Brainiac

2,000 year-old brain found in Britain.

British archaeologists have unearthed an ancient skull carrying a startling surprise — an unusually well-preserved brain. Scientists said Friday that the mass of gray matter was more than 2,000 years old — the oldest ever discovered in Britain. One expert unconnected with the find called it "a real freak of preservation.

Think the Japanese dudes with the brain camera could be of some help?

Extreme Home Takeover

Squatters take over multimillion dollar estate.

Five squatters made their entrance last month by donning high-visibility jackets, to make them look like builders, and putting up a rented ladder against the front of the building. One man climbed up on to a balcony, and was delighted to find an unlocked window.

They have since connected up to the utilities, and say that they will pay their energy bills. Bedding paraphernalia, rucksacks and "artworks" cover the floors. The new tenants feed themselves by rummaging in bins. They claim that far from damaging the house, they are improving it after years of neglect, and deny that they are breaking the law.

"Other people can come here," one of the squatters, 21-year-old Stephanie Smith, said. "We want people to use it as project space. People can work here, stay wherever they want."

Who's Watching the Watchers?

An image of Gordon Brown made up of photos of CCTV cameras.

The Classrooms Have Eyes

CCTV cameras spying on UK students.

CCTV monitors classrooms at one in 14 schools, according to a survey.

The poll of teachers also found that almost a quarter feared there might be more cameras hidden around the campus that they did not know about.

Most said their schools were fitted with surveillance cameras. Almost 80 per cent said there were cameras at the entrance and more than 7 per cent said there were some in classrooms.

Nearly 10 per cent of teachers polled by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said there were cameras in the lavatories.

X Fliers

Rise in UFO sightings over Britain.

"Something really bizarre is happening in the skies over the U.K.," said Malcolm Robinson, founder of the research group Strange Phenomena Investigations. "I've been dealing in sightings for 30 years and we currently have something very real which mankind cannot explain."

Thugs of the State

This Big Brother shit is getting out of hand...

On 24 July it was reported that a painter and decorator called Gordon Williams was given an on-the-spot fine of £30 by Ceredigion council officials, after they observed him smoking a cigarette in his blue Suzuki van. You see, the officials had determined that this van was his "place of work" and therefore Mr Williams was breaking the new law banning all smoking in the workplace.

On 25 July it was reported that Haringey council officials had fined a boutique owner called Sangita Ibrahim for putting out her rubbish in black bin bags, rather than the grey sacks required by the council. The officials fined Ms Ibrahim £300 – made up of four fines of £75, one for each offending bag of the offending colour. Nicole Rosbrook, who works at the boutique, told the London Evening Standard: "The two guys who came in were incredibly rude to us – and to the customers. We were shocked, especially when they turned on the customers."

She added that "We had repeatedly asked the council for a delivery of grey bags, but it never came, so we had to use ordinary black bags. The two men actually went through the bags, leaving them open and rubbish strewn all over the pavement."

Read more here.

Vanishing Act

How to disappear without a trace.

License to Hug

You may need to take a test before you can have contact with kids or kiss your own child in public.

The launch of a new Government agency will see 11.3million people vetted for any criminal past before they are approved to have contact with children aged under 16.

But the increase in child protection measures is so great it is "poisoning" relationships between the generations, according to respected sociologist Professor Frank Furedi.

This is the part that gets me:

In one example, a woman could not kiss her daughter goodbye on a school trip because she had not been vetted.

In [another] example, a father was given "filthy looks" by a group of mothers when he took his child swimming on his own...

Prof Furedi details how one woman was made to feel like a "second class mother" because she was barred from a school disco because she did not have a CRB check.

Read more here. WTF are we becoming?

Hat Ban

Hats banned in Yorkshire pubs so Big Brother can identify you easier.

The measure, designed to prevent people from obscuring their faces from CCTV cameras, has been questioned by Barnsley's former Test umpire Dickie Bird, 75, well-known for his favoured white flat cap.

He said: "Asking a Yorkshireman to take off his flat cap - whoever heard of anything so silly.

1984 or 2008?

1 surveillance camera for every 14 people

Fish & Chips

Is the British government developing a plan to microchip prisoners?

As a way to reduce prison crowding, many British prisoners are currently released under electronic monitoring, carried out by means of an ankle bracelet that transmits signals like those used by mobile phones.

Now the Ministry of Justice is exploring the possibility of injecting prisoners in the back of the arm with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that contains information about their name, address and criminal record. Such chips, which contain a built-in antenna, could be scanned by special readers.

This is from the author of the previous RFID article.

Bleak Existence

Britain has been condemned as a bleak place for children, where thousands are needlessly criminalised for misdemeanours and where the gap between the education and health of the rich and poor is growing.

Read more here.

Stonehenge Story

It's being suggested that Stonehenge may have been the final resting place of royalty.

Radiocarbon dating of cremated remains shows that burials took place as early as 3000 B.C., when the first ditches around the monument were being built, said University of Sheffield archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson.

Read more here and find a handful of nice photos.

Graffiti Geisha

Check out the works of artist Hush.

Forced Labor

Unemployed young adults in the UK to be forced into "boot camps"?

A future Conservative government will bring in "boot camps" for unemployed young people aged between 18 and 21 who refuse to take a job, Chris Grayling, the party's welfare spokesman, will say tomorrow.

Read more here