The rear of Household Calvary Museum buildings seen from Horse Guard Road. This is at the front of Buckingham Palace.
Panoramic view of Buckingham Palace.
London Eye seen from across the Thames (River), where the riverboats load passengers. As far as I am aware, the Eye never stops moving, but moves so slow that people can get into and off the pods without the need for a total halt. I have been fortunate to go up at dusk and see the lights coming on all over London. To me, this is the best time. It takes about 45 minutes for a complete circuit.
Just behind me was a public toilet where they charge 50 pence to pee. I think that is hitting below the belt, basically milking people in their bursting moments.
This panorama was done from 11 photos taken when I re-visited the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate in London to pick up my machine-readable passport.
It shows the ornate gate and woods to the ‘left’ of Buckingham Palace.
This photo above shows the ornate ‘coat of arms’ on one of the two gates that lead into Buckingham Palace from the front. Below is the full gate.
Above is a ‘full’ photo of the palace, but I do have others to join in a panorama that I will post when I complete it.
Over the past several years here in England, there has been a shift in the attitude of assisted suicide.
Assisting someone to commit suicide in the UK is illegal and carry a penalty of up to 14 years imprisonment.
However, more than 100 Britons with terminal or incurable illnesses have gone to the Swiss centre Dignitas to die and none of the relatives and friends involved in the cases has been prosecuted.
The problem with the law as seen by terminally ill patients desirous of ending their lives, is that the law is not clear under what circumstances their relatives or assistants would be prosecuted.
Debbie Purdy, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Bradford wants to know under what circumstances her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her travel abroad to die. In July last year, the Law Lords ruled she had a right to know.
Now, I have no problem with suicide, or assisted suicide. How a person chooses to live their life, or end it, is – in my humble view – his or her choice. No so the religious zealots. They want to decide the fates of everyone, even those outside their faith.
I’d rather die with some dignity than wallow in my own shit for someone to be cleaning up after me… but that’s besides the point.
The debate is heating up here in England, and it looks likely that there is some way to go still before anything final is said and done.
Some days ago, Judge Volney was ‘incensed’ that a jury returned a verdict of not guilty in a murder trial. He clearly thought that the verdict ought to have gone the other way.
Now the question of intimidation and tampering has long been associated with juries. Was this particular jury as unbiased (for whatever reason) as it ought to have been? We don’t know, but the decision of the jury stands, although I believe the state has the liberty to appeal.
This morning, the question of jury tampering has once again arisen, not in any particular matter but in a more general way. The government seeks to do away with juries and have hearings in front of a judge alone.
Now, to some this may seem a sensible thing. Perhaps it is, in some instances, but I have long doubted this to be a reasonable position. It has been proposed here in England for some time, but whether is has been implemented, I am not sure; I will have to check on that.
The reason I am doubtful that this is a workable solution in Trinidad and Tobago is because of the clear corruption in the judiciary there.
Let us recall some few instances.
The list is certainly longer that that, but those are what I recall this morning in the time I am typing up this post. I know, some people going to argue that a magistrate is not a judge. Well, we all know that, but I am pointing out suspect examples in the judiciary, of which magistrates are a part.
Now, trial by judge alone sounds like a workable solution for the cases where juries are threatened, or bribed or tampered with in some manner. I have no problem with that.
Where I see the problem is how easily it is to tamper with the JUDGE in Monkey Island. For too long I have seen suspected circumstances, some sparking outrage, some sliding by without notice. There is also the question of political tampering, which lately has been more and more an issue.
Maybe the better idea would be to have a quorum of 3 judges, like an appeal court. Oh wait, now they will trot out the excuse of expense etc…
I expect to see more appeals, and more judgements being overturned. Thank the Almighty for the Privy Council, oui.
It’s not a new cuss word..but it caused many to be shouting obscene language, including some at the Greater Manchester Police force here in England.
Conficker is worm virus. See: BBC News 2010-02-02. It’s so bad that Microsoft had put out a USD $250,000 reward for information leading to capture of its creator. See BBC 2009-02-13. Um.. errr.. notice dat was a year ago. So why should a whole police force be taken out a year later – seemingly without virus shield defences. There are several variants of Conficker.. read the ‘ficking’ story here: at Wikipedia/conficker.
Well it’s dee same ol’ story – I bet. Like many think it couldn’t happen to them, until it actually happens.
There are free and good antivirus defences out there. Nah.. doh even t’ink o’ arskin me, else is cuss! Yuh know wha’ ah going say.. wait for it.. here it comes – GOOGLE it! Nah..I doh provide ‘fish’ .. but I might teach yuh how tuh fish.
I will say that I’ve been a fan of NOD32 for quite some time. Got it running on 4 of my computers. NOD has never failed me – and actually none of my computers have been infected with a virus for over 4 years.
For those who need it get a virus shield now!!
This chap on the left is called Conan.
Like his more famous namesake, Conan the Barbarian, this young hooligan was arrested and charged for ‘acting up’ although I have to query the status of that charge…
It seems young Conan is the son of the Minister of Labour Rennie Dumas. Young Barbarian, I mean Conan, sought to bring ‘daddy’ into the mix when he was caught in a car with a drunk driver, and he used the famous words ‘Allyuh ent know who my fadder is?’ When will these people learn what a loaded question that is? No one but mammy ever knows Conan, and sometimes even she ent sure.
Poor fadder, raising a son who can’t stand up for himself. Sigh. Why can’t these youths make their own way in the world?
Anyway, son Conan was arrested for using obscene language and possibly (I forgot) resisting arrest.
Now, we only have to see the justice system, malleable as plasticine, being moulded to set him free. Any bets?
Firefox is my main browser, although on occasion I have switched to Maxthon, Opera and Google Chrome. Getting Firefox at peak performance is always a good thing, for me. Here is an interesting little trick to speed up Firefox.
To implement this tweak, and speed up Firefox a considerable amount, follow the steps below:
Restart Firefox and check the speed. You ought to see a significant improvement.
I took these photos a couple of weeks ago during the heavy snowfall, and used 5 photos to create a panorama of the Council House in Oldbury. Some may recall my previous panoramic photo from summer.
A larger version can be downloaded from Flickr.
