The Summer Holidays

Washminster has "broken up" for the summer holidays. It will return in early October.

In the meantime it remains a useable resource for Law and Politics students, and everyone wanting to find out more about the working of the US Congress; British Parliament and political and legal history and practice in the US, UK, EU and France. Please use  -

(1) The search engine on the right of the blog "Search This Blog" - use any word that is of interest to you - for example "parliamentary sovereignty"; "separation of powers"; "Washington DC"; "European Parliament"...

(2) The Blog Archive - All previous posts can be accessed via the archive which is structured by year; month; day. Revision posts can be found mainly (but not exclusively) in the months August to October. You can build a useful search strategy by using a combination of (1); (2) & (3)

(3) Most posts have a list of labels - click on any of these to see all entries sharing that label.

Have a good summer - and I look forward to returning to full service in October. Do visit the site occasionally for any updates.

Best wishes

David

A brilliant educational video -

It's from the "Horrible Histories", another excellent programme from the BBC.

Alan Turing

This Saturday will be the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing. His significance (for Mathematics; Computing and the winning of World War II) is great - and has been internationally recognised in recent years. (President Obama has often mentioned him).
...and most days he cycled through Furzton (where I now live) on his way to Bletchley Park. Between 4 September 1939 and the summer of 1944, he lodged at The Crown Inn, at Shenley Brook End (It is now a private home). Ronald Lewin has written

"in the first week of June each year he would get a bad attack of hay fever, and he would cycle to the office wearing a service gas mask to keep the pollen off. His bicycle had a fault: the chain would come off at regular intervals. Instead of having it mended he would count the number of times the pedals went round and would get off the bicycle in time to adjust the chain by hand." He is also reputed to have "occasionally ran the 40 miles to London when he was needed for high-level meetings" (he was a talented long distance runner - he also qualified for the 1948 Olympics!).

The most intriguing story is of his silver bars. "In 1940 he buried some silver bars near Shenley. In 1944, 1946 and 1952 he tried to find them and failed. No-one knows what happened to his buried treasure!" As the Shenley Road runs through Furzton - it might be that the silver bars still lie within Furzton! Perhaps another reason why (when the ground has stopped being waterlogged) I should be digging in my back garden.

(for an earlier post - and video on Bletchley Park go to http://washminster.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/special-relationship.html)

The Men Who Made Us Fat

Last week I watched on BBC iPlayer a programme broadcast last night called "The Men Who Made Us Fat". I don't watch much TV these days (essentially 'The Big Bang Theory' and little else), but this is a programme which should be watched widely.



It's a series, which runs on BBC2 on Thursday, made by journalist Jacques Peretti, which goes out at 9pm (though is available on BBC iPlayer for a further 3 weeks). It's an interesting and disturbing story of the actions of Food companies; Lobbying Organisations; Politicians and Scientists. If you are interested in public health issues (as well as your own health and well being), you'll find the programme interesting and challenging. The whole programme is available at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01jxzv8/

My apologies if you are watching this outside the UK. BBC iPlayer can only be viewed from within the UK. I don't know if the BBC plans to air this series on BBC America or BBC World

There is an informative link at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18393391

What I'll be watching today....