Strangely Perfect

It Was 50 Years Ago, Today …when mankind left the gravitational confines of our Earth. A poor boy from the steppes, Yuri Gagarin, simultaneously became the first man in space and the first man to leave Earth and orbit it completely.  (This is something that took NASA several steps before John Glenn finally emulated the [...]

Guidelines for a Better World Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made.  Perhaps I should re-phrase this as: The Rules of Law and International Diplomacy are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made It’s a strange world out there.  Two recent political events [...]

Introduction Back in 2009, Trafigura nearly put the blockers on free speech and the reporting of parliament.  Twitter claimed to be part of this unlocking process…  whatever.  It was all to block the publication of the Minton Report.  A long BBC Newsnight video report was also blocked with the article mysteriously vanishing from the BBC [...]

One Small Step for Man, one Giant Leap For Mankind When Armstrong said those words (except I missed out the ‘a’), it looked like men & women would be walking tall on all sorts of astronomical bodies in a continuation of the Apollo programme.  As we no know, things didn’t quite work out like that [...]

For Sale: 5 Bedroom town house in Historic Bridgwater, Somerset    SOLD!! On three floors, brick construction.  Located on the west side of Bridgwater, with easy fast access to the town centre. 5 bedrooms 3 reception rooms Full central heating Roof remade to modern standards of lining and insulation Double glazed Triple glazed conservatory area. [...]

Introduction Last April (9 months ago), I contrasted the sling and arrows of fortune as they applied to an admitted mass-murderer and one convicted of mass murder who always protested his innocence.  (see Megrahi and Calley Compared and Contrasted) Now, fully 9 months after the wholesale shock in the West at Megrahi’s early release (the [...]

This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end I’ll never look into your eyes…again Can you picture what will be So limitless and free Desperately in need…of some…stranger’s hand In [...]

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 [...]

Obama President Obama was elected under the banner of change. Change for the overall health of his nation Change in economics and finance Change of a re-assertion of the higher ideals of his nation expressed in the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Rights. In this last, he even promised this change in his [...]

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 [...]

CIA Guilty of Torture and Kidnap – Damages of 1.5 Million Euros Amazing news today.  An Italian court has bravely taken on the leader of the Western World and convicted 22 CIA agents of kidnap and torture. (see CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap). The man on the left with the wacky beard and hat, [...]

What IS Going On? I’ve just come across an old post of mine in which I referred, briefly, to the Russian Pravda website, presumably a modern-day version of it’s communist paper past.  I say presumably because, as I already said, it’s more like National Enquirer…! On top of weird births and alien spaceships in the [...]

I booked an appointment to make a will today. I’ve never made one before – it feels really, really weird. A bit like the arrival of a first child, it’s one’s connection and a brutal reminder of the reality of life and death, sickness and old age; things that almost everyone in the Western world [...]

All photos taken on a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 – (I dropped the TZ5 on a tiled floor and it broke – note to self, be more careful)