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Don’t Stop and Smell These Flowers: The Poison Garden at Alnwick

By on November 11, 2014 in Environment, News 0
Chris (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Chris (CC BY-SA 2.0)

via All That Is Interesting [Click through to see stunning photographs]:

The beauty of vast, luxurious gardens makes for some very popular places to visit, especially when looking for a restorative escape from the modern world. But there is one garden whose popularity comes for far different reasons. At Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, England, you will find a nursery of the deadliest variety.

Alongside the typical gardens you would expect to see near an English castle is the Poison Garden of Alnwick. Established in 2005, this unusual garden houses more than one hundred infamous killers; plants that throughout history have been responsible for countless deaths and illnesses, and used by many as an instrument of murder.

Upon entering, visitors are given specific warnings to which they better take heed; no one is to touch, ingest, or even smell any of the vegetation located behind the black gate.

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700-year-old skeleton couple were uncovered still holding hands

By on September 20, 2014 in History, News, Science 0
These lovebirds have held hands for the past 700 years. | Credit: University of Leicester Archaeological Services

These lovebirds have held hands for the past 700 years. | Credit: University of Leicester Archaeological Services

via Live Science:

The skeletal remains of two lovebirds were uncovered, after being locked in a romantic embrace for the past 700 years.

Archeologists found the happy couple holding hands in an earthen grave during an excavation of a “lost” chapel in Leicestershire, England, researchers reported Thursday (Sept. 18).

“We have seen similar skeletons before from Leicester where a couple has been buried together in a single grave,” Vicki Score, University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) project manager, said in a statement.

Double graves are not that unusual. But it’s surprising that the two bodies were buried at the so-called “lost” chapel of St Morrell, only recently discovered by a local historian and a team of researchers, instead of at the local church. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

“The main question we find ourselves asking is why were they buried up there?

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Are Differences in IQ to Blame for Income Inequality?

By on December 8, 2013 in News 53

The upper crust knows little about this

Could it be that this prick is making a justification for a slough of elitists? Via The Week

Last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson made a very controversial assertion that differences in IQ levels help explain income inequality. Here are his remarks:

Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16 percent of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2 percent have an IQ above 130. The harder you shake the pack, the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top.

And for one reason or another — boardroom greed or, as I am assured, the natural and god-given talent of boardroom inhabitants — the income gap between the top cornflakes and the bottom cornflakes is getting wider than ever. I stress: I don’t believe that economic equality is possible; indeed, some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity.

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English Village Tormented By Inexplicable Hum

By on June 14, 2011 in News 31

village_1916863cIn a sense, we can all identify, as there is rarely a moment when we are not exposed to some sort of low-level aural drone. The Telegraph reports in ominous fashion:

Now a tiny English village is the latest community to claim to be being hit by the phenomenon known as “the hum.”

Residents of Woodland, in County Durham, claim that every night a noise permeates the air similar to the throb of a car engine. It is sometimes so strong that it even shakes the bed of one of the householders. But no matter how hard they look, the community cannot find the source of the problem and, at their wits end, have called in the council to investigate.

The 300-strong population is the latest around the world to be hit by the rumble which has in the past led to wild conspiracy theories blaming it on UFOs, government experiments and abandoned mine shafts.

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Cambridgeshire Farm Seeks Online Farmers

By on May 4, 2011 in News 3
myfarm-logoWhat happens when Farmville becomes reality and not just a game? National Trust create MyFarm, an actual working farm that has 10,000 virtual farmers. BBC reports:
A National Trust farm is to be run by online subscribers voting on which crops to grow and livestock to rear.
For a £30 annual fee, 10,000 farm followers will help manage Wimpole Home Farm, in Cambridgeshire. The National Trust says its MyFarm project aims to reconnect people with where their food comes from. It was partly inspired by the online Facebook game Farmville and follows the example of Ebbsfleet Football Club which is run on a similar basis. Decisions about the running of the team in Kent has been in the hands of MyFootballClub subscribers since 2008.
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Planned Protest Results In Detainment – Of 12-Year-Old Boy

By on December 13, 2010 in News 11
David Cameron

British Prime Minister David Cameron

The gloves have been off for awhile, but does anyone need a clearer reminder that activism and peaceful protest have been categorized as terrorism? From the UK’s Daily Mirror:

A schoolboy trying to save his youth club was hauled from class after his plan to protest outside David Cameron’s constituency office was spotted — by anti-terror police.

In an astonishing over-reaction, 12-year-old Nicky Wishart was warned he faced ARREST.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “The policeman asked me lots of questions about why we were having a protest and who would be there. I said it was simply because we didn’t want our youth centre to close — it’s a fantastic place to go and there isn’t much else for us to do round here.”

The full-scale security operation swung into effect days after Nicky made an innocent request on Facebook to “save our youth centre”.

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