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Category Archives: History

The story of this site so far

Just passed the 30k mark in terms of unique visitors, since 2 November 2005 launch a few days before my 40th birthday. However, checking on the Wayback Machine I also remembered the predecessor site, m-power.org.uk, first launched in August 2000. While the domain m-power.org.uk was registered by me on 24-Feb-1998, just a few weeks before [...]

Posted 12 June 2007 † Stuart § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Game theory rules (sic)

Saw the BBC2 programme on game theory last night which was amusing to see on a number of levels. The great mathematician John Nash expounding a theory about people’s selfish when he was mentally ‘ill’; R D Laing walking around in a cravat; the BBC in sonorous tones telling us when/how/why ‘we’ were being manipulated. [...]

Posted 12 March 2007 † Stuart § Comedy § Complexity § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

The History (4) Boys

Diane caught up with Leicester radical historian Ned Newitt the other day and bemoaned the fact that I wasn’t ‘doing history’ any more. OK, that’s partly just another common mum type theme about sons not doing what their mothers want. But I confess since ‘Uni’ (1987) I haven’t entirely been quiet. After all I did [...]

Posted 03 March 2007 † Stuart § Family tales § History-Martin Luther King § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

The White Horse Pub in Dover

If you’re staying for more than a couple of hours in Dover I recommend the historic White Horse Pub in Dover. To quote another customer recommendation: “This was a nice and quite friendly pub, and has names of all the people who have swum the channel on the ceiling and wall. They gave us free [...]

Posted 01 January 2007 † Stuart § Comedy § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

In defence of Her Majesty

The Queen get’s flak from the Sunday Mirror today for daring to ask a NATO officer for his opinion on the war in Afghanistan. Reportedly Her Majesty asked Lithuanian Captain Arnold Raizys: “Is it a restoration or a war in Afghanistan?” Political editor Vincent Moss described this question as “confused”. Of course in its editorial [...]

Posted 22 October 2006 † Stuart § Comedy § Main Page § US Elections 2008-9/11 ‡ Comments (0) °

Forgotten?

I was going to blog something today but I forgot - then remembered mid-way through writing - the coincidence that I’m working for a guy who comes from Gandhi’s home town in India. Dr Martin Luther King would have appreciated that one as a student of Gandhi. Personally, anyone who can turf out the Brits [...]

Posted 18 October 2006 † Stuart § Coincidences § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Why History Matters

The first question on the National Trust blog day form, is ‘Why History Matters To You’? Kind of a difficult question, which I like. So let me try an answer that in my own style.
Firstly, history gives a sense that whatever people are going nuts about now is probably something people have gone nuts [...]

Posted 17 October 2006 † Stuart § Barking § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Ten to two

Have you ever noticed how many watch and clock adverts set the time to ten to two? Look, this is really a joke to me. Why? I once covered the anniversary of England’s last rural riots in a village called Roydon in 1893 (even wrote it up for History Today magazine, so there). And the [...]

Posted 06 October 2006 † Stuart § Comedy § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

The abridged history of Barking

I went on a cycle round round historic Barking on Wednesday to discover that Elizabeth Fry the prison reformer is burried next to the Sikh Temple (the Quakers sold it to the Sikh’s in 1971); and came across the pilgramage holy rood stone in the surviving curfew tower from Barking Abbey..

Posted 23 June 2006 † Stuart § Barking § Comedy § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Who was Santos Dumont?

Brazilian astronaut Col Pontes returned to earth on Saturday to an overly predictable hero

Posted 10 April 2006 † Stuart § Brazil § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °