It's always seemed more logical to me to think of Spring starting in February, when the first flowers appear, the birds start nesting and the winter migrants start leaving. May sees the first Summer insects appear (butterflies and dragonflies et alia), while August is the start of Autumn gathering - the harvesting of wheat and berries. November sees the beginning of winter - everythings picked and it's down to stored food till spring, while the first skeins of winter geese appear in the sky. This has the advantage of having mid-summer and mid-winter occuring in the middle of their respective seasons. Of course this also means that Autumn often has better and warmer weather than Summer, which traditionally here in the UK is a period of rain (and occasional snow)
My mother, aged 21, went to a party. On the way home it rained. She caught a chill, then a cold, then took to her bed. Then they had the doctor in. It was TB so they took her to the sanatorium to die.
In order to slow the disease the doctors chopped the infected part of the lung away. The TB came back. They chopped some more. In such a fashion she spent the years from 21 to 27, in a ward full of young girls her age. They had fun of sorts as they waited to die. Although occasionally they'd wake to find the curtains drawn around a bed. Nurses would come and go, and after a day or two the curtains would be gone when they woke.
And so would the girl who'd lain there.
Her mother would visit every Sunday, in the way you'd visit the graveside. She'd bring magazines and little treats, have a chat. And then she'd go back to the land of the living, and my mum would get on with dieing.
And then they invented a cure. And she didn't die. And one day as she was being wheeled around the grounds, still too ill to walk but getting better, a clumsy (?) nurse managed to get her wheelchair entangled with another patient's chair.
Reader, she married him. My father, also short a lung, but not dieing. They're still alive, still together and still only have one pair of lungs between them. I got immunised in the womb from my mother's antibodies, I didn't need the TB jab, but trust me, we got every immunisation going.
Kudzu (Pueraria montana)and Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) are actually different plants:
Boy is my face red. That's a factoid I was told some years ago and have been happily repeating ever since without ever checking. My apologies for the thoughtless dissemination of duff data.
#188 Ken: Kudzu is the same thing as Japanese Knotweed, different names for the same evil. On some of our reserves we've had good sucess with eradicating it by cutting it to stalks about 4" high and then injecting neat weedkiller into the stumps. Labour intensive though, so only viable in reserves.
Of course, reading about complaints about ivy makes me realise that almost anything can be invasive if it's in the wrong continent. Conversely, in the right place it's wonderful: Ivy is a major foodplant for Comma and Holly Blue butterflies here in the UK, and a major source of nector in autumn for all butterflies.
As he slid another custom cigarette from the battered Dunhill case, he paused to reflect. It had been sniper school that had changed him. Before the war he had faced a dismal future: the languages and the school would have got him a Foreign Office job for sure, but an endless round of cocktail parties and willing secretaries would have sapped the joy from him. It had been his war record that had led to the other job offer. He smiled, and called for another Martini.
Across the evening sky, all the vamps are flying
how can they know that it's time to rise?
Beneath the winter dawn, I will still be standing
I have no thought of death
For who knows where the ghouls lurk
who knows where the ghouls lurk
sad deserted town, full of zombies prowling
Ah but then you know, that it's time for brains
But I will still be standin', have no thought of fleein'
I do not cut and run
For who knows where the ghouls lurk
who knows where the ghouls lurk
I am all alone, for my love is eaten
And it won't be long, till I'm eaten too
So come the storms of zombies, and the the vamps at night again
I have no fear of them
For who knows where the ghouls lurk?
And who knows how to kill them?
(Sorry, it had to be done)
The Cambridge Latin didn't have a sister apparently but did have a slave girl called Melissa - or at least so says the font of all wisdom upstairs. I confess I thought there was a sister.
Other charecters were Grumio the cook and Clemens the slave.
Lee @111 Ahh the perils of a common language.
Just as well I didn't say I was popping out for a fag!
Eating a sandwich too fast.
It's 1986 and I'm working as a counter clerk in the local post office in a small village. The office closed for an hour for lunch - all the other workers went home, but I lived too far away so I ate in the rest room. One day I finished early and decided to stretch my legs. Meanwhile a women I knew vaguely was driving through town looking for someone to go to the pub with - she had just split up with her boyfriend and wanted company. I walked out onto the street just as she was about to give up.
So we went and had a drink, which led to hanging out, which led to meeting the mother of my children, a career change and ultimately to my sitting here typing this.
A few seconds later and she would have driven past, and my entire life would have been different
Tracey #10
BBC News 24 and Sky both started at 8am GMT (as did I) and have been non-stop since. Lots of coverage from around the world of celebrations - Kenya has been partying for the last 24 hours apparently, and still going.
It's amazing how much this matters to the rest of the world - the shrub's real achievement has been to unite the world in hatred of him.
Climate weirdness is right. Here in Norfolk, UK we still have flowers out, and I didn't feel the need to button my coat this morning. 20 years ago we had 8ft drifts every winter, and I had a snowbox for when we were cut off; this year we've had a couple of inches which lasted a week, and last year we didn't see snow at all.
Oh, and two days ago I saw a butterfly.
Their are two arguments against artificial depictions of child porn: One is that the depiction normalises desire: that the viewer will increasing see such desires as normal - after all "everybody" is viewing such images, so the desires are normal and can be acted out.
The second (and better) argument is that child-porn is often used in grooming a child. Again, showing a child the images is used to convince the victim that the acts are normal. In either case the fact that the original images are artificial is irrelivent to the uses made of them. In effect they are material useful in the commission of crimes.
In the case of the Simpson cartoons (which I think was ludicrous BTW), the argument would go something like this: Their are two sorts of paedophile, the sad and the bad. The bad actively enjoy the fact that their victims don't like it - it's a power trip. These are the ones who usually murder their victims. The sad, on the other hand, often believe that their victims welcome the interaction - they convince themselves that their is a "relationship". The cartoons, by sexualising children, contribute to re-inforcing this belief.
Personally I think it's a weak argument, but it is at least arguable.
On the subject of prostitution, I think the interaction is more complex than a simple focus on orgasm. Some clients are looking for social interaction, some actively get off on the act of paying - the passing over of the cash is itself a physical representation of power. Neither would see a robot as a satisfactory replacement. Neither would those for whom the sordid nature of the act is part of the thrill - I'm thinking of the former Director of Public Prosecution in the UK who used to cruise the streets of London picking up street prostitutes. Despite there being far safer ways of having paid-for sex, it's clear that the danger of getting caught was an essential aspect of the fantasy.
#103 An interesting theory I've heard is that, while there wasn't a conspiracy, in the immediate aftermath people suspected it might have been the Russians and so, not wanting a nuclear exchange, took steps to cover up the conspiracy they thought existed.
This has the advantage of not requiring an actual conspiracy, while explaining the oddity of some of the actions of the players after the event.
Grapefruit tasting bitter is indeed a genetic thing apparently. Genetic Taste Markers
Last year two teenagers snuck into their older brother's car in the garage to listen to the radio and generally hang out. (It was cold out and they lived in a small flat with a big family.)
Unfortunately they thought to turn the engine on to power the heater.
With the garage door shut.
The only consolation is that CO poisoning is apparently a good way to die. You just fall asleep and don't wake up.
Except of course, that there's no good way to die when you're 12 and 14.
BBC just called S Carolina for McCain
Well, the UK papers currently all have front pages with Obama on them.
My take on Palin is that republicans want to encourage people to not answer exit polls, as it makes it easier for them to fiddle the results.
Ok. Bit worried now: BBC is reporting
"1605 BBC North America editor Justin Webb says: Out and about this morning in Northern Virginia and DC I met all the expected enthusiasm, though no long lines - no signs of people turning up and going away again. But this fact in itself is causing concern among Democrats: where is the turnout, they murmur? Where is the record-breaking surge (I am talking now about Virginia in particular) which could propel Obama to the White House? The answer may well be that the surge came early. Or will come later. Or…
1559 The BBC's Richard Lister in Sarasota I was surprised to find no line outside the polling station nearest me. An official inside said 40 people had been waiting at 6am but it had been quiet since."
This is from their live feed at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7700298.stm
(and times are UK, in case you wondered)
Good luck America.
We're crossing our fingers and hoping. Non-stop coverage on all UK channels tonight from poll close New York onwards. Not planning on getting much sleep.
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| 2009 | 11 |
| 2008 | 23 |
| 2007 | 3 |
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