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 ...