Zombie

Wow it's spectacular - alarm clock went off and I've just seen it. Sky's now very dark, stars are very bright and the Moon is almost gone - dark dirty orange. never seen an eclipse like it. So sorry if you're clouded in Just looked at it through binoculars. It looks like Mars seen through the Hubble Telescope! If you were standing on the Moon right now, looking around everything would be a weird dark orangey glow. Looking at Earth all you'd see is a bright fiery ring as the Sun's light is bent through the atmosphere. Maybe one day some of us will be able to see that Now I'm off back to bed

OK, this is quite amazing. It's just gone 12.30am and the Moon is so bright that you can see objects, grass, clothes etc in full colour and - get this - I can read normal print in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Not just the headlines, the actual news items

Great blog Clear skies forecast for tonight in good ole' England ...but to see the "fullest" eclipse I'm gonna have to get up at 3.47am :o "Fullest" is when the moon is in the deepest part of the Earth's shadow and when, hopefully, it'll be red What makes astronomical events like this so special is they remind us that we're not in a car, we're not at home, or watching a game - we're on a ball of rock hurtling around a sun .

hope you had a great day yesterday, Daddy - sorry I missed the party

And this is the prize - The Webb Ellis Cup Just a few days ago the oldest known rugby photo - taken in 1851 - was found on a dusty shelf at Rugby School, where the game was created If you're interested in how rugby got started this is a good link http://www.rugbyschool.net/a-history-of-rugby-football

and you're "volunteering" for all this grief? walk away now and focus on this... "In other good news, I have the rights for an English premiere of a play and also am gathering a cast for a summer production of Note Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. I'm also now an Elementary School Drama Teacher"

happy birthday

well you could start by bringing your hopelessly outdated and sometimes irrelevant constitutional documents up to date and fit for purpose for the 21st century

Never underestimate the urge to blend in with the crowd. It can be crippling as an adolescent. One of the good things about getting older is that urge dies away for most people as they grow in confidence in themselves and become able to assert what they actually believe in. That's certainly been true for me.

He only used turd once (in MWOW) and as a joke, so it doesn't really count I'm sure the jokes were very funny when the plays were first performed but when people laugh at them now it's probably more about showing off their education...

"I never found ‘shit’ in a Shakespeare sonnet before, so I googled it. I didn’t find any, thank God." Bill preferred turd and excrement

aluminium

I'm just so glad I never had to learn English. So many words, so many broken rules...

No, historic atrocities by white Europeans have nothing to do with deep seated cultural racism that exists and has existed within Asian and other cultures, and which is as toxic in its own way as white supremacist racism. White Europeans have never had a monopoly on racism.

History lesson number 1 Beware politicians with charisma "As an Asian man, I don't think I am racist" Well that's a non-sequitur. Racism is widely embedded in Asian culture

Hello Phillip and welcome

19th century - When France sneezes Europe catches cold 20th century - When the U.S. sneezes the World catches cold 21st century - When China sneezes the World catches cold Metternich's original remark concerned revolution. The 20th century version concerned economics. The 21st century version also concerns economics but with what has been happening in China this past week there is now a real possibility it will also come to mean revolution. Modern Chinese have accepted totalitarian rule by the Capitalist Communist Party for decades because the Capitalist Communists have continued to deliver economic progress for a sizeable chunk of the population. But when the music stops it's going to get real ugly.

Basic medical training for everyone is a great idea anyway. However, the only reason it was able to be used to save the Frenchman here was because the terrorist had been successfully overpowered. Had he succeeded it would have been no use to a carriage full of dead passengers. The problem with trains is they are walk on / walk off rapid transport systems for moving millions. Airline solutions and controls just won't work. But there has to be a better way than the train crew barricading themselves behind steel doors until the shooting stops...

Cool-headed military professionalism and training saved the day for those passengers but it was pure chance that those off-duty US marines were not just on that train but in the same carriage, and the bravery and actions of the passengers who also intervened may not have been enough to prevent another terrorist massacre. What about the train crew? They locked themselves behind a steel door and left the passengers to their fate. Will this happen again? Yes. Consider this Daily air passengers through London Heathrow: 200,000+ Security: every passenger robustly checked Daily train passengers through London Underground: 4,000,000+ Security: no passengers checked Initial reports of what actually happened and who did what were unclear - this timeline may help http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11818934/France-train-attack-Moroccan-terrorist-Ayoub-El-Khazzani-linked-to-Isis-live.html

But it's not just internet journalism. Here in the UK, The Daily Telegraph has carried several reports about mistreatment of Amazon workers and the BBC flagship current affairs Panorama used covert recording to gather video evidence of normal working conditions that were oppressive and unlawful. So I think the evidence is pretty clear that Amazon expects a chunk of its profits to be generated by treating its workers like shit and paying minimum wage, which is not a living wage so taxpayers effectively subsidize Amazon's profits through government welfare payments so those guys can actually live - correction, subsist. That's the business model of Amazon.

All companies are natural predators and anyone who's worked in a large business will have encountered individual corporate sociopaths, relentlessly worming their way up to the top by abusing and exploiting everyone they can to get there. But with Amazon the whole business culture is based around corporate sociopathy. Problem is the product is just what customers want so the only effective ways to change businesses like this are through robust employment protection laws - in the UK these are reasonably strong, but not all national governments want to do this - or by inflicting reputational damage. Social media can be very effective here, by exposing company bad behaviours to the world's gaze. As Corporal Jones says in the classic BBC sitcom Dad's Army "They don't like it up 'em!"

or try thick natural yoghurt. Yeo Valley is good, low fat too

A baker once told me "I love making bread. It cleans your hands a treat." .

oh God, we've got another 15 months of this...

"I notice that the times I'm freest from that way of thinking are the times that I'm engaged in things I'm passionate" This is so true. We each of us need to find something we are passionate about whether it's playing a sport, an instrument, making things with our bare hands, being with people we love - whatever revs your motor. It's time spent doing those things that gives us the nourishment we all need to see us through the dark times. Cemeteries are full of folk who were "indispensable" in their jobs.