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COVID Pandemic Series. Number 1.
Conspiracy theorists seem to get very excited during shocking events like a pandemic. Their crackpot ideas would be quite entertaining if they did not result in damage to property and to some people's already fragile state of mind.
At this point in time, I am not aware of any scientific evidence (or case evidence) that 5G technology is likely to be harmful to human health.
My picture shows a new mast being erected on Brodie Avenue, Liverpool, England on Tuesday 29th April 2020.
COPYRIGHT © Towner Images 2020
TAB - The Man's Pocket Magazine
August, 1965
Cover photo of Kitty Lynn
Contents:
Sinatra's biggest love-flip
A doomed man tells: "Tonight I die in the chair"
How high is your sex I.Q.?
Those crackpot ideas that can make you rich
The blonde bombshell who rocked H'wood
The Question, in Minifigure form. To be honest, I’ve not seen (Or can I recall seeing if in fact I did) a minifigure version of the Question. I’ve seen some decal type ones, but never a purist one. Regardless, I made this one!
I plan on having Question appearing in my Task Force X side stories in a bit. So look out for him and his crazy interconnecting theories.
SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA.
A shop window display in Liverpool.
Peace and Love to ALL the peoples of this world...at this time of holy reflection for Christians.
Trump is sabre rattling...Putin plays the great game.( as described by Rudyard Kipling in Kim )..meanwhile, a crackpot who looks like Benny Hill with a bad haircut is playing with dangerous toys in N.Korea...
Assad...or some other evil person...( who ? ) poison-gassed helpless civilians...
hundreds of thousands are near starvation in Africa.
We hope and pray for enlightenment...and soon,please.
This review will have all the spoilers. You've been warned.
It was either late 2013 or early 2014. Good times. I was messing around on Youtube one day looking at videos of the latest Batman game. Then in the recommended videos I saw something that both confused and intrigued me. The thumbnail was the iconic image of Niel Armstrong saluting the American flag he just planted on the moon. Except there were a couple differences. Twisted, terrifying differences. The American flag was replaced with the banner of Nazi Germany. And Niel was Seig Heil'ing to it. I'm pretty sure I let out an audible "what the fuck?" apon seeing this. This was the E3 trailer for Wolfenstein: The New Order. For those who don't know, Wolfenstein is one of the oldest franchises in gaming, and put FPS games on the map. A goofy game about shooting Nazis in WWII that gave 90s gamers the chance to shoot the hell out of Mecha-Hitler. Think of it as a prototype to the more infamous Doom series that would launch shorty after. The New Order was a modern-day reboot with some ambitious questions. The biggest one being "what if they won instead?" The New Order takes you to an alternate 1960 where the Nazis beat the allied forces to the nuke (among other advanced tech) and thus took over the world. It was grim. It was campy. It was subtle. It was loud. It was dumb. And it was also much smarter and more engaging than anyone would've thought. So it went on to be a smash hit in 2014, and one of my favorite games ever. A few months ago to the day this is being posted, Bethesda stopped by E3 and showed the world it was sequel time, showing off Wolfenstein 2 The New Colossus (Actually like the 3rd or 5th in the series) to the world. The next day I preordered the hell out of it. Was it worth it? Well after 10 days of tearing through it, lemme tell you.
So I'll start off with things I didn't like, get the negativity out of the way. It's not a big list but I think what on it is valid. In The New Order, which I shall now abbreviate as TNO, in nearly all sections you could either go in fast and loud, putting holes in everything that moves with dual automatic shotguns and a big laser cannon. Or you could be a bit more stealthy about things, sneaking through vents and corridors putting knives in throats and taking care of problematic enemies from afar with a suppressed pistol (which might I mention was one of the things I loved about the TNO; keeping the pistol relevant and not just a forgettable starter weapon like most shooters). It was all about personal play style, but both options were viable. In The New Colossus, which I shall now abbreviate as TNC, going in loud was the way I always went because it seemed more viable. And I always went stealth in TNO. I probably just need to learn the areas, but there was some problems I ran into. Like this game being dark. Not story wise (even though it is) but literally. I remember alot of areas meant to be stealth-able lacking in the lighting department, and I set my brightness at the recommended settings, too. Anytime I'd get caught it'd be from and enemy that I couldn't see. And that leads to another problem. In TNO, enemies stuck out in the maps. Even if they were dully-colored humaniods coming in plentiful shades of gray you'd still spot them from across the area. It was probably due to both TNO being brighter and the enemies having a wide design variety. Not so much in the TNC. There's less design variety here and they all seem to just blend into the background alot. Even the brightly-colored HAZMAT and Venus space troopers don't pop in anything less than Glamour Magazine photo booth. On top of that those two previously mentioned troopers, while being obvious separate models apon inspection, honestly just look like classic Mortal Kombat-esque palette swaps. Again, TNO had alot of variety in their designs. Which is why it was a shame there was no proper model viewer in TNO, and why it's straight-up bullshit their isn't one in TNC. One of my favorite bits of last year's DOOM (another Id games classic updated for the modern world) was a model viewer that let you get an up-close look at the game's monsters and weapons. The Batman: Arkham games have had it for years. Hell, I remember having them back in 2005 with Jak III. Why can't Wolfenstein, with their toybox of greatly-designed characters, weapons and assets have it? Or a photo mode, too? I'm not insane about graphics in games, but I still appreciate them with how incredible they are today, and TNC is no exception. It's a beautiful game. Let me appreciate it to the fullest extent possible. Honestly these days model viewers and photo modes are something all games should have with how far graphics have gone. If only bosses got the same advancement. TNO had a few that aren't Psycho Mantis or Big Baby Bowser levels, but they were fun nonetheless. DOOM's bosses were one of the highlights for me. TNC has none of those. Here and then there's an enemy that can act as a sort-of miniboss, but their's nothing big and climactic like TNO's showdown with the towering London Monitor, or the final showdown with the main antagonist, General Deathshead. The "final boss" of TNC is more of a gauntlet than anything. 3 pairs of Supersoldiers, a higher-powered but still common enemy assisted by a shitload of standard infantry, finished off by 2 "Zerstörers", which are basically super versions of the Supersoldiers (I call them "Super-duper Soliders"). The main antagonist of the game, General Engel, goes down with one melee attack, only vainly defending herself with a pistol. An outdated pistol by both the game's and IRL standards. In a game where mechs, actual Avengers Helicarriers and boimechanically-enhanced mutants are possible, you'd expect so much more. Especially with Hitler himself making an appearance. I was really looking forward to a modern-day Mecha-Hitler. Not sure if I'd want bosses to worry about though since something as simple as getting your weapons out can be a pain. In TNO you could dual wield nearly every weapon in the game, but you could only dual wield two of the same gun. In TNC dual wield returns, for every weapon you can carry, and you can interchange between them. And while it has it's uses for sure, it feels kinda clunky, not to mention slow. TNC takes it's sweet time letting you change your weapons which can be fatal, especially since this game carries over a problem TNO had in that you're not exactly warned when your current ammo's about to run dry and you're gonna get lit up while changing a clip.
Now to the good, which I assure you outweighs the bad. Lemme start by saying that the gunplay feels as fantastic as before. Every gun has kick and you feel it whenever you see a Nazi get turned to mush by your triple-barreled automatic rotary shotgun. Yes, that's a thing in this game. As is a pistol-sized grenade launcher. And sticky-bomb launcher. And an OP-as hell laser cannon that atomizes people and metal covers/doors alike. And all of these can be powered-up through upgrades. The Shotgun can be upgraded to have ricochet rounds to deal even more damage. The pistol can have a suppressor so it stays useful like it did in TNO. The Assault Rifle can have both a scope and armor piercing rounds making it able to down mechanical enemies in one shot. And the laser cannon. Oh god the Laser cannon. Called the LaserkraftWerk in the game, it's by far the best weapon you'll get, even before upgrades. One shot will destroy even more armored infantry, but when you upgrade it so the blast can be charged, ooooooohhh. One charged blast will down Super soldiers with ease, and even on higher difficulties the powerful Zerstörer units I mentioned earlier will fall with a few good shots. Combo this with an extended battery doubling your already-decent ammo pool, And you're unstoppable. I guess that leads to another issue. While every gun has their uses and you'll likely use every one at one point, like DOOM before it you'll probably cruise along primary'ing 2 guns. For me it was the Shotgun and Laserkraftwerk. But even then they weren't the weapons I used the most. It was the heavy weapons. In TNO there was a Heavy MG you'd find here and there. It was powerful, sure, but could only be picked up and not carried in your inventory, and slowed you down considerably. You couldn't sprint and crouching reduced you to a snail's pace, and interacting with anything would make you drop it. In TNC there's 4 types of heavy weapons and they're awesome. They still slow you down but nowhere near the TNO's. You CAN interact with stuff and you can even sprint with them. Doesn't sound like much but believe me, that makes a world of difference. Another thing that gives you an edge in combat is the contraptions. There's 3 in total; The Ram Shackles, which allow you to bash through both weak walls and enemies alike, the Constrictor Harness, which allows you to sneak around in tight spaces, and the Battle Walker, my favorite, which is just some goddamn stilts. They let you get to higher places so its not anywhere as useless as it sounds, but also has perks, like the other contraptions. You'll be able to tank explosions without falling over, make enemies freeze n terror at the sight of you, and even keep your overcharged health from going down, my favorite. Speaking of health, one thing that makes the newer Wolfenstein and Doom games is the lack of regenerating health. You have to find health and armor in the levels, and this returns in TNC. One addition though is instead of having to pick up stuff manually, walking over health and armor pieces will make you pick it up automatically, though manually picking them up like before is still an option. It admitting needs refinement but it works well enough. It's nice after a firefight were I took a beating, I remember where a health pack or some armor was, I run to that location, and I already have some extra heath/armor on me when I get there from the bits that was lying around. While I did say that their isn't much variety in the enemie's designs, the designs that are there are good, and carry over that retrofuturistic asthetic I loved so much about TNO. My favorites are either the Ubersoldat, with is basically a Nazi T-800, or the previously-mentioned Zerstörer. Enemy behavior is much better in this game too. In TNO during a stealth section if an enemy ran into a dead body, they'd just move along like something happened. In TNC, enemies are much more sharp. Anything louder and light sniffle they're hear and investigate, and if they find a dead body they go into high alert and start hunting for you. The levels are incredible too, truly feeling and looking like a 1960s America under Nazi control. The level layouts in this game are kinda funny. In TNO a new level was an entirely new location. In TNC, multiple levels are across one location. This is due to the levels being so much more vast than TNO if anything. My favorite level is either the Nazi base on Venus (the actual planet), or Manhattan, which was directly hit by a Nazi nuke in WWII and is now a desolate, irradiated wasteland. You could feel how thick and cancerous the air is, and the devastated buildings have their upper skeletons eerily bent and curled from the blast. Fallout fans will have a bit of deja vu going through it. All these locales help guide the story along, which like TNO before it is a standout part of the game. TNC takes place right after TNO more or less, after the main character, BJ Blazcowiz, is mortally injured in his big battle with General Deathshead. You're saved by your resistance buddies before they nuke the place, but you're still messed up. After 5 months in a coma, the game finally starts. With you shooting Nazis on a U-boat you captured previously in a wheelchair. For half the game the only reason you're able fight again is thanks to a power suit wired to BJ's brain. Even while you're fighting BJ's injuries are taking their toll. By his own estimate, he has weeks. Which is tragic to think about since in TNO, he met Anya Oliwa, a nurse who took care of him during a prior comatose, and eventual lover. By the time TNC rolls around, she's heavily pregnant with BJ's twins. Not being their for his kids is something BJ laments a few times, and you feel for him. Especially when you learn about his awful childhood at the beginning of the game. He deserves a good family, and it sucks he'll never get that. And for a bit it really seemed like that he wouldn't since midway through the game, BJ's betrayed by his abusive, racist, Nazi-loving father who make his childhood such a shitshow, and is captured by Nazi forces. After a few weeks of parading "Terror Billy" The most horrible terrorist the world has ever seen according to the Nazi propaganda machine, BJ is executed in front of the Nazified Lincoln memorial to an audience of millions. Beheaded, it really seems like the game took a grim turn. Luckily due to the quick work of his aforementioned buddies in the resistance and some advanced tech, BJ is saved, if head slapped onto a new super soldier body. This brings up something that some reviewers had an issue with. TNC goes through a tone shift in story midway through the game. It starts out very grim and foreboding. Your base was attacked, the leader of the resistance is murdered right in front of you, America seems like it's perfectly fine living under the Nazi's boot, BJ is crippled and basically expecting death, and his unborn kids seem like they won't have a dad. Even in gameplay things feel grim at first. Even with the power suit giving double armor you can't escaped the halved health. You really feel like you're playing a crippled character. BJ himself puts it out there pretty good. "I take it off, I'm afraid I'll fall apart and all the pieces won't fit back together again." Then he loses that body and gains one that can actually move on it's own power and then some. BJ is basically reborn. stronger than ever. It makes sense that the game would kick up to a more upbeat tone. You're a new man, more powerful than ever before. This can be done. You can save the world. This upbeat attitude peaks at the birthday party scene. Just before the final assault, it turns out it's BJs birthday, so what do you and your resistance buddies do? Party like theirs no tomorrow, because for all they know there might not be. If their's one thing I like in a story it's reminding me that the character I'm playing and the characters around them are people, and not by just showing me their trauma and flaws. Every character in Wolfenstein already has those in spades. I'm more for seeing them having fun. Being happy. Enjoying eachother's company. Take me out of the misery for once and remind me that their's something good in the world. Not to say seeing smiles on their faces is what made them good characters. Every major character is pretty good in this game. Grace Walker, The new resistance leader and black revolutionary front member is pretty much a female Samuel L. Jackson. General Engel, The game's antagonist, is the perfect villain in that you want nothing more but to see her get what's coming to her. Super Spesh, Grace's husband and crackpot alien conspiracy theorist, gives some good comic relief for the time he's around. And Anya. Fucking Anya. Loyal, smart, and considering the crazy shit she does while carrying twins in her, may be more badass than BJ himself. And even with the grim beginnings don't think this game takes itself too seriously. In one level, right after BJ monologues to himself about his imminent mortality, he (and us) get a first glimpse at the Nazi's rocket-powered train system. Something he immediately responds to with basically "what the fuck?". After nuking the Nazi high command in fucking Roswell, BJ escapes on what's pretty much the monocycle from Men In Black. Before BJ's head is slapped onto his new body, it's dropped in a jar like Futurama. That Venus level I mentioned earlier? You get there on a Nazi flying saucer. And again, stilts. One of your upgrades is big, stompy stilts.
Overall out of all the recent iD software games to hit the scene lately, I'd say DOOM is my favorite. But I'll give it to The New Colossus. With a few bumps here and their it's just as fun to play as it's predecessor, and improves in most areas. Overall, yes, it's a step up from The New Order, and if you want a fun, absurd shooter with a good story to tell, look no further,
Keld is a village in the English county of North Yorkshire. It is in Swaledale, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The name derives from the Viking word Kelda meaning a spring and the village was once called Appletre Kelde – the spring near the apple trees.
Keld is the crossing point of the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Way long-distance footpaths at the head of Swaledale, and marks the end of the Swale Trail, a 20 km mountain bike trail which starts in Reeth. At the height of the lead-mining industry in Swaledale in the late 19th century, several notable buildings – now Grade II listed – were erected: they include the Congregational and Methodist chapels, the school and the Literary Institute.
A tea room and small shop operate at Park Lodge from Easter to autumn. Out of season, local volunteers provide a self service café for visitors in the village’s Public Hall. Keld’s Youth Hostel closed in 2008 and has since reopened as Keld Lodge, a hotel with bar and restaurant. There is a series of four waterfalls close to Keld in a limestone gorge on the River Swale: Kisdon Force, East Gill Force, Catrake Force and Wain Wath Force.
The Keld Resource Centre, a local charity, is restoring a series of listed buildings in the village centre and returning them to community use. The first phase involved restoring the Manse, the minister's house attached to the United Reformed Church, which was completed in 2009 and is now used as a holiday cottage, proceeds from which support the Centre's work.
In 2010 the Centre created the Keld Well-being Garden in the chapel churchyard. It provides a quiet spot for visitors to contemplate their well-being in the beautiful natural environment of Upper Swaledale.
The Keld Countryside and Heritage Centre opened in 2011; it provides interpretation of the countryside, buildings and social history of Keld, and displays of artefacts relevant to Upper Swaledale. It is open throughout the year, operating alongside The Upper Room which is used for meetings, exhibitions, workshops and social events. A range of guided walks, exhibitions, talks and other activities take place during the summer months.
Further projects will involve restoring Keld’s former school.
The ruins of Crackpot Hall lie about a mile east of Keld on the northern slope of the dale at grid reference NY906008. There may have been a building on this site since the 16th century when a hunting lodge was maintained for Thomas, the first Baron Wharton, who visited the Dale occasionally to shoot the red deer. Survey work by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has shown that the building has changed many times over the years. At one time it even had a heather or "ling" thatched roof.
The current ruin is of a farmhouse dating from the mid 18th century. It was an impressive two-storey building with a slate roof and matching "shippons" or cowsheds at each end for animals. The building may also have been used as mine offices, as intensive lead mining was carried out in the area, and there were violent disputes over mine boundaries in the 18th century.
In the 1930s Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley wrote of a wild 4-year-old child named Alice. On 7 November 2015, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a documentary about the story in the Between the Ears strand titled Alice at Crackpot Hall.[5]
The current building was abandoned in the 1950s because of subsidence. Crackpot Hall has been saved from further decay by Gunnerside Estate with the aid of grants from the Millennium Commission and European Union through the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.
The name Crackpot is said to mean "a deep hole or chasm that is a haunt of crows".
The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a 2,178 km2 (841 sq mi) national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales, with the notable exception of Nidderdale. Most of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Cumbria and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designated in 1954, and extended in 2016. Over 95% of the land in the Park is under private ownership; there are over 1,000 farms in this area.
In late 2020, the park was named as an International Dark Sky Reserve. This honour confirms that the area has "low levels of light pollution with good conditions for astronomy".
Some 23,500 residents live in the park (as of 2017); a 2018 report estimated that the Park attracted over four million visitors per year. The economy consists primarily of tourism and agriculture.
The park is 50 miles (80 km) north-east of Manchester; Otley, Ilkley, Leeds and Bradford lie to the south, while Kendal is to the west, Darlington to the north-east and Harrogate to the south-east.
The national park does not include all of the Yorkshire Dales. Parts of the dales to the south and east of the national park are located in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The national park also includes the Howgill Fells and Orton Fells in the north west although they are not often considered part of the dales.
In 1947, the Hobhouse Report recommended the creation of the Yorkshire Dales National Park covering parts of the West Riding and North Riding of Yorkshire. The proposed National Park included most of the Yorkshire Dales, but not Nidderdale. Accordingly, Nidderdale was not included in the National Park when it was designated in 1954. In 1963 the then West Riding County Council proposed that Nidderdale should be added to the National Park, but the proposal met with opposition from the district councils which would have lost some of their powers to the county council.
Following the Local Government Act 1972 most of the area of the national park was transferred in 1974 to the new county of North Yorkshire. An area in the north west of the national park (Dentdale, Garsdale and the town of Sedbergh) was transferred from the West Riding of Yorkshire to the new county of Cumbria. In 1997 management of the national park passed from the county councils to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
A westward extension of the park into Lancashire and Westmorland encompassed much of the area between the old boundaries of the park and the M6 motorway. This increased the area by nearly 24% and brought the park close to the towns of Kirkby Lonsdale, Kirkby Stephen and Appleby-in-Westmorland. The extension also includes the northern portion of the Howgill Fells and most of the Orton Fells. Before the expansion, the national park was solely in the historic county of Yorkshire, the expansion bringing in parts of historic Lancashire and Westmorland.
The area has a wide range of activities for visitors. For example, many people come to the Dales for walking or other exercise. Several long-distance routes cross the park, including the Pennine Way, the Dales Way, the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Bridleway. Cycling is also popular and there are several cycleways.
The DalesBus service provides service in the Dales on certain days in summer, "including the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". In summer, these buses supplement the other services that operate year-round in the Dales.
Tourism in the region declined due to restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and into 2021. Later in 2021, the volume of visits was expected to increase as a result of the 2020 TV series All Creatures Great and Small, largely filmed within the Dales. The first series aired in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in early 2021. One source stated that visits to Yorkshire Web sites had increased significantly by late September 2020. By early 2021, the Discover England Web sites, for example, were using the tag line "Discover All Creatures Great and Small in Yorkshire".
The Dales Countryside Museum is housed in the converted Hawes railway station in Wensleydale in the north of the area.The park also has five visitor centres. These are at:
Aysgarth Falls
Grassington
Hawes
Malham
Reeth
Other places and sights within the National Park include:
Bolton Castle
Clapham
Cautley Spout waterfall
Firbank Fell
Gaping Gill
Gayle Mill
Hardraw Force
Horton in Ribblesdale
Howgill Fells
Kisdon Force (waterfall) in Swaledale
Leck Fell
Malham Cove, Gordale Scar, Janet's Foss and Malham Tarn
Orton Fells
River Lune
Sedbergh
Settle
Settle and Carlisle Railway including the Ribblehead Viaduct
Wild Boar Fell
The Yorkshire Three Peaks (Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent and Whernside)
North Yorkshire is a ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber and North East regions of England. It borders County Durham to the north, the North Sea to the east, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the south-east, South Yorkshire to the south, West Yorkshire to the south-west, and Cumbria and Lancashire to the west. Northallerton is the county town.
The county is the largest in England by land area, at 9,020 km2 (3,480 sq mi), and has a population of 1,158,816. The largest settlements are Middlesbrough (174,700) in the north-east and the city of York (152,841) in the south. Middlesbrough is part of the Teesside built-up area, which extends into County Durham and has a total population of 376,663. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Harrogate (73,576) and Scarborough (61,749). For local government purposes the county comprises four unitary authority areas — York, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and North Yorkshire — and part of a fifth, Stockton-on-Tees.
The centre of the county contains a wide plain, called the Vale of Mowbray in the north and Vale of York in the south. The North York Moors lie to the east, and south of them the Vale of Pickering is separated from the main plain by the Howardian Hills. The west of the county contains the Yorkshire Dales, an extensive upland area which contains the source of the River Ouse/Ure and many of its tributaries, which together drain most of the county. The Dales also contain the county's highest point, Whernside, at 2,415 feet (736 m).
North Yorkshire non-metropolitan and ceremonial county was formed on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It covered most of the North Riding of Yorkshire, as well as northern parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, northern and eastern East Riding of Yorkshire and the former county borough of York. Northallerton, as the former county town for the North Riding, became North Yorkshire's county town. In 1993 the county was placed wholly within the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Some areas which were part of the former North Riding were in the county of Cleveland for twenty-two years (from 1974 to 1996) and were placed in the North East region from 1993. On 1 April 1996, these areas (Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton borough south of the River Tees) became part of the ceremonial county as separate unitary authorities. These areas remain within the North East England region.
Also on 1 April 1996, the City of York non-metropolitan district and parts of the non-metropolitan county (Haxby and nearby rural areas) became the City of York unitary authority.
On 1 April 2023, the non-metropolitan county became a unitary authority. This abolished eight councils and extended the powers of the county council to act as a district council.
The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority held its first meeting on 22 January 2024, assumed its powers on 1 February 2024 and the first mayor is to be elected in May 2024.
The geology of North Yorkshire is closely reflected in its landscape. Within the county are the North York Moors and most of the Yorkshire Dales, two of eleven areas in England and Wales to be designated national parks. Between the North York Moors in the east and the Pennine Hills. The highest point is Whernside, on the Cumbrian border, at 2,415 feet (736 m). A distinctive hill to the far north east of the county is Roseberry Topping.
North Yorkshire contains several major rivers. The River Tees is the most northerly, forming part of the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham in its lower reaches and flowing east through Teesdale before reaching the North Sea near Redcar. The Yorkshire Dales are the source of many of the county's major rivers, including the Aire, Lune, Ribble, Swale, Ure, and Wharfe.[10] The Aire, Swale, and Wharfe are tributaries of the Ure/Ouse, which at 208 km (129 mi) long is the sixth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river is called the Ure until it meets Ouse Gill beck just below the village of Great Ouseburn, where it becomes the Ouse and flows south before exiting the county near Goole and entering the Humber estuary. The North York Moors are the catchment for a number of rivers: the Leven which flows north into the Tees between Yarm and Ingleby Barwick; the Esk flows east directly into the North Sea at Whitby as well as the Rye (which later becomes the Derwent at Malton) flows south into the River Ouse at Goole.
North Yorkshire contains a small section of green belt in the south of the county, which surrounds the neighbouring metropolitan area of Leeds along the North and West Yorkshire borders. It extends to the east to cover small communities such as Huby, Kirkby Overblow, and Follifoot before covering the gap between the towns of Harrogate and Knaresborough, helping to keep those towns separate.
The belt adjoins the southernmost part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the Nidderdale AONB. It extends into the western area of Selby district, reaching as far as Tadcaster and Balne. The belt was first drawn up from the 1950s.
The city of York has an independent surrounding belt area affording protections to several outlying settlements such as Haxby and Dunnington, and it too extends into the surrounding districts.
North Yorkshire has a temperate oceanic climate, like most of the UK. There are large climate variations within the county. The upper Pennines border on a Subarctic climate. The Vale of Mowbray has an almost Semi-arid climate. Overall, with the county being situated in the east, it receives below-average rainfall for the UK. Inside North Yorkshire, the upper Dales of the Pennines are one of the wettest parts of England, where in contrast the driest parts of the Vale of Mowbray are some of the driest areas in the UK.
Summer temperatures are above average, at 22 °C. Highs can regularly reach up to 28 °C, with over 30 °C reached in heat waves. Winter temperatures are below average, with average lows of 1 °C. Snow and Fog can be expected depending on location. The North York Moors and Pennines have snow lying for an average of between 45 and 75 days per year. Sunshine is most plentiful on the coast, receiving an average of 1,650 hours a year. It reduces further west in the county, with the Pennines receiving 1,250 hours a year.
The county borders multiple counties and districts:
County Durham's County Durham, Darlington, Stockton (north Tees) and Hartlepool;
East Riding of Yorkshire's East Riding of Yorkshire;
South Yorkshire's City of Doncaster;
West Yorkshire's City of Wakefield, City of Leeds and City of Bradford;
Lancashire's City of Lancaster, Ribble Valley and Pendle
Cumbria's Westmorland and Furness.
The City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council formed the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority in February 2024. The elections for the first directly-elected mayor will take place in May 2024. Both North Yorkshire Council and the combined authority are governed from County Hall, Northallerton.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority was formed in 2016 by five unitary authorities; Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland Borough both of North Yorkshire, Stockton-on-Tees Borough (Uniquely for England, split between North Yorkshire and County Durham), Hartlepool Borough and Darlington Borough of County Durham.
In large areas of North Yorkshire, agriculture is the primary source of employment. Approximately 85% of the county is considered to be "rural or super sparse".
Other sectors in 2019 included some manufacturing, the provision of accommodation and meals (primarily for tourists) which accounted for 19 per cent of all jobs. Food manufacturing employed 11 per cent of workers. A few people are involved in forestry and fishing in 2019. The average weekly earnings in 2018 were £531. Some 15% of workers declared themselves as self-employed. One report in late 2020 stated that "North Yorkshire has a relatively healthy and diverse economy which largely mirrors the national picture in terms of productivity and jobs.
Mineral extraction and power generation are also sectors of the economy, as is high technology.
Tourism is a significant contributor to the economy. A study of visitors between 2013 and 2015 indicated that the Borough of Scarborough, including Filey, Whitby and parts of the North York Moors National Park, received 1.4m trips per year on average. A 2016 report by the National Park, states the park area gets 7.93 million visitors annually, generating £647 million and supporting 10,900 full-time equivalent jobs.
The Yorkshire Dales have also attracted many visitors. In 2016, there were 3.8 million visits to the National Park including 0.48 million who stayed at least one night. The parks service estimates that this contributed £252 million to the economy and provided 3,583 full-time equivalent jobs. The wider Yorkshire Dales area received 9.7 million visitors who contributed £644 million to the economy. The North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales are among England's best known destinations.
York is a popular tourist destination. A 2014 report, based on 2012 data, stated that York alone receives 6.9 million visitors annually; they contribute £564 million to the economy and support over 19,000 jobs. In the 2017 Condé Nast Traveller survey of readers, York rated 12th among The 15 Best Cities in the UK for visitors. In a 2020 Condé Nast Traveller report, York rated as the sixth best among ten "urban destinations [in the UK] that scored the highest marks when it comes to ... nightlife, restaurants and friendliness".
During February 2020 to January 2021, the average property in North Yorkshire county sold for £240,000, up by £8100 over the previous 12 months. By comparison, the average for England and Wales was £314,000. In certain communities of North Yorkshire, however, house prices were higher than average for the county, as of early 2021: Harrogate (average value: £376,195), Knaresborough (£375,625), Tadcaster (£314,278), Leyburn (£309,165) and Ripon (£299,998), for example.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added for North Yorkshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.
Unemployment in the county was traditionally low in recent years, but the lockdowns and travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the economy during much of 2020 and into 2021. The UK government said in early February 2021 that it was planning "unprecedented levels of support to help businesses [in the UK] survive the crisis". A report published on 1 March 2021 stated that the unemployment rate in North Yorkshire had "risen to the highest level in nearly 5 years – with under 25s often bearing the worst of job losses".
York experienced high unemployment during lockdown periods. One analysis (by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership) predicted in August 2020 that "as many as 13,835 jobs in York will be lost in the scenario considered most likely, taking the city's unemployment rate to 14.5%". Some critics claimed that part of the problem was caused by "over-reliance on the booming tourism industry at the expense of a long-term economic plan". A report in mid June 2020 stated that unemployment had risen 114 per cent over the previous year because of restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic.
Tourism in the county was expected to increase after the restrictions imposed due the pandemic are relaxed. One reason for the expected increase is the airing of All Creatures Great and Small, a TV series about the vet James Herriot, based on a successful series of books; it was largely filmed within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The show aired in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in early 2021. One source stated that visits to Yorkshire websites had increased significantly by late September 2020.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) bisects the county stopping at Northallerton,Thirsk and York. Passenger service companies in the area are London North Eastern Railway, Northern Rail, TransPennine Express and Grand Central.
LNER and Grand Central operate services to the capital on the ECML, Leeds Branch Line and the Northallerton–Eaglescliffe Line. LNER stop at York, Northallerton and on to County Durham or spur over to the Tees Valley Line for Thornaby and Middlesbrough. The operator also branch before the county for Leeds and run to Harrogate and Skipton. Grand Central stop at York, Thirsk Northallerton and Eaglescliffe then over to the Durham Coast Line in County Durham.
Northern operates the remaining lines in the county, including commuter services on the Harrogate Line, Airedale Line and York & Selby Lines, of which the former two are covered by the Metro ticketing area. Remaining branch lines operated by Northern include the Yorkshire Coast Line from Scarborough to Hull, York–Scarborough line via Malton, the Hull to York Line via Selby, the Tees Valley Line from Darlington to Saltburn via Middlesbrough and the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough to Whitby. Last but certainly not least, the Settle-Carlisle Line runs through the west of the county, with services again operated by Northern.
The county suffered badly under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Places such as Richmond, Ripon, Tadcaster, Helmsley, Pickering and the Wensleydale communities lost their passenger services. Notable lines closed were the Scarborough and Whitby Railway, Malton and Driffield Railway and the secondary main line between Northallerton and Harrogate via Ripon.
Heritage railways within North Yorkshire include: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, between Pickering and Grosmont, which opened in 1973; the Derwent Valley Light Railway near York; and the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. The Wensleydale Railway, which started operating in 2003, runs services between Leeming Bar and Redmire along a former freight-only line. The medium-term aim is to operate into Northallerton station on the ECML, once an agreement can be reached with Network Rail. In the longer term, the aim is to reinstate the full line west via Hawes to Garsdale on the Settle-Carlisle line.
York railway station is the largest station in the county, with 11 platforms and is a major tourist attraction in its own right. The station is immediately adjacent to the National Railway Museum.
The main road through the county is the north–south A1(M), which has gradually been upgraded in sections to motorway status since the early 1990s. The only other motorways within the county are the short A66(M) near Darlington and a small stretch of the M62 motorway close to Eggborough. The other nationally maintained trunk routes are the A168/A19, A64, A66 and A174.
Long-distance coach services are operated by National Express and Megabus. Local bus service operators include Arriva Yorkshire, Stagecoach, Harrogate Bus Company, The Keighley Bus Company, Scarborough & District (East Yorkshire), Yorkshire Coastliner, First York and the local Dales & District.
There are no major airports in the county itself, but nearby airports include Teesside International (Darlington), Newcastle and Leeds Bradford.
The main campus of Teesside University is in Middlesbrough, while York contains the main campuses of the University of York and York St John University. There are also two secondary campuses in the county: CU Scarborough, a campus of Coventry University, and Queen's Campus, Durham University in Thornaby-on-Tees.
Colleges
Middlesbrough College's sixth-form
Askham Bryan College of agriculture, Askham Bryan and Middlesbrough
Craven College, Skipton
Middlesbrough College
The Northern School of Art, Middlesbrough
Prior Pursglove College
Redcar & Cleveland College
Scarborough Sixth Form College
Scarborough TEC
Selby College
Stockton Riverside College, Thornaby
York College
Places of interest
Ampleforth College
Beningbrough Hall –
Black Sheep Brewery
Bolton Castle –
Brimham Rocks –
Castle Howard and the Howardian Hills –
Catterick Garrison
Cleveland Hills
Drax Power Station
Duncombe Park – stately home
Eden Camp Museum –
Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway –
Eston Nab
Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo –
Helmsley Castle –
Ingleborough Cave – show cave
John Smith's Brewery
Jorvik Viking Centre –
Lightwater Valley –
Lund's Tower
Malham Cove
Middleham Castle –
Mother Shipton's Cave –
National Railway Museum –
North Yorkshire Moors Railway –
Ormesby Hall – Palladian Mansion
Richmond Castle –
Ripley Castle – Stately home and historic village
Riverside Stadium
Samuel Smith's Brewery
Shandy Hall – stately home
Skipton Castle –
Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications –
Studley Royal Park –
Stump Cross Caverns – show cave
Tees Transporter Bridge
Theakston Brewery
Thornborough Henges
Wainman's Pinnacle
Wharram Percy
York Castle Museum –
Yorkshire Air Museum –
The Yorkshire Arboretum
So I packed my camera and got ready to go for a trip out with my wife, 100+ mile round trip to as many falls as we could take in. Crackpot Falls the first one. hat coat and boots on bag on my back and went for the tripod. I had left it at home. ARRRRGGGHHH. so this is one of the 3 I took with the camera balanced on the fence.
“The greatest wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson to John Muir...(Two minuscules standing before a towering Sequoia)
The nymph Anemone was loved by Zephyrus, god of the west wind. Complicating things, Zephyrus was married to Chloris, goddess of the flowers. Chloris, knowing that -- to put it delicately -- nymphs fell in love a lot, was not pleased. What happened next depends on who was telling the tale, Greeks or, later, Romans. So, taking some associative liberties, and recognizing that all ancient mythologies spring from the same generic source anyway, the following blended summary is suggested: Chloris turned Anemone into a windflower and offered her up to the rude and brutish Boreas, god of the north wind, who nowadays would be considered something of a stalker.
When I think of this tree as ‘Anemone’, it is in reference to a thoroughly modern Anemone; standing strong, tall, defiant. Certainly no victim. With a nod to William Faulkner, an Anemone that will not merely endure, but will prevail. And ‘Anemone’ has prevailed...This tree may have been well over two thousand years old when the ancient Greeks began reformating the root mythologies to conform them to emerging Archaic culture.
Great Basin bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) confirmed to be over 5000 years old are very rare. There is only one -- rumored to be 5066 years of age and, as Benedick said of Beatrice, “...yet living”. The officially oldest known living tree, Methuselah (4850 years) is nearby in the White Mountains of California. For their protection, the precise location of each is kept secret by the Forest Service. It is said that even the District Ranger typically does not know where they are.
As one prominent researcher complained shortly after the existence of Methuselah was publicized in 1958 -- by the researcher himself -- leading to, among other things, a rash of souvenir-taking, “The public is destroying my research material.” The conceited conundrum of that statement of course being that, being public land, the public had as much right to unfettered access and ‘souvenirs’ as he did.
The tree WPN114 (aka 'Prometheus'), felled in 1964 in the Snake Range of eastern Nevada by a grad student under the pressure of winter’s approach and an expiring grant, had an inferred age of 5000 years. A living tree when felled, it would now be over 5050 years old.
And yet, a leading tree ring researcher was quoted in 2013 as saying,“I cannot believe that WPN114 was ever ‘the oldest’ Bristlecone pine." As for finding an older individual, he added, “this would be a difficult and thankless task for which there is no real research incentive.”
It is difficult to know if such a statement was intended as specious sleight of hand -- or merely ingenuous. It was apparently based on the speaker’s professed belief that a mere grad student could not possibly have blundered onto the one tree older than all others. The odds were too much against that, he explained. Or so he apparently wanted others to believe.
Truth is, the grad student had carefully searched for a very old tree, in a very specific area, for two seasons. And he found one. One person familiar with the tree, who had watched the full-course of events unfold and, at a key point, had attempted -- outside of any jurisdiction he possessed -- to intervene, later put it simply, “He knew what he had.”
His was not a random act of cutting. Nor, as I have recently read, was it “accidental”; as if the grad student, exhausted by exertion at altitude, had merely leaned against the tree and, lo and behold, over it went.
Of course, no one can know for certain if a given tree is actually the oldest of its species. It would be sophistic to claim that one did know. There is always a possibility, however remote and vanishing, that the oldest is still out there; somewhere in an "endless forest". In this way, there will always be an enticing illusory tree that benefits the self-professed believer with the advantages of its anonymity. It is a looping absolution, a variation on the myth of a boundless Earth. In Nevada, the Silver State, such reasoning has kept miners running in circles for generations.
In 1966 the Forest Service funded two simultaneous, two-year, independent studies of bristlecone in eastern Nevada. Officially, they were attempting to discover places where long chronologies could be developed by scientists.
Word on the street was they were trying to provide cover for the Chief of the Forest Service who had proclaimed, after the felling of WPN114, ”We have a lot that are the same age, or older.” The studies found nothing.
If solace is to be taken, it must be in the form of the oldest ‘known’ living tree. Odds are, there can be only one of those at a time.
WPN114 was felled not because there was scientific interest in identifying the oldest living organism on the planet. It was felled in a grant-funded quest for a theoretical chronological record of specific short-term weather conditions as recorded in tree rings. WPN114 just happened to be the oldest living individual organism on the planet.
Yet, scientific focus can be so narrow that, even if the grad student had suspected that his selected tree was the oldest on the planet, and deserving of some circumspection, it would have been irrelevant. It would have been outside the specious parameters of his thesis. It would have been a fortuitous, ironically appropriate anomaly. It would have been that holy grail of all scientific inquiry: More data. (Not that anomalies can be such a bad thing; in a pinch they can be passed-off as secret passages to the holy grail. You know, the old adage: “Lies, damn lies, and statistics”)
Besides, he surely must have known that the most eminent tree ring researcher of the era had already, in the White Mountains, felled similar trees.
The scientists now have an 11,000 year chronology (with a 500 year gap). They have no need for a 5000 or even a 6000 year old tree--known or unknown.
In 1965, I enrolled in Geology 101 at the state university. The first day in class, a young post-grad instructor launched into a heated critique of continental drift - a controversial theory proposed fifty years earlier. It was apparently his intent to set a tone for those wishing to become the next disciplined generation of geologists. He used words like “ignorant”, “crackpot”, “mumbo-jumbo”, “insulting”, “impossible” and - my favorite - “coincidence”.
Having already received the full lifetime's complement of indoctrination in high school, I dropped the course. A couple of years later, the young instructor’s insular Pangea shattered when continental drift was confirmed beyond any doubt.
Scientists can be like this. On the bright side, it can make them good at what they do. On the dark side, what they do is no longer science. It is why the Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Planck wrote in his 1949 autobiography a sentiment that has been paraphrased ever since as, "Science advances one funeral at a time".
Scientists depend on grants; or, as the researcher quoted above put it, “...real research incentive”. Grant dependency is why one of the most common findings of grant-funded research is the urgent need for further grant-funded research.
Grants, if they are pitched right, are obviously a great way to build career security. Paid consultants, for example, routinely do this by employing what might be called the ‘trickle down’ theory of client access to relevant information.
In what might be referred to as a sort of “Nero Syndrome”, it is not too difficult to imagine that there is a lot of science and funding out there that is ‘fiddling’ while the planet burns.
Funding for curiosity or whimsy or following one’s heart (e.g. the elderly Charles Darwin's self-funded fascination with earthworms), on the other hand, are pretty much nonexistent. This can have the effect of reducing things scientists do not study to curiosities -- leavings for gawkers or philosophers or poets.
‘Anemone’ would be such a curiosity: A living tree that could be inferred to have an age in excess of 5000 years, standing on an isolated ridge in remote eastern Nevada, within a Research Natural Area, within the least-visited national park in the country, just off a route ‘Life’ magazine in 1986 referred to as “The Loneliest Highway in America” -- all within a region identified on maps well into the late 19th century as ‘Terra Incognita’.
It is basically a tree without credentials. A scientific orphan. Frivolous. A curiosity. Under those circumstances, it becomes, to a certain kind of mind, a potentially unrestricted commodity.
It goes something like this: Build a trail and people might flock to it. They arrive with a whoop and a yelp, take the obligatory selfie, and tear off back down the trail, cutting every switchback along the way. Hopefully, they find their way to the gift shop and buy the tee.
Great Basin National Park has recently built just such a trail. Even so, getting there is no ‘walk in the park’ -- a single linear mile of the new trail includes fifty switchbacks. The trailhead sign coyly suggests that, “some [trees] may be over 5000 years old”. “O brave new world that has such people in it.”, indeed.
‘Anemone’, by the way, is not a formal name applied to this tree, it is a personal association -- a crude attempt to put a way of seeing into words. The tree has no name, nor, in my mind, any need for one. Men -- rarely women -- have named trees. Men have also imperiously named the stars. Preemptively imposing their will on all who follow, they predominantly use the names of mythical gods, philosophers, warriors, generals, politicians -- names that convey strength, power, prowess.
Make of it what you will, I sense a strong, enduring, feminine in trees, especially bristlecones. It is what I see in the defiant windward line of ‘Anemone’, complemented by the leeward flow of wind-sculpted branches. It’s not just me, in the gender-based Greek and Latin languages trees are feminine. Winds, for existential balance, are masculine.
Usually, my association is highly personal, spontaneous -- a shortcut along existing neural pathways when confronted by the new, the unexpected, the inexplicable. Or, as Muir wrote way too often, the “sublime”. I rarely make these associations in the wild. Intuitively, they surface weeks or months later, usually when I am viewing a photograph or maybe mowing the grass.
Wilderness is, for me, a largely non-verbal, receptive, experience. I am open to every endless possibility. I rationalize nothing. Everything in wild nature has a validity, an inherent potential transcendency. The mere existence of generative, entangled nature -- of consciousness itself -- defies logic, defies probability, defies expectation. Why would anyone question anything within it? Or their own deepest responses to it?
These associations -- which almost always surprise me -- obviously say something about my perceptions of reality, and nothing whatsoever about any confirmed actuality of a tree. It is very much like what good art, sooner or later, can do. Feel free to try it yourself. Call this tree, or any other, whatever you want, whatever speaks to you. A caution though: Just as ‘you are what you eat’, you also are what you see.
I once encountered a woman on the remotest stretch of the Methuselah Loop Trail in the Bristlecone Ancient Pine Forest of the White Mountains. We were going in opposite directions on the same dusty path -- both as far from Methuselah as the Forest Service designed that trail to take us.
She strode toward me, her husband following meekly behind; middle-aged, white sneakers, floppy straw hat, oversize sunglasses, dressed for the California sunshine. Dangling haphazardly by a strap around her neck, was an extravagantly expensive camera.
Expansive, chatty, she announced that she was determined to find Methuselah. When she found the tree, she explained, she was going to take its picture and, leaning-in, laughing confidentially as if sharing a ribald joke at a cocktail party, proclaimed, “I am going to hang it in my bathroom!”
I chose to not ask why.
But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in :-) Harry S. Truman
iris, "Again and Again', j c raulston arboretum ,ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
There is still more to come from this superb spot!
See where this picture was taken. [?]
Please take a little time to have a look at my other images from North Yorkshire Thanks
I love exploring old abandoned buildings like this and then trying to find out who lived in them. You have to wonder what day to day life must have been like and sadly, it's often the case that that's all you can do as the people who lived there have long since died.
Not so with this ruin, however! Alice Harker was a young girl living here in the late 1920's/early 1930's, in fact she was born here. Alice is still alive, living near Carlisle and approaching her 89th birthday. She was recently the subject of a BBC radio documentary and shared some of her fascinating memories. I have added a link below that will take you to the BBC website where you can download an Mp3 file of the 30 minute programme.
The ruinous remains are of a farmstead called Crackpot Hall, high up at the western end of Swaledale. The Pennine Way and Coast2Coast long-distance paths pass nearby and Crackpot Hall featured in a TV documentary with Julia Bradbury, who was making a series of programmes about Wainwright's Coast2Coast route. I've added a link to the episode that features this location.
Quantum effects, the smoke and mirrors trick ….
Atheists would dearly love to debunk the Law of Cause and Effect, and all the other natural laws that are fatal to their ideology of naturalism.
(The atheist 'religion' of naturalism requires a NATURAL, first cause of the universe, which the Law of Cause and Effect and other natural laws definitively rule out as impossible).
Of course, they know they can never succeed, because by undermining the Law of Cause and Effect, they effectively undermine science itself. The Law of Cause and Effect is a fundamental principle of scientific research. The scientific method relies on seeking and discovering causes for EVERY natural event. The concept of an uncaused, natural event or entity is an anathema to genuine science.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said the Law of Cause and Effect is the "law of laws".
Although intelligent atheists are well aware that they can never debunk laws, which definitively rule out a natural origin of the universe as impossible - nevertheless, they attempt to give the impression, to the public, that a natural, first cause of everything is scientifically feasible, and that laws of nature are not a serious obstacle.
One way atheists try to convince the public to accept their naturalist ideology, is by proposing that the quantum world is very different from the world we see around us. And in that mysterious, quantum world virtually anything can occur, regardless of natural laws which generally describe what is possible in the universe.
This apparent air of mystery gives atheists carte blanche to propose various, bizarre, origin scenarios, which would normally be ruled out as impossible or as just crackpot fantasies.
If challenged, to scientifically justify such imaginative scenarios, they usually reply; ‘with quantum effects, no one knows what is possible’. In this way, opposition to any extraordinary hypothesis can be effectlively silenced. And to dispute, whatever origin scenario they choose to invent, may seem pointless.
However, it would be entirely wrong to accept this.
Science does not progress in a straightjacket, especially one imposed for ideological reasons. We are perfectly justified in rigorously challenging the idea that quantum mechanics or effects are a possible, natural answer to the origin of the universe. And that quantum effects can give credence to the belief that everything naturally arose from nothing, without an adequate cause, or purpose.
So, what is the truth?
We can state quite categorically that quantum effects cannot have anything to do with an origin of the universe from nothing.
Why?
It is common sense that something CANNOT come from nothing, and that EVERY natural occurrence needs an adequate cause. Micro or sub-atomic particles are not an exception. There are NO exceptions.
Atheist, Richard Dawkins tries to define 'nothing' as 'something'.
The atheist mentality seems to be that, if something is deemed impossible, just propose it could happen; little-by-little, and it becomes plausible, especially to a credulous public.
Presumably, if you make it as small, make it sound as simple, and as less complex as you can, people will believe anything is possible.
This is a similar, little-by-little approach that atheists have applied to the origin of life, and it is precisely how they have managed to get most people to accept microbes-to-human evolution, through beneficial mutations.
However, we need to ask ...
What makes atheists think that it is easier for something to come from nothing if it is smaller or simpler?
Would it be easier, or more credible, for a grain of sand to come from nothing than for a boulder?
Of course, it wouldn’t - it makes no difference whatsoever.
Something cannot come from nothing - that is an irrefutable fact.
Size, or lack of complexity, doesn’t alter that.
It seems that atheist thinking is something like the following:
Although people may realise that you couldn’t get a grain of sand from nothing, any more than you could a boulder, what if we propose the something which came from nothing is the smallest thing imaginable?
What about the quantum world – how about a sub-atomic particle?
That could seem much more plausible.
What if we could even find such a particle - a sort of ‘god’ particle?
We could claim a supernatural, first cause (God) has been made redundant.
The first cause problem would be solved - apparently!
At least, people would believe that; even if the problem of everything coming from nothing, without a cause, hasn’t been solved completely, 'science' is well on the way to solving it.
If anyone suggests this is nonsense; that the first cause must an infinite Creator. We can accuse them of trying to fill gaps in 'scientific' knowledge with a god. The good old, the god-of-the-gaps argument.
Finally, if anyone is stubborn enough to insist that even a simple, sub-atomic particle can’t come from absolutely nothing, we can retort that the ‘nothing, we are referring to, is not the same ‘nothing’ that the scientifically illiterate think of as nothing, but ‘something’ which only appears to be nothing, i.e. space/time.
Physicist Michio Kaku wrote:
"In quantum physics, it was a Higgs-like particle that sparked the cosmic explosion [the Big Bang]. In other words, everything we see around us, including galaxies, stars, planets and us, owes its existence to the Higgs boson."
Kaku, M. The Spark That Caused the Big Bang. The Wall Street Journal. Posted on online.wsj.com July 5, 2012.
However, a so-called ‘God’ particle was always an OBVIOUS misnomer to anyone with any common sense, but militant atheists loved the idea, and predictably, the popular, secularist, media hacks also loved it.
What they either failed to realise (or deliberately failed to admit) is that, not only is it just as impossible for a particle (however small) to arise of its own volition from nothing as anything else, but also the smaller, simpler and less complex a proposed, first cause becomes, the more IMPOSSIBLE it is for it to be a first cause of the universe.
Why?
A simple, sub-atomic particle simply CANNOT be the first cause, it CANNOT replace God because, not only is it impossible for it to be uncaused, it is also clearly not adequate for the effect/result.
So, atheists, while trying to fool people into thinking that it is easier for something to come from nothing if it is simple and microscopic, have shot themselves in the foot....
The little-by-little approach, which they apply to the origin of life and progressive evolution, also doesn’t work for the origin of the universe.
FACT!
An effect CANNOT be greater than its cause (the Law of Cause and Effect).
The very first cause of the universe, as well as not being a contingent entity, cannot be something simpler or less complex than everything that follows it, which is the sum total of the universe.
The first cause of the universe MUST be adequate to produce the universe in its entirely and complexity - and that means EVERY property and quality it contains, including: information, life, intelligence, consciousness, design, love, justice, etc. etc.
Always remember this very important, and common sense, fact:
Something cannot give what it doesn't possess.
Sub-atomic particles or quantum effects are OBVIOUSLY not up to the job, they are definitely NOT an adequate cause of the universe. And, neither are any of the other natural, origin scenarios proposed by atheists. They all fail in this regard.
What about the atheist claim that, because quantum effects appear to behave randomly, they could also be uncaused?
Quantum effects, may appear random and uncaused, but they are definitely not uncaused. Even if their direct cause is difficult to determine, they are part of a CAUSED physical universe.
The idea that anything within a CAUSED universe can be causeless is ridiculous.
As for a direct cause of quantum effects, it can be compared to the randomness of a number coming up from throwing a dice. It may appear random and without a direct cause, but it isn’t. Because if we knew all the complicated and variable factors involved – such as the exact orientation of the dice as it leaves the hand, the velocity of the throw and the amount of spin etc., we could predict the number in advance. So just because, in some instances, causes are too incredibly complex to accurately predict the result, doesn’t mean there are ever no causes.
So, atheists are flogging a dead horse by thinking they can replace God with quantum mechanics, which may be interesting phenomenon, but the one thing it is certain they are not, is a first cause of the universe.
To give the impression to the public that they could be, is just a smoke and mirrors trick deliberately intended to deceive.
The 'God particle', Wikipedia …
“And since the Higgs Boson deals with how matter was formed at the time of the big bang, and since newspapers loved the term, the term “God particle" was used.
While media use of this term may have contributed to wider awareness and interest many scientists feel the name is inappropriate since it is sensational hyperbole and misleads readers, the particle also has nothing to do with God, leaves open numerous questions in fundamental physics, and does not explain the ultimate origin of the universe."
Why are laws of nature so important in this debate?
Laws of nature are both descriptive and prescriptive.
Laws of nature describe the behaviour, operation, potential and LIMITATIONS of natural things based on their inherent properties. They enable us to make predictions based on those properties. The only way that laws of nature could ever be invalid is, if the inherent properties of natural things they apply to, are changed.
The insurmountable problem for atheists is that, although they might try to invent fantasy scenarios where the properties of nature are different, and therefore not subject to most established laws. There is no possible, fantasy scenario which can negate the law of cause and effect. The law which is most fatal to atheist naturalism is the very law that cannot possibly be negated, under any circumstances.
Why?
Because the law of cause and effect is in a unique category, different from all other laws of nature. It is not just a fundamental principle of science, it can also be regarded as the premier law of the universe and creation, because it applies to ALL temporal things, not just nature or natural entities. It doesn’t matter what different properties natural things may have, they can never evade the law of cause and effect. It isn't based on the properties of things, it doesn't depend on any particular properties, only on a temporal character, nothing more.
And that is a FACT, which cannot be denied.
The ONLY exception to the first part of this law – every effect must have a cause – is that which is not temporal (that which has no beginning), i.e. INFINITE, not subject to time (time is a chronology of temporal/temporary events).
The second part of this law – an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s – applies to everything that exists, even to an infinite entity. An infinite entity cannot cause an effect greater than itself.
Thus, the law of cause and effect definitively rules out ALL natural or temporal entities as a possible, first cause.
The first cause of everything natural/temporal, MUST BE a single, infinite (uncaused, eternally self-existent and omnipresent), entirely autonomous, supernatural cause which is greater, in every respect, than everything else that exists (which it has caused).
That is the first cause we call the Creator or God.
What about a singularity?
Is a 'Singularity' the first cause of everything, as some atheists maintain?
A singularity (meaning single event) is described by atheists as a one-off event where the laws of nature didn't apply.
A natural event, not subject to laws of nature, used to be called – magic! Until, atheists started calling it ‘science’.
Quote:
"This is that the classical theory, does not enable one to calculate what would come out of a singularity, because all the Laws of Physics would break down there." Stephen Hawking, The Beginning of Time.
However, even if you want to believe in the fantasy of a 'singularity', it makes no difference to the fact that a natural cause of the universe is impossible.
A singularity doesn't negate the law of cause and effect, because, as I have already explained, that law pertains to ALL temporal entities. And it always applies, even if the laws of physics don't apply.
Conclusion:
It doesn't matter what natural, origin scenarios are proposed, none of them can ever qualify as the first cause of the universe. An origin of the universe by purely, natural processes is ruled out as IMPOSSIBLE.
The Bible rightly tells us to worship and honour the Creator, and not to worship the created.
Pagans honour and worship the created by crediting nature/material entities with godlike powers.
Atheists honour the created, rather than the Creator, because they elevate the effects (nature, matter/energy) to a godlike status and deny their cause.
The new, atheist naturalism nonsense is simply the old, pagan naturalism nonsense re-invented.
____________________________________________
Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life' - Abiogenesis decisively refuted.
FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins
www.thewarfareismental.net/b/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/b...
"The Big Bang's Failed Predictions and Failures to Predict: (Updated Aug 3, 2017.) As documented below, trust in the big bang's predictive ability has been misplaced when compared to the actual astronomical observations that were made, in large part, in hopes of affirming the theory."
The aliens take human form as they attempt to repair their spaceship. John Putnam (Richard Carlson, holding the gun) confronts them.
“It Came from Outer Space” tells the story of an astronomer and his fiancée who are stargazing in the desert when a large fiery object crashes to Earth. At the crash site, he discovers a round alien spaceship just before it is completely buried by an overhead landslide. When he tells this story to the local sheriff and newspaper, he is branded a crackpot. Before long, strange things begin to happen, and the tide of disbelief turns hostile.
“It Came from Outer Space” was the first film in 3-D from Universal-International. It was produced by William Alland, directed by Jack Arnold, and stars Richard Carlson (as astronomer John Putnam), Barbara Rush (as schoolteacher Ellen Fields), and Charles Drake (as Sheriff Matt Warren). The film's script is based on Ray Bradbury's original story treatment (not, as sometimes claimed, a published short story) "The Meteor."
[Source: Wikipedia]
Movie trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=85xpN_Ohwqs
From Muker to East Stonesdale via Crackpot Hall along the River Swale .
Swaledale , the Yorkshire Dales .
Last few days of my holiday .
A couple of years back, I was out walking in Upper Swaledale, near Keld, North Yorkshire and came across an old abandoned farmhouse. The word ‘ruin’ might be a more accurate description, because it had certainly seen better days, having been some years since it was abandoned. On the OS map, it’s called ‘Crackpot Hall’ – a brilliant name! This ruinous pile clings to the very edge of a steep hillside called Buzzard Scar. Immediately behind, the hillside continues to climb across a landscape that reveals clues to the area’s lead-mining past. However, it’s the view to the front that I found particularly thrilling. As views go, this one is to die for! The prospect is one that drops away down into the dale which takes its name from a young River Swale. You can see the course of the river as it meanders down the dale alongside the well-trodden path towards the village of Muker. The view from the windows of Crackpot Hall must have been amazing.
Despite the sad state of this once substantial farmhouse, it is still possible to wander around the crumbling walls and make yourself at home with the ghosts of the past. There’s the fireside range that once would have had fresh bread baking in the oven. An old tin bath on the stone floor in front of the fire is another poignant reminder of life in this remote spot.
I recall doing some research to try and find out something of the history of Crackpot Hall, who had lived here and when it was abandoned. What I found out was that back in the 1920’s, two women, Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley, spent a lot of time in the Yorkshire Dales collecting oral history from those who lived here. Ella wrote a series of books and Marie did the illustrations. It seems that one of the places they visited was Crackpot Hall and they described a four-year-old girl called ‘Alice’, who lived with her farmer parents and who they described as having “…the madness of the moors about her, and all their wariness.” This description has often being re-interpreted with Alice being described as a ‘wild child’. They remarked upon Alice’s mocking, chuckling laugh and how it seem as untamed to them as lonely Crackpot Hall.
I thought that there was something rather enigmatic about this description and it certainly had me intrigued. I posted a couple of the photographs that I had taken on the internet, along with a few details of what I’d found out, asking if anyone had any further information.
It must have been a good few months later when I received a message about the photographs after they had been seen by a lady called Jayne, living near Carlisle in Cumbria. Jayne turned out to be a daughter of Alice and she informed me that her mother Alice was still alive, now 89 and still definitely ‘wild’!
Alice, now 88, is the last surviving of six children who were born at Crackpot Hall. Jayne said: “Yes she was a wild child and still is! According to my mother Alice, Ella Pontefract and Maria Hartley often used to go to Crackpot Hall."
It seems that I hadn’t been the only one keen to learn more about Crackpot Hall and that Alice had recently been tracked down and interviewed for a BBC radio documentary and that the programme was to be broadcast soon on BBC Radio Three.
So, here alongside photographs of my latest visit to Crackpot Hall, is the link to the BBC Radio Programme where you can download the Mp3 file of the programme.
Here we see Esther Rantzen climbing inside this peculiar three wheeled vehicle despite the sign saying "please do not touch" - perhaps it was due to a safety campaign as the vehicle, with such a short wheelbase, would have been prone to falling over. To her left is Karen Carpenter looking on with a look of slight bemusement but this moment would give her the inspiration to record the song "calling occupants of interplanetary craft" as the Broadland Wasp reminded her of flying saucers and the like. Trapped by the opened door is Barbara Streisand.
I wish this were the truth of this bizarre photo but sadly it isn't, I made it all up, and the three ladies here are, I think, visiting school teachers from the Hoveton School in Norfolk where this ludicrous looking vehicle was designed. What on earth BP were thinking of when they chose to sponsor this crackpot idea I'm not sure. Below you can see a different image of the same "lampshade bubble car" that looks like it would mostly go round in circles before toppling over. I've found another image of it where it appears in a military display, presumably at another show, that's an even more bizarre context - see here.
imsvintagephotos.com/products/pupils-prize-car-goes-on-sh...
As with yesterday's drowning Volvo shot, this is another photo that doesn't easily fit any album criteria so have added now as part of my 10,000 celebration!
Crackpot Falls, North Yorkshire - my first visit. I'd seen photos of these falls many times, but in reality they were much bigger than I'd imagined. The sheer amount and power of the water must have contributed to my revised perceptions.
Hotel Dirty Secrets
Have you ever wondered if there are shortcuts taken by the cleaning staff of hotel workers? Well, after a little experimenting, I discovered that there are. I guess it would be just too much to ask for a used coffee cup to be replaced with one that was washed in a dishwasher...
About a year ago, I started marking my coffee cups with the hotel supplied ink pen every day that I used the cup. It invariably seems to be the same cup when I return to the hotel after the cleaning staff finishes. I have made a point to bring this up to the hotel managers in every hotel I find this happening. One manager of a Sheraton in Atlanta apparently got tired of me bringing this up and refused to return my calls, so I stopped going to the Sheraton. The Embassy Suites down the road in Atlanta seems concerned every time I bring this up, but instead of resolving the issue with the cleaning staff (which they apparently have no control over) they gave me my own ceramic "Embassy Suites" emblazoned coffee mug in a gift bag left in my hotel room and with a note asking me to bring my coffee mug with me to use while I stay at their hotel.
The photo above is the mug in my room at the Atlanta Hilton Garden Inn hotel on Windy Hill at Powers Ferry in Atlanta. I'm not going to give them this cup until I check out Friday, to prove a point to them at how consistent their cleaning staff is using this shortcut.
What bothers me the most is that I have inspected cups in my room as soon as I check in and found them smudged with coffee residue and with a coffee smell in them many times... so even when the hotel guest changes, they don't change the cups!
I know I run the risk of looking like a crackpot by bringing this issue up, but I think it is unacceptable for the hotel industry to get away with this. I would like to ask each and every one of you that see this to do the same thing when you stay multiple nights in a hotel. Let's get the message across to the industry that this is unsanitary and won't be accepted.
Last Christmas, I almost asked for one of those ultraviolet flashlights and a pair of amber goggles like they use on CSI to detect bodily fluids so I could check out the bedspreads and sheets... but I was too afraid of what I might find, so for now, I'm living in denial every time I go to bed at the hotel.
What are your thoughts on this?
Update 28-Nov-2007:
Here's a link to the story.
This piece of art will be lost on most people of Dundee
A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device.
a little knowledge can go a long way
a lot of professionals are crackpots
a man can't know what it is to be a mother
a name means a lot just by itself
a positive attitude means all the difference in the world
a relaxed man is not necessarily a better man
a sense of timing is the mark of genius
a sincere effort is all you can ask
a single event can have infinitely many interpretations
a solid home base builds a sense of self
a strong sense of duty imprisons you
absolute submission can be a form of freedom
abstraction is a type of decadence
abuse of power comes as no surprise
action causes more trouble than thought
alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries
all things are delicately interconnected
ambition is just as dangerous as complacency
ambivalence can ruin your life
an elite is inevitable
anger or hate can be a useful motivating force
animalism is perfectly healthy
any surplus is immoral
anything is a legitimate area of investigation
artificial desires are despoiling the earth
at times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning
at times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind
automation is deadly
awful punishment awaits really bad people
bad intentions can yield good results
being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular
being happy is more important than anything else
being judgmental is a sign of life
being sure of yourself means you're a fool
believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat
boredom makes you do crazy things
calm is more conductive to creativity than is anxiety
categorizing fear is calming
change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants
chasing the new is dangerous to society
children are the most cruel of all
children are the hope of the future
class action is a nice idea with no substance
class structure is as artificial as plastic
confusing yourself is a way to stay honest
crime against property is relatively unimportant
decadence can be an end in itself
decency is a relative thing
dependence can be a meal ticket
description is more important than metaphor
deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity
disgust is the appropriate response to most situations
disorganization is a kind of anesthesia
don't place to much trust in experts
drama often obscures the real issues
dreaming while awake is a frightening contradiction
dying and coming back gives you considerable perspective
dying should be as easy as falling off a log
eating too much is criminal
elaboration is a form of pollution
emotional responses ar as valuable as intellectual responses
enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway
ensure that your life stays in flux
even your family can betray you
every achievement requires a sacrifice
everyone's work is equally important
everything that's interesting is new
exceptional people deserve special concessions
expiring for love is beautiful but stupid
expressing anger is necessary
extreme behavior has its basis in pathological psychology
extreme self-consciousness leads to perversion
faithfulness is a social not a biological law
fake or real indifference is a powerful personal weapon
fathers often use too much force
fear is the greatest incapacitator
freedom is a luxury not a necessity
giving free rein to your emotions is an honest way to live
go all out in romance and let the chips fall where they may
going with the flow is soothing but risky
good deeds eventually are rewarded
government is a burden on the people
grass roots agitation is the only hope
guilt and self-laceration are indulgences
habitual contempt doesn't reflect a finer sensibility
hiding your emotions is despicable
holding back protects your vital energies
humanism is obsolete
humor is a release
ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age
if you aren't political your personal life should be exemplary
if you can't leave your mark give up
if you have many desires your life will be interesting
if you live simply there is nothing to worry about
ignoring enemies is the best way to fight
illness is a state of mind
imposing order is man's vocation for chaos is hell
in some instances it's better to die than to continue
inheritance must be abolished
it can be helpful to keep going no matter what
it is heroic to try to stop time
it is man's fate to outsmart himself
it is a gift to the world not to have babies
it's better to be a good person than a famous person
it's better to be lonely than to be with inferior people
it's better to be naive than jaded
it's better to study the living fact than to analyze history
it's crucial to have an active fantasy life
it's good to give extra money to charity
it's important to stay clean on all levels
it's just an accident that your parents are your parents
it's not good to hold too many absolutes
it's not good to operate on credit
it's vital to live in harmony with nature
just believing something can make it happen
keep something in reserve for emergencies
killing is unavoidable but nothing to be proud of
knowing yourself lets you understand others
knowledge should be advanced at all costs
labor is a life-destroying activity
lack of charisma can be fatal
leisure time is a gigantic smoke screen
listen when your body talks
looking back is the first sign of aging and decay
loving animals is a substitute activity
low expectations are good protection
manual labor can be refreshing and wholesome
men are not monogamous by nature
moderation kills the spirit
money creates taste
monomania is a prerequisite of success
morals are for little people
most people are not fit to rule themselves
mostly you should mind your own business
mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices
much was decided before you were born
murder has its sexual side
myth can make reality more intelligible
noise can be hostile
nothing upsets the balance of good and evil
occasionally principles are more valuable than people
offer very little information about yourself
often you should act like you are sexless
old friends are better left in the past
opacity is an irresistible challenge
pain can be a very positive thing
people are boring unless they are extremists
people are nuts if they think they are important
people are responsible for what they do unless they are insane
people who don't work with their hands are parasites
people who go crazy are too sensitive
people won't behave if they have nothing to lose
physical culture is second best
planning for the future is escapism
playing it safe can cause a lot of damage in the long run
politics is used for personal gain
potential counts for nothing until it's realized
private property created crime
pursuing pleasure for the sake of pleasure will ruin you
push yourself to the limit as often as possible
raise boys and girls the same way
random mating is good for debunking sex myths
rechanneling destructive impulses is a sign of maturity
recluses always get weak
redistributing wealth is imperative
relativity is no boon to mankind
religion causes as many problems as it solves
remember you always have freedom of choice
repetition is the best way to learn
resolutions serve to ease our conscience
revolution begins with changes in the individual
romantic love was invented to manipulate women
routine is a link with the past
routine small excesses are worse than then the occasional debauch
sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act
salvation can't be bought and sold
self-awareness can be crippling
self-contempt can do more harm than good
selfishness is the most basic motivation
selflessness is the highest achievement
separatism is the way to a new beginning
sex differences are here to stay
sin is a means of social control
slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison
sloppy thinking gets worse over time
solitude is enriching
sometimes science advances faster than it should
sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord
spending too much time on self-improvement is antisocial
starvation is nature's way
stasis is a dream state
sterilization is a weapon of the rulers
strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity
stupid people shouldn't breed
survival of the fittest applies to men and animals
symbols are more meaningful than things themselves
taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position
talking is used to hide one's inability to act
teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences
technology will make or break us
the cruelest disappointment is when you let yourself down
the desire to reproduce is a death wish
the family is living on borrowed time
the idea of revolution is an adolescent fantasy
the idea of transcendence is used to obscure oppression
the idiosyncratic has lost its authority
the most profound things are inexpressible
the mundane is to be cherished
the new is nothing but a restatement of the old
the only way to be pure is to stay by yourself
the sum of your actions determines what you are
the unattainable is invariable attractive
the world operates according to discoverable laws
there are too few immutable truths today
there's nothing except what you sense
there's nothing redeeming in toil
thinking too much can only cause problems
threatening someone sexually is a horrible act
timidity is laughable
to disagree presupposes moral integrity
to volunteer is reactionary
torture is barbaric
trading a life for a life is fair enough
true freedom is frightful
unique things must be the most valuable
unquestioning love demonstrates largesse of spirit
using force to stop force is absurd
violence is permissible even desirable occasionally
war is a purification rite
we must make sacrifices to maintain our quality of life
when something terrible happens people wake up
wishing things away is not effective
with perseverance you can discover any truth
words tend to be inadequate
worrying can help you prepare
you are a victim of the rules you live by
you are guileless in your dreams
you are responsible for constituting the meaning of things
you are the past present and future
you can live on through your descendants
you can't expect people to be something they're not
you can't fool others if you're fooling yourself
you don't know what's what until you support yourself
you have to hurt others to be extraordinary
you must be intimate with a token few
you must disagree with authority figures
you must have one grand passion
you must know where you stop and the world begins
you can understand someone of your sex only
you owe the world not the other way around
you should study as much as possible
your actions ae pointless if no one notices
your oldest fears are the worst ones
These are all citizens, travelers passing through Hogsmeade, or, in Tom's case - a very old Horcrux from nearby Hogwarts.
NOTE: I mix flesh figs with yellow figs. I have done that forever, and consider them from parallel universes that are traversed by some magical means to get them at the same place and time. Be this an jacked-up time turner, errant portkey, or magic steam loco, it works for me.
Top row (L 2 R): Hogsmeade station master w/ lantern (name unknown) - apothecary shop owner "Mr. Owens" - The Fat Controller (on holiday, not resident, from Sodor Island) - funeral director "Samuel Leech" - graveyard watchman "Mr. Smith"
Second row: (L 2 R): Ministry of Magic dignitary "Joseph Davis" - Dentist "Dr. Salazar Hugo" - village crackpot "Jake Roberts" (believes Hogsmeade and Hogwarts exist only in fiction... how absurd!) - sweets stuff inventor "Thomas Roberts", (Older brother of Jake Roberts. Works for Honeydukes Candy Store) - Hogsmeade founder statue. (No-one quite remembers who founded the town, but they certainly earned the statue, located outside the train station.)
Third row (L 2 R): These four ladies are the local gossipers.* Names aren't important on who THEY are, but when they've got YOUR name, you have trouble coming! - Horcrux "Tom Marvolo Riddle" (DANGER: Do not approach! If you see this spectral figure in Hogsmeade or Hogwarts, contact the Ministry of Magic or Dumbledore immediately!)
*In reality, my brain is about fried for today, I couldn't come up with anymore random names. So I gave up and wrote the gossip bit instead.
Astronomer John Putnam (played by Richard Carlson) climbs down into the meteor crater and stumbles upon the alien spaceship.
“It Came from Outer Space” tells the story of an astronomer and his fiancée who are stargazing in the desert when a large fiery object crashes to Earth. At the crash site, he discovers a round alien spaceship just before it is completely buried by an overhead landslide. When he tells this story to the local sheriff and newspaper, he is branded a crackpot. Before long, strange things begin to happen, and the tide of disbelief turns hostile.
“It Came from Outer Space” was the first film in 3-D from Universal-International. It was produced by William Alland, directed by Jack Arnold, and stars Richard Carlson (as astronomer John Putnam), Barbara Rush (as schoolteacher Ellen Fields), and Charles Drake (as Sheriff Matt Warren). The film's script is based on Ray Bradbury's original story treatment (not, as sometimes claimed, a published short story) "The Meteor."
[Source: Wikipedia]
Movie trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=85xpN_Ohwqs
Crackpot Hall,
Keld,
Yorkshire Dales.
Circular walk from Keld to Muker.
TAKEN - 11.51a.m. Sat 11th July'20
In the 1930s, residents of the dale were captivated by an unsettling story which emerged from the valley.
Two well-known authors who published books on the social history of the Dales, Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley, wrote about a four-year-old girl named Alice who had reportedly been discovered roaming 'wild' and barefoot near the hall, and the legend of the feral child soon spread. They claimed her speech and dialect were difficult to understand.
Ella and Marie were from wealthy West Riding mill-owning families who came to love walking in the Dales. They bought a property in Askrigg that they lived in during World War Two before Ella's sudden death at the age of 48. Marie died in 2006 at the age of 100.
Their discovery of 'Alice' drew parallels to the story of Alice in Wonderland - Ella and Marie were known for their child-like imaginations.
The myth persisted over the decades, until in 2015 a BBC radio documentary investigated the story. They researched the local folklore and established that Alice was one of the children who lived at Crackpot Hall at the time, along with her five siblings. She roamed freely around the farm.
Keld is a village in the English county of North Yorkshire. It is in Swaledale, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The name derives from the Viking word Kelda meaning a spring and the village was once called Appletre Kelde – the spring near the apple trees.
Keld is the crossing point of the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Way long-distance footpaths at the head of Swaledale, and marks the end of the Swale Trail, a 20 km mountain bike trail which starts in Reeth. At the height of the lead-mining industry in Swaledale in the late 19th century, several notable buildings – now Grade II listed – were erected: they include the Congregational and Methodist chapels, the school and the Literary Institute.
A tea room and small shop operate at Park Lodge from Easter to autumn. Out of season, local volunteers provide a self service café for visitors in the village’s Public Hall. Keld’s Youth Hostel closed in 2008 and has since reopened as Keld Lodge, a hotel with bar and restaurant. There is a series of four waterfalls close to Keld in a limestone gorge on the River Swale: Kisdon Force, East Gill Force, Catrake Force and Wain Wath Force.
The Keld Resource Centre, a local charity, is restoring a series of listed buildings in the village centre and returning them to community use. The first phase involved restoring the Manse, the minister's house attached to the United Reformed Church, which was completed in 2009 and is now used as a holiday cottage, proceeds from which support the Centre's work.
In 2010 the Centre created the Keld Well-being Garden in the chapel churchyard. It provides a quiet spot for visitors to contemplate their well-being in the beautiful natural environment of Upper Swaledale.
The Keld Countryside and Heritage Centre opened in 2011; it provides interpretation of the countryside, buildings and social history of Keld, and displays of artefacts relevant to Upper Swaledale. It is open throughout the year, operating alongside The Upper Room which is used for meetings, exhibitions, workshops and social events. A range of guided walks, exhibitions, talks and other activities take place during the summer months.
Further projects will involve restoring Keld’s former school.
The ruins of Crackpot Hall lie about a mile east of Keld on the northern slope of the dale at grid reference NY906008. There may have been a building on this site since the 16th century when a hunting lodge was maintained for Thomas, the first Baron Wharton, who visited the Dale occasionally to shoot the red deer. Survey work by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has shown that the building has changed many times over the years. At one time it even had a heather or "ling" thatched roof.
The current ruin is of a farmhouse dating from the mid 18th century. It was an impressive two-storey building with a slate roof and matching "shippons" or cowsheds at each end for animals. The building may also have been used as mine offices, as intensive lead mining was carried out in the area, and there were violent disputes over mine boundaries in the 18th century.
In the 1930s Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley wrote of a wild 4-year-old child named Alice. On 7 November 2015, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a documentary about the story in the Between the Ears strand titled Alice at Crackpot Hall.[5]
The current building was abandoned in the 1950s because of subsidence. Crackpot Hall has been saved from further decay by Gunnerside Estate with the aid of grants from the Millennium Commission and European Union through the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.
The name Crackpot is said to mean "a deep hole or chasm that is a haunt of crows".
The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a 2,178 km2 (841 sq mi) national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales, with the notable exception of Nidderdale. Most of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Cumbria and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designated in 1954, and extended in 2016. Over 95% of the land in the Park is under private ownership; there are over 1,000 farms in this area.
In late 2020, the park was named as an International Dark Sky Reserve. This honour confirms that the area has "low levels of light pollution with good conditions for astronomy".
Some 23,500 residents live in the park (as of 2017); a 2018 report estimated that the Park attracted over four million visitors per year. The economy consists primarily of tourism and agriculture.
The park is 50 miles (80 km) north-east of Manchester; Otley, Ilkley, Leeds and Bradford lie to the south, while Kendal is to the west, Darlington to the north-east and Harrogate to the south-east.
The national park does not include all of the Yorkshire Dales. Parts of the dales to the south and east of the national park are located in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The national park also includes the Howgill Fells and Orton Fells in the north west although they are not often considered part of the dales.
In 1947, the Hobhouse Report recommended the creation of the Yorkshire Dales National Park covering parts of the West Riding and North Riding of Yorkshire. The proposed National Park included most of the Yorkshire Dales, but not Nidderdale. Accordingly, Nidderdale was not included in the National Park when it was designated in 1954. In 1963 the then West Riding County Council proposed that Nidderdale should be added to the National Park, but the proposal met with opposition from the district councils which would have lost some of their powers to the county council.
Following the Local Government Act 1972 most of the area of the national park was transferred in 1974 to the new county of North Yorkshire. An area in the north west of the national park (Dentdale, Garsdale and the town of Sedbergh) was transferred from the West Riding of Yorkshire to the new county of Cumbria. In 1997 management of the national park passed from the county councils to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
A westward extension of the park into Lancashire and Westmorland encompassed much of the area between the old boundaries of the park and the M6 motorway. This increased the area by nearly 24% and brought the park close to the towns of Kirkby Lonsdale, Kirkby Stephen and Appleby-in-Westmorland. The extension also includes the northern portion of the Howgill Fells and most of the Orton Fells. Before the expansion, the national park was solely in the historic county of Yorkshire, the expansion bringing in parts of historic Lancashire and Westmorland.
The area has a wide range of activities for visitors. For example, many people come to the Dales for walking or other exercise. Several long-distance routes cross the park, including the Pennine Way, the Dales Way, the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Bridleway. Cycling is also popular and there are several cycleways.
The DalesBus service provides service in the Dales on certain days in summer, "including the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". In summer, these buses supplement the other services that operate year-round in the Dales.
Tourism in the region declined due to restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and into 2021. Later in 2021, the volume of visits was expected to increase as a result of the 2020 TV series All Creatures Great and Small, largely filmed within the Dales. The first series aired in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in early 2021. One source stated that visits to Yorkshire Web sites had increased significantly by late September 2020. By early 2021, the Discover England Web sites, for example, were using the tag line "Discover All Creatures Great and Small in Yorkshire".
The Dales Countryside Museum is housed in the converted Hawes railway station in Wensleydale in the north of the area.The park also has five visitor centres. These are at:
Aysgarth Falls
Grassington
Hawes
Malham
Reeth
Other places and sights within the National Park include:
Bolton Castle
Clapham
Cautley Spout waterfall
Firbank Fell
Gaping Gill
Gayle Mill
Hardraw Force
Horton in Ribblesdale
Howgill Fells
Kisdon Force (waterfall) in Swaledale
Leck Fell
Malham Cove, Gordale Scar, Janet's Foss and Malham Tarn
Orton Fells
River Lune
Sedbergh
Settle
Settle and Carlisle Railway including the Ribblehead Viaduct
Wild Boar Fell
The Yorkshire Three Peaks (Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent and Whernside)
North Yorkshire is a ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber and North East regions of England. It borders County Durham to the north, the North Sea to the east, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the south-east, South Yorkshire to the south, West Yorkshire to the south-west, and Cumbria and Lancashire to the west. Northallerton is the county town.
The county is the largest in England by land area, at 9,020 km2 (3,480 sq mi), and has a population of 1,158,816. The largest settlements are Middlesbrough (174,700) in the north-east and the city of York (152,841) in the south. Middlesbrough is part of the Teesside built-up area, which extends into County Durham and has a total population of 376,663. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Harrogate (73,576) and Scarborough (61,749). For local government purposes the county comprises four unitary authority areas — York, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and North Yorkshire — and part of a fifth, Stockton-on-Tees.
The centre of the county contains a wide plain, called the Vale of Mowbray in the north and Vale of York in the south. The North York Moors lie to the east, and south of them the Vale of Pickering is separated from the main plain by the Howardian Hills. The west of the county contains the Yorkshire Dales, an extensive upland area which contains the source of the River Ouse/Ure and many of its tributaries, which together drain most of the county. The Dales also contain the county's highest point, Whernside, at 2,415 feet (736 m).
North Yorkshire non-metropolitan and ceremonial county was formed on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It covered most of the North Riding of Yorkshire, as well as northern parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, northern and eastern East Riding of Yorkshire and the former county borough of York. Northallerton, as the former county town for the North Riding, became North Yorkshire's county town. In 1993 the county was placed wholly within the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Some areas which were part of the former North Riding were in the county of Cleveland for twenty-two years (from 1974 to 1996) and were placed in the North East region from 1993. On 1 April 1996, these areas (Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton borough south of the River Tees) became part of the ceremonial county as separate unitary authorities. These areas remain within the North East England region.
Also on 1 April 1996, the City of York non-metropolitan district and parts of the non-metropolitan county (Haxby and nearby rural areas) became the City of York unitary authority.
On 1 April 2023, the non-metropolitan county became a unitary authority. This abolished eight councils and extended the powers of the county council to act as a district council.
The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority held its first meeting on 22 January 2024, assumed its powers on 1 February 2024 and the first mayor is to be elected in May 2024.
The geology of North Yorkshire is closely reflected in its landscape. Within the county are the North York Moors and most of the Yorkshire Dales, two of eleven areas in England and Wales to be designated national parks. Between the North York Moors in the east and the Pennine Hills. The highest point is Whernside, on the Cumbrian border, at 2,415 feet (736 m). A distinctive hill to the far north east of the county is Roseberry Topping.
North Yorkshire contains several major rivers. The River Tees is the most northerly, forming part of the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham in its lower reaches and flowing east through Teesdale before reaching the North Sea near Redcar. The Yorkshire Dales are the source of many of the county's major rivers, including the Aire, Lune, Ribble, Swale, Ure, and Wharfe.[10] The Aire, Swale, and Wharfe are tributaries of the Ure/Ouse, which at 208 km (129 mi) long is the sixth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river is called the Ure until it meets Ouse Gill beck just below the village of Great Ouseburn, where it becomes the Ouse and flows south before exiting the county near Goole and entering the Humber estuary. The North York Moors are the catchment for a number of rivers: the Leven which flows north into the Tees between Yarm and Ingleby Barwick; the Esk flows east directly into the North Sea at Whitby as well as the Rye (which later becomes the Derwent at Malton) flows south into the River Ouse at Goole.
North Yorkshire contains a small section of green belt in the south of the county, which surrounds the neighbouring metropolitan area of Leeds along the North and West Yorkshire borders. It extends to the east to cover small communities such as Huby, Kirkby Overblow, and Follifoot before covering the gap between the towns of Harrogate and Knaresborough, helping to keep those towns separate.
The belt adjoins the southernmost part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the Nidderdale AONB. It extends into the western area of Selby district, reaching as far as Tadcaster and Balne. The belt was first drawn up from the 1950s.
The city of York has an independent surrounding belt area affording protections to several outlying settlements such as Haxby and Dunnington, and it too extends into the surrounding districts.
North Yorkshire has a temperate oceanic climate, like most of the UK. There are large climate variations within the county. The upper Pennines border on a Subarctic climate. The Vale of Mowbray has an almost Semi-arid climate. Overall, with the county being situated in the east, it receives below-average rainfall for the UK. Inside North Yorkshire, the upper Dales of the Pennines are one of the wettest parts of England, where in contrast the driest parts of the Vale of Mowbray are some of the driest areas in the UK.
Summer temperatures are above average, at 22 °C. Highs can regularly reach up to 28 °C, with over 30 °C reached in heat waves. Winter temperatures are below average, with average lows of 1 °C. Snow and Fog can be expected depending on location. The North York Moors and Pennines have snow lying for an average of between 45 and 75 days per year. Sunshine is most plentiful on the coast, receiving an average of 1,650 hours a year. It reduces further west in the county, with the Pennines receiving 1,250 hours a year.
The county borders multiple counties and districts:
County Durham's County Durham, Darlington, Stockton (north Tees) and Hartlepool;
East Riding of Yorkshire's East Riding of Yorkshire;
South Yorkshire's City of Doncaster;
West Yorkshire's City of Wakefield, City of Leeds and City of Bradford;
Lancashire's City of Lancaster, Ribble Valley and Pendle
Cumbria's Westmorland and Furness.
The City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council formed the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority in February 2024. The elections for the first directly-elected mayor will take place in May 2024. Both North Yorkshire Council and the combined authority are governed from County Hall, Northallerton.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority was formed in 2016 by five unitary authorities; Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland Borough both of North Yorkshire, Stockton-on-Tees Borough (Uniquely for England, split between North Yorkshire and County Durham), Hartlepool Borough and Darlington Borough of County Durham.
In large areas of North Yorkshire, agriculture is the primary source of employment. Approximately 85% of the county is considered to be "rural or super sparse".
Other sectors in 2019 included some manufacturing, the provision of accommodation and meals (primarily for tourists) which accounted for 19 per cent of all jobs. Food manufacturing employed 11 per cent of workers. A few people are involved in forestry and fishing in 2019. The average weekly earnings in 2018 were £531. Some 15% of workers declared themselves as self-employed. One report in late 2020 stated that "North Yorkshire has a relatively healthy and diverse economy which largely mirrors the national picture in terms of productivity and jobs.
Mineral extraction and power generation are also sectors of the economy, as is high technology.
Tourism is a significant contributor to the economy. A study of visitors between 2013 and 2015 indicated that the Borough of Scarborough, including Filey, Whitby and parts of the North York Moors National Park, received 1.4m trips per year on average. A 2016 report by the National Park, states the park area gets 7.93 million visitors annually, generating £647 million and supporting 10,900 full-time equivalent jobs.
The Yorkshire Dales have also attracted many visitors. In 2016, there were 3.8 million visits to the National Park including 0.48 million who stayed at least one night. The parks service estimates that this contributed £252 million to the economy and provided 3,583 full-time equivalent jobs. The wider Yorkshire Dales area received 9.7 million visitors who contributed £644 million to the economy. The North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales are among England's best known destinations.
York is a popular tourist destination. A 2014 report, based on 2012 data, stated that York alone receives 6.9 million visitors annually; they contribute £564 million to the economy and support over 19,000 jobs. In the 2017 Condé Nast Traveller survey of readers, York rated 12th among The 15 Best Cities in the UK for visitors. In a 2020 Condé Nast Traveller report, York rated as the sixth best among ten "urban destinations [in the UK] that scored the highest marks when it comes to ... nightlife, restaurants and friendliness".
During February 2020 to January 2021, the average property in North Yorkshire county sold for £240,000, up by £8100 over the previous 12 months. By comparison, the average for England and Wales was £314,000. In certain communities of North Yorkshire, however, house prices were higher than average for the county, as of early 2021: Harrogate (average value: £376,195), Knaresborough (£375,625), Tadcaster (£314,278), Leyburn (£309,165) and Ripon (£299,998), for example.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added for North Yorkshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.
Unemployment in the county was traditionally low in recent years, but the lockdowns and travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the economy during much of 2020 and into 2021. The UK government said in early February 2021 that it was planning "unprecedented levels of support to help businesses [in the UK] survive the crisis". A report published on 1 March 2021 stated that the unemployment rate in North Yorkshire had "risen to the highest level in nearly 5 years – with under 25s often bearing the worst of job losses".
York experienced high unemployment during lockdown periods. One analysis (by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership) predicted in August 2020 that "as many as 13,835 jobs in York will be lost in the scenario considered most likely, taking the city's unemployment rate to 14.5%". Some critics claimed that part of the problem was caused by "over-reliance on the booming tourism industry at the expense of a long-term economic plan". A report in mid June 2020 stated that unemployment had risen 114 per cent over the previous year because of restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic.
Tourism in the county was expected to increase after the restrictions imposed due the pandemic are relaxed. One reason for the expected increase is the airing of All Creatures Great and Small, a TV series about the vet James Herriot, based on a successful series of books; it was largely filmed within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The show aired in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in early 2021. One source stated that visits to Yorkshire websites had increased significantly by late September 2020.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) bisects the county stopping at Northallerton,Thirsk and York. Passenger service companies in the area are London North Eastern Railway, Northern Rail, TransPennine Express and Grand Central.
LNER and Grand Central operate services to the capital on the ECML, Leeds Branch Line and the Northallerton–Eaglescliffe Line. LNER stop at York, Northallerton and on to County Durham or spur over to the Tees Valley Line for Thornaby and Middlesbrough. The operator also branch before the county for Leeds and run to Harrogate and Skipton. Grand Central stop at York, Thirsk Northallerton and Eaglescliffe then over to the Durham Coast Line in County Durham.
Northern operates the remaining lines in the county, including commuter services on the Harrogate Line, Airedale Line and York & Selby Lines, of which the former two are covered by the Metro ticketing area. Remaining branch lines operated by Northern include the Yorkshire Coast Line from Scarborough to Hull, York–Scarborough line via Malton, the Hull to York Line via Selby, the Tees Valley Line from Darlington to Saltburn via Middlesbrough and the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough to Whitby. Last but certainly not least, the Settle-Carlisle Line runs through the west of the county, with services again operated by Northern.
The county suffered badly under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Places such as Richmond, Ripon, Tadcaster, Helmsley, Pickering and the Wensleydale communities lost their passenger services. Notable lines closed were the Scarborough and Whitby Railway, Malton and Driffield Railway and the secondary main line between Northallerton and Harrogate via Ripon.
Heritage railways within North Yorkshire include: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, between Pickering and Grosmont, which opened in 1973; the Derwent Valley Light Railway near York; and the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. The Wensleydale Railway, which started operating in 2003, runs services between Leeming Bar and Redmire along a former freight-only line. The medium-term aim is to operate into Northallerton station on the ECML, once an agreement can be reached with Network Rail. In the longer term, the aim is to reinstate the full line west via Hawes to Garsdale on the Settle-Carlisle line.
York railway station is the largest station in the county, with 11 platforms and is a major tourist attraction in its own right. The station is immediately adjacent to the National Railway Museum.
The main road through the county is the north–south A1(M), which has gradually been upgraded in sections to motorway status since the early 1990s. The only other motorways within the county are the short A66(M) near Darlington and a small stretch of the M62 motorway close to Eggborough. The other nationally maintained trunk routes are the A168/A19, A64, A66 and A174.
Long-distance coach services are operated by National Express and Megabus. Local bus service operators include Arriva Yorkshire, Stagecoach, Harrogate Bus Company, The Keighley Bus Company, Scarborough & District (East Yorkshire), Yorkshire Coastliner, First York and the local Dales & District.
There are no major airports in the county itself, but nearby airports include Teesside International (Darlington), Newcastle and Leeds Bradford.
The main campus of Teesside University is in Middlesbrough, while York contains the main campuses of the University of York and York St John University. There are also two secondary campuses in the county: CU Scarborough, a campus of Coventry University, and Queen's Campus, Durham University in Thornaby-on-Tees.
Colleges
Middlesbrough College's sixth-form
Askham Bryan College of agriculture, Askham Bryan and Middlesbrough
Craven College, Skipton
Middlesbrough College
The Northern School of Art, Middlesbrough
Prior Pursglove College
Redcar & Cleveland College
Scarborough Sixth Form College
Scarborough TEC
Selby College
Stockton Riverside College, Thornaby
York College
Places of interest
Ampleforth College
Beningbrough Hall –
Black Sheep Brewery
Bolton Castle –
Brimham Rocks –
Castle Howard and the Howardian Hills –
Catterick Garrison
Cleveland Hills
Drax Power Station
Duncombe Park – stately home
Eden Camp Museum –
Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway –
Eston Nab
Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo –
Helmsley Castle –
Ingleborough Cave – show cave
John Smith's Brewery
Jorvik Viking Centre –
Lightwater Valley –
Lund's Tower
Malham Cove
Middleham Castle –
Mother Shipton's Cave –
National Railway Museum –
North Yorkshire Moors Railway –
Ormesby Hall – Palladian Mansion
Richmond Castle –
Ripley Castle – Stately home and historic village
Riverside Stadium
Samuel Smith's Brewery
Shandy Hall – stately home
Skipton Castle –
Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications –
Studley Royal Park –
Stump Cross Caverns – show cave
Tees Transporter Bridge
Theakston Brewery
Thornborough Henges
Wainman's Pinnacle
Wharram Percy
York Castle Museum –
Yorkshire Air Museum –
The Yorkshire Arboretum
Babylon: Its Coming Destruction!
by N. W. Hutchings
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The Scriptures speak of two Babylons: Babylon and Mystery Babylon. It could be concluded that Babylon was the original Babylon over which Nebuchadnezzar reigned, and Mystery Babylon the Iraq of today.
Another more plausible explanation is that Babylon is, of course, the Babylon of 600 B.C. that was a world empire, and it is also the one that destroyed the Temple and took the Jews into captivity. However, Mystery Babylon appears at the end of the age as we see the revival of the Roman Empire in the European Union within a world system, a New World Order, touted through international entities like the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Club of Rome, Council on Foreign Relations, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, etc., and even includes the Roman Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical leadership of most of the non-Catholic denominations. Other than 3 million Israelis in Israel, the Jew is still captive in the world. Therefore, it would seem logical that Mystery Babylon is the one-world system in its tripart identification: political, economic, and ecclesiastical. It would appear that the titular head of the system will be the person who will sit in the Temple of God on Mt. Moriah and claim to be the Messiah.
We read in Revelation 13:7 that this person, called the Son of Perdition and the Antichrist, will have power over all races, nations, and languages-this will be total political power over the earth. In Revelation 13:8 we read that everyone who is not a saved person during the Tribulation will worship this world dictator as a god. This will be total religious and ecclesiastical power. According to Revelation 13:12, there will be a high priest of the false religious system, but this ecclesiastic will be part of the beast system and preach that everyone should submit to the religious authority of the Antichrist. We also read in Revelation 13:15-17 that it be mandated by the Son of Perdition that any person who does not worship him as the "messiah," in order to get a mark and number, will be killed. This is total economic power.
The old Babylon, at least today, could not possibly fulfill the prophetic destruction described in Revelation 18. However, what about the destruction prophesied for the literal city of Babylon on the Euphrates River?
According to all archaeological reports found in numerous biblical dictionaries and encyclopedias, the Babylon (or Babel) founded by Nimrod and later ruled over by Hammurabi, encompassed 200 square miles. The city was protected by a double wall, with the great wall being 344 feet high and 86 feet wide. Chariot races were held on the wall, and in times of danger, troops could be swiftly moved to points of attack. The city was so big 25 bronze gates were in the wall on each side. In numerous prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament, the ultimate destruction of Babylon, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, is to come swiftly. Most biblical references claim that this was fulfilled when the armies of the Medes and Persians in about 540 B.C. diverted the Euphrates River and marched into the city under the walls. While the account of the fall of Babylon to Medo-Persia did, according to Daniel 5, happen in one day, it certainly was not destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. The city was only slightly damaged by the Medes and Persians because its fall happened so suddenly.
Babylon remained an important city during the 200 years of the Persian Empire. It was also an important political and commercial metropolis during the Grecian Empire. Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 320 B.C. When the Jews were allowed to return during the time of the Persian Empire, many remained in Babylon. At the time of Jesus Christ there were still 25,000 Jews in Babylon. Jesus commissioned Paul to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, and Peter was to go to the circumcision (Israelites). In carrying out this responsibility, we know that Peter did preach the Messianic Gospel to the Jews in Babylon in A.D. 63 (1 Pet. 5:13). The opinion of some that the Babylon referred to in this scripture was Rome is ridiculous.
With the decline of the Roman Empire the city of Babylon was not that important to world trade and commerce. Political, religious, and economic centers moved eastward and westward. Many of the beautiful bricks were carried off to be used in construction projects in Baghdad, Damascus, and cities of the decathlon. However, this was such a huge metropolis that the majority of the buildings and walls remained to be covered up with the sands of the Euphrates River and the blowing sands of the Middle East. The decline of Babylon was a slow process that occurred over a thousand years. There was no sudden destruction of Babylon, nor was it destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah.
There was considerable activity by German archaeologists during and after World War I. However, this activity was more of a nature of archaeological pillage, and certainly not reconstruction. The top 100 feet of the Ishtar Gate at Babylon was removed brick-by-brick and reassembled at the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. After the Germans, the French and English pillaged the ruins of Babylon under the sand. Many of the Babylonian artifacts are piled in the basement of the British Museum in London where there is so much junk from around the world that it probably will never be cataloged.
In 1971, UNESCO announced that it would help Iraq completely restore the ancient city of Babylon. The reconstruction would be under the general supervision of Saddam Hussein, who made his appearance in 1969 as the Iraqi strongman by hanging eight Jews on the streets of Baghdad as a warning for others to hit-the-road elsewhere. In 1978, 1 led a Southwest Radio Church tour of 103 to Iraq. One of the sites we visited was Babylon. There was a four-lane highway between Baghdad and Babylon with brick factories along the way turning out bricks for this tremendous reconstruction project. On one end of the brick was the name Nebuchadnezzar, and on the other end was the name Saddam Hussein who, then and now, envisions himself as a modern Nebuchadnezzar to restore the glory that was once Babylon's.
In spite of the 10-year suicidal war with Iran which began in 1980, Hussein continued the restoration project. In 1987 the rebuilding of the temples, the palaces, and the gardens had proceeded to a point where a month's Babylonian festival was set to declare to the world that Babylon had been restored to its former glory, and a new Nebuchadnezzar has been resurrected, or at least his spirit now lived in Saddam Hussein. To reference a story that appeared in the January 16, 1987, edition of the Los Angeles Times, Hussein appointed as marshal of the festival a musician by the name of Bashir, who invited famous musicians and personalities from around the world-the very best talent possible-to participate in the Grand Festival. In the invitations sent out to musicians, dancers, opera singers, movie stars, kings, queens, etc., a specific invitation was extended to Madonna, the sleazy rock singer, because as was noted, she lives in the heart of all Iraqi people.
It is not known exactly how the Babylonian Festival turned out, but we would presume it fared some better than Belshazzar's affair. In any event, the long war with Iran left Hussein short of funds to complete the rebuilding process, so in 1990 he invaded oil rich Kuwait. President Bush, along with the New World Order proponents, concluded that if Hussein got away with this take-away, he would also move to include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the other oil-producing fields in the Middle East. Then, as we read in Daniel 3, the world's leaders would have to come to him and fall down and worship his golden image.
All these plans were foreshadowed in the Babylonian Festival where he placed his huge portrait beside a replica of the Ishtar Gate; he commanded a world festival to convene in Babylon; he intended to prove God a liar, and he announced that Madonna lived in the heart of the Iraqi people. Mea Domina, Madonna, in Latin corresponds in meaning to Semiramis in the Chaldean-Goddess of Heaven. So, Mea Domina, Madonna, or Semiramis indeed is worshiped by Iraqis. Semiramis constructed the first huge obelisk (phallic symbol) in honor of her late husband, Nimrod. According to tradition, she conceived a son by Nimrod after he was dead. Semiramis named him Tammuz, Son of Heaven, and he was worshiped by some of the women of Israel who were captives in Babylon (Ezek. 8:14). This past year Madonna, the movie star, said she just had to have a child, so she did have one even though she was not married. Perhaps she was destined to fulfill the type. However, any connection between Mea Domina (Semiramis) and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is of pure Catholic invention.
President Bush based his hopes on a combined alliance of nations to stop Saddam Hussein. He announced on an international television network on September 11, 1990:
A new partnership of nations has emerged...Out of these troubled times, a New World Order can emerge...A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor Today that new world is struggling to be born...a world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle; a world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice; a world where the strong respect the rights of the weak...This is the vision I shared with President Gorbachev in Helsinki.
The subsequent effort to divest Saddam Hussein of his Kuwaiti dream was 90 percent the United States; 9 percent England; and 1 percent the other 37 nations. However, all members of the alliance were represented in some way, even though they may have only sent a symbolic firecracker. And President Bush, who was the idol of the free world in just six months, became one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of the United States, and was replaced by an unknown womanizing Arkansawyer, showing just how fickle is the uncertainty of the human mind.
The scenario for the Desert Storm/New World Order war was prophesied by Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 13:1, 4-5: "The burden of Babylon... The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land."
In January 1991, representative armies from five continents, 39 nations, came with loud weapons to destroy the ability of Iraq to make war. Did it happen? No! Did the Bible say it would happen? No! Why? It was not God's time. However, what did it signify? We read in verse 6: "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty."
Even though the military capability of Saddam Hussein was not destroyed, it signaled that the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation, was near. Following verse 6 is an interlude until we get to verse 19 in the Day of the Lord: 'And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldea's' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."
Babylon will be destroyed in an overwhelming judgment of fire, but it will be in the Tribulation, which may be near, but not now. This is why we see Saddam Hussein continuing to be such a problem today, and also why it defies reason, human or inhuman, as to why the job was not completed in 1991.
Now why would, from a New World Order viewpoint, this reconstructed city be destroyed, perhaps by an H-bomb? We keep hearing about the germ factories that Hussein has, but so do other nations. Why is the U.N. so concerned ,about the germs that Hussein owns? According to the February 4, 1998, edition of the Near East Report, both the Washington Post and New York Times have confirmed that U.N. inspectors uncovered a 1995 agreement between Russia and Iraq whereby Russia would give Hussein factories to produce huge quantities of biological weapons. Inspectors also uncovered evidence that the machinery had already been delivered, then the Russian government, evidently with the knowledge of Boris Yeltsin, lied about it. This caused grave concern in the Pentagon. Biological warfare is just not the same anymore. I refer to pages 41-45 of the book The New Creators:
At least twenty years ago Congress was warned to place government restrictions on microbiological experimentation. The April 1, 1977, edition of Time reported in part:
"Appearing before a Senate subcommittee ...HEW Secretary Joseph Caliban asked Congress to impose federal restrictions on recombinant DNA research, a new form of genetic inquiry involving E. coli ....DNA with the DNA of plants, animals, and other bacteria. By this process, they may well be creating forms of life different from any that exist on earth....What would happen, they ask, if by accident or design, one variety of re-engineered E. coli proved dangerous? By escaping from the lab and multiplying...it could find its way into human intestines and cause baffling diseases...Calder's biology chairman, Robert Sunshine, concludes: 'Biologists have become, without wanting it, the custodians of great and terrible power It is idle to pretend otherwise.'"
That the AIDS virus could have been the result of mutations resulting from genetic engineering experiments seems to be the insinuation of Karl Johnson of the National Institute of Health, quoted on page 603 of The Coming Plague:
"I worry about all this research on virulence. It's only a matter of months--years, at most--before people nail down the genes for virulence and airborne transmission of influenza, Ebola, Lassa, you name it. And then any crackpot with a few thousand dollars' worth of equipment and a college biology education under his belt could manufacture what would make Ebola look like a walk around the park."
Microbes and viruses can be genetically re-engineered now to cause any number of new and deadly diseases. Jesus said that disease epidemics would be a judgment in the last days, and we read of the boils that would affect men on earth during the Tribulation. There are at least 30 references to pestilences in the books of the prophets, and many of these are in a Tribulation setting. Hussein has played games with the U.N. inspectors, and through trickery keeps moving his deadly pets from one location to the next.
A news report from Jerusalem titled "Saddam Hiding Bio-Weapons Under Babylon?" dated March 9,1998, is interestingly related to our subject:
German newspapers this week published new disclosures on Iraq's military capabilities. The Daily Bold reported that Saddam Hussein has hidden a large supply of nerve gas and biological weapons beneath the ruins of ancient Babylon, on the assumption that the United States would not dare to bomb the archaeological and historical site.
A few weeks ago I watched an imagined scenario on television where the inhabitants of a town had been infected with a deadly new virus for which no vaccine could be found. In order to save the country, the military was ordered to obliterate the town and its inhabitants to save the rest of the nation and, perhaps, the world.
The biblical scenario in Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50-52 specifically state that God uses the nations to bring judgment against Babylon. Could Israel, the United States, or some other nation drop nuclear bombs and missiles on Babylon if it meant saving other nations? Yes! Would this fulfill the biblical prophecy that Babylon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes!
We read in Ezekiel 29 that Egypt will be so desolated that even a dog will not be able to walk over the land for 40 years. This indicates nuclear destruction. However, we continue to read that Egypt will be in the midst of the nations that will be desolated.
No better close to this article can be found than 2 Peter 3:9-14: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
April 1998, vol. 5. No. 4 Keeping Time On God's Prophetic Clock L-838.
Copyright 1998 by Southwest Radio Church.
Mrs B spotted these some years ago in the window of a charity shop. I'm not sure which galaxy they come from, but it is pleasing to see that the standards of costume obtaining there approximate to those of 1950s England ...always, to me, the sartorial ideal. I have slight reservations about the apparently male child, who seems to have espoused workmen's denim trousers and a hooded pullover, but I should think his mother probably understands that it's just a phase he's going through. The two female figures are admirably attired, and the mother's print dress and sensible cardy are especially admirable.
All those telly-pundits, bending over backwards to prove how insignificant and "accidental" we are, never tire of dazzling us with the inconceivably vast numbers of inhabited planets which, they assert, must certainly exist in the "known universe". Well I hope so because, if their number is so great, indeed infinite, there must somewhere be one where a pastoral, pre-industrial England exists. I dream of a happy, far-off planet wherein all our loveliest landscapes ...the low hills, small fields and sunken lanes of Devon, the patchwork quilt of the north country, with its drystone walls and deluged fells, the sluggish, bough-overhung, dragonfly-haunted chalk streams of the South... are brought together in a microcosm of a lost England. A well-nourished, rosy-cheeked peasantry contentedly till their smallholdings, shear their sheep and milk their cows as wood smoke rises into the still twilight and the great bells boom across the woods and pastures from the steeples and belfries of the neighbouring town (pop. 844). With the greatest reluctance I exclude from this idyll all coal-powered industry including ...no, I don't like it any more than you do... steam railways. However beautiful, they introduced lamentable changes that made ours an unhappy world.
The Rage Against the War Machine rally brought together opponents of Ukraine, from the right and the left, including communists, Code Pink and the Proud Boys, eager to see Putin win against democracy. Rand Paul and others spoke at this event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The crowd was made-up of crackpots of all stripes from Qanon fanatics to those that believe that the government controls the weather.
It was absolutely shocking to see. Never did I imagine that I would see a CCCP flag at the Washington Monument - and that it woulds be supported by Republicans! That is the upside-down world that we're living in where the GOP now supports Russian tyranny.
22,8,2017. The footpath across the meadows at Muker, leading to the River Swale - with Crackpot Hill in the far distance.