The Press Is Complicit In Covering Up Bad News In EU Referendum

This video which I had linked to my Twitter account was blocked after having been retweeted many times, on supposed "copyright issue" which is YouTube's way of censoring material deemed damaging to the establishment, in this case the "Remain" group in British EU referendum. I managed to find it again and retweeted it, this time more subtlety. Here is the video in question. 

One can see why some might want it removed.

Here is a second link as insurance, not that it will make any difference should it be removed again but  will try anything once in the vain hope one can defeat the system!

 http://youtu.be/cOI7_FN1IXE

Whatever happened to the BBC?

What happened to journalism? Thirty or forty years ago journalists reported events. Today they offer opinions about events. They stamp their own views on the consciousness of  viewers and listeners. They opine. They seek the extreme edges of events, be they floods, earthquakes or some gruesome murder to sensationalise their so called reporting and better draw focus to their own over-inflated egos.

News programs today are packed with negativity. They present a one sided view of the world which is utterly depressing and totally false. A sop to cheeriness is added in an item about pandas or some other cuddly story in the last item of news. This is supposed to make us all feel better before we trudge off to bed, those of us that is, that are still watching.

We have no idea what casualties have been inflicted on the enemy in Afghanistan. We are never told but we know the names of every single one of our soldiers killed in action. Why? Did the media highlight the deaths of every soldier killed in WW1, WW2,  or the Korean War. Of course not, that would have taken all day to read out. So why are the relatively few deaths of today's fighting men given such prominence? What is the purpose of it?  If you listen to the news, it would appear that only our soldiers are dying. Our allies for all we know, have suffered few if any casualties. As for the enemy who knows? We certainly do not but the question is why not? Do the powers that be think we are idiots that we must only be told only what they want us to know, that we cannot be told the facts or that we should not be given the opportunity to make up our own minds? Who can trust an authority that tries so hard to maipulate the news and by inference our minds?

This is not news broadcasting. This is mind manipulation, media brainwashing and government propaganda. It's abysmal. It's depressing. It's unbalanced and therefore presents a false image of the world we live in. I for one have switched off.

I do not trust the integrity or the motives of those whose job it is to inform us. I do not want opinions. I want news and I want both sides of it not one. I want to hear what is new in the world of science, technology, art and what positive initiatives are being taken by communities and people in our country and elsewhere to make the world a better place. I want to hear about all the good that is going on in the world as well as the bad. I am sick to my back teeth of the garbage that is being fed to us by the television and paper media and so are most people. We are all gradually switching off.

I could go on about the endless dreary repeats that our licence fees paid for donkey's years ago. What are they using licence payers money for now? So mind numbingly dull are many of the programs, I now prefer to watch old black and white films! I hate to think how many times these have been repeated but they are at least better than the rubbish showing on other channels. They at least have a bit of drama in their storylines. I could go on about reality shows and the general dumbing down of the BBC and other networks but I'm sure you have got the drift, so I wont bother. I simply ask who will save us from these donkeys?

Who's a clever boy then?

Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

Feathered prodigy: N'kisi leads the fieldThe finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.

The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine.

N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.

About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.

Polished wordsmith

He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive. One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.

When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?"

School's in: He is a willing learnerHe appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera."

Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication".

In an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards.

Analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance.

Captives' frustrations

This was despite the researchers discounting responses like "What ya doing on the phone?" when N'kisi saw a card of a man with a telephone, and "Can I give you a hug?" with one of a couple embracing.

Professor Donald Broom, of the University of Cambridge's School of Veterinary Medicine, said: "The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots."

Alison Hales, of the World Parrot Trust, told BBC News Online: "N'kisi's amazing vocabulary and sense of humour should make everyone who has a pet parrot consider whether they are meeting its needs.

"They may not be able to ask directly, but parrots are long-lived, and a bit of research now could mean an improved quality of life for years."

61 years to pay off World War II loans!

Thursday December 28, 06:35 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - The government said it will on Friday pay back the final instalments of loans taken out at the end of World War Two to finance vital reconstruction.

The payments of $83.25 million (42.4 million pounds) to the United States and $22.7 million to Canada will close the final chapter of the war and mean that in total the country has paid close to twice what it borrowed in 1945 and 1946.

"This week we finally honour in full our commitments to the U.S. and Canada for the support they gave us 60 years ago," Treasury minister Ed Balls said on Thursday.
"It was vital support which helped Britain defeat Nazi Germany and secure peace and prosperity in the post-war period. We honour our commitments to them now as they honoured their commitments to us all those years ago," he added.

Britain borrowed a total of $4.3 billion from the United States in 1945, followed in 1946 by a loan of $1.2 billion from Canada -- both at an interest rate of just two percent.

During World War Two, the United States effectively gave Britain billions of dollars worth of goods under the lend-lease programme.

But that abruptly ended in September 1945 despite the fact Britain was on its knees economically after six years of warfare.

Despite the heavily discounted rate of interest on the loans, in the intervening years Britain has failed to make any payments on six occasions because of balance of payments problems -- in 1956, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1976.

To date the country has paid a total of $7.5 billion to the United States and $2 billion to Canada.

The Treasury noted that there were still World War One debts owed to and by Britain, but that no action had been taken on either count since U.S. President Herbert Hoover declared a moratorium in 1931 during the Great Depression.

Violent games

Violent video games are harming the brains of young teenagers, scientists have found. The effects include increased activity in the part that governs emotional arousal.

This is accompamied by a fall in activity in the region associated with control, focus and concentration. The research was carried out by a team at the University School of Medicine in Indanapolis.

Team leader Professor Vincent Mathews said: "Playing a certain type of violent video game may have different short-term effects than playing a non-violent, but exciting, game."

His study involved 44 adolescents who played a violent or non-violent video game for 30 minutes.

They then performed a series of tasks measuring inhibition, concentration, and emotional responses. The group that played the violent game showed a loss of concentration and self control, coupled with increased emotion. Further research is planned looking at the long-term effects of violent video games on the players.

Comment:

Do we need scientists with degrees to tell us the obvious?