http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/jackanory/

I’ll tell you a story
about Jack-a-nory;
and now my story’s begun.
I’ll tell you another
’bout Jack and his brother;
and now my story is done.

http://baswin.stumbleupon.com/

Welcome to stumbleupon!

http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/mtgallery.htm

From the page:

” True Blue is a musical about Margaret Thatcher that has brought together actors, writers, musicians and artists.

This page contains a selection of images of Margaret Thatcher by the illustrator and artist, Redegan .”

http://www.internationalposter.com/

If he can say as you can
Guinness is good for you,
How grand to be a Toucan,
Just think what Toucan do.

http://www.celtoslavica.de/chiaroscuro/films/huozhe/huozhe.html

Huozhe 活 着

(to Live aka Lifetimes | Leben! | Vivre!)
a film by by Zhang Yimou
China 1994

“Director Zhang Yimou is well known for his expressive film-making, combining a sure touch for human affairs with events on an epic scale, but Huozhe is special. In a superficial way Fugui and Jiazhen are purely struggling to exist (hence the title), while of deeper interest are the sacrifices and compromises necessary. At all times their situation is precarious (mostly through the threat of being denounced as enemies of the Revolution) but they pull through, either alone or together, by dint of their will and determination. Added complexity arises through the fact that many critical turns are taken by chance, only revealing their consequences subsequently (such as Fugui’s gambling loss). The moments of realisation which follow these junctures form some of Huozhe’s strongest scenes. A script of such power demands actors of range and depth, which both Gong Li and Ge You are. Their total immersion into character is utterly convincing, bringing forth joy, laughter, understanding, humility and unbearable agony.

…covering some forty years of history (moving from the rigid class hierarchy of 1940s China through the civil war and Cultural Revolution) through close focus on the experiences of one small family. The travails of Fugui, his wife Jiazhen (Gong Li), their daughter and son, are harsh and even tragic, but the film remains densely ironic, such that horrific events become increasingly absurd, often framed as a kind of awkward comedy. “

http://web.westernfrontassociation.com/

Adlestrop
by Philip Edward Thomas 1878-1917

Yes. I remember Adlestrop —
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat,
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop — only the name

And willows, willowherb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/cub19.php

Alfredo Rostgaard, 1969
Christ guerrilla
Publisher: OSPAAAL

From the page:
“This poster illustrates a quotation of the Columbian priest Camilo Torres:

If Jesus were alive today, he would be a guerrillero.

Torres, one of the most forceful spokesmen of the so-called liberation theology, joins the armed struggle and gets killed in 1969.”

http://www.jim-dale.com/

http://datechguy.stumbleupon.com/

DaTechGuy a.k.a. ‘Dr OsX Dude’ has managed to create one of the best Apple related sites I’ve come across, and he’s only been stumbling for a few weeks.

Thumbs up!

http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-picnic.html

The True Face of the Great War

Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetpreacher/73990039/

Panic on the streets of London,
Panic on the streets of Birmingham,
I wonder to myself

Could life ever be sane again ?

The Leeds side-streets that you slip down,
I wonder to myself.

Hopes may rise on the Grasmere,
But Honey Pie, you’re not safe here,
So you run down,
To the safety of the town,

But there’s Panic on the streets of Carlisle,
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside,

I wonder to myself…

http://english.people.com.cn/200611/10/eng20061110_320411.html

http://www.bloodandsawdust.com/

http://mega-stumblers.group.stumbleupon.com/

The magic 5,000

I am now officially a mega-stumbler.

http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/halloween/history/

Informative site, many thanks to:
http://irongiant.stumbleupon.com/

http://www.bigrat.co.uk/

Click here to play Joe 90 Theme music.

http://www.morescones.com/

The Secret Seven convene for yet another meeting…

Part Two: Password please!

Jack and Colin entered the shed and took a box each while Peter addressed the meeting.

`Since we’re all here we’ll start by talking about some issues that I have to raise. When we’ve finished talking we can eat.’

Everyone looked approvingly at the table which stood at the back of the room next to Scamper and George where Pam’s sweets had been added to the rest of the food provided by Peter and Janet’s mother.

`Apples. Buns. Potted meat sandwiches. Ginger biscuits and cocoa for everyone. A jolly good feast.’ said George.

`George, I thought I told you last meeting not to do that,’ snapped Peter, `We can all see the food without you providing a commentary.’

`Sorry.’ said George humbly.

`I have two matters to raise at today’s meeting.’ said Peter, `First, I am interested in developing a strategy for establishing the Secret Seven as the Kingdom’s premier child detective unit.’

`We already are the best.’ said Jack `Everyone loves the Secret Seven. Our friend the Chief Inspector said so.’

`The Chief Inspector was telling fibs.’ said Peter, `I read this morning that the Famous Five have just captured a serial rapist and uncovered a heroin smuggling ring in Northern Ireland. They’ve been going after the big fish while the Secret Seven fusses over idiotic small fry like the mystery of the disappearing grapes at the grocery store or that stupid schoolgirl who went missing last year.’

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

“Making the World a Better Place, One Evil Mad Scientist at a Time.”

http://www.rheingold.com/

The Pedagogy of Civic Participation

A Lecture by Howard Rheingold held at the Gonick Amphitheatre of the NMC Campus in Second Life Sat Oct 21st 2006

“Education – the means by which young people learn the skills necessary to succeed in their place and time – is diverging from schooling. Media-literacy-wise, education is happening now after school and on weekends and when the teacher isn’t looking, in the SMS messages, MySpace pages, blog posts, podcasts, videoblogs that technology-equipped digital natives exchange among themselves. This population is both self-guided and in need of guidance, and although a willingness to learn new media by point-and-click exploration might come naturally to today’s student cohort, there’s nothing innate about knowing how to apply their skills to the processes of democracy.

We have an opportunity today to make use of the natural enthusiasm of today’s young digital natives for cultural production as well as consumption, to help them learn to use the media production and distribution technologies now available to them to develop a public voice about issues they care about. By showing students how to use Web-based tools and channels to inform publics, advocate positions, contest claims, and organize action around issues that they truly care about, participatory media education can draw them into positive early experiences with citizenship that could influence their civic behavior throughout their lives.”

– Howard Rheingold

see also:http://www.nmc.org/sl/2006/10/21/rheingold/
where you can catch an audio podcast of the event. (Oct 30th)

http://www.google-watch.org/

http://www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=1814246

http://www.bodgers.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1214

http://www.vonnegut.com/

Web site of Kurt Vonnegut, another resident of Second Life.

http://mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/ws_richard3.html

William Hogarth: David Garrick as Richard III, 1745 (Detail)

The Life and Death of Richard the Third, Act 5, Scene 3
RATCLIFF
Ratcliff, my lord; ’tis I. The early village-cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn;
Your friends are up, and buckle on their armour.

KING RICHARD III
O Ratcliff, I have dream’d a fearful dream!
What thinkest thou, will our friends prove all true?

http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/main.htm

Cemetery Gates by the Smiths

A dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side

A dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
while Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
all those people all those lives
where are they now ?
with loves, and hates
and passions just like mine
they were born
and then they lived and then they died
which seems so unfair
and I want to cry

You say: “ere thrice the sun hath done, salutation to the dawn”
and you claim these words as your own
but I’m well-read, have heard them said
a hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
if you must write prose/poems
the words you use should be your own
dont plagiarise or take “on loans”
there’s always someone, somewhere
with a big nose, who knows
and who trips you up and laughs
when you fall

You say: “ere long done do does did “
words which could only be your own
you then produce the text
from whence was ripped
(some dizzy whore, 1804)

A dreaded sunny day
so let’s go where we’re happy
so I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side

A dreaded sunny day
so let’s go where we’re wanted
so I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
but you lose
because Wilde is on mine.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/n-korea-you-cant-threaten-us/2006/10/10/1160246130053.html

Kim Jong-il, a man playing a very dangerous game, just ask Saddam or Slobodan what happens when you really annoy the USA.

http://www.trilliumpress.com/inferno/intro.php

Limbo – The Innocents

And now we were heading through a bleak forest
It was so full of lost souls that they were everywhere
Canto IV, 65-66

A modern limbo for the modern age.

Bishop of Rome – take note

http://www.icdancing.com/

‘Crazy Dancers’ on a treasure hunt in Leeds Millennium Square as part of the ‘Light Night’ arts festival held in 5 cities across Yorkshire tonight.

http://www.nmc.org/

“The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

The consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression, and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration…”

http://originalmadgamer.stumbleupon.com/

A very promising blog, one to watch methinks.