planning disaster

The government wants to reduce public consultation in the planning process. This can only be bad news, considering some of the dreadful planning decisions that get made, and it will mean further destruction of greenbelt and wildlife habitats, because they want to reduce restrictions on building out-of-town supermarkets. Act now.

fiendish

I was introduced to the King William quiz by a friend the other day. I don't know how I managed to miss finding out about it, as I used to read The Guardian, and it has been published in it since 1951 apparently. So I had a look at some of the previous years' quizzes. It helps (but not that much) if you know that each section has a theme.

Without googling or looking in books:
2005 quiz - I got 10 correct
2004 quiz - I got 8 correct
2003 quiz - I got 21 correct

I could have got a few (a very few) more if I had looked things up in books, for the ones where I knew what he was referring to, like poems, or food, or novels. For example, I knew that one question was three of the four subtitles of TS Eliot's Four Quartets, but couldn't remember for the life of me what the other one was.

green

I am Mint Green

Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well.
Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations. You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life. Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!

What Color Green Are You?

(darn - a pastel colour!!! but it goes very tastefully with this blog)

found via Jumblie, who is the same colour green as me!

Pensford

Today we walked around the village of Pensford in Somerset (see map for location). We explored the village, where there is an old lockup (17th/18th century) like the one on the bridge in Bradford-on-Avon, a church dedicated to St Thomas à Becket (sadly disused but about to be restored) on an island in the river, a viaduct across the valley, remains of coal-mining, a medieval bridge, a pack-horse bridge, and various converted mills. The village shop was open so we were able to buy some nibbles (and the shop-owner was very friendly). We walked up Wick Lane to the top of the hill, and could see across to the Mendips and Stanton Drew stone circle in one direction, and the southern Cotswolds and Kelston Round Hill in the other direction. One of the mine buildings had been converted into a rather unusual house, though at the back of it, there was a large expanse of black where the slag-heap had been levelled.

We quite often do small village walks in the winter, as it saves getting your feet muddy, and there's something to look at besides leafless trees and muddy fields.

Pensford is named after the 7th-century King Penda of Mercia, after whom the humble penny is said to be named. Penda's father was called Pybba, and the neighbouring village, Publow, is named after Pybba. Penda was also the last pagan king in England.

mumming 2006

On Christmas Eve, we went mumming in Lacock, Wiltshire with the Ragged Heroes mummers. Here's the photos. I was Dick the Horse as usual - I frightened lots of ladies with my big green skull. I can assure you however, that a horse's skull weighs a ton.

Cheesemas

Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and cheese reconciled.

Hark The Herald Angels Sing
from the Christmas Song Generator.

How oft at Christmas-tide the sight
Of green cheese gives us delight.

O Christmas Tree
from the Christmas Song Generator.

mile-high mice

Mass mouse escape on Saudi plane

More than 100 passengers on a Saudi plane were left panic-stricken by the unexpected appearance of furry fellow flyers - dozens of mice.

Not exactly the Heart of Gold, but proof (if it were ever needed) that mice are actually pan-dimensional beings. They find their way into your luggage and then try to hijack the plane!

m-m-m-mad

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

Quiz by Rum and Monkey.

(meme snagged from Chas Clifton)

Merry Yule

Season's Greetings - Merry Yule / Solstice / Sacaea / Saturnalia / Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / festival of your choice.

webdev team

Our team photo just before the Christmas meal.

Oops, I ended up standing in front of Mead's head. Either that or he is hiding behind me.

competition

The Ultimate Spam Hoax - competition

I challenge all the readers of Nemeton to come up with the stupidest and most outrageous hoax email - but of course we will not be sending them to anyone, because that is just totally and utterly dumb.

Here's my effort (post yours in the comments):
Your car is vulnerable. A new species of computer virus called RustWorm has migrated into car computer systems and mutated into nanobots and spread into the superstructure of the car. It is specially designed to unlock all your doors and make the car vulnerable to thieves. Especially if you have central locking. After that it will break your car down into its component parts and take them away to Seattle for Microsoft to turn into computer parts and complete their plan for world domination. But don't worry, because Microsoft will give you $10 if you forward this email to Bill Gates!!!

The only possible solution is to take your car immediately to a wrecker's yard and have it crushed. Forward this email to everyone in the world! (Well, okay, everyone in the world with a car.) You'll be glad you did, because only by sending this email to the whole world can we overcome the threat of RustWorm!!!!

Of course, in order to prevent anyone actually using these to spam people, they must be wildly improbable.

crisperanto

Shockingly, the youth of today seem to have no idea who Quentin Crisp was. Even the gay youth of today. Ooh, they don't know they're born. And they evidently don't speak crisperanto. Surely the wittiest and most charming man since Oscar Wilde. A friend of mine called him on the phone in New York once, and Mr Crisp invited him for tea. Apparently Sting's song An Englishman in New York is about him, as well.

(p)arson

"Christian" arsonist burns down church for not adhering to Bible teachings

This is scary - if there are "Christians" (however disturbed) prepared to burn down other Christians' buildings for not adhering to the teachings of the Bible, then it's not long before they get onto book-burning, shortly followed by people... oh, somehow I recognise a pattern here....

On the other hand, I am awed at the forgiveness offered by the people whose church got burnt down - well it's obvious which ones are the real Christians.

Let's hope this sort of thing doesn't catch on, but maybe the Christians will sit up and take notice of the scary fundies, now that the fundies are attacking the moderates....

(Spotted by Alfreda.)