death tribble

Justice League Satellite in Earth Orbit

Mass jailbreak in Haiti as 3,700 prisoners escape in co-ordinated attacks on two prisons. Curfew in place in the capital https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68462851

AEW Revolution took place yesterday. Timeless Toni Storm, Samoa Joe and Christian Cage all retained their belts. Eddie Kingston beat Bryan Danielson to retain the belts he has and Bryan had to shake his hand afterwards. Wardlow won a match for a future opportunity at Samoa Joe. This was against Chris Jericho, Powerhouse Hobbs, Lance Archer, Hook, Brian Cage, Magnus and Dante Martin Roderick Strong defeated Orange Cassidy to become the AEW International Champion The Blackpool Combat Club beat FTR, Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale defeated Julia Hart and Skye Blue, The Acclaimed with the Gunns and Jay White defeated Private Party, Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh and Willie Mack in a 12 man tag match and Will Osprey defeated Konosuke (whose surname is causing a problem with the system) Sting and Darby Allin defeated the Young Bucks in Sting's retirement match

Less than 12 hours to go

Noon Eastern time is 5:pm in London.

Max Verstappen wins the Bahrain Grand Prix https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68457646

First meeting of the year but I had to rush for the train there and back. Train was at 6:54 in the morning and I left the house after 6:30. Just made it. Reached Reading at 09:43 and wait for bus was not too long. Played Marvel Champions and that was a bit of a slog even with the simple scenario. Dredd was nasty. Twice tried to get into the Grand Hall of Justice only to be stopped. Came last but it was good nasty fun. Tried Kingdomino and that was interesting. I won which was surprising Had a trundle around Reading Gaol in a Rivers of London Scenario trying to stop the ghost who was the subject of Oscar Wilde's The Ballard of Reading Gaol causing havoc. And Apples to Apples was fun. There was a three way battle for the lead which was exciting. Steak and Ale pie for lunch and Crispy Cake for dessert. Also Log Cake and Champagne. Got bus back and was near station for around 20:00. Juist had time to buy KFC meal and the staff were nice before getting into station and onto train. Have more books to read for the year

Apparently the Dutch for Lapland is very rude indeed according to L Marcus's translation

George Galloway wins the Rochdale by-election in Britain. The Labour candidate was disowned for anti-semetic remarks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68446419

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell The guy who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm went to Spain and took part in the Spanish Civil War. By his own admission he did little but he did take part and you also have a view of the infighting in the Left. Orwell was in one of the factions that was not liked by the USSR. That meant the faction would not get guns etc. Orwell suffered injury (shot in the throat) and that was how he got out. The last two chapter of the book are appendices covering the infighting and what led to it. It is a good read.

Don't ever play Asteroids with Cancer. Just don't.

A major fire in Bangladesh kills 43 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68442375

This is one for the Brits. Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers dies aged 66 He had been diagnosed with cancer two years ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68433675

Guess who went into town to buy coffee and forgot to buy the coffee ? I got other things but not what I was supposed to.

February 29th 1940 Hattie McDaniel wins the Best Supporting Actress role for her role in Gone With the Wind and is the first African American to win the Oscar. February 29th 1944 Operation Brewer the invasion of the Admiralty Islands begins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Islands_campaign February 29th 1960 In Morocco an earthquake strikes killing 12,000 and injuring 12,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Agadir_earthquake February 29th 1980 Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal Born this day the Italian composer Rossini, Jimmy Dorsey, Joss ("Diplomatic Immunity !") Ackland, Dennis Farina, Khaled (Algerian singer-songwriter), Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker) and Ja Rule Died this day Pat Garret and Melvin Purvis (A bad day for law enforcment)

Across Sweden in a tin can is the book that got L Marcus into trouble in Finland.

I actually met Virgil and have his autograph. The Elimination Chamber took place in Australia with Becky Lynch winning the Women's event and Drew Galloway winning the Men's. Becky will face Rhea Ripley (who beat Nia Jax) At Wrestlemania. Drew will face Seth Rollins.

The six nations Rugby Union matches as reported by the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68398723 Scotland and Ireland won whilst France drew with Italy

For those who wandered why I have not been so active in the past few days here is the reason. Last Wednesday the landline died. The phone rang and before I reached it, it made one last shrill ring and then died. No dial tone thereafter I was able to book a call with BT over the internet. Engineers arrived on Friday and that is when the internet died. So we had nothing until today when an engineer turned up and restored the broadband. So we have dial tone and internet. Now the PC is threatening a disc crash. And Mum was caught speeding in a 30 mph zone at 36 mph. So we have to fill in a form and send it in. And the HMRC are saying she is being fined over taxes which we thought had been sorted out by the accountants. It would be nice to get ahead of things and stay there instead of being dragged down all the time.

Moonfall What happens when something tries to use the moon to destroy the earth. Watch this film to find out. Another example of BAD SCIENCE ! The moon it turns out was a Dyson Sphere and AI nanobots were out to kill all life. Hooray. On the up side I don't need to watch this again. Black Arrow Season 3 The third and final season of the show had two stories. One where a Lord tries to have his niece killed so he can take her lands and the second where bandits try to steal a holy relic. This was made for kids but I remember the theme tune vividly. And it was nice to see it again after over 40 years. Maigret Maigret and the Open Window. A financier is killed while the police are waiting to serve him a warrant. But all the main suspects are in sight of the police when they all hear the shot. They are all waiting to se him. Only his wife is in an ante-chambr and she is asleep. So who did it ? An interesting little story with a Christie like twist. Maiigret and the Wine Seller. The boss of a wine compnay is gunned down in the street after visiting a high class brothel. Maigret's investigation is dogged by someone who is tailing him for some unknown reason. Carefully piecing the details together enables Maigret to stumble on who the likely killer is and then it becomes a case of drawing them out. Nobody Bob Odenkirk makes an unlikely action hero but this was fun. After a home invasion, an ordinary guy goes looking for the robbers. Except he ain't ordinary. The fight on the bus and then a father son and friend shoot out with the Russian mob. Really good. Worth seeing multiple times. Visiting Hours Journalist Lee Grant vs psychopath Michael Ironside in this 80s slasher. William Shatner had a small role as Grant's boss. It is not that bad and people survive and act in a normal way so this was a nice surprise. The Power A small Aztec doll causes chaos and death. A journalist's friend becomes possessed by it and it causes his death. The Fuzz Yul Brynner starts making threats against local politicians whilst giving the cops of the 87th Precinct prior warnings and ransom demands. Burt Reynolds is one of the detectives whose wife is deaf so they sign to each other. He and his partner are also chasing kids who are setting fire to tramps. Raquel Welch is assigned to the precinct to trap a rapist. The detectives get the idea that one guy is involved and tail him only to find he has no connection to the politicians and is planning a liquor store raid. Brynner is actually planning to get a ransom off a millionaire after using the deaths of the politicians as proof. This is a comedy and worth a look. Monster Hunter United Nations soldiers end up on another world fighting monsters. It does exactly what is says on the tin. Pure pop corn. Rio Conchos Stuart Whitman, Jim Brown and Richard Boone try to track down a shipment of missing rifles. Nice and violent. The Ebb Tide Robbie Coltrane stars in this adaptation of a Robert Louis Stevenson tale. He plays a stranded sailor who takes on the delivery of a ship to Australia whose crew succumbed to the plague. Turns out the ship was part of an insurance con and was supposed to be lost. The ship ends up on an island that was supposed to be gathering pearls except there is no one left. Except for one guy and a woman. And he turns out to be psycho. Dune (2019) Full disclosure I read the books and saw the original film. This is quite a faithful recreation of the book. So far so good. I like the dragonfly like ships. No Feyd in this part but Bautista makes an impact. As does the Baron. And you get to care for Duke Leto. I look forward to part 2. Wonder Woman 84 The sequel is not as good as the first film. Having Max Lord as the main villain despite the canon storyline of Diana having killed him is just not that good. But the creation of The Cheetah makes sense. True they gave Diana the invisible plane. And bringing Chris Pine back did work. But there was something lacking. The Suicide Squad The squad are sent to an island to suppress work on an alien being following a coup on said island. The squad are cut down on the beach on landing as one of their number alerted the local government. Only Flagg and Harley survive which is a shame as Boomerang survives in the comics. This is a better film than Suicide Squad. The story is better and fighting a normal foe rather than a cosmic menace works. John Cena makes Peacemaker a complete two dimensional character and it works wonderfully. It was a shame that Flagg is killed. But Stallone has a ball as King Shark.

The Making of the British Landscape by Nicholas Crane This book attempts to explain how the British landscape came to be as it is today. It goes into pre-history and how the Ice Ages and global warming shaped the country and the lives of those around it. It was fascinating. Especially as the writer was one of the main presenters of the series Coast on the BBC which looked at various places around the country and went into their background.

The second big bar is complete. And in answer to Bazza The answer is Little Johnny

Heaven help you all. I. Have. A. Minnesota. Vikings. Flag ! (I don't have a flagpole but that is beside the point.) (Late Christmas Present)

New complete fossil from Triassic, a 240 million year old 'dragon' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68374520

Mike Hammer