Monday, December 28, 2015

Don't Blame It On The Sunshine...

Sunspot AR 2473. Just another eruption on the Sun, nothing to be alarmed about! Don't blame it for your severe weather, its not climate change or anything like that according to scientists, someone left the fridge door open again or sprayed too much cream on the Christmas pudding. If you wake up under 3 feet of snow or 2 meters of water, not to worry, it's just normal for this time of year. Oh, and Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 13, 2015

No Veil Required - Secrets of the Mona Lisa Reveal Hidden Painting(S)

Hidden portrait(s) behind the Mona Lisa
Something 'other-worldly' in the background, but she's not looking at you.
The Mona Lisa was a Leonardo Di Vinci hidden gem that only a privileged few in elite circles were aware of back in 1506!
A re-touched version which experts argue shows the left shoulder-shawl denoting royalty or god-status. A scrubbed-out hair-pin crown, used only on religious icons, and the crossed hands, perhaps holding something blue.
The inspiration!
Mona; among other definitions, is a short name in old Italian for Madonna, or noble female
Lisa; among other definitions, means oath of God, daughter or worshiper of God

Find out more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06ryn6l/secrets-of-the-mona-lisa

French scientist reveals hidden secrets of Di Vinci's most famous work of art..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/mona-lisa-discovery-scientist-claims-secret-second-portrait-of-r/

Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Set Up

Tales of the West...

Sounds like a set-up, looks like a set-up, smells like a set-up... It doesn't take much to realise what this is all about. Emergency drills taking place in the vicinity, people hanging around believing it's just another drill, no word at all on the 'casualties', except the so-called 'shooters'...

SUV and 'dead body'
Eye witnesses report three shooters in heavy military-style armour, but only two found.

What 'radical Islamist' goes on a killing spree and protects own daughter, expects to survive and go home to Grandma? Seriously?

Set Up - 2011
What happened to the reports about 'face-masks'? What happened to the CBS report about a passenger being 'strapped in the BACK SEAT' of the bullet-ridden SUV?

Just another Set Up?
".... a lot of things don't make sense...."

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.
10news.com  -- One moment, Syed Rizwan Farook was sitting at a table with colleagues at a holiday gathering for county health employees. Then suddenly he disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair.

The next time his co-workers saw him, he was dressed in battle gear and wielding an assault rifle.

Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, and his wife or fiancee, Tashfeen Malik, 27, slaughtered 14 people and seriously wounded more than a dozen others in a precision attack Wednesday at a social service center for the disabled before they were gunned down in an SUV a few miles away in a furious shootout with police.

Investigators Thursday were trying to learn why the couple left behind their baby daughter and went on the rampage — the nation's deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown, Connecticut, school tragedy three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.

Among the possible motives, according to the FBI: some kind of workplace grudge or terrorism. But the bureau would not elaborate.

Farook was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family and had been a San Bernardino County employee for five years, according to authorities. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said he had no information on Malik's background. Relatives said Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet his wife.

Police and federal agents for a second day searched a home in neighboring Redlands, about 7 miles from the massacre at the Inland Regional Center. A black car parked outside was also searched.

The home is where officers initially saw a vehicle matching the description of the attackers' SUV in the hours before the final gunbattle. A bomb squad swept the home with robots Wednesday.

Police didn't immediately say if the couple had lived at the home. Public records show it is a possible residence of a Farook family member.

Residents told KABC-TV Redlands is a sleepy town and expressed shock that the killers might be their neighbors.

The attackers invaded the center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles around 11 a.m., opening fire in a conference area where county health officials were having an employee banquet.

"They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission," Burguan said.

Farook attended the banquet before leaving — and then returning to kill.

Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Farook, who suddenly disappeared. Baccari said that when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.

The shooting lasted about five minutes, he said, and when he looked in the mirror he realized he was bleeding.

"If I hadn't been in the bathroom, I'd probably be laying dead on the floor," he said.

Baccari described Farook as reserved and said he showed no signs of unusual behavior. Earlier this year he traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a wife, later growing a beard, Baccari said.

The couple dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor's appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with family.

Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook's sister, told reporters that he last spoke to his brother-in-law about a week ago. Khan condemned the violence and said he had "absolutely no idea" why Farook would do such a thing.

Seventeen people were wounded, according to authorities. Ten were hospitalized in critical condition, and three in serious condition, Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said.

About four hours after the morning carnage, police hunting for the killers riddled a black SUV with gunfire in a shootout 2 miles from the social services center in this Southern California city of 214,000 people.

Farook and Malik were found with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, and were wearing "assault-style clothing" with ammunition attached, authorities said.

Three explosive devices — all connected to one another — were found at the social services center, police said.

Federal authorities said the two assault rifles and two handguns used in the violence had been bought legally, but they did not say how and when they got into the attackers' hands.


Saturday, November 28, 2015

X Marks the Spot

A Dragon drops a Falcon on the Isles of Scilly!
BBC News 27 November 2015:      A large chunk of an American space rocket has been found in the sea off the Isles of Scilly.
The section of the spacecraft, measuring about 10m (32ft) by 4m (13ft), was spotted on the surface between Bryher and Tresco.
Coastguards believe it is from the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 which exploded after take-off in Florida in June.
However many astronomers believe it is from a different mission due to the size and markings.
Local boatmen towed the section to Tresco where it has now been removed from the beach.

Rocket splits but doesn't disintegrate
Joseph Thomas, from Tresco Boat Services, found the section of rocket while travelling around the north end of the island.
He said: "There were lots of gulls on the water and I thought initially it was a dead whale and the birds were feeding off it."
Mr Thomas found the debris, which was "covered in goose barnacles", at about 14:00 GMT on Thursday about 100m (328ft) from the shore.
"I didn't know what it was. We tried to drag it ashore using a hook, but it bent it.
"First thoughts were that it was part of a plane, but then we scraped the barnacles off and we saw it was part of a rocket.
Definitely not a beached whale
"It's not every day part of a rocket washes ashore at home."

"It was too heavy for us to tow."
Coastguards issued a warning to shipping in the area after the discovery.
Spokesman Martin Leslie said: "The markings show an American flag. It looks like it's an American rocket and seems most likely to be the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 which blew up shortly after take-off from Cape Canaveral in June.


"We're grateful for all those who helped in its recovery, it was a great example of the community working together."
That rocket, which broke up shortly after take-off and landed in the sea about 4,100 miles from the Isles of Scilly, was in the process of sending a cargo ship to the International Space Station.
However Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said many experts believed, due to the size and markings which have now been revealed, it was from a different mission.
"All the geeks have been getting together and looking at fine details, and we're pretty sure it's a launch from September 2014 that successfully sent a cargo mission to the space station.
"It didn't look like an exploded rocket to me, it looked like a fairly normal piece of space junk when the lower stage of a rocket falls from a hundred miles up and hits the ocean. Large sections can remain in tact and it's really quite normal," he said.
Islander Pete Hicks, who towed the debris to shore, tweeted: "Towed in and beached a piece of flotsam earlier. Thoughts were could be aviation parts ..didnt imagine space race."

Monday, November 16, 2015

Mirror Mirror?

Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East

Paris by night, the City of Lights
I am reminded of the Marian prophecy of La Salette; visions of the Virgin by two children which began on the mountains of La Salette, France in September 1846 :

“...At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy...”

This is an excerpt of the prophesy first published 'coincidentally' on 15th November 1879 in Lecce, Italy.

Beirut bombing 12th November 2015

Paris bombing 13th November 2015

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Enchantment



Marty at the dance

1955 was the year that James Dean got killed and Albert Einstein passed away. It’s the year Marty McFly travelled to in BTTF. It was also the year that one of my favourite actors won his Oscar, funnily enough, for a movie called ‘Marty’, where he played the title role.


Socially awkward McFly

He was always instantly recognisable, though you may have gotten his name wrong. The films he graced included such gems as The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Poseidon Adventure, The Black Hole, and Escape from New York.

Escape from New York

He enjoyed many years on our TV screens playing character actors in programmes like Little House on the Prairie, The Love Boat, Highway to Heaven, Airwolf, Murder She Wrote, and Touched by an Angel. More recently he voiced the popular children’s’ cartoon character ‘Mermaid Man’ in SpongeBob SquarePants.

I am talking, of course, about Ermes (Hermes) Effron ( bird ) Borgnino (one eye) aka Ernest Borgnine.

Ermes Messenger of the Gods

If you haven’t already noticed, his filmography, as well as his personal life, seem to have wonderful synchronistic overtones for sci-fi fans, movie freaks, and lovers of strange coincidences.


The Cyclops (one-eyed Seer)

Among his many roles, he has links to the navy, ships, and the sea in general. Something he used to his advantage in one of his first TV outings playing the loveable Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale in 62s ‘McHale’s Navy’, a sit-com for Universal.

Marty at the dance

He narrated the TV fantasy film ‘Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders’, which later became part of the ‘Mystery Science Theatre’.


Hell Upside Down!

According to online sources, in 2000, Borgnine received his 50-year pin as a Freemason in Abingdon Lodge No. 48, Abingdon, Virginia. He joined the Scottish Rite Valley of Los Angeles (in the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S.A) in 1964, received the KCCH in 1979, was coroneted a 33° Inspector General Honorary in 1983, and received the Grand Cross of the Court of Honour in 1991. He was also a member of the Loyal Order of Moose at that organization's Lodge in Junction City, Oregon.

Life preserver?
Borgnine held the honour of being the oldest living Best Actor Oscar winner around, beating James Dean for the gong. Living to the ripe old age of 95, he even managed to win an Emmy for his role in the last episodes of ER.


Marty in New York City

In the role of Marty, Borgnine plays a butcher who lives in The Bronx with his mother. Unmarried at 34, he’s good-natured but socially awkward, and faces constant badgering from family and friends. Not averse to marriage but disheartened by his lack of prospects, Marty has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood.

After being harassed by his mother into going to the Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty connects with Clara, a plain schoolteacher, who is quietly weeping on the roof after being callously abandoned at the ballroom by her blind date.


Clara the plain schoolteacher!











Monday, October 5, 2015

Snowden, The Smurfs and CISCO... just another drop in the ocean!



According to the BBC...

Smartphone users can do "very little" to stop security services getting "total control" over their devices, US whistleblower Edward Snowden has said.
The former intelligence contractor told the BBC's Panorama that UK intelligence agency GCHQ had the power to hack into phones without their owners' knowledge.
Mr Snowden said GCHQ could gain access to a handset by sending it an encrypted text message and use it for such things as taking pictures and listening in.
The UK government declined to comment.
Mr Snowden spoke to Panorama in Moscow, where he fled in 2013 after leaking to the media details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by his former employer, the US National Security Agency (NSA).
He did not suggest that either GCHQ or the NSA were interested in mass-monitoring of citizens' private communications but said both agencies had invested heavily in technology allowing them to hack smartphones. "They want to own your phone instead of you," he said.
Mr Snowden talked about GCHQ's "Smurf Suite", a collection of secret intercept capabilities individually named after the little blue imps of Belgian cartoon fame.
"Dreamy Smurf is the power management tool which means turning your phone on and off with you knowing," he said.
"Nosey Smurf is the 'hot mic' tool. For example if it's in your pocket, [GCHQ] can turn the microphone on and listen to everything that's going on around you - even if your phone is switched off because they've got the other tools for turning it on.
"Tracker Smurf is a geo-location tool which allows [GCHQ] to follow you with a greater precision than you would get from the typical triangulation of cellphone towers."

Peter Taylor's film Edward Snowden: Spies and the Law also covers:
  • The contentious relationship between the British government and social media companies. The intelligence agencies and the police want the companies to co-operate in detecting terrorist content but the programme learns that not all companies are prepared to co-operate to the extent that the agencies would like.
  • Documents leaked by Mr Snowden that appear to show that the UK government acquired vast amounts of communications data from inside Pakistan by secretly hacking into routers manufactured by the US company, Cisco.**

'Necessary and proportionate'

Mr Snowden also referred to a tool known as Paronoid Smurf.
"It's a self-protection tool that's used to armour [GCHQ's] manipulation of your phone. For example, if you wanted to take the phone in to get it serviced because you saw something strange going on or you suspected something was wrong, it makes it much more difficult for any technician to realise that anything's gone amiss."
Once GCHQ had gained access to a user's handset, Mr Snowden said the agency would be able to see "who you call, what you've texted, the things you've browsed, the list of your contacts, the places you've been, the wireless networks that your phone is associated with.
"And they can do much more. They can photograph you".
Mr Snowden also explained that the SMS message sent by the agency to gain access to the phone would pass unnoticed by the handset's owner.
"It's called an 'exploit'," he said. "That's a specially crafted message that's texted to your number like any other text message but when it arrives at your phone it's hidden from you. It doesn't display. You paid for it [the phone] but whoever controls the software owns the phone."
Describing the relationship between GCHQ and its US counterpart, he said: "GCHQ is to all intents and purposes a subsidiary of the NSA.
"They [the NSA] provide technology, they provide tasking and direction as to what they [GCHQ] should go after."
The NSA is understood to have a similar programme to the Smurf Suite used by GCHQ on which it is reported to have spent $1bn in response to terrorists' increasing use of smartphones.
Mr Snowden said the agencies were targeting those suspected of involvement in terrorism or other serious crimes such as paedophilia "but to find out who those targets are they've got to collect mass data".
"They say, and in many cases this is true, that they're not going to read your email, for example, but they can and if they did you would never know," he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the UK government said: "It is long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters.
"All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position."
The government believes Mr Snowden has caused great damage to the intelligence agencies' ability to counter threats to national security.
Mr Snowden maintains he has acted in the public interest on the grounds that the surveillance activities revealed in the thousands of documents he leaked are carried out - in his words - "without our knowledge, without our consent and without any sort of democratic participation".

An article by Sarah Silbert appeared on "engadget UK" May 16th 2014 more specifically targeting CISCO...
"As promised, the release of Glenn Greenwald's new book, No Place to Hide, has brought plenty more Snowden leaks, and one document is particularly mind-blowing. The photo above shows an NSA team intercepting and bugging a Cisco router before it's sent to a customer who's been targeted for surveillance. In the document, an internal newsletter from June 2010, the chief of the NSA's Access and Target Development department explains the process of intercepting routers, servers and other internet hardware to install beacon implants, then resealing them and sending them on to targets.
A quote from the document follows:
Here's how it works: shipments of computer network devices (servers, routers, etc,) being delivered to our targets throughout the world are intercepted. Next, they are redirected to a secret location where Tailored Access Operations/Access Operations (AO-S326) employees, with the support of the Remote Operations Center (S321), enable the installation of beacon implants directly into our targets' electronic devices. These devices are then re-packaged and placed back into transit to the original destination. All of this happens with the support of Intelligence Community partners and the technical wizards in TAO.
Pretty crazy, right? It's not clear how often the agency has used this technique, but the document has prompted a response from Cisco. According to Mark Chandler, the company's SVP of General Counsel and Security, Cisco has never cooperated with the government to "weaken products."

** Remember my post about the Cisco routers, delivered to the Cypriot government, with their security tags tampered with? This has been known for a while. Not only does Cisco manufacture, it designs, maintains and upgrades everything. How can they 'not know' about it?

Friday, August 28, 2015

A Day Out at Dismaland


If you get the chance to visit Dismaland, and if you're in the UK you should try, as it's better than you imagine, you'll discover a quirky thrill-ride through modern art and dissident pop-culture. Highly recommended if you like your entertainment on the dark satirical side.

Watch out for the militant-political 'selling' that goes on in some exhibits though. Along with the superior new art, there is controversy and thought provoking examinations of what we consider to be 'normality'... Major Spoilers Ahead... if you plan to go, I'd say stop right here!

A walking tour of the old swimming pool reveals the bathing tiles still in place... and children's dilapidated rides have a splash of new paint too.

A photo op with the Boys from the Black Stuff if you're that way inclined




Got Money!

One exhibit satirizes our gullibility for being fleeced, then you enter another where a bunch of students start asking you to buy books, posters and magazines about various political causes

We're all just big kids really, aren't we?
Enjoy the view?








It looks dirty and glum, but strangely the Dismaland 'phenomenon' leaves you feeling uplifted!


The old Club Tropicana sea-view wall hasn't changed much, except there's a massive wooden bench in the shape of a... toilet roll!

Castles in the sand weren't built to last...


Disney is rolling in his grave... major copyright infringement filing in the works right now I'm guessing. The video of  a  Disney Princess on screen? Saying you 'bought it from Ebay' will just not cut it.




Got that Charlie?



You can't get too close to the migrants because strangely there is a barrier.

My picture of the David Cameron exhibit was too blurred, perhaps a good thing after all!

I don't know, do you really want to?

A Damien Hirst


A Banksy















The beginning of 'The Police State'


Shouting at us to move along, "Nothing to see here!"




Apparently there was pizza on sale, as well as the beer and cider. I didn't want to risk it!





The Jeffrey Archer fire-pit - they're burning something called books
Have a nice life!
N.B. Will add updates, names/credits to this post and pics a.s.a.p.  ...Need to sleep now...  If you go to Dismaland, remember to wear good shoes, you'll need them!

Credits for the artists: 
Andreas Hykade (Bavaria)
Amir Schiby (Israel)
Axel Void (USA)
Banksy (UK)
Barry Reigate (UK)
Ben Long (UK)
Bill Barminski (USA)
Block9 (UK)
Brock Davis (USA)
Caitlin Cherry (USA)
Caroline McCarthy (UK)
Damien Hirst (UK)
Darren Cullen (UK)
David Shrigley (UK)
Dorcas Casey (UK)
Dietrich Wegner (USA)
Ed Hall (UK)
El Teneen (Egypt)
Escif (Spain)
Espo (USA)
Fares Cachoux (Syria)
Greg Haberny (USA)
Huda Beydoun (Saudi Arabia)
James Joyce (UK)
Jani Leinonen (Finland)
Jeff Gillette (USA)
Jenny Holzer (USA)
Jessica Harrison (UK)
Jimmy Cauty (UK)
Joanna Pollonais (Canada)
Josh Keyes (USA)
Julie Burchill (UK)
Kate MacDowell (USA)
Laura Lancaster (UK)
Lee Madgwick (UK)
Leigh Mulley (UK)
Lush (Australia)
Mana Neyestani (Iran)
Maskull Laserre (Canada)
Michael Beitz (USA)
Mike Ross (USA)
Neta Harari Navon (Israel)
Nettie Wakefield (UK)
Paco Pomet (Spain)
Paul Insect & BAST (UK/USA)
Peter Kennard & Cat Phillips(UK)
Polly Morgan (UK)
Pure Evil (UK)
Ronit Baranga (Israel)
Sami Musa (Palestine)
Scott Hove (USA)
Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė (Lithuania)
Shadi Alzaqzouq (Palestine)
Suliman Mansour (Palestine)
Tammam Azzam (Syria)
The Astronauts’ Caravan (UK)
Tinsel Edwards (UK)
Wasted Rita (Portugal)
Zaria Forman (USA)