I’ve not had time to study the expenses for Kevin Barron MP extensively yet, and as so much of them are blacked out it’s hard to get much information from them. For a start there are no addresses on any of the documentation, so it’s hard to see which invoices relate to his office, which to his Westminster flat, and which to his Maltby home.

A few things have caught my eye though. Take this invoice. And this one. Both for preparing his tax return. As a ‘normal’ memeber of society I have to pay an accountant myself to prepare my tax return, and I can’t even claim the VAT back. If you’re an MP though it’s different, and you can claim the whole thing as an ‘expense.’ Quite a big expense, as it happens.

This receipt for furniture is quite surprisingly large. It’s for £7109.79. That is a heck of a lot of furniture. I think is is ostensibly for his Dinnington office, but as the address is blacked out it’s hard to tell. If it is for the office it is obviously something of a TARDIS. It looks like a normal retail unit, but it must be much bigger, because £7k is enough to buy 46 decent desks and chairs at Ikea. Actually now I’ve looked further that £7k on furniture in March 2006 is especially startling as he also claimed £227 for office furniture in May 2004. I can’t locate the receipt for that furniture, but I understand that receipts for items under £250 are not needed. You’ll note on the claim form listing the furniture Kevin Barron’s common habit of claiming £200 in petty cash. This appears on a lot of his forms, and is un-receipted. In fact Kevin claimed £200 in ‘petty cash’ without receipts in April 2004, May 2004, June 2004,  July 2004, October 2004,  November 2004,  December 2004, and in  January to March 2005 (£650). That’s every month he could have claimed it, and the maximum amount each time – apart from January to March where he claimed £50 more. It all adds up to £2050 of tax free cash with no receipts to back it up in one year. He seems to do much the same every year.

This one is even stranger. It’s not even an invoice, it’s just a letter from Dinnington Operatic Society asking Kevin Barron MP for a fee of £32. I’ve no idea what it is for as he has obliterated all the other information. It’s something he has claimed as necessary as part of his work as an MP, whatever it is.

Next we have this invoice from a computer company called K&R Consultants. I can find no record of a computer company called K&R Consultants on the internet, and sadly Kevin Barron has blacked out all the bits of the invoice that might help identify them. There is a K & R Systems listed in Yell as being in Skegness, so perhaps they’ve changed name slightly since then. I understand Kevin has a son called Robbie. Anyway, the interesting thing about this invoice is that it includes £39 for ‘changes and updates to website‘ As Kevin Barron doesn’t have a website I’m baffled as to what this might mean. The plot thickens though, because there is another invoice from the mysterious K&R Consultants in Match 2007, this time for the rather more substantial amount of  £953. This breaks down as £125 for the purchase of a domain and webspace, and £414 for the migration of ‘the old website’ to a new webserver and £414 for changes to the website. Sadly there is no mention as to which website this might be. I’ve never seen a website for Kevin Barron – can someone who has been around longer than me let me know if to their knowledge he has ever had one?

On the subject of websites – and remember Kevin Barron MP doesn’t have a website  – this invoice from December 2004 also caught my eye. It says it is for ‘combined renewal of domain name registration fees and web/email hosting services for” and then the rest is blacked out – including the cost. However, we can tell from the form Kevin Barron MP has filled in that the cost was £88.12.

Taken from the superb investigative site Politics in the Rother Valley and Maltby

This book documents my year long senior thesis project. This book consists of three parts, each representing the work I’ve accomplished during a quarter. Part I was just completed for as the first quarter at Cal Poly SLO is wrapping up. Look forward to seeing a finished version that you can purchase online. Here are just a few sample pages Ive included for your viewing pleasure.

Click on the Image to see more pages

“We collect these creatures in service to humanity. By better understanding them, we can protect humanity from them. Any one of these animals would maim and slaughter as many humans as it could reach before it was brought down. Dump one in the middle of any major metropolis, and you’d have a massacre.”

“Then why don’t the ghouls of Sybar City wipe out the inhabitants?” she countered, getting sick of his sanctimonious attitude.

He didn‘t look surprised to learn that there were ghouls in Sybar City and shook his head as he explained in a condescending tone, “Ghouls tend to prefer well-aged meat, and they‘re not stupid. I’m sure they’re well aware that by the time the people they had slaughtered were ripe, their deaths would be noticed, and they would get to enjoy none of the fruits of their labor. Beyond that, how do you know they don’t steal the homeless off the streets at night?”

“Well, aside from the fact that I was homeless for several months and according to the politicians, the homeless problem is on the rise, I don’t think the ghouls are culling our extraneous population,” she replied with some disgust. Though she immediately regretted even mentioning the ghouls, she managed to suppress her desire to blurt out that the ghoul she’d seen had had no problem eating a fresh corpse. Of course, it might have been starving at that point. Not only had she probably just put them in danger by even mentioning them however, if she was attempting to make the professor think she was on his side, she was doing a great job of it.

“Oh, you would get along splendidly with Professor Murdock. She’s as much a bleeding heart as you are,” he announced sourly and much to her relief. “She’ll get herself killed one of these days trying to ‘reach out’ to these monsters, and the rest of my colleagues will finally see what I’ve been saying all along. There is no ‘friendly’ xenite.”

Glory said nothing, but he’d just confirmed his true feelings and they were more inline with Jacoby’s than not. She wondered how many of the other researchers below Miskatonic’s campus were in Scott’s camp. The professor was obviously well respected if the reactions of the people they’d encountered so far was any indication. Or maybe they were just cowed by his intellectual bullying.

“But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ghouls are only one of many creatures which threaten the human race. If you would be willing to work with us, there is much that we could share with you about the true nature of our existence on this planet.”

Glory frowned. She had no doubt that there was a great deal she could learn, but did she want to associate herself with people who would torture other sentient species just because they weren’t human? Beyond that, could she trust these people? No doubt they’d heard Robert’s story and were curious about the sword. Worse, they would expect her to share her research with them. If she refused, there wasn’t a lot he could do to keep her here, despite having revealed some of his organization’s secrets. On the other hand, if she disappeared later, who would connect that with her visit here?

“In your researches, have you encountered any vampires?” he asked suddenly.

For a second she was terrified that he was in some way referring to her sword. “Yes, but I had to kill her. Though in all fairness, she was trying to do the same to me,” Glory answered, recalling the woman Lori had sent to Aaron’s place.

“Excellent,” Professor Scott replied, ignoring or misreading her momentary anxiety. “No doubt you’re concerned with human rights issues Ms Lewin, but I can assure you that any resemblance the various xenite races bear to us are entirely circumstantial. One of my colleagues insists that it is simply a biological adaptation designed to help these creatures hunt us. Even when they use us as progenitors of their own offspring, it is merely to lure us into a false sense of sympathy.”

As he continued his spiel, she could tell he was up to something; she just didn’t know what. “I can see your reluctance to join us,” he announced with a slight pleading tone to his voice, “but perhaps if you were to participate in one of our current projects… you might get a better feel for what we do here and how important it is for the good of our race.” Was there a momentary tightening of the skin around his eyes, a quiver in his voice? Glory wasn’t sure what made her suddenly wary, but she followed Professor Scott from the room without comment.

He explained with his back turned to her as he lead her back down the hall to the intersection and past the elevators. “A Viking barrow was recently discovered on a new construction site near the Sybar City harbor. Perhaps you read about it in the paper? With Columbus day coming up less than a month from now, they‘ve been calling it the tomb of Leif Ericson, despite the fact that the grave predates his possible arrival by at least one hundred years,” he stated with some annoyance.

He glanced back at her, but she shook her head. “I’ve been away.”

“Yes, of course,” he replied without pressing for more information. “So you’ll be unaware of the bad reputation the site has acquired with the press since its discovery.” He opened a door on a conference room which was much nicer than his office upstairs. For one thing, entering the room wasn’t automatically an obstacle course.

“I do understand why you might be wary of us, Ms Lewin. After Jacoby’s harassment, you must be questioning not only our methods, but our goals. Please, have a seat,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

Professor Scott was gone several minutes too long for her comfort. She was just starting to worry that they were planning something when he returned with a thick manila folder held together with two rubber bands. Taking a seat opposite her, he began shuffling the papers and photos inside.

to Chapter 7, page 11

Sally Morgan, the former aide to Tony Blair, claimed £40,000 in expenses for her £1.1m London house by telling Parliament that her weekend country retreat was her main home.

Baroness Morgan of Huyton tells officials she stays at the house in Wandsworth, south-west London, “for the purpose of attending sittings of the House”.

The Labour peer, who is paid £135,000 a year for jobs outside politics, says her “main home” is an £845,000 cottage in Petersfield, Hants, one hour away from central London by train.

This has enabled her to claim £38,370 since 2005 for running the semi-detached London town house, which she bought for £1.1m in September 2003.

Peers whose “main residence” is outside London can claim £174 a night to pay for a second home or hotel room in the capital, with no need for receipts.

Yet Lady Morgan has repeatedly stated in official company documents that the London property is her “usual residential address”.

She shares it with her husband, John Lyons, who works full-time in London as a barrister and also cites it as his “usual residential address”.

Read on

Sometimes, a good macro photo reveals many things that it’s very difficult to see while you’re diving. An example is this photo of the very common shrimp Periclimenes brevicarpalis inside an host anemone. Only when I saw the photo on my monitor I noticed this small isopode parasite living on the shrimp.

This isopode parasite belong to the Bopyridae family: the female is bigger of the male, which lives inside the gill chamber. This infection will lead to the paralysis of the host.

Bophyridae Shrimp parasite

]]> http://continuityblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/the-return-of-matter-eater-lad/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:17:44 +0000 dcuboymw http://continuityblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/the-return-of-matter-eater-lad/

Superman #694
Written by James Robinson
Art by Javier Pina

This was pretty slow-paced compared to the break neck speed this book has been going story-wise before this. I can’t say that it’s a refreshing change of pace because I have been really liking how this book has been but that doesn’t mean this was a bad issue. I liked that it was Martha Kent who sewed the S into Mon-El’s costume and the revelation that Mon-El’s friend is actually Matter Eater Lad was pretty damn cool, even if you have no familiarity with the character like I don’t. He just is a hilarious character, and I like that Robinson came up with an extremely plausible use for his power. Good stuff but a little slow compared to what this book has been like.

3020883    จุลชีวิวิทยาของแบคทีเรีย,เชื้อรา,ไวรัส,และปรสิต    Microbiology of Bacteriology, Fungus, Virus, and Parasite

หลักการแยกเชื้อ และการตรวจน้ำเหลือง เพื่อบ่งชี้ชนิดของเชื้อแบคทีเรีย เชื้อรา เชื้อไวรัส และเชื้อพยาธิ

(Principle of isolation, identification and serological diagnosis on bacteriology, mycology, virology and parasitology.)

(3020883 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Plymouth Massacre.

The Justice League are on the loose…tracking down the bad guys from the Injustice League

1.   Choose fresh pork that is pale pink in color with a small in color with a small amount of marbling and an outer layer of white fat.  If with skin on, the skin must be thin and elastic.  A darker color of the meat is an indication that the source is an older animal

2.   Never cook pork half-done.  It must be thoroughly cooked to prevent infection with the parasite Trichinella spiralis.

3.   Don’t overcook pork because it will become dry and stringy.  Pork is done when its color has changed to white, light brown, or gray.  When pricked, it must be tender and its juice must run clear.

4.   Marinate pork for several hours or even overnight for better flavor.  Place it in a covered container inside the refrigerator.

5.   So you won’t need to turn the pieces of meat every so often when marinating, try putting the meat and marinade in a heavy duty plastic bag, then tie or seal tightly.  Once in a while, shake the bag to coat all the meat pieces with the marinade.

6.   Remember that because of the fat, pork shrinks when cooked.  So be sure you make allowances in the size of patties if using ground pork or in determining the serving portions when cooking roast pork.

7.   To prevent your pork chops from curling when frying, make slight cuts along the edges of the meat.

Here’s a great link on Parasites, check it out here.

* Should we worry about Parasites here in the US?

You probably have never seen a parasite so why would you worry about them?  You may think that parasite does not exist in the US.  On the contrary, they are living among us more common than you think.  Parasites occur in places and among people who are health-minded.  They are no longer a disease of the lower classes.  Even the rich are not immune to infection.

What are parasites?

Parasites are organism that live in or on another organism (the host), at the expense of that host, and often compete for nutrition.  Their sizes range from very small microscopic amebas to very large intestinal worms that can grow to several feet long.  Parasites excrete waste products that may be toxic, and prey on people with weakened immunity.  The infection parasites usually start with contaminated water or food, or coming into contact with infected animals or people through fecal-oral contact.  Most people are unaware that a parasite lives inside them.  Most people do have them, whether or not they produce apparent symptoms.  Parasites can be living inside you for over 10 to 20 years before getting symptoms.

Why should we worry about parasites?

Parasites cause illness.  How many people do you know that have some type of chronic health problems and doctors can’t find anything wrong with them?  Parasites have the ability to secrete substances that are toxic to the body.  Over time, these toxins stress the body and cause a variety of health problems.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 50 million cases of food-borne illnesses each year and about 9,000 people die as a result.  In the US, diarrhea caused by intestinal parasites is the third leading cause of illnesses.

Parasites often eat the nutrient in your body before you get to use them.  You are left with what the parasites do not want, the leftovers.  They grow healthy and fat, and you starve for nutrition leaving us malnourished.  Parasites can remain in your body, robbing it of nutrients for many years, some have a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.  This means that you could have eaten contaminated food 10 years ago and still harbor the same organism somewhere in your digestive tract.  Some parasites get their food from the cells in your body.  Your blood, your muscles, your heart, your lungs and your brain are all possible sites for parasitic infestation.  No organ is immune.

How do we get parasites?

Parasites live everywhere and are commonly transmitted to humans in diverse ways.

• Insect bites
• Walking barefoot
• Eating under-cooked meats and fish
• Government inspectors do not inspect most of the animals that go to the slaughterhouse
• Eating raw food including raw fruits and vegetables and exotic foods.
• Any food that has been imported could possibly pick up illness-causing microbes
• Lack of personal hygiene causes the spread of parasites
• Drinking water from many of the lakes, rivers, streams and creeks in North America
• Close contact with companion pets and other animals that live around your neighborhood
• If you have taken or taking antibiotics which disturbs the balance of intestinal microflora and makes the host more susceptible to parasites.
• Someone who is already infected can spread it by sharing drinks, kissing, sexual contact, and even inhaling dust that contain the eggs or cysts of these organisms.
• Traveling abroad or to foreign countries.

I know this sounds very scary but this is the reality.  I want people to realize that parasites is very common and even though we, the US, have a very high standard of living compared with the rest of the world, yet the parasites live among us and we need to pay closer attention to this parasitic infestation.  “Approximately one-half of the population carries at least one form of parasite”, per CDC. (Source book: The Parasite Menace by Skye Weintraub, N.D.)  There is little research being done to stop the spread of parasitic infection.  We have a tremendous parasite problem because of the increase in pollution and environmental poisons.  Parasites of all kinds are invading our bodies and we are not even aware of it.  It takes constant vigilance and a change in lifestyle if you want to remain free from them.

There is no true way to detect if you have parasite unless you get laboratory test or analysis.  And even then, it can still be difficult to diagnose the presence of them.  Some symptoms are diarrhea, abdominal pain, foul-smelling stools worse in certain times of the day, sudden pains in the chest or heartburn, food allergies, itching around the anus especially at night and losing weight when still have a starving appetite.

What to do?

Our diet and nutritional status may be of major importance in determining the outcome of a parasitic infection. Most Americans fail to meet even federal standards for a healthy, balanced diet ( 3-5 servings of vegetables each day and 2-4 servings of fruit daily).

Today’s lifestyle of the average person keeps the body chemistry out of balance.  When this happens, our immunity collapse and makes us more prone to parasitic infections as well as other health problems.  A well-balance diet improves immune function and can defend the body against parasites.  Eat a diet high in natural fiber including plenty of vegetables and fruits.  Make sure they are organic.  Avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates.  We all need protein to survive so avoiding meat is not feasible.  Therefore, make sure you eat organic meat and wild caught fish (not farmed because of contamination).

Drink plenty of water.  Make sure it’s not tab water.

Avoid grains because they are extremely acidic to your body.  A healthy body should have a proper acid-alkaline balance.  However, nowadays people eat mostly acidic foods and not enough alkaline based foods.  Eat alkaline foods like figs, most fruits, green leafy vegetables, root vegetables, and dates to counteract the acidic foods like meat, dairy, wheat, grains, alcohol, fish, coffee and sugar.

Do a cleansing and detoxification program once a year with herbal combinations which can easily, safely and effectively rid your body of toxic waste and the parasites.  The intestinal lining is your primary barrier to toxic compounds getting into the bloodstream.  It is important to keep your intestines and liver healthy by rebuilding them after the cleansing and detoxification with a combination of live foods, vitamins and minerals, herbs, antioxidants, digestive enzymes, and probiotics.  I strongly recommend that you seek professional help for this.  We, at AF Performance Center, provide laboratory analysis for parasites and have nutrition consultation including toxic cleansing and detoxification.

Up to four MPs and peers are to face fraud charges over the expenses scandal by early in the New Year, it emerged today.

In a move which shook through the political establishment, detectives have referred case files on four parliamentarians to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Police believe there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges in each of the cases, sources said.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, is expected to rubber stamp charges against the politicians by February.

Such a development would result in the highly embarrassing spectacle of MPs and peers appearing in court before next May’s expected General Election.

The politicians could face charges of fraud or false accounting, with maximum penalties of ten or seven years. There was no official word today on which cases had been sent to the CPS.

However it is known that police believe there is strong evidence against Labour MPs Elliot Morley and David Chaytor, and Labour peer Baroness Uddin, and that such cases were likely to be in the first batch of files to be considered by prosecution lawyers.

Other politicians believed to be under police investigation include Labour MP Jim Devine, Lord Hanningfield and Lord Clarke of Hampstead.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service has today delivered four main files of evidence relating to parliamentary expenses to the Crown Prosecution Service.

‘The files relate to four people, from both the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and will now be subject to CPS consideration on whether there should be any charges.

‘A small number of cases remain under investigation.’

Read on

Lots has been going on.  Most importantly, my friend L and her husband had a baby boy last Monday!  I didn’t find out until Thursday morning, when L’s sister M sent me an email with some pictures.  L had an emergency caesarian, but apparently it went okay.  The baby is adorable, at least according to the pictures.  I wanted to go and visit, but L’s having problems with breastfeeding, so I said I’d wait until things have settled down a bit.

I managed to have a minor prang on the weekend.  Long story short, I backed into SO’s dad’s trailer.  Yay me.  I spent the rest of the afternoon alternately crying and sleeping.  Hey, crying is tiring.  Fortunately SO assures me he still loves me.  There isn’t any damage to the trailer, and the car is still relatively okay (and definitely fine to drive) which is good.  It definitely put a blight on the weekend though.

In work news, I had somebody come to see me today to complain about a senior manager taking credit for their work.  They have the sent email and everything, which had their own work attached to it.  The doc that went up to the head of the organisation had someone else’s name on it, and that’s the version on file.  This person is really upset, needless to say.  What I can do about it, I don’t know.

Toxoplasma Gondii is a microscopic parasite which can be found living within an oocyst of cat feces. When the oocyst breaks open the entities are released into the open air and wafted away by wind currents. They fly onward, on a quest to find a new home and to spawn a new generation. Many will not survive because they land upon concrete and nonporous dirt, unable to find a suitable host. Death will occur within 5 days. But many will find intermediate homes within plants and mammals, a few will find their way into the only place where sexual reproduction can occur, a cat.

It is an inevitability that a Toxoplasma Gondii parasite will eventually float into the ear of a rat and implant itself into his brain. It will travel past the hair and through the ear, moving into the central muscle, the porous tissue of the rat’s brain. The parasite will find an abode within the warm-blooded animal. It will invade a single cell and begin the first phase of its ultimate goal, to get into the intestinal lining of a cat.

Within the infiltrated cell and within the intruder’s body, two daughter cells will form inside of the mother cell. The miniature daughters of biological information will consume the mother parasite before their separation, leading to their subsequent asexual replication. Within the brain tissue a cyst will begin to emerge. Inside of the host’s own cell a distinct membrane will verge. Unfortunately for the rat this infection will be undetected by his immune system. The parasite is disguised within the host’s own cell. The parasites’ slow and continual replication will eventually cause this cell to burst, releasing the parasitic offspring into the surrounding brain tissue.

The rat’s immune system will then move into action after noticing the explosion of nefarious activity. It will eradicate many of the parasite pilgrims before their new homes are reached. But some of them will make it to fertile ground. Some will survive, creating new cells of infiltration and replication, maintaining the brain’s infectation. This process repeats many times.

The parasite is going about its ordinary day, continuing its lineage by creating copies. The replicators are there to fulfill a purpose. With surgical precision they program the rat, knowing they must cut short his life. His purpose is now that of a tool, implemented towards the purpose of the parasite.

The rat will travel onwards, avoiding open spaces and the scent of unfamiliar food, sniffing and squeaking as he moves, just about an ordinary day. The rat eats, drinks, and excretes as is normally done. His brain tells him that it is good.

But suddenly a sense will enter into his mind, and an excitement will overcome, a sensation greater than that of found food. He will rush towards the lovely scent. A mind has been programmed; it is now perfectly rational to seek the greatest prize a rat can pursue. Cat urine is now his preferred delicacy.

The surgical precision of the parasite changed the rat’s behavior. While most of his ordinary survival tendencies remained unaffected, the infection rewrote a vital program. Rather than being fearful towards the scent of a cat, he is now drawn towards it.

As a result of being around cat scents, the rat will eventually be devoured. Within the slaughtered pieces of the rat’s body are the parasitic offspring of the original Toxoplasma Gondii. Sensing the new conditions of their environment, they begin to infect the cat’s small intestine. The parasites enter the white blood cells within the intestinal lining. Through the blood stream the invaders are distributed, grabbing on to the white cells and taking the express lane, infiltrating throughout the entire body. They will mature into gametes and sexually reproduce. Oocysts filled with the offspring are birthed into the world through the cat’s feces.

The purpose of that original T. gondii’s life was to get the rat inside of the cat. It had succeeded and its ancestors live on. Its purpose has been accomplished.

Rompoy and Ashton have no legitimacy. When they spend our money and speak on our behalf throughout the world there will be no way for us to hold them to account for what they do.

Queen Elizabeth is an unelected, unaccountable head of state, not just of the United Kingdom, but of dependencies and former colonies scattered across the globe; the remnants of a long gone empire.

The monarchy has a place in history, but no legitimacy in a modern democracy. All that could be said for the monarchy is that its powers have been effectively removed.

This is not the case for the unelected and unaccountable members of the House of Lords, including the bishops of the established church, who happily lie about where they live to collect massive ‘expenses’
 while passing laws to interfere ever more in our lives. This affront to democracy is an even greater anachronism than the monarchy.

Monarchy, aristocracy, state religion and a secretive, establishment judiciary all have the excuse of history and tradition to justify themselves. That is a weak excuse which freedom lovers should reject.

When it comes to the United Nations, which is a clique of the victorious powers of 1945, having no democratic legitimacy; the EU, which has been cobbled together in an authoritarian way, to prevent the re-emergence of German nationalism and then to consolidate the victory in the cold war we have anti democratic affronts growing up in our own times and we should be far more ashamed of that.

To cap it all, our daily lives are run by 800 quangos spending £35 billion pounds every year. Appointed by cronies, accountable to nobody, these people are the embodiment of the snooper, nanny state that steals our money and controls our lives.

Rompoy is a parasitic nonentity put in place by a cabal of Euro oligarchs. Give him the respect he deserves. At the same time help us get rid of the unrepresentative parasites on our doorstep who really control our lives.

David Curry, the MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expenses, has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

After learning of the Telegraph investigation, David Curry resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee and now faces a formal inquiry into his claims.

The Conservative MP is accused of having an affair with a headmistress in his Yorkshire constituency and using a taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover.

A Telegraph investigation has learned that four years ago, after discovering the affair, Mr Curry’s French wife Anne demanded that he does not stay at the Yorkshire property as a condition of the couple’s reconciliation.

However, the former Conservative minister has continued claiming thousands of pounds a year for the house – which he could expect to sell for a substantial profit after leaving Parliament.

After the Telegraph approached Mr Curry with the allegations, he announced that he was referring himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner. He said he would stand down from the Standards committee during the investigation, which is expected to take several months.

Read on

Gosh bearded Barry is at it again, over at Tory Bear’s place is the story about Barry’s aide.

You read it here first, but Barry Gardiner’s local paper – the Wembley & Kingsbury Times have picked up on the outrageous behaviour of his newly appointed staff member Joseph “Seph” Brown who caused outrage when he advocated the shooting of Zionists.

Particuarly damning are the quotes from people within Gardiner’s constituency and beyond:

“The appointment drew huge criticism from Jewish groups who immediately called for Mr Gardiner,who is a former chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, to sack him. Ken Sinclair, who is Jewish and chairman of Northwick Park Residents’ Association, said:

“Shooting Zionists, which reflects on all Jewish people, is disgusting and what respect I had for Barry Gardiner has gone. People should think very carefully when they utter words like these as at the moment with the BNP we do have a common enemy and we need to make an effort not to throw racist comments at each other.”

Why do some people push their unwanted and useless pitches on us?

I’ve been getting hundreds of DMs (direct messages) for everything from making $1000 a day to getting whiter teeth. What makes these people think that anyone will trust their advice when they haven’t taken the time to build a relationship, establish their street creds, and then they expect that we buy from them? Do they think that we are all gullible idiots?

Interestingly, it doesn’t matter what they are pushing: whether its tooth whitening, instant weight loss solutions, learning another language online, or being a better leader. If they don’t build relationships, they simply become social media parasites.

My advice, look through the posts of those people that you follow (whether through the open timeline or whether as DM’s), and if you don’t like what you see, unfollow them.

There is nothing wrong with unfollowing someone, particularly if they do not talk about things that interest you; and there is even less reason to be polite to someone who is trying to ram stuff you don’t want down your neck.

“You have really crappy taste in snacks,” Robert announced around a mouth full of cracker crumbs. Her cabinets weren’t exactly stocked with teenage boys in mind. She’d selected food more on the likelihood that it would keep for several months than that she’d be visited by a growing bottomless pit.

“To be honest, I don’t eat much,” she paused uncertain. “Look, Robert… I’m not the safest person to be around. You’d be better off with your foster parents.”

“Says you!” he spat incredulously. “Those people are a-holes. Their son locked me out of the house last night and then the police want to wonder why I keep running away and didn‘t go to school? Besides, you freaking got shot like half an hour ago and you’re like, pfft, nothing. I figure if I‘m safe anywhere, it‘s with you.”

“As flattering as that is, if that shooter had missed me and hit you instead…”

“Yeah, but you totally healed me when that… Thing tried to eat me,” he announced, a note of hero worship entering his voice. “I bet you could have done it again if you had to.”

“That’s not the point,” she replied uncomfortably. Glory really didn‘t want to get into the fact that the thing that allowed her to heal was some kind of parasite that used her as a sheath and which could just as easily suck the life out of people as restore it. “There are people who wouldn’t think twice about hurting you if they couldn’t get to me.”

“Look, it’s okay. I’m not afraid,” he replied before adding stubbornly, “And if you try to make me leave, I’ll just sleep in the alley behind your place. I figure if I’m going to be homeless, that’s probably the safest place in Sybar City. But hey, your choice.”

“You are a brat,” Glory growled in exasperation. Robert merely crammed another apple buttered cracker in his mouth and watched her with an air of expectation.

“Alright, fine,“ she declared finally, and he grinned, “but there are rules and consequences. No more skipping school, and I expect you to do your homework and actually study for tests. I’ll help you if you need it, but school is important if you want to get a good job some day.” He rolled his eyes in exasperation. He‘d probably had this talk before. “And Officer Hart told me about some of your extracurricular activities. Don’t embarrass me by making me pick you up from the police station. I’ll give you an allowance, so there’s no need for stealing.”

“I don’t steal! That was…”

“You don’t need to explain,” she broke in with a wave of her hand and a slight smile. Glory laid a hand on his shoulder. “Look Robert, I don’t care what you did before, or whether you even did it or not. But if you’re going to live here, I want you to act with a little bit of dignity and forethought.” He made a face. “If you can’t imagine me doing something, then chances are I wouldn’t approve of you doing it. So just don’t do it whether you‘ve done it in the past or not.”

“Okay,” he mumbled looking down before quickly glancing back up and asking anxiously, “Do you… think the cops’ll come back now that they know I’m here?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll have my lawyer look into transferring custody from your foster to parents over to me.“ She thought for a moment before adding, “But keep your eyes and ears open at all times when you‘re outside. I want to know if you even think someone’s watching you or following you, even if you don’t have any proof. I’m going to have to work on some protective charms for you too, but I don’t want you to take them for granted.”

“Cooooooool!” he all but drooled at the thought of more magic enacted on his behalf.

“Just so you know, there are spells all over this house to keep my enemies out, but you saw how well that worked with the shooter,” Glory admonished. “No spell is going to keep you safe or prevent something bad from happening to you if you’re careless or arrogant. Got it?”

When he nodded, she added, “Just keep in mind… if something ever happens to me, or you can’t find me, you go straight to officer Hart. He‘ll get you somewhere safe.” Robert nodded again, swallowing what was either a lump in his throat or a wad of crackers. She was definitely going to need to get to a store for a better quality of snack food, and regular food for that matter.

As much as Glory wanted to call for a rental car and leave immediately for Miskatonic, she first had to call someone to repair her window and her lawyer about Robert. She took the boy upstairs and showed him her room, then told him he could pick any of the empty rooms he wanted for his bedroom. His eyes got very wide before he raced off to explore the rest of the building and choose what was probably the first room he’d ever had all to himself.

Realizing suddenly that though Hart and Walsh had taken two of the bullets, the third was still lodged in the outer wall, Glory cautiously opened the window and stuck her head out. She’d probably be anxious around doors and windows for a while given the shock of being shot when she had felt herself safely at home, but it appeared that, for now, her shooter had been scared off by the arrival of the police. It took her a few minutes to locate the bullet hole and several more to pry the slug out with a pair of tweezers without falling out the window and breaking her silly neck.

She gingerly carried the slug up to the library and set it down in a small sample dish from one of the drawers. Her biggest concern was contamination, but so long as no one touched the bullet directly, it should retain its connection to the unknown shooter. Considering for a second what information she hoped to get from the little piece of scrap metal, she began rooting through her drawers for supplies. It wasn’t that she mistrusted Robert, but she didn’t want to go disappearing on him so soon after warning him about the possibility that she might disappear at some point. Way to make the boy paranoid! she chided herself. Otherwise, she would have gone into her secret room for better equipment. As it was, she wasn’t quite ready to let him into her inner sanctum. At the very least, he’d probably start referring to it as her “Batcave,” and she wasn’t quite comfortable with superhero references considering how culpable she felt about everything Lori had done and might still do with her work.

to Chapter 7, page 5

I’ve lost track of time
And the days have forgotten me
Meaningless, they’ve become
They just pass, no significance
Life no longer progresses in terms of days
But in shifts of time
Random leaps
Or rather, tugs
I’m not moving
But the waves are pushing me forward
A corpse in the sea
Seeking the shore

You say I’m standing at a crossroad
But how am I to choose a path
When I don’t know where I came from?
How am I to know which way
When I can’t see where I’m going?

I am a stranger in this body
I’m not in control, I’m weak
A parasite, feeding off the host
Till I get my fill
Till I reach my halt
And get off
Except
I am the host
And by the time I stop
There’ll be nothing left

I
can’t
feel
anything

I’m tired of this vessel
I’ve outgrown this place
It’s only a skin, I need to shed
If I keep it on, I’ll become an empty shell
I want out, now
This vessel must not consume me
I need to end this phase, begin the next
I would choose hell over this

“This numbness”, is not numbness
I’ve lost my senses
Or my ability to perceive them
“You were perceiving quite well,
What happened?”
I woke up.

Valerie Amos was Britain’s first black woman Cabinet Minister when she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development in 2003. She left the Cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and was appointed as the EU’s representative to the African Union. She also wasted little time in picking up a nice little earner, according to a new book published today by Craig Murray, Britain’s former Ambassador to Uzbekistan. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Make up your own mind when you read this exclusive extract from Craig Murray’s book…

Read on

The following is the very reason for the existence of this blog.  I encountered the subject in my practice some time ago.  It appears as fiction or as a possible manifestation of a mental illness, but it indeed happened and is real in the sense that it occurred in the real world as we physically experience it, not in the realm of the imaginary.  I have not come across any similar cases except for some similarity to the arising Morgellon’s disease, Restless leg syndrome, or ringworm infections.  The common diagnosis by mainstream medicine seems to be “delusional parasitosis”.

The subject had travelled to Brazil where after living there for some time ate some meat after which he became ill.  He had immediate diarrhea and his leg began to twitch quite a bit.  Eventually he was a diagnosed with a bacterial infection which was cured through the use of various pharmaceutical drugs (many), but the twitching continued and spread throughout his body into the various muscle groups.  They continued to worsen over the course of years till they were present everywhere in his body.  No obvious etiology was found and tests for neurological diseases also turned up negative.  After 5 years they became somewhat infrequent but digestive problems continued.  Six years after the incident the subject was running and after running for a mile or so, felt as if something was moving in the back of his head.  His hands would also go numb from time to time.  The subject also noticed a strange white like sand substance that was present in his pores the seemed similar to sand, which caused scarring on his face.  With the previous mention of such problems the subject looked up alternative medicine on the internet and read about liver cleanses involving lemon juice and olive oil and Epsom salt.

That night he mixed them together and drank the mixture.  Upon doing this he lay down and felt things moving in him which progressed from small movements to crawling sensations all over his body.  It was if, as he explains it, “there were bugs crawling all over my skin”, but nothing was present on the surface.  Upon rising the next day, the process continued and worsened still.  He also began to experience a tightness in his cranium.  It felt as though his cranial plates (the skull is made up of various “plates”) were actually noticeably moving and rearranging themselves.  At times the movement would stop and he would begin to feel pain in his head and see auras around lights which would subside quickly and sometimes with a jerk,  as if a blockage had developed and released.  Eventually the tightness continued to the point he began to have a pressure headache that made his head feel as if it was being constantly bound and pulled down with a cord or rope.  He also began to have the rather intense feeling of sand moving through the bottom of his feet in a type of swirling vortex on both soles.  This all progressed to the point where the patient became convinced worms were crawling in him and could not sleep until he overcame this remaining awake for 78 hours straight one time.

The patient began adjusting to the sensations which have stayed with him for the past4 years.  He has had intermittent ring worm which appears and disappears on his inner thigh from time to time.  This occurs despite his use of topical anti-fungals.  He has also noticed small raised bumps on the bottoms and sides of his feet which itch, also developing athletes foot.  Sections of the bottoms of his feet also became rough, dry, and cracked.  After undergoing acupuncture with the use of herbs he noticed some improvement in this, but had to discontinue due to the cost.  Eventually he began noticing the greatest improvement after taking a homeopathic remedy for 3 months.  The small red raised bumps would become brown crack open and disappear revealing new skin.  The itchiness began to go away.  The ring worm got worse before it got better.  The crawling sensation still continues and he continues his use of the homeopathic remedy to see if it also has an effect.

Perhaps one of the interesting aspects of this case is his observations in metaphysics and alternative medicine to himself.  Reading about enlightenment among the yogis you can find references to Kundulini and something moving up the base of the spine and coming out of the sutures of the skill.  Also while in the library one day, reading about acupuncture for the first time, he noticed the crawling sensation and “flow” of things actually moved in accordance with acupuncture points.

I theorize (as is explained elsewhere in this blog) the emergence of these diseases is the physical sensation of parasites (very small), fungus, and yeasts, in the lymphatic system of the individual.  The compression of the cranial plates is the response of the body in an attempt to remove the pathogens.  Compression of the crania plates may facilitate this, which is why lying down with putting your head down may be a good idea, and also why sleeping may aid you in your immunity.  Of course it goes deeper than that, but it also might be an aid to explaining and curing some other diseases of neurological manifestation.

Ok.  Maybe someday, eons, and eons, hence, when search engines actually work like they should, this page will be archived and of use to somebody out there.  Go google bot, go.

While I hear stories of blizzards and frigid weather in other parts of the country, here in southern Arizona it’s still quite warm.  Unseasonably warm actually.  I had to wear a jacket for a few days a couple of weeks ago, but then it got hot (as in almost 100 degrees!) again.  Luckily for me, this means that there are still a lot of bugs out.  A few days ago, my coworker and I tried to catch some painted lady butterflies when we got back to the office after our field work.  The bird of paradise plants and the other things planted with them are still in bloom, so there are still tons of painted ladies and sulphur butterflies flitting around.  Yesterday, I was on my way out to run errands when I saw this on the wall of my carport:

Mantid

As I always do when I find mantids outside, I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera, snapping some quick pictures of it before I did my errands.  It was still in the carport when I returned, so I scooped him up and brought him in the house to take some better photos indoors where the light was better.  The image above is one of those.

I love mantids.  I think they are amazing and beautiful animals.  Unfortunately, I don’t see them all that often.  It’s hard to find them most of the time.  They are masters of camouflage, or blending in with their environment, so I just don’t notice them.  Mantids are known to mimic all kinds of plants and flowers (to see some amazing mantid flower mimics, see this great blog post from Asia), tree bark, sticks, and other insects, so they are very hard to see if you’re not actively looking for them.  But that’s the point!  If you want to avoid being eaten, one great way to do it is to blend in with the background so effectively the predator doesn’t even notice you’re there.  If you’re an ambush predator (more about this in a moment), it also helps if the things you want to eat can’t see you very well.  I put the mantid pictured above into the bush in front of my house when I was finished photographing it.  It wasn’t the kind of plant this mantid would normally be found in, but it was still a little hard to see:

Mantid camouflage - can you find it?

This particular mantid was bright green against the deep rust color of my carport when I found it, so it really stood out.  It didn’t take much skill to find this one before I put it in the bush!  I have an idea of why this might be, but I’ll get to that later.

Mantids have some very interesting behaviors.  Their amazing abilities to mimic the plants they live on don’t end at their coloration and body shape.  They are also well-known for mimicking leaves and plants blowing in the breeze.  They use their hind and middle pairs of legs to sway back and forth gently every now and again.  If they are living on plants and want to blend in, it’s to their benefit to mimic the plant as much as possible.  This includes moving the way the plant does – the swaying behavior helps them look more like the plant than their coloration and body shape alone.  Whether they use this behavior specifically to avoid detection is debatable, but it helps them blend into their environment regardless of its primary purpose.  The mantid I found yesterday started swaying when I went to grab it in what may have been a rather desperate attempt to avoid detection and capture, so I got to see this behavior in action.  If you’d like to see it too, check out this YouTube video (which I did not take):

Isn’t that fun?  Just picture this mantid swaying on a stick being gently blown in the wind.  I love watching these little mantid “dances!”

Many mantids are ambush predators, which means that they sit and wait for food to come near before darting out to capture their prey.  Because they blend in with their environment so well, many prey animals won’t notice a mantid sitting on a plant or on a flower and walk right by it.  The mantid then uses it’s forelegs to reach out and grab the prey with amazing speed.  Like the giant water bugs I study and have written about in earlier posts, mantids have what are called raptorial forelegs.   These are legs that are specifically designed for capturing prey.  They’re big and bulky and full of muscles, so they’re both very fast and very strong.  They can often fold back on themselves to allow them to grasp things.  People have long thought that mantids have the appearance of praying when they hold their legs ready to grab prey, hence the common name praying mantis.  Mantids also frequently have spikes or other structures that help them keep hold of things they grab.  Check out the raptorial forelegs on the mantid from yesterday:

Mantid raptorial foreleg

This one has bulky forearms and some pretty formidable spikes!  Those spikes help them subdue prey so they can eat them.  And mantids can eat some pretty impressive things including other insects, small snakes, lizards, frogs, small rodents, and even the occasional bird!  If they can grab it and keep a hold of it, they’ll likely try to eat it.  I think this is part of why I like mantids so much – they remind me of my water bugs in their ability to capture, subdue, and consume their prey, and they just look so darned cool doing it !

So back to why I think this bug was in a strange and very conspicuous spot.  If you have a weak stomach, this is where you should stop reading.  I went out to the bush where I had released the mantid this morning to see if it was still there and was sad to see that it had died overnight.  Because I’m an entomologist, my first thought was, “Wow!  It’s sad the mantid died, but it would make a great addition to my collection!”  So, I brought it inside and started pinning it.  Much to my horror, as soon as my pin hit the abdomen, I disturbed the mass of maggots that were growing inside the mantid and feasting on its living flesh.  They burst out of the mantid and spewed onto my counter.  Now I’m not a very squeamish person, but maggots spewing out of anything is enough to make me queasy.  I ended up preserving the maggots in alcohol (why collect one type of insect when you can add two to your collection?) and will figure out what they are later, though I know they are a type of parasitic fly.  An adult fly likely deposited its eggs inside the mantid a month or two ago and the maggots slowly consumed the living mantid as they developed.  Parasites are known to alter the behavior of many insects they infest so that they are better able to infest other organisms.  It’s quite possible that the maggots altered the behavior of this mantid when it was near death so that it made itself conspicuous enough to come into contact with another animal that the maggots could use as food.  Alternatively, it could simply have become delirious as its body was hollowed out and mistakenly crawled up a surface it would normally avoid.  Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter that it was in a conspicuous place – it was dying anyway.  And I’m happy I got to see it before it did.  A mantid will always brighten up my day.

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