Seen in the News

[Marilyn]

My first marriage was to a person of fourth generation, who had settled in Australia, from both UK and Prussia. My son, when born, then became the first of a 5th generation born in Australia. They hated that his mother ( me!) was born of English birth. They were all “free settlers” ( not convicts or poor people). They all paid for passages out here between 1840 -1860s. Apparently, I was such a big disappointment, having come on a £10 voyage and eventually being raised in welfare.
I never felt inferior, just put up with the comments they made.
That is life! My son has wonderful and Interesting Ancestors. ( stop being so precious, Meghan).
My husband’s family were “ so far up themselves”, I often silently thought they could clean their teeth by putting a toothbrush up their b&@#s.!

[Marilyn]

My second Mother-in-law, was a wonderful, warm, welcoming woman...born within the ring of “Bo-Bells”. She was amazing.

[Gloria]

That was an awful tale Marilyn, but you rose above it.

[plaques]

Down came the squatter mounted on his thorough-bred No class system in Aussie ??

[Marilyn]

“Mrs Bouquet “ or “Mrs Bucket” paled in significance to my first mother-in-law!

[Marilyn]

I doubt that my first set of parents-in-law had ever seen each other naked during their entire marriage...

[Tizer]

This beats being sent a dud on Amazon...
`Trader gets painted stones instead of $36m of copper' LINK

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that 'human remains have been found in Kent woodland'.
First Piers Morgan (LINK) and now the chief of the society of editors, Ian Murray have gone in the wake of criticism over the Sussex affair. (LINK)

[Marilyn]

One thing I would like to ask for random consensus....is making any comment about someone’s race/ skin colour any more evil than making comment about a person’ weight, sexuality, hair colour or body shape?
My husband had flame red hair when young. The comments that he and his first wife got about the potential colour of their three unborn children’s hair were daily talk.
Some things cannot be changed.
( I love Red Hair!) luckily...

[Marilyn]

I used to have a foster child who had an extra toe on each foot. Terribly cute, and I used to kiss them every day and tell her she was special...she was a toddler of course...

[Cathy]

Luckily for you Marilyn, I’ve never fancied a redhead, but at the same time I’ve never fancied a blonde either.
Oh wait, there was Rod Stewart, but it’s way too late now. His loss

[Marilyn]

Well...others of us don’t like hairy folk or short people or...goodness knows what. For some people it’s religion or or even their employment that are objected too. But suddenly “racism” rears its ugly head?
Besides Cazza...my man is a true Silver Fox now. I never knew how much I was attracted to silver until he turned hair colour. More Dick Van Dyke nowadays!
He was a lookalike for Steve McQueen when I first met him

[Tizer]

All the fuss about race/racism/racists is strange when you think about it. There's only one race here on planet Earth, the human race. What we really experience is tribalism and fear of outsiders, a natural protective instinct but one that is hijacked by those selfish types who seek power over others. It probably won't disappear completely until the day comes when we have to gang together globally to fight the onslaught of some alien thing from outside our solar system.

[Cathy]

A bit closer to home, I think Covid-19 has made us realise that there is only one race here on planet Earth, and without action we could have been wiped out.
I think it did for quite a while anyway.
Now that things are easing, ego’s are raising their ugly heads again.

[Stanley]

Quite possibly true Cathy. I just keep thinking about this young man.....



Who cares about colour.....

[Cathy]

Yes Stanley I can see why.
Is he always such a happy little Chappy?

[Stanley]

From reports received yes. He did have a blue patch while he was teething.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report. We now know it is Sarah Everard and who is charged with her murder.
What surprises me is that the alleged killer only joined the Met in 2018 and yet was on the elite squad of close protection officers. More to this story than meets the eye at the moment I think.
Sarah's family knows the worst and I heard a commentator refer to this as 'closure'. Nonsense! It's nothing of the sort. I wish more thought was given to the family's feelings.

[Tizer]

The video showing the `X-ray vision' is great!
`Scientists unlock mysteries of world's oldest 'computer'' LINK

[PanBiker]

Few members are surviving now but the teams at Bletchley who back engineered the Lorenz Typex machine during WWII would have given it a good stab. They managed to work out the mechanism of the 12 rotor cypher machine without ever seeing an actual example. Back engineered from the received signal traffic that was totally different to that produced by the Enigma system. They developed the Tunny machine to cater for and decipher the traffic and only actually saw an example of the hardware after examples were captured after the war had ended. We are good at that sort of stuff when needs must.

Lorenz Cypher

[Stanley]

Funny stuff this replication of The Antikythera Mechanism. I thought my friend Michael Wright who was Keeper of Steam at the Science Museum built a replica about 12 years ago. Perhaps I was dreaming.....
Have a look at THIS Wiki article on his work.
I see the Met is getting it in the neck for applying Coronavirus rules to the 'vigil' on Clapham Common. What were they supposed to do? Freedom of the Streets does not mean freedom to catch Covid19!

[Tizer]

It's strange to watch someone scooping up bees in their bare hands!
`Texas beekeeper viral videos saving bee hives' LINK

[Cathy]

Bees are fascinating, I like watching them drink water from the birds water bowls in summer.
I hope that video doesn’t encourage kids to try something similar.
Sadly I have a flowering tree that is too close to my front porch, and is visited by bees for many weeks in summer, which means I have to dodge them to get in and out of my front door, it will have to be cut right back this winter.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC account of a report from the Public Accounts Committee noting that the 37, 000 people taken into shelter under the 'Everyone In' initiative triggered by Covid is nearly nine times official estimates of rough sleepers, showing a "much larger" issue than the government had "acknowledged".
Rough sleepers have always been under counted and the problems badly served. Include the present growing crisis in families needing emergency shelter.

[Tizer]

Looks like life is going to get exciting in Iceland...
`Iceland shaken by more than 50,000 earthquakes in three weeks' LINK