Friday, 1 May 2009

British, you know...


Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun

The Japanese don’t care to, the Chinese wouldn’t dare to

Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve till one

But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun...

Noel Coward, 1931


...Persistence is the British trait which kept the Shackleton crew alive and helped England withstand the Nazi’s throughout World War II. Persistence (and lunacy) inspired the late Sir Arthur Strebe-Greebling to spend 30 years attempting to teach ravens to fly underwater. Persistence keeps the Catlin Crew going and kept Lewis Pugh relentlessly paddling his kayak over Arctic Ice towards the pole. And it is the same trait which keeps the UK Met Office forecasting warm summers year after year. The Met Office forecast 2007 to be the warmest year ever globally, and a hot summer in the UK. Instead it turned out to be a cool summer and the rainiest on record in England. Similar story for summer 2008 and winter 2008-2009 . Yet in fine British tradition the Met Office remains undaunted ...more from WuWT here...

3 comments:

KG said...

Persitence is to be admired.
Stubborn, ideologically-driven stupidity, on the other hand.....

KG said...

grr..typos..
"persistence" that is.

Ayrdale said...

That's right KG. They figure though that if they stick to their guns, the law of averages will eventually help them out, and Britain will forget the dismal "forecasting" skills...