Meinir Gwilym - Tir Glas

"Meinir Gwilym singing the song Tir Glas from the Edward H Dafis album Plant Y FFlam. "


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bjOyUm-OZvU

Save Bute Park from building

"On the day when you announce that Bute Park has been named the best park in Wales, I’m sure the residents of the capital and its many visitors will be astounded to learn that the city council has surreptitiously declared its intention to dispose of 1,821 sq metres of it so that the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama can build an extension (public notice, Western Mail classified ads, Dec 4)."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/western-mail-letters/2008/12/12/friday-12-december-2008-91466-22459649/

See also


http://dolennididdorol.blogspot.com/2008/11/terfel-aids-35m-college-appeal.html

Dan Y Cownter 3

"Welcome to Dan Y Cownter 3

Following the overwhelming popularity of Dan y Cownter (Under the Counter) and Dan y Cownter 2 - two previously released CDs featuring the best and latest music from Wales, distributed for free in order to promote Welsh language music; Welsh Music Foundation is proud to present this brand new website - the third edition in the series: "Dan Y Cownter 3" "

http://www.danycownter.com/

http://www.danycownter3.com/eng/register.aspx

Tiger Please

"We are Tiger Please from Cardiff. Born CIRCA June 13th 2008 at 1:05:22 pm.

As a 5 piece we have achieved many things in little time; only in August 2008 did we start playing shows and already we have shared the stage with some of our very own influences such as Luke Pickett, Guns, Kick Box Riot, and Saidmike as well as being scheduled to play with bands such as the Grammatics, This City and Friends Electric. In this time, we have also been lucky enough to have received airplay and critical acclaim from the likes of Bethan Elfyn and Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1), Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales), and Ruth Davies (Nation Radio)"

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=323557430

I'm walking backwards for Christmas - The Goons

"Released in June (naturally) 1956 by Decca."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvASdvva8I

http://www.thegoonshow.net/songs/im_walking_backwards_for_christmas.asp

Fish in Cheese Sauce on Toast

"The freezer seems to be working when it wants to, currently it is sulking, so it is fish in cheese sauce on toast for breakfast. Tasted delicious must remember to have it again some time in the future."

http://hairybuddhist.blogspot.com/2008/11/1st-november-2008.html

Stopped Clocks

"The Stopped Clocks Foundation is a public collaborative project which exists to first document all the stopped clocks in the UK, with the aim being to restore those we can to working order. Anyone can help, so please send us any information on stopped clocks in your area.

The overall aim is to try and provide the information and organisational tools for people to have clocks in their neighbourhood fixed, by collaborating in fund raising activities, and in general raising awareness of stopped clocks around the country."

http://www.stoppedclocks.com/stopped/

Learn Welsh / Test Your Level

"Packed with a range of courses suitable for all levels, Learn Welsh is your gateway to learning the lingo."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/

"Simply answer the following question(s) and we'll help you gauge your level and find a suitable course."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/level_test/

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(song)

Economists Appraise Bhutan's Happiness Model

"When considering economic development, policymakers here take into account respect for all living things, nature, community participation and the need for balance between work, sleep and reflection or meditation.

"Happiness is very serious business," Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley said. "The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations.""

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=40,7485,0,0,1,0

"Gross National Happiness is an approach to development unique to Bhutan. While conventional development stresses economic growth as the ultimate objective, GNH is based on the premise that true development takes place only when material and spiritual development occur side by side. For GNH to grow, government must concentrate on four key areas:

• Promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development.
• Preservation and promotion of cultural values.
• Conservation of the environment.
• Good government."
  

Lavish coronation for Bhutan king

"King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, an Oxford-educated bachelor, becomes the world's youngest monarch.

He has become head of state of the world's newest democracy after his father abdicated in 2006 as Bhutan changed to a constitutional monarchy"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7712301.stm

"The transition to democracy has been deliberately designed to be slow and steady and the monarchy will continue to play a central role in Bhutanese life.

Both the new government and the opposition say they are committed to the royal philosophy of Gross National Happiness - or GNH - which aims to strike a better balance between the spiritual and the material. "

Background to Wales and the Celts

"Caesar in particular gave a very one-sided view of the Celts which was accepted unquestionably for many years. Modern scholarship now disputes this one sided view and paints a much more balanced picture.

Theirs was a culture with a history and legacy at least the equal of the Greeks and the Romans. It was their ancestors in Galatia who received a letter from the Apostle Paul, their mercenaries (as body-guards) who guarded Cleopatra, and they were the ones who attacked Rome in 390 BC and Delphi in 278 BC and even fought at Thermopylae.

The names of the cities of London, Paris, Vienna and Gallipoli are Celtic in origin. And it was not only the Romans who built roads, for since the early Iron Age the Celts had had a network of paved and semi-paved roads good enough to transport their famous chariots."

http://www.wisdomofrhiannon.co.uk/Appendix%20-%20Background.html

Decline and fall of the Roman myth

"We were ‘barbarians’, but early British civilisation outshone the Roman version, says ex-Python Terry Jones. We just lost the propaganda war"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article714033.ece

"The Romans had chariots, but the Britons made significant design improvements and, as Julius Caesar noted, had thoroughly mastered the art of using them. So how come the Romans built roads and the Celts did not? The answer is simple. The Celts did build roads. The “Romans-were-greatest” version of history made the earlier roads invisible until recently. One of the best preserved iron age roads is at Corlea in Ireland, but it was not until the 1980s that people realised how old it is. It was known locally as “the Danes’ road” and generally assumed to be of the Viking period or later. It was not until the timbers were submitted for tree-ring dating that the truth emerged: they were cut in 148BC.

However, the really startling thing is that wooden roads built the same way and at the same time have been found across Europe, as far away as northern Germany. The Celts, it seems, were sophisticated road builders and the construction of these wooden roads was no mean feat of engineering.

Oak planks were laid on birch runners and they were built broad enough for two carts to pass each other. What’s more, Celtic road building is not necessarily predated by that of the Romans. The first important Roman road was the Appian Way, built in 312BC, but the so-called “Upton Track” in south Wales, a wooden road laid across the mudflats along the Severn estuary, dates back to the 5th century BC. "

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article714033.ece

Rocky Trip - The Route Of The Welsh In Patagonia

"After riding for just over a month, the party reached Cwm Hyfryd, the Pleasant Valley, today called 16 de Octubre –an area which now holds the towns of Trevelin and Esquel. It was the fertile, beautiful western land that the Welsh settlers had heard so often being praised by their “brothers of the desert,” the Tehuelche natives. As a reward for their endeavour, the Argentine government awarded a square league (6,250 acres) to each of the expedition members, which enabled each to bring their families from the east and start a new Welsh colony beside the Andes. It wasn’t long before this new settlement played a decisive role in settling the sour disagreement that Argentina and Chile were having over their border. It was agreed that the British Crown should arbitrate, and the dispute was resolved in 1902 by applying a “real occupation” criterion: the Welsh settlers chose to live under the Argentine flag, and therefore the land was awarded to Argentina."

http://www.rockytrip.com/


"For me, the trip was an unforgettable experience. I learned to appreciate the beauty of the high towers of multi-coloured rock and even the barren steppe, with the slow rhythm of the horse’s pace, attaining only one kilometre each eight to ten minutes. At that speed, as time passes by, one starts to feel as if, rather than a mere spectator, one is a part of the landscape itself. Las Plumas, Cañadón Carbón, Los Altares, Piedra Parada and the vast, lonely plateau assumed a new dimension, the very same one the pioneers knew more than a century ago. I also learned that nothing compares with sharing so much exertion with people if one wants to discover their true nature. And I was surprised at the love that slowly grows within oneself towards one’s horses. No matter how much one had sworn at them when they got skittish or stubborn on some difficult passages, they were always our noble and indispensable partners in this demanding trek. Tired as we were at the end of each leg, their welfare was always our first priority. Only after
ensuring they had drunk clean water and had enough grass to graze or alfalfa hay to eat, would we take care of ourselves. The gentle whicker they murmured when they saw us coming with a bale of green alfalfa was like music to my ears." 

Modern cowboy keeps cattle safe

"His trusty steed is 16 hand, 11-year-old, Tara.

"She's mostly very good, but as a three-quarter thoroughbred, she's not maybe the ideal horse for the job," he says laughing.

"She can run faster than the cattle when they need rounding up, but then she sees it as a bit of a race and wants to pass them on the way back too." "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7765368.stm

Lords baffled by new-fangled Office 2007

"Members of the House of Lords are having trouble opening Word 2007 documents - because they are "incompatible" with their current Office software.

The House of Lords Information Committee's annual report claims that the peers are having problems opening documents sent by colleagues in the civil service, who are running on Office 2007."

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/239751/lords-baffled-by-newfangled-office-2007.html

Shell Hermitage, Pontypool Park

"Shell Hermitage, Pontypool Park The shell hermitage in Pontypool Park is probably the best preserved grotto in Wales. It was built in the 18th century for John Hanbury, although the shell decoration was probably added later by Molly Hanbury Leigh (John's daughter-in-law). There are, however, other stories regarding the origins of the grotto. One suggests that the grotto was created as an early job creation scheme to alleviate unemployment in the area in the 1820s. The shell grotto was restored in the early 1990s."

http://www.gtj.org.uk/this-and-that/curiosities/pontypool-shell-grotto/

Ctunnel.com will protect your anonymity on the internet

"Ctunnel is what's known as a CGI Proxy service, that is, I run a website based proxy on my server, and you connect to it to retrieve websites. This can be done to evade website blocking by schools, corporations, or governments, to access websites that would normally be blocked. It can also be done to protect your anonymity, so that the website you are visiting does not know who you are."

https://www.ctunnel.com/

Words associated with Christianity and British history taken out of children's dictionary

"An analysis of the word choices made by the dictionary lexicographers has revealed that entries from "abbey" to "willow" have been axed. Instead, words such as "MP3 player", "voicemail" and "attachment" have taken their place. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3569045/Words-associated-with-Christianity-and-British-history-taken-out-of-childrens-dictionary.html