We can all hear this radiation when the televisions we watch go into ‘white noise’ mode – when you see the black and white dots on the TV screen before it shuts transmission. They are picked up from our satellites. When we hear this noise -this is the beginning of the universe – the radiation is 13 billion years old.
Professor Hawking suffers from Motor Neurone disease – which could have attacked his ability to breath – he is this year 70 years of age.
Professor Hawking and Roger Penrose looked at the nature of time itself.
The Chancellor from the last Labour Government should be hailed as the man who saved the UK Banking system from financial collapse. Alistair Darling (MP for Edinburgh South West). He should be known for the fact that he was he who was solely responsible for actually avoiding a complete UK financial and banking meltdown.Even the telegraph has described him as a person who would be best suited as forerunner for the position of leader of the Labour Party in the past
It was he who took the decision to save the Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax (HBOS), and Northern Rock and doing so also prevented virtually every other major bank in the UK from closing. At the time he is famously known as the bad guy who predicted that the world economy had reached the lowest point in a “60 year financial period” and said it may take decades – as his prediction is now proving – to recover.
In an interview in The Guardian published 30 August 2008, Alistair Darling warned, “The economic times we are facing… are arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years. And I think it’s going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought.” His warning led to confusion within the LabourGovernment who were oblivious to the problem – Darling, insisting it was his duty to be “straight” with people
Unlike US Government who took the decision not to help the major investment institution Lehman Brothers deal with their mounting toxic assets thus causing greater economic disaster worldwide – Alistair Darling avoided the UK going into a worse scenario in the UK – he took the decision without requiring legislation (as the US would require) to save Britain’s major banks.
Below is an address he made to the London School of Economics which describes the actions he needed to take whilst in his position as chancellor when in 2008 the emerging European (including UK and Ireland) institutions started to feel the effects of the US financial market collapse.
George Galloway probably made a mistake when he recently twittered about a victory in Blackburn. But it’s left many wondering was it just that or a plan for another future labour takeover?
Announcing yesterday “Welcome to the 6000 new followers. I will try to live up to your expectations. Shattered but happy after the Blackburn triumph”
Realising his mistake he hastily then tweeted : “Bradford is now home for me“, but his next tweet suggests that his account had been hacked! A mistake perhaps or maybe he’s envisaging taking over a further victory in the days to come – maybe the odious Jack Straw needs to watch his own seat.
Not all agree with George Galloway, and I must admit I don’t agree with everything he’s said or when I do I don’t always like his opinionated expression of views – but maybe that un-diplomatic tenaciousness in putting his point across is the only way to get things across sometimes.
Galloway was a prominent critic of Saddam Hussein‘s regime in the 1980s but then became a embassador for overturning economic against Iraq in the 1990s. He became ‘friendly’ with ex-president Saddam Hussein and it’s then Prime Minister Tariq Aziz obviously in his role. He has spoken out against the treatment of Palestine in the Israeli/Palestine conflict (but maintains relations even within the Jewish community). Thus it’s o wonder confusion might arise sometimes to his allegiance to diametrically opposed political situations – but at heart he fights against poverty, injustice, racism, capitalism and obviously war. He thought Saddam a dictator, he met him – but disagreed with the military intervention; but so did the UN .
Anyone who defames him is immediately told to back down or spend a day in court with him – these victims are endless. His self-importance and self-publicity then shrines through these appearances. Channel4 news didn’t serve well with him either, after only a two-minute interview with Channel 4′s Cathy Newman before he tore off his microphone claiming he had more important interviews to hold. Newman said that she “had at least 10 more questions to go when he ripped his mic off”.
He could best be remembered for taking on the public during his radio shows, and with great zeal; often demonstrating some form of common sense. He should rightly be the antithesis of anything that is ’Labour’ – I hope he proves to be nail in the Labour (or rather New Labour) party coffin. Labour lost its socialist values. I believe that there hasn’t been any change in Conservatism since 1979 – as new New Labour merely continued it.
I don’t agree with him on everything; he even at times is iritating but I’m glad to see some opposition to New Labour’s policies. The Labour party forgot many of it’s grassroots socialist views – I know I campaigned for them in 1997 – the party became a parady of Orwells “Animal Farm“ as it tried to accomodate lower upper & middle class voters and excluding and ignoring working class. They won elections alright but became unrecognisable in policy looking more Conservative daily and allowing an unregulated financial market to take the country to meltdown, just as Thatcher in the 80s.
Love him or hate him - maybe he’s not entirely virtuous – but he speaks his mind even antagonisly getting that point of his across. .
Below a clip of one of his famous radio shows; here speaking to self-proclaimed Nazi:
Astronomers released this week a picture containing more than one billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. It combines data from two near-infrared1 telescopes – the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii and the VISTA telescope in Chile - and is the result of a decade-long collaboration by astronomers at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge to process, archive and publish the prodigious quantities of sky survey data generated by these two telescopes.
Dr Phil Lucas from the University of Hertfordshire leads the UKIRT study of the Milky Way, and co-leads the VISTA study. He said: “The combined data on over a billion stars represent a scientific legacy that will be exploited for decades in many different ways. They provide a three-dimensional view of the structure of our spiral galaxy, the Milky Way, while also mapping several hundred nebulae where stars are being born. The VISTA data, in particular, is breaking new ground by showing how several hundred million stars vary in brightness over time.”
Sir Richard Branson now owns a small part of the banking industry in the UK and Worldwide – he now owns a Northern Rock Bank. His Virgin Money group is getting into banking – but what does he intend to do? Well he has said he’s going to transform banking. He WILL make investors happy – he always has! , but what of the customer – he plans to revolutionize our savings and investment ? But perhaps our money is okay after all he owns:
AirAsia X — long-haul budget airline operating from Malaysia (16% owned by Virgin Group)
Marussia F1 — a Formula One team established in 2010. Formerly called Virgin Racing, Virgin are still a part-owner, despite having sold naming rights to Marussia.
V Festival — two-day music festival held in two separate locations in the United Kingdom
V Festival (Australia) — an Australian version of the V Festival
Virgin Festival — a North American version of the V Festival
Virgin Active — a health club chain in Australia, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the UK
Virgin America — a United States budget airline based at San Francisco International Airport (25% owned by Virgin Group)
Virgin Atlantic Airways — an international carrier based in Crawley, West Sussex, UK (51% owned by Virgin Group)
Virgin Balloon Flights — a hot air balloon operator
Virgin Australia Holdings Limited
Virgin Australia — an Australian-based airline
Virgin Samoa — a Samoan-based airline
Blue Holidays — The holiday programme of Virgin Australia, now a joint venture between Virgin Australia
Virgin Books — publisher, retailer and distributor of books (10% owned by Virgin Group)
Virgin Brides — now-defunct bridal wear shop in Manchester, UK
Virgin Cars — internet automobile retailer
Virgin Charter — a private jet online marketplace
Virgin Comics — comic book producer
Virgin Drinks — drink manufacturer
Virgin Cola — carbonated cola soft drink
Virgin Vodka — alcoholic beverage
v-Mix – spirit mixers
Virgin Energy — a former UK energy supplier
Virgin Experience Days — corporate and consumer experience events
Virgin Flowers — Internet florist
Virgin Galactic — a venture to market and operate commercial space flights, using spacecraft designed by Scaled Composites
Virgin Games — online games, online casino, online poker, online bingo (previously video games for home computers)
Class 390 Pendolino, Virgin Trains service at Rugby
Virgin Green Fund (originally known as Virgin Fuels) — venture capital firm for investing in petroleum alternatives
Virgin Health Bank[4] — a business enabling parents to store their baby’s stem cells
Virgin Healthcare provides a selection of healthcare services tailored to local demand
Virgin HealthMiles
Virgin Holidays — UK travel agency and tour operator for worldwide destinations served by Virgin Atlantic and its partner companies
Virgin Holidays Cruises — UK cruise holiday agent
Travel City Direct – UK Online Travel Agent for holidays to Florida. Acquired from the now defunct XL Leisure Group after it went into administration.
Travel City Direct Cruises — UK cruise holiday operator for holidays to Florida and the Caribbean
Bales Worldwide Ltd – Small UK Tour Operator
Virgin Limited Edition — exclusive hotel operator
Kasbah Tamadot — exclusive Moroccan holiday destination
Lady B — luxurious Catamaran available for Caribbean charters
The Lodge — ski lodge
Natirar — private spa located in Somerset County, New Jersey
Necker Island — exclusive island in British Virgin Islands for private hire The Roof Gardens and Babylon — 1.5 acres (6,100 m2) open air gardens, venue, nightclub and restaurant in Kensington, London
Ulusaba — exclusive game reserve in South Africa
Virgin Limobike — passenger bike service in London
Virgin Limousines — chauffeured limousine service in San Francisco and Northern California
The New Virgin Media logo. It is also used for Virgin Mobile UK.
Virgin Media — provider of home telephone, cable television, broadband and mobile services to the United Kingdom
Virgin Megastores — CD, DVD and games retailer chain with high—street and online stores Virgin XS — Factory Outlet—orientated format of Virgin Megastores
Virgin Mobile — brand used by several companies providing mobile phone service around the world
Virgin Mobile UK — provides mobile phone service in the United Kingdom, now part of Virgin Media
Virgin Mobile Australia — provider of mobile phone service in Australia – license held by Optus
Virgin Mobile Canada — provider of mobile phone service in Canada – owned by Bell Mobility with branding from Virgin Group
Virgin Mobile South Africa — provider of mobile phone service in South Africa – joint venture with Cell C
Virgin Mobile USA — provider of mobile phone service in the United States – brand rights held by Sprint Nextel
Virgin Mobile France — provider of mobile phone service in France – Virgin Group owned
Virgin Mobile India — provider of mobile phone service in India – franchise agreement with Tata Teleservices
Virgin Mobile Qatar – brand license to Qatar Telecom
Virgin Mobile Chile – Future provider of mobile phone service in Chile, using the Movistar mobile network. [5]
Virgin Money — providers of financial services
Virgin Money US — provider of financial services in the United States
Virgin Credit Card
Virgin Money Giving — Online fundraising website
Virgin Oceanic – sea exploration
Virgin Nigeria — A former subsidiary of Virgin Atlantic Airlines
Virgin Play — a Spanish publisher of video games, once part of the now defunct Virgin Interactive.
Virgin Produced — a film and television development, packaging and production company formed in 2010 and led by Chief Executive Officer Jason Felts and Chief Creative Officer Justin Berfield.
Virgin Radio — Virgin branded radio stations around the world.
Virgin Radio Asia — collection of station operating in India and Thailand including Virgin Soft, Hitz, Easy FM and Oui
99.9 Virgin Radio FM — a Canadian radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format in Toronto, Ontario.
Virgin Radio 95.3FM — a Canadian radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Virgin Radio 96 FM — a Canadian radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format in Montreal, Quebec on 95.9 MHz.
98.5 Virgin Radio – a Canadian radio station broadcasting a contemporary hit radio format in Calgary, Alberta.
104.9 Virgin Radio – a Canadian radio station broadcasting a contemporary hit radio format in Edmonton, Alberta. Virgin Radio (France) — (Lagardère Active) a rebranding of the “Europe 2″ radio station
Virgin Radio Italia
Virgin Radio Dubai
Virgin Radio India
Virgin Radio Jordan
Virgin Radio Thailand
Virgin Radio Turkey
Virgin Records — record label now owned by EMI
Virgin Spa — shop chain retailing Virgin Cosmetics product
Virgin Trains — a railway operator in the United Kingdom
Virgin Trains ExpressCoach — Intercity bus & coach services
Virgin Unite — charitable foundation
Virgin Vacations — U.S. travel agency Virgin Vie At Home — retailer of body care, cosmetics, homeware and jewellery products through the Internet, direct selling and Virgin Vie stores (Sent into Administration in 2009, having been rebranded 9 months earlier as Effective Cosmetics (However still selling Virgin Vie branded products)
Virgin Wines — A Californian-based Internet wine retailer, created in 2005 and producer of Red and White wines
Virgin Voucher — gift voucher scheme, also functions as a staff reward scheme
Virgin Ware — clothes brand and retailer
Virgin Management — Custodians
Last night Channel 4′s Dispatches showed “Richard Wilson On Hold” (see #onhold at Twitter for comments) for myself it was one of the best and most accurate and even entertaining summary of the dreaded introduction of automated services that while modern companies believe enrich our lives and make our customer service better – Richard Wilson proved the complete reverse, showing beautifully how the modern consumer is fed up with these awful technological abominations!
In the programme Richard Wilson covered everything from automated telephone systems that allow the customer to not only listen to a voice recording but keep us listening interminably and at a call cost running into pounds – how they are not user-friendly and often confuse the elderly and vulnerable or the probably 99.9% of us who are either not so savvy with technology or quite simply don’t know or forget the option choices we are forced to press on our telephone keypads while listening to these awful machines!
He showed beautifully what most of us knew – that when we try to get cinema tickets we now can’t ask for them in person we have to try to talk to a voice recognition programme on an answer service that never works. When parking a car how trying to obtain a ticket via an automatic payment call service not only doesn’t work but is only there to save local Councils money through not having payment staff or wardens to help issuing tickets and checking meters.
And the dreaded service machine that keeps telling you ‘unexpected item in the bagging area‘ keeps telling you to ‘place item in the bagging area – please wait for assistance’! All again to save on cashier staff costs, and cause the customer aggregation and the risk of early strokes.
As Richard Wilson himself commenting on the programme ” ..automation has become a ubiquitous part of modern life – be it at the supermarket, when booking the cinema or trying to park your car. Retailers and service providers say that these systems offer us more choice, improve service and free-up staff to focus on helping us customers in other ways. But I want to know if this is really the case.”
“Like the rest of the UK, I welcome technology that makes my life easier – I would hate to have to give up shopping online and I love being able to make bank transfers over the phone. But not all automated systems are time-savers. In fact, many of them seem to make my life considerably more difficult, costing me time and money.”
The full programme link can be seen on the right of this page on my Vodpod videos, below is an except from the programme
Unlike the Titanic, the huge cruise ship Costa Concordia, didn’t strike an iceberg; instead it truck rocks near the coast of the small island of Giglio Porto. People are now wondering about the size of these new types of ocean liners – the Costa Concordia had 4000 passengers on board – are they too big to deal with in terms of an emergency situation emerging?
Also it’s Captain Francesco Schettino is currently detained facing charges of manslaughter, although he has denied any wrongdoing. He has not yet been formally charged, but prosecutors asked local judges to continue with his detention.
There is concern that the ship’s captain left the vessel before all the passengers had been safely rescued
A recording of a conversation allegedly between the captain and a port official – recorded shortly after the crash of the rocks – which suggests Capt Schettino left the ship before all its passengers had escaped. In the recording, the captain appears to refuse to go back on to the ship to co-ordinate the rescue effort.
The comedy was one of the biggest successes on the BBC this Christmas, pulling in nine million viewers with another episode to come on New Year’s Day.
Asked about the prospect of a movie, Saunders, 53, who plays Eddy alongside co-star Joanna Lumley, 65, said: “I’m definitely going to do it.
II’m aiming to shoot this in a beautiful part of the Riviera. I fancy the south of France in the spring.”
She will hope the film, likely to be released in 2013, will rival the success of The Inbetweeners Movie.
It was 2011’s biggest grossing British movie, taking £45million at the box office and selling more than a million DVDs, despite a budget of just £3.5million.
There will be another Ab Fab in 2012, with a storyline set around the Olympics.
Fantastic News! Jabbar Savalan the young activist from from Azerbaijan has been released and recieved a pardon for his detention. today. He is now at home with his family. This is fantastic news however, 16 prisoners of conscience remain in jail in Azerbaijan.
He originally was detainedby Azerbaijan authorities after he’d posted messages against the government rule in the country on Facebook he was charged with ‘drug offences’ and detained on 4 May 2011 for two and a half years in prison. Amnesty International considered Jabbar a prisoner of conscience and many activisits worldwide have been campaigning for his release. A call for his immediate release and the right of freedom of expression to be upheld in the country.
Initially on the 4th February 2011 Jabbar had posted calls for protests against the government. The next evening he was arrested on his way home from a meeting of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.
Project MKUltra was one of many experiments that the american secret service (CIA) and Department of Defence carried out between the 1950s and 1970s and was eventually declassified and exposed to the world by the Church Commission in 1975
Film’s such as “Jacob’s Ladder” starring Tim Robbins probably did a lot to bring the subject of the secret experiments that ‘volunteers’ from within US academic campuses and US defence staff – however many of the subjects had no idea as to the fact they being administered with hallucinogenic drugs and amphetamines in these experiments and some of these drugs such as BZ or 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate whose compound is shown here:
Is probably one of the most hallucinogenic and probably one of the most potent drugs ever produced.
Experts are calling for urgent action to tackle the “significant challenge” of rising levels of alcoholism and substance abuse among professionals including doctors, dentists and lawyers.
At the first international conference of its kind, in Ireland this weekend, there were calls for the UK government to help the silent mass of professionals who were “functioning alcoholics”.
Rory O’Connor, the UK co-ordinator of health support programmes for dentists and veterinary surgeons, told the Observer that Britain was turning a blind eye to a huge problem. He said: “There are serious issues regarding health professionals accessing appropriate help for mental health issues and there are serious issues in the treatment that is out there for them.”
Research suggests 15-24% of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers, while the British Medical Association estimates that one in 15 healthcare professionals will develop an addiction problem. Doctors are three times more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver than the general population.
One indicator of the growing problem is the rise in the popularity of “rehab tourism”. Reports from private healthcare companies indicate a growing number of “mental health tourists” – professionals seeking treatment abroad.
O’Connor said: “That is hardly surprising, as they can afford it. These are people functioning with varying degrees and levels of impairment and not likely to seek help among their peers. They can’t go to the hospital down the road where everyone will know them, can they? It’s one reason why they are such a hard-to-reach group.
“If you ask the man in the street what an alcoholic is, they’ll generally say a down and out, but 96% of people with addictions actually function quite well most of the time. They are captains of industry, medical directors, vets, dentists… and we need to tackle it and to look at the acceptance that has been going on in their regulatory bodies”
In Bahrain, regime forces have once again attacked the house of SheikhAli Salman, the leader of the opposition al-Wefaq party. Saudi-backed regime forces also fired tear gas canisters at his car parked near his home.
Bahrain was once again the scene of nationwide anti-regime protest rally on Thursday.
The demonstration left scores of peaceful protesters injured after regime forces used rubber bullets to quell the rally. Since mid-February, thousands of anti-regime protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain.
Scores of people have been killed, some of them while in custody, and hundreds more detained since the uprising began.
Meanwhile today there have been peaceful protests against the regime Al-Dair area.
There is debate about as to where the music for the series has come from – many people on the internet seem to think it may originally be from Hans Zimmer (“Time”) and his score from the film “Inception“? But below is the first of the series – “Shock & Awe”
A 19 year old man from Essex, named as Ryan Cleary has been arrested over hacking into websites. Police have not confirmed the identity of the man however.
It is thought that the man may have been involved with the hacking group LulzSec (Laugh Security) which recently broke into US Government sites; involved in breaking into Sony’s database, PBS Broadcasting, Infragard the FBI affiliated website, Senate.gov (the US Senate website) and Nintendo’s site.
Lulz Sec have succeeded in putting the websites down by DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) where the sites servers are overwhelmed with requests for pages. The group is also believed to have taken information from various servers and may have broken into the UK Census from the Office of National Statistics.
Yesterday the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s website was compromised and the agency took the website down due to DDoS attack, although a spokeperson confirmed it was their public website and the attack did not compromise any data held by the agency.
Scotland Yard have not confirmed whether the person they have arrested was linked to the Lulz Attack on SOCA but have said the arrest was a”pre-planned intelligence led operation” and that it followed after an investigation into network intrusions and distributed DoS attacks on major business and Government agencies.
LulzSec have recently threatened to attack further Government and Banking systems in what they called AntiSec, LulzSec on Monday tweeted: “Tango down – in the name of #AntiSec”.
The man has been arrested under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act and is being questioned at a central London police station.
This week Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is making headlines over his decision to eat only animals he kills himself.
His choice comes as part of an annual challenge he poses for himself. Last year’s challenge was to learn Mandarin. This year’s challenge is a little bit different.
“This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat. I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have. This year I’ve basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself. So far, this has been a good experience. I’m eating a lot healthier foods and I’ve learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals,” wrote Zuckerberg in a letter to Fortune.
He started off with a lobster, moved on to a chicken, then proceeded to kill a pig and a goat. He’s being walked through the process by Jesse Cool, owner of the Flea Street Café, who has been introducing Zuckerberg to farmers and educating him on slaughter methods, which for Zuckerberg, involves slitting throats. According to Cool, this is the most “kind” way to do it.
“I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from,” he also stated in his letter.
Information and up to the minute news surrounding Moscow’s Gay Pride celebration, that was prevoiusly banned by the city’s Mayor now currently taking place is available at the following live link (below) , the current siuation is that a number of Neo-Nazi’s are threatening to disrupt the event and Human rights & Gay activist Peter Tatchell has even been threatened by Neo-Nazi extremists while visiting the event. He is stating that the arrests of gay people at the event are in contravention of European court ruling and is calling for a revoking on Russia’s voting rights in the Council of Europe.
May 28 is a day that changed the human rights movement forever. Fifty years ago one person – Peter Benenson – outraged by injustices he read about in the paper, asked others to unite with him in common action.
He knew we could use our activism to achieve extraordinary things. He created Amnesty International.
Change did not happen overnight.
It took many conversations, many letters. Friends spoke to family members, the message spread, and one by one we secured the release of tens of thousands of people. People imprisoned for their beliefs or their way of life.
As activists lobbied governments, and researchers interviewed survivors, we demanded accountability for previously untouchable leaders. One by one each person who took action changed laws and changed lives.
50 years on, our work is not done – but we are more determined than ever to protect human rights. 50 years has shown that one by one we can. We have.
So today, we thank you for your work to defend human rights. Will you celebrate our birthday today?
Ryan Giggs is suing micro-social networking site Twitter over breaching a super-injunction that was taken out with the courts and revealing his name as the name of the player who allegedly had an affair with model Imogen Thomas.
Mr Giggs applied for legal action at the high court in London on Wednesday, in what is thought to be the first action against the US social media firm and its users.
The lawsuit lists the defendants as “Twitter Inc and persons unknown”. The latter are described as those “responsible for the publication of information on the Twitter accounts” in the court document, according to reports.
As the Guardian points out today the ‘issue has nothing to do with whether or not public figures should be able to gag the media through superinjunctions – whether 75,000 Twitter users, as the Lib Dem MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to point out, should be allowed to gossip about a footballer or not is irrelevant’ , Richard Hilgrove (history correspondent) points out ‘the issue is to do with whether social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter – massive revenue earning organisations – should operate outside the law that affects everybody else.’
“Footballer ************* had an extramarital affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas which lasted for 7 months. #superinjunction
8 May via web Favorite Retweet Reply “
The Chancellor from the last Labour Government should be hailed as the man who saved the UK Banking system from financial collapse. 
Astronomers released this week a picture containing more than one billion stars in the 
Last night Channel 4′s Dispatches showed “Richard Wilson On Hold” (see #onhold at Twitter for comments) for myself it was one of the best and most accurate and even entertaining summary of the dreaded introduction of 
Unlike 
In 
