h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

UK Unfracked
On 16-21 August, thousands of people from all over the UK will join with the residents of Balcome, West Sussex, to reclaim power for the local community

http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog

"Whether its the cowboy capitalism of extraction companies like Caudrilla or the monopoly stranglehold of Big Gas processors such as EDF, both are part of the same Dash for Gas. The 40 new gas power stations could have the fracked Gas of Lancashire, Sussex and Wales running through them in the next decade. The alternative is democratically controlled, sustainable clean energy."

I live realitively near the site in lancashire,
I think the feeling locally is that the big companies will win no matter what the locals want or think

Dr Anthea,

That feeling might be different if the media showed the little battles won everywhere, not just in the UK.

And if you don´t win now, at least you are sending a message: we won´t accept like sheeps this crime. We will resist.

I´ve seen several pictures of citizens stopping an eviction because of the bedroom tax policy.
In the case of Spain, a tiny group that started to fight evictions in 2009 has grown, spread and movilised lots of citizens here. They even have received an international prize for their actions. They have been accused of terrorists by this government, suffer detentions, etc. But they resist and the fight continues.

It´s civil movilization the only weapon we have, a weapon charged with reason, truth, hope... we can´t let the few smash the many.

Fracking? There was some talk here (NZ) at one time and after an initial gasp of disbelief I didn't follow it too seriously & now it's gone quiet.

A woman had her caravan stolen. It was found at a "travellers" site, but the police said they couldn't recover the stolen property because "travellers" were living in it. That's the first The second comes when the owner "admitted she had to take some responsibility for not insuring the caravan"

What? So if somebody steals something from me, I'm partly responsible because I didn't insure it?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-23612766

"A Bridlington man is hoping a pair of half-century old leather strides he claims once belonged to Paul McCartney could trouser him thousands of pounds.

... [he] has now owned the trousers for more than 50 years [and] ... rediscovered them when he was moving house.

... He hopes he can sell the leather piece of music history to a museum."

So trousers worn by a singer before he became famous is now a piece of music history. Seems weird but I suppose its the market:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-23619022

Boring and Dull Excitement!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-23631026

Video and transcript http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10555

Paul Jay and Vijay Prashad discuss the Bradley Manning case in light of the 68th anniversary of signing the Nuremberg Charter which states it is illegal to follow orders to commit a war crime


Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him." Or Principle VII: "Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principles VI is a crime under international law."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23655675

The Norwegian PM has been secretly doing shifts as a cabbie to find out what people thought about politics. I know it's a stunt but it's a bloody good one.

I think a cabbie has secretly been writing policy documents for the Coalition here.

Are cabbies known for making so many u-turns?

Yes.

"They bite because they're hungry, and testicles sit nicely in their mouth,"

Eek

http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/9031874/Testicle-eating-fish-warning

US judge outlaws naming your baby 'Messiah':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23665106

Seems an odd decision, when there were 700 Messiahs born last year. And thousands more called Jesus or Muhammad, I'm sure.

Oh, and Muhammad is currently the top male baby name in London:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23663337

He"s not the Messiah, he's just got very naughty parents.

A zoo in China is accused of trying to pass off a Tibetan Mastiff dog as a lion.

"According to a report in the Beijing Youth Daily, the fraud came to light when a mother visited the zoo, in a park in the city of Louhe, to show her son the sounds different animals made.

But when they got to the cage marked "African lion" - which had a sign describing the range and characteristics of the animal - they were shocked to hear the creature bark".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23714896

"New" information about Diana death investigated by Scotland Yard

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23741483

What's that you say? That would be excellent publicity for a soon to be released film? Well, that would just be cynical because there's no such film due ... to ....... be ............ oh!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1758595/

BBC to censor violinist Nigel Kennedy’s statement about Israeli apartheid from TV broadcast

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/110366/bbc-cut-kennedy-slur-proms-broadcast

Here the same piece of news and what apartheid is, from UN:

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/08/bbc-to-censor-violinist-nigel-kennedys-statement-about-israeli-apartheid-from-tv-broadcast.html

Whatever says Baroness Deech, or the BBC, won´t change the facts. Israel govt. does whatever they want, ignore the UN resolutions, torture, kill, rob land, water... You only need to chech history since 1948 until now to see it.
It´s insulting that they claim to be the victims of this story.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/13/politics/natural-born-president/index.html?iref=allsearch

Actually, the rule of law is that to become an American President or Senator, one must have been born on American soil.

Parentage is irrelevant.

A child of illegal immigrants born on American soil is a native born citizen.

A child born outside the territories of the USA is not, even if both of their parents were.

I must say the semantics of this article are extremely disturbing.

Hopefully, someone will bring that point to the attention of Ted Turner.

"UK police will be asked to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws"

The "Terror Law" was applied because the journalist had written about the "US whistleblower" Edward Snowden in the Guardian newspaper.

The partner reportedly had his mobile phone, laptop, memory sticks, DVDs and other items seized before he was released.

Because the partner is a Brazilian national it has caused a diplomatic incident.

Argentina are hoping Brazil and other South America countries will support with renewed enthusiasm their "case" for the handover of "Las Malvinas" [this bit is idle speculation].
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23750289