Armchair Revolutionaries

Hi to everybody...when some in the world have sunk to this level, something is seriously wrong with us...and the buyers are as guilty as the perpetrators!...the police believe as many as 60 people have been murdered...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8369709.stm

I see we have a new Holy Roman Emperor. Apparently he is from Belgium. I have no idea whether he speaks French or Flemish, or more importantly, takes mayonaise or ketchup with his chips, but we are told he is good at paper-pushing without asking too many questions and not rocking the boat while working well with the corrupt bastards around him. These used to be considered ideal qualifications for a Holy Roman Emperor.

In the 103 years since Francis II suspended the enterprise, there have been a few improvements, however. There are now 27 electors instead of the traditional 7 mentioned in the Golden Bull of Charles IV (I don't count the Bavarians who muscled their way in as number 8 during the Thirty Years War).

There has been no coronation, but that is not unusual. No Emperor bothered to be crowned by the pope after Charles V in 1530. No-one, not even Otto I in 962, ever asked the general public for their approval. So not much change there then.

Here's a story from the States.

Danvers High School in Massachusetts has banned students from saying the word "meep." Officials say students use the word, to disrupt school.

http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_313233045.html

"Meep" is said by some commentators to have been coined by The Muppet Show. They claim it has no meaning. I am not so sure about that, though it was certainly popularised by the puppeteers. 'Meep' has often been used as a comment, and as an expression of speechlessness, in the face of authoritarianism and mindless power.

If my recollection is correct, the word was possibly first used as a satire on censorship and thought control in the 1960s. It was the sole word spoken by the characters in an underground cartoon. If anyone else ever saw it I think they were called 'The Gargactilites', a title, legend had it, that had been changed from the original 'Largactilites'. Largactil (also known as Thorazine or the generic name Chlorpromazine ) is an anti psychotic drug used (and historically abused by parts of the medical profession) in the treatment of 'disorganized' and psychotic thinking as well as to treat 'false perceptions' (e.g. hallucinations or delusions.) It is also sometimes used to treat psychotic children. Once dosed up and quietened down, all such people were left with, according to the cartoon, was the ability to say 'meep'.

Anyway, American attorney Theodora Michaels says that after reading about the ban, she sent school officials an e-mail reading simply "Meep." She says they responded by reporting her to the police. Her response is on her website:

http://theodoramichaels.com/articles/meep.php

And so the pompous school principal, Thomas Murray, is now looking like a bit of fool:

http://www.startribune.com/nation/69904592.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-principal-bans-students-from-saying-meep-14563526.html

http://reason.com/brickbat/2009/11/19/meep

Hi to everybody...here's another really interesting discovery...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/prehistoric-masterpieces-the-swimmers-and-the-beast-1823637.html

Hi to everybody...here's a little bit of news you might find interesting...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/meet-hobbiej-the-smartest-rat-in-the-world-1823651.html

If this story is correct, something is wildly wrong.

http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/news/Ex-soldier-faces-jail-handing-gun/article-1509082-detail/article.html

"Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.

In his statement, he said: "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.

"I didn't know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.

"At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall."

Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells"

-------------

So what should he have done, left it there for some thief/criminal to come and pick it up?

Hi to everybody...for anybody here who didn't get a chance to see yesterday's Horizon, How long is a piece of String....here it is...it's very interesting indeed... One little bit of inf you may find rather mind boggling...the entire human race would reduce down to the size of a sugar cube if you removed all the space between the atoms that make each of us up...surely puts many of our problems into perspective...LOL...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p1fpc/Horizon_20092010_How_Long_is_a_Piece_of_String/

"DINKS (dual income no kids) and empty-nesters are set to overtake families with children as the most common household type in Australia," says Stephen Lunn, Social affairs writer in The Australian online newspaper.

The same is happening in several European countries, such as Italy. It would probably be happening here in the UK if it wasn't for our minorities retaining the concept of larger families.

This is a fraught subject, very hard to discuss without being accused of something, one way or the other.

Personally I am pleased to know that some control is being brought to bear on world over-population, but it worries me that the current patterns will lead to a severe imbalance in the World's ethnic mix. Our planet needs peoples of all ethnic backgrounds, not just those of emergent nations. How on earth can one present this case without being linked to the wrong sort of politics?

Hi to everybody...just wanted to tell you I'm green with envy over this!! From the News.Scotsman...

It's the latest nightspot where all the stars go – the darkest place in UK
Premium Article !

Published Date: 16 November 2009
By Jenny Fyall
A SCOTTISH forest has become the first place in the UK to win a prestigious international award for the darkness of its skies.

Stargazers are expected to flock to Galloway Forest Park in their thousands following the decision by judges to make it the UK's first Dark Sky Park.

The huge wilderness area has almost as little artificial light as a photographer's dark room – a factor that helped convince the International Dark Sky Association it deserved the prestigious accolade.

Visitors to the park, which at 300 square miles is the largest of its kind in the UK, will soon be met by noticeboards announcing they are entering the UK's first Dark Sky Park, and organisers hope signs will be put up saying "Welcome stargazers".

A website will highlight the best places in the park for spotting distant galaxies and a visitor centre may be revamped to provide more information for stargazers.

Keith Muir, Forestry Commission Scotland's head of tourism and recreation in Galloway, said he was delighted with the award.

"We have boldly gone where no-one in the UK has gone before," he said.

"I'm so pleased that everyone's support and hard work has paid off. The award is a massive feather in Galloway's cap."

He added that he hoped it would help double the 850,000 visitors to the park each year.

"Tourism is the single largest economic development opportunity for south-west Scotland," he said.

To achieve the award, Forestry Commission Scotland has worked with the local Wigtownshire Astronomical Society, lighting experts and the surrounding community to ensure Galloway's skies remain pitch black – the best condition for viewing distant stars.

A sky-quality meter was used to test the darkness. It was rated at 23 out of 25 – making it almost as dark as a photographer's dark room.

In major cities like Glasgow or Edinburgh, a likely reading would be around 15 or 16.

Welcoming the announcement, Scottish Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: "Understandably, all those involved in this innovative project are over the moon and I'm thrilled for them and for Scotland. The interest in this initiative has been worldwide.

"The award is great news for putting Galloway Forest Park firmly in the spotlight and for attracting more tourists to the area."

The award, granted at the end of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, recognises areas with minimal lighting and outstanding visibility.

Work on achieving Dark Sky Park status began in September 2008, and a formal application was submitted to the IDA six weeks ago.

The decision to grant the award was made at the association's annual general meeting held in Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend.

Martin Morgan-Taylor, UK board member for the International Dark Sky Association said: "Such skies are rapidly disappearing and less than 10 per cent of people in the UK can now see the Milky Way from where they live."

Until now, there have been only three other Dark Sky Parks in the world, all in the United States.

Hortobágy National Park in Hungary was also hoping to be granted the award this week.
_______________

Anybody there can see the whole of the Milky Way among other wonderful sights...seen it only once or twice in my life and it is spectacular!...We should all be able to see the stars at night and comets and the other planets of our own galaxy...no wonder we take so little care of our planet...it's equivalent to being locked up in a closed room for all of our lives if we never see the glory of the night sky....

The Independent has it that Baroness Buscombe, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, wants to examine the possibility that the PCC's role should be extended to cover the blogosphere.

"Some of the bloggers are now creating their own ecosystems which are quite sophisticated," Baroness Buscombe told the Independent. "Is the reader of those blogs assuming that it's news, and is [the blogosphere] the new newspapers? (sic) It's a very interesting area and quite challenging."

She said that after a review of the governance structures of the PCC, she would want the organisation to "consider" whether it should seek to extend its remit to the blogosphere, a process that would involve discussion with the press industry, the public and bloggers (who would presumably have to volunteer to come beneath the PCC's umbrella).

Hi to everybody...here's a reminder about the next Horizon, which is said to be very interesting...Coming on BBC2 on the 17th November...at 9 o'clock...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p1fpc/hd/Horizon_20092010_How_Long_is_a_Piece_of_String/

Hi to everybody...this is a very interesting Horizon for anybody here who didn't see it and has a spare hour... It tries to answer the question..Why do we talk?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nx7n4/Horizon_20092010_Why_Do_We_Talk/

Here's someone I haven't heard from for some time, commenting on Mr Brown.

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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mokono was founded in 2006 by Florian Wilken and Vasco Sommer-Nunes. The two high school friends form a complementary team, with mokono being their second venture. From 1997 to 2002 they founded and managed an online dating company, which was acquired in 2002, by then the third largest online dating property in Germany.

-----

Thoughts?

Hi to everybody...I heard Paul Flynn on the News today and he is spelling out much more clearly than the government is the reality of the situation in Afghanistan...here's an article about his views in the Independent today...

Paul Flynn: We've wasted enough lives in this war

Seven soldiers had died when we entered Helmand in 2006 – now the number is 214

Saturday, 5 September 2009

It is easier to repeat an old lie than reveal a new truth. Politicians of both main parties have their mouths bandaged by their own guilt. To change tactics now is to admit to failures of policy that have resulted in the deaths of 212 courageous soldiers.

When parliament resumes in mid-October, the PM will read out the names of the 24 soldiers that have been killed since mid-July. By then, there may be 40 names. Public opinion is increasingly rejecting the notion that British lives should be lost for a corrupt Karzai regime and a rigged election.

Vietnam veteran and US Senator John Kerry asked at the end of the Vietnam war in 1971. "How do you ask a man to be last one to die for a mistake?" British politicians should be haunted by the same nightmare.

Our incursion into Helmand province in 2006 was a grave error. Then, only seven soldiers had died – five in accidents. Our soldiers have paid the price of Helmand with the loss of another 204 lives. It is time for politicians to admit that our war aims are impossible.

The sooner a peace strategy is devised the better. Some gains made by the Nato presence can be protected. If we delay, outraged public opinion may demand a panic withdrawal as damaging as America's exit from Saigon. US politicians said then what our UK politicians are saying now: "We cannot afford to lose." The fear back then was the domino effect. If Vietnam went communist, so would all other countries in South East Asia. It was a lie, of course. Now we are told that terrorism in Britain is held back because of our war in Afghanistan. That's a lie, too. If it was true we should have plans to start new wars in Pakistan, Somalia and the Yemen.

Now we're told soldiers must keep on dying – perhaps for another 40 years – for which of the following causes?

*To guarantee the re-election of a corrupt president and his family.

*To allow the depraved thieves of the Afghan police to rule the villages.

*To continue the abject failure of the policy to eradicate drugs that have flooded the world with cheap heroin.

*To strengthen the oppressive, medieval warlords

*To defend barbaric human rights practices.

*Or because no politician will admit that it was stupid to stir up the hornets' nest of Helmand.

I asked David Miliband in July if he had ever talked to the Taliban. He said he had not. Neither have our generals. When people are killing our soldiers, it is important to ask them why.

Would their answer be: (a) we are killing them so that when the last British soldier dies we can go and plant bombs in Birmingham, or (b) we are killing them because they are Ferengi infidels in our country; it is our sacred duty in this Jihad to drive them from our country.

Answer (a) is the preposterous fiction that the Government and opposition peddle. All wars end in deals and the insurgents almost always win against an alien invader. The Taliban will stay and we will go. But it's easier to repeat an old lie than reveal a new truth.

Politicians are in denial, and refuse to confront the deep futility of the war in Afghanistan. It is more comfortable to tilt at the windmills of peripheral issues. Last year, European countries were howled at for dodging their share of the burden. Now, it is the myth that more troops and helicopters are solutions.

The key issues are ugly truths on Karzai's corruption, evil human rights record and the atrocities of his police and army. Politicians blaming foreigners or each other are on comfortable ground. It is easier than thinking.

British lives are being lost to keep Karzai as president. His record on human rights includes his refusal to pardon a young man sentenced to 20 years in prison for accessing an internet article on women's rights, while pardoning a group of young men guilty of gang-raping a 13-year-old girl. After all, boys will be boys. A suspended Afghan woman MP and human rights' prizewinner Malalai Joya said that the rights of women in Afghanistan now are worse than under the Taliban.

Of the $25bn aid poured into Afghanistan, only 20 per cent reached its intended recipients. The increase in the number of new Afghan millionaires and billionaires in Kabul include members of President Karzai's family. Meanwhile, poverty is deepening among other Afghanis. After eight years of generous Western aid, Afghanistan has the world's third highest child mortality rate and the world's second highest maternity mortality rate.

In 2001 an ebullient member of the Russian Duma thumped me on the back and gave me his mock congratulations. "You Brits are very clever. You have captured Afghanistan. We Russians did that – in six days. We were there for 10 years. We spent billions of rubles, killed a million Afghanis, and lost 15,000 of our soldiers. When we ran out, there were 300,00 Mujahadin in the hills around Kabul. It will happen to you."

Nato's Afghan war is in its final stages. Talks are already taking place with the Taliban. Military operations should be confined to our defended compounds. Patrols on foot and in vehicles should cease. They serve no purpose and expose our troops as targets for the Taliban roadside bombs.

A month ago the answer was "more helicopters". In the space of 10 days, the British Army has destroyed two of our £40m Chinooks. They were slightly damaged, but reparable. We could not guard them until a heavy lift helicopter could take them to a safe compound. When an Army is in such a perilous situation, it is time to withdraw to safe havens.

President Obama has a practical approach. He has appointed a new Nato supremo who has used the previously forbidden words of "exit" and "defeat". We should dump the illusion of victory and devise a peace exit strategy. It could consolidate the few gains made and avoid the bloodbath of the panic retreat of the Americans from Saigon. Public opinion will not tolerate indefinitely the pointless slaughter of our soldiers. We cannot win hearts and minds with bombs, bullets and bacabazi.

Clinging to myths is a deadly distraction. Afghans say: "Truth is like the sun. When it rises it is impossible to hide it." It will be some time before truth dawns in our parliament.

The author is Labour MP for Newport West

One point that isn't in this article but was on the News is that the Chief of Police in Afghanistan has to buy his position...he then gets the money back from taking a share of the bribes his police force, who are nothing more than hired mercenaries with no training, take from the people they are suppose to be protecting...most Afghan policemen have had only about eight weeks training and many leave and go and join the Taliban...

This information came from another source...an Army spokesperson...The army has admitted that it is much harder to train the police force than it is to train the Afghan army, and that is difficult enough, because they are not easy command followers and see little point in the discipline practices that the British soldiers have to go through during their training...

The main dangers over here are home grown terrorists as Paul Flynn pointed out and the main source of terrorists is not Afghanistan but Pakistan...so the question still stands...what are we doing in Afghanistan, apart from seeing our soldiers dying regularly, and supporting a corrupt regime?

Hi to everybody...Ray listened to this programme yesterday and said it was a very interesting talk on how the global financial crisis came about...this is an outline of it...
Many have said that the near collapse of the global financial system exposed the failures of 30 years of economic thinking. Stephanie Flanders, the BBC economics editor, examines the arguments raging within and outside the world of economics and asks what future students should learn from the 'great recession'.
There's a couple of minutes of talk about something else before the programme itself begins...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00nk0gc

I haven't listened to it yet so cannot comment....

I have been watch old Disney films since having my little boy 9 weeks ago. And the main thing that struck me was attention to detail. In traditional disney animations like Sleeping Beauty or the Black Cauldron, every shade is detailed, every brick in the wall lovingly drawn in. Modern animations are all CGI and it would cost far too much for that kind of detail, so its left out. Characters are two-dimensional and crudely drawn (don't even get me started on the horrendous Japanese influenced animations) and, perhaps because no one cares, the stories are following suit.

Every Disney film recently has been vacuous, bland and pointless. The darkness, vivacity and sheer emotive force has gone. Dreamworks is slightly better but nothing has the resonance of even tv cartoon series like Dungeons and Dragons, He-man or Dogtanian. Not because these were better than the average kiddie fodder, but because there was time, effort and life put into these that is now gone. Our culture is being eroded, turned into a bland mush by people who think fairy tales should have a happy ending, CGI is always better, the darker side of life is traumatising for kiddies and differences between cultures should not be celebrated but should be hidden, destroyed and denied, for one big, bland, superculture based on flat pack furniture with no art, literature or anythingn not approved of by middle class secularists who hate science and art alike because it distinguishes individuals and rewards merit over mediocrity.

Hi to everybody...does anybody here believe that the sacking of Professor Nutt was justified by Alan Johnson...I heard an interview with Alan Johnson facing a Sky News Reporter and getting extremely hot under the collar because he was being criticized for his decision...The second person to resign today from the council, with more possible resignations to follow, said something that I found particularly relevant...he stated in so many words that when it is clear that a law forbidding the use of a drug is based on a political decision rather than on the scientific research into the danger of its usage and the scientific results being that it is not as dangerous as smoking or alcohol then the people will ignore it, which they are en masse and have been since it first started being used in the 60's...here is the Independent's article on this sacking...

Six drugs service scientists may resign over sacking of chairman

Growing fury at 'disgraceful' decision that undermines relations between politicians and scientists

By Danny Brierley

Sunday, 1 November 2009

Nutt: His sacking could cause 'meltdown' of drugs advisory counci

Leading members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) are expected to resign over the sacking of its chairman, leaving the service in disarray, one of its leading scientists has warned.

Dr Les King, a respected chemist and former head of the Drugs Intelligence Unit in the Forensic Science Service, said that anger over the "disgraceful" decision by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to remove Professor David Nutt could lead to a meltdown in the 40-year-old organisation.

He claimed that as many as six of its scientists will resign from the independent organisation, putting further pressure on the Government over its handling of the affair. Dr King cautioned that the Government's whole drugs programme could be at risk.
Related articles

* Government drugs advisor quits in protest

Fuelling the sense of anger in the scientific community over the sacking, Lord Drayson, the Science minister, expressed concern that he had not been informed of the decision.

Professor Nutt said last night that his own children may have tried drugs. "I'm sure my children have tried drugs. In fact, some have told me they have," he told The Mail on Sunday.

The row has wider ramifications for the relationship between politicians and scientists, many of whom are concerned at Mr Johnson's reaction to Professor Nutt's comments. Dr King said: "Academics, medics and others are going to ask themselves if they want to serve on these agencies without payment, on their own time and expense, when the advice that they produce is routinely ignored."

To the anger of scientists, Mr Johnson accused Professor Nutt of "lobbying for a change in policy".

Professor Nutt's dismissal, a first for a chairman of the ACMD, came days after he expressed dismay at the Prime Minister's insistence that cannabis remain a class B drug, and nine months after he said that there was little difference in the dangers of horse riding and taking ecstasy.

Dr King added: "What we say is objective and evidence-based. Sometimes people do not want to hear that. The Government has a statutory obligation to consult the council before it makes any changes to the classification of drugs – the Misuse of Drugs Act is clear about that. If significant figures resign, it cannot function any more, and without a change to the Act of Parliament the Government cannot make any changes." Members of the council, which meets twice a year, are due to gather again on 10 November, when discussions will be dominated by Professor Nutt's sacking. But the resignations are likely to occur sooner, said Dr King.

Following the sacking, there are now 30 members of the council, fewer than half of whom are scientists. The Home Office has refused to comment on the possibility of resignations, but Lord Drayson told followers of his Twitter account that he was "looking into" the sacking after hearing the news while in Japan. The minister, who is likely to have to deal with the anger of scientists, later posted a message saying he would be "asking why I wasn't informed".

The shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, has backed Professor Nutt's sacking. Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, said: "The sacking was utterly disgraceful and a serious mistake. It has much wider implications, not just for the ACMD but for any independent scientific advisory service trying to give a sensible assessment of evidence to policy-makers. It is absolutely essential that the Government takes impartial, scientific advice. You cannot question David Nutt's credentials; if anyone knows the difference between facts and opinions, it is him."

Rudi Fortson, a leading criminal barrister and author who specialises in drug cases, said: "If the scientists were to resign en masse a vacuum would be left and that would be a matter of some concern." In an open letter to Mr Johnson, Professor Peter Tyrer, the head of the Centre for Mental Health and editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, said Professor Nutt's scientific credentials were "impeccable".

Richard Garside, the director of the Centre for Crime and Justice at King's College London, accused Mr Johnson of undermining scientific research. He said: "I'm shocked and dismayed that [he] appears to believe that political calculation trumps honest and informed scientific opinion."