Wednesday 26 February 2014

Archaic Humans Discovered in Scotland

Homo-heidelbergensis Scientists all over the world are turning their attention to Scotland in the wake of a shock discovery that ‘archaic’ humans may be alive and well and living there.

The discovery came when one of them was filmed saying that they ‘were not evolved to make political decisions’.

Professor of Anthropology Farquhar Mc Farquharson of the University of Aberdeen explained: ‘All modern humans – Homo sapiens – have highly sophisticated social behaviour including the ability to arrive at complex decisions within a formal political framework. The discovery of a population that lacks this ability, apparently living alongside more developed hominids, is very exciting.’

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Wood in Traditional Building 1: Oak

oak-framing
Pic: Rod Fleming


Wood is, along with stone and earth, one of the principal materials used in the construction of buildings, and particularly older buildings. It is important to have some understanding of the nature of wood, its uses in the older house and some sympathy for its virtues as well as its limitations.

Timber is used in a wide variety of applications, and the most important of these are the support structure for floors; the roof timbers and associated work; and the interior finishing timber. Timber is also used in the construction of interior walls and in many areas in the construction of supporting walls.

There are three timbers commonly found in older buildings in France, namely oak, poplar and pine. Other timbers are often found as parts of outhouses and sheds.

Oak (Quercus sp) is without question the most important constructional timber

Saturday 15 February 2014

Hosting Migration Complete

Just to let you know that after a tricky week, the main rodfleming.com blog has now been migrated to a new host. Actual downtime was minimal, but there are still many little things to fix. Hopefully load times should be much faster.


After quite a few years with GoDaddy I had to draw a line under it. The hosting server had become ridiculously slow – indeed last week died altogether for several days – and instead of just fixing it, and giving me what I had paid for, they wanted me to buy a new ‘plan’ which they assured me would make everything all right – but with no guarantee and I would have been locked into another year at least with them. No thanks. That’s not what I call customer service.


I’ll do a more in-depth post soon, but for the moment, I would have to advise that no-one with a WordPress-based blog or site should even consider hosting with GoDaddy. There are far better options out there.




The post Hosting Migration Complete appeared first on Rod Fleming's World.



Friday 14 February 2014

Tryst on Februar Fowerteen – A Scots Allegory

a-tryst-tree
Pic: Rod Fleming


A fell cauld wind wis sauchin ower the muir as the bonny wumman gart her wey tae tryst her jo. For the necht wis Februar the fowerteen, an aabody kens at’s the necht for luve.

She wis winsome eneuch, tho the first blush o youth, it maun be said, was left ahent her a lang while syne. A body mecht hae speirit at himsel how comes a lass o sic natral attractions hidnae been wad this mony a lang year.

At last she reached the spot ablow an auld aik whaur she an her jo hiv met this necht mony mair years nor either of them wad care tae hink on. Her jo wis aaready there, a puckle fashit, ye mecht hink, wi the wye he wis stridin up an doon, his een flashin faniver he luikit up.

“Ah, here you are, at last,” he intoned, as the lass presented hersel.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

The Vampire Rises : Roads to Referendum 3

vampire-rises Pic: Rod Fleming

Eight years after Scotland voted ‘Yes’ to Devolution, but had seen this victory snatched away by Westminster, things were very different.

The most hated Prime Minister in recent history – possibly all history as far as the Scots are concerned – Margaret Thatcher, had focussed minds on the fight against her all over the UK. Scottish Labour rode high on this wave of anti-Tory sentiment, and lost no time in asserting that it was the only way to be sure to get rid of the Tories. A vote, they claimed, for any other party, was a ‘vote for the Tories’.

But it was a gamble. Thatcher’s popularity in England had increased radically since she first had been elected. In England, though far less in Scotland, her resolve in fighting and defeating the Argentinean invasion of the Falkland Isles, had played well for her. She called an election in 1983 and found her majority increased.

In 1987, Thatcher called another General Election.

Migrating the SIte to a New Host

Because of excessive downtime and 'server overload' I am migrating rodfleming.com to a new host. My other sites will follow over the next few weeks. This is just to reassure those of you who have been patient enough to put up with the last week's ongoing hosting catastrophe, that things will get better soon.

I will post a more full explanation once the migration is complete and the site installed on the new server. I will try to keep posting as this process goes on, but we may end up with a double post or two. I'll sort it later. Thank you for being patient.

 

Thursday 6 February 2014

The Empty Palace: Roads to Referendum 2

old-royal-high-schooloDuring the 1980s, Scotland’s political scene was polarised by a cathartic and visceral detestation of the UK Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This, for perhaps the last time, caused a genuinely British response, in that many Scottish opponents of Conservatism, badly discouraged by the calculating and dishonest way which the Home Rule that Scots had voted for had been snatched away by a self-interested Westminster, fell back to old loyalties, and threw their weight behind the familiar Labour Party, in an effort to rid themselves of the hated Tories.

Monday 3 February 2014

French Onion Soup! in the News

rodcourier.wee
Those avid readers who live in Scotland will be able to see yours truly’s geggy mutt plastered all over the pages of The Courier newspaper today. Support those who support me, I say, so get out and buy a copy! You can download the full page image HERE.

It’s publicising my hilarious collection of memoirs on life in France called French Onion Soup!, which you can download FOR FREE from Amazon today and tomorrow, as part of the promotion.

Please, please, though, if you like it, please leave a review on Amazon.

Sunday 2 February 2014

Happy Imbolc!

Goddess Pic: Rod Fleming

Imbolc, (pr EEmulk), is an ancient fire festival that marks the end of the dead part of the year. Originally it was celebrated at the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox, and in other traditions on the night of the first full moon after that.

At the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara, in Ireland, the inner chamber is aligned with the rising sun at the midpoint between solstice and equinox, and so marks the dates of Imbolc and Samhain. Many other megalithic monuments in Northern Europe also have this characteristic, showing how important these dates were. They delineated the dead period of the year,  which began at Samhain, when nothing grows and the shades of the dead and other supernatural beings walk freely in the world. Imbolc is the day the Goddess returns, not yet in her full glory and majesty, here a girl full of promise, one of the three forms of a triple-goddess.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Spain Proposes Anti-Abortion Law: Protest

Today, women, and men, all over Europe are out in protest. Why? Because senior Spanish politicians, led by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, the Minister of Justice in the right-wing Spanish government, have introduced a bill that will make abortion all but illegal in Spain. This measure is opposed, according to the latest polls, by over 70% of the Spanish electorate, which considers the existing law adequate, and is a sop to right-wing conservatives

This attempt is a shocking example of how the religious right interferes in the lives of others, and specifically, attempts to remove their human rights. Ruiz-Gallardon may dress his nasty little bill up as ‘protecting the most vulnerable – the unborn’ but it is far from that and in fact is just another example of how the patriarchy attempts to disenfranchise half the population in its own interests.

In the UK, in France, and of course in Spain, huge numbers are coming together to challenge this attack on a principal right of women – to control their own fertility. It is not for any man to interfere in this, in any way. Until a foetus is capable of independent life it is not a human being, and has no rights as such. The religious argument centres on the idea of a ‘soul’ which has never been shown to exist. Politicians must not be allowed to use these debased, populist arguments to disenfranchise actual human beings.

The current Spanish Government, led by Mariano Rajoy, has already shown itself to be a throwback to Spain’s right-wing, Imperialist past, in his condemnation of Catalan voices for self-determination – another fundamental human right which conservatives would deny.

I can’t go to Madrid, Paris or London today, but I want to make public my support for all the protesters who are there, and for all women, everywhere, who are denied their rights by the patriarchy. The religious right is growing in strength again, and it must be resisted. Its history is clear: it is intolerant and totalitarian, and cares not one bit for the rights of those it oppresses.

Personally, I am beginning to wonder whether it might not be better just to remove the vote, and any right to political power, from men, altogether.

After all, women had to suffer exactly that for thousands of years.

Muslims we Must Support: Maajid Nawaz

maajid-nawaz Maajid Nawaz

Last week, Maajid Nawaz, a United Kingdom Liberal Democratic Party parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, became the centre of an attack from the Islamic fundamentalist right wing because he stood up for free speech. This is not, in itself, unusual; fundamentalists of any religious persuasion detest free speech. Nor is the chorus of death threats raised against Nawaz in any way uncommon from Islamic fanatics. However this case is important because it illustrates a divide which we must not only recognise but decide on which side we stand.

Nawaz’ crime? After taking part in a BBC debate in which two students were seen wearing ‘Jesus and Mo’ tee-shirts, Nawaz tweeted the image, saying, "As a Muslim, I did not feel threatened by it. My God is greater than that".

For most people, that would not seem anything other than a reasonable point of view.