vivweb01blog

  Fajr (Muslim dawn prayer) is defined as starting at the point at which the sun reaches 18 degrees below the horizon, which corresponds to the beginning  of Astronomical twilight. It finishes at the point of sunrise. During the month of Ramadan, fasting is practised by muslims between the start of Fajr and astronomical sunset.  Although there are tables online for Ramadan fasting times each year, the exact start and finish times for fasting each day will vary between different locations. Even in a relatively small island such as the UK, this can lead to significant differences, particularly if Ramadan falls close to either solstice, where the range of latitude we experience in these islands(ca 50-60 degrees N) can lead to big differences in sunrise and sunset times.  For anyone needing precise times for sunrise and sunset at their own location over the coming month, Almanac will calculate Sunrise and Sunset times for any location on any date from its precise l...

  This post was first released in October 2022 as a response to the political 'crises' of the time. Note the more recent updates at the end of the main text - nothing really changes, does it..... As a bit of light relief from the momentous events of recent weeks in politics, I thought I’d take a wry and admittedly somewhat irreverent look at what motivates our politicians….if Radio 4’s ‘News Quiz’ can get away with it each week, despite the BBC’s draconian rules on all things pc, then so can I… In seemingly perpetual 'crisis' situations like this one,   as individuals we only really have two options - either to laugh or cry; I prefer to err on the side of laughter – for now, at least. Recent upsets at the top of the political tree, and the almost obsessive speculation about the outcome of yet another leadership race in the media, prompted me last week to ask myself the question:  “Why on earth would anyone actually want to be PM at a time like this ?” The role is...

Editor's Note: As a frequent local bus user, I was inspired recently to write a brief guide  for my website's travel page  on how to get the best out of our bus and train networks . Herewith a copy for the blog - hope it's useful....Now includes some info on local UK air travel....   Our UK public transport network has come a long way on since the days before the internet became  widely available in the late 1990s..... Working out how to get from A to B without major trauma during those somewhat simpler times relied on having a good sense of direction, a detailed knowledge of bus/train timetables, some decent maps, a knowledge of how to read them, and being reasonably mobile.  Timetable information was usually only available from tourist information offices, bus and train stations, etc., and only in paper form, and was quite often already out of date by the time you got hold of it. There were no digital bus signage boards for guidance, and few bus stops had...

  Although 2029 is a long way ahead, and Labour's leadership and cabinet will be focused on more immediate policy decisions, their advance planners should already be thinking hard about their electoral prospects…and not just for the next general election. The reason why they should be concerned at this early stage is that the next tranche of local elections are only a little under 3 months away, so the first ‘day of reckoning’ at the ballot box is, relatively speaking, nigh. Does this really matter, though, given their huge majority in parliament ? The answer is that it does…the hard reality is that the brunt of any early disapproval of the new government by the electorate (and there’s plenty of that around just now!) will fall on local Labour councillors, many of whom come up for re-election this year and will be worried about retaining their seats on May 1 st . If, as seems quite possible,  Labour  suffer a whitewash in these polls, it will signal they are 'gettin...