Notice: ‘Twitter’…

MICRO-BLOGGING

I decided, today, to sign-up to the Twitter social networking service which provides micro-blogging facilities. The system is a text-based service allowing up to just 140 characters in length for each and every message. My profile, there, may be found under “markdowe”.
Both 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the prime minister, and the Guardian’s Tech [...]

Rugby: ‘2009 Six Nations’…

Murrayfield: Highland Cathedral & Flower of Scotland

 
Lyrics: The Flower of Scotland
1.
O flower of Scotland
When will we see
Your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
2.
The hills are bare now
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O’er land that is [...]

Britain: ‘Country on the brink of discord’…

NATIONAL UNREST

BRITAIN is on the brink of mass unrest following announcements that many companies in the UK are to shed the jobs of British workers in favour of employing foreign staff.
700 workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland have walked out, stoked by fury and anger in other parts of the country, where factories [...]

Banking: ‘Nationalisation isn’t the only option’…

REVITALISATION
IT could be argued that it is far easier in removing a kidney from a dead donor than it is from a live one. In terms of financial asset stripping, when American and Scandinavian regulators started extracting bad assets from their crisis-hit banking systems, in the 1990s, it greatly helped that the banks they were [...]

Neil Diamond: ‘Song sung blue’…

Davos: ‘World Economic Forum’…

THE Swiss mountain resort of Davos, once again, hosts the World Economic Forum’s consortium. Syndication includes people from business, civil society and politics; it is expected some 2,500 or so individuals will attend the event amid tight security. This time, though, rather than concentrating on how they can help solve problems such as climate change [...]

Book Review: ‘Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War’

SCOTLAND: ANSWERING A CALL
SEVENTY years ago, in 1938, the International Brigades were disbanded. Never was there a better time to document and celebrate those Scots who fought, and often died, in the 20th century’s first international battle against fascism.
In many ways the term “Spanish Civil War” is a misnomer. Most people knew it was no more [...]

Socrates: ‘Academic and essential thinker’…

MERELY PLATO’S UNDERLING?

SOCRATES (c.470-399 BC) lived through times of great political upheaval in his birthplace of Athens, a city which would eventually make him a scapegoat for its troubles and ultimately demand his life. Much of what is known about Socrates comes through the works of his one time pupil Plato, for Socrates himself was an [...]

Runrig: ‘Going Home’…

Qassam Missiles: how dangerous are they?

HAMAS’ WEAPONRY
ONCE, the Israeli Government dismissed Qassam rockets as “dumb firecrackers”. In 2006, for example, Shimon Peres, then Israeli vice-premier, told Israeli’s to calm down amid a barrage of Qassam missiles Hamas had fired from Gaza into the Israeli Negev town of Sderot.
Such apparent fortitude and resilience has long since gone. Now, as Israel’s President, [...]

Medicine: ‘Pfizer and the drugs market’…

PFIZER & MARKET ACQUISITION
THE TASK of the drugs and pharmaceutical industry is to provide relief from ailments, and it usually does so with its medicines. The announcement that Pfizer, the world’s largest drug manufacturer, is bidding for Wyeth, a large US rival, should provide a welcome boost for some. Those bankers and legion of lawyers, [...]

Proclaimers: ‘Letter from America’…

Dementia: ‘More can be done in treating condition’…

DEMENTIA
THE diagnosis of dementia is too commonly a dialogue of the deaf. Older people are likely to become more forgetful through the ageing process but, when they take their fears to the family GP, both parties have a vested interest in minimising the issue. The patient will, undoubtedly, seek reassurance whilst the family doctor will [...]

Scottish Art: ‘Thistle of Scotland’…

NATIONAL EMBLEM 
Small, square, and detailed, this picture of Scotland, done with acrylics in oil style, shows Scotland’s national flower – the Scottish thistle – against a deep purple background.
 
© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected
mark.dowe@googlemail.com

Robert Burns: ‘My Love is like a Red Red Rose’…

BURNS ORIGINAL
1.
O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.
O, my luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
2.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
3.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my [...]

Single currency: ‘A wider debate is probably needed’…

CHANGING GLOBAL SITUATION
AS the euro reached its 10th birthday and Slovaks – the latest people to adopt the single currency, earlier this month – joyfully exchanged their crowns for euros, the slow-burning question of whether the UK should join the euro-zone received the usual British answer of “probably not and certainly not yet”. The question [...]

NHS 24: ‘Is the prognosis good?’…

NHS 24 SCOTLAND
NHS 24 is the telephone helpline for those people who need medical advice out-of-hours. Primarily, it was designed in responding to crisis. In its five-year existence, however, the service itself has been in a near-permanent state of crisis. During the early stages of being introduced it was overwhelmed by the volume of calls, [...]

Guantanamo Bay: ‘War crimes trials’…

FILED MOTIONS TO SUSPEND TRIALS
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA has moved quickly since taking office of the 44th President of the United States, yesterday, in halting the Guantanamo war crimes trials, filing motions to suspend proceedings for 120 days until Mr. Obama’s administration completes a review of the system for prosecuting suspected terrorists.
The motions filed, made on [...]

Lateral thinking puzzle: ‘Frogs in the pond?’…

COUNTING FROGS!
EMILY was delighted when she found that frogs had settled in the garden pound.
Sometimes, there was a big green one, sometimes a brown, and she saw a couple of little ones too.
Then, she got to wondering just how many frogs actually lived in the pond. She tried to count them but could never reach [...]

RTE: ‘There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama’…

(44th) U.S Presidency: ‘Barack Obama’…

INAUGUARTION
TODAY, at noon (American time), 1700 hours GMT, Barack Obama will swear the oath of office on Abraham Lincoln’s own Bible, in Washington DC, before becoming the 44th President of the United States.
Mr. Obama’s popularity ratings have reached stratospheric levels: according to a Washington Post survey, 80% of people now have a favourable impression of Mr. Obama, [...]

OMD: ‘Maid of Orleans’…

Al-Qaeda: ‘Is its influence on the wane?’…

AL-QAEDA

RESPONDING to Stephen Tankel, after an article entitled, “The headless beast“, appeared on the website of the Guardian Newspaper, dated Sunday, 18 January 2009.
Mr. Tankel writes:
… “Al-Qaida central’s influence is on the wane. So what now for those who fight global terrorism?”
SPLINTERED FACTIONALISM
It may appear that Al-Qaeda’s networks are on the wane but, crucially, lets [...]

Hezbollah: ‘Analysts fear a bloody vengeance against Israel’…

INTELLIGENCE
DESPITE Israel’s decision to retract from the Gaza Strip, having declared its unilateral ceasefire against Hamas after three weeks of intensive fighting, many analysts are predicting that Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, are plotting a bloody vengeance. In 2006, a dirty war was waged by Israel against Hezbollah, which ended with Israel withdrawing from that conflict [...]

Sunday Teachings & Lessons: ‘Faith and Trust in God’…

May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. [Ruth 2: 12]
FAITH RESTORED
EVEN in the darkest of places and times there is usually some trace of decency and faith. The Book of Ruth, [...]

Gaza: ‘Unilateral ceasefire imminent’…

OBJECTIVES ACCOMPLISHED

AS Israel prepares to wind-down Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, in preparation for a ceasefire, Britain is to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean in helping to prevent the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip once the ceasefire comes into force. In addition, the British Government also appeared to suggest that it might [...]

Gaza Strip: ‘UN must test for war crimes’…

ISRAEL MUST TAKE ACCOUNT OF ITS ACTIONS
SOME OF THE SCENES over the last three weeks from Gaza have been heart-rending. The weeping of Ahmad Samouni, for instance, from a hospital bed, the 16 year-old who broke down as he told an interviewer how several members of his family had been killed in an Israeli air strike is a [...]

Israel: ‘What’s the legal position?’…

ARAB AGITATION
IS it becoming a little tiring reading rhetorical sentiments such as “Israel’s right to exist” and “pre 1967 borders?” Let’s concentrate on the legal position, for example, by re-reading the recent decree authored by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Israel’s attempt to land grab by re-routing its “wall” over and above the agreed [...]

Primate research and medical testing…

 ANIMAL TESTING
SCOTLAND uses disproportionately more primates – small monkeys, mainly marmosets – for drug testing in its laboratories than any other EU country. This is a claim, made recently, by Labour MEP David Martin. Mr. Martin wants the proposed EU ban on lab tests on chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans extended to all monkeys.
For many people [...]

Welcome…

  NOTICES & SITE INTIMATIONS

I welcome you to this site.
NOTICES last updated on: 09 October 2009, at 22:00 GMT
Since “MarkDowe’s Journal 2008″, and the site before it was launched, in 2008, the site has received over –Restricted–public hits [periodic publication, only]. Quite a staggering hit ratio and certainly surpassed any expectation I had when the site was originally launched. The catalogue, [...]

Handel: ‘Water Music, Air’…