Interesting Maps

This map shows all the countries of the world with the distortion (due to the Earth being a sphere) removed, i.e. their areas can be directly compared. Makes Russia look a lot smaller and Africa a whole lot bigger than the normal projection does.

 

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out how well educated apologists of different religions often reason about their beliefs.

 

Journalism?

I thought journalism was supposed to be about reporting facts, not delusions..?

 

Trickster

Had one of these last weekend, it's a new beer from Siren called "Trickster" an IPA with a difference. Siren teamed up with Derbyshire based brewery "Buxton" to make a modern fruity, hop forward IPA but instead of using American hops (as is usually the case) they chose to use English hops instead. The varieties showcased in this beer are Harlequin and Jester, two relatively new varieties grown in the UK that exhibit an interesting mix of American hop character (i.e. very fruit forward with piney, resinous undertones) but also some flowery, earthy English character too. I really enjoyed the difference in this beer, not your usual hoppy IPA, a great idea from the guys at Siren, I'll have to look out for these hops again on my beery travels!

 

Sign of the times..

Just leaving this here, reflecting on the younger generations growing up with social media..

 

Monday Mirth

Saw this on the interwebs, made me chuckle, nudge, nudge..

 

Lock stock and two smoking pints

 

We were in London this weekend celebrating my Daughter's birthday, even though it rained for most of it that didn't dampen our spirits. Having spent the last couple of birthdays during Covid lockdowns she was happy to have a normal anniversary for a change! During the day we took her to a restaurant in Soho for lunch, a totally vegan affair (she's a vegan) which was a first for me, of course I've had many vegan and vegetarian dishes over the years, but seldom an entire vegan meal in a restaurant! It was delicious, lot's of spicy dishes, beans, seeds and breads with plenty of roasted vegetables, like cauliflower, which is one of my favourites when done well. Anyway, after lunch we had a walk around and did some light window shopping, now that she's living away from home it was nice spending time together and catching up on stuff.

The sprog was out with friends in the evening so my Wife and I decided to head up to Fitzrovia and try a gastro-pub called "The Lore of The Land", it's been around for a few years now but we'd never been. It's owned by film director Guy Richie who also owns the brewery that supplies the beer, I'd never tried any of his brews before so it was a treat to sample the "Gritchie" ales on offer. I had a couple of pints at the bar before heading up to the first floor restaurant area but the "Galaxy NEIPA" was the stand-out, Galaxy is one of my favourite hops and the beer was very modern in style and well made. The food was good and we had a nice Cru Bourgeois (Medoc) to go with a couple of bavette steaks although I would argue that the beer was good enough to make the pub a great post-work pint destination on it's own.

The next morning after breakfast we had a walk through the windy streets of the City before catching the train home, it's amazing how the City empties out at the weekend, all those steel and glass towers with no one in sight, imagine all those gas bills! Anyway, after a brisk 5 km loop we headed back to Waterloo and the shuttle back to the home counties, a thoroughly decent weekend, some nice memories in the bank!

London Story

So here's an interesting monument that I must have walked past a hundred times but not really ever noticed! It's at the intersection of Tooley Street and the A3 by the South end of London Bridge and as can be seen in the photo it's essentially a large stone spike placed at an angle. Some people reckon it's supposed to commemorate all those poor buggers who were hung, drawn and quartered then had their heads stuck on spikes along the old London Bridge, a slightly macabre thought! The real purpose though is not quite as unpleasant as this, it actually points to the foundation of the old London Bridge, if you follow the line of the inclination you end up (under street level) at the start of the medieval bridge (the one with the houses on, see model below) - amazing what you don't notice walking around somewhere like London!

 

Boys on the black stuff..

So, I tried Brewdog's new Guinness challenger (Black Heart) yesterday, that makes all three current contenders for the UK stout crown now sampled! Firstly, all three are good beers, and of course Guinness is omnipresent which makes it hard to compete with, it is however very variable! A pint in Dublin is not the same as a pint in London although the gap has probably narrowed in the last few years. There are pubs in London where a decent pint of the black stuff is possible, for example in the Guinea Grill, Mayfair. 

The other two new pretenders to the throne though are hot on the heals of the best Guinness I reckon, and in the case of "London Black" by Bermondsey brewers Anspach and Hobday I think they may have actually surpassed it. Given the choice (although you'd never see all three of these beers on tap in the same pub!) I'd probably go for London Black and then it's a toss up between the big G and Black Heart, depends on the day, an interesting match playing out on the stout front these days though!

Introvert File

 

People always tell introverts to be more talkative and leave their comfort zones, yet no one tells extroverts to shut up and make the zone comfortable.

Spring has sprung

Happy Spring Equinox (I know it's a couple of days late!) to all you Sarsen huggers out there.

 

Pie in the sky

Good beer, good cause, can't beat a good pie!

 

The big one, zero

Spent the afternoon last Saturday hanging out with mates at the 10th birthday party of my local brewery Siren. It was a cloudy day in Finchampstead, where they're based, but it stayed dry for most of the time which was a relief as quite a few hundred people turned up and there was only a couple of marquees to shelter in should it really pelt down. Lot's of interesting beers to sample and discuss and three new ones brewed specially for the occasion, probably best to start with those. 

First up we had something called "Times Ten" which was being pitched as a "100 day Helles". Essentially a Helles style lager that had been lagered (which means stored at low temperature to mature and clarify) for 100 days rather than the more normal 30. It was delicious, smooth as you like, crisp on the palette and full of flowery noble hop flavours. Second was a new IPA called "Exquisite Corpse" a classic fruit forward IPA that was OK but nothing special and probably my least favourite of the three. Lastly, a real treat an Imperial Stout called "Crescendo" (an addition to this series) which weighed in at 11% and was as dark, thick, smooth and chocolaty as you could possibly want, a really stunning beer. 

Of course there were many others to try, too many to mention here, but along with the music and the tasty street food it was a well run and enjoyable event, roll on Summer and many more like it!

Tied out

 

The entire tie department in Selfridges, London. The end times are upon us..

Tuesday Titter

Someone in the supermarket has a sense of humour and a grasp of clever cultural references..

 

Introvert File

 

People who say “go big or go home” seriously underestimate my willingness to go home. Like, it’s literally my only goal most of the time.

To die for..

Spent a pleasant day in Bristol last Friday and met up with some friends for lunch, fortunately for us the Sun made an appearance and although it was raining at home the outlook as we travelled further West was fine. After lunch we had a walk around the old town and dropped into the Small Bar on King St. It's one of my favourite craft beer places and the menu didn't disappoint! Of particular note (and as rare as hen's teeth) was the beer called "Puttty"(three t's) made as an adjunct to their better known "Putty" (two t's) it was a triple IPA version of the same beer from Cornish producers Verdant. Essentially more hops, stronger (10%) and all round more in your face than the original (which I tried back in January) it was magnificent and a real result to find it on keg! They also had London Black on and the best lager in the country at the moment (Keller Pils) from Lost and Grounded (a Bristol based brewer) - a beer board to die for!

London Stories

If you head East along Leadenhall or Fenchurch street you'll eventually come to a junction where those two thoroughfares meet. It's where there used to be a gate into the old City of London that guarded the old Roman road to Colchester. "Alde" is old English for "Old", giving Aldgate or "Old-Gate", one of the 7 ancient gates in the original Roman wall that surrounded London which can still be seen in some places. At the junction stands an old water pump which used to sit on top of an ancient well called "St Michael's Well" it's been mentioned as early as the reign of King John (1200s) The well is famous for two reasons, firstly it signifies the start of the official "East End" (the dark-side of London) and secondly for an infamous epidemic. 

The well used to be served by several underground streams and the water was praised for being "bright and sparkling", what people didn't realise was that the "sparkle" came from the leaching of Calcium from the bones of dead people and decaying organic matter. In the 1860s hundreds of people died in what became known as the "Aldgate Pump Epidemic" as the water became more and more polluted from the corpses of the overcrowded London graveyards all the way up to Hampstead. Eventually, in 1876, the pump was connected to the mains supply and the problem was resolved.

One other interesting fact is that on the front of the pump is a bronze figure of a Wolf's head, the story goes that the original pump was located near the spot where the last Wolf in London was shot, hard to prove but evocative never the less!

Friday Smirk

The boys pulling "explanations" for natural phenomenon out of their butts as usual! Most of religion seems to have evolved in this way, i.e. everything had a deistic cause at some point in the past and modern religions evolved from those going back to pre-monotheistic days when even things like storms, trees and volcanoes had some kind of "agency" behind them. Humans (as evolved primates with conscious brains) assign agency to our actions and so we look for agency in everything in nature too. Fortunately though, since the enlightenment, we've realised that we were wrong about that and most things operate because of natural processes due to the laws of physics, chemistry and biology! 

Some people are yet to cotton onto this though and still cling onto that primitive desire for agency.

Thought for the day..

 

Many people would say that conversion therapy as it relates to gay men or lesbians is a bad thing, unlikely to be successful and ultimately damaging to the wellbeing of the person involved, I would agree with this position. 

However, think about the following,

Premises:

1. Someone feels ugly, fears rejection or has severe self-esteem issues.

2. Person identifies as Asexual or perhaps Aromantic, escaping social pressure to date.

3. Person attends psychotherapy.  Their self-esteem improves, and they feel ready to try dating and sex.

Question:

Was this conversion therapy of asexuality/aromanticism or are some modern gender designations simply labels for previously unlabelled mental-health conditions?

London stories

If you walk down Whitehall about half way along you will see the entrance to Horse Guards Parade, above the gateway there's a clock tower and on the clock-face there's a strange black blob against the II (2) on the dial, you can just about make it out on the picture above. The story goes that after the civil war in 1649 the disastrous king Charles the first was executed. The dirty deed was performed on a scaffold outside a building called the "Banqueting House" part of the old Palace of Whitehall which happens to be directly opposite the entrance to Horse Guards, the hour of the execution was 2pm.

 

Midweek mirth

This is old now but I'd never seen it before, amusing from Tracy Ullman 

March winds..

Lovely day for a walk yesterday, crisp, sunny and warm in the Sun, only problem was the sand blasted face you got from the 40mph gusts (see photo above) Ah well, such is "Springtime" in the UK, all seasons in one day I suppose..

 

Oscars

Oscar fever abounds in the media today after the ceremony this weekend. I can't get on board with the main results though, my view was that "Everything, Everywhere" was a confusing and stressful film about the multiverse that left me largely baffled, I guess it was mildly interesting but not a classic. I thought that "The Whale" was really thought provoking with excellent acting as was "The Banshees" which suffered from peaking too early! But the real stand out for me was the German film "All Quiet on the Western Front" which I thought was brilliant, utterly compelling and superbly shot (no pun intended!) seek out with extreme prejudice..

 

Bandwagons

 

You can't beat a good bandwagon..

Practise what you preach..

Ironically, this quote from Orwell is outside the BBC building in London...

 

Memory Drain

Popped into Reading yesterday (Friday) afternoon to pick up a pair of new denim jeans and also to meet up with my Wife who'd spent the day lunching in London with a friend and was arriving by train at around 4pm, she was late and I had an hour or so to kill so I walked over the Christchurch footbridge to Caversham and made a beeline for one of my favourite pubs. 

The Fox and Hounds is an institution around these parts, always has a superb selection of craft beers on tap and an excellent indoor-outdoor setup, It's been a good 18 months since I last dropped in and it's had a bit of an overhaul since my last visit. Back in 2016/17 I used to pick up both of my kids from schools in this area on a Friday afternoon, my Son finished at 4pm and my daughter finished at 5:30pm so my Son and I used to grab a quick half (he had a Coke obvs!) in the Fox while waiting for her. It became a nice little ritual that we both used to look forward to, a little island of peace in which to catch up on stuff in an otherwise hectic schedule. 

Sitting there yesterday put me in mind of those times, good memories, anyway, life rolls on and although both my kids are away at university these days the beer in the Fox was as good as ever. I had a pint of Verdant "People, Money, Space, Time" a brilliant pale ale that bursts with flavour and is only 3.8% ABV, surely the best sub 4% pale ale in the country at the moment, delicious!

Saturday Smile

So good they have interpreters for the hard of hearing on the main news channels these days.. 

 

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out one of the many, many flaws in the logic of mono-theistic religions like Christianity etc. If "God" is Omnipotent (all powerful) then why can't he just take the simplest, most logical path when needed, why are Godly deeds always weird or irrational and require explaining through contorted apologetics authored by men? I mean why torture a single person to death in order to forgive the sins of humanity only to reincarnate that person after a couple of days, where's the sacrifice in that? Why not just forgive sin with your superpowers and cut out the middle man, the whole thing would have far more credence if that were true, as it stands the story has more holes than a Swiss cheese!

 

Introvert File

“Maybe I’ll come” - I’m not coming 

“I’ll let you know” - I’m not coming 

“I’m not sure yet” - I’m very sure that I’m not coming 

“I’ll try and come” - I won’t try anything 

“I’ll think about it” - I won’t think about anything, I’m not coming

Hoppy holidays

 

When in London last week I dropped into the Anspach and Hobday Tap Room under the railway arches in Bermondsey. While there I tried a beer called "Bermondsey Pale" which is a tribute to all those East End families that used to holiday in Kent during the Summer picking hops in the first half of the 20th century. 

Containing only classic English hops Bermondsey Pale is a crisp light beer that's bursting with familiar traditional flavours, malt, flowers, earthy spice and is hugely drinkable, I only had the one while I was there but given more time and good conversation I could easily have two or three and at only 4% I rather think that it's designed just for that purpose!

Prophets

I see that TV entertainer "Mystic Meg" has died this week aged 80, didn't see that coming..

 

Never a truer word..

Yeah, seems to be more true than ever and BTW I don't really care much what Gary Lineker says, how much he's paid or who he works for, but as always no one seems to be reading the actual words of what he said, which are factual and reasonable! Certainly more factual than words being emitted by members of the UK cabinet (also publicly funded jobs) like our current home secretary for instance.

 

Gorilla Wednesday

Anyone who still believes our species of primate isn't closely related to the species of primate that this creature belongs to needs to extract their head from their bottom and simply observe and think.

Affront

This Government has bolloxed almost everything they've touched since 2010 and this is where we are today, the new National (AF)Front!

 

Beak Friday

Had an enjoyable couple of hours at the Sutton Arms in Clerkenwell last week at a tap-takeover by Beak brewery. Beak is one of my favourite producers in the UK at the moment and back in 2021 I was lucky enough to visit their Brewery down in Lewes, Sussex on a warm Summer day, it was lush. There were nine Beak beers on tap last Friday, most of which I'd tried before but luckily there were a couple of new ones begging to be sampled. They were all top notch as usual, I particularly liked their "Legs" Kolsch which, like an Altbier, uses top fermenting yeast but is cold conditioned like other lagers, smooth and flavourful, one for the top 20 beer list perhaps, we'll see how the rest of the year goes!
 

Potty dog

I was in London again on Friday, happened to be walking from Waterloo station through the cut and down Union Street to London Bridge. On the way you pass this rather odd looking sculpture, it's a golden dog and a pot, I discovered what it's all about by reading the plaque underneath the statue. This junction of Blackfriars road and Union Street was immortalised in the autobiography of none less than celebrated author, Charles Dickens, in it he writes..

"My usual way home was over Blackfriars Bridge and down that turning in the Blackfriars Road which has Rowland Hill’s chapel on one side, and the likeness of a golden dog licking a golden pot over a shop door on the other."

The statue on the post is a replica made recently from Elm wood by carpenter Michael Painter, the original being housed in the Cuming Museum in Southwark.  Interestingly the route being described by Dickens was one that he took  to work every day aged 12 (yes 12!) what a difference a couple of hundred years make!

Saturday Conundrum

You can only choose one.. (would have to be a Wispa for me)

 

Friday Smirk

As usual J&M pointing out the hypocrisy of treating Islam as somehow "special" within the landscape of unfalsifiable beliefs we have in our lives today, it's not special (or particularly original), and we all know exactly why it's treated this way! (for the avoidance of doubt, it's adherents are the demonstrably the most violent!)

 

Kowtowing to nonsense

 

I see that there's an unholy row brewing at a Wakefield school where four pupils have been suspended (as a result of undue pressure from a group of other parents and clerics) for "slightly damaging a Quran" (in fact a small tear in the cover!) The school head said that there was "no ill intent". The worst part about it was the kangaroo court presided over by local mosque leaders where the mother of one of the boys (an autistic kid) apologised and essentially grovelled to the assembled mob, she also donned a headscarf, something with which she was visibly uncomfortable with. The police were also involved and a senior police officer was present during the session, nodding in agreement as a Muslim cleric made a bat-shit crazy speech about their community being willing to "die to protect their sacred book", all in a highly threatening tone. It later transpired that the boy had received death threats and is terrified, these threats are apparently not being investigated by police. 

There are (as always) several ways to look at this somewhat sinister spectacle, you could argue that this poor mother, who probably has her hands more than full with an autistic kid, was simply doing what she felt she had to in order to calm a situation down and get on with her life, I respect that. On the other hand what the blatantly cuckold police were playing at I don't know, firstly we don't have blasphemy laws in this country and although deliberately destroying any book is usually unnecessary and invariably stupid, it's not against any law and doesn't warrant severe punishment! So, why was this boy suspended from school and why aren't the death threats and intimidation being followed up? 

In England if you own a book you can do whatever you wish to it so long as it doesn't involve hurting someone else by slapping them around the head with it, although, there are some heads in this case that could probably do with a good slapping with perhaps something like "The God Delusion" or "The Satanic Verses"! For reference, I would point out the photograph above, it shows police in Saudi  Arabia emptying the street drains after a pilgrimage in Mecca, all those sodden and discarded books are Qurans!

I hope that some heads and or knuckles are wrapped over this, we don't live in a theocracy here, we have freedom of religion and freedom to not believe a single word of any of it, in fact, the majority of people in this pluralistic society have no religion at all. If we can't rely on our police not to kowtow to fundamentalist minorities for fear of violence what happens when the backlash comes, as it inevitably will, not standing up to bullies simply stores up problems for the future; any schoolboy could tell you that!

Hitch Quote of the Month

"But you say not only that there is a god, but you know what He wants. Well, I know you can't know that. It's not a matter of how clever you are - you can't know it. But why do you claim to? Because you think it might give you the right to tell me what to do. Well, fuck that."

Victorians

Oh those Victorians, ever practical and always straight to the point..