great britain

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In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President after the assassination of William McKinley. The Wright Brothers were still experimenting with gliders and motorized propellers. Tsar Nicholas II reigned in Russia and the British Empire mourned the passing of Queen Victoria. A child named Walt Disney was born in Chicago. Guglielmo Marconi used his newly-invented radio to send the first trans-Atlantic signal.

Meanwhile in England, a photographer named Edward Turner was experimenting with color negatives and the recent advent of motion pictures. Among other things Turner recorded footage of his three children, Hyde Park, and traffic in London.

More than a century later and after exhaustive research, it is now being reported that Edward Turner’s film is the oldest color motion picture that has ever been found.

Wanna see it? Of course ya do!

The palette of the macaw is particularly striking. But after watching the soldiers marching and the Union Jack ...

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The Swarm, a new roller coaster set to open at an amusement park in London later this month, might have to be toned down a bit. This after crash test dummies put on the coaster had their arms and legs torn off by the horrific G-forces the Swarm generates during ride.

And then there’s this lil’ baby…

The Euthanasia Coaster, designed by Lithuanian engineer Julijonas Urbonas, is a concept (it only exists on paper, thank God) intended to give terminally ill people one last thrill ride.

After a precipitous drop, the coaster would take its passenger through a series of ever-tightening loops that increase the forces on the person’s body, starving him/her of oxygen until death results.

Read more about the Euthanasia Coaster here.

Can you imagine one of these things at Disney World? Well, maybe under Michael Eisner…...

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It happened a week ago, and I am somewhat ashamed of myself that I did not catch this at the time.

Now’s the time to make things right by remembering this fine lady…

Florence Green died on February 4th, at the age of 110. She would have been 111 later this month.

And she was the very last living person who served during World War I.

Born on February 19th 1901, Florence was 17 when she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Air Force in September of 1918: just two months shy of the armistice that ended “the war to end all wars”.

The last living combat veteran, Claude Choules, passed away in May of last year. And it was a year ago this month that Frank Buckles, the last surviving American “doughboy”, departed us.

Read more about Florence Green’s long and remarkable life here....

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Working on a few things behind the scenes, but felt like posting something tonight. And that’s when I discovered that YouTube is hosting Threads.

Sure, why not.

I first saw this movie in July of 1986 but it wasn’t until I was in college a long time later that I found out the title. We were visiting family in Florida and playing a game of Monopoly in our motel room with my cousins and we thought we’d put some TV on. It was a PBS station showing… some very dark and gritty film about nuclear war in England.

I was 12 years old. I soon lost all interest in Monopoly and became transfixed to this film. The image of the young woman chewing through her newborn baby’s umbilical cord is something that has haunted me to this day.

Threads originally aired on BBC Two in Great Britain in September ...

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Good friend of this blog Danny de Garcia II sends word that he’s scored a terrific interview with the ever-illustrious Nigel Farage, who has been representing South East England in the European Union since 1999. Ironically, Farage has also emerged as one of the EU’s biggest and most conspicuous critics! For those who have been watching the economic and political situation over the past decade or so in Europe, Danny’s interview with Farage is quite an eye-opener.

Here’s an excerpt…

DDG: Many Americans are closely watching Europe and the ongoing debt crisis. Do you believe the situation is under control or are there more surprises to come?

Farage: The European Union – not Europe, actually – is collapsing under the weight of its own over-regulation, enormous subsidies (to its supporters) and attempts to rule the world through “soft power” (i.e. money) as well as the implications of its

...
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So it’s December 1st and I’m finally allowing myself to enjoy the music of the holiday season! Not that I’m a grinch or anything. It’s just… I’ve never liked how the Christmas stuff now seems to start coming out the day after Halloween (and lately even before then). It only “feels” like Seasons Greetings when it’s after Thanksgiving, and maybe several days after that just for good measure. I mean, doesn’t the year go by fast enough without it needing any “help”?

Well anyhoo, it being the time properly leading up to Christmas at last, I’ll kick things off with a post I’ve been considering for some time now. It’s a neat lil’ bit of historical lore that I’ve always enjoyed and I like to think that others will appreciate it as well.

So here we go with the strange but true tale of how The Salvation Army from its ...

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“I was not going to stand by and watch somebody take a beating or worse so I tried to intervene,” said the sweet little lady in the red coat and white tights. The 75-year old retiree, who declined to give her name, witnessed a gang of six punks on motorbikes trying to smash their way into a jewelry store in Northampton, England with sledgehammers.

With store employees looking terrified from within as the droogs began pounding their way to the goods, “Super Granny” came running up the street and began beating the hoodlums with her handbag! She even knocked at least one of them off of his moped. Four of the six were arrested.

Witness heroism in action, dear readers!

Click here to read more about the “handbag heroine”....

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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England is visiting the United States this week. Yesterday she visited the site of the World Trade Center in New York City and took part in a memorial service there for those who died in the 9/11 attack.

I didn’t know until yesterday that Queen Elizabeth II had served her country during World War II. In fact, the Queen is the last surviving head of state who served in uniform during that conflict.

Here is a photograph of Elizabeth Windsor, all of 17 or 18 years old at the time, changing the tire on a British army truck…

The future Queen of England spent a lot of time as a truck mechanic and driver, enthusiastically doing her part to defend England against the dark of war.

I’ve always thought Elizabeth II was a classy lady. Knowing this about her now, my admiration for her ...

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Oscar the cat lost most of his back legs in a harvester accident this past fall. But thanks to some British researchers Oscar is now enjoying a fully functional life complete with two fore paws and two faux paws!

Popular Science has more about Oscar: the world’s first bionically-enabled feline. It’s thought that the technology will soon be applicable to human patients.

And here’s some video of Oscar strutting his stuff!

He just needs some adamantium claws in his front paws and he’ll be all set 😛...

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Fifty years after Thalidomide was taken off the market in Great Britain, that country’s government is finally owning up to its role in one of the most horrific disasters of modern medicine.

Thalidomide was a drug approved to combat the symptoms of morning sickness in pregnant women. And when I say “approved” I mean that the British government didn’t perform proper tests on the drug to determine if it was, y’know, safe for both mothers and children. Thalidomide caused hundreds of birth defects throughout Great Britain because it hampered blood vessels from fully developing in the fetuses. Many children were born with vestigial limbs… or no limbs at all. A few had no eyes, among other severe problems.

In addition to the apology, the British government is allocating £20 million to help the hundreds of Thalidomide survivors living in the United Kingdom today.

By the way, although it’s not used ...

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