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I retrieved my confiscated passport and made my way out of the courthouse and wended my way down Baker Street, slightly bewildered about the easy dismissal. Should I have decided to continue the trial and challenge the initial charge? If I had I probably would have been allowed to present the statement I had written th...
I sat on the edge of one of the fountains and watched Lady Olga Maitland, who had been holding an alternative to the CND rally, speaking to a rather meagre crowd of listeners from the raised plinth under Nelson’s Statue about the necessity of nuclear weapons. Then she announced that they would have a one minute silence...
“A real breach-baby, this one!” chuckled one officer to his mate. And ‘breach of the peace’ is what I was charged with.
As to why I shouted “No More War!” during the 2 Minute Silence on Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph in November last year – when the arresting officer asked that question I said God had told me to do it and I had been speaking for those who died in the two world wars and all conflicts since.
I wanted all the elite gathered at the ceremony to hear – members of the Royal Family, the politicians, religious leaders and military chiefs. They were the very ‘persons likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress’ by my cry. Threatening words indeed to those who make such a tidy profit from the industry of war.
As they stood in silence and heard my distant shout, was it likely that they pondered their roles in the military-industrial complex and accuse themselves of responsibility in the deaths of those they had gathered to mourn?
In 2010 the Queen made an official visit to a place called The Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Cente outside Sheffield to launch and give the royal seal of approval to construction work there – a “factory of the future” which will house research projects by Boeing, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, and the UK and US mi...
From a balcony in the Foreign Office, along with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and other members of the royal family, the Queen’s son-in-law, Princess Anne’s second husband, Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence watched the ceremony. He recently walked out of ...
Prince William, military pin-up boy in RAF flight lieutenant uniform, stood alert, ready to lay his poppy wreath. Brother Harry was absent, currently in training to become a helicopter pilot in California.
Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Sir David Richards, and the professional head of the Army, General Sir Peter Wall waited stony-faced for the silence to finish. Wall, who recently said that defense spending must be increased if Britain is to maintain its war-fighting capabilities, would have been encouraged to hear that...
So there stood all the hypocrites, gathered in silence around the Cenotaph on that sunny Sunday morning in November, and although they heard my solitary shout their faces didn’t show it. They heard but they did not heed, and now all seems likely for another attack on an oil-rich Middle East country, Iran – another bloo...
Until such a system of profiteering is eradicated, there can be no hope of peace.
So let’s change the system.
For a start why not try shouting “NO MORE WAR!” during the 2 minute Silence at your next Ceremony of Remembrance in November. I got away with it. Why not you?
Analysts are already writing the obituaries of the seven initial public offerings scheduled to debut next week, anticipating across-the-board withdrawals, postponements or price cuts.
The pessimism about the fate of newly public companies reflects the selling wave that has swamped scores of more established tech companies in the past several weeks. On Thursday, the Nasdaq reached a 15-month low, closing at 2,597.92, nearly half its peak value of 5,048.62 in March.
"Even if there is a calendar (next week), I doubt anything will get done," said Vincent Slavin, who tracks IPOs for Cantor Fitzgerald. "In what's going on in the broader market, I think that arena will be closed down--probably for the rest of the year. A few deals might get done, but they will have to be pretty spectac...
Because of the weak conditions, just one IPO, Rigel Pharmaceuticals, made its way to the market this week, gaining a mere 7 cents in first-day trading to close at $7.11. At least five other companies withdrew their offerings, including online retailer PetsMart.com and business-to-business marketplace Telcobuy.com.
Perhaps foreshadowing next week, Norway's leading telecommunications company, Telenor, slashed its price range Friday by more than $3, to a range of $13.57 to $14.86 instead of $16.85 to $21.25. The share sale represent the largest offering of the week, with the stock scheduled to begin trading next Monday.
November has been a rough month for IPOs. The 18 completed offerings rose an average of 17 percent in their first day, compared with an average gain of 56 percent for all IPOs so far this year, according to New York-based market research firm CommScan.
November IPOs have fallen an average of 5 percent from their offering price, compared with a 20 percent average loss for the 386 IPOs this year.
Norway telecommunications company Telenor is by far the largest deal on next week's calendar. The company, which provides both fixed and wireless phone service, as well as TV-based broadband and Internet services, plans to sell 124 million American depository shares at a reduced range of $13.57 to $14.86. Sixty-two m...
Telenor traces its roots back to 1855 and employs 25,600 people, according to Renaissance Capital. The company has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "TELN." Goldman Sachs will be the lead underwriter for the sale.
Gemplus International, which makes smart card-based products for security and mobile applications, plans to sell 39.2 million ADSes, or 78.4 million shares, at a range of $12.35 to $14.05. The company's products secure applications including financial transactions, pay TV, and Web-based and mobile commerce.
Based in Luxembourg, Gemplus was founded in 1988 and employees about 7,000 people. In 1999, the company reported a net income of $35 million on sales of $817 million. The company says on its Web site that it claimed 33 percent of the smart-card solutions market at the end of 1999.
Gemplus has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "GEMP." Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg will handle the sale.
Garmin, a maker of navigation devices based on global positioning system (GPS) technology, plans to sell 10.5 million shares at a range of $15 to $17. The company's handheld and portable products are sold to outdoor enthusiasts as navigation tools for hiking, camping, boating, flying or even navigating city streets. ...
Headquartered in Kansas, the company was founded in 1989. According to Hoover's, a business-information publication, its co-chairmen and co-CEOs Min Kao and Gary Burrell each own almost a quarter of the company.
Garmin has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "GRMN." Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch will handle the sale.
At last. After more than a half century, there is now available a book that thoroughly discredits all the movie industry protestations that there were no Communists in filmmaking during and after World War II, when in fact there were hundreds.
Here is irrefutable evidence that they were very adept at using the screen to pound pro-Soviet propaganda into the heads of unsuspecting Americans in theaters coast-to-coast.
The more than 500 pages of "Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters – Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler" expose in detail and with infinite documentation the pro-Soviet propaganda machine, including during the 22 months when Stalin and Hitler were allies.
This long-overdue book is authored by Allan H. Ryskind, who grew up in Hollywood, and whose father was Morrie Ryskind, lyricist, writer of stage and screen productions, including scripts for the comedic Marx Brothers.
The elder Ryskind, a staunch anti-communist, was a cooperative "friendly" witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which held years of hearings probing communism in Hollywood. For decades, Hollywood has struck back by using its control of large segments of the motion picture and TV industrie...
Today, the younger Mr. Ryskind, author of the new volume (and now editor-at-large for the 70-year-old Washington weekly Human Events), has given us specifics as to how the talents of screenwriters and others in Hollywood were deployed in the service of America's enemies.
That subversion even showed up in the late 1990s in the beloved family-oriented TV series "Touched by an Angel." Suddenly, totally out of character, the defense of the Hollywood Communists was portrayed as a cause to be advanced with help from the "angel," the sweet Irish-accented actress Roma Downey.
Little did we expect even Hollywood would hijack a far-above-average, highly-rated program as a hobby horse for one-sided political propaganda, specifically in defense of "Hollywood Traitors" – even in 1997, just as Hollywood was marking the 50th anniversary of congressional hearings that in 1947 (and later) had probed...
As Mr. Ryskind writes, "Communist Dalton Trumbo, a prominent screen writer, 'Hollywood Ten' figure, and an icon, led the fight in America to ease Hitler's burden of conquest. He did this by demonizing Hitler's enemies."
In its uproarious 1947 hearings, the House committee had nailed airtight evidence (including copies of Communist Party membership cards) that ultimately led to prison sentences for 10 of Hollywood's most prominent Communists for refusal to cooperate with a lawfully constituted inquiry of the United States Congress.
Outright lies (pushed for many decades) of the "poor innocents," all the pro-Red propaganda movies, rivers of ink in communist-written books (see Lillian Hellman's "Scoundrel Time," for example), and lectures in academia collectively dissolve into intellectual dust as Allan Ryskind picks apart, fact by devastating fact...
Myth: HUAC uncovered very few Communists in Hollywood. Fact: So somewhere between 200 and 300 qualifies as "very few?" Don't think so.
Myth: Even If there were a few Hollywood Communists, they were not influential. Fact: Then why were John Wayne, Morrie Ryskind, Walt Disney, and Ayn Rand concerned that "it looked as if Communists were in control of the industry?" Communists were ensconced in key positions of motion picture unions and studios.
Myth: Hollywood writers were not subversive because during World War II, they turned out patriotic documentaries. Fact: Virtually every writer appearing before HUAC hid behind the First or Fifth Amendment when asked about Communist affiliations and activity.
Myth: Writers did not favor force or violence in changing the United States into a Soviet America. Fact: Some did by refusal to deny or declined to say whether they would support the United States if the Soviets launched an unprovoked attack.
Myth: The "innocents" were harassed by "Sen. Joe McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee." Fact No. 1: Joe McCarthy never investigated Hollywood. Fact No. 2: McCarthy, as a senator, never was permitted to be a member (let alone chairman) of a House Committee. Anyone claiming otherwise either is trying to ceme...
If there is any respect for truth and honesty about Hollywood history, Mr. Ryskind's book will be the ultimate "go to" encyclopedic reference work.
Eco-estate Monaghan Farm, located near Lanseria Airport, north-west of Johannesburg, has taken a new approach to modern living and sustainability with its 517 ha development, dedicated to farm living.
Once the R200-million development has been completed, all buildings on the property will occupy only 3% of the land. A full 78% of the land will be set aside for common open space.
All buildings recede into the landscape and boundary walls are not permitted, adding to the free-flowing layout. All the houses are required to have only one storey so that views are not impeded.
The farm, which is owned by the residents, comprises six distinct villages and each residential node is private.
The development has been designed to reflect a density of one residential unit for every 2 ha and will eventually comprise only 300 properties of about 4 500 m2 each.
Monaghan development manager Chandre Buys tells Engineering News that all construction should be completed in the next four years.
“The first three phases of the development are complete and the fourth phase is the delivery of communal areas. We are also developing a Curro school and a Montessori school. At least 60% of the first three phases have been sold and more than 50 families currently occupy the property,” he says.
More than 30 homes are also currently under construction on the development.
The development is also a working organic farm, with 4 ha of organic gardens containing vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers, which are delivered to Monaghan residents.
The development is strict on principles of environmental respect. As a result, houses need to be built to incorporate rainwater harvesting, energy efficiency and recycling.
“Solar and geothermal energy, photovoltaic panels, low-voltage lighting and heat pumps are just a few of the energy-saving initiatives that have been put in place in every home, along with a rainwater harvesting system, with a minimum capacity of 20 000 ℓ, for each property,” Buys says.
Many homes are also feeding electricity back into the national grid and are built facing north, incorporating passive solar design, natural light and cross aeration. Further, most homes have wood-burning fire stoves or solar waterborne underfloor heating.
Many houses on the property are constructed using light steel frames and rammed earth – a technique of building walls using natural raw materials. Rammed-earth walls are noncombustible, thermally insulated and durable.
One of the highlights of the development is the Stand 47 light-steel-frame house, an architectural case study that is a project of interior building solutions group Saint-Gobain Gyproc, construction company Style Project and architectural studio Thomashoff & Partner Architects.
Stand 47 showcases design specifications and construction that use innovative materials and applied efficiency processes.
Saint-Gobain Gyproc residential sector manager Michelle Cerruti explains that there was a need to create a platform to demonstrate a way to build “a better home using better materials for better performance in the long term”.
The house is clad in an external thermal-insulation composite system (Etics), which comprises an insulating core, like polystyrene, as well as the necessary components for fixing and decoration that are applied onto masonary walls or steel-frame constructions as external insulation.
Etics can substantially reduce heating or air-conditioning costs, and can be used to renovate facades, thereby providing them with a new appearance.
says Saint-Gobain Gyproc wanted to provide a physical example for consumers and professionals to see what a ‘smarter’ home – regarding the way it is designed, its sustainability and efficiency – looks like.
Monaghan Farm is one of 15 finalists in the 2014 AfriSam SAIA Awards for sustainable architecture.
The awards, hosted by cement producer AfriSam and the South African Institute of Architects, acknowledge buildings that are the result of an integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology.
The nominees must have a positive influence on their communities and espouse evirofriendly principles, incorporating strategies such as the reuse of existing structures, developing low-impact and regenerative sites, conserving energy and water and using sustainable or renewable construction materials and practices.
Jen Senko believes that her father was brainwashed. As Senko, a New York filmmaker, tells it, her father was a “nonpolitical Democrat.” But then he transferred to a new job that required a long commute and began listening to conservative radio host Bob Grant during the drive. Eventually, he was holing himself up for th...
Senko is not alone. A California schoolteacher says her marriage fell apart after her husband started watching Fox News and yelling about government plots to take away his guns and freedom. On the left, my friend Phoebe has had to physically remove her mom, who she describes as a “Sam Seder news junkie,” from family fu...
If this election cycle is a mirror, then it is reflecting a society choked with fear. It’s not just threats of terrorism, economic collapse, cyberwarfare and government corruption – each of which some 70 percent of our citizenry is afraid of, according to the Chapman University Survey on American Fears. It’s the stakes...
Meanwhile, the electorate is commensurately terrified of its potential leaders. According to a September Associated Press poll, 56 percent of Americans said they’d be afraid if Trump won the election, while 43 percent said they’d be afraid if Clinton won – with 18 percent of respondents saying they’re afraid of either ...
Trump’s rhetoric has only served to fan the flames: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” “It’s only getting worse.” “You walk down the street, you get shot.” Build a wall. Ban the Muslims. Obama founded ISIS. Hillary is the devil. Death, destruction, violence, poverty, weakness. And I alon...
But just how unsafe is America today?
So how is it possible to be living in the safest time in human history, yet at the exact same time to be so scared?
For mass media, insurance companies, Big Pharma, advocacy groups, lawyers, politicians and so many more, your fear is worth billions. And fortunately for them, your fear is also very easy to manipulate. We’re wired to respond to it above everything else. If we miss an opportunity for abundance, life goes on; if we miss...
In other words, our biology and psychology are as flawed and susceptible to corruption as the systems and politicians we’re so afraid of. In particular, when it comes to assessing future risks, there is a litany of cognitive distortions and emotional overreactions that we fall prey to.
Many believe the amygdala, a tiny, almond-shaped region deep in each hemisphere of the brain, is the home of our emotional responses, specifically fear. The author Daniel Goleman has coined the term “amygdala hijacking” to describe what inflammatory rhetoric and imagery are designed to do: trigger the emotional brain b...
So in order to resist being manipulated by those who spread fear for personal, political and corporate gain, it’s necessary to understand it. And the first thing to understand is that although the emotion may look like fear, sound like fear and smell like fear, neuroscientists argue that it is actually something quite ...
Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux is slender, soft-spoken and well-mannered, with a seemingly extensive supply of patience, which is no doubt exactly what it takes to study Bible-paper-thin cross sections of rat brain for more than three decades.
I have spent the day with LeDoux at his lab at New York University’s Center for Neural Science looking at human and animal brains – specifically, a tiny triangle of nuclei that sits on the amygdala, which is now popularly thought of as the fear center, thanks in part to LeDoux’s research. The problem: Despite what coun...
Here’s how it works: The triangle of neurons on the amygdala, known as the lateral amygdala, parses through stimuli coming in from the outside world, looking for, among other things, threats. If it senses danger, then the neurons start firing, signaling the central amygdala to activate a defense response in the body. T...
Fear, then, according to LeDoux, is actually experienced in the conscious mind – the cerebral cortex – where we assemble the experience and then label it as an emotion, or at least categorize it with other experiences that feel similar. It’s what we call it when, for example, the amygdala’s emergency-response system is...
Good, because most of this has nothing to do with what’s happening politically in this country.
“What we’re talking about is anxiety, not fear,” LeDoux says. Where fear is a response to a present threat, anxiety is a more complex and highly manipulable response to something one anticipates might be a threat in the future. “It is a worry about something that hasn’t happened and may never happen,” says LeDoux.
So if someone opens fire at a concert you’re attending, you experience fear. But if you’re at a concert and you’re worried that a shooting attack could occur there, that’s anxiety.
The biological difference, says LeDoux, is the worry and nervousness that we label as anxiety originate not in the amygdala, but predominantly in a small area of the stria terminalis – the pathway connecting the amygdala to the hypothalamus – known as the bed nucleus. It is this area that researchers believe is hyperac...
And that uncertainty is the exact lever that politicians regularly use to try to influence your behavior. According to last year’s Chapman University Survey of American Fears, a highly cited study in which 1,500 respondents were surveyed about 88 different fears, Americans are most afraid of corruption of government of...
But even more telling is what the Chapman survey says is the number-one way in which Americans respond to their anxieties: voting.
“So you’ve come to us from the den of the devil,” a crime writer named Elaine says, by way of a greeting, meaning this magazine.
I am in a waterfront Redondo Beach, California, apartment, at a meet-up group of Trump supporters. It is clear that no one here is in fear. They are drinking beer and wine, eating finger foods and watching CNN on mute. But they do have a lot of media-fueled anxieties. And as they share them, the mood in the room intens...
“We have Syrian refugees coming in by the thousands, unvetted,” says Chris, who works in corporate sales.
What’s occurring in this meet-up group right now is what social psychologists call the “law of group polarization,” which states that if like-minded people are concerned about an issue, their views will become more extreme after discussing it together. Theoretically, most people here, and in similar meet-ups around the...
Accompanying me at the meet-up is Christopher Bader, one of the architects of the Chapman survey. “The longer we delve into fears, the more I see fears as responses to uncertainty,” he says afterward. If there is a crack in human psychology into which demagogues wriggle, it is by offering psychological relief for the a...
It’s big banks. It’s ISIS. It’s the environmentalists. It’s the NRA. It’s Wall Street. It’s the patriarchy. It’s the feminists. It’s the right. It’s the left. It’s the Illuminati. Choose a single enemy and simplify your life – but know that it won’t make you any happier.
Delving deeper, Jost and his students recently went through more than 100 studies by researchers all over the world, involving more than 350,000 participants, and found similar results. “People who perceive the world as a more dangerous place in terms of crime, disease and terrorism are more likely to be conservative,”...
Several of Jost’s conclusions are consistent with a concept that is key to understanding the factionalism, tribalism and nationalism of today: “terror management theory.” One of the most important ideas in social psychology of the past three decades, it is predicated on the notion that as adult human beings, we have a ...
To manage this existential anxiety, we embrace a cultural worldview that provides us with order, meaning, importance and, ultimately, self-esteem. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on the agreement of others who share our beliefs. Meanwhile, the existence of other people with beliefs and values that differ fro...
One of the related tenets of terror management theory is that when people are reminded of their mortality, whether through questions about what happens after death or bringing up tragedies like 9/11, they can become more prejudiced and more aggressive toward people with different worldviews.
In a 1998 study, for example, Pyszczynski and his colleagues devised a clever means of measuring aggression: seeing how much hot sauce participants were willing to feed others who expressed a clear distaste for spicy food. And after being asked questions about their own death, liberals fed conservatives twice as much “...

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