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January 31, 2004
A Professor writes
From The Spectator
Foot trick
An amusing trick for bored readers: rotate your right foot in a clockwise direction, and then, while rotating, draw the number six in the air with your right hand. You'll find that your foot magically changes direction!
Nigel Jones
Banbury, Oxfordshire
Posted by The Englishman at 2:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 30, 2004
The Malaria Clock
The Greens and Eco-Imperialists are not just a bit annoying with their constant winging but are killing people on an unprecedented scale - one example is highlighted on Junkscience.com - the Main Page It is "The Malaria Clock" which shows an estimate of how many avoidable deaths the ban on DDT has and is causing.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Off to lunch
Unfortunatly it will be a plastic wrapped sandwich from the Petrol station not a Black Bacon™ Butty.
The combination of crisp rashers, tangy cheddar cheese, egg, avocado and mango chutney makes this 'butty' a cut above the rest!
2 thick slices of white bread
2 rashers of O'Doherty's Black Bacon™
60g/2oz Cheddar cheese, crumbled or grated
½ an avocado, thinly sliced
1 egg
1 jar mango chutney
black pepper
a little milk
If you have the deluxe kind of Cheddar that crumbles, crumble it by hand. Otherwise resort to a coarse grater. Fry or grill the rashers of Black Bacon™ until just crisp, keep warm. Toast the bread slices, one side only, pile the cheese on an untoasted side, sprinkle a few drops of milk on top of the cheese and grill until the cheese bubbles.
Meanwhile fry or poach the egg (eggs poach fine, yolk pricked, in a ramekin in a domestic microwave).
Spread a generous layer of mango chutney on the cheese, then the rashers of Black Bacon™, then the avocado, a twist of black pepper and top with the other slice of bread, toasted side up.
(where does the egg go?)
Posted by The Englishman at 1:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Full English
The full English Breakfast is one of our national treasures - sadly it is only in Hotels that most of us ever eat nowadays.
Munching my way through the sausage this morning under the eye of the feckwit Manager of the hotel I was reminded of my Vegetarian friend saying that he enjoyed a Full English with Quorn Sausages, Veggie Bacon etc. I queried whether it could taste as good as proper bacon and eggs.
"Probably not, but then I always have a line of Coke first so I don't really care."
I think I will stick to my rashers....
Posted by The Englishman at 10:31 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
Hutton - a wise old bird?
Here's a suggestion I heard last night.
Hutton is not a government toady as it appears. If he had given Tony a light slapping for being a bit sparing of Actualité then Tony could have said "sorry" and "we can all move on". If he had been harsh with the Government than he would have overstepped his constitutional position by effectively making a Prime Minister resign But because he painted Tony as whiter than white no one believes the report (that I can see) and so without saying a word he has got his message across.
As in the classic "Friends, Romans,. countrymen, lend me your ears;. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him... there are more ways than one to skin a cat.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:08 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Ramada Jarvis - Just say NO.
So the company Do last night was at Hungerford - The Bear Ramada Jarvis. All was going well until I arrived at the front desk. A young oik asked me to sign in, and then demanded my home address - I put c/o The Company - he said we have to have your home address "It's The Law". There was no please or thank you anywhere. I considered going elsewhere but then remembered I was there on business and had to stay. Eventually he said they wouldn't use it for marketing purposes. So I guessed the Hotel's address and put that down. He was happy then. Interestingly several others objected and put down false addresses on their own bat, not because of what I had done.
After dinner I went to my room, and found the "Ramada International Hotels & resorts European Union Data Protection Directive Disclosure" this wasn't anywhere I could see at the front desk, and I had not been offered it - it is not online any where that I can find.
"..Personal information provided by you will be used to provide hotel accommodations and related services request and top facilitate billing and collection.
We may also transfer your personal information to our hotel locations worldwide for direct marketing purposes. Countries outside the EU may not have data protection laws as comprehensive as the EU. If you do not wish to receive future mailings from us, please send an e-mail to ...euoptout@marriott-com or fax.. or letter...
You may also contact us to enquire about your personal information maintained by Marriott by sending an email to euinfoaccess@marriott.com or using the Fax number or address above. A charge of $20 is required for all information access requests."
So I took this down to the feckwit on the front desk and asked him about them sending home addresses abroad for marketing purposes, which he had earlier denied them doing. "We have to ask for your address for "Health and Safety" reasons - in case something happens to you." I pointed out that they were operating an unacceptable opt-out policy with an exorbitant information charge and not correctly informing people of what uses the information would be put to or sent. And that hiding behind the twin gods of "The Law" and "Health and Safety" was a cop out unless he could show me the relevant statutes.
In then got a bit ugly - the night porter was called and tried to "arrest" me and chuck me out. But I went to bed instead and said I would raise this bullshit and blatant Data Protection bollocks in the morning - so I have.
(If anyone knows the actual laws involved I would be grateful for the information.)
From the Information Commissioner's website:
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=302
There are eight principles put in place by the Data Protection Act 1998 to make sure that your information is handled properly.
They say that data must be:
fairly and lawfully processed;
processed for limited purposes;
adequate, relevant and not excessive;
accurate;
not kept for longer than is necessary;
processed in line with your rights;
secure; and,
not transferred to countries without adequate protection.
By law data controllers have to keep to these principles.
Go to
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=1038&expmovie=1 for an expanded list - as far as I can see Ramada fails several of them....
As well as by asking for $20...
"individuals have the right to request information on all data held in relation to them. Fo rthis the company holding the datais entitled to charge a maximum fee of £10. The company holding data has to reply within 40 days ofthe payment of the fee, sending a copy of the information, description of the purposes for which the information is processed, any person who has received or handled the data and the logic behind any automated decisions"
Posted by The Englishman at 9:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 29, 2004
Cold Weather Driving advice
Always carry a length of rope and a shovel - so if you come across any of the council feckwits, who spend our money on diversity taskforces, gender workshops etc. instead of on looking after the highways and letting people get to work, you can hit them over the head with the shovel and hang them from the nearest lamp post.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thar she blows!
From www.smh.com.au
A dead, 50-tonne sperm whale has exploded in a busy street in Taiwan, showering passers-by in blubber, blood and innards.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 28, 2004
More
I should have mentioned that the chaos entry and this one are being written on my phone in my car. So far 200 yds in 40 mins - oly another 29 miles 1560yd to go, and weather warnings for around the Castle :(
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
CHAOS
Posted by The Englishman at 6:12 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Thunder snow
Outside the window it has just dumped half an inch of snow with thunder and lightning - I have never seen the combination before.
So I looked it up to see how rare it was:
Answer to "thunder and snow" question
Thunderstorms usually require warm, humid air near the ground (where we hang out) to form. Warm air rises, cools, the moisture in the air condenses, and this can lead to the development of thunderstorms.
Obviously in a winter storm / blizzard that is not the case.
However, the air near the ground can be "relatively" warm compared to the air at high altitudes. In this case, thunderstorms (usually relatively weak and short-lived) can develop. And, under some circumstances, many such storms can develop.
"For a more detailed answer, see The New York Times Learning Network's Thunder Snow. For a more technical explanation, see the NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory's paper titled, Thunderstorms observed at surface temperatures below freezing across North America."
Posted by The Englishman at 5:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Let it snow..
My PR expert told me a day or so ago his analysis of this week's events.
"It is a classic PR ploy by the Government, put it about that Tony is having a hard time and that everyone is out to get him. Build the tension up, "will he survive? Is this end for him?" Of course it is as real as a David Blaine stunt, they know the answers all along. A quick drumroll and then with one bound he is free from the top-up fee vote. And another twirl of the cape and the Hutton Inquiry will basically clear him, and suddenly he is like a returning hero from "I'm a Celebrity get me out of here", with a career revived. If it hadn't been a "struggle" no one would have cared and his downward spiral would have continued. But now he is the hero of the hour, and his enemies are having to defend their accusations.. "
The final PR expert tip - if it snows this week- everyone will have a feel good factor with kiddies playing in the park and Tony will be right back on top.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 27, 2004
Animal Rights terrorists win.
The BBC reports that:
Plans to build a controversial centre for experiments on monkeys have been shelved by Cambridge University.
It has decided the costs, including measures needed to protect the facility from animal rights militants, would make the laboratory uneconomic.
I don't blame the University, as it was increasingly obvious that the extremists were all out to prevent it. And it is not often I have a good word to say about Tony Blair, but he did stick up for this against the screeching hordes. But make no mistake, this is the terrorists winning.
No one lightly goes into experimenting on Primates or any other animal. Terrible things have been done to animals in the name of science, and experiments on living creatures are never pretty.
But remember that you and I are probably only alive because of such research - and don't anyone dare say "we have done enough research" in my hearing. My dear old mother went as daft as a brush in her final years - brain disease robbed her and the family of some happy years. And carelessly two of my children have suffered serious brain injuries - sat beside an intensive care bed hoping your child will live, I'm sorry to say I would sacrifice whole troops of monkeys to help make them better.
(One made a full recovery, the other has a few problems but we believe she will be fine as she grows up.)
Posted by The Englishman at 10:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 26, 2004
Life on Mars
With his talk of "Life on Mars" Mr Free Market has set me singing all day..
From the wonderful Undertones.
Oh yes and she is wrapped in Bacon.....
Posted by The Englishman at 4:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January IEA bulletin
Monthly sense from the Daddy of the Think Tanks
Posted by The Englishman at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2004
Infanticide
Let me bring you this from the Sunday Times
John Harris, a member of the Human Genetics Commission, told a parliamentary meeting last week that he did not see any moral difference in aborting a fully grown unborn baby at 40 weeks and committing infanticide.
..yesterday he was reported to have said that he did not think infanticide was always unjustifiable. He did not believe there was any “moral change” that occurred during the journey down the birth canal.
Harris, who also advises Britain’s doctors as a member of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee, is said to have argued that there was no moral difference between terminating a foetus found by tests to have defects and one where the parents only discovered the abnormalities at birth.
Michael Wilkes, chairman of the BMA ethics committee, said Harris was simply trying to encourage logical and consistent argument. “There are many who might concur that there is no difference between a full-term foetus and a newborn baby, although the majority would see there is a substantial difference. Abortion is legal but termination after birth is killing.”
Interesting he is reported as presenting the argument that infanticide is OK because abortion is. I read his words the other way round - if it is wrong to kill children because they are "disabled" than I don't see the difference between that and a late term abortion for the same reasons, as he says, " He did not believe there was any “moral change” that occurred during the journey down the birth canal."
Posted by The Englishman at 3:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Dish of the Day
Saturday was a little blurry so with friends coming to lunch on Sunday I fell back on this favourite recipe.
A frozen Shoulder of Lamb.
Couple of carrots, an onion , garlic, rosemary salt and pepper.
Put all into a large roasting pan with half a pint of water, cover in foil and put into the simmering oven of the Aga at about eight o'clock Saturday night.
Today get some leeks, Hoi-sin sauce and tortillas.
Get the lamb out about midday, put into a roasting dish and crisp up in the hot oven. Shred the leeks and cook in the fat when the lamb is roasted, (about twenty minutes)
Shred the lamb - juicy beyond belief - and eat like Chinese duck rolled in tortillas with leeks and sauce.
The best way to enjoy lamb, ever - unless you are Welsh.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"Free the Castle One"
Oh Dear. "Confined to Barracks" for the next two Friday nights. Branded irresponsible and outrageous by the teenagers we woke up when we popped into a friends house for a "quick one for the road" on the way home from the pub - at least I left before 3 am, unlike some others!. So Mrs Englishman is going out for the next two Fridays leaving me babysitting. Red Cross parcels will be welcomed!
Posted by The Englishman at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2004
Lardy yum
Feet up! points me to Ben who points me to " meal consisting of hot toast, topped with chunks of softly melting spicy pig fat, which has been previously aged for six months in marble vats. Lardo di Colonnata. Food of the Man Gods, in my tummy right now."
I want some - now!
Posted by The Englishman at 5:14 PM
January 23, 2004
Your thoughts tonight please.
(click to enlarge)
Light blogging today because I've been down the barn doing a bit of woodwork. George - pictured above - was there to help as usual. He got a bit bored as there are no rats this year but I couldn't understand why he was really upset and looking for a cuddle at the end of the afternoon - until I went to roll up the electrical extension lead. The sockets were covered in dog pee, I bet that tingled a bit!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Bringing home the bacon
Looks easy - just got find a pigs belly now!
Posted by The Englishman at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Practise makes perfect.
Mr Free Democrat almost feels sorry for Jenny Tonge because of all the nasty things that the blogosphere will say about this Lib Dem halfwit who thinks she might want to be a suicide bomber if she lived in Palestine.
We have 60,000 acres of Salisbury Plain training ground down here - I suggests she practices on her own out in the middle of it!
Posted by The Englishman at 10:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 22, 2004
Results from the Googlefight
Google Search: miserable failure
1 Bush
2 Jimmy Carter
3 Michael Moore
4 Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: Online Office Welcome Page
Hey looks like a pretty good fight back against the lefty Googlebomb! - You may remember my original call and others launched their campaigns against Jimmy Carter before that.
What I haven't worked out is how Mike Moore got there - was there another campaign?
Posted by The Englishman at 9:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
King Billy's answers
I put the famous King Billy Quiz up here as anentry before Xmas:
I now have the answers...
The Answers
1 1 – Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst
1 2 – 20 mph
1 3 – Apolinario Mabini (Philippino politician)
1 4 – E D Morel’s (The West African Mail)
1 5 – Lord Macaulay’s
1 6 – W and G Foyle’s
1 7 – Major General Sir Hector Macdonald
1 8 – Paul Gauguin
1 9 – Tour de France
1 10 – Pope Pius X
2 1 – Patrick Steptoe (test tube babies)
2 2 – Gregory Pincus (the birth pill)
2 3 – Christiaan Barnard
2 4 – Humphry Davy
2 5 – Louis Braille
2 6 – Luc Montagnier (HIV)
2 7 – Antonio Egaz Moniz (pre-frontal leucotomy)
2 8 – René Laënnec
2 9 – Selman Waksman (Streptomycin)
2 10 – Gregor Mendel
3 1 – Vincent van Gogh
3 2 – Maurice Utrillo
3 3 – John Constable (Salisbury)
3 4 – Camille Pissarro (Dieppe)
3 5 – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (Mantes-la-Jolie)
3 6 – Claude Monet (Rouen)
3 7 – Canaletto (Westminster Abbey)
3 8 – Pieter Jansz. Saenredam
3 9 – Carl Larsson
3 10 – Marcel Duchamp
4 1 – King Oliver
4 2 – Scott Joplin
4 3 – Duke Ellington
4 4 – Hoagy Carmichael
4 5 – P Babarin
4 6 – Spencer Williams
4 7 – Count Basie
4 8 – Kid Ory
4 9 – Jelly Roll Morton
4 10 – W C Handy
5 1 – sweetbreads
5 2 – Bombay duck
5 3 – lemon cheese
5 4 – Scotch woodcock
5 5 – Welsh rabbit
5 6 – mince pies
5 7 – toad in the hole
5 8 – Cullen skink
5 9 – hotdog
5 10 – devils on horseback
6 1 – pi
6 2 – kappa
6 3 – mu
6 4 – Omega (watch)
6 5 – gamma globulin
6 6 – alpha rhythm
6 7 – lambda
6 8 – beta (drug development)
6 9 – Delta (south-west Holland)
6 10 – iota
7 1 – Arnhem
7 2 – Rotterdam (Erasmusbrug 1996)
7 3 – The Hague (suburb Scheveningen)
7 4 – Amsterdam (Van der Valk)
7 5 – Delft (Assassination of William the Silent)
7 6 – Eindhoven (Philips)
7 7 – Utrecht (1713)
7 8 – ‘sHertogenbosch (Hieronymus Bosch)
7 9 – Leeuwarden (long-distance skating race)
7 10 – Flushing / Vlissingen (Arthur Ransome – We Didn’t Mean to Go to
Sea)
8 1 – Crazy Horse (Ogala Sioux chief)
8 2 – 8 horsepower
8 3 – Dala / Dalarna horse (Swedish souvenir)
8 4 – Horseshoe Farm, Finchley
8 5 – Horse’s Neck
8 6 – The Wooden Horse
8 7 – Whitehorse (Yukon Territory, Canada)
8 8 – the horseleach (Proverbs 30.15)
8 9 – Horsehead
8 10 – a Stalking Horse (challenged Margaret Thatcher’s leadership of the
Conservative Party in 1989)
9 1 – Barcelona
9 2 – Bordeaux
9 3 – Seville
9 4 – Venice
9 5 – Como
9 6 – Lisbon
9 7 – Marseille
9 8 – Gent
9 9 – Angers
9 10 – Porto
10 1 – Yew (Nevern, Pembrokeshire – weeps a thick blood-like sap)
10 2 – Douglas Fir (Dunkeld – highest tree in Britain)
10 3 – Birch
10 4 – Willows
10 5 – Gastonbury Thorn / Hawthorn (Arimathea legend)
10 6 – The Walnut Tree (Inn at Aldington)
10 7 – Oak (Charles II)
10 8 – Monkey Puzzle / Chile Pine
10 9 – Lime tree (Kent CCC, Canterbury)
10 10 – Chestnut tree (Longfellow – The Village Blacksmith)
11 1 – Black Sea
11 2 – Black Prince
11 3 – Penny black
11 4 – black spot (Stevenson – Treasure Island)
11 5 – Mr Blackboy (Dickens – David Copperfield)
11 6 – Black Paquito (Shaw – Captain Brassbound’s Conversion)
11 7 – Black Hastings (war horse of Sir Geoffrey Peveril – Scott – Peveril
of the Peak)
11 8 – blackhead
11 9 – Black Annis
11 10 – Black Mamba
12 1 – The Lord of the Rings (J R R Tolkien)
12 2 – The Old Bachelor (William Congreve)
12 3 – The Master of Ballantrae (R L Stevenson)
12 4 – The Deemster (Hall Caine)
12 5 – The Man with the Golden Gun (Ian Fleming)
12 6 – The Faithful Ally (Eric Linklater)
12 7 – The Black Dwarf (Sir Walter Scott)
12 8 – The Spy (James Fennimore Cooper)
12 9 – The Spy who came in from the Cold (John le Carre)
12 10 – The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)
13 1 – Matthew
13 2 – Andrew
13 3 – James (The Great) (Coquille St Jacques)
13 4 – Bartholomew
13 5 – Peter
13 6 – Judas Iscariot
13 7 – John
13 8 – Jude
13 9 – Thomas
13 10 – Matthias
14 1 – Rook (frugilegus)
14 2 – Dunnock / Hedge Sparrow (prunella)
14 3 – Cattle Egret (bubulcus)
14 4 – Puffin (fratercula)
14 5 – Moorhen (gallinula chloropus)
14 6 – Wigeon (penelope)
14 7 – Little Grebe (tachybaptus)
14 8 – Eider (somateria mollissima)
14 9 – Nightjar (Caprimulgus)
14 10 – Great Grey Shrike(excubitor)
15 1 – Jane (Rapturous Maidens – Patience – W S Gilbert)
15 2 – women (relating to Kent – Pickwick Papers –Charles Dickens)
15 3 – Cagliari (provinces of Sardinia)
15 4 – Götterdämmerung (The Ring Cycle –Wagner)
15 5 – Oona O’Neill (Charlie Chaplin’s wives)
15 6 – Peter Schidlof (The Amadeus Quartet)
15 7 – The Dry Salvages (The Four Quartets – T S Eliot)
15 8 – Fitzurse (murderers of Thomas a’Becket)
15 9 – Mount Olive ( The Alexander Quartet – Lawrence Durrell)
15 10 – roast beef (little pigs)
16 1 – Powerscourt (Co Wicklow)
16 2 – Caldron Snout (River Tees)
16 3 – Mynach Falls (Devil’s Bridge – Dyfyd)
16 4 – Plodda Falls (Glen Affric)
16 5 – Pistyll Rhaeadr (Powys)
16 6 – Glenmaye (Manx fairytale)
16 7 – Lodore Falls (Cumbria – Southey – Rhymes for the Nursery)
16 8 – Falls of Clyde (New Lanark – painting in Scottish National Gallery)
16 9 – Aira Force (Cumbria – Wordsworth – The Somnambulist)
16 10 – Grey Mare’s Tail (Dumfries and Galloway)
17 1 – founder of IKEA
17 2 – Svante Arrhenius
17 3 – Jakob Johan Anckarström (King Gustav III’s assassin)
17 4 – Dag Hammarskjöld
17 5 – Alfred Nobel
17 6 – Ingemar Johansson (World Heavyweight Boxing Champion)
17 7 – King Karl X Gustav
17 8 – Queen Kristina
17 9 – Selma Lagerlöf
17 10 – Carl von Linné / Linnaeus
18 1 – Sir Ranulph Fiennes
18 2 – David Beckham (boot kicked by Ferguson)
18 3 – flight across English Channel without power
18 4 – Andrew Hall (four Test innings for South Africa)
18 5 – Silvio Berlusconi
18 6 – Robert Coleman Atkins
18 7 – Aaron Barschak (gatecrashing Prince William’s 21st birthday party)
18 8 – Bob Hope (own one-liner)
18 9 – Peterborough (changed to London Spy – Daily Telegraph)
18 10 – Referendum on European Monetary Union
Posted by The Englishman at 9:20 PM
Nice Hands
I'm always a little worried when I see the BBC use stock footage of handguns as many years ago I was filmed by them blasting away on a French range as part of a documentary on the then recent ban on handguns in the UK. So I'm glad to see the BBC's picture has feminine hands cradling the gun. My worry? - you lot would spot my useless technique!
(I always wished the BBC had broadcast the delightful French schoolgirl asking me "'ow bigge is your weapon?" There was no answer to that.)
Posted by The Englishman at 4:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Wiltshire Farming News
We took note of the Canadian's attempt to grow legal Cannabis ($7.5m to set up a dope farm, no hassle from the cops and they still can't grow a decent smoke - that's the government for you ) and now I notice that the UK government has awarded a local firm a licence to grow it at "Secret Locations" - and ship a derivative to Canada.
I'm sure us Wiltshire boys will deliver the goods, but as to keeping the locations secret, I'll ask round the back room of the Pub to see what news!
I was led to this story by Tory Leader M. Howard being widely reported as saying the Tories will reimpose the very naughty category instead of the slightly naughty category for the drug - in fact he said " It seems to me that there is absolutely no case for what is a massive muddle in the middle." and then went on to say it should either be legalised or the relaxation of the law should be reversed - but the second part of the quote has now disappeared from the BBC site so I can't give it to you word for word. It encapsulates the perennial Tory problem of trying to appeal to the Law & Order brigade as well as the Libertarians.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Bastards
I look forward to going into the Greengrocer's and asking for for Arlingham Schoolboys or maybe some Hen's Turds apples or Shit Smock plums but unfortunately the Bloody Bastard pear probably no longer exists.
I am a great fan of using the word Bastard in its true sense of "half" as often as I can. I well remember an old slater calling down for a "Bastard Duchess" shocking the passerbys (see extended entry for Slate sizes and names). And when we were building an extension, the architect had designed a "Mezzanine" level, but the builder insisted on calling it the Bastard level. Still amuses me every time I see the sign at the council offices - "the Chief Executive's office is on the Mezzanine level".
Slate Sizes:
Wide Duchess
24 x 14
61.0 x 35.6 10.54
Duchess
24 x 12
61.0 x 30.5 12.31
Small Duchess
22 x 12
55.9 x 30.5 13.61
Marchioness
22 x 11
55.9 x 27.9 14.91
Wide Countess
20 x 12
50.8 x 30.5 15.21
Countess
20 x 10
50.8 x 25.4 18.24
18 x 12
45.7 x 30.5 17.22
Wide Viscountess
18 x 10
45.7 x 25.4 20.67
Viscountess
18 x 9
45.7 x 22.9 23.13
16 x 12
40.6 x 30.5 19.87
Wide Lady
16 x 10
40.6 x 25.4 23.85
Broad Lady
16 x 9
40.6 x 22.9 26.72
Lady
16 x 8
40.6 x 20.3 29.81
14 x 12
35.6 x 30.5 23.48
Header
14 x 10
35.6 x 25.4 28.18
Small Lady
14 x 8
35.6 x 20.3 35.23
Narrow Lady
14 x 7
35.6 x 17.8 40.79
Small Header
Posted by The Englishman at 2:27 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
January 21, 2004
Freedom Index
Thanks to Dr Eamonn Butler, Director
Adam Smith Institute for this link from his newsletter:
The Heritage / Wall Street Journal 2004 Index of Economic Freedom makes
interesting reading. It's a country-by-country measure of economic freedom
and shows that the most free countries are also the most prosperous. The top scorers -- in terms of free trade, low burden of government, a liberalized financial sector, property rights, and low regulation -- also enjoy higher living standards.
| The Most Free | The Least Free | |
| Hong Kong (1st) | Tajikistan (146th) | |
| Singapore (2nd) | Venezuela (147th) | |
| New Zealand (3rd) | Iran (148th) | |
| Luxembourg (4th) | Uzbekistan (149th) | |
| Ireland (5th) | Turkmenistan (150th) | |
| Estonia (6th) | Burma (151st) | |
| United Kingdom (7th) | Laos (151st) | |
| Denmark (8th) | Zimbabwe (153rd) | |
| Switzerland (9th) | Libya (154th) | |
| United States (10th) | North Korea (155th) |
Posted by The Englishman at 4:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Help they need somebody
It is a touching story of lovers torn apart by circumstance. 
They are keeping a stiff upper lip and everything but there will be a happy ending.
You can help Lionel get to Shell by buying his stuff on eBay.
I'm bidding away on the stuff, but there is plenty more coming for everyone.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Help I need somebody
I have been tasked to produce the pub quiz for the company "kick off" meeting next week, and my imagination is running low. Please if you can think of any quiz questions send me an email or better still leave them as comments below.
Here's some links to last year's questions - please make use of these questions as you please.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Parrot porky pies?
My story about Churchill's parrot may not be true after all.
The BBC is casting doubt on it:
Experts have dismissed the claim that a 104-year-old foul-mouthed parrot once belonged to the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Staff at the National Trust's Chartwell property, Churchill's former country home in Kent, said they had conducted a thorough search of records and photographs but could find no evidence of him ever owning a parrot.
Judith Seaward, marketing manager at Chartwell, said: "We really looked and looked and know he had a budgerigar and all sorts of other animals.
"He loved animals, he had dogs, cats, pigs - but there's no record of a parrot.
Staff at the nurseries were standing by the bird on Tuesday and defending his claim to fame.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Be careful out there!
Farmers warn of wild boar dangers
"They are impressively large creatures, very fast and aggressive. In my opinion they are dangerous things."
I wonder if they can be trained to chase ramblers in their ridiculous coloured cagoules, and look for food under caravans. What a boon to the countryside they will become!
Posted by The Englishman at 11:56 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
A failure of common sense.
Settle down class!
Meadow, what is the odds of rolling a six on a die?
1/6
Right, what are the odds of rolling double six?
1/6 times 1/6 so 1/36 sir.
Correct.
Now I have rolled a six with this die, what are the odds of rolling a six again.
1/36
Meadow - you are a miserable worm - Tompkins, what is the answer?
1/6 again, sir, they are two unconnected events. Actually sir it might be a bit less as the die might have a propensity to roll sixes!
To accuse a mother of murdering or deliberately harming her children is about the most heinous accusation you can make. Over the last few days we have discovered that not just one or two women but hundreds of women have been accused, found guilty, and jailed or had their children taken away from them for such crimes and the miserable worm Prof Meadow has been using very strange arguments as a professional witness in such cases.
Meadow, what is the odds of Sudden Infant Death occurring?
1/8500
Now one child has died of SID what are the chances of a second child in the family dying of SID.
1/8500 times 1/8500 so 1/73 million sir
Meadow - you are a miserable worm. Can a real expert give us the answer?
1/8500 again, sir, they are two unconnected events. Actually sir it might be quite bit less as SID is thought to be influenced by environmental and genetic factors and so after one death the same factors apply to other children and makes them at high risk. In fact the figures from the Care of Next Infant charity (CONI) show after one cot death the risk of a second actually increases to one in 200.
But Meadow still is fixated on mothers commonly hurting and killing their children. His inability to understand basic statistics is enough for me to distrust him completely. My gut instinct tells me he is wrong in many other particulars. And his ignorance has had devastating effects.
Read this and get very upset!
And a final quote from another case: "We had not been interviewed by him. We did not even know who he was"
Mother whose daughter was taken into care after evidence by Sir Roy Meadow
Posted by The Englishman at 10:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
University fees
I have been thinking for a while I ought to put in an essay about University fees - obviously they make sense, it is bizarre that Blair is having to twist arms , and all the left wing cant reminds of why I hated students so much during my sojourn in the Ivory Towers of Oxford. But as any good student knows why bother writing it yourself when a little research shows you someone has already done it, so off you go to this fascinating blogger - new to me at v2 : psychobabble.
(I might as well make the point here that as Alice
said when kindly blogrolling me waving the English Flag and shouting out "I'm an Englishman" can give the impression of being a racist bigot (actually the racists tend to use the Union Flag). So let me make clear that I feel we are blessed that Suruj and the like have moved to England. And I think any antipathy against immigrants that "natives" feel is directed at the lifestyle that that some adopt, or are percieved to adopt. The feeling is that we have enough feckless scroungers already. But I always think if someone has got off their arse to travel across continents to live in a foreign land they are more likely to be someone who wants to get on with life, work hard, provide
for their family etc. In fact exactly the sort of people who always have come to England to make England great.)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 20, 2004
What a game old bird!
Samizdata brings this Daily Mirror story to my attention:
SHE WAS at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old...and still cursing the Nazis.
Her favourite sayings were "F*** Hitler" and "F*** the Nazis". And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable Churchillian inflection.
Churchill bought Charlie - giving him a boy's name despite the fact she was female - in 1937.
She took pride of place in a bizarre menagerie of pets including lambs, pigs, cattle, swans and, at one point, a leopard.
He immediately began to teach her to swear - particularly in company - and she is keeping up the tradition today.
James Humes, an expert on the late PM, said: "Churchill may no longer be with us but that spirit and those words of defiance and resolve continue."
Posted by The Englishman at 3:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
He's back - all guns firing
Thank goodness old JohnJo is safe and back in the fold - the day after I posted my concerns he reappears. He is particularly good on the Express calling for all guns to be banned - I suggest Mr Free Market takes his tablets and sits down before reading it!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Earliest UK concrete houses?
Reading the local Parish magazine there is an excellent article by the local historian Rick Ozzard about houses made of concrete.
There doesn't sound much to interest one in the subject until one starts to consider where are the earliest ones. The little village of All Cannings in Wiltshire is in a very rural farming community with Black and White thatched cottages etc. It is probably the last place you would expect to have been the site of an amazing Victorian experiment in the use of Concrete.
In 1868 the Lord Ashburton and his tenant farmer Simon Hiscock decided to each build a pair of semidetached workers cottages. They had two plots adjacent of the same size. The tenant built his pair of brick, his Lordship of concrete - the only major difference is that in the absence of internal shuttering the concrete chimneys are straight rather than bent to combine into a single chimney stack. Both pairs of cottages still stand largely unaltered.
We can only surmise this was a trial into the efficacy of using shuttered reinforced concrete as a building method. It obviously was successful as two more pairs were then built, followed by a more elaborate villa style pair of cottages and finally a large Farmhouse.
This amazing experiment is unknown and unacknowledged outside the area. While these houses may not be the very first concrete houses built, they were built within a couple of years of the first one - the time-line is not clear and are certainly the biggest example of a group of dwellings built then. They are worthy of note!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 19, 2004
Contempt for the people.
Scotsman.com News - Education - Scottish MPs to swing tuition fees vote for Blair
SCOTTISH MPs could come to Tony Blair’s rescue after a survey revealed most are planning to vote on English university tuition fees.
Of the 57 Scottish MPs who responded to a survey for BBC Scotland’s Sunday Live show, 44 MPs indicated they would definitely vote on the issue - despite the fact the proposed top-up fees will only directly affect students in England and Wales.
This is simple contempt for democracy - the whole botched devolution process led to the as ever unanswered West Lothian Question of which this is the latest example.
(Tam Dalyell was the author of the celebrated West Lothian Question, he effectively raised the issue of why Scottish MPs at Westminster can vote on English domestic issues, such as education, whereas English MPs cannot vote on education in Scotland. )
It shows the utter contempt our leaders have for England (and Wales).
Posted by The Englishman at 5:36 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Why I didn't vote!
The Truth Laid Bear: The New Weblog Showcase is an excellent scheme which I have always supported both for itself and to support The Alliance.
But this week all the entries seemed too weak to support.
Blog 1: "While I opposed the war, such a stance seems beyond counterproductive – more masochistic than anything else."
Sounds like someone has swallowed a dictionary and trying to justify a wishy wash outlook.
Blog 2: Couldn't find the featured post.
Blog 3: "As much as the internet is a product of modernity and globalization itself, it presents us with an alternative solution to the ever-narrowing "thinking" space that MNCs leave us."
Bollocks.
Blog 4: "Aside from the obvious Freudian readings, the commercials feature toxic attidues not only towards women (retro 50s values, etc) but to all aspects of our mental and environmental health. "
More Bollocks
Blog 5: "When it flies, it's bigger, but when it's on the ground, it's manageable. I think, anyway. Mark: I dunno, man. It was a raven in the air and a crow on the ground? Ravens are different from crows. Ivy: Yeh, but both are black birds. "
I'll have some of what they are smoking!
Mr Bear, I want an abstain choice!
The choices are below.
From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:
American Amnesia: Insurgency in Iraq - an assessment.
c h a n d r a s u t r a: You're Soaking in it
The Temporal Globe: Cowcatchers Anonymous; Interview with a Terrorist.
Ivy is here: Crows and ravens was yesterday's theme.
New World Blogger: Blogging: media responsibility
Posted by The Englishman at 5:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Three-Dimensional Reading
As I stood alongside Mr Free Market chewing the fat on Sunday morning with the lead flying through the air and him trying to get his new toy to work, I fell to pondering on diffferent blog styles. Mr FM is the master of the reasoned essay, and despite Mr Plastic Gangster's kind words I never claim to write anything "thoughtful, measured and well reasoned". I write short, sharpish comments which are always linked to the original material and also provide odd alleyways for the interested to meander off into.
My style is based on several factors; lazyness, temper, available time etc. but also on my liking of what I thought I might call "Three-Dimensional Reading". I like my reading to have hyperlinks, so I can see sources, the full context, other takes on the material, related stuff etc.
I have mentioned before I'm reading Quicksilver, which is written by Neal_Stephenson who understands the net better than most. And I admit that the flat pages of the novel annoy me as I want to dig further. And in the same vein when I checked my newly minted phrase I found someone had both beaten me to it and written better about than I ever could:
The Perils of Three-Dimensional Reading
Posted by The Englishman at 1:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Songbird swansong?
Please compare and contrast the latest report on declining bird numbers from the RSPB BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Farming 'killing Europe's birds' calling for more money and interference from the EU with this site which seems to be more connected with the real world: SongBird Survival.
"SongBird Survival believes that there must be sensitive control of selective predator populations to aid the recovery of songbirds while habitat improvements are taking place.
The RSPB has been singularly successful in attracting over one million members. However, it cannot claim that its actions have in any way proved effective in preventing the decline in the songbird populations. It has been successful in re-introducing some raptor species, but certainly does not find it convenient to tell its members that these predatory birds will add to the killing of literally millions of songbirds every year."
(But then as a subsidy junkie farmer I can't complain with my "arable reversion" payment, and my "retention of overwintered stubbles followed by a spring and summer fallow" payment and my "creation and management of a conservation headland without any fertiliser application" payment and my "establishment and maintenance of wildlife seed mixtures providing a food source and cover for a range of wild birds, mammals and invertebrates" payment.)
Posted by The Englishman at 12:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
North view
From EURSOC
"Fascinating article by Richard North in the International Herald Tribune. North claims that a combination of single currency instability, constitutional wrangling and eastwards expansion will shortly spell the end of the European Union."
The question is how it disintegrates, gently or does it go with a bang?
Posted by The Englishman at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Not so Silly Jacques
EUobserver reports: "In an interview with the Times, the former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, has said that the EU is now in "a state of latent crisis" due to weak leadership. He also says he understands why the UK has not joined the euro."
- First time I have ever heard him speak sense.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
16th January 1809
The Battle of La Coruna in The Peninsular war is a classic battle that, like Dunkirk, Britain lost but it enabled a successful troop embarkation. And somehow it is remembered as a victory and as a battle honour.
The General leading the British Troops died from his wounds and was buried at the scene. His burial is remembered in one of the best war poems ever written:
The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna
Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.
No useless coffin enclosed his breast,
Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest
With his martial cloak around him.
Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!
Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him,--
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring:
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.
Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But left him alone with his glory.
-- Charles Wolfe
Posted by The Englishman at 11:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack