Impressive
Posted: Sun 11 December, 2005 Filed under: News 1 Comment »Now that is what I call a fire. We’ve been able to see some of the smoke here today – pretty damn impressive.
Phrasing
Posted: Thu 1 December, 2005 Filed under: News Leave a comment »I saw this yesterday, and completely forgot about it. Crap aren’t I?
Still, it made me chuckle – I wonder if it was a case of “see if we can get away with it” or just not thinking about what they were doing?
World AIDS Day
Posted: Thu 1 December, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts Leave a comment »
Yes, it’s December 1st, which means that it’s World AIDS Day.
It’s odd, but there doesn’t seem to be have been anywhere near as much publicity this year as last. There was no “Link and Think” campaign, for instance.
The theme of World AIDS Day this year is “Stop AIDS : Keep the Promise” – a theme that is needed, as this year we’ve yet again had a large rise in the number of people with HIV.
Today the UN said that AIDS poses an ‘exceptional threat’, and that it needed an “exceptional effort” in order to beat the virus.
The BBC also has a piece about one man living with AIDS which is well worth the read.
Londinium
Posted: Sat 26 November, 2005 Filed under: Domestic, News Leave a comment »Away today in London, taking the aged parents to see “Woman In White” for mother’s birthday.
Reviews and thoughts will follow. Be afraid.
If at first you don’t succeed…
Posted: Fri 18 November, 2005 Filed under: News 1 Comment »A wonderful story of determination in the face of 10 years of failures : one man’s struggle to devise coloured bubbles. Including mention of a nitric acid bubble which “ate through clothes” – the mind boggles.
Excellent stuff, if completely obsessive and barmy…
Wol
Posted: Thu 17 November, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 2 Comments »Yes, that is an intentional spelling of the title.
Anyway, did anyone else see the programme last night on BBC2 about the return of Eagle Owls to the UK? Apparently there’s at least one breeding pair on the North York Moors, and since 1997 they’ve produced at least 23 young, which have then gone on to spread as far as Exmoor and Northern Ireland. How utterly fantastic.
Bizarrely, at the moment they’re not listed as being a protected animal, because the British Ornithological Union wants to see proof that they are “native” to the UK before adding them to the British List (which would then automatically give the owls legal protection). The BOU believes that the owls are simply errant visitors, or “foreign birds”, rather than a reintroduction of a species that had been in the UK before becoming extinct in this country. The necessary proof apparently needs to consist of drawings/illustrations of the Eagle Owl going back to the 1600-1800s – a simple textual description apparently isn’t enough for these bureaucratic wonders. But until they get their proof, technically anyone can trap or kill the owls, or destroy their nests, with no legal comebacks.
Which is – frankly – bloody farcical.
Common Sense
Posted: Thu 17 November, 2005 Filed under: News 1 Comment »Hallelujah – it’s always good to see a dollop of common sense breaking out.
“My angle on ID cards is that they may be of some use but only if they can be made unforgeable – and all our other documentation is quite easy to forge.
“If we have ID cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless.
“ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don’t think they are necessarily going to make us any safer.”
Of course, the Labour government have just come back and said “She’s entitled to her view”.