mine [potentially FOIable emails]
anyway which I copied onto private storage after the completion of the IPCC
<2459> Osborn:
Keith and I have just searched through our emails for anything containing
"David Holland". Everything we found was cc'd to you and/or Dave Palmer, which
you'll already have.
<1473> McGarvie/UEA Director of Faculty Administration:
As we are testing EIR with the other climate audit org request relating to
communications with other academic colleagues, I think that we would weaken
that case if we supplied the information in this case. So I would suggest that
we decline this one (at the very end of the time period)
<1577> Jones:
[FOI, temperature data]
Any work we have done in the past is done on the back of the research grants we
get – and has to be well hidden. I've discussed this with the main funder (US
Dept of Energy) in the past and they are happy about not releasing the original
station data.
Als reactie op de belachelijke politieactie is Lord Monckton is inmiddels bezig met aangifte wegens wetenschappelijke en economische fraude door klimaatwetenschappers (zie artikel).