Friday, 31 March 2017
Operation Biting, Part Two
A Triumph of Combined Operations
On 24 February 1942 Frost and his men finished packing the equipment containers for dispatch to RAF Thruxton in Hampshire, but the weather conditions were inappropriate to mount the raid. February 27th was considered to be the last possible day to mount the operation, but weather conditions were still not ideal. The naval force departed for France that afternoon and the paratroopers were ferried to Thruxton for the long, brooding wait until nightfall. Group Captain Norman had a last O-group with Frost and told him there was snow lying on the other side of the Channel. The Major was annoyed that this hadn’t been identified earlier so that they could have got their hands on white, camouflaged snowsuits. Frost made a last tour of his men and then with a piper blasting out their various regimental marches, the raiders marched to their aircraft.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
Question Time with Going Postal, 30th March 2017
David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Carlisle.
On the panel are Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, Labour MP Lisa Nandy, Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and the news editor of the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, Kate Andrews.
On the panel are Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, Labour MP Lisa Nandy, Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and the news editor of the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, Kate Andrews.
Lloyds of London 'My Word is my Bond' A Page in the Diary
6am: Unleash bowel movement Purging yesterdays Petrol washed translucent flake cocaine, continental lager and sundry sweet meats.
6.10am: Get up.
6.11am: Think about Killing Myself. Shower/power wank while thinking of the Receptionists Feet , toe rings and Ankle Chain, thus processing remaining toxins down the plug hole.Catharsis Most Foul.Self worth at all time low.
6.45am: violent argument with wife.
7 am: No time for breakfast , off to work!.
The Flag of a Sovereign Nation
The United Kingdom is once more a sovereign nation, just rejoice at that news.
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
King's Quest - Afterword
There were some who, even in the presence of the King, the Sword and the Wyvern, still could not perceive or accept that there was anything beyond material appearances. Most of the scoffers had learned the error of their ways, but the spiritual defectives were sub-human monsters that could not be permitted to pollute and pervert Wessex by their continued existence, so they had had to be slaughtered. Even plants and animals had their own connections to the Otherworld, and did not deny their natures. Humans who fell below that level were an abomination.
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Incarceration, Part Four
Banged Up
Colin paused for a drink of his beer, nodded at me with a bit of a grin and then went on;
“This is where we get to the point of the tale” he said “you asked me what I thought about the state of prisons and why it appears that it is impossible to keep discipline. All I can do is tell you what it was like for me, some of my memory of it is pretty sketchy but other bits seem as if they only happened yesterday”. Colin laughed when he said this and continued; “I might have to use a bit of poetic license”.
The officer behind the desk looked down at Colin and asked for his name, he was told to strip, his clothing was packed into a cardboard box, along with his few valuables and, in exchange, he was handed a pile of clothes and marched to a communal bath house. He was searched while naked, including having to “spread his cheeks” while the accompanying officer shone a torch into his rectum. “It was all pretty humiliating, I was told to run a bath with no more than four inches of water in it and then, while the officer looked on I had to scrub myself down with a rough old flannel. I then got dressed in clean but pre used underwear, a grey shirt and an itchy brown blouson jacket and trousers”.
Monday, 27 March 2017
Question Time Brexit Special with Going Postal, 27th March 2017
Brexit Special
David Dimbleby presents a special edition of Question Time from Birmingham - Britain after Brexit. On the panel are secretary of state for exiting the EU David Davis, shadow secretary of state for exiting the EU Sir Keir Starmer, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, deputy chair of Ukip Suzanne Evans and Times columnist Melanie Phillips.
David Dimbleby presents a special edition of Question Time from Birmingham - Britain after Brexit. On the panel are secretary of state for exiting the EU David Davis, shadow secretary of state for exiting the EU Sir Keir Starmer, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, deputy chair of Ukip Suzanne Evans and Times columnist Melanie Phillips.
The Sun - page 2 unfortunately....
Previously, we looked at our Sun and how it works however only a small part was covered. We saw that quantum tunneling allowed protons to fuse in conditions that classical physics - that relying only on kinetic energy being enough to overcome the electrostatic coulomb barrier - would allow. This article will cover the main parts of the rest of the process going on in the Sun as well as larger stars.
Larger, heavier elements
So far, we have fused 2 protons together however a process called β+ decay converts one of the protons in to a neutron to make the nucleus stable - consider that both protons are positive in charge so they will want to repel. The thing we have now is a deuteron with 1 proton and 1 neutron which is written as 21H. It has 2 'things' in the nucleus and 1 of them is a proton with the H denoting it as hydrogen; it is a hydrogen isotope meaning that it is like hydrogen but slightly different. At this stage, it is likely that a stray passing proton (remember this is a hydrogen nucleus and hydrogen is plentiful in our Sun) will fuse with this creating 32He which is a helium isotope with 3 nucleons, 2 of which are protons and the other is a neutron. More often than not in our Sun, this will react with another 32He created similarly and form a true helium nucleus 42He and 2 separate protons. Congratulations, you have now navigated what is known as PPI which is the most common branch of our star's proton-proton fusion chain!
Larger, heavier elements
So far, we have fused 2 protons together however a process called β+ decay converts one of the protons in to a neutron to make the nucleus stable - consider that both protons are positive in charge so they will want to repel. The thing we have now is a deuteron with 1 proton and 1 neutron which is written as 21H. It has 2 'things' in the nucleus and 1 of them is a proton with the H denoting it as hydrogen; it is a hydrogen isotope meaning that it is like hydrogen but slightly different. At this stage, it is likely that a stray passing proton (remember this is a hydrogen nucleus and hydrogen is plentiful in our Sun) will fuse with this creating 32He which is a helium isotope with 3 nucleons, 2 of which are protons and the other is a neutron. More often than not in our Sun, this will react with another 32He created similarly and form a true helium nucleus 42He and 2 separate protons. Congratulations, you have now navigated what is known as PPI which is the most common branch of our star's proton-proton fusion chain!
Sunday, 26 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.6
ACT 2
SCENE 6
A Chamber in the Royal Palace. Enter KING VUSILLUS, QUEEN
VULPECULA attended by ETTY, and PRINCE FELIX.
Saturday, 25 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.5
ACT 2
SCENE 5
The Garden of the Royal Palace at Purdonium. Enter KING VUSILLUS,
QUEEN VULPECULA and PRINCE FELIX, attended by ETTY.
All and Everything
You have a life, you get older, things happen, you try to learn by observing what happened and more importantly your own reaction to something that happened.
Friday, 24 March 2017
They Said it Couldn’t Happen
Colin always looked forward to Tuesday nights in domino season, good crack, some beers and a dozen or so games of 5’s & 3’s. His musings were disturbed by a knock on the front door, unusual in the small village where he lived, but not unknown. He made himself as presentable as he could, given he was wrapped in a bath towel and had his dressing gown on and went to answer the by now insistent knocking. His wife called from the kitchen to ask who it was, Colin thought “If I knew that I’d have x-ray vision, FFS” but said nothing and proceeded to answer the door.
Thursday, 23 March 2017
Question Time with Going Postal, 23rd March 2017
David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Bangor, north Wales.
On the panel are Conservative policing minister Brandon Lewis, shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith, leader of Plaid Cymru Leanne Wood, Church of England priest and Guardian columnist Giles Fraser and the Times, Spectator and GQ columnist Hugo Rifkind.
On the panel are Conservative policing minister Brandon Lewis, shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith, leader of Plaid Cymru Leanne Wood, Church of England priest and Guardian columnist Giles Fraser and the Times, Spectator and GQ columnist Hugo Rifkind.
Operation Biting, Part One
On Friday 5th December 1941, a lone Spitfire flown by Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Tony Hill thundered south-westerly down the French coast at 200 feet, underneath a solid overcast. The Spitfire was unarmed and carried extra fuel in an auxiliary tank behind the pilot. In the rear fuselage was an obliquely mounted F.24 camera. This photographic reconnaissance (PR) mission was the culmination of a number of operations instigated at the request Doctor R. V. Jones, who was then Assistant Director of Intelligence (Science) at the Intelligence Section of the Air Ministry. These low-level missions were known as “Dicing” Ops, as in Dicing with Death and the pilot kept craning his head around to make sure he wasn’t being tailed by the extremely aggressive “Abbeville Boys,” the German fighters from JG 26.
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
King's Quest - Revelation
“It would be too embarrassing not to,” agreed Cecily. “A Regency Council seems the obvious thing, unless John has enough support to be Prince Regent?”
“I’m very disappointed in John,” said Matilda. “He just doesn’t seem to care.”
There was much discussion and uncertainty as people took their places in the Great Hall and awaited the arrival of the King. Many had worries and conflicting concerns which they hoped to raise, and with the swirling rumours weakening the authority of the King there was little confidence that this meeting would achieve much, and considerable fear about what might happen if the King demonstrated that he was no longer a mentally capable ruler.
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
Incarceration, Part Three
We had been talking for about an hour by now and it was my turn to get the pints in. I often find it quite surprising when I learn things about people that I would have found hard to believe if someone else had related them to me. I don’t suppose you ever really know anyone until you sit down and get them to open up about themselves. I was enthralled by the story though and urged Colin to continue.
Arrest and Incarceration
“We were oblivious to time and we were only concerned with stealing what we could. You have to remember that we had been on a drug and alcohol bender for days, which tends to make you bold and careless in equal measure” Colin said.
Of course, the noise from the breaking glass and the damaging of the premises had alerted the people living locally and they had naturally called the police. Colin had no recollection of how long they had been inside the premises before they were warned to come out with empty hands and give themselves up. Colin himself realised that the game was up; there was no other way out of the building and there were several policemen outside the front. Chris though had different ideas, not long out of prison he shouted to the police to come in and get him, telling them it wouldn’t be easy. To emphasise his point he hurled a display stand at the open door.
Monday, 20 March 2017
The Great Emu War
By September 1920, the government had purchased 90,000 hectares for the veterans, but still needed more, and started to place the remaining soldiers in some pretty marginal areas of Perth in Western Australia. This made things tough, because setting up a prosperous farm with little to no experience in a good area is no small feat, let alone in an area where the land is barely useable. The veterans were put under even more pressure when the Great Depression hit in 1929, causing wheat prices to plummet. The government promised subsidies for wheat, but those subsidies never came.
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.4
ACT 2
SCENE 4
A Chamber in the Royal Palace. Enter PRINCE FELIX and his Friend
AMMONTILADO.
The GP Sunday Special - Homemade Salt Beef
 |
| NOT 'Gypsy' Dave Cooper's Salt Beef |
Many years ago when I dared to visit East London on business myself and the old man would always visit a Jewish bakery in Bethnal Green and feast ourselves on some amazing salt beef sandwiches. Ever since then I’ve tried all sorts of supermarket versions but they never came close, so I thought sod it, I’ll try and make my own. It’s dead simple and just requires a bit of patience for the beef brisket to cure but it is well worth the wait. Also be aware that the Yanks call salt beef ‘corned beef’ which can be confusing as corned beef in the UK is totally different to salt beef.
Saturday, 18 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.3
ACT 2
SCENE 3
The Banqueting Hall at the Royal Palace. The Table is laden with rich
Viands. A Sennet. Enter KING VUSILLUS, QUEEN VULPECULA and
PRINCE FELIX with COURTIERS and ATTENDANTS.
Water
After my divorces I was homeless, after the last one I travelled about.
There is a freedom about being homeless but you need money to pay for petrol.
Anyway somebody said I could stay in their little cottage in Clare for a bit 'till I sorted myself out.
God is it a bit bleak ?
I gathered myself together and decided to investigate the springs that were about and the possible reasons why the springs might be associated with saints.
I am not a scholar myself.
I grasp something immediately and that is more or less what I want to know.
The big picture and the details are the details for me not for somebody else unless I say.
Friday, 17 March 2017
Problems, Problems
Hello, I do hope that you can help; my neighbours and I live in a very nice cul- de-sac (Britannia Way) of four detached houses. For many years now we have enjoyed a special relationship built on shared values and common interest.
During the time we have lived here there has grown up a very large estate on a brown field site to the rear of our land. The people living on this estate are very different to us and although we have tried to engage with them we have had little success. All that has happened is we are now less well off, the value of our homes is fast diminishing and the demands of our newer neighbours to share in our once rural idyll has become more and more vociferous. Recently there has been an influx of people from further afield. At least with those already living on the estate we shared some commonality but this latest group of people are in no way similar to ourselves.
They all seem to believe that work is not a requirement, that women are second class citizens, that our children are their playthings and we owe them a living.
The Nuremberg Raid - Part Four, Within the Context of the Strategic Bombing Offensive
In the months following the Nuremberg, Bomber Command carried out the directives in preparation for the invasion of France. It attacked the railway network that was vital for the Germans in moving their reinforcements, in particular the armoured divisions. The whole of the French and Belgium railway network was attacked so that the Germans wouldn’t identify Normandy as the invasion site. The crews appreciated these shorter raids into France, although French targets only counted as one third of an operation towards the tour length of 30. Whenever possible Harris sent a force into Germany and the raids became more effective due to improved techniques and marking pioneered by No 5 Group.
In the period after D-Day, the Command was sent against the V-Weapon launching and assembly sites, the V1 Ski Ramps hidden in woods, the vast underground V2 assembly and launching bunker at La Coupole and the V3 Supergun complex at Mimoyecques. La Coupole was attacked with “Tallboy” 12,000lb armour piercing bombs that penetrated the underground complex and lifted and tilted the concrete cupola. It never assembled or launched a single V2. If you are in the Pas de Calais, the site is well worth a visit, housing a museum to rocketry and space travel and predictably La Résistance, but in typical bloody French style, not a mention of the Bomber Command aircraft that destroyed it. Harris’s Command had proved that as well as a very blunt instrument it could carry out precision attacks.
In the period after D-Day, the Command was sent against the V-Weapon launching and assembly sites, the V1 Ski Ramps hidden in woods, the vast underground V2 assembly and launching bunker at La Coupole and the V3 Supergun complex at Mimoyecques. La Coupole was attacked with “Tallboy” 12,000lb armour piercing bombs that penetrated the underground complex and lifted and tilted the concrete cupola. It never assembled or launched a single V2. If you are in the Pas de Calais, the site is well worth a visit, housing a museum to rocketry and space travel and predictably La Résistance, but in typical bloody French style, not a mention of the Bomber Command aircraft that destroyed it. Harris’s Command had proved that as well as a very blunt instrument it could carry out precision attacks.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Question Time with Going Postal, 16th March 2017
David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Bognor Regis.
On the panel are Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, Labour MP Angela Eagle, the SNP's home affairs and justice spokesperson Joanna Cherry, the chairman of the Wetherspoon pub chain Tim Martin and the Times columnist, Matthew Parris.
On the panel are Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, Labour MP Angela Eagle, the SNP's home affairs and justice spokesperson Joanna Cherry, the chairman of the Wetherspoon pub chain Tim Martin and the Times columnist, Matthew Parris.
Incarceration, Part Two
A Slippery Slope
Once he got back home Colin had reluctantly been allowed to move into the house owned by his step father but he wasn’t really welcome. His mother had made her choices and she wasn’t about to risk what she now had for the sake of her wayward son. Consequently he spent as much time out of the house as possible. To his mother he had fallen in with a “very bad crowd” before he had moved to Stratford. So far as Colin was concerned he had been amongst friends.
On his return it hadn’t taken Colin long to get back in with the “very bad crowd” of guys he had hung around with before he’d left. He hadn’t really kept in touch and was quite surprised at how much had changed in the 18 months that he’d been away. Speed was overwhelmingly the drug of choice and the favourite way of getting hold of pills was by burgling chemist shops.
Two or three pharmacies were getting raided every week with varying degrees of success. Some of the gang had already done a spell in a detention centre and others were currently away doing time in places like Stoke Heath and Feltham, both Borstal Training facilities. Others, slightly older, were either (or recently had been) in main stream prisons like Armley and Strangeways.
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
King's Quest - Awakening
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Brexit and Trump was a racist coup - We can't allow it to stand
The future is queer and multicultural. The liberal left must stand stand with its allies in the Muslim community, Black Lives Matter and the feminist movement to ensure this progressive revolution.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Discredited, bad ideas were supposed to disappear into the ash heap of history never to darken our doorways again. The progressive, colourful, open minded, feminist, gender bending path we seemed to be on appeared to be a seamless journey; but as we know, things rarely run smoothly. Struggles we thought we had already fought and won and were now behind us now have to be all over fought again.
The movements that brought us Brexit and Trump were the last anguished cry of a dying white male patriarchal system rebelling against the increasingly brown, trans and queer modern world. A petulant regressive, retrograde rejection of inclusivity and tolerance. It was - and let's be honest - a coup of an angry mostly male and pale minority terrified about losing their influence in a fast changing environment that saw gay marriage legalised and emergence and acceptance of a previously suppressed trans community very quickly in the last few years.
Monday, 13 March 2017
Politicizing the nursery
DANGER FROM THE RIGHT
Original German text by Julia Jung
Increasingly, day nurseries are seeking help because they have to deal with RIGHTWING PARENTS: How do you react to this, when their ideology and discrimination penetrate into the everyday life of the kindergarten?
Rightwing extremism: the word prompts fear, you think of burning refugee shelters, men with shaven heads, or even of the crimes of the NSU (Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, National Socialist Underground). You do not generally associate it with women, families and children. And precisely here arises a great danger.
Sunday, 12 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.2
ACT 2
SCENE 2
The Sewing Room in the Royal Palace. Enter TILDA and ETTY, bearing a
Basket of Stuffs and Ribbons.
Saturday, 11 March 2017
Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 2.1
ACT 2
SCENE 1
The Bower of QUEEN VULPECULA in the Royal Palace of Purdonium.
Enter VULPECULA in her Undergarments and ETTY, her Maidservant,
bearing a Corset.
Fashion
"You are the only person I know that does not have a personality"
I have let things slip but that is by the by.
Sometimes you get confronted by an enthusiastic person on a mission to convert you to see the world as they see it.
I was once accosted by two american born again Christians who I was at first willing to engage in conversation but then one of them was saying that he was seeing angels dying on the cafe floor the more I expressed my disinterest in their view of reality.
And the Greenham Common women were something else.
I wondered
How do people get to be like that ?
To all adopt the same ideas about the way something should be.
I used to associate with some people concerned with selling fashionable clothing.
There were services that you could subscribe to saying what the colours were going to be for the next autumn and that sort of thing.
Friday, 10 March 2017
The Nuremberg Raid - Part Three, The Targets and Return Flight
 |
| 31st March 1944 |
As the stragglers made the turn south for the run-in, the Pathfinders were over the target, or rather what they believed was the target. They found that the ground was obscured by a thick layer of cloud extending from 2,000 to 12,000 feet. This was extremely unfortunate because the Pathfinders’ marking pyrotechnics, codename “Newhaven” were for visual marking of a moonlit target and not “Wanganui” for sky marking. Additionally the crews of the main force had been briefed for a “Newhaven” attack. Two Mosquitos in the Pathfinders should have located the target on their H2S radars to drop green markers, but one of the aircraft’s H2S wasn’t operating and the second Mosquito was elsewhere. Because the backer-up marker Pathfinders had failed to appreciate the much changed forecast winds they had been blown to the east. These aircraft were over Lauf, a much smaller town than Nuremberg, but one that gave a similar radar picture on the H2s. While some realised their error, at least 4 aircraft dropped their markers. Most of the accurate markers were burning merrily underneath the cloud.
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Question Time with Going Postal, 9th Marchy 2017
David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Sunderland.
On the panel are culture secretary Karen Bradley MP, shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP (Commie bastard), SNP international trade spokesperson Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee (Silly old cow), and Fraser Nelson (Wet as fuck), editor of The Spectator.
On the panel are culture secretary Karen Bradley MP, shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP (Commie bastard), SNP international trade spokesperson Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee (Silly old cow), and Fraser Nelson (Wet as fuck), editor of The Spectator.
School, and finding a love, of learning
I was an inquisitive child, I wanted to know how, and why. Mum was one of those who thought 'just because' was an answer. Dad was much better but worked several jobs so wasn't around as much. Big brother and his mates weren't much use either. I remember a 'discussion' about a tractor. The man a few houses up worked on the farm and drove back for dinner on his Farmall three wheel tractor which he left running, I said he should stop it and restart it when he'd had his dinner. Big Brother, having heard the throwaway line from a grown up I suppose, stated that 'it didn't use any fuel on tickover', insisted that I was wrong. I do remember, at the age of five, standing my ground saying it must use something otherwise it wouldn't go until clouts from Big Brother and his mate ended the debate. I remember an earlier time being taken to see the the runners with the Olympic torch passing by on 'The Turnpike' as my parents called the A30 road some five or six miles away. I remember being thoroughly puzzled by the lights in the road that came on when a car came along and switched off after it passed. I thought it pretty clever, we didn't have lights in our lanes. I'm thinking it may have been the '48 Olympics when I was nearly three. Perhaps this early curiosity was what led me into engineering and design.
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