Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

Correction to the much quoted

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has not "called for Israel to
be wiped off the map" (Holocaust denial writer jailed for five years,
page 21, February 16). The Farsi phrase he employed is correctly
translated as "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the
page of time". He was quoting a statement by Iran's first Islamist
leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

...

"And when no elite existed, one could always be imported from elsewhere. Cyrus [the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire], even as he flattered the Babylonians with the attentions he paid to Marduk [Babylonian God], had not ignored the yearnings of the city's deportees, exiles such as the Judaeans, brought to Babylon decades previously - for the Persians had recognised in these wretched captives, and in their homesickness, a resource of great potential.

"If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear" is the mantra of the proponents of the surveillance society. It's rubbish of course as we all have things to hide such as our bank account or credit card details! Privacy International's 2007 survey gave the UK the lowest privacy ranking in the EU putting it in the 'endemic surveillance' category alongside Russia and Singapore. So do we good citizens actually need to worry?

Had our first Cornish Strawberries of the season today and fabulous they were too with a little clotted cream ;)

Very interesting article in The Guardian today about possible future for demential care

Noticed on the BBC News site

Another judgement against the police

Simon Jenkins makes serveral sharp points in

• Sir Humphrey would never let his minister be ambushed by Gurkhas

  Simon Jenkins: Labour has landed in the shambles of the Lumley affair by shunning the civil service's wisdom, checks and balances

I came across a lovely book on Project Gutenberg - Rambles Beyond Railways; or, Notes in Cornwall taken A-foot, by Wilkie Collins 1861

I particulary liked the story of the Loggan Stone [Pg 141]

From Marazion we walked to Penzance, from Penzance to the beautiful coast scenery at Lamorna Cove, and thence to Trereen, celebrated as the halting place for a visit to one of Cornwall's greatest curiosities—the Loggan Stone.