Dreamlike video

Crying Lightning by The Arctic Monkeys. Dir: Richard Ayaode

If you can ignore the faux estuary accent - and it isn't easy - this is actually not bad.

Jacintha

Comet 'unlikely to wipe out Earth'

Oh great. But remember a few years ago we watched those unexpected impacts on Jupiter. Well there's been another thing that's hit Jupiter, you probably heard about it last week, but did you know how big a "thing" it was that hit? According to the marvellous last paragraph almost like an afterthought in this Telegraph report, "Last week an amateur astronomer spotted that a comet or asteroid the size of the Earth had crashed into Jupiter, leaving a large crater." (Large crater - no kidding?) There are "things" flying around randomly smashing into Jupiter every few years and last week's one was "the size of the Earth". Does this mean we can have free love starting now? However, they also say that Jupiter and Saturn are protecting Earth somewhat.

L'Osservatore Willesdensio

Hit video

YouTube - JK Wedding Entrance Dance

About 12 million views at the time of posting

Sarah Palin does Lucille Ball impression

The Tonight Show finds poetry in farewell speech "Palin's final speech was a thing of poetic beauty...And who does poetry better than Shatner?"

A glorious reading by Shatner, who has blossomed into a masterful purveyor of satire, with a perfect beatnik jazzy accompaniment.

Motorway

M40

The images of vertical things in the foreground are distorted, making them appear to lean in the direction of travel when photographed from a moving car. However things in the distance appear unaffected or not noticeably affected. Compare the fenceposts and pylons in the picture above.

I think I can rest my case after this example.

Just in case you still didn't believe it. (Can I label this science, Kronk?)

Ossian

Excellent experiment! I calculate that the car in question was travelling at approximately one tenth the speed of light, i.e. about 67 million mph. You need not worry however, as it would have been completely impossible for the speed cameras to read your license plate at that velocity. Kronk

Around here

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

A walk in the park with Dubliners

A Willesden Herald misproduction for Café Hopeless

From noted director Jacintha Pukka
A Willesden Herald production for Café Hopeless
Thrill to the spectacle!
Marvel at the raw adventure!
From the new edition of Write This (volume 4, issue iii, 7.21.2009)

Ecos de Lorca - free recital

Ecos de Lorca – a Music and Poetry recital inspired by the Poems of Federico García Lorca by the Valencian Choir: Orfeó Veus Juntes

Friday, July 24th at 7pm
The Gallery at Willesden Green
Willesden Green Centre
95 High Road, London NW10 2SF

Brent Artists Resource in collaboration with the Valencian Choir Orfeó Veus Juntes is very pleased to present: Ecos de Lorca – a Music and Poetry recital inspired by the Poems of Federico García Lorca.

Getting there
By Tube: Jubilee Line to Willesden Green (zone 2)
By bus: No.s - 52, 98, 260, 266, 302, 460
Step free access
The centre has a free car park, which is locked after closing time.

Incidents in a police state (#2)

Woman 'detained' for filming police search launches high court challenge

[...] an undercover officer wearing jeans and a black jacket enters the shot, and asks Atkinson: "Do you realise it is an offence under the Terrorism Act to film police officers?" He then adds: "Can you show me what you you just filmed?" Atkinson stopped filming and placed her phone in her pocket. According to her account of the incident, which was submitted to the Independent Police Complaints Commission that night, the officer tried several times to forcefully grab the phone from her pocket. (Guardian)

Listen to Gemma Atkinson's account of being manhandled (in more than one sense) for about 14 minutes, having her arm twisted and unidentified plain clothes police trying to take her mobile phone from her pocket. She asked them for their names and numbers and they just walked away.

Newsdesk

China UK school quarantine - update

An excellent detailed report from Channel 4 News, dated July 18th

The Willesden Herald's contact with the school groups is now telling us that a total of 16 children have been diagnosed with the flu and taken to hospital and that about 160 people belonging to school parties from the UK and the US are in quarantine at the Yanxiang Hotel.

Newsdesk

You may be quarantined if you fly to China

Four more UK Pupils in China taken to hospital with suspected swine flu | World news | guardian.co.uk: "It is not yet known where the four most recently affected pupils are from. Three of the year nine (aged 13-14) children taken ill earlier were from the Central Foundation Boys school in Clerkenwell, while one attended Parliament Hill school in Camden, organisers said."

Meadow watch

Meadow walk

A walk around by the side of the meadow area in King Edward VII park beside the sports centre. The phonecam resolution is very low. I should have brought a proper video camera but I hate carrying things like that. Maybe it's time to ditch the old Sony Ericsson phone and get one of their better ones.

Ossian

Swine flu: Chinese confine UK school parties - update

There are now four UK school parties involved as well as one from the US. The first was Central Foundation Boys School and another is from London's Parliament Hill girls' school. A total of four children have been hospitalised.

This story, which first appeared in the Willesden Herald two days ago, has now been picked up by the nationals and is about to be covered by television news channels as as well.

Update 8:40 pm: From a teacher with one of the quarantined school groups: "Another day relaxing. Other groups from USA and UK arriving in hotel. Government has taken control of school campus*."

Newsdesk

* This is where they were supposed to be staying. Ed

WH original report: Swine flu: UK school trip quarantined in China

Henry Allingham, veteran of WW1, r.i.p.

Henry Allingham, British first world war veteran, dies at 113: "Henry William Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving first world war servicemen, has died at the age of 113. Born in 1896 to an ironmonger's wife in a corner of north-east London, the veteran, whose life spanned three centuries and six monarchs, was 67 when John F Kennedy was assassinated and 73 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. He [...] was 14 when the war broke out. His mother begged him not to join the military, but a year after her death in 1915 he signed up. [...] At the time of his death, he was the last surviving founder member of the RAF, the last man to have witnessed the Battle of Jutland and the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service"

Not only the world's oldest man but a fine example of somebody whose mind seemed to remain in working order whenever interviewed on the television.

The good, the bad, the ugly and the hilarious

Apart from a very amusing performance by "The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain", this contains a reminder from Ennio Morricone that the language of music has concepts for which words probably don't even exist in spoken language.

Bartell

Lesson 1: How to rock

Paul McCartney live on Letterman

In a brilliant set on top of the entrance to the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, where the Beatles first set the sleepy world of pop alight, Paul McCartney's band gives an object lesson in the elements of rock. The toy bands of today with their pathetic, foppish excuse for boys' brigade marching tunes and the pompadoured screeching prima donnas of ersatz emotion eking out the dead corpse of what used to be their version of rock, should tape this and listen to it 100 times till their eyes are opened and they give up their hopeless careers.

It gets better as it goes along. If you're short of time and just want the best bits, Helter Skelter starts about 14 minutes 50 seconds in. The full set list is Coming Up, Band On The Run, Let Me Roll It, Helter Skelter and a brilliant Back In The USSR. It really starts rocking from about Let Me Roll It and gets heavier and better all the way. The drummer is awesome and the keyboard player is pretty awesome too and the whole band but it's mainly because the arrangements with their heavy booming turns are just very, very exciting if you're in the mood.

Just listening to it again on speakers and can't get the same feeling as when I listened to it first on headphones last night, so maybe try it with headphones. The trouble is I can't really turn my speakers up enough to do it justice (have to consider the neighbours).

Bartell

Swine flu: Chinese police confine London school trip

An update to our exclusive report yesterday

The school party from Central Foundation Boys' School, Islington, is being confined to a hotel in Beijing. Two of the children who appeared to have symptoms were tested by Chinese officials on arrival at the airport and allegedly diagnosed with swine flu. The latest is that they are now being guarded by police to enforce the quarantine. They are not confined to their rooms but cannot leave the hotel. They have some recreational facilities there, such as basketball. It is not known how long they are to be kept there or whether they will be allowed to continue their educational tour after a number of days. People within eight rows of seats from the same flight are also being quarantined.(Willesden Herald)

Newsdesk

Saturday 18/7/2009: The Guardian has now picked up this story and is saying four out of a party of 52 have been diagnosed with swine flu but they do not mention the school. (Link)

Update 18/7/2009: Story picked up by nationals and TV. Four UK school parties now quarantined, including girls' school.

Our scoop has resulted in absolutely no increase in visitors to the blog so we must continue to survive on earnings from Google Ads, currently standing at about £18 since introduced about four months (?) ago. When it hits £60 (anticipated within the next decade so) we will get a payout and probably put it straight on a nag in the 2:30 at Sandown. But there must be about a tenner due from Amazon as well - must check. Ed

Global warming to protect from solar cooling?

We've heard that the sun is at its lowest level for ages and that we might have another mini ice age, similar to the one about 300 years ago that lasted for what 20 years? (honestly I'm a blogger, I'm not paid to check all this - you can check for yourself). People went ice skating on the Thames and all that. At the same time we are told that greenhouse gases are going to cause the earth's temperature to rise. So what do we do faced with these marvellously counterbalanced changes? We say let's prevent the warming and have an ice age instead. This is purely from the point of view of "bloke in a pub". I don't really know anything about it but duh, no?

Kronk Pub Theories

Another opponent shot & Putin no comment

Russian rights activist Natalya Estemirova murdered: "Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, was said to have been 'indignant' over the killing but there was no response from Mr Putin, the prime minister, who appointed Mr Kadyrov to restore order in the troubled republic. Mr Putin was criticised in 2006 after he remained silent for three days following the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who campaigned on injustices in Chechnya." (Telegraph)

It is said that Putin intends to run again for President. It's up to people in Russia to realise that their country is sleepwalking into disaster.

Zoz

Extraordinary artist makes audience weep

"Sand animation" by Kseniya Simonova (from "Ukraine's Got Talent"). She tells a wartime story by rapidly drawing and morphing pictures in sand with her hands while background music and songs set the mood.

Swine flu: UK school trip quarantined in China

Willesden Herald exclusive

Members of a school party from a London school on an educational visit to China have been placed in quarantine after two of the group were "diagnosed with swine flu" on arrival. It is thought that people seated up to eight rows away on the same plane may be quarantined as well. This directly from the school party by SMS. We are not naming the school at this time.

Newsdesk

Update Friday 17/7/2009: School trip party from Islington Central Foundation Boys School to Beijing is now being guarded by Chinese police to confine them to a hotel in Beijing. (Willesden Herald)

Update 18/7/2009: Story picked up by nationals and TV. Four UK school parties now quarantined, including girls' school.

Day of the teasels

Urban meadow: teasel
Originally uploaded by Willesden Herald

March of the teasel

Urban meadow: teasel 2
Originally uploaded by Willesden Herald