Happy New Year 2024

Just a post to wish all those who have made it this far ......

Happy New Year 2024 (originally 1937)

 A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2024

Christmas Bonus

Life as a Taxi, Private hire or Uber driver is probably interesting, when you meet people with all sorts of reasons for using your service .....

How Mr Christmas Should
Have Been Dressed For Christmas.

.... going home, going to parties, job interviews, escaping abusive partners etc .... in fact all of human life (including giving birth), must pass through your car doors if you do the job long enough. 

Santa Was Making His Own Dinner

Oh and in a late, but too good to miss bit of a news snippet .......

Natasha Claus Was Jailed For 13 Months

.... it was reported that in December 2017, a Natasha Claus was jailed for 13 months for assault in Guildford Crown Court.

2023 - Another 'Bloody' Year

What can we say ..... 

War in Ukraine And Gaza Conflict.

end of another 'bloody' year ....

Merry Christmas 2023

 As usual, all at PC Towers would like to wish all those who have visited and enjoyed a post or two (if you have visited but haven't enjoyed a post or two, then there's always next year!!) ....

Christmas Sparky Comic 1970

..... A Very Merry Christmas .... hope to see you next year.

Santa's Personnel Carrier

 Every year it gets to be tougher for Santa and his little helpers .....

Santa's Personnel Carrier

 .... but who would have thought that they would need an armoured Personnel Carrier?

Santa Rides Again

This story came too late for Christmas 2021, and I forgot about it Christmas 2022 ...

Danielle Hoynes (L), And The Santa Sleigh Volunteers

so I have saved this sorry tale for 2023.

Watch Out, Thieves About

There is a season for everything it appears .....

Grinch's Stealing Christmas

....  and that includes crime.

Not Just A Football Matter

The Turkish Ankaragucu football club president Faruk Koca was arrested (along with two other suspected of kicking the referee) for "injuring a public official" ....

Faruk Koca 'Punching' The Referee (Not Slapping)

.... after punching referee Halil Umut Meler, in the face at the end of a Turkish Super Lig soccer match.

Back To The USSR

Russian Veronika Belotserkovskaya, also known as 'Belonika' or 'Nika' .....

Russia Is Increasingly Like The USSR

.... was one of the first three charged by the Russian authorities under Russia’s “fake news” law.

Jamie's Ladder

Jamie the pet hamster was being looked after by a friend of his owner .......

Jamie The Hamsters Ladder To Freedom

Now we all know that looking after friends pets is always a task fraught with danger ....

Satan's Freezer

Sarabeth's Restaurant (Amsterdam Avenue and West 80th Street New York), had a unexpected diner on Sunday the 5th of August 2018 ....

Satanic Location ....

... the staff were preparing to open up when at around 11am one of them opened the walk-in freezer doors. 

Doctor Exorcism

Egyptian Doctor Hossam Metwally was practising in the UK's NHS, as an anaesthetist and chronic pain specialist, at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, and also running a pain clinic from his home.

Egyptian Doctor, Hossam Metwally

He had also worked in Saudi Arabia as well as Egypt, before practising in the UK. He moved to Grimsby three years after his arrival in the UK in 1996 ....

Blinded By The Starlight

Two teenager boys aged about 13 or 14 years old decided that it would be a good idea to take advantage of a clear sky in April 2022, and do some stargazing.

The Police Where Not Impressed ....

So living in Sheffield, England, which is surrounded by hills, with the city being less than 3 miles from the start of the Peak District, you would think that they might go there.

Naughty Old Nuns

This story has done the rounds before, but was being reported as news again.

The Naughty Seamstresses Liked A Bit Of Fun .......

The Bayeux Tapestry was sewn/embroidered by English, Anglo-Saxon ladies (possibly nuns), after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and may well not have been a particularly interesting job for ladies. 

Opioid Crisis In Pictures

For every one million Americans, almost 50,000 doses of opioid's are taken every day.

Opioid Daily Usage 2017

That's around four times the rate in the UK. In the 2017, U.S physicians prescribed 47,580 daily doses of narcotics per million inhabitants. This is a high rate compared to those of other countries in the same year: Eg 16,591 daily doses in Australia and 12,058 daily doses in the United Kingdom.

He's Screwy

In October 2021, an unnamed Lithuanian man was rushed to Klaipeda University Hospital (KUH), on the Baltic Sea coast by ambulance with severe abdominal pain.

He's Screwy

The X-Ray's astounded the surgeons, when they saw that his stomach was full of nails, screws, nuts and knives.

Not Joking

 A 24-year-old man was arrested by police after attacking 17 passengers with a knife on a Tokyo train line on Halloween evening 2021.

Japanese Joker

He then sprayed a clear liquid around the railway carriage and set it alight.

Beware The Vidders

When the divorce laws first liberalised in the 1960's in the UK, it was touted as a good thing for women ...

"Beware The Vidders Sir ...."

..... maybe it was for some, but it could be argued that for many it wasn't so great, as it left them poorer financially, and often bringing up baby alone.

Bullying Is Part Of Childhood

Since schools began, and I mean in antiquity, where many Greek and Roman children went to be taught ....

Bullying Is Part Of Childhood

 ..... but certainly since Tom Brown's school days, bullying has been part of the experience.

Animal Popsicles

 Michael Patrick Turland of Arizona ...... 

Arizona Animal?

 ..... .admitted freezing some animals while they were still alive, after 183 animals, including dogs, cats and birds were found in his freezer.

Law Change Needed

Everyone apart from Members of Parliament, knows that the motor vehicles laws are inadequate ...

Martin Newman Was Drunk, With Drug Traces

..... when it comes to dangerous driving resulting in death.

Comatose Cop

An off duty Kenyan policeman, Constable Reuben Kimutai Lel, was involved in a car accident that that left him comatose ...

Comatose Kenyan Policeman

 

...  he was in that state for nine months until September 2021.

Beaver's Illegal Streaming

The town of Tumbler Ridge in the remote north of Canada ....

Internet Theft Was Big In The Beaver World

 

..... suffered a sudden loss of its TV and Internet services on the 24th of April 2021.

Revenge, Retaliation And Destruction

The terror attack by Hamas on Isreal was, for a few brief hours celebrated by some Islamists and Palestinian supporting mobs worldwide ....

Some Celebrated The Hamas Attack October 2023

... while the civilised world was just shocked at the barbarity of the terrorists actions. Hamas, despite all the evidence, has since denied the atrocities that the world saw being committed (no links here, the scenes are too horrific) ... they apparently think we are all as stupid as their followers.

Knit Socks - Just Like The Egyptians

I for one had never thought that the ancient Egyptians knitted  ......

Romano-Egyptian Knitted Socks

..... I had assumed that they grew cotton and wore cotton clothing, especially since the climate is a little hot for woolly jumpers.

Bric-à-Brac

The Chinese are trying to develop an alternative world order, in which theocracies, dictators, autocrats and semi-democrats (the 'semi' being they respect it only when they win), can feel safe from Western interference.

Bric-à-Brac

They are doing this via the vehicle of the BRIC group of countries .....

Stop The World - We Want To Get Off

The biggest mistake that Western politicians have ever made, is in thinking that Islam will reform ....

Some Groups Want
To Stop The World

 ... that under the moderating influences of the global world, some of which world has been informed for a couple of thousand years by the values of Hellenism, and Judaeo-Christianity, it will become a tolerant more 'Western' form of the religion.

Häxan

A magazine I was reading a few years ago made reference to a film by the film director Benjamin Christensen in 1922 ....

Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages

The film (supposedly a 'documentary' ... like the nudist films of the 1960's) was called Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, and was described as having some shocking scenes of the devil, cannibalism and baby sacrifice, especially for the times.

Another One Bites The Dust?

I have not revisited the Samuel Smith empire for some time, but my attention was drawn to them again by an email from a Sam Smiths regular near Blackpool. In particular informing me to the plight of yet another of the brewing empires formerly popular (and apparently once thriving) pubs ...

The Victoria Hotel In Cleveleys Near Blackpool

.... The Victoria Hotel in Cleveleys, near Blackpool. Which according to the informant (who requested no name, or even a hint), has seemingly fallen on some harder times since the Covid lockdowns, when according to the email, recovery for this pub was slow.

Latest Spree Killer

 Here we go again .....

Robert Card - Latest Spree Killer USA

.... at least 18 dead (and possibly more), and an unconfirmed number of injured (but at least 13), as yet again some malcontent decides to grab 15 minutes of infamy, and goes on a killing spree. The state (which is the whitest in the USA), had only had 29 homicides in 2022, so he's likely nearly matched that in a few hours.

Passing Of A Real Legend

 Just a quick post on the passing today of a true sporting legend. 

Sir Robert (Bobby) Charlton CBE, OBE

I was lucky enough to see Bobby Charlton play for Manchester United at Old Trafford and for England, as well as on the few televised football games shown in the 1960's and early 1970's.

A Beautiful Solar System

We live in a beautiful Solar System .....

The Beautiful Solar System

That's always brought home to me whenever I see a picture of the solar system.

A Modern Bluebeard

When I was a child I remember hearing the Germanic tale of 'Bluebeard' a wealthy and powerful nobleman, who marries woman after woman, afterwards killing each bride after collecting their dowries.

Bluebeard ~ The Serial Wife Killer

 

In the original versions of the tale, the motive for these killings isn't exactly as clear cut in those early folk versions. But when I heard the story as a kid, it was clearly for the money, and other cultures also have stories on the same theme e.g. the French story entitled The White Dove.

Sometimes Its Hard To Be A Woman

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman ...

Its Hard To Be A Woman

... or so the song says.

Unicorn Wishes

 What girl doesn't want a pet unicorn ......

Unicorn - North Wales?

... its even better than a pony.

Speech Is Only Free For Some

 Religion is threatening to destroy free speech and choice in the UK .....

The Lady Of Heaven

..... that's the only conclusion one can draw from the news that a few hundred protestors, have been able to stop the Cineworld chain from screening the film 'The Lady of Heaven'.

Terror In Israel

The images being shown from Israel this week, after the ISIS style mass terrorist attack from the Gaza strip by the animals of Hamas have been frankly very disturbing.

Hostages Face Terror In Gaza

 .... the terror on a young woman, Noa Argamani's face, as she is hauled away to be kept possibly for years as a hostage, and probably being abused, is not something I'll easily forget. I certainly couldn't face looking at the pictures or video's that Hamas put out while committing these barbarous acts.

Plumbing The Depths

Florida is a never ending source of the strange and wonderful of human behaviour .....

Large Storm Drains Are Ubiquitous In The USA

I have to suspect its the heat, malaria carrying mosquito's, lack of free psychiatric help and drugs.

Taiwan's Economic Miracle

Amongst the recent tensions over the visit of Nancy Pelosi, a high ranking US politician, to the island of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China [ROC]) ...

Nancy Pelosi In Taiwan

It's often forgotten that although the Peoples Republic of China makes aggressive claims to Taiwan being an integral part of China (along with various islands across the South China sea), in point of fact Taiwan had been ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895.

Armenian's Have Long Memories

The Muslim Azerbaijanis aided by their allies the Turks have just conquered the Christian Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (who were also abandoned by the Russians, who were supposed to be their allies and peace protectors) ....

Armenian Refugees - Sensible To Flee?

.... And 101,000 of the 120,000 inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh (known as Arsakh's) flee from the fear of the rapes and killings that the takeover threatens for them.

Unwanted Pregnancy

Haylee Kent, a 21 year old of Baker County, Florida was arrested on child neglect charges .....

Not Ready For Motherhood

...... after her baby was found to be gravely ill due to life-threatening starvation.

What's Happened To Firefox?

 I have been, or perhaps I should say was, a loyal user of the Firefox web browser .....

.... but the last two releases appear to have an unfixed stability bug.

The Loan Shark Circles

Do you remember a few years ago, when the UK government was forced by campaigners to crack down on payday lenders?

Wonga Once The UK's Biggest Payday Lender

 

The criticism was for the high-cost, short-term loans, seen as targeting the vulnerable, and that were advertised regularly on TV and other social/media platforms.

Slow Justice Is No Justice

The Indian courts are notoriously slow .....

Too Many Lawyers Slow The Courts Down

 

... they literally took the very worst of the British Legal Systems and civil service, and added a large dose of Indian lethargy and corruption, and declared themselves satisfied in 1948.

What's Your Poison?

Poisoning someone, in an attempt to kill them without being seen as the killer, is perhaps one of the oldest murder methods in the world.

Arsenic Poison Bottle

As soon as a man trapped a woman in an unhappy coupling, or as soon as we invented Kings, we invented poisoning as a method of removing them.

The Autocrats Club

The Arabs have a club .....

The Arab League

...... the Arab League. 

Thanks A Million

Well, in something of a milestone ....

Cheerleaders Dancing

 

..... this blog has passed a million views, well according to the blogs stats (which are displayed at the bottom of the page as Total Pageviews).

Paying For Sex

Americas no blame without a payout culture apparently knows no bounds ....

Car Hanky Panky Banned

...... a woman who had sex with a man in his car and claims that she contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) while doing so, has claimed damages of $5.2m (£4.2m) for "past and future medical expenses" and "mental and physical pain and suffering," from the mans cars insurers.

Money, Drugs, Guns and Urban Decay

We have discussed in the past, the troubles of Mexico as it tries unsuccessfully to beat the drug cartels .....

Mexican Cartel Leader Arrested

A battle that it increasingly looks like its losing.