Its A Scary World

The world has become a very scary and strange place of late.

This Sort of Scary Is Within Our Cultural Norms ....

For those of us lucky enough to be born into the Western world, most of the scariness in our lives comes from the external cultures being introduced into ours, often via immigration, or perhaps globalisation. And the strangeness's, well they can nearly always be explained within our own cultural contexts (even The 'Donald'). Mostly it comes from our Western freedom to do our own thing, as long as it harms no others, so eccentricities abound, and are largely tolerated.

Ankh-Lesspork

The USA was apparently aghast when in one of those 'Fake News' stories (Or is it an alternative truth), that have suddenly come to haunt us out of the blue (who had even heard of the idea of fake news before this year?), reported that there was a national shortage of bacon in the USA!

Pork Belly Futures - Always Big In The USA and China

Well to be precise (and you learn something new every day), belly pork supplies (from which bacon is cut), were at an all time low. The national pork belly reserves had hit a low of about 8.2 million kg in December 2016, according to the government figures, compared with about 22.7 million kg a year earlier. The reasons given for this were many and varied. All day breakfasts at Wendy's and McDonald's being one of them.

Room With A View

News from the North, is that a convicted rapist/murderer from Scotland, Graham Coutts has decided to request a room with a view.

Cell With A View ... Scenic Of Course.

The idea is that having spent much of his prison time in Yorkshire England (where he admits the food is better), he now wants to see the 'snow topped mountain' hills of Scotland when he looks out of his cell bars.

Hidden History

The exact location of the tomb of Alexander the Great, and his final will and settlement of his Empire have long been mysteries. The location of the tomb for instance has been lost for centuries. Initially buried in Memphis Egypt but later in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, Alexander's body was allegedly transferred from Memphis to Alexandria, where it was reburied.

Is This His Sarcophagus?

Historically its location was known for hundreds of years, it was visited by Caesar in 48BC and partially looted later by Caligula. In 199AD Alexander's tomb was sealed up by Emperor Septimius Severus during his visit to Alexandria, and then in 215AD, some items from Alexander's tomb were relocated by Emperor Caracalla for reasons that are not clear.

Passport Blues

For all of you who are still panicking over the EU departure (as if it was a bereavement), and for whom the loss of an EU passport is like identity theft …. Panic Not!

Panic Not .....

For apart from all the various dual national schemes available for each EU member country, there are also millionaire routes as well e.g. Invest around a million pounds into Malta, live there one year, and you qualify for citizenship on an EU passport. Alternatively if you rush over to live in an EU country right now … they may be willing to offer you residency in a few years .... or maybe not.