STAYING SAFE

I've just received an interesting email from someone called Loris Ayoub. Loris is publicising a book, snappily entitled "How to protect Yourself from Identity Theft, Internet Scams & Phone Scams" written by Brett & Deborah Christensen who publish the "Hoax Slayer" web site.

She has identified this blog (don't ask me how) as listing the site as one of my favourites and is asking me to promote the book which I am very happy to do. I have used Hoax Slayer many times to debunk social media stories which to any normal person couldn't possibly be true but manage to fool people anyway.

The book covers the following subjects and offers advice on how to recognise and deal with each.

• Do you know the six essential strategies for safe computing?


• Do you know how poor smartphone security can lead to identity theft?


• Do you know how scammers target people looking for love or work online?


• Do you know how to protect your information while shopping or banking on the Internet?


• Do you know how to help your elderly parents stay safe from scammers?


• Do you know how to recognise and deal with phone fraudsters?

To learn more about it, click on this link to the review.

To download the book, click on this link not the one in the review as it takes you to the Australian site.

Brett & Deborah Christensen

While we are on the subject of online hoaxes, I thought I would repeat some of what I have written about before which is the nonsense story that appears on social media such as Facebook.

Anyone receiving a story of doubtful provenance can simply type a description of the story followed by the word "hoax" into a Google search and something is sure to come up. You might think that as it's so easy to do, most people would before sharing a fake story. Sadly, that is rarely the case and my inbox, along with many others will find themselves bombarded with tales of religious festivities, social events, presentations and the like being banned because they offend Muslims/refugees/immigrants etc., etc., etc.

While this sort of stuff is regularly the preserve of neo-Nazi tabloid rags like the Express and the Mail, it's the publishing of this inflammatory rhetoric on social media that can be the most damaging because of the way it can spread so rapidly.

One of the most successful exponents of the art (if you can call it that) of spreading malicious rumours is a fellow called Joshua Bonehill-Paine. Regular readers of this blog will have heard me mention him on a regular basis. He publishes his own blog, or actually several, but all of the same ilk which is to make up completely fake stories, mostly with a racist, misogynistic or otherwise discriminatory content. It is quite easy to see that all these stories are fake, but people are taken in by them all the time.

One of his stories was about a pub in Leicester that, he claimed, had banned armed forces personnel in case it offended immigrants. This resulted in thousands of people threatening to attack the pub and staff working there. The Judge at his subsequent trial on a charge of malicious communication described him as "Moronic". 

Joshua Bonehill-Paine is many things but moronic isn't one of them. The Judge had nothing to say about the real morons, that is, the ones taken in by the hoax and starting a hate fuelled campaign of terror against a completely innocent victim.

This book doesn't deal with the obvious social media scams designed solely to be malicious and instead gives advice on those designed to steal you money, your identity or both and covers all types of scam including the now popular phone scam which are used by criminals to create false identities or to convince you to part with your money.

You can obtain the whole book for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited or for a modest price if you don't. I thoroughly recommend it. 

IT'S A MYSTERY

I do enjoy looking at where referrals to my blog are coming from, both referring URLs and referring sites. I know I've covered this before but it's fascinating.

This weeks offerings include http://ashleydavidsonmarvellousevents.blogspot.co.uk/. This is a single issue page, written by a fellow called Barrie Trower, who is unhappy about a company called Ashley Davidson's Marvellous Events. This company, according to Barrie, booked him and his band for an even for which they have never been paid. Sorry to hear that Barrie, and for anyone wanting to read more, click on the link to the site.

I have no idea how someone went from that page to mine as there is no mention of it anywhere, but I get my hits where I can.

The next one is http://brainmaps.org/. BrainMaps.org is "an interactive, multiresolution next-generation brain atlas". I don't know how I've managed without one for so long. As with the last site, I have no idea how anyone would get from there to here.

http://jptrans.naver.net/ is just a blank page so again, I can't see how anyone could have been referred here from it.

Ditto this one http://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/

I'm also getting hits from various URLs which bounce me to a sex contact site. Very frustrating.

PEREGRINES OVER CROSSNESS

This is a picture I took a few days ago of one of a pair of Peregrine Falcons flying over Crossness Nature Reserve. You see them quite a lot.

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING

Friday morning at Crossness Nature Reserve saw a gathering of protesters, angry with Cory "Environmental" and their plan to build two huge warehouse type buildings on a site next to the reserve and right on top of a rare piece of waste ground vital for the breeding of endangered species such as the Skylark, Ringed Plovers and others.

Armed with posters, kites and a large banner, they demonstrated their feelings in no uncertain terms as can be seen from these pictures.

This seems to have quite alarmed Cory who sent a few of their security people along to keep an eye on events and to look generally menacing. Apparently, even the Police turned up at one point, or so I am told; I didn't see them myself.

Behind these people is one of the fields that Cory are planning
to build on.

I was asked to provide some pictures of the event for publicity purposes which is why you won't see me in any of them. It is all aimed at trying to persuade Bexley Council to turn down the planning application, or at least mitigate some of the damage which will enevitably be caused.

I've already posted information about the Cory proposal so I won't bore you with repeating it all. You can find out more by visiting this site.

SAVE CROSSNESS NATURE RESERVE

I'm not usually one for campaigns and petitions ever since I saw Penn and Teller persuade hundreds of people at a hippy convention to sign one demanding a ban on water. This is different as it is personal.

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a regular visitor to the Crossness Nature Reserve and have spent many happy hours there watching and photographing the wildlife.

It is now under threat of being virtually wiped out by a massive development proposed by Cory Environmental on part of the brownfield site next to the reserve. If this were to go ahead, it would completely overwhelm the designated nature reserve and destroy most of the last remaining grazing marshes in South East London.

As part of a campaign against this proposal, there is going to be photoshoot at the nature reserve at 10:30am on Friday 1st April (this is not a hoax) where we hope to get as many people as possible for a group photograph that can be used for press release.

There will be banners and Skylark kites for protesters to wave so please do come along if you can and bring your friends and family too. You can find directions easily by Googling Crossness Nature Reserve.

Some of the things we could lose forever if this proposal goes ahead.

Linnet. Seriously declining.

Little Ringed Plover

Pochard. Increasingly rare

Ringed Plover. Red listed as globally at-risk seen here nesting where a huge
warehouse will be built.

Kestrel. Increasingly rare

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Skylark. Increasingly rare

Juvenile Wheatear passing through on it's way South for the Winter.

STROLLING DOWN THE RIVER

One of the joys of living next to the river is that every day you can be sure of something new.

Today, I decided to go and look at the birds on the mud flats but mis-timed the tide so all there was to see was a lot of Black Headed Gulls bobbing up and down on the water.

Okay, so there were lots of Teal, Mallard, Cormorants, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Herons, Moorehens, Coots, Blue Tits, Starlings, House Sparrows, Great Tits, Chaffinches, Kestrels, a Little Egret and a Kingfisher but other than that, there was nothing much.

The afternoon was livened up a bit by some folks with  a couple of high powered model cars being driven quite expertly on the footpath. The dry, dusty conditions of the path were ideal for some spectacular stunts and I stood and watched for a while. It seemed like so much fun it must be illegal.

My next treat was a visit by a couple of naval vessels. First along was the BNS Castor of the Belgian Navy. This ship has been in the North Sea recently, testing some anti-pollution equipment for dealing with such things as oil spills.

BNS Castor

It was followed by the FGS Ludwigshafen am Rhein of the German Navy.

FGS Ludwigshafen am Rhein

They and many others are here for the Defence and Security international exhibition in London where the defence industry will be hoping to provide weapons to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Pakistan and Colombia so they can continue to terrorise their citizens and those of neighbouring countries.

Saudi Arabia for instance, urgently needs to replenish their arms stocks which are being used up slaughtering civilians in Yemen.

"Once the rockets are up,

Who cares where they come down?

That's not my department," says Werhner von Braun.

(Tom Lehrer)

Anyway, back to the river and coming down the Thames in stately fashion was the Tall Ship Tenacious which you can read more about by clicking the link.

BURDS

I thought I would treat you to some of the bird pictures I have taken recently on the river and in the Crossness Nature Reserve. 

 

 A Grey Heron perched on a pipe in the pond by the old pumping station. 

I could never find out why the water in this pond is bright yellow.

A Little Egret fishing and catching Dragonflies in the wader scrape pond 

in the Crossness Nature Reserve protected area

Here it is again

This is one of a pair of Kestrels that can be seen regularly now over the grazing marshes.

Take a stroll down there with a pair of binoculars and enjoy the free show.

A juvenile Wheatear getting ready to fly South for the Winter.

You may be interested to know that Wheatear is a corruption of the old Anglo-Saxon name for this bird which was "White Arse".

BANANAS

One of the latest loony food stories going round at the moment is that eating more than six bananas at once can kill you. Actually, the story has been going around for ages.

Comedian, Karl Pilkington picked up on this with one of his famous quotes "I've heard a fact, that if you eat more than six bananas it will kill you. I saw a bowl with seven bananas in it and thought, that's dangerous."

He has also discovered that "sitting in a bath of pineapple chunks can kill you" is another well documented fact.

What Karl Pilkington and others have failed to recognise is the genuine risk of radiation poisoning presented by Bananas. While the actual amount of radiation produced by an individual banana is quite small, a large number placed in close proximity to each other can create a critical mass, resulting in possible injury or even death to anyone unfortunate to be nearby.

Do any of you remember Three Mile Island, the Nuclear Power Station in the United States? This suffered a critical meltdown of it's core in 1979, allegedly as a result of a failure in the cooling system. What you may not be aware of is the fact that on the day of the accident, staff at the reactor were having a "bring a banana to work" day. The close proximity of a large number of bananas to the reactor core caused it to overheat with disastrous consequences.

What the Government doesn't want you to see

What is particularly worrying is that school children are being encouraged to take portions of fruit to school rather than sugary snacks in their packed lunch.  No-one seems to have done a risk assessment to determine the possible adverse health consequences of large numbers of bananas being kept in a confined classroom area, especially if the school is near one of those mobile phone masts where the deadly rays of the mast, combined with the radioactive emissions of the bananas could cause all the children to turn into mutants.

It has been suggested that this has already happened but the Government is covering it up.

You can read more about the consequences of eating too many bananas here.

MOON

This is a picture of the Moon I took the other night. A waning Moon takes more commitment as you have to get up at around 4:00am to see it.

Wrestling With the Technology

I'm starting to get to grips with the idiosyncrasies of Blogger and the nightmare called 'page layout'. On the right of the page, you will now see some new features including the most flattering portrait of myself I can find.

There is also an opportunity to contribute to the World Community Grid. If you have a look here you can see what it's all about. The idea is that you download a small program that enables you to donate your unused computer processing power to a global network creating what is effectively a supercomputer of immense power; this can then be used to carry out research for a number of useful projects. The research organisation sends a work unit to your computer which then processes it and sends it back. It only uses the computer processing power that you are not using yourself and can be configured to run in any way you want, for instance, you can set it to run all the time or like a screen saver.

World Community Grid uses a program called the Berkley Open Infastructure for Network Computing or BOINC for short, which was designed by the University of California, Berkley for the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project. The program was designed in such a way that any research establishment can run it's own projects on it without the need to create their own program first.

If you do download the BOINC program, there are a huge number of projects you can run if you don't fancy any of the WCG ones. They range from the really useful to the totally insane. 

I have been running World Community Grid for a number of years. In the early days I would encounter the odd problem or two but it's bug free now as far as I can tell. Having said that, the BBC sponsored a climate model project a few years ago and encouraged everyone to install and run it but, as far as I understand, absolutely forbade anyone at the BBC from loading it onto their work computer. Government agencies also have this somewhat contradictory attitude to cloud computing in that none of the tens of thousands of computers run in government or council offices have it installed. I recall that when I was working for the DWP, we were under strict instructions not to install it and were threatened with dismissal if we did.

World Community Grid can be run on Windows, Linux and Apple (not iPad or iPhone) and includes an app for Android which can be set up to work only when the device is being charged. Setting it up on Linux though can be a bit of a pain if you want to get it to run at startup. I still have to work it out.

The Alternative World of ALDI

It's a funny old world and one of the funniest parts of it has to be the inside of an ALDI store.

If you have read any of my earlier posts, you will know that I have started doing more of my shopping in there. The place is something of a cross between an old Cold War East European shop and the strangest bazaar on Earth. Go on a weekly shop and I guarantee that you will only leave with half the things on your list but you may leave with something you would never have imagined buying. I mean, try and find any other supermarket where there isn't any flour (none that I could find anyway) but stocks cut price astronomical telescopes next to the pickled onions; no sultanas but a good range of children's wellington boots. A real fairy land of possibilities.

A Stroll Along the River.

This week's cover photo features a view of the Crossness Nature Reserve, seen in the 

light of the setting Sun.

You can see the new two-storey bird hide overlooking a small lake and 

described as one of the finest in the country, 

De-grumping for beginners

One of my favourite ways to de-grump (is that a real word?) is to take a stroll along the river front and admire the views and the wildlife.

I'm very fortunate in that respect and find it's one of Thamesmead's most redeeming features. Me and Mrs Grump will travel miles to visit nature reserves around the country and find, as often as not, there is more to see just looking over the garden fence.

The Crossness Nature Reserve is one particular place I have in mind. Managed by Thames Water, it covers 20 hectares of grazing marsh and reed bed. Most of the site is open to the public but the area shown it the photograph is available only to members. You can find out more about becoming a member by visiting this site and also here on the Bexley Wildlife site.

Unfortunately, part of the hide has been vandalised. I suppose little boys have been throwing stones at windows ever since there have been windows for little boys to throw stones at. A shame none the less as this window looks out over the West Paddock and was put there for that purpose.

This is another view of the hide with the wind pump in the foreground.

The Dipping Pond. Lots of fun for the children (and the adults too).
The Dragonflies quite like the pond and many of them can be seen hovering in the Autumn sunshine.

Another view of the pond with the hide and the incinerator in the background

The start of the walkway leading through the reed beds

Here are some recent visitors 

seen along the river lately.

Black Tailed Godwit flying along the river.
These congregate on the mud flats in their hundreds during the Winter months.

Curlews are quite shy and you will be lucky to see one

At this time of year, you will see hundreds of lapwings flying in great flocks along the
river before settling on the mud to feed.

I saw this Kingfisher sitting on a perch in front of the Crossness Nature Reserve hide.

Common Seal sitting on the mud by the Golf Course.
These and the Grey Seal are an increasingly common sight on the River Thames.