Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Naw! Yer tellin' me ther nae real....

(Reuters) - One in five people in Britain thinks that haggis, the traditional Scottish dish made from the lung, liver and heart of a sheep, is an animal that roams the Highlands, according to a survey on Friday.
Commissioned by the online takeaway food service Just-Eat.co.uk, the survey found that 18 percent of Britons believe that haggis is a hilltop-dwelling animal.
Another 15 percent said it is a Scottish musical instrument while 4 percent admitted to thinking it was a character from Harry Potter.
The survey questioned 1,623 people across Britain to see how well they were acquainted with traditional Scottish food.
Even 14 percent of the 781 Scottish people polled said they did not know what haggis was.
That's OK. According to a poll taken in the UK
The enduring myth of the haggis still contributes to the Scottish travel trade, according to a poll yesterday that suggested a third of US visitors believe the delicacy to be an animal.
As government statisticians reported the number of North Americans visiting Scotland fell from 606,000 in 1998 to 504,000 last year, the haggis manufacturers Hall's of Broxburn revealed evidence of the misconceptions from an online survey.
The poll of 1,000 US visitors to Scotland found 33% thought haggis was an animal; 23% said they came to Scotland believing they could catch one.
The company said it had interviewed one tourist who thought the haggis was "a wild beast of the Highlands, no bigger than a grouse, which only came out at night". Another claimed it sometimes ventured into the cities, like a fox.
Haggis is traditionally made out of a sheep's stomach filled with liver, heart lung, oatmeal, suet, stock, onions and spices.
Despite the pull of the haggis, the number of foreigners visiting Scotland declined last year, while visits to the UK as a whole increased by more than 1.3m.
@'The Independent'
Still OK. Guess I'll just run now -- gotta listen to that classic Merle Haggis CD I've got. (Bill, Bill! - Mona)
Not OK. Improbable Research describes:

How To Raise Haggis

Haggis, which is native to Scotland, can be bred and raised on a farm, if an article in the January 2007 issue of The Veterinary Record is correct. Investigator Pat Grant alerts us to the published study by haggis specialists at the University of Glasgow Veterinary School:

“Applications of Ultrasonography in the Reproductive Management of Dux magnus gentis venteris saginati,” A.M. King, L. Cromarty, C. Paterson, and J.S. Boyd, Veterinary Record, vol., no. 160, January 2007, pp. 94-6. The authors explain, more or less, that:

Dux magnus gentis venteris saginati is considered to be a Scottish delicacy; however, depleting wild stocks have resulted in attempts to farm them. Selective breeding has been successful in modifying behaviour, increasing body length, reducing hair coat and improving fank (litter) size. However, there are still significant problems associated with the terrain in which they are farmed. This article describes the use of ultrasonography in the reproductive management of this species and the introduction of new genetic material in an attempt to address these problems, with the aim of improving welfare and productivity."

(Thanx BillT!)

Thanx Fifi!

On May 5th in Copenhagen it was bus driver Mukhtar's birthday...

Brilliant, just brilliant!

Will you draw him again?

You wanna know what I believe? I believe religion is just another way to channel our destructive urges towards others.

As posted on Pharyngula, Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks was attacked during a University lecture. After this event, his website was hacked and firebombs were planted in his house.

David Frum points out that the crowd of spectators who outnumbered the protesters 10 to 1 remained passive during the protest, while the police were slow to respond to protect the speaker. This silence and lack of enforment from authorities is despressing.

Jeffrey Weston @'ApeNotMonkey'

***

Mona's tuppence worth:

While from a civil liberties point of view I am appalled by this (and other) attacks.

This article here recounts the long history of the (non) depiction of Muhammad.

What worries me are the motives behind the cartoonists and the paper to publish these images.

Of course if you have an interest in Islamic Art as a whole you will find generally that there are NO reresentations of any living creature. Where does this come from, why right here:

‘You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them.'

The 2^nd Commandment; Exodus 20:4-6

Just saying...

Reality TV role in 7 year old shooting?

The killing of Aiyana Jones during a police raid being filmed by a camera crew for the show 'The First 48' raises concerns for some over the relationship between police departments and reality television shows, a relationship that trades exciting video for the promise of positive publicity and improved morale.
@'Detroit News'

BIG thanx to DevHool!

Bristol 2010

Faces of the Dead

Grim Milestone: 1,000 Americans Dead in Afghanistan

Deal on Sanctions for Iran, U.S. Says

Clinton Says U.S., China and Russia Have Deal on New Iran Sanctions

'Dudus' extradition process to begin

Prime Minister Bruce Golding last night announced that Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne will sign the authorisation for the extradition process to begin against West Kingston strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke who is wanted in the United States for alleged gun- and drug-trafficking between Jamaica and that country.

The Jamaican Government's handling of the Americans' extradition request for Coke, submitted last August, has soured relations between both countries in recent months.
But in a solemn address to the nation last night Golding maintained that the Government has never refused the request for Coke's extradition, but simply wanted additional information from the US to enable the justice minister to issue the authorisation in compliance with the terms of the treaty.

Golding said the opinion of eminent constitutional lawyer Dr Lloyd Barnett was sought and he advised that the issues were not sufficiently settled in law, therefore the attorney general should seek a declaration from the Court before exercising her authority.

"I wrestled with the potential conflict between the issues of non-compliance with the terms of the treaty and the unavoidable perception that because Coke is associated with my constituency, the Government's position was politically contrived," Golding explained.

He said he felt the concepts of fairness and justice should not be sacrificed in order to avoid that perception.

"In the final analysis, however, that must be weighed against the public mistrust that this matter has evoked and the destabilising effect it is having on the nation's business," said Golding. "Accordingly, the minister of justice, in consideration of all the factors, will sign the authorisation for the extradition process to commence."

Last night, Tom Tavares-Finson, the attorney representing Coke, said the matter is to be fought the courts and he was in the process of assembling a three-man legal team to begin proceedings on his client's behalf.

"We have heard that the authority to proceed has been signed. We are challenging it in court. To all concerned, we are using the courts," said Tavares-Finson.

"I do not want anyone to use this as an opportunity to go into the community and attack the law-abiding citizens, and kill off babies. The recent past as well as experience suggest that. That experiences tell me that force may be used, that is why we are using the courts," he said.

Tavares-Finson's reference was to previous assaults on Coke's Tivoli Gardens base by police and soldiers which have resulted in the deaths of civilians and members of the security forces.

This matter of the extradition, Golding said, has consumed too much of the country's energies and attention and has led to a virtual paralysis that must be broken.

Meanwhile the Observer has learnt that the US Embassy yesterday advised its citizens in Jamaica to stay close to home and take all necessary precautions in light of any public unrest which may result from the prime minister's announcement.

Since last August the United States has been trying to get Coke, who they claim is the leader of an international criminal organisation, extradited to that country to stand trial on allegations of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, as well as trafficking in weapons.

According to the indictment filed in the US District Court Southern District of New York, Coke and others known and unknown, "unlawfully, intentionally, and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to violate the narcotics laws of the United States" in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere.

The alleged acts, the US said, were committed "from at least in or about 1994, up to and including in or about October 2007".

The indictment also accused Coke and others of unlawfully, intentionally, and knowingly distributing and possessing with intent to distribute, 1,000 kilogrammes and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of marijuana, and five kilogrammes and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of cocaine in violation of Sections 812, 841(a) (1), and 841(b) (1) (A) of Title 21, United States Code.

The indictment also accuses Coke of illegally importing guns into Jamaica "via a wharf located adjacent to Tivoli Gardens" and outlines telephone conversations the US authorities say were conducted between Coke and a number of unnamed co-conspirators regarding the shipment of guns and narcotics.

@'Jamaica Observer'

Vic & Bob - Monkeys

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

Soundcloud hits a million users earlier today!

The Pirate Party Becomes The Pirate Bay’s New Host

After its previous bandwidth provider had to take the site offline due to concerns over an aggressive Hollywood injunction, today The Pirate Bay is fully back in operation with a surprising new supplier. From a few hours ago, in a move intended to “stand up for freedom of expression”, the Swedish Pirate Party became the site’s new host.

Following an injunction obtained by several major Hollywood movie studios, yesterday Pirate Bay bandwidth provider CB3ROB Ltd. & Co. KG took the decision to take the site offline while it digested the legal implications.

That meant that for several hours The Pirate Bay, for the first time in many months, was taken offline. An insider at the site told TorrentFreak that people shouldn’t worry, and that the site would soon return.

By start of play this morning that promise had been kept. In most corners of the globe, the world’s most resilient BitTorrent tracker was living up to its name by coming back online with a new and as yet unnamed host.

Now the identity of the site’s ISP has been revealed, and it is a somewhat of a surprising revelation.

“Today, on 18 May, the Swedish Pirate Party took over the delivery of bandwidth to The Pirate Bay,” says the Party’s Rick Falkvinge in a statement.

“We got tired of Hollywood’s cat and mouse game with the Pirate Bay so we decided to offer the site bandwidth,” he adds. “It is time to take the bull by the horns and stand up for what we believe is a legitimate activity.”

The Pirate Party say they will provide bandwidth to the site’s homepage and search engine.

“The Pirate Bay is a search page, and as such it is not responsible for the results,” notes Falkvinge.

The Party adds the attempts at censoring The Pirate Bay “is an attempt to silence one of today’s most important opinion makers in matters of civil liberties and rights on the web,” adding that it is “nothing less than political censorship, and something that any democratic-minded person must reject.”

Enigmax @'TorrentFreak'