-
I want to take a few minutes to analyse the state of our society. Let’s take the issue of women’s rights; how women are valued in our society, how women are treated, and what our society is doing to actively fight for and promote the rights of a historically oppressed and marginalised section of our society. In England, women are beaten up by their partners every day. In England, women are hospitalised by their boyfriends and husbands every day. In England, women are killed every week by the people who are supposed to love and protect them. In our society, women are objectified on television as objects for our sexual and visual pleasure and nothing more. In our media, we sell and package and advertise sex to children of younger and younger ages. What do we do to protect women in our society? Men that beat up their girlfriends, or wives; that brutally assault the women they live and sleep with, can expect, at most, a sentence of a few years. Many are released, and do exactly the same thing again.
~ Life on Wheels | “Power concedes nothing without demand…” -
![Steve Hornsby from Bournemouth said the 3cm diameter balls came raining down late on Thursday afternoon during a hail storm. He found about a dozen of the balls in his garden. He said: “[They’re] difficult to pick up, I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar.” (via BBC News - Bournemouth resident mystified by ‘blue sphere shower’)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lykpo7mrWR1qanjy6o1_250.jpg)
Steve Hornsby from Bournemouth said the 3cm diameter balls came raining down late on Thursday afternoon during a hail storm. He found about a dozen of the balls in his garden. He said: “[They’re] difficult to pick up, I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar.” (via BBC News - Bournemouth resident mystified by ‘blue sphere shower’)
-
Now a tiny English village is the latest community to claim to be being hit by the phenomenon known as “the hum”.
~ Tiny village is latest victim of the ‘The hum’ - Telegraph
Residents of Woodland, in County Durham, claim that every night a noise permeates the air similar to the throb of a car engine.
It is sometimes so strong that it even shakes the bed of one of the householders.
But no matter how hard they look, the community cannot find the source of the problem and, at their wits end, have called in the council to investigate. -
It had been widely thought Sweden had made the decision to oppose bail, with the CPS acting merely as its representative. But today the Swedish prosecutor’s office told the Guardian it had “not got a view at all on bail” and that Britain had made the decision to oppose bail. Lawyers for Assange reacted to the news with shock and said CPS officials had told them this week it was Sweden which had asked them to ensure he was kept in prison.
~ Julian Assange bail decision made by UK authorities, not Sweden | Media | The Guardian -
“I’m asking you, do you think I could have, in any way, pose a physical threat from the seat of my wheelchair to an army of police officers armed with weapons? This whole line of argument is absolutly ludicrous, because you’re blaming the victims of violence, for that violence. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the way the BBC report on the palestinian conflict.”
-
Desmond Leslie also joined the ‘White Eagle Lodge’, a group founded in the 1930s by the Spiritualist Grade Cook, channeling a Native American spirit guide called White Eagle. After he returned to Castle Leslie later in life he established a temple for the Lodge at his home, and this seemed to give him a great measure of spiritual comfort. It is clear that Leslie’s interest in UFOs was very much from an esoteric and occult angle, and the idea of ‘space brothers’ fitted in well with his own philosophy. This biography does not make it clear who initiated the link between Leslie and George Adamski, which culminated in the publication of Flying Saucers Have Landed in 1953. Three-quarters of the volume was Leslie’s historical survey, just 50 pages covered Adamski’s account of his extraterrestrial meeting. The mixed reaction to the book, indeed the downright hostility, suited Leslie’s combative spirit, and he vigorously defended his theories in writing and on radio. He was perhaps the first person, in 1953, to claim that the Air Ministry had a special department to investigate UFO reports. (via THE MAGONIA BLOG: An Irish Gentleman)
-
Jonathan Rugman, a reporter for Channel 4 News in London, writes on Twitter from Westminster Magistrates’ court that the head of the legal team for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, arrived wearing a skull and crossbones tie for the first hearing in the case. Mr. Rugman observes: “Internet pirates vs. Swedish prosecutor then!” He added that Mr. Assange is due to appear in the court in the next few minutes. (via Latest Updates on Leak of U.S. Cables, Day 10 - NYTimes.com)
-
I believe that this is the first real demonstration that pollination levels are getting worse. I believe it is a significant decline. I believe the pollination levels have dropped by as much as 50 per cent.
~ Bee decline already having dramatic effect on pollination of plants - Telegraph
“Bee numbers may have declined at our research site, but we suspect that a climate-driven mismatch between the times when flowers open and when bees emerge from hibernation is a more important factor. -
~ Dr David Clarke: The Rendlesham FilesI do recall Penniston’s story and he did leave me with a sketch of an object he claimed to have seen. I left the sketch in my desk drawer and the story was summarized in Halt’s letter. Here’s Penniston’s narrative to the best of my recollection. I’m paraphrasing, of course:
“….The lights were clearly visible when I arrived at the RAF Woodbridge gate. No one knew the source of the the lights, but some speculated that it was close enough to the approach path of the runway that it could in fact be a crashed plane. Because of this, it was decided that further investigation was warranted. Burroughs, Cabansag and myself were sent out by jeep. We worked our way toward the still- visible lights by way of a logging road. As we approached close enough to have a clear view of the site, [Burroughs?] decided we were close enough and stopped the vehicle. We were still more than 100 meters away and, wanting a better look, I decided to proceed further on foot. [Burroughs?] accompanied me as we closed on what we began to see was an object with lights on it. Our apprehension began to build,so we stopped about 50 meters away, taking cover behind some brush. After studying the situation for about 10 minutes, we decided to move in yet further for a closer look. Just as we began to close the distance to the object, it began to move away through the trees. The faster we moved toward it the faster it moved away. By the time we arrived at an open field a much greater distance had opened up between us,and soon it disappeared beyond a small rise in the direction of a farm house. After a short pause , we decided we had had enough and headed back toward [Cabansag] and the jeep. With a quick glance over the shoulder we saw the thing again back at the hill,this time coming toward us. We ran to get away, but within two seconds it was up and gone.———-(end of narrative)…”
-
~ Dr David Clarke: The Rendlesham FilesLt Col Halt’s report of more lights both on the ground and in the sky brought quite a few people out of their houses at Woodbridge to see what was there. These people included myself, my wife, Lt Col Sawyer (the Director of Personnel), his wife, and several others listening to my radio and looking for the lights Halt was describing. Despite a sparkling, clear, cloudless, fogless night with a good field of view in all directions, we saw nothing that resembled Lt Col Halt’s descriptions either in the sky or on the ground. This episode ended in the early morning hours of [28 December 1980].
The search for an explanation could go many places including the perpetration of a clever hoax. Natural phenomenon such as the very clear cold air having a theoretical ability to guide and reflect light across great distances or even the presence of an alien spacecraft. If someone had the time, money and technical resources to determine the exact cause of the reported Rendlesham Forest lights, I think it could be done. I also think the odds are way high against there being an ET spacecraft involved, and almost equally high against it being an intrusion of hostile earthly craft.
-
~ Copyright Turns 300 TodayIn 1710, 300 years ago, England enacted the very first copyright law, cutely named the Statute of Anne, after then-reigning Queen Anne. When reading about those early days of copyright, one can’t help but hope we will return to those days - the Statute of Anne has little to nothing to do with modern copyright.
Some may not realise it, but the invention of the printing press is one of the most defining moments in human history. It allowed ideas to be spread faster, cheaper, and wider than ever before, and authorities quickly realised they needed to regulate access to the new technology, or else “objectionable” ideas could spread quickly, posing a threat to the state and church.
The terms of the Statute of Anne were relatively reasonable. Works were protected for a term of 14 years, and terms could be extended for another 14 years if the owners of the copyright were still alive and wished to do so. Books already in print were covered by a 21 year term. Today, copyright usually covers the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years.
Sadly, modern copyright is no longer about promoting learning; it is now all about ensuring endless profit for content providers. People like Lord Camden or the author of that pamphlet would be horrified by the world we live in today; a world bogged down by copyright, causing valuable works to be lost to erosion because nobody knows who the rightsholders are.
-
For more than a week, a mysterious pulsating light has been appearing nightly over Lake Erie east of downtown Cleveland — showing up at approximately 7:30 pm and zipping around in the darkness for about two hours before disappearing — reports MSNBC. Captured on film from various angles, it’s now drawing nightly crowds at the lakefront. (via The Cleveland UFO: What on Earth? - The Week
)
