Tribute To A Hero
At the War Memorial on Islington Green today, there was a tribute to the bravery of Frederick Parslowe, who saved his ship in the Great War, but was killed in the action. He was postumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
According to this article in the Islington Tribune, a commemorative paving stone is being unvieled as part of the hundredth anniversary commemorations for the Great War.
Asking The Oracle At Delphi For Help On The Greek Bailout
In the on-line copy of The Times, in an article on the latest episode of the Greek Bailout saga, there is this reader entered comment.
I have just texted the Oracle of Delphi re the referendum. I have had a most impressive and quick response from one of the delightful ladies of Apollo Land.
As you know, I cannot give my answer until the seventh of this month but the gut feeling here at the Shrine is that the “No’ might just win. People must remember that the Islanders are dead worried that their special low rates of VAT will be increased to mainland levels. The good folk of Rhodes and Crete are especially annoyed as they were told pre the most recent General Election by this Tsipras Johnny that no fiddling with the Islanders VAT would take place.
Our political wing has for the last three thousand years advocated making the larger Islands self sufficient – do you think the IMF will consider a loan for this much needed independence? And here’s another suggestion – the EU’s migrant problem could be solved by dumping the poor b….ers on one or more of the many uninhabited Islands and use them as cheap labour to reclaim the land to grow fruit and veg and the profits used to pay back our debt.
Surely, if the Oracle at Delphi gave good advice the Greeks wouldn’t be in the financial mess they undoubtedly are.
A Touch Of The Battersea
The Times has a report today about a web site called sexymp.co.uk, which is searching for the sexiest MP.
I gave it a try and all the MPs I was shown to judge, had rather a touch of The Battersea about them!
Is The BBC Dropping Its Dress Standards?
I clipped this picture of sports reporter, Sally Nugent on BBC Breakfast this morning.
Sally Nugent On BBC Breakfast
I couldn’t quite get a picture that showed the striped shorts fully.
Why not?
After all recently, in an article on a swimming pool, the presenter (male!) was persuaded to strip off and do a report from the water.
Are We Doing Enough To Combat The Real Terrorism Problem?
Over the years, I’ve met people in all walks of life that deal with terrorism and crime in general. So I like to think I have a good insight into it.
The United States will claim it hasn’t had any terrorist attacks since 9/11, but isn’t the dreadful attack on the congregation of the church in Charleston headlined in this BBC article as Charleston church shooting: Nine die in South Carolina ‘hate crime’, nothing more than a similar attack to the one on the innocent sunbathers in Tunisia.
The links between the two crimes are the twisted motivations of the perpetrators and the easy availability of guns, that can fire large numbers of bullets.
One of the reasons, we have not had a deadly gun attack in this country, since the Dunblane and Hungerford massacres, is that it is just too difficult to get a deadly weapon like a Kalashnikov in this country. I don’t think we’ve even had an incident in recent years involving such a gun, where perhaps gangs of drug dealers are settling an argument.
But are we doing enough to keep these deadly weapons out of the UK?
As an engineer with extensive knowledge of modern manufacturing techniques, I believe that it is now possible to create a workable machine gun, that was mainly created on one of the new industrial 3-D printers, with perhaps a few small metal parts smuggled through border controls. I should also say that I know of a manufacturer, who posts and receives specialist stainless steel parts through the post from all over the world.
After all, this report on the BBC describes how nutters in Texas have created a gun that fires using a 3-D printer.
I believe it won’t be long before someone creates a set of plastic parts, which when put around the working parts of an assault rifle create a gun that can be fired by any suicidal terrorist.
There is no defence against such a weapon getting onto the streets through this method.
I’m pretty sure that someone is working on doing it. Probably in the United States, where it seems that owning an assault rifle is something that many want to do. But then adding sense to the gun laws of the United States, is as difficult as making a serious alcoholic or heavy smoker see sense.
A Birthday Card For An Eighty-Year-Old Widow
I sent a card to an eighty-year-old widowed friend in Scotland yesterday.
A Birthday Card For An Eighty-Year-Old Widow
Usually, I buy cards in Oxfam, but they didn’t have anything. In fact the choice was very limited. If you can’t read the badge, this is a close-up.
The Badge In Close-Up
I hope the Royal Mail gets it there in time.
Ocado’s Not Very Green Packaging
When I buy beer from Beers of Europe, it comes in a box holding more than a dozen bottles. Ocado doesn’t use anything as efficient as that.
Four bottles are in a cardboard carrier and that is in a plastic bag. That isn’t very green and must be downright inefficient.
My Crap Steel Kitchen Cabinets
Putting the beer away, told me that I must hurry up with the rebuilding of my kitchen.
I didn’t actually cut myself, but I must have caught myself once for every bottle I put away. And of course, Jerry didn’t put any lights in the cupboard.
My First Ocado Delivery
I finally had an Ocado delivery today.
There are a lot of bags. But then there were a lot of bottles of Celia gluten-free lager and a couple of boxes of Coke.
Hackney’s Domestic Food Waste System
Hackney has a two-bin food waste system that seems to work well.
I have a small bin in the kitchen and a larger one downstairs, which I put out once a week, with the other rubbish.
The larger one bin been designed for carrying, so I bring it upstairs to empty the smaller bin, rather than carry the waste down in its degradable liner.
I’m still using a shop carrier bag in a large IKEA plant pot for waste that can’t be recycled.
Both the liners for the food waste bin and green sacks for dry recycled waste are supplied by the council, by filling in an on-line form. Usually bags are delivered in a couple of days.
The system seems to be having the desired effect, as this page on the council’s web site shows. In 2001, the recycling rate was less than 1%, but now it is over 25%.
The Anonymous Widower 