philmophlegm: (Wrexham club shield)

The latest target of the PC police - Gilbert & Sullivan.

"Controversy as Chester Zoo opens 'Wrexham Scally Enclosure'". (I should point out that Homo Wrexhamius Scalliensis Chavus is pretty much confined to the southern part of Wrexham, not the nice bit where I’m from…)

Why Gandhi is such an asshole in Civilisation.

The Curious Case of the (Medieval) Weapon that Didn't Exist

Why you can't just have more quantitative easing to get rid of the national debt.

This is not a 512gb microSD card.

The worst football kits of all time. They’re all bad, but Colorado, seriously…?

This month's best headline is from an astronomy website.

"A lousy, stupid, no good, bad, law is being proposed."

Star Wars Episode IV in a single image. (OK, it’s a very big image, but still…)

Minimalist, anonymous rooms are probably not a good place to do teamwork.

"We all owe a significant debt to Richard Murphy." No, really.

I'm an only child, so I can't really relate to this. Nevertheless I thought it was a sweet film about growing up being “Player Two”.

Woman accidentally joins search party looking for herself.

Today's most widely misinterpreted piece of economics, from the IMF. There are two arguments put forward in the paper. The first is that there are risks associated with capital account liberalisation (allowing money into and out of the country with less regulation). The second is that although high public debt is bad for growth and welfare, for countries with excellent records of debt repayment, like the US, the UK and Germany, a “credible medium-term fiscal consolidation” makes more sense than a “fiscal noose today”. In other words, slowly bringing down debt as a percentage of GDP, not slashing everything to balance the budget as soon as possible. Now that’s pretty much what the UK’s current fiscal policy is. Still I suppose “IMF economists broadly agree with George Osborne” isn’t quite as good a headline as “You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within”. Seriously, this is a paper that says “There is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda. The expansion of global trade has rescued millions from abject poverty. Foreign direct investment has often been a way to transfer technology and know-how to developing economies. Privatization of state-owned enterprises has in many instances led to more efficient provision of services and lowered the fiscal burden on governments”… and Facebook (and one of our less reputable newspapers) is full of idiots claiming that “we are witnessing the death of neoliberalism”.­

philmophlegm: (Bush Tucker Man)

I absolutely love this series of paintings of mechs attacking early 20th century east european peasants.

The other day an RAF Chinook with a distinctive bright red tail flew right past my window. (We're high on the side of a hill and they often fly low up the river.) Turns out it was a special paint scheme for the 100th anniversary of the squadron. (Aren’t Chinooks cool? You can keep your Apaches and your Lynxes and your Merlins.)

First edition King James Bible from 1611 found in cupboard in Wrexham Parish Church. (Thanks to pellegrina.)

I didn't know that a Welshman invented packet switching.

More evidence emerges of Corbyn and McDonnell's close links with the IRA.

Scenes from the Emu War of 1932.

"Children who play video games twice a day are less likely to achieve five good GCSE grades". (Or possibly kids who don’t bother revising, and go and do fun things instead, like playing video games, are less likely to get good grades than kids who revise more. Do you think…?)

Labour MPs aren't happy at the moment. ( I particularly liked one anonymous Labour MP’s description of communist Corbyn supporter Richard Burgon as “a fucking dickhead” and Ian Austin MP’s advice to Corbyn that he “should start acting like the Leader of the Opposition and not like a student union president”.)

Hipster Hitler - a webcomic

philmophlegm: (Flag)
This Oxford University study is fascinating. I've read books on this subject before that came to similar conclusions, but I think I'm right in saying that this is the most detailed study so far:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11480732/Britons-still-live-in-Anglo-Saxon-tribal-kingdoms-Oxford-University-finds.html

There's all sorts of interesting stuff revealed. For example:

  • There's no real 'celtic' ethnic group. There is more genetic diversity between different culturally celtic groups than you'd expect.

  • Bernicia was clearly a thing, Rheged definitely so. Perhaps more surprisingly, so was the Kingdom of Elmet.

  • Cornish and Devonian populations are genetically distinct, and the boundary is pretty much the River Tamar (the modern boundary between the Duchy and the county). We live just on the Cornish side of the border. Most people I know from Devon wouldn't dream of living in Cornwall and vice versa. Clearly these attitudes have been around for almost 1500 years!

  • I wonder to what extent this signifies that the Cornish are an earlier population and to what extent they are Breton immigrants.

  • North and South Welsh populations are similarly distinct.

  • However, there seems to be an English marcher population stretching from the Severn Valley right up to the Wirral. Wasn't expecting that. Interestingly this population (marked with a purple cross on the map) also has three other very specific locations away from the Welsh frontier - one on the Isle of Wight, one in Kent vaguely near Maidstone and one in what might be Scunthorpe. Interesting.

  • Vikings can't have fancied local women much - there are almost no Norse genes. The one exception is (predictably) Orkney. (I'm assuming from the map that they didn't include Shetland and possibly also the Isle of Man.)

  • There's a clear link between Catalonia and North Wales.

  • There is a distinct 'English' ethnic group, but it only covers part of modern England. The line between the 'English' and the rest of the country is broadly where it was in 600AD which perhaps suggests that areas of 'England' beyond that line are conquered territories that were never truly settled.

philmophlegm: (Midnight)
...namely the ideal characteristics that someone should have if they are to run the country:

1. D&D player*
2. Computer game player (and specifically Sinclair ZX Spectrum enthusiast**)
3. Comprehensive-educated***
4. Oxford PPEist


We differ on some things. I've got nothing against the Turks for example. Oh, and my dad worked in a factory, whereas his**** was a professor.


* Yes, really! http://bit.ly/hgaKIB
** Proper working class credentials. Posh kids, as we all know, had BBC Micros, "to help them with their homework".
*** Admittedly, I went to my comprehensive school because it was the local school and not out of a middle-class political principle, like that Fast Show sketch*****.
**** Did you know that before he changed his name to Ralph, Professor Miliband's name was 'Adolphe'? That's pretty unfortunate for a Jewish communist.
*****
I'm totally middle-class. My family have been middle-class for generations!
M1 Listen, I'm more middle-class than both of you. My father was an account-
ant, and I used to have piano lessons.
MW Well, I had cello lessons.
M1 Yeah?
PW Huh! Well, my family used to do recitals. Huh! With me on the viola. As
a quintet.
MW I went to a very good public school.
PW Yes, and I went to comprehensive.
M1 Oh, my God! You are working-class!
PW No. My parents could easily have afforded to send me to a public school,
but they were liberals. They chose to educate me at a comprehensive.
That makes me much more middle-class than you two!
philmophlegm: (911)
Questions meme

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I like my new coat.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
£35.00

3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?
Floor

4. Favorite planet?
Athfuashhok'k (or however it was spelt)

Read more )
philmophlegm: (Wrexham club shield)
Apparently there have been rumours going around in Wrexham that I was dead.

I'm not. I had a bit of a cold this weekend, but am otherwise generally still alive.

I was a little surprised to hear of the rumours. They apparently reached my friend ramsfan through the mother of someone I vaguely knew at school but haven't even thought of in twenty years who supposedly heard the news from someone I was friends with in sixth form, but lost touch with after that.
philmophlegm: (Wrexham club shield)
From sally_maria, via the_marquis:

In sally_maria's words: "What I'd like people to do is to post pictures - no more than one or two - of interesting places, landmarks or buildings in their town. Either the town where you live, or where you grew up - somewhere that you maybe still associate with the idea of home.

Tell us a bit about the picture and why it's interesting. We all get to the see the tourist pictures of the world, but not so much about the smaller special places that mean something to us."

Read more )
philmophlegm: (Wrexham club shield)
I can get blase about UNESCO World Heritage Sites here in Cornwall where I live in one, but now my home town has one too!

Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the Dee Valley becomes Britain's 28th World Heritage Site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/8122916.stm

It's not a bridge to go over if you suffer from vertigo. There is a railing between the single footpath and the 126ft drop, but not between the canal and the drop on the other side, so if you go over on a boat, you are very close to the edge.

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