Mars, Books, Twitter

The other night, the clouds having departed, I saw Mars close to the Moon.  Rushing for the camera I wasted timme trying to get a decent shot of both, these two blobs are the best I could manage.  The Moon is the one on the right...

It appears Mars will not be this close for another 15 years or so, I may not get another chance to see it like this.  Since then however rain has stopped play with late night stargazing out the kitchen window late at night, I may be able to resume come April.

On Twitter early today they war anoraks were offering pictures of their bookshelves.  Masses of war books, and someone claimed, Enid Blytons, were to be observed.  My shelf looks puny in comparison, although many more big ones lie elsewhere.  It is interesting to read people who consider books so important.  One man offered a view of his home where several large bookshelves groaned with books, mostly Military ones.  Isn't it funny how we, and by this I mean men, get caught up in something and fill our world with this hobby.  War books, often ex-servicemen or historians, photography, trains, football, cars, motorbikes, cycling, hill walking, and so on, once something gets a grip of you it remains forever.  Of course women can be found here also, especially in the hill walking areas, I will go looking tomorrow, and they can be most helpful as they make the sandwiches.  

I recall the tale of a woman dumping her man, he might starve now, as he filled the house with Manchester United paraphenalia.  The walls were covered, cupboards filled and for reasons unknown she got forgotten in this.  Other women are happy the man has a hobby, whatever it is, as long as it is harmless, and she will probably have one also.  Helpful if they share the attraction.

 

 

I was watching the second Scottish Cup Semi Final on Premier TV this afternoon, another group ripping off Scottish football fans, and found myself getting very annoyed by the faltering picture.  I took to  Twitter, a good idea if you wish to embarrass someone, and yelled at Premier!  Minutes were lost, I missed a goal, and then in one of the papers they had a list of people similarly crying out re lost vision. Eventually all returned and the wrong team one.

Too often I find myself these days shouting at things, there is of course a lot to decry!  Corrupt government, people, wrongs that need righted, but in the end I am becoming Victor Meldrew, and grumble too much, even though, and it must be said, I am right!

So, I will give Twitter a miss to save my blood pressure, few will notice, and I will peacefully spend my days contemplating trains, football, and other lovely things.  Anyone got a spare mirror?

 

Mars!

That may be a dirty blob to you, however, to those in the know that blob is my first picture of the planet Mars!  Being unable to sleep, aching from preparing the place for the workmen, my aching muscles forced me up just after one am.  In spite of a slight cloud cover it was possible to see many stars glinting above.  I was looking for the latest comet that is supposedly passing by but failed to observe it, however, it is quite wonderful to be able, even through a dirty window, to see so many stars.
While in my teens I was often able to see stars.  Having a cat meant that at unearthly hours one of us would be forced up, downstairs, through the back door, and while the cat stared suspiciously into the void I could look up into the very dark sky, well hidden from street lights, and observe Orion among others.  Always good, even if frostbite was waiting.  The cat would suddenly move, I would close back stair door, open the front door for the cat to enter halfway and glare back at his patch.  We would then return to bed, he satisfied his land was secure from threats no-one but him could see, we happy just to be warm again.
On one occasion on the north coast of Kent a crowd of us stood and stared at the Milky Way.  Vast numbers of stars, clear as can be ranged overhead.  Wonderful sight.
Last night I managed to capture Mars, not easy while holding the camera half way out the window, but another achievement to equal a similarly poor image of Venus obtained a while ago.  If I could understand half of what they say on these star maps I might find others.  Why are they so often confusing?     

OSIRIS

A wee bit better than mine.

Cabbage & Mars

Riviera

I give in to the pressure!  Reading for the umpteenth time about the 'Mediterranean diet' and being hectored from overseas I am once again returning to a veg diet.  The Med diet is full of veg, fruits, nuts and oily fish, and mine has been less than equal to this for a while now.  In the morning I will visit the shops and purchase appropriate veg, though I might have that pie for breakfast first....
Carol tells us that 'Chia' is the power food of the day - or at least that's what her son tells her - and I read the other day about the 'superfoods' that the trendies were spending vast sums of money on.  One of them was 'Blueberries,' grossly overpriced and not much better than other berries, strawberries for instance, 'Kale' a type of cabbage my mum used to eat in the 20's because it was cheap, I read any cabbage is good for you, indeed 'cabbage' the much maligned substance is one of the best veg to eat as long as not overcooked.  Anyhow my cooking kills all goodness in foodstuffs so it makes no difference.  I will however attempt a new diet again tomorrow.

NASA

Continuing our fascination with the heavens I note that there has been excitement in space circles with the discovery, it appears, of water on the planet Mars.  Much excitement as there are many experiments ongoing regarding sending men to the planet and even establishing a wee village up there.  Hmmm it will take a round trip of three years to get there and back as I understand it, then with the time establishing the village you can add on another couple of years so whoever goes will be away for at least five years and possibly more.  No doubt political correctness will insist on females participating on this journey, indeed some astronauts will insist on this also, and I suspect Russians, Europeans and maybe even the Chinese will become involved, the costs will be prohibitive otherwise, and I suspect an effort will be made to bring about such a trip.  The difficulties of space exploration in such an environment are immense, the costs out of this world, the chance of success limited, and yet it does excite many people.  Will they find intelligent life on Mars?  Will they find intelligent life on earth first I wonder?

Mixed Bag Monday

Our power drunk incompetent PM is doing it again.  He has in his mind the idea that to be a great leader he must be seen as a war leader, therefore he has been striving these past few years for a war he can win.  Encouraged by politicians taking cash from gun running types he has proposed bombing Assad in Syria, before being told not to be stupid by almost everybody, he forced the yanks to help him bomb Libya and remove Gaddafi leaving Libya in a mess with several governments almost all of which are led by gun-toting murderers, and then he went to bomb ISIS in Iraq, now he wishes to bomb them in Syria also.  The situation is therefore the men he wished to help bomb Assad he now wishes to bomb for being in Iraq. Clear?

Once again this mans PR failure is evident.  Screaming loudly about bombing Muslims while telling the British Muslims to do something about their home grown possible terrorists just increases the numbers of home grown possible terrorists.  His 'five year plan' to defeat the 'Caliphate' as he calls it shows all the understanding of the Iraq situation revealed by Bush and Blair some time back, let alone the British and French after the first world war!  

This sort require sensible propaganda to defeat, intelligence and thought are a must.  Shouting loudly about killing them off will not work and just increase the problem.  Intelligence and thought are of course the two things least available in this government.  Thoughtful consideration is less important than joining with the US in a bombing campaign (which has not stopped IS so far) rather than working on the ground creating divisions within the group.  

Clearly both the US and UK wish to put boots on the ground, clearly all this is leading up to this idea, clearly that is unpopular in the country and will be a disaster for all concerned.

Colin Smith

The Carron Fish Bar claims to be the place where the 'Deep fried Mars Bar' was born.  This luxury did not exist when I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city.  However since the inception of this delight it now appears Scots eat only such delicacies and almost anything else is ignored.  Somehow  I feel this may not be true.  I myself have never had one, nor have I had the desire to eat one and I doubt the somewhat limited chip shops in this part of the world would never be capable of offering  such a treat.  Whether the idea for such treatment of a chocolate bar originated at this particular shop I know not.   This is one of those things that I have never studied myself, however this has become successful and all fish and chip shops now offer the same in Scotland, alongside other typical Scots fare, Haddock & Chips, Pie & chips, Kebabs & chips.

There is however a problem, isn't there always?  The banner outside the shop has come under scrutiny of the council who are going through one of those 'clean up the town' periods.  The feeling there is that this particular banner is somewhat ugly and requires amendment.  Naturally the shop has rushed to the media to make publicity defend their right to use this banner.  Personally I would agree the banner is unsightly and a more considered display could easily be arranged.  However there is nothing like publicity and this woman will see people drive for miles to the shop for a deep fried Mars Bar!  The council do have powers others do not possess and I suspect changes will be made eventually without hampering this chip shops viability.

Interestingly Mars themselves wrote to this shop stating:-

 The company said it could not authorise or endorse the product which went against its policy of promoting a "healthy lifestyle."

Quite how a company that makes billions selling a wide variety of chocolate could make such a statement is beyond me.

Stonehaven itself rests just south of oil rich Aberdeen and dates far back into prehistoric times.  It is thought to have been established as an Iron Age fishing village.  In the late 1200's William Wallace the noble hero took back Dunnotter Castle from the thug Edward 1. King of Englandshire and later the noble Covenanters were crowded together in Dunnotter Castle before being shipped to the Americas, those that survived that is, some being executed or died of misuse.  Nothing much happens today as most pass through on their way north or south.  They can however stop off for lunch at the Carron Fish Bar, easily identified by the banner above the shop.

 

UPI

 

Mitsubishi, the Japanes giant, have decided to apologise for using American servicemen as slave labour during the second world war. How nice of them seventy years later! I notice this apology not only fails to offer compensation but also avoids any reference to the hundreds of British servicemen also enslaved at this plant. This feeble apology clearly has a hidden meaning. Mitsubishi, famous for their 'Zero' fighter at the time, clearly are aiming for some big money making deal with the US. What this may be we might find out later, clearly the British, nor the Australian, Indian and other, dead will not make them cash.