This still is boggling. The number of stars out there is beyond human comprehension. Zillions of planets just like Earth. Life?
The Arrogance of Human Beings – Awe and Wonder
Photos – Bridlington on Jan 2nd 2017 – a beautiful day!!
Edwina Hayes and Alistair Artingstall at the Bell Driffield 14th of January.
Edwina has the most beautiful voice and writes some well crafted haunting songs even though she is probably best known for her cover of Randy Newman’s Feels Like Home which featured in the film My Sister’s Keeper. She does a number of other covers too – Leonard Cohen and Richard Thompson – and has a way of making them her own. She is the most English of singers. Couple that with such a bubbly personality and you have a winner.
Alistair Artingstall writes and sings delicate songs accompanied by nice equally delicate guitar coupled with a sad persona and witty asides that tell another story. He is good at stories as well. He is a very good sound engineer who has worked with the likes of Rufus Wainwright.
The two of them together compliment each other nicely. At the Bell they alternated songs and accompanied each other. There was great mutual respect and the combination worked well.
With a bit of effort I think Edwina could be singing on a bigger stage than this but she seems content to stay at this level.
I enjoyed it greatly.
Here’s a few photos:
Hull – City of Culture – The Fabulous Blade!
How that managed to get such a colossal structure into the centre of Hull through all those narrow streets is beyond me. Well done guys!!
Great idea and brilliantly done!
Siemens is a major development for alternative energy (shame they are no longer bringing their research and development due to Brexit) and will help make Hull a thriving centre of wind technology. Just what we need – a major development of a great area – much needed jobs – and a big financial boost for the region.
Alternative energy is the future – wind, solar and tidal energy is sustainable and non-polluting! Forget your dirty coal, oil and gas!! Hull could become a centre for the whole world! So it was appropriate that the organisers of the year of culture thought up such a brilliant idea. It looks wonderful. It is massive. What a backdrop to the old buildings in the city centre.
Unfortunately it was a bit of a dank January day when we went! But it didn’t spoil it! I loved it.
Here’s a few photos:
Inside the refurbished Ferens Art Gallery.
Queen Victoria Square and the majestic blade in the twilight!
Chico Mendes Quotes.
Chico Mendes was a Brazilian rubber planter. He saw the way the rubber plantations were creating an unsustainable environment, they were destroying the rainforest and its wildlife, so he set about doing something about it. He set about organising workers and opposing the big companies and ranchers. He unionised the workers and opposed the development of the plantations in favour of a more diverse environment and working practice.
All the big ranchers were interested in was profit. They threatened him and then they murdered him.
At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rain forest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity.
I think we all are! If we lose nature we lose life.
I became an ecologist long before I had ever heard the word.
Ecologists are people who care about the planet, its life and people!
Cesar Chavez Quotes
Cesar Chavez was a non-violent activist for the rights of the Mexican American farm workers. He worked to give farm workers rights, a fair wage and dignity.
He helped unionise and gain respect for exploited workers.
Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
Variety is the spice of life provided it does not produce intolerance, disrespect or violence.
If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.
You do not get to know someone until you’ve shared a meal.
You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.
None of us are. Together we are strong.
There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.
It has been proved time and time again. You cannot defeat determined non-violence. It has the moral high ground.
Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?
Too true! Education is development not rote learning. If we do not produce creative caring people we are wasting our time.
Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.
Education is liberating not imprisonment. It is the most enjoyable experience of all.
There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.
You do not get anywhere without hard work and application (unless you are born rich and exploit others).
Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.
Language is a window to the soul.
We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.
Cultural diversity is enriching! Mongrels have more vigour!
The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.
And nature, and the planet, and the plants and animals!
Neil Young – Cortez the Killer – a track that got him banned!
Hernan Cortez led a successful invasion of South America in 1519 in which there was the brutal overthrown of the Aztec empire. It only took 2 years. One can only imagine the impact of the Spanish, with their horses, armour, galleons and superior technology. It was the equivalent of a superior race of aliens landing today. The Aztecs were utterly demoralised.
In their lust for gold Cortez committed atrocities, tortures and massacres.
Neil rather idealised the Aztec culture which had its own barbarism but did, for me, capture the brutality of the cynical Western European invasions of the Americas, Australia, Africa and around the world. Having developed a superior technology they set about ruthlessly invading the world, pillaging, raping and practicing genocide, setting up their empires and extracting wealth.
All largely sanitised in the history books.
What a great song. For some reason it was banned by Franco in Spain!!
“Cortez The Killer”
He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.
And his subjects
gathered ’round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.
And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood
straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.
Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.
They carried them
to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up
with their bare hands
What we still can’t do today.
And I know she’s living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can’t remember when
Or how I lost my way.
He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer.
Neil Young – Ohio – A protest song of magnitude!
This is one of my favourite Neil Young tracks. It has real emotion and fury.
Richard Nixon had just announced an escalation of the Vietnam War at the beginning of May in 1970. There was an expansion into Cambodia. The student antiwar protest movement was infuriated. There were widespread protests.
Trouble had been fermenting for days. On the campus of Kent State in Ohio a large group of students protested. The National Guard were called out in strength by the governor of the State Rhodes. State troopers with fixed bayonets and live ammunition confronted the protestors. The protestors did not disperse and the State troopers fired into the unarmed crowd killing four students and injuring nine others one of whom was paralysed.
The incident became known as the Kent State Massacre and provoked widespread fury and protest across the States.
Neil Young was incensed and wrote Ohio. It was quickly recorded by CSN&Y and put out while the venom was hot.
I rate it as one of Neil’s best songs.
Neil Young – Ohio
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Read more: Neil Young – Ohio Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Donald Trump comes in on a wave of hot air!
Worrying times!
This last year was the hottest year on record!!
CO2 levels are the highest recorded.
Sections of the barrier reef are dying due to the warming process.
Seas are warming.
Sea levels are rising.
Low lying islands are in danger of disappearing.
The ice-caps are melting.
Weather patterns are changing. We are experiencing droughts, floods, hurricanes, storms, freezing temperatures, record high temperatures and changes in sea and air currents.
Donal Trump denies any of this is caused by mankind’s incessant output of CO2 through the burning of fossil fuels. He wants to reopen coal production and up the use of fossil fuels. He is talking of pulling out of all climate agreements. He has packed his cabinet with climate change deniers!
There is more to life than money! To make a fast buck and lose the whole world is a poor deal!
Let us hope that he does not do what he says he will do!! The whole world is at stake!
2016 was the hottest year on record-CNN