The Poor Mouth

Hoverfly at its lunch

2012-05-28T12:30:00.000+01:00

California Poppy

2012-05-28T12:17:00.000+01:00

A gernanium or pelargonium, species unknown

2012-05-28T12:16:00.001+01:00

Future Foxgloves

2012-05-27T19:49:00.001+01:00

Couch potatoes mourn the death of a hero

2012-05-27T19:48:00.002+01:00

I am sorry to say that I missed this when the news was first announced but

Your Telly or your life!

Eugene Polley, the inventor of the television remote control, died last week at the age of 96. His former employer, Zenith Electronics said Polley died of natural causes last Sunday.

His 1955 invention, the Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells on each corner of the TV, turning it off and on and changing the channels. However, because the Flash-Matic used light to operate the television, it was temperamental and other lights could interfere with its operation. It was followed by sonic-controlled remotes and then infrared and radio frequency models.

Before Polley's invention, Zenith's first remote was connected to the television by a wire cord.

Polley was rightly proud of his invention and was honoured in 1997 with an Emmy for hiscontribution to television. Like millions the world over his invenstion freed us lazy git from the hell that was getting up and walking the few paces to television. For that he will be sorely missed.

RIP Eugene!

Anarchists "Smash the System"

2012-05-27T14:20:00.004+01:00

Friday's Guardian reported that an anarchist organisation has claimed responsibility for two "attacks" on railway signalling in Bristol which caused severe delays and the cancellation of services.

British transport police and Network Rail confirmed that signalling cable was destroyed on Tuesday morning in two separate incidents of arson which caused "extensive damage" and substantial delays to passengers.

The group – calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation – has warned of further "guerrilla" attacks and sabotage to "hurt the national image and paralyse the economy however we can". On Wednesday the group posted a statement on the Indymedia Bristol website saying it had "struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol", adding that members had "lifted concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burned out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath".

Wow them Annykists really smashed the system! I am sure that millions will flock to their cause and rain blow upon blow against the evil empire... that or a few thousand commuters will simply curse them as being a bunch of cretins.

The Informal Anarchist Federation, probably a small bunch of social inadequates one could count on the fingers on one hand really have a sense of their own self importance if their press release on Indymedia is anything to go by:

The purpose of guerrilla attack is to spread the struggle into different territories and facets of life. Finance, judicial, communications, military and transport infastructure (sic) will continue to be targets of the new generation of urban low-intensity warfare - the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) / International Revolutionary Front.

The means for this struggle are always close at hand. On the morning of May 22nd we struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol.... By lifting the concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burning out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath, before carriges (sic) came on the line...

... The potential spread of such blockages in general poses a significant problem for the flow of commodites (sic) and for making sure that labour exploitation arrives on time... Such actions are a time-honoured method of disturbing the 'social peace' myth: from similar sabotages in France...to the iconic seizure and arson of the city bus in London last August (yeah right! I'm sure that this was the work of committed revolutionaries!)... Everywhere the bosses want us scurrying around their metropolis, like consignments of human flesh in alientating (sic) containers on pre-determinated routes, in a frenetic hussle (sic) for survival, there is and will continue to be every reason to forcefully intervene in the smooth flow of the daily grind...

In the United Kingdom of clockwork control and domestication, we're some of the 'unpatriotic ones' who find the 2012 Olympics, with the ensuing spectacle of wealth... But no union or movement calls our shots, and we have no inhibition to use guerrilla activity to hurt the national image and paralyze the economy however we can. Because simply, we don't want rich tourists - we want civil war.

And come a civil war I am sure that these class warriors would shit their collective underpants. In the meantime they can bask in the "glory"of a job well done.... Ha!

Personally I have always had a low opinion of anarchists. This opinion was formed by my first encounter with anarchists in my late teens (mainly upper middle class children spouting slogans) and very little have I seen since that has done much to make me thing much more of them...

Ah well I wonder what these wankers in Bristol will do next

Fire Dragon II

2012-05-26T19:49:00.006+01:00

Fire Monster

2012-05-26T19:49:00.001+01:00

Fire Dragon

2012-05-26T00:31:00.004+01:00

Fire Demon

2012-05-26T00:30:00.004+01:00

Towel Day - The Babel Fish

2012-05-25T12:33:00.002+01:00

Towel Day - Disaster Area

2012-05-25T12:31:00.001+01:00

Towel Day - Vogon Poetry

2012-05-25T11:47:00.002+01:00

Towel Day

2012-05-25T11:45:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Snoopy for reminding me that today is Towel Day, the anniversary of the death of Douglas Adams. This of course gives me an excuse to post various Douglas Adams related youtube videos!

The first is a favourite of mine and comes from a series starring Stephen Fry, where he and a companion retrace the journeys Adams made to write Last Chance to See

Luckily Douglas did not get rogered by a Kakapo in his original journey. Still this clip must go down in tv history!

Ted enjoys a bath

2012-05-25T11:37:00.001+01:00

Ted in an old bath we use for planting

A small grey moth

2012-05-24T17:16:00.002+01:00

Madam Alfred Carriere

2012-05-24T13:35:00.000+01:00

Madame Alfred Carriere is a rambling rose that has conquered our Golden Rain tree )o called because it leaves a shower of small golden petals on the ground after it blooms and not because it gives succour to those enjoying, ahem, "water sports"

Normally the blooms are found well above ground so it is pleasure to find one we can actually see and smell for once!

Ragged Campion (Sliene dioica)

2012-05-24T13:31:00.001+01:00

A slightly worse for wear Silene (Campion) in my garden. Shirl loves to pant these flowers while all I do is remember carrying a version of this plant on my school blazer for five out of the seven years I attended the Campion School in Hornchurch

Sweet Cicely

2012-05-23T21:17:00.001+01:00

More Foxgloves

2012-05-23T21:16:00.001+01:00

German POWs in Japan during WWII?

2012-05-23T16:42:00.003+01:00

Several thousand (mainly Jewish) Germans and Austrians served in the British armed forces in WWII (The so-called King Own loyal Enemy Aliens), perhaps the most famous being Klaus Hugo Adam who served in the RAF (and became better known as Sir Ken Adam, the Oscar set designer of many of the early Bond films) and Horst Pinschewer (known as Geoffrey perry) who captured Lord Haw Haw.

Quite a few Germans served in the French Foreign Legion during WWII.This is no huge surprise as the Legion tends to attract recruits from nations in political or economic turmoil. One regiment, the 5eme REI was based in Indochina in 1940. Although the Vichy regime signed a treaty in September 1940 allowing the Japanese very limited basing rights in Vietnam, the Japanese tore up the agreement almost immediately and sent in a force to take at lest a part of the country. Fighting lasted for four days with a French defeat. The upshot was that the Japanese gained the right to base troops as they liked in the north f the country (and in the whole of the country the following year). All prisoners taken by the Japanese were released ecept fro 200 Germans in the 5eme REI.

I can find no reference to their subsequent treatment in Japan but I would be quite interested to find out. I have no idea whether they received the same treatment as allied POWs but I daresay that it was somewhat worse than that received by Germans captured by the Japanese in WWI.

If any visitor can guide me to more information on their fate I would be most interested.

Ivy Leaf Toadflax in white

2012-05-23T13:06:00.003+01:00

Abutilon

2012-05-22T20:53:00.001+01:00

Aquiegia

2012-05-22T20:51:00.003+01:00

And one of the terrible Eurovision songs

2012-05-22T15:15:00.000+01:00

S.A.G.A.P.O by Michaelis Rakintzis. There are plenty of worse songs, but the silly dress and the terrible choreography make it a contender for the bottom!