Strangely Perfect

Always worth a visit! Especially on a cold, foggy morning! Winter’s Gibbet, Elsdon, Northumberland, England, Uk in England And here is a picture from several years ago on one of my visits.

Yep!  You read it correctly! I’m shaking at the prospect of not having any cheese-rolling – said Diana Smart, a cheese-maker Apparently the annual suicidal, bone-cracking race down a huge precipitous grassy slope in Gloucestershire by a few hundred nutters has now ballooned into a 15,000 folk free-for-all due to modern instant news and communications. [...]

I was staggered to read the contents of this news article today; Vegetative state patients can respond to questions Apparently, new research shows that people previously thought to be in a vegetative state can respond to questions “in a funny way” by being prompted to think of things as a way of answering the questions.  [...]

Introduction Yesterday’s News The use of intercept evidence in courts in England and Wales is not “legally viable”, …the Home Office has said.  This is reported on the BBC here, Using intercept evidence in court ‘not yet viable’ Security From the earliest days of the British (English) Secret Service, back in Elizabeth I’s time, all [...]

Solicitors who took millions from miners lose appeal Finally, after yet another year of time has passed, the crooked (they called themselves ‘entrepreneurial’) solicitors have had their case against being struck off the solicitors’ roll quashed. See this BBC story Doubtless, all the poor widows who got a few hundred quid compensation for watching their [...]

It’s Just Like Bladerunner, And Not Just the Weather! Tears in Rain Bladerunner, the movie, based on an old Philip K Dick science-fiction story, was made by Ridley Scott from North-East England, someone I’m distantly related to.  Made in 1982, it presents a very grey, wet, bleak future, heavily referencing Scott’s (and my own!) upbringing [...]

Coroner and Law I’m often struck when reading the papers or news, to see the coroner’s verdict on someone’s death as: Ending his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed Well they have to say something, it’s their job, but the phrase is very peculiar. Take this couple, the Milners, who were [...]

Is Nuclear power Safe? Watch how the politicians duck and dive. Watch how they pick and choose which bits of ‘science’ to believe! Last week, smiley Alan Johnson fell out with serious Professor Nutt because the professor said some factual scientific things, things proven by statistics and analysis to have an overwhelming degree of proof.  [...]

There’s something weird about the recent ‘leak’ of BNP members’ names.  The list is available on the Wikileaks website here: http://wikileaks.org/wiki /British_National_Party_ membership_list_and_ other_information,_15_Apr_2009 There’s currently some trouble with downloading due to server overload.  Also, people are complaining that the file is a binary Excel workbook containing several worksheets.  It’s about 1.5Mb in size.  I’ve [...]

Evelyn has moved to a new place (in Bristol) with her mate. My mate Nobby and I helped her move. Amazingly, she’s got her own bit of (probable) Banksy art right outside her front door – a headless chicken! Hopefully it’ll stay as it’s quite neat, I think. (The pictures are taken with my Panasonic [...]

Northumberland Northumberland is a lovely place – cold, sunny, windy, dry, overcast, damp, clear, clean and historic.  But mainly brrr  and wow!  Especially on the coast. It’s quite popular with tourists.  Here’s why I go there… …why do the fuckwits? The historic island of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) is connected to the mainland via a tarmac [...]

British Workers Sacked for Striking at French Company Total’s Site – see news report Joan la Pucelle. [Aside] Done like a Frenchman: turn, and turn again! – Shakespeare, History of Henry VI, Part I, Line 1695 In Lindsey, Lincs, 650 workers have been sacked for being on an “unofficial” strike (whatever that means in a [...]

Porpoise Vindaloo I’ve just spotted something online that made me laugh – a bit. A Porpoise Recipe from the Forme of Cury, a cookbook from Richard II’s time. Amazingly, it’s done very like how I do my own cooking – that is; no real quantities, just make it up as I go along, mixing and [...]

Well I Never! ..should be the title of this post.  Having lived in the South-West for nearly quarter of a century, it’s come as a complete shock to me to discover that my favourite vacuum cleaner (if there is such a thing, I’m now defining it here!) is little old Henry, and it’s made about [...]