Never! Ulster says ‘No!’ etc.
2005 Election Manifesto Summary DUP
Reply
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: Sinn Féin
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: Sinn Féin
We want to play in a different parliament.
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: Respect
http://www.respectcoalition.org/
Communists.
Update: Ceased operations August 18, 2016
2005 Election Green Party
British National Party: Fascists a la Mosley
http://www.bnp.org.uk/
General Election 2005:
Fascists a la Mosley.
Update: That link still works but I don’t like the idea of linking to them. Copy and paste into a browser if you must.
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: Veritas
http://www.veritasparty.co.uk/
Upminster, eight stops beyond Barking.
Update:
No longer registered as a party – shame
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: UKIP
A new generation for change | The Labour Party
2005 Election Manifesto Summary: The Labour Party
Higher taxes, big government, less civil liberties
The Liberal Democrats – Official Website
2005 UK General Election
Summary: Much higher taxes, even bigger government, giving the right to vote to paedophiles in jail.
UT2004: ONS Map – Crossfire
http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/march04/ut2004maps/crossfire/20.jpg
I have spent a lot of time playing this map in UT2004, it is a truly stunning map and very difficult to play.
Update:
I’m no longer able to play this (MacOs 64bit is incompatible). So here’s some gameplay to give you a taste of what it was like.
Enjoy.
Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Update: Unfortunately, the more gruesome and macabre exhibits have been removed. It’s understandable but regrettable when history is censored like this. We live in a new puritanical age.
Still well worth a visit though.
First Of The Gang To Die
http://www.bigyawn.net/cdreview.php?id=97
Update: an alternative review of the album:
https://drownedinsound.com/releases/6257/reviews/9931-
First Of The Gang To Die
You have never been in love, Until you have seen the stars, reflect in the reservoirs
And you have never been in love, Until you have seen the dawn rise, behind the home for the blind
We are the pretty, petty thieves, And you’re standing on our streets
Where Hector was the first of the gang with a gun in his hand
And the first to do time, the first of the gang to die, Oh my
Hector was the first of the gang with a gun in his hand
And the first to do time, the first of the gang to die, Oh my
You have never been in love, Until you’ve seen the sunlight thrown, Over smashed human bone
We are the pretty, petty thieves, And you’re standing on our streets
Where Hector was the first of the gang with a gun in his hand
And the first to do time, the first of the gang to die, Such a silly boy
Hector was the first of the gang with a gun in his hand
And the bullet in his gullet and the first lost lad to go under the sod
And he stole from the rich and the poor and not very rich and the very poor
And he stole our hearts away
Morrissey’s lyrics are a cross between the inane and the sublime.
Patriotism: Careful Now! Down with this sort of thing…
http://www.shanghaidiaries.com/archives/IMG_7409.php
Mass protests on the streets of Shanghai, echoes of 1966 or adumbrations of international conflict?
Pure Mac: Software for Macintosh
useful*
Update: * site no longer being updated.
Alternatives:
Brand new MacPro!
I have taken a short leave of absence from stumbling whilst I take charge of my brand new Mac.
Hmmmmm….. Apple
How many innocent people have been sentenced to death recently?
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT500012005
During 2004 six names were added to the list of US prisoners sentenced to death and later released on grounds of innocence, bringing to 118 the number of such cases since 1973.
Update: Visit amnesty.org for more info on this
The Machinist Movie promotional poster
http://www.empiremovies.com/posters.php?id=571
BTW I have nothing against Christian Bale, rather I’m poking fun at the guy who designed this poster.
Boreme.com – is no more
http://www.boreme.com/bm/AUG04/a/i-seahorse/pic1.jpg
Update Boreme.com officially closed in November 2020 and for some reason was excluded from the wayback machine archive.
It used to have amusing, interesting photos and videos and was fun.
Ah well, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Recommended alternatives: b3ta.org, boing boing
Sniggle.net the Culture Jammers Encyclopaedia
snig·gle (v) — To fish for eels by thrusting a baited hook into their hiding places.
Update: Visually rather old fashioned – this is how websites used to look at the end of the 20th century. A few nuggets to be found here although I’m not sure how active it is nowadays. I particularly enjoyed the pseudoscience section.
It describes itself as the Culture Jammers Encyclopaedia. Many subjects are covered from cryptozoology , Jello Biafra, Trickster Gods and Commerce Jamming.
Also very pleased that sniggle.net has been on the web since 1997.
Tolkeins Lost Sequel to Lord of the Rings
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/misc/midearth.htm
Middle Earth in the twentieth Century:
Update: very pleased that this site is still here in all it’s 20th century glory
The Corner of the World – Home – History & ICT
http://thecorner.org/history.htm
Update: on the waybackmachine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080303020012/http://thecorner.org/history.htm
Informative articles about History from 1789 – 1960
Update: quite a lot on 19th and 20th century Chinese History too. The sections on ICT and History education and History resources are out of date.
The site went offline sometime in 2015.
Michael Jackson: The Beer Hunter
“Hello, my name is Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, but I am on a world tour. My tour is in pursuit of exceptional beer. That’s why they call me the Beer Hunter.
Michael Jackson presented ‘Beer hunter’ on British Television, an excellent series that ought to be repeated. This site has some great info about world beers but seems to not have been updated recently.
Update: Last update on the site was 2013. The site is really more of a tribute and an archive than a modern website, and I’m fine with that.
Luckily, Youtube has Michael Jackson’s beer Hunter series which can be found here:
Beer not fattening: official • The Register
– 41, 77, 64 and 42 per cent per 100ml, respectively.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/09/beer_not_fattening/
From the web site:
“Those of us who like a few pints already know that beer fights cancer and is an absolute life-saver in an avalanche emergency situation, but what about the apparently proven effect of ale on the old waistline, eh?
What actually causes the beer belly is the overwhelming desire to partake of an enormous kebab or plate of curry after a particularly robust session, the BBPA says. This is true, although the BBPA is not taking in account something else all beer-drinkers know: that doner kebabs combat male pattern baldness and curry increases attractiveness to the opposite sex.
Which is why people who prefer wine are invariably bald and single – despite having a waistline like Calista Flockhart.”
‘Red Carpet of Death’ scuppers Gates’ knighthood
http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2005/03/07/gates-knighthood.html
Updated:
‘Red Carpet of Death’ scuppers Gates’ knighthood
“Palace courtiers battled with software for more than two hours during the ceremony, with the waiting audience of be-hatted sycophants growing increasingly restless, as Her Majesty repeatedly failed to knight Mr Gates. After two false starts, the Keeper of the Royal Disks (more affectionately, if warily, known as Hard Rod) was forced to reinitialise the Monarch’s ageing boot drive, reinstall Microdaft Monarchy.
Several onlookers who knew-a-thing-or-two-about-computers thought that a virus may have been to blame, the most likely candidate being the infamous “Camilla” Trojan. If left unchecked, this wicked little filly of code can cause fatal system errors in any Royal lineage, and has even been known to lead to full Republic status in a matter of weeks. A palace IT manager said later that “Camilla is an absolutely lethal Worm which can leverage outage disruption in mission-critical architectures, whilst further impacting substantive legacy systems… blah blah blah…”
The Royal honour was to have been bestowed at the personal request of the British Prime Minister, a known technophobe, in recognition of Mr Gates’s regular help with “sorting-out his Hotmail account”. More cynical observers have suggested, ridiculously in our view, that Mr Gates’s stupendous wealth may also have entered into the equation: World-Dominating Technology + Very Rich Guy + PM = Third Term. Absurd.
Following his eventual knighthood, as an American citizen Mr Gates cannot of course be referred to as “Sir Willy”, as this is an honour that can only be bestowed upon British subjects in a bizarre “RubbaDubbing” ceremony. However, since software patches were added in 1997 and 2001, the UK now runs remotely on a networked operating system based in Washington, so it seems likely that provided Mr Gates returns his original program disks, and agrees to the installation of a UK-registered dongle, he will be automatically upgraded to a full “substantive” knight in due course.”
Rt Hon Tony Blair vs Benjamin Franklin
http://www.sundayherald.com/48034
From the page:
“In my judgement, said Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s questions last week, considerations of national security have to come before civil liberties, no matter how important those civil liberties are.”
It’s official: protection of the state is now more important than the freedom of the individual.”
Update: I don’t really do politics anymore, there’s much more important things to do
Thumbs down review: stopUSA.be
http://www.stopusa.be/home/index.php?langue=3
Update:
One of the things about StumbleUpon was that you could give a thumbs down negative review – which I did here. To be honest back in 2005 we didn’t have all the non-stop bat shit insane conspiracy stuff like we do now. The self righteous do love to be self righteous though and this site was a non-stop exercise in virtue signalling.
From the page: “It is very obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq.”
This site is one long anti-american rant.
… so a thumbs down review for stopUSA.be
The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Update:
A Yorkshire tradition, the KWVR has been in operation since 1867.
If you want to visit Haworth and Bronte country then the KWVR is the best way to get there.
You’ll have seen it already though in movies and period TV dramas including the Railway Children, Peaky Blinders, Testament of Youth and many more.
id Aromatics Retail and Wholesale Essential Oils
Id Aromatics is somewhat of an Institution in Leeds. It has been going for over twenty years, long before aromatherapy became popular. It was originally on Briggate and if my memory serves me correctly, started trading in 1983.
You can smell Id Aromatics from nearly 50 meters away and the pleasant odours emanating from within intrigued me so I followed my nose and went in.
The inside of the shop is a bit of an Aladdin’s cave and I’ve always found the staff to be helpful.
There is a minimum order of £35 from the website
Update: Glad to see that Id is still there.
The Castle Inn – a Hook Norton pub
Edgehill
Banbury
Oxon
OX15 6DJ
http://www.hooknortonbrewery.co.uk/downloads/desktop/castle_640x480.jpg
Update:
Recommended. They serve a nice pint of Hooky.
Glad to see that Hook Norton are moving with the times – being able to embed their page is a plus.
Discovery Bay Hong Kong
Discovery Bay, Hong Kong 2003.
Baldrin’s reviews – StumbleUpon
http://baldrin.stumbleupon.com/
Update: Grabbed a screenshot and a wayback machine link
https://web.archive.org/web/20111211094513/http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/Baldrin/reviews/
Anyone who understands ‘revolving-door algorithms’… gets a thumbs up from me.
Welcome aboard!
Rockall Times: UK Residency Language Test
http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2005/02/21/linguistic-test.html
More NSFW humour from the pages of the Rockall Times
Wayback Machine:
Update: this is way more offensive than I remember it
Universe today flickr pool 3,000+ members, 76,000+ photos
http://www.universetoday.com/am/uploads/2005-0218planet-full.jpg
Update: Originally this was a hotlink to a particularly impressive photo which is no longer available.
I’ve replaced it with something far better. A link to the Universe Today Flickr Group. Some truly amazing photos taken by gifted amateurs.
One of the great things about astronomy is the way that ordinary people make significant contributions.
Quick link: https://flic.kr/go/gi2Cq
A Dozen New Planets Discovered: Universe today
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/12_new_planets.html?1822005
Summary – (Feb 18, 2005)
In the last month planet hunters have uncovered 12 new worlds orbiting other stars, bringing the total planet count to 145. Two European planet hunting teams have discovered 6 gas giants as part of the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Search (HARPS), and an American team uncovered 5 more using the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii. And a single, Pluto-sized planet was discovered orbiting a pulsar by Penn State’s Alex Wolszczan and Caltech’s Maciej Konacki.
Rooster and Bamboo – a Painting by Xu Beihong
http://www.chinapage.com/painting/beihong/beihong04.html
Update: Original page has vanished so I tracked down another copy of the painting
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1642 – 1658
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/war/
Update: Original no longer accessible so here’s an alternative full of material about The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1642 – 1658, particularly the English Civil War.
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/the-english-civil-wars-history-and-stories/
English Heritage give plenty of links to primary source material
National Curriculum – resource for educators
http://www.nc.uk.net/
Useful resource for educators in England.
Update: The nearest I could find to the original link is this.
It also includes curricula from other countries.
Lock up, Light up, Be secure
Haven’t been able to post recently because my house was burgled and the buggers stole all my computers (x2 laptops and my beloved Mac). So I’ve had to set up a new (temporary) system. Hopefully, things will return to normal soon as I backed up my bookmarks and most of my work related files were either on a spare machine at work or existed in hard copy.
The three rules of computing are:
1) Back up your files.
2) Always backup your files.
3) Never forget to backup your files.
Good advice, but I wish I had been more diligent.
Burglars? String ’em up, it’s the only kind of language they understand!
Chinese New Year 2005 : Year of the Wood Rooster
http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html
2005 is the Year of Yiyou, popularly known as the Year of the Rooster
2011 is Year of Rabbit.
2010 is Year of the Tiger.
2009 is Year of the Ox;
2008 is the Year of Rat;
2007 is Year of Pig or DingHai –
2006 is Year of Dog.
2005 is year of the rooster
2004 was the Year of Monkey.
2003 was the Year of the Goat
Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA); True IRA
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/nira.htm
From the web site:
“Suspected of receiving funds from sympathizers in the United States and of attempting to buy weapons from US gun dealers. RIRA also is reported to have purchased sophisticated weapons from the Balkans.
In May 2002, three Irish nationals associated with RIRA pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to cause an explosion and trying to obtain weapons following their extradition from Slovenia to the United Kingdom.”
Update: Glad to see this site is still with us and archived properly. The full site (The Federation of American Scientists: Intelligence Resource Program) is well worth a look:
https://irp.fas.org/index.html
I like the concept of Open source Intelligence