Mary Ann Nichols, the first canonical victim of Jack the Ripper (as depending on who you believe, earlier murders were ascribed to the same killer) was found brutally murdered in Whitechapel. Unlike the deaths caused by powerful natural forces, the victims of Jack the Ripper were deliberately murdered by a person or persons unknown. I [...]

Britons told to leave New OrleansBBC News Headline Well, technically, yes. But I rather think everyone has been advised to leave New Orleans, what with that big windy-blow Hurricane Gustav thingummy heading in that direction; the BBC’s headline would seem to imply that everyone else can stay… It’s one of those things: when viewed from [...]

(as spotted on Señor Lawson’s blog) It appears that the NFB have reached a settlement with Target.com in their contention that Target’s website was inaccessible to disabled people and in breach of some law or other… This tends to polarise opinion; you get one camp who don’t feel that the free market should be forced [...]

For no particular reason — other than that I was running out of things to post about — I decided to have a trawl through my iMusic Collection. This got me thinking about songs which for some reason have a special meaning to me, or which stuck in my head for some particular reason. I [...]

Please give me some credit for avoiding the somewhat seedier line, as featured in virtually every episode of “Are You Being Served?”. But, in case you’re wondering, I’ve not got any particular reason for throwing in a photo of one of our cats (this here grey one — not that you can make out his [...]

The first home game of the season. It’s one of those things tinged with fear and optimism. Optimism, because if we can win today, we’ll have got off to a good start this season. Fear, because a home defeat will undo all of the good work that we did last week by getting a point [...]

16:40 Was sitting opposite a young woman. Well, I say young which just goes to show my age: she’s probably mid-twenties. It’s not really that long ago I would have seen that as an older woman. She reminds me vaguely of someone I think was called Vicki who I used to see at Planet Earth [...]

Your past life diagnosis: I don’t know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Portugal around the year 1575. Your profession was that of a sailor or shoemaker. Your brief psychological profile in your past life: Inquisitive, inventive, you liked [...]

Beamish is an open-air museum in the North of England. It’s difficult to describe exactly what it is without you going there, but I’ll give it my best shot. Basically, it’s a chance to go back in time. Once you go through the main entrance (or the side door if you’re a ‘Friend of Beamish’ [...]

I have lived in a number of haunted houses. Well, I say haunted, but that may not be actually the case. I know people who are afraid of ghosts. I am ghost-agnostic. I don’t believe in them, but nor am I positive that there is no such thing. But I’m quite happy to write off [...]