Monday, 19 October 2009

Wargames at Club 12th October 2009

A couple of nice games last week. Here's my usual rundown with lots of pics this time.
A Renaissance game between the Imperialists and the French. The Imperialists are on the left of the photo.

On the Imperialists side were John Ogden and Mark Alcock while the French were Dave Tuck and Jason Whitfield using Dave's forces.

A melee between the French and Imperialists.

Thats our own Tony Walmsley looking on. A World War 2 game is about to played on this spectacular terrain..

A 15mm Rapid Fire! game is about to be played. The terrain belongs to Andy Hamilton, which he built 15 years ago and which had been in his false roof ever since until recently. Most - but not all - of the buildings on this terrain were scratch-built by Andy Hamilton also. All the figures involved in this game are also Andy Hamilton's, who also umpired this game.

Playing as the Germans were Mal Taylor and Tim while Mike Barnatt was playing as the French.

A view of some of the French defenses.

The Germans begin crossing the canal as the attack begins.

An aerial view of the game. You can see more of the German forces on the other side of the river.

The Germans begin crossing the river in dinghy's.

Close up of the Germans as they begin building a bridge. This photo was cropped and resized from the original.

The French tanks come out to play..

The German forces reach the other side...

Friday, 16 October 2009

Fw: Blog Action Day Recap: 31,000 Posts!

----- Original Message ----- To: Jason Neilson
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 9:50 PM
Subject: Blog Action Day Recap: 31,000 Posts!


Hey bloggers,

You did it!

Yesterday you and bloggers in 155 countries across six continents wrote about a single issue that impacts us all, and turned Blog Action Day 2009 into one of the largest social change events ever held on the web.

Your participation helped change the conversation and showed the power of the web to connect people across the world who despite their varied backgrounds have one shared desire: to make a difference. According to blogpulse, we increased the number of posts about climate change on a given day by 500%, and CNN wrote a great article covering the excitement and diversity of today's event across the web and around the world.

A full recap is up on our blog, and here are some highlights:

We hit 31,000 total trackable blog posts, and our current estimate is that together we reached at least 17.9 million people yesterday. We just exceeded 13,000 registered bloggers on the site and are working to get all of you who posted but haven't yet registered into the final count.

We had at least three major world governments as active participants in this year's event. United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted the first Blog Action Day entry in Britain at the stroke of midnight on the 15th, which was followed by Foreign Minister David Milliband and many others from the UK stationed around the world. The PSOE governing party of Spain hosted a bloggers event focused on climate change and transformed their website for the day to promote Blog Action Day. And late in the day, President Barack Obama's White House blog joined in become part of the global movement of bloggers shaking the web.

Of course, well-known bloggers were a big presence yesterday as well:

  • The Official Google Blog gave a green tour of the company's campus;
  • Mashable asked what you're doing to reverse climate change;
  • The Unofficial Apple Weblog suggested "Five apps to help save the world";
  • Treehugger gave us two simple things that could, by themselves, stop climate change;
  • Global Voices posted a roundup of bloggers from around the world writing in many languages;
  • Gadling spent the whole day posting about green travel;
  • BlogHer covered the road to the next international climate negotations in Copehagen.

There are many more, and we encourage you to check out the Featured Posts on the blogactionday.org homepage for a longer list of some of the world's largest blogs.

Many of our nonprofit partners, leading organizations from around the world, were also actively involved in making the event a success:

  • TckTckTck released a beautiful and touching new video;
  • Greenpeace bloggers from around the world joined in;
  • World Wildlife Fund featured Blog Action Day on their international climate blog;
  • Oxfam helped emphasize the human side of the climate crisis;
  • 1Sky wrote about the front lines of political activism in the US;
  • The Nature Conservancy helped us understand the science of climate change;
  • NRDC's Switchboard bloggers wrote informative posts all day;
  • Consequence wrote a whole series of posts on youth climate leadership.

You should all feel proud of this remarkable collective effort. And it doesn't have to end today. For many, we hope this serves as an entry point into the broader movement to address the issue of climate change. There are a number of ways and some amazing organizations through which you can continue to remain involved, and we encourage you to check out our Take Action section to learn more.

We will continue providing updates and information about the success of today's event and ongoing opportunities for involvement--including the the October 24th International Day of Climate Action organized by our friends at 350.org--here in the weeks ahead, and we hope you'll stay with us.

Thank you so much,

Robin Beck
Lead Organizer
Blog Action Day 2009

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Blog Action Day is finally here in which thousands of bloggers all over the world unite to highlight a particular issue.

This year, of course, the issue is Climate Change. Climate Change affects everyone on the planet in various different ways as its consequences are manifested in the weather patterns and things such as rising sea levels and increases in temperature and the melting of the ice caps.

For more information on the Science of Climate Change go to ....... http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/ Most people think of Global Warming when they think of Climate Change. The warming of the earth is actually a natural phenomenon however it is the impact on the earth by humans that has caused the earth to warm unnaturally through huge amounts of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases.

To find out more on the effect of climate change on the earth go here: http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/ The presentation is narrated by former US Vice President Al Gore using Google Earth.

While investigating Climate Change and relevant sites on the web, I unexpectedly stumbled across the Department of Energy and Climate Change, a UK Government agency (see screenshot). Not sure about other readers but until I started looking I was not aware of its existence. You can find it here: http://www.decc.gov.uk/

About 40% of high carbon emissions are by individuals and households. So if people only slightly changed the way they did things at home it would have an impact. Even doing a small thing could help. Doing lots of small things that could cut carbon emissions could have a big impact on emissions if everyone did them. It comes down to a better way of managing waste by recycling all recyclables such as tins, paper and glass. The Grimsby Wargames Society recycles. Those bins are regularly filled up with empty tin cans from drinks. Myself I recycle a lot of tins. I use a lot of them and go through quite a few of them because I buy a lot of tinned cat food. Also recycle paper too. There is place near me that recycles everything else: somewhere to take the plastic and glass basically. For those in Grimsby, coming from Littlefield Lane go down Chantry Lane towards St James Square and look to your left. The bins are on the edge of the car park.

Then there are other things like installing Loft Insulation to preserve heat in a house so that less or no heating is required, Turning off all equipment when it is not being used and not leaving it on standby, Turning off unused lights. Using energy saving lightbulbs. For more information on little things to do to cut down on carbon emissions in the home go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/

Another site offering ways to cut down carbon emissions in the home is the Act on Co2 site here: http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home.html

In December there is going to be a Climate Change summit at Copenhagen. With the help of the US and President Barack Obama, we can get action taken to cut down on carbon emissions. Add your voice here: http://www.blogactionday.org/en/takeaction

It is time for Governments to sit up and take notice. Action must be taken all over the world. What will it take for any sceptical governments to believe in climate change, an island in the pacific or other region wiped out due to rising sea levels? Another disaster which involves a drastic change in the weather?

Another interesting piece I found on global warming and climate change can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8299079.stm

I am just 1 of over 9000 bloggers worldwide participating in Blog Action Day. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown has contributed to Blog Action Day. Read his contribution here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20931

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Blog Action Day on October 15th 2009

On Thursday it will be Blog Action Day and this blog will be participating. On the last update I have received there are apparently 5000 bloggers joining in worldwide from 127 countries.

The subject of Blog Action Day this year is Climate Change. So, to all you other bloggers out there: it's not too late to join in! Register your blog first on the official site at:

http://www.blogactionday.org/

Monday, 5 October 2009

WW1 Wargame at the Club 17th August 2009

Sorry all. This post is ever so slightly overdue...by just over a month. On my last visit to Monday nights - I am returning next week - There was a WW1 game going on.

Testing out some of John Ogden's rules, as John was there also, were Mal Taylor with his Germans and Andy Hamilton with his British. As always, the figures produced by both members are a joy to look at.

Andy Hamilton's British HQ

Mal's Germans occupying a building

Mal's Germans ready and lying in wait..

This lovely German plane belongs to Mal. Sadly I'm not sure what the name of the plane is called.

A better shot of the German WW1 plane.

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

A 'This Is Grimsby' article sent by Jason

Message:
Link to the page on the Grimsby Telegraph website about the Lumbard Fun Run. I ran it with a friend, who also goes to the wargames club, on Sunday. Both of us appeared on page 4 of the grimsby telegraph yesterday in our fancy dress costumes. Arrr!

Racers run riot at tribute

View full article

Friday, 4 September 2009

The Other Partizan & Bingley Music Live

Sorry Folks. I realise there has been no posting on here since just before Cleethorpes Rocks. My mind has been on another things. Nothing serious, it's just my mind hasn't set on it. Will try to upload some Cleethorpes Rocks photos this weekend.

This weekend I will be at Bradford and Bingley as am going to see the Zutons and others at Bingley Music Live tomorrow. Will be staying in Bradford overnight and coming back around 7pm on Sunday so will not even be thinking about going to the other Partizan which is also this sunday. Yes, I haven't uploaded those pics yet either. My blog is a little behind. The most active thing has been my tweets.

Thought I should at least drop in and explain why it's been so quiet on here. Am leaving Grimsby at 0700 tomorrow for Bradford on what will be a 3 hour trip to get there. Will of course be taking photos. Aim to post some Cleethorpes Rocks pics on here before I hit the sack tonight and when I return on Sunday.