At the risk of contributing to the explosion in growth of a new UK counter-cultural phenomenon, I give you The Get Out Clause. The band have allegedly produced their new video by performing in front of a number of CCTV cameras and then using the Freedom of Information Act to get the footage. Voila, instant Indie stardom for the guys. 20 years ago, I’d have rushed out and bought the album on the back of that. Now I’ll be content to run the sweepstake on the first MP to sign an EDM condemning them.

If the story is true, that they did get the footage using FOI (and I have no idea if you can), then I suspect a number of 1970’s built municipal car parks are going to be famous for fifteen minutes this year.

Right here, in West Bromwich, we have the genesis of a mass movement. (need to be on facebook).

My former colleague, Charles Foster, has published an excellent book on the story of his uncle, Sqn Ldr David Maltby and his crew. They flew the fifth Lancaster that dropped a bomb on the Mohne Dam, and the one that caused the final breach. Breaking the dams is available in all good book shops now.

This month is the 65th anniversary of the dambusters. The dambusters blog has also been set up by Charles as has breaking the dams, a site he has set up to explain what the book is about. There are also a number of other dambusters related sites that you might find of interest.

A sample of views in the Watson garden yesterday. It still looks like the tropical rain forest but we’re getting to grips with it at last.

The photo of the big patch of dirt is the newest asparagus patch in Wednesbuy. It’ll take two years for it to deliver industrial quantities of the luxury “sparrow grass” but it’s worth the wait.

The bird feeder is a sop to our conscience. We took out an overgrown border in the Autumn and prohibited a dozen tits from safely avoiding the neighbourhood cats. This particular feeder is planted high on a branch in a holly tree.

The yellow diggers belong to junior watson. They’ve been causing havoc in the name of progress all Spring.

An excellent insert in Vanity Fair from the Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke.
“Increasingly opposed to the Vietnam War, Robert F. Kennedy struggled over whether he should challenge his party’s incumbent president, Lyndon Johnson, in 1968. His younger brother, Teddy, was against it. His wife, Ethel, urged him on. Many feared he would be assassinated, like the older brother he mourned.”

This is an absolutely remarkable assessment of John Hemming by the Appeal Court judge in this case:

Mr. Hemming’s response on RP’s behalf is that this cannot be so because the file has been interfered with. I have, of course, considered that response with care. It is a profoundly serious allegation. However, it is one for which, in my judgment, there is absolutely no evidence. The only query is the mistaken date on the typed attendance note. I find it not only unacceptable but shocking, that a man in Mr Hemming’s position should feel able to make so serious an allegation without any evidence to support it. In my judgment, it is irresponsible and an abuse of his position. Unfortunately, as other aspects of this judgment will make clear, it is not the only part of the case in which Mr Hemming has been willing to scatter unfounded allegations of professional impropriety and malpractice without any evidence to support them. Hat tip The Stirrer.

We’ve been waiting for an important delivery from City Link. They’re not very good. My neighbour just delivered the ’sorry you were out’ card they had posted to a house in a different street. So I rang up the 0870 number on the back of the card and got put through to an automated voice system. I input the consignment number when asked. Computer said no. I repeated the process. Computer said no again then gave me a number to the City Link local depot. I rang it but by this time the office had closed (at noon). I pressed the button to leave a message at the local depot but the voice mailbox was full.We get deliveries every day to our house. Whenever there is a problem, it’s nearly always a City Link delivery. I wonder if anyone else has problems with this company.

Poor old Kerron Cross. He was playing for the honour of the nation and ended up having an operation under general anaesthetic. Get well soon Kerron.
And while I’m on the subject of rough old games, a number of people have asked why I haven’t a; mentioned the local election results and b;started up the usual banter about the by-election. This is for two reasons. Firstly, I can’t add anything that hasn’t already been said about the results and, more importantly, I’m at home waiting for Mrs W. to go into labour.

I’ve faithfully promised not to get into online bother until junior number two turns up. Veteran bloggers familiar with these domestic pressures will know how hard it is to resist the temptation sometimes!

Tom Waits is “pretty profound” at his press conference. PEDHDTSCKJMBA, say it with me.

I absolutely love this beauty.

This plant only flowers for a couple of weeks a year but when it does it brightens the soul.

Three things I could really do with answers too before the action begins:

1. I have to paint a large cardboard rocket, silver. I’ll be collaborating with a three year old on this. What is the best type of paint to use that isn’t toxic or impossible to remove from clothes/skin/wallpaper?
2. What is the best way to plant out asparagus crowns and how much light do they require?

3. I’ve lost the connector between iPod and iMac. I need to transfer the music on the iMac to a Macbook Pro. Where do I begin?

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for. One morning, she realised she was having a massive stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory then self-awareness. Jill has a rare insight into her field of profession.

I’m struck by a line she used towards the end of her TED talk:  Is is time to “purposefully choose to step to the right of [our] left hemispheres”. Is there something for my party in this do you think?

If you’ve missed out on the last six months then this pithy little vid is worth watching - Democratic primaries in seven minutes.

The iMac is ten years old today. “Three steps to the Internet” was the catchphrase if I remember. Who would have thought it.