ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE...

Nothing helps see a situation for what it is better than getting away and taking a break.  The resulting view from the outside usually makes things clearer. 

After a tough year of all manner of difficulties, including illness, injury, family bereavement, problems caused by the government, and a challenging economic climate - not to mention the constant rain, cloud, and dark days of the British winter - we really needed a holiday. 

So it was great to be able to get away from it all and head off to the sunshine of a Caribbean Cruise with Social Group Holidays. 

Landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico (think Majorca/Cuba/Miami), we soon found ourselves immersed in a local festival of flamboyant colour and passion, with stalls on the grass by the beautiful palm-fringed Condado beach, offering everything from mojito cocktails and tasty snacks (e.g. Caribbean Whole Roasted Pig) to live entertainment from a steel band and even a belly dancer!

Fun in the sun, and people making the most of being happy!

And no-one panicking about the collapse of the currency or the government imposing obscene levels of taxes guaranteed to destroy any chance of economic prosperity!

Yes, it's amazing how much better life can seem when you disconnect and escape being fed a constant diet of despair, fear, and panic by the media. It struck us at once how much less aware and how less worried the Americans we met seemed to be. Strange that, when the British have always prided themselves on how resilient we are. 

Off then on the 18 storey cruise liner, 3200 passengers, 1200 staff/crew, with all you can eat for the duration, and different ports of call each day at exotic tropical islands off the coast of Venezuela. Beautiful white sand beaches, warm seas, wonderful snorkeling, blue skies, extravagant palm trees, and some exciting day excursions.  But best of all, lots of good company and good times.  And lots of smiles. 

It does make a difference.

And isn't that the whole point.  That life is very much a matter of perspective. 

If you are in a room full of depressed people, the world outside seems a lot worse.  If you are in a room full of happy people, the world outside doesn't seem so bad. 

What do they say... "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"? If anything at all can make you appreciate home, it's being away from it for a while.

On a cruise ship in the southern Caribbean Sea, amidst 37 different nationalities, we met some very nice people from America, Canada, Puerto Rico, Russia, France, Germany, Romania, Denmark and all over the world! But there was always a special thrill to meet someone from back home in the UK and that special bond of being countrymen.  

The one thing that really stood out for us was being reminded just how special our nation is and of the unique standing we have in the world.

Here's hoping the opening ceremony of the Summer 2012 Olympics in London is not a complete cringefest and instead manages to be a truly classy "Cool Britannia" affair that gets over to the world what a rich culture, past and present, we represent and embrace. 

So keep smiling people! The darkest days of winter are now behind us and it will soon be spring.

Summer lies ahead.

So let's all try to have some OPTIMISM and do all we can to BRING BACK THE GOOD TIMES!

And please everyone... do all you can to defeat government plans to further increase taxation on travel and flights! Because, especially when times are tough, we all need to be able to take a holiday.  And we can't allow them to take that away from us.

LIFE CAN BE BETTER - IF EACH OF US DO WHAT WE CAN

It's our view that for many modern society can seem pretty cynical and selfish at times.  We feel the world would be a better place if people worried less about themselves and made more of an effort to help others and be nice to one another. 

 In recent years The Social Group has supported...

• The Monkey Sanctuary
• M.E.N.D.
• Cancer Research UK
• Paignton Zoo Tiger Conservation
• Help The Bees
• Arthritis Research UK
• Help For Heroes
• Children's Hospice South West
• The Alzheimer's Society

Obviously, as a social enterprise, we are set up to help people be less lonely and enjoy a better social life, and over the years our efforts and dedication has helped countless thousands of people to make new friends, bringing our community closer together.  As the people who thought up, named, and developed modern style 'social networking', we've been at the heart of this idea of enabling people to connect and come together to have fun and lead better lives.

In addition, we do a great deal to offer help and advice to anyone who asks.  Some people call us, just needing to chat to someone, never joining the group but grateful for someone to listen.  Behind the scenes we do a lot to help people who are bereaved, recovering from serious illness, or trying to make a new life after separation or divorce.  We also try to offer extra assistance to people who are far from home and new to the area, doing our best to point them in the right direction of whatever they might need.

In the past we offered assistance to helping organise a team of volunteers with the decoration of accommodation for students, creating a wildlife pond for a local school, and encouraging local councils not to use so many herbicides and pesticides, and to plant out more areas of wild flowers.  

Each winter, we do what we can via our network of Twitter pages and local contacts to co-ordinate information during heavy snow, acting like an additional Emergency Service, making sure no-one is left isolated or cut off and in danger in the cold and passing on useful travel updates.

We also do our bit to advise sufferers, relatives of sufferers, and doctors about M.E. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, trying to promote a greater understanding of how serious this horrible illness actually is and how difficult this makes life for people when they cannot use any muscles without severe pain. Also, campaigning for proper understanding that M.E. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the result of chemical poisoning, and for some serious research to be done to find treatments and hopefully a cure. 

Earlier this year, we started and encouraged a campaign on Twitter to ask people to pop next door and offer help to their blue badge neighbours.  We know from personal experience that, if you look okay, very few people ever think to help you.  You hear lots of people bragging how many hours they put in at the gym or how far they ran or cycled, who never think to put just some of that energy to better use in offering to mow the lawn or paint a ceiling of someone next door who is less fortunate with their health and who finds it difficult to even stand up. 

We also do what we can to support environmental campaigns.  After the 2011 revolution in Egypt, our backing of Camel Dive School helped persuade the new authorities to secure protection for the beautiful Ras Mohammed Marine National Park coral reefs along the Red Sea coast, which some of our members will know from previous Social Group Holidays to Sharm-El-Sheikh. We also support all the good work done by Reef Relief in Florida. And we are also involved in campaigning for the protection of the unspoilt Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.

Recently we were asked to give talks on social networking and helping others to a local primary school, doing our best to make it interesting to the children by telling them about our visit around the world to Exmouth Australia with The Social Group.

Fully behind the ideas of a Big Society, it's our view that whatever you can do all contributes to making the world a better place.

ALL DONATIONS TO HELP SUPPORT THE GOOD WORK WE DO ARE APPRECIATED. MANY THANKS. 

INTERNATIONAL M.E. AWARENESS DAY, 12 MAY 2011       

WEB SITE http://twitter.com/ME_CFS

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, known as M.E. or C.F.S. 

This horrible illness which can last for decades is thought to result from poisoning, possibly from chemicals in day to day use in the environment all around us.   Possible culprits are drinking water fluoride, additives in food, amalgam fillings leaking toxic metals, deodorants, herbicides used by local councils to spray roadside verges, pesticides used by farmers on crops and livestock, and organo phosphates used to treat new carpets, curtains, timber, etc. to prevent insect infestations. It is thought to be similar to Gulf War Syndrome or Nerve Gas Poisoning.      

Apparently, anyone under stress naturally loses magnesium from the body, making them more susceptible to poisoning from the chemicals we are all exposed to.  Underlying stress from every day life can cause people to get run down, and severe stress, such as the trauma of divorce or bereavement, or after a serious viral infection, can put people at risk of developing M.E. Healthy fit and active people can suddenly find themselves sentenced to solitary confinement within their own bodies, unable to use any muscle without extreme pain resulting. 

M.E. sufferers sometimes look worn out, and sometimes they look fine.  However, the illness is there all the time and any activity at all, even just standing up or walking, will result in extreme fatigue, pain, and exhaustion. 

If a typical M.E. sufferer was to try to go out, say to go shopping, they could probably manage a short drive to the supermarket and strangers seeing them get out of the car in the disabled parking bay might well think they were faking needing a Blue Badge.   Because a M.E. sufferer looks normal and able to walk, a casual observer might believe they are able bodied and healthy.

Unfortunately, the muscles soon start to feel tired, with the oxygen not being transferred to the cells as it should be.  After just a few minutes of walking around a supermarket, the M.E. sufferer would be finding his muscles in his legs starting to feel strange.  After 10 minutes, he would be feeling fatigued.  After 20 minutes, it could feel really 'wrong' in his legs, like the flesh is wet beneath the skin.  After 30 minutes, he could be really struggling.  After 45 minutes, he might feel no longer able to stand, his back feeling broken and his chest heaving, as well as his leg muscles being so depleted.  An hour or more of exercise without any rest will certainly always cause intense pain in the muscles.  Even more walking might even result in collapsing to the floor and loss of consciousness.  

The sight of a M.E. sufferer returning to the disabled parking bay after just a couple of hours doing some shopping would worry many people into thinking they needed to call an ambulance.  Unfortunately, this is only the start of the effects of the exertion.  For anything up to 48 hours afterwards, the muscles will hurt more and more, the suffering increasing in intensity, with explosions of agonising pain, accompanied by symptoms of sweats, fevers, acute cramps, pins & needles, and burning along the nerve endings, before finally it subsides and our typical M.E. sufferer begins to feel more normal again, at which time they might just be able to attempt to go shopping once more. 

Please remember, not all disabled people look disabled all the time!  Our typical M.E. sufferer will need his disabled Blue Badge for the times he his in enormous pain and hardly able to move, even if when you see him he may look to move just fine.  Not all disabled people need a wheelchair or crutches all the time - the condition of M.E. sufferers varies from hour to hour, depending on what they have done.  The M.E. is still there and the M.E. sufferer is still ill.  So please have sympathy and show compassion.

On top of all this, M.E. brings with it hyper-sensitivity and a host of allergies.  Some people cannot go near animals, some have to avoid all chemical wipes, detergents, perfumes, deodorants, and air fresheners, and some cannot go in swimming pools as the chemicals in the water would burn off their skin.  Other sufferers have damaged or whitened skin develop.  Once you have M.E. nothing in your body works properly - anaesthetics for dental work or operations are unlikely to work as they should, possibly not at all.  Plus, the weak muscles in the tummy means that most M.E. sufferers also have irritable bowel syndrome type symptoms to have to cope with as well, sometimes with hugely swollen tummies.  

So all in all, M.E. is very unpleasant and it's ramifications prevent most people from having any sort of normal life.  People with M.E. are severely curtailed in what they can manage to do.  Following exercise, after attempting pretty much anything, the resultant extreme and intense, often agonising pain and suffering makes them disabled. 

Much of the time, sufferers are so ill that they cannot go out and are not seen. Friends can think sufferers have moved away, as often they are confined to bed for years on end.  Sufferers are only seen on good days, when they are actually well enough to go out.  The rest of the time, they are out of sight, out of mind.

Most people spend several years pretty much confined to bed when they first get M.E.  Around 5 years lost from their lives would be fairly typical.  As this is very hard to come to terms with, most M.E. sufferers get very isolated and depressed, especially when doctors offer no treatment or cure.  Most M.E. sufferers don't get taken seriously by doctors after they are diagnosed with M.E. and many are treated abominably.  The NHS do NOT help anyone suffering with this illness.  It's even common for doctors to suggest tests that actually make the M.E. much worse - for instance, there is a standard test that hospitals do to check heart pains by asking people to run on a treadmill, which is impossible if a person has M.E. and cannot stand much of the time, let alone attempt to run! 

Most M.E. sufferers feel they have an illness as severe as Cancer or AIDS.  Indeed, it does lead to many dying young, with secondary health problems usually put down as the cause.  Yet most M.E. sufferers are not treated with anything like the same degree of kindness or compassion as people with other serious illnesses. 

Bizarrely, sometimes doctors, friends, and family can adamantly refuse to believe there is anything wrong and just try to ignore M.E. like it doesn't exist.  Sometimes close relatives find it easier to think the M.E. sufferer is just feeling sorry for themselves.  Acknowledging the true horror of M.E. and realising just how dreadful it actually is...  well it seems to be just too much for some people to contemplate.  For the fortunate ones, having the support of good people around them is the only thing that makes anything resembling a normal life possible.  Someone to care for them after doing anything, even if they are in lots of pain, does at least mean they can do something.

After some years, the condition does tend to lessen, with many finding they can do a bit more than they could before exhaustion and pain set in - but for most, the illness never goes away completely.  Some never get out of bed again.  Some take their own lives rather than face living with it.  It takes enormous courage and strength of character to keep going and attempt to come through it all. 

Years later, our typical M.E. sufferer may still spend part of the day having to lay down and rest, may find several days a week it is impossible to do anything, and may find stress causes the severity of M.E. to get worse again.  Catching a cold or flu virus for a normal healthy person is inconvenient - for an M.E. sufferer, it can result in explosions of pain, burning nerves, and feeling terrible. 

Because M.E. is not being taken seriously by many governments, and very little research into any sort of treatment or cure is being undertaken, 12 May 2011 has been designated 'INTERNATIONAL M.E. AWARENESS DAY'.

 

According to recent research announced by Dr. Montoya at Stanford Hospital in California, USA, the illness seems to revolve around the immune system's response to pathogens found inside cells throughout the body - you can watch the full video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Riybtt6SChU

Dr. Montoya is emphatic that ME / CFS is not anything to do with anything psychological and says that in the end the medical community will need to apologise to the patients they have treated so badly.

Dr. Montoya reports how many people are only 30% of what they should be for decades of their lives, and details severe disabling fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, twitches, a complexity of symptoms, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and a whole host of very nasty, very real symptoms people are forced to live with - with no help from doctors! 

Stanford Hospital, who are now researching this and according to Dr. Montoya, working on it very hard, have set up a specific ME / CFS website http://chronicfatigue.stanford.edu/

 

On 2 February 2011, ME / CFS was debated in the British Parliament.  You can watch this on BBC Video at http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9382000/9382412.stm

Ian Swales MP for Redcar began the debate with a breath of fresh air by reading out an honest statement of what ME / CFS is really like... 

"I begin by reading what a constituent of mine, Jan Laverick, who suffers from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, wrote to describe her condition:

• ME is sudden and extreme muscle weakness to the point of not being able to lift a glass.
• ME is collapsing with exhaustion and not being able to move for hours.
• ME is struggling to sit up long enough to eat a meal that has been placed in your lap.
• ME is tachycardia, seizures, paralysis and black outs.
• ME is sensitivity to light, sound and touch.
• ME is extreme abdominal bloating, nausea, loss of appetite, excruciating stomach cramps...
• ME is daily fevers and sweats.
• ME is inflammation and horrendous joint, nerve and muscle pain. 

Imagine suffering from these symptoms only to find there is little research into the cause or cure, that you might not be taken seriously by your GP or the benefits system.

Your condition might even have been dismissed as 'yuppie flu'.

 I welcome the fact that the Department of Health now accepts ME as a genuine medical condition. However, it is clear from speaking to sufferers and medical professionals that diagnosis can still pose a problem because ME symptoms are similar to those present in several other medical conditions. I recognise that one of the main obstacles to the adequate treatment of ME is the lack of knowledge and consensus about the disease, and I will argue that funding and research must be focused on the biomedical factors involved, and not simply on managing the psychological symptoms."

It was fantastic to hear an MP stand up and speak these words. For sufferers of ME / CFS, this speech was akin to William Wilberforce standing up against the injustice of slavery.  Congratulations to Ian Swales MP for being brave enough to declare the emperor isn't wearing any clothes!

Over 17 million people around the world suffer from this appalling illness, with hundreds of thousands ill with it in the UK alone - yet the UK government spends almost nothing on research.  In fact, the latest thinking from the UK health minister is to encourage people to have "graded exercise".  Imagine the furore if cancer research  was no longer funded, and the government just told sufferers to do a bit of exercise!

For years, ME / CFS sufferers have been fobbed off by the medical establishment, given terrible advice by hospitals, laughed at by doctors, ignored by nurses, and generally ignored by the NHS who couldn't be bothered to treat anyone with this appalling illness with seriousness or any degree of sympathy or civility. ME / CFS sufferers were not believed. ME / CFS sufferers were treated as malingerers and scroungers. ME / CFS sufferers were even referred to psychologists and told they were imagining being in appalling pain!

Every practitioner of medicine should hang their heads in shame.  It is clearly time for the medical establishment and governments to come clean and give ME / CFS sufferers a formal apology.   

NHS Health Minister Burstow needs to do much more than say a miserly million quid will be spent on looking at the symptoms.  It really is such a disgrace, there is no wonder that many suspect the government knows exactly what the illness is and conclude this must be a cover-up to prevent mass compensation claims. Surely, they say, no government could be that stupid to actually think this is not a serious physical illness?  One which needs some serious funding to solve, on par with Cancer or AIDS? Then again, surely no human being could be that cruel and callous to leave people with a terrible ultra-painful physical illness to suffer?

Lives are being wrecked and human beings abandoned, left to suffer and treated like they don't matter.  If you live in the UK and hear politicians, activists, doctors, and nurses defend a "wonderful National Health Service" on the telly, if you have ME, you look at screen with a mixture of incredulity and anger.  In the UK, as soon as you are told you have ME, the NHS is mostly not available to you any more and you will never get treated properly again. Sufferers report being ignored, being ridiculed, and being treated in a condescending manner, as if you have a mental illness and need a pat on the head to help you calm down.  You don't get any treatment.  You don't get any real help. You don't get any cure.  On top of that, the NHS doesn't recognise your illness, and doesn't treat you like you are even ill.  For many, doctors and nurses become people to avoid and fear - you learn not to treat most as people who will help you.  Doctors and nurses are not the friends of people suffering from ME, one of the worst and most painful illnesses it is possible to be afflicted with.  Many in the medical profession know nothing about this illness whatsoever, many can't be bothered to learn, and many more won't ever take you seriously. 

The British as a nation pride themselves on justice.  When will it come for sufferers of ME, the last of the second class citizens waiting to be recognised as having being treated appallingly?

TWITTER http://twitter.com/ME_CFS

ME_CFS

@CathyHaglington  RT @ME_CFS @iswales Dear Ian, a big THANK YOU for putting an accurate portrayal of ME forward in your speech. #mecfs http://goo.gl/rR9fH about 1 hour ago via web

@iswales Dear Ian, a big THANK YOU for putting an accurate portrayal of ME forward in your speech. #mecfs http://goo.gl/rR9fH (BBC video) 16 minutes ago via web in reply to iswales Retweeted by you

iswales

Good feedback from the ME community on my speech today. They don't seem quite as happy with Minister Burstow's response. 8:34 PM Feb 2nd via HTC Peep Retweeted by you and 8 others

ME_CFS

NO HELP for sufferers of #me #cfs #mecfs ABANDONED BY THE NHS! Not a single penny being spent on this terrible illness caused by poisoning! 36 minutes ago via web Retweeted by you

ME_CFS

2011 UK PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE - http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9382000/9382412.stm #mecfs #me #cfs #nhs 34 minutes ago via web Retweeted by you

ME_CFS

All Doctors must watch this http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9382000/9382412.stm #mecfs #me #cfs #nhs #medical 33 minutes ago via web Retweeted by you

STANFORD HOSPITAL REPORT -

#mecfs CASE: Stanford Hospital report on ME / CFS.... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

75% of people with #me #cfs #mecfs are female. about 1 hour ago via web

It is important to bring everyone suffering from #MECFS #ME #CFS together to share experiences - so please follow us and share your story! about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: http://t.co/knzcVbw #ME #CFS IS PROBABLY CAUSED BY TOXIC PATHOGENS / CHEMICAL POISONING & THE IMMUNE RESPONSE TO THAT. about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: http://t.co/knzcVbw "main goal is to avoid the patient crashing" about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: http://t.co/knzcVbw research - lots of focus on why the illness lasts so long, often for decades, without killing the sufferers about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: http://t.co/knzcVbw "Suspect immune response to pathogens hiding inside the cells" = TOXIC CAUSE! about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: http://t.co/knzcVbw "Several pathogens have been reported to trigger #me / #cfs and cause the illness" = TOXIC CAUSE! about 1 hour ago via web

#CFS #ME #MECFS If this illness is caused by environmental poisoning from chemicals (after stress), that explains why NO virus is found! about 1 hour ago via web

#ME #MECFS #CFS Name "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis" is too long; the name "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is misleading as this is more than fatigue about 1 hour ago via web

#mecfs CASE: ... people get twitches, as well as severe muscle fatigue ... it can go on for decades ... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: ... people suffering from ME/ CFS get depressed because their lives have been taken away ... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: ... ME / CFS ... starts from immune response to outside agent... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: severe disabling fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, a complexity of symptoms, difficulty concentrating... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: perhaps 17 million+ cases of ME / CFS worldwide http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: our dream is that one day the medical community will apologise to sufferers for not believing it was real http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: you have a disease you have no control on http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs Latest from Stamford in the USA >>> http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web 

#mecfs CASE: a small amount of mental, emotional or physical activity or stress can cause extreme crash ... muscle pain http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

#mecfs CASE: 30% of what you are for 23 years... 70% brain fog... jumbled... headaches... http://t.co/knzcVbw about 2 hours ago via web

Check this video out -- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome http://t.co/knzcVbw via @youtube 1:16 PM Mar 13th via Tweet Button Retweeted by ME_CFS

 

ANDREW HAGLINGTON

In 1992, following a skiing injury and suspected poisoning, Social Group founder Andrew Haglington was diagnosed with M.E. and he spent the next 5 years seriously ill and largely confined to bed.  His situation was made worse by being abandoned by his first wife of 14 years and the stress of an acrimonious divorce. 

It was the loneliness and isolation of the illness that caused Andrew to find out first hand how difficult it was to make new friends, and in turn led him to identify the need for a mechanism in society whereby people could connect.  Fighting to overcome appalling ill-health, constant pain, and weakness, Andrew somehow managed to forge ahead to set up The Social Group in 1997 and invent modern-style "social networking". 

Over the years since, Andrew's efforts have resulted in him meeting his second wife Cathy and the couple doing a lot of good for others, together enabling thousands of people to make new friends and enjoy a great social life. 

Thankfully, although he still suffers, Andrew's health is by and large mostly better than it once was, and he has learned to live manage it as best he can.  Andrew now uses much of his spare time outside work to advise and help others more recently diagnosed with M.E. 

UK TSUNAMI

by Andrew Haglington B.A. (Hons) Environmental Studies

The whole surface of planet Earth is comprised of tectonic plates, which are mostly wedged against each other and stable.  Where the plates are moving against each other, by each other, or under each other, friction builds up until the pressure suddenly gives and earthquakes occur.  Vast areas of land can suddenly move all at once.  If this happens under the sea, the ground can sometimes lift up, causing a mass displacement of water - a bit like moving your legs suddenly when sitting in a full bath of water, but on an enormous scale.  Hundreds of miles of sea bed suddenly lifting up can cause a tsunami tidal wave, which if impacting on a stretch of inhabited coastline can be utterly devastating for human civilisation, the rubble-strewn water relentlessly scouring away everything in it's path. 

 

The giant Boxing Day Earthquake of 2004 off the coast of Indonesia, measuring 9.1 magnitude, was the third biggest earthquake ever recorded (since records began in 1900) and the resulting tsunami was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people.  You can view video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDOuwMj7Xzo

 

In some parts of the world, earthquakes and tsunami are commonplace.  Japan can sometimes get several small earthquakes a day and 100 - 200 small tsunami a year.  This is video of the tsunami which hit Okushiri in Japan in 1993 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlw-HvCu_5w

 

For years, in Tokyo (as in Los Angeles in California), the populations regularly affected by small earthquakes have waited for "the big one".  In March 2011, in Japan, it happened.  The 9.0 magnitude earthquake under the Pacific Ocean off the north east coast of Japan was the sixth biggest earthquake ever recorded and the biggest in Japanese history, causing a total catastrophe, a massive earthquake, followed by a series of tsunami tidal waves, followed by fires and explosions at nuclear power stations.  Apparently, the impact of this earthquake was so massive that it even changed the axis of the earth by 10cm.  Video of the 2011 tsunami in Japan can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDpTEjumdo

 

Widespread ownership of digital cameras and video recording equipment have made it possible for disasters to be seen by the entire planet for the first time.  Recent earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand, and the utter devastation caused by tsunami in Indonesia and in Japan have left the human race in shock and traumatised by our helplessness against such immense forces of nature. 

 

It is hardly surprising that the value of homes around the world which are inland, on higher ground, and away from the sea has increased compared to those built in flat low-lying coastal areas or those with a "desirable sea view".  Clearly living near the sea can be an immensely dangerous choice.

 

Here in the UK, I think there is a general view of this being something that only happens on the other side of the world.  With the British Isles sitting on a relatively stable part of the earth's crust and not near any major meeting of active tectonic plates, we get very few earthquakes strong enough to notice, so this isn't something we generally tend to feel is a direct threat to us. 

 

Unfortunately, that is not the case.  With massive faults and a geologically very active area deep under the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic shores are most definitely at risk.  Furthermore, there is evidence of previous tsunami being generated which have affected the UK, which means it is probably only a matter of time before we get another one.  It may not be for hundreds of years or it may be next week, but at some stage, it almost certainly will happen.

 

In the April 2005 Timewatch programme on BBC2, "The Killer Wave Of 1607", Dr Simon Haslett FGS, FRGS, of Bath Spa University College spoke of uncovering overwhelming evidence of along the Bristol Channel, from Barnstaple to Gloucestershire, both historical and geological, which suggested the Great Flood of 1607 was in fact caused by a tsunami.  The disaster hit the coast of Somerset in England on the morning of 20 January 1607.  An ancient fault in the Earth’s crust to the south west of Ireland suddenly shifted violently, displacing enough water the generate a tsunami.  Moving at close to 100mph, it seems the killer wave rushed towards the UK and up the Bristol Channel, it’s force multiplied by the high tide and the funnelling effect of the local coastline geography. 

 

There are reports of locals feeling an earth tremor prior to the wave, which seems pretty conclusive that this was indeed a tsunami.  A wall of water, 10 metres high bore down on the coastal villages of Somerset with no warning and terrible violence.  Eyewitnesses at the time spoke about people being washed away 4 miles inland as the torrent ‘destroyed the whole country’ for mile after mile as it swept across the lowlands, as far inland as Glastonbury Tor, 14 miles from the coast.   The 1607 ‘Great Flood’ was seen as the apocalypse, with reports of ‘huge and mighty hills of water’.  Another eyewitness of the devastation says, ‘the sea fell with such violence upon the house that it bore away the whole building’.

 

Professor Haslett described the event as having been catastrophic for human civilisation in South West England at the time.  Accounts contain a long list of Somerset places that were badly affected, including Berrow, Yatton, Puxton, Congresbury, Kingston Seymour, Worle, Kewstoke, Banwell, Wick, Weston-super-Mare, Uphill, Kenn, Combwich, Burnham, Lympsham, East Brent, Mark and Brean.  In 1607, around 2,000 people were killed by this UK tsunami.  If history were to repeat itself, and similar were to happen again, the devastation and loss of life these days would be much greater, as the area is now heavily populated, with numerous towns where there were once just a scattering of quiet villages and farmland.

 

A 2005 government study looked at tsunamis, and also identified another possible threat from an earthquake under the North Sea which might affect the east coast of England, and another threat from where the Eurasian Plate meets the African Plate west of Gibraltar, which might threaten not only Spain and Portugal, but also France, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Wales.

 

We do have a network of seismographs in place across the UK, but there is no co-ordinated tsunami warning system in place in the UK and nothing around the Atlantic to match that in the Pacific.  Previous earthquakes in the Caribbean have not generated tsunamis which have managed to cross the Atlantic, and with the likelihood of a very large earthquake closer to home seen as unlikely, a public warning system has so far not been deemed the highest priority in this country.  As someone who has studied both Environmental Studies and Atlantic Oceanography, my own view is that there must be some degree of very serious risk.  Also, if it has happened before, it can happen again.  So fingers crossed it's not in our lifetime.

Social Group members enjoyed going to see the Monty Python musical SPAMALOT together.

Some members went along to The Bristol Hippodrome in Bristol.  Some members went along to The Princess Theatre in Torquay.  It was the same show at both and both were much enjoyed!

This was a really good show, very entertaining, very nice, and naturally very silly.  The cast of 14 worked very hard to win over the audience, with lots of clever twists.  Lots of references to classic Monty Python and to The Holy Grail King Arthur-themed film, but also lots of up to date jokes, which were almost what it would be if Monty Python was still running now. Well done to Eric Idle for putting together such a great show!

This was a really upbeat feelgood cheer-up show.  10/10 If you weren't here with the group, you definitely missed out!

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE....

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Scientists are taking the threat of asteroid collision very seriously and world-wide there has been an effort to monitor the skies and identify any possible threats. The Asteroid Watch web site on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch will keep you up to date with near misses.  Plans as to what could actually be done if it was discovered a giant rock was heading straight towards our world are now being discussed.

If one of these asteroids does hit the Earth it could cause unimaginable devastation.  The Tunguska explosion in Siberia on 30th June 1908 is thought to have been caused by an asteroid as small as 30 metres across hitting the Earth and exploding in the atmosphere with hundreds of times the energy of the World War II nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

A large asteroid hitting the earth could wipe out all life on the planet, or at least be responsible for making many species extinct.  It's possible the dinosaurs were wiped out by just such an asteroid hit, although there are other theories as to what might have caused this, such as the impact of global warming on the oceans causing changes to the composition of the atmosphere.

Even a small asteroid hitting the Earth could cause devastating climate change. If the impact was on land, the dust thrown up into the atmosphere could block out the sun for decades afterwards.  If the impact was on water, there could be other problems caused by Tsunami-style tidal waves.

Worldwide, it is estimated that over 90,000 people a year are killed by
Snakes.  Researchers led by Professor Janaka de Silva from Sri Lanka said snake bites posed an important yet neglected threat to human populations around the globe.  They believe that up to 5.5 million snake bites occur annually, but only a quarter of these result in "envenoming", when poison enters the blood stream from a snake's fangs.  Southern Asia bears the brunt of the deaths, with venomous snakes such as cobras and vipers killing 14,000 people each year. India suffered 11,000 deaths alone, the highest of any single country, said the scientists writing in the online journal PLoS Medicine.

The Adder, Britain’s only venomous snake, has a bite that can cause vomiting, dizziness and painful swelling. The snake’s poison is rarely deadly.  Although there are around 100 adder bites in Britain each year, the last known fatality was more than two decades ago. 

In late 2008, popular TV chat show  host Paul O Grady was bit by an adder in his garden in Aldington, Kent.  The comic was left bleeding profusely from the wound on his arm, yet still joked: “I’ve come up against few snakes in my time, but normally of the two-legged variety.”

The Robin is Britain’s national bird, selected by public ballot 40 years ago.  Robins have a body length of 14cm, a distinctive red face and breast, and brown wings and back.  Male and females look alike, but juveniles have a spotted, scalloped plumage with no red.  Strongly associated with Christmas, robins sing all year round and will even sing at night next to street lights.  Robins prefer woodlands, parks, gardens and farmland with hedges. They mainly feed on insects, worms and spiders, but they also eat seeds, fruits and berries.  Robins are said to be the oldest man’s best friend in Britain, their association with us dating back to the first time we started to farm the land.  Today robins watch gardeners as they dig, waiting to take advantage of the exposed soil to forage for worms and other prey.  Robins are notoriously aggressive towards each other.  Both males and females are territorial and the red breast is fluffed out in display. They will even attack a bundle of red feathers or their own reflection, mistaking it for another individual. There are about 4,200,000 pairs in Britain and the numbers have increased by about 20 per cent over the last 25 years.

There is enough coal underneath Britain to last our energy needs for around 300 years.  Technology is currently being developed in Germany to remove carbon emissions when burning coal.  Alongside renewables such as hydro-electric, geothermal, wind, wave, and tidal energy, many in the UK now see ‘clean coal’ as the way forward. 

There are fears that so-called bio-fuels are causing devastation in the third world, where rainforest is being cut down and much needed food crops are being abandoned in order to grow the more profitable fuel crops as a substitute for petrol.  In this respect, bio-fuels are not environmentally friendly.  However, the UK government is still insisting that all petrol sold in the UK contains some of these bio-fuels.