By Royal Disappointment

Look, I am a bred and born Monarchist. Came the time when I was old enough for self-determination and sufficient intellectual rigour to consider the options, I still chose to adhere.

Sometimes, it is hard. I have no idea if Southron readers of the DT were exposed to the photo spread of our beloved Duke of Rothesay with which we were regaled up here north of the Wall today. This is the only photo that I could find on-line.

Continue reading “By Royal Disappointment”

Rugby World Cup 2011 in NZ – an amateur pundit goes on record

Not a blog for all I fancy, so if not your cup of tea, do feel free to ignore! Although, to attract some of our members, here is a free look at the greatest Number 10 currently playing, young Daniel Carter. A lovely chap, I have met him, he’s very polite and shy:

Continue reading “Rugby World Cup 2011 in NZ – an amateur pundit goes on record”

The Terror of Facebook

I wonder if any of you saw this article in yesterday’s Telegraph concerning a photograph that appeared on Facebook that depicted a white man holding a rifle, kneeling over the apparently lifeless body of a black child. As may be imagined, the story still has currency in the South African press as investigations continue. Leaving aside the unpleasant nature of the photograph the incident has some ramifications for social networking here and possibly elsewhere around the world. Continue reading “The Terror of Facebook”

Gillard threatens legal action …

… and an article is immediately withdrawn from The Australian, and a cringing apology published.

Strangely, however, follow-up articles in other papers have (apparently) published the text that raised Juliar’s ire.   As a quotation, which they can (apparently) get away with.

When a Prime Minister threatens to sue a journalist for defamation, Boadicea and I usually reckon it’s tantamount to an admission of guilt – but this time we could be wrong.   What is undeniable is that this spat has spotlighted a grubby episode in Juliar’s earlier life; one that was in the public domain but played down, at the time, to such an extent that many of us had never heard of it.   Even if today’s accusation is completely false, it’s a reminder of the sort of crim that she used to knock around with.

The sleaze within some Unions and the ALP (Australian Labor Party) which has recently been revealed, makes me wonder just how corrupt Labor is.   Starting with Kev’s political assassination, we’ve seen WikiLeaks dob in Senator Mark Arbib as the Americans’ spy, we’ve seen Juliar unashamedly reverse her promise on the Carbon Tax and MP Craig Thomson finally exposed for spending many thousands of dollars of HSU (Health Services Union) money on booze and prostitutes (admittedly a grand old Australian tradition) and now Juliar’s youthful indiscretions are coming back to haunt her.

What a barrel-load of corrupt bastards!   I can yet foresee the AFP (the Feds) being summoned to arrest the entire chamber, and the Governor-General forced to order a second dismissal.   But her (the G-G’s) daughter is married to Bill Shorten, an ex-Union boss and Labor power-broker who currently holds the position of Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation.   No chance!

For a different slant on the brouhaha, try this article in Crikey.

Diptych

I’ve apologized elsewhere for missing the deadline for the recent photo competition, entries were supposed to be in by the 24th (!) why not the 30th (which is what I thought or the 15th?) By the way, a diptych has to comprise of two contrasting pictures illustrating ‘Work’ and ‘Rest’, or I suppose ‘Before and After’

I missed a poetry one once as well, perhaps we need a voluntary software guru to programme auto e-mail alerts to members who would be keen to participate (anybody got any suggestions as to who could be skilled enough to install such a procedure? ;))

Anyhow, I did have a go and I’m publishing my effort anyway, here goes… Continue reading “Diptych”

A question for our techie types.

An article in today’s newspaper refers to the act that there were objections to the building of new wind subsidy farms in certain areas because the rotating blades obscured military radars and interfered with the ability to detect incoming airborne threats.

I would have thought that it would not be beyond our current abilities to program the radar installations to ignore the windmills they can see? Granted, the turbine blades will not be turning at the same speed all the time, but the arcs they sweep will be constant? Surely it would not be that difficult to program the radars to distinguish between an object barrelling in at the speed of pffft and a known obstruction?

I await enlightenment.

A big puddle

Reading Janus’s post mentioning the African Queen reminded me of our two visits to the Neusiedlersee in Austria this summer. This lake is the only steppe lake in Europe outside of Russia. It is fed by rainfall and some springs, but has no river or streams running into it and only one small stream running out of it at the Hungarian end. So it is in fact a very large puddle, sometimes known as Austria’s seaside, with massive reed beds.

Our first visit was to Podersdorf, a pretty little resort on the eastern shore. It is the only settlement that has direct access to the lake with no reed beds and has beaches, a little pier and lots of cafes and restaurants, where you can try the lake fish, char, pike, carp and smoked eel.

Continue reading “A big puddle”