[saturday quiz] 10 slightly easier ones this time

Answers here …

1 In Roman numerals, what number is CLI?
[151]

2 Which are the fire signs of the Zodiac? A, L & S.
[Aries, Leo and Sagittarius]

3 After how many years marriage do you celebrate your Golden wedding anniversary?
[Fifty]

4 From which country does the cloth denim, used in jeans, originally come from? Do you know the town it comes from as well?
[France - Nimes Denim=de Nimes]

5 Which is the third letter of the Greek alphabet?
[Gamma]

6 The screwdriver cocktail is made with vodka. What juice is also used?
[Orange juice]

7 What is claustrophobia?
[Fear of confined spaces]

8 The winter solstice occurs when the sun is furthest from the equator (on December 22nd). What do we call the days the sun crosses the equator on March 21st and September 21st?
[Equinox]

9 To the nearest whole number, how many revolutions does the moon make around the earth in a calendar year?
[Thirteen]

10 In which organ would you find the pineal gland?
[The brain]

[history quiz] ten questions to test your memory

1] What was Operation Sea Lion in the Second World War?
The invasion of Britain

... and Operation Dynamo?
The evacuation at Dunkirk

2] What was the name of Haile Selassie before he was crowned in 1930?
Ras Tafari

3] Which American City is named after a British Prime Minister?
Pittsburgh

4] Which Republic exists in France since 1958?
The Fifth Republic

5] Which two other countries joined the EEC at the same time as Ireland?
Denmark and the UK

6] Who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of France?
Georges Pompidou

7] Who was the last British Prime Minister not to have a wife?
Margaret Thatcher

8] The Roman Appian Way went from Rome to where?
Brindisi (Brundusium)

9] Enola Gay was the name of the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but what was the name of the bomber that dropped it on Nagasaki?
Bock's Car

10] Eboracum is the roman name for which city?
York

[blogfocus saturday] life’s little problems

More of life’s problems here …

4

The state’s to blame, concludes DK and so, statist Pollys who love to legislate and regulate are therefore the bane of our life and …

In this way, it can be perceived that it is, in fact, the state's interference [as regards retirement age and in the provision of a state pension as the main source of income upon retirement] that creates this cultural attitude to ageing. Thus it is 'socialism/communism/other nice but un-workable political ideal' [which we libs generally refer to as statism] that creates the dependency and the culture.

5

Just after I posted about starting up a ‘solidarity group of small bloggers’, what should I see at Doctor Vee but the same sort of thing already in operation. Actually, I feel it’s different because Blogpower is not meant to be an organization – it’s a loose confederation trying to keep ourselves alive. See what you think:

But this is actually quite a good idea because it emphasises the community aspect of blogging. It also reveals connections between blogs that you might have thought didn’t exist. Here is my user profile for MyBlogLog, and here is this blog’s community (feel free to join it of course). The other website that’s quite impressed me recently is Twitter. It’s another sort-of social network, but it’s more like a blogging tool. But not. It’s from the people who brought us Blogger and Odeo.

6

Russia’s been very much in the news of late on more than one count and Martin Kelly puts a point of view on another over-eulogized ‘freedom fighter’ – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom I also posted on:

One of the more unfortunate aspects of Russian history is its tradition of jailing dissidents. Mr. Amsterdam might be of a generation for whom the name 'Andrei Sakharov' still has some resonance. But whatever the source or nature of his legal difficulties with the Russian authorities, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is no Andrei Sakharov; and any attempt to paint him as such is mythology.

7

Some have felt that Norm’s been posting too much cricket of late and that he had absolutely no right to go gallivanting off to Oz and enjoying himself so much, then informing us that this is what he’s been doing. The Political Umpire and I disagree and the former takes the Yorkshire Altruist to task over some very strange comments:

I admired Geoffrey Boycott the player, whatever his faults. I enjoy Geoffrey's commentary during matches too. Today, however, Boycs has come out with a clanger: "The problem is that England, like a lot of teams, have become so used to playing crash-bang one-day cricket that Test matches don't come naturally to them any more." Codswallop. Hasn't Geoffrey noticed that England over the past few years has been good at test cricket and utter rubbish at one day cricket?

8

There are bloggers who rant and rave and tear to pieces. There are bloggers who try to construct something or at least report on it. Jeremy CJ is of the latter ilk and if this report is half as true as is purported, it is indeed a minor miracle:

Peace Oil is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together. Grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, the olives are pressed within hours of picking, to produce this prize winning extra virgin olive oil. An initiative of registered UK charity The Charities Advisory Trust, Peace Oil encourages co-operation between communities.

9

Meanwhile, still in the Middle-East, those never-resting terrorists have a new scam – Terrormail. International Political Will fills us in:

Conditioned to shudder in fear at the mention of Al Qaeda or even the word “terrorist,” are we now being threatened by Islamic emails? What’s next – a telemarketing campaign with pre-recorded messages by Osama bin Laden that call you during dinner? Someone’s got to stop these madmen …Yet while those crazy Muslims are plotting how to spam the “infidels” to death, the “good” side in the so-called “war on terror” is making headway in their efforts to emulate their own religious teacher.

IPW then takes apart the Christian Coalition of America. Interesting read.

10

Tim Almond, on his nicely laid out blog, returns to the Tony Petition Site and finds one, among the dross, which might well be worth following up on:

There're a load of petitions floating around on the Number 10 website. I don't know if any of them are going to get anywhere, but it seems to me that in the end, things like dropping the ban on hunting just aren't going to happen [nor is juggling ice cream]. But there's one that's sensible, doesn't cost much, is important to all, and would have cross-party support. That is that websites produced by the government are accessible to all. This helps blind and partially sighted users to read the content, as well as other groups [see this introduction]. Implementing it isn't that difficult, if it's thought through in the first place. The petition is here.

11

Outside Story is an enigmatic character [unkind people might suggest that this is sour grapes, that though I run him here in Blogfocuses, he never responds]. No matter, he also has a Tonypost, focussing this time on the ridiculousness of “integrated multiculturalism”. Only someone like Tony Blair could put this forward as a serious statement:

I just saw the headline on Sky News that Tony Blair thinks the "right to live in a multi-cultural society" must be balanced by the obligation to integrate. Leaving aside the issue that he thinks we have a right to tell other people how to think (or at least that he does), how on earth do you "balance" two mutually exclusive concepts? It is impossible to integrate into a multi-cultural society. By definition there is no one culture to adopt, there are many, some of which will embrace intolerant views.

12

What have Adam Smith, South Park and Jeremy Clarkson in common? Johnathan Pearce [of Weblog Award Fame] feels there is indeed a connection and he explains:

Via the Adam Smith Institute blog I came across this excellent essay over at the LewRockwell site about South Park. Definitely worth a read. Of course it is not the first time that the outrageous but wonderfully sharp series has been noted for its libertarian, anti-puritan content. Of course, arguably PJ O'Rourke was ahead of them all with his Republican Party Reptiles, which is essentially a libertarian credo in most respects. The nearest we have in Britain to such a celebration of brash material wealth and fun, irreverence towards do-gooders of all forms is motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson.

13

Deogolwulf has left the Fewtrills for the moment and posed a curly one, which first you must try to understand, then decide upon. I'm still at the understanding stage, myself and I've got as far as envying cabbages for their ataraxia:

The desire to be free from care and worry is nevertheless still strong. With that mind, therefore, there is no sublime discipline so as to transcend the hardships of life, but rather a submission to whatever makes life easy and carefree. One suspects it would rather live in a joyless order than be inconvenienced or unsafe. If we were, after all, to view ataraxia as the greatest good, we might envy cabbages, although the perturbance caused by such envy would further bear witness to how far we fall short of such vegetables.

Think you'd best read the whole post, to get the context, like.

14

Martine warns the blogosphere about Bent Postmen but I think she concentrate more on Bent Websites:

I am a little concerned about having send so much information on my bank account over the post I have to admit. I've been wary of sending things this way since having problems with a bent Postman, and now even more so after Dizzy spotted the huge security flaws in the party's last batch of membership renewal forms. Perhaps they have learned a lesson since then since they no longer ask for your card's security number.


I think it was UK Daily Pundit who scolded me, pointing out that my Mystery Blogger was no mystery at all. How can he be a mystery when the moment you put your mouse over the link, you know who it is? Fair comment, so let’s do it differently this evening. Here are the clues and you work out who it is:

1] He or she’s an Aquarian male horse;
2] His or her job is being tortured by adolescents in tracksuits;
3] He or she asks if we believe that forks are evolved from spoons;
4] He or she answers his own question: “Don't be silly”;
5] His or her favourite movie is Casablanca;
6] He or she likes quoting Edmund Burke;
7] He or she ran a post on Communication Breakdown.

So all right, who is he or she?

1] Croydonian;
2] Iznewmania;
3] La Femme Contraire;
4] Shuggy;
5] Beltoday;
6] Notsaussure;
7] James Cleverly?

Hope to see you on Tuesday evening at 21:00, London time for the next Blogfocus. Bye for now.

[blogfocus tuesday] dealing in death

Another 11 bloggers plus the mystery blogger here …

3

The Flying Rodent certainly had me between the Hammer and the Anvil with his “good news about Pinochet recovering”. Then he explained about the old death dealer and all was well:

Old Augusto may be in his nineties, but he clearly has no intention of giving up the fight just yet. This is encouraging for his family and supporters, and also for me - I've got twenty quid on Thatcher to pop her cork first, and the old bat is showing no signs of giving up the ghost. So come on, General, stay with us! Satan will just have to keep that red-hot poker in the fire for another year at least.

4

Mr. Eugenides also has a stake in the matter: It's asking a lot, but for these two old dictators to go on the same day would be a nice final irony. Of course, one will be rather more eulogised in the pages of the Guardian than the other, but that's a matter for another day. Feel free to go ahead and die, señors.

5

Clive Davis hobnobs with a killer [well, an executioner] and comes up with the most surprising things: Old circuits and other electrical odds and ends were scattered [down] his driveway in an anonymous suburb. During the hour we spent together in his kitchen, he broke off to take a call from a southern penitentiary. He was servicing their chair down in his basement workshop, and they were in a hurry to get it back. The conversation took place on his speakerphone, so I could hear every word. You’d have thought they were talking about a car that needed a new axle.

6

Last Ditch puzzles over the Sky News query over the death dealing Trident system: Sky News never queries government expenditure on social services or foreign aid. After all, many of its viewers pay their subscriptions from social security and giving "charity" to African dictators provides a cost-free charitable glow. The channel merely mirrors the slack-jawed sentimentalism of its underclass viewers.

When its gormless news anchor told the Shadow Defence Secretary "there were questions about the cost" of Britain's nuclear deterrent, we were surprised by the unaccustomed rigour. Then enlightenment dawned. "Ah," said my wife, "what a waste of money we could be spending on NHS dance lessons"

7

The Gracchi take a different tack, looking at none less than the birth of America into iniquity: The idea that Neo-conservatism is Machiavellian is hardly a surprise. It might come as a surprise to our author that America was founded by Machiavellians. By people who wished to maintain a republic by craft as well as moral example. Go and look at the reasons why the US is built the way it is and in the Federalist Papers you will find reasons which are precisely to do with elevating the right people to power. Machiavellianism is not really neo-conservative- it dates to a far earlier trend in politics- made incarnate by the Prince- of literature which seeks to instruct a politician not merely in what his ends should be, but in how to attain those ends.

8

Blognor Regis has his eye carefully trained on Bananarama and gives us the lowdown: Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, Fiji's armed forces commander, took control of his country's government at 18:00 local time. (6AM GMT) Frankly he's played a blinder. Slowly and gently increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase until he was able to virtually stroll into assuming power…

I think Laban calls it right. Anyone coming upon the story for the first time right now is going to automatically assume that Bainimarama is the bad guy and the deposed PM is the good guy here. And that just isn't the case. (Which just goes to show that there's an awful lot of nuance to these sort of situations, Thailand earlier this year, Ukraine last year, and that anyone rushing to judgement with barely any background information can hardly know which is the "right" side to support.

Also check out BR’s new header.

9

Shuggy focuses on yet another dictator: Chavez has been re-elected for a third six-year term. No-one's talking about it. Not in my workplace, not in the pubs I go to. But the blogosphere is a different story. The reason behind this is a familiar one. Political partisans, leftists in particular, have a long history of being obsessed with the events taking place in two arenas in the world - the Middle East and Latin America. It is because it is felt that it is here that the fundamental clashes between right and left, capitalism and socialism, are played out in primary colours. For the ultra-leftist, the attractions are obvious.

10

L’Ombre is the only man I know who would take on Lady Ellee of the Fens but he explains his stance: One of the reasons why I don't live in the UK is the way that as soon as something bad happens politicians and their toadies cry out to ban something to do with the event. I admit this was a minor reason for my choice of life on the Riviera (despite today's miserable drizzle, the weather was the biggest reason), but it is one big reason why I can't imagine going back.The problem is that passing laws banning something makes politicians look like heroes but usually results in them being real villains because the bans always [invokes] the law of unintended consequences.

Classic example of the day is Ellee Seymour who wants all knives banned or something like that. She wants this ban because the existing regulations of knives, which result in retired brigadiers being arrested for posession 5cm pocket knives failed to stop two muggers from stabbing someone.

Sorry, Ellee but I had to get you into this somehow.

11

Dizzy writes of another use which is being made of the blogosphere - a more sinister use: Blogs and wikis are now seen as a vital tool in intelligence gathering agencies in the US. The self-publishing revolution has in effect changed the way intelligence works. For example, one analyst commented about how on the day of the London bombings he visited Wikipedia and within minutes the bombings had an entry. Over the next few hours the article was updated as news changed, the analyst pointed out that “you could just sit there and hit refresh, refresh, refresh, and get a sort of ticker-tape experience.”

12

Moving away from death and destruction but still on the theme of blogging, Tim Worstall raises the eternal issue of the altruism [or not] of blogging: [This] is assuming that economic theories rest upon the maximisation of monetary income. Given that, it is indeed extremely odd that practitioners of the dismal science would do something like blogging for no money (or pittances, certainly less than could be earned elsewhere).

However, extend that thought. Why would such people, who know how the world works, do such silly things like become a college professor? OK, it's not that badly paid but it isn't, with a very few exceptions, the route to a fortune. Why are they doing this silly research, publishing those papers that only 10 people (including their own mother) will ever read? Why aren't they pounding out the Harlequin novels instead? Could it actually be that such economists rather like doing research? Thinking about the world? The long vacations? The short work week? Even, perhaps, the respect of their peers?

Mr. T. Worstall may now be getting some return for his efforts but it’s as well to remember that it was a long hard road there and many of us may well fall by the wayside along that same road.

13

Speaking of blogging, has Chicken Yoghurt rewritten his manifesto and become a public service? Here he gives The Roundup Roundup, urging you to check out Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #94, Mr E’s Swearbloggers Roundup #9 and James Higham’s Blogfocus.

As if that’s not enough, he’s very thoughtfully provided a blow-by-blow, day-by-day Advent Calendar and here is today’s: Advent Calendar: Day 5

[01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06][07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12][13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18][19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]

What’s advent? You’ll have to go to our mystery blogger to find that out, plus anything else you need to know about the liturgical calendar. I wish you good luck this week and maybe see you on Saturday evening, at 21:00 London time.

[geography] 10 more tricky ones for you

Answers here …

1] If you crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic (Caribbean) to the Pacific, in which general direction would you be going?
South-East (NOT South-West)

2] If you saw the letters BWI after a country on a postal address, where would you expect the letter to be delivered?
Somewhere in the British West Indies

3] If you were in Molokai, in which country would you be?
United States (Hawaii)

4] In which city is Marco Polo airport?
Venice

5] In which city is the HQ of the Central Bank of China?
Taipei

6] In which country is water considered so precious that it gives name to the currency: the Pula?
Botswana

7] London's Fleet Street runs from the Strand to Ludgate Circus and has become the former home of British journalism. What is it named after?
The River Fleet which still flows under the street in the sewers

8] Name the eastern-most and western-most state in the United States.
Alaska and Alaska. The Aleutians cross the 180 degree line of longitude and are in both the eastern and western hemispheres.

9] Jebel Musa is acknowledged to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, the end of the world according to Mediterranean cultures. What is the other one?
Jebel Tarik, better known as Gibraltar

10] Valencia Island is off the coast of which European country?
Ireland

[blogfocus saturday] creative initiatives

Another 12 bloggers here …

3

Cityunslicker, a fine blogger using an appalling template, Minima, focuses on the Leeward Islands, saying: We supported the islands until 3 years ago, via subsidy for their produce. He then explains that when the criminally inclined Haitians went home after sugar slumped, tourism had to be the new industry but he put an idea to the President to preserve the sugar industry: So much has changed that Slicker's idea to the president of using sugar fields to fire a new power station to replace their ancient diesel one has fallen on deaf ground.; they don't want to know about sugar here any more..

4

Dave Hill raises some eyebrows with his idea and I wonder how many have e-mailed him? This is his idea: It's a show-off thing I'm afraid: but I like sending Christmas cards and I like doing it early in December. People receive them and cry, "Wow, it's our first one this year! It's from Dave Hill! What a lovely bloke." [Don't they...?]. Maybe you, reader, would like to receive a Christmas card from me. If so, email me your address and I'll do my best to oblige. By the way – lunchtime Monday, skip across to the bookstore and buy his latest book please!

5

David Farrer puts a more than sane case for re-ordering the parliamentary system in what is now the UK. These points certainly need to be considered and analysed:

# Withdraw from the EU;
# Devolve all powers - except defence and foreign affairs - to the various national parliaments;
# Each parliament to be fiscally independent with contributions being made to the federal government in proportion to population;
# The federal government should be situated on the Isle of Man, which is not in any of the home countries but is equidistant from all four of them;
# The Irish Republic should be invited to unite with the North and rejoin the UK with Dublin taking its rightful place in the Anglosphere alongside Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

6

In the Englishman’s own words: The success of the human race, and also some of its uglier deeds can be traced to our highly developed sense of what is true to the first approximation. My rules:

# All timeshares are cons.

# If you don't understand the deal, don't do it.

# Nothing is too complicated to be explained on more than one side of one sheet of paper.

# Americans can be trusted.

# Politicians can't.

# Anyone who claims to be a funny, crazy guy isn't.

# Modern Jazz isn't worth listening to.

# Old men in pubs are.

# Young people's opinions aren't worth spit.

# Young people should be listened to with respect and patience.

# Nobody cooks breakfast like your mum did.

# No bed is as comfortable as your own.

# Trusting your first instincts is rarely wrong.

# Stupid haircut equals stupid person.

# Anyone one wearing stacks or a syrup can't be trusted.

7

Iain Dale has done more than many to champion the blogosphere and blogging as a venture: I did a similar speech last weekend to thirty young Conservative women and I am delighted that 3 of them have already got in touch to say my talk inspired them to start blogging themselves. I'd be delighted if a similar proportion of today's audience [whre he was addressing a group] took up the blogging challenge too. Every political activist should have a voice and play their part in spreading the message whether it's through blogging or another medium.

8

Victorian shopping night in the Drummer's village. He hated it, of course and described this in vivid detail, before offering alternative suggestions to the village organizers. Here are the Drummer's suggestions:

1) a public execution

2) stocks

3) we import cholera and dystentry into the village for the night

4) we make all the stallholders sign the 39 Articles

5) all pregnant teenagers are hurried off to backstreets or given huge doses of gin and hot baths

6) the village stages a series of summit meetings with a German village, announcing periodically that the opposing village needs to negotiate on its number of ducks, while the German village relentlessly builds up its amount of ducks, and we just stoke the river, ready for the inevitable conflict.

9

Tom Paine comes out with one of his traditionally perceptive pieces on what to do to make things run better: As a libertarian, I would have as few public employees as practicable even if they came for free. Generally, the more people divorced from wealth-creation, the more dangerous the position of wealth-creators becomes; and the more fragile the liberty essential both for wealth creation and (even more importantly) for true civilisation. He generally argues, in this post, for small government.

10

Wat Tyler swims against the tide with the reasons for the road-charge and asks - why stop there: But if charging is the way for roads- and those politicos all seem pretty keen- why isn't it the way for our other public services? After all, charging for a service will soon show whether people actually want it or not. One personal social service that's not free at the point of use is hairdressing. And today we hear it's booming, with turnover up to £5bn pa.

11

Cleanthes is concerned about the preconditions for getting into Heaven [starting to feel the pinch perhaps] and finds the answer in this anecdote: A Sunday school teacher was testing the children to see if they understood the concept of getting to Heaven. He asked them, ‘ If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?’ ‘No’, they chorused.

Of course you’re not getting the punchline – you have to visit him to get that.

12

After quoting a lady blogger who lists, ironically, 5 ways for young men to behave towards women in today’s society, Vox Day adds a sixth: 6. Unless you are religious or want children, don't even consider marriage. Seriously, there are tremendous potential costs and comparatively few potential benefits for men in marriages without those two elements, given that so few women now view marriage as a prerequisite to a full and intimate relationship. And given the current child support laws, even the motivation of wanting children is unreliable. If you're only popping the question because she's pressuring you, well, all I can say is enjoy your slide into Gamma Male Hell.

13

UK Daily Pundit has done it again. You’ve probably gathered by now that I’m partial to this blog – I like the way he gets straight to the heart of the matter, the way he often comes up with something most of us haven’t thought of and the succinct nature of the eventual post. Try this one: What if Alexander Litvinenko wasn't deliberately poisoned with polonium 210? What if he was handling the stuff for reasons unknown? And if so, where's the rest of it? And I do wish the Labour Party would be more careful about who they give passports to. Irrespective of the large fees they charge for such services.

14

It’s about time I got to Croydonian, after just about everyone else has. Of course he needs no introduction and here’s one of William’s more unusual offerings: Strange things are afoot on the other side of the North Sea, with a politically motivated cake thrower in Norway facing the prospect of a 15 year jail sentence [one could probably be a rampaging serial killer and get change from 15 years in these parts] for lobbing a cream cake at the country's finance minister. Wonder what would happen if I … no, no, no … I have to put that out of mind.

Our Mystery Blogger had a most distasteful task the other day and if today’s Blogger problems are anything to go by, he’ll have to go through it again. Have you guessed who he is yet?

Hope to see you on Tuesday evening at 21:00, London time.