Earthquake Again

“Small earthquake in Chile – not many dead”

It was regarded as the dullest headline ever published and was claimed by Claude Cockburn in the 1930′s as having been written by him with that purpose. It is often used as an example of a story which no-one will be interested in. If you’ve never heard the quote then a quick google will give you the context of it. The thing is that no such headline has ever been traced so it’s likely that it’s one of those misquotations, misattributions, and apocryphal remarks which come from various sources.

The very real and horrific earthquake in Chile yesterday is illustrated by this picture in today’s Sunday Herald

With over 400 dead reported so far and widespread panic and looting taking place, the Red Cross have launched an APPEAL for donations.

Unlikely Headlines?

We get bombarded by opinion polls and such these days. Retail sales, house prices and how much the Tories are going to win the election by are the current staple fare of the polling organisations. If it really were so easy to predict the future though, we’d all be cleaning up at the bookies. On the three themes above I’m never all that clear on what’s happening. No sooner are house prices stabilising than they’re going down again, thus sending the Daily Mail readership into blind panic and reaching for their fiery crosses. Retail sales are either down by a long way, flat or buoyant depending on which day it is. The one constant in recent months has been that David Cameron is heading for number 10 Downing Street.

The only variable is how much he’s going to win by.

Maybe it’s because I live in a part of the country where the Tories flit between oblivion and being the fourth choice of the electorate, but I have never been wholly convinced of the UK’s appetite for a move further rightwards.

The Labour government has involved this country in an illegal foreign war, an intractable and bloody foreign conflict and has presided over a recession (not directly caused by them but not helped by their policies either). In recent weeks it has been embroiled in infighting, the PM has been labelled a bully and his own chancellor made a quite astonishing attack on “number 10″ only a few days ago.

And yet today the headline Gordon Brown on course to win election adorns the Sunday Times albeit if you read it, without an overall majority. This could of course be a wake up call to that paper’s readership. Or it could be that the Tories have realised they don’t WANT to win power at this stage.

It’s just one hell of a surprising headline to read no matter the reasons.

Stand by for a fall in house prices on the news!

Arbroath 3 Sons 1

I wasn’t at the game yesterday as work intervened. Things were looking good when David Winters put Sons ahead at half time but a second half defensive collapse saw Arbroath scoring three and pick up three vital points.

Hopefully the postponements are now over and the fitba’ can get back to some sort of normality (although with so many games to catch up on it’ll be a frantic run in)

Unusual Buildings (9) – The Banknote Building

This is an office building in Kaunas Lithuania.

As Village of Joy explains:

Despite what you might think this amazing building is not a temporal installation. The image of the LTL 1000 banknote is brought onto this building using special enamel paint. Money theme well represents various businesses located in this spectacular building.  It’s an office center located in the second biggest city in Lithuania.By the way, banknote dates back to 1925. However it’s not used nowadays.