"Witch mistaken for domestic abuse victim by council"

From the BBC:

A centuries-old witch-burning celebration was left with no victim after a council mistook the red-haired woman for a victim of domestic abuse and offered her a place in a refuge.

Villagers in Lower Hartshay in Derbyshire said they were surprised and disappointed to find "crime scene" tape at the carefully prepared pyre.

Amber Valley Borough Council said it responded to the woman's screams for help and put up a warning sign first. They also said organisers should have applied for a temporary events licence.

Residents said they were not aware that the practice had been made illegal in 1735 and villager David Crowley said they had never needed a licence before.

"I've been involved for the last 290 years, as long as I've lived in the village, so it has been a longstanding event," he said.

"I'm sure the council have been aware it happens every year, so we feel it would have been better had they approached one of us, rather than take her away."

The woman was later arrested on suspicion of phone hacking.

Fun Online Polls: M5 pile up and crisps

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were pretty conclusive:

What do you think caused the poor visibility that led to the M5 pile up?

Fog - 61%
Smoke - 8%
Other, please specify - 30%

I'm glad to see that most of you share my cynical view that they only tried to blame it on the fireworks because of this knee-jerk reaction that Somebody Is To Blame and Something Must Be Done. And if that involves Banning Something Which Is Pointless But Fun, then so much the better, of course. The most interesting comment was this one, which I shall have to take at face value:

Ryan: I know somebody who was in the accident. It was caused when a small car pulled out of the slip-road between two lorries. One of these lorries put on its brakes hard causing it to jack-knife and everyone else piled into it. Nothing to do with fireworks (ended ages before apparently).

Which suggests that the accident wasn't even caused by poor visibility in the first place, a thought which hadn't even occurred to my cynical mind. Although it seems beyond dispute that visibility was bad at the time (having ruled out fireworks, we are left with fog), which may have made the crash worse than otherwise.
--------------------------------
My recent post on crisps attracted a (to me) staggering twenty-five comments, people were naming crisp brands which I had long forgotten (or never heard of). I didn't realise that so many other people had such strong views on the topic. So that's this week's Fun Online Poll: "Which is your favourite brand of crisps?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.
--------------------------------
Next week: "What's your favourite type of nuclear reactor?" Suggestions as to the best way of classifying the basic types welcome.

Fun Online Polls: OccupyLSX and that M5 pile up

On a high turnout (thanks to everybody who took part), the result in last week's Fun Online Poll was:

Should the St Paul's protesters be evicted?

Yes - 60%
No - 33%
Other, please specify - 6%

So that's pretty conclusive and I'm firmly in the minority on that one as well.
-------------------------------------
Two possible explanations have been given for the poor visibility which caused the M5 pile up on Friday, earlier eye witnesses said it looked like fog but the police seem to have decided that Somebody Must Be To Blame and think that it was smoke coming from a nearby fireworks display.

On the basis of no information whatsoever, I'd say the fog explanation seems far more likely (there was fog in the area at the time) and I've been to plenty of fireworks displays but never have I seen huge clouds of smoke billowing out from where they are launched, they just aren't built that way.

But what does everybody else think? Vote here or use the widget in the side bar.

Newham Fireworks Display

We went their (free) display, which was held in the corner of Wanstead Flats near Jubilee Pond.

It started a quarter of an hour late and the 'exclusion zone' seemed to be much larger than simple safety concerns seemed to warrant, but once it got going it was absolutely awesome, a good twenty minutes of all manner of flashes and bangs.

Warmly recommended if you're in the area this time next year.

Remember, remember the fifth of November... A bucket of water. And eye protection and gloves.

See two-thirds of the way down the left hand page of this leaflet, published by BIS and presumably sponsored by The Honourable Guild Of Fireworks Manufacturers & Retailers (click to enlarge):

Obligatory Valentine's Day rant

[As I have nothing new to say on the topic, I shall merely republish my post of exactly a year ago]

When I were a lad, the point of Valentine's Day cards was that if you really fancied somebody but were too shy to say it, you sent them a Valentine's Day card ('VD' card, for short?) but you weren't supposed to sign it, which is pretty pointless when you think about it.

Somehow, the whole 'tradition' has now been completely subverted and it's just another reason/excuse for buying champagne, chocolate, a greeting card and some flowers for your existing partner. Can anybody pin down when this happened? It must have been over the last twenty years or so.

Other important dates in history that I'd like to pin down...

1. When did we adopt the European tradition of having fireworks on New Year's Eve? That must have been in the late 1980s sometime.

2. When did rappers stop wearing baseball hats back to front and start wearing them the right way round? Some time in the 1990s, I'd guess.

3. When did people stop putting their qualifications on their business cards? I think I can pin that one down to 2001 or thereabouts.

"Fireworks safety"

There was a public service announcement on BBC2 just now, right after The Thick Of It, saying how dangerous sparklers were, and that there were more safety tips on www.direct.gov.uk.

Enjoy.

My favourite is "Never put fireworks in your pocket or throw them". I mean, it's one or the other, isn't it? Or is it like "having your cake and eating it"?

I also liked "Light at arm's length using a taper". A f***ing 'taper'? When was the last time that anybody lit anything using a 'taper'? I'm not even sure what a 'taper' is. With what do they want us to light our 'tapers'? Another 'taper', presumably?