Airport scanner abuse - who would have thought it?

 From an article in Wired.

"TSA agents in Dallas singled out female passengers to undergo screening in a body scanner, according to complaints filed by several women who said they felt the screeners intentionally targeted them to view their bodies.  One woman who flew out of Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport several months ago said a female agent sent her through a body scanner three times after the agent commented on her “cute” body.

Terrell said the female agent appeared to be acting on a request from male agents who were in a separate room viewing the scans and who apparently asked the agent to send Terrell back through the scanner twice because the scan was blurry.

After the third scan, Terrell said the agent seemed frustrated with her co-workers in the screening room. “She’s talking into her microphone and she says, ‘Guys, it is not blurry, I’m letting her go,’” Terrell said."

Who would have thought such a thing might happen?

Below is a post of mine from January 2010.

Celebrity Scanner

Since it emerged that the full body scanners now being used in airports can store and transmit images  I have been thinking about trying to break into TV with an idea for a new reality show.

I am going to call it 'Celebrity Scanner".

It would show the nude scans of prominent figures [e.g.  film and TV stars, female politicians, wives of prominent figures  etc.].  As the scans are being broadcast a panel of smartarses would make cruel and witty remarks about the bodies displayed. Audiences would vote on who had the biggest bums, or the most cellulite.

Who has the fattest thighs, Sarah Brown or Harriet Harmon? Text Fatbum to 81400 to vote.

The fun would be enormous.

There should be plenty of  juicy material available.

This article from somebody who has seen the big screen images makes my mouth water -

"The images leave little to the imagination, exposing passengers' bodies in sufficient detail for screeners to count the change in our pockets and see beads of sweat on our backs—not to mention intimate, gender-specific details."

As soon as these scanners come into widespread use there will be a big black market in celebrity scans. It will be easy to Bit Torrent stuff or buy bootleg DVDs.

There might be a bit of resistance to the idea from celebrities, but I will argue that the public has the right to see these images. Why should drooling airport security guards and their customers have all the fun.

There is also scope for programmes on special themes.  'Guess who shaves' is in pre-production planning as I write.

Cutting data overload with RSS feed filtering

I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds and this creates a data overload problem. There are feeds I do not want to stop watching, but contain many items I am not interested in reading. I can skip over them but I would prefer not to see them at all.

The answer is a feed reader with filters. A good filtering system can hide unwanted items. Unfortunately, only one online feed reader provides filters.  Google Reader does not provide them. Neither does Fastladder or Bloglines.

NewsBlur is the only online feed reader than provides filters and I now use it for many of my feeds. NewsBlur, for some unknown reason, calls its filtering system the Intelligence Trainer. This is rather foolish since it obscures that they are actually providing a good feed filtering system. Not sure why they would want to hide their unique selling point.

Newsblur only offers kill filters. They work on words in the post title, author and tags [but not in the body of a post]. It does not provide watch filters. These search posts for keywords in title, author, tags and body.

A desktop feed reader called Blogbridge is the only reader that I am aware of that provides both kill and watch filters, but they are not well implemented.

NHS not safe in Tory hands

I assume David Cameron would like to win the next election and keep on being Prime Minister. It was going to be a big ask because our perilous financial state means there will be very little money to hand out in electoral bribes. Still, it was doable. Most people realise our present state is a present from Gordon Brown and don't seem to blame the Tories.

The Labour Party was very helpful. They elected a snotty kid as their leader. Someone who often sounds like a cheeky little public school fag, but never like a Prime Minister.

The big issue in British politics is the NHS. The British electorate love the NHS and they don't trust the Tories to look after it.

Any politician with more cunning than a  dead squirrel would have known to leave the NHS strictly alone. Give it a funding increase in line with inflation, but otherwise keep their hands off it. If cuts were needed, make them elsewhere. The aim should have been to not give Labour a cudgel to beat them with at the next election. To not allow Labour to say that the NHS was not safe with the Tories.

Did they do that?

No, of course they didn't.

You can just imaging the conversation in Downing Street.

Q. What musnt we do?

A. Mess with the NHS.

Q. What are you going to do next?

A. Mess with the NHS.

Cameron put a wackjob in charge of the NHS and allowed him to come up with a radical plan which is opposed by just about everybody, including doctors and nurses. A plan which demonstrates beyond any doubt that the NHS is not safe with the Tories.

Cameron's next stroke of genius was to treat the issue as a virility test. He seems to think that if he does not get the plan through Parliament people will think he has a very small dick [as opposed to thinking, as they do at the moment, that he has a very small brain].

I really do despair. There was just one issue that the Tories had to treat with loving care; the NHS. Instead they have managed to dig a very large hole and throw themselves in it. Wasn't sixteen years out of office enough? Do they want another stretch on the opposition benches?

Maybe Cameron was over promoted. It is hard to see that a more experienced and cunning politician would be making such a pigs ear of the NHS.  Can you imagine Alex Salmond making such an elementary mistake? Nobody will ever get to suggest that NHS Scotland is not safe in with the SNP.

It is obvious what Cameron needs to do. Lets see if he is capable of doing it.

Restoring the Nile Clumps

To commemorate Nelson's victory

In August 1798 a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson inflicted a crushing defeat on a French fleet moored in Aboukir Bay, Egypt. The French lost fourteen ships and had 1700 seamen killed. The Battle of the Nile cut Napoleons Egyptian expedition off from France, and removed the threat to Britain’s position in India. It was one of the British Navy’s greatest triumphs.

To commemorate the victory Charles Douglas, 6th Marquess of Queensberry, planted clumps of beech trees on his estate near Amesbury in the south of England. Each clump of about 200 beech trees marked the position of a British or French ship at a particular moment in the battle. These woods are called the Nile Clumps. The trees are to the north-west of Amesbury, on either side of that stretch of the A303 that lies between the  A345 and the A344.  The site is quite close to Stonehenge.

The two fleets still sail across the Downs, but in a sadly depleted state. Beeches last about 200 years and many of the original trees have died or are dying. Some clumps were lost when the A303 was built. Others have been destroyed by farmers.

First restoration 

In 1990 The Amesbury Rotary Club replanted one clump as part of National Tree Week.  This was so successful that they got more funding and eventually replanted a total of fourteen clumps. An article in the UK's Weekend Telegraph newspaper of the 20th June 1998 described the replanting project. See the end of this post for a copy of the article.

On  Thursday 11th Apr 2002 the Amesbury Journal,  reported that

"Trees planted on the outskirts of Amesbury more than 200 years ago to commemorate Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile are now under the protection of a preservation order.

The order was confirmed by Salisbury district council this week, following a lengthy process to ensure the Nile Clumps, as the trees are called, are given the profile and protection that their history demands.
Each clump of trees represents the strategic position of English and French ships at the height of the epic 1798 battle."

 In July 2008 I visited the site and took some photographs. I also visited the Information Centre in Amesbury Library and they provided me with the map below. I talked to Tony Lester-Card who was the organizer of the first restoration of the clumps.

Map

The map [author and date unknown] shows the location of 26 'ships'.  Seven of these are marked as having being 'lost' over the years and nineteen as remaining. It does not show the five clumps which were lost when the A303 was built.

Marked as lost on map

Mercure 74  [F] 

Timolean 74  [F]

Guerrier 74  [F]

Conquerant  74  [F]

Audacious 74  [B]

Zealous 74  [B] 

Culloden 74  [B]


Marked as surviving on map


Majestic 74  [B]  - on aerial photo

Bellerphon 74  [B]  - on aerial photo

Alexander 74  [B]  -  on aerial photo

Orion 74  [B]

Swiftsure 74  [B]  - on aerial photo

Defence 74   [B]  - on aerial photo

Theseus 74  [B]

Goliath 74  [B] - on aerial photo

Minoteur 74  [B]  - on aerial photo

Vanguard 74  [B]  - on aerial photo

l'Aquilon 74  [F]  - on aerial photo

Spartiate 74  [F]  - on aerial photo

Heureux 74  [F]  - on aerial photo

Tonante 80  [F]  - on aerial photo

l'Orient 120  [F]   - on aerial photo

Franklin 80  [F]  - on aerial photo

l'Artemisie 36  Frigate  [F]

Serieuse  36  Frigate  [F]

Peuple Souverain 74  [F]  - on aerial photo

I examined an aerial photograph [from Google Maps] and could only find fifteen 'ships' remaining.  I think they are the ones I have indicated in the list above. It appears that in the period between the map being prepared and the photograph being taken a further four 'ships' have been lost.

The Nile Clumps in 2008

I took these photographs in July 2008.

Several of the clumps.

 

The Franklin clump

You can see that only a few of the Franklin's original beeches remain.  You can also see the new trees that were planted by the Rotary Club of Amesbury.

 

The Franklin's clump has been protected by fencing

 

If you look closely at this  photograph, and the one above, you can see that some of the new plantings have succeeded, but others do not appear to have made it out of their plastic tubes

 

Another view of the Franklin Clum

 

Preserving the Nile Clumps

 

What do we need to do to preserve the Nile Clumps?

1.  Plant trees

  

There were 31 ships present at the Battle of the Nile.  The British had fourteen ships of the line. The French had thirteen ships of the line and four frigates.  I would like to see clumps for all 31 ships, made up as follows.

The fifteen clumps visible in the aerial photograph.

The four clumps marked as surviving on the map but not visible in the aerial photograph.

The seven clumps marked as missing on the map.

The five clumps lost when the A303 was widened [representing the Leander 50 [B], Mutine [B], Genereux 74 [F], Guillaume Tell 80 [F] and the French frigate Justice of 40 guns. I identified these ships by comparing the list above with a list of the ships present at the battle.

Tony Lester-Card estimated that there were 70-90 beeches in each clump. If we take the higher figure and assume that all the clumps had to be replanted the exercise would involve planting no more than 2790 trees [plus a number of maples and hawthorn].  This is trivial compared to the Trafalgar Project which involves creating a series of woods across the UK, with each wood representing a ship that was present at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Victory Wood in Kent will consist of 100,000 trees.

2.   Convert the surounding land to grassland

  

Most of the restored trees are on Countess Farm owned by The National Trust  and farmed by Neil Morrison. At the moment the land around the clumps is being farmed. This obstructs access to the surviving clumps and  makes it difficult to replant the lost 'ships'. The National Trust  is planning to let some of it revert to grassland.  It needs to acquire the remaining land and convert it to grassland.

3   Manage the Nile Clumps estate

 

The Nile Clumps estate needs to be established to maintain the clumps, create access and provide information and interpretation. The National Trust seems to be the ideal people to do this. They have all the necessary skills and are well established in the area.

Update - 27th April 2009

The London Daily Mail has an article about the site and it notes that the National Trust has launched a campaign to promote the memorial as a tourist attraction for visitors to Salisbury Plain. Though, nonsensically, the journalist claims that the Clumps were 'discovered' on Google Earth.

I hope the next step will be to re-plant some trees and restore the missing clumps. The National Trust  have applied for planning permission to carry out work on some of the clumps. It may be necessary to acquire other land by compulsory purchase. It obviously cannot remain in agricultural use if the site is to be developed. Ideally, the site should be returned to grassland and the public given full access to wander.

The Daily Mail article also mentions

"This is not the only wooded tribute to the Battle of the Nile. On the former Swarland Estate near Alnwick, Northumberland, a line of trees takes the shape of the coastline of the Nile delta. Other trees appear to be in the positions of the British and French fleet."

These are Davison's Woods. You can read about them here.  I visited them a few years ago and they are in an even more neglected condition than the Nile Clumps. An obelisk had been restored, but the woods had not

 

 

Documents

 Telegraph article

 

Rotary Club document

Ship positions

The positioning of the Clumps is supposed to be based on Dodd's map of the battle.

 

 

 

I wonder if the Clumps are positioned according to Dodd's map.  The Duke of Queensberry was a retired admiral and I would suppose he would have spoken to several naval officers who had been at the battle. I would not be surprised if he drew up his map according to their recollections. It has been suggested by a local historian that Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy supervised the planting of the clumps.  

Related posts

Search this site on 'naval' for other posts on the Nile Clumps and other naval woods.

You know?

People who constantly say 'you know' when they are trying to describe something are number 14 on my list of things that really annoy me.

What they are saying when they say 'you know' is -

I am too lazy to actually compose a coherent sentence and I want you to do the work for me.

I am too stupid, ignorant, inarticulate or poorly educated  to say clearly and concisely what I mean.

I have a verbal tick and I need to be smacked about the head until I am cured.

You know?

Yes, I probably do, but I still want you to say it.

When I become Supreme Ruler of Britain I plan to create the  post of Truncheon Pursuivant. This official would be attired in a suitably awe inspiring costume and equipped with a large rubber truncheon.

The Pursuivant's duty would be to go around the country applying his truncheon to anybody who has done something that I consider annoying. The truncheon would be applied with particular vigour to anybody who has said 'you know'.

Tower of Halibar

The Tower of Halibar [or Hallbar] is a 16th century fortified tower, near to Carluke in South West Scotland.

 

In 1535 there was an Act of Parliament which required everybody who owned a plot of land to the value of £100, or more, to construct a fortified tower to protect against Border Raiders. This Act may have brought about the construction of the Tower of Halibar.

The tower was occupied until 1984. In 1998 the tower was restored by the Vivat Trust and converted for use as holiday accommodation. The trust specializes in restoring old buildings and bringing them back into use. So far they have restored seven buildings, six of which are used as holiday accommodation. They also let another eight buildings that have been restored by other people. They have property all over the country. All the buildings are listed in a very nice brochure. There are several that I rather fancy staying in.

The Tower of Halibar has been restored to a very high standard, with splendid furniture. You can see that from the photographs. It is very cosy inside. The place can sleep a total of seven people, five of them in the tower and another two in a former fruit pickers bothy that is nearby.



The tower is basically five rooms stacked one above the other, and the stairs between them are narrow and uneven. The place would not be suitable for small children, or anyone who had trouble negotiating stairs. It also would not be suitable for anybody was too tall, since the ceilings are low.



I think it's great that these old buildings are being saved, especially when the preservation work is done is such an authentic and caring manner. Letting these buildings as holiday accommodation is a good way of ensuring that is a cash flow to keep them in good condition.

Crocodile tears over Syrian casualties

American and British indignation over civilian casualties in Syria seem hypocritical when one considers the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan killed by American and British forces. I don't remember Hillary Clinton or William Hague saying anything about those deaths. Nor have they seemed very concerned about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

The indignation about civilian deaths is just prolefeed.  If Syria was an American vassal state we would not be hearing a squeak of protest. The real agenda is regime change in Syria. Not only as a worthwhile objective in itself, but also as a way of removing a friend of Iran.

It is obvious that there are hidden hands at work in Syria. Some agency is organising the political and military activity. Some agency is supplying the rebels with arms.  The state media in Britain just shows unarmed protesters chanting in the streets, but the rebels must have heavy weapons. If the Syrian government has to use tanks and artillery they must be facing heavily armed rebels. No government would shell its own cities if less violent methods would work. No government sends in the army if they can send in the police. Where did the arms come from?

Innocent civilians in Homs

One hidden hand is obviously American. I suspect that another is Israeli. Israel has a clear interest in overthrowing the Bashar al-Assad regime but I have seen no suggestion in the UK media that their busy little hands might be at work. Our reporters know their place [and the power of the Zionist lobby in UK media].

There has been a lot of official ranting about Russia and Chinas veto of a UN resolution. It is a good thing that the USA or the UK have never  vetoed any UN resolutions aimed at Israel. If they had their indignation would just seem like cant.

The BBC's coverage has been  disgracefully unbalanced. Ministerial rants have been  broadcast ad nauseam, along with plaintive cries from the rebels. I have still to hear any BBC reporter or interviewer ask any critical questions.

Normally the BBC is the home of tricky questions, but not on this issue. There is clearly an organised media campaign and at times like this it becomes obvious that the BBC, for all its claims of independence, is a state controlled media outlet.

The assumption is that everybody in Homs is in favour of the rebellion. Perhaps most of the population of Homs would like to kick out the armed troublemakers and live in peace, even if it is under a rather unsavoury regime.

I hold no brief for the Assad government, they seem a nasty bunch. What worries me is that the aim of the current campaign seems to be to prep us for military action.  What will be the next step? A no fly zone?  Supplying arms to the rebels?  Military intervention by some US proxy?

Bradfordistan

The BBC has announced that the northern city of Bradford has been taken over by Muslim extremists [Bradford has a large Muslim population]. The rebels appear to be armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles.  They have announced the formation of the Islamic state of Bradfordistan.

A resigned Prime Minister said that the government would not be taking any action to recover Bradford.

"Any attempt to take Bradford would obviously result in civilian casualties so is out of the question, " he said. "We cannot have any fighting so we will probably let them keep the place."

"And anywhere else they fancy," he added. "We don't want to seem aggressive."

In search of a decent cup of coffee

This post is about my search for the perfect cup of coffee. Or, to be realistic, my search for a decent cup of coffee.

It has been a long road, but I think I am reaching its end

The British have no taste for quality beverages. For example, we drink a lot of tea, but it is poor quality tea.  We add milk and sugar to disguise the quality of the tea leaf.

For a long time the British  only drank instant coffee [and a lot of people still do; judging by the supermarket shelves].

Then Starbucks and its clones arrived and popularised the espresso. An espresso is so much better than an instant coffee that we thought these chains were serving good coffee.

Slowly we are realising that they aren't. We are realising that these chains are not serving coffee but coffee flavoured milk.  They are serving big drinks where the ratio of milk to coffee can be as much as 11:1. To add insult to injury they are serving their coffee flavoured milk in paper cups and at high prices. Customers have started to complain and the chains are experimenting with coffees that have better espresso to milk ratios. One of their experiments is the flat white.

The flat white

Truk Lagoon

The world's two best wreck diving sites are Scapa Flow in   Orkney and Truk [Chuuk] Lagoon in the Pacific.

Scapa Flow

At the end of the First World War ships of the German High Seas fleet was scuttled at Scapa. Most of the ships were salvaged between the wars but three battleships [Kron Prinz Willhelm, Konig and Markgraf] remain, as well as a number of cruisers. There are also a lot of other wrecks at Scapa, it was the main anchorage for the British Navy during both World  Wars.

Truk Lagoon

The other is Truk [now known as Chuuk] Lagoon in the Pacific.  . On the 17^th and 18^th February the Americans launched an air attack from a carrier fleet to destroy the Japanese ships at Truk. The attack was known as Operation Hailstorm.  

The Japanese had feared that an attack might be imminent and moved most of their heavy warships, but the Americans still managed to sink twelve smaller warships and 32 merchant ships, and destroy over 250 aircraft. All these wrecks are still at Truk, along with the wreck of the Japanese submarine I-169 [Shinohara]. The submarine submerged to hide from the attacking dive bombers, but was then unable to surface and all the crew were lost.

The wrecks are at varying depths. The mast of one protrudes above the water, another is at 250 feet. Coral has started to cover the wrecks; especially the shallower ones. All the mines, bombs, guns, tanks and other military supplies that were in the freighters are still there, and some of the wrecks are very dangerous. 

On one wreck that I dived oil was still bubbling out of the ship over fifty years after its sinking. Several thousand Japanese perished in the attack, and there are still human remains on many of the ships. The local dive guides keep stashes of skulls etc and will bring them out for visiting divers to photograph.

There are several dive operations serving the lagoon. I stayed on the SS Thorfinn, a former whale catcher, which as been converted to a live aboard dive boat. There is nothing to do on land and a boat gets one away from the insect life.

Apart from the wrecks, Truk is an unattractive place. There is not much money about and the main occupations seem to be religion for the women and beer for the men. I noticed several American missionaries being greeted at the airport when I arrived, and on the drive to the dock we passed several huge stacks of empty beer cans by the side of the road.

Choosing the right way

I have a framed copy of this print [The Broad and Narrow Way] on my study wall.  On the left is the broad way. Enter through the wide welcoming arch and at first you have fun. Then it all turns wrong and you finish in the fires of hell.  Just shows you what happens when you have fun.

If you find the narrow gateway on the right and live a miserable, sanctimonious life then eventually you will spend eternity in Heaven.

Then there is this instructional poster for young ladies.

If a young lady reads saucy books, flirts and takes strong liquor by the time she is 40 they will be stoning her in the streets. Be a Wee Mary [St Andrews slang] and all will be well. Not sure how the virtuous one got to be a mother. Probably some form of parthenogenesis.

iBooks Author

After reading this I de installed my copy of iBook Author.  Why does Apple think they can get away with this crap?

SOPA & PIPA - follow the money

From an article on the BBC website

"How do the companies go about influencing Congress?

In part, by spending heaps of cash lobbying the US Congress for legislation to enact laws that would punish repeat copyright offenders and bar US-based internet service providers, payment processors and advertisers from doing business with alleged infringers.

Television, film and recording industry companies and trade associations spent $92m (£60m) on lobbying expenses in 2011, including on the online piracy and copyright protection issues, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure forms by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The companies and associations employed 596 lobbyists last year."

"Who are the lobbyists, and what do they do?

In what is frequently derided as Washington's revolving door, many lobbyists and industry advocates in Washington are former members of Congress or held roles as congressional staff.

Some of those worked on the very congressional committees they now hope to influence.
For instance, one of the chief lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), senior executive vice-president Mitch Glazier, is former chief counsel for intellectual property on the House Judiciary Committee.

That committee is currently debating the Sopa legislation. Its chairman is Sopa's chief sponsor, Republican Lamar Smith of Texas."

And death shall have no dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

Map of Walks and Via Ferrata in the Dolomites

An illustrated and annotated map of some high level walks and via ferrata in the Dolomites.   

Link


CommunityWalk Map - Walks and Via Ferrata in the Dolomites

Five nights in Provence

The main airport for Provence is Marseille Provence, about 28km west of Marseilles. There is a good bus service from the airport to Saint-Charles, the main railway station in Marseilles. You can buy train tickets either by waiting in a long queue, or from multi language ticketing machines. These work well but you need a credit card.

I started by catching a train to Montpellier. This used to be a dump but a new socialist council pedestrianised most of the central area, including the old town, built the Antigone District and put in new tram systems. It is now an attractive place to visit. Getting rid of traffic makes walking around so much more enjoyable. I also used it as a base to visit nearby towns. I stayed at the New Hotel du Midi, which is right in the centre and close to the railway station. It is rather expensive, but has very good air conditioning. You really need air conditioning if you are visiting Provence in the summer. It gets hot.

The Popes Palace in Avignon



In the 14th century the Papacy moved from Rome to Avignon, and seven Popes lived in the huge Palace of the Popes. This is well worth visiting. I found Avignon an interesting place, but the historic centre has rather been spoiled by some hideous new concrete buildings. You would think that a place that lives off tourism would have the sense to preserve its heritage. There was a festival on whilst I was there, hence the guys in the funny outfits, and the town was packed.



The people in the foreground of this picture are standing on the famous Pont d'Avignon. The Popes Palace is in the background.





You may have seen the Roman arena in Arles in the film Ronin. I didn’t bother to go inside. As you can see it has been subject to extensive restoration. There are several other Roman sites in Arles.

I think that Arles is worth a half day visit and Avignon a full day visit.





I had hoped to visit Aix en Provence which has a very good write up in the guide books but problems with the French rail system made me abandon that plan. Instead, I spent the last two days in Marseilles, staying at the New Hotel Select which is owned by the same chain as the hotel in Montpelier. This hotel is very close to the centre and the railway station but much cheaper than the Montpelier hotel. The air conditioning system was not as good but adequate.





Most of the tourist life in Marseilles is around the Old Port. The restaurants are around the harbour, and you can also get a boat out to visit the Château d'If. This is where Alexandre Dumas imprisoned his character the Count of Monte Cristo.

Saying it with animals

I posted about Deacon McDonalds Dog some time ago. Recently I found another example of someone using a stone animal to insult an opponent.

The Riga Cats

A Latvian businessman was insulted when he was refused membership of a Guild. Unfortunately for the Guild he owned the building across from the Guild's headquarters. The businessman had two cat sculptures created and set them up on the roof of his building, with their behinds turned towards the Guild's HQ.

The Guild was incensed and tried legal means to have them removed. When their efforts failed they had to offer membership to their opponent.

Link

Deacon McDonalds Dog



The historic market town of Irnbru is in the Scottish Borders. In Irnbru in the 1840s there was ill feeling between Deacon McDonald and a Miss Inglis who lived just across the road in Vere House. One day, Deacon MacDonald’s dog was poisoned and he suspected that it was Miss Inglis who had done the evil deed.

The traditional Scottish way of resolving such neighbourhood disputes is for the aggrieved party to carefully place half of an house brick in a sock and then sally forth to remonstrate with the offending party.

Deacon McDonald, being a man of the cloth, chose a less direct, but more effective, form of revenge. He commissioned a local stonemason to cut a life sized stone replica of the dead dog and paint it, then place it on the Deacons roof, with its head tilted reprovingly towards the house of Miss Inglis.

Of course, the reason for the statue was soon known throughout the town; especially amongst its more than ample supply of gossiping old biddies of both sexes. I would imagine that they made sure that Miss Inglis’ life was not much fun after that.

Things change slowly in Irnbru. The Deacon’s house is still there and the dog is still looking at Vere House.

From Raubwirtschaft to Kleptocracy

I am currently reading Michela Wrong’s ‘In The Footsteps of Mr Kurtz’. This excellent book is about Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime in the Congo. Wrong describes this as being a kleptocracy, which means a government by thieves. I looked up the full definition in Wikipedia which gives a number of examples of such states; including Indonesia under Suharto, Peru under Alberto Fujimori, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic and Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu.

Following the links in the Wikipedia article lead to Raubwirtschaft, which means a plunder economy, and is a term for a form of colonialism where the goal is purely the plunder of the wealth and resources of a colony with no pretence of "civilizing" or aiding the native inhabitants. The Congo under King Leopold II of Belgium is the foremost example of such a state. This story is largely forgotten now, fortunately for the reputation of the Belgians.

From 1885 to 1908 the Congo was the personal property of King Leopold who maimed and murdered the inhabitants in his attempt to extract as much wealth as he could from the country. About ten million people died in this forgotten holocaust and many others had their arms or legs chopped off.

Australia is often called a lucky country but many others, including the USA and the UK, have been very fortunate in their history and geography. If there are lucky countries, there are also unlucky ones, and the Congo must be the unluckiest. After Leopold and Mobuto there has been a succession of wars. It has been estimated that 3.8 million people died in the Second Congo War [1998-2002]. Whenever we are tempted to moan about some aspects of life in our own countries it is worth remembering the awful lot of people who have had the misfortune to have been born in countries like the Congo.

Every day starts with a difficult decision

Water of Leith Walkway

The walkway starts next to Balerno High School [ Balerno is a village on the south-west outskirts of Edinburgh] and runs 12.25 miles [19.6 kilometres] through Edinburgh to Leith. The path runs downhill, but the incline is so slight that it is barely perceptible. 

Approximately half a mile of the route is on roads, for the remainder the path alongside the Water of Leith, and away from traffic. The path surface is a mixture of tarmac, compressed grit and compressed earth. The surface is uniformly good with very few muddy patches or potholes. The route is well used by both pedestrians and cyclists. 

The path is fairly well signposted, but there are one or two places in Edinburgh where the path breaks and it is necessary to hunt around for its continuation. The odd signpost has been vandalised, so that sign point in the wrong direction. The path breaks where it crosses under the Union Canal and the signposting here is confusing. After crossing a footbridge over the duel carriageway Lanark Road there are two ways of continuing.

1. Turn right and descend steps to the Lanark Road. Go down the road in the direction of Edinburgh. Cross over a roundabout, still going in the same direction, and after a few hundred feet you will come to the Water of Leith Visitors Centre. The path can be rejoined here.
2. Join the Union Canal and proceed in the direction of Edinburgh. After you have passed over a viaduct there are steps leading down to the path close to the Water of Leith Visitors Centre.

The path passes through the attractive Dean Village area of Edinburgh and ends in the docks at Leith. The docks were once a dismal place but are being gentrified and there are a lot of new restaurants and bars.

Walkers can return to Balerno by catching a bus to the centre of Edinburgh from the Ocean terminal, and then the 44 bus to Balerno. For cyclists the easiest way to return to Balerno is to cycle back.