Free Republic

People who claim to worry about climate change use more electricity than those who do not, a Government study has found. Those who say they are concerned about the prospect of climate change consume more energy than those who say it is “too far into the future to worry about,” the study commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change found. That is in part due to age, as people over 65 are more frugal with electricity but much less concerned about global warming. However, even when pensioners are discounted, there is only a “weak trend” to show that...

As many as a thousand boys aged 13 to 16 have disappeared from the registered school system in East London after their parents sent them to illegal religious schools where English is not spoken and academic subjects are not taught. Government documents obtained by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Jewish Chronicle newspaper say that many of the schools are “operating illegally and without the most basic health, safety and child welfare checks”. Many boys in the Orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, London, “will stop secular studies at the age of 13 or 14 and start attending ‘yeshivas’ where the...

Scientists and engineers at BAE Systems have released some interesting details about some futuristic technologies that could be operative by 2040. Or earlier. BAE Systems has been studying futuristic aircraft shapes for quite some time. The projects the British Defense company is working on were recently unveiled through a series of animations which show how civil and military aviation of the future could be based on 3D printers capable to print UAVs on-the-fly during a mission; aircraft that can heal themselves; a Transformer long range aircraft which splits into a number of smaller aircraft when it reaches its target, and...

Tony Blair faces being called to Parliament over a secret deal with Sinn Féin, which allowed suspected IRA bombers to avoid prosecution. The former Prime Minister is set to be summoned by the Northern Ireland select committee to explain the controversial “comfort letters” sent to on-the-run suspects telling them they were not being sought by the police. MPs are warning that if he fails to appear, there will be “bad publicity”. The policy led to the collapse of the trial of suspected Hyde Park bomber John Downing in March. The peace process plan agreed between Sinn Féin and Mr Blair’s...

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned out on the streets of London, Paris, and Oslo on Friday to call for an end to Israeli military strikes on Gaza. Several thousand people crowded the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in west London, waving placards that read "Gaza: End the Siege" and "Freedom for Palestine." The crowds blocked an entire road, and several protesters managed to climb on top of a double-decker bus stuck in traffic, but police said the protest was largely peaceful. Norwegian news website The Local reported that some 3,000 protestors gathered in front of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo...

Every two years, a select group of Western fighter manufacturers touch down at Farnborough air show to promote their wares in what is perhaps the toughest of all sales categories. As the home show for Eurofighter partner company BAE Systems, the event offers a prime opportunity to highlight the credentials of the Typhoon, as it works with allies Airbus Defence & Space and Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aermacchi to add to their operators list. Austria, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the UK have together received more than a combined 400 examples so far, and Oman is under contract to field 12...

Multi-role functionality has been a long time coming for the Eurofighter Typhoon. But the four-nation industrial consortium building the combat jet says the Phase 1 Enhancements (P1E) package that is now entering service represents a “paradigm shift” in capability. The commander of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon force, Air Cmdr. Gary Waterfall, said the new package allows the RAF to drop 500-pound Paveway IV “smart” bombs “at the moment of our choosing, on targets of our choosing, with a multitude of fuse settings, impact angles and arrivals.” Laurie Hilditch, Eurofighter GmbH future capabilities manager, added, “The operator may...

Britain's Lost Freedoms: 'We're Living in a Madhouse' By Dale Hurd CBN News Sr. Reporter Tuesday, July 08, 2014 LONDON - America owes much of its freedom to its British heritage. But today, Britain is losing its freedom. Many Americans were stunned when British authorities arrested Liberty Great Britain party leader Paul Weston in April for publicly reciting Winston Churchill's criticism of Islam. The calendar might say it's 2014, but in Britain it's starting to feel like George Orwell's "1984" because "Big Brother" has decided that certain things can no longer be said. Arrested over Churchill Weston quoted from Winston...

Dwindling revenue from North Sea oil will increase the pressure on government finances over the coming decades, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR has cut its estimate of tax income from the North Sea between 2020 and 2041 by a quarter, to £40bn. The fall is down to lower production forecasts over the next few years. But its assessment was dismissed as "stuff and nonsense" by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. The Scottish government has argued that the OBR figures are based on a "very low estimate of future total production", which resulted in them being...

Britain may come away empty-handed when European Union leaders carve up a package of top EU jobs next week, due to its fierce opposition to Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as the next European Commission president. Prime Minister David Cameron angered his peers in June by breaking with a tradition of taking decisions by consensus and forcing them to vote on whether Juncker should head the EU executive. Only Britain and Hungary voted “no”. Cameron publicly branded Juncker a “career insider of Brussels” and said his selection was a bad day for Europe. “After the mess at the last summit, many leaders...

Kerry Admits: Iran Negotiations Not WorkingPosted By Majid Rafizadeh On July 10, 2014 @ 12:35 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments In less than two week, the interim nuclear deal will expire, most likely without a final deal being struck between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the G5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany).The Islamic Republic has been given years to come clean and halt its ideological and regional hegemonic ambitions of obtaining nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, the Obama administration believes that we need to give the Islamic Republic another chance, trusting the...

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

Many of the graphic images being shared on social media are really from Syria or Iraq, finds the broadcaster. […] “A #BBCtrending investigation has found that many of these images are not from the latest conflict and not even from Gaza. Some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.” …

No-go Zones (NGZ) are typically referred to as being places where non-Muslims dare not tread, even in their own countries. Take heart. There appears to be a new dynamic at work unfolding in a British town known as Leicester. There, Muslim women who wear burkas in public feel like they’re entering NGZ’s themselves. A new book by two brainiacs at the University of Leicester features the “plight” of these victims: Muslim women who wear a full veil say there are no-go areas in Leicester which they feel frightened to visit – even in a car. They claim they are subjected...

Mumbai: Deals worth at least £370 million (around Rs.3,800 crore) were signed between India and the UK on Monday, the first day of a visit by George Osborne, the British chancellor of the exchequer, and William Hague, the country’s foreign secretary. The Indian Air Force and companies such as the Mahindra Group and Cipla Ltd were among those that signed business agreements with UK-based corporations. Osborne told a press conference in Mumbai that India’s defence ministry has signed a £250 million contact with missile maker MBDA of the UK for the supply of advanced short range air-to-air missiles (ASRAAM) to...

Orphan Black has cloned itself another season. BBC America has renewed the critically hailed sci-fi series led by Tatiana Maslany for a third season, greenlighting 10 more episodes for a spring 2015 premiere. Production on the new season kicks off in Toronto in September. The one-hour clone drama has become a crucial benchmark for the cable network as it expands its foothold in original scripted programming beyond British staple Doctor Who. Orphan Black has attracted more that its share of accolades since its March 2013 launch, earning Maslany — who plays nearly a dozen characters — a Golden Globe nomination...

Captain Mark Gold sprang into action after his wife and kids spotted two men attacking Leanne Ware by Cardiff’s freezing River Taff in February, a court heardA soldier saved a woman beaten unconscious from being drowned in a river by her lover, a jury heard. Captain Mark Gold, 43, sprang into action after his wife and kids spotted two men attacking Leanne Ware, 31, at a river. He told Cardiff crown court : “A lady was on the floor in the foetal position. "She was unconscious, she wasn’t trying to defend herself from the kicks and punches, and she wasn’t...

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has signed a contract with a start-up that it has been nurturing through its Labs accelerator programme in a bid to measure audience engagement with its media content. The start-up, known as CrowdEmotion, uses facial coding webcams to capture people’s emotions and see how they react to certain TV shows. The BBC Worldwide Insight team said it plans to run CrowdEmotion trials on a number of BBC TV shows, including Top Gear and Sherlock – two of the organisation's most popular and lucrative series. David Boyle, executive vice president at BBC Worldwide...

Scientists at Oxford University and Kings College London develop blood test which can predict the onset of Alzheimer's so that drugs could target the disease before symptoms appear A blood test has been developed to predict if someone will develop Alzheimer’s within a year, raising hopes that the disease could become preventable. After a decade of research, scientists at Oxford University and King’s College London are confident they have found 10 proteins which show the disease is imminent. Clinical trials will start on people who have not yet developed Alzheimer’s to find out which drugs halt its onset. The blood...

New evidence supporting moon formation via collision of 2 planets by Staff Writers Oxford, UK (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 A new series of measurements of oxygen isotopes provides increasing evidence that the Moon formed from the collision of the Earth with another large, planet-sized astronomical body, around 4.5 billion years ago. This work will be published in Science* on 6th June, and will be presented to the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in California on 11th June. Most planetary scientists believe that the Moon formed from an impact between the Earth and a planet-sized body, which has been given the name Theia....