Blogpower Round Up - Chervil's turn

So here is my round-up for the week - thanks to jmb for making a couple of suggestions! Having done this myself now, I realise that it would really help if Blogpower members would send in their suggestions!

So, here we go:

Liz from Wales recounts having to break into her own car before facing another challenging day. Quite a day with a twist at the end - but you will have to read that yourself.

The Poor Mouth tells the fascinating story of the Cagot, France's last untouchable people. I have to admit, I had not heard of the Cagot before, but it makes interesting and sobering reading.



Gracchii wanders down history lane this week and takes us back to the year 1395 when Richard II invaded Ireland. Apparently, Richard II was obsessed by Edward the Confessor (r. 1042-65), featured in the illustration above. Quite an intriguing introduction to medieval politics - and certainly no less exciting or contentious than our modern version!

In keeping with the Olympic spirit, Colin Campbell has a go at running with the Olympic torch (albeit the Sydney one) and notes that his blog is banned in China - which can only be seen as a badge of honour in my view!

On the topic of being banned in China, Looking for a Voice notes that while he was also banned in China, he had a hit from Shanghai on Friday, August 01, 2008! Let's hope the crack in the Great Firewall of China will continue to widen.

The Two Wolfes take issue with political correctness while pondering the questions of whether strongly worded expressions of misgivings concerning aid to Africa constitute racism and whether the US should provide a 48-billion-dollar subsidy for medical drugs to Africa while many US citizens go without adequate health care. I am not sure I can fully follow the arguments here, so please read for yourself and see what you think!

The Norfolk Blogger laments the lack of integrity in UK police investigations in his entry on Derek Bentley, Stefan Kiszko and Barry George. False accusations and wrongful detention of innocent people is indeed a worry and can happen very easily to anybody, so nobody should be complacent when it comes to police accountability.

On a lighter note, Tom Paine announced his holidays - I hope you have a great time, enjoy!

Welshcakes Limoncello has posted another Sicily Quiz - and as usual, I fail miserably. Maybe you might have more luck?



Question That has a great cartoon this week - Too True!

The Pub Philosopher celebrates the revival of the ancient tradition of Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. Sounds like a great idea to celebrate local food. Maybe we will see more of the old traditions return if oil prices lead to a trend away from globalisation towards more localisation?

Observations from the Hillside is contemplating the pitfalls of the housing market in his entry Moving to rent.

jmb takes us to the Green Lake, Whistler, in her photo hunt this week. Great spot, lovely photo!

Our newest Blogpower member, No Clue, found a major problem for bloggers with sitemeter installed who are using IE6 and IE7: when they click onto their blog it fails to load, and you will receive an error message saying 'IE cannot open the page', and then 'Operation Aborted'. No Clue also has a link to fix the problem, so if you are affected, this is the entry for you.

Miss Wagstaff from Wales found herself involuntarily deleted from Facebook but also discovers the positive side-effects of having one less online distraction from real life.

In Search of High Places debates the meaning of the word "atheism". Apparently there now is a bit of a debate in the blogosphere regarding this topic.

Grendel gives a personal insight into what it means to participate in a job interview - not as interviewee but as interviewer!

Calum Carr invites us to meet his favourite football team, the Pars. Don't know the Pars? Well, better read his blog then!

May I end with my own blog? If you have been to my blog you will know that I strongly support action on climate change. Unfortunately, not even easy solutions such as replacing old light bulbs with energy saving ones are without problems because not all CFLs are safe, as I found out.