Bradford Bounces Back

Unbelievable but true, Bradford is in the news again.

This time as the home of a woman whose appeal against a legal decision in the matter of assisted suicide made history as the final judgement to be handed down by five Law Lords in the House of Lords.

On 1 October 2009 a United Kingdom Supreme Court takes over the judicial function of the House of Lords. The current Law Lords (formally the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary) will be the first justices of the new Supreme Court.

The end of another antiquated tradition? Or history in the breaking once again?

Another old face

2009 - the year of the comeback?

After the unexpected return of the seven times champion Texan to world class cycling, we now have the unexpected return of the seven times champion German to world class motor racing.

Or at least we will if his neck passes the physical.

What a treat for all those fans who've been missing that expert mix of driving talent and race tactics that could see Ferrari schedule their pit stops just at the right time to come out of the mix at the front yet again.

Unless Ross Brawn's absence means that even Schumacher can't put the prancing horse back where it belongs. Watch out for the biggest viewing figures in history on 23 August as we all tune in to find out.

Countdown 1096

We note that the 2012 London Olympics is due to open three years from today - remember the Millenium Dome? At least the olympics won't suffer from the same confusion about what we can expect to see happening, as it's pretty much of a standard package.

Today saw a trial run of the shuttle train that will ferry spectators from central London out to the olympic park. The service is expected to carry 25,000 passengers per hour, and today's seven minute Javelin trip was a successful first step.

And as the longest journey starts with a single step, we hope that's London 2012 sorted.

Same time next year:

The Tour de France is over for another summer.

For three weeks we've revelled in the daily (pace the Monday rest days) pains and pleasures of the hard men of cycling - speculated on team politics; delighted in the hard won success of our favourites; shared the disappointment when other riders fell back.

Despite our efforts with those unexpectedly strong winds, and our cloud bursting chants of 'Go Lance, go' we couldn't quite hold back the strength of the spaniard and the luxembourger - and the founder of the Livestrong charity hardly looked very thrilled with his third place finish. But Armstrong's promised to be back next year - with his own team, riding his own race.

Even though he may no longer have that razor edge he used for seven years to cut away the competition, Lance Armstrong still seems a cyclist very much worth watching.

Taking flight

Less than a week ago you were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first mortal footfall on the surface of your moon; a trip covering a quarter of a million miles and taking you three days.

This weekend, right now here in July, sees only the 100th anniversary of your first flight in a heavier than air craft over a large body of water - a flight of 22 miles, taking 37 minutes.

What spirit, what determination drives the human race that you can accomplish such a transformation of your lives in a mere sixty years.

Those were years when we watched you with awe, and wondered where you would be at the end of the next sixty years.

Alas, it seems you have turned inward and will have nothing new to celebrate tomorrow.

Nothing to click on...

We have recently seen a disappointing change in our blogger.com homepage.

Technical wizadry isn't part of our communication strategy (as you will have noticed), but one gadget we did enjoy was the stream of Updated this moment blogs scrolling through on the homepage.

Accurately aimed clicking dropped us regularly into amazingly interesting, thought provoking and beautiful blogs we would never have found any other way - but now that gateway is closed.

The Next Blog button seems the poorest of substitutes, giving no opportunity to skip along without downloading until a title of possible interest is reached, so that even with an eternity of time available to us, frustration tends to set in long before an attention catching blog is uncovered.

Is there a solution to our problem?

Ouch!

Those pesky comets.

Don't know what gets into them this time of year.

Sure is time they learned some respect for their elders & betters.

Moonshine

We've noticed the communications overload down there this past few weeks, about the upcoming anniversary of your first landing on the moon.

Back then it surely was a pretty amazing achievement for you - with your technology at such a primitive stage. But what's happened since?

You've built yourselves an orbiting garden shed and take turns living in it, like teenagers on a bush-tucker weekend. And we see you've just added some kind of porch to the construction - impressed we're not.

By now we had you down for regular flights to the red planet - with at least a prototype base for hydroponics and mineral extraction. How wrong could we be?

Maybe the hawks among us had it right that you needed the pressure from the Soviet Union to maintain your drive to succeed in space.

Instead, your rocket scientists set themselves challenges in the world of finance, developing fiscal structures so complex no-one could handle them - and this time it was the economy that crashed and burned.

We wonder if we can help you back on track sometime tomorrow.

Food of the Gods

Through many centuries your poets have recorded praise in celebration of the life-enhancing foodstuff of the gods, while readers mourned that they could never share such bliss.

But now in Switzerland our secret is unmasked - the food we cherish open now to all:

... a low-cal, high-melt chocolate fountain.

Which of us could ever want for more?

6-2 & 2-10

We're having a tough time up here these days with a critical shortage of cherubim and seraphim.

Some are on their annual break, some are looking rather sorry for themselves with various decidedly un-angelic ailments, and others are just taking duvet days in sympathy.

The upshot is that yours truly is having to cover some of the minor tasks around the place - the clouds don't stay fluffy for long if left to their own devices after all - and finding it hard to make time for earthbound communication.

So, please excuse any temporary lapses, and thank you for your patience - your visits are important to us!

Sport For All

Cycling in France; Golf in Scotland; Cricket in Wales; F1 motor racing in Germany - we've been spoiled for choice today in our competition to see which of us could bring about the day's most unlikely sports result.

A quick nudge early on to disable Hamilton and engineer an Australian win at the Nurburgring seemed a good start.

This was followed by the unusual failure of the Tour pack to reel in a two man breakaway, giving the improbable third French stage win of the week.

But the convincing winner was our intrepid cricket correspondent, who managed to keep England batting today through three sessions completely against all probability, until the match at Glamorgan ended as a timed-out draw.

The cherub watching the golf in Scotland was eliminated from the competition when he got bored and wandered off to impersonate a monster of the deeps in Loch Lomond.

The young cherubim today just don't have the stamina of yesteryear.

Can He or Can't He?

The Texan is keeping everyone guessing.

He looked pretty good on the road, but he didn't fight back when his Astana team mate Contador broke out of the group.

The question is: was that good teamwork, or does he not have the legs any more?

For seven years I waited for him to crack. And spent the next four searching the drugged-up Tour for another rider worth following.

This year I'm waiting and hoping for the Livestrong champion to put his head down and pedal his way back into the yellow jersey.

Somehow it seems he's earned that right.

Another Nursery Tale

Sometimes your scientists can take a step just too far. Such as their latest claim to have made, in the laboratory, human spermatozoa.

We feel such news treads heavy on our toes.

Surely such acts of creation are the province of the gods, not to be mimicked by mortals in white coats.

You may regret such sacrilege tomorrow.

Dates with Destiny

This day four years ago London was celebrating the announcement that it had won the competition to host the olympic games in 2012.

Next morning came the commuter hour bombings of buses and subway trains and all previous evening's pleasure drained away.

What grim news it was to learn later that the bombers were uk residents. Lads from the north of england who might have been part of the olympic dream, but preferred instead to take the public transport ticket to paradise and their forty virgins.

A week or so later their antics were also responsible for the death of a brazilian at Stockwell tube station.

It seems strange that religous leaders should promote the killing of the innocent as a pathway to salvation. I can think of a far less comfortable destination for such murderers.

Pedal Power

The men in lycra are back, all 180 of them.

And everyone's watching Lance Armstrong. Racing this year for team Astana and helping to make this surely the strongest team on the tour. If they don't come out on top in the team time trial on Tuesday it will be astonishing. Though Columbia certainly have the workhorses to bring their man through when it counts.

If you enjoy beautiful scenery and watching the amazing patterns as a swarm of cycle riders forms and re-forms itself from a jostling mass to a fine, single file string or a perfectly angled echelon, this could be the sport for you for the next three weeks.

the long way home

We see that Ulysses is a name of significance throughout your earthly literature. From Homer's Trojan horse to Joyce's Bloom.

No surprise that your scientists named their deep space voyage craft after such an epic traveller.

And now the mission is complete, and communication with Ulysses to be terminated.

Alas none wait to welcome home this weary adventurer at journey's end.

For this Ulysses the rest will indeed be silence - yes it will, Yes.

kiss kiss

We have been much troubled today by the constant buzzing of our communications system.

When we attempt to acknowledge the callers we're asked if we're members of some junior fighting force.

At times it has been almost impossible to persuade the callers there are no army personnel among us.

We are certainly hoping for a much more peaceful tomorrow.