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The failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump last Sunday was marked by his miraculous escape and a moment captured in an iconic photograph showing a bloodied and defiant Trump beneath a perfectly positioned American flag.

Within hours, the image had gone viral, and was appearing on consumer products. The world’s media proclaimed what had taken place as a critical incident, and a death blow to the prospects of Joe Biden, already struggling after a series of embarrassing public appearances. Even before the assassination attempt, a rising tide of democratic voices including close friends and sponsors was threatening to wreck his fragile campaign. 

Professional pundits, spin merchants and political opponents spoke as one.  Biden must be persuaded to stand down. 

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Requiem for a dream. Spain 2 England 1

Social media capture the thoughts and emotions of a nation

@WhitlallClive
(Who describes himself as
‘once a Tory voter. Never going back there, but not yet quite convinced with labour. Seller of old things. Vegan. Wolves fan. Married to a Welsh dragon.)

A tough night for #England fans but what a day to be Spanish! 

David Baddiel 
Spain were much better and this is a really good, perhaps great, Spanish side. But the truth is that GS never quite knew what to do with the abundance of creative talent available to him. Palmer is too good not to be given a start. Gordon is too good to be given only two minutes in the tournament. James Maddison is too good to be mainly ignored throughout GS’ tenure. I could go on. But I won’t.

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Could brainy birds play chess? How early should you start playing chess with your children?

Sunday 14 July 2024

This morning, I listened to a BBC science programme about the research of Professor Nicky Clayton, who studies cognitive processes in crows, and in other birds showing exceptional problem solving skills. 

These creatures also have better development than other birds, in the regions of the brain associated with problem solving.

One assessment is that crows, for example, have problem solving skills which seem to develop in children around the age of eight.

By coincidence, I have been helping children to learn chess from the  age of eight. I look forward to seeing how I can draw on Professor Clayton’s work as I learn, alongside my young chess players. Maybe I will be able to say when and how their chess skills develop.

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@TollytB
I've just been chatting to my neighbour, and he thinks his wife is a kleptomaniac.
"She should take something for it."

@deelomas
My husband just called to say he saw a fox on his way to work. 
I asked him how he knew the fox was on his way to work. 
He hung up on me…

Visual wit from @RookieRedhead
First cartoon
Buddha surrounded by acolytes
Acolytes: what makes us human?
Second cartoon
Buddha to acolytes 
Selecting all images with traffic lights....

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Wednesday 3 July 2024

Tomorrow it will be all over, after six weeks of campaigning leaving the general public weary of political promises and cockups. 

With a burst of relief I begin to record how it all ends, drawing on the wit and wisdom provided by the twitterati, and with a little help from the so called MSN. 
 
@WhoTargetsMe
When labour campaign director Morgan McSweeney concluded that the polling day would come on July 4, some 24 hours before Sunak’s short walk in the rain, he made sure the opposition snapped up the advertising space. He was surprised to learn the Tories hadn’t got their first. Perhaps they were busy in the bookies 

@davidyelland
Rupert Murdoch’s editors are in total chaos, they cannot afford to be on the wrong side of the biggest landslide in Labour history, a total eclipse of The Sun ‘influence’ cannot be contemplated so they have endorsed half-heartedly, there is now utter confusion at The Times….

@alex_house
That is so funny.  Are you going to claim "It was the Sun what won it" again after this late-breaking switch to the other side?

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Wit and Wisdom Early July
Unsurprisingly, this wit and wisdom edition has a political flavour during the run-up to the British general election on July 4. A special general election edition is planned for that date.

@henrywinter
Abbreviated from a long and heart-cry of anguish by a football journalist over England’s last qualifying match at the Euros. 
The heat was on here, and not simply because the temperature nudged 30C. The scrutiny was intense. England passed and passed in the first half, interchanging but going nowhere. Some of England’s triangles had a Bermuda feel. It was so frustrating to witness. England have the players. They’re ranked fifth in the world to Slovenia’s 57th, their fires supposedly lit by all the negative headlines...

@Katy.Jayne101
The thing about Twitter recently is that you can say something very benign such as " I love Pineapple" and a band of people will be up in arms saying " So you hate bananas then."

Donald Trump made reference to Hannibal Lector recently. It provoked some humorous responses.

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A non chess-playing friend of mine often asks me is there a special move that gives white an advantage in chess. I was reminded of this question when it appeared on the Quora website.
Here's how it was answered....

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England v Slovakia. Chess, Politics and Football come together.
Sunday 30 June
5pm kickoff soon.
At last, we are spared football punditry chatter for  the duration of a real football match.
Maybe the last for England in this tournament. 
One last commentator comment
It’s go big or go home.
Time for the first fact
Harry Kane has scored in 13 football stadiums but not this one.
Didn’t mention if he had played in this one.

First blunder. Yellow card for an England defender, and escape the free kick. 
A minute later, another near miss.
England attack, in their excitement clog another player, another yellow card for England.
Only seven minutes. 
England break, chance created, ball balloons over the bar.
Not good.
Another attack. Feeble kick
Slovakia almost score again ...

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Friday 28 June, 2024

The debate was scheduled for 2am British Summer Time. Wisely or not, I started listening , then dragged myself out of bed to watch the debate.

It was slightly surreal viewing. The two protagonists stood behind space-age podiums (podia?). Behind them, a vast vacant area reminding me of a gigantic lecture theatre.

Two interrogators sometimes visible pose carefully crafted questions. I watch with increasing dismay as a car-crash scene unfold.

 I leave my notes unedited to recapture the effect of what I saw.

The structure:  Two minute answers, one minute for rebuttal. This solved one set of problems, but produced  often assertion driven exchanges.

A hour into the debate. 

Concerns about both candidates frailty justified. Trump eventually found a way of not answering the questions asked. 

Biden as hesitant as supporters feared. 

Trump exuding confidence and self obsession as he utters a stream of unverified claims of his greatness...  

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General Election Diary, Weeks 3-4, June 2024

Week 3

Thursday 13 June
The Labour manifesto concentrates on wealth creation. A plan to replace the Lords seems to have been watered down. 
Yet another seven a side debate, but without  two major figures Sunak and Starmer. Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner resume hostilities. Rather unenlightening. Stephen Flynn, for the SNP, Daisy Cooper, Lib Dems, Rhun ap Iorwerth - Plaid Cymru
and Carla Denya, the Green Party show glimpses of authenticity beyond preprepared party lines. Nigel Farage offers a replacement for Conservative defectors in the recycled UKIP of the Reform party.

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