Guardian steps up recycling campaign

Lazy journalism? Or is the news just hopelessly cyclical? Click on these two stories - written just over a year apart - and judge for yourself:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/28/health.society
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/16/medicalresearch

Also: 'may increase the risk of death'? Erm... how exactly? Isn't death already a certainty?

Tales of ordinary madness

Overheard this afternoon in Costa:

"Sue? Who the Hell's Sue?" A pause. "Oh, you mean complete nutter Sue? The failed psychopath."

A while later:

"No, I lost my duck."

News that cannot end well:

Not content with bringing us the Maennergarten, and the automated waiterless restaurant, Germany is now also home to the world's first drop-in advice centre for stalkers.

I think the idea's to help them stop, rather than offering hints and tips, but still, you wouldn't want to work there. Imagine it:

"You've stopped stalking your ex? That's wonderful, Dieter. When did this happen?"

"Well, you remember that car that was outside your house all night..."

Falmouth pride

Prince of Wales Pier, Falmouth, 10/4/08.

There was a silver prince too, but some old bloke was sitting in front of it. I suppose he didn't have silver grey hair, though, or I probably would have taken a photo.

UPDATE: Apparently, Jim Davis has heard about Garfield Minus Garfield, and he likes it.

Stuck indoors on a nice day

New Street, Falmouth, yesterday.

After reading this post, I thought at least one of my readers might appreciate this one today. Get well soon, Taiga :)


UPDATE ON THE TESCOPOLY POST: There were a couple more articles in today's Guardian about the Thais being sued by Tesco. One of them's visiting London at the moment and gave an interview. The other piece is just a short overview of the situation.

Tescopoly

Tesco Express, Events Square, Falmouth, 23/3/08

Recently, I've been seeing quite a lot about Tesco in the news. In Thailand, for instance, it's suing a couple of journalists and a former Thai MP; basically, just for being a little bit critical, really. Either that, or because Tesco's feelings got hurt: "Ha! Tesco doesn't love Thais,"* said one of the journalists, not entirely seriously; the ex-MP seems to have made the mistake of calling Tesco "aggressive" (or its expansion plans, at least) and getting a figure wrong. He admitted that he'd got the figure wrong, but apparently that didn't help.

But besides suing Thais, Tesco also appears to be: trying to topple iTunes, launching its own degree programme, making tentative attempts at taking over America, and recording record profits (£2.8bn last year). Oh, and they're suing the Guardian too (something or other to do with tax avoidance; I couldn't really be bothered to read it). Quite a list...

All of which leads me to two conclusions:

- Despite the ominous catch-all vagueness of the closing threat, Mr Restall probably got off quite lightly.

- It might be time to post a YouTube clip on here again...



Can't think why, but for some reason, that one just seemed kind of apposite.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Sentence of the week:

"I got a lump in my throat when they were old enough to pick up the chainsaw." The Guardian's Weekend magazine.

*If Tesco is suing over this remark (and it is), surely that means that its management believes a corporation has, um, actual human emotions? Hmm...

Used pumpkin sale

Bottom of Old Hill, on the way to Penryn, 4/5/07

More stuff to come at the weekend. But for now, I just happened to remember this old photo.

Rooting around

Some while ago I wrote a post on here promising to do various things on this blog, such as posting more often, reviving my old blog, and writing monthly updates about how my attempt at a writing career is going. Hmm, actually, I think those things were pretty much the extent of what I promised... Anyway, I haven't quite fulfilled any of those, apart from blogging more often. And, oddly, my blog soon thereafter turned from mostly words into mostly pictures - hmm...

So, anyway, it's probably about time for one of those writing career updates.

The idea, if you recall, was that if I'd promised to report regularly on the progress of said career, I might be forced to have some progress to report. Except, well, that incentive rather rapidly, and happily, became redundant. So, erm, I guess I won't be doing that, after all.

In other words, I'm now freelance copywriting just often enough to live on. Woo hoo! Especially as it doesn't take up loads of time, either - hence the unexpected beginnings of a photography habit, probably - and should leave me plenty of time for writing fiction... Er, should I ever get around to it, obviously [sigh]...

Which reminds me, if there's still anyone reading this who doesn't know about the fate of the sitcom I had pitched to Radio 4:

- They liked the writing

BUT:

- Too many things set in workplaces had been commissioned lately (very true; possibly should have though about that...).
- They weren't sure the idea could sustain a whole series (well, I thought one series, at least. But admittedly I hadn't got much in the way of ideas for anything beyond that, so, um, fair enough probably).

Still, on the bright side:

- I should rework it for the Afternoon Play slot, they said, and get it pitched again.

Er, I haven't really got around to that, though... And I'd had enough of the idea, for the time being, to be honest... But still, I'm just about to send the first ten pages of it off to this thing, so who knows, it might get me somewhere...

Oh, and one last thing:

Part of the copywriting work entails regular blogging elsewhere. So, if you're ever fed up of my pictures and fancy being fed up of my words instead, head on over to The Root of the Matter (it's the blog of the copywriting company I'm working for).

Still, someone else's words are there too, sometimes. So don't worry, it won't all be bad.

Self portrait in blue

The sea, Falmouth Harbour, by Events Square, 3/4/08.

Actually, I wasn't at all Disappointed In The Sun that day, but that was the song that sprang to mind while looking down at an underwater shadow self. Seemed like it would have been the perfect accompaniment:

Under the sea is where I'll be
No talking 'bout the rain no more
I wonder what thunder will mean, when only in my dream
The lightning comes before the roar

The song (that's a download up there, by the way) is by a Belgian band called dEUS, from their deeply odd and deeply wonderful second album, In a Bar Under the Sea (utterly, utterly recommended - if nothing else, try Little Arithmetics. As are the more accessible first album, Worst Case Scenario, and the near perfect The Ideal Crash). Oh, and here's their MySpace, too.

A comment on graffiti removal, perhaps?

Bus stop, near Gyllyngvase Beach, Spernen Wyn Road, Falmouth, 8/4/08.

I quite like this bit of graffiti. Sure, it's a cliché, but even clichés can be meaningful in the right context. Here, for instance, it's just not what you'd normally expect, either from graffiti, or the side of a bus shelter. Usually, there'd just be some advert calling upon you to think nothing more reflective than "Must consume", "Run Fat Boy Run," or "Jordan's written a children's book about ponies? Well, I'm sure that'll be marvellous. And doesn't at all make me despair for the future of the human race."

Sheds of Falmouth

A shed - Events Square, Falmouth, 3/4/08

Some more sheds - Events Square, Falmouth, 1/4/08

Some bigger sheds - beside Events Square, Falmouth, 3/4/08

The bigger sheds' prisoner - Events Square, Falmouth, 3/4/08

Gulls Lane

Outside wall of the yard outside the Trago Mills warehouse, Hulls Lane, Falmouth, yesterday.

In case you can't read the last word, it says "Get your seagulls in ure." I think 'ure' is local dialect for 'here', but I'm only half-Cornish, so that might be only half right...

UPDATE: Yep, seems I might well have been wrong. My fully-Cornish father, in fully-Cornish fashion, thinks Devon is probably to blame.

Liberal Democrats in 'making the news' shock

"No more than 30... A lot less than that," really doesn't mean: 'as many as 30' - I mean, 1, or 2, for instance, would be a lot less than 30. Of course, if you're a newspaper or TV station in search of a headline...

And they say politicians spin things.

Anyway, whether or not how many people Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg pretty much didn't admit to having slept with (while single) is actually news, hats off to the Guardian picture editor who found this photo to illustrate the (non)story. Genius. Should anyone happen to click on it, by the way, the filename was the Guardian's*:




*It's a bastion of political correctness, is the Graun.

Hulls angel

Hulls Cottage, Hulls Lane, Falmouth, this afternoon.

Yes, I know, that pun was unforgivable. But the next time Fal Falafel's open I'll be going to Hell anyway.