UNESCO world heritage sites
Did you know that UNESCO has seen fit to recognise 28 UNESCO World Heritage Sites here in the UK? Me neither and now I have looked into it, it’s a motley collection. I wouldn’t travel far to see some of them.
Edinburgh’s is near the top of the list – but to my mind [...]
Is Global Warming a Con?
Is the world getting warmer or cooler. It’s getting cooler if you look back 1000 years – but not if you try a bit harder and go back to the time of Christ. Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals.
Changes to the Earth’s [...]
Farewell Patrick Swayze
Now I am not much of a movie buff, but even i was slightly perplexed and annoyed by the way the media announced Patrick Swayze’s death. Listening to the BBC, you would have thought that the only thing he did in his life was Dirty Dancing and Ghost. But anyone who went [...]
September 15, 2009Adios Keith Floyd
So farewell Keith Floyd. The broadcasting legend, raconteur, bon viveur & erratic chef went out surely in a way of his own choosing – passing quietly away after a typically understated meal of oysters, partridge & champagne. His final words apparently were “I haven’t felt this well in ages”.
I had a lot [...]
Pirate raid in Scotland!
Pieces of eight, shiver me timbers and pass round the grog – it seems that the pirate ship used in the Pirates of the Caribbean films has been raided in Scotland. Jack Sparrow must have on shore looking for a decent malt to top-up the grog supplies and the thieves must have been [...]
September 14, 2009Paris Hilton Joins Literary Greats
I found it pretty amusing when I saw that the erstwhile porn video star and self-proclaimed Socialite Paris Hilton has been immortalised in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, alongside Nobel Prize winners, philosophers and presidents.
Fashion advice from the 28-year-old heiress is one of 20,000 new entries in the prestigious book.
“Dress cute wherever [...]
Harris Tweed tries to be less Scottish
One of the week’s more unlikely stories was scotched this week with the boss of a Harris Tweed manufacturer denying the firm was “de-Scottishifying” amid fears of a US backlash over the release of Lockerbie bomber. That makes two reasons why the yanks might be uncomfortable wearing their Scottish roots
There was outrage in the [...]
England are Actually Looking Good
I suggest that I was not the only one pinching myself in amazement last night as England walked into the World Cup finals. And this was actually the second time we have thrashed out old nemesis Croatia.
As the players are largely the ones who looked so clueless under Sven Urine Eriksson and [...]
Lockerbie Bomber Walks Free
A recent act of political stupidity seems to have enraged everybody. So well done to the Scotsman in a suit who managed it by releasing the man convicted of blowing up a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie ‘for humane reasons’. Even though this was an appalling tragedy, there was a certain amount of [...]
September 9, 2009Winning the lottery is an illusion
I hate the national lottery. It’s voluntary tax on the working classes. So I was not particularly interested to hear some illusionist called Derren Brown appeared live on television to predict the winning numbers in the National Lottery.
The illusionist claimed to have printed his prediction on six white balls earlier in the day and these [...]