Birds and Sport - Aaaarrrggh!*
It's the last edition of this year's series of Springwatch tonight. Pooh! It's been interesting, informative and entertaining, sometimes gruesome, possibly in that order - the BBC at its best. Apparently the website will be up and running for a long time yet, so we can engage in various citizen science projects etc. That's been the past three weeks. The coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show ran for the previous week, so, for me, it's been a good month.
The webcam on the peregrine falcon nest in the spire of Chichester cathedral is still going strong. The two chicks are out of their nest today, attempting to find shelter from the blazing sun. It must get pretty hot up there surrounded by all that stone. It's certainly warm enough for the chicks to not need an adult there brooding them.
All of this has been fairly gripping viewing, but make the most of it, Dear Reader, because today - Aaaarrrggh! - today - Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Oh no! Woe is me! Alack a day! And all that! Today sees the start of the World Cup. Aaaarrrggh! No, pleeeease! I thought the season was safely over! And for FIVE weeks? Aaaarrrggh! It's not as if Eng-er-land will be in the playing for more than two or three weeks, if that - we lifted the trophy nearly fifty years ago. Never got near it since. Now the professional football scene is full of foreigners - foreigners who can't play for the England team. Aaaarrrggh! What is more, you won't even be able to get away from it by hiding on the London Underground (aka the Tube). TfL will be broadcasting details along with their train information. Aaaarrrggh! It's not bad enough that the Tube is overcrowded, hot and getting hotter. Now it'll be full of football. Aaaarrrggh!
And if that wasn't a bad enough prospect, Wimbledon starts the weekend after next. Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Wall to wall sport! Aaaarrrggh! Maybe I should visit the local library, or somehow invest in some more books.
There'll be the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow come August. Aaaarrrggh! And then the football season will start all over again. Aaaarrrggh!
What I shan't be investing in is fizzy drink. Not unless it's fizzy water anyhow. Apparently there are the equivalent of at least six teaspoonsful of sugar in a can of fizzy drink. In some cans there are the equivalent of fifteen teaspoonsful of sugar. All of which is bad for our teeth at least. Increasing research is beginning to show that it's bad for us generally. Apparently sugar is addictive. And it gets added to a lot of processed foods - whether you'd think it might be there or not. And there lies the rub. We are addicted to sugar, we are 'drip fed' sugar in processed foods. We are increasingly inactive - we'll watch the World Cup and Wimbledon, ok, so I won't but . . . But we very rarely play football or tennis ourselves. Make that never for me. Obesity - leading to diabetes, heart trouble, etc, etc - here we come!
Meanwhile in Iraq a militant Islamist group seems to be poised to take over parts of the country at least, if not all of it. I don't know what 'W' and Blair were thinking of. Saddam Hussein was not a nice man At. All. But the chaos ensuing from the war to remove him from power and the subsequent political and military unrest in the country have not been Good Things either. Least of all for the Iraqi people. Now, faced with potential Islamist takeover, the UK at least says it isn't going to get involved. Hope the US follows the same plan, publicly and covertly!
I mentioned a News item a while back about the prospect of a legal case being heard in camera - no jury, no reporting etc. Turns out it is a Terrorist trial - that's a trial of people accused of terrorism, not a trial run by terrorists. Anyhew, the Court of Appeal Judges said that the "core" of the terrorism trial could be partly heard in secret but parts must be in public. Prosecutors had said that their unique application for a secret trial was in the interests of national security. Fortunately the Court of Appeal judges weren't going to be scared into creating dangerous precedent. It seems to me even a partly secret trial is dangerous precedent enough. Let's hope we don't live to regret it. Yes, national security is important, but so is Justice being done and being seen to be done. Perhaps more so. What do you think, Dear Reader?
Hmmm, that's enough for the present. Y'all have a good, and active (?) day now!
*As you'll have read, that's Aaaarrrggh! for the sport, not the birds.
The webcam on the peregrine falcon nest in the spire of Chichester cathedral is still going strong. The two chicks are out of their nest today, attempting to find shelter from the blazing sun. It must get pretty hot up there surrounded by all that stone. It's certainly warm enough for the chicks to not need an adult there brooding them.
All of this has been fairly gripping viewing, but make the most of it, Dear Reader, because today - Aaaarrrggh! - today - Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Oh no! Woe is me! Alack a day! And all that! Today sees the start of the World Cup. Aaaarrrggh! No, pleeeease! I thought the season was safely over! And for FIVE weeks? Aaaarrrggh! It's not as if Eng-er-land will be in the playing for more than two or three weeks, if that - we lifted the trophy nearly fifty years ago. Never got near it since. Now the professional football scene is full of foreigners - foreigners who can't play for the England team. Aaaarrrggh! What is more, you won't even be able to get away from it by hiding on the London Underground (aka the Tube). TfL will be broadcasting details along with their train information. Aaaarrrggh! It's not bad enough that the Tube is overcrowded, hot and getting hotter. Now it'll be full of football. Aaaarrrggh!
And if that wasn't a bad enough prospect, Wimbledon starts the weekend after next. Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Aaaarrrggh! Wall to wall sport! Aaaarrrggh! Maybe I should visit the local library, or somehow invest in some more books.
There'll be the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow come August. Aaaarrrggh! And then the football season will start all over again. Aaaarrrggh!
What I shan't be investing in is fizzy drink. Not unless it's fizzy water anyhow. Apparently there are the equivalent of at least six teaspoonsful of sugar in a can of fizzy drink. In some cans there are the equivalent of fifteen teaspoonsful of sugar. All of which is bad for our teeth at least. Increasing research is beginning to show that it's bad for us generally. Apparently sugar is addictive. And it gets added to a lot of processed foods - whether you'd think it might be there or not. And there lies the rub. We are addicted to sugar, we are 'drip fed' sugar in processed foods. We are increasingly inactive - we'll watch the World Cup and Wimbledon, ok, so I won't but . . . But we very rarely play football or tennis ourselves. Make that never for me. Obesity - leading to diabetes, heart trouble, etc, etc - here we come!
Meanwhile in Iraq a militant Islamist group seems to be poised to take over parts of the country at least, if not all of it. I don't know what 'W' and Blair were thinking of. Saddam Hussein was not a nice man At. All. But the chaos ensuing from the war to remove him from power and the subsequent political and military unrest in the country have not been Good Things either. Least of all for the Iraqi people. Now, faced with potential Islamist takeover, the UK at least says it isn't going to get involved. Hope the US follows the same plan, publicly and covertly!
I mentioned a News item a while back about the prospect of a legal case being heard in camera - no jury, no reporting etc. Turns out it is a Terrorist trial - that's a trial of people accused of terrorism, not a trial run by terrorists. Anyhew, the Court of Appeal Judges said that the "core" of the terrorism trial could be partly heard in secret but parts must be in public. Prosecutors had said that their unique application for a secret trial was in the interests of national security. Fortunately the Court of Appeal judges weren't going to be scared into creating dangerous precedent. It seems to me even a partly secret trial is dangerous precedent enough. Let's hope we don't live to regret it. Yes, national security is important, but so is Justice being done and being seen to be done. Perhaps more so. What do you think, Dear Reader?
Hmmm, that's enough for the present. Y'all have a good, and active (?) day now!
*As you'll have read, that's Aaaarrrggh! for the sport, not the birds.