If pigs could fly..

On opening my complementary paper, it's obvious the real important news-on-paper is H1N1 swine flu.

We just had squeeze bacon and bacon vodka, they were cool. While what swine flu presents to us is nothing that new, it certainly is not very cool sounding.

Anyhow here's your new best mate if you're planning on keeping a low profile. No room at my place I think someone tagged the neighborhood.


View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map or get the low-down here

Welcome Winter - Snow flake

I once spent time on a dairy farm on the outskirts of Brough - pronounced 'bruff' near the Scottish boarders. It was cold and came with a lot of ice, snow and salty road grit. I had a few months to fill while waiting for the summer camper-van trip and with a 'what the heck' moment I was up to my ears in cow. Working my arse off on Helbeck grange, it was good comparison to working in telco.

Days were long, sunrise was late and sunset even earlier. Sun skimming the north-west horizon to be gone around 3pm. The cows were in-doors all winter. It was sub zero mostly. I once joked with the farmer that if he showed the people where their milk came from, they might not drink it. He replied, 'sadly you're probably right' Cold, hard, long days, these people are real grafters.

One afternoon it was about minus ten degrees celsius and the snow changed. It appeared to be fluffy, pop-corn like. It was as light as the air and went where the wind went rather than to the ground. It was different and I wondered why. Today I stumbled across the morphology diagram It explains a lot to the cow-cocky I once was.

Photos taken by Kenneth Libbrecht of CalTech, using a specially-designed snowflake photo microscope. Smart-guy!

If you haven't seen enough snow for a lifetime (I haven't) see his snow crystals pages.

Free Newspapers

When the news papers are gone what will the dog will pee on and what are we going to light the bbq with?

It seems that our local Dompost are getting creative in their bid to increase subscribers. Free news papers for three weeks, delivered to the door every morning with a letter offering the service of long term subscription. The letter has the usual contact details phone, fax, physical address but no email or website address. It seems that they still don't get it. Still trying to preserve the status quo. Hide the web and control the news.

The puppy dog sale
- an old story that has its merits
A couple take their children to a pet shop and are viewing the cute puppies for sale, the shop owner notices they're interested in the puppies and suggests they take one home for the weekend with no obligation to buy. Try it for free and bring it back if it doesn't work out he says. Do you think those kids are going to let Mum and Dad take the puppy back? If they walk out with that dog they're very likely to buy later.

Free news paper for three weeks could be viewed as a puppy dog sale - a desperate move, a sign that they haven't yet read the news - The news is the important part of News Paper, not the paper.

If I were our local paper I'd be leveraging my current ability to reach masses. I'd invite my readers to contribute to the massive change at hand and tell me what to do - give choice and control. I'd use the Internet to connect the people with their news and I certainly wouldn't be hiding my website address.

Fishing?

When you're passionate about something and you have skills that others don't, it's easier to do something that makes a difference, to do something good for your subject.

If you're passionate about fishing in Eastbourne Wellington, Tim has put up this fishing chart to increase your chances in getting lucky.

You might even see us here on a good day! We'll be the ones goofing off, catching really big fish and drinking the odd beer.

I have photo of a really big fish somewhere :/