Nature Versus Nurture

Derren Brown the UK illusionist, who himself is 'gay' ....

 

Derren Brown - Trickster with a box of tricks

... was reported in the Sun Newspaper as planning to turn a gay man straight, and make a straight man attracted to men, for his latest stunt.

 

Germanys White Rose - Lest We Forget

We often assume that resistance to a regime such as Communism, Nazism or even the Islamic theologies is impossible .......

Sophie And Hans Scholl - White Rose Martyrs

...... but its not, even if it looks impossible.

 

Language Of Diplomacy

In the 1920's the old League Of Nation's (the forerunner of today's UN), tried to suggest that the international language of diplomacy and trade be Esperanto - today there are estimated to be few more than 2,000 Esperanto speakers in the UK and maybe something between 500,000 and two million worldwide ....

Esperanto - Failed

it was a failure.

 

Chinese Leftovers Anyone

Over the hill and on the shelf at age 27?

 

On The Shelf

 

Seems a bit harsh and almost a bit medieval or Victorian ....

The Emperors New Clothes

I love to laugh at the PC nonsense and its grip on the worlds media, but sometimes its taken to such ridiculous extremes that it's in the realms of the absurd ....

 

The Jackson Kids Defy Genetics

 ..... take the treatment of the 'biological children' of Michael Jackson. 

 

Religious Schizophrenia

Why do political runaways from countries in the Islamic world always run to western exile in a Christian country?

Muslims Love Europe Until They Get Here

.... Why not into other Islamic countries?

 

Gorgeous George

This handsome fellow with the film star looks is one George Bennett, a 23 yr old Butcher  .... the photograph was taken somewhere between 1859 and 1876 in Bedfordshire, Great Britain.

George Bennett - Victorian Mugshot

Unfortunately ladies, all is not as it seems ...... firstly, I have cleaned  his coat in the picture above, which was a bit of a give away. ...

His coat was filthy

Secondly, the location was Bedford Prison .... the pictures were taken by a prison governor Robert Evan Roberts, to accompany written descriptions of felon, a man ahead of his times.

And lastly, 'Gorgeous George' here, was described as a man with bad teeth, and missing one of his little fingers ..... Oh and he was a habitual criminal specialising in poaching (presumably to aid his butcher business), but not above using violence if challenged. He had beaten up a policeman who had tried to apprehend him.

Gorgeous George ...

Still, its a striking picture, and he has the looks of a man for all ages, and would still be a real ladies man if he was around now (with the better dental care of course LOL) ......

Grand Central Station

There has been some celebration of the beauty of Grand Central Station in New York, and a bit of a campaign to nominate favourites kicking off  ..... with claims that Grand Central Station may even be the world's loveliest station. Well I don't know about that .... it depends on what your looking for, and after all, beauty is in the eye of beholder, as the other candidates indicate.

Grand Central Station - New York

But I have to admit that this picture is breathtaking .........

 

Gods Comment

With the news that the current head of the worlds 1.3 Billion Roman Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI is to abdicate on health grounds (rather than die, which has been the traditional route for giving up the Papacy), the world was stunned.

God Speaks Out?

However, for several hours, no one really knew what to say ......

Holy Cowls

The Knights of Malta are the lesser known of the Military Orders created during the crusades .... there were five major orders formed in the Holy Land and in the middle east between the late 11th century and the early 12th century: the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre (circa 1099), Knights Templar (circa 1118), Knights Hospitaller (circa 1099) (St John), Knights of the Hospital of St Mary of Jerusalem (Teutonic Knights) and Knights of St Lazarus.

The Templars are of course long gone, but the Knights of Malta survived as a direct descendent of The Knights Hospitaller and are unique, in that they are still a sovereign entity, as they 'rule' a palace in one of Rome's smartest shopping districts, a church and an elegant villa overlooking the city, but no longer over any territory.

The Knights Hospitaller became Knights Of Malta and ceremonial

However they still have observer status at the United Nations, just like the Vatican, and the soon to be ex
Pope Benedict XVI is a former member of the order.

This week saw a celebration of the 900th anniversary of the founding of the order by Benedictine monk Brother Gerard, who opened a hospital for sick and poor pilgrims in Jerusalem 1113 AD, at the height of the Crusades.

Its funny how these anachronisms can survive into the modern era .....

Who Wants To Live Forever?

For quite a while, there has been scientific evidence that a highly nutritious, but calorie restricted diet could extend the life of worms, and double the life lengths of mice in the lab ..... 

 

Old Mouse Life Wasn't Always Good

 

... and other experiments have apparently reversed ageing in mice ... so a good future for mice!

 

Only One Batmobile

Like many a man of a certain age, the Batmobile will never be anything less than this .......

The Original Batmobile

 

.... and it was sold recently for $4.2m (£2.6m) at a US auction. Out there right now is one lucky 'Sonofabitch' who is driving this beauty!

Who Wears the Culotte's

The French government has finally over turned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers. Yes its one of those archaic laws that seem to linger on western statute books (like the mythical one, about taxi drivers being allowed to peeing on the back left hand wheels of their cabs) ... this one was introduced in November 1800 AD, and was never rescinded.

French Girls Breaking The Law - 1922 Paris

Apparently it was aimed at stopping working class women getting jobs considered to be the reserve of men (working-class female revolutionaries were known as "sans-culottes" for NOT wearing breeches) .... I always like these daft laws, most of which are urban myths by the way ....

More French Girls Breaking The Law - Paris

Argy-Bargy

Once again the Conquistadors of Argentina, who committed genocide on the native peoples when they conquered South America, are declaring that they will get the 'Falklands' back inside twenty years. My favourite quote from their strange foreign minister, Hector Timerman, was "If you ask the colonial people who came with a colonial power and replaced the people who were living in the islands, it is like asking the British citizens of the 'Malvinas' Islands if they want to remain British".

Now this is a man who was only able to return to Argentina after the British beat the military junta that ruled his country, and was the founder of 'Americas Watch', the western hemisphere chapter of Human Rights Watch. His Jewish family emigrated to Argentina in 1928, and in 1979 his father moved to the lands that many consider to be occupied Palestinian lands aka Israel, as what many would consider to be a colonist! So his hypocrisy knows no bounds, and his familiarity with the truth is even more shaky.

The Conquistadors founded Buenos Aires Colony

So as a member of the Spanish, Conquering, Colonialist, Conquistadors, who took all the natives lands and turned the natives into slaves, maybe I should ask the survivors amongst the original Amerindian's (Mapudungun, Quechua etc), if the Spanish should be asked to leave ...would he respect the human rights of the survivors of the Conquistadors?

After all, Buenos Aires colony, was established by the Conquistadors in 1536 before it suffered attacks by the indigenous peoples that forced the settlers away, and in 1541 the site was abandoned. It was re-established in 1580 after the natives were driven off ..... so who exactly is the representative of a colonial power?

Party Politics and Opaque Transparency

Today the British Parliament enacted a bit of legislation on allowing Homosexuals and Lesbians to marry, a political commitment that none of the political parties bothered to include in their party manifesto's, and therefore which has no moral legitimacy.

Why they chose to do these things, while claiming that we are a democratic society, is beyond me. But Daniel Webster provides a good quote “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters”

Its little wonder that they are frequently shown to be self serving hypocrites, who are happy to try and subvert the course of justice, and lie to the public and the police ..... see Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken, Elliot Morley, Margaret Moran,  Chris Huhne, and Sundry Others of All Parties.

So once again, all six hundred and fifty of them, have chosen to act on their own, and just the change the social fabric of the UK once again ..... now we will hear the sound of "Do you Brian take Terry as your Husband, and do you Terry take Brian as your Husband" or will that be 'wife', and the BBC will have a million and one TV shows on the theme  ...... Actually I have no idea if they want to parody the current heterosexual marriage service, or if they intend to have a whole new service .... still that's the world we now live in.

Husband and Husband

Of course I understand about Civil Rights, Equality etc, and I have no argument against those principles, or that if we had waited for the popular vote against slavery, or segregation, or women's rights some or all of these things may never have occurred.

But my complaint is that politicians and political parties should practise the 'transparency' they all preach, and not wait until mid parliament to vote through laws that none of them were prepared to stand for at the election.

This has same odour of the 'mass immigration' non debate that the UK has not had ...... you know the one, the one in which the political parties either proposed or objected to the social change in the UK caused by immigration from Africa, and the Asian Sub Continent which has so radically altered the UK that I don't recognise the land I was born into .....

Dan Dare Dreams

We truly are about to enter the most exciting era in space since the 1960's ..... well if we don't destroy ourselves first.

Plans are afoot to mine the asteroids in our solar system, and use the new 3D printer technology, to convert local space materials, such as the moons surface 'regolith', into buildings and other objects, and generally open up space, with a lot of these ideas led by private industry consortium's. Sure, state players like China, the European Space Agency, NASA and Russia, are still the main men, but slowly and surely the private sector are muscling in, with private firms already docking with and supplying the space station.

What naff's me off about all this, is that all the major plans will be in the 2020's and beyond and I may miss them. If only this sudden flurry of 'Dan Dare' style exploration had been started 25 yrs ago ....

Dan Dare - Spaceport

..... what would we be doing in space now?

Grrr! .... How I hate the idea of missing out on seeing what we may end up achieving, especially if its only a few decades after I am gone ..... life or rather death can be inconvenient at times.

Colonel Dan Dare - Mancunian Hero

There is a side note to this post .... its no particular secret that we at PC towers are based in the North West of England, indeed we have alluded to this on any number of occasions, but while I was writing this post I was totally amazed to discover that space hero of my childhood, Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare, was born in Manchester in 1967, and educated at 'Rossall School' on the Fylde Coast ..... both areas we are very familiar with.

It really is a small world ..... and soon we hope a small solar system.

Fun Loving Criminals

State sponsored spying is now the Chinese stock in trade .... in fact so pernicious are they that they appear to be able to roam the worlds website, breaking and entering at will ..... the NY Times, NY Stock exchange, NASA you name it, they hack it.

Chinese Hackers See Every Keystroke

Their Government says its regularly attacked as well, and that they have made hacking illegal, so there, but the fact is that every tracking agency have been able to show that the attacks in the West occur with almost military precision from offices in China - starting at 08:00 am local time, and knocking off about 05:00 pm local time - regular office hours in Asia in fact.

Only the state could afford the resources to do this, and the targets, Chinese Dissidents, Tibetans, and various technical sites give the game away ..... If this Blog, never mind just this post, disappears tomorrow, you will know who to blame ..... no really, it will be just another bunch of fun loving State sponsored criminals.

Who Needs Enemies?

We in the UK have been much taken by the reaction elsewhere to the Cameron speech, vaguely promising a referendum on EU membership if (and there's a lot of ifs), he wins the next election, and if he can't negotiate new terms of membership .... in fact he's tied now to hold it regardless, of the terms, because if they offer no terms we can't just stay in with no vote. However its the interference of our supposed friends which bugs me and many others in the UK.

Great Satan and Little Satan

Take the reaction in the US for example, one would suppose they would be sympathetic to the idea of throwing off the 'absolute Tyranny' of a foreign power' (well at least towards us thinking of it), but they have been lukewarm towards even the idea of the UK demonstrating democracy in action, with the President's press secretary, Jay Carney welcoming 'Cameron's call for Britain to remain in the European Union' .... 

Cartoon Fun and Games

Once there was once a cartoon printed in Europe that offended a religion that was a minority in the West, but not necessarily so in other areas of the world such as the Middle East ..... there was condemnation from practitioners of the religion and claims of racism, and even the words "Blood Libel" cast about.

The newspaper concerned had to apologise, the owner of the newspaper concerned had to apologise, and the cartoonist had to 'explain' himself. He claimed that he wasn't against the religion or its practitioners, but rather the member of that group that the cartoon depicted, and that it was only the timing of the release of the cartoon that he regretted, not its content.

Now normally in such a story, the end result would be mobs on the streets of Middle Eastern cities, and any other places where the religious leaders could whip out a mindless gang. Western embassies would be under siege, flags would be burning and a death sentence on the cartoonist, newspaper proprietor called for, which would no doubt be financed by the government ministers in some nation far away that was supposed to be our ally.

Anti Netanyahu or Anti Semitic?

BUT ...... and here's the rub, the middle eastern religion concerned wasn't the group you may have thought, not the group who often threaten death after any cartoons, videos and teddy bears offend them .... No it was the 'Jewish religion' who were 'offended' by the cartoon printed in the Sunday Times Newspaper, and its respected cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, which portrayed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a brick wall, containing the blood and limbs of Palestinians ..... to compound the 'offence', the cartoon was released by some bright spark on 'World Holocaust Day'.  

So, because it was Jews, and not some other group, the newspaper concerned has not had to lock the doors, the owner of the newspaper concerned has not had to lock his doors, and the the cartoonist concerned has not had to go into hiding. In fact apologies given and accepted all round and this story will be dead by tomorrow, and not a mob, burning flag or death sentence in sight.

Another lesson that others could learn from .....

Tea With Berlusconi

There was rather a quaint film made in 1999 by Franco Zeffirelli (Based partially on his own childhood as he had a British nanny), about a bunch of British expatiate ladies who are living in Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini. The premise is that through out the 1930's, many of them believe him to be the saviour of Italy who had averted the red menace of communism. Of course as the film moves on they discover through internment, and the threat to the American 'Jewish' lady amongst them, that all was not what it seemed with the 'Duce'.

Now the reason why this is of any interest is that Silvio Berlusconi, who is trying to become the 'comeback kid' of Italian politics, apparently to once again avoid the verdict in another trial (this time for the infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties), has referred to Mussolini as a good guy who had done some "good things" ... that in fact his only real mistake was the 'racial laws' that led to some 8,000 Italian Jews, being her shipped off to death camps .... apart from that, he was really a good guy. He has in fact been vaguely supportive of the ex Italian Dictator in the past, but perhaps never quite so openly.

Berlusconi and Mussolini

The inevitable howl of protests ensued and he subsequently backtracked a little, but not much .... the reason for this is politics as he may need the far right to support him if he is to avoid his day in court .....

However, its a fact that in Italy, the flame of support for Mussolini was never quite extinguished in the same manner as for the Nazis in Germany ... in fact there remains a sizable far right in Italy that has been active since 1945 e.g. The old MSI (Italian Social Movement), and indeed Mussolini's grand-daughter Alessandra is still knocking about Italian politics in the hope of gaining power.

Oddly, the other thing is that many Italians still hanker for a state with political and economic certainty, a state that can end the Mafia, and with efficient public services. A state last seen in Italy in the 1930's under one Benito Mussolini, who even made the trains run on time ......