Tuesday 14 May 2013

British say the French are the most arrogant people in Europe - and the French agree

But a few eyebrows will be raised by an authoritative new survey’s findings that the French agree they are the continent’s most arrogant people and that the Greeks rate themselves as the most trustworthy.
The Washington DC-based Pew Research Centre polled more than 7,600 people in eight European countries about their attitudes towards the EU, their governments and their neighbours.
The findings throw up intriguing insights into new national stereotypes in the wake of the Eurozone crisis, which has seen Germany take a leading role in imposing unpopular austerity measures on the struggling economies of southern Europe.
Everyone, including the British, agreed that the Germans were the most trustworthy people in the EU, apart from the Greeks, who awarded themselves that accolade.
The traditional antagonism between the UK and France is reflected in the survey, with Britons judging their neighbours over the Channel to be the least trustworthy and the most arrogant.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10055933/British-say-the-French-are-the-most-arrogant-people-in-Europe-and-the-French-agree.html 

"Stags Hens & Bunnies, Blackpool"

Junggesellenabschiede in Blackpool: "Das ist die Kultur der Arbeiterklasse"

Artikel:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/dougie-wallace-fotografiert-in-blackpool-ausufernde-junggesellenabschiede-a-899581.html#ref=rss

Link zu Fotos:

http://dougiewallace.com/356061/stags-hens-bunnies-blackpool/

 

Monday 6 May 2013

Working gun made with 3D printer

The world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.
The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.
The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.
Anti-gun campaigners have criticised the project.
Europe's law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments.

The Oxford English Dictionary and its chief word detective

Historical dictionaries are not just about definitions.
Every word or phrase has a story, and the historical lexicographer has to tease this story out from whatever documentation can be found. That is one of the pleasures of working on the Oxford English Dictionary.
Pom
An enduring myth is that the word pom (as in whinging pom and other more colourful expressions) is an acronym from either "Prisoner of His Majesty" or even "Permit of Migration", for the original convicts or settlers who sailed from Britain to Australia.
The first recorded use of pom comes from 1912, which is quite - but not unnaturally - early for an acronym.
There is no historical documentation to support these myths (rather like the disproved theory that posh derives from tickets for the upmarket cabins on the old P&O liners - port out, starboard home). Instead the etymology is apparently more circuitous.