Flickrdump

Parking spaces can be hard to find in the New Town

Picture from The Scotsman.

"Today there was more than the usual excitement on North Castle Street.

Short version of story is that Car thief/ Joyrider steals car...drives up North Castle Street being hotly pursued by the polis...hangs a left into Thistle Street at speed and loses control...car ends up in the basement area of the building on the corner...My office is just about directly opposite this and I got some photos..."

Check out this Flickr set from graemeandsandra of the fun.

Headlines: proof that smoking wrecks lives

• A tale of woe from Tollcross, as those dastardly smokers force a man to fire his own mother. How do they sleep at night? The nicotine probably helps.


• The Romanov empire continues to expand - soon it'll eclipse the sun with its massed ranks of Lithuanian youngsters and ineffectual Brazilians.

United States of England: Then clearly there's no fire

United States of England: because you know you can go further north than Newcastle, right?

It's been, ooh, what - a year? - since Scotland's smoking ban came into effect. Of course, seeing as the English will be joining the party on July 1st, they're getting all interested. Hope they bring some decent wine this time.

Anyway, the article makes a couple of points that stood out at Dirty Old HQ:

Perhaps more than any other city in the UK, Edinburgh's identity is closely bound up with its dark, gloomy drinking dens - a fug of smoke always having hung inside them alongside the smell of hops and a murmur of Caledonian accents.

The presence of the word "fug" here leads us to suspect that the BBC won't employ a copy editor below the age of 74.

Next up, a quote from our stalwart enforcement officer regarding a friend...

"She worked as a barmaid in working men's clubs from the age of 20," he grimaces. "Never touched a cigarette in her life, but the doctors said they'd never seen a worse set of lungs.

"She was left with two stumps where her legs should have been. I don't have any trouble getting up in the morning when I think of her."

Just make sure that righteous anger ain't pointed at us. More towards to those bastardish, alleged limb-thieving tabacco companies, please.

Weekend Roundup: leading exports - odour, fire engines

Cherry blossoms in the Meadows.

• Why does Norway smell? Oh, it's our fault...


• Only four months late, three lucky Serbian kids get their ideal Christmas present!


• Edinburgh University students still protesting Robert Mugabe's honorary degree; despot still sleeping untroubled.


• Staying with EUSA, the poor students of Edinburgh are going to have do with one less bar, at least for six days of the week.

Edinburgh University: failing to trouble despotic slumber

Seemingly Edinburgh University's decision to review the honourary degree it awarded to Zimbabwean presidespot Robert Mugabe hasn't triggered a rethink from Harare.

Mr Mugabe, 83, will not "lose sleep" over the threats, said George Charamba, his spokesman.
[...]
"It is not like the president suffers a crisis of achievement. He has seven solid degrees, which are more than enough to earn him a living and recognition."

I'm not so sure. I mean, I'd certainly start reconsidering all that land 'reclamation' and electoral fraud if it meant losing the letters after my name. Particularly the ones that spell "tyrant".

Headlines: rights? You ain't got no rights...

• An Edinburgh barman discovers that his First Amendment Rights don't cover threatening to stab customers in the face. Also, we don't have a First Amendment.


• Efforts are underway to attract Arnold Schwarzenegger to Dunbar in September. Kidnapping may work.


• We knew there had to be a reason to keep the Tattoo going - turns out there are 86 million of them.


• We're pretty sure that there's not a lot more to be said about the weekend's sewage uberleak, but A Scandal & A Disgrace's post is worth checking out, if only for Google's targeted ads - Sewage Water / Sewage Plant...


• Tonight: CSS at the Liquid Room; Fujiya & Miyagi, Errors at The Bongo Club (part of Triptych 07).