1st February - Global Warming Action

I was sent this by a friend. I will try to take part. Of course it may not be practical to turn off things like your heating (but you could turn down the thermostat for a few minutes), but lights, TV and computers should be possible.  Need to find some candles.

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Participate in the biggest mobilization of Citizens Against Global Warming!

The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations, site is in French] is calling on all citizens to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet.

People all over the world should turn off their lights and electrical appliances on the 1st of February 2007, between 1.55 pm and 2.00 pm in New York, 18.55 for London, and 19.55 for Paris, Bruxelles, and Italy. 1.55pm in Ottawa, 10.55 am on the Pacific Coast of North America, 1.55 and 2.00 am in Vietnam.

This is not just about saving 5 minutes worth of electricity; this is about getting the attention of the media, politicians, and ourselves.

Five minutes of electrical down time for the planet: this does not take long, costs nothing, and will show all political leaders that global warming is an issue that needs to come first and foremost in political debate.

Why February 1? This is the day when the new UN report on global climate change will come out in Paris.

This event affects us all, involves us all, and provides an occasion to show how important an issue global warming is to us. If we all participate, this action can have real media and political weight.

Please circulate this call to your utmost ability to your network.

Big Garden Birdwatch

We've just done our second RSPB survey. Tilly, Dylan and I spent an hour counting the various visitors to our garden. Not as many as last year, but still a fair range of species. Our counts were:

Blackbird	4
Blue tit	1
Collared dove	2
Dunnock	1
Greenfinch	1
House sparrow	3
Robin	1
Starling	1

We also saw lots of others (crows, seagulls etc), but they didn't settle and so we could not include them.

Anyone else take part?

Ignore my other post about this. I meant to post it to the Arlesey group.

Thank you for shopping with PFGM

I've been checking on the income over the Xmas period and it's been fairly good. Around £40 was raised for the school. I think Amazon gives the best rate at around 5% on purchases, but it all adds up.

I'm hoping that 2007 will be an even better year for PFGM's affiliate schemes.

If you have any questions, give me a shout.

Uri Caine at The Vortex

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Last night we went to see this jazz pianist in London. I've got a review on Last.fm. There will be a longer one on my blog once I sort out some technical issues.

Easy customisation

I've been playing with the new page maintenance features for my Multiply page. It's very easy. Just click Customize (sic) Site. Then you can drag things around and edit various things.

If you understand CSS (I don't) then you can apply all sorts of customisations, but they have standard themes you can select from.

Since I started using Multiply about 18 months ago it has just got better and I have no real issues with it. I still like to maintain a blog at Bag Of Spoons, but that's more for geeky stuff and for playing with various web stuff. Multiply is my preferred outlet for family news and stuff I want to share with those I know who use it.

I've looked at a few other networking sites, but they seem to be overrun with kids trying to connect to the maximum number of people, regardless of if they actually know them. Mind you, Multiply seems capable of being made to look just as horrible as some of the Myspace pages.

Reducing junk mail

I can't help you with reducing junk/spam email, but here's a couple of tips from Which magazine on reducing the advertising that comes through your letterbox:

1. Go to the Mailing Preference Service and register your address. This may take a few months to take effect. There is also an equivalent for stopping telephone marketing linked from there. This only affects companies that are registered with them

2. Email optout@royalmail.com to tell them you do not want unaddressed marketing material with your post. They will automatically email you back a form to post to them

We recycle all the junk we get, but that takes some time to remove any personal details and is still wateful. Better to not get it at all. I've lost times of how many times some of the credit card companies have tried to sell their services to me.