Earth is round, flat earthers are nucking futz

I’d hope it had far more structural integrity than a jenga tower…

Well, being as jenga (and the dominoes used earlier) aren’t the most stable of structures, there’s probably minimal comparison given the twin towers were designed to withstand aircraft impacts exceeding the forces encountered

Have you ever played jenga?

So why didn’t it follow the path of least resistance?

Let’s go back to this for a moment…

Frankly, it seems utterly ridiculous~ ‘A 30 year conspiracy’

But suspending disbelief for a moment, lets scale it down a bit… rather than 30 years, let’s try and work out how long it would take to rig the building by covert means…

Say rather than overt demolition experts, you had covert operatives like removals firms (an orange 5 packed with materials wouldn’t hold much… a filing cabinet however), or residential art students, who were in the towers overnight.

Of course, this is conjecture, but for the tower to fall into it’s own envelope, when tilting like this is hard to explain

Controlled demolition of the towers is conjecture… there’s been compelling arguments for both sides.

I’d like to hear people’s theories on why the collapse was so uniform in comparison to how severely the top of the tower was tilting:

Oh, are you talking about controlled demolition?

That’s all just conjecture…

I’m trying to deal with facts rather than wasting my time arguing with knob-ends on the internet

That’s why I mention stuff like the increase in Opium production in Afghanistan and Huffman Aviation’s Rudi Dekkers, Wally Hillard and Michael Brassingtons links to the drugs trade, a bit like CIA pilot Barry Seal.

I even put a disclaimer up regarding the whistleblowers posted:

A quick google suggests there is indeed a fair few whistleblowers…

Whilst I’m not 100% on everything James Corbett mentions, here are a few examples:

That said, there is a lot of truth in there…

Whistleblower to what exactly?

Would that be the same BBC that had Tony Blair on this morning, lamenting fake news (forgetting the whole WMD thing) and stating Israel and Saudi Arabia are the most progressive countries in the Middle East, somehow forgetting about the plight of Yemenis and Palestinians?

Or the same BBC that had Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on as it happened…

Odd that he should mention CIA, MI6 and Mossad (all involved in Operation Cyclone) knew full background of terrorists considering what we’ve come to understand about wahhabism and Saudi Arabia (and Bandar Bin Sultan)…

In other news Ehud Barack put Harvey Weinstein on to Black Cube (just don’t mention Kroll, or Michael Cherkasky)

Nope, definitely no whistleblowers here:

The 9/11 Whistleblowers

The 9/11 Commission – The myth that the 9/11 commission report represents an adequate investigation into the events of 9/11 is perhaps best exposed by the commissioners themselves, 6 out of 10 of whom have questioned the commission and its conclusions personally (namely Kean and Hamilton, Kerrey, Roemer, Lehman and Cleland). Commission co-chairman Thomas Kean once famously remarked that the Commission was “set up to fail.” Commission members considered bringing criminal charges against Pentagon officials who had deliberately lied to them about the military’s complete lack of response on that day. One of the commissioners, Max Cleland, even resigned because the commission had been “deliberately compromised by the president of the United States.”

Not a single mention of a conspiracy either…

911 Commissioner Bob Kerrey claims 911 was a 30 year conspiracy

Richard Andrew Grove – In 2000, Richard Andrew Grove was working for Silverstream Software, a software development company specializing in enterprise architecture software. By October of that year he had landed the firm their largest client in the company’s history: Marsh & McLennan. After finding evidence that Silverstream was overbilling Marsh by nearly $7 million and being told to keep quiet by both his own management and those he confided to at Marsh, he was fired. After his termination, he was invited to present his evidence at a staff meeting in Marsh’s offices where Marsh employees who were suspicious of such transactions themselves were gathered. That meeting was on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center. It was the 11th of September, 2001. And everyone who was in attendance at the meeting died there that day. Grove, who had been late for the meeting, survived. His remarkable story, as well as subsequent events, led him to start piecing together how 9/11 helped financial institutions and insurance companies cover up billions of dollars in fraud by eliminating those who were asking questions about it.

Richard Grove, Wall Street Whistleblower

Sibel Edmonds – In the wake of 9/11, Sibel Edmonds heeded the FBI’s call for Middle Eastern language experts to support their counterterrorism unit. Fluent in Turkish and Azerbaijani and conversational in Farsi, she joined the FBI as a translator on September 15, 2001. She soon discovered gross negligence and criminal conspiracy in the FBI and State Department, including deliberately mistranslated documents in the Bureau’s possession before 9/11 that contained information about the attacks, nuclear spies being facilitated by top government officials and foreign operatives who were taken in for questioning after 9/11 being released because they were connected to those spy rings. A 2005 report from the Office of the Inspector General determined that none of Edmonds’ allegations can be refuted. In 2009, Edmonds revealed that Osama Bin Laden had been working for U.S. intelligence right up to the day of 9/11.

Sibel Edmonds: Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Right Up Until 9/11 PT1

William Bergman – In August 2001 the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued a non-routine supervisory letter warning Fed banks to be vigilant in monitoring suspicious activity reports. At the same time, the United States’ economy was experiencing its largest June-August spike in M1 money supply since 1947, with more than $5 billion being added to the currency in circulation over that period. Piecing this information together at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago two years later, economist Bill Bergman wondered if the sudden infusion of currency might have been an indicator of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, as those with assets in danger of being frozen in the wake of such an attack would naturally want to liquidate their holdings before an investigation could occur. When Bergman wrote to the Board of Governors to ask for clarification as to why they had issued their supervisory letter, he was told that he had committed “an egregious breach of protocol in calling the Board staff and asking the question.”

Coleen Rowley – When the so-called “20th hijacker” Zaccharias Moussaoui was detained on August 15th, 2001, agents in the Minneapolis FBI field office immediately sought a criminal warrant to search his belongings. Management at the FBI dealing with the request threw up numerous obstacles to the agents, and even withheld information from them, including the now-infamous Phoenix Memo written by an agent in Arizona warning of terrorists training in flight schools for a possible upcoming attack. The request was denied and agents were prevented from searching Moussaoui’s laptop, which contained information that would have tipped the FBI off to the 9/11 plot. The Minneapolis field office Chief Counsel, Coleen Rowley, has been very public with her disgust at the conduct of FBI management during the case and its subsequent review, and she has supported causes like NYC CAN which seek to re-open the 9/11 investigation.

J. Michael Springmann – A 20-year veteran of the State Department’s Foreign service, J. Michael Springmann served 18 months as the head of the visa section at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1988-89. During that time he repeatedly rejected visa applications from unqualified individuals only to have his decisions overturned by the head of the consulate. When he returned to Washington, he discovered that the Jeddah consulate was being used as a place for funnelling Afghan mujahedeen into the U.S. for training, facilitated by the CIA on behalf of their asset, Osama bin Laden. The Jeddah consulate would be the very office that issued 15 of the alleged 9/11 hijackers’ visas to enter the United States. After numerous complaints up the chain of command, Springmann’s contract with the State Department was not renewed.

Jeddah, Visa Express & J. Michael Springmann

Robert Wright – In the 1990s, Special Agent Robert Wright of the FBI’s Chicago field office spearheaded an investigation into terrorist financing codenamed Vulgar Betrayal. The investigation uncovered information about Yassin Al-Qadi, a terrorist financier who would go on to be designated a global terrorist financier by the U.S. treasury in the wake of 9/11. Vulgar Betrayal led to information about the African embassy bombings in 1998 and resulted in the seizure of $1.4 million of terrorist financing. Despite the investigation’s remarkable success, however, Wright was taken off of Vulgar Betrayal in 1999 and reduced to a paper pusher. In 2002, Wright went public with information about how his investigations had been systematically starved for funds, hindered and obstructed by FBI management and revealed that he believes 9/11 could have been prevented if he had been allowed to continue his investigation. The Bureau prevented him from releasing a book about his experience. He was threatened with legal action if he revealed any details about what he had been investigating.

Indira Singh – As a risk management consultant for J.P. Morgan in 2001, Indira Singh was tasked with implementing the next generation of risk management software for the firm. Working for one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Singh wanted to choose a reputable software vendor for the task, one with a proven track record of working with the sensitive information of important clients. She solicited a presentation from Ptech, an enterprise architecture software firm whose clients included some of the most sensitive departments in the U.S. government, including the FBI, the Department of Defense, the Treasury, the IRS, the US Navy and the White House. After performing due diligence on the company, Singh discovered that it had been started in part by funds from Yassin Al-Qadi (the same Specially Designated Global Terrorist that Robert Wright’s investigation had been focused on). She discovered many other disturbing links between Ptech officers and suspected terrorist organizations. Ptech had been conducting tests on the interoperability of FAA and NORAD computer systems in the event of an emergency on the morning of 9/11. When she tried to bring this information to the FBI in Boston she was told by one agent that she was in a better position to investigate the case than the Bureau was.

Indira Singh Testimony

Barry Jennings – Barry Jennings was the Deputy Director of Emergency Services for the New York City Housing Department. On the morning of 9/11, he received a phone call informing him that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and asking him to go to the Office of Emergency Management in World Trade Center Building 7. Arriving at the office with New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Hess, the men discovered that the OEM had been abandoned. When they attempted to leave there was a series of explosions inside the building, trapping them in the stairwell. Eventually Jennings and Hess were rescued by firefighters, and as they were leaving World Trade Center 7, they had to step over a number of bodies. Jennings’ account contradicts the official government explanation of the collapse of World Trade Center 7 at 5:20 p.m. that day, which stated there were no explosions or casualties in the collapse. Jennings died on August 19, 2008 under extremely suspicious circumstances.

Barry Jennings Uncut

A quick google suggests there is indeed a fair few whistleblowers…

Whilst I’m not 100% on everything James Corbett mentions, here are a few examples:

The 9/11 Whistleblowers

The 9/11 Commission – The myth that the 9/11 commission report represents an adequate investigation into the events of 9/11 is perhaps best exposed by the commissioners themselves, 6 out of 10 of whom have questioned the commission and its conclusions personally (namely Kean and Hamilton, Kerrey, Roemer, Lehman and Cleland). Commission co-chairman Thomas Kean once famously remarked that the Commission was “set up to fail.” Commission members considered bringing criminal charges against Pentagon officials who had deliberately lied to them about the military’s complete lack of response on that day. One of the commissioners, Max Cleland, even resigned because the commission had been “deliberately compromised by the president of the United States.”

911 Commissioner Bob Kerrey claims 911 was a 30 year conspiracy

Richard Andrew Grove – In 2000, Richard Andrew Grove was working for Silverstream Software, a software development company specializing in enterprise architecture software. By October of that year he had landed the firm their largest client in the company’s history: Marsh & McLennan. After finding evidence that Silverstream was overbilling Marsh by nearly $7 million and being told to keep quiet by both his own management and those he confided to at Marsh, he was fired. After his termination, he was invited to present his evidence at a staff meeting in Marsh’s offices where Marsh employees who were suspicious of such transactions themselves were gathered. That meeting was on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center. It was the 11th of September, 2001. And everyone who was in attendance at the meeting died there that day. Grove, who had been late for the meeting, survived. His remarkable story, as well as subsequent events, led him to start piecing together how 9/11 helped financial institutions and insurance companies cover up billions of dollars in fraud by eliminating those who were asking questions about it.

Richard Grove, Wall Street Whistleblower

Sibel Edmonds – In the wake of 9/11, Sibel Edmonds heeded the FBI’s call for Middle Eastern language experts to support their counterterrorism unit. Fluent in Turkish and Azerbaijani and conversational in Farsi, she joined the FBI as a translator on September 15, 2001. She soon discovered gross negligence and criminal conspiracy in the FBI and State Department, including deliberately mistranslated documents in the Bureau’s possession before 9/11 that contained information about the attacks, nuclear spies being facilitated by top government officials and foreign operatives who were taken in for questioning after 9/11 being released because they were connected to those spy rings. A 2005 report from the Office of the Inspector General determined that none of Edmonds’ allegations can be refuted. In 2009, Edmonds revealed that Osama Bin Laden had been working for U.S. intelligence right up to the day of 9/11.

Sibel Edmonds: Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Right Up Until 9/11 PT1

William Bergman – In August 2001 the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued a non-routine supervisory letter warning Fed banks to be vigilant in monitoring suspicious activity reports. At the same time, the United States’ economy was experiencing its largest June-August spike in M1 money supply since 1947, with more than $5 billion being added to the currency in circulation over that period. Piecing this information together at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago two years later, economist Bill Bergman wondered if the sudden infusion of currency might have been an indicator of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, as those with assets in danger of being frozen in the wake of such an attack would naturally want to liquidate their holdings before an investigation could occur. When Bergman wrote to the Board of Governors to ask for clarification as to why they had issued their supervisory letter, he was told that he had committed “an egregious breach of protocol in calling the Board staff and asking the question.”

Coleen Rowley – When the so-called “20th hijacker” Zaccharias Moussaoui was detained on August 15th, 2001, agents in the Minneapolis FBI field office immediately sought a criminal warrant to search his belongings. Management at the FBI dealing with the request threw up numerous obstacles to the agents, and even withheld information from them, including the now-infamous Phoenix Memo written by an agent in Arizona warning of terrorists training in flight schools for a possible upcoming attack. The request was denied and agents were prevented from searching Moussaoui’s laptop, which contained information that would have tipped the FBI off to the 9/11 plot. The Minneapolis field office Chief Counsel, Coleen Rowley, has been very public with her disgust at the conduct of FBI management during the case and its subsequent review, and she has supported causes like NYC CAN which seek to re-open the 9/11 investigation.

J. Michael Springmann – A 20-year veteran of the State Department’s Foreign service, J. Michael Springmann served 18 months as the head of the visa section at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1988-89. During that time he repeatedly rejected visa applications from unqualified individuals only to have his decisions overturned by the head of the consulate. When he returned to Washington, he discovered that the Jeddah consulate was being used as a place for funnelling Afghan mujahedeen into the U.S. for training, facilitated by the CIA on behalf of their asset, Osama bin Laden. The Jeddah consulate would be the very office that issued 15 of the alleged 9/11 hijackers’ visas to enter the United States. After numerous complaints up the chain of command, Springmann’s contract with the State Department was not renewed.

Jeddah, Visa Express & J. Michael Springmann

Robert Wright – In the 1990s, Special Agent Robert Wright of the FBI’s Chicago field office spearheaded an investigation into terrorist financing codenamed Vulgar Betrayal. The investigation uncovered information about Yassin Al-Qadi, a terrorist financier who would go on to be designated a global terrorist financier by the U.S. treasury in the wake of 9/11. Vulgar Betrayal led to information about the African embassy bombings in 1998 and resulted in the seizure of $1.4 million of terrorist financing. Despite the investigation’s remarkable success, however, Wright was taken off of Vulgar Betrayal in 1999 and reduced to a paper pusher. In 2002, Wright went public with information about how his investigations had been systematically starved for funds, hindered and obstructed by FBI management and revealed that he believes 9/11 could have been prevented if he had been allowed to continue his investigation. The Bureau prevented him from releasing a book about his experience. He was threatened with legal action if he revealed any details about what he had been investigating.

Indira Singh – As a risk management consultant for J.P. Morgan in 2001, Indira Singh was tasked with implementing the next generation of risk management software for the firm. Working for one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Singh wanted to choose a reputable software vendor for the task, one with a proven track record of working with the sensitive information of important clients. She solicited a presentation from Ptech, an enterprise architecture software firm whose clients included some of the most sensitive departments in the U.S. government, including the FBI, the Department of Defense, the Treasury, the IRS, the US Navy and the White House. After performing due diligence on the company, Singh discovered that it had been started in part by funds from Yassin Al-Qadi (the same Specially Designated Global Terrorist that Robert Wright’s investigation had been focused on). She discovered many other disturbing links between Ptech officers and suspected terrorist organizations. Ptech had been conducting tests on the interoperability of FAA and NORAD computer systems in the event of an emergency on the morning of 9/11. When she tried to bring this information to the FBI in Boston she was told by one agent that she was in a better position to investigate the case than the Bureau was.

Indira Singh Testimony

Barry Jennings – Barry Jennings was the Deputy Director of Emergency Services for the New York City Housing Department. On the morning of 9/11, he received a phone call informing him that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and asking him to go to the Office of Emergency Management in World Trade Center Building 7. Arriving at the office with New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Hess, the men discovered that the OEM had been abandoned. When they attempted to leave there was a series of explosions inside the building, trapping them in the stairwell. Eventually Jennings and Hess were rescued by firefighters, and as they were leaving World Trade Center 7, they had to step over a number of bodies. Jennings’ account contradicts the official government explanation of the collapse of World Trade Center 7 at 5:20 p.m. that day, which stated there were no explosions or casualties in the collapse. Jennings died on August 19, 2008 under extremely suspicious circumstances.

Barry Jennings Uncut

Aig, I dunno what you mena…

Stable countries don’t do much for the arms trade though bae…

In other news, sure I read somewhere that HSBC was formed as a result of the Opium Wars…

I don’t know much about these things, but given his time in Afghanistan, perhaps Sherard Cowper-Coles can help elaborate on such matters.

No it was far handier to wage a proxy war with the Russians in Afghanistan by spending trillions arming the mujahadeen and promising them that if they beat the Russians the would have the full support of the British and American governments and then abandon them after the Russians were beaten causing a civil war which led to a power vacuum which allowed the Taliban to gain control of the country creating the perfect environment for Bin Laden to organise Al Qaeda and plan a terrorist plot to fly commercial jet aircraft into the twin towers….as a distraction to get rid of whatever they needed to get rid of in tower 7.

Obviously.

Pff, next you’ll be saying that opiate production in Afghanistan has increased massively since the 2001 allied invasion.

Or that Huffman aviation involved in the training of the 9/11 hijackers had a history of involvement in the covert drugs trade.

That Mohammed Atta certainly knew how to party…

Ask Rudi Dekkers, Wally Hillard or Michael F Brassington

There’s a lot of soggy chips when you’re sawing timber…

Basically as in the video…

Wrap foam around tyreless rim, cut to length, secure with zip tie, then remove from rim

Fit one bead of tyre

Insert insert, can be a bit of a faff feeding it around the rim and making sure the gap lines up with the valve, but it’s pretty simple really.

Pour in tubeless sealant of your choice.

Insert other bead of tyre, grimacing at how white your knuckles are as you manoeuvre the final portion into place.

Inflate and dance merrily at the combined achievements of saving money and weight in comparison to the commercial products on the market, whilst ensuring your rim is ready for a solid pounding.

How did the 30mm work for you. I only run up to 2.3/2.4 tyres on not that wide rims.

I’m running it on rims that are 23mm internal, 28mm external with 2.4 tyres…

Main reason I went for it is because I always used to burp tubeless, so wanted the extra bead support, but also fancied more rim protection after a summer in the alps dinging more rims than a colonic surgeon.

My burping issues are cured and although our local trails aren’t that rocky, I’ve cased into tree stumps a few times and my rim is as pristine as if it’d been bleached…

That said, I’d reccomend going a bit wider if you regularly encounter mad rock and I’d like to try 40 or 50mm widths to see about the extra sidewall support.

So expanding on this a bit:

Surely plastics themselves aren’t the problem…

More the fact that since we live in an oil dominated society, the vast majority of plastics are oil based.

If the oil industry didn’t have such vast lobbying power (no doubt along with the economic convenience of existing production facilities), perhaps we’d see more immediate adoption of Bioplastics.

Turns out that in addition to the ‘spooky’ links between long time director of Coca-Cola Herbert Allen Jr and ex CIA head George Tenent, there’s also another glaring conflict of interest closer to home…

John Manzoni Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office had a high level career in the oil industry for almost 30 years, (Manzoni was Chief Executive for Refining & Marketing at BP at the time of the Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005)…

In February 2014, Manzoni joined the British Civil Service in a senior role as Chief Executive of the Major Projects Authority, a role under the remit of the Cabinet Office.[10] His former BP boss John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, who had also left BP in 2007 and to whom Manzoni had been second-in-command, sat on Manzoni’s appointment panel.

But what does this have to do with plastic?

As of 2015, Manzoni continues to be a non-executive director for SABMiller, for which he is paid £100,000 a year.

SABMiller

was the world’s second-largest brewer measured by revenues (after Anheuser-Busch InBev) and was also a major bottler of Coca-Cola. Its brands included Fosters, Miller, and Pilsner Urquell.[2] It operated in 80 countries worldwide and in 2009 sold around 21 billion litres of beverages.

SAB Miller also owned over 150 market-leading local brands. The company was one of the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers and had carbonated soft-drink bottling operations in 14 markets. These were subsequently owned by the new Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV entity which is also a PepsiCo bottler. In December 2016, Coca Cola Co. bought the Coca Cola operations in Africa and in two Central American countries. The deal requires regulatory approval and should close by the end of 2017.

Nothing to see here, as if kids need a planet anyhoo…

Thinking about it, it wasn’t that I couldn’t get hold of 50mm backer rod, it was more that I didn’t realize until I’d already got the 30mm stuff off ebay.

If you have wide rims, probably worth the upgrade and it’s still not gonna bankrupt you:

https://www.dortechdirect.co.uk/polyethylene-foam-backer-rod-50mm-circular.html

If you want a simpler and easier alternative to a flat style Huck Norris, with the additional benefits of swanky pants Cushcore, watch this vid…

Only problem is 50mm backer rod isn’t that easy to come by in UK; I’ve made do with 30mm (without having to split it down middle as video suggests) and it’s done a fine job so far, costs about £1 an end and weighs about 40g per wheel (I’m #26forlife mind)

Pool noodles are another option, but not sure how they’ll do on circumference for all you new fangled big wheel warriors.

Given all the distraction, propaganda and bullshit we’ve been bombarded with throughout our lives, pretty much everyone on the planet is a victim of a form of Gaslighting…

A good case study of how offshore shell companies are used comes from the Al-Yamamah deal…

But the MoD was still lobbying abroad on BAE’s behalf and running huge government-to-government contracts, particularly the Saudi al-Yamamah deal.

Instead of fulfilling their international promises, officials merely tried to put more distance between themselves and the companies doing the bribery.

What it did was not illegal, but the firm constructed what might well be called a global money-laundering machine.

The system was run from a secure block, Warwick House, at BAE’s Farnborough premises. “HQ Marketing Services ” was headed by Hugh Dickinson, who was also responsible for company liaison with MI6. His long-serving deputy was Julia Aldridge.

For a supposedly reputable public company, the methods used were surprising.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office later concluded: “The whole system is maintained in such conditions of secrecy that there is a legitimate suspicion concerning the real purpose of the payments.”

BAE set up a front company called Novelmight Ltd. With the help of the Swiss branch of its bankers, Lloyds TSB, the firm discreetly rented a high-security office in Geneva, on the sixth floor of a block at 48 Route des Acacias.

Video surveillance cameras were installed, along with an encrypted fax and phone system. A specialist from the UK was flown out to sweep the vault for bugs. Then, just before Britain signed up to the OECD convention in 1997, the filing cabinets and safes containing the agent details were loaded into a van and driven by trusted staff from Farnborough to Geneva.

BAE added a new layer of concealment when the convention came into force in 1999. Novelmight was officially closed down as a UK-registered subsidiary.

But it was secretly re-registered as an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands, a financial “black hole” in the Caribbean where beneficial ownership can be hidden. Now there was apparently no paperwork at all to link BAE with Novelmight.

When the agreements were ready to be made or renewed, Dickinson or Aldridge flew to Geneva and unlocked the office at Route des Acacias for the signing.

The contracts were kept in Geneva and could only be inspected there.

The purpose of these tortuous arrangements seems to have been to ensure that nothing questionable involving the hiring of agents took place within UK legal jurisdiction.

But a further secret payment system was also needed for BAE to transfer large sums in cash to those agents.

BAE used offshore front companies once again. In February 1998, “Red Diamond Trading Ltd” was anonymously incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It was used to channel payments all over the world, via Red Diamond accounts in London, Switzerland and New York.

We have traced secret payments going to agents in South America, Tanzania, Romania, South Africa, Qatar, Chile and the Czech Republic.

The next year, BAE set up a second front company, purely to handle the Saudi commission payments for al-Yamamah. “Poseidon Trading Investments Ltd” was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on June 25 1999.

Those close to it say more than £1bn has passed through its accounts to Saudi agents, in transfers made by Lloyds TSB.

A different method was used to disguise corrupt benefits for Saudi officials who went on vacation trips to the US and Europe. This was what became known as BAE’s “slush fund”.

Bear in mind that’s just a snapshot of a vastly complex international network… which is of course linked to this:

and sewing the seeds that led to the terror attacks that have been suffered around the world.

Wonder how much money relating to arms trafficking, the global drugs trade and the intelligence services is handled offshore…

Interesting to look back on the Panama Papers thread:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/jivehoney-and-tales-of-the-unexpected/page/26?replies=904#post-7691500

the wealthy minority running the country world to the benefit of themselves.

Let’s imagine for a moment that all of the following problems can be linked to offshore tax havens, most of which come under the jurisdiction of the British Crown

Illicit Arms Trafficking
ISIS/Daesh
The Refugee Crisis
Human Trafficking and organized Child Abuse
Environmental Catastrophe
Climate Change and the melting of the Polar Ice Caps

Worth having a go at making a positive change?

There’s even mention of BAE Systems and HSBC in there…

Further sources have revealed that Gerald Carroll’s Farnborough Aerospace Aerospace Centre in Hampshire England was “targeted” by BAE Systems and HSBC International within the framework of a systematic break-up embezzlement operation

Now surely this can’t have anything to do with the Queen?

My internet is not fast enough to trawl through the whole thread at the mo… has anyone mentioned Kevin Spacey’s trip on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane with Bill Clinton yet?

(Not that the palace would acknowledge such matters you understand)

That reminds me of a funny incident in Lidl in Bourg St Maurice when I was out there for the summer.

A Scandinavian sounding family were behind me in the queue, with a massive sack of plastic bottles; just as I’d paid and was packing my stuff, they tried asking the cashier how they got their deposit back… she looked totally disgusted and bemused and turned to me, hoping I could explain what was going on; I did my best to explain, then she, with typical gallic flair guffawed ‘poubelle’… I stifled my laugh and left giggling to myself.

Whilst it was funny at the time, in a way it’s a perfect illustration of how we can be trained into habits on both sides of the equation.

Along with the environmental benefits, deposits on bottles can also have social benefits; I remember when I was in Central America, entrepreneurial folk (kids and adults) would go around collecting bottles which had been discarded, and ask you for your bottle when you finished.

What are the chances…

just got a phone call from Greenpeace about Coca-Cola and how they are one of the largest contributors to the global plastic problem…

By some strange twist of fate, I’ve recently been doing a bit of research into a somewhat questionable investment bank called Allen & Company.

Turns out that long time president of Allen & Company (albeit now run by his son), Herbert Allen Jr has been on the board of directors of Coca-Cola since 1982, when he sold Columbia Pictures to Coca-Cola.

Worth bearing in mind that George Tenet ex head of the CIA who was in charge of intelligence throughout the period before 9/11 and during the build up and execution of the resource rich invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq works for Allen & Company.

May go some way to explaining the economic ties between the oil and plastics industries…

Greenpeace’s solution of deposit refundable bottles, just like in the old days of Corona and Irn-Bru seems a pretty straightforward fix, without needing to dabble too far in R&D.

Surely sustainable and biodegradable Bioplastics are the long term solution though.

OK

Are all your router settings correct? I had a weird one where the MTU wasn’t right and I’d get random signal dropouts. Took quite a bit of finding as it’s not something I’d changed or had need to change.

You certainly know your onions… did update the MTU figure a few weeks back on the advice of the ISP tech team; improved from no internet whatsoever to flow equivalent to a constipated zygotic mosquito.

Well if it was a male part, it’d be called a stud; as for what the female equivalent of a stud is…

Anyhoo, think you might find something similar described as a tie rod.

Surely plastics themselves aren’t the problem…

More the fact that since we live in an oil dominated society, the vast majority of plastics are oil based.

If the oil industry didn’t have such vast lobbying power (no doubt along with the economic convenience of existing production facilities), perhaps we’d see more immediate adoption of Bioplastics.

There’s a clever Icelandic dude who has used algae[/url]:

a design student named Ari Jonsson entered in a design festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. He brought something with him that has the potential to change the world. It’s very simple: a bottle of water. But not just any bottle of water… Jonsson’s design holds its shape while there’s water in it. When it’s empty, it begins to decompose.

Globally, we use 500 billion plastic bags every year, and every single piece of that plastic takes anywhere from 400 to 1000 years to decompose. Of all the trash on the surface of the ocean, some 90% of it is composed of plastic. And to really blow your mind, think about this: except for the small percentage of plastic that’s been burned, every single piece of plastic ever made is still floating around somewhere. That drinking straw you used yesterday for less than a minute? That’ll be around for the next half-century.

Edit with bonus link for choice quoteability:

“I can’t claim that this is the perfect solution for our problem with plastic bottles,” said Jónsson. “But it’s a start and an idea that hopefully helps us to look at new ways to solve the problem… Switching to reusable bottles is also great, but that will have its pros and cons, just like my project, the more ways we can tackle this issue the better.”

How’s your router connected to the phone line? I’ve had problems with the micro-filter. The router should be connected to the master socket not any extension sockets.

Yep, router is straight into the master socket… have repeatedly removed the filtered faceplate when speaking to ISP tech team (they call back on mobile, so line dedicated to broadband), so they can run line tests and tried multiple different cables and filters.

Appreciate all the help so far, I’m getting to the point where I’m wondering if there’s a legal standards of service framework in place to help escalate issue.

Internet has been too slow to check for last few days

(If you’re wondering how I post videos in other threads, it’s because the links are saved in my search bar)

In Amber Rudd’s defence, she must have a pretty good working relationship with Robbie Gibb (formerly editor of BBC’s Daily and Sunday Politics show and the Andrew Marr show) who produced the latest Election Debate where Rudd stood in for Maybot…

Not only did the BBC make no mention of any of this:

Or this later hustings where Rudd is thoroughly demolished (BAE and HSBC tied into BBC ??!!??)

Perhaps selective choice in what news is broadcast makes for a good Downing Street director of Communications; could that of helped Robbie Gibb secure his latest role?

Wonder if he’ll keep in contact with Andrew Neil, Jo Coburn, Andrew Marr and the rest of the BBC Politics department…

Surveillance uses up a lot of bandwidth.

Pff, as if they’d have any interest in lil’ ole me… 😉

I was going to post a speedtest result in the OP, but after about 4 failed attempts to even connect to the website, I gave up…

Just tried again, without much luck, but I’ve logged into the router and though a minute ago it was hovering around 16KBps, it’s now reporting an average of just under 6KBps can’t find any mention of line noise anywhere though. Tried the ethernet cable thing in the past and it offered no improvement.

Should also have mentioned that we’ve already been through many of the steps mentioned above… neighbours reckon their connection is fine, was worried it was the physical line to our house, as it had chafed a bit on a tree, but was taken down by Storm Orphelia and replaced.

Knew that OpenReach own the network, but didn’t realize ISPs effectively buy data off BT

Still, was trying to log in to the forum yesterday, but gave up in the end, as it just wasn’t happening, so you guys should be chuffed that I’m even here at all 😀

“but managed to ignore him or palm him off.”

Beyond the cheap gags, another spin on out of context quotes…

No doubt many victims in abusive situations are ignored, stonewalled, gaslighted and all the rest of it; perhaps it gives the abuser some kind of twisted power trip. Not that great for instilling trust or cohesion though…

Has JHJ resurfaced with a better explanation of his OP?

I can’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say, everyone’s responses here highlight that it is something that happens with both genders, though for whatever reason, there does seem to be an inherent difference as to how it’s handled.

Now I’m no prude… I’ve had my gubbins groped in the street by a little bloke in Nicaragua (not a euphemism) a Ladyboy on Bangkok, and multiple drunken ladies back when I was a rickshaw rider; there was even one time when 3 pink PVC clad glamour models were trying to stick their fingers up my bum before getting their paps out for the paps when we pulled up to glitzy London nightspot China White. I think back on these situations and think it’s kinda funny; it doesn’t feel particularly abusive.

However, some of the situations that have developed as a result of the matters mentioned in the 1st post do feel highly abusive. I’ve tried time and again to remedy things and have been repeatedly fobbed off and scapegoated, when at the end of the day, it wasn’t even me who set these things in motion.

The best outcome would be to settle these matters amiably, as there’s far too much bad shit going on in the world as it is.

Now I come to think of it, this could be the result of Taylor Swift’s recent court case and the resulting empowerment of women in the entertainment industry, which is a massive step in the right direction.

Either way, I think it’s great that people are standing up for themselves, whatever gender, but we should be mindful of larger issues such as the increasing sexualization of music videos and the like…

It’s all very well for Taylor Swift to be simulating sex in what is essentially part of the promotion material for the 50 shades darker movie:

Does that give anyone license to grab her ass?

Of course not, but it could be influencing kids to act with too little control, which could lead to all sorts of problems down the line.

Anyhow, back to:

Whilst Weinsten’s actions are deplorable, it’s odd that the press don’t pursue Donald Trump and Bill Clinton with such fervour. Probably something to do with the women involved being less powerful and famous.

Here’s a list of allegations currently in the public domain about the ‘grab em’ POTUS:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/13/497799354/a-list-of-donald-trumps-accusers-of-inappropriate-sexual-conduct

In the video, Trump describes kissing women and grabbing their crotches without consent (“[W]hen you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything,” he can be heard telling host Billy Bush).

That kicked off a flood of accusations, which, taken together, suggest a decades-long pattern of behavior. We have compiled a list of the things women have alleged against him

I’ll deal with allegations against Bill Clinton seperately