• US Healthcare vs. the Rest of the World – To the people who think that healthcare in the US isn’t broken… or #ilovethenhs.

I don’t think this is my strongest ever entry to a PhotoFriday challenge, but I do think that this old typewriter fits the theme of “Minimalist.” I am mainly referring to the minimalism of the picture itself, the almost monochrome look and the simplicity of it all. But you could also consider that by using a typewriter rather than a word processor you’d be keeping things simple and minimalist.

The back-story to this post is that I’m the secretary of the company that owns the freehold to my flat. In the UK, Companies House keeps records of all the companies in the UK. One of the documents they keep on file is called the Memorandum and Articles of Association. This ream of legalese describes what a company is allowed to do and how it should go about doing it.

The short version of this post is: congratulation to the happy couple! Enjoy your honeymoon and see you when you get back. The longer version follows…

A month ago I drove up to the midlands for a wedding where I had been asked to be the photographer. It’s not the first time that this has happened but it is the first time that I’ve been the “official” photographer and it’s also the first time where the wedding has been in a church, white dress, limo and all.

I’m slightly ahead of schedule for this weeks PhotoFriday challenge. Of course you could argue that I’m a day behind the Friday in the title, but it’s still a day ahead of my usual entry… This week the theme is “Suburbia” and the above image is looking over the part of the world where I was brought up. It’s Ossett in Yorkshire.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Best of 2010.” I’m entry number 120.

• This case must not obscure what WikiLeaks has told us – Another good piece about WikiLeaks. The news about Assange is starting to obscure the real news.
• Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net. It’s your choice. – “What WikiLeaks is really exposing is the extent to which the western democratic system has been hollowed out. In the last decade its political elites have been shown to be incompetent; corrupt; or recklessly militaristic. And yet nowhere have they been called to account in any effective way. Instead they have obfuscated, lied or blustered their way through. And when, finally, the veil of secrecy is lifted, their reflex reaction is to kill the messenger.”

Given the sub-zero temperatures that we’re experiencing in the UK, this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Chill,” is very appropriate. I can’t, however, really use one of the pictures I took earlier this week¹ so instead this one was taken in January this year in our first snows of 2010.

I didn’t post an entry to last weeks challenge so there’s no need to feel bad for not voting for me(!).

It seems that the weather is not without a sense of irony¹. In the year that is the hottest on record, in the UK we’re having a very early cold snap, complete with snow.

I did think that it was all archive footage, since the papers were full of coverage yet there was no snow at all in London. And then this morning the pavements were covered. When I went out for a bite to eat at lunchtime I took my camera with me…

• The religious excuse for barbarity – “No, we don’t respect your desire to needlessly torment animals because some hallucinating desert nomads did it centuries ago. We don’t respect it at all. You can cry that we are “persecuting” you if we stop you committing acts of cruelty if you want.”
• Penn & Teller – Penn (of Penn and Teller fame) protests the new TSA rules.

Not sure why but this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Fluffy,” was pretty hard. I thought of clouds. Of cotton wood (urgh). I don’t know, but none of that really worked for me. I’m not sure that a sheep fits the theme any better, but that’s what I’ve entered. This was taken on a trip this year to Stone Henge.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Architecture.” I’m entry number 251.