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The UFO Files

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

Despite a line that I once heard in a movie that the United States is the only country in which unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are sighted, the United Kingdom appears to have its fair share of unexplained phenomena across its skies too.  The UK’s National Archives has published an extensive array of documents of sightings and policy …

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Weird Laws, or Urban Legends?

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

As mentioned in my previous post, during my day-to-day work at my cool job, I never know what I’m going to stumble upon.  It so happened that, as I was gathering information for my post on sumptuary laws, I came across a page of ‘legal curiosities’ compiled by the UK’s Law Commission and published by …

Ornate red and ivory wall decoration, with plaque and symbols

Hunting and Badger Culls in England

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

The English are, generally speaking, a fairly genteel group of people.  Hunting in England is now relatively uncommon, with fox hunting (very controversially) legislated against in 2007.  Even owning a gun is rather unusual and involves a long and highly regulated process.  I definitely noticed a huge contrast when I first moved here – during hunting season deer …

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Violence, Censorship, and the Human Centipede II

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

In a related theme to gruesome, violent ads (commercials) being removed from programming in the UK, as described in my previous blog post, the UK has censored an entire film (movie).  The Human Centipede II has failed to get a certification (rating) from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The BBFC is an independent, non-governmental …

Ornate red and ivory wall decoration, with plaque and symbols

Glee and The Mechanic: A Bad Romance?

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

In my morning perusal of the newspapers the other week I came across an article saying that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent regulator for advertising in the media, has banned two film (movie) trailers for the movie The Mechanic, one of which was aired during the show Glee. The ASA has a …

Ornate red and ivory wall decoration, with plaque and symbols

William and Kate Plus a Pre-nup?

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

With the marital celebrations of Prince William and Kate Middleton only a week away, the question flying around some people’s minds is whether Will and Kate have a pre-nuptial agreement (also known in England as a ‘marital property agreement‘) in place. The use of pre-nuptial agreements has not been widespread in England, due mainly to …