EARTH-LIKE PLANET DISCOVERED

"Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet outside our Solar System, and the first that is undoubtedly rocky like Earth.

Measurements of unprecedented precision have shown that the planet, Kepler 10b, has a diameter 1.4 times that of Earth, and a mass 4.6 times higher.

However, because it orbits its host star so closely, the planet could not harbour life."

(source: BBC, 10 Jan 2010)

a note for future astronauts

(mid Jan 2011)

More extreme weather events as climate chaos continues.

Read my 1978 prophecy!

"The weather forecast for today & doomsday"

(25th January)

Tartan mania mounts amid scenes of increasing haggis-hysteria & bagpipe-blowing frenzy...

A wee dram for Rabbie

Scotland

It was 20 50 years ago today...

The Beatles played their first gig at The Cavern (9th Feb,1961).

 

Beatles

(14th Feb 2011)

for Love, Romance, Passion...

look here

Get your St David's Day daffs here....

'a few daffodils'

(thanks to the miracle of modern micro-technology, we bring you a miniaturised version of Wordswords)

(1st March 2011)

(photo by davy king)

RIP LSD cook

Owsley Stanley

(13th March 2011)

psychedelic

"forget about bourgeois/ peace & quiet/ we're on the warpath/ there's gonna be riot

we'll burn the banks/ & their sacred money/ but better link arms/ they won't think it's funny"

Politix Mix

Déjà Vu: Royal Wedding, Version 2

Almost 30 years ago (29th June 1981), at a time of recession & high unemployment with a right wing government in power, loyal subjects were distracted by the spectacle of a ‘fairy tale’ wedding (Charles & Diana). Now, in similar circumstances, History repeats itself, with an updated, new, improved version (William & Kate) on 29th April 2011.

Three decades ago, I wrote & performed this protest Prothalamion for a Prince.

Plus ça change, it would seem.....

Isn’t it about time we got round to abolishing undemocratic, obsolete monarchy altogether?

Anti-monarchy

Mugs for mugs

Assert your freedom of expression artistically! Ignore repressive religious prohibition!

cartoon controversy

END NIGH?

Surely by now, like her, monarchy itself is passed it?

Why do the British still tolerate this expensive anachronism?

Anti-monarchy

(29th June 2011)

"the powers-that-be

behave like god

defending their faith

with the riot squad"

THERE'S GONNA BE A RIOT

NELSON MANDELA'S  BIRTHDAY

Nelson Mandela celebrates his 93rd birthday on 18th July 2011. Here's wishing him a long & happy life.

This was my satirical take on South African Apartheid.

Unhappy Anniversary

66 years ago, the USA dropped the first Atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima (6th August 1945) & another one 3 days later on Nagasaki.

Satirical History of the Bomb

BURNIN' & A-LOOTING TONIGHT

On 4th August 2011, the police shot dead a 29-year-old man in North London. That was the spark that ignited the tinderbox, this long hot summer of simmering discontent. The flames haven't been merely metaphorical. Since Saturday (6th Aug 2011), there have been nights of rioting across London & other English cities, a contagion of conflagration, spreading like wildfire. Babylon burning indeed!

Martin Luther King (no relation!) put it well: "A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard."

In the 80s (another period marked or marred by rioting & a rightwing government), this is what I said on the subject:

 

THERE'S GONNA BE A RIOT

up with the barricades

down with the law

what's there to lose

when you're one of the poor

                                                                   (full text here)

 

 

4 miners killed in South Wales pit disaster (16th Sept 2011).

 

Old King Coal claims yet more victims.

 

Here's what I wrote about coal mining in 1984

 

"BRITISH SUMMER TIME "

ends on Sunday 30th October 2011 at 2am. The clocks go back one hour...

Here's a Funny Thing about

Time zones

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN

(or Celtic Samhain & Mexican Day of the Dead)

HORROR HUMOR for the hurrying consumer. Get spooked here:

"Halloween-theme night at the Cabaret Macabre"

"tricks & treats to make flesh creep"

(photo & clumsy pumpkin carving by DK)

UNEMPLOYMENT RISING...

Official figures released today (16th Nov 2011) reveal that unemployment in Britain has risen to 2.62 million (a 17 year high), including over a million (that's 21.9% of) young people. And this is probably an underestimate. Similar story in many other countries.

NEW HOPE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

Is Capitalism working? And, if so, for whom?

A - Z

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