Author Archives: OldNol

TPS Registration

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The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the UK’s only official ‘Do Not Call’ register

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

If you live in the UK register your phone number here and stop those annoying unsolicited phone calls. When you do get one, like I did last night you can get their details and then turn the tables on them by saying that you ARE going to report them. 9 times out of 10 they hang up, only a few are big enough to apologise

“From the site:

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the UK’s only official ‘Do Not Call’ register for landlines and Mobile numbers. It allows people and businesses to opt out of unsolicited live sales and marketing calls.

It’s free and quick to register a telephone number. 

aldozey’s reviews – StumbleUpon

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Screenshot of aldozey’s Stumbleupon blog

http://aldozey.stumbleupon.com/

Wayback machine link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050829104133/http://aldozey.stumbleupon.com/

I can’t understand why nobody hasn’t reviewed al before. Plenty of links and his music is well worth listening to.

Visit the Disorder web site at http://www.disordermusic.com and you can download some of their tracks for free. – Unfortunately, I couldn’t track down a new (working) link for this

Stefan Landsbergers Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages

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Yu Zhenli, We must grasp revolution and increase production, increase work, increase preparation for struggle, to do an even better job, May 1976

http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/

Site still exists but is no longer updated. There is a new (and improved) site though:

https://chineseposters.net

东方红，太阳升，
中国出了个毛泽东。
他为人民谋幸福，
呼尔海约，他是人民大救星！


The East is red, the sun has risen,
China has made Mao Zedong.
He creates fortune for the people,
Hu er hai yue, he’s the savior of them all!

Hymn to Lucifer

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Le génie du mal by Guillaume Geefs, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Liège, Belgium

Ware, nor of good nor ill, what aim hath act?
Without its climax, death, what savour hath
Life? an impeccable machine, exact
He paces an inane and pointless path
To glut brute appetites, his sole content
How tedious were he fit to comprehend
Himself! More, this our noble element
Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned
Life hath no spring, no axle, and no end.

His body a blood-ruby radiant
With noble passion, sun-souled Lucifer
Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant
On Eden’s imbecile perimeter.
He blessed nonentity with every curse
And spiced with sorrow the dull soul of sense,
Breath life into the sterile universe,
With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence
The Key of Joy is disobedience.

Edward Alexander Crowley, (born October 12, 1875, — died December 1, 1947)

#Poetry

Tangshan – The Deadliest Earthquake

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Earthquake memorial Tangshan, Hebei, China

http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/a/tangshan.htm

Update: Has moved to thoughtco.com but the above links still works which is kinda nice.

When the media tell you that the Asian Tsunami is the dealiest earthquake in living memory they are wrong – my girlfriend nearly died in 1976 when her home was destroyed and over 240,000 people died (some reports put the figure as high as 665,000) in the Tangshan earthquake. Luckily her father snatched her out of her bed just seconds before it was crushed beneath several tonnes of rubble.

The Smallfilms Treasury

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http://www.smallfilms.co.uk/

Noggin the Nog,Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss, The Clangers, The Pogles, Pingwings

Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin produced some of the most enduring British children’s animation in the 1960s-1970s. On this site you will find The Clangers, Pogles’ Wood, Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss, and Noggin the Nog with my personal favourite character ‘ Nogbad the Bad’.

TomPaine.com – Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear

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http://www.tompaine.com/articles/laughing_dragon_dancing_bear.php

Wayback machine link:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/laughing_dragon_dancing_bear.php

Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear
The author, Ray McGovern began his 27-year career with the CIA as the analyst for Soviet relations with China and Southeast Asia.


Developing the significance of Russia and The Peoples Republic of China holding joint miltary exercises on Chinese soil for the first time ever in 2005 McGovern postulates that Russia and the PRC are becoming ever closer along the lines of the dictum ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ he writes…


‘The Russians and Chinese look on the quicksand in which U.S. forces are trying to stay afloat in Iraq with mixed feelings: alarm at what they see as unconstrained, unpredictable U.S. behavior, and Schadenfreude at the fiasco brought about by ineptitude on the part of senior civilian defense officials and careerism among the generals, many of whom know better but have not the spine to tell their superiors that the war in Iraq cannot be won.’ Whilst I agree with the general thrust of McGovern’s argument about the consequences of a Russo-Sino military alliance I think he overplays his hand when he says the war cannot be won. Just because America withdrew from South East Asia does not mean the same will happen in Iraq. The argument that America can’t win because it won’t be able to sustain casulaties has been shot to pieces with over 1,300 dead the resolve of the Bush Administration hasn’t weakened. The USA does have the means and more importantly the will to win in Iraq. Whether it will have been worth the deaths of so many is debateable.

TomPaine.com – The Topic Should Be China

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http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_topic_should_be_china.php

Wayback machine:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_topic_should_be_china.php

The author,Robert B. Reich was the secretary of labor in the Clinton administration says…
‘As China’s influence grows, America’s wanes.’
‘With China holding more than a half a trillion dollars of United States debt, it also largely determines what happens to the dollar.’
‘In short, China is now a significant player in the American economy and in American politics–even though few American politicians actually dare admit it.’
Strange then, that China barely merited debate during the recent Presidential Elections.

Dictionary of Difficult Words

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http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/

Update: Site no longer functions – no way back machine link as it wasn’t good anyway

Pretty sure this site quietly died. So in it’s place I’d recommend the Oxford Dictionary of Difficult words.

Available (of course) from Amazon:

The original site I reviewed on StumbleUpon wasn’t that good as it didn’t have disestablishmentarianism or antidisestablishmentarianism.

The Black Watch – Royal Highland Regiment

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http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/

‘Watch and Pray’ – The motto of the Black Watch Regiment has never been more appropriate.
Whatever your views about the conflict in Iraq I hope you will join with me and wish these brave British soldiers the best as they fight Bush and Blair’s war.

As their Commanding Officer said on the BBC recently that they had beaten Napoleon and Hitler and their reputation was built on sucess so they are more than equal to the task.

NCM – The National Coal Mining Museum for England

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well worth a visit:online or in person

http://www.ncm.org.uk/

The National Coal Mining Museum is inbetween Wakefield and Huddersfield in Yorkshire, it’s great and it’s free. I’ve visited it several times and can recommend.

Very good museum for school children to visit.

For those of you not lucky enough to live in Yorkshire check out the virtual tours.