The ook

About Ely island and the fens. Why a man came from there to Bristol. All the family dead. He was diving in the canal for eels when it happened.


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Death Eaters

Today's Wall Street Journal has a stunning exposé on a publicly-traded company called Life Partners Holdings. Are you ready for this? Life Partners creeps around asking the unemployed, the elderly and the sick (especially people with HIV/AIDS) to sell them their life insurance policies for cash. Then they bundle these policies into securities and sell them to vultures -- oh, I am sorry, "investors." Then the "investors" sit around and wait for people to die -- the sooner the better for the purchasers of these death bonds. The future of this industry "looks bright," chirps National Underwriters.

Reminds you a little of those Death Eaters in Harry Potter, doesn't it?

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Evolution Or Experimentation?

All life as we know it depends on six key ingredients — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus.

AND

Every living thing uses phosphorus to build its DNA

What if there are other elements which are used to make DNA?

This is what the boffins found out. Arsenic is used by a certain bacteria to build its DNA. Check this.


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Scary Or What?

December 23rd, 2010
What is Traitorware?
Commentary by Eva Galperin
Your digital camera may embed metadata into photographs with the camera's serial number or your location. Your printer may be incorporating a secret code on every page it prints which could be used to identify the printer and potentially the person who used it. If Apple puts a particularly creepy patent it has recently applied for into use, you can look forward to a day when your iPhone may record your voice, take a picture of your location, record your heartbeat, and send that information back to the mothership.

This is traitorware: devices that act behind your back to betray your privacy.

Perhaps the most notable example of traitorware was the Sony rootkit. In 2005 Sony BMG produced CD's which clandestinely installed a rootkit onto PC's that provided administrative-level access to the users' computer. The copy-protected music CD’s would surreptitiously install its DRM technology onto PC’s. Ostensibly, Sony was trying prevent consumers from making multiple copies of their CD’s, but the software also rendered the CD incompatible with many CD-ROM players in PC’s, CD players in cars, and DVD players. Additionally, the software left a back door open on all infected PC’s which would give Sony, or any hacker familiar with the rootkit, control over the PC. And if a consumer should have the temerity to find the rootkit and try to remove the offending drivers, the software would execute code designed to disable the CD drive and trash the PC.

Traitorware is sometimes included in products with less obviously malicious intent. Printer dots were added to certain color laser printers as a forensics tool for law enforcement, where it could help authenticate documents or identify forgeries. Apple’s scary-sounding patent for the iPhone is meant to help locate and disable the phone if it is lost of stolen. Don’t let these good intentions fool you—software that hides itself from you while it gives your personal data away to a third party is dangerous and dishonest. As the Sony BMG rootkit demonstrates, it may even leave your device wide open to attacks from third parties.

Traitorware is not some science-fiction vision of the future. It is the present. Indeed, the Sony rootkit dates back to 2005. Apple’s patent application indicates that we are likely to see more traitorware on the horizon. When that happens, EFF will be there to fight it. We believe that your software and devices should not be a tool for gathering your personal data without your explicit consent.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/what-traitorware





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The Country We Live In

The Ministry of Justice has announced today that there were 58 apparently self- inflicted deaths, 57 Males 1 female, among prisoners in England and Wales in 2010.

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“one-drop rule”

In the U.S., the “one-drop rule” — al­so known as hy­pode­s­cent — dates to a 1662 Vir­gin­ia law on the treat­ment of mixed-race in­di­vid­u­als. The le­gal no­tion of hy­pode­s­cent has been up­held as re­cently as 1985, when a Lou­i­si­ana court ruled that a wom­an with a black great-great-great-great-grandmoth­er could not iden­ti­fy her­self as “white” on her pass­port.

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Sticks appear as “dolls” in hands of chimps

I am truely satisfied when I read this article.

I am a firm believer in stating that, "Any living creature is the same as me in their own life styles."




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Stupidity Of It All

It is unbeliebable as to how much I trust other people. Most trustworthy will succumb to rob the most trivial substance which I would have got accustomed to have no value. I for one applaude them and hope they will keep at it and find the triviality of the experience.


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Love

If you have not loved you have not lived.

Loving; does it mean, lusting after her and having sex with her. Hpow about lusting after her and never getting it off with her? I think I am still a bloody virgin which ever you look at it.

Ahh this can be my new chat line.

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The Mysterious Geminid Meteor Shower

As the heading says this is a very mysterious one indeed. It has been first observed in 1800, where as others like Perseids and Leonids go way back viz. 36 AD by the Chinese.

From Nasa Website:

The Geminids are a different story. The first Geminid meteors suddenly appeared in the mid-1800's. Those early showers were unimpressive, boasting a mere 10-20 shooting stars per hour. Since then, however, the Geminids have grown in intensity until today it is one of the most spectacular annual showers. In 1996, the last time the Geminids appeared in a dark moon-less sky, observers saw as many as 110 per hour. Sky-watchers with clear skies should see at least that many this year if the Geminids continue to intensify. After the discovery of the Geminids in 1862 astronomers began searching for the parent comet. Most meteor showers result from debris that that boils off a comet's nucleus when it passes close to the sun. This debris orbits the sun along with the comet, forming a thin, elongated stream of meteoroids that become shooting stars when they hit Earth's atmosphere. Years of searching proved to no avail until finally, in 1983, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite discovered a curious object moving in the same orbit as the Geminid meteoroid stream. The orbital match was so good that it had to be the source of the debris, but to the surprise of many it wasn't a comet. The source of the Geminids was apparently a rocky asteroid.

3200 Phaethon, as the asteroid is now known, is in a highly elliptical 1.4 year orbit that brings it within 0.15 AU (astronomical units) of the Sun. It made its closest recent approach to Earth in December 1997 when it passed within 0.31 AU of our planet.

So I was very excited about this as early as August as I missed the meteor showers then. My friend Alice told me about another friend Pete who lives in Priddy, and we can go there to watch it. I as usual went ahead with looking at the weather predictions by our UK Met office. According to them Priddy will have cloud cover. But we all decided to go there on 13th Monday evening.

Three of us viz. Alice, Vicky and me started the journey from Bristol and it was an uneventful one except we were joking about everything under the sun including my predictions. Of course it was cloudy during the journey and I was vindicated.

Wicked place our friend Pete lives and we piled in to his smallish but nice flat in Priddy. got ourselves settled in and as usual all the alcohol etc came out for our consumption. Well nice bit of ganga didn't go amiss with me as usual.

Kim another friend joined us later and after another hour or so we decided to go up this hill which is behind his adobe. Well as hills go it was all uphill. It was very difficult for me due to my problems with my pain ridden back. But I took a wee bit of Speed to kill my pain and it bloody worked. But my breathlessness was quite prominant and all can hear my laboured breathing.

Now the weather man was all wrong and the sky was clear and quater moon was prominant in the western sky. Alice joked about my predictions and my thoughts were, "Thank god she didn't listen to me." Aha aha!

By the time we traipsied frozen muddy fields and started climbing the hill. Yes another hill won't kill me but I will endure it with lots of huffing and puffing, And Alice as thoughtfull as she is about her mates objected to go all the way up the hill due to my objectional lungs. But after a small confab and Kim's call, "Come on lets climb it."; and my exuberant feeling after the speed and me saying, "Thats fine I can handle this and more." we went up the hill.

As we started climbing the hill we saw the first meteor. WOW! Is the only feeling I had. Then as we climbed we saw some more and I counted four. I stopped about 3/4 of the way and lied down on the frozen ground as my neck was going into spasms. Others except Kim lied down as well. Cor blimey this is great. Orion right on top of us. Thats where the buggers come into our atmosphere. What a theatre. No problem about the ground as it was frozen grass which goes crackling as I move. It was not wet but I can smell the cow poo. Who cares when the sky is clear, a rare occurrance in our country. I saw two biggish meteors and I counted eight and another in the corner of my eye. That is a record in my puny life. Kim said she saw eleven, but then again she climbed to the top of that hill.

Little by little orion drifted away towords the north and misty clouds started from the periphry and we decided to get back to the wormth of the house.

Coming down hill was good but in the dark it was a bit tricky where to put your step. What a beautiful evening. Thank you; all the people who went there, and special thanks to Alice who organised it and Vicky who drove us too and fro, and Pete who accommodated us even though he had to get to work in the morning. And Kim ofcourse who had to fimd her way.






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Snooker

According to the commentators of the sport:
All snooker players have a wry smile.

Have you noticed the audience, behind the player, when he bends down to play? Hmmm may be I am the only one who noticed it and am talking about it. How about you?


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China

I think and prey that everyone concerned about the tigers and other beings which comprise of the Chinky's medicine, should go to China and kill all their venerated animals like the Panda etc. OK I am bloody minded.

I heard about a friend's friend who always start her conversation with, " Darling my dad committed suicide."

I thought if she said that to me I will say, " Darling! may be he did not like to live with you."





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Front Line Is Here

I watch news everyday. Everytime I hear about a soldier die in Afghani or iraq, something inside me dies.

All the time I ask this question, "How many sons and daughters of the law makers (MPs, Lards & Lodies) of this country died in these two wars. None.

We all die one day. Hopefully in the future.


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Hey I Was Told

Though my mum told me about these people, I was surprised to meet one.

I met this person who says,"Good night", to the TV person who ends the program wishing you and me the same. At first I giggled under my breadth but then the next time I did it loud like. But after a few times I felt, damn I am missing something here.

And in my adult life I was watching a game of rudby on the box with a mate. It was England v Scotland in the final of 5 nations. The Scottish kicker did not find the goal and my friend said, "I made hime do it." i did not say anything as my mum has already told me about these people.





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Education Et Al

Did you know that, "Barbra Streisand ate her moustash and pooed it."

According to the QI it is.

We all have hair all over our body when we were in the womb, (bless me mum) and we shed the hair and the old cells etc and eat them and pooed in the womb. The questions are still asked in the parliament whether we eat the poo as well? The parties are divided and some MPs think that we should bring a tax on them as we tax the education for young adults.

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How We Do Harm

I am concerned about the decimation of various cretures of the World or Universe.

I see Natural History episodes in the TV. The commentator starts with, "Here I am in Butan in the highest part of Himalayas and we are looking for tigers". Fine. They come across the tigers. Lots of them who were trying to get away from the hunters. Now the hunters like me are watching the program of Natural History. Yeah you got my drift. Am I, or you, are drifting. we are the guilty.

Please Natural History people don't let us know where these beautiful cretures are. I do not like my killers to know where I live, just like the tiger.



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Evolution Or Experimentation?

I have always thought that any being alive, amoeba to human, is equally adaptable to the environement where it lives. We are all alive and do similar bodily functions and have all the characteristics, no matter amoeba or human.

Here is some more proof, this time butter flies. OOPs butter never flies? Butterflies!

Mon­arch but­ter­flies seem to “treat” their un­born offs­pring for a parasitic in­fect­ion by lay­ing the eggs on a plant that helps fight the ill­ness, a new study sug­gests.

In­fected but­ter­flies “pre­fer to lay their eggs on plants that will make their off­spring less sick, sug­gest­ing that monar­chs have evolved the abil­ity to med­i­cate their off­spring,” said Jaap de Roode, an ev­o­lu­tion­ary bi­ol­o­gist with Em­o­ry Uni­vers­ity in At­lan­ta, Ga., who led the re­search.

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Innocence is No Defence/Under Arrest?/Former Jurors Can Speak!

Here is an article I found in MOJUK (Miscarriages of JusticeUK (MOJUK) News Service) This makes a lot of judicial conundrums simple.

From http://www.miscarriageofjustice.org/

Innocence is No Defence

In fact, being innocent is one of the biggest handicaps to the defence of an innocent person, because their ignorance of the system and how it works is used against them, time and time again.


For many people, being questioned in relation to a serious crime is not, initially, something to be afraid of. They proceed on the basis of the old maxim "I've done nothing wrong, so I have nothing to fear." What these people don't realise is that a police investigation does not, necessarily, exist to clear the innocent and find the guilty. It exists to allow the police access to enough information to secure a conviction. There is a big difference.

If the police have decided, often quite arbitrarily, on a "suspect," they will systematically gather information which backs up their decision, even if that person is innocent. Information, for example, pointing to other suspects, will either be ignored or discounted as "irrelevant" because it does not fit with the picture the police are trying to piece together. Indeed, in many cases, the "investigation" becomes an exercise in finding "evidence" to back up only one line of "suspicion", and other areas are simply not investigated at all.

Innocent people try very hard to help the police by giving them as much information, however small or seemingly innocuous, believing that nothing they say can in any way incriminate them, because they haven't done anything wrong in the first place. They will backtrack, remembering small detailsŠ. "I went from the house to Joe's, and then onto Billy's at eight o'clock." Later, they might say, "No, wait, I've just remembered, after Joe's, I had to come back here because I'd left my phone at home."

The first sense of unease may begin when the police start to question this "change" in the story. Why did you tell us you went straight to Billy's? Why didn't you tell us you'd gone home? Was anybody in your house to confirm that you went there? The only answer an innocent person can give is "I forgot," but the police won't accept that. Still trying to explain themselves, an innocent person may then go on to try to provide explanations as to why they forgot, digging themselves into a deeper hole from the police perspective.

Still, though, people believe that the system will, sooner or later, highlight their innocence, and even if they have become a little uneasy about the line the police questioning is taking, they are still fairly confident that someone, somewhere will realise the police are on the wrong track, and it's all just a big mistake.

Then they are arrested. At this stage, the shock and bewilderment are overwhelming. Many wrongfully convicted people can't wait for the trial. The police, they reason, have got it all totally wrong, and a trial will show it. When the evidence comes out in court, it will become clear that the police constructed a case against the wrong person.

What they don't realise is that the information the police have gathered may very well "substantiate" the prosecution claims. That being the case, questions will not be asked in court about other possible areas of investigation, or other possible suspects, because neither of those have anything to do with the case being tried in court.

Only when the foreman of the jury stands up and says "Guilty" do these people realise that no-one is coming to rescue them. No-one cares that the wrong person is in the dock, or that an innocent person has just been convicted. All that matters is that a conviction has been secured.

Innocence is no defence. In fact, being innocent is one of the biggest handicaps to the defence of an innocent person, because their ignorance of the system and how it works is used against them, time and time again.

by Sandra Lean - June 2008


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Under Arrest?

We all know and recognise the famous "caution" -

"Joe Bloggs, you are being arrested for the murder of Jack Black. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be taken down and used in evidence against you."

You'd think, then, that anyone who has been arrested would know they had been arrested, and would have the right not to answer any questions until they have a solicitor present.

Well, if the caution was delivered exactly as it's shown here, that would be the case. But there are two significant problems with this.

Firstly, it's rarely delivered as clearly, or as obviously. Often the caution is hidden within a whole bunch of "information" fired at the "suspect" (who probably has no idea he is a suspect) by the arresting officer or officers.
Secondly, many people who are taken into a police station for questioning "under caution" have not actually been arrested.

In Scotland, there are two circumstances in which a person will be cautioned, held and questioned without actually having been arrested.

The first is as a "Voluntary Attender." Most people believe, at this stage, they are witnesses, helping the police with their enquiries. What they do not understand is that they are already a suspect, and anything they say may be used against them.

Consider the following, from a real life case:
The police officer first explains why they are in the police station, saying they need more information about the deceased from her "immediate friends" and a clearer understanding of the witness's "observations at that time." It's all very innocuous, with no hint that the "witness" is in any way "under suspicion." The officer then asks the witness to complete and sign a declaration of "Voluntary Attendance" which says "I agree to remain with police for interview regardingŠŠ" and then "I understand I may terminate this interview at any time."

This might seem self evident - once there's nothing more you can tell the police, the interview will naturally come to an endŠ. won't it? But then, after all this softly, softly introduction, and after the form is signed, the officer states, "OK, in fairnessŠ it's a procedural thingŠ I have to caution you that you're not bound to answer any of these questions we put to you today, but if you do, your answers will be recorded, may be noted, and may be used in evidence."

Helping the police with their enquiries as a witness, you may believe the fact that it's just a "procedural thing" because the officer didn't say "may be used in evidence against you." There would be no point in obtaining information if it wasn't going to be used in evidence - it's the omission of the critical words "against you" that keeps the person believing he only a witness.

Weeks later comes "Detention under Section 14." Here the "witness" is told he is being detained for questioning. He is told "OK, you're going to be asked questions about the murder of X, you're not bound to answer these but if you do, your answers will be recorded and may be used in evidence." Once again, the words "against you" are omitted. This time, though, he is not free to terminate the interview - he must stay with the police for the full duration allowed by Section 14, after which the police must either arrest him, or set him free. But this is not explained to him by the police. He is still not told he is a suspect, and worse, he is not entitled to have a solicitor present, either as a Voluntary Attender or under Section 14.

He asks if he has been arrested and is told "No." He asks if he is being accused of the murder and is told "No."

Put yourself in that position. You haven't been arrested, you haven't heard the proper version of "the caution," you're not being accused of anything and you haven't been told that your answers may be used in evidence against you. What would you think had happened to you?

If you ever find yourself in a police station, helping police with their enquiries and are told that your evidence may be used "in evidence," beware. Your witness status has just turned to suspect status, and you won't even know it.

by Sandra Lean - July 2008


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Former Jurors Can Speak!


It is illegal in this country to approach anyone who has served on a jury and ask them questions about how they came to their verdict. It is not, however, illegal for people who have served on a jury to talk about their experiences after the event.

Given that so many jury decisions seem to fly in the face of the evidence before them, the only way these decisions can be studied, and the underlying reasons for such strange decisions identified, is if people voluntarily discuss their experiences.

Any study of the causes of wrongful convictions must, of necessity, remain incomplete when researchers are forbidden to approach jurors, and also when police officers, people working in the CPS, etc, are unable to discuss their concerns for fear of losing their jobs, or breaking rules of "confidentiality."

Any researcher, myself included, can accept information which is voluntarily offered, and can, and will, assure anonymity for those who are willing to offer such information.Without it, we can never truly understand how our criminal justice system gets it so wrong, so often.

Also, our current system means there is no support or assistance for people who have served on a jury which has wrongfully convicted someone, when that conviction is overturned, or for people who have worked on an obviously flawed case. It's not hard to imagine how people must feel, discovering that they were duped into believing they were hearing "all of the evidence," or that they assisted in locking up a completely innocent person, yet all we can do is imagine, because, once again, we have no means of asking directly. Only if people in that position willingly and voluntarily discuss their feelings do we have any real way of knowing.

by Sandra Lean - August 2008


End of Bulletin


Source for this message:
http://www.miscarriageofjustice.org/


Contact sandra@miscarriageofjustice.org

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You And your Health

What do you think about these 12 statements? Do you think they re correct?

1: Cardio is One of the Best Types of Exercise
2: Vaccines are Safe and Effective and Prevent Disease
3: Fluoride in Your Water Lowers Your Risk of Cavities
4: GMOs Crops are Safe, Well Tested and Economically Beneficial
5: Sun Causes Skin Cancer
6: Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease
7: Artificial Sweeteners are Safe, Well Tested and Help Promote Weight Loss
8: Soy is a Health Food
9: Whole Grains are Good for Everyone
10: All Plant Based Supplements are as Good as Animal Supplements
11: Milk Does Your Body Good
12: Low-Fat Diets are Healthy

If you said no to all of them you are a well read person. Othewise read this.




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Random Number Theories

The phe­nom­e­non we com­monly re­fer to as chance is merely a re­sult of a lack of knowl­edge. If we knew the loca­t­ion, speed and oth­er char­ac­ter­is­tics of all of the par­t­i­cles in the uni­verse with ab­so­lute cer­tainty, ac­cord­ing to clas­si­cal phys­ics we could pre­dict eve­ry­thing, in­clud­ing di­ce throws and lot­tery re­sults.

By the same to­ken, computer-gen­er­ated ran­dom num­bers “sim­u­late ran­domness, but with the help of suit­a­ble tests and a suf­fi­cient vol­ume of da­ta, a pat­tern can usu­ally be iden­ti­fied,” said re­searcher Christoph Mar­quardt of the Max Planck In­sti­tute for the Phys­ics of Light in Er­lan­gen, Ger­ma­ny.

From http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100912_random




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