London WWII-era bombproof tunnels up for sale

For sale: A labyrinth of bombproof tunnels hidden about 100 feet beneath central London. Great location, mysterious past. And the price tag? Well, that's a secret.

The Kingsway Tunnels, originally built in 1942 to protect Londoners from German air raids, are being put for sale by their current owner, telecommunications company BT Group PLC.

"We're looking for a purchaser with the imagination and stature to return the tunnels to productive use," said Elaine Hewitt, who heads BT's property division. "The site has a fantastic history and, now that we have no requirement for it for telecommunications use, it is right that we should offer it to the market. Here's hoping it has a fantastic future as well."

The tunnels, which are about a mile long, were taken over by Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6 in 1944. The Guardian newspaper said a section of the spy agency known as the Inter Services Research Bureau used the tunnels until May 8, 1945, when it stripped them clean, leaving a question mark over the exact nature of its underground activities.

BT said the tunnels were then used by the government's Public Record Office to store some 400 tons of "highly sensitive documents." They then became property of Britain's Post Office - which at the time ran Britain's telephone network and used the site as a telephone exchange to connect long distance calls.

It was through this reinforced warren that the 1960s hot line connecting the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union was routed. By the 1980s, when it became the property of BT, it housed secure data backup services and served closed circuit television cameras.

BT spokeswoman Gemma Thomas said Saturday that the company no longer needed the tunnel because the Internet was cutting down on the need for telephone exchanges.

She said restrictions on the tunnels' use meant they could not be converted into a cool new concept hotel, an underground office or a subterranean home. BT suggested they might be suitable for government use or for a major corporation.Thomas refused to reveal was BT was hoping to get from the tunnels' sale

*****

Unusual property. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

How about a Soggy Bottom?

Or at least a sing-a-long song ...

Smell like a Tarheel with new perfume

UNC Chapel Hill now has an official smell. A new collegiate perfume boasts that it captures the essence of the school. Thankfully, it doesn't smell like Woollen Gymnasium.

The $60 bottle is among a handful of fragrances targeting universities with big, loyal alumni bases. Each perfume is based largely on the university's color scheme.

What does Carolina blue smell like? Champagne, lemon, jasmine and lavender.

To contrast: the University of Alabama's color is crimson: a scent heavy in reds such as apple and pomegranate, said Katie Masich, a chemical engineer and president of the perfume company, Masik Collegiate Fragrances.

“It really is about nostalgia,” Masich said. “It's all about bringing it back to that happy time – college.”

Masich's experts even translated UNC's chief icon – The Old Well – into smell, using rose, violet and jasmine. “It's very romantic and it has Southern charm,” she said. The UNC fragrance employs 13 scents, none of which smell like construction dust or the Cave near closing time.

There is no N.C. State or Duke fragrance, but if you're a fan of Penn State, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee or Louisiana State, sniff away.

The UNC perfume can be had from the company's Web site and at a couple of Chapel Hill stores. One is Johnny T-shirt, where manager Heather Frazier said a couple of bottles have sold. “Scent does elicit memories but I never thought of it as a way to promote alumni pride,” she said.

Research has shown that the brain's olfactory pathways are closely linked to the hippocampus, the bit of tissue that records memories. That may be why a smell can dredge up long-submerged experiences.

One can only hope that those experiences smell more like blooming dogwoods than stale beer.
But knowing UNC Chapel Hill I'd vote for the stale beer.

McPain Bombs in North Carolina

McPain was in Concord, NC this morning and a pitiful 'crowd' (in more ways than poor numbers) - was maybe 500 people if that - turned up.

McPain is claiming 7000 - but his numbers are always 'inflated'.

I guess if you counted all the commuters driving by the rally site you could make a plausible claim of several thousand.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, Obama drew a crowd of over 100,000 (and it was counted by local authorities and not 'inflated' by the campaign spin doctors).

Only 500 in a 'Red' state for the 'Red' candidate!
So much for the lie that North Carolina is a 'Red' state.

The Fourteen Tenets of the repugican Party

The Fourteen Tenets of the repugican Party

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism
5. Rampant sexism
6. A controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together
9. Power of corporations protected
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

You say those are The Fourteen Tenets of Fascism.
Oops, my bad. Well, you can see my confusion as to which is which.

Social skills predict future earnings better than cognitive skills

Ten years after graduation, high-school students who had been rated as conscientious and cooperative by their teachers were earning more than classmates who had similar test scores but fewer social skills, said a new University of Illinois study.

The study’s findings challenge the idea that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment and earnings can be narrowed solely by emphasizing cognitive skills, said Christy Lleras, a University of Illinois assistant professor of human and community development.

“It’s important to note that good schools do more than teach reading, writing, and math. They socialize students and provide the kinds of learning opportunities that help them to become good citizens and to be successful in the labor market,” she said.

From Science Daily

Not too sure about this study and its findings. I know of numerous people who have no social skills whatsoever that are earning more than classmates who have social skills.

Beastly buddies reported stolen from Texas zoo

A 6-foot-tall camel named Moses and his pint-size pony sidekick are missing from a Texas zoo.

Officials at Capital of Texas Zoo near Austin reported the theft of the kid-friendly creatures this week.

Zoo founder Michael Hicks says that the 3-year-old camel and the nearly quarter-century old pony, named Coco, are "best friends" and follow each other.

He says he and the staff are "heartbroken."

Hicks says he last saw both animals in a zoo pasture Tuesday night.

They were gone Wednesday morning.

He has offered a $400 reward for information leading to their safe return.

Some places in the US more 'pro-American' than others

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden ripped into recent comments by his repugican counterpart that suggested that some places in the U.S. are more "pro-America" than others.

Alaska governor Sarah Pale-lyn told a fundraiser in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday night:

"We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she said.

"This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans," Pale-lyn added.

At a rally in Mesilla, New Mexico, on Friday, Biden responded to those comments in a vociferous tone.

"I hope it was just a slip on her part and she doesn't really mean it. But she said, it was reported she said, that she likes to visit, 'pro-American' parts of the country," he said to loud boos.

"It doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country, and I hope it gets through. We all love this country," he said. "We are one nation, under God, indivisible. We are all patriotic. We all love our country in every part of this nation! And I'm tired. I am tired, tired, tired, tired of the implications about patriotism."

*****

I guess we are not 'pro-American' around here then because the repugicans won't come here to met us face to face.

And here's a hint for the repugicans ... Greensboro, NC is not 'pro-American' either since the area there is solidly behind Obama as we are here.

Why they went there to stage a fake rally is obvious - they need a 'everyday American crowd' to show the the nation - only thing is the size of the 'crowd' could be counted without the add of a calculator or even paper and pencil for that matter.

It's pathetic and getting even more pathetic.

And as John Cleese said right now America is viewed as the village idiot of the world and as he also said that view would vanish the instant Obama is elected on November 4, 2008

Damn, Can You Believe This Crap?!

From the "Of all the Unmitigated Arrogant Gall" Department: Spread

American International Group is spending money to lobby states to soften new controls on the mortgage industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. When the government took control of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it prohibited them from lobbying. But it hasn't banned the practice at AIG, the Journal reports. The insurer is working to ease some provisions in a new federal law that establishes strict oversight of mortgage originators, according to state regulators. The law requires that originators be licensed by the states, and to supply comprehensive information so state regulators can track their activities, the newspaper reports. The goal of the new rules is to hold originators accountable if they engage in the sorts of improper or fraudulent lending that ultimately contributed to AIG's downfall, the report said. The law was passed by Congress in July. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday asked AIG to recover millions of dollars worth of "unreasonable" and "outrageous" payments it made to executives as the big insurer neared collapse, or face legal action for violating state law. Cuomo is conducting a probe into allegedly "unwarranted and outrageous expenditures" at AIG, the Journal reports. The U.S. government extended an $85 billion loan to AIG in September to help it stave off bankruptcy. The loan amount was raised to $122.8 billion earlier this month.

AIG Lobbies to Relax Oversight Rules

Spread the word on this assault on our nation and our future to every corner of the nation and planet and stop these bastards once and for all!
There is a nice damp dark jail cell waiting on these fuckers - let us hasten their occupation of it.

Best of Charlotte Blog Awards for 2009 announced

I am honored and puzzled. Blog Provocateur? Me?

Giant Black Holes Destined for Cosmic Collision

The sharpest image yet of a very distant, early galaxy has revealed that it's really two galaxies harboring whopping black holes that are fighting over food.

One of the fraternal twin galaxies is prolifically birthing new stars while the other appears to be stealing gas and dust away from its sibling. Eventually, the two must merge, along with their black holes.

Read the rest here.

Science News

World's first dog lived 31,700 years ago!

By Jennifer Viegas

An international team of scientists has just identified what they believe is the world's first known dog, which was a large and toothy canine that lived 31,700 years ago and subsisted on a diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer, according to a new study.

The discovery could push back the date for the earliest dog by 17,700 years, since the second oldest known dog, found in Russia, dates to 14,000 years ago.

Remains for the older prehistoric dog, which were excavated at Goyet Cave in Belgium, suggest to the researchers that the Aurignacian people of Europe from the Upper Paleolithic period first domesticated dogs. Fine jewelry and tools, often decorated with depictions of big game animals, characterize this culture.
If Paleolithic dogs still existed as a breed today, they would surely win best in show for strength and biting ability.

"In shape, the Paleolithic dogs most resemble the Siberian husky, but in size, however, they were somewhat larger, probably comparable to large shepherd dogs," added Germonpré, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

For the study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the scientists analyzed 117 skulls of recent and fossil large members of the Canidae family, which includes dogs, wolves and foxes.

Skeletal analysis revealed, "the Paleolithic dogs had wider and shorter snouts and relatively wider brain cases than fossil and recent wolves," said Germonpré, who added that their skulls were also somewhat smaller than those of wolves.
DNA studies determined all of the canids carried "a substantial amount of genetic diversity," suggesting that past wolf populations were much larger than they are today.

Isotopic analysis of the animals' bones found that the earliest dogs consumed horse, musk ox and reindeer, but not fish or seafood. Since the Aurignacians are believed to have hunted big game and fished at different times of the year, the researchers think the dogs might have enjoyed meaty handouts during certain seasons.

Germonpré believes dog domestication might have begun when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups. Recent studies on silver foxes suggest that when the most docile pups are kept and cared for, it takes just 10 generations of breeding for morphological changes to take effect.

The earliest dogs likely earned their meals too.

"I think it is possible that the dogs were used for tracking, hunting, and transport of game," she said. "Transport could have been organized using the dogs as pack animals. Furthermore, the dogs could have been kept for their fur or meat, as pets, or as an animal with ritual connotation."

Ancient, 26,000-year-old footprints made by a child and a dog at Chauvet Cave, France, support the pet notion. Torch wipes accompanying the prints indicate the child held a torch while navigating the dark corridors accompanied by a dog.
Susan Crockford, a University of Victoria anthropologist and an evolutionary biologist at Pacific Identifications, Inc. in Canada, told Discovery News that "this is an important paper."

Crockford, however, is not convinced the Aurignacians domesticated dogs. She instead suspects dogs may have undergone "self-domestication" from wolves more than once over history, which could explain why the animals appear and then seemingly disappear from the archaeological record.

Crockford details the possible process in her book, Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species. She theorizes that the genes that control thyroid rhythms, allowing individuals to adapt to changing environmental conditions, can, over time, lead to the evolution of new species.

"I think that for these Paleolithic-age canids, the process got started and then stopped, leaving some individual wolves with a few of the features of early dogs, but not all of them," she said.

Germonpré does not dismiss Crockford's theory, which she described as "a very interesting model." She hopes more information will come to light in the future about these very early canines. An extensive study on their teeth and jaws is already in the works.

Are you better off now than eight years ago?

Are you better off now than eight years ago?

Economic Indicator	2000	2008
Unemployment rate	4.0%	6.1%
Inflation rate	3.3%	5.4%
Job Growth (preceding 8 years)
Total nonfarm employment	21.4%	4.3%
Private sector employment	23.6%	3.6%
Manufacturing employment	2.9%	-22.2%
Employment rate (% of population)
All, age 16 and older	64.4%	62.6%
Men, age 16 and older	71.9%	69.1%
Women, age 16 and older	57.5%	56.5%
Real wage growth (preceding 8 years)	8.2%	1.8%
Minimum wage (July 2008$)	$6.58	$6.55
Family income
Median, 2007$	$61,083	$61,355
Growth (preceding 8 years)	14.7%	0.4%
Poverty
Rate (% of population)	11.3%	12.5%
People in poverty (millions)	31.6	37.3
Uninsured (health insurance)
Rate (% of population)	14.0%	15.3%
People without insurance (millions)	38.7	45.7
Personal savings (% of disposable income)	2.3%	0.6%
College tuition (average per year, 2007$)
Private four-year college	$19,337	$23,712
Public four-year college	$4,221	$6,185
Gasoline (gallon, 2008$)	$2.03	$4.09
GDP growth (preceding 8 years)	34.2%	19.6%
Productivity growth (preceding 8 years)	15.9%	21.9%
Trade balance (% of GDP)	-3.9%	-5.1%
Federal debt (% of GDP)	57.3%	65.5%
Net foreign debt (% of GDP)	13.6%	17.9%

I didn't think so ...

Chart from CEPR

Another Awareness Celebration

Today is Global Handwashing Day, a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap.

Thanks to the folks over at Grow-A-Brain for the heads up on this most important of Awareness Celebrations!

John Cleese: The entire interview

Someone tells it like it is ...

Nineteen Hundred

And I Quote

"I grew up in western Pennsylvania. I grew up in a steel town - Butler, PA - and those people are not racist.

What they are are people that look at a nigger like Obama, who won’t wear the American flag pin, and he is not in concert with their values.

It has nothing to do with the color of that nigger's skin."

~ Rick Santorum's (repugican, particularly a Man-on-Dog Sex pervert repugican) private thoughts while speaking with a reporter.

Read it all at Think Progress

OK, tell me I heard him incorrectly. Oh, I thought I had not. When will these nits (you can't call'em nitwits - they aren't that bright) learn that some people do listen and remember ...

Undecideds Laughing At, McCain

From TIME's Amy Sullivan:

In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.”

Read the entire TIME article here.

Over at BartCop, he expresses the country's mood thusly:

If they somehow declare McWeenie the winner on Nov 4th,
Bush is going to need more than the National Guard to calm America.

*****

I'd say that is a wee bit of an understatement, wouldn't you.?!

Polls in 8 countries show wide Obama support

One would think the repugicans would realize this.
Nah, that would require a functioning brain ...

*****

If the world beyond America's shores had a say, it seems clear that Barack Obama would win the presidential election by something approaching a landslide.

That is the key finding of a coordinated series of newspaper polls conducted in eight countries and published Friday in Britain's Guardian and other papers.

It is no surprise Obama, the Democratic nominee, is popular in Europe - that was clear when he drew tumultuous crowds to his open-air speech in Berlin this summer - but the scope of the lead suggested by the polls is startling.

In Switzerland, for example, Obama has 83 percent support to John McCain's 7 percent; in Britain, 64 percent to McCain's 15 percent and in France, 69 percent to McCain's 5 percent. The closest they get is in Poland, where Obama has 43 percent and McCain 26 percent.

"The results tell you there is a really strong global desire for change in America, at least in the countries where we polled," said Julian Glover, The Guardian's polls reporter. "There's not a lot of support for McCain anywhere."

Glover said widespread unhappiness over the policies of President Bush has spilled over to color the public's view of McCain, the Republican candidate.

The polls, coordinated by La Presse newspaper in Montreal, also tested attitudes toward the United States and found deep suspicion and mistrust in many countries.

In addition to surveying sentiment in Europe, newspaper polls were conducted in Japan, Canada and Mexico. Obama was found to be favored by wide margins in all three countries.

Julia Clark, head of political research at the Ipsos MORI polling firm in Britain, said the results are consistent with other surveys outside of the United States.

"That tallies up with polls we've done and other polls we've seen," she said. "There is a very large favorability for Obama, particularly as the financial crisis worsens."

She said Democratic Party candidates typically fare better in European polls because their policies on health care and education are more in line with European views. The preference is stronger this time, she said, reflecting Europeans' inability to relate to social conservatives who make up an important wing of the Republican Party.

"People in Europe have difficulties with a candidate like Sarah Palin, who resonates with part of the American population," Clark said. "Europeans don't get it."

Clark, whose company was not involved with the poll, said she had no problems with its methodology even though the polling techniques were not uniform from country to country.

"The margins are so wide I'm sure we're not being misled," she said.

Scientists have new clue to mystery of sunken sub

It's long been a mystery why the H.L. Hunley never returned after becoming the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship in 1864, but new research announced Friday may lend credence to one of theories.

Scientists found the eight-man crew of the hand-cranked Confederate submarine had not set the pump to remove water from the crew compartment, which might indicate it was not being flooded.

That could mean crew members suffocated as they used up air, perhaps while waiting for the tide to turn and the current to help take them back to land.

The new evidence disputes the notion that the Hunley was damaged and took on water after ramming a spar with a charge of black powder into the Union blockade ship Housatonic.

Scientists studying the sub said they've found its pump system was not set to remove water from the crew compartment as might be expected if it were being flooded.

The sub, located in 1995 and raised five years later, had a complex pumping system that could be switched to remove water or operate ballast tanks used to submerge and surface.

"It now really starts to point to a lack of oxygen making them unconscious," said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, formed to raise, conserve and display the sub. "They may have been cranking and moving and it was a miscalculation as to how much oxygen they had."

In excavating the sub, scientists found little intermingling of the crew remains, indicating members died at their stations. Those bones likely would have been jumbled if the crew tried to make it to the hatches in a desperate attempt to get out.

"Whatever occurred, occurred quickly and unexpectedly," McConnell said. "It appears they were either unconscious because of the concussion (from the attack) or they were unconscious because of a lack of oxygen."

Archaeologist Maria Jacobsen cautioned that scientists have not yet examined all the valves to see if the crew may have been trying to surface by using the pumps to jettison ballast.

"Can we definitely say they weren't pumping like mad to get water out of the tanks? No we cannot," she said. "I'm not really at a point where I think we should really be talking about what these guys were doing at the very end because we simply don't know all the valve settings."

But she said scientists can definitely say the valve that would have been used to remove water from the crew compartment was closed.