Thursday, May 30, 2013

Russell Brand on Woolwich...

The news cycle moves so quickly now that often we learn of an event through other people’s reaction to it. So it was when I arrived in Los Angeles to find my twitter feed contorted with posts of fear and confusion.

I caught up with the sad malice in Woolwich and felt compelled to tweet in casual defense of the Muslim community who were being haphazardly condemned by a few people on my time line. Perhaps a bit glibly (but what isn’t glib in 140 characters) I put “That bloke is a nut. A nut who happens to be Muslim. Blaming Muslims for this is like blaming Hitler’s moustache for the Holocaust”.

As an analogy it is imperfect but I was frightened by how negative and incendiary the mood felt and I rushed. I’m not proposing we sit around trying to summons up cute analogies when Lee Rigby has lost his life in horrific circumstances I simply feel that it is important that our reaction is measured. Something about the arbitrary brutality, the humdrum high-street setting, the cool rhetoric of the blood stained murderer evoke a powerful and inherently irrational response. When I first heard the word “beheading” I felt the atavistic grumble that we all feel. This is inhumane, taboo, not a result of passion but of malice, ritualistic. “If this is happening to guiltless men on our streets it could happen to me” I thought.

Then I watched the mobile phone clip. In spite of his dispassionate intoning the subject is not rational, of course he’s not rational, he’s just murdered a stranger in the street, he says, because of a book. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Woolwich case alibi to suppress Muslims...
  2. Woolwich attack reponse: Nabil goes on...
  3. Islamic fanatics wielding meat cleavers butcher a British soldier...
  4. Non-Muslims carried out more than 90% of all terrorist attacks on US soil...
  5. Muslim guy on how to react when Islam and the Prophet are insulted...
  6. We've moved on from the Iraq war – but Iraqis don't have that choice...

Disgusted drone pilot quits air force...

The international community is outraged over the careless devastation and lack of accountability of the U.S.’s drone program. At least part of this uproar results from the institutionalized mystery surrounding these flying killing machines. However, one former member of the U.S. military knows the drone program all too well… and he’s harshly critical of it, too.

According to an NPR report, Brandon Bryant joined the military fresh out of college in 2006 so that he could pay back his student loans. The U.S. Air Force assigned Bryant to its Predator program where he was a sensor operator. Rather than piloting traditional jets, however, Bryant captained drones.

Yes, you read that right: drones DO have pilots. While no one is actually inside a drone, the technology is not yet so advanced that it can carry out actions entirely by itself. As a result, Bryant found himself taking the helms – from a computer located in a trailer in Las Vegas.

During his first mission, Bryant witnessed American troops dying via the drone’s camera. He was helpless to do anything from his remote location, in part due to the combatants’ proximity to U.S. soldiers. Instead, he was instructed to fire a missile on a group of men away from the fighting.

“After the smoke clears, there’s a crater there and you can see body parts from the people,” explained Bryant. And as powerful as the drone’s weaponry is, death is not always instantaneous for its targets. “[One] guy… his left leg had been taken off above the knee, and I watched him bleed out.” Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Cowardice redefined, the new face of American serial killers...
  2. Drones cause ‘growing hatred of America’
  3. Obama lied about targets of drone strikes...
  4. Anti-drone protests hit New York...
  5. Naming the dead: five stories of drone victims...
  6. The United States has carried out more than 360 assassination drone attacks...
  7. Hey, hey, Barack! What do you say? How many kids have you killed today?
  8. A killer in the White House...
  9. The children killed by Obama's drones.
  10. The girl killed by Barack Obama - she never saw it coming...

Galocher avec moi? It's only French kissing!!!

It might sound French and the French may be renowned for doing it but not until now has there actually been a French word for it. On Thursday, however, that omission was rectified as "French kissing" finally entering the French dictionary.

Ever struggled to think of the word in French for "French kissing"? Well you wouldn't have been alone because, until Thursday, there wasn't one.

This is no doubt surprising for a country with a reputation for passion and romance, home to the famous artist Rodin who made the sculpture "The Kiss" and photographer Robert Doiseau, famed for his iconic image of the same name.

But all that has been rectified now, because for the first time the new version of the Petite Robert dictionary that went on sale to the public on Thursday contains the word "galocher," along with a number of new entries.

 "Galocher" simply means to kiss with tongues. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. The Secret: lesbian Japanese schoolgirls. (18+)
  2. Dog "french kissing" sleeping girl!!! Oh boy...  
  3. Pakistani schoolgirls practicing French kissing!!!
  4. Two girls kissing. No big deal, right?
  5. A French-kissing school for ... dogs???

Prom night in Bulgaria...

Starbucks 'toilet water' coffee prompts anger in Hong Kong...

A Starbucks café in Hong Kong's financial district that used water from a tap near a urinal to brew coffee has prompted a torrent of angry reactions from customers.

The coffee shop, in the famous Bank of China Tower, has been using the water from a tap in a lavatory to make beverages since its opening in October 2011.

Images from local newspaper Apple Daily showed the tap with a sign that said "Starbucks only" a few feet away from a urinal in the dingy washroom, which the paper said was in the building's car park.

"Totally disappointed! The initial decision by Starbucks to use water from toilet is a clear sign of your company's vision and the level of (dis)respect your company has for the health and mind of your customers," Kevin L wrote on the Starbucks Hong Kong Facebook wall.

 "I'm now really worried when I purchase coffee from Starbucks. Who knows which other stores are using the similar practice! Scary!!" he wrote. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Tourist sues Starbucks over 'hidden camera' in washroom...
  2. Is Starbucks wasting millions of litres of water?
  3. Hong Kong KFC serves food from thrash!!! WTF!
  4. How I came to hate McDonald's...
  5. A very filthy McDonald's in Adelaide, Australia...

Singapore defends Internet licencing rules...

Singapore's media regulator on Thursday sought to allay fears that a controversial new rule requiring news websites to obtain licences was aimed at stifling Internet freedom.

The surprise requirement, which takes effect on Saturday, triggered an outcry in the online community after a popular news site operated by US-based Yahoo! was included among 10 sites subject to licencing.

The rest are all local mainstream news sites and there are fears among bloggers critical of the government that they could be targeted next.

"The new licencing framework is not intended to clamp down on Internet freedom," the Media Development Authority (MDA) said in reply to queries from AFP, adding that it was "not MDA's intent to place onerous obligations" on the licencees.

The MDA on Tuesday said websites that have at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and publish at least one local news article per week over a period of two months must obtain an annual licence. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Singapore to regulate Yahoo, other online news sites...
  2. Singapore professor denied tenure, sparks academic freedom debate...
  3. Singapore police arrest "sticker lady..."
  4. Malaysia and Singapore get low marks for press freedom...
  5. Debate over blog limits intensifies in Singapore...
  6. Singapore's print media at the crossroads...

Chinese wonder why their tourists behave so badly...

From faking marriage certificates to get honeymoon discounts in the Maldives to letting children defecate on the floor of a Taiwan airport, Chinese tourists have recently found themselves at the center of controversy and anger.

Thanks to microblogging sites in China, accounts of tourists behaving badly spread like wildfire across the country, provoking disgust, ire and soul-searching.

While in the past such reports might have been dismissed as attacks on the good nature of Chinese travelers, people in the world's second-largest economy are starting to ask why their countrymen and women are so badly behaved.

"Objectively speaking, our tourists have relatively low-civilized characters," said Liu Simin, researcher with the Tourism Research Centre of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Netizen outrage after Chinese tourist defaces Egyptian temple...
  2. Chinese tourists’ bad manners harming country’s reputation...
  3. High-rollers from China make Singapore casinos see red...
  4. 'I love Paris' may soon be passe for Chinese tourists...
  5. Egyptian tourism down, so man cuts off his penis!!!
  6. Why Saudi Arabia hates tourists...
  7. Is tourism the most destructive enterprise?

Afghanistan war has cost every British household more than £2,000...

The war in Afghanistan has cost every British household more than £2,000, according to a new book written by a civilian adviser to the Government on the country.

The book claims the war, which has lasted more than a decade, has cost Britain at least £37 billion.

By 2020, Frank Ledwidge, author of Investment in Blood, estimates Britain will have spent at least £40 billion on the Afghan campaign – a sum equivalent to hiring 5,000 new police officers or nurses and paying for their entire careers.

Mr Ledwidge, who has also been a civilian adviser to the British government in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, attempts the first full audit of the campaign in his book, which will be published next week by Yale University Press.

(...)

He writes that the region is no more stable now than when troops entered in 2006 and that opium production is once again increasing, fuelling corruption.

 Mr Ledwidge told the Guardian: "Once the last British helicopter leaves a deserted and wrecked Camp Bastion, Helmand – to which Britain claimed it would bring 'good governance' – will be a fractious narco-state occasionally fought over by opium barons and their cronies." Full story...

Related posts:
  1. The USA's epic failure in Afghanistan...
  2. The human cost of "the war on terror..."
  3. War, occupation and massacre...
  4. America's war in Afghanistan: murdered civilians, mistreated veterans...
  5. Women, children among 18 Afghans dead in NATO wedding strike...
  6. Afghan war will leave British taxpayers with £20billion bill...

Argument and spitting in the Singapore MRT...

Outrage in Malaysia as 40-year-old rapist marries 13-year-old victim...

The case of a 40-year-old Malaysian man who is charged with raping a 13-year-old girl before marrying her under sharia law has provoked national outrage.

The alleged rape happened in the eastern state of Sabah, where more than half of such cases involve underage girls, according to human rights activists.

Riduan Masmud, a restaurant owner, was charged with raping the girl, whom he had known for six months, in a parked car in February. He took her as his second wife – by mutual consent, he said – soon after that.

"There are many cases of men marrying underage girls," Masmud told reporters outside court. "I do not see why my case should be any different."

Masmud said he planned for the girl to finish her studies and then "take up a cosmetics course with my first wife". The wife told reporters she had accepted the girl as Masmud's second wife. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. In Afghanistan, unpaid debts and 6-year-old girls...
  2. Syria's refugee brides: “The Saudis usually ask for 12-year-olds.”
  3. 140 million girls will become child brides by 2020 at current rates...
  4. Destaye: too young to wed...
  5. Alarm as hundreds of children under age of 10 married in Iran...
  6. She's only 10, but she's already been married, raped, beaten and divorced!!

Burma's Buddhist mobs sow fear amid widening unrest...

It was a terrifying sight: hundreds of angry, armed men on motorcycles advancing up a dusty street with no one to stop them. Shouting at the top of their lungs, clutching machetes, iron pipes and long bamboo poles, they thrust their fists repeatedly into the air.

The object of their rage: Burma's embattled Muslims.

Gaping residents backed away as the Buddhist mob passed. Worried business owners turned away customers and retreated indoors. And three armed soldiers standing in green fatigues on a corner watched quietly, doing nothing despite an emergency government ordinance banning groups of more than five from gathering.

Within a few hours on Wednesday, at least one person was dead and four injured as the north-east region of Burma became the latest to fall prey to the country's swelling tide of anti-Muslim unrest.

Two days of violence in the city of Lashio have cast fresh doubt over whether President Thein Sein's government can or will act to contain the racial and religious intolerance plaguing a nation still struggling to emerge from half a century of military rule. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Religious violence erupts in Myanmar...
  2. Video shows Burmese police standing by as Buddhists attack Muslims...
  3. Myanmar imposes two-child limit on Rohingya Muslims...
  4. HRW says anti-Rohingya unrest in Myanmar was organized ‘ethnic cleansing’
  5. Buddhist monk Wirathu uses racism and rumours to spread hatred in Burma...
  6. Fear stalks Yangon's Muslims after Buddhist-led killings...
  7. Burmese neo-nazi movement rising against Muslims...

Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart calls for sterilization of the poor...

Conservative billionaire Gina Rinehart called for the sterilization of the poor today, arguing that the only way to alleviate poverty is to stop the "underclasses" from multiplying.

In a video uploaded to her official YouTube account, the Australian mining heiress said that income inequality is caused by differences in intelligence, and eugenics is the only answer.

"Our nation faces a grave economic crisis as the combination of a strong Australian dollar and falling commodity prices sap our ability to compete globally," she explained. "The only logical solution to this crisis is to strengthen the quality of our most precious resource: human capital.

"I believe that any couple making less than $100,000 a year should be forcibly sterilized through a vasectomy or fallopian tubal ligation. Those earning more than $100,000 a year should be encouraged to have as many as 10 or 12 children. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. ‘Scumbag Gina Rinehart’ memes go viral after "jealous poor" remarks...
  2. Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart attacks 'jealous' poor...
  3. Genetic engineering, eugenics and the ideology of the rich...
  4. Bob Geldof preaches population control, tells Arabs to stop breeding or...
  5. Watch out Africa! Melinda's coming for you...
  6. Bill Gates' Foundation's depopulation summit demands global approval...

Hungary torches 500 hectares of GM corn to eradicate GMOs from food supply...

When it comes to protecting the public from GMOs, Hungary knows how to get the job done: set fire to the fields growing GM corn!

Although environmentalists might at first argue about the ramifications of burning so much organic matter right out in the open, the deeper truth is that genetic pollution poses a vastly more serious threat to our world, and burning GM corn is the one sure way to destroy the poisonous genetic code contained in plant tissues. In fact, I hope to see the day when the U.S. courts order the destruction of all GM corn fields across America. And I suspect that if the courts won't rise to the occasion, the People will sooner or later find a way to get it done on their own. Think "Army of the 12 Monkeys" but with a GMO slant.

Lajos Bognar, Hungary's Minister of Rural Development, reported this week that around 500 hectares of GM corn were ordered burned by the government. Hungary has criminalized the planting of genetically modified crops of any kind, and it has repeatedly burned thousands of hectares of illegal GM crops in years past.

(...)

Shockingly, most farmers who are planting GMOs have no knowledge whatsoever of what GMOs are or why people don't want them in their food. They've been lied to by the biotech industry which promised them "higher yields" and "greater profits." In reality, GM crop yields have plummeted even while giving rise to herbicide-resistant "superweeds" that now threaten many farms. With soils that have been rendered sterile with glyphosate and crop yields falling, farmers are increasingly finding themselves in dire straights. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Monsanto and the bio-rape of India...
  2. Hell No, GMO! Anti-Monsanto protests sweep US...
  3. Mexico resists Monsanto corn...
  4. Poland becomes the 8th EU nation to ban Monsanto's maize...
  5. Peru bans Monsanto and GMOs...
  6. Tests find Monsanto's GM corn nutrionally dead, highly toxic...
  7. Even the NY Times is now rejecting Monsanto GMO science...

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Original bike tricks from Tim Knoll...

Cardinal who said abortion is worse than priests raping children apologizes for child abuse cover-up...

Cardinal George Pell of Australia recently admitted that the Catholic church did not address victims of sexual abuse by priests properly, and said his predecessor "did cover up" sex abuse.

"We've been slow to address the anguish of the victims and dealt with it very imperfectly," he acknowledged.

Pell also explained that former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew of the sex abuse allegations and destroyed documents. He then moved the suspects to other parishes. These actions were "followed by disastrous consequences."

As noted by Salon, around 620 children were sexually abused by clergy in Australia from the '30s until now.

This abuse was hidden by the nation's hierarchy. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. 'Catholic mafia' inside NSW police force hindered police probe into child sex...
  2. Australian Roman Catholic Church admits child sex abuse...
  3. Australia launches child sexual abuse probe...
  4. Sex abuse by two paedophile clergymen in Australia led to 26 suicides...
  5. Christian Brother in Australia gets 14 years for abusing 11 boys...
  6. Philippine Catholic Church's hypocrisy in contraception debate...
  7. Catholic Church excommunicates mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim ...

Man critically injured as mobile phone explodes in his mouth...

A young man from Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh was critically injured after his mobile phone exploded while he was holding it in his mouth.

Mithlesh, 22, was holding the mobile in his mouth and switched on the torch facility in the phone so as to search for a sugar packet stored beneath the thatched roof of his settlement at Ghurwada village of Seoni district. The mobile phone burst causing severe injury to his jaws and nasal pipeline. The explosion also caused damage to a portion of the thatched roof.

"Mithlesh switched on the torch facility on his mobile and while holding it in his mouth was searching for a packet containing sugar which was stored in the thatched roof of his shanty," Narendra Thakur, husband of the village sarpanch told The Times of India.

"It was some Chinese-make handset which was being used by him," Thakur added.

The incident occurred between 9 and 10 pm on Friday. Mithlesh's family rushed him to a hospital in Seoni. But seeing his critical condition the doctors advised his relatives to shift him to Nagpur for treatment. The victim is undergoing treatment in a Nagpur hospital, but his condition is said to be critical. Doctors at Seoni hospital had earlier told the relatives that the chances of Mithlesh's survival were very low, sources told TOI. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Swedish man loses tooth after iPhone explodes...
  2. Boy in India loses eye after cell-phone explodes...
  3. Indian youth killed by exploding mobile phone...
  4. Another iPhone in Singapore explodes while charging...
  5. 'Exploding' iPhones investigated in France...
  6. Apple tries to silence owner of exploding iPod with gagging order...

Photo pose with toilet to get married in India!!!

Prospective grooms in Sehore district are posing along side toilets at their homes. This picture would be one of the most important proofs in ensuring their marriage at mass marriages organized by the government in the district.

The local administration has made the picture of the groom along with the toilet a mandatory requirement for getting registered for mass marriage ceremonies and avail benefits under the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana (MKY).

Shortage of toilets in the district led to this unique solution being mooted. Earlier, there were instructions from the social justice department that grooms having toilets in their houses would get the benefit of the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana. The grooms were required to produce an affidavit in this regard.

 "With new modification, we have tried to ensure that there is no chance of fraud and wrong information from the grooms. It is precisely for this reason that we didn't only ask for providing pictures of toilets, but pictures of grooms with their toilets," district collector Kavindra Kiyawat told TOI. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Indian government launches 'no lavatory, no bride' campaign...
  2. Woman in India leaves husband because house had no toilet...
  3. "No toilet, no bride" Indians fight for better hygiene...
  4. India is the world's largest open air toilet, says minister...
  5. Girls drop out of schools in India because of lack of toilets...
  6. Indian court orders toilets to be placed in all schools...
  7. Lack of toilets costs India $54 billion annually...
  8. More mobile phones than toilets!!! India's sanitation crisis...

Saudi cleric faces backlash over "harass women cashiers" tweet...

Saudis on social networks have called for legal action against a writer and cleric who urged his Twitter followers to harass women cashiers.

Abdullah Mohamed al-Dawood, who has almost 100,000 Twitter followers, used an Arabic hashtag on Sunday which read: "sexually harass female cashiers".

He advocated harassment as a way of discouraging women from working.

Recently Saudi women have been allowed to work in public in shops, provoking a backlash from conservatives.

Hundreds of Saudis and other Arab tweeters attacked him, some asking him what right he had to stop women working, others accusing him of inciting sexual attacks. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Saudi moral committee threatens to cover “tempting” women’s eyes...
  2. Fatwa forbids Saudi women from working as cashiers in supermarkets...
  3. Taliban to Afghan women:'Leave your job or we will cut your head...
  4. Saudi Arabia shops told to build sex-segregation walls...
  5. Saudi cleric under fire for labelling waitresses as ‘prostitutes’

Religious violence erupts in Myanmar...

Woman set on fire by family for falling in love in India’s Bihar...

A young woman in India's Bihar was set on fire and then left to die in a locked room by her family members four days after she eloped with her lover.

Police said the angry family members set the woman on fire and then locked her in a room at Sonevarsha village in central Bihar’s Bhojpur district on Sunday before fleeing the scene.

Hearing her cries local villagers rushed to the spot but found her locked inside a room after which they informed the police.

“The police rushed to the spot and rescued the girl but sadly she succumbed to her grievous burn injuries,” the local sub-divisional police officer Anjani Kumar Singh said on Monday.

 He said the police had registered a case against the family members and were investigating. The accused have yet to be found. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. "Reverse" honour killing: girl in India kills father and brother for rejecting boyfriend...
  2. Man in India beheads daughter and parades her head in village because of...
  3. Young Indian lovers who killed seven people explain their gruesome act...
  4. Pakistan honour killings reach 675 this year...
  5. Father and brothers in India shoot teen dead for falling in love...
  6. Man in Pakistan kills 6 daughters for "honour..."
  7. Boy in India killed and eye gouged out for loving upper-caste girl...
  8. Honour killing in India: young couple hit with boulders and tortured to death...

Obama targets veterans in war on free speech...

(...)

‘Case exposes government system that is targeting military veterans’

It happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently.

A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government.

According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members of law enforcement and the government who were involved in last year’s episode where Marine veteran Brandon Raub, 27, was arrested by a swarm of FBI and Secret Service and forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward for a week.

His crime was posting controversial song lyrics and political views on Facebook, the institute reported.

In one of his postings, he cited the evil in the world. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Living in Limbo: one veteran's struggle with life after Iraq...
  2. Dying veteran takes parting shot at Bush for Iraq fiasco...
  3. Suicide among US veterans 22 per day, 3 times national rate...
  4.  Rogue President Obama: Defending the Indefensible.
  5. ‘Americans denied right to free speech’

Monsanto and the bio-rape of India...

(...)

Because many GMO crops are wind and insect pollinated, their pollen (and the transgenes they carry) easily evade containment and are capable of traveling great distances. For instance, if pollen from genetically modified corn reaches a receptive non-GMO corn plant, transgenes will be forcibly integrated (through sexual reproduction) into the germline of their offspring, rendering them and all their future offspring permanently GMO. This could therefore be defined as a form of 'bio-rape.'

The farmer whose non-GMO crop is contaminated with GMOs is also violated. First, his ability to make a living is compromised, as his formerly organic crop has now been rendered non-organic. Second, Monsanto can legally suit that farmer for 'patent' infringement for having his crop contaminated by their seeds, essentially accusing him of criminal activity for being a victim of their biopollution!

It is one thing for GMO crops to contaminate adjacent organic land within a country which has already weighed the risks and benefits and approved that GMO product, but another for a multinational corporation's seeds to illegally contaminate a country who has not yet approved their use due to biosafety concerns. The latter case describes the long and abusive history of Monsanto vis-Ă -vis the Indian people, beginning in 2001 with the discovery of a Monsanto-patented Bt gene within fields planted with conventional, non-GMO seeds in the western state of Gujarat. Monsanto, who discovered their gene in these fields, claimed that the Gujarat farmers were guilty of seed piracy, when in fact they were victims of either bio-pollution (i.e. contamination via cross pollination with GMO plants), or had been coerced into using illegal Monsanto Bt-containing seeds before they were officially approved. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Monsanto's monopoly on seeds in India are the root cause...
  2. Farmer suicides in India...
  3. Indian farmers trapped and desperate...
  4. India's rice revolution...
  5. An evening with Vandana Shiva...
  6. Tests find Monsanto's GM corn nutrionally dead, highly toxic...

Singapore to regulate Yahoo, other online news sites...

Websites that regularly report on Singapore including Yahoo News will have to get a license from June 1, putting them on par with newspapers and television news outlets, in a move seen by some as a bid to rein in free-wheeling Internet news.

"Online news sites that report regularly on issues relating to Singapore and have significant reach among readers here will require an individual license," Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) said in a statement.

"This will place them on a more consistent regulatory framework with traditional news platforms which are already individually licensed," the media regulator said.

Prosperous and orderly Singapore, a regional base for many multinationals and fund managers, is one of the world's most wired-up cities with most people having broadband access.

It has long maintained strict controls on the media, saying that was necessary to maintain stability in a small, multi-racial country and that media must be held accountable for what they publish. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Singapore professor denied tenure, sparks academic freedom debate...
  2. Singapore police arrest "sticker lady..."
  3. Malaysia and Singapore get low marks for press freedom...
  4. Debate over blog limits intensifies in Singapore...
  5. Singapore's print media at the crossroads...

Naked citizens: camera surveillance...

Facebook admits it has failed to bar hate speech against women...

Facebook on Tuesday acknowledged that its systems to identify and remove hate speech had not worked effectively, as it faced pressure from feminist groups that want the site to ban pages that glorify violence against women.

The activists, who sent more than 5,000 e-mails to Facebook’s advertisers and elicited more than 60,000 posts on Twitter, also prompted Nissan and more than a dozen smaller companies to say that they would withdraw advertising from the site.

In a blog post, Facebook said its “systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate.” The company said it would review how it dealt with such content, update training for its employees, increase accountability — including requiring that users use their real identities when creating content — and establish more direct lines of communication with women’s groups and other entities.

 Women’s groups have complained to Facebook about misogynous content in the past, but pressure on the company escalated last week when a collective led by Women, Action and the Media; Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project; and Soraya Chemaly, a writer and activist, published an open letter asking Facebook executives to “ban gender-based hate speech on your site.” Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Facebook can't keep turning a blind eye to the women-haters it enables...
  2. Facebook censors pictures of children rallying against GMOs...
  3. Facebook censors TV host's pope criticism...
  4. The biggest announcement Facebook didn't make...
  5. Facebook censors gallery over nude photo...
  6. Facebook dresses down doll's breast pictures!!! Nipplegate???
  7. Angry breast-feeding mums to storm Facebook...

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Russia hit by exam cheating epidemic...

Russia has been hit by an epidemic of cheating in nationwide school exams after pupils in eastern regions passed on the questions to others taking the tests in later time zones.

Teenagers tackling the Unified State Exam (EGE) in Siberia and the Far East region where Vladivostok is situated shared their exam papers online – meaning pupils in the west of the country had time to bone up and find the answers.

Russia has nine time zones, making it impossible for exams to be taken simultaneously across all regions.

The state education watchdog, Rosobrnadzor, said on Monday it had identified at least 30 cases of EGE Russian language tests being posted online in 18 different regions. It is thought the papers were accessed via social networks and widely used for cheating.

 "People took the exam in the Far East, threw everything on to the web, and then the copying began," said Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister. He called for a crackdown, saying that any pupil caught passing on questions or answers should have the results of their own test annulled. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. More than 1,600 students have been expelled for cheating in school exams...
  2. Harvard asks dozens of students to leave for cheating...
  3. Mother hacked into school computers to change her kids' grades!!!
  4. Teacher who gave students zero marks becomes a folk hero...
  5. Manila's forgers graduate with honors from 'Recto University'
  6. Police arrest S.Korean accused of "time zone" exam cheating!!!

Mumbai bans lingerie-clad mannequins to save men from 'impure thoughts'

Mumbai, home of India's increasingly raunchy Bollywood film industry, is to ban mannequins modeling lingerie from its shop windows to stop the city's men having "impure thoughts".

Representatives on the city's local authority have voted to ban the models in a move they believe may reduce the number of rapes and sexual assaults.

Local councillors, known as corporators, said mannequins dressed in lacey underwear, stockings and suspenders, had led to a "pollution of minds" among men in the city, which has India's second highest number of rapes after Delhi.

 Opponents said the mannequins were not as suggestive as erotic sculptures and carvings at celebrated temples like Khajuraho, which feature scenes of group sex and bestiality. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Lingerie to 'help' women fight sexual offences in India!!!
  2. Panchayat leader in India blames chowmein for rapes! WTF!
  3. Indian women use smartphones to 'pin the creeps'
  4. Women form special cab service in Delhi -- catering exclusively to women...
  5.  Saudi Arabia shops told to build sex-segregation walls...
  6. Real-life window models in bikinis and shorts cause a stir in Milan!!!
  7. Swedish lingerie shop makes employees display their ... bust size!

Australia ranked 'happiest' developed nation again...

Australia has been ranked the world's happiest nation among developed economies for the third year running.

Top position went to Australia, because of the overall strength of its economy, in the Better Life Index compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Sweden, Canada, Norway and Switzerland were also in the top five.

The survey ranked more than 30 countries on criteria such as income levels, health, safety and housing.

"Australia performs exceptionally well in measures of wellbeing, as shown by the fact that it ranks among the top countries in a large number of topics in the Better Life Index," the OECD said on its website. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Vienna has the best quality of life - and Baghdad the worst...
  2. The best countries in the world for work/life balance...
  3. Why France is best place to live in the world...
  4. Happiness, the luxury not everyone can afford...
  5. The world's happiest countries? They are mostly in Europe...
  6. America, Number one in fear, stress, anger, divorce, obesity...

Woman literally kicked out of train for holding train doors...

Chinese man kept in cage by family for 11 years...

A mentally ill Chinese man has been kept in a cage for more than a decade by his family after he beat a child to death, media reported Monday, carrying images of him staring blankly though the bars.

Wu Yuanhong, 42, was shown sitting on blankets in the narrow enclosure, his feet shackled with a heavy chain and wearing only a T-shirt and his underwear.

He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic at the age of 15 and in 2001 he beat a 13-year-old to death, the Information Daily newspaper said on its website.

Judicial authorities in Jiangxi province released him a year later as his illness meant he was not legally responsible for his actions, it said.

 No independent confirmation of the circumstances was immediately available to AFP. More + photos...

Related posts:
  1. Russian mother kept son locked up for 33 years...
  2. Whatever became of Elisabeth Fritzl? 
  3. 80-year-old in Austria accused of locking up and abusing daughters for 41 years...
  4. The Chinese man who has spent his life locked in a wooden cage...
  5. The Delhi child servant scandal that has outraged India...
  6. German teen enslaved and tortured for eight years by Bosnian couple...

See what tennis legends from the past look like today...

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters have dominated tennis in the last decade.

But not too long ago the world was obsessed with another crop of leading men and women that set unrivaled Grand Slam records and left a lasting impression with their style and determination.

Jennifer Capriati, Steffi Graf, Ivan Lendl, Monica Seles, Stefan Edberg, Martina Hingis, Martina Navratilova were some of the fresh-faced players that reigned in the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s. Photos...

Related posts:
  1. Roger Federer Wimbledon triumph wins Oxfam £100,000...
  2. Roger Federer: Second most-respected public figure in the world...
  3. Wimbledon 2008: the best final ever?
  4. This is how a tennis victory should be celebrated!!!
  5. Iran's Mansour Bahrami, world's greatest tennis entertainer...

The attempt to destroy the individual...

(...)

But that was only a movie. Who cares about that? You go into a theater, sit there in the dark for a couple of hours, walk out, and think about something else.

For several years now, I’ve been writing about the decline of the individual. The wipeout.

Every time I write an article on this subject, I receive suggestions. I should go back and re-read Marx. I need to understand the difference between “communal, communitarian, community, communist.” I should research worker-owned businesses. What about trans-substantial transpersonal sub-brain algorithmic psychology? How about the pygmies? Ego? Superego? Id?

I appreciate these and other remarks, but I’m talking about the individual, about Self, beyond any construct, beyond citizenship, beyond membership, beyond sociology or anthropology or archeology.

The individual is enshrined in various political documents, but his rights don’t originate there. Neither does courage nor imagination. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Whitman: Song of Myself...
  2. Whitman: To a pupil...
  3. Whitman: Resist much, obey little...
  4. Whitman: I think I could turn and live with animals...
  5. I'm a human being; my life has value...
  6. The war against Bradley Manning: a war against all who speak out...
  7.  American hermit turns down marriage and bail offers.
  8. I want to be alone: the rise and rise of solo living...

Singapore police admit protocols flouted in Shane Todd death...

Singapore police who examined the scene of an American's death admitted on the last day of a coroner's inquest Monday that they deviated from official protocols by not dusting for fingerprints or collecting DNA samples, and by examining the contents of a laptop computer there.

Shane Truman Todd's body was found in his Singapore apartment by his girlfriend last June 24, and police have said he killed himself. State counsel presented evidence of links to suicide websites on the 31-year-old's laptop and suicide letters written to family members and loved ones.

Todd's parents, Rick and Mary Todd, told The Associated Press in March that they believe he may have been murdered over his research in the U.S. into material used to make heat-resistant semiconductors, a technology with both civilian and military applications. The Todds have received assistance in the case from U.S. senators and the FBI.

 When asked by government lawyers why police had not ordered a further investigation of the apartment, police Sgt. Muhammad Khaldun Bin Sarif said he and his partner had made "a preliminary assessment" that pointed to suicide and determined there were "no signs of foul play." He said the officers decided as a result "not to perform fingerprint dustings or DNA swabs." Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Parents of Shane Todd quit inquest into son's death: "no confidence in the system"
  2. Murder or suicide? Singapore inquest on U.S. engineer's death...
  3. The mystery of Shane Todd: Did US electronic engineer commit suicide?
  4. Singapore says evidence points to Shane Todd's suicide...
  5. Shane Todd fought to the end, despite Singapore’s ‘suicide’ claims...
  6. Singapore seeks FBI help over Shane Todd death...
  7. Mysterious death in Singapore...

"Gangnam Style" Psy booed in Italy...

'I've rid the world of 160,000 demons', says Catholic Church's leading exorcist...

The Catholic Church's leading 'exorcist' is calling for all priests to be allowed to conduct the ritual after Pope Francis apparently performed one in St Peter's Square last week.

Father Gabriele Amorth, head of the International Association of Exorcists, wants the current rules requiring all priests to obtain permission to perform exorcisms from their bishop to be relaxed.

Father Amorth, who claims he has carried out 160,000 exorcisms, said his request has been prompted by Pope Francis performing an what he insists was an exorcism on a Mexican man 'possessed by four demons'.

He told the Sunday Times: 'I will ask the pope to give all priests the power to carry out exorcisms, and to ensure priests are properly trained for these starting with the seminary. There's a huge demand for them.'

His comments come after Pope Francis was captured on film performing an apparent exorcism on May 19. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. The Exorcist in the 21st Century...
  2. The teenage exorcists who cast out demons... 
  3. An exorcism in Russia. Scary...
  4. An exorcism in a Greek Orthodox church...
  5. Russian boy killed in exorcism ritual...
  6. Jamaican woman confronts the "devil..."
  7. Teenage girl dies in Japan 'exorcism' ritual...

FBI agents who eliminated Boston terrorist Tsarnaev mysteriously killed...

Two well-trained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were involved in the killing of a Boston bombing suspect have suspiciously died.

The FBI said in a statement that 41-year-old Christopher Lorek and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw were killed on May 17 as they fell out of a helicopter into water during a training mission off the coast of Virginia Beach.

US officials have blamed bad weather for the tragedy but some have questioned the credibility of the official account, considering it a cover-up.

They say the agents’ death adds to the suspicious death of a friend of the Boston bombing suspect, Ibragim Todashev, who was killed in his own apartment by an FBI agent.

Lorek and Shaw were part of the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group and were both members of the team investigating the Boston Marathon bombings in mid-April. Full story...

Related posts:.
  1. So many mysterious deaths of JFK assassination witnesses...
  2. The "suiciding' of paedophile investigators...
  3. The murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu...
  4. New 9/11 truth documentary among 'most watched' on PBS this week
  5. Mysterious deaths of 9/11 witnesses...
  6. Who killed Yasser Arafat?
  7. Mysterious death of British businessman Neil Heywood in China...
  8. 'Why I'm certain my friend Dr Kelly was murdered'

US entertainment industry group wants to unleash malware on file sharers...

The US entertainment industry is pushing to introduce regulations that would allow content owners to legally send out malware to individuals that are believed to involved with copying digital content.

That’s according to the the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property which presented a new 84-page report – spotted by Boing Boing – to the US government. In that respect, it is a serious proposal.

The theory is that software pre-installed on computers would identify whether an Internet user was illegally copying, housing or consuming copyrighted content, and then subsequently lock up their files, and/or computer, until the guilty party turned themselves in and deals with the consequences — perhaps paying up for the offending content or removing it.

Minding aside the illegalities for a second, it’s not clear exactly how the scheme would work. Already the proposal has attracted criticism from rights groups and we don’t expect Congress to be following up on any of the ‘proposals’ any time soon. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Music sales are not affected by web piracy, study finds...
  2. Switzerland put on US "watchlist" for not discouraging unauthorized...
  3. US government finally admits most piracy statistics are bullshit...
  4. Movie fans turn to piracy when the online cupboard is bare...
  5. British musicians: music downloading is NOT a crime...
  6. Illegal downloaders 'spend the most on music'

Monday, May 27, 2013

Medication 'kills 18,000 each year' in France...

Medication causes more deaths per year in France than car crashes and suicides combined, according to expert testimony on Monday at the high-profile trial of a pharmaceutical executive, implicated in hundreds of deaths.

Prescribed medication is responsible for at least 18,000 deaths each year in France, according to Dr. Bernard BĂ©gaud, an expert witness at the trial of Jacques Servier, founder of the Servier biopharmaceutical company.

“Every year there are 18,000 deaths directly linked to taking medication,” BĂ©gaud told the court at Nanterre, where Servier is on trial for “aggravated fraud,” after hundreds of deaths were linked to the anti-diabetes drug Mediator.

“Many of them are inevitable, but one third are due to unjustified prescriptions,” BĂ©gaud said.

 “France is a country that has always very badly regulated the use of medication,” he added. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. French doctors say half of medical drugs are useless...
  2. Want to be healthy? Stay away from doctors and watch what you eat...
  3. 'Twenty doctors thought my baby's cancer was just a birthmark'
  4. 15-year-old schoolgirl died after 'doctor mistook tuberculosis for lovesickness'
  5. "Doctors are like cops: they can be very helpful, but are inherently dangerous..."
  6. Prescription drug overdoses killed 23,000 Americans; Cannabis – 0
  7. The vaccine hoax is over. Documents from UK reveal 30 years of coverup...

Hell No, GMO! Anti-Monsanto protests sweep US...

Six people kicked off Las Vegas flight for ... speaking Russian!!!

Last week, several passengers were kicked off an airplane for speaking Russian. In all, six people, including a business owner, accountant and teacher, were removed from the flight because the stewardesses “were intimidated by us speaking a different language,” Dmitry Bitman and wife Sana told reporters

The group was going to an anniversary party aboard a Spirit Airlines flight when, 10 minutes after getting to their seats, they were removed from the plane.

Bitman said he and others were discussing the party in their native Russian tongue when a worker aboard the flight approached and said, “This row needs to get up and leave now.”

The passengers were reportedly given no warning prior to being forced off the plane.

Per HuffPo, "a separate employee later indicated the stewardesses may have been intimidated by the group speaking a different language." Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Slim passenger kicked out of plane to allow obese person to have TWO seats!
  2. Black woman banned from flight because she was not wearing ... panties???
  3. Indian airline had kids sitting on parents' laps during flight!!!
  4. Family kicked off plane for trying to fit six people into three seats!!!
  5. Passenger forced to stand for a seven-hour airline flight...
  6. TSA kicks woman off flight for "bad attitude..."
  7. Indian couple kicked off Delta flight for anti-TSA t-shirt...
  8. Don't ever speak English in Quebec!!!

Illinois illegally seizes bees resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup; kills remaining queens...

The Illinois Ag Dept. illegally seized privately owned bees from renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, without providing him with a search warrant and before the court hearing on the matter, reports Prairie Advocate News.

Behind the obvious violations of his Constitutional rights is Monsanto. Ingram was researching Roundup’s effects on bees, which he’s raised for 58 years. “They ruined 15 years of my research,” he told Prairie Advocate, by stealing most of his stock.

A certified letter from the Ag Dept.’s Apiary Inspection Supervisor, Steven D. Chard, stated:

“During a routine inspection of your honeybee colonies by … Inspectors Susan Kivikko and Eleanor Balson on October 23, 2011, the bacterial disease ‘American Foulbrood’ was detected in a number of colonies located behind your house…. Presence of the disease in some of your colonies was confirmed via test results from the USDA Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland that analyzed samples collected from your apiary….”

Ingram can prove his bees did not have foulbrood, and planned to do so at a hearing set in April, but the state seized his bees at the end of March. They have not returned them and no one at the Ag Dept. seems to know where his bees are. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Obama gives Monsanto get out of jail free card...
  2. 'Monsanto is all-in-one horseman of GMO Apocalypse'
  3. The video Monsanto does not want you to see...
  4. Russia suspends use of Monsanto's GM corn...
  5. Monsanto Roundup and GM maize implicated in ‘shocking’ new cancer study...
  6. France to maintain ban on Monsanto's GMO crops...
  7. Monsanto found guilty in France for farmer's illness...
  8. Danish farmer cures illnesses in pigs by reverting to GM-free diet...

Netizen outrage after Chinese tourist defaces Egyptian temple...

Parents of a 15-year-old Chinese tourist have apologized after the teenager defaced a stone sculpture in an ancient Egyptian temple with graffiti.

The act drew ire in both Egypt and China -- generating a massive online backlash amongst China's unforgiving netizens.

The vandal carved 'Ding Jinhao was here' in Chinese in the 3,500 year old Luxor Temple.

This was photographed by an embarrassed Chinese traveler and shared on weibo, China's micro-blogging site on May 24.

"The saddest moment in Egypt. I'm so embarrassed that I want to hide myself. I said to the Egyptian tour guide,'I'm really sorry,'" that traveler wrote on the original weibo post. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Chinese tourists’ bad manners harming country’s reputation...
  2. 'I love Paris' may soon be passe for Chinese tourists...
  3. Chinese netizens storm State's direct line with complaints...
  4. Egyptian tourism down, so man cuts off his penis!!!
  5. Why Saudi Arabia hates tourists...
  6. Is tourism the most destructive enterprise?