A Cash Box Robbery in Hampstead
I’m nearly 63 and I’ve never been at a real crime scene, except for our three burglaries in the South of France, that prompted us to sell Les Ondes.
But I came across a cash box robbery in Hampstead last Friday.
Cash Box Robbery in Hampstead
Here’s the report of the robbery in the Ham and High.
We all fear crime, but is it that common?
Mad Mullah Science
I almost gave myself a hernia laughing at this story on the BBC. Apparently, according to one Iranian cleric, promiscuous women cause earthquakes. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.
“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iran earthquakes in the last decade.
It gives a whole new meaning to “Did the earth move for you?”
What a load of old rubbish.
On a serious side, according to PeopleQuake, Iran will be very short of people, as Iranian women have decided that giving birth to children in such a country is not a good idea for their lot. The birthrate is well below that needed to sustain the population.
Perhaps the Mad Mullah could read some science from some of the many educated people in his country.
Are We All Going to Vote Lib Dem?
Possibly!
A poll has shown that people don’t vote for them, as they are unlikely to win. But now some polls show them in the lead, so people want to vote for the winner.
If they got a majority on their own with forty percent of the vote, would they bring in proportional representation?
In some ways, I’d like them to win decisively. We could then join the Euro and the Shengen Zone.
The BCA Drops the Case Against Simon Singh
The title says it all. But read about it in full on the BBC. Here are the first two paragraphs.
The British Chiropractic Association has dropped its libel action against the science writer Simon Singh.
Dr Singh was being sued by the organisation because of comments he had made in the Guardian in 2008 about the effectiveness of chiropractic.
I’m very happy for Simon, as this sort of case and costs give British justice a bad name.
If Simon had said something that was truly offensive, then the case should have been quickly found in the BCA’s favour.
If on the other hand what he said was fair comment or genuine scientific unease, then it should have been quickly settled the other way.
But the case was not and it cost Simon upwards of a six figure sum. That is too high a cost to get real justice, as how could the average man on the Clapham Omnibus be able to afford such a sum?
But will Simon’s comments about chiropractors really make much difference? I’ve used them in the past and in most cases they have done just a little for the problems I’ve suffered from. On the other hand, others swear by their treatments and go all the time. We all have our views and follow them, so I suspect you’ll either back Simon or the BCA.
In one case though, I had spectacular results from an alternative form of therapy. At school my humerus was broken in a bullying incident and I’d been plagued by pain in the upper arm and shoulder for well over forty years. I’d seen several doctors, surgeons and osteopaths and no-one had been able to sort it out. I’d even had a full MRI Scan.
But then I went to a guy, who put judo players back together. He analysed the problem and gave me a set of exercises to do. The result was that the shoulder acted like the other.
If there is a moral, it’s that you must try everything.
But let’s not resort to law to stop the competitors or promote things that may be against the established order.
The good methods will eventually win out and there will be losers.
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman has come in from a lot of criticism about his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Myths)
But interestingly, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, cites Pullman as one of his favourite modern writers. Others are not so charitable.
Think Different, Think Plaid
This was the slogan for the Welsh Nationalists today. I thought plaid was Scottish!
Seriously though, the two Nationalist parties can help the removal of this Labour government. If they do, it would make negotiations interesting in a hung parliament.
Dawkins and the Pope
According to the Sunday Times, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are going to investigate whether the Pope can be arrested when he visits the UK.
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
I am not someone with any religion. But I do believe that if you take the basic decent humanity common to most religions they are all rules that we can abide by.
In recent years that Catholic church has in some cases protected priests, who if I did what they have done, would have gone to jail for a long time. This is by any standards not right.
I have just read the excellent book, PeopleQuake, by James Pearce. Some of the most Catholic countries in the world like Italy and Brazil have very low birthrates. So do a lot of women in these countries show the church their contempt for its teaching on contraception or are they just lucky in not getting pregnant?
The Anonymous Widower 