Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
This Is Arthur Daley, The New Ram On The Farm.
I call him that because he’s wearing a camel-coloured coat with black collar and trilby. See the likeness?
He’s arrived just in time to settle in for the Autumn shagfest when he’ll be expected to do his duty day after day until the winter sets in.
The Ultimate Scary Spider Story – And It’s All True!
This is an amazing photograph. I’m not claiming any great skill, it was just a smartphone point-and-click but the story behind it is extraordinary.
It looks like a cold winter’s day with frost glistening across the fields, doesn’t it? In fact, it was muggy and warm and what looks like frost is actually reflections from a heavy dew lying on spider webs at the head of every dead thistle and nettle. Look closely and you can see there are spider webs all over the grass as well. That’s all across this 15 acre field – and the next one and the one to the west, the east, north and south. If I turn around I can see right across the Dorset plain up towards Yeovil and there are spider webs covering every square inch of every field and every hedgerow.
If we could work out the rate at which spiders weave their webs, so many inches per hour, we could probably calculate how many spiders there are per acre and how many spiders per square mile.
How many spiders are there in the world? The only remaining question is would that number be more or less than a gazillion?
Expanding Heathrow Is Reckless And Ridiculous.
I find it inconceivable that any sane human being can even consider expansion at Heathrow. The idea of increasing the traffic over what is already a hellhole, already unfit for human habitation, is madness.
The sickening amount of money pumped into the campaign to expand Heathrow raises very unusual feelings in me. It repels me and turns me against business. If this is the result of the profit motive then it is sickening, disgusting and demeans everyone involved.
I think those who advocate expanding Heathrow have slipped into a form of mental illness where common sense is overwhelmed by greed. But I think they’re wrong. It cannot be a wise decision on any basis. The cost is far, far too great.
I’m with Boris and a brand, spanking new mega airport in the Thames Estuary. It is an investment that will enrich our country, that will create so many jobs over so many decades that it can only be a winner. It is the only rational decision.
It’s Time To Be CLEAR.
The prohibition of cannabis has caused massive harm to our society. It has created a criminal market which has attacked our children, our communities, our health and our liberty. The time to end this failed experiment is now.
Cannabis in West Sussex, England, UK. With acknowledgement and thanks to Joni Mitchell and Eddie Mitchell of Aerial News. (No relation, as far as we know)
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm *
I’m going to join in a rock ‘n’ roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an’ get my soul freeWe are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the gardenThen can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am
But you know life is for learningWe are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the gardenBy the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nationWe are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
back to the garden
© Siquomb Publishing Company
Vote ‘YES’ Scotland!
If all the people, politicians, institutions, banks and monopoly businesses who are responsible for the terrible injustices and inequalities in our society are so desperate for a ‘NO’ vote, what should that tell you?
That Cameron, all his disgusting, self-serving cronies, Miliband and Clegg are terrified, scared and panicking, what should that tell you?
When all the members of the Fleet Street Mafia: dishonest, manipulative, gutter press editors and seedy proprietors want Scotland to vote ‘NO’, what should that tell you?
When the UK parliament does all it can to prolong the sick perversion of democracy that is Britain in the EU, what should that tell you?
Please vote ‘YES’ Scotland!
Anti-Dog Jobsworths In Weymouth
This gate opens onto farmland and scrub stretching just half a mile from the Jurassic coast, up and over the Dorset ridgeway.
If you head due east, maybe a touch to the north, you can walk with your dog (or dogs) for five or six miles and never come across a building nor even a road.
Yet Weymouth and Portland Borough Council choose to threaten us with a £5000 fine for not having our dogs on a lead, or £1000 for allowing them to, ahem, shit (for want of a better word).
The path leads away from the main road through Sutton Poyntz and the signs can’t be directed at people coming towards the village because they’re impossible to see from that direction.
Half a mile further west it’s the same thing on Chalbury Rings, the bronze age hill fort, which is as remote as anywhere. In five years, walking there regularly, I might have bumped into someone else once, perhaps twice.
The nasty, dog-hating, money-wasting, officious ‘little Hitlers’ that devise and operate this policy are the very worst of Britain. Local government seems to be infested with them.
Paradise Valley
The early summer has made the valley explode into life. Read the latest instalment here.
Appeal For Help – Did you attend Hyde Park 420?
There was an outbreak of violence in the early evening and the police are appealing for witnesses. We should do all that we can to help them.
DC Tony Esmond contacted me today and he is looking for witnesses to the violence to whom he can show some photographs of suspects. He is not interested in why you were in Hyde Park or anything to with cannabis. He wants to catch the thugs who inflicted serious injury on several people. I would count it as a personal favour from anyone who is prepared to do the right thing and step forward.
Contact DC Esmond on 020 7321 9315 or 020 7321 9364. Leave a message if he’s not there.
If you did witness the trouble then you should step forward. It is the right thing to do. Any society needs law and order and police to enforce it. Although we may use cannabis, we are still entitled to the protection of the law and we should support the police, particularly when violence is involved.
This is also an opportunity to demonstrate that we are reasonable, responsible and respectable citizens. Co-operating with the police over this strengthens our argument for the change in the law that we all want to see.
My understanding of what happened is that it was a perfect demonstration of why a regulated system for cannabis is a safer and more responsible approach. It was a turf war between two groups of dealers – the inevitable result of prohibition.
What is really ironic is that CLEAR had intended to organise an event in Hyde Park tomorrow, 7th May, to coincide with the international Million Marijuana March. We invested considerable time, effort and money in applying to the Royal Parks for permission. We agreed to pay a substantial bond, take out insurance, provide stewards at a ratio of 1:20 and undertake to clear up all litter. They didn’t actually deny us permission but they refused to allow us to use a stage or a PA – even though we pointed out that this would enhance public safety and order. Consequently we decided not to go ahead and instead we are running an event in Cardiff tomorrow where we have received constructive and positive co-operation from the authorities.
So the unofficial, unregulated and un-stewarded event at Hyde Park went ahead on 20th April with its own PA and look what happened. I left at around 5.30pm when the atmosphere was still peaceful but it was evident that a massive clean up operation was going to be needed. I hope that the Royal Parks will learn a lesson from this. I shall be writing to them pointing out what a foolish mistake they made.
So I urge you to contact DC Esmond if you have any information or if you witnessed any of the trouble. Now it should be obvious but If you go to the police station to look at photographs, don’t go there stinking of weed and check your pockets to make sure you aren’t carrying anything you shouldn’t be. You don’t want to put any of the officers or yourself in a difficult position!
(Yes, I did have a little chat with DC Esmond about cannabis. I sent him a copy of the medicinal cannabis leaflet and a link to the LEAP website. Well you’ve got to try, haven’t you!)
Paradise Valley
Two hours here with the dogs every morning.
It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.
See here for the latest episode.
Peter Reynolds 