50 years to the day after orbiting the earth for 89 minutes in a tiny capsule jettisoned from the mighty Vostok 2 rocket, Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was awarded another gong. A plastic table lamp constructed in his honour has been inducted into ThusMagazine’s Quality Hall of Fame. The event, widely leaked on [...]
Category Archives: International Affairs
Names not numbers, Thus Spake Portmerion
March 15, 2011 – 2:33 am
….actually, not true. For once, I listened without fidgeting and kicking the seatback of the person in front. Except during the breaks, over breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, in the bar, walking on the beach, on the bus, where I talked too much – I blame the coffee – listened and enjoyed the company of a [...]
Australian researchers discover the heaviest element yet known to science
January 31, 2010 – 9:35 am
This report came to me by email, so it must be true. Queens University researchers have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together [...]
The Yellow Peril have executed one of our heroin smugglers. Send in the gunboats.
December 31, 2009 – 8:16 pm
Clearly the Chinese government has a poor grasp of history. Last time they tried to stop English dope peddlers we sent gunboats up the Yellow River and pounded their Mandarin asses until they agreed to be addicted to opium. In those great days we were helped by the US, then Imperial apprentices, now big swinging [...]
Where's Gordon Brown in the Libyan desert storm?
August 23, 2009 – 7:12 pm
Over the past three days, as the Lockerbie ‘terrorist’ release turns into a full-blown international incident, we have heard not one word, or even a Twitter, from the man who saved the wurreld (and its banks). This is highly unusual; Gordon and his wife Sarah Twittered from Inverkilliecrankie, or wherever they are on holiday, catching [...]
It's still true: you can't eat money
August 23, 2009 – 7:33 am
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.” – Cree Saying. This quote, possibly the biggest cliché in the environmental literature, inspired Jared Diamond’s seminal work “Collapse“. But humans seem to succumb to boredom fairly quickly, so [...]
Afghanistan's 'democratic' election – a Karzai shoe-in aided by Western media indifference?
July 16, 2009 – 10:52 am
In the interests of transparency, I have made no secret of my support for Dr. Ashraf Ghani’s Presidential candidacy (Thus passim). I don’t know much about the other candidates (and should do) but it appears crazy to endorse the Karzai regime, which has presided over a culture of warlord cronyism and corruption which has increased [...]