The New Marrakesh

Ramsgate, is the new Marrakesh .... well possibly not.

Beautiful Ramsgate ....

 

Taking the saying 'My enemies enemy is my friend' perhaps a little incorrectly, the Brazilian Indie band 'Urso Polar' who hail from the small tourist town of Gramado, were invited to visit the town recently after they penned the critically acclaimed tune called: 'It's Official, I Hate Ramsgate'.

One Ring To Curse Them All

When JRR Tolkien wrote 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings', he may well have been inspired by a real ring.  The gold ring concerned is inscribed in Latin, and is connected to a Roman curse tablet ..... and after it was found in a farmer's field in Silchester in 1785, it was largely forgotten about after it had been sold to the Chute family, who owned 'The Vyne'. Before it was eventually passed to the National Trust in the 1930's.

The Real Tolkien Ring

New British Model Army

Did you know that since June 2014, the U.S. military has been slowly stockpiling massive amounts of mechanised vehicles from its Afghanistan operations, that are winding down, in to a depot in Kuwait near the commercial port?

The First Cuts Are The Deepest - British Army Reduced To Defence Force.

 

This is apparently in pretty open preparation for being shipped across across the border into Iraq, or Syria, ostensibly for an 'allied offensive' against the Islamic State group.

Cash For Carnage

There's debts and then there's debts.

British War Bond Poster

Many people these days kind of assume that the wars of yesteryear are just that, wars of the distant past .... never realising that we and others are still impacted by events of 70, or even 100 years ago. I am not talking about memories of granddad, or great granddad, fighting or dying in wars so long ago.

 

A Dead Cert

In one of those strange semi irreverent tributes to our friends and families, that we Brits like so much, the friends and family of a horse racing fanatic, decided to place a bet on a few horses in a memory / tribute to his abiding passion.

One Punter Won £1million With This 50p Horse Racing Bet.

 

So while on their way to the crematorium near Southend in Essex, they stopped the funeral procession, and then went inside his local bookies, and placed a £105 accumulator (each bet runs on to the next horse in the accumulator if it wins), with the horses picked purely by its name.

Keeping It In The Family

The 'Kissin Cousins' post, and the comments posted, reminded me of something I had almost forgotten about .... which was that there was, when I thought on it, also the example from history of the 'Hapsburg lip', which we were taught about in school (back in the days when the UK taught British and European history).

The Lips Have It ......

This was apparently a medical condition, which accounted for all foreign wars in Europe since 1276 AD, or even longer, if memory of my teen understanding of the events serves me correctly!!In reality it didn't, it just seemed that way after the teacher had finished talking about it.

 

The Price Of Success

Edinburgh is now officially the most expensive city in the UK to book a hotel room in.
 

Edinburgh - Worth A Little Extra?

 

I can't say that I am surprised, as like many 'socialist' countries, the political elite really like to pamper themselves with all expenses paid trips.

Choosing The Wrong Side

An Argentine Pope holds up a sign supporting the Argentinian claim to the Falklands. He claimed afterwards to not know what he was holding up....

 

This Argentinian Pope Knows His Politics .....

 

.... but as the Catholic Church has often had a close relationship with the military junta's in Argentina (and else where) .... well quelle surprise!

JC Cometh ....Jeremy Corbyn

Well they have gone and done it again ..... the political activists of a political party have proved to me how out of touch they really are with the voting public.

JC Cometh .... No Not That 'JC' ... Jeremy Corbyn

This time it wasn't entirely unexpected, as the Labour Party membership voted overwhelmingly for the man who started as a 500-1 outsider .... Jeremy Corbyn. This just proves that at least 59% of the membership of the Labour Party are as self absorbed and out of touch with political reality as I have always suspected.

Scotland's Lost Football Tribes

I was looking at pictures of Scotland football fans gathered in Freedom Square, Tbilisi, Georgia, for a European Championship qualifier in 2016 .....

 

Scottish Lost Tribe ~ 78 Branch

 

.... when I think I spotted one of the famous lost tribes of Scotland fans ..... You know, those who never returned from the crusades to 'Win The World Cup.'

The Time Of Dying

Recently I found out that my chances of dying in the next five years is predicted as about 3.2%, with an 80% accuracy of prediction rating. This means that, out of 100 men aged the same as me and with similar answers to the lifestyle questions, 97 will survive and 3 will die over the next 5 years.

Life Odds In My Favour

Convergent Evolution

Entering the 'aliens' and 'evolutionary imperative debate', is a new champion.

 

The Warnowiid 'Eye' Is Evidence Of Convergent Evolution ....

 

Cambridge Don, Simon Morris, has claimed recently that intelligent aliens almost certainly exist, and that they could very well look a lot like us. He bases this assertion on the idea that life on Earth has shown a remarkably strong adherence to "rigid rules", and is not some random set of mutations and developments.

Immigration or Invasion

As usual, there's no way to apparently avoid the fact that Islam is in the news again this week .... as it was last week, and the week before, and ad infinitum it seems.

Migrants Not Always Welcome .... This Hungarian TV Reporter Shows That.

 

This time its as a result of the sea of humanity from the failed Muslim states of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, who are pouring into Europe by the million or so, to claim 'Asylum'. So once again the bleeding hearts of the left are demanding that we open all the gates, and just accept that these people somehow have the right to settle here, or even that we are obliged to take them.

The Lady Of Mars

A shadow effect on the rocks of Mars appears (with a bit of imagination) to be that of a woman ..... or rather, a statue of a woman. Yes the www. world was in a ferment once again, as what appeared to be the likeness of a woman (if you squint a bit ... a lot), was 'spotted' by some nerds, on a video released by NASA from its 'Curiosity Rover' probe.

It Was A Little  Hard To Spot ...

A Good Man

When you read that a man named Leonard Robinson died in a traffic accident in Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, in August 2015, it probably made little impression on you, if you noticed it at all. However it was the death of a remarkable and kind hearted man.

His alter ego was as the "Route 29 Batman" .... who gained this name after the police stopped him for having invalid number plates on his pimped up sports car.
 

Even Batman Has To Have Valid Number Plates ....

Democracy's Future

The BBC have recently run a 'democracy day' series of posts ....

Democracy ~ The Best Of Some Bad Options.

 

I don't know whether this is coincidental to the recent events in Paris, where decidedly non-democratic voices have been heard, post the jihadist attacks, or just coincidence, but the latest of these posts highlighted that Europe faces a "crisis of democracy".

The Bridgehead Into Europes Heartland

The idea that any European state would allow a jihadist training camp to be set up inside their borders would have been deemed impossible, laughable or shocking 25 years ago. But since the West decided to intervene in the Yugoslav civil wars, by stopping the partition of Bosnia-Hercegovina into its component parts, and then forcibly splitting Serbia up to create the bandit state known as Kosovo, all things have been made possible.

Bin Laden Style Compounds Are Going Up Across The Region

 

That Balkan crisis was the first time in three centuries, that 'jihad' had been fought against a Western, Christian enemy inside Europe itself, and the Western powers maybe took the wrong side .... twice, with results that we may all come to regret.