El Nino To Make 2010 2nd Hottest On Record

El Nino, the warming of the Pacific Ocean is going to once again affect the world's weather patterns. The weather phenomenon occurs every two to seven years with varying intensity, and combined with the effects of climate change, made 1998 the hottest year on record.

Although it is not forecast to be as severe as 1998, aid agencies such as Oxfam are following its development carefully as it could be the second strongest event in 2010. In 1998 major droughts and catastrophic forest fires in South-east Asia sent a pall of smoke across the region.

Professor Chris Folland, of the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, said: "We are likely to see more global warming than we have seen in the past few years, which have been rather cool. In fact, we are already seeing it."

An El nino is defined as the surface warming of the normally cold waters of the eastern tropical Pacific by >0.5C. This El Niño is well beyond that, says the Climate Prediction Center of the US National Weather Service. "Sea surface temperatures remain +0.5 to +1.5 above average across much of the equatorial Pacific Ocean," the centre reported last week. "Observations and dynamical model forecasts indicate El Niño conditions will continue to intensify and are expected to last through the northern hemisphere winter of 2009-10."

The last El Nino, although weak, was thought to be partly responsible for the unusually warm weather in the UK a couple of years ago. July 2006 was Britain's hottest month, with autumn and winter going into 2007 being amongst the warmest on record.

The opposite of El Nino is La Nina, a cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific waters. It is this counter phenomenon which is thought to been a contributing cause to the "washout summers" of 2007 and 2008.

How to Photograph Flowers

These are some helpful hints I came across in my wandering that might help some aspiring photographers produce some better results. This time of year, there are loads of gorgeous flowers around which deserve to be photographed. After wondering why my efforts don't quite look right, I decided to do a bit of research and here are a couple of easy to follow tricks I discovered for shooting the flowers in your garden:-

A common mistake is to shoot in full sunlight and from too far away.

It is better to shoot on an overcast day, but if it is not possible a quick cheap rig can be made up, for example 2 old ski poles and a white bin liner softens the light quite adequately. This should improve the look of the flowers and enable a nicely framed closeup to be taken.

Sometimes by adding a fine spray of water exaggerate the colours can be exaggerated a little more while adding a beautiful fresh look.

A Samsung le37b650 and Bikes Weekend

Phew, what a busy weekend of Samsung-ness. Firstly, Dell arrived on Friday as promised to take away the broken le37b650 and Amazon arrived on Saturday morning to deliver the new one. Its been 2 days now and its still working!

This lcd tv is bloody brilliant! The picture is fantastic - movies look almost 3D, and that's with a crappy old dvd player its also got loads of other features like a game, recipes, stuff for kids, as well as being able to look at photos, connect a surround sound system and loads of other stuff. The remote control is packed with buttons, most of which I haven't figured out yet.

So far I've just played the game. Its fairly addictive, not in the same class as a nintendo wii obviously - the controller is a little sluggish to respond for a fast moving game, but for a preloaded puzzle type game, its fine.

If that wasn't exciting enough, we also has a trip out to look at a potential little brother for the GSX. It was an er5 - an unremarkable bike as these things go, but they are fairly reliable and most importantly, its a cheap bike. We are looking for something to use as a winter hack to try and keep the GSX looking as good as possible, with the obvious added advantage that we can both ride out together. The auction ends tonight, so fingers crossed... its sooo cute lol.

The Dell Customer Service Experience

The Samsung/Dell customer service saga continues...

The original telly from Dell arrived 2 days after I placed the order - brilliant. But apparently it takes Dell 1 month to source and replace a replacement Samsung le37b650. Four days after receiving the confirmation I was getting a replacement, the estimated delivery date has not improved, in fact it has been put back to make it exactly 1 month again.

I think this is a bit rubbish, orders generally arrive well within this time frame or at least give a better delivery estimate than this! I really don't understand why it takes so long to reorder something that originally arrived in 2 days. So despite the customer services lady assuring me that they 'aim to beat this time' and will be scouring the planet apparently for another specimen of the rare series 6 Samsung I have cancelled it and ordered it from Amazon, who, through a free trial of Amazon Prime, promise to deliver it by 1300 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, at the Dell returns department...

Dear ******

This is with reference to the collection for your SAMSUNG LE37B650 - 37" CRYSTAL

Reference no: *********

We would request you to arrange the collection date for the above mentioned part.

The collection timings will be between 9:00am to 5:30pm(Monday to Friday).

We can collect the goods from any other address in case if you are not available during the collection hours (9:00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday).

You can please contact me on ****** and my Ext # would be ****. To confirm a suitable collection dates of the above said part or send us a return mail.

Can I request you to give me a suitable contact no and timings to get in touch with you and reconfirm the details?

Thanks and Regards :

Joy N |
DELL EMEA Returns Department (UK & Ireland )

I dutifully sent them a return email with collection timings, and ways they can contact me to confirm collection, but heard nothing all the next day. I then rang them and they have arranged for collection on Friday (thats they day after I rang them), thanks for telling me. So now poor hubby has to hang about all day as they cant narrow it down any more than 'between 9 and 530'. Well, the bike does need cleaning.

Dell are 'constantly looking for ways to improve their customer experience' so it tells me on the email. I have a couple of suggestions - get the Returns template re written to an acceptable standard of English and stop fannying about so long in replacing items, unless of course you like losing business. Why anyone would risk having to wait up to a month for a replacement item when they can order it elsewhere and get it delivered in a matter of days is beyond me.

The Samsung LE37B650 Experience

I have been after a new LCD TV for quite a while now and having watched the price not change for several months I finally plumped for the Samsung LE37B650. After searching about on price comparison sites and the like, Dell just pipped Amazon with their extra 5% off sale.

I was very impressed with the delivery - I ordered it Monday afternoon and it arrived on Wednesday. We then spent a few hours Ooo-ing and ahhh-ing at the sound and picture quality as well as all the gizmos it has. The On Thursday morning though it went 'poof!' and the picture went black, leaving us with a rather expensive radio.

After ringing Dell, then Samsung, an engineer was dispatched on Friday and said it needed a new circuit board, then later on a nice man from Appliance Care rang originally to check the serial number then realised as the TV was only a couple of days old we were entitled to a replacement. In the meantime I'd already emailed saying I wanted a replacement as well. So today (Monday) I've got emails telling me that a replacement is indeed on the way! Hurray.

So a bit of a thumbs down to Dell and Samsung for not originally organising a replacement, but they have replied to my email promptly and sorted it out so hopefully I'll get a new new telly as quickly as the first one..... and it wont go bang.