Holidays and hoaxes

Well, I’ve had a delightful week off. 

In Holland. 

In the rain.

[Here's a picture for all Minecrafters out there who've forgotten what the real world looks like after 5 weeks in their bedrooms]

But despite the rain, it was nice to get away, and travelling by ferry from Hull we were able to get to Amsterdam, the Dutch capital city, driving fewer miles (255 miles) than if we’d gone to London (340 miles).

And if you go via Newcastle, it’s a shorter car journey (130 miles) than to Glasgow (133), Edinburgh (135), Manchester (145), Liverpool (148) or Leeds (148).

The capital city of Belgium, City of Brussels, is only 175 miles away if you travel by ferry from Newcastle to Zeebrugge.

Not only is it a short trip (discounting the overnight stay on the ferry), but it’s hassle free, unlike air travel – we didn’t need to go through the customs’ lane, no-one searched our bags, or made me take my shoes and belt off.

Sure it starts innocently enough

but if you accidently mention drugs or terrorism things get nasty real fast

It really is easy to travel to foreign countries. But that could all change if we left the European Union.

That’s something that we aren’t particularly told in all the debates that go on. The pro- and anti-Europe camps will tell you all about trade agreements, sanctions and embargoes, because that stuff is really important. They’ll tell you about the impact on migration and employment, on services and taxation, and that’s important too.

But they don’t seem very good at talking about how anyone’s next holiday to France or Spain may be affected. Will we get frisked at the airport? Will duty-free still be duty-free?

It’s worth asking those kind of questions, because these are the things that will affect us directly before anything else.

According to social media, Wednesday night was the first time in living memory that Mars appeared as large as the moon. Did anyone stay up late to see it?

The lesson here is: don’t believe everything you see on the internet.

Marine Litter interpretation

Some of you are already aware that CBC are putting new interpretation boards at various points up and down the coast, from Parton all the way down to Haverigg.  If you're a bit confused about what an interpretation board is, here's an example.

They are the kind of things that people on walks like to look at, and they give some information about the area people are visiting.


So, included with those boards will be a marine litter board, explaining how long it takes for rubbish to break down in the oceans. Hopefully getting people to be a bit more responsible with their litter, and put it in the bin instead of dumping it on the beaches.

We'd like your opinions on possible designs for the boards, and here are some examples to get you thinking.

  Anyone who has a flair for design might want to sketch something out. The final design will be included with every interpretation board.

Vigilante justice

World News:

You're probably aware that an Islamic terrorist group in Nigeria called Boko Haram have kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls.

Well the villagers of the attacked areas are fighting back: forming vigilante groups that are going out and attacking Boko Haram -- apparently 'scores' of terrorists have been killed (when I was a kid a score was 20, so it must be a fair few).

The media make out that this is a good thing: the people fighting back against evil.  It's the same in Batman: an unknown person starts dishing out healthy doses of justice, and putting the world right.
But that isn't the whole story.

The thing about vigilantes is that they aren't legal. They take it on themselves to protect the innocent, and judge the guilty without any authority.  It usually happens when the existing law enforcers are ineffective (like in Nigeria) or corrupt (like in Gotham City).

But the problem with this is, who decides who's guilty

 and who's innocent?

In the world of the police, that's decided by the courts.  It's the job of the police to arrest people who they suspect are guilty, and the job of the courts to decide on their guilt and punish them accordingly.

But in the world of vigilantes, they are literally judge, jury and executioner.  They do the punishing as well as the arresting, and that makes it so much easier to abuse the powers they have.

Or to get it wrong.  In November 2013, a 44 year-old man in Bristol was wrongly accused of being a paedophile.  He was kicked and stamped on until he died, and then his body was set on fire. Let's get the important point here: he was innocent. His only crime was... nothing. And that leaves us with the question, what's the difference between a vigilante and a murderer?

It's different in Nigeria, because there is a feeling that the government have failed to act; and it's different in Gotham because it's not real.

Who cleans up the mess after a vigilante? The tax payer, that's who. Which means the awesome explosions come at a personal cost (almost as expensive as a baby)

World Environment Day

World News:

Yesterday was World Environment Day

It's a good time to think about our habits, and how they impact on the environment, and maybe to come up with some ways to start helping our communities get more environmental.

As an example, this week 2001 people in Kathmandu broke the world record for most people hugging trees for 2 minutes.

That might not be everyone's idea of a good time, and it probably doesn't help the environment much (although I think the trees might quite like it), so maybe there are other environmental schemes that people want to try, but don't know where to start. We'll help if we can, just let us know.


At the very least, World Environment Day should be a time for us to realise that we can't sweep things under the carpet forever...

BNP Youth

World News:

This was brought to my attention last weekend: it's a video by BNP Youth?

I wasn't even aware that there was a BNP Youth.  It had always seemed to me that people grew towards the BNP way of thinking with age (if at all).

I guess it will give some sort of  comfort to Nick Griffin, who was the only Member of the European Parliament representing the BNP, until he lost his seat in this month's elections. From his point of view there is still hope for a BNP future.

Back to the video though: watching it I had a few questions.  Questions like:

Who talks like that? Is it the normal language of young people? Or has someone been coaching them?

I've never heard anyone under the age of 30 use the word "bastardization". A shorter form (without 'ization') maybe.

Saying that, everyone is entitled to their opinion, you may not like it, but that's their right.

Speaking of not liking it, the Conservatives and Labour are not liking the results of the European elections: it's the first time that any other party has come first in a national poll since 1910.

Embarrassing for the Lib Dems, who have been the third party of power for decades but have never won a national poll.

But it's okay, because Nick Clegg has promised he won't leave the party.  The Lib Dem activists will be so pleased

 

Seeing things differently


ScottBradleeLovesYa show that just because you know something one way, doesn't mean it won't work in a completely different way.  I wasn't a huge fan of the original, but I really like this version.  Any thoughts? (And keep watching for the saxophone, it's awesome).

Moral dilemma
Another of those 'is it right to laugh?' videos.  This time tourettes.

In one way it is funny, funny that someone would shout things and say things that everyone else finds inappropriate.

But think about what it's like from their point of view: the feelings of being out of control, the fear of other people's reaction, the loneliness.

That bit really isn't funny.