It seems to have been the main casualty from the move to a new hosting service for Thomo’s Hole. The boys are looking for the problem now and we will return it to use as soon as we can.

In the meantime, no pictures for a while. I may have to look for an alternative.

I will, of course, inform you all when it is back.

Maeander is an ancient river in South West Turkey and gave us the term "meander" for the bends in a river.

H.M.S. Mæander on the other hand was a 44 Gun vessel of the British Navy, built in 1840 and weighing 1221 tons. In 1859 she was stationed in Devonport.

The illustration is the Maeander "Shortening Sail for Anchoring" at Rio de Janeiro on 9 June 1851. The illustration was presented to Captain The Honourable Henry Keppel, and the Officers of H.M.S. Mæander. The illustration was presented by Oswald W. Brierly who joined Henry Keppel on H.M.S. Mæander, on his circumnavigation, 1848-1851.

That is about all I know of this vessel - however, it is more than I did before the inquiry was made in the Hole.

OK, so this is the first such post. I may do more this way, especially as last week has been another busy week for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Lasciviousness, Licentiousness and C-Men) here in the Kingdom.

In the meantime, this seems to work,

The Arab News on 28 April reported on Undercover Officer Complains of Mistreatment by Vice Cops
which detailed some young blokes being slapped around by the C-Men for doing, well, nothing really.

“We were in Thumama at around 3 a.m., Thursday morning, having fun and joking around, when one of us spotted a commission jeep pass by,” the officer, who requested anonymity, told Arab News.

He said he and his four colleagues were just like any other guys going to Thumama to vent out on a weekend night without the intention of harming any families or looking for trouble.

“A colleague said in a loud voice ‘guys, it’s the Haya’a (commission)!’” he continued. “But we were doing nothing wrong. We did not even have soda pop bottles or play any loud music for them to consider that we were doing something wrong.”

According to the officer, the commission members pulled up in a off-road vehicle bearing the commission’s logo. One commission member accused one of the campers of calling them dogs, then picked out the youngest member of the group, Rami Al-Amri, 18, and began slapping him.

“One of the men said: ‘I’ll teach you who the Haya’a is. We are the government’,” Al-Amri told Arab News. The commission members allegedly proceeded to verbally abuse the campers and impugn their character. Al-Amri claimed that the commission member that was being physically abusive threatened to jail him for three months.

Gee - you gotta watch those soda bottles and music! Really - it is time the Kingdom got rid of these buffoons.

police patrols in Makkah have dealt with 10,744 cases and made 8,068 arrests between Jan. 10 and April 21 this year, according to figures released by the Makkah police. Of those arrested 6,508 were suspected of being involved in various types of crime, 489 were charged with robbery, 676 were arrested for not carrying valid resident permits or for running away from their sponsors, 250 were drug-peddlers and 126 people were wanted for previous crimes.

Police also confiscated six rifles, 10 revolvers, five machine guns, 457 cartridges of live ammunition, two air guns, 1,825 Captagon pills and 100 kilograms of other types of drugs. They also seized 6,437 vehicles over the period.

This is, of course, the Holy city that Hajj and Umrah pilgrims make their way to. Of course, the statistic I find most interesting is that 6,508 were “suspected of being involved in various types of crime” however only 1,541 were actually charged with anything - just under 20% of those arrested.