DSNet - Building Communities

30 Trees Lost at Hebron Burial Ground, Bedminster

DaveS — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:52:57 +0000

Bristol Loses Another 30 Trees

Hebron Burial Ground in Bedminster Desecrated By Owner

Bristol has once again suffered major loss of wooded area at the command of a foreign owner. This time the owner is Pietro Mario Sansone who is believed not to reside in the UK.
The Hebron Burial Ground is already a designated conservation area and has not been maintained by the owner. There had been some complaints regarding leaves blocking gutters and blocking of light. This may have provided some excuse for the ensuing destruction.
Presumably no impact analysis had been done regarding the effect on both wildlife and social amenity. There are reports that the burial ground was home to bats and hedgehogs.
Only last year, the owner cut down 3 trees without planning permission before being prevented from doing further damage by Bristol Council.

Princess Caraboo

The burial ground most famously is the final resting place of a cobbler's daughter, Mary Baker (née Wilcocks)(1791-1865), from Witheridge, Devon. Mary Wilcocks then a 26 year-old servant girl in 1817, fooled people into thinking she was 'Princess Caraboo' of Javasu. She spoke an invented language and eventually claimed she had been kidnapped by pirates, and had escaped by diving into the Severn Estuary before swimming to shore, just south of Bristol.
When her story was eventually exposed as an invention, the Worrall family, who had been her hosts, arranged for her to leave for Philadelphia and she departed June 28, 1817. In the USA, she briefly continued her role, but lost contact with the Worralls after couple of months.
In 1821, she had returned to Britain but her act was no longer very successful. She briefly traveled to France and Spain in her guise but soon returned to England and re-married. In September 1828, she was living in Bedminster with the name Mary Burgess and gave birth to a daughter the next year. In 1839, she was selling leeches to the Bristol Infirmary Hospital. She died on January 4, 1865 ,aged 75,and was buried the Hebron Road Burial Ground, Bedminster, Bristol in an unmarked grave.
In 1994 Disney released a full-length feature film about her life.

Edward Bird (1722 - 1819) painted this portrait of her in 1817

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A comparison of Dhammapada verse 50 with Kings James Bible , Matthew 7:3

DaveS — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:02:29 +0000

The similarity of these two verses is so striking, I'm sure it must have been noticed before but still bears repeating.

Dhammapada (from the Pali Tipitaka, Buddhist Theravada canon,)

One should pay no heed to the faults of others,what they have done and not done.
Rather should one consider the things that one has oneself done and not done.

Verse 50

Christian Bible (King James Version)

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Matthew 7:3

Autumn Sunset over Bristol

DaveS — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:06:28 +0000

Stop.
Just for a moment,
and enjoy the evening sky.

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Lazy gardeners good for wildlife

DaveS — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:35:33 +0000

Dr Will Peach of the RSPB has commented on the results of a study performed by a combination of RSPB, De Montfort University and Natural England. The study concluded that the population of house sparrows in Britain has fallen by 68% in the past three decades with the greatest declines being in cities like Bristol,London and Edinburgh!

"Honeysuckle, wild roses, hawthorn or fruit trees are perfect for insects and therefore house sparrows.

"The trend towards paving of front gardens and laying decking in the back, and the popularity of ornamental plants from other parts of the world, has made many gardens no-go areas for once common British birds."

He said gardeners could help sparrows by "being lazy, doing nothing and allowing the garden to be a little bit scruffy".

Sparrows need to produce around 5 chicks each year in order to maintain the population and the chicks need a steady supply of live insects like aphids, flies etc.
Putting out seed is fine for adults but if there are not enough insects the chicks will die of starvation.

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Bristol's Eastville Park : 70 trees felled without permission

DaveS — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:43:17 +0000

Wood Demolished in Eastville Park

Massacre of a private wood in one of Bristol's largest and most popular parks

The headline at http://eastvilleparkwood.blogspot.com/ says it all.
The area outlined in red in the photograph below shows the huge extent of the devastation. For those familiar with Eastville Park, this is a significant area of mature trees that forms a major part of the 'wild' half of the park, extending from behind the old swimming pool almost to the lake.

Like many residents I was surprised to learn that this was in fact private land. It has been freely accessible for many years and home to a wide variety of animals and birds. There is even a badger sett, supposedly protected, and a home to some of the bats that Eastville Park is famous for (at least among bat enthusiasts).

Somewhat after the fact, Council Officers have slapped tree preservation orders on the those still standing and the landowner faces prosecution from the Forestry Commission.

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Bristol shortlisted for European Green Capital 2010 and 2011

DaveS — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:33:08 +0000

The evaluation panel, set up by the European Commission , has shortlisted eight out of 35 European cities to support their applications for the title as European Green Capital 2010 and 2011

Bristol City Council leader, Helen Holland, said they wanted to make Bristol a "truly green capital" and tackle the issues of "climate change, transport and congestion".

The announcement of the first two European Green Capitals for 2010 and 2011 will be made at a ceremony planned for early 2009.

Shortlisted cities

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Bristol, United Kingdom
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Freiburg, Germany
• Hamburg, Germany
• Münster, Germany
• Oslo, Norway
• Stockholm, Sweden

Link:
European Green Capital shortlist

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Barack Obama to Reverse up to 200 Bush Actions

DaveS — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:06:02 +0000

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues
The team is now prioritizing those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official
Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. "Any decisions would need to be discussed with his Cabinet nominees, none of whom have been selected yet."
Potential actions include:
• Reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
• Lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion.
• Reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California's rules, representing in total 45 percent of the nation's automobile market.

"Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer."
Barack Obama ,Friday, January 25, 2008

Note: Senator Obama (as he was then) was a Cosponsor of the bill introduced by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Link to press release
• Declare that carbon dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare , a recommendation of an EPA task force that President Bush shunned in order to protect the utility and auto industries. Obama is keen to show that politics must not interfere with scientific advice.
• Create a National Energy Council to coordinate all policymaking related to global climate change as recommended by the Center for American Progress, an influential liberal think tank created by former Clinton White House official John D. Podesta, a co-chairman of the transition effort. Many of its staff has been swept into planning for Obama's first 100 days in office.
The National Energy Council would be a counterpart to the White House National Economic Council that Clinton created in a 1993 executive order.

Source: Washington Post

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America Votes!

DaveS — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:49:38 +0000

Obama! bam-a-lam

Featuring Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders) & Gary Lucas (Capt. Beefheart & The Magic Band)

Broadband Speedtest

DaveS — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:53:20 +0000

VirginMedia Broadband test results

VirginMedia seem to have upgraded broadband speeds in the Bristol area again:

...and 2hrs later, even better :

Now, that is fast!

Update November 2008
Almost 7 months has passed since my original test so I've rechecked. Here are the results of 2 tests taken 17/11/2008 :

So, still looking good apparently. These results are at odds with what I feel is a degradation in service. I certainly haven't had the download speeds I used to get ie when I initially moved to to Virgin Media's XL service, I was seeing speeds of up to 1.3Mbps whereas I am now lucky to hit 400kbps. Uploads too have dropped and I'm getting what feels like either dropped packets or connections. It does vary considerably at what time of the day or even which day I do it on.
Generally I can just put up with it as there's no great hurry so I haven't gone to any lengths at analysing the issues. After all, there's plenty of things I should be doing round the house rather being online!

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Geek joke #2

DaveS — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:39:52 +0000

How about a math limerick?

(12 + 144 + 20 + (3 * √4 )) / 7 + (5 * 11) == 9 ^ 2 + 0

Translated:
A dozen, a gross, and a score,
plus three times the square root of four,
divided by 7,
plus 5 times 11,
is nine squared,
and not a bit more.

'the square root symbol is brought to you today by unicode 221A'

As Dan Hicks once said,"I scare myself"