Quo vadit?

So where should the Staffordshire Saxon treasure end up? At present it is on temporary view at Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery - simply because they have the facilities. But the treasure dates back to the time of Mercia, well before Birmingham even existed. The administrative capital of Mercia was Tamworth, and the spiritual capital Lichfield, so these two places have a good claim. Of course, at the end of the day, money is going to play a great part in any decision. The finder and landowner are going to have to be paid their rewards - which will almost certainly run into 7 figures - and then it's likely that a purpose-built building will be needed to house the collection and there will be the ongoing question of security. So to be landed with it may prove as much of a curse as a blessing!

Postal strike II.

Two years on and here we are again (see post dated 23/6/07). I cannot understand the postal workers. The business is failing and its only hope of survival is to at the very least retain the customers it has, and how they think going on strike helps towards that end is beyond me. Apparently Amazon are already looking to take their business elsewhere, and I'm sure others will follow. It's like watching a scorpion stinging itself to death.

Everybody off - Cuckooland Central.

I love conspiracy theories, don't you? Here's a good one - the claim is that apparently back around the year 700 AD, the Holy Roman Emperor was one Otto III. He wished to have a special place in history, and decided that whoever was Emperor in the year 1000 would be remembered simply because of that fact. So the theory goes he approached the Pope of the day - Sylvester II - and somehow persuaded him to add 300 years to the date. This wouldn't in fact have been that difficult, because back then very few people knew what the year was anyway. Our history books certainly tell us that Otto III was Emperor at the time of the first millennium - but was he really? The conspiracy theorists further tell us that this explains why we know so little about the so-called Dark Ages - because they didn't in fact exist - they were these missing years! Of course if this is true, that means that this isn't the year 2009 at all, but 1712! Don't you just love it??

Hold the 'phone...

Time was when telephones were used for making telephone calls. They were big chunky things with a rotating dial and attached to the wall by a thick, ropey cord. And so it was for decades - for most of my life in fact. About the only thing that changed was that push buttons took over from rotating dials. And then along came the mobile 'phone - which initially was not that mobile, being about the size and weight of a house brick, so not the sort of thing you wanted to lug about any more than was necessary. But technology was now starting to advance at an incredible rate, and within less than a decade mobiles had shrunk to the kind of size we are used to today. So then came the next question - what else can we use them for? Text messaging was one of the first things, followed by simple games and integrated digital cameras. And today...? What can't you do with them? Me - I'm the old-fashioned sort who just wants to be able to make 'phone calls and send text messages, but my grandchildren do the most amazing things, and it seems they need a new 'phone every year or so just to keep up with the latest developments. Life used to be so much simpler.

Small screen, jerky picture?

There used to be this idea of the "Crown Jewels" - events which were considered to be of such wide national interest that they had to be available on free-to-air television. As far as sport was concerned, this used to include all major sports where an England team was involved. How things have changed. Test matches are now shown exclusively on pay TV, and many football matches involving England have gone the same way. But if you want to watch England's match against Ukraine on Saturday, even if you're prepared to pay, a TV won't do, because it's not being screened on TV at all, but only streamed to computers. So if you haven't got a fast computer - tough! Bring back the Crown Jewels, says I.

Ask the people?

What's your take on referendums (referenda?). On the one hand you could say that it's the nearest we can get to pure democracy - everybody has the chance to have their say - but on the other you can say that we elect a government to take decisions for us and that when for whatever reason it doesn't fancy doing this, throwing matters back at us by way of referendum is an abrogation of its duty. It always strikes me as a rather cowardly sort of "covering our backs" exercise.

Ping...

Referring back to my post of 29/9/09 it's not surprising that sales of metal detectors have soared around here recently. This has brought some criticism from archaeologists and museums who see those using these instruments as little short of vandals plundering the area's historical heritage. A bit harsh, I feel. It's not as though they are in competition with archaeological digs. Nobody had any idea that the Staffordshire treasure trove was there, and if it hadn't been happened upon by a metal detectorist (is there such a word?) it would have remained undiscovered. It is probably better if these sites are carefully excavated by experts where possible, but first they have to be found, and that's where the dedicated amateur with his metal detector comes in.

Ha ha

Saw this one in a magazine in my dentist's waiting room the other day -

For a laugh, a bloke goes into a fortune teller's tent at a fair. "Ah," says the fortune teller, gazing into her crystal ball, "I see you have two children". "So that's what you think?" says the man "actually I'm the father of three." "So that's what you think?" says the fortune teller.

Plus ça change...

So now we've got a Supreme Court - why?? What was wrong with the old Judicial Committee of the House of Lords which has been doing a good job for centuries? I've not seen any cogent reasons put forward for the change, which has all the indications of being yet another example of style over substance.

So...?

Here we have Sarah Brown wheeled out at the Labour Party Conference to tell us what a lovely man and great husband her Gordon is. Am I alone is thinking that this completely misses the point?