Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2018

Bohemian Rhapsody

Let us all get ready for a bit of Freddy.



The subject matter is such a classic and yet also controversial figure that this film will really need to walk on a tightrope to get the audience behind it.

Whats not to love? Freddie Mercury's life story. A great man, a great singer and a great band. But that is just it, he means so much to so many people that just portraying him will cause many die-hard fans to have a conniption!



It's going to be interesting, that's for sure.



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Ocean is Broken

I learnt about acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer in school back in London in the 1990's. Since then we have had genetically modified grain, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), Avian Flu and of course, Justin Bieber.

Now we have something even more serious that we just don't know about.

As a yachtsman explained after crossing yet another ocean: 


Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line.

"There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a good-sized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled.

But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all.

So where did the fish go? As the article goes on to say, a mixture of pollution, over-fishing and even more pollution. We're not talking about beer can plastic getting stuck around the necks of penguins or big fish getting caught in illegal nets, this is much worse, this appears to be the systematic rape of the oceans. And no-one seems to be doing anything about it.

Read more about it at the article The Ocean is Broken.

How the hell are we going to fix this one?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant
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Friday, August 31, 2012

Bathroom To Bedroom?


An intrepid architect in London has decided to transform a disused public convenience into a residence, The Telegraph reports;
Clark first spotted the loos – with their chained gates and boarded-up stairwells – in 2005, when she moved to London, having completed her degree at the Glasgow School of Art. It was exactly the sort of challenge that the young architect was looking for. ‘I’ve always loved the idea of micro-regeneration,’ she explains. 



‘For me that’s about saving sites with an interesting history, but which have been abandoned and forgotten.’ Her initial plan was to transform the two adjacent ex-lavatories (men’s and women’s) into a bar or tiny cinema. ‘I pictured it as something quirky and fun that would breathe life back into a neglected part of the local landscape,’ she says.
In the middle of 2011 Clark found herself the proud owner of the underground public conveniences, built in 1929, last used some time in the 1980s and now filled thigh-high with rubbish. She lost no time in getting stuck in, working alongside builders and labourers in order to transform the dank and frankly creepy space into a bright and airy home. ‘I ended up doing a lot of the labouring work myself, because it was such horrid, hard work that I struggled to keep people on the job,’ she says. ‘And filling skips is character-building.’
Remarkably, the entire project cost only £65,000. ‘But in fairness, I did have many years to work it all out,’ she says.



Today it is hard to imagine that the light-filled one-bedroom flat, with its streamlined shelves, glamorous gold-leaf bathroom and subterranean garden, was once a derelict public convenience. There are clues though. The tiles that form the splashback in the kitchen were reclaimed from the site’s original use, as was a mirror in the living-room. And propped on a kitchen shelf is a small public health poster warning of the perils of VD. But still, for Clark, this is home.
Enormous hat tip to Peter

kthanxbai!

http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
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Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Olympic Cost to the Athlete

Old NFO came up with these interesting stats. I say 'interesting', but I really mean 'mind-blowing'.

Tax
After reading the below I had to wonder what the taxes on guide dogs and wheelchairs are...


Interesting...

Because conservatives are scrooges, the good folks atAmericans for Tax Reform have gone through the fine print to find out what our Olympians will have to cough up to the IRS should they be lucky enough to win any medals in London.

Even by the standards of our government, the numbers are insane.

For instance: Americans who win bronze will pay a $2 tax on the medal itself. But the bronze comes with a modest prize—$10,000 as an honorarium for devoting your entire life to being the third best athlete on the planet in your chosen discipline. And the IRS will take $3,500 of that, thank you very much.

There are also prizes that accompany each medal: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.

Silver medalists will owe $5,385. You win a gold? Timothy Geithner will be standing there with his hand out for $8,986.


It gets even worse. Not only do our Olympic athletes have to pay taxes on their medals and prizes – chances are their competitors on the field will face no such taxation when they get home. Because the U.S. is virtually the only developed nation that taxes “worldwide”income earned overseas by its taxpayers, our Olympic athletes face a competitive disadvantage that has nothing to do with sports.

I can only wonder if there is any way the athletes can deduct the cost of their training???

Personally, I think this is just beyond stupid!!!  At least Rubio has sponsored a bill to relieve the taxes for Olympic winners!


kthanxbai! http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
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Monday, May 21, 2012

James Bond is Back!

Jimmy B is coming back with what looks like another amazing, action packed. stunning movie.



And for a change, I think I might even go and watch it in the cinema / movie theatre.

I've not been to a cinema since 19 December 2003, when the 3rd part of the Lord of the Rings Saga was released, I just don't like them. Everyone crammed in to a small area, sharing the movie experience with complete strangers - just not my thing.

With the new era of deluxe cinema experiences I think I'd like to take Mrs. Jumblerant out and show her what modern snack eating and soda drinking is all about.


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And, in this glorious celebratory year for Queen Elizabeth II, I'll get to see a bit of Ol' Blighty in the process!

kthanxbai!

 http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
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Thursday, January 14, 2010

I gone bin and dun it

I made good on my promise yesterday of getting more exercise.

Bat Mobile. Special Presentation of Cars Used ...Image via Wikipedia


Not only did I get up early - or as we used to say in the military "at the crack of sparrow's fart" - and drove off into the misty valleys that surround our home.

I dropped the car off at the garage after I'd been informed that the 200,000km service it was going in for would cost around $350. I then made myself a steaming cup of Turkish coffee, walked out of the garage, turned right and started my walk to the office.

Then I realized that going left actually made more sense, turned around and started walking that way instead.

On my little walk I listened to a podcast which had me laughing so hard that I had stop walking at some point to catch my breath. Answer Me This is a great weekly show that combines audience participation, standard jokes and general nonsense but be warned, strong language is rife. But it is sooooo funny.

I walked and walked and enjoyed the sun, the diesel fumes and the looks on people's faces as I cracked up laughing. All good fun.

When I got to the office I was hot and sweaty. Lucky for me 'the office' is in fact a volunteer job in a charity's main warehouse so everyone else there was sweaty too. I started heaving boxes and putting orders together and pretty soon I was up to 11,000 paces on my pedometer (it measures paces, not the location of pedophiles).

Another couple of hours passed and I was up to 15,000 paces.

By the end of my work day I was up to 22,000 paces, over twice the daily recommended exercise for an adult.

So I walked back to the garage to pick up the car where I was informed that the service cost twice what they said it would.

I smiled, nodded and looked at my pedometer - 31,000 paces.

Its good to realize what is important these days.

kthanxbai!

Monday, December 14, 2009

God Save The Queen

I love the Queen (I loved the Queen Mum even more). She brings a certain something to an otherwise bland and boring island off the tip of Europe.

The Queen Mother reads a telegram from her dau...Image via Wikipedia



Prince Phillip, her husband, is renowned for being xenophobic and generally racist. Which is odd for a Greek Prince living mainly in London.

Doubly odd as his mother is buried in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, and is honored by the government of Israel as a righteous gentile as she sheltered a Jewish family in her house during the Second World War.

With mother-in-law buried in the capital and Prince P himself owning properties in Central Jerusalem why has the Queen never visited Israel?

A very interesting article in today's Jerusalem Post explains why. My question to you is this - is it basically anti-semitism or very strong pro-Arabian feelings that created this problem?

The article can be found here.


kthanxbai!