Well says I and tried to explain it in simple terms that he would understand. It wasn’t enough and he still looks confused , so I pulled up Wikipedia , as you do and I patiently went through the details with him.
He’s still not sure and after a brief averous sigh he gets to the root of his curiosity and asked me:
“Do they get a lot of money? ”
Hmmm…. Says I. And return to what I was doing.
Two minutes later:
” Dad, Is it just dark when you die? ”
Time for your bath , says I!
————————————————————-
dictator
dɪkˈteɪtə/
noun
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained control by force.
Dictator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power and wields it in an oppressive or abusive manner. A state ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship. The word originated as the title of a magistrate in the Roman Republic appointed by the Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency (see Roman dictator and justitium).
Like the term “tyrant” (which was originally a respectable Ancient Greek title), and to a lesser degree “autocrat“, “dictator” came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive, even abusive rule, yet it had rare modern titular use.
Ladles and Jellyspoons,
I come before you, to stand behind you,
To tell you something I know nothing about.
Next Thursday, which is Good Friday,
There will be a mothers’ meeting for fathers only.
Admission is free, pay at the door,
Pull up a seat and sit on the floor.
We will be discussing the four corners of the round table.
Ladles and Jellyspoons,
I come before you to stand behind you
to tell you something I know nothing about.
Early in the morning in the middle of the night
two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
and came and shot the two dead boys.
If you don’t believe this lie that’s true,
ask the blind man; he saw it too
Bet some of you remember that from begone days .
Anyways….. Go Daddy have very rudely increased the cost of running and hosting my two main sites which are:
Anyways the cost is way more than I expected (over 200 quids) and quite frankly I may have to take one or both of the sites down temporarily and I sure don’t want that to happen.
Make a small or large
Donation
click PayPal button to donate
So if you would like to make a small or large donation towards the upkeep/running of the site/s and continue to enjoy my daily blogs about subjects dear to my heart , then this is your big chance.
Nothing is too small or too large and I promise to put you on my Xmas list and pray for you every other night.
Make a small or large
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Take care – Be Happy and Come back soon!
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Now among other great Warriors in the Majestic halls of Valhalla
Iraqi marksman – nicknamed the ‘sheikh of snipers’ – has died in battle after killing at least 320 ISIS thugs
Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, 63, was killed during a firefight with the terror group.
A MARKSMAN who killed at least 320 ISIS fighters has died in battle.
Silver-bearded Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, 63 — dubbed the Sheikh of Snipers and Hawk-Eye — boasted of slaying a minimum of four a day.
He was famed for his fingerless gloves and chequered scarf as he hunted jihadis on his off-road motorbike.
A video this year showed the Iraqi militiaman tracking a jihadi in his rifle scope and killing him. He said: “Today I gunned down two.
“That’s ridiculous. The minimum for me is four. Now I’m at 320.”
Al-Salhi honed his skills in five wars, going back to the 1973 Arab- Israeli conflict. He died as pro-government forces fought ISIS for control of Hawija in northern Iraq.
The veteran lost his life in battle trying to regain control of Iraq’s Hawija town from ISIS thugs.
Abu Tahsin al-Salhi (1953 – 29 September 2017) was an Iraqi veteran sniper. A volunteer in Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, he claimed to have killed 320 ISIL members during the Iraqi Civil War, receiving the nicknames “the sheikh of snipers” and the “hawk eye”.
According to al-Salhi, in the Yom Kippur War he was part of an Iraqi brigade fighting with Syria against Israel on Golan Heights. In the Iran–Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and the 2003 invasion of Iraq al-Salhi fought on Iraqi side. Around May 2015 al-Salhi joined the Popular Mobilization Forces.
According to al-Salhi, he began fighting ISIL in Jurf Al Nasr (formerly Jurf Al Sakhar) and learned sniper skills from the Russian military. He became stationed in the Makhoul Mountains, northern Iraq, armed with a Steyr rifle
According to the Popular Mobilization Forces spokesman, al-Salhi was killed as he advanced on Hawija in Iraq.
For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock stayed set at three minutes before the hour, the closest it had been to midnight since the early 1980s.
In its two most recent annual announcements on the Clock, the Science and Security Board warned:
“The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.”
In 2017, we find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent. It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.
See the full statement from the Science and Security Board on the 2017 time of the Doomsday Clock.
Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol which represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe. Maintained since 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‘ Science and Security Board, the Clock represents an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war. Since 2007, it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.
The Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as “midnight” and The Bulletin‘s opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of “minutes” to midnight. Its original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has been set backward and forward 22 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight being two (in 1953) and the largest seventeen (in 1991).
As of January 2017, the Clock is set at two and a half minutes to midnight, due to a
This setting is the Clock’s second-closest approach to midnight since its introduction.
Timeline of the Doomsday Clock
Year
Minutes to midnight
Change (minutes)
Reason
1947
7
—
The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.
1949
3
−4
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, the RDS-1, officially starting the nuclear arms race.
1953
2
−1
The United States tests its first thermonuclear device in November 1952 as part of Operation Ivy, before the Soviet Union follows suit in August. This is the Clock’s closest approach to midnight since its inception.
1960
7
+5
In response to a perception of increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons (as well as political actions taken to avoid “massive retaliation“), the United States and Soviet Union cooperate and avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts such as the 1956 Suez Crisis. Scientists from various countries help establish the International Geophysical Year, a series of coordinated, worldwide scientific observations between nations allied with both the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which allow Soviet and American scientists to interact.
1963
12
+5
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.
Unforeseeable end to deadlock in American–Soviet talks as the Soviet–Afghan War begins. As a result of the war, the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the SALT II agreement.
1981
4
−3
The Clock is adjusted in early 1981.[15] The Soviet war in Afghanistan toughens the U.S.‘ nuclear posture. U.S. PresidentJimmy Carterwithdraws the United States from the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The Carter administration considers ways in which the United States could win a nuclear war. Ronald Reaganbecomes President of the United States, scraps further arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union, and argues that the only way to end the Cold War is to win it. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union contribute to the danger of the nuclear annihilation.
1984
3
−1
Further escalation of the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the ongoing Soviet–Afghan War intensifying the Cold War. U.S. Pershing IImedium-range ballistic missile and cruise missiles are deployed in Western Europe.[15] Ronald Reagan pushes to win the Cold War by intensifying the arms race between the superpowers. The Soviet Union and its allies (except Romania) boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as a response to the U.S-led boycott in 1980.
1988
6
+3
In December 1987, the Clock is moved back three minutes as the United States and the Soviet Union sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles, and their relations improve.[16]
Global military spending continues at Cold War levels amid concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.
1998
9
−5
Both India (Pokhran-II) and Pakistan (Chagai-I) test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression; the United States and Russia run into difficulties in further reducing stockpiles.
2002
7
−2
Little progress on global nuclear disarmament. United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, amid concerns about the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack due to the amount of weapon-grade nuclear materials that are unsecured and unaccounted for worldwide.
2007
5
−2
North Korea tests a nuclear weapon in October 2006,[17] Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed American emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia.[18] After assessing the dangers posed to civilization, climate changewas added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.[19]
2010
6
+1
Worldwide cooperation to reduce nuclear arsenals and limit effect of climate change.[4]New START agreement is ratified by both the United States and Russia, and more negotiations for further reductions in the American and Russian nuclear arsenal are already planned. The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen results in the developing and industrialized countries agreeing to take responsibility for carbon emissions and to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Concerns amid continued lack of global political action to address global climate change, the modernization of nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia, and the problem of nuclear waste.[21]
2017
21⁄2
−1⁄2
Rise of nationalism, United States President Donald Trump‘s comments over nuclear weapons, the threat of a renewed arms race between the U.S. and Russia, and the expressed disbelief in the scientific consensus over climate change by the Trump Administration.[5][22][23][24][25] This is the first use of a fraction in the time, and the Clock’s closest approach to midnight since 1953.
In popular culture
History
Cover of the 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists issue, featuring the Doomsday Clock at “seven minutes to midnight”.
The Doomsday Clock’s origin can be traced to the international group of researchers called the Chicago Atomic Scientists, who had participated in the Manhattan Project.[6] After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they began publishing a mimeographed newsletter and then the magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which, since its inception, has depicted the Clock on every cover.
The Bulletin’s clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age…
In January 2007, designer Michael Bierut, who was on The Bulletin‘s Governing Board, redesigned the Clock to give it a more modern feel. In 2009, The Bulletin ceased its print edition and became one of the first print publications in the U.S. to become entirely digital; the Clock is now found as part of the logo on The Bulletin‘s website. Information about the Doomsday Clock Symposium, a timeline of the Clock’s settings, and multimedia shows about the Clock’s history and culture can also be found on The Bulletin‘s website.
The 5th Doomsday Clock Symposium was held on November 14, 2013, in Washington, D.C.; it was a daylong event that was open to the public and featured panelists discussing various issues on the topic “Communicating Catastrophe”. There was also an evening event at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in conjunction with the Hirshhorn’s current exhibit,
“Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950”.
The panel discussions, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, were streamed live from The Bulletin‘s website and can still be viewed there. Reflecting international events dangerous to humankind, the Clock has been adjusted 22 times since its inception in 1947, when it was set to “seven minutes to midnight”.
Changes
“Midnight” has a deeper meaning to it besides the constant threat of war, There are various things taken into consideration when the scientists from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists decide what Midnight and Global catastrophe really mean a particular year, They might include “Politics, Energy, Weapons, Diplomacy, and Climate science.”
Members of the board judge Midnight by discussing how close they think humanity is to the end of civilization. In 1947, during the Cold War, the Clock was started at seven minutes to midnight. The Clock’s setting is decided without a specified starting time. The Clock is not set and reset in real time as events occur; rather than respond to each and every crisis as it happens, the Science and Security Board meets twice annually to discuss global events in a deliberative manner.
The closest nuclear war threat, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, reached crisis, climax, and resolution before the Clock could be set to reflect that possible doomsday.
The Time and Today
The lowest point for the Doomsday Clock was 1953, when the clock was set to 2 minutes until midnight after the U.S. and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs. In the years after, the clock’s time has fluctuated from 17 minutes in 1991 to 3 minutes in 2016.
In January 2017, the clock was set at 2½ minutes to midnight, meaning that the clock’s status today is the second-closest to midnight since the clock’s start in 1947. When discussing the changes, Krauss, one of the scientists from the Bulletin, warned that our political leaders must make decisions based on facts, and those facts
“must be taken into account if the future of humanity is to be preserved.”
In an announcement from the Bulletin about the status of the clock, they went as far to call for action from “wise” public officials and “wise” citizens to make an attempt to steer human life away from catastrophe while we still can.
Doomsday Clock graph, 1947–2017. The lower points on the graph represent a higher probability of technologically or environmentally-induced catastrophe, and the higher points represent a lower probability.
Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by just under half a million Irishmen and women, mainly from Ulster, on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. Sir Edward Carson was the first person to sign the Covenant at Belfast City Hall with a silver pen, followed by Lord Londonderry (the former viceroy of Ireland), representatives of the Protestantchurches, and then by Sir James Craig.
The signatories, 471,414 in all, were all against the establishment of a Home Rule parliament in Dublin. The Ulster Covenant is immortalised in Rudyard Kipling‘s poem “Ulster 1912“.
“Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of inquity and the act of violence is in their hands.”
Isaiah lix. 6.
The dark eleventh hour Draws on and sees us sold To every evil power We fought against of old – Rebellion, rapine, hate, Oppression, wrong and greed Are loosed to rule our fate By England’s art and deed.
The faith in which we stand, The laws we made and guard, Our honour, lives, and land Are given for reward To murder done by night To treason taught by day, To folly, sloth, and spite, And we are thrust away.
The blood our fathers spilt, Our love, our toils, our pains Are counted us for guilt And only bind our chains – Before an Empire’s eyes The traitor claims his price. What need of further lies? We are the sacrifice.
We know the war prepared On every peaceful home We know the hells prepared For such as serve not Rome The terror, threats, and bread In market, hearth, and field – We know, when all is said, We perish if we yield.
Believe we dare not boast, Believe we dare not fear: We stand to pay the cost In all that men hold dear. What answer from the North? One Law, One Land, One Throne! If England drives us forth We shall not fall alone.
On 23 September 1912, the Ulster Unionist Council voted in favour of resolution pledging itself to the Covenant.
The Covenant had two basic parts: the Covenant itself, which was signed by men, and the Declaration, which was signed by women. In total, the Covenant was signed by 237,368 men; the Declaration, by 234,046 women. Both the Covenant and Declaration are held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). An online searchable database is available on the PRONI website.
In January 1913, the Ulster Volunteers aimed to recruit 100,000 men aged from 17 to 65 who had signed the Covenant as a unionist militia.
A British Covenant, similar to the Ulster Covenant in opposition to the Home Rule Bill, received two million signatures in 1914.
The Covenant (for men)
BEING CONVINCED in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V., humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland.
And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names. And further, we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.
The Declaration (for women)
We, whose names are underwritten, women of Ulster, and loyal subjects of our gracious King, being firmly persuaded that Home Rule would be disastrous to our Country, desire to associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament, whereby it is proposed to drive Ulster out of her cherished place in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, and to place her under the domination and control of a Parliament in Ireland. Praying that from this calamity God will save Ireland, we here to subscribe our names.
My Great Granny Elizabeth Chambers signature on The Ulster Covenant. She She was born in 1885 & lived on the Shankill , Brookmount Street at the time.
( Lenny Murphy lived there may years later )
She lived to 101 , god bless her tender soul.
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Demographics
The majority of the signatories of the Covenant were from Ulster, although the signing was also attended by several thousand southern unionists, many of whom had travelled to Belfast by rail from Amiens Street station in Dublin.
Acknowledging this, Carson paid tribute to:
“my own fellow citizens from Dublin, from Wicklow, from Clare [and], yes, from Cork, rebel Cork, who are now holding the hand of Ulster”,
to cheers from the crowd.
Robert James Stewart, a Presbyterian from Drum, County Monaghan, and the grandfather of Heather Humphreys, the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the Republic of Ireland, was one of 12,000 signatories from Monaghan. One quarter of the population of the county was Protestant before Irish independence.
By county signed in
Dublin: 768
Waterford: 56
Meath: 13
Limerick: 1
Mayo: 1
Louth: 43
Leitrim: 33
Kilkenny: 3
Kildare: 2
Wicklow: 31
Not recorded: 84
Signed-in-blood myth
The signature of Frederick Hugh Crawford was claimed by him to have been written in blood. However, based on the results of a forensic test that he carried out in September 2012 at PRONI, Dr. Alastair Ruffell of The Queen’s University of Belfast has asserted that he is 90% positive that the signature is not blood. Crawford’s signature was injected with a small amount of luminol; this substance reacts with iron in blood’s haemoglobin to produce a blue-white glow.
The test is very sensitive and can detect tiny traces even in old samples. Crawford’s signature is still a rich red colour today which would be unlikely if it had been blood. Nevertheless, some unionists are not convinced by the evidence.
The Ulster Covenant was used as a template for the “Natal Covenant”, signed in 1955 by 33,000 British-descended Natalians against the nationalistSouth African government’s intention of declaring the Union a republic. It was signed in Durban‘s City Hall – itself loosely based on Belfast’s, so that the Ulster scene was almost exactly reproduced.
Durban City Hall
Belfast City Hall
Being convinced in our consciences that a republic would be disastrous to the material well-being of Natal as well as of the whole of South Africa, subversive of our freedom and destructive of our citizenship, we, whose names are underwritten, men and women of Natal, loyal subjects of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending the Crown, and in using all means which may be found possible and necessary to defeat the present intention to set up a republic in South Africa. And in the event of a republic being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
Click here to search the Covenant
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Fugitive dad killed family, burned down house and goes on run.
The victims
Mary Fisher Age: 38
Brittney Fisher Age: 12
Bobby Fisher Age: 10
When investigators combed through the charred remains of the Fisher family’s burned down home in Scottsdale, Arizona, they uncovered evidence of a shocking triple murder.
It was April 10, 2001.Someone had cut the throats of Mary Fisher and her two children, Brittney, age 12 and Bobby, 10.
Mary Fisher also had been shot in the back of her head. The remains of all three victims were found in their beds. A natural gas line in the house had been severed. Someone poured a flammable liquid throughout the home to make the fire spread faster, lit a candle and then left.
Ten hours later, the home exploded and burned to the ground. What was left of Mary Fisher and the children’s bodies was barely recognizable. Mary Fisher’s husband, the children’s father — Robert Fisher, was nowhere to be found.
“All signs pointed to Robert Fisher as the suspect,” Scottsdale police Detective Hugh Lockerby told CNN’s “The Hunt with John Walsh.” Friends and neighbors said the couple had been having problems.
“They did not have a happy marriage,”
said Wade Rencsok, a former neighbor.
Police believe Mary Fisher was going to leave Robert and divorce him. But Robert Fisher, who’d suffered through his own parents’ divorce as a teen, “wasn’t going to let that happen,” Lockerby said. Robert Fisher made his living as a respiratory tech at a medical clinic. Before that, he’d worked as a firefighter and served in the Navy, where he’d tried out — and failed — to join the Navy SEAL program.
People who knew him said Fisher could be aggressive and controlling. He’d been a hunter and outdoorsman since he was a young adult.
Friends told stories about Fisher’s odd behavior — like when he killed an elk and then smeared its blood over his body.
Or the time during a fishing trip when he was seen swimming across a lake holding a Bowie knife in his teeth.
Investigators suspected Fisher had set his house on fire to destroy evidence of the killings and perhaps to fake his own death.
But a house fire wasn’t going to cover up the bullet that was lodged in Mary Fisher’s head. “Fires don’t burn bullets,” said retired Scottsdale police detective TJ Jiran.
A neighbor said they heard the couple arguing the night before the fire. Based on that, police guess the murders took place between 9:30 p.m. and 10:15 p.m.
At 10:43 p.m., Robert Fisher appeared on an ATM camera, along with Mary Fisher’s Toyota 4Runner.
Then 10 days after the house fire, the 4Runner was discovered parked empty in a remote pine forest northeast of Scottsdale. Police suspected Robert Fisher was hiding out in the area’s mountains, canyons and caves.
SWAT teams along with search and rescue units were called in to scour the area. “We did not find any evidence of Robert Fisher there,” Lockerby said. “We believe that he had some sort of alternate means to leave the area.”
Jiran said he spoke to a witness “that possibly saw” Fisher walking north on a road near where the 4Runner was discovered. “Is he living up there in the woods right now? Is he really that survivalist? Who knows what these guys do when they run?” Jiran said.
Fifteen years later, the mystery remains unsolved.
Is Robert Fisher dead?
Or has he been successfully dodging police and the FBI? Fisher was relatively young at the time of the house fire — 39 years old. Now he would be 54 — much older, with more physical limitations.
“I can’t picture Robert being alive and not contacting us for [so many] years,” said Robert Fisher’s sister Jean Rountree.
“So I have to believe there’s another answer out there.”
The six ex- forces personnel with a combines 74 years of service were arrested in October 2013 after they were accused of entering Indian waters without permission.
They were on board the American-owned anti-piracy vessel the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, tasked with protecting merchant seamen in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.The coastguard accused them of straying into Indian waters without permission as they headed for emergency fuel and supplies.
Once they boarded the ship, officials discovered 35 firearms and ammunition. The men’s pleas that the weapons were lawfully held for anti-piracy purposes fell on deaf ears — even though their paperwork, issued by the UK Government, was all in order and provided proof that the anti-piracy team were given permits to carry the guns by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.
The Indian High Court, at first, accepted the paperwork was in order and dismissed the case but the men were unable to leave India while a lengthy appeal against the charges being dropped was considered. This led to the men standing trial at the magistrate court, who then decided that the men had failed to prove that they were on anti-piracy duties.
In January 2016 they were found guilty by the court and sentenced to five years imprisonment.
This is a complete miscarriage of justice!
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The families are completely devastated and are now doing everything they can to support their dads, brothers, sons and husbands by sending them support packages with items such as foods, toiletries, books, games etc. and are asking you, if you can spare the time and money, to also send the lads something (even just a handwritten letter) to let them know that they have not been forgotten.
The families are also trying extremely hard to get this terrible situation into the media as it certainly hasn’t had the coverage it deserves. So please help us by sharing details via social media and signing the petition.
Thank you all for your support so far for these men who have now been held in India for over 3 and a half years. Let’s hope we can get the lads home soon and overturn this miscarriage of justice!
Join the Campaign to Free these veterans & clear their names!
A “black hat” hacker is a hacker who “violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain” (Moore, 2005).
The term was coined by Richard Stallman, to contrast the maliciousness of a criminal hacker versus the spirit of playfulness and exploration in hacker culture, or the ethos of the white hat hacker who performs hacking duties to identify places to repair or as a means of legitimate employment.
Black hat hackers form the stereotypical, illegal hacking groups often portrayed in popular culture, and are “the epitome of all that the public fears in a computer criminal”.
Apparently ‘surprised’ by release of documents, TV network attempts to push back ransom deadline with promise of payment
HBO reportedly offered $250,000 (£193,000) to the group that hacked its servers under the guise of a “bug bounty”, according to a screenshot of the conversation released by the attackers and seen by the Guardian.
A senior vice president of the company made the offer on 27 July, phrasing the payment as a reward for discovering weaknesses in HBO’s network rather than acceding to ransom demands.
“been working hard since Sunday evening [23 July] to review all of the material that you have made available to us. We simply have not yet been able to do so”.
The executive continues: “You have the advantage of having surprised us. In the spirit of professional cooperation, we are asking you to extend your deadline for one week.
“As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire bitcoin.”
$250,000
The offer may have been an attempt to stall for time, rather than a genuine proposal of payment. HBO came clean about the hack four days after the bug bounty payment was offered, telling the public that it had experienced a “cyber-incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information”.
A script for Game of Thrones, and two unreleased episodes of dramas Ballers and Room 104, were put online the same day. A week after the payment offer, on 3 August, the attackers sent out more evidence of hacked materials, and claimed to have access to the company’s entire webmail system – a claim denied by HBO.
The hackers later released the personal details of some Game of Thrones actors, including email addresses and phone numbers, plus some HBO emails and confidential files, along with a renewed demand for a multimillion dollar ransom.
Bug bounty payments are a common occurrence in cybersecurity, designed to encourage third-parties to discover and report weaknesses found in security systems so they can be fixed, rather than sell the information to would-be attackers.
Gary Mckinnon a.ka Solo is a Scottish hacker who masterminded the largest military computer hack of all time
Gary McKinnon must’ve been a curious, restless child, for to gain information on UFOs, he thought it better to get a direct access into the channels of NASA. He infiltrated 97 US military and NASA computers, by installing virus and deleting a few files. All the efforts to satisfy his curiosity, but, alas, curiosity killed the cat. It was soon found that McKinnon was guilty of having hacked the military and NASA websites from his girlfriend’s aunt’s house in London.
While entering and deleting the files from these websites wasn’t enough, McKinnon thought of shaming the security forces by putting out a notice on the website that said,
“Your security is crap.”
Well, looks like McKinnon was something, if he could shut down the US Military’s Washington Network of about 2000 computers for 24 hours, making the hack, the biggest military computer hack of all time!
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick was once the most wanted cyber criminal in the world. He had an obsession with computers that escalated into a two and half year hacking spree where he stole millions of dollars of corporate secrets from IBM, Motorola, telecom companies and even the National Defense warning system. He was caught twice in jail twice for his crimes, but now he is a computer security consultant .
Vladimir Levin
Vladimir Leonidovitch Levin is a Russian Hacker of genius proportions. In 1994 while working with a dial-up connection and a laptop from Saint Petersburg, Apartment he accessed the accounts of several large corporate customers of Citibank stealing USD 10.7 million. He ended up spending three years in jail. However, in 2005, an anonymous hacker group came claiming that they were the ones truly responsible for the theft and that they only sold Vladimir the data needed to steal the money.
Mathew Bevan and Richard Pryce
In 1996, Mathew Bevan and Richard Pierce were 21 and 17 respectively, when they broke into military computers. They didn’t only hack into US military computers, but the officials thought they might have also hacked into North Korean Systems as well. These people have the unique distinction of saying that they almost started a war.
Michael Calce
a.k.a
” MafiaBoy”
Michael Calce, a Canadian Hacker was responsible for a series of high-profile cyber attacks in 2000. Project Rivolta a project name he called it meaning riot in Italian was a distributed denial of service attack that took down major websites Yahoo, FIFA, Amazon, eBay, CNN, and Dell among others. He was caught after bragging about the attacks in an IRC chat room for which he got eight months in jail. Why such a short sentence? Michael was only in high school at the time
Adrian Lamo
” The Homeless Hacker”
Adrian Lamo is best-known for hacking into major cooperations like Yahoo, Bank of America, Citigroup, The New York Times and Microsoft but the way he did it made him famous. He used public internet connections like libraries and coffee shops to hack to hack into major sites. Because of that style, he was named as ‘Homeless Hacker’. In 2004 after being caught he was given six months house arrest in order to pay $65,000 in restitution.
Jeanson James Ancheta
Jeanson James Ancheta has been the first hacker ever to create a botnet a group hijacked computers that work together as a legal means. In 2004, he started to work with botnets robot, a computer worm that can spread his net of infected computers which gave him control to 500,000 computers including US military computers. He was forced to give up his BMW, pay more than $58,000 and serve 60 months in prison.
Owen Walker
Owen Walker a.ka AKILL was only 17 when he let in an international hacking group that cause over 26 million dollars in damages. The school teenager was responsible for creating the Bot virus which spread into 1.3 million computers around the world crashing them. Even though he was caught despite all the damage he was released without being convicted
Astra
The hacker named Astra, whose real name was never revealed was a 58-year-old Geek Mathematician, who was operated between 2002 and 2008 during that five-year period. He stole weapons technology data in 3D modeling software from a company called the Salt Group, which he sold up to USD 361 million to buyers all around the world. He was tracked down in an apartment in Athens, Greece.
Albert Gonzalez
Albert Gonzalez, over a two year period he stole a total of 175 million credit card numbers selling them online. A massive yet undisclosed amount of money was stolen from his victims through identity theft, leaving them to battle to restore the credit ratings and get their money back. He was sentenced to 40 years jail.
Anonymous
The concept of being a “digital Robin Hood” was far from being conceived, but in the computer age, it is very likely that someone somewhere has bagged this title. A “hacktivist group” called Anonymous are known with the penname of being the “digital Robin Hood” amongst its supporters. Identified in public by wearing a Guy Fawkes Masks, Anons, as they are widely known, have publicized themselves by attacking the government, religious and corporate websites.
The Vatican, the FBI, the CIA, PayPal, Sony, Mastercard, Visa, Chinese, Israeli, Tunisian, and Ugandan governments have been amongst their targets. Although, Anons have been arguing whether to engage in a serious activism or a mere entertainment, many of the group members have clarified their intent which is to attack internet censorship and control.
On September 11, 1916, a homeless man named Red Eldridge, who landed a job as a transient hotel clerk was hired as an assistant elephant trainer by the Sparks World Famous Shows circus.
Eldridge led the elephant parade, although he was not qualified, riding on the top of Mary’s back; Mary was the star of the show, riding at the front.
There have been several accounts of his death. One, recounted by W.H. Coleman, who claimed to be a witness, is that he prodded her behind the ear with a hook after she reached down to nibble on a watermelon rind. She went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against a drink stand and stepped on his head, crushing it.
A contemporary newspaper account, from the Johnson City Staff, said that Mary
“collided its trunk vice-like about [Eldridge’s ] body, lifted him 10 feet in the air, then dashed him with fury to the ground… and with the full force of her beastly fury is said to have sunk her giant tusks entirely through his body.
The animal then trampled the dying form of Eldridge as if seeking a murderous triumph, then with a sudden… swing of her massive foot hurled his body into the crowd.”
Eldridge’s Death Certificate
It is clear from the photo of her hanging that Mary was either tuskless or had short ‘tushes’ common amongst female Asian elephants.
Execution
The details of the aftermath are confused in a maze of sensationalist newspaper stories and folklore. Most accounts indicate that she calmed down afterward and didn’t charge the onlookers, who began chanting,
“Kill the elephant! Let’s kill it.”
Within minutes, local blacksmith Hench Cox tried to kill Mary, firing five rounds with little effect. Meanwhile, the leaders of several nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included. The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, reluctantly decided that the only way to quickly resolve the potentially ruinous situation was to kill the wounded elephant in public.
On the following day, a foggy and rainy September 13, 1916, Mary was transported by rail to Erwin , Unicoi County, Tennessee, where a crowd of over 2,500 people (including most of the town’s children) assemb led in the Clinchfield Railroad yard.
The elephant was hanged by the neck from a railcar-mounted industrial crane between four o’clock and five o’clock that evening.
The first attempt resulted in a snapped chain, causing Mary to fall and break her hip as dozens of children fled in terror. The severely wounded elephant died during a second attempt and was buried beside the tracks.
A veterinarian examined Mary after the hanging and determined that she had a severely infected tooth in the precise spot where Red Eldridge had prodded her.
Although the authenticity of a widely distributed (and heavily retouched) photo of her death was disputed years later by Argosy magazine, other photographs taken during the incident confirm its provenance.
What do I think?
I think Mary was treated appallingly and those that killed her should have been punished for such a heinous act . However in 1916 the world was a very different place and many folks had strange primitive attitude towards animals and animal welfare.
Thankfully we now live in a more enlighten time and we are way to busy killing each other to execute our fella animals.
Amen!
See below for other Iconic Pictures & pictures that changed the world.
LGBT fighting unit in Syria ‘kicked out of Raqqa offensive’ by US-backed umbrella forces
US-backed Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces reportedly remove controversial ‘TQILA’ and anarchist unit from front lines of fight for Isis’ de facto Syrian capital
‘We fight against tyranny, oppression and domination with the people’, TQILA’s founding statement says IRPGF
A sub-unit fighting against Isis in Syria made up of LGBT individuals which makes “smashing the gender binary and advancing the women’s revolution as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution,” has been kicked out of the frontline fight for Raqqa, several reports have said.
‘TQILA’, as it is known, made headlines after its formation was announced last month by the anarchist International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), a small offshoot fighting force in Syria made up of foreigners.
Initially it appeared that TQILA and the IRPGF were working with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Arab-Kurdish coalition Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The mainly-Kurdish militias in the north of the country have won significant US support for proving themselves the most effective ground force against Isis since the militants rose to prominence in 2014.
However, as word spread of TQILA’s formation, requests for comment were met with denials from the SDF that the group is affiliated with their fighters, or exists at all.
While the new unit was praised by some as a positive response to the systematic persecution of gay individuals by Isis, it was also met with criticism for what many saw as a tone-deaf announcement by foreigners which could inflame tensions with more conservative militias fighting for the same cause.
TQILA told The Independent that its members counted themselves as “Middle Eastern queers” which come from a range of countries, as well as the Middle East’s ethnic groups. It is not clear how many they number – by some accounts, fewer than 20.
A later statement said that “Our unit, as an autonomous organisation and member group of the IFB (International Freedom Battalion) has the right to make subgroups. TQILA is one such subgroup and as such not a battalion or formation apart from our armed struggle collective, the IRPGF. This is where the confusion is coming from.”
Social media posts and inquiries made by The Independent to people in the region indicated that TQILA had members both training in the city of Rojava and involved in the fight to reclaim Isis’ de facto capital of Raqqa, which began in earnest in June.
A tweet on Sunday from an account affiliated with the official YPG international battalion, however, said that the
“IRPGF yesterday got kicked out of Raqqa, hopefully soon from Rojava – we need less empty propaganda, more fighting”.
The tweet has since been deleted. SDF, IRPGF and TQILA representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
YPG fighters have previously been critical of the IRPGF’s efforts in the fight against Isis. An official Twitter accounts said they are “three crazies” with which they refused to form an alliance with.
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