I realise I am grabbing the 3rd rail with this thread, but I feel I cannot stay silent any longer. The attached news report makes truly shocking reading: Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, UN rights expert says
Not only is the Israeli government and army denying food supplies to the...
A new report from the International Energy Agency says that electricity generation from renewable sources should reach almost 42% of total generation by 2025, overtaking coal as the leading source of powergen. World’s renewable energy capacity grew at record pace in 2023
Renewable capacity...
I have just watched an hour long interview with Dominic Grieve, who was for 4 years the UK's Attorney General in David Cameron's government. He was chucked out of the Conservative party by Bozo, after he opposed Bozo's attempt to prorogue Parliament and subsequently got deselected by his local...
Interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times, explaining that many corporations are now signing long term agreements to buy electricity from proposed renewable generation projects, thus providing the projects with the commercial confidence to invest. Apparently in Europe, over 20% of...
At least, that is what the exit polls show, and they are considered reliable. So Donald Tusk may become premier and Poland will not, after all, be going the Orban quasi-autocracy route, it seems.
Good news, if confirmed.
I found this 1982 interview between Friedrich Hund (of Hund's Rules) and Paul Dirac (of the Dirac Equation, bra-ket notation etc) on YouTube. At the time Dirac was 80 - he died 2 years later - and Hund, who looks in better shape, was 86 - he lived to 101.
This may not mean a lot to many...
David Mitchell has tried to alert the world to this little-appreciated CIA conspiracy, drawing attention to a book on the subject by Keith Chegwin, the Labour peer. Apparently the book was funded in part by Col. Sanders.
More detailed explanation in this short video (<2mins):
I thought...
I saw this on the BBC and thought it rather sweet and funny.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-65196904
A very affectionate (clearly muslim) cat. It made me wonder what its name was and then it came to me: kit-ab. :cool:
We sang Attende Domine at mass this morning, which is an ancient (c.10th) Mozarabic Gregorian hymn, traditionally sung in Lent.
Mozarabic is the term for the Christians living under muslim rule in the era of Al-Andalus, in Spain. So it's a really old text. I have not been able to discover how...
Today's project has been something I have been meaning to do for ages, but have never found the time to tackle: getting my trophy oar up on the wall, somewhere in the house. My wife always resisted this, so for years it stood, on its end, on the 2nd floor landing of the staircase. At last I have...
"Four In One" by Damon Knight, written in 1953. This made a big impression on me, when I read it in my teens in the 1960s, so I remember it well. I tried to look for it on the internet, but had forgotten the author, so initially had no luck. Anyway I've finally found it. Best of all, there is...
Listening to an interview with Susie Dent, the lexicographer well known to watchers of British TV game shows (yes, really), I was much taken with her description of the word "petrichor".
This is the name given by scientists, in the 1960s, to that special smell one gets after rain. People have...
Our church choir, (including me, just for the Christmas season) will be singing this, Arcadelt's Ave Maria tomorrow at communion:
Arcadelt was Flemish/French and lived in the c.16th, the era of renaissance polyphony, though this simple little piece is really homophonic rather than polyphonic...
This is a funny story: ‘Losing the plot’: Trump mocked after announcing superhero card collection
What does he think he is doing to his reputation? A superhero card collection? WTF?
Or has he given up and is now looking for a new way to make money in his dotage?
I'm sure De Sanity Clause...
We sang this at mass today, during communion. I love it. I rejoined the choir to help out, as not everyone was confident singing this Gregorian hymn:
For a translation see the Wiki article: Rorate caeli - Wikipedia
We omit the 4th verse.
A few years ago I arranged to sing the verses...
This is somewhat amusing, in view of the recent crowing from the US Right about this guy being a big donor to the Democrat party.: FTX billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried funneled dark money to Republicans
I burst out laughing to read today that KFC sent out a promotional message to its German customers, inviting them to celebrate the anniversary of Kristallnacht, with cheesy chicken.
KFC apologises after German Kristallnacht promotion
The level of historical ignorance is appalling. As is also...
I didn't know this piece until recently. It's actually from Organ Sonata No4 in E Minor, but various people have had a go at adapting it for the piano. The dynamics are obviously made up by the pianist: you would not get those on the keyboard instruments of Bach's day (organ, harpsichord), but...