Travelling Friends And Family History

My friend Dan is currently in England. He visited the Tower Of London and took some photos of the Yeoman’s list. One of my relatives was a Yeoman at the Tower, so Dan mentioned it…

“When I mentioned the name I was taken in this room where the archivist happened to be on duty. He knew all about Sgt Costello. It was amazing that he knew it all by memory. He told me that there are two books on Edward's life in the library. One written by Edward and one written by his wife.”

Edward Costello is my Great, Great, Great, Grandfather. It’s not a surprise that the archivist knew of him, as he served in the 95th Rifle Regiment, the same that contemporary author Bernard Cornwell based his books on, and which were made into a television series by the BBC called Sharpe staring Sean Bean.

The book that the archivist referred to is entitled “Rifleman Costello: The Adventures of a Soldier of the 95th (Rifles) in the Peninsular & Waterloo Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars”. 

The first two photos below were taken by Dan...

Awkward Timing

Here's a little video from a bunch of people that just love Facebook.



That being sung - I sure hope they didn't dump money into shares when Facebook went public. Shares on Friday, when they debuted, opened at $38 dollars - the world's third largest flotation. Today, those same shares are worth #31 dollars, down 8% in just five days - and that's if you count the weekend.

Despite the fact that Facebook is used by millions of people, the fact remains that as a company it doesn't have a proven business model, which means that its shares should have opened much lower.

Update on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 5:11PM by Matthew Good

From the BBC...

"Facebook's flotation has run into more controversy amid reports of concerns about the way advisers disclosed information to investors.

As Facebook shares fell another 9% on Tuesday, regulators said they may review the disclosure process to see if some investors got favourable access."

That's Right Kids...

It's time for the greatest of all pastimes - stable and stall porn!

Now, I'm not complaining about my own stables, but this is just fucking spectacular. 

This, on the other hand, is just un-fucking-believable. I'd probably live in the barn were I given the option in this case.

And you all thought I was talking about actual porn filmed in stables. Tisk, tisk.

The Gulf

This entire Arabian Gulf nonsense is just that – nonsense. I have absolutely no clue as to why anyone, be it National Geographic, Google, or whomever,  would consider the adoption of a second name for a body of water that has, for the better part of 2,400 years, been referred to as either the Pars Sea or the Persian Gulf. It's ridiculous. 

Warning

Where there's smoke there's hydrogen cyanide.

Oh - and sometimes fire.