A script written by the BBC and the government to be broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack has been published.

The script, written in the 1970s and released by the National Archives, included instructions to "stay calm and stay in your own homes".

It said communications had been disrupted, and the number of casualties and extent of damage were not known.

Other papers reveal debates about how to ensure the person reading the script was authoritative and comforting.

The script was discussed from 1973 to 1975, during the Cold War.



It was released along with letters between government departments and BBC executives.

The BBC had previously made some of the documents public under the Freedom of Information Act, but this is the first time they have been made widely available.



The Simpsons actor reads nuclear warning
In a letter from June 1974, Harold Greenwood from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications discussed who should read the announcement to give it an authoritative and comforting tone.

"During the Second World War we came to recognise the voices of Stuart Hibberd, Alvar Lidell and other main news readers," he wrote.

"I would expect that in the period of crisis preceding an attack a similar association of particular voices with the authoritative 'voice of the BBC' would develop."

Mr Greenwood said recorded announcements by an unfamiliar voice would not reassure listeners.


"Indeed, if an unfamiliar voice repeats the same announcement hour after hour for 12 hours, listeners may begin to suspect that they are listening to a machine set to switch on every hour... and that perhaps after all the BBC has been obliterated," he said.

Adding in live local commentary would reassure listeners they were not listening to a cassette recorder, the Cabinet Office said.

'Conserve water'

The script said: "This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known."

It instructed the public to turn off fuel supplies, ration food to last 14 days, and conserve water - with a warning not to waste it by flushing the lavatory.


There was nothing to be gained by trying to get away, it warned.

"By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger. If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection."

Those in a radioactive fall-out area were told to wait in a fall-out room until a siren sounded or the "all clear" message was given over the airwaves.

The announcement was intended to be repeated every couple of hours.

It has previously been revealed the BBC stockpiled entertainment programmes to boost public morale in the event of a war.

In the event of a nuclear attack, staff were told to stay in hiding for 14 days, when it would be safe to leave.


source:BBC News

"Xu made the oath, but was suddenly struck by lightning a minute later"

A Chinese man who swore to God that he didn't owe money to a neighbour was hit by lightning a minute later.

The man, named Xu, made the oath in front of a crowd of neighbours in Fuqing city, reports Southeast Express.

He vowed that he had never borrowed money from Mr Huang, who claimed Xu borrowed 500 yuan, the equivalent of £40, from him three years earlier.

"He borrowed 500 yuan three years ago from me for a friend's marriage gift, but he has denied it ever since then," said Huang, who went to Xu's home to demand payment.

"I told him that if he dared to swear to God that he didn't owe me the money, then I would waive his debt," said Huang.

Xu made the oath, but was suddenly struck by lightning a minute later.

He was immediately taken to hospital where doctors confirmed he had been hit by lightning. He is expected to make a full recovery.


i wonder if he decided to pay the debt back to the man :)

A man starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks.

First is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds.
As he does this, a huge fish jumps out and bites him.
To show the others who's boss, he beats it to death with a spade.
Realising his employer won't be best pleased; he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything.

Moving on to the second job of clearing out the chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts.
He swipes at two chimps with a spade, killing them both.
What can he do? Feed them to the lions, he says to himself, because lions eat anything.
He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure.

He moved on to the last job, which is to collect honey from the South American bees.

As soon as he starts, he is attacked by the bees.
He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp.
By now he knows what to do and throws them into the lion's cage - because lions eat anything.

Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo.
He wanders up to another lion and says 'What's the food like here?'


The lions say 'Absolutely brilliant. Today we had fish and chimps with mushybees.'

This guy wakes up one morning to find a gorilla in his tree. He looks in the phone book for a gorilla removal service until he finds one.

"Is it a boy or girl Gorilla?" the service guy asks. "Boy," is the man's response. "Oh yeah, I can do it. I'll be right there." An hour later the service guy shows up with a stick, a Chihuahua, a shotgun, and a pair of handcuffs. He then gives the man some instructions. "Now, I'm going to climb this tree and poke the gorilla with the stick until he falls.

When he does, the trained Chihuahua will bite the gorilla's testicles off. The gorilla will then cross his hands to protect himself and allow you to put the handcuffs on."

The man asks, "What do I do with the shotgun?"
"If I fall out of the tree before the gorilla, shoot the dog."

Hi all,

As the website has been running for a while now i was thinking if any of our members would like to mention if they have any subjects, topics, webpage hints tips, that they would want to put onto the webpage, or even suggest new pages to our site that would interest our memebers.

If they would want to contact a member of our team, or just leave a message on the boards then we can reply asap.

A schoolboy wedding guest was stunned when he snapped the newlyweds' first dance - and spotted an apparition of a ghost in the disco lights.



The ghost image (circled) appeared in a picture taken as newlyweds Nigel and Helen
Davis took to the floor for the first dance Photo: SWNS

Jordan Martin, 12, took a series of photographs as the couple danced at their wedding reception at Tewkesbury Rugby Club, Gloucestershire.

But he was left speechless when he flicked through the pictures afterards and saw the haunting image of a woman's head and torso floating inches from the ground near the DJ booth.

He said: "I didn't see the ghost until a couple of days later when I was looking at the pictures on the computer.

"When I saw it I was like 'wow' and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought it was really weird because it really looks like there's a ghost in the picture."

The picture was taken as newlyweds Nigel and Helen Davis took to the floor for the first dance after their wedding at Gloucester Register Office.

Jordan was snapping away from the side of the dance floor when he unknowingly captured the image.

His mother Ann, of Northway, Gloucestershire, said she does not believe in ghosts but cannot explain the appearance of the uninvited guest.

She said: "It was a shock when I saw the picture. It looks pretty clear to me and it looks so real. Jordan is quite excited about it. It's a bit weird."

source: The telegraph

it was all one big joke that got out of hand!!..

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer have done a runner!


by By Paul Wagenseil (Fox News)


The hunt was on Wednesday for two North American forest-roaming bipeds, last seen in Northern California, present whereabouts unknown.
(surprise, surprise)

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the Georgia men who claimed to have found a Bigfoot body, were being sought by Tom Biscardi, whose money they absconded with once the frozen "corpse" was revealed to be a hoax.

"We have a contract with these people," Biscardi, a former Las Vegas promoter now based in Menlo Park, Calif., told Fox News Wednesday morning. "We paid them the money the night before [the press conference.] ... They didn't figure I'd have a turbo heater on that thing to thaw it out before they left California."

Biscardi wouldn't confirm where the body was, but it apparently had been moved from Georgia to Indiana. An Indianapolis Fox affiliate was given a look at the "corpse" Monday by Biscardi's investigator, Steve Kulls.

Asked to confirm rumors that he'd given Dyer and Whitton a $50,000 advance on future earnings from the bogus Bigfoot, Biscardi would say only that "it was a substantial amount of money" numbering in the thousands which came from unnamed "investors."

Biscardi told Fox's Megyn Kelly, who'd previously been invited to view the specimen herself, that the rubber Halloween suit had been stuffed full of, well, organic material.

"It was the most macabre thing you've ever seen in your life," he said. "There's body parts of other animals in there — bones, eyes, tongues, cheeks. It's just incredible."

Asked how he could have been fooled, Biscardi argued that it was hard to tell when the thing was encased in a block of ice.

Meanwhile, other Bigfoot hunters nationwide piled on Biscardi, noting that he was perfectly willing to charge for photos of the "corpse" on his Web site before Kulls determined it was fake early on Sunday morning.

"Warrants need to be issued immediately before Biscardi leaves the country," read a manifesto posted on the Web site of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. "Santa Clara County, California, (where the press conference was held) clearly has jurisdiction to issue the warrants, and all the elements of fraud are present."

But Nick Muyo, a spokesman with the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, said jurisdiction might be hard to establish.

"If Tom Biscardi files a police report in Menlo Park, it would originate with San Mateo County," he said. "But it sounds like Santa Clara, as well as counties in Georgia and Indiana, could also get involved."

It's possible that fraud charges could be filed against Dyer and Whitton, as Biscardi seems to want, though it's not clear whether it'd be a criminal or civil case.

"[Biscardi] freely gave them the money," noted Jeffrey Turner, police chief of Clayton County, Ga., who fired Whitton as an officer Tuesday but couldn't locate him to inform him of his termination. "It'd be a civil matter."

Muyo said that once a police report was filed, then a criminal investigation could be launched.

Kulls, meanwhile, whom the BFRO labeled as "a long-time member of Biscardi's own gang," contacted Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo.com on Tuesday to dissociate himself from Biscardi.

"At this time I am breaking any association or cooperation with Tom Biscardi and his company," Kulls' statement read, though it also said, "People ask me if [Biscardi] was complicit in this hoax. I honestly believe he was not."

It may be difficult for Biscardi to claim he was defrauded, as the "24-Hour Sighting Hotline" number posted on Dyer and Whitton's Web site, BigfootTracker.com, asks for tips related to "leprechauns, unicorns, large cats, dinosaurs," as well as "Jimmy Hoffa or Elvis."

As for one scientist who Biscardi said on Friday would be examining the Bigfoot body? He told a news network he'd never been contacted.

Stanford University anthropologist Richard Klein said he was "sorry that my name and Stanford's name have been brought into this."


seems like a sh*t storms blowing and everyone is gonna get covered if they don't take cover pretty soon, shame really but as in all walks of life there are monsters, but not always the cryptozoologiccal types

SOURCE FOX NEWS

"This is more like being under communist reign, instead of being in a free country"

by David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster


'Operation Sentinel,' a project of the New York Police Department which would have every vehicle in Manhattan tracked by a series of license plate scanners, is cause for fury among some New York City residents.

Details of the program were reported by RAW STORY on August 12. A similar security grid is being developed for Washington, D.C.

In an August 19 report, BBC's Wendy Urquhart found that while some are accepting of the plan's invasive measures, others are not taking the news so lightly.

"It is a comprehensive security program to protect the lower Manhattan area -- indeed, all of Manhattan -- from vehicle-born explosive devices," said Ray Kelly, New York City's police commissioner. He added that data gathered by the system will be expunged within 30 days unless police have use for it.

"This is more like being under communist reign, instead of being in a free country and being able to choose where you want to go, when you want to go, and not be monitored at all times," said a NYC man interviewed by the BBC. "I don't think it's right."

"I mean, if you don't have anything to worry about, you won't worry," argued another interviewee. "Now, if you're trying to hide something and they scan your license plate, you have a problem then, there's good reason."

Despite assurances from police and city officials that the thousands of cameras are for the benefit of residents, convincing New Yorkers to accept the plan 'won't be easy,' says Urquhart.

Below is a BBC News report about it





source: therawstory

"People should know what is happening with their information and have a choice"


By Richard Gray

With every telephone call, swipe of a card and click of a mouse, information is being recorded, compiled and stored about Britain's citizens.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has now uncovered just how much personal data is being collected about individuals by the Government, law enforcement agencies and private companies each day.

In one week, the average person living in Britain has 3,254 pieces of personal information stored about him or her, most of which is kept in databases for years and in some cases indefinitely.

The data include details about shopping habits, mobile phone use, emails, locations during the day, journeys and internet searches.

In many cases this information is kept by companies such as banks and shops, but in certain circumstances they can be asked to hand it over to a range of legal authorities.

Britain's information watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, has called for tighter regulation of the amount of data held about citizens and urged the public to restrict the information they allow organisations to hold on them.

This newspaper's findings come days after the Government published plans to grant local authorities and other public bodies access to the email and internet records of millions. Phone companies already retain data about their customers and give it to 650 public bodies on request.

The loss of data by Government departments, including an incident where HM Revenue and Customs mislaid computer disks containing the personal details of 25 million people, has heightened concerns about the amount of information being stored.

David Smith, deputy information commissioner, said: "As more and more information is collected and kept on all of us, we are very concerned that appropriate safeguards go along with that.

"People should know what is happening with their information and have a choice.

"Our concern is that what is kept with the justification of preventing and detecting terrorism, can then be used for minor purposes such as pursuing people for parking fines."

Earlier this year the Commons home affairs select committee recommended new controls and regulations on the accumulation of information by the state.



Mobile phones

Every day the average person makes three mobile phone calls and sends at least two text messages.

Each time the network provider logs information about who was called as well as the caller's location and direction of travel, worked out by triangulation from phone masts.

Customers can also have their locations tracked even when they are not using their phones, as the devices send out unique identifying signals at regular intervals.

All of this information can be accessed by police and other public authorities investigating crimes.
The internet

Internet service providers (ISPs) compile information about their customers when they go online, including name, address, the unique identification number for the connection, known as an IP address, any browser used and location.

They also keep details of emails, such as whom they were sent to, together with the date and time they were sent. An average of 50 websites are visited and 32 emails sent per person in Britain every day.

Privacy campaigners have expressed concern that the country's three biggest ISPs – BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk – now provide this data to a digital advertising company called Phorm so that it can analyse web surfing habits.

ISPs are already voluntarily providing information they hold about their customers if requested by law enforcement agencies and public authorities. A consultation published last week by the Government would make it a legal requirement for ISPs to provide a customer's personal information when requested. A total of 520,000 requests were made by public officials for telephone and internet details last year, an increase from around 350,000 the previous year.

Internet search engines also compile data about their users, including the IP address and what was searched for. Google receives around 68 searches from the average person each day and stores this data for 18 months.

Dr Ian Brown, a research fellow on privacy at Oxford University, said: "Companies such as Google and internet service providers are building up huge databases of data about internet users.

"These companies may be compelled, through a legal action, to hand over this information to third parties or the Government, or the companies may lose the data and it can then be misused."
Loyalty cards

Store "loyalty" cards also retain large amounts of information about individuals who have signed up to use them. They link a person's personal details to the outlets used, the transaction times and how much is spent.

In the case of Nectar cards, which are used by more than 10 million people in Britain once a week, information from dozens of shops is compiled, giving a detailed picture of a cardholder's shopping habits.

A spokesman for Loyalty Management UK, which runs the Nectar programme, insisted that information about the items bought was not compiled, but some partners in the scheme, such as Sainsbury's, use their till records to compile that information.

She admitted that the personal information that is compiled under the Nectar scheme is kept indefinitely until individuals close their account and ask for their information to be destroyed. In criminal inquiries, police can request the details held by Nectar.



Banks

Banks can also be required to hand over personal account information to the authorities if requested as part of an investigation.

They also provide personal data to credit reference agencies, debt collectors and fraud prevention organisations.

Debit and credit card transactions can give information about where and on what people are spending their money.
CCTV

The biggest source of surveillance in Britain is through the network of CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras. On average, an individual will appear on 300 CCTV cameras during a day and those tapes are kept by many organisations for indefinite lengths of time.

On the London Underground network, Transport for London (TfL) keeps footage for a minimum of 14 days. TfL operates more than 8,500 CCTV cameras in its underground stations, 1,550 cameras on tube trains and up to 60,000 cameras on buses.

Network Rail refused to say how many CCTV cameras it operates or for how long the footage is kept.

Britain now has more CCTV cameras in public spaces than any other country in the world. A study in 2002 estimated that there were around 4.2 million cameras, but that number is likely to now be far higher.


Number plate recognition

The latest development in CCTV is the increased use of automatic number plate recognition systems, which read number-plates and search databases for signs that a vehicle has been used in crime.

A national automatic number plate recognition system is maintained by the Association of Chief Police Officers along motorways and main roads. Every number plate picked up by the system is stored in a database with date, time and location for two years.
Public transport

Travel passes such as the Oyster Card used in London and the Key card, in Oxford, can also reveal remarkable amounts of information about an individual. When they are registered to a person's name, they record journey history, dates, times and fares.

A spokesman for TfL, which runs the Oyster Card system, insisted that access to this information was restricted to its customer services agents.

Police, however, can also obtain this information and have used Oyster Card journey records as evidence in criminal cases.
The workplace

Employers are increasingly using radio-tagged security passes for employees, providing them with information about when staff enter and leave the office.

source: The Telegraph