Syrian news

The latest news from Syria of the beheading of the second Japanese hostage is meant to frighten the world.  Surely it must frighten those who carry out such acts against the will of the leader they claim to follow?  No virgins await these people in paradise.  More likely is hell.  Seek a different path. Love and kindness always overcome evil.

Deport them NOW!

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31056608 .

4 men are jailed for kicking in a lecturer's face so badly that he needed reconstructive surgery. Why not deport these common thugs now? Why do we have to pay their board and lodgings "at her majesty's pleasure" for even a single day? They have no right to be here.

Catholic Church and C. of E. out of step?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31063500 .

Is the world flat?  Was it created in 7 days? Is the evidence of fossils all wrong? Yet again we seem to be having a Canute moment within the main churches. DNA engineering could prevent thousands of needless deaths. Sorry, C.of E. and the Catholic Church, but I think you are totally wrong.

Syrian hostages?

The fate of the Japanese reporter and the Jordanian pilot under the threat of execution in Syria seems to have gone "off the radar". There is no BBC news on this so far today and even http://www.aljazeera.com/ has no information. I wonder if news agencies have been asked to say nothing? I do hope for a peaceful outcome.

See http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Middle+East/Syria .

Our neighbour's garage

Garage footings under construction

Our next door neighbour is having a garage built next to his bungalow. It is not in our view and it will not affect us. Sadly access to this is disputed between him and our local museum who own part of the access track he wants to use, as I understand things.

I don't want to get involved in the dispute as I am friendly with both sides. It seems to be a dispute that could so easily have been avoided though.  Silly how such petty arguments can be the cause of so much distrust and bad feeling. If it had been me I'd have put the garage in the same place but gone in directly from the road instead, thereby avoiding all the bad feelings created.

FTSE 100

The FTSE 100 share index has fallen this morning, although it may be staging a bit of a comeback?  Sepura shares (my old company) also seem to be sliding a bit too.

Snow - at last

We get very little snow over here these days. Today we had the first real snow of the winter, although amounts were small by the standards elsewhere in the UK. This photo was taken this morning around breakfast time.

UPDATE 1525z:  All our snow has now gone. Winters over here are far less severe than they used to be.  Global warming? If we get even a few days with snow on the ground is now the exception. If the wolrd is warming, it could be critical later in the century. The evidence does seem to be pointing to a warming world, although the increase has perhaps stalled in the last 10 years. The sooner we stop subsidising fossil fuels and adapt to renewable energy sources the better.

At one time we could count on at least a couple of weeks of real snow. Last winter we only had a couple of mild frosts. I am not complaining, but if the world