I couldn’t resist posting this picture which I found via Graham on Mark Wallace’s blog.

Some people may find this provocative!

for some reason i was wondering what rik mayall was up to these days… wikipedia says:

“Mayall currently performs the voice of the Andrex puppy in the UK TV commercials for Andrex toilet paper, and also has a voice part in the UK Demestos cleaning product adverts.”

the entertainment industry sure is cruel….

while governments are busy clamping down on benefit fraud…

…these guys steal money from the poor (and your pension, if you were unlucky enough to start one in the 90’s when it still seemed like they might have been a good idea… much better to plant some trees these days).

if you haven’t encountered him before i can highly recommend ben goldacre’s bad science website. this post on biometrics is typical. (the video of the guys breaking the super secure fingerprint scanner wonderful.)

“Middle age is when a broad mind and a narrow waist change places.”

(from a web forum somewhere I can’t remember)

I’m finding some time to get out with my camera lately and also enjoying playing in the ‘digital darkroom’. So it’s time to relaunch the PhotoBlog!

It’s a record of the sights, things and people I see in my daily life here in West Cork, Ireland. Occasionally there will be images from further afield.

As an amateur photographer I won’t pretend that the images posted are of particular artistic merit: Instead they are pictures that I find interesting and which hopefully impart some of the essence of the things I see. If you choose to visit the site regularly I hope that a narrative will build that will add value to the pictures. (I’ll try not to post too many family shots - you’ll find those in the Picasa web albums.)

I’m learning every aspect of photography - from composition through to developing. If you have comments on an image you see I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works and what doesn’t work. I’m hoping to post three images a week. The discipline of doing this will, I hope, lead to a gradual improvement. And it should be fun along the way!

You can subscribe to the photoblog in your news reader.

In case you’ve not come across a PhotoBlog before, there are thousands of great ones out there Three (out of many) which have acted as inspiration for me are:

• Chromasia
• InPhotos (by Donncha not far from here)
• Durham Township

And very many more at PhotoBlogs.org.

many thanks to simon b for pointing me to this excellent article on homeopathy. if i was better educated in medical protocol this is exactly how i would have said it! bravo.

i like all sorts of music so it pains me a little to say that i have a favourite band. but i do and they’ve just released what i think is their best album. marvellous stuff.

so the us are calling on the burmese government to stop violently suppressing demonstrations… this as we know is astonishingly hypocritical… here’s an example of why:

(couretsy of schnews)

just back from holiday in the uk. had a great time visiting family in norfolk and then at the big green gathering which was wonderful as always. rob has a great post about the pirate ship. as a lover of beer and cider, and a supporter of the climate camp a highlight for me was the last chance saloon (excellent photos on the link). last year i avoided the bar til sunday. this year i made sure i went there every lunchtime

lots of photos on picasa soon.