Who cares ?

Gordon Brown was again today speaking in Davos at the World Economic Forum, and again it seems paving the way for a New World Order. From the BBC we read more, under the headline PM says "no clear map" for crisis:

Gordon Brown says there is no precedent for the "first financial crisis of the global age".

History offered "no clear map" of how to deal with it, the UK prime minister told an audience at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. Mr Brown warned about the rising threat of protectionism and said that global co-operation was the only way forward.

"This is not like the 1930s. The world can come together," the prime minister said.
He told reporters: "This is the first financial crisis of the global age. And there is no clear map that has been set out from past experience to deal with it.

From an Irish "rebel" song:

We're on the one road, sharing the one load

We're on the road to God knows where

We're on the one road, it may be the wrong road

But we're together now who cares?

cheers

Taking the easy way out

Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, from today's BBC under the headline Brown warns against pessimism:



The economic crisis should be treated as "the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order"



cheers

Building a roadbridge to Heaven ?

We read today from the BBC of how the new, third, bridge over the river Forth is being designed by a company called Arup, the same characters who created the Beijing Olympic "Bird's Nest" stadium.

In this instance however, they will be working in partnership with another company called Jacob, the resulting creative team to be called, wait for it, Jacobs Arup.

It requires noting that The Stone of Destiny is said to be the Biblical Jacob's Pillow-Pillar Stone, the stone he used as a headrest whilst dreaming of a ladder to heaven. Readers may remember the symbolic slicing up of a cake replica by Alex Salmond and Sean Connery last June, as noted in my post King Conn, and should also be aware that the Queens husband Prince Philip's "secret" funeral arrangements are codenamed Forth Bridge ( see here)

cheers

My post on the Beijing Olympics handover, please see here.

BBC report on new bridge.

Change you should believe in

Je-Rome Kerviel revisited

Today we saw our government unveil their latest plan to deal with the "global credit crisis", i.e. further indebting future humanity, and as such shares in banking institutions plummeted, the Royal Bank of Scotland's by an astonishing 67%, thus leaving them at 33% of this morning's value.

What seems curious to me is that today, as in America's Martin Luther King Monday holiday, is the anniversary of the Jerome Kerviel scandal - when his employers, Societe General, offloaded vast amounts of stock, causing massive declines in worldwide stock markets.

From my post of last January, Give 'em enough rope:


It seems that Jerome's job involved dealing in colossal sums of "money" in order to exploit microscopic fluctuations of share values in the stock market. It is, to a certain extent, irrelevant. What is relevant is that his employers, Societe Generale, sold vast quantities of Jerome's stock "holding" on Monday 21st January, thus forcing stock prices down in the bargain. America was holidaying that day and therefore not trading: as such the French bank was offloading to a half empty marketplace.


Thus, when the aforementioned economic rules of supply and demand are applied, we can see that there was less demand on the Monday because America was shut. Additionally, S. Generale had an astonishing £37 billion worth of Jerome's stock to unload in order to redeem his position, which increased the "supply" to the financial markets and thus reduced the share price accordingly.


Then on the Wednesday, the "fraud" seemingly as yet still not common knowledge, the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates by 0.75%, the largest reduction for 26 years, citing the slump in stock market values as rationale.

Graph above is The Royal Bank's share price over the last year.

Just another coincidence ?

cheers

I can see the woods, and the trees

"I went out to the hazelwood,
Because a fire was in my head,"

W. B. Yeats

Another criminal curiosity of the cranium related variety has manifested itself in Scotland's capital city, a curiosity which ties in well with recent posts - although I confess the exact meaning eludes me, and I am therefore required to act on conjecture - whilst including a personal synchronicity which requires highlighting, but will alas perhaps mean little to readers and may indeed sound slight narcissistic. However, when in Rome...

Starting with reported "facts" , yesterday in the early hours of 17th January, a man was discovered, murdered, in Hazelwood Grove, The Inch, having been shot in the head - events of this nature being thankfully scarce up here, and thus fairly remarkable. It is likely that this assault was part of an ongoining fued between two rival gangs, one from the Inch, the other from Granton; the latter location links to the Hawthornvale head in a bag case in itself.

To begin, it is interesting to reflect upon the street name and scene of the incident, Hazelwood Grove, which sits just to the West of historical Craigmillar Castle. From the wikipedia link:

In the 1820s, a plan was drawn up to lay out picturesque landscape gardens between Inch House and the castle, which would have incorporated "Queen Mary's Tree", a Sycamore supposedly planted by Mary, Queen of Scots. Much of the woodland within the castle estate dates from the early to mid 19th century

Craigmillar Castle is best known for its association with Mary, Queen of Scots. Following an illness after the birth of her son, the future James I of England, Mary arrived at Craigmillar on 20 November 1566 to convalesce. Before she left on 7 December 1566, a pact known as the "Craigmillar Bond" was made, with or without her knowledge, to dispose of her husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

Mary's colours, see recent posts for similar

Although the majority of this woodland is now chopped, rather like Queen Mary's head, we are left with the streeet name, Hazelwood Grove, and as such delve further into the mythology of the dowsers favorite tree. From Druidry.org/trees/hazel we glean deeper insight, this a very short fragment:

The hazel might be said to be the quintessential Celtic tree because of its legendary position at the heart of the Otherworld. Here, nine magic hazel-trees hang over the well of Wisdom and drop their purple nuts into the water. In some accounts, the hazel-nuts cause bubbles of "mystic inspiration" to form on the surface of the streams that flow down from the well; in others, the Salmon of Knowledge and Inspiration eat the nuts and send the husks floating downstream. Those that eat the nuts (or the salmon) gain poetic and mantic powers.

Moving on, readers will doubtless recall the tale of the mummified head found in an Ikea bag in Hawthornvale on New Years Eve (see here), but being quite honest I have refrained from writing any more until more is known, although, what has been established, is that the head once belonged to a lady called Heather Stacey and that a Mr Alan Cameron, aged 54, has been charged with various offences in connection with the remains, although not as yet murder. It should be pointed out that more body parts were found in the aforementioned Granton area of Edinburgh, the likely location of the abodes of the perpetrators of the Hazelwood shooting.

And this, my own personal story which is true, although I appreciate could be doubted:

Yesterday morning, just before midday, I myself travelled to the Inch to make acquaintance with a friend. Knowing nothing of the shooting I took my usual route until, finding it blocked with police tape, I was forced to take a small diversion through the estate. When I arrived at the house a young lady was present and I was politely introduced, before being told of the shooting I hasten to add, and asked if I remembered her. I did, albeit vaguely, and as such was reminded she was the daughter of another. alas seldom seen, long acquainted friend.

Now, this young lady was a few years ago in a romantic relationship with a ruffian, a proverbial bad egg. The individual concerned, known ever-after as the grave robber, was charged and convicted of the ancient offence of violating a sepulchre after breaking into a tomb in Bobby the faithful dog famed Greyfriars Kirkyard, cutting off the head of a corpse and playing with it. From the BBC, Youths guilty of tomb violation:

The pair had forced open the Mackenzie Mausoleum, where Sir George Mackenzie, a former Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, was laid to rest after his death in 1691, on 30 June 2003.

Mackenzie was a prosecutor for Charles the Second and earned the nickname "Bluidy Mackenzie" for vigorously pursuing Covenanters whom he had tortured to gain confessions.

The court heard that they played with the head like it was a "trophy".

However, they were acquitted of allegations that they forced open the coffin and simulated oral ex with the severed head.

Thus, given the above, and even excluding my own experience, I am drawn yet again to heads, to Royalty, and to, surely salmon of wisdom eating, Nostradamus:

Poison, hidden under the heads of salmon

cheers

BBC report on shooting here.

Dark Night

Again as with my previous post going back to just before Christmas and the discovery of the severed mummified head in an Ikea bag, I highlighted a trilogy of almost simultaneous fires in the Edinburgh area on the night of the 20th, the most spectacular being that in the Indian restaurant Khushi's, part of an old church in Edinburgh and just a few yards from the historic Knights Templar lands. ( see Babylon Burns - Baphomet Rises)


What I was totally unaware of at the time was that the basement part of the building, The Liquid Rooms, was hosting glam-rock act The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who were set to hit the stage just as the inferno ignited.

Today they were finally allowed to visit the venue in order to ascertain damage to their equipment and instruments which, unfortunately, are ruined through smoke and water damage. (BBC report here)

What strikes me though, perhaps in the light of Heath Ledger's posthumous Golden Globe award for playing the Joker in Batman movie The Dark Knight, is their last double album, live and titled Zalvation, released in 2006, and pictured above.

The first side includes the tracks Midnight Moses (him of burning bush fame) and Isobel Gowdie, an infamous Scottish lady who confessed to witchcraft back in 1662. (wikipedia Isobel Gowdie).

The first track on the second CD is called - Give My Compliments To The Chef.



It should be noted that in Scotland the longest, or darkest, night of the year is normally the 21st of December, although this varies by a day in a leap year.

cheers

please see also Jokers Wild part 1 which includes a multitude of information relating to Heath Ledgers death