Click Random

They don’t look like much, but this “fourth party” caused a bit of a stir. ( Source ) You still there? Well, if you are, you might not be after this. It’s time for politics — bear in mind that the man voted as “Greatest Briton”, Winston Churchill, was heavily influenced by his father’s politics and beliefs. If you stick around, we’ll get to more scandals with Jack the Ripper. I’m dragging this out a bit, aren’t I? After his graduation in 1870, Randolph first entered the House of Commons in 1874 when he became a Conservative Member of Parliament for Woodstock. His first speech in the House of Commons was said to have grabbed the attention of Benjamin Disraeli, the then Prime Minister. He even wrote to Queen Victoria about Randolph’s “energy and natural flow”. However, contrary to Wikipedia, it is suggested that his maiden speech made no impression on the Commons. Either way, Queen Victoria seemed unconvinced , as she opposed Randolph’s appointment of Chancellor of th...

Just imagine Winston Churchill with a tache like that. He could have rivalled Stalin. ( Source ) It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my one on one blog with Lord Randolph Churchill! My, what a lot of information you have, Randolph. Enough for two parts, so here’s the first part to wet your whistle. Since this is the largest Wikipedia article that I have researched so far, we will give this some structure — this will be longer than my usual blogs, so if you don’t like reading, why the hell aren’t you on YouTube? Let’s start at the beginning, before the birth of his son and Jack the Ripper, let’s begin our story at 3 Wilton Terrace, Belgravia, London, or maybe he was born at Blenheim Palace — who should we trust, Wikipedia or NNDB.com ?  Born on the 13th of February, 1849, to the 7th Duke of Marlborough and Lady Frances Vane, Randolph was their third son. Shockingly, Randolph was privately educated at home as well as attending Tabor’s Prep School...

Thankfully a short article while I continue to research old Randolph Churchill. A bird with green and blue iridescent colourings found in Africa. The girls look like the boys and the boys look like the girls —  visual sexing is not possible , so don’t even think of trying it. The population of these birds is not of concern to conservationists, though it is decreasing and they may become categorised as vulnerable. Probably the fault of us humans again. Did you play “ Clicks to Hitler/Jesus ”? Comment your scores.

The three blurry symbols on this insignia represent the three principal Catholic ethnic groups which originally settled the area of Acadia. The Germans (Heraldic Eagle), the Lebanese (Lebanon Cedar tree), and the French (Fleur-de-lis). Today’s article was going to be Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, but there is much to research on this man and I want to do it justice. From Jack the Ripper, to Tory Democracy– is this about paying off small Northern Irish parties? You’re just going to have to wait for that one. So, instead, I present you with another American High School, Notre Dame High School in Crowley, Louisiana, home of the pioneers .  Quite obviously a Catholic school, it was formed in 1967 after consolidating or devouring three other Catholic high schools and is owned by eight church parishes. The school employs 42 staff , of which 100% are, apparently, faithful Christians who display great loyalty to the Mission of Notre Dame. I thin...

The people are real, the cases are real, the rulings are final. Order! Today, in the Court for Crown Cases Reserved on the 16th of January 1877, Mr. Robert Faulkner stands trial to appeal the guilty verdict for larceny and arson. The sentence set forth by the jury in the lower courts is seven years of imprisonment with hard labour. Let the appeal begin! On that fateful day, the 26th day of June 1876, Mr. Faulkner, a seaman and prisoner aboard Zemindar sneaked down to the bulk head hold, bore a hole in a cask, and proceeded to steal and consume our rum made from the finest molasses. As he attempted to seal the hole, he lit a match and ignited the alcohol with the felonious, unlawful, and malicious intent of burning the ship to ash. Objection! The accused only wished to wet his whistle after he was deprived of liquid as a prisoner. Here in Ireland, it is not a crime to drink alcohol, even if it is rum and not whiskey. His vision was impaired whilst attemp...

Wut? Humping the floor , contorting your body , roughing up a baby , sweaty bodies . I’ll give you three guesses to identify what I am writing about today. I know, the answer was quite obvious, contemporary dance. Cie. Toula Limnaios is a dance organisation, based in Berlin, named after its founder and choreographer Toula Limnaios. Founded in 1996, what started with flailing arms and bending legs in Brussels is now an organisation sponsored by the Berlin Senate for Culture. Their performances, of which there are over thirty, including Wut (“Rage”), Tempus Fugit (“Time Flies”), and The Thing I Am, are often inspired by philosophy and literature.  “A voodoo-like relationship with a baby doll was temporarily explored, but did not progress past obvious movement choices for the portrayal of manipulation and control.  ‘Tempus Fugit’ disappointed, not due to lack of professionalism but due to lack of conceptual risk.” —  Beatrix Joyce Th...

You can’t see it, but it’s wearing a pink tutu. ( Source ) Hang on, give me a minute to crack out my best David Attenborough impression. Here we see the Small-toothed Palm Civet in its natural habitat, the trees.  Like many other Palm Civets, the Civet of the small-toothed variety is nocturnal, they like their own company being a solitary creature, and they are arboreal, meaning that they spend almost all their time in trees and bloody difficult to observe. Damn hippies. The Small-toothed Palm Civet is monotypic, so there is only one type or species of this animal. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! Wikipedia, get your facts right!  This article must have been written in the 1950s. Studies of their calls and molecular distribution dating back to 1989 and up to present day have considered that there are multiple species of Small-toothed Palm Civet found in Indochina and Southeast Asia. This small-toothed mammal is an omnivore. Despite its small nibbly teeth, ...

Josephine’s reaction to reading this blog. The self-deprecation continues. ( Michael Chow-USA Today Sports ) Ask anyone that knows me, they will tell you that I am the biggest football fan you will ever meet, so this one will be fun. Strikes, spares (another word for a substitute), turkeys (another word for the over-payed players), I know it all. Josephine Chukwunonye  — why does Wikipedia love giving me these complicated names? — is a Nigerian football player in the defender position. But before she became an international athlete, she was selling bananas on the busy market streets of Lagos, Nigeria. Her mother, the owner of the fruit stand and with whom Josephine lived with in a one-room shack along with six others, would allow Josephine to keep ten cents of every dollar she earned to buy her football boots. “It’s so loud you hear nothing. It smells bad — it smells like everything.” Not sure if Josephine is talking about the marketplace or the women’s locker room ...

Take her wrap, fellas. Let me set the scene for you. It’s 1926, and you’re in a speakeasy. You’re dying for a cold one, but a bit jittery that the cops could arrive any second.  Smoke from petite cigarettes and burly cigars clouds the room. You can hardly see to appreciate the stylish raccoon coats and sequined dresses. The most visible is the sheen of a polished grand piano and a set of four beaming lights projecting onto a worn, but looked after, mustard coloured velvet curtains — yes mustard, not red, what’s it to you?. You’re waiting for your drink when a croaky New York accent projects “ladies and gentlemen, George Gershwin , with That Certain Feeling”. You think, “surely not, George Gershwin is a hitmaker for Broadway. I mean, this song is from Tip-Toes the musical, the bigwigs were annoyed , but I really wanted to see it!”  You’re certain it’s not Gershwin, but you go along with it anyway because you’re a massive fangirl for jazz. The...

I ran, I ran so far away Two citizens of Qodrat Kandi. Welp, it’s back to Geography today — I might have to start vetoing articles, but I fear that in doing so I will begin to question the integrity of Click Random and my own morality. So far, the village of Qodrat Kandi  in Iran has the smallest population of any location I have written about with 164 citizens in 39 families as of 2006, and this probably includes their goats. Qodrat Kandi is found within the province of West Azerbaijan. Yes, Azerbaijan is a different country, but Iran don’t care. They’re probably hoping that this will allow them to compete in Eurovision, just like neighbours. The most recent population data I could find for Qodrat Kandi is that, as of 2016, there are 1,129,000 living in rural areas like Qodrat Kandi in West Azerbaijan. When attempting to research Qodrat Kandi, most of the talk was about the weather, so us Brits might appreciate that, or anyone that is trapped in awkward...

In Russia, we wash paintbrushes with vodka, not water like puny Americans. Wouldn’t be Russian without a strong tache. With a name like Pyotr Pertsov , it’s not surprising that this guy is Russian. Pertsov was a poet, a publisher , a literary and art critic . A person of the arts. So if you’re not into poetry, you’ve come to the wrong place. Well, actually, don’t worry too much, I couldn’t find any of his poems. I did look for them, promise. I might have found them if there was a standard way of writing his name! Petr? Pyotr? Piotr? Pete? What is it?!? Pertsov’s probably rolling in his grave as I write this post. Pertsov began his literary career by publishing his poems for Nedelya (“Week”) and Novosti (“News”). Then he contributed to magazines linked with political, social, and artistic movements including Russian Symbolism , which were influenced by irrationalism and mysticism — think God and ghouls. Spooky. It was spurred by a movement away from the aristocracy...

Royston Head . Were you expecting more? G’day. It’s another location, location, location today. I’m starting to notice a pattern here. Geography is Wikipedia’s wet dream. Royston Head is a headland (i.e. a coastal landform sticking out into the sea, often with a steep drop) found in South Australia. The headland is connected to Royston Island by a drying reef. The headland is said to be named by English navigator Matthew Flinders . Rather than taking the glory for himself, he named the headland after Lord Royston who died at sea at the age of 24 in 1808. Lord Royston even has a memoir written of his short life. Although, it might not be worth the read, as The Spectator describes Lord Royston’s life as uneventful , yet the book was pleasingly written. The headland is home to White-bellied Sea Eagles , Ospreys , and Sooty Oystercatchers , all of which are either considered rare or vulnerable in South Australia, and all of which probably sound funnier when pronounc...

She was promised Frank Sinatra, but she got a cheap Groucho Marx. We have a film, ladies and gentlemen! Click Random’s first film.  High Society Limited . No, it’s not a sequel to High Society where Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra start a jazz magazine company named High Society Ltd , get high on crack (say nope to dope, kids), and get wrapped up in a money laundering scheme headed by the mafia. No, this is a West German comedy from 1982 starring Elisabeth Bergner, Lilli Palmer, and Hardy Krüger. I’ll just awkwardly nod and say that I know exactly who these actors are, just like when someone that studied film for a year is talking to me about this moving Azerbaijani film they’ve watched for the tenth time. What’s that? Did someone say philistine? I had hoped to watch this film and provide a bit of a review for my one loyal reader — thanks mum. Sadly, it seems that the film reels for the English subtitled version might have been lost or damaged af...

Car crash or Click Random. Which one is worse? Today we take a look at the fun and exciting world of insurance.  Beazley Group or Beazley PLC is a specialist insurance company founded in the UK in 1986 by Andrew Beazley and Nicholas Furlonge. The group is also one of the largest insurers for Lloyd’s of London.  So, who insures the insurance company? And who insures the insurer of the insurance company? And who insures them?!? Andrew Beazley served as CEO of the company for 22 years, and is credited for having confidence in and bolstering Lloyd’s of London reputation even in the company’s time of loss in the 90s. Beazley Group offers an array of insurance products, including marine, environmental liability , and data breach insurance, which was of particular note during the recent ransomware attacks.  They also have coverage for terror related attacks including nuclear incidents. I’m gonna need that insurance money in a nuclear winter, jus...