The rather amazing Information is Beautiful site has another great visualisation: this time on Climate Change Skeptics vs. The Scientific Consensus. It appears well researched and balanced, and partly answers the current controversy over the leaked emails from climate scientists.

Now that we’ve got Monty-the-dog, we don’t have space for a big real tree. So we thought we’d create one to hang on the wall. After a week of making, it’s now hanging in the lounge …

If people are interested I’ll post a description of how I made it, including photos along the way. But, as a hint, the main parts are acrylic paint, a 30″x20″ canvas, a string of fairy lights, a cardboard box and half a roll of sellotape. Enjoy!

The roundabout at the bottom of the road had a makeover a few months ago. We didn’t realise that the time, but the up-market Hotel on the Park a few blocks away then kindly decided to sponsor a large Christmas Tree on it. And add lots of bright red lights. It was a most lovely festive surprise. Best wishes to all at the Park for your thoughtfulness.

(You can see where they got the idea and colour scheme from … here’s a shot of the front of the Hotel.)

I’ve just had a great day off: started with full English breakfast with Mike in town, then doing some techy work on the video display system in church, then going to see Jo + John in Birmingham, seeing their new office, and then having lunch at good pub. Their Winter Tale dark ale was sweet and very drinkable. By the time we’d chatted after that we needed a latte/mocha on Harborne High St, before heading home. And the kids cooked for us, as we picked them up from the station.

The only slight disappointment was that we’d run out of time to visit Sharon McSwiney’s studio in Bransford, just off the M5 on the way home. We saw some of her decorative metalwork at the Cheltenham Craft Market on Saturday, and were keen to see more as we want to replace an old painting in the living room. I’ll need another day off …

(This pic is one of her recent creations. Wish I could create like that!)

Reading the Fairtrade Foundation’s newsletter, I noticed

All espresso-based drinks sold in Starbucks in the UK are Ireland are now Fairtrade.

Good news! I can now relax my boycott of Starbucks … though I still will prefer to find independent coffee shops, as the taste is likely to be better. Not that I’m often in a coffee shop other than the one at work.

It also notes that Morrisons’ ground and roast coffee is also all now Fairtrade. Good for them too, but there’s no Morrisons near us.

Looks strange so far, but see more pictures and the fully story at iconeye, and you’ll see its brilliance.

The Times have published their list of the 100 Best Films of the Decade. We watch a lot of films, so here’s a challenge.

First off, we’ve not heard of the top film Hidden (Cache), but between us we reckon we’ve seen about 30 of the rest. There are a number of non-English films, which is good, but we’re not keen on having to read subtitles for long, so that mostly counts them out.

With a bit of thought, I’d have expected to see Michael Clayton, Blood Dimaond, Shrek, March of the Penguins, The Last Samaurai, The Prestige, Wall-E on the list. And, it might not be a film, but the best TV drama from (part of) the decade must be The West Wing.

But this list is a great reminder that we should get round to seeing Lantana (91), In the Loop (81), Monsters, Inc. (71), There will be Blood (63), Syriana (40), Man on Wire (23), United 93 (19) and of course Hidden (Cache) (1) despite it probably having sub-titles.