Cocoa

The former acting Prime Minister of Russia, Yegor Gaidar, has been hospitalised after falling violently sick a day after the ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated via poisoning; Gaidar suffered a nose bleed, vomiting and collapses before he was hospitalised. His daughter has gone on record as saying that his doctors believe he was poisoned. Gaidar is a critic of President Putin.

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Traces of the radioactive substasnce Polonium-210 have been found on 2 British Airways passenger jets, with another being tested as I type.

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The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

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Apparently termites nosh their way through wood roughly twice as fast when listening to rock music. Odd…

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AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

OK, I’m no conservative, but the way in which the Conservative Party here in the UK is conducting its campaigning is horrific – horrific as in ineffective and blindingly poor.

David Cameron, the new young and dynamic MP, surfaced a little while ago as the new leader of the Conservative Party. A left wing conservative, he became a media darling – for two weeks. He promised a lot and it’s starting to sink in that he’s kinda failed on all counts. There aren’t any of these massive reforms yet – the only ones that have gained publicity are the ones that have been tried and have failed in mini-rebellions.

A Conservative spokesperson just surfaced and told everyone that it’s too soon to judge whether any of these ideas will ever work. I’m sorry, but the “please wait for something that might happen” approach is rubbish. So are the soundbites that they all come out with in an oh-so-obvious way every five minutes.

PLEASE, someone replace the PR team in that party!

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Having just looked into the horrific tragedy that was the Kursk, I’m feeling, well, angry. How the hell could the Russians deny foreign help whilst their people were trapped down there, tapping out SOS messages on the hull? They spend three bloody days down there with their air running out, with water seeping in from all sides and in greater and greater darkness as the emergency lights started to die. How could ANYONE turn away even the slightest hope of saving those poor souls?

I’d also like to know a few other things, right now without any of this political rubbish.

Why was it reported that there was wreckage from an American torpedo next to the craft?

Why did the hull look as if it had been torn into like a knife, like the Titanic?

Why was there a near perfect round hole in the hull whose wreckage was bent inwards, consistent with uranium enriched torpedo damage?

Why was there a British Trident nuclear submarine lurking around so close to the place?

Why were there TWO explosions? And why did the helm not hit the emergency release, forcing the vessel to rise? How about the distress beacon? The helm wasn’t destroyed in the blast so it’s not as if the crew had no time to do so. Heh, “explosions”; the second definitely was one but the first event was more like a tearing noise, so said the Norwegian scientists who picked it up. That goes along with the marks we managed to snap before the military got rid of the press.

Why was the Kursk raised without the damaged part and then destroyed in a military base? Why did the Russians blow up the part left on the sea floor?

Why were we told that the Kursk had no nukes when it had a load of them on board?

Why are the notes that the dying sailors wrote classified? Only parts of some of them are public.

Why was the press banned from taking pictures of the so-called torpedo hole?

Why did the Russian naval admirals say that an American sub had opened fire?

Why did the Kursk go silent way BEFORE the first blast hit it?

Why didn’t the Kursk do or say anything after the first bang? It was still functional, the engine speed was increased by the helm.

Why did Russian battleships escort the rescue boats? What were they scared of?

Why did the USA give Russia a load of cash after they said that America had shot the craft?

Why did sonar detect TWO submarines after the blast? And why did the second one slink slowly off?

Why did the Russians suggest that another craft had rammed it? This I’d dearly like to know, given that two subs were detected on ultrasound (the Kursk and an unidentified one of similar size) and that much of the damage appeared to be a tear.

What about the supposed piece of wreckage from another submarine next to the Kursk? Specifically, the thing that looked just like a submarine’s “fairwater”, whatever that is.

Further to that, why did the Russians label the USS Memphis as the attacker? How would they know? The news that the USS Memphis immediately docked in a Norwegian port for emergency repairs (witnessed by the local press) came AFTER the accusation.

And what the hell is all this torpedo for sale stuff? Apparently Russia has developed torpedo “bullets” that travel three times faster than ours and seemed to be trying to sell them to China and even Canada; as soon as this was picked up on, all documents were classified.

Bloody hell, there are more question still.

How did the fin get it’s gash when it never even touched the sea bed?

Why were all the masts and scopes extended? They’re ALWAYS withdrawn when the sub is down more than ten or so yards.

This external “object”, the supposed second sub… it tried to move to the left and down before the collision. If it was one of our craft, why the hell would it get so close? Surely the Kursk would detect it? I mean, the Kursk was horrendously advanced, it should have picked up on it – but then again, it was silent by that time. Did it detect it?

Green and white rescue buoys were seen; the Russians use red and white buoys. Green and white is British and I believe American too. Why were they there and where did they go? If they weren’t, why lie about them if the Russian Government was simply going to shut the sailors up and deny it?

A number of jet fighters were scrambled with nuclear weapons just after the Kursk was damaged – why the hell would ANYONE scramble those things?

2 NATO “Orion” aircraft were witnessed just after the explosion. Why were they there?

An SOS signal was detected by multiple Russian vessels directly after the tearing noise; it seemed to originate from a vessel, the size and shape of a nuclear submarine, moving away from the Kursk’s location.

Severing the Kursk in two when raising it cost an enormous amount more than simply raising the whole thing. There was a delay and eventually the severed piece on the sea bed was utterly destroyed. Why the wait and what were they hiding? It’s not as if spies could steal all the secrets or anything; the condition of the hull would be far more obvious.

The head of the CIA arrived in Moscow shortly after the blast. It was unannounced and the press heard of his visit a little while later. The Russians said that it was not related to the Kursk. What the hell? Why not say he was coming/there?

The Russians carried out an exercise prior to the tragedy where the same fleet would undergo a mock rescue of crew from a submarine on the seabed at a depth similar to that of the Kursk. The rescue vessel was the Mikhail Rudnitsky. Big coincidence? Nope, BIGGER coincidence since one of the first ships on the scene when the Kursk went down was, that’s right, the Mikhail Rudnitsky. Why was it so close to hand for this near identical situation?

The Russian Navy said that air lines had been established with the Kursk and that many crew members were alive. Both were utter lies. Why string people along? They [the lies] hurt the polls, increased pressure to allow foreign teams in and decimated families. So again – why?

More to the point, why is there so much stuff classified in Russia?

They have video footage of the craft at the time of the explosion which the Deputy Prime Minister said clearly shows a collision with another submarine. If this is false, why is it classified?

What about the notes, one of which detailing what happened? If it was as innocent as an accident, WHY HIDE IT EVEN FROM THE SAILOR’S FAMILY?

And there’s so much utter rubbish…

The supposed other sub was explained as being a jellyfish. WTH? A jellyfish as big as a nuclear sub?

The Nemphiss was reported to have gone in to dock for food, not repairs. The words “emergency repairs” and “food” were mixed up.

Of course, there’s a composite story too.

It says that the Kursk was to carry out a torpedo attack on a training target from periscope depth. Whilst ascending, it hit a very large and solid object that looked for all the world like another submarine; senior Russian military officials said that it was without doubt a “foreign nuclear multi-purpose submarine”.

The two submarines were aware of each other but due to their depth acoustic sensors were pretty rubbish. The impact was at an angle of about 20° to 30°; the foreign object was travelling faster than the Kursk. The combat alarm was heard to have been sounded on board the Kursk at this point. This means that the explosion killed about 40 crew members subsequently died as a direct result of the subsequent explosion, being stationed in the first two compartments.

The foreign object dragged a tear into the Kursk, which penetrated the first four compartments absolutely and the fifth and sixth partly. This was very similar to the fate of the Titanic and left similar damage.

An SOS broadcast was intercepted having originated from a non Russian submersed object approximately the size and shape of a nuclear submarine.

The Kursk flooded quickly and the main power died; it’s reactor shut down by the integrated protection system.

The Kursk then started to sink at an eventual angle of about 45°.

So there you are.

A lot of political fog and rubbish, a tonne of conspiracy theories ranging from US attacks to Russian sabotage and a lot of very, VERY big questions.

I want politicians to show us what happened. I want them to prove it as best they can.

I want to see this debris from another submarine. I want to see those letters the crew wrote. I want to know why the head of the CIA flew over unannounced for totally unrelated matters. I want to know why the press was banned from photographing damage to the hull. I want to know why the entire vessel has been utterly destroyed away from public eyes. I want to know that the HELL that foreign object was – jellyfish my foot. I want to know why fighter jets were scrambled with NUKES. I want to know what emergency repairs the Nemphiss had right after the disaster. I want to know why a British nuclear submarine was lurking around the exercise. I want to know what the hell NATO aircraft were doing there. I want that video footage of the accident released. I want to know why Russia was paid a huge sum of money by the USA directly after.

I want to know the truth right damn now because I’m not gullible enough to believe in jellyfish the size and shape of nuclear submarines, I’m not gullible enough to believe that the words for “food” and “emergency repairs” would be mixed up by translators and I am NOT so much a drone as to accept that tonnes of information is being kept secret to protect what Russian torpedoes look like from the outside.

118 people died. Many survived the blast and even wrote goodbye letters for their families which all got confiscated. Hell, they might have been saved had Russia not clammed up about the circumstances and surrounded the site with warships.

For God’s sake, tell the truth and show us what you found.

If you are telling the truth, you have nothing to hide.

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Pædophillia is classically viewed as a disease that can be treated, albeit with significant difficulty and with varying results. Sometimes treatment can help, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s a whole doctorate piece right there.

However.

The natural rate of paedophilic tendencies (people who react to pædophilic stimuli) is higher than you might think – it’s 20 to 25%. Let me repeat that:

The natural rate of paedophilic tendencies is 20 to 25%.

Clearly it is illogical to label a quarter of all known humanity as mentally ill! (This may be an understatement – the classical rate is 27.7% and some studies quote a figure as high as 32.5%, implicating some two billion people!) This is the argument used to counter the notion that pædophillia is a psychiatric condition.

Nowadays the condition is viewed as a “distortion”, closely bound to aspects of self-control. The vast majority of those who exhibit “strong” tendencies towards pædophillia do NOT offend, ever. I’ll repeat that too:

The vast majority of pædophiles do NOT offend, ever.

Of course, the definition of pædophilia is part of the problem. The figures quoted above apply to people who exhibit sexual arousal to pædophilic stimuli that equals or exceeds their arousal to adult stimuli. However, to be classified clinically as a pædophile, one must exhibit, over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger). In addition, one must be at least 16 years old and must exhibit said tendencies towards a person 5 years or greater their difference.

Since it is apparent that pædophillia is a condition as opposed to an illness, one should therefore view those with the condition with a strong sense of pity – they never chose to have the condition and must bury it and stamp upon it utterly every day of their long lives.

Not that I argue for pity in place of punishment for those who do offend. It is not believed that it is possible to harbour such an inclination so strong as to be undeniable. In other words, offenders have the capacity to deny their base desires and do not do so.

Those with such a strong inclination towards pædophillia that they end up offending should therefore be segregated from society for reasons of safety. At this time treatment is, as stated above, difficult and varying in effectiveness, so until we can improve this incarceration would have to be for life.

Half the problem is the stigma. If people knew that the vast majority of pædophiles were afflicted against their own choice and had to suffer with it day and and day out and did not offend, our problems would be half solved! Those with the condition would, if not for the stigma, submit themselves for treatment, that which we know and possibly benefit. Those who did not respond could be isolated on friendly terms – offences would be heavily reduced, but for that stigma.

Mass culls are not the answer in a civilised world to a problem so little understood or even realised.

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I must say I believe in UFOs. I believe they are defence prototypes developed out of the public eye. Some background.

The first UFO reports were recorded in World War II, when pilots reported strange lights in the air toying with the aircraft. The pilots even coined a name for them – “foo fighters”. They assumed that they were Nazi technology and all reports were subsequently classified (although they are public now.)

What they were is anyone’s guess.
Surprisingly, during the war the Nazis toyed with – wait for it – disc shaped aircraft.

Interestingly, Nazis also researched into stealth fighter technology – scientifically, they were very far advanced.

They also toyed with the idea of anti-gravity technology in a series of experiments deep under the mountains on the Polish border. Reconnaissance photos first picked up the facility towards the end of the war, picking out the power plant used to supply the facility with energy and an odd structure nicknamed the “Flytrap”.

The Nazi anti-gravity experiments were nicknamed the “Bell” experiments after the shape of central research device. This device was filled with a mercury-like liquid that shone with a violet light when under test. A lot of people died during the testing of this device. The man in charge was one Hans Kammler, a very senior officer in Hitler’s military.

The research was classified as “war decisive” by the Nazi high command – amazing, since not even the atmoic bomb was classed similarly, only the Bell – and was largely destroyed – results and all – as they retreated ahead of the Russians. The Americans seized all technology in the area and initiated a brain-drain on Nazi Germany, a project known as Project Paperclip.

Shortly after the Americans seized the technology, UFO sightings came thick and fast in America.

Kammler, meanwhile, admitted to the whole thing, providing much of the information we have now. Annoyingly, the facility has long since been flooded, making access impossible.

Pity.

NB. This is a modified post with many errors corrected.

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Well, I just flew off my handle in an internet forum. Great. I couldn’t help it. I guess I’ve just done so much bloomin’ research that I find it hard to tolerate others who still think that cannabis is exempt from harm – that or the other few reasons.

Truth is I know two people who’s lives were wrecked by the drug. One is dead. That can’t be good for my objectivity.

So, for better or for worse I flew off my handle and proceeded to mow down everyone indiscriminately with statistics, numbers and even more bloomin’ statistics.

It’s a sorry mess and yet another lesson for me.

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The USA has, since the end of World War II, bombed 20 countries: China (twice), Korea, Guatemala (thrice), Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq (twice), Bosnia, Sudan, Afghanistan (twice) and Yugoslavia.

The USA has, since the end of World War II, killed more people than any other nation. It is also the only state ever to use nuclear arms and remains the state that spends the most on military resources, comprising 36% of the world’s military, a prize that costs over half of their budget.

The war on Iraq, now, has only been justified by the breach of two UN resolutions whilst Israel, a nearby state, has been in breach of 64. Since the occupation of Iraq by Britain, Italy, Spain and the USA, approximately 100,000 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives, over three times the rate at which Saddam was killing (based on rumour and speculation that up to one million Iraqis had been murdered, the highest figure considered possible).

Meanwhile, the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan is worsening, Iran is developing a nuclear arsenal, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a country of death and there is turmoil in Zimbabwe.

This is not to say that the USA is a bully – far from it. To commit so many resources to, as the country sees it, ‘aid’ others is a huge and compassionate undertaking. The problem is sense of place. It is not our place to sort these problems out according to our will; we are not God and neither do we have God’s unconditional approval.

One reason for this misapplication of compassion could lie in the two World Wars, neither of which affected America to any great extent, especially not the Great War. This would leave violence as an untouched subject and in comparison to, say, Eurasia, the USA would naturally have less of a subconscious distaste for violence than, say, France.

Since the far right usually favours tradition and their state above all others by definition (Encyclopædia Britannica), the far right in America would naturally advocate military action as opposed to economic sanctions or simple patience; a state not echoed in other, more war scarred areas of the world.

America will remain saddled with this illness until such time as they themselves fall prey to a war on their doorsteps and see the pain associated; until such time, we can expect many more bombings.

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