tagged w/ England
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Even with the wettest April on record, some areas of England are still facing “exceptional” drought conditions. After two years of dry winters — including the fifth-driest March — the ground hasn’t been able to soak up the heavy rainfall that hit in April.
The situation in the country illustrates the cruel reality of “rollercoaster” extreme weather — a problem that will only be exacerbated by accumulating heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Recent research also finds that the loss of Arctic ice favors extreme, prolonged weather events “such as drought, flooding, cold spells and heat waves.”
The rain has certainly helped some regions. But other parts of England were so dry, it could take months of record rainfall to bring groundwater levels back to normal. One aquifer close to London is 90 percent below normal levels for this time of year.
Experts in the country are explaining why the combination of extremely dry and extremely wet conditions make it harder to recover from drought. Climatewire reported on the problem:
“Heavy rain on parched ground is like pouring water on an old, dry sponge. Much of it will bounce off. The sponge needs to be wet in order to hold the water. Farmers are in a much better position than they were thanks to the rains. River levels have risen, soil moisture has increased and their water reserves have been replenished. But aquifers take much longer to fill,” said a spokeswoman for England’s Environment Agency.
According to figures from the Environment Agency, 42 percent of groundwater “indicator sites” are “exceptionally low.”
“Over the last two winters, the amount of rainfall we have had has been down 20 to 30 percent on what we would normally have. Most of the recharge of groundwater happens over the winter. We lost three to four months of groundwater recharge in total over that two-year period,” [explained Andrew McKenzie of the British Geological Survey McKenzie to Climatewire.]
“We have now had the wettest April ever, and you might think that would go halfway to recharging the groundwater. But we also had a very dry March, and the soils had already switched to summer, dry mode and had to switch back,” he added.
Ironically, when the rains hit in April after a dry March, the Environment Agency issued 13 severe flood warnings and 42 flood alerts for areas around the country — all while homeowners were banned from watering their gardens.
This will eventually be normal weather under a business as usual emissions scenario.
According to a study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, our current rate of emissions puts us on a path to dust bowl conditions in many areas of the world, while “precipitation may become more intense but less frequent (i.e., longer dry spells) under GHG-induced global warming. This may increase flash floods and runoff, but diminish soil moisture and increase the risk of agricultural drought.”Even with the wettest April on record, some areas of England are still facing... more
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"Detectives who smashed the Rochdale child sex grooming ring are poised to make more arrests. We have learned officers have identified four more suspects alleged to have abused the brave witness whose evidence helped nail nine gang members. As they were convicted following an 11-week trial, it emerged police believe the gang may have had FIFTY members.
Many of the men were identified to the girls only by nicknames and have proved difficult to track down. Officers are still trying to establish the real identities of the men – some of whom were referred to in court as Goofy, Ray, Juicy, Arfan, Ali, Manni, Mamma, Pino and Arfan. But we understand police believe they have established the names of four men alleged to have sexually abused the prosecution’s main witness at a ‘sex party’ in 2008. Detectives believe at least one may be in Pakistan.
They expect to make arrests in the next few days but are not planning to extend the investigation to Pakistan. In addition to the four, Mohammed Shazad, 40, who was said by the Crown to have organised the sex parties at his flat in Jephys Street, Rochdale, was arrested but jumped bail before the start of the trial and fled to Pakistan last year. He is said to have paid taxi driver Abdul Aziz, who acted as a pimp, £30 or £40 for bringing girls to his flat for sex.
The prosecution’s main witness said she went to Mr Shazad’s flat on countless occasions and was forced to have sex with him each time. He also took her to another flat in Nelson where she was forced to have sex with other men, she told the jurors. Mr Shazad, also known as Khan, and who worked in a chip shop on Spotland Road, Rochdale, is said to have told reluctant girls brought to his flat: ‘No sex no money’.
The trial heard that the men – who are all from Pakistan, apart from one who is from Afghanistan – groomed and ‘shared’ the young white girls because they were vulnerable.""Detectives who smashed the Rochdale child sex grooming ring are poised to make... more
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Unemployment is up to 25% now. England has also slipped back into recession. Greece is so far gone, who know what will happen there. In any case, austerity _does_ _not_ work. Stop pushing it on people!Unemployment is up to 25% now. England has also slipped back into recession. Greece is... more
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"A group of Muslim men who abducted and raped two teenage girls as part of their Eid celebrations laughed in court yesterday as they were jailed for a total of 38 years.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, were lured miles from their home to a dingy hostel.
In a horrifying weekend-long ordeal, they were plied with alcohol and repeatedly raped by two men, Shamrez Rashid and Amar Hussain, before being offered to a number of others who also ‘used them for sex’.
They were still children and still living with their families,’ Judge Inman said. ‘In a civilised society, such people should be helped. You all abused them.
‘They were extremely vulnerable and you took advantage of that.’
The five defendants laughed and smirked as the horrifying details of their offences were described in court yesterday.
Rashid – who had already been found guilty of two rapes, an attempted rape, child abduction and an attempted sexual assault – grinned, laughed and made gun gestures in the dock.""A group of Muslim men who abducted and raped two teenage girls as part of their... more
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"As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations (FGM) with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.
Investigators from the Sunday Times said they had secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform FGM or arrange for the operation to be carried out. The doctor and dentist deny any wrongdoing.
The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14-year prison sentence. It is also against the law to arrange FGM.
The procedure is widespread across parts of Africa. Victims are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain.
Research suggests that every year more than 22,000 girls in the UK and up to 6,000 in London are at risk of the potentially fatal procedure.
The Metropolitan police said that since 2008 it had received 166 reports of people who feared they were at risk of FGM. Across all 43 forces in England and Wales, no one has ever been convicted of the offence, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper added that only two doctors had been struck off by the General Medical Council since 1980.""As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations... more
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An enormous clifftop, blue skies, multiple deaths and a yellow canary who matter-of-factly keeps meticulous notes of it all. “Yellow Belly End “is a dryly absurd, award-winning animated short film, created by Philip Bacon as a unique and compelling graduation film at England’s National Film and Television School. Bacon speaks in metaphors about the tragedies of life and death, as a yellow canary records animal suicides at the edge of a cliff, or possibly the world. The story unfolds in a way that encourages viewers to create their own interpretations of the larger meanings of the film.
This piece includes a number of colorful illustrations and the deliciously strange, acclaimed animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/the-final-song-of-the-yellow-canary/An enormous clifftop, blue skies, multiple deaths and a yellow canary who... more
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The fleeting beauty of youth is captured in this spellbinding collection of raw, honest portraits of androgynous boys that documents the authenticity of youth, from London-based photographer Toyin Ibidapo. A tribute to the charged emotions of adolescence, Ibidapo’s first solo show “There’s No Such Thing as Perfect, But There’s Perfection in the Things We Love,” is currently on exhibition at the Doors Showcase Gallery in London.
Ibidapo is a fashion photographer who has collaborated with the late Alexander McQueen, super-stylist Nicola Formichetti and designer Kim Jones, as well as contributing to “Dazed & Confused,” “Arena Homme Plus” and SHOWstudio. The exhibition evolved from Ibidapo’s book “Cult of Boys,” which she describes as a “record of amazing moments and various chapters in my life as a photographer as well as the faces in this book. They represent themselves and they also represent me because it was my vision and they came into my world, some for years, others just once. But sometimes once is all you need, one photograph to remember a poetic moment forever. Seen through the eyes of the female gaze.”
This piece includes a number of mesmerizing color photographs, a photo-gallery and two richly creative musical documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/poetic-moments-a-celebration-of-young-masculine-beauty/The fleeting beauty of youth is captured in this spellbinding collection of raw,... more
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By David Edwards
Monday, February 20, 2012 10:23
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday likened the upcoming U.S. election to World War II.
While the candidate’s comments to a packed First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Georgia were somewhat vague, NBC news noted that he “seemed to compare President [Barack] Obama to [Adolph] Hitler.”
The former Pennsylvania senator told his supporters that this election was like World War II, “where our closest ally, Britain, was being bombed and leveled.”
“And America sat from 1940 when France fell to December of ’41 and did almost nothing,” he explained. “Why? Because we’re a hopeful people. We think, ‘You know it will get better. Yeah, I mean, he’s a nice guy. It won’t be near as bad as what we think. You know, this will be OK. You know, maybe he’s not the best guy.’ After a while, you found out some things about this guy over in Europe and maybe he’s not so good of a guy after all. But you know what? ‘Why do we need to be involved? We’ll just take care of our own problems, just get our families off to work and our kids off to school and we’ll be OK.’”
The candidate added: “Sometimes, sometimes it’s not OK.”
As BuzzFeed pointed out earlier this year, it’s not the first time Santorum has compared his opponents to Adolph Hitler.
During a 2005 speech on the Senate floor, the then-senator blasted Senate Democrats for complaining that Republicans were trying to stop them from filibustering President George W. Bush’s judicial appointees.
“It’s the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942: ‘I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city? It’s mine,’” he said.
Over the weekend, Santorum also said that Obama’s theology was not “based on the Bible.” He later clarified that he wasn’t questioning if the president was a Christian.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/20/santorum-uses-hitler-analogy-to-describe-obama/
Watch this video from CBS’s This Morning, broadcast Feb. 20, 2012.
"Is it just me, or does it look like he is wearing a Diaper under his Slacks???" =)By David Edwards
Monday, February 20, 2012 10:23
Republican presidential candidate... more
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Much of southern and eastern England is officially in a state of drought, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced.
The announcement came as Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman hosted a drought summit.
In parts of south-east England groundwater levels are lower than in the infamously dry summer of 1976.
Water companies are ready to bring in hosepipe bans from early spring, where necessary, Defra says.
They had agreed measures to reduce the environmental impact of dry conditions, including reducing water losses and improving leak detection, as well as encouraging customers to save water, it said.
The Environment Agency will also take steps such as monitoring the impact of the dry weather on fisheries and wildlife.
Ms Spelman said after the summit: "Drought is already an issue this year with the South East, Anglia and other parts of the UK now officially in drought, and more areas are likely to be affected as we continue to experience a prolonged period of very low rainfall.
(more at link)Much of southern and eastern England is officially in a state of drought, the... more
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Lively discussion with author and web TV personality Mitzi Szereto on books, politics, social media, internet TV and Jane Austen, featuring a perspective on the world from both Britain and America. Listen to the 3-part replay from the UK via the link!
http://mitziszereto.com/blog/mitzi-szereto-interview-on-the-hammer-show/Lively discussion with author and web TV personality Mitzi Szereto on books, politics,... more
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“The Wolf I Used To Be” is a magical animated short film, a collaborative project created by artists at London’s Nearly Normal Studios. The film is a short narrative about a wolf’s drastic life change. Everyone has their own interpretation about what “The Wolf” might mean: it can be seen as a reflection of modern life. The grass always seems to be much greener on the other side, but as is often the case in real life, it truly isn’t.
This piece includes a number of colorful illustrations and the animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/careful-what-you-ask-for-the-wolf-i-used-to-be/“The Wolf I Used To Be” is a magical animated short film, a collaborative... more
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Wednesday's talk show.
Subscribe to my You Tube channel. Username ChrisReardonUK
Is there a problem with a smartie sandwich ?
Offer on house made.
A lady is appauled !
What would happen if we wrote of all debts and started again ?
You really don't want to see an apple or a piece of celery !
One shoe flew up in the air.
A proper dining experience.
Cinderella.
Crisps have arrived.
Someday my prince will come.
A video from Canada.
Happy Birthday Fag Ash Lil.
Westminster councils parking - people power.
Have another cigarette.
I'm waiting for the phone to ring.
Chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.ukWednesday's talk show.
Subscribe to my You Tube channel. Username ChrisReardonUK... more
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"Psychobilly is one of the most unique music genres out there. It takes bits and pieces from everything it can, mashes it all together and somehow it works. The result is an entirely new unique genre and culture. From 1980 to 1983 is considered the first wave of psychobilly. The degenerate monsters that started it all come from London, playing small time gigs gradually moving up to the monstrous European movement of the mid to late 80s. But it all started out in a few dive bars back in London, England." http://www.furious.com/perfect/psychobilly.html"Psychobilly is one of the most unique music genres out there. It takes bits and... more
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“The Last Goodbye” is a powerfully emotive music video portrait of the rock duo Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, directed by the Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton. The Kills celebrate ten years of musical partnership with this poignant and captivating video. The melancholic song “The Last Goodbye” offsets the usually hard-edged sound that Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince are known for, with haunting vocals and a nostalgic piano loop.
Shot in monochrome on crisp, silvery 35mm film, the video reflects the beautiful simplicity of the track, while using an old-school photo-booth to provide an intimate backdrop for Mosshart’s intense and heart-warming opening performance. Her introduction is followed by a series of touching poses that casts a tender light on the musicians’ longstanding and spirited friendship, as Mosshart and Hince share memories of their first meeting and a decade of collaboration.
This piece includes black-and-white photographs and the heart-warming music video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/the-kills-the-last-goodbye/“The Last Goodbye” is a powerfully emotive music video portrait of the... more
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Eve Arnold, who came to be regarded as a grande dame of postwar photojournalism for her bold, revealing images of subjects as diverse as Marilyn Monroe and migratory potato pickers, died on Wednesday in London at the age of 99. Born in Philadelphia on April 21, 1912, Ms. Arnold had lived in Great Britain since 1961.
Her death was announced by Magnum Photos, the photography cooperative to which she had belonged for more than a half-century. She was among the first women Magnum hired to make pictures. Ms. Arnold was a leading light in what is considered to be the golden age of news photography, when magazines like “Life” and “Look” commanded attention with big, arresting pictures provided by photographers who included Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White.
Acclaimed for capturing celebrities in intimate moments after winning their trust, Ms. Arnold developed a particular rapport with Marilyn Monroe, the subject of a book of Arnold photographs. Foreshadowing the celebrity portfolios of photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Ms. Arnold captured Joan Crawford squirming into a girdle, Malcolm X collecting fistfuls of dollars at a rally in Washington and James Cagney and his wife doing an impromptu dance in a barn.
But other pictures, just as memorable, were of the unfamous. Among the more than 750,000 Ms. Arnold made were pictures in a South African shantytown, a Havana brothel and a Moscow psychiatric hospital. She documented a small Long Island town, Miller Place, and the first minutes of a baby’s life. She was an official photographer on 40 movie sets.
Her many honors include the Order of the British Empire and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. She was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and named a “Master Photographer” by the International Center of Photography in New York, considered by many to be the world’s most prestigious photographic honor.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution black-and-white photographs, as well as two documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/eve-arnold-legendary-photographer-of-illuminating-images-dies-at-99/Eve Arnold, who came to be regarded as a grande dame of postwar photojournalism for... more
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The death of Christopher Hitchens on Thursday night, of complications from esophageal cancer at the age of 62, ended one of the greater intellectual careers of the last 40 years. Born in Portsmouth, England, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, Hitchens started his career as a Trotskyite at “The New Statesman,” working along with noted authors, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, who would become his lifelong friends. In the early 1980s, he moved to the United States, becoming a citizen in 2007, and began working for liberal magazine “The Nation,” writing some of his earliest attacks on the conservative government and American foreign policy.
A prolific author, Hitchens left behind a massive body of critical writing, with more than a dozen books and hundreds of essays targeting everyone from the British Monarchy to Bill Clinton to George Orwell to God, usually with wit and more often than not, vicious and cutting remarks. Even those who hated his politics could not help but admire his skill as a writer and ability to craft a sharp turn of phrase, and many called him a friend.
Perhaps his most famous book was “The Missionary Position,” a scathing attack on Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity church, an organization that he called a cult. Hitchens described Mother Teresa as a “fraud” and accused her of glorifying poverty to enrich herself and the Catholic church, rather than truly helping the poor. The book infuriated Roman Catholics around the world, as well as politicians and celebrities who he claimed had used the charity and her reputation to mask their own evil deeds.
A later work, “The Trial of Henry Kissinger,” accused the former Secretary of State of “war crimes,” and argued that Kissinger should be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture” for his involvement in atrocities in Southeast Asia and Central America. As a critic of the Bush administration’s use of torture, Hitchens filmed himself being waterboarded to demonstrate the cruelty of the practice. Hitchens claimed that, “The official lie about this treatment … is that it 'simulates' the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning.”
Hitchens had an enviable career arc that began with his own brand of fiery journalism at Britain’s “New Statesman” and then made its way to America, where he wrote for everyone from “The Atlantic” and “Harper’s” to “Slate and “The New York Times Book Review.” He was a legend on the speakers’ circuit, could debate just about anyone on anything and won innumerable awards.
Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, a troublemaker and was a gift, if it dare be said, from God.
This piece includes color photographs, a photo-gallery and two documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/remembering-christopher-hitchens-1949-2011/The death of Christopher Hitchens on Thursday night, of complications from... more
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