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POPSGet Out of Jail Free: Monopoly's Hidden Maps more (at source): Of all the tools in a military-grade escape kit, the most critical item was the map. But paper maps proved too fragile and cumbersome, said Debbie Hall, a cataloguer in the map room at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. For hundreds of years, even before World War II, silk was the material of choice for military maps, Hall said, because it wouldn't tear or dissolve in water as easily as paper and was light enough to stuff into a boot or cigarette packet. Unlike maps printed on paper, silk maps also wouldn't rustle and attract the attention of enemy guards, she said.
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POPSBrown rocked as aide quits over war
more (at source): His criticism – which follows protests from military commanders over the lack of support for British forces in Afghanistan – carries extra weight given his army background and his role as Mr Ainsworth's parliamentary aide. Mr Joyce quit as two more British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, bringing the number of UK deaths to 212. Forty-one British troops died in July and August alone, and polls have shown a slump in public support for involvement in Afghanistan. The timing of the resignation is particularly damaging to Mr Brown, who in a speech today was due to argue that the case for military action is as compelling as ever because three-quarters of terrorist attacks are orchestrated from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But in a scathing letter to the Prime Minister last night, Mr Joyce directly contradicted him. He wrote: "I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of
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POPS Survivors gather to pay tribute to 'British Schindler' more: The Meisls' story is just one of dozens of extraordinary tales from the now elderly men and women who owe their lives to Winton. As the former evacuees gathered in Prague for their train journey, they hailed his compassion and determination, celebrated their survival and mourned for those children that were not able to escape. In December 1938, 29-year-old Winton was packing for a skiing holiday in Switzerland when his would-be holiday companion told him to come urgently to Czechoslovakia instead. Adolf Hitler's forces had occupied the country's Sudetenland, and Winton was appalled to see the conditions in which the refugees were living. In other parts of central Europe, "kindertransporten" were already evacuating children, but Czechoslovakia had no such programme. Winton immediately started raising money and organising trains to save the children, and on his return to Britain began finding homes and organising visas for them, all while holding down his day job in London. W
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POPSBritain's secret Scientology files more: They include a signed statement by former senior Scientologist, John McMaster, who said Hubbard and others faked ‘qualifications’ in Dianetics, the spiritual ‘science’ behind Scientology. He said: "I understand it is asserted that L Ron Hubbard was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Sequoia University on February 10, 1953, in recognition of his outstanding work in the fields of Dianetics and Scientology and that the said degree was recorded with the Department of Education of the State of California. “The position is L Ron Hubbard (and others) acquired premises somewhere in Los Angeles which they had registered as a university called Sequoia and immediately awarded each other doctorates.” The inquiries were initiated by Whitehall officials who sent an urgent telegram from London to the British consulate in LA.
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POPS"On Her Majesty's Space Service" more (at source): "We need to get the next generation excited about the idea of missions to Mars, as one of the people who might go from this country is probably a teenager today," he said. "We should keep a focus of the areas that we are good at – building satellites, space science, building probes etc – but also consider the probability of a British person going to Mars."
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POPSResource Wars continues: Implicitly rejecting the US and British governments' claim they went to war to remove Saddam Hussein and search for weapons of mass destruction, he said the US had in reality been very concerned about energy security and supply, because of its reliance on foreign oil from unstable states. "Casting its eye around the world - there was Iraq," he said. (more at source)
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POPS"BBC in crisis over Gaza appeal" continues (more at source): "This situation is akin to that of British military hospitals who treat prisoners of war as a result of their duty under the Geneva convention. They do so because they identify need rather than cause. This is not an appeal by Hamas asking for arms but by the Disasters Emergency Committee asking for relief. By declining their request, the BBC has already taken sides and forsaken impartiality," the archbishop added.
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POPSBritish Jews attacked for supporting Palestinians continues: Rabbi Elchenon Beck, 39, was among six rabbis expressing support for Gaza's Palestinians who were set upon by a gang of what they allege were Zionists while walking back from opposing rallies outside the Israeli Embassy on 6 January. "They were shouting and pushed someone to the floor, so we called the police," Rabbi Beck said. "All the time they are trying to intimidate us, but we get used to it."
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POPSFarewell Patrick McGoohan continues: Without the Prisoner, we'd never have had cryptic, mindbending TV series like Twin Peaks or Lost. It's the Citizen Kane of British TV – a programme that changed the landscape, and quite possibly destroyed its creator. Like Orson Welles with Kane, McGoohan was given the whole train set to play with on the Prisoner, and boy did he play with it. The title sequence was the only solid ground – we knew McGoohan had resigned, then been drugged and brought to "The Village". The rest was questions rather than answers – Where is "Number 6"? What's his real name? Why DID he resign? What was he resigning from? Who Is Number One? What ARE those white blobs bouncing along the beach?
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