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calendar   Tuesday - March 31, 2009

A 95% Perfect Story

Blundering Somali pirates arrested after attack on anti-piracy ship



Attackers mistook naval vessel for a merchant ship off the Somalia coast, Nato says



Pirates who attacked a ship off the coast of Somalia got more than they bargained for when it turned out to be a naval vessel – from an international force against piracy, Nato said today.

The pirates apparently mistook the FGS Spessart for a commercial merchant ship when they targeted it in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen, yesterday afternoon.

The German supply ship pursued the pirate boat, joined by two other ships, a frigate, a helicopter and a plane.

A Nato spokesman said: “Poor judgment by the pirates turned out to be a real opportunity for seven nations representing three taskforces to work together and strike a momentous blow for maritime safety and security.”

A boarding team discovered several weapons and transferred seven suspects on to another German frigate.

Nato said the detained suspects will remain on board until a decision is made as to where they will be prosecuted.




Phew, I was upset there on the first reading. I thought they wrote - hey, it’s a German ship, right? - “until a decision is made as to whether they will be prosecuted.”


Ok, had there been tales of overwhelming gunfire from the German ship, with the pirate ship exploding and going down in flames, as burning Gollies had to leap into shark infested waters to extinguish themselves, only to find out that sharks like them better half toasted, then it would have been a perfect story. But I’ll take it this way.



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FGS Spessart



FGS Spessart is an auxiliary ship to the German Navy. It is a fleet oiler, manned by a civilian crew. I guess the pirates didn’t realize the blue-grey paintjob with the big white numbers on the side was a dead give away that this wasn’t a civilian merchantman.

Commander, Combined Maritime Forces Public Affairs

USS BOXER, At Sea – In a show of international sea power in the Gulf of Aden, seven nations representing three task forces coordinated efforts to pursue a skiff after the pirates on board opened fire on a German oiler, the Federal German Ship (FGS) Spessart, March 29.

At approximately 3 p.m. yesterday, FGS Spessart, reported that they were being attacked by pirates who may have mistaken the naval supply ship for a commercial merchant vessel. An embarked security team aboard the ship returned fire on the suspected pirates during the initial attack.

Subsequently, Spessart pursued the skiff while providing additional details of the attack to a variety of international naval vessels operating in the area. A number of naval ships and aircraft joined the pursuit, including: the Dutch frigate HNLMS Zeven Provincien, an SH-60B helicopter assigned to the Spanish warship SPS Victoria, a Spanish P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, two Marine Corps helicopters from the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 flagship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the European Union’s CTF 465 flagship, the Greek frigate HS Psara.

Supported by an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1 Huey assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced), “Evil Eyes,” embarked aboard Boxer, the international naval forces contained the armed suspects until Psara arrived with a German boarding team.

Upon boarding the skiff, the team found seven suspected pirates and their weapons. The suspected pirates were disarmed and transferred to the German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz where they will remain until a final determination is made regarding potential prosecution.

While this event showcased the incredible international naval capabilities operating in the Gulf of Aden, it also highlighted the complexity of counter-piracy operations. The crew of Spessart and the embarked security team provided the critical first line of defense, utilizing defensive measures that are essential for all ships operating in the region. Moreover, nearly five hours transpired between the time Spessart’s armed security team thwarted the initial attack and when an armed boarding team was within range of the pirate skiff. In the interim, armed coalition aircraft kept the suspected pirates from getting away.



Hey, I’m just really glad that this fleet oiler had “an embarked security team” aboard. Imagine how red the faces in Berlin would have been if they hadn’t ... because then the Spessart, a naval vessel [in what is pretty much a combat zone, or at least one that meets my definition of “in harm’s way"] would have been captured. By pirates. Egg, face, much? Phew!!


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2009 at 03:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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The Pistol Saga: A REJECT

TAURUS Model 650: No Thanks

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I had high hopes for the little Taurus Model 650. As a company, Taurus has come a long way in the past few years getting the quality up to where it ought to be. That’s great. The Model 650 is a compact 5 shot .357, just what I could be looking for. It is fairly inexpensive, as far as revolvers go, and is a mid-weight model that tips the scales at about 25 ounces. Sounds great! The small rubber grips are comfortable and fit my hand. Super! The trigger is properly shaped and sized for a good hold, and the curve of it ensures that my finger won’t get pinched between the trigger and the trigger guard. Outstanding. See, it seems like a winner, right?

Fit and finish are pretty darned good. Everything is smooth and shiny. No metal burrs or sharp edges anywhere. This is an aluminum alloy framed gun, and the anodized finish is well done. It does not vary in color or in smoothness at all. The gap between the back of the barrel and the front of the cylinder is quite small. I didn’t measure it, as I was trying out somebody else’s personal gun, but you want that gap to be small. The cylinder was not at all wobbly in lock up, and the cylinder release worked easily and without a hitch. Nice.

It seemed perfect. Then I pulled the trigger. Or tried to, I should say. WTF???

The Taurus Model 650 is a “fully enclosed hammer” design. This means it doesn’t actually have a hammer, at least not one on the outside of the pistol. That means you can’t cock the hammer and fire it in “single action” mode. It’s “double action” only. You have to pull the trigger for the full stroke to cock and fire the gun. (Then you have to allow the trigger to fully return on the backstroke so you can pull it again. Well, no kidding; that’s how any double action pistol is, but some people don’t know this). And therein lies the problem. I have never pulled the trigger on a hammerless revolver before. I have never even handled a Taurus pistol before. So I can’t say if it’s the hammerless design, or just the way that Tauruseseses (Tauri?) are. BUT.

The trigger pull was about 17 pounds. Heavy as all hell. Worse yet, it was all or nothing. Actually, it was nothing, then all. Damn, I thought I had broken the gun somehow. I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The trigger did not move. I checked to make sure I had closed the cylinder, because if the cylinder is not locked in place a revolver will usually not function. No, that was Ok. So I pulled the trigger again. Nothing. I pulled the trigger harder. Nothing. What the hell?? So I made sure I had a good grip, and pulled that mother for all I was worth. The trigger did not move even a smidgen, and then suddenly - SNAP!! - and the whole thing went at once. Advance the cylinder, cock the “hammer”, fire the gun: all happen in a flash, after you apply tremendous pressure to the trigger. I did it again. I did it several more times. That’s the way this pistol works.

No thank you. Next.

I’ve fired revolvers for years and years. I know how they work. You pull the trigger a little and the cylinder starts to turn. You pull the trigger a little more and you can feel the hammer start to cock. Certain pistols - most notably Smith & Wesson - are world famous for how smoothly their actions work, and how their springs don’t “stack up”, and then they go off. Even my Ruger GP-100, a big honking chunk of stainless steel not known for a velvet trigger, is about 100 times better than this Taurus 650.

In a life or death emergency, yeah, you’d yank that trigger right out the other side of the gun if you had to. And it would go off. But it would be a stone bitch to practice with; jerky stiff triggers destroy accurate shooting, and accurate shooting builds confidence in the weapon. Without confidence all you have is a pound and a half of metal club in your pocket that goes bang. Sometimes.

I am also rethinking the whole “Get a .357 Magnum snubbie, not a .38 Special” idea. The owner of this pistol, Doc R (from previous .45-60 posts) is a big strong guy. A Marine. And this is a mid-weight pocket pistol; you can buy similar ones that weigh half as much. I asked him how it was with .357 ammo. “I fired it once.” he said, “It was like setting off an M-80 in your hand. Never again.” Yikes. Ok, sure, on the one hand it could be better to have the capability for .357s and never use it, just in case. OTOH, I don’t think there will be a huge difference in velocity between a .38+P and a full power .357 in a barrel only 2” long, so why bother? Perhaps 125 feet per second? The +P can put the bullets out there at at least 900 feet per second from that short barrel, and at across the room distances, that’s enough to do the job.

I’ll pass on this model Taurus. To be fair, as far as I can tell the Model 650 (called the Model 850 in .38 Special) is NOT the same design as their Model 85 Ultra-Lite. That’s a bobbed hammer design I think, so perhaps it has a much smoother and easier trigger pull. I can’t say.

I hear the new Ruger LCR has a really nice trigger that only requires a third as much effort:

The trigger pull is one of the best features of the LCR. The two that I fired at the factory had very good, butter-smooth trigger pulls. The few that I handled at SHOT [a trade show] did as well, so I was hopeful that the production guns would also have good trigger pulls. I was not disappointed. My sample gun has what is probably a perfect trigger pull for a small defensive revolver. Measuring seven pounds, ten ounces, it feels even lighter. The trigger is wide and smooth on the surface, and the pull feels more like five pounds to my finger.

Also, I can pretty much guarantee that Ruger’s SP-101 has the same trigger as my GP-100, since the two pistols share the exact same trigger module. And I know that a little $10 little kit from Wolff helps those triggers even more. No such kit exists for this model Taurus.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2009 at 10:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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Five-foot female fitness fanatic pins knife-wielding attacker to a wall. And she’s 50 too btw.

Man you do not wanna mess with this little lady.  And 5’ is little.
There is a rather grainy photo online at the link shows her and the gremlin.

Good story and bravo her.  Took some guts.

Five-foot female fitness fanatic pins knife-wielding attacker to a wall

By Jaya Narain
Last updated at 2:23 PM on 31st March 2009

When she saw a knifeman repeatedly stab a man in the face and neck before leaving him for dead in the street, Georgina Harmer was appalled.

But without a thought for her own safety, the feisty 50-year-old gave chase and grabbed hold of the thug.

Then she got him in a headlock, pinned him against a wall and valiantly held on for 10 long minutes until police arrived and arrested him.

Georgina Harmer pinning knife-wielding attacker Wesley Ogden to a wall. The 50-year-old held him there for 10 minutes until police arrived

Yesterday she was praised for her bravery as knifeman Wesley Ogden, 28, was jailed for the horrific attack.

The incident happened last August when Miss Harmer, a customer service advisor for O2, was enjoying a night out with friends Alan Keown, 48, and his girlfriend Pamela Nabb, 40.

The group went outside The Clarence pub in Bury, Greater Manchester for a cigarette where they were confronted by Ogden who had been earlier thrown out of the pub causing trouble.

He made a sexual remark towards Miss Nabb, prompting a verbal dispute with her boyfriend that turned into a scuffle.

Ogden then produced a knife and started to repeatedly stab Mr Keown in the face and body in a frenzied assault.
Wesley Ogden

Wesley Ogden repeatedly stabbed Miss Harmer’s friend in the face and neck

As 6ft 2in Ogden ran off down the road, Miss Harmer - who is just 5ft 4in tall and weighs eight stone - gave chase and tackled him outside a bank before pinning him to the wall in a headlock.

CCTV pictures from cameras located at the HSBC bank dramatically capture the bravery of her citizen’s arrest.

As she desperately clung on to Ogden, a doorman from a nearby pub came over and helped her restrain him until police arrived.

Last night she said: ‘I think I was just running on adrenaline.  It didn’t take me long to catch him. I pinned him against the wall, put him in a headlock.

‘It’s fair to say I applied pressure between his groin - that’s the polite way of putting it - and restrained him and he was wincing in agony.

‘He was denying that it was him that had done it, but I was saying “It’s you”. I struggled with him - but I wouldn’t let go of him until I knew the police had him.’

Miss Harmer, a former pub landlady from Radcliffe, said: ‘There wasn’t a lot going through my mind really, I just didn’t want him to get away - I wanted to go back and make sure Alan was alright. It was really serious, I think a few people thought it would be fatal - there was so much blood.

‘I do keep myself fit, I run an under-18s rounders team and I go power walking twice a week. I used to weight-lifting a long time ago, but I’m too old for that now. I’m very active although I don’t have a regime as such - but I think it did help.’

Mr Keown was rushed to hospital where he was treated for four serious wounds to his face and body, but his injuries were not life-threatening and he recovered.

Ogden of Oldham, was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grevious bodily harm and assault following a trial at Bolton Crown Court and was told he must serve at least three-and-a-half years behind bars.

Ogden, pleaded not guilty, despite the number of witnesses who saw the assault.

Detective Inspector Sarah Jackson, of Bury CID, said: ‘Ogden is an extremely violent and dangerous man who had the temerity to plead not guilty despite the numerous witnesses who saw this savage assault.

‘He belongs behind bars and I am glad that is where he will now be spending his foreseeable future.

‘While what the victim’s friends did was undoubtedly risky, I would like to praise their bravery. In particular, the woman who put her own safety at risk and chased Ogden through the town centre, detaining a very strong and dangerous man, was incredibly courageous and her selfless actions have helped put a violent man behind bars.’

Miss Harmer, who says a policewoman friend once gave her a few self defence tips, said: ‘I’m very pleased with the sentence - I hope this will be a deterrent to people carrying knives and give confidence to witness who have doubts about coming forward. They shouldn’t be scared.

‘If this guy wasn’t taken off the streets he probably would have done it again and it could have been a murder.’

PHOTOS HERE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2009 at 10:05 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeDaily LifeSelf-DefenseUK •  
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Teacher faces disciplinary action after parent uncovers racy lingerie photos online.

batbatbatbatbatbat

I JUST CAN NOT BELIEVE THESE STUPID ASS DUMMIES.  WHAT MORONS! 

Isn’t it interesting that buy chance they just happen to find her photos online.  Take a look.  What’s so bad about these?
The fat assed head teach is gonna give a “severe reprimand.” Get a life you stupid shit!  You and the complaining half assed parent.
STUPID - STUPID - STUPID !

LOL ... THE WIFE WONDERS IF ANY OF US WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL?

Teacher faces disciplinary action after parent uncovers racy lingerie photos online

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:35 PM on 31st March 2009

A teacher is facing disciplinary action after outraged parents spotted photographs of her posing in her underwear on the Internet.

Aspiring model Natasha Gray, 30, was reprimanded after a stunned parent wrote an anonymous letter complaining about the ‘provocative pictures’.

Miss Gray, who is the Head of PE and Dance at Manor Community College in Cambridge, is pictured wearing pink lingerie and stilettos on website iModel.com.

(a word or two about the site mentioned here. iModel.  Looks like crap. Tried to open and takes forever and when it does there’s not much worth seeing. Yes, there are a few ok but I never was able to see her at this site. Hardly worth the effort. Lots-a-bow-wows.)

A caption on her ‘Tasha’ homepage, which promotes her modelling work, states she is ‘willing to travel with expenses paid’.
Enlarge Teacher Natasha Gray at the SCHOOL DAZE LINK below.

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‘Inappropriate’: Parents say pictures of aspiring model Natasha Gray, 30, Head of PE and dance at Manor Community College, Cambridge, were seen by students.

In 2002, Miss Gray was named Britain’s sexiest teacher after winning an ITV phone-in competition, just two weeks before she started her job at Manor Community College.

The angry letter from an unnamed parent said the ‘inappropriate’ pictures were ‘common knowledge’ among students as young as 11 at the school.

Seductive: Miss Gray has a website offering her services as a model

Winning beauty: Miss Gray was named Britain’s Sexiest Teacher two weeks before she started her job

It read: ‘I am a parent of a pupil at Manor Community College in Cambridge and was surprised when my child came home from school informing me that one of their teachers had some what I would call provocative pictures on a website.

‘From doing a bit of digging, it is apparently common knowledge about these photos, and has been for some time.

‘Any teacher is in a position of trust and surely this is inappropriate for not only the school, but also pupils.

‘I am disgusted that, even if these were taken before she became a teacher, Miss Gray has not even attempted to remove them.

‘I assume the pupils have a good giggle about it but I find it rather crass.’

Mother-of-two Claire Schofield, who is a governor at the secondary school and has one child there with another due to start in September, said she was surprised a teacher could be so careless.

‘I would hope that any teacher would be able to be some sort of responsible role model to children at the school,’ she said.

‘I don’t think she really thought this through.’

Headteacher Ben Slade insisted the photos had nothing to do with the school but said Miss Gray would be severely reprimanded.

Oblivious: Head teacher Ben Slade said the photos are ‘certainly a disciplinary matter’ but that Miss Gray will not be suspended

Bikini babe: Miss Gray qualified for the finals of Britain’s Sexiest but narrowly missed out.

He said: ‘I knew nothing about this. It is not on the school’s internet and we have very robust policies on how staff should behave in school.

‘This will certainly be dealt with most severely and will certainly be a disciplinary matter.

‘Teachers are entitled to their union representation and Miss Gray has been spoken to.

‘She will be asked to take the pictures down. This is not a matter for suspension, as much as I would like it to be in this case.

‘If the pictures were more pornographic or if they involved someone of a dubious age it would be more serious.’

Following her win as Britain’s sexiest teacher Miss Gray entered a competition against winners from six other professions to be named ‘Britain’s Sexiest’.

She was narrowly pipped to the top prize by a fitness instructor.

Speaking after the competition she said: ‘It was absolutely fantastic. I had such a brilliant day. The audience was great and helped me get into it.’

Miss Gray was unavailable for comment yesterday.

SCHOOL DAZE,SCHOOL DAZE

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2009 at 08:14 AM   
Filed Under: • EducationEye-CandyJack Booted ThugsStoopid-PeopleUK •  
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Their voices have not been heard since the First World War.  With some help from a lipreader.

I’m really surprised that nobody has done this before.  Surely someone , somewhere must have thought of bringing in a lipreader.


‘I’m going to bomb ’em all and then b****r off’: Lipreader helps Tommies find their voice

By Nigel Blundell

Their voices have not been heard since the First World War.

The soldiers in these photographs are all long dead – some meeting their fate only minutes after the pictures were taken. But now, thanks to a lipreader, we know what the Tommies were saying.

The stills are taken from a silent movie shot at the bloody Battle of the Somme in 1916, which on its opening day, July 1, alone claimed the lives of 20,000 British and Empire troops.

One wounded soldier swears. Another voices deep foreboding about an imminent attack. Others, away from the Front, smile and shout greetings to their mothers.

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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus’, says a soldier with a wounded foot, far right. Another soldier implores: ‘Stop filming, this is awful’

Their comments have been revealed for the first time in more than 90 years by lipreader Jessica Rees who, with three historians, has been analysing the film held in the Imperial War Museum – likely to have been one of many shown as newsreels in cinemas back home at the time.

One clip shows a company of Lancashire Fusiliers about to go ‘over the top’ on that first day.

One Tommy, operating a mortar, is now known to have been saying to his second lieutenant: ‘I hope we are in the right place this time because if not, I’m going to bomb ’em all and then bugger off.’

They may have been among his last words. For, only minutes later, he and his comrades were cut down by machine-gun fire as they were ordered into battle.

A soldier with a wounded foot repeats: ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.’ He also swears out loud: ‘F***.’ Another a soldier appeals: ‘Stop filming, this is awful.’
the somme trenches

A soldier in trenches during the Somme, taken from the Somme exhibition at the National Army Museum

Elsewhere along the Front that same day, men of the Royal Fusiliers are readied for battle. A corporal urges them to speed up fixing of bayonets, ordering: ‘Fix ’em, fix ’em, get ’em fixed.’

There are lighter moments, though. Soldiers of the Essex Regiment were filmed washing at a pool. They shout out ‘Hi Mum!’ and ‘Hello Mum, it’s me.’

The latest research, which has resulted in a new book on the Battle of the Somme, dispels the long-held belief that such films were pure propaganda, featuring ‘staged’ battle scenes.

‘The bulk of the footage was not re-enacted for the cameras,’ says Alastair Fraser, co-author of Ghosts On The Somme: Filming The Battle.

‘The harrowing scenes of injury and death were largely for real. When a soldier fell, he really was dead.’

Mr Fraser, a Durham University librarian, and his co-authors Steve Roberts, a battlefield guide, and Andrew Robertshaw, TV military expert and curator of the Royal Logistics Corps Museum at Deepcut, near Aldershot, came up with the idea of getting
Ms Rees to ‘listen in’ to what the soldiers in the films were saying.

‘For some, these were to be their last words’

Ms Rees, who is deaf, often appears as an expert witness in major court cases.

She said: ‘What struck me the most was the optimism of the soldiers and their bravery. They were very upbeat in their speech.

‘It is impossible to tell whether this was due to their patriotism or because they had been told that an easy victory lay ahead but they were very jolly in ways that many of us, who now know the outcome and death toll of the Somme, find very hard to comprehend.
battle of the somme

‘They all seemed very positive, full of team spirit and jocular. Yet, as I was stunned to learn, many of them did not even survive the day of filming. I came away feeling a bit humble.’

Mr Robertshaw added: ‘Many of the men filmed were soon dead. Some were killed a little later that same day.

‘What we learned were, in some cases, almost the very last words of these Tommies.’

TOMMIES AT WAR

OTHER PHOTOS AT THE LINK ^


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2009 at 07:47 AM   
Filed Under: • HistoryUKWar-Stories •  
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Girl becomes youngest scout to scoop up all 33 badges… at the age of nine.

Now why the heck would I post this possibly boring article on a mostly political blog site?
Cause there’s so darn much out there about feral yoots even in her age group that it just plain feels nice to acknowledge this one kid.
And I bet there might be a lot more that are not little savages.

Anyway, hey. All those badges?  This kid was sure dedicated and single minded and had her eye on her target.

She’s also a little doll and I betcha a darn good student.

She’s eye-candy in the nicest possible way.  But gee ... I sure hope she doesn’t grow up and become a civil rights lawyer.
Whatever she does do, I’d also bet she will be a success at it.

So hats off and Kudos to this youngster.

Girl becomes youngest scout to scoop up all 33 badges… at the age of nine

By David Wilkes
Last updated at 1:07 AM on 28th March 2009

When Rebecca Hooper joined the Cubs, she was determined to be more than just one of the pack.

It took her little more than a year to earn all 33 available activity badges.

She has become the first girl in the country and, at the age of nine, the youngest Cub of either sex to achieve the feat. 

Rebecca, who was ten this month, has been saluted for her ‘determination and enthusiasm’ by the Scout Association after mastering activities ranging from astronomy to animal care and DIY to martial arts.

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Girls have been allowed in the Cubs since 1991, and Rebecca chose them over the Brownies because she found their activities more appealing.

She set to work after a pack leader jokingly told her that she needed to ‘pass all the badges’ before she could achieve her silver Scouting award.

Rebecca, of Toft Monks, near Beccles, Norfolk, hopes to become a vet and particularly enjoyed looking after her family’s pets for the animal carer badge.

For the Air Activities badge, she took her first flight in a small private aeroplane, which was organised by her stepfather Mik Horn, an IT technician, who has a private pilot’s licence.

Other badges saw Rebecca also attend judo lessons, make a computer desk, cook her family a roast dinner, repair a puncture on her bicycle, visit a synagogue, learn how to read a map, sail a boat and tidy up her local churchyard.

Her mother Helen Horn, a teacher, said: ‘I am really proud of her. She has been really dedicated and has had to work very hard to achieve this.’

Rebecca’s passion for Scouting is in the blood. Her mother was a Queen’s Guide, the highest Girl Guide award in her day, and her grandfather ran a Scout troop.

Rebecca, a pupil at Glebeland Primary School, will join the Sea Scouts in September - and her next aim is to get all their 60 badges. Her brother Ben, 12, is in the Sea Scouts, who meet in the same hall on the same night as her Cub pack.

There is clearly something in the Norfolk air that inspires the Cubs - last year the Mail told how ten-year-old Ben Spratling, from Norwich, won all 33 badges along with Leon Johnson, also ten, from Stockport.

A WINNER

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2009 at 06:13 AM   
Filed Under: • AwardsDaily LifeEducationUK •  
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A fully-functioning Second World War Spitfire is up for sale.

Personally I think it has been a bit spoiled by that damn second seat. Oh well, it is still a Spitfire in a manner of speaking and if I were that wealthy I’d still want to own it.  Along with the ME-262, the ME109, FW190 and of course the Hawker Hurricane.  I’d also love to own the civilian private plane once called The Air Coop. I think I have the spelling right.  I’m certain it is no longer made. I saw one around 1957 I think it was. Never forgot it and yet it wasn’t anything special and nothing fancy about it. But just something about that plane that stuck with me all these many years.

Oh yeah .. The P-38 and The Mustang and The Corvair and did I miss anything? I did. The old twin tailed, no it had three didn’t it?  TWA flew it and I think it was designed by Howard Hughes. ??  Was it called the Clipper? What a sweet looking aircraft that was. I know PanAm had a Clipper. DArn, now I have to find a good photo of that TWA plane.  There were a lot of em once. 

About this plane here, The Spit.  Looks like they’ve also screwed up the bullseye markings too.  Hmmm, maybe I’d offer only half. Why’d they have to mess with the markings? What made the ppl who restored this think replacing the original markings was cool? 

I’m off on a tangent here.  I see one plane and it sets off my memory banks.

Spitfire for sale at £2m
A fully-functioning Second World War Spitfire is up for sale.

Last Updated: 5:36PM BST 29 Mar 2009

Five years have been spent restoring the spitfire to airworthiness Photo: BONHAMS
It is being offered for £1.5million - £2 million by a private owner.
It’s the first of its kind to be offered at public auction for more than 20 years and has been painstakingly restored to airworthiness over a five-year period.

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“The warbird is absolutely ready-to-fly and in truly sparkling flightline condition,” said a spokesperson from Bonhams auctioneers.
Originally it was a single-seater but it’s been refitted to take a passenger.
The Supermarine-designed aircraft was built by the British Vickers-Armstrong company in 1944, then delivered to the Royal Air Force at Lyneham in Wiltshire before being sold in 1948 to the South African Air Force.

In the 1970s, it was rediscovered in a Cape Town scrap yard from which it was rescued by an aviation enthusiast, the late Charles Church.
Mr Church initiated the long process of restoration before it was sold in 1989 to Alan Dunkerley, who eventually resold it to the late Paul Portelli in June 2002.
This will be the second of the WWII Spitfires that Bonhams have offered. Last September the auction house sold a non-airworthy 1945 Supermarine Spitfire for a record price of £1.1 million.

This was a ‘Bubble Canopy’ MK XVI, considered by collectors as being less desirable than this two-seater MK IX Spitfire.
James Knight, MD of Bonhams Collector’s Motoring Department which is managing the sale of ‘G-ILDA’ said: “We are greatly honoured to be entrusted with the sale of such a distinguished and historic aircraft.

“As Bonhams is the last of the great international fine art auction houses to remain under British management, the sale of an aircraft so linked to the history and very survival of our nation has enormous significance for us here."The sale will be at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London on 20th April.

SPITFIRE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2009 at 04:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-StuffHistoryUK •  
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calendar   Monday - March 30, 2009

Last Honors: Rodger That

Follow the link and read Rodger’s short post on Michael Monsoor.

Then watch the 4:30 video narrated by Gary Sinise over at YouTube.


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Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

- Mary Elizabeth Frye


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2009 at 04:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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This job stinks

Things I will do for money




“Hello Drew? This is Janice from Dr. R’s office. Can you come in tonight? There’s this awful smell in the lab and we don’t know what it is. And it’s bad - at this point the patients are leaving because of it. Um, I think maybe you should bring a ladder, as it might be up in the ceiling. Or maybe it’s behind those big file cabinets, so bring some tools in case you have to take them apart. But you have to get rid of the stink!!”

Oy vey. And here I thought I was going to have a few beers at bowling tonight and then just relax. Nope, gotta go to work.

Hmm, I wonder how much I should bill for emergency stinkage removal? $100? I bet there’s a dead squirrel or something up there. Oh, I’m soooo looking forward to this task ...

Let’s see ... ladder, flashlight, toolbag, rubber gloves, heavy duty plastic bags, Lysol, Lestoil, carpet cleaner, air spray ... eeeww, maybe I should bring a shovel, just in case?


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2009 at 03:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuffwork and the workplace •  
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Couple died in house fire with three-year-old as police held back neighbours desperate to help. ??

According to this story, some are claiming that the police under health and safety rules stopped neighbors from trying to help.

However, I read another story that claims the neighbors tried but were turned back by heat and flames.
So the question is, which version is true?
I guess it’ll take a day or two to find out.  I can see where police would try and keep others away from possible harm though.
Sad story but I really hope Elf ‘n’ Safety had nothing to do with this.  If really it did, then we’re gonna be hearing about it for awhile.
I hope not. 


Couple who died in house fire with three-year-old son as police held back neighbours desperate to help.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:52 PM on 30th March 2009

Angry neighbours have said that police held back would-be rescuers.

They said they could see heavily-pregnant Michelle at an upstairs window, screaming ‘please save my kids’.

But police said they had to wait for firemen to arrive.

Enlarge
Michelle and Mark Colley, who died in the blaze along with their son Louis, on their wedding day in July 2004

By then, however, Mrs Colley, 25, her husband Mark, 29, and their three-year-old son Louis were dead.

Their daughter Sophie, five, is fighting for her life in hospital.

Family friend David Davis, 38, said: ‘It was the most harrowing thing I have ever seen.

‘Michelle was at the bedroom window and we wanted to help but the police were pushing us back and not allowing us near.

‘We were willing to risk our own lives to save those children but the police just wouldn’t let us - and there was no way they were going to try themselves.

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Flowers and teddy bears placed outside the home today. Mark and Michelle Colley died alongside their three-year-old son in the blaze, their five-year-old daughter remains in a critical condition

Neil Cotterill: People were shouting to bring ladders.  ‘Tempers were running high but the police were saying we have to wait for the fire brigade because of health and safety rules.’

He added: ‘When a family is burning to death in front of your eyes, rules should go out of the window - especially when children are involved.’

Neil Cotterill said he heard another neighbour shouting for people to bring ladders. ‘We could have helped,’ he said.

The fire broke out shortly after midnight on the ground floor of the family’s three-bedroom terraced home in Highfields, near Doncaster.

Mrs Colley, who was expecting her third child in a fortnight, and her husband had spent a quiet evening at home before going to bed.

They were woken by the fire and a 999 call was made at 12.26am. Police were the first to arrive.

Mr Davis said: ‘There were four or five officers. We heard the sirens and went across to help but they wouldn’t let us.

‘I thought the police were there to protect lives. Years ago they would have gone inside themselves to try a rescue. But all they seemed bothered about was health and safety rules.

‘It’s unbelievable that it could happen like that. Everybody wanted to try and help. You can’t have respect for police if they have no respect for other people’s lives. It might have been different if it was one of their own.

‘Mark and Michelle were a great couple. A real family - they loved their kids and the kids were smashing.’

Another witness said some friends and neighbours ignored the police warnings and tried to reach the family with ladders and a hosepipe. But again the police intervened and stopped them.

Chris Richardson, 37, said: ‘It was shocking. I couldn’t believe the police were acting like that.  ‘One woman climbed over the garden fence and went to the house but there was a policeman at the back who stopped her.’

Firemen using breathing apparatus-found Mr Colley, a DIY store supervisor, in the master bedroom with his wife. Sophie was in another bedroom and Louis on the landing.

Witnesses said police arrived ‘several minutes’ before firemen but South Yorkshire police refused to give the exact time, citing ‘data protection’ rules.

Detective Superintendent Peter McGuinness said: ‘I would like to commend our officers. The Fire Brigade were only minutes away but our officers were faced with a raging fire. They handled the incident as professionally as we would expect and then worked long into the night.’

Experts said the blaze was not suspicious.

FIRE/PHOTOS

Just a question. Why oh why do people find it necessary to place toys and flowers like this?  Never used to until that silly yellow ribbon song came out. Ever since then folks have got the idea of putting things in the area of accidents and deaths etc.  Do they think anyone is gonna come by and collect them and deliver them to the hereafter?  Why not spend all that money and give it “quietly” to say a children’s charity. Or a burn center.
Oh but no.  People have to be SEEN to be grieving. 


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2009 at 12:15 PM   
Filed Under: • MiscellaneousScary StuffUK •  
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From Russia, With Love

The Almost Unknown 9/11 Memorial

In Bayonne NJ

Doc Jeff sent me this, but it’s taken me a few days to get it all put together



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Titled “To The Struggle Against Word Terrorism”, this 100 foot tall artwork stands at the end of the former military pier in Bayonne NJ. Also known as the “Teardrop Memorial” the heavily symbolic work is situated so that it is exactly in the middle of the sight line between the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center to the north.

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The eleven sided pedestal that supports the statue is inscribed with the names of the nearly 3000 people who lost their lives that day.



The artwork was designed and fashioned by Russian sculptor ZURAB TSERETELI, and the piece was dedicated on September 11, 2006. More can be read about it at the dedication website, information about how it was built can be found here and in many other places too.

“To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” was conceived as the events of 9/11 unfolded and Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli walked the streets of Moscow. Struck by the outpouring of grief he observed, a memorial with an image of a tear formed in his mind. Shortly after the attacks, Tsereteli visited ground zero and looked to New Jersey’s waterfront for an appropriate site for a monument honoring victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

Bayonne was a fitting location; the city was an arrival point for many New York City evacuees on 9/11, a staging area for rescuers, and offered a direct view of the Statue of Liberty and the former World Trade Center towers.

A gift from Tsereteli and the Russian people, the memorial is made of steel sheathed in bronze. Standing 100 feet high, its center contains a jagged tear. In it hangs a 40-foot stainless steel teardrop, representing sadness and grief over the loss of life, but also hope for a future free from terror. Etched in granite on an 11-sided base are the names of the nearly 3,000 killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001

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Oddly, in recent weeks the rumor has sprouted up that this memorial and it’s dedication were totally ignored by the media. Even Snopes.com felt the need to run a piece on that rumor. It is not true, although to be fair this has not received a huge amount of attention. Funny how the Russians could put an idea together, build it, find a place for it, import it, and erect it, while New York City still dithers about getting almost nothing done about theirs. To be frank, more press was given to the “issue” that the Russian sculptor used a slightly out of date list of victims, and thus the names of 40 people who don’t belong there are inscribed on the base.

France gave us the Statue of Liberty. Now Russia has given us “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” another XXL, in-a-class-of-its-own monument. If you have not seen it, that may be because you haven’t recently approached New York City by ship. For those coming in from the Atlantic, through the Narrows, the Russian gift now heaves into view well before Lady Liberty. That is intentional, according to Zurab Tsereteli, the Moscow-based sculptor who created the monument. “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” stands at the end of a long, man-made peninsula in Bayonne, New Jersey, and it looks from a distance like a giant tea biscuit.

The walkway around the statue contains hundreds of inscribed pavers, some with personal messages from those still here to those who are gone forever.

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Islam Delenda Est


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2009 at 12:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-PhotographyWar On Terror •  
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CHINA’S WORLDWIDE WEB OF CYBER-SPIES.

China in the news big time with regard to cyber thingy.  To be exact, worries over China’s hi-tech spy network.

Just for the heck of it I went to Google looking for info and “Sink Me” as the man said in that old movie, darn if I didn’t find reporting on this subject as far back as 2001.  And it goes further back then that but I just stayed in that one year of 2001. I don’t really know if I should be worried or not.  At my age I doubt I’ll see any results of bad news this day anyway. What? Me Worry?

So then, here was the headline on page 13 of today’s paper.

EXPOSED:  CHINA’S WORLDWIDE WEB OF CYBER-SPIES.

But I couldn’t find the exact story under that headline online.  Typical Telegraph. But I did find a BBC article that was close but NOT exactly the same as what I saw in the Telegraph.  Damn sorry bout that too because the Telegraph seemed to have a more complete story.  The journalist there (Telegraph) is Malcolm Moore if you want to hunt further.

Major cyber spy network uncovered

So anyway .... here’s the deal.
The Telegraph says that a “vast” cyber network code named GhostNet has penetrated 103 countries and infects at minimum a dozen new PCs every week.

They say that GhostNet has been designed to infiltrate sensitive ministries and embassies across the world. This part of a result of a ten month investigation carried out by a Canadian group.  Apparently some people are far more concerned then I am but they’re far younger then I am. 
Here’s what the BBC has to say.

Major cyber spy network uncovered

An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say.
They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries.
They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama - Tibet’s spiritual leader.
There is no conclusive evidence China’s government was behind it, researchers say. Beijing also denied involvement.

The report, Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network, comes after a 10-month investigation by the Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which comprises researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies.
They were acting on a request from the Tibetan spiritual leader’s office to check whether the computers of his Tibetan exile network had been infiltrated.
Researchers found that ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan appear to had been targeted.
Hacked systems were also discovered in the embassies of countries including India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Thailand, Germany and Pakistan.

Analysts say the attacks are in effect industrial espionage, with hackers showing an interest in the activities of lawmakers and major companies.
Compromised
The researchers said hackers were apparently able to take control of computers belonging to several foreign ministries and embassies across the world using malicious software, or malware.
“We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama,” investigator Greg Walton was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

They say they believe the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on governments in Asia.
By installing malware on compromised computers, hackers were able to take control of them to send and receive classified data.
In this case, the software also gave hackers the ability to use audio and video recording devices to monitor the rooms the computers were in. But investigators said they did not know whether or not this element had been used.

According to the New York Times, the spying operation is the largest to have been uncovered in terms of the number of countries affected.
In an abstract for a second report released on Sunday by two Cambridge University researchers - entitled The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement - investigators said while such attacks were not new, these particularly stood out for their ability to collect “actionable intelligence for use by the police and security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences for those exposed”.
CORRECTION: The BBC News website mistakenly gave the impression in an earlier version of this story that the IWM produced the “Snooping Dragon” report. We wish to stress that this report is entirely separate from the “Tracking GhostNet” report.

BBC NEWS


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2009 at 10:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Commies •  
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Time To Quit

Single Largest Cigarette Tax Hike Ever Hits Wednesday




President Obama signed a law early in his administration to raise taxes from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack of cigarettes and from 19.5 cents to 50 cents per pound for chewing tobacco.




Tobacco companies and public health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.

Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit.

Tobacco taxes are soaring to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. President Obama signed that health initiative soon after taking office.

Other tobacco products, from cigars to pipes and smokeless, will see similarly large tax increases, too. For example, the tax on chewing tobacco will go up from 19.5 cents per pound to 50 cents. The total expected to be raised over the 4 1/2 year-long health insurance expansion is nearly $33 billion.

Smokers are mulling their options.

The tax increase is only the first move in a recharged anti-smoking campaign. Congress also is considering legislation to empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. That could lead to reformulated cigarettes. Obama, who has agonized over his own cigarette habit, said he would sign such a bill.

Prospects for reducing the harm from smoking are better than they have been in years, said Dr. Timothy Gardner, president of the American Heart Association. The tax increase “is a terrific public health move by the federal government,” he said. “Every time that the tax on tobacco goes up, the use of cigarettes goes down.”

About one in five adults in the United States smokes cigarettes. That’s a gradually dwindling share, though it isn’t shrinking fast enough for public health advocates.

Let’s not even consider the health issues. Let’s just look at the tax bite. At least two thirds of the price of a pack of smokes is taxes. So quit smoking just to impoverish the government. 

New Jersey, of course, has the highest state taxes in the nation on cigs. Right now it stands at $2.57 I think. And then they charge you the state 7% sales tax on top of that. In 2002 NJ tripled the tax on cigarettes. With the latest tax, on which they charge sales tax, they’ll make even more money from it.

On February 4, 2009, Congress enacted, and President Obama signed into law, a 62-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax, along with increases in other tobacco taxes, to fund expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The federal cigarette tax will increase to $1.01 per pack on March 31, 2009.

Since January 1, 2002, 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased cigarette taxes, some more than once.  The average state cigarette tax has increased from 43.4 cents to $1.21 a pack.

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A few weeks ago a brand-name pack of cigarettes cost around $6.75 in NJ. Then overnight the price shot up to nearly $8. That was the manufacturers raising their prices in anticipation of this latest tax hitting. And the vendors got their extra margin in. And of course the sales tax bite increased because of all of that:

Philip Morris USA, the largest tobacco company and maker of Marlboro, is forecasting a drop, but spokesman Bill Phelps said he cannot predict how big. Philip Morris raised Marlboro prices by 71 cents a pack early this month, and prices on smaller brands by 81 cents a pack. Other major companies followed suit.

The pricing moves raised eyebrows. “That’s nothing more than greed,” said Kevin Altman, an industry consultant who advises small tobacco companies. “They weren’t required to charge that until April 1. They are just putting that into their pockets.”

Responded Phelps: “We raised our prices in direct response to the federal excise tax increase, and people who are upset about that should find out how their member of Congress voted, and contact him or her.”

35 years ago, when I was in high school and the minimum wage was $2.35 an hour, a pack of smokes cost 50¢. I think a cartoon went for $4. Maybe less. With this latest tax hike, cigarettes will cost nearly 50¢ each.  Screw that. I think we should all give up the habit, just to hose the government. They make billions from the tobacco taxes, and yet have no appreciation at all of the people who give them this money. Nope, they’re all evil. Social pariahs. Unemployable health risks. And NOBODY takes their side. EVER.

It is unfortunate that anti-smoking groups are incapable of anything other than knee-jerk support for any and all cigarette taxes. They have never met a cigarette tax increase that they didn’t like, no matter who pays the tax, what the funds are used for, how regressive or unfair it is, how inappropriate the resulting fiscal dependence on smoking might be, and how sensible potential alternative funding sources, or alternative uses of the cigarette tax revenues might be.

The cigarette graphic is a little bit dated, but the slices are generally accurate. Without the insane taxes, cigarettes would cost about a quarter of what they do.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2009 at 10:00 AM   
Filed Under: • MiscellaneousTaxes •  
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Rise of sea levels is ‘the greatest lie ever told.  Oh dear. What facist thinking, right?

Well now Mr. Booker and those he quotes will surely earn more brick-bats from the vocal smarmy loony tune left.

Booker writes on the ecology hoax in all it’s guises every week.

This is a wordy editorial but it is surely well worth the reading.

Oh btw ... Did any of you folks celebrate that earth day thingy last week? You know, turn off your lights and read in the dark or whatever.
We had ALL lights burning including one room all night. Just for the hell of it.  Pretty silly tho as electric here is VERY expensive.  It isn’t something I do all the time due to cost.  But I just can’t resist doing the exact opposite of whatever the greens are asking when they come up with this stuff.

I am determined to leave as big a footprint in their carbon whatever as I can.

The uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story, writes Christopher Booker.

Christopher Booker
Last Updated: 6:31PM GMT 28 Mar 2009

If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming, it is the belief that we face a disastrous rise in sea levels. The Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.

Although the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London in similar plight. As for tiny island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu, as Prince Charles likes to tell us and the Archbishop of Canterbury was again parroting last week, they are due to vanish.

But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.

Despite fluctuations down as well as up, “the sea is not rising,” he says. “It hasn’t risen in 50 years.” If there is any rise this century it will “not be more than 10cm (four inches), with an uncertainty of plus or minus 10cm”. And quite apart from examining the hard evidence, he says, the elementary laws of physics (latent heat needed to melt ice) tell us that the apocalypse conjured up by
Al Gore and Co could not possibly come about.

The reason why Dr Mörner, formerly a Stockholm professor, is so certain that these claims about sea level rise are 100 per cent wrong is that they are all based on computer model predictions, whereas his findings are based on “going into the field to observe what is actually happening in the real world”.

When running the International Commission on Sea Level Change, he launched a special project on the Maldives, whose leaders have for 20 years been calling for vast sums of international aid to stave off disaster. Six times he and his expert team visited the islands, to confirm that the sea has not risen for half a century. Before announcing his findings, he offered to show the inhabitants a film explaining why they had nothing to worry about. The government refused to let it be shown.

Similarly in Tuvalu, where local leaders have been calling for the inhabitants to be evacuated for 20 years, the sea has if anything dropped in recent decades. The only evidence the scaremongers can cite is based on the fact that extracting groundwater for pineapple growing has allowed seawater to seep in to replace it. Meanwhile, Venice has been sinking rather than the Adriatic rising, says Dr Mörner.

One of his most shocking discoveries was why the IPCC has been able to show sea levels rising by 2.3mm a year. Until 2003, even its own satellite-based evidence showed no upward trend. But suddenly the graph tilted upwards because the IPCC’s favoured experts had drawn on the finding of a single tide-gauge in Hong Kong harbour showing a 2.3mm rise. The entire global sea-level projection was then adjusted upwards by a “corrective factor” of 2.3mm, because, as the IPCC scientists admitted, they “needed to show a trend”.

When I spoke to Dr Mörner last week, he expressed his continuing dismay at how the IPCC has fed the scare on this crucial issue. When asked to act as an “expert reviewer” on the IPCC’s last two reports, he was “astonished to find that not one of their 22 contributing authors on sea levels was a sea level specialist: not one”. Yet the results of all this “deliberate ignorance” and reliance on rigged computer models have become the most powerful single driver of the entire warmist hysteria.

•For more information, see Dr Mörner on YouTube (Google Mörner, Maldives and YouTube); or read on the net his 2007 EIR interview “Claim that sea level is rising is a total fraud”; or email him – morner@pog.nu – to buy a copy of his booklet ‘The Greatest Lie Ever Told’


FINED, FROZEN AND NOW JAILED

The Marine Fisheries Agency was certainly onto a winner when it enlisted the aid of the Assets Recovery Agency in its ruthless war against our fishermen. In December 2007 Charles McBride and his son Charles, from Kilkeel in Northern Ireland, were fined £385,000 for under-declaring catches of whitefish and prawns in the Irish Sea, threatening the loss of their homes and boat. But the Assets Recovery Agency, using powers designed to recover money from drug dealers, also froze all their assets. To pay the fines, the McBrides tried to borrow against their assets. Now, for this effort to pay the fines, Liverpool Crown Court has sentenced the two men to two and three months in gaol for “contempt of court”.

BLOWN AWAY

The Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, timed his jibe impeccably last week when he said that opposing wind farms is as “socially unacceptable” as “not wearing a seatbelt”. Britain’s largest windfarm companies are pulling out of wind as fast as they can. Despite 100 per cent subsidies, the credit crunch and technical problems spell an end to Gordon Brown’s £100 billion dream of meeting our EU target to derive 35 per cent of our electricity from “renewables” by 2020.

Meanwhile the Government gives the go-ahead for three new 1,000 megawatt gas-fired power stations in Wales. Each of them will generate more than the combined average output (700 megawatts) of all the 2,400 wind turbines so far built. The days of the “great wind fantasy” will soon be over.

BOOKER

Hey .. I can’t leave it here without posting a comment made by Chris Edwards in a BMEWS comments section.  The topic was something else but Chris went off and said this, and so unknowing at the time Hit This Particular Nail Square on The Head!!  And I really like the way it was put.
Typical of this guy too. Thanks Chris.

“This is just another reason to only allow global warming deniers the vote. To be eligible to

vote we should all be given a history test, not a nu lab cleansed version but a real warts and all

test and then fail gets one vote and pass get 2 anyone sucked in by the global warming

cult/scam cannot vote as they have proven their lack of sanity.”
Chris Edwards


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2009 at 08:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-WeatherEditorialsEnvironment •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
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