A while ago I wrote a blog about the cause of the credit crunch, mentioning the most important reasons behind what has caused the economic situation we are in now.
I promised to continue this and I have decided that now the time is right to do that.

There is another big issue that is an important cause of the so called crisis which I haven’t mentioned yet.
This is the Neo-liberal politics that we see in most “developed” countries.
For a number of years I have already been aware that photos are usually more developed than countries, and the misery that the so called developed countries create in the world nowadays show that this statement is probably true.
What exactly is it that I mean?

The “western” world, or the “developed” countries, or “the axis of evil” or whatever you prefer to call them, has had some hidden agenda for decades already.
Just like in my previous blog about the credit crunch, the USA plays a major role in this, but since the rest of the countries that are part of the group of countries that I am talking about follow in the footsteps of the USA I don’t just want to focus on them and prefer to pretend it all is one big organisation.

It already started ages ago, but I am not too good at history so I can’t really give much examples, until the events from 27 February 1933.
On that day, the Reichstag in Berlin was burned down, and the next day already, Adolf Hitler got the so called Reichstag Fire Decree signed by President Hindenburg, which enabled the Nazis to ban publications which were not considered friendly to their cause, for which the Dutch bricklayer Marinus van der Lubbe was found guilty and executed by beheading on 10 January 1934, just three days before his 25th birthday.
However, knowing that Hitler had only been sworn in as chancellor and head of the coalition government 4 weeks earlier, and that his Nazi party greatly benefited from this event, it is worth having a look at the Counter-trial, which was held in London and started on 21 September 1933. At this trial Hermann Göring was found guilty, and he has given evidence himself, as William L. Shirer writes on page 193 in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, was confirmed by General Franz Halder at Nuremberg:

On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer's birthday in 1942, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears how Göring broke into the conversation and shouted: 'The only one who really knows about the Reichstag building is I, for I set fire to it.' And saying this he slapped his thigh.

Of course Göring was cross-examined at Nuremberg, and in his defence he stated this:

I had no reason or motive for setting fire to the Reichstag. From the artistic point of view I did not at all regret that the assembly chamber was burned; I hoped to build a better one. But I did regret very much that I was forced to find a new meeting place for the Reichstag and, not being able to find one, I had to give up my Kroll Opera House … for that purpose. The opera seemed to me much more important than the Reichstag.

Which proves that he had little respect for the building, and most likely not more for the people working in it.

Another quotation that makes the truth in Göring’s comments very doubtful can be found in the trial, on 4 November 1933, where the following argument took place between Göring and Georgi Dimitrov (one of the accused):

Dimitrov: Herr Prime Minister Göring stated on February 28 that, when arrested, the "Dutch Communist Van der Lubbe had on his person his passport and a membership card of the Communist Party". From whom was this information taken?

Göring: The police search all common criminals, and report the result to me.

Dimitrov: The three officials who arrested and examined Van der Lubbe all agreed that no membership card of the Communist Party was found on him. I should like to know where the report that such a card had been found came from.

Göring: I was told by an official. Things which were reported to me on the night of the fire…could not be tested or proven. The report was made to me by a responsible official, and was accepted as a fact, and as it could not be tested immediately it was announced as a fact. When I issued the first report to the press on the morning after the fire the interrogation of Van der Lubbe had not been concluded. In any case I do not see that anyone has any right to complain because it seems proved in this trial that Van der Lubbe had no such card on him.

Dimitrov: I would like to ask the Minister of the Interior what steps he took to make sure that Van der Lubbe's route to Hennigsdorf, his stay and his meetings with other people there were investigated by the police to assist them in tracking down Van der Lubbe's accomplices?

Göring: As I am not an official myself, but a responsible Minister it was not important that I should trouble myself with such petty, minor matters. It was my task to expose the Party, and the mentality, which was responsible for the crime.

Dimitrov: Is the Reichsminister aware of the fact that those that possess this alleged criminal mentality today control the destiny of a sixth part of the world - the Soviet Union?

Göring: I don't care what happens in Russia! I know that the Russians pay with bills, and I should prefer to know that their bills are paid! I care about the Communist Party here in Germany and about Communist crooks who come here to set the Reichstag on fire!

Dimitrov: This criminal mentality rules the Soviet Union, the greatest and best country in the world. Is Herr Prime Minister aware of that?

Göring: I shall tell you what the German people already know. They know that you are behaving in a disgraceful manner! They know that you are a Communist crook who came to Germany to set the Reichstag on fire! In my eyes you are nothing, but a scoundrel, a crook who belongs on the gallows!"

As you will probably know, just over a week after the fire, on 5 March 1933, there were elections in which Hitler’s Nazi party and their allies won a majority of 52%, and we all know what came from that.

After reading this you probably wonder what this has to do with today’s financial situation.
Let me try to explain, by first setting a few pointers on this historic event…

- The fire was immediate reason for setting up a new law, which included censorship over publications that would create a negative image for one political side
- The court case was a fraud, as proved by the fact that in 1981 the verdict was overruled, which posthumously overturned Van der Lubbe’s 1933 conviction and found him not guilty. This ruling was subsequently overturned, but in January 2008 he was finally pardoned under a 1998 law for the crime on grounds that laws under which Van der Lubbe was convicted were unconstitutional. (so the laws were unlawful)
- The fire and the publications after that caused a change in the public opinion, which the Nazi party needed to get control over the country and start their attempts to create the third reich.


Throughout history the world has seen several similar things that looked like they were an attempt to gain political benefits for a party with a particular view, where the facts that have been raised to oppose these things have either been pushed away as conspiracy theories, or have been silenced by the censorship of the ruling class.

Of course in the 21st century a fire wouldn’t be of so much influence as it was in 1933, so the party that wanted to gain control used something which would have a similar kind of impact on the people as the fire had in 1933, and so they did on 11 September 2001, when according to the news of that day, four planes were hijacked by Muslim extremists and used to cause death and destruction in New York and Washington.
However there are loads of reasons to raise questions about what really happened that day.

Of course the biggest thing is the WTC “attacks”, but I want to start with the hit on the Pentagon.
This is supposed to be one of the best protected places in the world, however when an airplane flies in to the building the only security camera is one that saves a single still image every few seconds. The “hole” in the building is too narrow to be caused by the kind of plane that is supposed to have flown in there, there are hardly any witnesses at a place that is usually packed with tourists in early September and there is no evidence of any remains from a plane in the demolished part of the Pentagon.

Ok, is this not enough to make you think something weird was happening on September 11th?
How about the collapse of the twin towers? What really caused that?
The towers were designed to survive the impact of planes (why has this ever been considered by the architect, was there already some suspicion at that time?). And the investigators said that the fire was so severe that it caused the steel construction to melt, which resulted in the towers to collapse. However there has never before been any incident where a fire caused the construction of a building made out of steel to melt, and the temperature that burning Kerosene (airplane fuel) reaches is not near high enough to cause steel to melt.
This explanation would also be weird, because from the same scene the investigators have managed to find passports from the “hijackers” while the flight recorders or the “black boxes” where too much damaged by the intense heat.
There are also images of a woman standing in one of the towers in the “hole” caused by the impact of the plane, which would not be possible if the heat was so intense that steel would melt.

Then there are the explosions that have been heard when the towers came down. Was it really just the floors falling on top of each other, or were explosives used to bring the towers down? If not, why did the NYC mayor say in an interview they “pulled” the buildings?

Ok, you’re not convinced yet? How about WTC7?
This was another building that collapsed on September 11th, and there is still no clear explanation how this happened. This building was host to the US Secret Service and the New York City Office of Emergency Management as well as to the Department of Defence, and the CIA who shared the 25th floor with the IRS.
The official story tells that debris from the North tower’s collapse hit the number 7 tower, causing fires on several floors in the building. However while the twin towers collapsed in a way that can be described as implosion the amount of debris crossing a wide range from the buildings was limited, which is also clear from the little damage that was caused to other buildings closest to it, so it is very surprising if some debris did cross all the way to WTC7 and caused so much fire and devastation that later also that building collapsed. Just as likely is the event that the plans for what was happening on that day were in that building and that they had to be destroyed.

During the time following the events from September 11th there have been numerous investigations, however a lot of information had been stopped by the Bush administration from becoming public, official investigations by the 9/11 commission began more than a year after the incident, and no investigations were allowed on most of the debris.

Maybe these are conspiracy theories, but if they are, why were there no proper and full investigations allowed, and why were there never any images from the thousands of other security camera’s around the Pentagon that would show what really happened?
If the truth has to come out the government should not hide the truth and enable things that happen to be thoroughly investigated.

But hey, I mention all this, which is clearly bothering me, but what does it have to do with today’s financial situation? These buildings were destroyed nearly 8 years ago.

Well, I think it has everything to do with today’s situation.

Just like the Reichstag fire, the incidents from September 11th caused a great change in the public opinion, which George W. Bush really needed at that time, because after he became president while losing the elections and stopping a re-count of the votes in Florida, with the help of brother Jeb Bush, his popularity was decreasing rapidly.
After September 11th, Bush declared the war on terror, which meant that the US army would go into a guerrilla war like they did in Vietnam, but on a much larger scale. They first invaded Afghanistan on 7 October 2001, where they would capture Osama bin Laden.

He is the Van der Lubbe of 2001, but isn’t it surprising that the USA first allowed all his relatives to fly out of the country on September 12th, while all other air traffic had been completely stopped? The only links they would have to find the person they so much wanted to find were sent away, so how much of a suspect is Bin Laden really in this case? I have to admit I become even more unsure about his involvement when I look at the fact that now, more than 7 years later, he is still not arrested.

Not long after the invasion of Afghanistan, Bush also invaded Iraq. Somehow there were already rumours that this was planned long before September 11th, but the public opinion was against it. However, after the “attacks” the Bush administration started spreading stories that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, showed satellite images of where these weapons were located and even of where they were made, and the public opinion changed and on 20 March 2003 the USA invaded Iraq.

Up until today both Iraq and Afghanistan are still occupied by the US.
In Afghanistan they still haven’t captured Osama bin Laden, and in Iraq they only caused death and destruction while in the meantime they had to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction at all, but they did murder Saddam Hussein, who had become vice president of Iraq with US backing after the the coup in 1968, and later became president, also greatly supported by the US around the war between Iraq and Iran (1980-1988).

Another surprising fact here is that after more than 7 years in Afghanistan the US have still not found Osama bin Laden, but Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a very small underground shelter, with just enough room for one person, just 9 months after the invasion of Iraq. Does this mean there is no priority at all in trying to find Bin Laden? I would think so…

But hey, Pascal, you still haven’t explained what this has to do with the credit crunch!
Well ok, maybe you don’t see it yet, but do you know that apart from starting wars there have also been new laws implemented, which put censorship in place where people speak their mind against the ruling opinion, and enables anyone who is suspected of terrorist activities can be imprisoned without trial?
One of these laws is the Patriot act, but also other countries than the USA have changed their laws, even international laws are bended to fit the will of the big brother. The international war tribunal in The Hague cannot start any case against American soldiers, because the US has said they will free the soldiers, with force if necessary, so they give their soldiers the freedom to ignore international laws and human rights issues.

At least I hope this clarifies a bit why I compare the Reichstag fire with the September 11th happenings.
Still there is a bit more explanation needed why I use this for the cause of the credit crunch.
As I described here, there has been a war started after September 11th, in Afghanistan and Iraq, a lot of countries around the globe are participating in this, so it would be fair to say it is world war 3 that is going on.
Apart from (innocent) human lives that are lost in this war, a lot of money is wasted to keep this war going for so many years, while there is no result and we also can’t expect any result in the (near) future. Slightly interesting fact is that the factories that make weapons and ammunition were also greatly involved in the funding of the lost race for the white house from George W. Bush in 1990, and this whole war seems to be a bit his way to give them back what they gave him.

However, money is disappearing into weapons and with that into the very big hands of some of the most corrupt top-managers in the world, who care more about their personal profit than about the economy, so the money really disappears and is not put back into the economy by them. And in the meantime innocent people are jailed and tortured in Guantanamo Bay, while all over the US there are enough weapons of mass destruction to destroy planet earth several times (why are there no inspections yet, to show where these weapons really are after they have not been found in Iraq?).

Now after 8 years of terror with Bush in the white house we should get some relief with the new US president, Obama (doesn’t his name sound very similar to Osama?).
Many of his views and politics seem very promising, and hopefully he will manage to make a change for the better, but he has also announced to send 17000 more troops to Afghanistan, which is a step that will not help in resolving the issues he wants to resolve. Instead of sending 17.000 soldiers in, he should pull 51.000 soldiers (including those from other countries than the US) out, because there is no reason at all to be there, apart from funding the ammunition manufacturers.

Maybe this goes a bit too deep for some of you, and further explanation would be necessary, in that case I will be happy to provide some links to additional information which would show these things are all related. Just leave me a message, and if you feel like it even challenge my opinion if you have good arguments against this. I am open for a fair debate.

However I hope I have given you a closer look into some big events in history and shown some similarities that you were as yet not aware of and made you at least think about what is going on in the world, and not just accepting the explanation that the ruling class gives, but looking at the situation with your own eyes and making up your own mind.

Thanks for your undivided attention, and maybe more will follow later…

In 1986, the world enacted a global ban on whaling.
This year Japan will once again illegally and inhumanely use grenade tipped harpoons to brutally kill more than 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica, using a loophole in the international moratorium on whaling that allows catching whales for so called "research" purposes.
Japan has threatened to include 50 humpback whales, which are considered "endangered" in some regions of the world. The Japanese expedition will also be killing 50 endangered fin whales - the world's second largest animal & oldest living Mammal - as well as 935 smaller minke whales.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/whale-watch/outrage-as-whaling-fleet-heads-for-antarctic/2007/11/18/1195321608560.html
Don’t buy the argument that Japan’s motivation to continue whaling is about maintaining their culture or conducting scientific research as they claim……
QUOTE: “The Japanese have no tradition of crossing 3 oceans and two hemispheres in factory ships to slaughter these highly intelligent and defenceless creatures. The Japanese tradition was no different to that of many maritime nations (including Australia) in previous centuries that conducted whaling off their coasts and used the whale product for fuel and food”.
- Quote by Ian Campbell (Former environment minister of Australia - 19th August 2008)
Consumption peaked just after world war 2 and it was actually the Americans who suggested Japan take up commercial whaling to feed its citizens - Food was scarce & the population was starving. Whaling was initiated as a temporary emergency measure.
Nowadays whale meat is hardly a popular food in Japan. Roughly, only 1% of the population has ever tried it and even fewer regularly eat it (Japan Today Newspaper). They have so much excess meat due to the lack of demand, they tried to introduce it to children via a 'School lunchtime program'. The kids emphatically made it clear, they did not like the taste of it & prefer not to eat it.
In 2007, Japan had over 4, 000 tons of whale meat in frozen storage, uneaten, unsold and UNWANTED!
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/whaling_myths
Running boats into the Southern Ocean each year is costly and inefficient work for the Japanese for little financial gain. It is estimated the whalers are now $50M in debt & would be bankrupt if the Japanese government didnt fund their sham 'science' program.
As for the science argument, scientists globally have affirmed over and over again that any research could be, and in fact is, conducted without actually hacking these remarkable creatures to death in our oceans… Ask any reputable scientist and they will tell you; "You can learn far more from studying a living specimen than you can from a dead one!"
SO WHERE IS THIS "SCIENCE" JAPAN..... ???
The big secret is what the Australian Broadcasting Corporation uncovered in 2006 with their Science show “Catalyst”. They discovered of the 18year scientific research JARPA 1 program, which lethally obtained samples from over 6800 whales, less than 55 peer reviewed papers were produced, 14 that could be relevant to goals of the JARPA program and ONLY 4 that would require lethal sampling.
Watch the Catalyst video here uncover Japan's SHAM whale 'scientific research' program....
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1657789.htm
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7251222651&topic=5175
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GRISLY WHALING VIDEO FROM AUS CUSTOMS 2008 .
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080207-whaling-video-ap.html
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WHERE WE HAVE GONE WRONG
The IWC, the body charged with governing whaling internationally, is a mess & needs an urgent Overhaul. It allocates equal voting power to all members, with decisions made on a three-quarters majority vote.
This ‘democratic’ nature of the Commission however has allowed Japan to buy the votes of weaker developing countries with aid packages and other financial incentives.
Even land locked developing countries such as Mongolia are joining the IWC & voting alongside Japan in favour of whaling. Japan has almost bought out enough votes in this way to overturn the Moratorium on Whaling, which would allow it to again conduct commercial whaling that once culled 90% of all whales!
http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm
Clearly we need to think outside the IWC to put a stop to this tragic and archaic practice. PETITIONS TO SIGN!

By far the most popular Anti Whaling Petition Internationally (with a staggering 840,000 signatures from over 239 countries) is the Whales Revenge petition.

http://www.whalesrevenge.com/


One of the most popular in Australia (over 60,000 ppl have signed) is the Greenpeace endorsed joint Daily Telegraph/Today petition:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22874082-5014144,00.html


Another good one especially for our New Zealand members (over 10,300 signatures) is the Dominion Post Anti Whaling Petition:

http://www.gopetition.com/online/15815.html


Due to the larger number of British Citizens joining this group the following petition would be good to sign. (it is new and only has 180 signatures so needs the support)

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/HaltWhaling/


IFAW's (International Fund for Animal Welfare) Anti- Whaling site and Petition

http://www.stopwhaling.com.au


The International Whale Protection Organisation has just started a new petition. Please support it.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/IWPO-memberlist-petition


All 6 petitions will be forwarded onto Japanese government officials. Have your say in stopping these illegal whaling incursions into Australian & New Zealand territorial waters.



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Remarkable footage of elusive narwhal has been captured.

A BBC team used aerial cameras to film the creatures during their epic summer migration, as they navigated through cracks in the melting Arctic sea ice.

They believe the footage, which forms part of the BBC Natural History Unit's new series Nature's Great Events, is the first of its kind.

Narwhal are sometimes called "Arctic unicorns" because of the long, spiral tusk that protrudes from their jaws.

The appendages can reach more than 2m (7ft) in length; scientists believe males use them to attract potential mates.

'An amazing sight'

The BBC crew headed to the Arctic in June 2008, to film the tusked animals' summer migration.

At this time of year, temperatures begin to rise above freezing and the thick sea ice starts to melt, creating a complex network of cracks that cover the white expanse.

These animals are just so completely unreal - they are like something from mythology Justin Anderson, BBC producer

Every year, thousands of narwhal use these narrow fissures to travel thousands of kilometres, from the south of Baffin Bay to the high Arctic fjords.

But tracking these animals down is not easy.

Justin Anderson, who produced the programme, said: "Even though they are quite large animals, the area we had to cover was enormous - the size of Scotland.

"It is like finding a needle in a haystack."

A "dive" crew, equipped with underwater cameras, spent four weeks on the ice trying to locate the mysterious whales. But just as they caught a glimpse of them, the sea ice had become so dangerously thin that filming was forced to halt.

However, an "aerial" team arrived by helicopter to take up the mantle.

Mr Anderson explained: "It took us seven days to travel to the place where the whales had been spotted [Lancaster Sound] - we were stuck by possibly the worse thing you can encounter in a helicopter in the Arctic - fog.

They are following the retreat of the sea ice as they have done for thousands of years Mads Pieter Heide-Jorgensen

"But then we got there, we 'lucked out'; the skies cleared and we had eight days of 24-hour summer sunshine."

Using a special mount, cameraman Simon Werry filmed the creatures from the helicopter, as the narwhal swam through the melt-water leads.

Mr Anderson said: "This is the first time the narwhal migration has been filmed this way. It has been filmed from the ice, but this is the first time it has been filmed from the air.

"It was an amazing sight. These animals are just so completely unreal - they are like something from mythology - and we were all just completely gobsmacked when we saw them."

Thanks to their elusive nature, narwhal can prove difficult to study and there is still much to learn about these Arctic mammals.

Mads Pieter Heide-Jorgensen, from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, said the purpose of the creatures' summer migration remained a mystery.

He explained: "The interesting thing is that these creatures feed in the deep water in the central part of Baffin Bay during the winter.

"But when they are in the summer grounds, they hardly feed at all.

"They are following the retreat of the sea ice as they have done for thousands of years, and spending summer in front of glaciers for reasons we do not really understand."

With such a connection to the Arctic ice, researchers are trying to establish whether narwhal will be affected by changes in the Arctic ice cover.

Professor Heide-Jorgensen has been using satellite tags, which, as well as keeping track of the whereabouts of narwhal, are also able to monitor the temperature of the waters where the whales swim.

He said: "They give us the temperature profiles in the wintering grounds and we can see the temperature of the deep areas has been increasing over the past 50 years.

"However, we cannot yet see any direct effects of climate change on the narwhal."

Nature's Great Events: The Great Melt is on Wednesday 11 February on BBC One at 2100 GMT

Since almost a week israel has now been bombing Gaza, and although the media do mention it, it is still mostly as an understandable attack on terrorists who shoot rockets into israel.
However, this issue requires a closer look instead of simply judging on the way the israeli government wants us to look at it.

First, why are these rockets fired by Hamas?

For this I can write a lot about the history of israel and Palestine, for instance referring to the bible, where Palestine is mentioned as a country, and israel is not (only as a people). I can also go back to the illegal formation of the country israel in 1948 after England and the UN gave it to the zionists, but these are historic facts that everybody should already know by now, in this case I would like to look into more recent history.

The current situation in Gaza is that it is governed by Hamas, who have been elected in UN-approved and US backed democratic elections. Hamas is a party that does not approve the state of israel, and therefore israel does not approve of the Hamas government. Since then Israel has closed down the Gaza strip. People in there are not allowed, there is a shortage of the most basic needs for survival, including food and medicine. Basically Gaza is nowadays a huge open-air prison, where israel is the warden who comes in every now and then and kills a number of prisoners.
In a situation like that it is no more than understandable that the people will try to regain their freedom from the oppressor. Since the palestinian country does not have an army to defend itself against oppression the people have formed their own little army, which israel and many other western countries call terrorists, because they are Islamic and because they are fighting against a “western” country.
Basically they are fighting for their freedom and instead of terrorists should be called freedom fighters.

Then a next issue that I wish to raise here…

In the declaration of the human rights, which is also rectified by israel, every human being has the right to a fair trial. israel has denied hundreds of people this right by just sending in soldiers, choppers or fighter planes and killing the people without any form of trial.

israel has in the meantime already defied more resolutions from the United Nations over the decades than any other country, and as long as the United States allow them to do so, there will never be peace in the middle east.

At least I hope this article makes clear that to me israel is the only side that uses acts of terrorism in this story, and for this it does not matter that these acts are done by an government’s army of fanatics and not by a small group of religious fanatics.

ATHENS (Reuters) - "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."

For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.

The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said on Friday.

"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

In a comedy act Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords."

The English-language book will appeal to those who swear that the old jokes are the best ones. Many of its 265 gags will seem strikingly familiar, suggesting that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have raised laughs for centuries.

FAR-FETCHED CLOAK

In many of the jokes, a slow-witted figure known as the "student dunce" is the butt of the jokes. In one, the student dunce goes to the city and a friend asks him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: "No problem,' responds the dunce. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old.'

In another, someone asks to borrow the student's cloak to go down to the country. "I have a cloak to go down to your ankle, but I don't have one that reaches to the country," he replies.

The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians called Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them except that they were most likely the compilers of the jokes, not the original writers.

The multi-media e-book, which can be purchased online (www.yudu.com/oldestjokebook), features veteran comedian Jim Bowen, 71, reviving the lines before a 21-century audience.

"Jim Bowen brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes," Richard Stephenson, CEO of digital publisher YUDU, said in a statement.

For Bowen, much of the material seemed very familiar: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts nowadays, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."

Other one-liners in Philogelos may baffle a modern audience, such as a series of jokes about a lettuce, which only make sense in light of the ancient belief it was an aphrodisiac.

By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Steve Winter's winning image of a snow leopard on a night-time prowl

In pictures: Images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A picture of an elusive snow leopard on a night-time prowl has won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 award.

Steve Winter's image was captured during a 13-month quest to snap the perfect photo of the endangered species in its hostile habitat high in the mountains of Central Asia.

Speaking about his winning snap, Mr Winter said: "I was thrilled to have finally captured the shot I had dreamed of - a wild snow leopard in its true element."

The competition, now in its 44th year, is run by BBC Wildlife magazine and London's Natural History Museum.

The panel of judges spent months shifting through more than 32,350 entries before deciding on the winners.

"Everything comes together in this striking picture," said judge Mark Carwardine on Mr Winter's image.

"The drama of the snow, the mystery of the darkness, the posture of the rarely photographed snow leopard and the intriguing composition."

SNOWSTORM LEOPARD

The picture of an elusive snow leopard, captured at an altitude of more than 13,000ft in India's Ladak's Hemis High Altitude National Park, was the reward for 13 months of effort for Steve Winter, a photographer for National Geographic magazine.

Snowstorm leopard (Steve Winter/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Enlarge Image

"I try to do stories that have never been done before," he told BBC News.

"They do involve an incredible amount of work with scientists and local people. We were lucky in this instance that we got incredible pictures.

"It was collaboration between myself, the team and the snow leopard," he joked.

The project involved 14 remote cameras in roughly 45 locations. It was a case of trial and error - one camera only delivered a picture of half of a leopard in five-and-a-half months.

Working in such harsh conditions, where temperatures plummeted to -40C (-40F), he asked the manufacturers for their advice on the performance of the cameras in extreme temperatures.

"We don't know, tell us when you get back," he recalled.

Commenting on the use of trigger cameras rather than being sat behind the lens, Mr Winter said: "They are something that needs to be used to get intimate portraits of elusive animals.

"I used to hate these cameras because they gave you a record of an animal.

"Images are all about composition and light. If I cannot control that as if I would as I put the camera up to my face, then essentially I have failed.

"So I asked myself that if I did not like these cameras, how can I like them more.

"It turns out that snow leopards are the perfect species on which to use these cameras. They always come to specific locations to mark their territory.

"So I viewed the locations as movie sets. I put the cameras there, I put the lights there.

"I knew the animal would come; it was just wanting for the actor to walk on stage and break the beam."

Canon EOS Rebel XT + 10-22mm lens at 16mm; 1/200 sec at f16; ISO 100; waterproof camera box + Plexiglass tubes for flashes; Trailmaster 1550-PS remote trigger

THE SHOW

This photo showing a young male lion harassing a thirsty giraffe at a waterhole in Namibia has won this year's Young Photographer of the Year prize.

The show (Catriona Parfitt/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

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It was taken by teenager Catriona Parfitt during a family safari holiday in 2007.

"When the giraffe first arrived, it was very nervous," Catriona explained.

"As it walked slowly towards the water, it kept looking over its shoulder towards the ridge where there was a pride of four lions."

She added that perhaps the young lion saw a solitary giraffe as too much of a temptation to leave alone, despite the risks.

Competition judge Rosamund Kidman Cox called the image an astonishing shot: "Stage, action, story and onlookers combine to make an unforgettable scene."

Canon EOS 400D + Canon EF300mm f4 IS USM lens + Canon EF 1.4 extender; 1/200 sec at f5.6; ISO 100

TROUBLE-MAKER

Italian Stefano Unterthiner's photo of a mischievous Sulawesi black-crested macaque won the competition's Animal Potraits category.

Trouble-maker (Stefano Unterthiner/ Wildlife Photgrapher of the Year)

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The monkey earned his nickname "trouble-maker", Stefano explained, because it was more interested in the photographer than being photographed.

After spending weeks following the monkeys in the Indonesian island's Tangkoko National Park, Stefano found that their search for food took them to the coastal edge of the park's forest.

While most of the primates were busy foraging among the rocks for fallen fruits and nuts, one young adult took an interest in Stefano's activities.

"He would leap at me and kick off my back like a trampoline," he recalled. "It was part play, part confrontation, part attention-seeking, part curiosity."

Nikon D2X + Nikon 12-24mm lens; 1/250 sec at f10; ISO 125; graduated neutral-density filter; flash

DEADLOCK

David Maitland's "deadlock" is this year's winner of the competition's Behaviour: Other Animals category.

Deadlock (David Maitland/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

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He told BBC News that the photo was just a glimpse of a struggle between a tree-frog and cat-eyed tree-snake that lasted for hours through the night in the tropical forests of Belize.

"The snake had failed to get its jaws around the whole of the frog's head," he recalled.

"It wouldn't let go, presumably because the frog would have leapt away. But it couldn't swallow it, either."

Neither of the creatures showed any sign of giving up in the three hours that David sat in a cramped position.

"It was a complete stalemate," he added. In the early hours, when the pair had moved beyond the focus of his lens, David decided to call it a night.

When he returned in the following morning, there was no sign of the pair and no clue to which had finally broken the deadlock.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II + 100mm macro lens; 1/500 sec at f10; ISO 50; twin flashes

CLASH OF EAGLES

Clash of eagles (Antoni Kasprzak/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

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The photo of a fight between two white-tailed eagles over the carcass of moose in the depths of a Polish winter secured the top prize in the Behaviour: Birds category for Antoni Kasprzak.

To capture this image, Antoni found a carcass of a moose, which had been hit by a train, knowing that it would be ideal bait for his subjects.

Five hours later, waiting in the sub-zero temperatures of the Polish winter, a struggle broke out between an adult male white-tailed eagle and a young male.

Capturing the shot, Antoni knew the snowy backdrop for an award winning image.

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF500mm f4 IS USM lens; 1/1000 sec at f4.5; ISO 500; tripod

No matter how late we may stay out in the evenings, humans simply cannot compete with true creatures of the night. Whether it be flying powers, “seeing” in the dark, or an extremely heightened sense of smell, the following animals have adapted to living in darkness in intriguing ways. We reveal our top ten nocturnal animals.

1. Owl

As owls must hunt tiny prey such as mice in utter darkness, their hearing and eye-sight is extremely well developed. The long-eared owl, for example, possesses such superior eyesight that, with the equivalent light of one candle, it can spot a mouse 600 metres (2,000 feet) away.

2. Flying Squirrel

To move around in the dark, this nocturnal squirrel has developed a novel way of travelling. It climbs to the top of a tree, leaps into the air, spreads its legs wide, and glides gently to a nearby branch. It can achieve this "flying" feat due to flaps of skin stretching between its front and back legs.
(To see a flying squirrel in action, click here.)

3. Mink

To adapt to hunting in darkness, minks have developed a sense of smell far beyond that of human capability. They rely on their noses to communicate with each other, as well as to sniff out prey such as fish, frogs, and shellfish. But don’t get too close: these cute creatures mark their territory with musk produced from anal glands, which even humans have no trouble detecting.

4. Ratels

Badgers are common in the UK, often digging up people’s lawns during the night to find earthworms underneath. But this mammal native to Africa and western Asia, which is closely related to the badger, has a particular fondness for honey. Known as ratels or honey badgers, they follow the calls of birds to learn the location of beehives. Once a beehive has been located, they use their strong legs, claws, and teeth to get to the honey inside.

5. Slow Loris

The loris is a lesser-known nocturnal creature. Lacking a tail for balance, it uses its opposable thumbs and large toes to anchor itself to trees as it moves slowly and deliberately along branches. However, don’t let this slow-moving, wide-eyed creature fool you. When striking to kill their prey—usually insects and small vertebrates—they can move with lightning-quick speed.

6. Catfish

Catfish are a large group of nocturnal scavengers, living at the bottom of shallow waters. Amazingly, one type of catfish can “walk” on land. When droughts cause shallow ponds to dry up, the walking catfish is capable of travelling across land during the night to move to deeper ponds. It uses its pectoral fins and tail to slither across the ground, or “walk”, in search of new water, surviving on oxygen stored in an air chamber in its gill arch.

7. Tarantulas

Tarantulas are by-and-large nocturnal creatures. Contrary to common belief, they rely on their size and power, rather than their venom, to capture their prey. The spiders’ name is derived from Taranto in Italy, where the spider-wolf is found. It was thought that a bite from this spider would cause the disease known as tarantism, in which the victim would run around making strange sounds and leap into the air.

8. Hedgehogs

The long-eared hedgehog can survive in the extreme heat of the desert. By spending its days sleeping in hollows, it saves enough energy to hunt for lizards and snakes during the cooler nights. Fortunately for them, hedgehogs aren’t fussy eaters: they are resistant to most poisons and hence can eat almost anything, even the venom glands of vipers.

9. Foxes

In Britain, the incredible alertness of the red fox, with its keen senses of smell, hearing, and sight, means that it is particularly suited to night-time activity, as well as enabling it to live close to human habitation without being easily noticed. As a result, the red fox has been immortalized in folklore and Aesop’s fables for its craftiness and cunning.

10. Bats

Bats are extremely well-equipped for nocturnal activity. They fly and hunt by “echolation,” which means that they can “see” acoustically. By sending out pulsed emissions of high-frequency sounds that are reflected back to their ears from surrounding surfaces, they are able to work out the position and distance of their surroundings. This allows them to navigate in total darkness.

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