Friday, 29 May 2009
Thursday, 28 May 2009
MP's expenses
I'm really pleased that some of the MP's have had the grace to recognise that they can't continue. It's not about "following the rules", it's about what is right, proper and moral. Taking money for duck houses, to build a cottage for your gardener or your brother is wrong and they should have realised that at the time - they've been lining their nests' but morally bankrupt.
Call me greedy but I want more. I don't want these people to get the automatic parachute payment to which MPs are entitled if they lose their seat. I'd much rather they didn't complete the time between now and the election and I certainly want my money back. Allowances and expenses last year were nearly £93M. That's how much MPs decided to pocket over and above their salary. Now that's not all of them but just the greedy ones. Nor is it all, by any means, shady. But if we cut that by 50% we could pay a few more teachers and nurses and coppers. We could even get rid of the silly changes to HE funding.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
In a country churchyard
I took this in Loose Churchyard this afternoon. Feeling all artistic again....
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Four minutes to go
30th may 1999. A beautiful day like today. Wembley. The Division Two play-off, City managed by (Kevin Keegan - wrong! It was Joe Royle!) trying to get out of the old Third at the first time of asking. We'd seen teams play at Maine Road who treated the visit as a cup game, teams who might otherwise not have been to Moss Side to the ground where Joe Mercer had worked his magic to bring together the Bell, Lee, Summerbee team thirty years earlier.After 86 minutes of, frankly, turgid football City were losing by 2 goals to Gillingham who had finished fourth in the league, a place below City. Blues were streaming out of the stadium dreading the temporary stand at Macclesfield again, more visits to Wrexham and Colchester. The next 60 or so minutes is given to be the most exciting in play-off history. Horlock got City a consolation goal after picking up the loose ball from a Gills tackle on Goater. At 90 minutes the fourth official showed the sign with five minutes extra time. In the fifth of them Dickov got the equaliser! City fans on the concourse outside Wembley heard the noise and heading back in - others were already on the tube and missed the end of the game.
Extra time was when the Gills fans watching in the pub where Jemma and I had been ribbed all the way through went quiet and started filtering away. Penalties and Weaver saved two, the second from Guy Butters. City were up and Gillingham were devastated. For years afterwards I'd have abuse scrawled in the dirt on my car if I parked anywhere in the Medway towns (and sometimes further afield!)
Why am I trawling over this old history? Well ten years on Gillingham are back at Wembley for another play-off final, this time against Shrewsbury. I wish them well and hope they get up - and it also gave me a chance to practice my "newspaper" writing style and reflect on the stuff that's happened over the last ten years - gulp!
C'mon you Gills!
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Nostalgia
I moved here about 14 months ago so I thought it was time I did a bit more unpacking. Started unloading the vinyl and came across The Steve Gibbons Band "Any Road Up". released in 1976 and still as fresh today. As a nipper I'd trudge round the north west to Steve Gibbons Band gigs - we once saw Ted Nugent ("The Motor City Madman") because Gibbons was support act. I know I've already blogged about this before but he's still gigging and if you get a chance hear some of his music and catch him live. Here's a little taster (from "Any road up")
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Just a quickie
Bloke runs in to a library and when he gets to the counter he says loudly
"Can I have a bag of chips please?"
The librarian replies
"Sssssshhh! This is a library!"
The man looks chastened and whispers
"Sorry, can I have a bag of chips please?"
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
What's in a name?
Named for a village close by - it became a synonym for this type of place
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
Friday, 1 May 2009
Monday, 27 April 2009
Dylan
Only available for a few more days but well worth a listen - it's a Radio 2 programme about Dylan's lyrics.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Student again
Just when I thought I was having a rest I realised that the next course is starting. T189 now - Digital Photography. For the non-OU folk I'll translate the course code; Technology, Level 1. It's 10 points and runs for a few months (rather than the usual nine months for a 30 or 60 point course). Expect lots of arty photographs and hand-wringing angst over soft light or some such which.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Happy birthday
The Open University was established by Royal Charter in 1969. On April 23 of that year The Queen endorsed the proposals and asked for a Charter to be drawn up. This was to establish The Open University for the "advancement and dissemination of learning and knowledge by teaching and research by a diversity of means such as broadcasting and technological devices".Happy birthday OU!
Monday, 20 April 2009
Friday, 17 April 2009
Thursday, 16 April 2009
The biter bit!
Just found this while working through the blogs of the LCC group. Someone took a photo of me that I didn't know about. I look drunk!
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Monday, 13 April 2009
Steam railway's new station
This is the railway that Cal and I visited.
more about "Steam railway's new station", posted with vodpodSunday, 12 April 2009
Amazon FAIL
Open letter here. And the petition is here.
One needn't be GBLT to think this decision is wrong and to sign the petition. But even if you don't sign make people aware!
Saturday, 11 April 2009
Be aware
You might already know that the rights of the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty are again under threat from the people charged with protecting us. Once again it's from our own government and once again it's in the name of protecting us from terrorism. This is a "catch all" used to cloak any and all erosion of our civil liberties. This time it's photography. You might not be aware that if you are taking a photograph in the street of, say, a loved one or your new car or an interesting post box and you catch a policeman or PCSO in the shot you can be asked to delete the image or you might have the film, memory stick or even the camera confiscated.
It's madness of course but it's being done in our name. John Naughton has a post rounding this up and there is more on Amateur Photographer web site (and others). Be aware and remember "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Terrorism is certainly a threat to this country but so are the actions supposedly meant to protect us.
It's madness of course but it's being done in our name. John Naughton has a post rounding this up and there is more on Amateur Photographer web site (and others). Be aware and remember "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Terrorism is certainly a threat to this country but so are the actions supposedly meant to protect us.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
40th Anniversary
more about "40th Anniversary", posted with vodpod from BBC Home page
Today is the 40th anniversary of Concorde's maiden flight. A rare example of a technology where we've subsequently gone backwards. Costs killed Concorde. I'm one of those lucky enough to have seen this wonderful aircraft in service and it really was beautiful.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Concorde's maiden flight. A rare example of a technology where we've subsequently gone backwards. Costs killed Concorde. I'm one of those lucky enough to have seen this wonderful aircraft in service and it really was beautiful.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Retired manager owns giant lizard
more about "BBC NEWS | England | Retired manager ...", posted with vodpod
The title doesn't really do this clip justice. Well worth a watch
The title doesn't really do this clip justice. Well worth a watch
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Today
"To mark the paper was the decisive act. In small clumsy letters he wrote:
April 4th, 1984.
He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984."
Quote from here - (the complete book online) and image from here
And from a different source
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"
Image from here, the lyrics are from U2 "Pride, In the name of love" for anyone not familiar with them.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Yummy!
Fresh tuna on a bed of steamed spinach and finished with a sauce of butter, lemon juice, capers and rough chopped parsley
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Shearer
The great thing about supporting Newcastle United is that there is always another Messiah round the corner.
Friday, 27 March 2009
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Rail track
The world's longest model railway!
"It has six miles of track, cost £8m to build and its 1,150 square metres (12,380 square feet) take in the US, Scandinavia and the Swiss Alps." From BBC Europe web site.
more about "Rail track", posted with vodpod
It's a filthy day
Raining here - streams of water running down the side of the road and it's windy too, big change from last week.
- Posted using Mobypicture.com
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Images online
The previous post, Misty morning, was a test of posting to Mobypicture. This is a service that hosts images which can be uploaded by email and thus from a range of mobile devices as well as larger PCs. It feeds other services and, for now at least, it's set to feed this blog and my Twitter account.You might also have noticed that I'm using Twitpics - it feeds a little widget down the side there. Twitpic provides a very similar service to that offered by Mobypicture but of late it's been unreliable. I thought I'd give them both a spin.
I'll use Mobypicture for images that I want to blog and Twitpic for images that won't have oodles of text.
Does that help explain why it's all gone photos-a-gogo on this blog?
I think it's worth reflecting - yet again - on how quickly all this has arrived. Not long ago a digital camera was far too expensive for many people to own. The cost of storage meant that most companies could only store a few images and they'd usually be on a central server rather than on local PCs. Connection speeds were too poor to reliably host images online and web designers were very careful about using images because users with slow connections wouldn't hang around while the pictures download.
Fast moving world.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Google street view
Many folk are very exercised about Google Street View so I decided to give it a go. I found some truly beautiful pictures on it and it's fantastic for showing how close together some sites of special interest are located.
(Click images for better view)Look at this for example. First I navigated to The Pev on Great Bridgewater Street and then went towards the Bridgewater Hall to The Briton's Protection!
I'm sure that many - spurred on by the BBC - are looking for images of people throwing up or engaged in something naughty but as far as I can see capturing images of beautiful pubs is wonderful.
More power to Google!
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Art!
This striking piece is called "Letraset for Dyslexics" and it's stencilled on one of the walls in the coffee area at LCC. It's the work of Jon Adams. Jon is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth school of Architecture. He's a geologist and spent 25 years working as a book illustrator.His work reflects his own early life as an unrecognized dyslexic and he works with Dada South and others to promote the work of disabled artists.
I've distilled the text from the information on site and I loved this and other pieces on display. Check out Jon's website for more information and to see work.
Monday, 16 March 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
More government madness
Plans for a minimum price for alcohol
The government's top medical adviser has drawn up plans for a minimum price for alcohol which would double the cost of some drinks in England. Under the proposal from Sir Liam Donaldson, it has been reported that no drinks could be sold for less than 50 pence per unit of alcohol they contain. It would mean most bottles of wine could not be sold for less than £4.50.
Of course, as was discussed this morning on the broadcast media, this won't have an enormous impact on those with a steady income and a controlled alcohol habit. The groups which will be hardest hit are those people who are addicted to booze and those with a low or no income. These groups tend to overlap.
Of course there are some major flaws in the logic here. If I travel for about an hour from here I can be in a Calais Hypermarket stocking up on as much booze as the car will carry. Increasing the differential between UK prices and those on the mainland of Europe is a great was of helping the ferry services and the French economy. As with other drugs those who have a real addiction will turn to illegal means to acquire the means with which to buy their drug of choice - is there any reason to believe that alcohol is any different in this regard?
One of the declared target groups are younger people who binge drink but many of these people have the highest disposable income;first job, living with parents, no mortgage, etc. One of the target groups not explicitly declared is made up of those homeless people who drink cheap cider - they are price-sensitive but without additional support to deal with a wide-range of problems, sometimes including mental health issues, simply hiking the price of White Lightening isn't sorting anything out at all.
Another worrying strand is that this isn't a tax. The government are considering instructing private companies on their charging policies but the government will not get any of the money raised by this policy should it be introduced. This really is the nanny state gone mad.
Nobody doubts that alcohol is a dangerous drug and the damage caused by misusing it can be devastating but this isn't the correct way of dealing with the issues. No personal agenda here - I earn a reasonable whack and if I want a drink I might grumble about the price but I can afford the money. If I decided to binge drink I could still afford it (In fact since I stopped smoking I have a good deal more disposable income). I suppose this also points to the stupidity of this plan - it'll just be the middle-class who can afford to go on getting wrecked but they will keep on drinking regardless of what Liam thinks happens behind the net curtains.
From MCVITA
I'm copying this from MCIVTA ("Manchester City information via the Alps"), an email fanzine, with the permission of the editor. I think it's a nice story which demonstrates yet again that people are generally nice despite the prevailing stories in the red tops.
Though for thousands of fans the UEFA Cup victory against Schalke will be remembered as City's best away win of the season, for one fan the trip to Gelsenkirchen had tragic consequences. As regular readers will know, Carl Ramsbottom, life long City fan, made the trip to Germany to watch his beloved blues and fell down a flight of stairs at a train station, suffering severe head injuries. Carl has been hospitalized in Germany ever since the event and the doctors alongside his family have been working hard in order to help Carl recover. From the dark however there is always a glimmer of light and this has come in the form of wonderful acts of charity from opposition fans. Only last month Schalke supporter Markus Rehse presented Carl and his family with a cheque for 2,500 euros which will go towards caring for Carl whilst he remains in Germany. Hughes told of the club's appreciation for the contribution: "It was fantastic to see how City and Schalke supporters stood together for Carl and I think this will forge a lasting bond between our two clubs. I would like to thank everyone so much for supporting the collection." Even before the contribution from the German side, a club a little closer to home got involved.From MCIVTA 1514, 12/03/09
Ahead of the Boxing Day match between City and Hull, a Tiger's travelling fan took a look at the official City website in order to confirm travel details to CoMS. Whilst on the website, the Hull City fan known only as 'Tigger' read about Carl's situation and led a collection on the Hull City coaches in aid of Carl. The travelling fans donated more than £150.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
BBC NEWS | England | Dream job? Beer taster wanted
More about "BBC NEWS | England | Dream job? Beer ...", posted with vodpod
Job as a beer taster available - it's in Lincolnshire but the end of the queue is currently just outside Cardiff :-)
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Forgot to say....
"Consultation Evening" last night. First appointment was at 16:00 and the teacher arrived at 16:05 (people who know me know I hate being late for anything and I don't do waiting when others are late). Teacher arrived, sat us down and did the spiel. Had to borrow one of his red pens to correct his crib sheet because he'd spelt my son's name incorrectly! I was not very impressed at all.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Faversham Guild Hall
Cal and I have had a busy weekend! As well as having a drive around the Isle of Sheppey today we also had a walk in Faversham and had a quick shopping stop in Maidstone. If you don't know Faversham I can heartily recommend it - lovely buildings in the centre.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Bishopsbourne
Remember I used to live there? Well the church was featured on the local news last night. A grant they need to carry our repairs is threatened in these cash-strapped times. This link goes to the video and if you want to see the snippet about St Mary's starts at 42 seconds.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Cory Doctorow
Those not familiar with the name won't be aware that Cory is one of those terribly smart guys who spans a range of pursuits with scary efficiency. He's a blogger (co edits BoingBoing and his own site), journalist, sci fi author and general all round activist. He gave a talk at the OU last week and it was jolly good indeed! Start at Platform for an interview and from there hit the link to video of his talk (look for "Computing Research Centre Distinguished Lecture") it's well worth watching a few times! You should also check out Rebecca's visualization of the back channel in action during Cory's talk.
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