Toujours Blasphemy

J&M pointing out the problem with enshrining blasphemy into law. Hate speech against PEOPLE is one thing and already covered by our laws, but, satirizing or criticizing Islam (or any religion) is simply attacking an IDEA that you don't agree with or that you wish to change or reform, pointing out the FACTS of a religion, culture or holy books is simply observation, foundational for any sensible conversation. Ideas and Facts are things that cannot have "hate speech" directed at them and never could. Some Muslims need to get to grips with these principals and concepts if they are to roll along with the rest of us here in the West, I'm sure they can find enough real examples of prejudice and discrimination in their lives that they don't need to invent imaginary ones too.

Phone culture

This cartoon reminds me of most (male) sales/marketing people I know when they have to attend any kind of meeting that involves anything remotely technical (apart from discussions about cars or watches of course) .. On a more serious note though, this kind of approach to business seems to be the norm these days, meetings seem to be open house for non-business activities like eating, drinking, catching up with personal emails and generally running your daily affairs whilst supposedly listening to colleagues. And don't get me started on conference calls and video conferences, normally a triumph of technical incompetence over apathy, my personal favourite though (particularly prevalent among millennial's) is the phone call 5 minutes before the start of a meeting to let people know you're not going to turn up at all! Perhaps all this is telling us that we should all be having less meetings? Sounds like a manifesto for 2020's and gets my vote every time...

Rocket, man

Loving this hi-res video of the recent Falcon 9 launch in California, viewed from a vantage point above downtown LA you can clearly see the second stage rocket kicking in and if you're quick the descent burn at the end. Amazing..

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the bleeding obvious again (obvs. to people who are guided by empathy as opposed to a bronze-age book of magic spells) It's OK though, American children can still be randomly killed by psychopathic Christians, Muslims or Atheists all of whom have easy unfettered access to automatic weapons in that country, as they like to say over there... "go figure"..

No point crying over spilt Pomerol

I'm rather envious of the customers of steak-joint Hawksmoor who (by mistake) got a bottle of 2001 Le Pin instead of the wine they ordered. On their menu this uber rare Pomerol (Bordeaux, France) was a £4,500 bottle, even retail it would be around £3,000 to buy as 2001 was a stunning vintage for Pomerol. I wonder if they noticed? I can just imagine their TripAdvisor comment, "house wine quite nice" or even worse "house wine quite nice, once we added ice and lemonade" .. ah, lady-luck is a delightful mistress sometimes.

NF = Nigel Farage?

So here's an internet conundrum a-brewing. Above is a photo of a young Nigel Farage, it's definitely him as the picture is from him and has been validated as such. But now fast-forward a few years up to a point where young Nigel is around 15 years (1979) old and look at the picture below, is it him (on the left)?

Because, if it is then this could be big news since the guy next to him leading the group is Martin Webster, head of the National Front (remember them) leaving court on a charge of inciting racial hatred. Below is a montage of photo's side-by-side to assist in facial recognition.

Facial recognition software pegs the probability at around 76%, I'm not sure, looks a bit too old to me but I suppose it could be him, but whichever it is I think middle-aged Nigel should answer some questions about it and rule himself in or out, don't you?

When you're smiling..

This little cartoon by Garry Larson (Far Side) sums up perfectly for me the situation we find ourselves in with Brexit at the moment. We have the various political constituents in-fighting, falling out and generally bitching about each other, including that populist clown Farage (rejected by the UK electorate 7 times) getting back in on the act. But, no one seems to be focused on the real danger here, i.e. the disastrous economic consequences that a hard-Brexit would entail. An outcome that would be especially relevant to the people in the North, who seem unreasonably keen on shooting themselves in the foot financially as a result of being conned by the likes of smiley-face Farage (who has personally trousered half a million quid as a result of the Brexit campaign) No wonder he's smiling, probably can't believe his luck that he lives in an era with so many gullible people around.

Balance

Having a 17 year old teenage son ourselves, my Wife and I thought this was hilarious! Mind you (in the spirit of balance) I've seen some OAP's struggling just as much with automated checkouts at the supermarket..

Taking snakes

Saw this little snark (and have heard this very objection from Christians) and after it made me smile, I thought about how myopic all those literalist Christians, Jews and Muslims are in believing that gay people are somehow "unnatural" or have any choice about their nature. As the late Christopher Hitchens used to say, "if you want to be truly wise, you need to read more than one book"...

Awesome

Love this little clip - a rocket launch seen from the vantage point of the ISS; awesome!

Friday Smirk

J&M on the money WRT Human nature again.. It's incredible how we often can't see our own bias and ignorance (or refuse to accept it) - often people need a lesson in critical thinking before they "get it". I'm put in mind of all those hardened "just get on with it" Brexiters desperate to get OUT of Europe; only this week relishing the participation of UK teams, populated with European players and run by European managers, playing football games IN Europe - WTF?

Freedom to blaspheme

I read that the Saatchi gallery in London has covered up a couple of paintings as a result of complaints from some Muslim visitors claiming that they were "blasphemous". Many liberal commentators have expressed concern that free-speech and freedom of expression are being attacked and have protested the act of censorship, including think-tank Quilliam (staffed mainly by liberal Muslims) The images are kind of collages of symbolic images such as the American flag, Islamic script and a classical nude figure, all designed to represent the conflict between these things in reality. I have included one of the two images (above) under dispute so that you can make your own mind up, in my tradition and culture, this is your right.

Environmental Tuesday

Lot's of environmental stuff getting discussed in the news lately, it's great to see, none of us (no matter how rich) can realistically live somewhere OTHER than planet Earth so it's pretty important that if we see people or organisations unnecessarily destroying our home then we should be calling them out. The challenge of course is that we all have different perspectives, one man's legitimate business venture is another's wanton vandalism and like the free-speech debate that flares up from time to time we have a tendency as a species to other-think these things sometimes. I noticed that the odious Katie Hopkins got upset recently (no change there then!) about a doctor explaining "herd immunity" to her in relation to vaccinations, she was indignant about the possibility that the doctor was referring to her offspring as "animals" and that somehow this was perceived as derogatory. I have news for snowflake Katie, we're all animals love (certainly not vegetable or mineral!), every living thing on this planet is related to every other living thing and the sooner we realise this salient fact the better for all.

Memories

It's funny the things we remember. I vividly recall the sunny day exactly one year ago yesterday and my parents visiting our house for lunch. We cooked up a cracking BBQ and my Dad, Son and I lubricated proceedings with a 2 litre (4 pint) growler of beer (see picture above, white wine for the ladies of course!) I remember it because it was the very last time my Dad ever visited our house and also the last (of many over the years) beer we ever shared and enjoyed together. As (bad) luck would have it a few weeks later he was diagnosed with cancer and his health deteriorated quickly, so quickly in fact that he wasn't able to come over again and sadly died in March this year (2019). The beer was called "White Tips" from our local brewery (Siren) and is a fruity wit (wheat) beer that they only make at this time of the year (they just released a new batch in the last couple of weeks). Just before everyone came round I made a special trip over to the Siren tap-yard and grabbed a couple of litres fresh from the line, especially for him to enjoy with his burger and sausages. He really liked the beer, which I was really happy about, and we all had a lovely day chatting, eating, drinking and laughing. Funny the things we remember.

Chilly Festival

Spent a pleasant couple of hours at the Reading beer festival yesterday - usual massive selection of beers but bloody freezing cold and interrupted by bursts of hail stones, I ended up wishing I'd taken a thicker coat. Met with an old mate who I haven't seen for 30 years, wow, where to start? Amazing to catch up with stuff, we essentially unloaded the highlights of two entire lives over a few beers, marriages, kids, highs, lows etc.. all very interesting to see how we've ended up (not that we're quite at the "end"yet!)

Bad day at the office

Local elections here in the UK. Many of the Brexit spin merchants will no doubt attempt to spin this as the people expressing dismay at the incumbent parties and that Brexit hasn't happened yet. My interpretation is somewhat different, this says to me that all the parties who want to "get Brexit done" lost and those that support a second referendum (and hence remaining in the EU) won; how about best of three?

Friday Smirk

I'll just leave this one here..

Name collisions

One of our favourite beers from last year was called "Yu Lu" from our local Brewer Siren over in Finchampstead. It's a lovely pale ale, almost lager-like, made with fruity American hops with an addition of Earl-Grey tea which gives it a certain familiarity and curiosity, and at only 3.6% ABV it's very drinkable, especially on a warm day. It's the go-to beer for all the Women in our little crowd. Apparently though this name isn't unique, there's a theoretical physicist (and quite a famous one) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing called professor Yu Lu! 

Here he is holding up a "Yu Lu" beer mat, lucky man, I bet he'd get a free one if he turned up at the Tap Yard in Finchampstead.. :)

Impressive

This has to be one of the most impressive (and scariest) photos ever taken. It's astronaut Bruce McCandless performing the first ever untethered space walk back in 1984. Just think about all of the discovery, science, innovation, hard-work and engineering needed to realise this picture, from the camera taking it to the space shuttle needed to get him there. When you think about it us Humans can be quite handy when we stop thinking about imaginary stuff and focus on the (real) universe we actually inhabit!

Mid-week Mirth

J&M pointing out the obvious problem that some Liberals have with the hypothesis that quite a lot of Women in this world find themselves under unreasonable pressure, if not physical danger, from men (for no good reason) to wear a particular type of clothing and therefore wearing it is not "a choice" in any realistic sense.