Tyne Dock Green

Questions about sex

2009-12-17T02:17:00.000-08:00

Richard Black poses the question ‘Why are virtually all climate “sceptics” men?’ I think he’s missing the point.

The question he should be asking is ‘Why are virtually all climate “sceptics” not qualified in climate science?’

Twatted!

2009-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

I couldn’t give a XXXX

2009-12-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

I had this really bizarre nightmare the other night. I dreamt that the Foreign Secretary, a position considered by many to be the third most important post in Government, had penned a newspaper column about the X Factor. In it, he urged his constituents to spend their money lining the pockets of a spiv multimillionaire music producer by picking up the phone and voting on a premium rate line.

Thank XXXX it was only a dream and that sort of thing wouldn’t happen in real life!

Road runner, road runner

2009-12-04T02:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday saw myself, Bob and Jim heading down the A19 straight into the Met office severe weather warning. Déjà vu! This time our destination was Thirsk racecourse where we would pick up our numbers and timing chips for the Thirsk 10. When we arrived it was cold with some wind and fine drizzle but certainly nothing severe, although the fields were absolutely saturated.

After a stomp across the racecourse the race got underway, taking us up a road with some minor flooding on it (ankle deep). The start was a bit faster than I’d planned but it certainly got me warmed up before I settled into a comfortable pace. After about 9 miles I overtook a young lad who was struggling. His tee-shirt indicated that he was a potential Royal Marine recruit; good luck to him if that’s what he wants to do. Although I think he might have to work on his stamina and pacing strategy a bit.

After the race it was off to the Busby Stoop Inn in time for Sunday dinner. Just as we left Thirsk it started to rain – very heavily. I think most of the 1,000 plus entrants enjoyed the race, although they probably didn’t enjoy having to push their cars out of the mud afterwards.

The only other running I’ve done this week was a pretty hard interval session on Wednesday. Is there any such thing as an easy interval session?

Tell it how it is – Metro privatised

2009-12-04T01:04:00.000-08:00

From Shirley Ford:

“So all those Labour councillors and MPs who said over and over that the in-house bid would win and that it definitely wasn’t going to be privatisation were completely and utterly wrong or deluded.”

...Or just a bunch of lying bastards!

Delusion and denial

2009-12-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

“People's capacity for self-delusion is extraordinary... you cannot spin away a scientific reality”

Death or Glory

2009-11-28T02:26:00.000-08:00

Amazing online strategy game lets you re-create some of the most pointless battles in British military history!
Mash it!

Geordies on tour - Is it too cold for shorts?

2009-11-28T01:28:00.000-08:00

If all goes according to plan in the morning I’ll be getting up early and heading down to Yorkshire to pick up my number for another race. I might be fatter and a lot slower than I was quarter of a century ago but I’m thoroughly enjoying racing at the moment. This month it is the turn of Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers to entertain myself, Bob and Jim... We promise not to imbibe quite as much as we did after our last racing excursion to Yorkshire.

Is Curly’s conspiracy theory collapsing?

2009-11-25T02:49:00.000-08:00

Loveable South Shields blogger and right wing conspiracy theorist Curly, is in a right flap over climate change and all those hacked University of East Anglia emails. Despite a mountain of research evidence suggesting that anthropogenic climate change is real and already occurring, Curly has remained firmly in the denial camp on the issue. Curly and his conspiracy theory buddies are having a right wankfest* at the moment, implying that the leaked emails spell the end of scientific consensus on climate change. Of course that isn’t true, but since when have conspiracy theorists ever let a little thing like the truth get in the way of their whacky ideas.

Whether it's climate change denial or giant magnets sucking planes into the twin towers, when it comes to conspiracy theories to believe in, they’re spoilt for choice. Their selective quoting of evidence, half-truths and outright lies reinforces their belief in whatever mad conspiracy theory they happen to believe in at the time. Let’s just dismantle one aspect of Curly’s conspiracy theory as an example...

Curly claims in his blog that the BBC "buried" the leaked email story. Now I’ve been quite busy over the last few days so have only managed to hear snippets of the BBC news when I’ve been close to a radio. Despite this I heard Lord Nigel Lawson, the climate change deniers’ glamorous poster boy, being interviewed at length on the subject at peak listening time on the Today programme. Later on the same day I heard a recorded interview with Nigel Lawson, and a live discussion of the leaked emails on the PM programme. I didn’t listen to any other BBC news output on that day (Monday).

So the BBC giving the story prime-time coverage on its flagship news and current affairs programme is what Curly considers to be burying a story! At this rate he’ll be trying to tell us that dark mysterious forces are trying to ban Christmas.

*See Rossinisbird’s blog for more homoerotic masturbation based metaphors.

UPDATE: A classic Daily Mash take on the subject. CLIMATE CHANGE EMAILS STOP GLACIERS FROM MELTING.

Terror-tourism

2009-11-24T02:03:00.000-08:00

I confess! I have, at numerous times in my life, taken photographs in foreign city centre squares and night clubs. I obviously must be a terrorist.

Disciples of Thatcherism

2009-11-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

Shirley Ford has published a good post on the shameful councillors who are pushing through the privatisation of the Tyne & Wear Metro system.

Insecurity fence bid turned down

2009-11-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

I see an application to build a 215 metre insecurity fence through Westoe Crown Village has been rejected. I can’t claim that there has never been an incident of anti-social behaviour in this area. But I have walked/ran/cycled along this path on a regular basis since it was first opened and have never experienced anything even remotely threatening.

Westoe Crown Village is built on the site of the former Westoe colliery. The developers originally proposed a forward thinking ‘Home Zones’ design for the estate. But this was watered down after pressure from the council’s highways and planning departments, who at the time couldn’t cope with such a radical concept. Radical for South Shields that is, quite the norm in many towns in northern Europe.

You won’t hear me say this very often, but on the subject of the fence I agree with the quote from Councillor Bill Brady.

Remember me now

2009-11-17T03:32:00.000-08:00

I’ve been struggling lately to throw off this constant feeling of lethargy. So I really wasn’t looking forward to the mile or so walk in the rain to watch The Age of Stupid at the Customs House. I’m glad I made the effort.

A lot of well meaning plays and films turn out to be pretty unwatchable. But Age of Stupid manages to make the grade as a feature film. While watching it, I discovered I have a kindred spirit in the shape of an octogenarian mountain guide living in the French Alps. He explained the unsustainability and insanity of generating ever greater amounts of traffic by widening the Mont Blanc tunnel. I heard him repeating many of the same phrases and arguments that I had argued myself at the Tyne Tunnel public inquiry.

It was a thought provoking film with some superb moments of irony and subtle dark humour. I will return to some of the issues the screening of the film raised in future posts when I have more time. But tonight I’m off to see Motorhead for the first time since 1978. Now if that doesn’t cure my lethargy nothing will!

‘Can you spare 20p for a cup of tea mister?’

2009-11-17T03:19:00.000-08:00

I can’t confirm the truth of this rumour, but I have heard on the grapevine that not all the staff at Jarrow School are 100% happy with the new PFI design. It’s all nice and shinny and new and I’m in no doubt that the teaching facilities are excellent. But something important was missed off the plans when it was built; a staff room and tea making facilities.

Now I’m sure educating teenagers is an enjoyable and deeply rewarding experience. But I imagine you’d need some respite and a cup of coffee at some stage during the day.

What would I do without ibuprofen?

2009-11-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

Despite a niggling injury and feeling a bit under the weather I’ve managed to complete three quality training sessions this week. A slow paced twelve mile run, an interval session and a five mile run in glorious sunshine that defied the Met Office prediction. I haven’t been swimming since August and I really need to rectify that at some stage. But first I think I’ll take a few days rest to let this injury recover and hope my energy levels increase.

Give a dog a bad name…

2009-11-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

The good folk of Peterlee probably still haven’t recovered from the national media attention they received last year for having the UK’s crappiest Christmas tree. All these years on and Hartlepool is still trying to play down that ‘monkey’ incident.

...I suspect that down in Billingham they will be praying that this story doesn’t go viral.

And all the world is biscuit shaped...

2009-11-10T02:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday night: A big chunk of mature cheddar cheese, white bread and sweet onion chutney. All washed down with a glass of port (it’s a hard life but someone has to do it). I settled down for the night listening to the Haye V Valuev fight on 5live. Millwall fan David Haye was victorious. I finally drifted off as the commentator exclaimed “Now the world is ‘literally’ his oyster.”

I spent the rest of the night having some very strange dreams about planet sized crustaceans and bottom-feeders.

Germany Today

2009-11-09T02:41:00.000-08:00

“…they seem, perhaps because of their experience of Nazism and communism, rather more conscious of their civil rights and the democratic possibilities than we are. I think we’re a bit complacent, I don’t think Germans are and I think Germany is in some ways a politically more mature country than we are.”

Frederick Taylor, speaking on Today about the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Speaking of Guy Fawkes

2009-11-05T01:50:00.001-08:00

Guy Fawkes on his less well known visit to Liverpool to campaign for non-violent electoral reform.

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and... er, space exploration!?

Guy Fawkes

2009-11-04T02:26:00.000-08:00

It was wet and windy and I was shivering as we lined up for the start of the Guy Fawkes 10. My original plan had been to run it as close as I could to an even 9 minute mile pace. After seeing the weather forecast I abandoned my original plan.

We were off. The relatively wide road soon narrowed into an off-road path that was in danger of turning into a stream. I had deliberately started at the back so that I didn’t get caught in the initial cavalry charge, but now I was stuck in a stop/start bottle neck that meant I couldn’t move fast enough to keep warm. I managed to squeeze by some runners after about half a mile and made a dash for it, probably way too fast but I needed to warm up. By the time I reached the first mile marker there was enough room to overtake (and be overtaken). The first mile had been very erratic (about 11 minutes I think) but now I could run at a pace I felt comfortable with. After two miles we were back on the road, running up and down Yorkshire hills in the rain.

By mile six my IT band was very sore, and had this been a training run I’d have stopped and walked. I was wearing shorts and a running vest, walking wasn’t an option in these conditions. By mile eight I was surprised to find I was spot on my 9 minute mile schedule. The pain got worse and I couldn’t maintain that pace. I crossed the line in 1 hour 34 minutes and 53 seconds.

A massive thank you to all the race marshals who’d volunteered to work in what turned out to be appalling weather. At various stages of the race I’d been cold, wet and in pain. I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute of it.

Another grim day in Afghanistan

2009-11-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

Five more British soldiers have died propping up a corrupt Afghan president and government. This sad news will rightly dominate the headlines for the next twelve hours or so; The British press should be reporting the deaths of British servicemen dying in foreign wars.

...I wonder how many Afghan civilians have died this week. I doubt I’ll find out by reading the tabloids.

Police Intelligence

2009-10-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Not content with giving out ‘the wrong message’, the Metropolitan Police now seem intent on arresting ‘the wrong suspects’. It’s difficult to comprehend how brain dead you have to be to make a mistake like that. I suppose the ‘hooligans’ concerned should consider themselves lucky they weren’t mistaken for Brazilian electricians.

I don’t expect coppers to possess super-human powers; nor do I expect perfection. But a basic level of competence would be nice.

2009-10-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

Say cheese

2009-10-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

Jane Bown makes photography look incredibly easy. Click on this link and watch the video. My favourite is probably the photo of Spike Milligan.

10 miles

2009-10-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

I’ve got a 10 mile race coming up in just over a weeks time. Everyone I’ve spoken to has told me how hilly the course is. I won’t be able to get any running in at all next week, so tonight was my last ‘hard’ session before the race.

The lack of decent hills round here remains a problem; but you have to make the most of what you have available. So I’ve spent half an hour running up and down the slopes in the Marine Park. It was surprisingly hard work, and with the weather being so bad I had the entire park almost to myself.