Aero-modeler

HMS Colombo, C Class Cruiser 1943 - 1/350

My oldest bestest buddy is an addict. His addiction is building military models, currently focussing on naval vessels. Above is an example of one of his builds. HMS Colombo, named after the TV detective of course. I am amazed at the level of detail in this model, down to the rigging, all being historically accurate. Absolutely stunning. 

His latest work can be found here,

and looks a bit like this so far:-

HMS Euryalus - Dido Class Cruiser 1/350

It's a special commission for an upcoming publication. Chapeau!

They wouldn't let it lie

From the Grauniad, Manchester museum is currently asking its visitors if the unwrapped body of Asru, mummified in circa 900 BC. Should be displayed or not:-

"Asru’s mummified body was unwrapped at the Manchester Natural History Society in April 1825. She has regularly been on display for the two centuries since. In that time, we have also changed as a museum and are thinking more about how we care for people.”

I was amazed at how much information about her life & particularly her illnesses has been found. This may help in the eradication of disease in Egypt today.

What do you think?

Cwrw'r Wythnos # 4

 🏝️sland in the Sun

Rhys really got it together with this little corker. Perfect summer drinking, fruity, fresh yet full bodied. Pouring @ BeerRiff now.

God dammit, Barnett

From Wiki:-

Devolved governments budgets are mainly determined by the Barnett Formula, devised in 1978 as a temporary measure.

Barnett himself later called a 2014 pledge to continue using it a "terrible mistake".[4] In 2009, the House of Lords Select Committee on the Barnett Formula concluded that "the Barnett Formula should no longer be used to determine annual increases in the block grant for the United Kingdom's devolved administrations... A new system which allocates resources to the devolved administrations based on an explicit assessment of their relative needs should be introduced.

So all this does is keep the status quo. If that's pants, then pants it will remain.

From AI search:-

In the UK, public spending per person varies across regions and countries. For the financial year 2023/24, the UK average was £12,958

Northern Ireland received the highest per capita public spending at £15,371, which is 19% above the UK average 

Scotland followed with £14,759 (14% above the UK average), 

Wales with £14,424 (11% above the UK average). 

England's public spending per person was £12,625, which is 3% below the UK average. 

Interestingly, London: £14,842 per person; higher than Wales or Scotland. 

So, the Northern Irish still have their bribe for supporting the Tories, the Jocks get more by threatening independence, the South east gets a bung from the days where Riki Sunshine gave them a bung. The Welsh come a poor 4th. So much for Westminster favoring Wales

As for the Health Service, each Surgery in England gets £164 per patient, but in Wales it's only £117. It seems that England is a bigger drain on the NHS than Wales.

Corbinschism

Thought for the day....

Two political parties cannot contain all viewpoints and are therefore doomed to failure, leading to splits, schisms & extremism. Some factions are guaranteed to be ignored leading to disenfranchised voters becoming destructive.  Hence the current first past the post, 2 party system fails all the time. 

Its not until you give a voice and representation to all the varying shades of political opinion that you can create a system that represents all viewpoints in proportionate measure. 

Thus we get Tommy feckin Yaxley Lennon, Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbin & his pals, and I suppose even SNP, Plaid & the Greens, SLP, SDLP and back to the Liberals. What a waste.

We need to pick the best of the PR systems in the rest of the world, & implement this before we can get any form of political stability & consensus governance.

Friday on my mind

It's Friday, so I'm wearing my Friday wristband.

Raggedy School

I had a great brekkie the other day with the other 2 members of the cast of "last of the summer wine", at HQ Urban Kitchen in the centre of the block at the tip of orchard street & Mansel street, between the UWTSD school of art, & what used to be Swansea Central Nick.

This was 10/10, for food, venue & value. Hat-tip Mel E. 

On the way there, Mel pointed out the Swansea Ragged School building. A fascinating story, indeed. And right next door to an old knocking shop. Handy. From History points.org:-

This building, in Pleasant Street, Swansea, was once the home of Swansea's Ragged School. The school was founded in 1847 by the first Medical Officer for Swansea, Dr William Henry Michael. Its purpose was to care for and educate boys and girls of the poor.

By 1857, about 200 children attended the Day School, and 300 attended the Sunday School. The school ran a soup kitchen which must have saved many lives in the 1850s, when, as Charles Dickens wrote, ...the children were in rags, no shoes or stockings, blue with cold...". Swansea Ragged School finally closed its doors in October 1956.

The photo above, courtesy of West Glamorgan Archive Service, shows children from the Ragged School on their annual outing to Langland Bay in 1907. The children had marched, behind the school banner, to Rutland Street station, where the Mumbles Railway's manager ensured that they safely boarded the train to Mumbles. Tea, biscuits and sweets were distributed at Langland.

More on Ragged schools I hear you day? Well ok then:-

Ragged schools and the development of youth work

From the Peoples Collection Wales 

Stu Ozymandias mentioned that he recalled a football team called 'Ragged School', and upon investigating, I found this:-

Ragged School Football Club is an amateur Welsh football team based in Swansea, Wales. They play in the Swansea Senior League Premier Division. Founded in 1949 by Glyn Cole and named after Swansea's Ragged School, the team has seen national success, winning the FAW Trophy four times - the last time in the 2008–09 season when they beat Penycae. If you want more:-

Interesting Wiki article here

Top Trumps Governments

Meritocracy beats democracy?

I have been trying to find a better system of government than ours for a while now. Whilst its tempting to settle for the Churchillian view that “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried" (the last bit is often left off), Ive always felt we could do better. 

Britain & The States have slipped into a two party dipole, each party frantically trying to undo the decisions made by the other whilst in power. This leads to instability and lack of long term progress. PR based systems also seem to suffer the same outcome, if somewhat watered down by the need to compromise with smaller parties to keep power. (I'll set aside the issue of electoral reform for another time).

We also seem to be slipping more & more into populism, with the rise of image and sloganeering. I'm not sure that the majority of the electorate cares about policy details, or if they ever did, however, we are now moving ever further into the realm of fantasy politics. slogans like "Make America Great Again" without any detail of the how to do this, or even what it means doesn't lead to effective government. This is coupled by the call of "fake news" and demonising experts. 

I struggle to find a good example of socialism in practice. We all know how Russian Socialism became rapidly corrupted, and how Chineese Socialism led to the current one party autocracy present there now.

I asked Dylan (who has looked into this kind of thing) to give me examples of functioning Socialist states, and apart from Barcelona in the 30's, he mentioned :-

"the Nordic countries kind of.  There aren't many tbh because socialism is sort of impossible in a capitalist global economy. Cuba had an insane turnaround in healthcare and literacy but everything else is shit because of embargos. Any country that comes close enough to socialism gets a brand new American military based slapped on it and funnily enough the next government that steps in is right wing-pro usa."

The above video suggests that the chineese system delivers better outcomes for the population, but I'm not sure if the cost of an all pervasive controlling state is too great. This guy clearly thinks that its better.

Ive also heard that Singapore has a hybrid between these 2 choices, where elections are held, but only qualified candidates can take part.

I have long held that our politicians need to be better qualified for the roles they are appointed to. Surely the Minister for Education should have some experience or qualifications in this sector? How we actually achieve this is more problematic. Perhaps we need to look at the Singaporean model?

So, to sum up, I would like a government of qualified people, focusing on the long term good of the whole country, regardless of place in society. Where all people are treated with equal respect, and helped or taxed according to their needs or wealth. Where the government may change, to better meet the wellbeing of all. Where all have access to education, healthcare, and housing. 

I guess that biases me towards socialism as I think capitalism has now swung to serve only the desires of the wealthy. As evidence I submit Trumplestiltskins 'barking bonkers bill"

King Louis' Queen

 

I stumbled upon an unusual act today whilst noodling around the net in my otium.

Keeley Smith. Crazy gal, crazy life.

Her ancestry was Irish and Cherokee

Married to King Louis himself, and had a very successful musical career with him in the 50's

Had a strange deadpan delivery, feeding off prima's flamboyance

had an affair with Old Blue eyes, and a relationship with Clint Eastwood 

Released a top 20 album of Beatles covers in the 60's

Won a Grammy & performed with Kid Rock in 2005. 

I dont think I could have made this up.

Put a f***ing dragon on it

Wales may be languishing at 12th in the WRB rankings, with a potential crunch match with Japan (13th) happening next weekend, only 2 Lions, but we have undoubtedly the best flag in the world. 

Or do we? Apparently the current flag was only adopted in 1959! 

Why have a f***ing Dragon on it? From the BBC:-

the red dragon as an emblem has been used in Wales since the reign of Cadwaladr (Cadwallader), King of Gwynedd from around 655AD

While in the 12th Century legend of Merlin, two sleeping dragons - one red, one white - wake up and begin fighting, coming to represent the struggle between the Welsh (red) and the English (white).

From the late 15th Century, Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) placed a red dragon on top of the Tudor colours of white and green during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. This was his attempt to prove that he was a descendant of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd and the last of the Briton Kings - his banner was originally the red dragon.

The essence of this design was then used to form the first official Welsh flag, created for the Queen's coronation in 1953.

However, no-one liked it, Muriel. So a bunch of Bards got together, got drunk & came up with the current design, quoting 'Put a huge f***ing dragon on it'. The rest, as they say, is history.