Thursday, January 30, 2003

BBC News: Woman accused of killing infant sons freed. A Cheshire solicitor says the "nightmare is over" after her conviction for the murder of her two baby boys is found to be unsafe. The latest evidence that the British justice system is seriously flawed. The prosecution failed to provide the jury with blood test results that proved one infant had a life threatening viral infection in his brain. They also told the jury that the chance of two babies in the same family dying of cot death was 72 million to one, when in fact it has been shown to be about 100 to 1. Let's hope the prosecuting lawyers and the doctors who gave the "expert" evidence do hard time. 12:54:26 AM

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Hurrah! Dave Barry now has a weblog! 11:46:26 PM

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Every Sunday evening for the past month or so, I've been using Apple's iTunes and another piece of software called StreamripperX to record the live broadcast of Harry' Shearer's wonderful Le Show on KCRW in Santa Monica. Then I transfer it to my MP3 player and listen to it the next morning on the train to London. There's something surreal about listening to Shearer talk about his ornamental plum trees being blown over by Santa Ana winds while sitting on a train passing through scenic Purley. 11:51:58 PM

Sunday, January 12, 2003

Cyber Sleuth Chris Gulker has solved the mystery that has been plaguing gulker.com and ridey.net. Apparently, it wasn't so much trouble "west of Denver" as trouble somewhere around Vladivostock! 4:41:42 PM

We took advantage of the sunshine and the frozen ground (it was still minus 7C at 8am) to walk along the River Mole near Betchworth. The fields and trees were covered in frost and we were even lucky enough to see three deer bounding across the fields. There is a line of abandoned pillboxes in the area that had us mystified until we discovered the Defence of Britain Project. It turns out that they were built to defend against a Nazi invasion during the Second World War. This pillbox below is even listed in their database. Further proof that you're never very far away from history in England. 3:20:17 PM

Friday, January 10, 2003

While we were offline, London had it's first significant snowfall in 12 years! Here's a few photos from BBC Online that show how a few inches of snow can even make dirty old London look nice! We also had about an inch or so here in Reigate. Not enough for Charlie to build a snowman, sadly. And now it's all gone ... 12:38:21 PM

"I thought the cow was going to jump through the window!" A moo-ving account of the big news story of the week in Charleston, Illinois! 12:25:54 PM

We're back! After over a week being off the Net owing to technical problems somewhere west of Denver. 1:24:25 AM

Thursday, January 2, 2003

How many three-year-olds know what a triceratops is, let alone are able to pronounce it? Charlie's declaring 2003 the Year of the Dinosaurs! 12:45:24 AM

Wednesday, January 1, 2003

UK floods 'could get worse'. Heavy rain sweeps across the UK bringing widespread flooding and even causes a landslide which derails a train. The train derailed just outside our nearest mainline station. I was on a train that nearly derailed in similar circumstances last year. Not sure if getting to London will be possible for a while... 3:42:06 PM

A now a cheerful New Year's greeting from the Prime Minister. Britain faces some of its most "difficult and dangerous" problems of recent times, Tony Blair warns in his New Year message. 3:38:15 PM

Happy New Year! From all of us to all of you ... 3:37:23 PM