Saint Valentine.
Patron saint of engaged couples, bee keepers, plague and travellers.
Martyred by the Romans around 270, and buried north of Rome.
Nothing else is known. He was possibly even two different people martyred seventy years apart.
According to 13th century legend, he refused to deny Christ before the Roman Emperor and had his head cut off.
So, the romantic bit of this is?
(Thanks Wikipedia).
(I like the idea – but really, why Valentine?)
One of my christmas presents this year was this a papercraft penguin. This weekend just past I found the couple of hours to make the thing, and here it is, looming from the bookshelf in my home office.
Some more pictures after the cut. This thing is huge: 53cm tall.
Via Washington Monthly is this unbelievably strange story in the Guardian:
Britain and France talked about a “union” in the 1950s, even discussing the possibility of the Queen becoming the French head of state, it was reported today.
[...]
When Mr Mollet’s request for a union failed, he quickly responded with another plan – that France be allowed to join the British commonwealth – which was said to have been met more warmly by Sir Anthony.
What the hell? Strangest thing I’ve seen in months.
One of the world’s biggest manufacturers of condoms is targeting New Zealand to test its new range of products because the people there are apparently among the most sexually active in the world. [...] Past surveys suggest Kiwis are among the most sexually active in the world, among the highest in the world for sexual partners and one-night stands, as well as being relatively more adventurous when it to comes to experimenting in the bedroom.
As people who’ve heard me complain know, I often refer to the enormous four wheel drive vehicles cluttering our roads as ‘Land Yachts’, to reflect the pointless ostentation they represent. But a bit more common is referring to them as a tank. So do they actually compare?
| Â | Audi Q7 | Panzer I | Panther |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length: | 5.085m | 4.02m | 6.87m |
| Width: | 1.983m | 2.06m | 3.42m |
| Height: | 1.737m | 1.72m | 2.99m |
| ‘Box’(a): | 17.5m3 | 14.2m3 | 42.33 |
| Weight: | 2 tonnes | 6 tonnes | 44.8 tonnes |
(a): Length x Width x Height
So: yes, some 4WD’s are as big as a tank. Not quite the same in weight, though. And a fairly small tank…
There are some very strange things in the world, but these Cold War Unicorns take the cake.
That said, I’m strangely tempted by this:
