Over The Years,

I have come across,

 many strange and downright weird competitions, but this must be strangest, the European Gull Screeching Championship, it took place in the Belgian town of Adinkerke, seagull imitators from all over Europe flocked to the completion, the event took place in a local pub and required competitors to channel their inner gull, both vocally and physically, while the emphasis of the competition was on the sound produced by participants, with a maximum of 15 points being awarded for the best screeching sounds, participants could also score up to 5 points by putting on a proper performance, some just flapped their arms in a gull-like manner, others wore seagull-style beaks on top of their heads, and a few actually wore gull costumes to impress the judges,

 “People have come together to make the best imitation of the sound of a gull, which sounds quite stupid, but it is real science,” Jan Seys, a scientist from the Flanders Marine Institute and a judge in this year’s contest, said. “Before you can really imitate a gull, you have to make nice observations otherwise you’ll never make it.” and the winners were Reggy Laatsch, 31, from Amsterdam and Bregje Iding, 21, from Hasselt in Belgium, I guess after the completion they flew home, seagull pictured on our trip to Venice.

Can Motorways,

be described as beautiful?

 I will let you decide on that one, but they certainly can be described as interesting, like these photographs from Japan taken over head of some of them show, the Takaosan Interchange | photograph by Benjamin Lee,

 the Ohashi Junction in Tokyo | photos courtesy Good Design Award

 the Ohashi Junction in Tokyo (close-up),

 the Kiyosu Junction in Aichi Prefecture

the Misato Junction in Saitama Prefecture, as I mentioned certainly interesting form the air.

Nearly Done,

just a few more jobs to do,

 make a new hatchway door, fit the guard rail and paint the loft hatch door in the bathroom ceiling,

 move all of the rubbish outside, load up Len for his trip to the dump and say our farewells to him, what a great chap, he did so much in such a short time, Steve called round for a coffee and a chat, and after he left,

it was time for our evening meal, our starter of avocado prawns, 

 and a huge steak and ale pie for our mani course,

 'Cheers!',

 and we had enough just enough apple and rhubarb crumble left,

to round off the meal, in the evening we watched a few quiz shows and one from the Poirot box, with the end of that we were off to bed.

As Many Of Our Regular Readers Know,

for myself the kitchen is a death trap,

if I ever try anything in the kitchen it normally ends in blood, sweat and tears, (all mine), and a potential disaster, just take boiling a couple of eggs, I tried it and over boiled them for hours when I fell asleep, and woke to a horrible smell and a burnt pan, if you have ever done this you will know it takes weeks for the smell to finally disappear and to my eternal shame I did this twice! so here is another reason for me not to cook, 

do you have PYREX® or pyrex® in your kitchen? Do not know? Well you should borosilicate PYREX Glass has excellent thermal shock resistance, it does not expand or contract like ordinary Soda-Lime glass does when exposed to rapid changes in heat or cold, unfortunately when Corning, Inc. sold off the PYREX® trademark it became pyrex® in America and the new company started using Soda-Lime Glass instead of Borosilicate Glass, the company that bought the PYREX® trademark for European use continues to make Borosilicate Glass PYREX, this 2-minute Consumer Reports video above uses extreme conditions to demonstrate the difference, another reason never to enter the kitchen and use a glass dish whatever it is called!

What Is Killing Cows In France’s Brittany Region,

aliens or wind and solar farms?

it is claimed that electricity that is produced and leaks into the ground is killing otherwise healthy cattle, according to local farmer Patrick Le Nechet, his cattle just started losing weight a few years back and many of them ultimately died, the strange thing was that the animals didn’t seem to be suffering from any diseases and the veterinarians couldn’t explain the cause of death, after conducting his own investigation, Le Nechet concluded that the mysterious deaths started occurring around the time that a photovoltaic installation appeared in the area, “The cows started losing weight, and we’ve lost 120 of them in the last five years,” Le Nechet told Europe1, “It cannot be explained, not even veterinarians know what to do.” Stéphane Le Brechec, another cattle farmer from Allineuc, 30 kilometers Cote-d’Amour, has lost even more cows in mysterious conditions, He started suspecting something was wrong after 37 of his cows died in six months, today, the death count is over 200 and he is extremely worried, photograph by Couleur/Pixabay,

two years ago, another French farmer from Val de Saône, in Rhône, reported problems related to the electrical current from a nearby industrial area, He claimed that the electrical current sent into the ground by large transformers influenced the health and behavior of his cows, “When there are power spikes, some cows gather in one corner, others start to limp, calves that felt good the day before, die,” the farmer told Le Progres, adding that many of his cows were also losing weight and producing considerably less milk, Thibaut Bouchut, Building Advisor of the Sanitary Defense Group, confirmed that electricity can indeed cause problems for cattle farmers, reading the articles it appears that aliens are off the hook then, but in all seriousness, do UK farmers and those in other countries who raise herds in proximity to power producing technology have the same or similar problems?

No One In The UK,

can deny that knife crime, especially in London,

is on the rise, still do not worry as the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan commented on knife crime the solution was going to take “some time.” and further commented, “To really make significant progress can take up to 10 years, a generation,” he said, that was last November, planet earth to Sadiq Khan, so far this year the crime wave of deaths and stabbings has increased, or is this increase a part of your cunning plan? I thought not, no plan at all! so here is one of mine, many years ago in the 1970s and '80s, New York City was a very different place, gangs terrorized the streets, and even more so, the subway trains, violent crime could be anywhere, and people traveled in fear, in stepped, Curtis Sliwa and organized the Guardian Angels, the Guardian Angels put themselves in places where the police wouldn’t go and put their lives on the line in a way most people wouldn’t, which is where the organisation ran into its fair share of controversy over the years, for most New Yorkers however, those red jackets and berets were a very welcome sight, and still are, today, the Guardian Angels have chapters in many other cities, and the New York contingent is made up of original members and the generations that followed, you can read the history of the group, and what they're up to today at Messy Nessy Chic. much of the above taken from the article, so what to do? wait and see if Sadiq Khan is right and in 10 years the problem will go away or start a London chapter of the Guardian Angels? well I know which will have my vote and it will not be for Sadiq Khan in the next election! on a serious note my sincere condolences to the victims and families of this heinous trend, but do have you any better idea of what else to do, other than apparently do not a lot and just wait?

I Do Not Believe My Eyes!

the blue lines are exactly horizontal,

and parallel, the above illusion is based on the classic "cafe wall" optical illusion, and I still do not believe my eyes!