'Brooklyn-based Gangstagrass is headed to Vail tonight, fresh on the heels of their newly released album, Broken Hearts & Stolen Money. The Emmy-nominated band is known for their “rap‘n’grass” renditions, pairing the sounds of classic bluegrass with contemporary hip-hop.
'“It always catches my attention when bands converge previously non-meshed styles, (that) takes guts and vision,” said Scotty Stoughton, owner of Bonfire Entertainment and the show promoter. “Couple that with positive reviews from artists like the MarchForth Marching Band and national promoter friends, it was a no brainer to bring their energetic and unique live show to Vail.”
'The band’s founder, Rench (his stage name), said he has been working on combining the music styles for more than a decade.' (Vail Daily article).
'A study of how older teenagers use social media has found that Facebook is “not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried” and is being replaced by simpler social networks such as Twitter and Snapchat, an expert has claimed.
'Young people now see the site as “uncool” and keep their profiles live purely to stay in touch with older relatives, among whom it remains popular.
'Daniel Miller of University College London, an anthropologist who worked on the European Union-funded research, wrote in an article for the academic news website The Conversation: “Mostly they feel embarrassed even to be associated with it.' (Vancouver Sun article).
'Earthrise, a photograph considered by many to be one of the most important photographs ever taken, has until now been only a photograph. But, for the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission that yielded the photo, NASA has digitally recreated the moment when astronaut William Anders captured it using CG imagery and audio from inside the Apollo module itself. "The video allows anyone to virtually ride with the astronauts and experience the awe they felt at the vista in front of them," writes NASA in its announcement blog post.
'It will be at least another few years before Elon Musk and Richard Branson fly us to the moon for weekend trips, but until then, NASA's latest video is as close as you can get to seeing the dark side of the moon - and the Earthrise waiting on the other side.' (The Verge article).
'Our universe is a hologram. That’s the latest theory from numerous accredited scientists. In an article published recently in the science journal Nature, “compelling evidence” is provided by multiple studies that our universe may operate as a hologram. The evidence found by the studies, say experts, confirms some of the previous data found for string theory; a model for how the universe works that was born out of theoretical physics and proposed to the scientific community as far back as the 1960s.
'Theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena is a prominent scientist who has made a career exploring string theory. In 1997 he developed a theory that advanced string theory and allowed physicists to reconcile laws of gravity with the growing field of quantum mechanics. These two independent branches of scientific thought were finally joined-at least in some respects-by Maldacena’s theory, which also supported the idea of our universe being a hologram. The most recent hologram studies were completed by Japanese scientist Yoshifumi Hyakutake, who led a team of colleagues at Ibaraki University.
'Of course, the scientific process is always one of repeated testing. Theories get tested and re-tested; tweaked and re-tweaked until a definite consensus is reached by the scientific community and a working theory is put into place. String theory has had its detractors, but now, with two new papers validating that our universe may indeed be a hologram, string theory could be on the verge of getting an absolute proof.' (Liberty Voice article).
'China says it has successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon, in what represents a major achievement for the country's space programme.
'On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module underwent a powered descent, using thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the moon in 37 years.
'The touchdown took place on a flat plain called the Bay of Rainbows. The lander was carrying a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit". The rover rolled off onto the Moon's surface several hours after the landing.' (BBC News article).
...since the fucking courts are not going to. The Supreme Court of the UK has now promoted Scientology from being a McReligion to a 'real' religion, thus potentially qualifying it for a tranche of misguided god-subsidies that 'real' religions are entitled to. This fact however - bad enough though that it is - is not the source of my main beef here. What I really object to is that ANY religion gets ANY form of preferential treatment in our society. Christ on a bike, we are actually giving tax breaks to loads of religious fruitcakes whilst people are eating out of food-banks.
'The Supreme Court has said that Scientology is a legitimate religion. This ruling undermines the automatic presumption that all religious groups are for the "public benefit", argues Terry Sanderson.
'It's not very often that you'll find me agreeing with Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, but he was right when he said that the taxpayer would not be happy to be funding Scientology.' (National Secular Society article).
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has put a list of detailed questions concerning documented child sexual abuse to the Vatican. Of course the Vatican has, depressingly though predictably, failed to answer. Hiding behind 'canon law' and the bullshit 'fact' the the Holy See is not the Catholic Church, the Vatican has declined to answer the UN questions. Whatever happened to 'real law' where child abusing scum receives justice and punishment?' Looks like the cuddly new guy in the frock is just a better PR man than Ratzinger was...
'The Vatican has failed to answer detailed questions by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers or nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See. These formal questions were raised as part of the review of the reports the UN Committee require states that have ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child to provide every five years.
'In a formal response to the UN Committee's 'list of issues' or questions, the Holy See based its failure to answer them on the legal technicality that it is "related but separate and distinct from the Catholic Church". It added: "it is not the practice of the Holy See to disclose information on the religious discipline of members of the clergy or religious according to canon law, unless there is a related matter concerning international judicial cooperation with a State and the request by the State is made, generally, through specific procedures."' (National Secular Society article).
'Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.
'We guess the first thing we need to address is how this even came to be in the first place. Well, in 1962 JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160, which was supposed to ensure that every nuclear weapon the US had be fitted with a Permissive Action Link (PAL), basically a small device that ensured that the missile could only be launched with the right code and with the right authority.
'There was particularly a concern that the nuclear missiles the United States had stationed in other countries, some of which with somewhat unstable leadership, could potentially be seized by those governments and launched. With the PAL system, this became much less of a problem.’ profits.
'Beyond foreign seizure, there was also simply the problem that many U.S. commanders had the ability to launch nukes under their control at any time. Just one commanding officer who wasn't quite right in the head and World War III begins. As U.S. General Horace M. Wade stated about General Thomas Power:
"I used to worry about General Power. I used to worry that General Power was not stable. I used to worry about the fact that he had control over so many weapons and weapon systems and could, under certain conditions, launch the force. Back in the days before we had real positive control [i.e., PAL locks], SAC had the power to do a lot of things, and it was in his hands, and he knew it."' (Gizmodo article).
RT America's Abby Martin hits the nail on the head (see video stream below) concerning the sickness of needless Black Friday consumerism - a sickness that also appears to have spread to the UK, which is unusual given that we don't even celebrate Thanksgiving in this country.
Who should be held accountable?
Well, other than the brain dead general public who revel in this consumerist obscenity, Walmart of course, whose UK subsidiary Asda decided to have a cut-price Black Friday sale of worthless junk...
'The chaos that usually surrounds the US shopping day Black Friday has made its way to the UK, with fights and arrests breaking out in Asda stores. The superstore has adopted the US tradition of offering goods at discount prices the day after Thanksgiving, with televisions being sold for £99 and computer tablets as low as £49.
'Up and down the UK, shoppers queued outside Asda stores from the early hours of the morning to get their hands on the deals. However, as soon as the doors opened at the special earlier time of 8am, desperate shoppers fought their way through the crowds, with some getting engulfed in "stampedes" and even arrested.
'In Liverpool, one woman was left hospitalised after being punched in the face in the queue at the Asda store. In Bristol, one man was arrested following an altercation with staff after they told him he was only allowed to purchase one TV at a time.' (International Business Times article).
John Harris of The Guardian seems to understand the benefits of Scottish Independence - notably that a vote next year in favour of Scotland leaving the Union is the only opportunity that this country is likely to have of escaping the tyranny of the Tories, forever...
'To borrow a phrase from a politician he loathes, Alex Salmond feels the hand of history on his shoulder. On Tuesday [Nov 26 2013], his SNP government will launch its white paper on Scottish independence - to hear some people talk, the most significant political document in his country's history since 1320's Declaration of Arbroath. A day in 2016 has been set for formal secession from the UK: 24 March, the anniversary of both 1603's Union of the Crowns and the Act of Union of 1707. In its own way, news from the "no" campaign only underlines the sense of momentous times: on Saturday, like Banquo's ghost come to alert Salmond to his hubris, Gordon Brown materialised in the Daily Record, warning that an independent Scotland would be "worse placed, more vulnerable and less, not more, in control of key economic decisions".
'In England, the intensifying debate north of the border is still met with a great sigh of indifference. Perhaps our news discourse has become so trite that it can't cope with something of such importance. Or maybe this is more proof that London so dominates the supposed national agenda that anything that happens this far away will be overlooked – and that in any case, 14 years of devolution has left English and Scottish politics hopelessly estranged. In addition, large parts of the establishment seem to think that with polls showing less than a third of Scots supporting independence, the referendum can be thought of as a momentary tantrum on the Celtic fringe, and ignored. As evidenced by recent warnings from the new Scottish secretary, Alistair Carmichael (who last week tried to "put the fear of god" into the cabinet), such thinking is misplaced, but more of that in a moment.' (Guardian article & Scottish White Paper pdf download).
'Scientists in Spain have reported the first self-healing polymer that spontaneously and independently repairs itself without any intervention. The new material could be used to improve the security and lifetime of plastic parts in everyday products such as electrical components, cars and even houses.
'The researchers have dubbed the material a 'Terminator' polymer in tribute to the shape-shifting, molten T-100 terminator robot from the Terminator 2 film. The research is published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Materials Horizons.
'Self-healing polymers that can spontaneously achieve quantitative healing in the absence of a catalyst have never been reported, until now. The scientists have prepared the self-healing thermoset elastomers from common polymeric starting materials using a simple and inexpensive approach.' (Phys.Org article).
'Two days after the world learned the National Security Agency logs practically every American phone call, the agency had started cracking down on entrepreneurs who made fun of it. That’s according to Dan McCall, founder of politically themed T-shirt company Liberty Maniacs.
'On June 5, the Guardian posted the first of many documents, leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden, that detail NSA‘s spy practices. Two days later, McCall put up a handful of T-shirts and bumper stickers for sale on the custom goods marketplace Zazzle, which distributes most of Liberty Maniacs’ goods. Each of those items had the NSA logo, plus a common joke as a slogan: “The only part of the government that actually listens.”
'“Within an hour or two,” as McCall told the Daily Dot, Zazzle emailed him to say the shirt had been removed from the Zazzle site. (Zazzle didn’t respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment, nor did the NSA.)
'Zazzle’s first email, which McCall forwarded to the Daily Dot, said in part: “Unfortunately, it appears that your product, The NSA, contains content that is in conflict with one or more of our acceptable content guidelines. We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly. Result: Not Approved. Policy Notes: Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.”'(Salon article).
To use journo-speak the 'land reform question' in Scotland is 'gaining traction', and it can't come soon enough. For too long has public money been shoveled to super-rich landowners simply for having land or for at best a bit of environmental tinkering. Just as the Scottish Parliament is discussing land reform, a 28,000 acre estate is on the market for a cool £11.4 million. So what you might ask? Well, a major selling point, as advertised in the sales particulars, is the fact that this estate is guaranteed £12,000 a week in agricultural subsidies and forestry grants. In other words we are giving someone who can afford an £11.4 million estate £624,000 income.
With stuff like this going on and the fact that 432 people/organisations own half of Scotland this shit is long overdue for sorting out.
'According to sales particulars issued by selling agents Knight Frank, the new owner of the 28,000-acre Auch and Invermearan Estate in Argyll can look forward to getting a guaranteed £12,000 a week from the taxpayer by way of agricultural subsidies and recurrent forestry grants. Long unquestioned, such hand-outs to Scotland’s super-rich lairds (and you have to be super-rich to afford Auch and Invermearan at an asking price of £11.4 million) are starting to attract both media and political attention. Reacting to the Auch and Invermearan figure (incautiously revealed by Knight Frank at a point when social security payments are being capped and jobless young folk forced to live on £56.80 a week), the Daily Record commented: "Something is rotten in the landed estates of Scotland." Glasgow Labour MP Ian Davidson was equally forceful, labelling landowners, as the Record headlined, Scotland’s "greediest benefit claimants."' (Andy Wightman article).
Our friends over at Republic.org.uk want your examples of the most cringeworthy, tasteless and sycophantic royal baby-related programming across the BBC...
'We’ve seen from the jubilee and royal wedding that the BBC often finds it difficult to behave like a serious broadcaster when the royals are involved. That’s why we’re going to keep a close eye on them after the arrival of the royal baby - and we need your help.
'The way the media covers the arrival of the royal baby is important. Of course we don’t expect them to ignore the event, but the coverage should be proportionate, balanced and respectful of the new parents’ privacy. The BBC also has a duty to all of us - regardless of our views on the monarchy - to offer serious, intelligent and unbiased analysis. They need to be reporting, not celebrating.
'As our national broadcaster, the BBC has a particular responsibility here. Will it take that seriously or will it subject viewers to endless trivial chatter and intrusive detail?' (Born Equal feature).
'Recent studies by psychologists and social scientists in the US and UK suggest that contrary to mainstream media stereotypes, those labeled “conspiracy theorists” appear to be saner than those who accept the official versions of contested events.
'The most recent study was published on July 8th by psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent. Entitled “What about Building 7? A social psychological study of online discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories,” the study compared “conspiracist” (pro-conspiracy theory) and “conventionalist” (anti-conspiracy) comments at news websites.
'The authors were surprised to discover that it is now more conventional to leave so-called conspiracist comments than conventionalist ones: “Of the 2174 comments collected, 1459 were coded as conspiracist and 715 as conventionalist.” In other words, among people who comment on news articles, those who disbelieve government accounts of such events as 9/11 and the JFK assassination outnumber believers by more than two to one. That means it is the pro-conspiracy commenters who are expressing what is now the conventional wisdom, while the anti-conspiracy commenters are becoming a small, beleaguered minority.' (PressTV Rebel article).
'WikiLeaks just threw some gasoline onto the conspiracy fire. On Wednesday night, they Tweeted: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.”
'What exactly are they trying to say?
'Michael Hastings was a much admired freelance journalist who covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and helped to bring down General Stanley McChrystal. He was tragically killed this week in a car crash in Los Angeles, after his car hit a tree. Hastings is believed to have been alone in the vehicle.
'Hastings has certainly been in contact with WikiLeaks before. In 2012 he wrote a profile of Julian Assange for Rolling Stone in which he asked tough questions - but the overall tone is sympathetic. Hastings appeared willing to accept that the US government might have targeted Assange in an effort to discredit him; the interview also highlights the failure of mainstream media outlets to expose mistakes made by the US military and generally permits Assange to push his side of the story. Hastings’ empathy for WikiLeaks ties together the deceased journalist, Julian Assange and (through Assange) the leaker Bradley Manning. You can throw Edward Snowden into that mix because he, too, is an admirer of WikiLeaks. And Hastings’ last article was about the evils of the NSA - which ended with the tantalising line, “Perhaps more information will soon be forthcoming.” Glenn Greenwald Tweeted a link to the piece after Hastings' death. Of such connections are conspiracy theories made. In the minds of the highly imaginative, that is.' (Telegraph article).
Just like Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, Edward Snowden is being hounded by a vengeful US as a 'fugitive'. John Pilger hits the nail on the head in a superb essay exposing the lies and hypocrisy of the US and it's puppet allies.
'Imagine the aircraft of the President of France being forced down in Latin America on "suspicion" that it was carrying a political refugee to safety - and not just any refugee but someone who has provided the people of the world with proof of criminal activity on an epic scale.
'Imagine the response from Paris, let alone the "international community", as the governments of the West call themselves. To a chorus of baying indignation from Whitehall to Washington, Brussels to Madrid, heroic special forces would be dispatched to rescue their leader and, as sport, smash up the source of such flagrant international gangsterism. Editorials would cheer them on, perhaps reminding readers that this kind of piracy was exhibited by the German Reich in the 1930s.
'The forcing down of Bolivian President Evo Morales's plane - denied air space by France, Spain and Portugal, followed by his 14-hour confinement while Austrian officials demanded to "inspect" his aircraft for the "fugitive" Edward Snowden - was an act of air piracy and state terrorism. It was a metaphor for the gangsterism that now rules the world and the cowardice and hypocrisy of bystanders who dare not speak its name.' (John Pilger article).
It's not often that I am surprised by how low the Metropolitan Police will go, but today I am totally flabbergasted. Those of you who have followed the harrowing story of the horrific racist-murder of a black lad waiting for a bus in Eltham by some racist scum in 1993, will know of the appalling response by the Met, which ultimately led to the damning Macpherson Report that labelled the Met as "Institutionally Racist". It now looks like the Met not only botched their investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence because of their inherent racism, but, they actually spied on his friends and relatives in a despicable smear campaign. It also looks like they deliberately withheld details of this appalling operation from the original Macpherson report.
In response, our partially elected PM has today prattled on about some pathetic police-led inquiry (then I suppose the Eton posh-boy would probably suggest extinguishing a fire with a gallon of petrol) rather than a full, judge-led, public inquiry that should toast once and for all the racist filth that was in, and remains in the Met. If no-one ends up behind bars because of this, any free-thinker left in this country might as well fuck off to Ecuador.
'Dozens of officers could be put on trial for stealing the identities of dead children and sleeping with female activists whom they were spying on, according to the police chief conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into undercover policing conducted by the Met against protest groups.
'Mick Creedon, the chief constable of Derbyshire, also said his team would investigate claims from a police whistleblower, Peter Francis, that senior officers wanted him to spy on and even undermine the Stephen Lawrence campaign.
'In an interview, parts of which are being broadcast on Channel 4's Dispatches on Monday night, Creedon offered a "100%" assurance the matter would be properly investigated. He added that prosecutors were already being asked to consider whether criminal offences had been committed by generations of undercover operatives who had been planted in protest groups over the past 45 years.' (Guardian article).
This might seem like small beer in the greater scheme of things, but this story illustrates very well how the UK has a long way to go before it becomes a true secular democracy.
The good folks at the National Secular Society have spotted a nasty little piece of religious privilege and are launching a legal challenge against Woking Borough Council. Why? Well, the misguided fools at Woking BC have got a 'Pray & Display' scheme going on that currently only allows free parking to people attending a church on Sunday mornings. The Council has decided that everyone else does not warrant a supernatural-deity-subsidy so they have to Pay & Display in the normal manner. Good luck to the NSS with their important legal case.
'Whilst a number of local authorities have introduced charges for evening and Sunday parking in recent years, some of these authorities are allowing worshippers to park at subsidised rates or without charge whilst concurrently charging others for using the same car park at the same time.
We believe this constitutes unequal treatment; one that arbitrarily favours those wishing to attend a service of worship, whilst costing all taxpayers – regardless of whether they attend religious services or not – money. We argue that allowing free parking for worshippers and not other people amounts to direct discrimination on the grounds of religious belief.' (National Secular Society article).
'It has launched illegal and unjust wars with catastrophic human consequences; it has helped overthrow democratically elected governments; it arms and backs some of the most brutal dictatorships on the face of the earth; and it has a track record of supporting terrorist organisations. Even many of its ardent supporters admit that the US foreign policy elite has a somewhat chequered history.
'Today, an American hero stands in the dock, damned for a relatively tiny ray of light he shone on the darker recesses of this elite. Over three years ago, US soldier Bradley Manning - even now just 25 years old - leaked 250,000 US diplomatic cables and half a million army reports. There has never been a bigger leak of classified material in the history of the United States.
'His punishment has already been severe. According to Juan Méndez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, he has faced cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. For months, he was deprived of human contact. He was stripped of his clothes, left without privacy, and forced to sleep without any darkness. In 2011, P J Crowley was forced to resign as the US state department’s official spokesman after slamming Manning’s treatment as “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”'. (Independent article).
This story should come, sadly, as no surprise. In a nutshell: our very own Prince Charles of our unelected regime is helping out another (highly repressive) unelected regime with a spot of 'good publicity' for some cash (£700,000) for one of his hobby groups of chums. So when Charles is not talking to plants, baking biscuits or helping his dear old open parliament, he's now filling his time with activities usually left to other sniveling toadies like Prince Andrew or Mark Thatcher.
'Prince Charles has been accused of “giving legitimacy to one of the world’s most repressive regimes” after sealing a deal on behalf of his architecture group who will advise the Bahraini government on housing and planning.
'According to the Bahrain News Agency, the £700,000 deal was signed by Hank Dittmar, CEO of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, and Bahrain’s housing minister Basim Alhamer earlier this month. It followed a meeting between Mr Alhamer and Prince Charles at Clarence House on April 26.
'The agreement will see advisers from the group “supervise and review” plans for a new 4,000-unit housing project in the south of the kingdom, which will take inspiration from Poundbury, the model village in Dorset created by Prince Charles 20 years ago. A team from the Foundation will visit Bahrain later this month to begin work.' (Republic article).
Big bad pharma megalith GSK is banging the PR drum in Africa about a partnership with the charity 'Save The Children'. Call me cynical, but are GSK's motives really about saving sick kids in Africa when the very same company has fought tooth and nail to deprive this continent of affordable life-saving drugs for decades? Or is it more likely to be a response to more recent bad publicity over GSK buying-off competition to its extortionately priced anti-depressant 'Seroxat'? Also, reading between the lines, 'Save The Children' is definitely edgy about whoring it with GSK, so it looks like this story may not have a happy ending...
'Britain's biggest drug manufacturer has launched a new partnership with Save The Children to develop medicines to tackle child mortality in Africa. GlaxoSmithKline and the charity said together they could save a million children's lives.
'Save The Children chief executive Justin Forsyth said there was the potential for "huge gains". But critics are wary about the close involvement of a pharmaceutical company in charitable work.
'Save The Children admitted that its alliance with GlaxoSmithKline would be controversial - but said the project would save children's lives. For example, a formula for mouthwash will be turned into a gel that can be applied to the umbilical cords of babies to stop infection.
The new medicines will be sold at cost price. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said the partnership would set a new standard for how companies and charities could work together.
'Initially, two flagship programmes will operate in DR Congo and Kenya. These will be followed by other initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.' (BBC News article).
'Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden revenge-porn flick Zero Dark Thirty was the biggest publicity coup for the CIA this century outside of the actual killing of Osama bin Laden. But the extent to which the CIA shaped the film has remained unclear. Now, a memo obtained by Gawker shows that the CIA actively, and apparently successfully, pressured Mark Boal to remove scenes that made them look bad from the Zero Dark Thirty script.
'The CIA's whitewashing effort is revealed in a cache of documents newly released under a Freedom of Information Act request about the CIA's cooperation with Bigelow and Boal. The documents include a 2012 memo - initially classified "SECRET" - summarizing five conference calls between Boal and the CIA's Office of Public Affairs in late 2011. "The purpose for these discussions was for OPA officers to help promote an appropriate portrayal of the Agency and the Bin Ladin operation," according to the memo (hundreds of pages of CIA documents about the film were released last year - the memo obtained by Gawker was approved for release late last month).
'During these calls, Boal "verbally shared the screenplay" for Zero Dark Thirty in order to get the CIA's feedback, and the CIA's public affairs department verbally asked Boal to take out parts that they objected to. According to the memo, he did.' (Gawker article).
As if there was ever any doubt about this man's advanced intelligence, superbrain Stephen Hawking flips the bird to Israeli president Shimon Peres over Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Way to go Stephen!
As seems to be customary amongst the me-me-me generation, Hawking's intelligent and individual decision has been met with abusive Facebook responses that focus primarily on his physical condition. Personally I would've thought that Mr. Hawking was way too smart to be using the likes of Pusbook, but then I guess he's got to find someway of promoting his ideas to the intellectually challenged plebs of the 21st century...
'Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
'Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president's conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres's 90th birthday.
'Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking's approval described it as "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there."' (Guardian article).
It is common knowledge that Prince Charles, our hereditary heir to the throne, is well known to be on a nice little earner selling biscuits from Cornwall that 'earns' him about UKP 18 million a year. What is much less well known is that when someone dies down in darkest Cornwall without a will, this blood-sucker gets their assets too. However, keen to be altruistic he then generously shovels some of this unearned dosh to worthy causes like private schools and his other hobby 'charities'.
It's funny, however, that you never read about this shit in the Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail or the Murdoch rags when they are banging on about 'scroungers'. The same mouthpieces then attack anyone who criticizes the royals - upon uncovering such breathtaking greed - as 'waging a class war'.
Fucking right, bring it on!
'Prince Charles has used money from people who die without wills or family in Cornwall to fund his own charities and to support bursaries at his old private school in Scotland.
'As Duke of Cornwall, a title that already provides him with an £18m private annual income, a quirk of history means Charles becomes the owner of the assets of anyone living in the county who dies "intestate".
'Last year that provided him with more than £450,000 and he is sitting on £3.3m in cash from many years of collecting Cornish legacies, latest accounts show.
'In 2012, the benevolent fund he set up to use the money made one of its largest grants of £5,000 to the elite public school of Gordonstoun in Scotland where a place now costs £30,000 a year.' (Guardian article).
George Monbiot analyses the role of the new UK Government Chief Scientist Mark Walport regarding the proposed EC ban on neonicotinoids because of the rapidly declining bee population that is essential for crop pollination.
'What happens to people when they become government science advisers? Are their children taken hostage? Is a dossier of compromising photographs kept, ready to send to the Sun if they step out of line?
'I ask because, in too many cases, they soon begin to sound less like scientists than industrial lobbyists. The mad cow crisis 20 years ago was exacerbated by the failure of government scientists to present the evidence accurately. The chief medical officer wrongly claimed that there was "no risk associated with eating British beef". The chief veterinary officer wrongly dismissed the research suggesting that BSE could jump from one species to another.
'The current chief scientist at the UK's environment department, Ian Boyd, is so desperate to justify the impending badger cull – which defies the recommendations of the £49m study the department funded – that he now claims that eliminating badgers "may actually be positive to biodiversity", on the grounds that badgers sometimes eat baby birds. That badgers are a component of our biodiversity, and play an important role in regulating the populations of other species, appears to have eluded him.
'But the worst example in the past 10 years was the concatenation of gibberish published by the British government's new chief scientist on Friday. In the Financial Times, Sir Mark Walport denounced the proposal for a temporary European ban on the pesticides blamed for killing bees and other pollinators. He claimed that "the consequences of such a moratorium could be harmful to the continent's crop production, farming communities and consumers". This also happens to be the position of the UK government, to which he is supposed to provide disinterested advice.' (Guardian article).
'It's time, if you're so inclined, to plunk down a reservation for a one-way ticket to Mars. The privately funded Mars One foundation recently opened up applications for astronauts to take a journey to the Red Planet in 2022/23. Return trips, the organisers said, just aren't feasible with the technology we have.
'From a wide field of applicants, organisers said two women and two men will be selected to make the journey. The technology that takes them there has been tested before, and the potential for a worldwide audience will be there given four billion people will have the internet by then, said Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp.
'However, a cost breakdown of the £3.93 billion budget - as well as a concrete plan for how reality television deals and other sponsorship money will be secured - was not provided to the public at the press conference, prompting some scepticism among journalists as to whether the plan could be achieved.
'Lansdorp remained optimistic in the face of questions concerning the project's viability, pointing out the London Olympics in 2012 generated nearly £2.62 billion in revenues for a three-week spectacle. This makes Mars One a bargain deal for investors, he said.' (Wired article & Mars One website).
The machines are coming for us and we are all doomed...
'The most secretive piece of airspace in Australia - the RAAF-run Woomera flight test range in South Australia - will make history later this year when the world's first unmanned supersonic stealth combat aircraft makes its maiden test flight above the desert. Extreme secrecy surrounds the joint British-French project and the drone called Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder and built by a British/French consortium led by aerospace giant BAE Systems.
'Resembling an insect and using the delta-shaped "flying wing'' technology favoured by modern-day stealth aircraft such as America's B-2 stealth bomber, Taranis is designed to fly above the speed of sound over long distances undetected by enemy radars to attack targets with an array of precision missiles and bombs.
'Unlike current generation attack drones such as Predator and Reaper, that are used extensively to attack insurgent targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, Taranis will carry the latest in remote defensive technology so it can also evade missiles and hostile manned aircraft.' (news.com.au article).
Woo hoo! Good riddance to bad rubbish! Thatcher has finally died from a stroke (a stroke of good luck). And not before time. Great news like this demands a celebration. Now stock up on coal and get ready to lob it at her hearse during the forthcoming state funeral!
On the very day that our disgusting coalition government gives a huge tax cut to millionaires and hammers the poor, one little old lady billionaire has had a tidy little top-up. Yes, our unelected head of state has just trousered a UKP 5 million pay rise, raising the bundle of public money that our royal parasite gets from UKP30 million to UKP 36 million per annum.
However, the keen-eyed among us have noticed that as Buckingham Palace is owned by the state, then Liz effectively lives in 'social housing' - and this old house has rather a lot of spare bedrooms. Curiously though, the sniveling coalition toadies don't seem to have applied there disgracefully regressive 'bedroom tax' to this old dear. Funny that.
'The Queen has received a £5m boost in the funds she receives from the taxpayer to carry out her official duties.
'The sovereign grant, which covers the running costs of the Queen's household, has been set at £36.1m for the 2013-14 financial year.
'The figure has increased from the £31m allocated during the previous 12 months which included £1m to cover the extra costs of the diamond jubilee.
'The sovereign grant replaces the old funding system of the civil list and grants-in-aid and came into full effect at the start of the new financial year, which began on Monday. It also covers the maintenance of the royal palaces in England and the cost of royal travel for official engagements in the UK and overseas tours.
'Under the new grant the Queen receives 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate, but from funds two years in arrears.' (Guardian article).