The Greek Theatre at Taormina
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
La Sicilia
The Greek Theatre at Taormina
Monday, May 26, 2008
Silbury Hill
The May edition of Heritage Today has a very interesting article on the latest discoveries regarding the mysterious Silbury Hill. The hill is near Marlborough just on the edge of the A4.
In 2000 a large hole opened up and archaeologists and engineers teamed up to find a solution. The hole was caused by a shaft that had been sunk by the Duke of Northumberland in 1776. Furthermore the soil was seeping into various tunnels that had been channeled into the hill over the years. The largest tunnel was created by Professor Richard Atkinson in 1968. The BBC sponsored him to carry out the dig and Magnus Magnusson presented a programme from within. The entrance can be seen in the following picture (from Heritage Today magazine). To repair the hill all the voids had to be filled from the middle outwards with bags of chalk followed by a chalk and water mixture. The door to the entrance has now been placed in the nearby Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury.
Due to radiocarbon dating using pieces of antler it has now been established that the hill was started around 2400BC and probably went on for several hundred years. It is composed of a series of layers secured by stakes, then gradually built on top of. The mound eventually got covered by different layers of local material; clay, chalk, topsoil, turf and even some sarsen stones. Whilst looking in the main tunnel the archaeologists realised that the hill had started off as several mounds which later joined into the single mound, initially it stood 5 metres high. The mound grew to 25 metres high, the top part consisting of chalk that had been quarried from an adjacent ditch. At this stage it appears that the mound was left for a while as there is a layer soil showing signs that grass had colonised it. After this rest period more chalk was piled on top until the hill eventually stood at 37 metres high. It is the largest prehistoric mound in the whole of Europe that has been hand made by humans.
Silbury Hill has been called the British equivalent of the pyramids, but why did Stone Age man build it? Nobody knows, exactly. Quite apart from any ritualistic significance Silbury may have had for its builders, just constructing it would have been its own reward. Having such a great shared purpose would have helped the community to cohere. Perhaps future generations will say something similar of the people who came to repair the monument in the early twenty-first century. why has Silbury been mended? Because our nation is strengthened through doing it.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Where Has James Gone?
Where do you think he will pop up from next?
Click Here to take the survey
I will compile the results and post later.
Let's hope it is not like this.
Seems that James's blog readers are pretty discerning.
[hiatus] not for too long - farewell
It's an interesting phenomenon - once you're over that lip at the top, there is only one way down and there is no choice but to lie back and let the skids become part of you, using miniscule bodyshifts to minimize bends, on e false move and I think you can imagine.
Therefore, even though the heart was doing awful things, you had to suppress it and get the breathing going for when you hit the compression bends. There was one particular bend to the left and I remember the overhanging trees as I came into a short straight and the skids came back to the fall line and picked up speed - you couldn't sneeze or move the head except to strain the eyes downwards but in so doing, this lost speed.
Fat lot that mattered to me, speed - perfectly happy to lop a few seconds off and live. Halfway down the straight and it became fairly obvious that ... er ... there was almost a right angle left at the end [or so it seemed] and to go from semi-vertical to semi-horizontal in a microsecond was going to do interesting things to the metabolism.
At this point I thought of putting the legs out to stop before the turn but then realized that the walls would snap the legs back behind me and anyway here it was ... aaagh. The turn was bad enough, crushing the chest but when I shot up to the ridge, hanging centrifugally before flattening out to the fall line again with the skids wobbling left and right, it seemed it might be a good idea to ... um ... stop if you don't mind ... please?
Vague feelings now of high up near the ridge on the left, snap back, high up on the right, back to the line and then the final drop where it felt like taking off before the tube became gradually shallow and then severely reversed upwards and the blades finally stopped.
Um ... right. Exhilarating? For some perhaps but you could keep it as far as I was concerned. Count me among the spineless please - I'd prefer not to meet my lunch coming up on my way down. With thoughts like these, the base of the chairlift was beckoning again and there was a free chair.
Seems to me there's a huge difference between you brave people who go on the Oblivion, Megaphobia and so on and actually trust the damned thing not to come off whilst you're flung out into space. In my case, it was always going to be in my hands what happened and somehow that was more comforting.
Tomorrow is entirely out of my hands.
I'd like to sign off now and hand over to Colin Campbell for some time, trusting and hoping you won't shun the blog but will come to read some of the guest posts. One way or another I'll let you know what happened. Thank you so much too, those friends who put up with the maudlin mood in the last few weeks and stuck with me.
Cheers and let's leave on a good note:
Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists.
Now that's altruism for you. So don't miss out - apply today.
[sunday notes] bumbling around, getting it done
As Russia sweeps to Eurovision victory, this blogger quietly exits [yes that visa came through] Good luck to Russia who sustained me for so many years. 99% of the population and I got on fine but unfortunately, the wrong 99%.
Sorry to disappoint but there'll be no cutting expose from Higham - time to move on to new disasters [no, no - good things]. This week sees the action. As it will be pretty busy the next few days, I might not pop up again in that time, if at all.
In the meanwhile, may I leave visitors to this site in the most capable administrative hands of Haggiso, aka Colin Campbell, whose job it is to keep a motley collection of guest posters roughly in line or indeed - even posting.
Actually, we have quite appropriate weather just now - bitter grey skies, intermittent rain, plus 7 degrees and a chilly wind. It's been like this for some days but hey, this is meant to be summer, you know.
The big ask
Tomorrow, between 10 a.m. and 12 a.m. London time my companion and I will pass through a most dangerous time and a number of things can and might go wrong which will change the game plan so significantly that I end up in a different country to the one I had in mind.
Now, there is a passage in Matt 18:19-20:
Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Well anyway, I'll leave that one up to you.
Meanwhile
May I recommend to the romantics amongst you [sorry to be sickening] not a bad profile of Kate Middleton, the latest Gordo bashing is not worth the effort on Positive Sunday, we needn't bother either with the Hillary stirring in Florida but tomorrow being Memorial Day, here are a few articles about it.
Let's remember all vets everywhere.
So, best head off as a few people will visit today and I have nothing to put on the table just now. Back later in the day.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Nuts From The Chipmunk's Pouch
However, last night a whopper of a nut fell out of the Chipmunk's pouch; and right on the Channel 4 News.
Yes, folk, last night, unless my ears were greatly deceiving me, Hazel Blears as much as admitted that migrants have been driving down wages. It would be very interesting to hear the recording again in full. If what I can recall hearing is correct, the Chipmunk has managed to chew through the hull of the good ship New Labour far below the waterline, and has handed the Tories a majority of at least 100.
Friday, May 23, 2008
[perception] more vital than the reality
At the blackest point today after that visa stupidity which kicks off again tomorrow at 11 a.m., this blogger was as low as he's felt for years and that was reflected in the last post.
Then came the prospect of one particular lady, well two actually, who not only dropped in and lifted the mood exponentially but got down to helping clear out the flat, did this, did that and all I had to give them was a tub of salad, sweets and tea - felt so guilty.
They made as if it was a monarch's repast and by various nuances, the solidity of their friendship really came home, to the point I just had to sign off tonight in a much more cheerful mood, coffee and whisky beside me.
Now I'm actually looking forward to the adventure.
[bumper post] one size fits all tonight, including thought for the day
So far, in a day best left entirely forgotten for its shocks, disappointments and sheer bloody-minded callousness, I'll have to put everything into the one post now, as arrangements etc. have to be made later, in a number of 11th hour moves.
Crewe and Nantwich
Labour leader Gordon Brown said the result showed his task was to tackle people's concerns about rising prices.
No, you prat - the result showed people finally recognizing the total moral bankruptcy of Nu-Labour which I've been saying ever since Brownair came to power. The moment Blair said:
Enough of talking, time now to do ...
... it was clear Britain was doomed.
People don't want you to "tackle their concerns" about prices - they want you to either get the bloody prices themselves down, the wages up or else just get out of the way and let someone professional do the job.
Today
Presumably at the end of that time, one makes a mad undignified scramble for an airport in order not to be incarcerated for not having a visa which they failed to issue. I'm told the visa will be there tomorrow - let me report back to you then.
I have no further comment at this time and refuse to hit the whisky.
Thought for the day
Click the thought for its translation. Have a lovely Friday evening, readers.
Media censorship and the McCanns
Media censorship and the McCanns
This particular story for me started here "McCann advances against "T&Q", 16 May 2008". You will need to scroll down the page until you find it. It concerns a news report in T&Q on 24 August 2007. On 31 August 2007, BBC Radio 4 ran with the story and conducted an interview with the director of T&Q. I blogged it here. But, it wasn't until I blogged the same story on the My Telegraph blog here that I discovered that I had been...
However, whilst the My Telegraph blog team were able to censor me on their blog, they were unable to censor the Google cache as evidenced here.
I did manage to post the same post a second time with the same result of being censored, and when I posted again including the Google cache link this post also got censored.
Eventually, I received an email from the My Telegraph blog team in response to my two emails and they had this to say:
"Hello,
Our team of moderators respond to complaints about material on My Telegraph and remove anything which they consider to be potentially defamatory or abusive.
Best wishes,
Ceri Radford".
So, they censor first on the basis that it might be potentially defamatory or abusive rather than actually is?
Given that the story had already been printed in T&Q and 24 Hours, and aired on the BBC, it begs the question whether the My Telegraph blog team were being honest in their reasons for the censorship?
Xklamation also reports that the three posts she did on the McCanns were also censored by the My Telegraph blog team.
I would argue that we are going down a slippery slope here and that the brakes need to be applied to those intent on preventing freedom of expression.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
[thought for the day] thursday evening
[John Donne]
Well, if we can just stop talking of death and other fun concepts like that, the general principle is right though.
In these current weeks, for me personally, this principle has been brought home quite strongly - we can't go it alone, no matter how much we like to think we make the play. We depend on others, as those others might then depend on us.
Eye of the media tiger
I was asked to climb aboard an anti-McCann bandwagon. Like the McCanns saying they have reservations about returning to Portugal for a reconstruction, I pm'd Tigger on the 3As forum stating I had reservations.
I was concerned about libel, once you step out of the relative safety of the blogs and forums. Any allegation made needs to be supported or the McCann camp will jump on it and exploit it for their own ends. In the end, I agreed to offer support on the legal and media fronts.
This has already received a McCann response on local radio in the areas of distribution. If the mainstream media (MSM) is not going to ask the right questions, then they will have to play catch up.
n.b. The report of the local radio is single sourced and has not yet been confirmed by a secondary source. It could be the source was hearing voices :)
[shopping malls] safety issues and crime profiles
The vast majority of crimes involved shoplifting and petty thefts inside malls and car thefts and break-ins in parking lots. There were at least 508 violent crimes — mostly robberies, followed by aggravated assaults and batteries and a handful of sexual assaults and homicides.
Check out the video first and then some questions arise:
My most immediate thought is that potential attackers are going to avoid camera areas for sure. I read that many carry guns - how? Clearly no check on entry for fear of losing custom. Also - how empty was the mall? Seemed not many people shopping.
Even with cameras in most places, how trained are staff to know what to look for, as they said? Even then, how can the attack be prevented if security are not armed? One more thing - did you see the bit of the video which caught the two youths casing the place? Did you notice the ethnicity?
Seems to me that after a certain period of time, from the stats, a certain profile of criminals - ethnicity, gender, age, socio-economic status, general appearance - would have to emerge. Human rights advocates would say this is outrageous to profile this way but if there is a clear pattern [and I'm not saying there is] then what does one do?
Ignore the stats?
[geographical logic] sad but real
In the republic in which I live there is an ethnic Muslim population, a little over half the total, together with Russians and many other groups. Russian is the language of the people generally and the local language is more for local government level.
The problem here is the proximity to Moscow. From 1552 and Ivan Grozny [the Terrible], it's always been a problem and Moscow has seen the problem in reverse. There is no doubt that Russia insisted on its language becoming the universal one throughout all republics, even the nominally autonomous ones and it has kept relative peace across the land.
Westerners see brutal regimes and precious little democracy but the thing, truly, that people hanker for more is stability. For whatever reasons and you can put your own construction on these, the majority, entirely uncoerced, did go for Putin and breathed a sigh of relief when the power changed hands smoothly.
No one is doubting that Putin is still largely at the reins but the thing is - it's not necessarily seen as a bad thing, on balance. Many major issues, yes and hot debate on them at local level, if not at national level. What people fear most is the rein of lawlessness and in this town it was once so, with a devastating pall of anxiety hanging over the local populace.
Now the town seems to be flourishing and most people, particularly the young, don't wish to go back to the old days.
Returning to Tibet [at the end of the link above], it suffers from two things of course - proximity and its strategic value, not entirely as we have here. The issue will never be resolved but will wax and wane according to China's territorial consciousness of the time.
I claim no particular wisdom in this matter but I may see or feel a perspective the average westerner, even the widely travelled one, does not share. One can see China's point of view and can't blame it for pursuing its national strategic interests.
A glance at the map above, then superimposing that map on the all important silk road to Israel and Europe, alone is strategic reason for the TAR to exist, as such. Then we come to the Americans who are right in there, in Tibet, with their psy-ops and again, one can't blame America for wishing to encircle the new potential world hegemony. It would be failing its people if it did not do so.
As usual, the people in the middle are the meat in the sandwich and atrocities occur but nothing to the ones which are coming up later as this issue blows out of all proportion.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
[thought for the day] wednesday evening
How many times have you gone with playing it safe - safety first, prudence, responsibility, maturity, increments, step by step, measured response? How many times have you gone with a more cavalier approach, hoping to win the day through elan, chutzpah, roguishness, style, aggression, pressure, lateral thinking and sharp reflexes?
He who hesitates is lost. Look before you leap. If you had to choose between the approaches, which would it be?
Who am I?
Who am I?
I think public speaking is different from talking to people via a blog. I can and do speak to people, and listen to what they have to say. Even if I would rather not listen sometimes. Particularly if they are shouting and/or being abusive either to me or to others.
I think a public speaker must be able to speak down a heckler. Or laugh it off and continue with the speech undaunted.
I prefer one to one conversations or with two or three others.
This afternoon I spent about an hour or so with dogtrainer@talktalk.net. He came to do an assessment of Rocky for the court.
Rocky is innocent ok?
However, it is being alleged that he was dangerously out of control. And, the CPS is seeking a destruction order for Rocky. For me, they are seeking to award me with an ASBO. It is alleged I committed an assault at common law by telling Rocky to bite a Park Ranger.
I have read prison reports that alleged I was, at times, anti-social. And others describing me as a psychopath. After 23 years in prison, some bright spark decided to test me for psychopathy. I failed to make the grade. I wasn't a psychopath.
One day in prison c.1983 I was in Principal Officer John Burnett's office engaged in wordplay with Chief Officer Eddie Stoker. He was getting redder and redder as he argued away with me, and angrier and angrier, when I had tired of playing with him I said "Anyway, I'm supposed to be a psychopath. What's your excuse?". John Burnett clasped his hands over his mouth and ducked his head under the desk so the Chief Officer would not see him laughing.
Now, I no longer had that excuse to explain my behaviour.
Did I need one?
I exist. I am different. I have Autism. The Aspergers Syndrome means I am different. I live with it and manage to get by. I like to walk out of Myhaven and go for a walk with Rocky, and not have any conflict. But life is not always that smooth. I am a realist enough to realise that we don't live in an ideal world.
There needs to be public power: there needs to be an effective check on abuse of power.
I once committed the most serious abuse of power. I killed someone. Admittedly, the mitigating factor was the state of my mind at the time of the index offence. This legally diminished responsibility for my act. And yet, the life sentence was not diminished. It was justified according to the authorities on the ground of perceived dangerousness. However, this was at the time of the offence. By the time the case came to court, I would argue that I was not dangerous. But, it was in writing. No less than 3 psychiatrists had written it in their reports for the court. Psychopaths are not amenable to treatment.
Time is a wonderful thing.
A prisoner knows all about time.
At the time I went to the Dog Rescue Centre I was looking for a dog as a companion. Rocky was not my first choice. I liked the look of an Alsation, but the staff said it was not good around small children. My next choice was a Golden Retriever with a lighter than normal coat, but that was reserved. I looked down the line of cages and Rocky caught my attention. He was laid down, yelping or yapping pitifully, trying to poke his paw out of the wire mesh. It was as if he was saying, "pick me, pick me, pick me". I told him, "alright, I'll give you a try".
Rocky pulled on the lead a bit, but other than that I was happy with his behaviour.
Two weeks later, May 15 2005, I did the last of the film shoot with Ch4 News in the morning and went to pick up Rocky in the afternoon. He couldn't wait to get out of there and did not stop dragging me until we got to my car. Once home, Rocky went from room to room having a good sniff around. I sat down on the sofa. Rocky came down the stairs climbed up onto the sofa and laid down beside me and put his head in my lap. He looked up at me, and I think he said "I'm home dad".
Almost 3 years on and there was the incident in Pearson Park with the Park Ranger C*** W*****. Our version of events are markedly different.
Like I said, Rocky was assessed by the dog trainer and he passed with flying colours. However, he may recommend that Rocky has some more training. And, then he assessed me. Perhaps, I didn't do as well as Rocky. That's because I'm different.
There was the time that the Mad Dog of Pudsey gave me a wide berth. He thought I was dangerous. It was mind games. Psychological survival.
Mad, bad, difficult or dangerous?
The Treasury Solicitor said I was a pain in the arse. Roughly translated it means he found me difficult to deal with.
[the saint] george gives his blessing
Mr Soros believes that central bankers are partly to blame for the credit crunch because of their past behaviour in bailing out the financial sector whenever it got into trouble for over-lending, the so-called moral hazard problem.
He said that the central banks should explicitly target asset bubbles such as housing booms and try to stop them getting out of control, which is something they have resisted doing so far.
And he said that tougher but smarter regulation would be needed in the future in order to reduce the excess supply of credit in the economy.
[bumper pre-hiatus quiz] perhaps
1. Which is the most unusual name:
a] Negroponte
b] Slartibartfast
c] Brown
2. Which food is best for you:
a] Death by chocolate
b] Frog's legs
c] Big Mac
3. Who is the best singer ever:
a] William Shatner
b] Kate Bush
c] Louis Armstrong
4. Who is an absolute fruitcake:
a] Bjork
b] A fruitcake
c] Ultrachav
5. Who has the best body:
a] Woody Allen
b] Jabba the Hutt
c] Brown
D'you think there are any I've left out?
[arthur] the grail, defenders of the faith and so on
...it has become increasingly common to see the prince donning both Jewish and Muslim skullcaps in visits to Jewish and Muslim communal events and putting on religious ceremonial garb for the openings of Sikh and Hindu temples...
Well, I've actually done the first two myself but was I worshipping another G-d? I don't think so. Moving on, did the following dialogue take place at his investiture as Prince of Wales?
Queen Elizabeth II: "This dragon gives you your power, your throne and your own authority." Charles: "I am now your Liege-man, and worthy of your earthly worship."
Is this by any chance based on Revelations 13:2?
"And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority."
Nah, has to be a different other dragon. After all, the dragon is associated with Wales and Wales with the Britons, the Britons with Arthur and Arthur with Graham Chapman. That's all right then.
Speaking of Arthur:
Charles [Charles Philip Arthur George] and William [William Arthur Philip Louis] are both Arthurs ... although Arthurs generally come a cropper vis a vis the kingship.
And would it be Charles anyway? The Queen has the right to abdicate but not to hand the throne to William. On the other hand, age does come into it, twenty years from now.
Will Arthur return in Britain's hour of need?
Could this [below] have been the fabled round table? Is Arthur actually this man, thereby fulfilling the tale of the strolling minstrel? And what's the connection with Sparta?
Best stop or this will go on forever.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
[thought for the day] tuesday evening
A cucumber should be well sliced and dressed with pepper and vinegar and then thrown out as good for nothing.
Well I don't know about that - I'm quite partial to the odd cucumber and a lady friend of mine seems quite partial to them as well.
Clearly this is a debate without resolution.
[hiatus] admin and guest posters needed
Here is the original Higham Guest Posting "Team" and it needs updating:
Ruthie Not Saussure FlyingRodent dirty dingus Gracchi Croydonian Matt Martin CityUnslicker Praguetory Tom Paine Trixy Devil's Kitchen Ian Appleby Welshcakes Limoncello Colin Campbell Bryan Appleyard Mr Eugenides jmb Reactionary Snob
Some fine people here have departed the sphere and yet others might be shocked to find themselves here at all. Clearly it's time to add to the list, taking into account recent regulars to this site and also taking into account the hiatus starting late Sunday afternoon, May 25th.
If you feel you could do a post or two - many bloggers see it as an opportunity to post unusual things they might not otherwise get around to on their own blogs - this will carry us through the hiatus and would be interesting to readers.
If you would be willing to help out, please e-mail me at jameshigham@mail.com before the weekend and I'll send the invitation.
What I'd ask is that if you do post, please use the justify function and double space between paragraphs and could you keep the graphics to under 80kb and maximum width 500px? Bigger pics should not be uploaded "Left" as text tends to creep up the right side and looks ugly. Better to upload "Center", even if it is only 350px wide.
I'll need to have an admin during that time as well who can edit things and it needs to be a blog savvy person who comes here pretty regularly. Tom Paine did a sterling job last time.
If you're willing to lumber yourself with that task, could you please also e-mail me?
Big ask but the result might be good, as it was last time:
Hope you enjoy some of these.
Bryan Appleyard - Help!
Buckeye - Indianapolis
Buckeye - Lay off Sauce
CityUnslicker - Short Trip
Colin Campbell - Public
Colin Campbell - Strap
Delicolor - Gordon Brown
Delicolor - Kingdom Keys
Delicolor - Shading Obscur
Deogolwulf - Nothing Avails
Devil's Kitchen - Flooding
Devil's Kitchen - Prions
Fabian - Marketizing
Flying Rodent - Love PM
Flying Rodent - The Ref
Gracchi - Celebrity
Gracchi - Football WW2
Gracchi - Spell Aisle
Gracchi - Wallace & G
Ian Appleby - Loveletter
James at Ellee's [1]
James at Ellee's [2]
JMB - Funerals & Life
JMB - Immigrant Exp
JMB - The Latin
Lord Nazh - Gaza
L'Ombre - African Obscur
L'Ombre - Blue Wave
L'Ombre - Price of Oil
L'Ombre - Stem Cells
Martin - Brit Economy
Martin - Hypermobility
Martin - NW Order
Martin - Productivity
Mr Eugenides - Greece
Praguetory - Moscow
Ruthie - True Journalism
Tom Paine - Elderly
Tom Paine - EU
Tom Paine - Why Blog?
Trixy - Probably Should
Welshcakes - Epistle
Welshcakes - Moving Day
Welshcakes - Urban Wet
England's Problem Wife
Martin Kelly leaps into print again with a timely reminder on an LPW:
[liberty] precious commodity increasingly rationed
I think it was my old mate Simeon Strunsky, in 1944, who said:
Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly...
... and this can be taken for various dialectics as well, for example the Hegelian, which is nearly always misrepresented, as stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus ...
... a thesis, giving rise to its reaction, an antithesis which contradicts or negates the thesis, the tension between the two resolved by a synthesis.
This, in turn, also gives rise to an interpretation which some are wont to call the Hegelian dialectic, which states that governments and virtually any higher body who want to bring in some policy do so via a threefold progression:
1. create a crisis;
2. people demand a solution;
3. government propose a solution which includes the policy they wanted in the first place.
In turn, this idea can be refined to read this way:
1. think of a policy you want, e.g. ID cards and the restriction of personal freedom;
2. go to a group of people designated as the baddies, known for going off the deep end easily and stir them up on their home patch;
3. when they commit atrocities, which somehow they most surprisingly get past your defences to do:
4. wait for the community reaction;
5. draft general draconian laws to counter the perceived threat;
6. thereby put in place that which you wanted in 1. above.
Governments are only the outward manifestation of the people of power behind them. Many of these people take the point of view expressed by Hegel himself, this time correctly quoted from 1830:
Only in the state does man have a rational existence ... Man owes his entire existence to the state and has his being within it alone.
Needless to say I reject this utterly or if not utterly, in large part. Such a philosophy gives rise to tyranny and the constant attempt to reduce the common man to a serf and a malleable serf and that is what we're seeing right now.
Whether you are a businessman just needing the right to trade freely or you are an individual just needing the right to express your opinion without being vilified by powerful lobbies or incarcerated by the state, the desire is the same:
Liberty.
[interim report] die is cast
The first has been resolved in principle through a very kind offer from one of our bloggers and that will be publicized as soon as it can be brought to fruition. This blogger and I will make a joint report to our regular readers as and when it happens next week.
There is still a battle going on this week at this end to try to get immigration to reverse it's stand.
The second, the financial side - I have a stay of execution for now but it looks uneasy. Having had June/July taken away [my main earners] plus not being eligible for my holiday pay now, with this neat little new regulation in place, I have to be working and earning.
Three bloggers have suggested I put up Paypal on this site but I've resisted that, reasoning that if I go into hiatus, no one is going to donate to a dead cause. It's more appropriate to assure close people here that any largesse on their part is a loan I'll repay as soon as I'm earning in a new place.
So there's enough to leave here but not enough to go on after that and it might be necessary to do something through this page for a short period until the first pay comes in. Also, the longer I survive, the greater the chance of unlocking the frozen funds back home and that would solve all problems.
So I'm loathe to ask for now as any incoming money is a debt I'll have to repay later. Those kind bloggers who offered - be careful as I might ask for your help next week in a new place. I'd like to openly say here [and will e-mail you personally later] that your kindness has been touching and somehow I think this thing will be traversed though hardly resolved.
May I keep those offers as a rain check please?
I tell you one thing - if I do get set up again, you're going to be invited as an honoured guest as soon as I'm able.
Monday, May 19, 2008
[thought for the day] monday evening
[defence of the realm] two stories
One of Australia's national heroes is Simpson with his donkey.
Ninety-three years ago today, Private Simpson was killed ferrying wounded soldiers to safety from the front line at Gallipoli, under enemy fire. [He was] fatally wounded in the chest by Turkish gunfire on the morning of May 19, 1915, and was buried at 6.30 that evening at Hell Spit, on the southern end of Anzac Cove.
His commanding officer at the time, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Sutton, recommended him for the country's highest military award. The day after Simpson's death, Colonel John Monash, then the commander of the Australian Imperial Force's 4th Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli, sent a submission to Australian and New Zealand Divisional Headquarters.
So what's the problem? Give him the VC. Not so fast says the Labor government's tribunal. Hero or no hero, he lacks the correct documentation. He:
"must be supported by signed statements of at least three eyewitnesses of the act for which the award is recommended. These statements should be on oath."
Oh that's easy. Let's dig up the remains of three ANZACs from 1915, get them along to the tribunal and they can swear an affidavit to the effect that Australia's national hero is actually Australia's national hero.
Second one from the U.K.
Last year the head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, warned that a lack of public appreciation for Britain's military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan was in danger of "sapping" the willingness of troops to serve on dangerous operations.
Now:
Gordon Brown is said to have accepted "virtually all" of the suggestions in the National Recognition of the Armed Forces review, led by Quentin Davies, the former Tory MP who defected to Labour last summer and was asked by the Prime Minister to look into ways of restoring the public image of the military.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
[most influential] post war era
[interim report] end of sunday
I'm right in the middle of it all at this very moment, there is most certainly light ahead but as my friend said today - I'm walking through a minefield which could blow up at any second.
One way or the other the saga ends on May 31st.
Today my two closest people here spent time with me and we looked at the ramifications of each course of action, how far we could rely on each possibility and looking at the short, medium and long term.
We analysed the situation generally in this country and what looked likely to happen.
Out of it all, apart from coffee overload, came a pretty clear idea of the course to take. Fortunate indeed if you have friends like these and like those who have been communicating by e-mail.
I'd like to thank you also for your well wishes in comments. In terms of this blog, there will necessarily be a hiatus around May 29th but if all goes well, it will be back again, maybe within a few weeks. Either way I'll get a message to you about what I'm up to.
With details still up in the air it's best not to say any more at this point.
[which firearm] is it a no-brainer?
The Five-seveN® comes standard with 20-round magazine, fires the 5.7x28mm SS190 Ball round which reliably penetrates Kevlar helmets and vests as well as CRISAT protection and has extremely low recoil impulse results in virtually no muzzle climb, thereby facilitating fast and controllable follow-up shots.
The 1911 remains popular because it’s an efficient tool. In more than 30 years of experience, I’ve met more competent, serious gunmen who carry 1911’s than those who pack any other handgun. They are professionals – policemen, government agents and others who carry handguns daily because the know their live may depend on it…
It is one of the few submachine guns that can consistently provide stopping power against armored targets, and has a significantly longer range than submachine guns using the 9 mm Luger Parabellum cartridge. Additionally, the UMP9 is almost 0.45 kg lighter than the 9 mm MP5.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
[light blogging] and the case of the disappearing breakfast
Light blogging this morning, not for any "problematic" reasons but because I have five clients today - work goes on, even if other things don't. :)
Plan to blog later.
Of greater concern is that I lost my breakfast. True. I made it all right - just a sort of soupy thing with mince, buckwheat, cabbage and peppers in a tomato-ey sauce but it's tasty and I didn't want to lose it.
Went to the living room - nope, not there. Not in the kitchen, not in the hallway. Ah, I was absent minded, I thought - it'll be in the loo. Nope, not there.
Hmmm. I'll tell you if I ever find it. Plus the toast just burnt writing this and it's sitting there on the board now, black and fuming. I apologized to it.
Now where is that soupy thing?