Five years after the "once-in-a-lifetime" sighting of a walrus in Orkney, a second animal has been spotted there.

Lost looking for ice? Driven south by Climate Change?

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-43343246

They may be useless for Climate Forecasting, but selfish interest wins in Climate Science

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/10/aussie-bureau-of-meteorology-staff-accused-of-using-work-supercomputers-to-mine-cryptocurrencies/

"Two Bureau of Meteorology employees are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for allegedly running an elaborate operation involving the use of the bureau’s powerful computers to “mine” cryptocurrencies, ABC News has learned.

Federal police officers executed a search warrant at the bureau’s Collins Street headquarters in Melbourne on Wednesday last week (February 28). The officers spoke to two IT employees, according to people with knowledge of the raid.

The rest of the bureau’s IT team was ushered into a conference room and told to wait while the employees were questioned, the people said.

At least one of the employees who was questioned by the AFP has since gone on leave. No charges have been laid but the investigation is continuing."

“We believe the exceptionally cold weather has caused the fixings of the cowlings to shear."

Mar 10, 2018 at 9:04 AM | Mark Hodgson

If they "believe" that cold weather caused the failure, is that based on a hunch, or an educated guess?

If “exceptionally cold weather has caused the fixings of the cowlings to shear", then are they confident that all cowling fixings are undamaged, if they have not failed catastrophically?

What was so "exceptional" about the recent cold weather, that some of the cowl fixings failed, but others didn't?

This strikes me as a Claim for damages that will be settled, quickly and quietly, on a "Without Prejudice" basis.

“It is completely unrelated [to the 2013 incident]. That was very high winds that affected the blade, this was caused by extreme cold weather.” Will the next failure in Scotland be caused by too much rain or sunshine???

Electricity bills set to rise again:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/03/09/national-grid-calls-carbon-capture-project-funding-next-year/

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2018/03/ge-brings-new-grid-scale-energy-storage-platform-reservoir-to-market.html

"School turbine part smashes into house in Cumbria
Second incident in five years causes residents to worry"

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/School-turbine-part-smashes-into-house-in-Cumbria-413532a5-2139-4977-aef2-e46c61e691a9-ds

"A large piece of a school wind turbine which smashed into a Seascale home could have killed someone, residents say.

High winds caused the plastic casing, measuring 3ft by 4ft, from a turbine at Seascale School, to hit Terry Cullum's house at The Dunes, a new housing estate.

Five years ago a blade from the SAME turbine flew around 200m into a field.

At the time the school described the incident as “exceptional circumstances”, adding it didn’t “envisage it happening again”.

However, school headteacher Avril Spencer said the issue was “unrelated” to the one in 2013 and the turbine had been switched off until stronger metal fixings could be installed.

The incident happened on Thursday night during severe weather.

Mr Cullum said: “If it had gone three feet one way it could have gone through a bedroom window, and if it had gone three feet the other way it would have hit my neighbour’s car.

“It looks like the strapping broke off. I’ve been told when the blade came off they said it would never happen again.

“If it hit someone it would have killed them – that’s not an exaggeration.”

Coun Moore, who is part of Copeland Council’s executive committee, said there was no damage to the property but concerns had been raised by residents.

“They are asking whether it can be repaired safely,” he said. “This is the second incident in ten years. It has been repaired since [the first incident], we were told it was safe and couldn’t happen again.

“Last time it landed in a field which has now been built on – all the houses haven’t been sold yet.

“Both incidents were caused by high winds. The question locally is ‘is it safe to operate there?’”

But Mrs Spencer said this incident was due to cold weather, not high winds.

“We have a service engineer coming to assess the condition of the turbine, which is currently turned off,” she said.

“We believe the exceptionally cold weather has caused the fixings of the cowlings to shear.

“We’ve been made aware that this has happened to very similar turbines over the cold period.

“If this is the case, the engineer will replace these with stronger metal fixings to negate the risk.

“It is completely unrelated [to the 2013 incident]. That was very high winds that affected the blade, this was caused by extreme cold weather.”"

We all have our ideas about Germany .... and how Greece ...Spain... Italy have fared - Germany has had it pretty good .....but as lance corporal Jones would say ...they don't like it up em.Merkel doesn’t get it</a

Mar 9, 2018 at 5:06 PM | stewgreen

Scientists’ Doomsday Clock reaches 2 minutes to midnight, closest ever

By Jeffrey BrainardJan. 25, 2018 , 3:15 PM

"The world is closer to nuclear annihilation than at any point since the first hydrogen bombs were tested in the early 1950s, says a group of scientists who monitor global tensions.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced today that it has moved its Doomsday Clock to 2 minutes before midnight, citing North Korea’s recent tests of missiles and nuclear weapons and the world’s lack of progress in confronting climate change."

Time to wind the clock back, only Laurence Krauss is panicking now.