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- A Very Peculiar Year: 2020 December 24, 2020
- Should You Believe What You Read on Social Media? July 13, 2020
- Every Day it Gets Worse May 25, 2020
- Confusion and Incompetence Again May 11, 2020
- Papayas, Azaleas, Manatees and a Rattlesnake February 2020 March 22, 2020
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A Very Peculiar Year: 2020
From the outset we knew that 2020 was going to be a peculiar year for us. In November 2019 we decided that we wanted to stay in Nidderdale and that we should sell our house in Oxford. We moved into … Continue reading
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Should You Believe What You Read on Social Media?
I post I wrote on Facebook last week got 151 likes, far more than I have ever had before. These were from people I had never heard of. There were also 25 replies, mostly quite thoughtful. In my post I … Continue reading
Every Day it Gets Worse
Every day you think it can’t get any worse – and it does. We now know that Dominic Cummings, the UK’s de facto prime minister, officially called the Prime Minister’s senior adviser, deliberately flouted the lockdown and drove 260 miles … Continue reading
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Confusion and Incompetence Again
I watched the Prime Minister’s address last night. My reactions were a combination of confusion, horror and then anger at the sheer incompetence of it. The first tweet I looked at afterwards had only two words: “herd immunity”. That was … Continue reading
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Papayas, Azaleas, Manatees and a Rattlesnake February 2020
A month in Florida in winter 2020 is always very welcome. As in November we had to spend some time sorting things out in the house, but have now found some wonderful new property managers who have fixed a host … Continue reading
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Tagged Amelia Island, avocado tree, azaleas, Blue Spring State Park, Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, Fernandina Beach, Florida, Florida Breeze Villa, Fort Clinch State Park, gopher tortoise, Haines City, hibiscus, Honeymoon Island State Park, horned owl, manatees, Ocala National Forest, olive tree, Osprey Trail, papayas, rattlesnake, Ravine Gardens State Park, St Augustine, St Johns River, storm, turkey buzzard
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Florida in Autumn 2019: Papayas, Gators and Snow
In 2019 our normal 6-8 weeks in Florida in autumn became only 2 weeks because of various matters at home and the election. As we have found before, some things needed attention in the house, not least of which was … Continue reading
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Tagged alligators, anhinga, Big Oak, Black Friday, board walk, Celebration Florida, Christmas inflatables, Florida Breeze Villa, Florida sunset, Highlands Hammock State Park, ibises, Kohls, Lakeland Florida, maradol, meyer lemon, Miami Mover, Newark NJ airport, papaya fruit, papaya plant, turkey vultures, turtles
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My Thoughts on the 2019 UK Election
1. The election was won by the Tories because people in the “Labour heartlands”, those areas most affected by austerity, voted for the party which caused the austerity in the first place. 2. Almost 2 million more people voted for … Continue reading
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Greece’s Peloponnese in September 2019
This was a long-planned trip to go to our favourite country Greece with our Amercan friend Nancy. We felt that the Peloponnese, which is the southern part of the mainland, was the best area to visit in a week. The … Continue reading
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Tagged Akrocorinth, ancient bath, Areopoli, Asclepius, beehive tomb, Byzantine churches, Cape Tenaron, Corinth, Corinth canal, Cranae, Cyclopean walls, Deep into Mani, Dekoulou Monastery, Dirou Caves, Epidaurus theatre, frescoes, Gefyra, Greece, Greek food, Gytheion, Helen of Troy, Kotronas, Limeni, Lion Gate, little cats, Mani, Methoni, Methoni Castle, Monemvasia, Mycenae, Mycenaean, Mystras, Nafplio, Nestor's Palace, Palaia Epidaurus, Peloponnese, Pylos, Ryanair, stuffed tomatoes, Taygetos, Tomb of Agamemnon, tower houses, Treasury of Atreus, Trojan War, turtle, Vathi, Wizzair
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The Bad Side of Social Media: Brainwashing
An encounter with a leave-supporting protester outside Parliament this week led me, as an information scientist, to look again at the role of social media and the Internet in the Brexit debate. I asked this person, who I call X … Continue reading
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Tagged Brexit, Dominic Cummings, EU referendum, Facebook, Lisbon Treaty, No Deal Brexit, social media, UK education
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Cyprus in Spring 2019: Nicosia, North Cyprus and the South
This is the second of two blog posts on our visit to Cyprus in May-June 2019. The first post is here. Go here for a picture gallery. In Nicosia, which is now more usually called Lefkosia, we stayed 2 nights … Continue reading
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Tagged Agia Napa, Alyki salt lake, ancient almonds, Armenia church Nicosia, Britishness in Cyprus, Buyuk Han caravanserai Nicosia, Cape Greco, Choirakoitia, Driving in Cyprus, Food in Cyprus, Girne, Hala Sultan Tekkesi, Kiti, Kyrenia, Kyrenia Castle, Larnaca, Leventis Municipal Museum, Maroni, Nicosia, North Cyprus, Panagia Angeloktisti, Selimiye Mosque Nicosia, Shipwreck Museum Kyrenia, Stavrovouni Monastery, sunset in Cyprus, Zygi
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