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News Briefs 14-07-2006

Sometimes the news seems even weirder than usual.

Quote of the Day:

The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained.

Thomas Jefferson, who also referred to the Revelation of St. John as ‘the ravings of a maniac’.

  1. I thought so
    Isn’t Barrett the Islamic scholar that someone posted a story about this week and I said he would be in trouble?
    You gotta give them full marks though for trying.
    And the same with the other bloke in the next link.
    Good on them both.

    The link about what you are sleeping with…well I sleep with my dogs and sometimes with my parrot.
    I am not allergic to dogs or birds and I wash doona cover and doona itself about every 3 weeks so I can’t see anything there causing my asthma.

    The more I read of Thomas Jefferson the more I like the man.

    I haven’t finished reading the news yet Kat.Well done.

    shadows

    1. Sleeping with the parrot
      is something quite… …outside of my personal field of experience.

      I mentioned this to my spouse and she was quite astonished at this.

      Wondering though:
      Does a parrot snore at night?
      Do they talk in their sleep?
      Do they say good morning when you wake up?
      and, finally:
      Do they sometimes get you a breakfast in bed?

      Just kidding of course.
      It is amazing that a bird would come in bed with you ‘to sleep’.

      Does it sleep under or over the sheet? 😉

      1. Parrots are smart people
        It started when I was alone here in plaster and the parrot would not leave my side.He came with me everywhere.
        When I had a nap he would assume a position at the top of the bed behind my head.
        One morning when it was very cold he flew into my room and climbed under the covers with me and went to sleep on my chest.
        Now every day he goes into my bedroom and waits for me to come in to have a nap.
        He likes to be at the top of the bed as that is the equivalent to him of being on my shoulder.
        But he will go sometimez to the end of the bed where he can see the dogs and if he feels like it chase them off the bed.

        So Richard, get a parrot, and find out what goes on in this ‘other’ world that most people never ever realise.

        Oh yes, he asks me every morning if I want coffee although I have to make it.
        He likes to sniff the coffee when it is ground and we have a minute or so of sniffing every time I make coffee.
        He also thinks every phone call is for him.
        Every single time the phone rings he imitates the phone ring and when I answer it he has to hear who it is to see if he knows them.
        My elderly partner who is now in a nursing home rings 2 or 3 times a day and the parrot talks to him for ages.
        My partner sings him Czech folk songs one of which the parrot can sing as well.
        If he thinks he is not going to get to talk on the phone he gets furious and screams.

        Sometimes he has a shower with me.He sits on the arm of my shower chair and nearly drowns in the flow of water from the shower.And he won’t get out until he is ready.
        In summer if he is hot he sits in the dogs’ water bowl.If they complain and I give them another bowl of water he sits in that.

        For all that bossiness though he see us as his flock, and when one of the dogs refuses to come in the house sometimes and I lock her out he screams his head off.She is part of his flock and no matter what she does we should all be together.

        Parrots, like children and animals respond best to routine.In fact, break the parrot’s routine and there will be trouble.
        I am also amazed at how much he knows.
        He knows what I am saying to people and what it means for him.
        His greatest interest is the kitchen and he sits on my shoulder while I cook.
        He gets so interested I worry sometimes that he will fall into something.
        He likes to taste everything, often from my mouth.

        He also likes company.He’s not real fussy who it is although he has his favourite people.
        He likes to be the centre of attention so when people visit he has to be admired and sit on all the different shoulders.

        The thing he hates most is to be excluded from anything.Parrots are a flock bird and must have company.
        Which is the reason I am so active in promoting respect for animals and birds.
        They are the ‘others’ that live on earth with us and deserve our love and respect.

        The parrot is going for a weekend with my son and his wife next week and as usual they will bring him back drunk and he will reek of rum for weeks.
        He gets a different sort of attention there and he loves it.

        shadows

        1. Under the cover it is then.
          I won’t get a parrot at this time.

          They require much attention as you say and I am on the move a lot.

          One day, perhaps, when I stick closer to the house.

          They sure are intertaining though and show what animal intelligence can be by being one rare species that can actually learn to speak a human language.

          Funny how difficult it is to us to learn their language though.

    1. Sources
      Each admin uses sources peculiar to them. I linked to this article at the Independent the other day. Some other admins might find it elsewhere. It’s no biggie.

      Peace and Respect
      Greg
      ——————————————-
      You monkeys only think you’re running things

        1. Why?
          I didn’t link to The Independent because I know this article, like all their articles, will soon be pay-per-view. For this reason, whenever I find an interesting article at The Independent, I always do a google search for another site that has mirrored the same article. Typically, it’s the political articles that are mirrored first, and thus most easily found elsewhere – usually at political blogs. But it’s also a common practice at sites like Red Ice that focus on other subjects.

          Kat

          1. That’s funny
            Just took a look through the links Kat, oo what a surprise, the article after the one in question links to ….The Independent! With breaking news of Jack the Rippers identity. Guess what, the story is elsewhere too, but still linked to the independent.

            Wait a minute,there’s another link to the Independent further down (article is “mirrored” elsewhere)

            Theres three links to The Daily Mail, surely by your rationale they’d end up doing the same,yet theres the links to the Mail, then there’s links to New Scientist (they do pay per view), discovery channel,CNN etc etc etc.

            Sorry Kat, but I received copyright threats regarding the “mirrored” material this other site you keep linking to uses (Google searched for it indeed).

            Nowadays if I use content from other sites, its only a small excerpt, even when I used the full article, I displayed the source of the article prominently as the first item in the article,and not some myopic link at the very end when it’s all been read anyway.

            Dishonest in the extreme, but I’ve finally managed to point out finally, that they are nothing to do with me or my site. It just annoys me that it continues, and worse still promoted.

            If this “mirroring” is ok,why don’t you feature the full article by The Independent here at The Daily Grail?

            I know whats going on Kat, as do others. Its all I’ve got to say on the subject.

          2. Not funny to me
            >>Just took a look through the links Kat, oo what a surprise, the article after the one in question links to ….The Independent!

            I reposted the mirror link to the ‘monster hunters’ article for two reasons:

            First, TDG focuses on odd-science topics such as cryptids, so I wanted to post a durable link, to give our readers plenty of time to read it.

            Second, I’ve been extremely busy for the past several weeks, dealing with a personal problem, so I didn’t notice that Greg had already posted this article in Thursday’s news.

            >>Theres three links to The Daily Mail, surely by your rationale they’d end up doing the same,yet theres the links to the Mail, then there’s links to New Scientist (they do pay per view), discovery channel,CNN etc etc etc.

            I don’t know much about The Daily Mail. By chance, I stumbled on those articles, but if memory serves, this is the first time I’ve linked to The Daily Mail. If after a few days, they place their articles behind a pay-per-view wall, like The Independent and Time, they won’t be at the top of my list of news sites.

            I only post links to New Scientist’s news articles, not their subscription-only features.

            But the bottom line is that your complaint has nothing to do with The Independent, The Daily Mail, etc. For whatever reasons, you have a personal problem with ThothWeb. And it irritates you no end that TDG’s news editors (I’m certainly not the only one) choose to link to articles there. For my part, as Rhett said to Scarlett, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

            As far as I’m concerned, you’d be better off if you focused on the positive, such as the fact that Greg frequently links to articles from your site in his bi-weekly features sections, rather than continually dwelling on, or brooding over, whatever irritating ancient history you happen to have with ThothWeb.

            Kat

          3. sources
            Everyting in the news section here is refenrenced, nobody pretends that they just thought it up in their basement.

            Almost everything that is reported in newspapers comes from other sources, not the newspaper reporters themselves. Plus, the newspapers report stories from other newspapers.

            As long as an atrtibution is given properly, and the material is not simply copied, no source “owns” the story.

            Especially in cases like TDG, where typically a short comment or summary is given, along with a link. all that is done here is information and advertising to the sources linked to. If some souce linked to here is not honest about where they got the story, then that is their responsibility.

          4. sources
            >>Everyting in the news section here is referenced, nobody pretends that they just thought it up in their basement.

            It’s not even about articles that TDG posts – it’s about Mike being mad that TDG dares to link to articles at ThothWeb in particular. But just like at many other sites, at the bottom of the ThothWeb article, you’ll find this…

            Copyright: The Independent

            …which links to the article that was mirrored. Some sites that mirror articles link the title of their article to the original. Other sites, such as Impact Lab, don’t include a link, and as with this Impact Lab article on cosmetic surgery in Britain, they don’t even provide a reference to the original article.

            If you do a search for the original of that cosmetic surgery article, google gives you a list of 29 sources for it. The Manchester Evening News slapped their Copyright at the bottom of it, The Advertiser in Adelaide listed Reuters, Life Style Extra in the UK lists the Copyright as belonging to National News, and Oz’s Daily Telegraph doesn’t list any copyright at all.

            But Mike, from The Book Of THoTH, only complains about Copyrighted articles that ThothWeb in particular mirrors. I don’t care what his personal beef is against them, I’m fed up with hearing him gripe about it.

            Kat

          5. “only complains about
            “only complains about Copyrighted articles that ThothWeb in particular mirrors. I don’t care what his personal beef is against them, I’m fed up with hearing him gripe about it”

            Because my dear, I’m fed up of dealing with complaints about them, didn’t I make that clear to you? What you’re doing makes that situation far worse by drawing more attention to them, theres more chance of even more complaints and threats headed my way.

            What they do reflects badly on what I do, and what you do when you feature their links ends up causing me more grief, so yes I do have a problem with that.

            When I get threatening emails about copyright infringement, when it’s nothing to do with me, and I see someone condoning that, then of course I have a problem Kat.

            You’ve done it regularly, a recent one originated from Fortean Times, yet you linked to thothwebs copied version. How do you think FT feel about that, do you even care?

            You both missed the point about copyright, their attribution is a tiny link right at the end of the article, not the beginning, meaning you have to read the article through before you can see where it was sourced.

            The email threats I received also showed where there was stolen content, and no attribution whatsoever and they slapped a notice saying no one else could use any part of the article, when thats what they’d done themselves!

            Its dishonest in the extreme, and good for you for condoning it.Maybe other sites do this as well, but that doesn’t make it right does it?

            I’m gone anyway, Greg will be deleting my account at my request.

            Its not about fouling up comments areas, its about letting people know the truth.

        2. Talk to the Hand
          If the Independent consider it a biggie, let them talk to the parties involved. We’re just linking…and as I said, we use various sources.

          Peace and Respect
          Greg
          ——————————————-
          You monkeys only think you’re running things

          1. Appreciate that various
            Appreciate that various sources are used, but not linking to The Independent when the story belongs to them, when the person posting the link is fully aware of that, can’t be condoned.

            Maybe if you’d had some of these threatening emails and letters as a result of someone elses repeated stupidity, you’d feel the same way.

          2. Take it Elsewhere
            If you have a particular beef, take it elsewhere. It’s nothing to do with The Daily Grail, and I don’t appreciate it fouling up the public comments section.

            Peace and Respect
            Greg
            ——————————————-
            You monkeys only think you’re running things

          3. I don’t appreciate the grief
            I don’t appreciate the grief I get as a result of it either Greg, it’s about time it stopped. Delete my account here, I want nothing to do with this site any more.

          4. Done
            Account deleted as per request.

            Peace and Respect
            Greg
            ——————————————-
            You monkeys only think you’re running things

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