http://baggpuss.stumbleupon.com/
Accessible using the wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050327145145/http://baggpuss.stumbleupon.com/
Another bloke from God’s own county (Yorkshire of course) who takes us on a trip down memory lane with some links to quality children’s animation.
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’.
Merry Christmas!
There is something cold about a site that gives graphs and charts knowing that each point on each graph was someone’s son or daughter. Stalin said ‘A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.’
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.
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.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.davies527/sheep/sheepimages/sheepindex.htm
Amusing ovine animations and more. Link sadly broken beyond repair
An epic tale from long, long ago.
http://platticus-max.stumbleupon.com/
Way back machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060103094637/http://platticus-max.stumbleupon.com/
Keep it coming – quality links as the lady said ‘don’t miss this one.’
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182227308.html?oneclick=true
Sounds like science fiction or a wind up. A brain grown in a petri dish that can fly a jet fighter but apparently it isn’t, it’s real – scary.
http://www.datalude.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=27
Passwords can be either too easily cracked or too difficult to remember. This page from my friends at Datalude, an Information Security Company based in Hong Kong, gives some tips and suggestions that you may find useful including a ‘sensible password generator’
Update: I suspect that this site isn’t updated often if at all
“A Cynic is a spy who aims to discover what things are friendly or hostile to man; after making accurate observations, he then comes back and reports the truth.” Who can argue with that?
http://www.robottherobot.com/manbaby5/slideshows/b-animation2.htm
I tried to restore this but it didn’t work….
Catchy tune and good animation make this a very entertaining cartoon.
http://kb-ganesh.stumbleupon.com/
Wayback machine link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080917181934/http://kb-ganesh.stumbleupon.com/
Some very good links can be found here – thumbs up!
*Stumbleupon is no longer with available
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,10349,00.html
Update: Now behind a paywall
A ‘Who’s who’ for the UK and although it is not as extensive as I would like these lists are up to date.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/spankthemonkey.php
Amusing interactive flash animation, see how fast you can spank him etc.
http://laton.stumbleupon.com/
Wayback machine link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071208161108/http://laton.stumbleupon.com/
loved the link to the mini golf – keep it coming
http://www.simetric.co.uk/feet_to_metres.php
Useful for those of us who live halfway between Metric and Imperial worlds
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.
http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/mediacentre/2003/iraq/fieldops/
Content no longer available – probably gone for a re-brand rather than write about an unpopular war
A well produced account of the actions of the British Black Watch Regiment in Iraq late March and early April in 2003.
http://arg.stumbleupon.com/
Wayback machine link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081010045026/http://arg.stumbleupon.com/
Seeing those politicians in drag was a hoot! Keep it coming!
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.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/roadblock.html
Nice game if you like spatial / logic puzzles.
Unfortunately no longer available but there’s still plenty of vintage stuff to keep you amused:
http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2004/11/01/bin-laden-video.html
(Another site that’s no longer active but the archive.org link should work)
This made me laugh outloud. Bin Laden will certainly be adding Rockall to his list of targets.
Thumbs down for the Guardians idiotic email campaign to influence the recent US election. The Guardian has been referred to as a ‘watermelon’ – green on the outside, red in the middle and lacking in substance. Read the Telegraph instead.
http://chinastudygroup.org/
Wayback machine link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040927084608/http://www.chinastudygroup.org/
more news about the world’s most populous country
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.
http://virtualbloodhoun.stumbleupon.com/
Wayback machine link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050214032940/http://virtualbloodhoun.stumbleupon.com/
Love the Churchill pic – did you know the Nazis used this pic in their propaganda with the caption ‘Wanted for Murder’?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/music/3955369.stm
John Peel was responsible for bringing the best in music to generations of listeners. He will be greatly missed.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Found a site that does the same thing:
https://howrichami.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i
<s>At last I’m in the top 1% for something! </s>
http://www.unicaen.fr/rome/index.php?langue=anglais
Very much a work in progress but some of the images are good – the Curia for example. It does help if you can read some French though as I’ve encountered several captions en Francais.
Update: now just in French
http://www.artrecon.com/Frames/GalleryFr_OstiaVM_ENG_1.html
Wayback machine link:
A 3D model of the ancient roman port of Ostia which is quite nice but is not as interactive as I would like. Some interesting info though.
http://www.dayofdefeat.com/indexmain.php
Simply the best online first person shooting game on the planet. I play it regularly but I’m still not that good – time to renew my membership of the ‘Not terribly Good Club of Great Britain’. As Viz comic said:
‘The British are the best at coming second. In fact if there was an Olympic event for coming second, we’d get the silver medal.’
http://members.lycos.co.uk/Tim_Bracey/fun/rogers.htm
Wayback machine access:
https://web.archive.org/web/2018*/http://members.lycos.co.uk/Tim_Bracey/fun/rogers.htm
It may be a little out of date but this site contains the text of Rogers Profanisaurus – the Viz comic’s collection of common (and made up) British swear words. Warning! Swearing, Profanity, Obscenity, and Sexist, Oh and did I mention Offensive?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Elton_Hollis
Another page ‘wot I started.’
http://open-site.org/
Not a patch on Wikipedia, incomplete or out of date entries on the subjects I am interested in – e.g. China
Update: no surprises it’s no longer online, no wayback machine link because it wasn’t good enough to start with
YouGov is an Internet polling site and I like it as I get ‘paid’ for filing in their surveys, but there is a catch, they only pay you once you have a large enough credit.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/test/
No longer works use this instead:
http://www.chinafirewalltest.com
If you like to roam the web bear in mind that if you were in the People’s Republic of China you couldn’t go where you liked. Find out if your favourite site is blocked in China – if you like news or ‘Adult’ content then it probably is.
The Open University is a great British instituition. Created to enable mature students to study part time but it’s not just for Brits. This site has some interactive features like the Virtual Planisphere and the online Digital Microscope that are quite cool. Well worth a look.
