Partying like it's 1984

Welcome

Welcome

You've found Russell & Carol. We're lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of Cornwall which we shared with Astra the rescue dog and a lot of computers. We sometimes get around to blogging about things which interest/enrage us.

If you've registered with the site you should be able to see a selection of pictures.

 

April 2025

Wet then chilly - turned out 1.7 briefly! | 17 Apr 25  - then the rain came back...87.92 mm in a couple of days... | 18 Apr 25 ; 140.96 mm in month to date.... high of 21.9 °C; low of 1.2 °C

Some of our pictures

Beautiful dry stone walling by stonemason and sculptor Johnny ClasperLight on the WaterSunrise and Moonrise on the same day. With the #HarvestMoon rising behind St Michaels mount in Cornwall this eveningNovember in CornwallMagnolia bud @ TrengwaintonSandy Astra stalking that ballYou can be beautiful and a little crackedWaves at Sennen
 

Angarrack Weather

Weather at Angarrack

Angarrack is a small village outside Hayle, in Cornwall

Weather at Hayle - Foundry End - about a mile west of Angarrack as the crow flies

IHAYLE2

Carol

Title Type Datesort icon
Quote - "There are broadly two communities of people, living unequal lives–one with rights, freedoms, and access to services..." Blog entry 2 weeks 1 day
Remembering in 2025 - Chernyobl 26th April 1986 On This Day 2 weeks 1 day
In Remembrance - Rifaat Radwan one of 15 members of Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance killed in Israel Blog entry 4 weeks 1 day
Sunshine!! Blog entry 9 weeks 5 days
Quote - Conversation Among the Machines the Simple Man and the Commercial Idealist; 14 July 1932 Blog entry 10 weeks 4 days
Quote - "People in this country are disillusioned by a two-party system that thrives on despair." Blog entry 17 weeks 4 days
Quote - "We will love her while the light lasts, and when darkness comes, we will not forget her.” Blog entry 21 weeks 13 hours
Quote - "disappointment ..." Blog entry 22 weeks 5 days
Quote - "We get so tangled up in knots, we humans, trying to think everything through, trying to guess at outcomes ..." Blog entry 29 weeks 1 day
A Shetland Winter Mystery | Marsali Taylor 2021 Biblio 32 weeks 2 days
Quote - "Well, I still hate novels..." Blog entry 32 weeks 6 days
Quote - "Everything can be divided into decades" Blog entry 33 weeks 2 days
more

Recent posts for Russell

Russell's picture

Neo-Liberalism at its finest...?

Sun, 27/11/2011 - 10:56pm — Russell

So, the top man at Thomas Cook trousers £15m in 'hard earned and decent' (my sarcasm) bonuses over the last couple of years and now Thomas Cook is in dire trouble and planning to lay off thousands.  Well thank goodness for Free markets.  Nurses, teachers and other public servants must have their pensions cut, but goold old chief executives must have huge payouts even in times of trouble.  We're all in it together of course....

 

Russell's picture

Gaza Flotilla II Underway

Tue, 28/06/2011 - 11:55pm — Russell

Many brave people are going with the Gaza Flotilla II assembling in the Med right now.  The Zionist Entity has made its usual revolting attempts to stop the ships before they sail and smear the people but the ships are going.  Shame on Greece, Cyprus, The USA, Canada, France and Australia for telling their citizens not to participate.  Interestingly The Zionist Entity is claiming that people on the flotilla entering Gazan waters 'will be treated as individuals having attempted to enter Israel illegally' (Jerusalem Post) thus demonstrating that they consider Gaza to be under the authority of the Zionist Entity...

Russell's picture

Oh FFS religionists again...

Fri, 12/02/2010 - 1:50am — Russell

I nearly choked on my old man's sherry recently when I read about a 'science' teacher in the USA (where else?) who liked to add christian commentary to his science lessons basically saying the science he was teaching was wrong and that his religious view was correct.  He had been sacked it seemed and there was a 'reinstate him' movement from the concerned kids who were praying for him because they now believed science was unreliable.

 

Russell's picture

Cyrus the Great of Persia - the first Christ of the Judaeans

Thu, 08/11/2007 - 5:13pm — Russell

"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.

Russell's picture

The UK Surveillance Society

Sat, 10/05/2008 - 10:47pm — Russell

"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?

 

Recent posts for Carol

Quote - "There are broadly two communities of people, living unequal lives–one with rights, freedoms, and access to services..."

Sat, 26/04/2025 - 4:57pm — Carol

Describing what he witnessed as "sobering," Mr George stated: "The
International Court of Justice has deemed Israel an apartheid state.   I
don’t feel qualified to make such a judgment, but I can confirm I
witnessed extreme segregation and discrimination."

He added: "There are broadly two communities of people, living unequal
lives – one with rights, freedoms, and access to services; the other
with restrictions, no right to vote for the government controlling their
lives, and daily hardship."

...

He stressed that achieving peace requires addressing this inequality:
"Seeking peace after decades of conflict can only work if it benefits
both Israelis and Palestinians.

“Achieving this will require political change and herculean diplomatic effort.   Peace can’t come until this inequality ends."

Mr. George proposed a "Two-Stage Solution" as a necessary foundation for future peace:

1.     Full democratic rights – votes for all 

2.     A truth and reconciliation process.

Remembering in 2025 - Chernyobl 26th April 1986

Sat, 26/04/2025 - 12:05pm — Carol

Today marks 39 years since the tragedy in .
On this day we commemorate all those - emergency rescuers, military
& civilian personnel - who gave lives to quell the aftermath.
"Chernobyl liquidators" were instrumental in limiting damage from the
disaster

 

Date: 
Sat, 26/04/1986

In Remembrance - Rifaat Radwan one of 15 members of Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance killed in Israel

Sat, 12/04/2025 - 11:50am — Carol

In remembrance of 15 Palestinian paramedic emergency workers killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza 23 March 2025

11 April 2025

"My heart and soul died when Rifaat was killed," says Hajjah Umm Mohammed, the mother of a Palestinian paramedic who was one of 15 emergency workers killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza last month.

Rifaat Radwan, 23, was travelling in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance in a convoy of emergency vehicles when it came under fire on the outskirts of Rafah on 23 March.

"I never expected him to be killed, especially since the area was classified as 'green', meaning safe and open to ambulances," she adds.

Sunshine!!

Tue, 04/03/2025 - 2:31pm — Carol

After a really gloomy year last year, it's been lovely to see the sunshine this last week or so, and - unusually for Cornwall - it's been very clear, and with cold nights (-2C last night here).

But the sunshine has been glorious! and has meant we can harvest some apricity too!

We've even managed to generate .15 of a unit more electricity yesterday than we used!!

Quote - Conversation Among the Machines the Simple Man and the Commercial Idealist; 14 July 1932

Wed, 26/02/2025 - 8:53pm — Carol

PAGES FROM A
NOTEBOOK

CONVERSATION AMONG THE
MACHINES

THE SIMPLE MAN AND THE
COMMERCIAL IDEALIST.

(By “Aitch-Jay.”’)

"And don’t you think it wonderful (asked
the Guide who was showing us over a great
factory) that the mind of man could have
Invented this?”    The Guide, whose duty it
Was to impress upon all visitors the size and
importance of the factory he was explaining,
made a magnificent gesture towards Q& great
complicated machine which meant nothing
to us. “That,” he said, “is one of the greatest
achievements of mankind. It can produce
goods on a scale unthinkable before. It is
almost human; in fact, it is much more
than human.”

Quote - "People in this country are disillusioned by a two-party system that thrives on despair."

Wed, 08/01/2025 - 12:55pm — Carol

"
People in this country are disillusioned by a two-party system that thrives on despair. Politicians may regret spending their lives convincing their constituents that nothing will change. Instead, they should inspire some hope that a more equal world is possible.
”

—Jeremy Corbyn January 2025

 

 

 

Privatisation does not save money for the NHS. It diverts money away from the NHS. This is the very same NHS that will end up delivering the expanded care. It is NHS staff – and NHS resources – that will provide the private sector’s “spare capacity”. This is what Dr. Tony O’Sullivan, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public means when he says that “feeding the parasite undermines the health of the NHS host”.

Privatisation rests on an illusion that their services are provided out of thin air, hiding the human and economic cost required to satisfy the private sector’s endless greed.

Quote - "We will love her while the light lasts, and when darkness comes, we will not forget her.”

Sun, 15/12/2024 - 1:40pm — Carol

 

Quote - "We will love her while the light lasts, and when darkness comes, we will not forget her.”

 

 

Quote - "disappointment ..."

Tue, 03/12/2024 - 1:38pm — Carol

‘Do animals .. .” she said, and paused to consider, ‘feel disappointment
in each other, Jack, the way humans do?’

‘Well...

‘Or is that what makes us human, the fact that we can feel
immense disappointment in each other?’ She poured herself another
glass of wine.

‘I don’t know,’ said Jack, cautiously. “What do you think?’

‘I wonder if they ever go through the trauma of sensing that
someone they once liked, maybe even loved, is now turning into
someone they don’t respect.’

‘Why do you say that, Martha? Where’s that coming from?’ Jack
was chewing on his cheeks again.

‘Do animals, birds, fish, whatever, fall in and out of love?’

‘I believe they can.’

‘In that case,’ she continued drowsily, ‘can a fish, Jack, listen, can
a fish love another fish, but then one day imagine that they do not in
fact love that fish and that they now love another fish, only to realise at
some later date that they did actually love that first fish more than they
would ever love another fish for the rest of their lives, and therefore
feel that their existence is overcome with a feeling of regret that they

Quote - "We get so tangled up in knots, we humans, trying to think everything through, trying to guess at outcomes ..."

Sat, 19/10/2024 - 9:55am — Carol

‘I learnt a lot of things during the war, Irene,’ he said, after a
pause.   ‘Most of them of no use whatsoever.   But there’s one thing
I can’t unlearn, even if I wanted to, and it’s that life is very short,
and very precious, and if we can’t find a way to be happy in the
one brief span we’re allowed, then there really isn’t a lot of point
to any of it.’   He paused again and Irene finally turned to look at
him.   He smiled slightly, kindly, and she knew he lived in a
different world to the one she did.   ‘So I’ve a proposition for you,
and I don’t want you to think about it too much. We get so
tangled up in knots, we humans, trying to think everything
through, trying to guess at outcomes we can’t possibly know.   So
please just listen. I adore you. Marry me.’

"The Hiding Places 76 hb by  Katherine Webb"

A Shetland Winter Mystery | Marsali Taylor 2021

Fri, 27/09/2024 - 3:06pm — Carol
Taylor M.  2021.  A Shetland Winter Mystery | Marsali Taylor 2021. The Shetland Sailing Mysteries. 10:352.

Quote - "Well, I still hate novels..."

Mon, 23/09/2024 - 3:39pm — Carol

August 1814  : Well, I still hate novels. They still seem to me to be tissues of exaggeration, simplification, a sweetness that falsifics; and now I know this truth from, as it were, the inside, having written one myself, and marked all the sleights and tricks required to tease out a very partial understanding, a perished cloth more holes than thread, into what seems a smooth continuous fabric.

"Golden Hill 335 hb by Francis Spufford"

Quote - "Everything can be divided into decades"

Fri, 20/09/2024 - 3:09pm — Carol

Ten years. Everything can be divided into decades. Three of Brendan. One of Bruno. How many more did she have before her time was up? Two perhaps, three if she’s lucky? Measured like this how short it all is. We spend most of the first half of our lives getting used to it. Learning the ropes, making mistakes and preparing for what lies ahead. And, for a moment, there’s a feeling that it all finally makes sense, that we’ve arrived and understood something about the world. Then, before we know it, it’s all over. The tide coming in and washing away our footprints to leave an unmarked beach.

"Rainsongs Page 7 by Sue Hubbard"