Corsned

Everyone knows about the “trial by ordeal” prevalent in the middle ages. Women being dunked in water, to see if they float and are therefore obviously a witch. People having to walk over hot ploughshares. Other such fun stuff.

But did you know there was another form of trial by ordeal, typically reserved for the clergy. Corsned.

If a member of the clergy was accused of a crime, what horrible torture or feat of endurance did they have to undergo?

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Eating a piece of bread and cheese.

London Bridge station timelapse

Here’s a hypnotic timelapse of London Bridge station during the morning peak (although it probably looks quite different at the moment due to the ongoing works).

To put it in perspective, this isn’t even London or the UK’s busiest station. Waterloo, Victoria and Liverpool Street all handle more passengers.

Living up North, I used to think of Manchester Piccadilly as a huge and busy station. It comes 15th on that list, and all but three of the stations above it are yet more London stations. Even what I now think of as my ‘local’ station, Stratford, is significantly busier than Piccadilly. And that’s just counting National Rail services, not including the Underground and DLR.

My other current favourite statistic: a single London bus route (25) carries 50% more passengers every day than Sheffield’s entire tram system.

This city really does rely on public transport to a staggering extent.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Whilst looking up what else the cast members of the excellent Parks and Recreation have appeared in, I was very surprised to see Aubrey Plaza starred in a film with an awfully familiar sounding title: Safety Not Guaranteed.  Then I recalled where I knew it from: YTMND (remember that site? surprisingly it’s still going in the age of YouTube and Vine!) A single page from way back in 2005, that eventually became one of the site’s defining memes.

And yes, it turns out the film is based on it, or at least the original spoof newspaper advert which appeared in the YTMND.

Given this fond memory, and the fact it had Aubrey Plaza in it, I just had to watch it. And it turns out to be a rather charming little film, with great characters and witty dialogue.  Highly recommended.

Trailer:

Idea: ultra-realistic Minecraft

  • Punching a tree doesn’t turn it into logs. It just hurts, and gives you a bloody hand.
  • Before you build anything, you have to apply for planning permission.
  • Fishing is subject to strict EU quotas.
  • Environmental protesters keep picketing your mine.
  • Gold armour is still expensive and useless.
  • Any time you find diamonds, you’ll be bought out by the De Beers corporation.

Goodreads

My miserable attempts at blogging more have once again been overtaken by work madness. However I did manage to find time to update my Goodreads shelves, which may perhaps be of interest to someone somewhere. After falling a way behind on my challenge to read 45 books this year (Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds was fascinating, but sooooo long!) I’ve had a burst of catching up and am now one book ahead of schedule! We’ll see what the remainder of the year brings…