So long and thanks for all the fish

Thanks to Alan in Belfast another amusing link: MARRAMGRASS

- a superb “new psychometric test”, “free from unwieldy four-letter acronyms”.

Oh My God they've killed ....

It's a sad sad day for blogging - Cyril Genty has decided to call it a day (or un jour), I for one shall miss his daily photographs of Paris which, I thought, were the best on the web. I hope he returns in another incarnation but I wish him well with whatever venture he is now involved with.

I killed unjouraparis.com from Cyril genty on Vimeo.

... but you can see videos of Un Jour à Paris archive here: 'the end is not the end'

Strawberries,revolution and scandalous behaviour.

Blueboat has a post about strawberries on her blog and a dilemma about their disposal, which set me off googling to see if you can do anything else with them other than making jam. In wikipedia I found a reference to Madam Tallien bathing in them which set me off googling at a tangent and on Big Frank Dickinson's blog I came across this:

She is remembered for her involvement in the Liberal cause in France, which led
to her imprisonment, and threat of the guillotine. .... she scandalized society by showing up at the Paris Opera wearing a sleeveless white dress and no underwear underneath! Talleyrand famously remarked on that: “It is not possible to exhibit oneself more sumptuously!” That is seizing the moment! And, of course she did bathe in strawberries - to good effect, it appeared.

Now there is a fashion that I would like to see revived (c:

....... and now some fun facts about strawberries courtesy of Michigan Dept of Agriculture:

• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
• The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
• The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.
• To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.
• In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.
• Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin. Needless to say, she did not bathe daily.
• The fruit size of the very early strawberries was very small.
• Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
• There is a museum in Belgium just for strawberries.
• Strawberries are a member of the rose family.

The MDA has a lot of recipes for strawberries (among other things) including Sweet-Hot Strawberry BBQ Sauce

Blogger dropped

I must say that I am a little saddened to see that I have been dropped from the list of likes on the South Belfast Diary )c:

I wonder, was it something I said (or didn't say), am I not political enough (well we can't all be political animals) or is she (being a woman) just being fickle?

Whatever the reason - I still like her blog and I'm not dropping her from my links (yet!).

Arrest risk to bloggers 'is growing'

Growing numbers of bloggers around the world face arrest, researchers say.

A total of 64 internet writers have been detained since 2003 for highlighting corruption, human rights abuses and refusing to hand over sensitive information.

More than half the arrests were in China, Egypt and Iran, researchers found.

In one case, Chinese dissident Huang Qi was seized for comments condemning his government's response to last month's earthquake, which left 70,000 dead.

However, the researchers say it may be only the tip of the iceberg after discovering internet filtering and monitoring is used in at least 50 countries.

'We predict that the number of blogger arrests will rise in 2008,' says the report. 'The popularity of online blogs continues to grow and inspire more media coverage of arrest incidents.'

The research by Washington University in the US was published as it emerged Mr Huang, founder of human rights website 64Tianwang, had been detained for possessing state secrets. This charge is often used to clamp down on dissent.

'This is another illustration of how a person who is trying to help might find himself snared by China's state secrets laws,' said Sharon Hom of the watchdog Human Rights In China.

'This use of the law as a sword hanging over rights' activists contradicts the reported "new media openness" in China following the earthquake.'

Metro.co.uk

I suppose we should be grateful that we live in a country where we can criticise Bush, Blair, Brown et al without fear of reprisal (c:

p.s.

blueboat has returned

... once upon a line

for the benefit of ada - this is all I can see on your blog.

photoblog jean boccacino

CHEZ LA CHAPELIERE
photoblog jean boccacino

EN ATTENDANT LE TRAIN