cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18926872

A TikToker has sparked a debate after claiming to have driven up the UK's steepest hill, where he alleges 10 people fail every day. The user, known as DavetheDriver, shared a video of his journey through Oakamoor, a village in Staffordshire, en route to Alton Towers theme park.

The footage shows Dave navigating a steep road after passing the Cricketer's Arms pub. As he continues, it becomes evident that the challenging stretch of road extends for quite a distance.

Throughout his ascent, Dave encounters several tight bends and corners with limited visibility of oncoming traffic. "This is the steepest road in the UK," he claimed in the video's caption, adding, "At least 10 cars every day fail to make it to the top,".

Since being posted on TikTok on Friday, September 27, the clip has garnered over 3.3 million views and approximately 143,800 likes. It's one of many videos Dave has shared on his account, with others accumulating over 1 million views in total.

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However, not everyone agreed with Dave's claim about the hill's steepness. Several commenters suggested that either Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire or Porlock Hill in Somerset holds the title for the steepest hill in the UK.

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In addition, Matthew chipped in with skepticism commenting, "When does it get steep? That's just a normal Scottish road."

Porlock Hill has been noted as the UK's steepest A-road boasting gradients of 25 per cent in some parts. The hill ascends roughly 725 feet in less than a mile.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18915016

In 1964, two young academics clambered into a red Mini and, armed with a mountain of printed slips, set out to conduct what would become the definitive survey of English folklore and traditions for the next 60 years.

John Widdowson and Paul Smith went to town centres, ­community halls, Women’s Institute meetings. They handed the simple forms out to anyone who visited Sheffield University, where they were based. And they wanted to know the answer to one simple question: what do you know to be true?

Now held in the university’s archives, the thousands of replies make for illuminating reading, creating a patchwork of observances, superstitions and local legends, passed down through families and communities.

“Don’t bring hawthorn blossom into the house. It’s bad luck,” wrote David Smith of London, who had learned this from his mother, Molly, then living in Scarborough.

The story related by Florence Swaby of Hertfordshire was perhaps a little more dramatic: “Just outside the village, part of the road is called the white highway, and at that point there are two large open fields and the devil haunts there. This is the story handed down from my great grandmother and really happened …”

Exactly six decades on, the Survey of Language and Folklore is finally being updated, with a more scientific method than two men in a Mini handing out questionnaires almost at random. The Centre for Contemporary Legend, based at Sheffield Hallam University, is to conduct the National Folklore Survey, financed with £271,000 of government money from the UK Research and Innovation body.

The project will be led by David Clarke along with Diane Rodgers, also of Sheffield Hallam, and Ceri Houlbrook and Owen Davies who founded the MA Folklore Studies course at Hertfordshire University. It will be conducted by Ipsos-UK, ­polling almost 3,000 people in the first phase to create a clearer picture of what folklore means today.

The new survey aims to address “the lack of robust research evidence into the cultural value of folklore in post-Brexit, post-pandemic, multicultural England. It aims to create new data to answer two research questions: ‘How have folkloric beliefs and practices shaped England’s social, cultural and spiritual identity?’ and ‘To what extent are ideas of nationalism and colonial attitudes informed by contemporary notions of English folklore?’”

...

“You might think that in an increasingly technological world we have no place for folklore, but it seems to be the opposite. Technology and mobile phones create a kind of disenchantment in people’s lives, and I think they’ve started to realise that. The revival of interest in folklore is a wonderful thing, and long may it continue.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18912860

There are many reasons that American comics readers should know Garth Ennis, from his long run on Marvel’s The Punisher to his iconic Vertigo Comics series Preacher, to his more recently adapted hit The Boys. However, those who know Ennis best know him also as a writer of war comics, such as War Stories his Battlefields series at Dynamite Entertainment, or his graphic novel Sara at TKO Studios. He’s even infused that influence into his work at Marvel on characters like Nick Fury, most recently in the Vietnam War-set Marvel MAX series Get Fury, co-starring a pre-Punisher-transformation Frank Castle.

More recently, Ennis’ talents as a teller of war tales have served him well while writing stories appearing in British comics anthologies Battle Action and 2000 AD from Rebellion Publishing. In Battle Action, Ennis revived the character Johnny Red, a British fighter pilot leading a Russian Squadron during World War II, leading into the story of Johnny’s final flight. In 2000 AD, Ennis is penning stories featuring Rogue Trooper, the next 2000 AD character set to appear in a film, blending the genre line between war stories and sci-fi.

ComicBook had the opportunity to ask Ennis questions about transitioning from American comics to these storied British magazines, including what he has in store for this year’s 2000 AD Christmas issue. Here’s what he had to say:

After many years working with US-based publishers, you’ve been doing work for Rebellion for a while now. How has your experience working with Rebellion and on anthologies rather than ~20-page American monthly serials been? Has there been an re-adjustment period at all?

Garth Ennis: Not really, stories are stories. So long as there are competent people at editorial I’m happy to work for anyone, and Oliver Pickles and Matt Smith are among the best I’ve worked with.

I do enjoy the shorter episodes on Battle Action and 2000 AD– less space means more focus, and it’s nice to exercise that particular muscle again. That doesn’t mean I don’t write with the eventual collection in mind- that’s how stories like Rogue Trooper and Johnny Red are going to exist long-term, after all- but there’s still a particular pleasure to be found writing one-offs like Dredger, Hellman, or Strontium Dog/Robo Hunter.

You’ve been writing Rogue Trooper stories in 2000 AD and Johnny Red stories in Battle Action. Both fall into the “war comics” genre, of which you’re considered a master by many, but Rogue and Johnny are very different beasts, the former being sci-fi, and the latter rooted in real history. Have you found they offer unique storytelling opportunities or challenges compared to your other work in the genre? Is there any thematic commonality between them?

Not much beyond the fact that they’re both war stories. Johnny Red has its roots in actual history, as you say, whereas Rogue Trooper is out-and-out science fiction. The latter takes care of itself, with the broad parameters of the strip having been laid down a good forty years ago.

With Johnny Red the hyperbole of ’70s comics means the story is one step removed from my usual war stories; things like Sara or The Stringbags don’t ask the reader to believe in anything that didn’t happen. But there was never an Englishman in command of a Russian fighter squadron, and even if there was, someone with Johnny Redburn’s attitude would have been shot dead by the Soviet authorities inside a couple of weeks.

There’s also a larger-than-life quality to the original strip, with people and aircraft able to do things they simply couldn’t have. What I find interesting is that the old Johnny Red stories got so much right, in terms of setting and events, and finding ways of making the unreal a little more believable in that context is one of the things that keeps me engaged.

...

Your current Rogue Trooper story in 2000 AD, “When a GI Dies,” follows your previous story with Patrick Goddard, “Blighty Valley.” What can readers expect from this new Rogue story, and are there any thematic connections between this and last year’s story?

It’s much more specific to the original Rogue Trooper strip, rather than the notion of considering conflict in a wider sense that you saw in “Blighty Valley.” The new one looks at the origins of the Genetic Infantry regiment, their engineering- including the biochips and the implications thereof- and the people on Milli-Com who sent them into combat. It also considers the Dolls, and what they were left with once the dust had settled on the Quartz Zone massacre.

...

We’ve also just found out that you’re working with Henry Flint on a Strontium Dog story this Christmas. Can you offer any hints as to what that’s about?”

“Doghouse Roses” sees a pair of mutant civilians from Milton Keynes visiting the base of the Search/Destroy Agency, intent on making a fly-on-the-wall documentary about their Strontium Dog heroes. You’ll see all the old favourites- Johnny & Wulf, obviously, but also Middenface, the Torso from Newcastle, Evans the Fist, Spud Murphy, the Stixes and more- but from a point of view that may seem a little unfamiliar.

There’ll also be some odd goings-on in the showers, a CUR prisoner we’d all like to see the back of, and a brief discussion on the future of the ancient English county of Durham. Oh my poor heartses, etc etc.

And Henry is, of course, knocking it out of the park.

There are many reasons that American comics readers should know Garth Ennis, from his long run on Marvel’s The Punisher to his iconic Vertigo Comics series Preacher, to his more recently adapted hit The Boys. However, those who know Ennis best know him also as a writer of war comics, such as War Stories his Battlefields series at Dynamite Entertainment, or his graphic novel Sara at TKO Studios. He’s even infused that influence into his work at Marvel on characters like Nick Fury, most recently in the Vietnam War-set Marvel MAX series Get Fury, co-starring a pre-Punisher-transformation Frank Castle.

More recently, Ennis’ talents as a teller of war tales have served him well while writing stories appearing in British comics anthologies Battle Action and 2000 AD from Rebellion Publishing. In Battle Action, Ennis revived the character Johnny Red, a British fighter pilot leading a Russian Squadron during World War II, leading into the story of Johnny’s final flight. In 2000 AD, Ennis is penning stories featuring Rogue Trooper, the next 2000 AD character set to appear in a film, blending the genre line between war stories and sci-fi.

ComicBook had the opportunity to ask Ennis questions about transitioning from American comics to these storied British magazines, including what he has in store for this year’s 2000 AD Christmas issue. Here’s what he had to say:

After many years working with US-based publishers, you’ve been doing work for Rebellion for a while now. How has your experience working with Rebellion and on anthologies rather than ~20-page American monthly serials been? Has there been an re-adjustment period at all?

Garth Ennis: Not really, stories are stories. So long as there are competent people at editorial I’m happy to work for anyone, and Oliver Pickles and Matt Smith are among the best I’ve worked with.

I do enjoy the shorter episodes on Battle Action and 2000 AD– less space means more focus, and it’s nice to exercise that particular muscle again. That doesn’t mean I don’t write with the eventual collection in mind- that’s how stories like Rogue Trooper and Johnny Red are going to exist long-term, after all- but there’s still a particular pleasure to be found writing one-offs like Dredger, Hellman, or Strontium Dog/Robo Hunter.

You’ve been writing Rogue Trooper stories in 2000 AD and Johnny Red stories in Battle Action. Both fall into the “war comics” genre, of which you’re considered a master by many, but Rogue and Johnny are very different beasts, the former being sci-fi, and the latter rooted in real history. Have you found they offer unique storytelling opportunities or challenges compared to your other work in the genre? Is there any thematic commonality between them?

Not much beyond the fact that they’re both war stories. Johnny Red has its roots in actual history, as you say, whereas Rogue Trooper is out-and-out science fiction. The latter takes care of itself, with the broad parameters of the strip having been laid down a good forty years ago.

With Johnny Red the hyperbole of ’70s comics means the story is one step removed from my usual war stories; things like Sara or The Stringbags don’t ask the reader to believe in anything that didn’t happen. But there was never an Englishman in command of a Russian fighter squadron, and even if there was, someone with Johnny Redburn’s attitude would have been shot dead by the Soviet authorities inside a couple of weeks.

There’s also a larger-than-life quality to the original strip, with people and aircraft able to do things they simply couldn’t have. What I find interesting is that the old Johnny Red stories got so much right, in terms of setting and events, and finding ways of making the unreal a little more believable in that context is one of the things that keeps me engaged.

...

Your current Rogue Trooper story in 2000 AD, “When a GI Dies,” follows your previous story with Patrick Goddard, “Blighty Valley.” What can readers expect from this new Rogue story, and are there any thematic connections between this and last year’s story?

It’s much more specific to the original Rogue Trooper strip, rather than the notion of considering conflict in a wider sense that you saw in “Blighty Valley.” The new one looks at the origins of the Genetic Infantry regiment, their engineering- including the biochips and the implications thereof- and the people on Milli-Com who sent them into combat. It also considers the Dolls, and what they were left with once the dust had settled on the Quartz Zone massacre.

...

We’ve also just found out that you’re working with Henry Flint on a Strontium Dog story this Christmas. Can you offer any hints as to what that’s about?”

“Doghouse Roses” sees a pair of mutant civilians from Milton Keynes visiting the base of the Search/Destroy Agency, intent on making a fly-on-the-wall documentary about their Strontium Dog heroes. You’ll see all the old favourites- Johnny & Wulf, obviously, but also Middenface, the Torso from Newcastle, Evans the Fist, Spud Murphy, the Stixes and more- but from a point of view that may seem a little unfamiliar.

There’ll also be some odd goings-on in the showers, a CUR prisoner we’d all like to see the back of, and a brief discussion on the future of the ancient English county of Durham. Oh my poor heartses, etc etc.

And Henry is, of course, knocking it out of the park.

WWE legend known as The Undertaker cut his own election promo in a video posted to social media on Friday after pro wrestling star Dave Bautista, known as Bautista, took shots at former President Donald Trump earlier in the week.

The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Callaway, was seen on a video next to his former WWE colleague Kane, the current mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, and Trump and addressed potential voters about their options come Election Day.

"All right everyone. November 5th – ElectionMania. The choice is yours. You can go with President Trump, Kane and The Undertaker or you can take Kamala Harris, Dave Bautista and Tim Walz. Choose wisely – the nation depends on it," Callaway said in a TikTok vieo.

"And that should be an easy choice," Trump added.

...

The Republican presidential nominee’s appearance with the wrestling greats came after Bautista made a video firing shots left and right at Trump as he expressed his support for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for president.

"Fellas, we gotta talk," Bautista said in part. "A lot of men seem to think that Donald Trump is some kind of tough guy. He’s not. I mean, look at him, he wears more make-up than Dolly Parton. He whines like a baby. The guy is afraid of birds. Donald Trump had his daddy pay a doctor to say his little feet hurt, so he could dodge the draft. Look at that gut. It’s like a garbage bag full of buttermilk."

His rant was accompanied by various related images and clips of Trump during his presidency and campaign.

In a comment to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung pushed back, calling Bautista a "stone-cold loser" and mocked his WWE career.

In an average working day, Claudia Bowring has to play the role of detective, estate agent, family mediator and, occasionally, grief counsellor.

She’s an empty homes officer for a borough council in the suburbs of Nottingham.

There are just short of 700,000 empty and unfurnished homes in England, according to the most recent government figures, external. Of those, 261,471 are classed as “long-term empty,” meaning no-one has lived there for six months or more.

If all empty homes were brought back into use, the housing crisis would be solved at a stroke and, arguably, the government would not have to build 1.5m new homes.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. Bringing derelict and abandoned properties back to life can be a long and complex process.

Even finding out who owns properties that have been standing empty for years, or in some cases decades, can be a challenge.

...

When persuasion fails, the gloves come off.

Like many local authorities, Conservative-controlled Rushcliffe charges extra council tax on homes that have been unoccupied for more than a year, under the Empty Homes Premium brought in by the previous government.

If that doesn’t do the trick, the council can take enforcement action.

It treats abandoned properties as an environmental health issue - derelict properties can be a magnet for vandalism and vermin, harming the quality of life for people living next to them.

In some cases, the council is able to carry out emergency repair work on abandoned homes, and then force a sale at auction to recover its costs. This sometimes results in a windfall for the owners who were so reluctant to sell up in the first place.

Another tool at the council’s disposal are Empty Dwelling Management Orders, which give councils the right to take over and make repairs to run-down private properties that have been vacant for at least two years. They can rent the property out for up to seven years to recover costs.

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But it does not have to do this. There is no legal requirement for local authorities to bring empty homes back into use – and some councils choose not to.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18872255

A book borrowed from a school library before the first world war has finally been returned – more than a century overdue.

A copy of Poetry of Byron was found by a man in Carmarthenshire, south Wales, who felt it should be returned to St Bees School, near Whitehaven, Cumbria, where it had been lent out to a schoolboy.

Inside the blue clothbound book the name Leonard Ewbank is written, along with the date 25 September 1911. Ewbank, who was born in 1893, was a pupil of St Bees between 1902 and 1911, before going on to study at Queen’s College, Oxford.

Records show that, despite his poor eyesight, he was recruited to the 15th Border Regiment in 1915 to fight in the first world war. He was killed in battle on 23 February 1916 by a bullet to the head and is buried at the Railway Dugouts burial ground in Ypres, Belgium, a cemetery that contains the graves of 2,463 troops.

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Ewbank is commemorated on the school’s roll of honour as “an Englishman, brave, honest and loyal”.

The school was “honoured” to have the book returned, said the headteacher, Andrew Keep. Keep told the BBC: “It’s incredible to think that a piece of St Bees’ history has found its way back to us after all these years.”

...

The book, featuring the work of Lord Byron, a Romantic poet famously described as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”, is not the first to be returned to a library after spending a lifetime elsewhere, but it could be one of the most overdue library books of all time.

In May, a book borrowed from a library in Helsinki was returned 84 years overdue. A Finnish translation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s historical novel The Refugees had been due on 26 December 1939, a month after the Soviet invasion of Finland, so it “might not have been the first thing on the borrower’s mind”, said Heini Strand, a librarian at Helsinki’s Oodi central library.

In July, Canoe Building in Glass-Reinforced Plastic by Alan Byde was returned to Orkney Library more than 47 years late, after being found during a house clearance. The library’s John Peterson said: “Fortunately we don’t charge overdue fines.”

A book borrowed from a school library before the first world war has finally been returned – more than a century overdue.

A copy of Poetry of Byron was found by a man in Carmarthenshire, south Wales, who felt it should be returned to St Bees School, near Whitehaven, Cumbria, where it had been lent out to a schoolboy.

Inside the blue clothbound book the name Leonard Ewbank is written, along with the date 25 September 1911. Ewbank, who was born in 1893, was a pupil of St Bees between 1902 and 1911, before going on to study at Queen’s College, Oxford.

Records show that, despite his poor eyesight, he was recruited to the 15th Border Regiment in 1915 to fight in the first world war. He was killed in battle on 23 February 1916 by a bullet to the head and is buried at the Railway Dugouts burial ground in Ypres, Belgium, a cemetery that contains the graves of 2,463 troops.

...

Ewbank is commemorated on the school’s roll of honour as “an Englishman, brave, honest and loyal”.

The school was “honoured” to have the book returned, said the headteacher, Andrew Keep. Keep told the BBC: “It’s incredible to think that a piece of St Bees’ history has found its way back to us after all these years.”

...

The book, featuring the work of Lord Byron, a Romantic poet famously described as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”, is not the first to be returned to a library after spending a lifetime elsewhere, but it could be one of the most overdue library books of all time.

In May, a book borrowed from a library in Helsinki was returned 84 years overdue. A Finnish translation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s historical novel The Refugees had been due on 26 December 1939, a month after the Soviet invasion of Finland, so it “might not have been the first thing on the borrower’s mind”, said Heini Strand, a librarian at Helsinki’s Oodi central library.

In July, Canoe Building in Glass-Reinforced Plastic by Alan Byde was returned to Orkney Library more than 47 years late, after being found during a house clearance. The library’s John Peterson said: “Fortunately we don’t charge overdue fines.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18872061

Two of weekly sci-fi anthology 2000 AD's most famous creations unite for the first time later this month in a new one-off strip from The Boys and Preacher co-creator Garth Ennis. Robo-Hunter Vs Strontium Dog, which will be published in October 30's 2000 AD Prog 2406, is a fast and funny tale that finds bounty hunter Johnny Alpha take on a job that will throw him into conflict – and perhaps an alliance – with Robo-Hunter Sam Slade.

Both characters were originally created by John Wagner (who also devised 2000 AD's most famous star, Judge Dredd, alongside artist Carlos Ezquerra) in 1978, in the very early days of the comic's run. Slade, particularly, holds a special place in Ennis's heart, as he explains to Newsarama in an exclusive interview, which also includes a first look at some of artist Henry Flint's unlettered pages from the new story.

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These characters share some similarities – they're both guns for hire, in a sense – but they also have some pretty stark differences in tone. So how do they get on?

What makes them similar comes from their roots – along with Dredd, they form the trio of all-time great 2000 AD characters created by John Wagner, and as such are born of the American pulp fiction/tough guy tradition that John loves so much. Really they're variations on that particular theme – the gunslinger, the private eye, the cop. That's why they work so well together (in terms of the narrative, not practical cooperation).

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Both Johnny and Sam debuted in 1978, making them two very long-running characters! What do you think has made them so enduring

See above. Their pulp origins notwithstanding, John put enough original ideas into both characters that readers were constantly curious about them, we were always left wanting more. Their personalities, settings, supporting casts, technology and so on were endlessly intriguing, and their individual motivation meant we'd be getting plenty more – Johnny keeps on hunting bad guys because he doesn't know what else to do with his life, Sam will always take on another job because he's desperate for cash (even when he did eventually make his fortune and quit, bloody Hoagy and Stogie could be relied upon to ruin everything for him).

...

2000 AD Prog 2406 is published by Rebellion on October 30. The bumper-sized issue also includes new episodes of Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, The Out, Azimuth, and Brink.

Now available to book at the Odeon, so should be on in a range of multiplexes.

A documentary that lifts the lid on a “race science” network of far-right activists in Britain and its links to a rich American funder of eugenics research has been pulled from the London Film Festival (LFF) at the last minute due to safety concerns.

The organisers have taken the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel the planned screening of the “exceptional” Undercover: Exposing the Far Right this weekend due to fears about the welfare of audiences, staff and security working in the festival venues.

Havana Marking, the director of the film – which made headlines last week for identifying the backer of research into so-called race science and highlighting the racist views of former London mayoral candidate Nick Scanlon – has criticised the decision to pull the premiere as “a very unfortunate outcome”.

“I understand the festival need to look after their staff, but I am furious that our film has lost a planned theatrical release so late in the day,” she said. “We were told the LFF felt they could not show it due to security issues. I do feel, though, that the power of the far right is exaggerated, although their influence is clearly dangerous.”

Speaking to the Observer, Marking said she was worried about the climate of fear created by recent far-right riots in Britain in the wake of the killing of three children in Southport.

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“At least the film will go out on Channel 4 on Monday. And in fact, both Channel 4 and the British Film Institute, the body behind the film festival, have actually been incredibly supportive of this film.”

...

The fly-on-the-wall documentary follows investigators from the organisation Hope Not Hate as they track down members of violent and bigoted far-right factions who are planning demonstrations and intimidation campaigns. It also unmasks the British far-right activist and former private school teacher Matthew Frost, also known as Matt Archer, and his connections to the Seattle-based multimillionaire Andrew Conru.

In a country where polygamy is illegal, a man with four wives and two girlfriends is aiming to give birth to 54 children and become the "god of marriage" eventually.

The 36-year-old man, Ryuta Watanabe, lives in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido in Japan. He has not been working for the last 10 years and has living on the salaries earned by his wives and girlfriends.

As reported by Shueisha Online, Watanabe already has 10 children and has been living with two of them and three of his wives.

He has stepped into the role of househusband and does all the housework, cooking and takes care of the children.

The household expenses which are around $6,000 every month get split between his wives and girlfriends.

...

Watanabe said his aim is to break the record of fathering the highest number of children in Japan and gaining the title of so-called "God of Marriage".

As per records, Tokugawa Ienari - who was a shogun and died in 1841 - had fathered nearly 53 children with 27 concubines in his reign in the Edo Period.

“I want to have 54 children so my name will go down in history. I’m still looking for new wives," Watanabe said.