90 Miles From Tyranny

Monday, January 20, 2014

Large School of Fish Frozen in Place near the Coast of Norway

This winter’s been a rough one so far. There are so many pictures online of frozen cities and towns. The season has been bad for Canada and the US, due to the much discussed polar vortex. The UK is said to be facing the worst winter in decades.

The extreme temperatures have been keeping people indoors, but not all creatures have a place to take shelter from the cold. Like this large school of fish that froze solid on the coast of Lovund – a small island off of Norway. It isn’t clear what the fish were doing so close to the coast but the incredible photos of them frozen as they swam in their usual patterns have been doing the rounds online for the past couple of days.

A theory from Havforsknings Instituttet (a marine research institute) suggests that the fish might have been chased by a predator. They might have grouped together near the coast for refuge, when a sharp eastern wind of minus 7.8 degrees Celsius hit the region and froze the entire bay area.

According to Aril Slotte, head of pelagic fish at the institute, it is not uncommon for herring to be chased ashore by predators. “We know that whales scare herrings at various locations in Troms (in Northern Norway), so it is not inconceivable that this could happen with small saithe and other fish being pushed up against the land,” he said.

Although these pictures of the of frozen fish are spectacular, I suppose it was a painful death for these creatures. Ingolf Kristiansen, one of the people who were at the scene, said: “I’ve never seen anything like it. It has not happened before here as far as I know.” He was on a Sunday trip on the island, along with his dog. Some of the pictures show the Miniature Schnauzer standing over the frozen water, perplexed at all the fish beneath his paws.

This isn’t the first case of frozen animals in Norwegian waters. A few days ago, a large moose was found submerged in a frozen lake; only his antlers were visible. The animal became an attraction of sorts for the local population. It is believed that he was trying to cross the lake when the ice broke, and the poor moose fell in, freezing to death. Must have been an extremely painful way to go.

Kristiansen pointed that although the dead fish are easy prey now, birds can’t really get to their free meals unless the ice thaws out.

More About Bacon HERE

REBIRTH OF THE VIKING WARSHIP THAT MAY HAVE HELPED CONQUER THE SEAS

When the sleek, beautiful silhouette of Roskilde 6 appeared on the horizon, 1,000 years ago, it was very bad news. The ship was part of a fleet carrying an army of hungry, thirsty warriors, muscles toned by rowing and sailing across the North Sea; a war machine like nothing else in 11th-century Europe, its arrival meant
disaster was imminent.

Now the ship’s timbers are slowly drying out in giant steel tanks at the Danish national museum’s conservation centre at Brede outside Copenhagen, and will soon again head across the North Sea – to be a star attraction at an exhibition in the British Museum.

The largest Viking warship ever found, it was discovered by chance in 1996 at Roskilde. It is estimated that building it would have taken up to 30,000 hours of skilled work, plus the labour of felling trees and hauling materials. At just over 36 metres, it was four metres longer than Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose built 500 years later, and six metres longer than the Viking ship spectacularly recreated as Sea Stallion, which sailed from Scandinavia around Scotland to Dublin in 2007.

“This ship was a troop carrier,” said Gareth Williams of the British Museum. It was built some time after 1025 when the oak trees were felled, and held 100 warriors taking turns on 39 pairs of oars if there was not enough wind to fill the square woollen sail. They would have been packed in tightly, sleeping as they could between the seats, with little room for supplies except a minimal amount of fresh water – or ale or mead, which would not have gone stale as fast – and dried salt mutton.

It would have been an uncomfortable journey, but short: they did not need to carry much as their ship could move startlingly fast – Sea Stallion managed an average speed of 5.5 knots, and a top speed of 20 knots. Once they landed, the warriors could forage with ruthless efficiency, as many a coastal community or wealthy monastery discovered.

The ship would probably not have come alone. “There are records in the annals of fleets of hundreds of ships,” Williams said. “So you could be talking about an army of up to 10,000 men suddenly landing on your coast, highly trained, fit, capable of moving very fast on water or land.” Such luxury ships were fabulously expensive to build and a devastating display of power, Williams said.

Modern Day Viking Girls

The dates suggest Roskilde 6 may have been built for King Canute, who according to legend set his throne in the path of the incoming tide, to prove to his courtiers that even a monarch could not control the force of nature. At the time the Vikings were consolidating their power from temporary raiders to permanent invaders.

With all the original timbers fitted into a steel frame that will recreate its full length and form, the ship will be the centrepiece of Viking, an exhibition opening at the Danish national museum in June, before being transported to London to launch the British Museum’s new exhibition space in 2014. It will travel in two containers, by freighter and lorry.

ACCIDENT

The vessel was found by accident when an extension was being built to the Roskilde ship museum in Denmark, itself built to hold an earlier find of Viking ships that had been deliberately sunk to narrow the fjord and protect the approach to the town, the old royal capital of Denmark.

In 1996 archaeologists watching the construction work discovered huge timbers turned up in the new foundations, some already chopped in half by the piling. It proved to be a treasure trove

Time For A Little Testicular Fortitude In The Grand Old Party...

9TH CIRCUIT PROTECTS BLOGGERS

A ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to

overturn a defamation award against a blogger has affirmed that bloggers enjoy the same freedoms and constitutional protections as other journalists. A blogger, Crystal Cox, made a false accusation against Kevin D. Patrick and his Obsidian Financial Group, but that alone was not enough to find her liable, the court said: the plaintiffs had to prove negligence and harm to prevail.

The defendant was represented by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, who blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy and noted the relevant part of the judgment by Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz: "The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist...As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable...".

The judgment is timely, as Congress is considering a media shield law that attempts to protect journalists from established news institutions, but not bloggers. The issue is one that attracted heated debate last year, when Matt Drudge took on Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) after she tried to distinguish between bloggers and "real reporters," an effort that drew charges of "fascism" from Drudge, and derision from other critics as well.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/01/19/9th-Circuit-Protects-Bloggers

Jan 20, 1981: Iran Hostage Crisis ends - Thank you Ronald Reagan

Minutes after Ronald Reagan's inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

Let's be clear, the Shah of Iran with all his faults was an ally of the United States. Jimmy Carter abandoned and undermined the Shah of Iran and now we have a messianic Islamic rogue state intent on building a nuclear weapon. Can you think of another U.S. President that undermines its friends and clears the path for Islamic Regimes and the demise of Western Civilization? I wonder who it could be... hmmm could it be SATAN! Ahem...sorry for going all church-lady on you there....anyways, this is from wikipedia:

The Iran hostage crisis, referred to in Farsi as تسخیر لانه جاسوسی امریکا (literally "Conquest of the American Spy Den,"), was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981), after a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the US Embassy in Tehran.[1] President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that "the United States will not yield to blackmail."[2]
The crisis was described by the western media as an entanglement of "vengeance and mutual incomprehension."[3] In Iran, the hostage taking was widely seen as a blow against the United States and its influence in Iran, its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution, and its longstanding support of the recently overthrown Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Following his overthrow, the Shah was allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment. The Iranians wanted the United States to return the Shah back to them for trial of the crimes committed by him during his reign on ordinary citizens with the help of his secret police, the SAVAK. In Iran the asylum granted by the U.S. to the Shah was seen as American complicity in the atrocities meted by the Shah on the Iranian people. In the United States, the hostage-taking was seen as an outrage violating the principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds' inviolability.[4][5]

The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation off ships such as the USS Nimitz and USS Coral Sea that were patrolling the waters near Iran. On April 24, 1980, Operation Eagle Claw resulted in a failed mission, the deaths of eight American servicemen, one Iranian civilian, and the destruction of two aircraft.

On July 27, 1980, the former Shah died; then, in September, Iraq invaded Iran. These two events led the Iranian government to enter negotiations with the U.S., with Algeria acting as a mediator. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the day after the signing of the Algiers Accords, just minutes after the new American president, Ronald Reagan, was sworn into office.

Considered a pivotal episode in the history of Iran–United States relations,[6] political analysts cite the crisis as having weighed heavily on Jimmy Carter's presidency and run for reelection in the 1980 presidential election.[7] In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the political power of those who supported theocracy and opposed any normalization of relations with the West.[8] The crisis also marked the beginning of U.S. legal action, or economic sanctions against Iran, that further weakened ties between Iran and the United States.[9]