Were 20 armoured cars really necessary?

At the start of July, not too long after the British election which ended in a draw, ex-convict Raoul Moat went on the run after shooting his girlfriend, her new partner and later a police officer. An enormous police operation swung into action, with armed police brandishing automatic weapons all over the place. The public were in terrible danger from this half-baked commando, and so on.

Rumours of roid-rage abound

The pathetic tale of Raoul Moat came to an end in the little village of Rothbury, where he holed up and eventually shot himself by a river, after a stand-off with police.

Former English football star, and noted oddball, Paul Gascoigne, better known as Gazza, turned up in Rothbury in the middle of the siege, clutching a fishing rod and dressing gown. In a phone interview, he claimed to  have known "Moaty" in the old days, as a bouncer. Gazza brought Moat "a can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep warm".

"a can of lager, some chicken"

Here are some more quotes from the interview:

"He is willing to give in now. I just want to give him some therapy and say. 'Come on Moaty, it's Gazza'."

"I heard he was by the river, and I brought my fishing rod too so we can fish together and have a chat. I want to talk to him because I think I'm the only man to help him."

"The police wouldn't let me through because they were frightened he might shoot me, but I know he won't. I have just been in a car crash, hit a wall at 90mph. I survived that, so I can survive a bullet - knowing my luck he will probably miss."

When Gascoigne's long-suffering agent heard about this latest escapade,  he remarked:

"He's doing what? I am sitting having an evening meal in Majorca. I'm speechless."

Yet another bizarre story surrounding Raoul Moat, and the mother who brought her children to his funeral, claiming it was "better than Legoland".


Update: Thanks to Robin, here's the full interview:

In the first hostel I stayed in, I met a very nice South Korean guy visiting from Italy, Kim Hee Won. We chatted for a while, and then went our separate ways. I ran into him again later at the market on the waterfront, where I bought peas and blueberries.

Together we got the ferry out to Suomenlinna, one of the many small islands in the bay of Helsinki. Once a sea fortress protecting the city from invaders, it is now popular with day-trippers and artists, who live and keep studios in the buildings which were once barracks.

Kim Hee taught me how to use my camera much more carefully, and I am very grateful for his help. Here are some nice photos from the island.

Click to enlarge.

Outside the city,
The scientist thought was safe
Lies now, falling leaves.

This is a remix, of sorts, of It's Grim Up North by The JAMMs. The making of this song was almost an accident, but I think it worked out well. The JAMMs is one of the many pseudonyms for the group known mainly as The KLF, still one of my favourites, after all these years.

By clicking on the thumbnails, you can see the full album art. The art is also embedded in the MP3s.
Press the little play icon listen to a song. If you like what you hear, download the whole release in a .zip file below.

Songs:

1. It's Grim On The Docks

Download release as a .zip

Back Cover:

Cottage Computer Programming

Paul Lutus (above) has sailed solo around the world, in a 30-foot yacht, worked for NASA, designing electronics for the Space Shuttle and modelling the solar system for the Viking Mars mission and written one of the most popular word processors ever, Apple Writer.

The story of the writing of the initial version of Apple Writer is the subject of his article above, how he dropped out of college, and out of NASA, and moved into a cabin in the forest (see below). He tells us how he began developing software in almost total isolation. It is inspiring, one man's private exploration of the inner space of the microcomputer.

I was particularly struck by the third section, disputing the death of the individual programmer, who seems to have been dying since about 1965. One man can still write a program. If I wanted to, I could still write an entire operating system from the metal up. This might not be the best use of my time, by normal measures, but as Lutus says, it doesn't matter.

Programming need not just be a mechanical means to an end. It can be an almost philosophical exercise, creating something from tiny bricks of pure logic. Like the carpenter or mason, a programmer chips away at the program until only the desired form remains, sometimes surprising even its own creator.

I don't want to build atop the tottering hierarchies of libraries and objects and APIs, conforming and compromising my way to mediocrity.

I want to write my own tiny operating system, for a small computer, with a minimal programming language of my own devising, and I want to live in the mountains. Just for a while.

Beyond the tail-end of summer, we drove up to Lough Bray in the Wicklow mountains for a swim in the ice-cold water. The weather was just perfect, sitting on the rocks, swinging our feet in the water.

David played his mandolin, Ciarán his guitar. Kevin refused resolutely to get his head wet. Laura and I swam out to the other corner of the lake.

A blind dog felt his way across the boulders. The sun went down behind the mountain and we put our shoes back on.

Russian mapping of the town of Carlow

From the same institution which brought us the sublime book by Daniele Ganser, Secret Warfare : Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies, a fascinating article by retired Irish Army colonel, Desmond Travers:

Soviet Military Mapping of Ireland during the Cold War

It was an open secret among analysts during the Cold War that the two major powers used satellite and high altitude surveys to assess each others aims, intentions and resources. Indeed it was US satellite surveillance which first noted the disparities between the USSR's claimed crop yields and the reality, as Khrushchev once bitterly observed to his US adversary!

Colonel Travers carefully compares the Soviet maps with those of the Ordnance Survey, noting how the Soviets included some objects that the OS did not, but neglected others. They seem to have been oddly attracted to water-mills! More chillingly, it looks like they may have been categorising Irish roads based on how militarily viable they were, for logistical support.

I encourage you to read this article, and gain another viewpoint on our rolling terrain. Imagine plotting tank-routes and support artillery...

This album was created entirely using samples of my voice, or other speech sounds. Each track represents a vision of paradise, heaven or the after-life, as seen by different cultures through time.

By clicking on the thumbnails, you can see the full album art. The art is also embedded in the MP3s.
Press the little play icon listen to a song. If you like what you hear, download the whole release in a .zip file below.

Songs:

1. Avalon
2. Jannah
3. Tír na nÓg
4. Gan Eden
5. Shangri-La
6. Aaru
7. Mag Mell
8. Valhalla

Download release as a .zip

Back Cover:

My cinnamon rolls reclining in glory, delicious with coffee or vanilla custard

By popular demand, I am putting up the rather gisted recipe I used for baking these lovely little sweet breads.

The dough

• 250 ml warmed milk
• 1 tsp yeast
• 150 g white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 100 g butter diced and softened
• 800 g strong flour

Mix the above in a bowl, adding a little more flour if the consistency is not right. It shouldn't be sticky, but not dry either. Knead the dough for ten minutes  and then put it back into a greased bowl to let it rise until it has doubled, under clingfilm.

Take the dough out, punch it down and then roll it out flat. You want a big rectangle, longer than it is wide, less than half a centimetre thick.

The filling

• 20 g butter (softened)
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Spread the butter evenly and thinly on the dough, then sprinkle on the brown sugar and cinnamon (preferably mixed). The quantities are to-taste, but you don't want to overpower the flavour of the dough itself.

Now roll the dough up, long side first. Roll it as tight as you can. Pinch it together a bit at the top, and now it's time to cut. Cut alternating diagonals so that you get triangles. Don't make them too big. Squeeze them down a bit from the top, and then lay them out on a tray, sitting on baking parchment. Leave them to sit for about two hours, under cling-film or plastic bag, giving them time to double in size again. I put them beside the fire, which helped them along.

The coating

• 1 egg
• pearl sugar

Give each one a good coating of egg-wash, and then sprinkle pearl sugar on top. Pearl sugar is that expensive-looking white sugar like hailstones which you get on brioche and challah and Swedish patisserie. I didn't have any, so I made some by sprinkling water onto a plate of caster sugar, and then let it dry by the fire.

Put them in an oven pre-heated to 225°C for 10 to 12 minutes (until they are golden-brown). Take them out and set on a cool rack with paper towel on top.

Enjoy hot or cold with coffee, vanilla cream from IKEA or even tea.