Armchair Revolutionaries

Hi to everybody...I've just listened to Start the Week which included the interview with Shlomo Sand and it's well worth listening to it...the actual interview starts about 10.58 mins into the programme and you can just move the cursor along to there if you want to skip the first interview...it lasts around fifteen minutes...It's not just relevant to the Jewish history but to all of us around the world and our ideas of nationalism...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00npjnj

Hi to everybody...there is a very interesting article here concerning Professor Shlomo Sand who has written a book which claims that the Jewish Diaspora brought about by the Romans never took place...He was interviewed this morning on 'Start the Week' as one of the guest speakers.
It's a long article so I won't copy and paste it but here's where you can find it...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966952.html

What is your most hated colloquialism?

Mine is the use of "of" when writing phrases such as "I would of," rather than "I would have," or "I would've."

How do people escape from school with a habit like that? (Don't answer that. I must be mad to even ask.)

Can we find a list of ten between us?

Is it wrong that I am very much agaisnt the whole Postal strike thing?

It seems everyone I talk to is against it so why do we let it continue. We should do something shouldnt we? But what do we do? What can we do? Probably nothing.
We will just sit around and let them carry on not going to work and not posting our letters.

Maybe the Queen should intervene (hmmmmm that rhymes), afterall it is the 'Royal' Mail is it not? That does signify some sort of manarchy interaction somewhere down the line.

What gets me is that they still turn up to work anyway but only to set fire to bins and crates and then knock back a few stellas while they throw some abuse back at the disgruntled locals who have just told them what they think of them.

Maybe it would be different if I knew someone who worked for the Royalmail, maybe I would have just a little bit of empathy.
But no, so all that is left is that Im still waiting for a plug adapter which I bought from Ebay two weeks ago.

I recently signed a petition on the official Number Ten website asking Gordon Brown to resign.

The petition was signed by over 72,000 people.

His majority at the last election was 18,216 votes.

So as more people have now voted against than for him, he should hand in his notice, forthwith.

Needless to say he has refused to take action on the petition.

Hi to everybody...sorry, had another brainstorm this morning so here it is...LOL..

Went for a walk this morning and had another brainstorm. According to the MTheory, there is a possibility billions of universes could exist in an ocean of gravity. It has been suggested that our Universe came into being when a tidal wave flowing through the ocean caused two universes to collide and caused the Big Bang which gave birth to our Universe.
Following on from my idea of yesterday, the scientists were talking about a Singularity at the bottom of a Black Hole. This Singularity could be a point of massive energy formed by all the material sucked into the Hole. Therefore, each Black Hole holds the potential for a new Universe. This is what could have brought our Universe into existence. If two Universes collided in the Ocean of Gravity, then a Black Hole in either of these Universes would contain the potential for a new Universe to be created with the destruction of the Black Hole in the collision.
On the subject of gravity in our Universe, if the Ocean of Gravity exists in which all Universes exist then its pull will be immense on all the Universes within it. When the Big Bang took place, some of the gravity within this Ocean would leak in and enable a new one to form. So the gravity in our Universe is much weaker than expected but sufficient to hold our Universe in existence. If insufficient gravity had leaked in, no galaxies would have been formed. The reason why the galaxies are being drawn outward could be explained by the presence of this Ocean of Gravity surrounding our Universe. Its attraction would be irresistible. It would also explain how our Universe could have a quantum ocean with tides. The same way as the moon controls our tides, so the tides in that quantum ocean would be controlled, but in a much more violent way, by the pull of the Ocean of Gravity, or even much larger Universes within it exerting their own force on our Universe. Through this, vortexes or Black Holes could be formed from the birth of the universes.
If we think of our oceans and the life forms that exist within it, like plankton, tiny creatures but not crushed by the power of the water they float in, because of a membrane protecting them. Then our Universe could also have a similar structure surrounding it which holds it in being but does not crush it in the Ocean of Gravity.
And that’s as far as I have got with this thought.

Hi to everybody...I had a brain storm while watching the Horizon on Black Holes so, as soon as it finished, I've written it down, and here's what crossed my mind...shoot it down by all means if you can, I won't be offended, but it did seem very real to me...

I had an idea going through my head while watching the Horizon programme on Black Holes. It might well have been thought of before but I found it exciting enough to want to write it down…
The scientists are all talking about black holes being formed by the collapse of a star, but it crossed my mind that black holes might have existed long before the galaxies were formed.
What I saw in my mind’s eye was at the beginning of time after the Big Bang had happened, perhaps the universe was filled with quantum matter that expanded outwards like an ocean. An ocean has tides, and these tides could have formed vortexes just as an ocean on earth can. These vortexes were what we now see as Black Holes. As the Black Holes rotated at huge speeds, they drew the quantum matter into lumps initially and gradually over billions of years began to form galaxies made up of stars and planets that we see today. Only the matter furthest from the event horizon of the Black Hole would be able to resist its pull and to begin orbiting it. Stable galaxies were formed because of the presence of these vortexes in the quantum ocean. The mass of the Universe is supposed to be made up of dark matter, and this is what composes the rest of the ocean as yet unformed into solid bodies and still free of the pull of a Black Hole.
What we witness today when a star collapses and disappears into a Black Hole could be caused by the star becoming so large it gets drawn towards an already existing black hole and the gravity exerted on it from the hole causes it to collapse and be sucked into it.
And that is as far as I can get with this thought…LOL…so will have to leave it there, but gravity plays a big part in the Universe and it keeps niggling away at the back of my mind.

Hi to everybody...I've just watched this Horizon, and it's very interesting so for anybody who missed it and would like to see it, here it is...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nslc4/Horizon_20092010_Whos_Afraid_of_a_Big_Black_Hole/

Hi to everybody...this is a strange business...according to the news today, the gunman wanted to leave the Army and did not want to be redeployed to Afghanistan...he wasn't allowed to leave...the result is 13 dead and 28 or more injured when he started to fire a machine gun at Fort Hood...Here is the news article about the incident...

US gunman 'set for Afghan tour'

Colonel John Rossi: "This has been a tragic incident"

A US major believed to have killed 13 people in a gun attack at a Texas army base was due to be deployed soon to Afghanistan, a military official said.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a US-born Muslim, opened fire on soldiers at Fort Hood on Thursday.

Relatives of the army psychiatrist said he had strongly opposed his deployment and had wanted to leave the army.

US officials said investigations into what prompted the attack had continued through the night.

At an early morning news conference at Fort Hood, military officials said 12 soldiers and one civilian had been killed.

MAJOR NIDAL MALIK HASAN
US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan
US-born Muslim raised in Virginia
Joined the army and trained to be a psychiatrist
Treated soldiers returning from combat zones
Described as a devout Muslim who attended prayers regularly
Said to have been unhappy about imminent overseas deployment

Profile: Major Nidal Malik Hasan

Of the 28 people who remained in hospital, 14 had required surgery but all were in a stable condition, Col Dr Steven Braverman said.

There was no comment on what might have triggered the attack.

"We're not going to speculate about motives. We'll let investigators find that out," deputy base commander Col John Rossi said.

Maj Hasan was shot four times during the attack and is currently on a ventilator in hospital, under armed guard.

The policewoman who shot him first is in a stable condition in hospital, officials said.

President Barack Obama described it as "a horrific outburst of violence".

He said: "It is difficult enough when we lose these brave men and women abroad, but it is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on US soil."

'Could have been worse'

The shooting began at about 1330 (1930 GMT) on Thursday at a personnel and medical centre at Fort Hood.

Initial reports said that the gunman - armed with two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic - had been killed. However officials later said that the suspect was in custody.

That's it so far...but it said here that the Deputy Base commander said they were not going to speculate on the motives of Major Malik...it seems pretty clear that the Major had some form of breakdown when the US army wouldn't release him from the Army. As an Army psychiatrist, it is possible he had just heard too much and seen too much damage done to the army personnel and couldn't take any more...the Army underestimated his state of mind and the consequences have been disastrous...

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Thoughts?