Tom Watson MP made a throwaway comment on twitter yesterday which introduced me to the idea of the Parliamentary Tache of the Year. So, at a time of year when politics seems to be even more back-biting and bitter than usual, and political bloggers are desperate to put the knife into someone on “the dark [...]

You may be aware that Fisherman’s Wharf, in San Francisco, is famous for having sea lions on it (I didn’t). You may have been aware that about 1500 of these animals have made their home their for a period of time approaching twenty years. This colony of animals — all 4.5 million kilos of ‘em [...]

A couple of examples of high-quality articles from over the weekend, which again suggests to me that perhaps certain organisations need better poof reading… Firstly, here’s the Observer online: Championship Barnsley 1 Colace 53 Scunthorpe 1 Hayes 58 David Hopps at Oakwell guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 December 2009 20.09 GMT The other membersof the Championship’s top [...]

I am much indebted to the delightful @ciderlass for pointing me in the direction of this one (and also her friend in Belfast). It would appear that up in Newcastle next week, it is going to be a bit windy. And when I say a bit, I mean that, if measured against the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane [...]

(Thought I’d published this about two weeks ago. Turns out I hadn’t: so it’s a little later than previously anticipated) Let’s see… what’s been happening in the last couple of weeks? Well… there was something of a selection of weirdness… The Prague Daily Monitor reports on activity ‘experts cannot explain’, although they seem to think [...]

I saw a headline on the BBC the other day which seemed to suggest that the police were cracking down rather heavily on something which up until then, I had not actually realised was an offence. Guilty of handling … goods? I had been previously under the impression that handling goods was not in itself [...]

Back in the day, when I was working for a Local Authority, I was very keen on NewcastleGateshead winning the bid to be City of Culture 2008. In some respects, I can already imagine the jaws dropping at the idea Newcastle and Gateshead are paragons of culture, but let’s face it, I remember Glasgow being [...]

It started from one of those conversations. They generally involve yourself, a mate, a pub, and the consumption of a few pints of beer whilst having a general chat about not much at all. Anyway, as these things do, the conversation turned to ancient battles and ancient civilisations, and reporting news of battles — the [...]

A fellow tweeter drew my attention to something a little disturbing t’other day: Does anyone else find http://interneteyes.co.uk/ ‘s offer of £1K a month reward money for spying disturbing? (via @Placepot)@JamesCousins What’s this? Being paid £1000 per month to spy on people? So I decided to take a look in a little more detail… Internet [...]

Ahoy there, ye scurvy swabs. Many of ye, me hearties, will already know that it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day today where ye has to talk in the pirate lingo as much as is possible. Anyone failin’ to talk like a proper swashbucklin’ buccaneer will find themselves consigned to Davy Jones’ Locker after [...]