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POPSThe Marine Building - Vancouver (on Burrard St.) I used to work right across from this building. I went in once, and was just amazed. (of course i haven't seen much, but it's still beautiful) At the bottom of the page are links to see beautiful interior shots, as well as history on the building.
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POPSA Stunt Cyclist Takes the Stage Although this is apparently one of the most watched sports videos on Youtube, I hadn't seen it until tonight when I read this article. Most of us will never be able to do the stunts and tricks this guy can do ... but hopefully he can still inspire us to try and do great things. And most importantly ... the video has over 50,000 votes and it's still rated 5 stars. He can do some pretty cool stuff with a bike. Enjoy!
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POPS The Boston Tea Party December 16, 1773 The British tea dumped in Boston Harbor on the night of December 16 was valued at some $18,000. Parliament, outraged by the blatant destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British. This Day In History "The Boston Tea Party December 16, 1773 http://bit.ly/8eDIl3 youtube video http://bit.ly/4o3vSK
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POPSPre WWIII?! If you are a student of history you will recognize the signs as before WWI and WWII..there was major posturing going on just as it is today. Prayer is definitely in order!
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POPSThe U.K. is leading the way on AGW Hoax 100 is a little generous. Many of the reasons are just re-wordings of previous reasons. Still, there is far too much doubt cast on this bad idea to disrupt whole economies that are already on the brink of collapse. Enough already with the Polar Bears. The penguins in Antarctica are quite chilly and happy.
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POPSHumbled she ought to be Other sites of local interest have realised that Mssrs Humble is not the angel her Labour supporters make her out to be. She is in fact dangerous. The reasons? Too numerous to count, but I will give you one. 1 It is the responsibility and duty of a local MP to hold the Executive to account. Now look at her voting record. With this corrupt, inept legislative assembly probable the worst in British political history, she has never once voted against the plethora of bad law, rules and regulations pouring out of Westminster. If she is not doing her job, then what the f**k is she doing taking her £67k plus expenses plus perks plus plus plus for none representation of her electorates problems?
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POPSThe First American Navy One of those ships, the United States, actually saw service on both sides during the Civil War. And the Constitution, restored to her full glory in Boston Harbor, is still a U.S. Navy ship. Her captain takes visitors below and shows them how those radical braces meet at the keel. He tells them that that structural nexus is the very point were America first joined the global community.
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POPSI Spy Strangers It hasn't taken the immigrant long to fall in with the graft and corruption of British poitics. There is another odious character who speaks like an English upper-class twit, treats the electorate like idiots and walked unmolested through one of the longest inquiries in Parliamentary history. Not bad for an immigrant from Aden. I wonder if he was shooting at us during the sixties...because he couldn't have been dodging bullets with us, could he?
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POPSClipping Comments: Obama's Nobel Lecture - Short Arc of War. Long Arc of Peace Obama only points to the fact that the institutional landscape of Post World War II, "A decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats." Yes, President Obama institutions have expiry dates. The institutions born of what Obama asked for in his plea for "the continued expansion of our moral imagination" arose because people of imagination in 1942 from the US Treasury and British Exchequer called together whole systems thinkers to ask the questions. The writ was to answer why the "War to end all Wars" had a demand performance thirty years latter and the world was suffering from the Great Depression. The writ was to create the new generation of institutions to change the game. This was in 1942 when neither nation knew whether they would be defeated and the "goose step" of Fascist troops would echo through London and Washington.
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POPSThe Forgotten "White" Slave Children of Australia and the Origin of White Trash The program persisted between Britain and Australia until the early 1970s! I've wondered why people embrace and use the term white trash. As far as I'm concerned, it's akin to nigger. From my reading of history, impoverished people, no matter color or national origin had one enemy in common: the elites of their societies that exploited them: that same group that so easily divides and conquers.
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POPSThe Raped and Ravaged "White" Children of Australia “When we reported this as kids, we were flogged to within an inch of our lives, locked up in dungeons and isolation cells,” said Braydon, who received a cash settlement from the Salvation Army for the abuse and is suing the Victoria state government for neglect.
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POPS Iraq's Lost Cities Iraq's political isolation - the result of 25 years under the vicious and tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein - has repelled visitors, so memories of the cultural wonders of Iraq have gradually faded. This is a very alarming state of affairs for it is, of course, far easier to attack a country when its historic and cultural importance has been forgotten. It is important to remind people in the west of what is at stake, of what could be destroyed, if Iraq is invaded. And it is just as important to consider what the people of Iraq feel about the recent onslaught on their culture - through both external attack and internal civil strife. The Lost Palaces of Iraq http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/iraq/iraq_lost_cities_01.shtml The Birth of Civilization Just getting a visa to enter Iraq was a major problem, requiring much explanation about my interest in the subject, and patience.
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POPSThe Celtic Zodiac: The Origin of Halloween
Notes from the artist: The Ancient Origins of Halloween In today's world it is often difficult for us to imagine that there were ancient civilizations that came long before us, who were more aware and in tune with nature, astronomy and astrology than we are today with all of our advanced knowledge and technology. Approximately one thousand years B.C., a religious order of Celtic priests known as the Druids lived in the British Isles. They used a lunar calendar that consisted of 13 months, with each month having within it 28 days, plus an additional day which was added to the calendar as in a leap year, to correspond to the solar/lunar year. This 13 month calendar was used by the Druids to calculate their year and important festivals. The Druidic religion focused on the natural and supernatural energies of the universe which they identified with the spirits of their sacred trees. These sacred trees formed the basis of the Druid astrological zodiac.
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POPSRadical Islamist to Lead Unprecedented March Mr Griffin also hailed the development, saying, "this move by the Pak.. I mean the radical Islamists demonstrates that the BNP is now the right choice for Britain's idiots. We stand now as a mainstream Party, offering the opportunity of quality multicultural unfairness to all Britain's morons. As part of the move the BNP's Constitution is to be reviewed to bring it more in line with the teachings of radical Islam. References to 'ragheads' and other potentially Islamic slights are to be removed, with greater emphasis placed instead on the disempowerment of woman. However, both men said they were in agreement that any bits about being Jewish could stay in place. Reports that the cleric intends to stand for Parliament remain unconfirmed.
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POPSBlack SAS war hero who held off 250 rebels single-handed
With no cover and facing certain death, he sprinted across 800 metres of exposed ground to reach a 25-pound field-gun. It was a brave - but apparently futile manouevre - as the huge weapon took three men to operate. That, however, did not deter Labalaba. Nor did facial injuries which would have rendered a lesser man helpless. As British forces watched in astonishment, Labalaba turned the cumbersome gun on the enemy and opened fire at near point blank range. He went on for six hours, decimating the rebels and ultimately paying for his courage with his life. His comrades found him slumped face down by the massive gun. His selfless actions undoubtedly saved many of the British soldiers holed up inside the fort and won him a posthumous Mention in Despatches. For many, his statue will be a long-overdue memorial to one of the SAS's greatest heroes. It is also some small recompense to thousands of ethnic minority servicemen, many from Commonwealth countries, who feel their
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POPS 'On "The Wealth of Nations"' P. J. O'Rourke Economic progress depends upon a trinity of individual prerogatives: pursuit of self-interest, division of labor, and freedom of trade. There is nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit of self-interest. That was Smith's best insight. To a twenty-first-century reader this hardly sounds like news. Or, rather, it sounds like everything that's in the news. These days, altruism itself is proclaimed at the top of the altruist's lungs. Certainly it's of interest to the self to be a celebrity. Bob Geldof has found a way to remain one. But for most of history, wisdom, beliefs, and mores demanded subjugation of ego, bridling of aspiration, and sacrifice of self (and, per Abraham with Isaac, of family members, if you could catch them). This meekness, like Adam Smith's production, had an end and purpose. Most people enjoyed no control over their material circumstances or even-if they were slaves or serfs-their material persons. In the doghouse of . . .
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POPSRecruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home. Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time.
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POPSNobel Tops 'SNL' for Obama Joke by Mark Steyn
What "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy" did he make in those first 12 days? Bowing to the Saudi king? Giving the British prime minister the Walmart discount box of "Twenty Classic Movies You've Seen A Thousand Times"? "Er, Barack, I've already seen these." "That's OK. They won't work in your DVD player anyway." For these and other "extraordinary efforts" in "cooperation between peoples", President Obama is now the fastest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history. Alas, the extraordinary efforts of those first 12 days are already ancient history. Reflecting the new harmony of U.S.-world relations since the administration hit the "reset" button, The Times of London declared the award "preposterous," and Svenska Freds (the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society) called it "shameful." Why, only the other day, very conversationally, the administration floated the trial balloon that it could live with the Taliban returning to government in Afghanistan.
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POPS“…I Believe it is Peace for our Time” The Czech government, for its part, was having none of it, and prepared to mobilize its armies. But capable as its military was, it was not prepared to deal with the much larger Wehrmacht…unless some other Western Power (read: Britain or France) should come to help them. But in a bizarre twist, the French and British heads of state did meet…with Germany. Rather than risk warfare, they were willing to allow Adolf Hitler to annex the Sudeten region, but only if he promised that his territorial acquisitions were finished. Mollified by the German dictator’s smooth talking, Prime Minister Chamberlain signed away the Sudetenland by putting his signature to the Munich Agreement in the wee morning hours of September 30, 1938. The French, still in a financial mess and completely unprepared militarily to defend their own country, much less another, could do little but follow suit, and Edouard Daladier signed as well.
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POPSData-mining medical records could predict domestic violence
More: Using the new system, the researchers were able to predict abuse an average of two years before the doctor made the diagnosis. Presumably, the computer is picking up signs of ongoing maltreatment the patient hasn’t yet revealed. The researchers also speculate that, in principle, some subtle signal could precede direct abuse. One surprise finding that could be relevant… is that infections turned out to be strongly linked to abuse. That might suggest worsening hygiene in the family or increased psychological stress, possible omens of abuse. But at this point, it is anybody’s guess whether true predictions are possible. Predictions or not, with the current model, fewer than 20 percent of the patients flagged as high-risk cases turned out to have a diagnosis of abuse. Part of the problem may be that the system is only as good as the data it was based on. And as Emory University’s Houry points out, that data isn’t up to speed when it comes to diagnosing abuse.
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