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In Nigeria in November 2024, the National Commission for Mu­seum and Monuments 'marked the 75th anniversa­ry of the massacre of 21 coal miners at Iva Valley, Enugu, by the colonial masters. It could be recalled that 21 coal miners were shot dead in Enugu on Nov. 18, 1949, by the colonial mas­ters for agitating for better working conditions and improved welfare packages'.A monument to the massacre in NigeriaThe massacre took …

A couple of things from PAEC’s (Public Accounts & Estimates Committee) Inquiry this week in State Parliament. Trivial pursuits The Opposition decided to make a big fuss about the new X’Trapolis 2.0 trains not being able to use the Metro tunnel, as if this was a huge problem due to poor planning. It’s not. As I wrote back in June, Melbourne (like a lot of big city rail systems) has …

It’s that time of the week again — when I post the memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share and enjoy! The post Sunday picdump for November 24, 2024 appeared first on The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.

It’s out! Again! Well, actually it’s been out for a couple of weeks now, but today being the 61st anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who being broadcast, it seemed appropriate to write here today about the audiobook version of Pull to Open now having been released. It’s a strange thing, to listen to your own writing being read by an actor, in the person of Christopher Naylor here. …

Peanuts Worldwide and the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat (the newspaper of Charles Schulz' hometown) have launched "You Don’t Know Peanuts," the first official Peanuts podcast.Hosted by Melissa Menta, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Peanuts Worldwide (she's worked with the Peanuts crew for over 20 years), and David Templeton, an arts and entertainment journalist for the Press-Democrat, the new podcast is subtitled "The Untold Stories Behind the Greatest Comic …

Blitz is a powerful and somewhat disarming film about the longterm German bombing of London in 1940. One might be forgiven for expecting a kinder, gentler rendition of this horrific event because it’s told through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy. Guess again. Writer-director Steve McQueen spares us nothing in his recreation of the conditions before, during, and after each attack. If anything, they seem even more frightening than any …

I am often asked, at times, what is your all-time favorite surface fly to fish on the Sipsey Tailrace and Simth Lake during the Spring and Summer months? My response is the Caddis dry fly. For this post, I will only cover the surface aspects of this fly, not the subsurface stages the fly goes through to become airborne. Why is the fly so effective in fly fishing? It's a …

I'm about month late on this review, huh? I actually received this Michael Myers vinyl figure as a birthday present a little over two months ago but, since I stuck to the theme of 2024's Universal Monsters theme and this figure is from Halloween 2 which was released by...Universal Pictures? So was Halloween 3, Halloween 2018, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. Wait.... is Michael Myers a Universal Monster? Ha ha. …

Birdwatchers will tell you that it is important to keep an eye on your garden, as some interesting rarities can turn up. I’d agree, have seen a yellow-browed warbler in ours a few years ago, and our neighbour saw a rose-coloured startling. The same applies to trains (sometimes.) Walking home over the railway bridge…. Allan informed me that it is a class 153, now used by the Network Rail inspection …

I had an epiphany some years back. In a brief conversation with a young woman, in the queue for lunch at a corporate ‘values’ day (I was a Director), opened my eyes up to the whole values thing in organisations. “I have my values,” she said, “and they’re not going to be changed by a HR department.... I’ll be leaving in a couple of years and no doubt their HR …

In Great Britain, they have a national mapping agency known as The Ordnance Survey (OS) which provides highly-detailed geographic maps for individuals as well as for military purposes. In the early 1960s, the Ordnance Survey undertook to re-map Great Britain and it was a massive project. This 1961 British Pathe newsreel shows just how large a project it was and how many people were involved in the creation of these …

(via Andrew Parker)

“Calyx Krater” (2021) – Paul S. BriggsVia https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/11/paul-s-briggs-ceramics/

In his final years Clint Eastwood directs movies the way Ernest Hemingway wrote novels — straight, true and unadorned. There is nothing in Juror #2 that anyone might mistake for a director showing off. Maybe J.K.Simmons’ hat. Nor is there anything in the writing that gilds the lily. The ‘just the facts’ and ‘just what we need per scene’ could be mistaken for boring. And, given what a fan I …

Last weekend I finally got the chance to do a decent amount of fishing, a whole day has been hard to come by of late and armed with a loaf of bread and some maggots I made the most of my time. After weeks of heavy rain it was nice and settled, which did bring its own challenges but with some knowhow chub are willing beasts. The river was very …