Around the world

Around the world http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/ http://www.eblah.com en Soviet Google http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1226838115/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1226838115/#num1
1970 marked the hundred year anniversary of Vladimir Lenin, who inspired the Russian people to overthrow the previous Tsar government in Russia in 1917. He was a real icon for many Russians and in one Siberian town some woodcutters decided to celebrate the anniversary by cutting all the trees in one large field to leave only those that would form a huge message “100 Years to Lenin”.

Google Earth didn't exist back there, there were no satellite photos on the internet, actually ther was no internet itself (really, there was a such a time), so they didn’t do it for the benefit of the web ir to become internet heroes. The real reasons are unknown and probably long forgotten - maybe they got an order from Moscow to make such a big message for American spy satellites to photograph, maybe they just wanted to do something they had the skills and ability for. Speculate away, and follow the link to see the results of their work:

100 Years to Lenin

Looks like they started something, or had Moscow sent out more than one directive in order to send a message to the decadent capitalists in the West, using their own spy technology?:

“60 Years to USSR” back from 1977

“100 years to Lenin” 1970

“Lenin”, date unknown

“Lenin”, no date

“Glory of Communist Party”, no date

“USSR 50 Years”, 1967

“USSR 50 Years”, 1967

“USSR 50 years”, 1967

“Lenin 100 years”, 1970]]> Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:21:55 Apollo The Haider crash http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1223830884/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1223830884/#num1
Am I missing something:

Haider 'was double speed limit'

Over ten years years ago, a couple of relative nobodies die in a car crash while mistakenly trying to get away from the Paparazi, and the debate as to who killed them is still going on and can make headlines.

A controversial German politician who is in a position of influence and has openly praised some aspects of the Nazi past, dies after he crashes alone in a Volkswagen Phaeton (ie, not a tinny little car) when travelling at 88 mph - twice the speed limit of the road concerned - and his car overturns and tumbles a number of times.

Which one is more likely to have been a real conspiracy in reality (if I can use the "r" word with care)?

Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised that there aren't stories of assassination plots featuring in the news?]]> Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:01:24 Apollo Pripyat and Chernobyl http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1217029173/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1217029173/#num1
Today I got in a book called Zones of Exclusion

ripyat and Chernobyl, a large 'coffee table' sized book of photos taken by the professional photographer Robert Polidori, and just flicking through it, it's amazing. The area has a rather eerie quality to it and while it was a scene of a tragic event, It feels almost like watching a car crash.

Has anyone else got some interest in this, seen Elenas site, got thoughts on the ruined city, what?]]> Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:39:33 JadeFalcon US nuclear weapons leave the UK http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1216400254/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1216400254/#num1

As an example of the silliness I alluded to the in the opening sentence, instead of just treating this a relatively significant piece of news, others used the fact that this announcement was not plastered over the front of all the newspapers, and used as the opening story on TV news, as the basis of their tiresome "conspiracy, conspiracy" calls.

In fact, such moves are never publicised due to the danger from terrorists, and other "well-meaning" groups, and if I may quote Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Defence:

"It is both UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location."

Oh dear, what a shame, another conspiracy story burst by the simple application of a mundane and well known fact

And I used to like conspiracy theories too, now I just feel insulted by those that promote most of them.

Looking at the archives, there were over 7,000 nuclear deployed in Europe just prior to 1970. While the campaigners would have us believe the silos are still brimmed and overflowing with such weapons, the most recent inspection finds the total to be between 150 and 240 (figures released are estimates), with two thirds of that number being in Italy and Turkey.]]> Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:57:34 Apollo Wartime pic finds http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1213899500/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1213899500/#num1
While there aren't thousands, or anything like that, having a photographic connection in the family closet means there are one or two unidentified pics stuffed in boxes, and while I think I've managed to pull any that have a personal connection out of the stack, there's still plenty left that that I don't have a clue about, and are probably just old customer's prints, either printed off as proofs or tests, or never collected and just thrown in boxes.

While there's rather a lot of people portraits and head shots of folk in uniform, none have any info written on them, so are a mystery, as are the rest. Some are taken in Scotland, on holidays or outing, while others are European, and I'd hazard a guess they came from service personnel on the move. The subjects aren't interesting: unknown people, weddings, country roads, hills, castles, houses etc. all unidentifiable unless you happened to belong to the pics.

However, every so often something a bit more interesting crops up, so I might slip them in here if I get the opportunity. Who knows, someone might even recognise the subject.

I'm not going to describe them just post them as found (or rather after a little digital enhancement and correction to make them viewable). And I should add that there is no implied connection between any of them, they're all just sifted out of a big box!

]]> Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:18:20 Apollo RLS Resources for Learning http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1213051476/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1213051476/#num1
http://www.rls.org.uk/

Resources for Learning in Scotland (RLS) is a resource base headed by the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and SCRAN - involving over 100 Scottish archives and libraries. There are over 107 thousand records, 650 resource packs and 26 websites on Scotland's social, cultural and industrial heritage.

Unless I'm mistaken (and that would be nothing new of course

) although the pics it provides are just small versions of SCRAN's carefully guarded originals, they seem to be a bit larger and of better resolution the tiny effort that appears on SCRAN's own site.

There's almost 400 pics from one of my own favourites, the scientific collection at the Hunterian Museum, and it includes a number of examples of the original Transatlantic telegraph cables (that the ones they dropped down there way before TAT-1).]]> Mon, 9 Jun 2008 23:44:05 Apollo RAF or... not RAF http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1212959728/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1212959728/#num1
Restricting the discussion to the period up to, and including, World War II, many airfield, particularly small ones, can be found being listed and generally referred to as as RAF such-and-such, however...

Once you start to dig into the individual histories, many of them fail to turn up any RAF background, or record of them even having had the RAF operating from their runways. For example, this could be the case for FAA (Fleet Air Arm) airfields and RNAS (Royal Naval Air Stations). In these cases, one can find detailed histories relating to those pasts, but as the internet is trawled, one can find many personal accounts or reminiscences which muddy the waters by referring to such stations as RAF.

I'm beginning to think that the reality is that while the operation may have been naval or army, many of the folk that were posted to such places, and the general public for that matter, simply assumes that because aircraft were flying from an airfield, then that aircraft was operated by the RAF, so was an RAF airfield, regardless of which service was actually operating it.

Anyone think the same might be true?

More importantly, anyone got any idea how to find out if an RAF airfield really is RAF, and not a mis-allocation, without making enquires to the RAF?]]> Sun, 8 Jun 2008 22:15:28 Apollo The Lone Sentry (site) http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1211024003/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1211024003/#num1
The Lone Sentry describes itself as Photos, Articles, & Research on the European Theater in World War II and that sums it up pretty well, and it contains a heap of articles from the time, complete with illustrations. It's all factual stuff, rather than reminiscences, so seems to be handy to go look for facts and figures that don't usually pop up the more 'reminiscency' sites.

I started having a random wander through it, and really had to pull away from it, or I'd still be there as you can wander into subjects not found elsewhere.

Even though there's nothing exactly related to Scotland, I'm really surprised this site has never come up in any searches I've done over the past few years.]]> Sat, 17 May 2008 12:33:23 Apollo True meaning of the Olympic Torch http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1207408244/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1207408244/#num1
Not having any real interest them, I suffered a Roger Moore style 'eyebrow rising moment' as I read the story behind the the Olympic Torch, touted as the "Symbol of The Games, their Spirit, the Competition, the Athletes, Sportsmanship, yada yada yada...", but in reality a symbol of Nazi Germany from 1936, planned with immense care by the Nazi leadership to project the image of the Third Reich as a modern, economically dynamic state with growing international influence.

The organiser of the 1936 Olympics, Carl Diem, wanted an event linking the modern Olympics to the ancient. The idea chimed perfectly with the Nazi belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich. The first torch was lit in Greece with the help of mirrors made by the German company Zeiss. Steel-clad magnesium torches to carry the flame were specially produced by the Ruhr-based industrial giant Krupp. Media coverage was masterminded by Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels, using the latest techniques and technology. Dramatic regular radio coverage of the torch's progress kept up the excitement, and Leni Riefenstahl filmed it to create powerful images.

In 1936 the torch made its way from Greece to Berlin through countries in south-eastern and central Europe where the Nazis were especially keen to enhance their influence. "Sporting chivalrous contest," Hitler declared just before the torch was lit, "helps knit the bonds of peace between nations. Therefore may the Olympic flame never expire." The flame's arrival in Vienna prompted major pro-Nazi demonstrations, helping pave the way for the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria, in 1938. In Hungary gypsy musicians who serenaded the flame faced within a few years deportation to Nazi death camps. Other countries on the relay route like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia would soon be invaded by Germans equipped not with Krupp torches but with Krupp munitions. And Carl Diem, the relay's inventor, ended the war as fanatical military commander at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, refusing to accept that the Third Reich was over. Hundreds of the youngsters were killed in a futile attempt to defend the stadium. Diem however survived, and reinvented himself after the war as an academic specialising in the philosophy of sport.

One Olympic Torch Relay Runner was Siegfried Eifrig, who carried the torch as it arrived in the centre of Berlin. Flanked by huge swastika flags, he lit a fire on an altar - typical of the pseudo-religious symbolism Nazism relished. Eifrig is still alive, aged 98, and still has the original Krupp torch, engraved with the route of the 1936 relay. He says he is saddened by the controversy this year's relay has attracted, as it ought to be kept a "purely sporting" affair, and he is also critical of the way the politicians, as ever, have sought to exploit it, and sees the plan to take the torch across the summit of Mount Everest as a "pointless gesture" that makes a nonsense of the relay as an athletic challenge. Having survived the war as a soldier and then aas British PoWr, he now sees the 1936 relay in a more sober light than when he was one of its stars.

It's all rather different from the image promoted by the media and sponsors today, but then again, they have to something important today. like make a profit from it, not achieve something trivial like trying to take over the world.

]]> Sat, 5 Apr 2008 16:10:44 Apollo