BARDINESS

Bardy: Hibernian-Caledonian colloquialism meaning bold; audacious; defiant

"Originally a North Briton, nowadays I keep one foot in London and one in Laguna, Philippines. That's quite a stretch - 6,716 miles to be precise." 

Foursquare - beware!

 

I was invited to join foursquare and get an app for my smartphone. What is it?

Well here's the deal. You'll be walking around in a strange place, feeling hungry, looking for a restaurant, or looking for a drink, or a cinema, or directions, and instead of asking a passer-by for directions, you hit the foursquare button and an army of perfect strangers will appear out of the ether to give you advice.

Failing that, your "real" circle of friends are going to meet up with you assuming there’s any in your locality.

If not, fear not, because the “perfect strangers” are going to meet up with you, with whom you're expected to welcome with open arms, and talk to as if they are your long lost tribe, sharing anecdotes and discovering each other’s interests.

The (dis)United Nations....

 

What, one may well wonder, is the United Nations for when two of its permanent members can veto the overriding will of the majority thereby making the organization effectively impotent?

It comes as no surprise that the two in question are none other than Russia and China. Nor is it a surprise that China is keen to rub noses with their Russian neighbours with whom they look forward to strengthening relations, and between them they may hope to be able to contain and influence a wayward and volatile North Korea.

Yet Russia as usual still thinks there is a cold war going on, and as a country which has historically held close ties with Syria, they are keen not to upset the status quo.

February 3rd - a Bardiness day.....

 

February 3rd is not a date noted for major events in history, although the Dutch may disagree.

Windmills were forbidden for export by them in 1752, and they lost their Caribbean island of St Eustatia to the British in 1781.

Of course there were many great achievements by Holland, but I'm talking about events specific to February 3rd, and besides, I needed an excuse to show my favourite photograph of Amsterdam (right).

Another Argy Bargy.....?

 

The Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has recently described Britain as a "crass colonial power in decline" because they are refusing to hold talks over the future of the Falkland Islands.

This appears to have rattled a sabre with the UK's Ministry of Defence, and they have decided to send HMS Dauntless down into the South Atlantic in what seems to be a statement of intent - that intent being that the Falklands are not open to negotiation, that they have been a British protectorate since 1833, and that is how they will remain.

Putting aside the economic reasons for holding onto the islands - British oil companies are drilling for oil in the region, for example - the small population of the Falklands are British and wish to remain so.

Zujava....(or the A-Z of Squidoo)

 

 

I'm writing about Zujava because it conveniently puts my "catagory" list with a range from A - Z.

Prior to that I had to settle for Wizzley as my last word.

Coincidentally both of them are online writing sites, both of them appear to have spun off from Squidoo lensmasters, and both of them seem to have the same people contributing. 

Farcebook....

There was a Trojan Horse at the gate and it wasn't from the Greeks - at least I think not. But I can understand why these insidious viruses are called as such. They hide behind apparent innocuous posts on facebook and other social networking sites, embedded in the link like a parasitical worm.

Not content with causing mayhem, infecting the computer attaching itself like a bloodsucking leech, but it grows and multiplies like bacteria. Indeed the word "trojan" is far too good for it and as we all know it is the synonym of"malware". Some of these can be harmless, others can be extremely destructive, but the fact is that someone somewhere is designing these dastardly bugs and whilst they are at least contained to the IT world, one can only hope there aren't any mad scientists around who can replicate them in the medical one. Otherwise we are potentially doomed.

Not unless we can carry around a human form of antivirus software to blitz the bastards before they can send us all bonkers.