Category: History

Blogging and jail!

Is blogging the same as journalism?

There is a very interesting Post on the Blog TechCrunch.  Let me quote a little from that Post:

Last week two bloggers, Steven Frischling and Chris Elliot, were visited by TSA agents and threatened with jail time if they did not reveal their source of the TSA Travel Directive that they each published shortly after the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas day. Frischling caved immediately and handed over his computer. Elliot did not. Since then the Department of Homeland Security has dropped the subpoenas, but there is a bigger issue here. The protection of sources is a cornerstone of our freedom of speech.As bloggers, we have a duty of confidentiality to our sources. And that means keeping information confidential even if threatened with the tyranny of government. And even if the legislatures and courts haven’t decided that as bloggers we have real rights protecting us from that tyranny.

I’ll never be surprised by a tyrannical government. In a sense, it’s their job. It’s our job as bloggers to stand up to that tyranny, even if our liberty has been threatened. Journalists have gone to jail rather than disclose their sources. If bloggers want the same level of respect, and protection from government by the courts, they need to stand up for what’s right.

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“Don’t worry, it’s only an old man!”

A passer by invokes a lesson for us all.

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Recently while busy in the garden our two dogs started barking. This in itself is not unusual because they sit at the front gate waiting for passers by to stop and talk to them. It can be a horse, or cyclist that sometimes causes them to bark, and our children have grown to show the same awareness as the dogs in who is passing.  I didn’t see the cause this time but our young daughter did.

“Don’t worry, Daddy, it’s only an old man!”

Stephanie is only 8 years old, but without meaning any harm had given sufficient information to explain the risk to us and paint a quick picture in a few words as to why the dogs were barking.

Of late for some reason I have been more aware of people who are ageing. This generation do not normally stand around telling stories, this is left to the young who always seem to have something to shout about.

However all older people will have many interesting tales, often almost unbelievable, yet true. They have lived through war, happy, sad, interesting, and hard times. Each has learnt about life through experience that we can not buy.

Recently my ex Mother-in-law passed away. I thought I knew her very well, but it wasn’t until family stories started coming out that we all found out there had been much more in the life of this modest lady.

How it should be.

Christmas is coming and probably there will be family gatherings. This year I am going to try and turn the attention to the older generation, and see if they will open up and give us an insight into their childhood days and memories so that we can give them the respect they deserve, ask them to read stories to the children, ask them to tell their own tales.

Oh and the old man? Yes I did see him again, in church at a Remembrance service, and he had some medals under his coat, so did have a story to tell!

By Bob Derham

Remarkable people: Dame Shirley Bassey

The wonderful, irrepressible DSB – Dame Shirley Bassey

This wonderful lady was born in 1937 and, thus, next January 8th she turns 73.  So for this author, born in 1944, DSB has been in the background of my life for ever, and for millions of others.  There is so much written about her that the only purpose of this Post is try and bring her to the attention to those that may not know of her so well.

I only have to think of the soundtrack to the film Goldfinger to instantly hear Shirley Bassey’s voice loud and clear in my mind.  Unforgettable, stunning, thrilling and still capable of raising the hairs on my skin now over 40 years since the track was recorded.  Just listen to this voice:

Read more about DSB

Greg Craven and the power of social media

There’s a new power on the streets and it may make politicians feel very uncomfortable!

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown

Like me, you probably haven’t heard of Greg Craven.  I hadn’t until about 24 hours before starting to write this Post (that would be Friday afternoon, Mountain Time, on the 11th December).

I was doing some research for an earlier Post about Copenhagen and came across a YouTube video created by Greg.  More details and links later after making a more fundamental point.

This video of Greg’s has had 2,704,000 viewings! The information on that YouTube ‘page’ has had over 7,500,000 viewings. Greg has now written a book and so on, and so on.

In other words, the personal message that Greg is conveying has reached an unbelievable number of people.  That would have been impossible without the power and reach of modern social media software systems: YouTube, Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, at al.

In the past, information has flowed outwards in a much more ‘top down’ way.  Hierarchical, as it is called.   That has suited those that wish, in some way, to control the message.  While individuals would always chatter and gossip with their peers, there was a finite limit to that before “Send reinforcements, we are going to advance” morphed into “Send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance”!

The example of Greg Craven shows only too well how information can now flow.  Out of anyone’s control, spreading virally.

Having made my point, I want to return to the subject matter that Greg is championing – but will include that in a separate Post.

Politicians!  Be very careful what you say.  We are all listening now, in one way or another, and ready to pounce if we don’t trust your words!

By Paul Handover

There are graveyards, and graveyards!

The almost surreal area where aircraft are ‘laid to rest’.

The Mojave Desert is one of the places in the world where aircraft, both military and civil, are placed when they are at the end of their life, whatever that means.

Anyway, came across some nice material and wanted to share it.

In an earlier copy of Mental Floss Magazine (seriously) there’s a very good article about this area.  Fabulous pictures, by the way. (Both pics in this Post are from that article.)

Next this is a YouTube video using Google Earth in flyover mode:

Finally, a reminder that it’s not all about dead aircraft.  The Mojave Air & Space Port is also the site of the privately backed SpaceShip enterprise.

All in all, not your average place.

By Paul Handover

Are we as clever as we think?

This has been circulating on the Internet, but you may not have seen it …..

Indian Chief ‘Two Eagles’ was asked by a white U.S.  government official, ‘You have observed the white man for 90 years.  You’ve seen his wars and his technological advances. You’ve seen his progress, and the damage he’s done.’ The  Chief nodded in agreement.

The official continued, ‘Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?’

The Chief stared at the government official for over a minute and then calmly replied, ‘When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water.  Women did all the work, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex. Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.’

(acknowledgements to David Holmes)

Aerial photography

Some chilling reminders of the reality of war!

Britain has a National Collection of Aerial Photography.  It is held within the offices of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland – perfectly logical!

A summary of the different collections is listed here, many of them wartime photographs that bring a multitude of emotions to the surface: incredible bravery of the pilots; photographic standards of 70 years ago, man’s inhumanity to man; and so on.

I pondered a bit about writing this Post because, well ….. well…, see what you make of it!

Author's Mum

Being born in England in the early part of November, 1944, World War 2 still resonates within me.

Early home in an industrial part of West London meant that my mother and father had a ring-side view of the German V1 and V2 rockets that were being visited on London at that time.

My mother, 90, still recounts her enormous sense of relief when VE Day was announced (May 8th, 1945) because she then thought that her son’s future life was more or less assured.

So back to these aerial photographs held in those collections.

Here’s a picture of the visitation of war on the beautiful French town of Caen.

Linger a while and look at the damage, mostly to private homes.  The photograph was taken just slightly more than a month before I was born.

So where’s this Post leading to….?

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Beams of light in the darkness

These are very strange times: thank goodness for Blogs.

Learning from Dogs is a relatively young Blog (first Post was July 15th, 2009) but already it has opened the eyes of all the authors to the power of plain speaking.  All of us involved in bringing you a dozen Posts a week find inspiration for our creative juices from the corners, far and wide, of the virtual world of digital communications, the World Wide Web.

Because we are in the midst of huge turmoil it’s very difficult to see the underlying trends of change at work.  But see them we must if we are to be smart and work out, for the best, what needs to be done at the scale of the individual and the family.

So with that theme in mind, go to the Blog called Jesse’s Café Américain and read a recent Post about the behaviour of the price of gold.  But also read beyond the subject of gold and reflect on the deeper message.

Here’s an extract from that Post:

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Black holes, colliders and paradoxes

This is a very strange world that we live in.

It would be fair to say that my knowledge about what I am writing in this Post is minimal to the point of total ignorance.  So why open my mouth and prove it!  Because the conquest of fundamental questions about our world is not only an example of mankind at its greatest but also something of broad appeal.

That is proved by the continuing popularity of the BBC Television Series – Horizon.  In that series there have recently been two fascinating programmes: Who’s afraid of a big Black Hole? and How long is a piece of string? (Readers outside the UK will not be able to view these programmes.)

Here are the programme summaries:

Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question – what was there before the Big Bang?

The trouble is that researching them is next to impossible. Black holes are by definition invisible and there’s no scientific theory able to explain them. Despite these obvious obstacles, Horizon meets the astronomers attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and the theoretical physicists getting ever closer to unlocking their mysteries. It’s a story that takes us into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what we think we know about the universe.

and

Alan Davies attempts to answer the proverbial question: how long is a piece of string? But what appears to be a simple task soon turns into a mind-bending voyage of discovery where nothing is as it seems.

An encounter with leading mathematician Marcus du Sautoy reveals that Alan’s short length of string may in fact be infinitely long. When Alan attempts to measure his string at the atomic scale, events take an even stranger turn. Not only do objects appear in many places at once, but reality itself seems to be an illusion.

Ultimately, Alan finds that measuring his piece of string could – in theory at least – create a black hole, bringing about the end of the world.

Read more of this strange world

Straight Talking and Realpolitik

“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.” Quote by Will Durant.

During his China visit Obama said that “the US accepted that Tibet was part of China, but went on to push for the early resumption of talks between China and the Dalai Lama.”

This is the usual fatuous “appeal” issued by Western worthies to the Chinese Communist Dictatorship to act honourably towards people it dislikes. As ever, it is a waste of breath, but a diplomatic ritual that has to be endured.

Obama knows it is pointless, the Chinese pretend to listen but also know it is pointless as nothing will change. We all know – or should – that it is pointless. Why then do they do it? You can’t call it self-delusion since nobody is deluded. Frankly, I am not sure what to call it.

Of course, the Chinese claim to Tibet varies from ludicrous through spurious to extremely questionable at best …..

… and Taiwan is a free and independent state, and more to the point democratic. It is a disgrace that free, democratic countries have never recognized it.

The truth (that’s what we want, isn’t it?) is that the CCP is a murderous and illegitimate dictatorship, never having submitted itself to a vote. This may of course be very wise on their part, but it isn’t honest, is it?

In the way of dictatorships, it is quite prepared to massacre its own citizens to protect its power, as happened in the seemingly long-forgotten Tiananmen Square. It is a pity that the free world seems compelled to overlook all this in grovelling to China. We have to deal with them, but issuing fatuous appeals, come on ….

I wonder what the parents of those killed by the CCP thought as doves of freedom were released over Beijing during the last Olympic Games?

By Chris Snuggs

[Footnote from the Editor. This is a hard-hitting Post about the reality of relations between the USA and China. It is a reminder of the truth about such relationships. Readers may want to view this to understand also the reality of trade with China. Some of the images are deeply disturbing.]