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  1. Blackleaf

    UK Met Office to open 'solar storm' centre

    We used to just forecast the weather on Earth. But now we are to forecast the weather in space, too. The Met Office, the UK's national weather service, is opening its "solar storm" centre today. The Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC) in Exeter, Devon, where the Met Office is...
  2. Blackleaf

    Detectorists

    Watched the first episode of the new, very British, BBC sitcom Detectorists last night on BBC Four. Detectorists is all about digging. Mackenzie Crook (who is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office, Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, and Orell in Game of Thrones), who...
  3. Blackleaf

    Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve

    I watched the first episode of the brilliant new BBC documentary series by Simon Reeve - Sacred Rivers - last night. Simon makes travel documentaries in little-known areas of the world and has written books on international terrorism, modern history and his globe-trotting adventures. In his...
  4. Blackleaf

    Wounded Afghan heroes taking on route which almost defeated Shackleton

    Two injured Afghanistan War veterans are part of a four-man team which is to take on the route which almost defeated Ernest Shackleton 100 years ago. The team is flying out to Argentina today to begin what promises to be a gruelling five-week trek across one of the most inhospitable...
  5. Blackleaf

    Some of the earliest photos ever taken show how Thames has changed in 150 years

    This remarkable series of pictures shows just how much life has changed in the streets of London surrounding the River Thames in the last 150 years. A unique series of photographs taken in the 1860s, using an early type of camera, showcase life in Victorian London for those living in the...
  6. Blackleaf

    Cameron pledges a UK bill of rights: We don't need lessons from Europe, he says

    It's party conference season in the UK but, unlike most party conference seasons, this one comes in the run-up to a General Election, so this is where the General Election campaign really starts. The Labour Party held their conference in Manchester last week, but the speech made by Marxist Ed...
  7. Blackleaf

    10 weird and wonderful historical newspaper stories

    In her new book Comic, Curious & Quirky: News Stories From Centuries Past, Levin pulls together some of the most bizarre tales to fill the columns of British newspapers as far back as the 1700s – from the woman who in 1830 poisoned her dinner guests, then died, having forgotten she'd used the...
  8. Blackleaf

    Hassan Khan: 'Blind cricket changed my life'

    More players are now taking up blind cricket than ever before but why is the sport becoming increasingly popular? Hassan Khan: 'Blind cricket changed my life'...
  9. Blackleaf

    Gannets plunge into the cold seas off Shetland in search of mackerel and herring

    The northern gannet is the largest seabird in the North Atlantic, and the UK is home to TWO THIRDS of the entire world's population of them. And one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in the UK is seeing these magnificent birds dive into the sea to catch fish. Northern gannets can dive from a...