nourishing obscurity » 2011

Steam cars

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

Pelland steam car The Cyclone Plymouth steamer Wiki on modern use of steam in cars

2 Comments »
Filed under: Society & human issues, Technology & ideas

Les Blacks champions, les Bleus valeureux

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

Sorry but couldn’t resist the temptation. This is what I don’t like about NZ. I looked at the match report in the NZ Herald and it was all about the All Blacks, nothing about France and how valiant they were. Near the end of the report, they did manage a few words about France:

5 Comments »
Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport

Be careful what you wish for

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

Churchmouse comes to the point I’ve been trying to make myself for a long time, he puts it in two words which he gets to via a post on the throwing out of the elderly from their homes. You might remember [also Snowolf and Longrider]:

13 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics

State Cows on Sunday

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

Here’s one for Sunday morning. Slow Review from a while back: Imagine a Steely Dan covers band saying right, that’s the covers done, now let’s make some music. Get on board!

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Filed under: Music

France – Nouvelle-Zélande live blogging

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

UPDATES 10:46: Damn. Oh well, that’s it for Rugby – bye bye. 09:55: Dagg misses touch and things are just starting to fall away for New Zealand. France have the ball in their own half as the game meanders towards the break. Bonne réception de Yachvili sur la chandelle de Dagg. 09:42: Two completely different [...]

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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport

That little question of rule of law

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

There was the tricky question whether to run this at OoL or here. As the source of the post was a private blog, I thought it might be best here. The peerless Nameless Libertarian wrote a post on That Little Question Of Faith and a certain worthy gent named Longrider added his comments on that. [...]

4 Comments »
Filed under: History & Culture, Religion & Philosophy

Cameron’s Gaddafi moment on Monday

Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by James Higham

James at OoL now.

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Monkey on misplaced pride

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by James Higham

The eunuch should not take pride in his chastity.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Diversions, Society & human issues

More profound music(?)

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by JD

Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Arkestra!

1 Comment »
Filed under: Art, Cyberfun, JD, Music

Old electric cars are just as good

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by Chuckles

What to make of this: Meet the Roberts electric car. Built in 1896, it gets a solid 40 miles to the charge — exactly the mileage Chevrolet advertises for the Volt, the highly touted $31,645 electric car General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.” If you didn’t know [...]

2 Comments »
Filed under: Chuckles, Technology & ideas

Those protests … sigh … again

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by James Higham

Via Churchmouse who comments on Old Holborn: It became clear they had no agenda other than to simply be there in case anything important happened. It didn’t. Eventually, the self appointed “leader” decided that everyone should huddle together and make up a list of “demands”.

5 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics

Hats

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by Chuckles

3 Comments »
Filed under: Chuckles, Humour, Literature & performing arts

The necessity for overreaction

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 by James Higham

First the news snippet: WD is expecting flooding in Thailand to “significantly impact” disk drive availability this quarter after the situation deteriorated. The HDD giant last week confirmed that facilities close to Bangkok were closed as it dealt with the natural disaster. Rival Seagate is also evaluating the extent of the damage on sub assembly [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Kerchers are not suing

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by James Higham

This is in the nature of a public notice. In the past few days, someone has been ramping up claims by supporters of the convicted murderess [temporarily released under the appeals system] Amanda Knox that the Kercher family plan to sue for $12m. From the mouths of the Kerchers themselves, via trusted people and thus [...]

4 Comments »
Filed under: Society & human issues

What on earth?

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by Chuckles

It’s obviously a memorial or piece of art but where and for what purpose?

6 Comments »
Filed under: Chuckles, Diversions

Things you absolute must have

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by James Higham

Good old Imgur:

3 Comments »
Filed under: Humour, Technology & ideas

In their own words

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by James Higham

Looks quite altruistic, responsible, looks like they’re doing right by their constituents: Mr Jackson told The World at One on Radio 4 that he was prepared to lose his job to back a referendum. “Some things are more important than party preferment: the views of people who have had no say on a policy in [...]

2 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics

The scum also rises

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by James Higham

This is offered without the opinion of this blog but with a view to bringing it at least into discussion. Do you remember this, this, on Family Court Secrecy, brought to our attention by IanPJ? He follows up with this video:

3 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

The buddy system

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by Chuckles

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Filed under: Chuckles, Humour

It starts

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by James Higham

Most people in the UK are suffering to a greater or lesser degree and though much of it is down to being at the mercy of the meatheads who force you onto the chaingangs – I’m on one today and I work tomorrow anyway, there’s another next week – we also have to blame ourselves [...]

16 Comments »
Filed under: Blogging, Politics & economics

Guru Bob on sell-by dates

Posted on October 20th, 2011 by James Higham

When The Kaiser heard that Matahari, the famous spy, had left the Germans to work for the French and had then gone over to the Hungarians, he declared at the post-match press conference: “That’s why we traded her.”

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Filed under: Diversions, Humour, Society & human issues

Predator drones [2]

Posted on October 20th, 2011 by Chuckles

Predator drones [1] Some days back, we noted an article about the new German ‘Euro Hawk’ surveillance drone ‘unveiling’.

2 Comments »
Filed under: Chuckles, Politics & economics, Technology & ideas

Tristane and Ysolde DSK

Posted on October 20th, 2011 by James Higham

On the surface, it all seemed straightforward – the beast and the beauty – and sympathy poured in from everywhere for the wronged young woman seeking justice after an unprovoked attack by a known lecher. It seemed a blow struck for fairness yet almost immediately, small anomalies appeared here and there about the Banon/DSK thing [...]

6 Comments »
Filed under: Society & human issues

Bosco verticale

Posted on October 20th, 2011 by James Higham

Read about it here.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Earth and cosmos, Technology & ideas

Eurogendfor

Posted on October 20th, 2011 by James Higham

Via Sackerson: They are called the European Gendarmerie Force (Eurogendfor) . They are based in Italy but funded and staffed by six signatory nations who are France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Romania. However, according to the Treaty which established Eurogendfor they can operate in any EU country and are available to others who invite [...]

5 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics

Monkey on fear

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by James Higham

You may run from tigers, but where can you hide from your own fear?

2 Comments »
Filed under: Diversions, Society & human issues

Dearieme revisits Annette

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by admin

2 Comments »
Filed under: Dearieme, Music

Karma?

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by JD

There has been some mention of karma on this blog recently and it seems to be generally understood by our esteemed blogmeister and the commenters here to mean some form of cosmic law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap and other homilies. Effectively, good actions will produce good results and [...]

15 Comments »
Filed under: JD, Religion & Philosophy

Psychopaths are us

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by James Higham

From Twitlonger, via Chuckles: Psychopaths are just people. You are right to say that psychopaths hate weakness, they will attempt to conceal anything that might present as a vulnerability. The test of their self-superiority is their ability to rapidly find weaknesses in others, and to exploit it to its fullest potential. We are good at [...]

3 Comments »
Filed under: History & Culture, Religion & Philosophy, Society & human issues