New Year and new challenge
If I have asked you before to sponsor me, please ignore this as I am fully aware of the amount of 'asks' everyone gets.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VanessaKeeling
Thank you in advance - Van xxx
What I saw in the shop today
I popped down my local Turkish supermarket today and look what I saw. The owner, Omar Ben Salaad I think he said, swore they only contained crab meat, so guess what you are getting for Christmas?
Crab meat all round
ööööööööööööööö
Comments
Quite by accident I found myself on your (and your family)Posts complete with all the archive material that was most interesting.I was born in Silvertown (London) in 1927, emigrated to New Zealand with my fiance in 1949 My beautiful talented fiance became my wife in 1952. We then emigrated to Australia where I now live on my own following the demise of my wife 8 years ago. This is one of those unusual contacts that some times happen in life . So, it's hello to you George Keeling from George Keeling.
Posted by: george.j.l.keeling | June 18, 2014 at 04:39 AM
Fantastic find!! Save on postage and just send a torn off scrap of the label with 'Karaboudjan' written on the back xP
Posted by: Paul | December 11, 2013 at 09:14 AM
did the owner tell you to make way for him because he is the most respected man in Baghar? sidi
Posted by: Tom | December 11, 2013 at 11:24 AM
Family meeting
While we were in Berlin Harry, Archie and I decided it would be fun to organise another get together for the family and this will happen on 2nd November. Harry is fixing for Hurlingham to accommodate us for lunch. The idea is that people can turn up there from about 1200 and then have lunch (details to follow but everyone will need to pay for themselves). Then we can generally mill around and enjoy ourselves. Please let Harry know if you will be attending so he can make a booking. His computer / iphone was not working properly last night, hence me sending this message. Look forward to seeing as many as poss on the 2nd. Tom
Harry: 07725 329107 harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com
Comments
Slight alteration to the plan:
The event has been shifted to the evening and will be at Dad's (Simon's) house. More details will follow, but it will start from 19:30.
Please let me know on harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com if you want to come so I can get an idea of numbers.
Harry
Posted by: Harry | October 09, 2013 at 02:36 PM
I hear that 7 of the 8 brothers are so poor that they can not afford £50 for a very good charity. So they probably won't turn up.
I can help! If they give me their bank details I will send them each a £100 out of my Nobel prize money. Email me here: higgs@higgs.boson
Harry: 07725 329107 harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com
Comments
Slight alteration to the plan:
The event has been shifted to the evening and will be at Dad's (Simon's) house. More details will follow, but it will start from 19:30.
Please let me know on harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com if you want to come so I can get an idea of numbers.
Harry
Posted by: Harry | October 09, 2013 at 02:36 PM
I hear that 7 of the 8 brothers are so poor that they can not afford £50 for a very good charity. So they probably won't turn up.
I can help! If they give me their bank details I will send them each a £100 out of my Nobel prize money. Email me here: higgs@higgs.boson
Hottest News Ever - We're off to the Stars
Today I learnt three things. Two are personal and I love them both, the third, well, I do not understand why it has not been headlines worldwide. Sorry Syria, you are boring.
New Scientist reports that NASA are working on a 'warp drive'. Yep, what Captain Kirk uses to power the USS Enterprise. The research is led by Harold 'Sonny' White and he plans to start experiments very soon. It will exploit a loophole in Einstein's law of General Relativity.
So, if they are right, we will be able to
- Travel to Mars in 5 minutes
- Go to Alpha Centauri and come back in one year
- Send probes to the centre of the galaxy to check out all that dark matter
- Find a nice planet to stick all the bad guys on where they can live unhappily ever after
Spread the word!
Lucky Bad Boy Arthur B Gibbs
Altogether there were 247,061 officers in the British army in World War I; 164,255 survived. There were probably a good deal less who survived three years. Arthur Gibbs did not shirk his duty. He could not even shelter behind his bath because some other lucky chap was carrying it.
So he was very lucky. But why was he never promoted?
And oddly he remained a lieutenant all that time (1) when officers were famously dying like flies, . (What was the life expectancy of a junior officer?) I have only found one point in his letters (p 207) where he ever sounds disgruntled. He wrote: "Perhaps it is just as well that I don’t write much on those occasions: if I did you might get permanent depression from reading what I should write, and I might be court-martialled for writing exactly what I thought about the staff and all their work."
But I reckon he told the staff what he thought of them and all their evil stupid work and the grand children of Queen Victoria, the Russian tsar, the German kaiser and the English king were evil and stupid (2). What cousins would slaughter their friends and countrymen for a ridiculous theory of attrition?
So he never got promoted. My opinion of the Gibbs branch has up-ticked enormously. They make the Keeling lot look like pussies.
Arthur Gibbs knew and did what was right, even when everybody was against him. I followed his example all my life. I'm very proud and pleased that I have found a new hero and that he's my grandfather.
Here's the plate he somehow gave me after he died. I suppose that is something heroes can do. Cool.
Robert and Trevor have or had similar plates to these.
I will give mine to whoever of AGB's descendants does as well as him. I might have to leave one of you to be the judge.
Notes
1) Brave Lucky Boy Arthur Gibbs was temporarily promoted to Captain for four weeks, then demoted. He was quite annoyed about that. (p 393 of the letters, he was sort of promoted Aug 16 1918)
2) From 'The Better Angels of our Nature' by Steven Pinker & Wikipedia. The Flynn effect the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930: "If a teenager now went back to 1910, he or she would have an IQ of 130". Reversing that, the Russian tsar, the German kaiser and the English king as measured now would have IQ's of about 70. They would have to be kept in special care.
Comment
My own take is this – an educated guess and no more:
1) Survival: I am nor sure one can approach the likelihood or otherwise of survival of an individual purely on a statistical basis. There will have been plenty of lieutenants who were on active service in France who had relatively safe jobs, such as ‘embarkation officers’, lieutenants in charge of transport animals, and those in the artillery to take some examples. In Arthur’s case I believe that his job in charge of the proppers, repairing trenches night in night out, was undoubtedly dangerous – the march up to the front line was itself hazardous and being in the front line trenches in need of repair must have had its own separate hazards in addition to the normal ones of sniper and artillery fire. However, I would expect an analysis to show that his job was relatively safer than that of his colleagues who had to lead reconnaissance missions into no man’s land and also assaults ‘over the top’. If one looks at the History of the Welsh Guards by Dudley Ward one sees that most of his contemporaries in the Battalion were very severely wounded or killed in the typical manner of the slaughter – shrapnel from high explosive and whilst carrying out some form of reconnaissance or assault.
2) the lack of promotion (he would have started as 2nd Lieutenant and been promoted to full Lieutenant) I think reflects the size of the body of men under his direct command. Therefore, insofar as he continued to do the same job of commanding the proppers on their nightly visits to repair the trenches, promotion was not going to come his way. Also, presumably, there would have been an expected quota of 2nd Lts., Lts., and Captains within a Battalion. I cannot recall the circumstances of his temporary promotion to Captain, but it often happened when there was simply a shortage of survivors to occupy the relevant quota.
Posted by: Howard Palmer QC | July 29, 2013 at 01:52 PM
Immigration advice please!
Hello
Does anyone know anyone who works in immigration law or might know anything about the workings of the Canadian visa system?
I'm moving to Canada for a year in September (if all goes to plan) with my boyfriend who's got a job in Montreal and we have a couple of questions about the visa application process that we cannot seem to get answered by the internet - or by the infuriating automated Canadian embassy helpline service.
If anyone knows anyone who might know anything, we'd be really grateful for some advice.
Thanks, and love to you all
Poppy
xx
Does anyone know anyone who works in immigration law or might know anything about the workings of the Canadian visa system?
I'm moving to Canada for a year in September (if all goes to plan) with my boyfriend who's got a job in Montreal and we have a couple of questions about the visa application process that we cannot seem to get answered by the internet - or by the infuriating automated Canadian embassy helpline service.
If anyone knows anyone who might know anything, we'd be really grateful for some advice.
Thanks, and love to you all
Poppy
xx
Ralph Keeling and Dad
Paul spotted this branch of the family first, in the Economist yawn and David said he had "heard of Charles David". The clan lives on!
I would have picked it up sooner if I paid more attention to my beloved New Scientist and if it came by Transporter Beam.
I would have picked it up sooner if I paid more attention to my beloved New Scientist and if it came by Transporter Beam.
Atmospheric scientist Ralph Keeling explains the importance of measuring a CO2 concentration of 400 parts per million at the observatory his father set up
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has reportedly recorded a carbon dioxide concentration there of 400 parts per million for the first time. How significant is that?
It's a psychological milestone. Every year in the last few decades, CO2concentrations have been going up by about 2 ppm per year. Those changes go unnoticed but people pay attention to round numbers. It gives you a bit of perspective on how far we've come – a bit like turning 40, or 50.
It's a psychological milestone. Every year in the last few decades, CO2concentrations have been going up by about 2 ppm per year. Those changes go unnoticed but people pay attention to round numbers. It gives you a bit of perspective on how far we've come – a bit like turning 40, or 50.
So how far have we come?
Before the industrial revolution, we started at about 280 ppm. 100 years ago, levels had risen to around 300, and they crossed 350 in the late 1980s. We think the last time concentrations were as high as 400 ppm was between 3 and 5 million years ago, when the world was much warmer.
Before the industrial revolution, we started at about 280 ppm. 100 years ago, levels had risen to around 300, and they crossed 350 in the late 1980s. We think the last time concentrations were as high as 400 ppm was between 3 and 5 million years ago, when the world was much warmer.
What did Earth look like 3-5 million years ago?
It had much higher sea levels, forests extended all the way to the Arctic Ocean, and there was almost certainly a lot less sea ice. Today, sea ice is melting rapidly, and in the last decades we have seen the tree line moving north into the Arctic tundra.
It had much higher sea levels, forests extended all the way to the Arctic Ocean, and there was almost certainly a lot less sea ice. Today, sea ice is melting rapidly, and in the last decades we have seen the tree line moving north into the Arctic tundra.
Are we in a climate danger zone?
In my view, yes. At 400 ppm, we've perturbed Earth enough already that things could unfold that will be catastrophic.
In my view, yes. At 400 ppm, we've perturbed Earth enough already that things could unfold that will be catastrophic.
We passed 400 ppm for the first time last year, above the Arctic. What is special about the Mauna Loa record?
It's the one record that has high resolution going back to the late 1950s – when my father set it up.
It's the one record that has high resolution going back to the late 1950s – when my father set it up.
Why did he start tracking CO2 at Mauna Loa?
In the early 1950s, he was at the California Institute of Technology studying carbon in rivers. As part of that, he developed a way to measure CO2 in the air. He discovered that if you measured concentrations in a sufficiently remote place, you almost always got the same number. That was unexpected. Previous work suggested CO2 levels were more variable, making measurement very difficult. The realisation that there was a stable background level meant the challenge of measuring the increase might not be so great. You simply had to go to a place far enough from contamination and track it over time. The Mauna Loa measurements came later, beginning in 1958.
In the early 1950s, he was at the California Institute of Technology studying carbon in rivers. As part of that, he developed a way to measure CO2 in the air. He discovered that if you measured concentrations in a sufficiently remote place, you almost always got the same number. That was unexpected. Previous work suggested CO2 levels were more variable, making measurement very difficult. The realisation that there was a stable background level meant the challenge of measuring the increase might not be so great. You simply had to go to a place far enough from contamination and track it over time. The Mauna Loa measurements came later, beginning in 1958.
When did he first see a steady rise in CO2 – what is now known as the Keeling curve?
The early days at Mauna Loa were fraught. Power outages meant the measuring instrument had to be shut down for weeks. It would come back on reading a different level. He thought there should be a stable background, but concentrations were fluctuating. It was only when he'd gathered a year of data that he realised there was a seasonal cycle.
The early days at Mauna Loa were fraught. Power outages meant the measuring instrument had to be shut down for weeks. It would come back on reading a different level. He thought there should be a stable background, but concentrations were fluctuating. It was only when he'd gathered a year of data that he realised there was a seasonal cycle.
So levels may drop below 400 ppm again?
Crossing from below to above 400 will play out over years, partly because there is a natural up and down with the seasons. But this time next year it will be higher still. In a couple of years we'll never get below 400 again.
Crossing from below to above 400 will play out over years, partly because there is a natural up and down with the seasons. But this time next year it will be higher still. In a couple of years we'll never get below 400 again.
This article appeared in print under the headline "One minute with... Ralph Keeling"
On New Scientist here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829180.300-weve-reached-a-troubling-carbon-dioxide-milestone.html
Lionboy in Bristol - EXCELLENT
Three cheers and more to Poppy!! Last night Siobhan and I took Imogen and Flora with two of their friends to see Lionboy in Bristol. It was EXCELLENT and we all had a wonderful evening. The show was great fun and brilliantly produced by the Assistant Producer (Poppy). The evening was all the more fun because Poppy was able to meet us with her boyfriend Rob and after the show took us all backstage and let us walk the boards and rub shoulders with top members of the Complicite team. This was in spite of the fact that there was a press evening with all the national newspapers there. Thank you very much Poppy and keep making shows and entertaining the crowds! xxTom
Belated cricket news
"My deepest apologies for not having provided a live feed direct from the pitch in Sedlescombe straight into to your [George's] apartment in Berlin. I would have called of course, but what with you opting to drop off the grid in terms of telephones, I was foiled in my efforts!
As Simon said – we won. In fact we won handsomely. After a fine lunch provided by Mum and Dad at the the Brickwall hotel, and with a much missed sun burning high in an extraordinarily (for recent UK weather) clear sky, we won the toss and put the village into bat. After some early stubborn resistance, the village fell apart under a sustained seam attack from our very professional and disciplined line up of attack bowlers. They were all out for 137. In response and after a small wobble right at the top of our order, the Keeling batting held firm and we raced past their total with the loss of only 3 wickets and with more than 15 overs to spare. All agreed it was excellent to be able to repair to the pub early, for general merry making and celebrations."
Did anyone else see this? Has anyone heard of him before?
From the Economist May 11th:
Environmental monitoring
The only good news about the Earth’s record greenhouse-gas levels is that they have been well measured
CHARLES D. KEELING, mostly known as Dave, was a soft-spoken, somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. A slightly aimless chemistry graduate with an interest in projects that took him out into the wild, in 1956 he started to build instruments that could measure the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a scientific topic which, back then, was barely even a backwater. In 1958, looking for a place where the level of carbon dioxide would not be too severely influenced by local plants or industry, he installed some instruments high up on Mauna Loa, a Hawaiian volcano. He found that the level fluctuated markedly with the seasons, falling in northern summer as plants took up carbon dioxide and rising in northern winter as dead foliage rotted. And he found that the annual average was 315 parts per million (ppm).
Environmental monitoring
Four hundred parts per million
The only good news about the Earth’s record greenhouse-gas levels is that they have been well measuredCHARLES D. KEELING, mostly known as Dave, was a soft-spoken, somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. A slightly aimless chemistry graduate with an interest in projects that took him out into the wild, in 1956 he started to build instruments that could measure the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a scientific topic which, back then, was barely even a backwater. In 1958, looking for a place where the level of carbon dioxide would not be too severely influenced by local plants or industry, he installed some instruments high up on Mauna Loa, a Hawaiian volcano. He found that the level fluctuated markedly with the seasons, falling in northern summer as plants took up carbon dioxide and rising in northern winter as dead foliage rotted. And he found that the annual average was 315 parts per million (ppm).
62 years and they still love it!
Happy anniversary Mum and Dad.
Comments
Thank you George! We have had a very happy day with Trevor and family, now we are on our own again and returning to our normal routine of sleep! Lol Mum, (Dad is already in the land of Nod)Posted by: jenifer Keeling | April 21, 2013 at 03:43 PM
Mid Life Epiphany?
In the last few months I have
- Discovered I am not going deaf, the ear doctor plucked wax slugs out of my ears.
- Simultaneously become much more interested in food. I quite often make myself a three course lunch. E.g. this afternoon: avocado, pear in mustard pickle (delicious secret old German recipe), cheese and biscuits.
- Found German very easy to speak and understand. The border is down, it's so much fun.
- Got totally relaxed without a mobile phone*.
- Experienced a creative and inventive surge. I now have six projects cooking.
Could food appreciation and being able to hear be connected? I will ask the ear doctor when I see her in September.
(*) Camilla said.
"I was remembering going to the Isle of Wight festival - sometime in the 1780s [sic]....and spending four days looking for the people I was meant to be meeting. Never happened, but I met lots of lovely new people. Your mobile free life will be full of such pleasures."
Thanks darling!
Casewise Burns
That's the Casewise office in Watford where I used to work all day. I am still a director. It caught fire Monday April 15, nobody was hurt :-)
FD Mike Hodes said, "That will take care of the dilapidation costs." He then told us that Casewise made a good profit in Quarter 1.
MD Alex Wentzo writes: We have already moved into a new office on the same street: 54 Clarendon Rd, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD17 1DU. Our new temporary phone number is: +44 (0)115 966 8111.
Our internal IT team has been working all day to set our internal network up. It would probably take this week to be back as normal. Concerning the UK employees, you will be contacted by your manager today to confirm when you can come back to the office.
On the phone he told me: It's cheaper thatn the old office. Extra profit in Q2!
More in the Watford Observe here.
Comment
Glad to hear they're doing well. Maybe we'll get a dividend, once they've claimed on the insurance.
Posted by: Carrie | April 17, 2013 at 02:16 PM
FD Mike Hodes said, "That will take care of the dilapidation costs." He then told us that Casewise made a good profit in Quarter 1.
MD Alex Wentzo writes: We have already moved into a new office on the same street: 54 Clarendon Rd, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD17 1DU. Our new temporary phone number is: +44 (0)115 966 8111.
Our internal IT team has been working all day to set our internal network up. It would probably take this week to be back as normal. Concerning the UK employees, you will be contacted by your manager today to confirm when you can come back to the office.
On the phone he told me: It's cheaper thatn the old office. Extra profit in Q2!
More in the Watford Observe here.
Comment
Glad to hear they're doing well. Maybe we'll get a dividend, once they've claimed on the insurance.
Posted by: Carrie | April 17, 2013 at 02:16 PM
Pestalozzi tournament Sunday 23 June
Lol Mum / Granny
LIONBOY
David Camilla Granny and Granpa are going to the Lionboy show (see two posts earlier) at the Unicorn Theatre in London at 2pm on Saturday 13th July. Please come and join us. Tickets are £16 with concessions for the old, the young and students. Seating is not numbered so we'll all be able to sit together. Half the seats are currently sold.
Though the show is billed as a "family" event, it is staged by Complicite and should be dramatic and interesting for adults.
If you can't make this date but want to go it's on for 2 weeks in London; if you can't get to London it's on in various places around the country - Bristol and Oxford being particularly of interest to some.
This is Poppy's big show at the moment - don't miss it!
Comment
It's on 11–15 June in Oxford. If anybody else wants to see it here, let me know.
Posted by: Carrie | April 04, 2013 at 02:02 PM
Though the show is billed as a "family" event, it is staged by Complicite and should be dramatic and interesting for adults.
If you can't make this date but want to go it's on for 2 weeks in London; if you can't get to London it's on in various places around the country - Bristol and Oxford being particularly of interest to some.
This is Poppy's big show at the moment - don't miss it!
Comment
It's on 11–15 June in Oxford. If anybody else wants to see it here, let me know.
Posted by: Carrie | April 04, 2013 at 02:02 PM
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