Continuing to explore issues of religion and spirituality...

It's a very serious place, Puflet Palace. A place for in-depth political comment. A place where the future of the planet is fleetingly taken into consideration. And, above all, a place where the myriad paths to spiritual enlightenment can be explored ... stumbled upon ... you get a stone in your shoe ... etc.

Anyway, it can be useful to express these themes in a visual way, and so here's a picture:

More stuff that's been in the news ...

Further to obesity being as big a threat to the planet as climate change, I heard today that the population of the UK is growing at a rate which will endanger food supply by 2050.

My first response to the information that the population was growing was along the lines of 'Well, this isn't really news, is it, because the population would have to grow if we're to achieve our target of 50% obesity by 2050'. But then I realised that I had misinterpreted the message. Not that the population was growing, but that there would be MORE PEOPLE. And that there won't be enough food for them all.

But surely won't that solve the obesity problem ...?

(I cannot bring myself to use the term 'obesity time bomb' as the mental pictures this conjures up are too horrifying to contemplate.)

Illustration Friday - Trick or Treat!

The famous sculptor, Jack O'Lantern, is here shown crafting his ideal woman.  Now, is this a treat for him, or a trick designed to mislead his arch rival, Hal O'Weenlantern?

There is no truth in the rumour that he was inspired by the activities of Chris from the Raven Madness blog, who spends much of his time crafting ideal women.

This is what I dun at the weekend

I went to Audley End House with Chichi and Clare, whose links can be seen on the right hand side. The house is rather tremendous and they've got great gardens up there too. You can only see the house as part of a guided tour, and we got there ten minutes before the last one started. It was full. Actually, that was OK as there were so many people in the same situation that they fitted in an extra one. That was the good news.

However, it being the end of the season an' all that, they were 'putting the house to bed'. We were given a special tour of parts of the house not normally accessible to the public - servants' quarters and suchlike. Usually when you see rooms like this, they have furniture in and a 'mock-ups' of what the original places would have looked like. Not this time! No furniture, wallpaper hanging off in sheets, huge damp patches and large areas of missing plaster - in fact it looked semi-derelict. We did have a little chuckle about it - they might as well have
advertised the dustbins, skips and septic tank as bits that the public didn't normally get to see. It did make you realise what a mammoth task the maintenance of these properties must be, though.

Anyway, here's a pic of me and Chichi, taken by Clare, shortly before we were metaphorically kicked out the greenhouse!  (For those of you who have never met me, I'm the bigger one with the redder hair!)

Woo-hooo! We're starting to hit the streets!

This piece has been bought by Oxford Daily Information, which was quite nice because I've only just started sending this sort of stuff out to strangers, and this was my first 'shot'!

Right - onwards and upwards ... got some more very silly stuff to do ...

Illustration Friday - Grow!

Willie Winkie was really committed to personal growth;  here he is undergoing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

But the words of wisdom here expressed by young Willie originate from the (Vauxhall) astral traveller himself.

Unitarian Minister 'e say 'Yeeeeah'!!!

... so the cartoon below will be appearing on their website.  I'm wondering where their administrator will put it though ...

He's also interested in producing a set of six postcards/greetings cards along this line, which seems to me to be a rather healthy thing for a (notionally) religious organisation to be doing.  I have to say that researching all this stuff has been great fun;  one of my favourites is 'Unitarian Jihad'

Here's a quote from it:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

At Puflet Palace, we look at life, the universe and everything.

'A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves in almost everything that anybody else believes, and he has a very lively sustaining faith in he knows not what.'

(Somerset Maugham)

This is a cartoon I have just sent to the Minister of the Unitarian Church at Kingswood, to put on their website.

Eek! And yike! Even scarier news ...

Listening to Radio 4 does nothing to help your feelings of being at one with the universe (or even at half-past-one with the universe - thanks Keith!).

Gordon Brown is now saying that he's turning his attention to dentistry.  If previous government initiatives are anything to go by, getting dental treatment really will be like pulling teeth ... and this against a background of people extracting their own molars with pliers, and sticking back errant crowns with superglue ... or maybe it's an initiative to abolish obesity by ensuring that nobody's able to eat on account of not having any teeth ...

Scary News

I heard on the news today (It was Radio 4, so it goes to show how serious it was)  - a guvverment announcement that obesity is now a greater threat than climate change.  They reckon that by 2050, half the adults in the UK will be obese.  Sorry ... but as big a threat as climate change? (You'd have to be VERY VERY obese to be that big!)

I can't see what function announcements like that have, other than to encourage overweight people who already have problems with self-esteem to feel even worse about themselves.

And, besides - what is the nature of the threat?  That the obese 50% of the population will sit on the other 50% and squash them?

Illustration Friday - Extremes!

Incy-wincy spider was very small, but her wide web was very effectively dominating the world!

This is a picture of my desktop

I've been tagged by Paula;  this time the purpose of the tagging, rather than revealing the secrets of your underwear drawer and other eccentricities, is to provide a screenshot of your desk top. And share it on your blog with the rest of the world!

To do this, you go to :  Print Screen (next to F12 key)
Open Potatoshop or other picture editing software
Paste the image
Save for web
Publish in normal way on blog.  If you like, you can offer an explanation as to why you have a picture of a Patagonian killer rat or exotic surgical equipment, or even so many icons that there isn't room for a background.

I'm offering no excuses or justifications for this one.  

Then you go and tag 5 friends;  mine have been chosen on the basis that they're likely to have interesting images:

Chichi Parish
Shaky Mouse
Fidget's Widgets
Widget's Seedpot
Raven Madness

Illustration Friday - OPEN

Well, maybe more along the lines of cyber anti-social behaviour, maybe.

The continued battle against cyber-crime ...