Natural Illusion

Recently I posted on optical illusions ….. well look at this image taken by the US space agency's New Horizons probe …

An Image Of Kerberos: One Of The Two Tiny Moons Of Pluto

Just stare for a second or two at the whitest area then blink and stare and it seems to be moving away from you.

Really weird after a bit, and a good example of a natural illusion.

Sith Lord Mayor

This story tells itself .... "Chewbacca arrested in Ukraine while campaigning for Darth Vader". They simply don't get better that that, not in my world anyway.

A candidate, using the identity of the most famous of the Star Wars Sith Lords, has been running in local elections in the city of Odessa, and his supporters have been a colourful lot to say the least ... in the past 'Chewbacca' himself, along with 'Padme Amidala' and 'Yoda', have all appeared on ballot papers.

Dark Lord Registers His Vote

The Average Joe

According to a recent report by the insurer Aviva, the average couple in the UK are (depending upon where you live I guess), called David and Susan. However with variations on the name Mohammed frequently topping the new born boys names lists every year, I guess that the name David will soon be supplanted.

The Average Joe and Jane ... USA

Its Taxing Being A Woman

Not being of the feminine persuasion myself (a relief to all mankind I can assure you), I wasn't aware that there is in force a European (well EU), wide tax on being a woman. It comes from a source that I thought only the socially backward countries of the world still believed was a taboo, menstruation.

All women do it, except maybe in those areas of the world where girls under 14 years of age can be raped by older men under the guise of 'marriage'. But who would have thought that the EU would decide that something women have no choice about, would and should be taxed by the imposition of a 17% VAT levy on sanitary products?

Nothing To Be Taxed

Ice Cream Wars

I am old enough to remember the 'Ice cream wars' of Scotland, which if I recall were centred around the city of Glasgow, where rival drug gangs in the East End of the city in the 1980's, were fighting a drug turf war, using ice cream vans to sell both drugs and stolen goods. A strange episode, even by the standards of gang turf wars, but one which has its footnote in history. A footnote, which to be honest, I wouldn't have recalled, except that recently I read a news snippet which revived these memories.

Ice Cream Wars Are Messy Affairs ...

The Wallahs Last Hurrah

We at PC Towers have occasionally posted on the sights and sounds that the 'modern world' is losing fast.

Kabadi Wallahs Are Disappearing

 

These were primarily from my youth, but have featured those from other countries, that people had remarked upon losing.

Death Of A High Street

I recently visited my local high street for the first time in a fortnight, only to find that another three 'charity shops' had opened up .... In fact, in all (including the charity shops just off the main road), there are eleven or more such shops in the small shopping area .... an area that is approx. 800 - 1,000 meters of double fronted road shopping.

This is a very worrying trend, as charity shops bring nothing to the local economy, and are in fact a harbinger of its demise ..... These shops pay few wages into the local economy, as the workers are nearly all volunteers, and these charity shop, drive local business shops into near ruination. The local book shops have all gone, simply because the charity shops all offer second hand books, and virtually all the ladies fashion shops have taken a hit, either closing or dropping to the cheaper end of the market, as many women now turn to second hand clothes for cheap fashion fixes.

Charity Shop Creep Invading High Streets

Nuclear Madness

The deal to basically hand over a large chunk of the UK's power production to China and France (EDF Energy), for a vastly inflated guaranteed electricity price is a new low for us as a first world industrial nation. We pioneered Nuclear Power plants post WWII with the first civil nuclear programme in the world, opening a nuclear power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England, in 1956 and produced some of the most advanced designs in the world.

UK Electric Prices 2015 .... China And France Skin Us At Hinckley Point.

Animal Addictions

It appears that the wild foxes in many parts of the country are addicted to car brake fluid .....

Foxy Junkies Get Pretty Blatant

 

It apparently has a sweet taste (well to them), but the initial addiction is believed to come from the fact that their parents often bring back bits of rubber such as Wellington boots for them to play with, and they then actively seek rubber when they grow up.

 

Appliance of Science

Victorians built things to last, whereas we build to .... well frankly, to fail very quickly.

Everybody has noticed that many manufactured items, especially that are known as 'white goods', do not last like they used to. This phenomenon is known as 'planned redundancy', aka 'planned obsolescence', and simply means that cheaper components, and build tolerances, are deliberately placed into the manufacturing process, so that the goods break down more often or earlier.

Whitegoods Built To Be Scrapped

Wheres The Justice?

The Supreme Court has ruled that two women are now free to sue their husbands for more divorce monies after the spouses were determined to have not declared their true worth at their divorce hearings. I am surprised that this wasn't always the case .... after all that's perjury and fraud. So any agreement or settlement entered into should always be based upon the true position ..... however as to whether they should always get half the money, well that's another matter for me.

Marry For Love Divorce For Money?

Race Crimes ... All Races

Apparently recorded hate crime numbers in the UK, have risen by 18% up to 52,528 recorded hate crimes in 2014/15. A hate crime in the UK is defined as an offence which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.

Race Crimes Are Not All Like This  ....

Pissed As A Tinker Bell

There is apparently a new way of 'drinking' alcohol ....

An inventor in Bristol UK has created a new alcoholic 'sensation' in the form of a levitating but potent (and no doubt expensive) cocktail, which as to be 'licked out of the air'. Mr Francis, has claimed that just 4 drops atomised into the air in front of your mouth with your tongue out will get you drunk ....

This Girl Struggled With The Mist Drink Concept

Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

Now when I was younger, and in fact now, when I come to think on it  ... 'Carry on Up the Khyber', or indeed any mention of 'The Khyber Pass', had double entendre connotations. So when film or book character said that he or someone 'copped it up the Khyber', I would, and still do, grin.

Carry On Up The Khyber ... Good For A Laugh

Half Century Of Criminality

Time was, that when a person lived to be 100 years of age, it was so unusual that the reigning monarch would congratulate them, and their name would enter a select band of a few hundreds, who were then at that stage of their life. Now, that figure of hundreds of centenarians alive, has risen to thousands of pensioners of that age. This has led the monarch to have to increase the number of staff who deal with the 'official' congratulations, but also has uncovered an anomaly.

Projected Centenarians In UK

Democracy Eroded

As I posted at the time of the general election, there is a fear that the mob is being allowed to dictate how democratic politics is conducted in the UK.

That fear was apparently realised last weekend, when a Rent-A-Mob attacked the Conservative conference delegates. The mob marched under the banner of a TUC anti trades union reform demonstration, but that was where the civilised behaviour ended. Many protestors then marched to the venue of the Conservative conference and abused, both physically and verbally, the delegates. Some of these protestors even wore pig masks, as they hurled eggs, and spat on anyone going in or out.

The Language of Debates In Britain .....

The Age Of Angry Dwarves

Angry Dwarves are not as common as they were in days of yore. Perhaps its just as well that Rumplestiltskin and his ilk are not so prevalent, given the behaviour of Mr Ian Salter-Brown in Hull. This 54 year old unemployed dwarf (with beard as well), is one bad mannered, gross and angry little blighter, and has the court appearances to prove it.

His latest rudeness would have caused even the most PC of the disabled lobby to pause. He had gone down to his local council offices in his wheelchair to complain about work done in his flat, which he claimed had left his kitchen surfaces eight inches too high for him to use.

Rumpelstiltskin Was A Fictional Angry Dwarf .....

Djinn and Gone

On the 13th and 14th of May 2015, over 180 middle and elementary girl students in Saudi Arabia were reported to have refused to attend classes at the Al- Shalail village girls school. The school located in Southern Madinah province in Western Arabia, had already had nine girl students who had allegedly fainted, and were said to have experienced 'spasms' at the beginning of the school term following the holidays ..... I used to experience something similar myself!

Mass Hysteria Cases Are Not Uncommon (Like This Case In Bangladesh) But Rarely Blamed On Djinn

Chinese Whispers

Keep it quiet but the Chinese are here …..

Nothing tells you this more, than the fact that the rich of China (both politicians and business leaders, as well as their families), are taking etiquette and ‘foreign’ manners lessons, to enable them to deal with the rest of the world more confidently. Now thirty years ago, that may not have meant too much, but now, with over 190 billionaires and more than two million millionaires, China lags just behind the USA, in number of high-net-worth individuals, according to research from Forbes magazine and the Boston Consulting Group.

Chinese International Tourists Are A New Phenomena .....

Two Bad Boys - Different BBC Tones

There’s two ways to tell political stories, with, or without, bias. This is often a cause of disputes across the democratic world, so for example in the US, this discussion rages, along much the same fault lines as in the UK ....
 

In The US, Gallup Polls Often Record A Belief That The Media Is "Too Liberal"

..... whether with any real basis, is open to discussion.