Bigger news
OK, I was wrong … the biggest news of the day is the announcement that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant with her and Prince William’s first child. But can you spot the similarity between these two photos:
The answer? Well they’re both expecting baby W[h]ales of course!!! BOOM!!!!!
The Palace have taken the unusual step of publicising the Royal pregnancy prior to the 12 weeks stage because Kate has been admitted to hospital suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness requiring supplementary hydration and nutrients.
This baby’s future is of course already mapped out. He/she will be third in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William and will one day be head of the armed forces, supreme governor of the Church of England and subsequently head of state of 16 countries.
So congratulations to them – just remember Kate, one more and your job is done!
Holy hashtag!
The big news of the day seems to be the fact that Pope Benedict XVI has joined Twitter, although he won’t be sending his first tweet until 12th December – just in time for the Christmas messages I presume?!
Using the handle @pontifex, I am sure he won’t be sending the tweets himself [there’ll be a man for that in his entourage of course] but I’m probably not the only person who’d really enjoy seeing him bring out his Blackberry or iPad from underneath his cassock during an open air Mass!
The walls come tumbling down
There’s an update today on my previous post “Life in the fast lane“.
The elderly Chinese couple who were refusing to relocate while authorities built a giant road around their home have finally admitted defeat. In front of a crowd of onlookers, bulldozers and diggers moved in to tear the isolated house to the ground.
Luo Baogen and his wife had previously insisted on staying in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, Zhejiang province, because they believed that the relocation compensation offered by the government was not enough – they have now apparently accepted an increased amount from the Chinese Government.
That might well be the case but I think they probably just decided that a good night’s sleep would be found in a quieter neighbourhood!
Often there is a simpler solution
When NASA started sending astronauts into space, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work at zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that wrote at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C.
The Russians used a pencil. BOOM!!!
What day is it?
The good folks at Google are marking St Andrew’s Day today with one of their celebrated Doodles.
Although most commonly associated with Scotland, Saint Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople [wherever that might be!?]
There are some very strange customs that are associated with this day, including:
-
If an unwed girl prays honestly to St Andrew the night before (29th November), she will be granted a good and caring husband
- At exactly midnight, unwed girls should throw a shoe at the exit of the house. If the tip of the shoe is pointing towards the exit then she will marry a noble and caring person and will leave her house within one year
- Unwed girls should also peel an apple in one piece and then throw the peel backwards. The letter which the peel has formed will be the first letter of the name of her future husband
- It was traditional to eat a single sheep’s head on St Andrew’s Day
- In Romania the women don’t just pray for husbands, they put 41 grains of wheat under their pillow. If they dream someone will steal the grains, it apparently means they’ll get married the following year.
The Scottish flag, the Saltire, has the white diagonal ‘cross of St. Andrew’ on a blue background and is widely flown in Scotland. It would be natural to suppose therefore that Scots would celebrate St Andrew’s Day on November 30th in a big way. THEY DON’T. TV and radio mention the fact that it IS St. Andrew’s Day but that is about as far as it goes for most Scots.
However, in 2006, the Scottish Parliament passed the St. Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007, which designated the Day as an official bank holiday. If November 30 falls on a weekend, the next Monday is a bank holiday instead. Although that day is a bank holiday under that act, banks are not required to close (and don’t) and other employers are not required to give their employees the day off as a holiday. So it is more of a “voluntary public holiday” rather than a proper bank holiday. So far, few companies have negotiated the day as a staff holiday, though staff in Scottish government departments and a few local government authorities happily get an extra day off.
As every Scot knows, the time to celebrate Scottishness is Burns Night, January 25th. The poet Rabbie Burns holds a place of affection in the minds of Scots all over the world and perhaps this is why St Andrew’s Day passes with relatively little to mark it.
#ridiculous
The world really has gone mad! We read today about another poor baby being given THE most ridiculous name I’ve heard of to date! Crazy baby names are nothing new, in fact they seem to be almost de rigueur in some circles but Hashtag? As in, well, #hashtag? Really?
“Hashtag Jameson was born at 10 o’clock last nite,” the proud parent announced on Facebook last Saturday night. “She weys 8pounds and i luv her so much!!!!!!” Spelling-challenged friends started leaving equally creative congratulations in the comments. “Aww babes you finally had youre Tweetybird xxx,” one wrote.
Now this could of course be just another poorly executed viral marketing campaign but it’s well within the realms of possibility – if Frank Zappa can call his offspring Moon Unit and Gwyneth Paltrow call hers Apple, why can’t a non-celebrity chose an equally ridiculous moniker?
The internet has of course been awash with some slightly cruel hashtags of their own, including #Foolishparents, #YourParentsHateYou, #StupidestNameEver but despite the initial shock of this most recent naming debacle, parents have always named their kids after things that are important to them, whether it’s a beloved relative, a hot celebrity or, today, social media. In 2011 a couple in Egypt named their daughter Facebook, while in Israel another was named Like. Now that little Hashtag has arrived, all we need is a tiny Twitter, a sweet little YouTube and a delightful Digg and the social media baby name trend will be properly established!
Let us hope that little Hashtag will find a way to avoid problems in the playground that will surely happen when you carry such a mighty burden, but you can’t help but wonder what it will be like for her in 20 years time when she has to explain what a hashtag is!
How petty?
If this story is true then it’s a sad day for anyone with any national pride – and I’m not just talking about Scotland!
A firefighter is claiming that Grampian Fire & Rescue Service (GFRS) chiefs have removed the Saltire from the front grille of two new appliances after just 2 complaints (one internal and the other from a member of the public) which branded the use of the national flag as “offensive”. It is understood the complaints centred around the Saltire’s link to the SNP and fears the flag could be viewed as a sign of support for Scottish independence, but Grampian Fire and Rescue said the move was simply to bring the two appliances into line with the rest of the fleet.
The new engines, which cost just over £200,000 each, were given the Saltire logo in advance of Scotland’s eight fire brigades being merged into one unitary authority next spring and when they were unveiled in August, Grampian’s fleet manager Raymond Cheyne said: “The badging for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is needed because of the new single Scottish service coming into being next April. We wanted to celebrate the new Scottish Service coming into place so chose to use the Saltire. We’ve used high-visibility striping to make it part of the functional design of the appliance.” However, when contacted by the press over the removal of the Saltires, Mr Cheyne stated: “I don’t want to comment.”
And there was me thinking that the Saltire is the national flag for ALL Scots and as such should not cause offence to anyone living in Scotland. And, surely 2 complaints are not a reflection of true public opinion – that can hardly be called “public outrage”! What is the world coming to?
And while we’re on the subject
Another superb photo opportunity from Her Maj!
Proving that she does indeed have a sense of humour – during a recent visit to Nottingham with the Duchess of Cambridge, she attended a children’s event in which the 5-10 year olds were asked to present something to celebrate the Jubilee. Out of more than 1,000 children attending, six were chosen to give their own speech to the queen, expressing their devotion and admiration for Her Majesty’s long reign. The last child to say his piece was 8-year-old Devon Parker who stood at the microphone a few feet in front of the queen and the royal photographer was able to catch her reaction and response.
Devon Parker: “Your Majesty, I think you are the nicest old lady in all of England, but I wish you weren’t so old because, if you were younger, you would live a lot longer. Thank you very much.”
The Queen’s reaction and reportedly her response: “Now what can I say to that?!?”
I think you need a haircut!
This has got to be my “Picture of the Day”!
It’s a dilemma facing everyone who knows they’re going to meet royalty but I don’t know what he was thinking when this sniper serving with the Household Cavalry Regiment opted for his work outfit … leaving the Queen looking more than a little perplexed!
Looking like more like Chewbacca from Star Wars than a regular soldier, the crack marksman wore a ‘ghillie suit’, a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy foliage, leaves and twigs to remain concealed from the enemy. The suit even moves in gusts of wind!
If that wasn’t bad enough though, she doesn’t seem to have noticed that the chap behind her seems to be carrying rather a lot of excess weight in his nether regions!!!
Keep smiling :-)
Is this the happiest baby you’ve every seen? Despite seemingly being desperately tired, little Leo refuses to fall asleep but remains happy and content, smiling and gurgling at his Mum – after three – one, two, three, ahhhhhhh!!!
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