BASE-jumping has nothing to do with jumping to base. They all come down eventually anyhow. The apronym BASE is short for building-antenna-span (bridge)-earth and gives the list of objects jumpers jump from, not where they land. (And an apronym is an acronym that forms a previously existing word.) The time to open the parachute is extremely short and the sport is therefore considered far more dangerous than parachuting from a plane or sky-diving.

BASE-jumping evolved out of sky-diving, but due to the lower height of the starting point for BASE-jumping the jumper never reaches terminal velocity. Higher airspeed allows better body control as well as faster opening of parachutes. The short time span allotted to the BASE-jumper makes the sport more risky than jumps from higher up.

The first base-jump was recorded in 1912 in New York from the Statue of Liberty, but the name was given to the sport was invented in 1981. 1912 is also the date of the first death, when tailor Franz Reichelt tested his newest invention, the coat parachute. There are two further jumps on record for 1913 after which a 50 year interval occurred. In 1965 the first jump after the interval was executed in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy.

BASE-jumping gained a wider audience and world view in 1976 when the opening sequence of the James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me” showed a jump from Mount Asgard in Canada.

While some countries have forbidden BASE-jumping, others allow it upon review of a submission for permission, and some such as Switzerland, France, Italy, and Norway allow it from well-known and clearly defined rock formations. The stunt in Zurich which led to the death of the jumper was a permitted jump.

One of the world’s most famous jumping sites is in the Lauterbrunnen-Valley in Switzerland which has developed as one of the main jumping sites in the world. On the flip side, the deaths reported from jumps in that region are also the world’s highest. Until April 2009, 133 deaths from BASE-jumping activities had been recorded, of which 19 (or over 15 percent) in Lauterbrunnen-Valley.

Ueli Gegenschatz was reckoned one of the leading BASE-jumpers in the world with over 1,500 jumps to his credit. In an interview prior to the Zurich stunt he said that the risk of BASE-jumping was calculated and in no way suicidal. He might gain entry into the next edition of Famous Last Words. According to eye-witnesses he was knocked unconscious by the fall but regained consciousness still on site. His first reaction was an apology for a bungled jump.

The jump from the 88 meter (270 ft.) high Sunrise building was the start for a publicity campaign for Red Bull Mobile. Red Bull’s classical advertising slogan in German is “Red Bull makes you grow wings.” Red Bull and Sunrise have cancelled the publicity campaign immediately following the accident.

Gegenschatz died on Friday from the injuries he sustained during the incident.

A new ‘possible’ site for Atlantis may have been discovered off the coast of southern Greece.  A team of archaeologists and marine geologists from Greece and England’s University of Nottingham have been working together to ‘fathom’ (sorry couldn’t resist the nautical term me hearties!) whether this underwater city, known as Pavlopetri, could have been the basis for the great myth of Atlantis. 

Dr Jon Henderson from the University of Nottingham has confirmed that the site dates back around 5,000 years which would have been when Homer was Greece’s ‘best selling author’.  It’s been a fantastic find as its size and the detail within the ruins are ‘unprecedented’ according to our experts out there in Greece.

Jon Henderson has stated that there’s ‘no doubt’ it’s the oldest ‘undersea town’ in the world.  It has remains dating way back to 2800 BC.  I know you’re all going to be sending me comments saying that this isn’t the case; that there are older undersea ’sites’, but this is the first one that is set out as a planned town.

The site takes up about 30,000 sq metres and it’s thought it was probably swallowed by the ocean around 1000 BC.  It was apparently discovered about 40 years ago by a British oceanographer but it wasn’t until now, with all our modern digital techonology, that a real dig and a dive could be undertaken to survey the whole of the site.

But it was only due to the settlement’s location in a protected bay that so much detail still remains and the current exploratory works have shown the lay-outs of courtyards and streets which themselves have revealed tombs and religious buildings as well as numerous pieces of pottery.  Our intrepid investigators also unearthed (or unsea-ed!) ceramics dating way back to the end of the stone age which is why they believe the site dates right back to around 5000 BC.

9,000 sq metres of new buildings were discovered as was a possible ‘megaron’ which (as I’ve been led to believe by these extremely knowledgeable Anglo Greek experts) was a huge structure with a large rectangular hall and would have been used by the elite.  This would of course elevate the status of the town.

It’s a really exciting find as it gives such a fantastic insight into the Mycaenae people who were around in this area of Greece at the time and who liked nothing more than a good old fisticuffs with all and sundry – being a nation of warriors rather than merchants.

Nobody so far has any idea why this wonderful town disappeared under the ocean but the most obvious causes would be due to a rise in sea level, a tsunami or an earthquake.  But whatever the reason for its demise it’s certainly caused a stir in the local town of Neapolis.

This find is the first underwater city discovered in Greece which predates the time Plato wrote about Atlantis and as our digitally equpped divers continue with their exploratory work it’s going to be interesting to hear what else is discovered down in the depths!

Source

Professor Nutt called for the implementation if an “index of harm,” (which you can see HERE) providing accurate information regarding the dangers of both illegal and legal drugs, and accused the government of covering up the facts and misleading the public. (You can read the full story HERE). However, the government reacted quickly to prevent any disclosure of truth – backed up by scientific evidence gathered by an academic clearly considered by them to be the best man for the job when they initially employed him – by immediately demanding he resign from his position.

The following statement was released by a Home Office Spokesperson: “The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs]. In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt’s comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs. We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole.” Source

Richard Garside, director of the centre for crime and justice, who supported Nutt’s briefing paper – based in fact rather than upon moral stance – said: “I’m shocked and dismayed that the home secretary appears to believe that political calculation trumps honest and informed scientific opinion. The message is that when it comes to the Home Office’s relationship with the research community honest researchers should be seen but not heard. The home secretary’s action is a bad day for science and a bad day for the cause of evidence-informed policy making.” Source

Professor Nutt is said to be disappointed by the reaction, but is clear about the reasons for his dismissal. He yesterday released the following statement: “It’s unusual political times, I suppose, elections and all that. It’s disappointing. But politics is politics and science is science and there’s a bit of a tension between them sometimes.” Source

When later questioned on live television by the BBC, Professor Nutt said “It is a very bleak day for science… In many days it’s a worse day for Politics.” He also said his colleagues – who worked freely for thousands of hours – are “upset” about his dismissal, and claims the situation will “undermine confidence” in this type of position within the scientific community.

Clearly, those in power care more about the results of impending election than they do for truth and honour, science, and the even health and safety of the entire population of the UK.

You may also be interested in the following articles:

Scientific Research Proves Alcohol and Cigarettes are More Dangerous Than Cannabis, LSD or Ecstacy

Why Line The Pockets of Dealers When There’s a Legal Alternative to Cannabis

Source

Professor Nutt, chairman of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, and head of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Bristol University, is now calling for the creation of an “index of harm,” to enable members of the public to compare the differences in danger levels between various drugs, both legal and illegal. In this index, alcohol would be considered the fifth most dangerous substance, after cocaine, heroin, barbiturates, and methadone. Cigarettes would be ranked number nine – higher than cannabis, LSD, and ecstasy, ranked  respectively at 11, 14, and 18. Drugs in the index are scored and ranked based on the physical harm they may cause the user, the likelihood of dependence, and harm caused to society.

Source

Professor Nutt criticised the government for providing mis-leading information, saying the artificial separation between legal and illegal drugs gives people the wrong impression about the dangers involved in the use of certain substances. He even went as far as saying smoking cannabis produces only a “relatively small risk of psychosis” – contradicting the government’s own advice, which claims it massively increases the risk of mental illness. He accused the former home secretary, Jaqcui Smith – famous for her porn-watching husband and shameful involvement in the MPs expenses scandal – of “distorting and devaluing” scientific research, when making the decision to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug. She accuses him of “trivialising” the dangers of drugs.

Professor Nutt has recently released a statement, saying: “No one is suggesting that drugs are not harmful. The critical question is one of scale and degree.” He added: “We have to accept young people like to experiment — with drugs and other potentially harmful activities — and what we should be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this stage of their lives. We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information. If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably wrong.” Source

Source

The first and most obvious problem glaring at us from this “index of harm” is the incredibly high placement of alcohol, at number five – something many readers will be very surprised to see. A huge number of us drink on a regular basis, and probably consider consumption of this perfectly legal substance far healthier and less dangerous than regular use of either cannabis, LSD or ecstasy. But, if there’s scientific evidence to prove this to be more than marginally inaccurate, don’t the government owe it to us to tell us so?

The second issue is the idea that cigarettes could be more dangerous than cannabis, LSD, and ecstasy, which is shocking, by anyone’s standards. Here in the UK, we’re bombarded with press releases about the dangers of smoking cannabis; parents up and down the country are terrified their spliff-smoking teens will almost certainly find themselves suffering from schizophrenia if they insist in continuing their illegal past-time. Equally, LSD and ecstasy are promoted as dangerous, even lethal drugs – and most parents would much prefer their children were just having a drink and/or smoking some cigarettes, than taking either substance. But what if they’re wrong?

Source

From Professor Nutt’s above statement, we can see he openly accuses the UK government of scare-mongering tactics that he personally believes will never work. And he’s probably right, if previous campaigns are anything to go by. He’s also perfectly clear in his research-based, professional opinion as a scientist, that alcohol and cigarettes are far more dangerous than is currently admitted. So why are the government ignoring the evidence provided by his careful research and clinging to false statements made by politically-motivated individuals?

Could it be anything to do with the MASSIVE income they receive from the tax they charge on alcohol and cigarettes?

I don’t know about you, but as a parent – and regardless of any financial implications they may face as a result – I fully expect the government to provide me with the cold, hard facts about the dangers regarding drugs, as and when they discover them, so I can attempt to keep my children as safe as possible – as my job as a mother dictates. I simply cannot do so if they insist on lying to me.

LATEST NEWS: Government Sacks Scientist for Telling The Truth About Drugs

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Roman Polanski is best known for films such as The Fearless Vampire Killers and Rosemary’s Baby. He was charged with and admitted to paedophile dealings with a 13 year old in 1977, but deemed himself too good to face the prison sentence going with his deplorable acts. Since then he has been in Europe, living it big like many other criminals protected by like minded politicians. But like most criminals, he became incautious and previously announced his intention of attending the ceremony, which gave the Swiss police finally the possibility to apprehend him.

American authorities already expressed their satisfaction over the apprehension and will now face the task of submitting the necessary papers to Switzerland to engineer an extradition of the director to the US. The legal way will be taking up quite some time as Poland already has offered consular help to the arrestee and the case will have to go through Swiss courts up to the high court in Lausanne.

Quite an opposite reaction was the statement of the Association of Directors which roundly condemns the arrest. They called the arrest a judicial farce and a cultural scandal. Such statements make me wonder if they have lost all grips on reality. I find it highly disturbing that people could imagine themselves to be above the law. The question must be asked if they really condone paedophile behaviour or if they are paedophiles themselves? But maybe I am too harsh and they are just stupid. That would at least explain the quality of their work at the same time.

Some deluded people have even taken to the streets protesting before the goal Polanski is held in. I do hope that some of them have or will have children and that they will have enough brains to imagine how they would feel if something like that happened to their daughter or son. I personally would never have stopped to find a criminal getting at my son had it ever happened.

Even more disturbing are reactions from the Polish and French government who expressed their surprise and horror at the execution of the arrest. It seems that even governments these days are controlled by paedophiles. At least it shows that politicians deem themselves above the law and that they have no intention to adhere to the principles stated in the French revolution that should be the principles of democracy.

Swiss Minister for Justice, Evelyne Widmer-Schlumpf, issued a rather dry statement. She said that Switzerland had acted on an international search warrant issued by the United States of America and was therefore bound by international treaty and international law to carry out the arrest. She stated that neither Swiss laws nor international laws are a cultural issue. In an add on she dared to wonder if the Association of Directors would have felt compelled to issue a statement if the arrestee had been a Mr. Smith instead of Mr. Polanski.

It seems, there are always people who think they are more equal before the law than others and that they might get away with anything.

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Polanski

Switzerland Goes Tough on Paedophiles and Abusive Parents

A London jury found Thanos Papalexis, 37, guilty of the murder of Charalambos Christodoulides. Christodoulides, 55, was a resident and caretaker in a £2M warehouse owned by Papalexis. According to testimony, Papalexis had found himself in a “perilous financial position” and needed to sell the warehouse, but Christodoulides refused to move out. During an altercation between the men, Papalexis tied Christodoulides to a chair, then beat, tortured, and eventually strangled the restrained victim.

After the murder, Papalexis wrapped Christodoulides’ body in a sheet and disposed of it inside an abandoned factory. The body was discovered approximately two weeks later.

Papalexis then left London and took up residence in Miami Beach, Florida, where he re-invented himself as a hedonistic playboy. He took on a life of decadence and luxury, ostentatiously decorating his office, driving expensive luxury cars, and throwing wild sex parties in which he paid thousands of dollars nightly for the services of high-paid escorts.

Papalexis’ downfall was set in motion when he took up with DeFalco, 41, a Miami area escort and star of several XXX pornographic videos. Their relationship advanced quickly after Papalexis paid DeFalco for a night of passion. The adult video star was impressed by a series of fabrications and exaggerations in which Papalexis claimed to work for both the CIA and the British Intelligence Agency MI6.

DeFalco began to have her suspicions regarding Papalexis after she performed a Google search of his name and found that he had been suspected in the murder of Christodoulides. Eventually DeFalco would confront Papalexis and ask him directly if he had ever killed a man. Surprisingly, Papalexis admitted that he had, adding that the victim had been “a nobody” and that he had “got in the way.”

DeFalco would later recount this encounter in a courtroom and ultimately it was her testimony that allowed the jury to reach their conclusion and convict Papalexis of murder.

This is following a piece in The Times earlier this month revealing that catwalk designers are airbrushing models for fashion magazines, despite them already being close to or actually being ‘size zero’.

Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has expressed that the responsibility for this lies with the designers, who supply magazines with “miniscule” garments so that they are forced to use models with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips”.

Magazines receive garments approximately six months before they appear on the shelves, and therefore editors are forced to hire models that fit into the clothes to ensure they can cover the latest trends. Shulman claims that Vogue in fact frequently retouches photographs to make models look larger.

The Liberal Democrats are saying that this puts unjustifiable pressure on young men and women, and can be seen as a one of the major causes of teenage anorexia.

Jo Swinson, party spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats said: “Today’s unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago. Airbrushing means that adverts contain completely unattainable images that no one can live up to in real life.

“We need to help protect children from these pressures and we need to make a start by banning airbrushing in adverts aimed at them.  The focus on women’s appearance has got out of hand — no one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure, but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do.”

A man who was allegedly suffering from existing health issues has died in Edinburgh hospital. The cause of the 52 year old man’s death was confirmed to be swine flu.

The Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon extended her condolences to the family of the victim but also added that the patient, like many of the others was suffering from underlying health conditions and that his death should not cause panic amongst the general public.

Whilst I agree that there is little need for panic or alarm, it is something of an issue for those of us suffering from Asthma, hay fever or other respiratory disorders.

It would seem that doctors across the UK have been treating sufferers of flu like symptoms with precautionary doses of anti-biotic drugs specifically engineered for the treatment of swine flu.

It is unclear as yet whether or not vaccinations will be made available to the more vulnerable for the coming winter, however; it seems that the general opinion is that this would be the most positive step forward in preventing unnecessary fatalities.

Bloggers have expressed their concern about the issue and one old aged pensioner said:

“I’m 69 and I’ve got Arthritis. Because of the recession I can’t afford to pay my heating bills. So what will happen to me if I get sick? I’ll just end up adding to their statistics like every other poor sod.”

Eventually after escaping once from jail and over to Brazil where he lived the life of luxury he eventually came back to his beloved England to see off the rest of his days. On his return he was re-arrested and sentenced to serve the rest of his days behind bars.

He has since fallen into ill health and has been released under compassionate grounds for the presumed short time of his life he has remaining. During his family’s appeals for his release, there was video evidence of him in hospital looking very frail and at death’s door. Once the appeal was successful; he can now walk but with a stick as many old people can at his ripe old age.

I haven’t heard any more on how he is, but to be honest I don’t really care because this man was not only the instigator of the crime, but also hasn’t even had the decency to show any regret of the murder that took place, cost the tax- payer millions but also had the cheek to step foot on home soil again and live again from us tax-payers.

It was very foolish of our judicial services and the Government to release this man because more will try and get early release under ill-health clause as in my next case proves but with a more sinister and evil twist.

This of course is the case of the Lockerbie Air Disaster twenty years ago, when a Jumbo Jet was on its way to New York, taking a full booking of people, many British were looking forward to Christmas Shopping in the Big Apple, and many Americans returning home to celebrate Christmas with their families. Many were on the ground preparing their celebrations in the little Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Later At the same time a Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was sentenced of plotting one of the biggest atrocities of all time. This was when the Pan Am 747 Jumbo Jet was blown up by a terrorist bomb, with a full load of fuel over Lockerbie. Evidence showed that Megrahi was guilty of the crime when fragments of clothes that were earlier sold to him were wrapped around the bomb.

Although he denied all connection with the crime he was sentenced to life. OK Who did it?

The Libyan President Gadaffi said it wasn’t him but refused to say who it was all we know was there was hatred pointing at America from there and other Muslim states.

The reason why they fly the Scottish flag over in Libya is that they look at the release as a victory against America and that possibly Gordon Brown’s part in bringing down the Western states; in other words stabbing one of our strongest allies in the back.

But this Government have been working with Libya for some time with a possible deal. You don’t just hand prisoners who go blowing up planes to their countries and not get anything in return.

Has our Government gone soft to let any convict out without a deal or a motive, surely not?

How bad could they get to cheat on their own people and allies and let mass murderers, rapist and other criminals roam the streets to offend repeatedly?

What is the point of giving out sentences to protect the general public when they know they can’t stand by it?  

Have they gone soft or just plain irresponsible, the answer is “Yes!”

If they do not know what to do with an offender, they should let the victims decide.