[know your stately homes] part two of new series

1. Founded around 1140 as a Cistercian monastery, having been one of the most learned and wealthy monasteries for four hundred years. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536-41 it came into private ownership, and has been a charming country house ever since. The house is famous for its plaster ceilings, fine pictures and furniture. The gardens from late 18th C. and the highest powered fountain in England are all well worth a visit.

2. Started as a hunting lodge built in 1616/17 by the 13th Earl of Northumberland, in the Georgian period it was the country seat of the glamorous Lennox sisters. Notable are the State Apartments, with an Egyptian State Dining Room, grand Yellow Drawing Room and a breathtaking Ballroom. The walls are lined with fine collection of paintings (including a number from Van Dyck, Reynolds, Stubbs and Canaletto). Certain outdoor activities are also famous nearby.

3. King Edward I of England built it in the late 13th century, later to become a parliament. A long siege here during the Wars of the Roses inspired a stirring song. During the Civil War (1642-48), it was a Royalist stronghold.

4. Designed by Sir Charles Barry, visitors can trace the steps taken by the 5th Earl of Carnarvon when in 1922 with the Egyptologist Howard Carter he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. The parkland by 'Capability' Brown is spectacularly beautiful, featuring magnificent lawns, a walled garden, glasshouses and a fermery.

5. Was founded in 1120 for defense with walls six metres thick and in the 14th century the castle was transformed into a palatial home. During the English civil war Cromwell's troops demolished it. Scott was inspired to set a novel here. The Penny Magazine - July 31, 1835 had a long article about it.

Answers

Forde Abbey, Goodwood House, Harlech Castle, Highclere Castle, Kenilworth Castle

[iran election anomalies] could it be in the digits

Interesting stuff from Bruce Alderman:

Political scientists Bernd Beber and Alexandra Scacco have found some peculiarities in the Iran election results. While many people around the world are questioning the validity of the results, Beber and Scacco have gone a step further and looked at some statistical anomalies.

Beber and Scacco looked at the final digit of the results from each province for the top four candidates, and found two anomalies. Since there are ten possible digits, we would expect each number 0 - 9 to appear in about 10 percent of all the precinct totals, give or take a few percentage points due to random variability.

The statistical anomalies continue and then they conclude:

[W]e would expect to see results like this in only one of every two hundred fair elections.

[ferrari] why didn't they ask me

How would that be, eh? Sigh. I'm green with envy.
.

[first connex] now metronet

Oh, this is classic.

You probably read the piece about Connex finally being given its marching orders in Melbourne. There were many sentiments like 'good riddance' and 'will they try to come back here'?

It gets better:

The chief executive of Melbourne's new train operator also headed a British rail company that went into administration at a huge cost to taxpayers.

Andrew Lezala, whose Metro Trains Melbourne will soon operate the city's trains, was chief executive of the British rail maintenance company Metronet from May 2005 until it went into administration in July 2007.

It collapsed with £1.7 billion ($A3.5 billion) in debt, forcing the British Government to bail it out.

A damning report on Metronet's failure, released just three weeks ago by Britain's National Audit Office, found the company's management had wasted millions of pounds of public money.

"The main cause of Metronet's failure was its poor corporate governance and leadership," the report said. "We estimate that the overall direct loss to the taxpayer arising from Metronet's administration is between £170 million and £410 million, in 2007 prices."

Just who is appointing people downunder? Maybe they should be the ones scrutinized more closely.

[armed forces day] support our troops

It's Armed Forces Day today. [H/T Cherie]

The first Armed Forces Day is 27 June 2009, and is an opportunity for the nation to show our support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community.

A worthy thing to be sure and it's just a pity that the government couldn't have treated our boys and girls better. So this day is not just an opportunity for the average citizen to come out and support the armed forces, it's also a time to roundly castigate a government which has placed them in the danger they are in.

Henry Kissinger was quoted in the book “Kiss the Boys Goodbye", written by a Vietnam Vet.

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

Quite frankly, I have problems with material like that. As ex-military myself, sharing beliefs with such people as Steve Green and James Cleverly on the military, a check of my "About" reveals a man who believes in G-d, Queen and country.

Now read what James Cleverly said here:

I felt almost sick reading this blog post in the Telegraph [Telegraph has now deleted it] about the breakdown in relationship between the British military and local Iraqi forces.

The short-termism in Gordon Brown's government has created a situation where the troops in Iraq can no longer do their job but are still at risk from daily attacks.

Angus today on this problem:

No planes for Paras it seems that the iraq war has led to a shortage of Hercules transport planes for paras to jump out of.

When the Iraq war began in 2003 the Armed Forces had 51 Hercules available, but four have been shot down or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan and at least nine have had to be retired due to the intense workload. The remaining fleet is working flat out to support operations abroad.

In some units barely half the Paras are certified to jump - with hundreds unable to earn their wings or maintain their skills once qualified.

Recruits must complete a course of at least six jumps - culminating in a massed low-level jump from a Hercules at night, wearing full kit - plus two more with their unit to gain their coveted 'wings' badge and become fully-fledged Paras.

After that they cease to be operationally deployable unless they can jump twice a year.
Many have already lost their entitlement to specialist pay of £5 pay per day because they have failed to jump at all for two years.

Recent figures have shown just 55 per cent of soldiers in the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment are certified to jump.

With senior officers in uproar, the MoD has finally admitted the scale of the problem and agreed to hire a fleet of much smaller civilian Skyvan aircraft - normally used for amateur skydiving flights.

I'm with Lt Gen Dannart who said enough is enough.

Armed Forces Day is a wonderful thing and supporting our troops the right thing to do. It's also important to remember on this day, and to tell them we know, those who would nobble the Armed Forces - this government.

James Cleverly on this day.

[Don't forget that this is also the 7th day for Neda.]

[palestinians] snow job on the western media

It's with great trepidation that I run this post because of my long association with a true friend, Cherry Pie. However, when something is distorted, such as things she was told [she'd hotly dispute this, of course], then something must be said in reply. I don't blame her for swallowing it but it really does need to be set straight.

... we had a talk from a member who had been on a sponsored visit to Palestine

... is what Cherie opened with. Now it's nothing against the noble trade union movement or Cherie's tireless work for it but really, one needs to step back a moment and analyse that line. A trade unionist sponsored by Hamas, in the sense that he'd never have been shown around if Hamas had not approved, came back to Britain and gave an 'unbiased' assessment of the situation? Now what sort of conclusions would he be likely to bring back from his Hamas enabled tour?

Here is one of his observations:

Even the school’s windows were boarded up as protection from Israeli bullets. This meant the classrooms, with 45 children, were suffocating hot in summer. The Palestinian people are being all being slowly suffocated - culturally and socially, as well as economically.

Again, step back and analyse this. Why would the Palestinians keep the children in that building with boarded up windows on a stinking hot day? Why wouldn't they find a safe place for the children underground - there are many such semi-dugouts. Why keep them suffering? The answer's obvious, isn't it? It wasn't the comfort and safety of the children at issue here but the western visitor. So the emotive language in 'the Palestinian people are being all being slowly suffocated' tugs at the heartstrings like a Fenian ditty - pity it's not based on evidence though.

Now, anyone who knows anything about missiles knows that boarded up windows are hardly likely to stop one and rifles would go through them like butter. It's the very assumption that the Israelis would fire indiscriminately at the windows which betrays Hamas's own mindset. Hamas knew all this but the western trade unionist still swallowed the whole story, then came back and reported it. Was there anyone there to ask the questions I'm now asking?

If you need evidence, then there is this video. Now one sees the true Palestinian leadership - not the least concern about the welfare of the children. Why were schools targetted by Israel? Because they were using schools to fire rockets at Israel. Look at the video again.

Then there is this:

The airport also has a system of stickers for the luggage. Jews get a 1 or a 2, EU passport holders get a 3 and Arabs get a 6. Anyone with 6 label has to have both a luggage search and a personal search conducted.

Why are the Arab bags labelled differently? The immediate knee-jerk reaction is, 'Oh, it's apartheid'. Actually, it's because the Arabs can't be trusted, based on events of the past few decades, not to send suicide bombers and not to do this sort of thing. Please look at the way the children are treated by their own armed forces.

Again, not my words.

So, coming back to the luggage stickers, let me ask you a question. Imagine you're a customs official and you know that weapons are going through. Would you not take particular care to check over a people who have, among them, known offenders? Where is the Jewish equivalent to this? That's right - it doesn't exist.

I've no doubt there is a lot of brutality in the treatment and I've already commented at Cherie's site about what I think of the Jewish character. However, the issue here is what is really happening to those Palestinian children.

Naturally, Nakba [May 15, 1948] gets a mention by the pro-Palestinians but conveniently, the events preceding it are never mentioned. Wiki takes up the story:

After the rejection of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, five Arab states invaded the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel.

Now be sure of this – the Arabs rejected it. Here was the Israeli response:

The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan as "the indispensable minimum," glad as they were with the international recognition but sorry that they did not receive more.

Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organized the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.

Is that ever mentioned on the day of Nakba? Not on your life. Nor the next part:

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the 1948 Palestine war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states' armies the following day.

That makes the day of the invasion May 15th, 1948. Anything just a teensy bit significant about that date to you, vis a vis Nakba?

Moving on

What we've got here are highly emotional and unsubstantiated statements - systematic ill treatment, torture. Evidence?

“systematic ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities.”

This comes from someone called 'Gerard' who has the run of the Palestinian land, something he would never have if he were to report the truth.

'harsh Israeli jail'

Not just 'Israeli jail'. When it's Israeli, the adjective 'harsh' must be used. Do you know of any jail which is not harsh?

Aid

This is an article by a woman who visited the area, neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Arab. She says aid must get through and Israel must open up the borders for the convoys but then adds:

She also stated that "Hamas must respect that humanitarian aid cannot be diverted."

Therein lies the real problem. This is what's really going on:

There was a bit of head-scratching going on recently in the hallowed halls of the UN.

After weeks of rebuking Israel for preventing humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, UN officials were forced to cancel deliveries of aid into the Hamas-controlled territory after terrorists broke into a UN Relief and Works Agency warehouse and made off with 800 tons of blankets, food and other basic commodities to sell them to the highest bidders.

Israeli officials have been saying all along that Hamas routinely diverts humanitarian aid. In April, fuel trucks destined for UNRWA warehouses were overtaken. It was reported in August that Hamas gunmen had hijacked more than 10 trucks destined for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society full of food and medical supplies.

All that is only more ironic given the worldwide castigation of Israel for allegedly preventing humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza during the military operation.

… and:

At least 10 trucks with humanitarian aid sent to the Gaza Strip by the Jordanian Red Crescent Society were confiscated by Hamas police shortly after the trucks entered the territory on Thursday evening, according to aid officials in Jerusalem.

Eight trucks had food products and another two had medicines. They were reportedly taken to Hamas-run ministries.

Initial reports said the intended target of the aid was the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza. Hamas and the PRCS had a run-in in the past, when the Islamic group diverted another aid convoy.

A spokesman for the Hamas police in Gaza said that the number of trucks was in fact 14 and they would be "delivered to Palestinians in need in the Gaza Strip."

Iran is even aware that the aid is not getting past Hamas.

What appeared in that trade unionist's talk was a highly slanted, Hamas approved take on what was happening, which simply does not accord with either the video or documentary evidence above [and that's but a portion].

Cherie's in a difficult position; she can say she's known these two people for a long time and they wouldn't lie. I'm not saying they are lying. I'm saying they've been duped because they wished to see the truth in these terms.

UPDATE SATURDAY

On the Egyptian side, 700 people and 10 trucks with medical aid from Arab countries were waiting to enter. Some 550 people waited to cross the other way, with priority given to those needing urgent medical treatment. Gaza has been blockaded by Israel, and much of the time by Egypt, for two years since Hamas took control there. Despite considerable criticism in the Arab world, the Egyptian government has kept Rafah largely shut since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007.

Interesting, eh? Why would Egypt, an Arab nation, supposedly in sympathy with the Palestinians, have done that for so long?

[weekend poll] sexiest men over 43

1. Omar Sharif [77]

2. Giancarlo Giannini [66]

3. Pierce Brosnan [57]

4. Denzel Washington [54]

5. Nick Faldo [51]

6. George Clooney [48]

7. Jon Bon Jovi [47]

8. Mikhail Khodorkovsky [45]

9. Brad Pitt [45]

10. Professor of History Darrin McMahon [44]

As usual, you're allowed three votes at one time but to vote again, you'd need to come back tomorrow.


11. Armand Assante [if you like him, please comment in ... er ... comments.

Results here.

[fatty salads] when you least expect it

A survey by consumer watchdog Which? found Morrisons' Smedleys Atlantic Prawn Marie Rose Salad contained 855 calories and 66.3g fat - more than a McDonald's Big Mac and medium fries and 70% of the fat a man should eat in a day.

Which? bought a selection of 20 pre-packed salads on the high street and found another unhealthy option was Asda's Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, which contained 43g of fat, nearly as much as six Cadbury's Creme eggs.Almost a quarter of the salad is made up of high-calorie dressing (13% mayonnaise, 10% Caesar dressing).

The manufacturers have a double problem - they need to put enough chemicals in to preserve the salad fresh for long enough and western people's tastes are, frankly, sugary and salty. When a weight-conscious lady buys a fresh salad, she may have it in mind that it's healthy but equally, the body won't take withdrawal from its sugar, salt and saturated fats.

People are deluding themselves into an appearance of healthiness.

In Russia, as you imagine, what you see on the shelf is what you get. Grains are brought in, in kilogram plastic bags, a paper label is stuck on and that's that. No additives. Trays of bread are carried through and dumped in huge tubs. A cow that's been recently cut up has the portions laid out in bain-marie that day. The grandmother or mother prepares it that day into various dishes, including beef and rice patties, say and the salads prepared. The Russians have a weakness for white products and mayonnaise, so these are where the bulk of the calories are.

I was looking at ASDA's shelves two days ago and overheard someone saying that these particular noodles were 'healthy'. Healthy? There were the noodles in the packet [not the best carbs for a start] and then came all the E numbers, this chemical, that chemical, beef 'flavour' [as distinct from beef] and so it went on.

It was poison.

This is the gunge which people are feeding into themselves. There's a chippy I know and when you hold the fish vertically, the grease drips off onto the paper. Yet that's what people are used to, that's what people want.

I was looking at a nutrition chart on beef and other meats and discovered that if you have meat from the neck down to the chest [apparently the Americans call this 'chuck'], it gives 500% of your recommended choleterol intake. What we call 'fillet steak' [and the Americans apparently call 'brisket'] had 13% per portion of cholesterol. So even in the cut were vast differences.

Now, which would be the cheaper cut?

Good nutrition does appear to be a question of having the dosh, it does seem the preserve of the well-off.

[connex] booted out of melbourne

The company which helped decimate Britain's rail services and then went downunder, has now been given the bullet after destroying Melbourne's train services.

Where will Connex go next?

[the nvq society] and the uprooted flowerbed

You might first like to cast your eye over this post about June Turnbull, in order to get the picture.

Well, it's happened again - Angus covered it yesterday:

No good deed goes unpunished A retired florist has been threatened with criminal prosecution by a council after planting a flower garden on a neglected patch of land in a car park.

Jayne Bailey, a retired florist, gave the concrete island on her housing estate a makeover as the cobble-stones were coming loose and she thought they were dangerous.

Mrs Bailey, 60, removed loose cobbles and planted flowers in a display that has been supported by some of her neighbours.

So, was there an unveiling speech, with the local mayor praising initiative, selflessness and hard work? Not a bit of it. Those qualities are not desired in our society today, are they? Jayne Bailey is now retired from her horticultural work and as she doesn't possess a current NVQ [that is, paid out a huge sum of money for nothing] , she can't possibly know the first thing about horticulture.

Plus she's white and aged, which translates now as 'unwanted'. And what was the council's reaction?

"They also threatened that they would go to the police and report me for criminal damage.'

A spokesman for the council said:

"In this particular case no agreement was sought to carry out the works. Several complaints from residents have been received concerning the planting."

Complaints about her planting a garden on what was a bit of crumbling concrete? Oh yes? Maybe we can see the text of those 'complaints'?

So there it is - the new NVQ society, the forcing of people into narrow specialist areas, each with its new jargon and methods of exclusivity - this is union demarcation disputes taken to a point of madness and visited upon the whole community.

I have to ask you, 'Do you really want to live in such a society? Isn't there something we can do to reverse such bureaucratic madness?'