HAS HE NO RESPECT? DISGRACEFUL MOMENT MAN DRESSED AS DEVIL GATECRASHED REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE ON A SKATEBOARD

• Masked man was tackled by police after disrupting Bristol's parade today -or, a political activist was assaulted by members of a private, corporate policy enforcers for engaging in an act of political protest.
  
• Angry crowd shout their disgust at man dressed in pink corset and devil horns -but not charged under the malicious communication act.
  
• Jose Paulo Da Silveria, 38, was today charged under the Public Order Act -Wasn't this legislation created to curb 'football violence'?
• Queen led the nation -The Royal Family doesn't lead the nation. British Parliament does. The obvious question is if I know this in the occupied lands, that is politically known as Australia, then why doesn't a Daily Mail journalist & editor in England not know this??- in honouring the fallen as she lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London
• An emotional Duchess of Cambridge also attended the parade in London's Whitehall

By Daily Mail Reporter & Mikiverse Politics
PUBLISHED:12 November 2012
It is meant to be a day of solemn reflection on the sacrifice paid by those who fought and died for their country. This sentence implies that the day failed in it's objections, but is actually an emotional hook designed to lure you into the story, as opposed to facts.
So many of those who lined the streets of Bristol were left outraged when a man dressed as a devil chose to gatecrash a Remembrance Day march to honour the war dead. Another emotional hook that seeks to toy with and define reality for you.
These shocking pictures show a masked man, wearing a pink corset and stockings, skateboarding alongside the parade of marching troops in Bristol today. The devil wears a pink corset and stockings? Wasn't it reported in the last sentence that this guy was dressed as the devil? As me old mate Dicko would say, hmmm.....
The man was seen cutting in and out of the regiments after the formal ceremony had finished, during which wreaths were laid.
His behaviour was in marked contrast to elsewhere across the country, where the war dead were remembered with suitable solemnity -what is "suitable solemnity"? it is an attempt to define your reality, file it in the same cabinet as 'anti-semite' and 'you either support freedom or support the terrorists'- as the Queen led the nation in honouring the fallen with the Duke of Cambridge joining her at the Cenotaph.

Outrage: This picture captures the moment a man dressed as a devil skakeboarding alongside Bristol's Remembrance Sunday parade

Affront: Horrified onlookers shouted at the bearded man as he disrupted the city's Remembrance Sunday parade today

The Bristol intruder was tackled by a policeman who dragged him through the crowd - as people shouted their disgust at him.
Witnesses say several police officers then had to pin the man down as he initially attempted to resist arrest.
Avon and Somerset Police stayed at the scene and surround him to protect him from a small group of men who threatened to harm him.
Today Jose Paulo Da Silveria, 38, was charged under the Public Order Act, police said.
An Avon and Somerset Police spokeswoman said: 'Police arrested a 38-year-old man at the Remembrance Sunday service in Bristol city centre.
'He was taken into custody.
'Jose Paulo Da Silveria has been charged under the Public Order Act and will appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on December 4.'
As he was bundled into a police car yesterday, officers had to forcefully remove several males who approached him and shouted obscenities and ‘death’s too good for you’. These people do not appear to have been charged under the malicious communication act which is obviously in place to suppress and oppress the people.
Witness Nick Calvert, 51, said: ‘He came down on a skateboard and was wearing a pink outfit and a mask with horns.

Disgrace: The masked skateboarder, who was wearing pink frilly knickers and corset, was quickly stopped in his tracks by police

Bundled off: Police grabbed the skateboarder away from the parade as a crowd shouted their disgust at him

‘A policeman grabbed him and dragged him through the crowd rather swiftly. When he saw the policeman he tried to get off his board but he got him.
‘There was a general show of disgust from the crowd because he was showing no respect. I have no idea what it was about.’
Ray Turton, 68, said: ‘The police dragged him through the crowd and tried to rip his mask off.
‘He put up a lot of resistance and they had to use quite some force to restrain him. -Ray appears to be well trained. Good dog. Even used the phrase 'had to' which implied a lack of choice on the part of the policy enforcers, which is of course, complete rubbish. Ray is a great example of social engineering or programming.-People were shouting "rip his head off".’
At the Cenotaph memorial in London the monarch laid the first wreath to commemorate members of the Armed Forces who died fighting in all conflicts since the First World War. They are conflicts now, not invasions. And since when has a remembrance day for WW1 or the First Oil War, been about the invasions that have occurred since? Is this a matter of political convenience as well as social programming/engineering?
In brilliant autumn sunshine, senior members of the monarchy joined Prime Minister David Cameron, military chiefs, servicemen and women and thousands of watching spectators in paying their respects.
When the first stroke of 11 sounded from nearby Big Ben, Whitehall observed a two-minute silence only punctuated by the hum of distant London traffic and birds. The Queen laid the first wreath, followed by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Hostile reception: The skateboarding devil is led through the crowd by police after disrupting the Remembrance Sunday parade in Bristol

Taken down: Several officers pin the unnamed man to the floor while Bristol's Remembrance Sunday parade passes by

Disgust: Police stayed on the scene to protect the man from a growing number of furious members of the public

Then the Duke of Cambridge, wearing his RAF uniform, laid a wreath, under the gaze of the Duchess of Cambridge, who watched from a balcony at the Foreign Office alongside the Countess of Wessex and the Princess Royal's husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Lawrence.
William was followed by the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Princess Royal, Prince Michael of Kent and Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank.
Wreaths were also laid by Mr Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, opposition leader Ed Miliband and Westminster Plaid Cymru group leader Elfyn Llwyd, as well as high commissioners from Commonwealth countries and leaders of the Armed Forces.
The crowds watching the service in central London could be the largest yet, the Royal British Legion said.

Tribute: Thousands of people had gathered in Bristol to pay their respects to the millions of people who had fought and died for their country -Did these men engage in war atrocities?

The charity's head of remembrance, Helen Hill, said that numbers were swollen as recent conflicts -read invasions-brought the realities of war home to a new generation and created ‘people who are aged 18-and-a-half who are veterans of recent conflicts’. Again, read invasions. One easy way to spot an idiot, otherwise known as a slave, livestock, sheeple or the well trained obedient class is to be alert to when they spit out the corporate/governmental/military propaganda.
‘Once again the British public has shown its support,’-or rather, how well trained they are- she said, adding that the number of veterans marching had increased by 3,000 in the last five years. Although this is expressed as something to be proud of, it actually isn't. This figure is evidence of warfare. This actually goes against the grain of remembrance day, which, is about never forgetting the 'war to end all wars' and thereby ensuring that it never happens again.
‘The numbers are going up, not down. There are an increasing number of associations looking after the veteran community. More and more people want to participate in the activities.’
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall earlier attended a ceremony in Auckland as part of their Jubilee -60th year of reign- tour of New Zealand.
Under grey skies the royals sat with New Zealand's prime minister John Key, veterans from across the decades, -doesn't the continual attempts at programming make you feel a little nauseous? Still, you could believe in the hype- and members of the public around the Auckland Cenotaph.

Honouring the dead: The Queen lays a wreath at the Cenotaph in London

Solemn: The Duchess of Cambridge appears emotional as she pays her respect to the fallen

The Duke of Kent was also overseas, representing the Queen at a service in the Falkland Islands.
Thousands of people also respected the two-minute silence on Twitter, abstaining from posting messages during the period of reflection. The idea was spread using the hashtag #2minutesilence.
In Northern Ireland, the prime minister of the Republic of Ireland Taoiseach Enda Kenny attended the remembrance service in Enniskillen. The symbolic visit came as the Co Fermanagh town marked the 25th anniversary of the IRA Poppy Day bomb attack, which claimed the lives of 12 people.
Mr Kenny laid a laurel wreath at the cenotaph, only yards from where the no-warning blast detonated a quarter of a century ago.
Veterans' representatives laid wreaths at the Cenotaph before almost 10,000 ex-servicemen and women marched past to commemorate their fallen comrades.
This year's Remembrance commemoration is the first to take place since the death of the last veteran to serve during the First World War on either side, according to the Royal British Legion.
There was warm applause from the crowd as the parade marched past the giant war memorial, inscribed to The Glorious Dead.
In Scotland, First Minister Alex Salmond joined the Lord Lieutenant and Lord Provost of Edinburgh Donald Wilson, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, military leaders, veterans and serving personnel at the Stone of Remembrance at the City Chambers in Edinburgh.

For the fallen: Prince William lays a wreath at The Cenotaph in Whitehall, as he takes part in Remembrance Sunday commemorations

Pride: Chelsea Pensioners march in a parade of veterans during the service of remembrance

Huge crowds: Members of the public and servicemen filled Whitehall for yesterday's ceremony

He observed a two minute silence and laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Scotland. The First Minister then attended a Service of Remembrance at St Giles Cathedral.
Meanwhile, in Yorkshire inspirational war hero Ben Parkinson - the country's most injured serviceman to survive his wounds -they dribble this propaganda with a straight face- - paid his respects to his fallen comrades by bravely walking to lay his wreath at a Remembrance Day Service.
Lance Bombardier Parkinson has become a symbol of the bravery of British war heroes as he battles back after losing both legs and breaking his back, hips and ribs in a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2006. -Parkinson is a coward and a maggot. He should never have participated in the failing invasion of Afghanistan.

Pride: Wreaths were laid as British war veterans marched past the Cenotaph during yesterday's ceremony

Royal line-up: The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, (right) The Duke of York, Prince Andrew (centre) and Princess Anne (left)

Watched by hundreds of people, Ben rose to his feet from his wheelchair, helped by mum Diane Dernie and stepdad Andy Dernie.
The 28-year-old slowly walked 300 yards, with the aid of crutches, to pay his respects at a war memorial in his hometown of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, as a wreath was laid on his behalf.
He spent about 10 minutes on his short prosthetic 'stubbies', before returning, smiling, to his wheelchair to a raucous applause from the crowd to join in singing the national anthem.
He said: 'I am very proud to be here. It is important for me to pay my respects. I'm doing unbelievably well, but there's still a lot further to go. I want to do even better next year.'

Heroic: Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson walking on his false legs to the Bennetthorpe Cenotaph in Doncaster This is what a coward looks like.

Crosses and poppies: Wreaths of remembrance on the war memorial on the High Street of Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire

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Really? What "legal reasons" are these precisely?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231431/Has-respect-Disgraceful-moment-man-dressed-devil-gatecrashed-Remembrance-Day-service-skateboard.html#ixzz2C3rwv2tl

'FREE SPEECH' ROW AFTER MAN IS ARRESTED FOR POSTING IMAGE OF A BURNING POPPY ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE ON REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

• Man named locally as Linford House, 19, from Kent was arrested on suspicion of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act
• The image of a Royal British Legion paper poppy being held to a cigarette lighter was posted online

By Amanda Williams& Mikiverse Politics
PUBLISHED: 11:20 GMT, 12 November 2012
Police have arrested a young man after a picture of a burning poppy was posted on Facebook. So this is England. The land where you get arrested for engaging in an act of peaceful political protest
Linford House, 19, was arrested on Remembrance Sunday after the image of a Royal British Legion paper poppy being held to a cigarette lighter was posted online.
Underneath was written: 'How about that you squadey (sic) c****.'

A man, named locally as Linford House (pictured right), 19, was arrested yesterday after the image (left) appeared online. The words on the right image have been written on by a third party, who posted it online

Kent police confirmed that a 19-year-old man, from Aylesham, Kent, was arrested on suspicion of 'malicious telecommunications' -think thought crimes and remember that 1984 is an English creation- on Sunday and remains in custody.So much for innocent until proven guilty.

Police said they were contacted at 4pm on Sunday just hours after an Armistice Day service was held in the suspect's village.
The picture was spotted online before a number of calls were made to police.
Naked pictures from the suspect's social media pages were posted as a wave of public anger -public anger is very important if it agrees with the corporate media agenda, and very unimportant when it doesn't agree with the corporate agenda such as before the failed Iraqi invasion. Of course we are not told anything about the size of this wave which indicates it is the size of a Port Phillip Bay wave as opposed to the waves that you see @ the Banzai Pipeline, Oahu- appeared to mount against him following the allegations.
House is said to be a keen sportsman and a member of the Snowdown Colliery Rugby Football Club, where his father Keith is club captain, according to its website.
Chairman Jim Ritson said: 'Firstly, he [Linford House] was not representing the club in any way when he put the picture online.

Sportsman: House is said to be a member of the Snowdown Colliery Rugby Football Club, where his father Keith is club captain

'He was drunk at the time and it is not something we condone at all. He has always been a very dedicated rugby player and always seemed like a great lad.
'As a club we will be meeting up to discuss the matter and to discuss how we deal with the situation.'
The suspect lives with his parents Keith House, 50, and Sara Holmes, in a red-brick detached house on the edge of Aylesham.
He has an older sister called Charnelle House, 21, and is part of a well-known large local family with 12 cousins.
Within just two hours of his arrest the burning poppy image was being circulated online and was published on the EDL Anglian Division Page by 11.14pm.
House was then outed this morning by an unknown Facebook user who posted a naked image of the suspect on Twitter.
The image was later re-tweeted dozens of times and appeared on some blogs with a super-imposed poppy covering House's groin.
On some blogs it was captioned: 'I think it's funny to burn poppies and post the pic on Facebook. I live in Elvington, In Kent. My name is Linney 'Power' House.'
Linford's father Keith has refused to comment. He said: 'I'm not talking to anyone at the moment. Goodbye.'
Aylesham resident Jane Bates, 34, whose grandfather served in the Second World War, said: 'The village of Aylesham doesn't deserve this and I really hope it doesn't reflect badly on us.
'This is a traditional mining village with lots of hardworking people and they are absolutely fuming.'
Previous incidents of poppy burning have seen defendants mount a defence of freedom of expression based on European human rights laws. 
The move has prompted a Twitter outcry with users criticising police for 'abusing civil liberties'.
The Facebook profile for House has now been removed.

Emdadur Choudhury (right), a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), was found guilty of burning replica poppies during a two-minute silence on Remembrance Day 2010

Police said: 'Officers were contacted at around 4pm yesterday (Sunday, 11 November 2012) and alerted to the picture, which was reportedly accompanied by an offensive comment.
'Following an investigation by Kent Police a 19-year-old Canterbury man was arrested on suspicion of an offence under the malicious communications act. He is currently in custody.'
David Allen Green, a journalist and lawyer for the New Statesman, tweeting as Jack of Kent, wrote: 'Dear idiots at @kent_police, burning a poppy may be obnoxious, but it is not a criminal offence.'
He added: 'What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by Kent Police for burning a poppy?' 
Australian musician and comedian Tim Minchin also tweeted his shock: He said: 'You've a right to burn a (fake!) poppy. Whether I agree with the action is utterly irrelevant. Kent Police are out of line.'
Dr Evan Harris, a former MP, tweeted: '@timminchin's views on poppy burning arrest (see here https://twitter.com/timminchin ) are quite right. We need to change both law & police approach.'

Protesters support Emdadur Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), who was found guilty of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour, after he burned replica poppies during a two-minute silence on Remembrance Day in 2010

Free speech campaigners at Article 19 said urgent guidance from Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), was needed, and that he should protect free speech.
Its executive director, Agnes Callamard, said: 'Causing offence, showing poor judgment or expressing views which people find to be in bad taste should not amount to criminal prosecution.
'The right to freedom of expression protects conduct that might be found by some people as upsetting or insensitive.
'A society that allows public debate and criticism, no matter how much that might offend sensibilities, is a healthy one.
'You don't have to support this man's views to support his right to be able to express them.
'Censorship and violations against human rights are values which were fought over during the world wars, which makes this case somewhat ironic.'
Becky Warren from the Royal British Legion, which runs the Poppy Appeal, said she could not comment on the situation as there was an ongoing police investigation.
The arrest comes after a masked man, wearing a pink corset and stockings, outraged Remembrance Day crowds by skateboarding alongside the parade of marching troops in Bristol yesterday.

The Bristol intruder was tackled by a policeman who dragged him through the crowd - as people shouted their disgust at him. yet, not charged under the Orwellian 'public order, malicious communications, or malicious telecommunications acts'  

Witnesses -reliable? given that they are at a pro war rally and potentially guilty of offences that the police are happy to ignore, possibly because of a conflict of interest?- say several police officers -that sounds like typical police overkill- then had to pin the man down as he initially -was it really attempting to resist arrest or could it be that he was trying to protect himself against police brutality for engaging in an unpopular act of political protest? Is this because England is an elitist class system that bestows privileges on people rather than recognising that they have inalienable rights as free people?-attempted to resist arrest.
He was arrested on suspicion of a section five public order offence and later charged.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, section 1-is not section five, so why is it being written about in this context? Lazy, or, incompetent journalistic/editorial standard's? Because it suits a political agenda? , 'deals with the sending to another of any article which is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient.'

A masked man, wearing a pink corset and stockings, outraged Remembrance Day crowds by skateboarding alongside the parade of marching troops in Bristol yesterday

He was surrounded by police who protected him against angry crowds

Nick Pickles, director of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch,  said the latest arrest in Kent was 'ridiculous'.
He said: 'Kent Police need to urgently release this man and drop an utterly ridiculous investigation into something that has harmed no-one.
'It is not illegal to offend people and, however idiotic or insensitive the picture may have been, it is certainly not worthy of arrest.
'This case highlights the urgent need to reform a law that poses a serious risk to freedom of speech after several ludicrous prosecutions in recent months.'
The Poppy Appeal is the Legion's biggest fundraising campaign and raises vital funds to support troops and their families.

WORRYING TREND OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE WILLING TO BURN A POPPY -This is obviously nothing more than an opinion, designed to advance a political agenda, delivered without justification. I have never considered the concept of 'burning a poppy', but, it may well be on my 'to-do list' in 2013-providing of course that we are still around after the Mayan calender ends, presuming that it hasn't already. To that end, we at Mikiverse Politics wish to thank the boffins @ both the Daily Mail tabloid, as well as the sometimes psychopathic, mindless drones of England's corporate policy force and the arrogant racist elites of the English Parliament who created this controversy in the first place for their own financial gain and maybe even their own perverse pleasure. :)

Last year, Police in Northern Ireland arrested a number of people after a picture of two youths burning a poppy was posted on Facebook.
And Emdadur Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), was found guilty of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour, after he burned replica poppies during a two-minute silence on Remembrance Day in 2010.
The maximum fine possible was £1,000, plus legal costs, yet he was fined only £50, plus a £15 victim surcharge.
A second man was cleared of the same offence due to 'lack of evidence'.
More worryingly, these two events, one being an arrest -seemingly without charge or conviction, the other, a definite act of political protest are the constituting ingredients in this so-called 'worrying trend' that the Daily Mail has turned into a mini article within an article. 
What it really proves is that the Mail is more intent on pushing a political wheelbarrow than evenly covering events that may be newsworthy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231660/Free-speech-row-man-ARRESTED-posting-image-burning-Poppy-Facebook-page-Remembrance-Sunday.html?printingPage=true  

WORLD'S FIRST GM BABIES BORN

by MICHAEL HANLON, Daily Mail

The world's first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.

The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.

So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'.

Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.

The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.

Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one man.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.

Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.

Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.

Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.

'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.' Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.

They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.

Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.

Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies.

He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab.

Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF. Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children --a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community.

'It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students,' he said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three' individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-43767/Worlds-GM-babies-born.html#ixzz1z4I32Pz1

HITLER WOULD HAVE LOVED THE SINGULARITY: MIND-BLOWING BENEFITS OF MERGING HUMAN BRAINS AND COMPUTERS

By Ian Morris, Professor Of Classics And History At Stanford University
UPDATED: 6 February 2012
Of all the tall tales in the science-fiction TV series Star Trek, what impressed me most when I was a  little boy was the Vulcan mind meld.
Laying his hands on the head of a human (or, in one of the films, a humpback whale), Mr Spock could, for a moment, dissolve the distance between two living things.
Each experienced everything the other felt, thought, knew and saw.
Now it seems scientists are about to make the Vulcan mind meld a reality – and go far beyond it.
Ten years ago, the US National Science Foundation predicted ‘network-enhanced telepathy’ – sending thoughts over the internet – would be practical by the 2020s.

Man and machine: Computers could soon be hardwired into the human brain and unlock amazing powe

And thanks to neuroscientists at the University of California, we seem to be on schedule.
Last September, they asked volunteers to watch Hollywood film trailers and then reconstructed the clips by scanning their subjects’ brain activity.
‘We’re opening a window into the movies in our minds,’ Professor Jack Gallant announced.
Last week, the scientists boldly went further still. They charted the electrical activity in the brains of volunteers who were listening to human speech and then they fed the results into computers which translated the signals back into language.
The technique remains crude, and has so far made out only five distinct words, but humanity has crossed a threshold.
We can now read people’s minds. On Star Trek, the Vulcan mind meld had medical benefits, curing a nasty imaginary infection called Pa’nar syndrome.

Science fact?: Harnessing the power of the mind was a favourite of science fiction, including Star Trek's Vulcan mind meld

But the new breakthroughs promise to deliver much greater – and real – benefits.
No longer need strokes and neurodegenerative diseases rob people of speech because we can turn their brainwaves directly into words.
But this is only the beginning. Neuroscientists are going to make the mind meld look like child’s play. Mankind is merging with its machines.
The process began centuries ago with simple devices such as eyeglasses and ear trumpets that could dramatically improve human lives.
Then came better machines, such as hearing aids; and then machines that could save lives, including pacemakers and dialysis machines.
By the second decade of the 21st Century, we have become used to organs grown in laboratories, genetic surgery and designer babies.

 

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In 2002, medical researchers used enzymes and DNA to build the first molecular computers, and in 2004 improved versions were being injected into people’s veins to fight cancer.
By 2020 we may be able to put even cleverer nanocomputers into our brains to speed up  synaptic links, give ourselves perfect memory and perhaps cure dementia.
But inserting technology into human brains is not the only thing going on. Some scientists also want to insert human brains into technology.
Since the Sixties, computer chips have been doubling their speed and halving their cost every 18 months or so.

If the trend continues, the inventor and predictor Ray Kurzweil has pointed out that by 2029 we will have computers powerful enough to run programs  reproducing the 10,000 trillion electrical signals that flash around your skull every second.
They will also have enough memory to store the ten trillion recollections that make you  who you are.

Dangerous technology: The huge potential unlocked by the technology raises frightening prospects if it were to be used by evil dictators like Adolf Hitler

And they will also be powerful enough to scan, neuron by neuron, every contour and wrinkle of your brain.
What this means is that if the trends of the past 50 years continue, in 17 years’ time we will be able to upload an electronic replica of your mind on to a machine.
There will be two  of you – one a flesh-and-blood animal, the other inside a computer’s circuits.
And if the trends hold fast beyond that, Kurzweil adds, by 2045 we will have a computer that is powerful enough to host every one of the eight billion minds on Earth.
Carbon and  silicon-based intelligence will merge to form a single global consciousness.
Kurzweil calls this ‘The Singularity’, a moment when ‘the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep . . . that technology appears to be expanding at infinite speed’.
At that point, we will have  left the Vulcan mind meld far behind. But even this may not be the end of the story.
Much of the research behind last week’s breakthrough in brain science was funded not by universities but by DARPA, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
It was DARPA that brought us the internet (then called the Arpanet) in the Seventies, and DARPA’s Brain Interface Project was a pioneer in molecular computing.
More recently, DARPA’s Silent Talk programme has been exploring mind-reading technology with devices that can pick up the electrical signals inside soldiers’ brains and send them over the internet.
With these implants, entire armies will be able to talk without radios. Orders will leap instantly into soldiers’ heads and commanders’ wishes will become the wishes of their men. Hitler would have loved it.

Thing of the past: Advances in technology could revolutionise the way armies communicate

Cyborg-soldier: The defence industry could soon try implanting computer technology into the brain of soldiers

Some of the clearest thinking about the new technologies has been done in the world’s departments of defence, and the conclusions the soldiers draw are alarming.
For example, US Army Colonel Thomas Adams thinks that military technology is already moving beyond what he calls ‘human space’, as robotic weapons become ‘too fast, too small, too numerous, and . . . create an environment too complex for humans to direct’.
Technology, Col Adams suspects, is ‘rapidly taking us to a place where we may not want to go, but probably are unable to avoid’.
As goes war, so,  perhaps, goes everything else. The merging of mankind and its machines that Kurzweil predicts for the mid-21st Century may, in fact, turn out just to be a lay-by on the way to a very different destination.
Later in the century, what we condescendingly call ‘artificial’ intelligence might replace us humans just as thoroughly as we humans once replaced all our evolutionary ancestors.
All this will come to pass . . .  unless, of course, it doesn’t. Maybe the trends Kurzweil and Col Adams identify will slow down, or even stall altogether.
And maybe the critics who mockingly call the Singularity ‘the Rapture for Nerds’ will be proved right.
But on the other hand, maybe the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Smalley is closer to the truth when he points out: ‘When a scientist says something is possible, they’re probably underestimating how long it will take.
But if they say it’s impossible, they’re probably wrong.’
The University of California’s neuroscientists have taken us one more step towards a final frontier far beyond anything dreamed of in Star Trek.
l Ian Morris is the author of Why The West Rules – For Now, published by Profile Books.

WAS JFK KILLED BECAUSE OF HIS INTEREST IN ALIENS? SECRET MEMO SHOWS PRESIDENT DEMANDED UFO FILES 10 DAYS BEFORE DEATH

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 8:21 AM on 19th April 2011

An uncovered letter written by John F Kennedy to the head of the CIA shows that the president demanded to be shown highly confidential documents about UFOs 10 days before his assassination.

The secret memo is one of two letters written by JFK asking for information about the paranormal on November 12 1963, which have been released by the CIA for the first time.

Author William Lester said the CIA released the documents to him under the Freedom of Information Act after he made a request while researching his new book 'A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier.'

Assassination: Was JFK shot to stop him discovering the truth about UFOs?

The president’s interest in UFOs shortly before his death is likely to fuel conspiracy theories about his assassination, according to AOL News.
Alien researchers say the latest documents, released to Mr Lester by the CIA, add weight to the suggestion that the president could have been shot to stop him discovering the truth about UFOs.


In one of the secret documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, JFK writes to the director asking for the UFO files.

Released: Letter from JFK to CIA director asking for access to UFO files, which has been released to an author under the Freedom of Information Act

In the second memo, sent to the NASA administrator, the president expresses a desire for cooperation with the former Soviet Union on mutual outer space activities.

The previously classified documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to teacher William Lester as part of research for a new book about JFK.

He said that JFK’s interest in UFOs could have been fuelled by concerns about relations with the former Soviet Union.

Beam me up: Days before he was killed, JFK wrote to the CIA demanding access to their files about UFOs

Unclassified: A second memo written by JFK on November 12 1963, 10 days before his assassination, which has been released by the CIA

‘One of his concerns was that a lot of these UFOs were being seen over the Soviet Union and he was very concerned that the Soviets might misinterpret these UFOs as U.S. aggression, believing that it was some of our technology,’ Mr Lester told AOL News.

‘I think this is one of the reasons why he wanted to get his hands on this information and get it away from the jurisdiction of NASA so he could say to the Soviets, “Look, that's not us, we're not doing it, we're not being provocative. “.’

But conspiracy theorists said the documents add interest to a disputed file, nicknamed the ‘burned memo’, which a UFO investigator claims he received in the 1990s.

The document, which has scorch marks, is claimed to have been posted to UFO hunter Timothy Cooper in 1999 by an unknown CIA leak, but has never been verified.

Disputed: In the 'burned memo' the CIA director allegedly wrote: 'Lancer [JFK] has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow'

In a note sent with the document, the apparent leaker said he worked for CIA between 1960 and 1974 and pulled the memo from a fire when the agency was burning some of its most sensitive files.

The undated memo contains a reference to ‘Lancer’, which was JFK's Secret Service code name.

On the first page, the director of Central Intelligence wrote: ‘As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow.

‘Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.’

The current owner of the ‘burned memo’, who bought it from Timothy Cooper in 2001 told AOL News that it shows that when JFK asked questions about UFOs that the CIA ‘bumped him off’.

UFO investigator Robert Wood said he has tested the paper it was printed on, the ink age, watermarks, font types and other markings.

He said: ‘I hired a forensics company to check the age of the ink and check several other things that you can date, using the same techniques you’d use in a court of law.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378284/Secret-memo-shows-JFK-demanded-UFO-files-10-days-assassination.html

METAL SWARM: HARVARD EXPERTS CREATE TINY ROBOT BEES THAT ‘POP UP' OUT OF SHEETS OF METAL AND CARBON FIBRE

By Rob Waugh

Last updated at 3:13 PM on 16th February 2012

Harvard scientists have invented a method of mass-producing robot insects - creating 'sheets' of tiny robot bees that pop up ready for action. 

When activated, a 2.4 millimetre-tall robot insect 'pops up' out of the sheet. The scientists say they aim to create 'swarms' of independently flying robot insects. 

The entire product is approximately the size of a U.S. quarter, and dozens of the microrobots could 'pop up' out of a single sheet.

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The 18-layer structure incorporates flexible hinges that allow the three-dimensional product¿just 2.4 millimeters tall¿to assemble in one movement, like a pop-up book.

Ready made: The insects are about the size of a U.S. cent and 'pop up' out of their sheets ready for use

The tiny, 2.4mm high robots are assembled by slightly bigger robots

The scientists say they were inspired by origami and pop-up books.

The sheets consist of carbon fibre, plastic film, titanium brass and ceramic, laser cut into a sheet.They are assembled by robots and can be mass-produced rapidly.

The 18-layer structure incorporates flexible hinges that allow the three-dimensional product—just 2.4 millimeters tall—to assemble in one movement, like a pop-up book.

The Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory has been working for years to build bio-inspired, bee-sized robots that can fly and behave autonomously as a colony. 

'We can generate full systems in any three-dimensional shape,' says Professor Robert Wood. 'We've also demonstrated that we can create self-assembling devices by including pre-stressed materials.' 

'In a larger device, you can take a robot leg, for example, open it up, and just bolt in circuit boards. We're so small that we don't get to do that.'

Pointing to the 'bee's body, Wood says, 'Now, I can put chips all over that. I can build in sensors and control actuators.' 

The 18-layer structure 'pops out' a ready made insects. The roboticists say they can add circuitry such as sensors and motors easily

The 18-layer composite can be mass produced rapidly. The end goal is to create 'swarms' of independent robotic bees

The laboratory has been working on prototype insects for years, but previous generations had to be hand made

The Harvard Office of Technology Development is now developing a strategy to commercialize this technology. 

As part of this effort, they have filed patent applications on this work.

Pop-up Fabrication of the Harvard Monolithic Bee (Mobee) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2102063/R2-B2-Harvard-scientists.html

CHILDREN ‘DUMPED IN STREETS BY GREEK PARENTS WHO CAN'T AFFORD TO LOOK AFTER THEM ANY MORE'

• Youngsters abandoned as parents struggle
• 4-year-old found clutching note: 'I can't afford her'
• Country also running out of medicine
• Aspirin stocks low as austerity measures bite

By Lee Moran

Last updated at 7:05 PM on 11th January 2012

Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more.

Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the Euro crisis.

It comes as pharmacists revealed the country had almost run out of aspirin, as multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.

Abandoned: Children are being dumped on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more (file picture)

Athens' Ark of the World youth centre said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months.

One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.

Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: 'I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.'

And another desperate mother, Maria, was forced to give up her eight-year-old daughter Anastasia after losing her job.

She looked for work for more than a  year, having to leave her child at home for hours at a time, and lived off food handouts from the local church.

She said: 'Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.' She now works in a cafe but only make £16 per day and so cannot afford to take her daughter back.

Sold out: Greece is quickly running out of medicines as austerity measures start to filter through society

Centre founder Fr Antonios Papanikolaou told the Mirror: 'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.

'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.'
- Fr Antonios Papanikolaou

'They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.'

Further evidence of Greeks feeling the pinch of austerity measures is the lack of aspirin and other medicines now available in the country.

Pharmacists are struggling to stock their shelves as the Greek government, which sets the prices for drugs, keeps them artificially low.

This means that firms are turning to sell the drugs outside of the country for a higher price - leading to stock depletion for Greeks.

Mina Mavrou, who runs one of the country's 12,000 pharmacies, said she spent hours each day pleading with drug makers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients.

And she said that even when drugs were available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

Meanwhile, talks about private sector creditors paying for part of a second Greek bailout are going badly, senior European bankers said tonight.

That raises the prospect that euro zone governments will have to increase their contribution to the aid package.

'Governments are mulling an increase of their share of the burden,' said one banker, while another said 'Nothing is decided yet, but the bigger the imposed haircut the less appetite there is for voluntary conversion.'    

A third senior banker told Associated Press: 'Private sector involvement is going badly.'    

There are suggestions in euro zone government circles that ministers are coming to the realisation they may need to bolster Greece's planned second bailout worth 130 billion euros if the voluntary bond swap scheme, which is a key part of the overall package, falls short of expectations. 

Stumping up yet more money would be politically difficult in Germany and other countries in the northern part of the currency bloc.