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Continue reading →: Animal behaviour
Two male penguins are rearing a chick that was abandoned by its parents at a Kent wildlife park. And the foster chick has apparently helped the two Humboldt penguins with relationship difficulties. The Daily Telegraph reported the park owner as saying the unlikely pairing “had been fighting frequently” but are “getting…
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Continue reading →: Retirement complex?
I’m not quite in my dotage yet, but I do occasionally consider what options I will have when I stop working. My pension is not going to provide anything like the income I have now. Our mortgage should be paid off by the time I reach 70. I have been…
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Continue reading →: Bin there done that
We have a new policy at work re bins. No more traditional wastepaper baskets around our desks. Instead we have wee silvery buckets that sit on the desk. Meanwhile the kitchen bins are chokker to overflowing. A kettle sat on top of the swing bin, beneath that a tumble dryer,…
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Continue reading →: Twins born holding hands
Jillian and Jenna Thistlethwaite shared their mother Sarah’s placenta and amniotic fluid. As they prepared to be born Jenna looked at Jillian and said “Well, I guess this is it dear sister.” Jillian took her twin’s hand and replied “Happy birthday!”. The doctors and nurses at the Akron General Medical Center…
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Continue reading →: The Wurst show?
Europe came together last night to thrash out an issue that has troubled our nations for the last year. Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest? Some thought that a Swedish siren would lure voters to her shores, others that Polish maidens would suggestively milk votes their way. Only the gullible thought…
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Continue reading →: Little Italy stories at the Dockers Club
On Thursday night I was at the Dockers Club with my wife to enjoy Kabosh perform the stories of Italian families who had emigrated to Northern Ireland. Those first Italian immigrants to Northern Ireland had it tough – picked on as schoolchildren for being foreign, and bombed by the IRA who did not…
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Continue reading →: Big trial in Africa
Two men are to be tried in Uganda for having sex. They have been imprisoned since December 2013 and their trial is scheduled for next month. What is the precise nature of their crime? They are accused of ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’. This description of ‘nature’ is…
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Continue reading →: Seeing red or white?
Poppies spring up over European fields in summertime. Their bright red hue a vibrant reminder of the blood spilled on Flanders fields – the young male blood of Frenchmen, Englishmen, Irishmen, Scots, Welsh, Americans, Germans, Russians and countless other nations who volunteered their youth for the carnage of trench warfare. Remembrance Sunday in…
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Continue reading →: Some people like a bit of filth
My desk is long due a clean. It is the place where I graze and quaff, so among the usual desk clutter there is a picnic for mice. Rather than disturb the breadcrumbs and ruin the fun for miniature creatures, I am content to play my part in ecological diversity.…