Anal sex is your passport to paradise – but only if you’re a suicide bomber
By Barry Duke
July 13, 2012
While stressing Islam’s abhorrence of sodomy, a Muslim cleric reportedly said it was permissible if it enabled suicide bombers to comfortably accommodate explosives up their bums. Story
China lifts ban on lesbians giving blood
By Molly Gray
July 6, 2012Hong Kong The Chinese Ministry of Health has lifted a 14-year-old ban on lesbians donating blood in effect as of July 1.
The ban still applies to men who are sexually active with other men, but celibate homosexuals are permitted to give blood, according to the Ministry of Health's website.
The original ban, enacted in 1998, barred homosexuals of both genders from donating blood out of a fear of spreading HIV and AIDS.
'Mama Wu' unlikely hero for homosexuals in China
Xu Bin, a prominent lesbian rights activist in China, told the Global Times she applauded the amendment and what it means for lesbians in China.
"It is also about our dignity and the elimination of blood donation discrimination," she was quoted as saying.
Xu, who goes by her nickname Xian, first tried to donate blood in 2008 after an earthquake in Sichuan Province, when she learned of the ban and began campaigning against it.
"It's scientific that the policy doesn't mention homosexual identity but only fences off some who have certain sex behaviors, because AIDS is not caused by one's homosexual identity but improper sexual behavior," Xian told the Global Times.AIDS first made an appearance in China in the 1980s when an Argentinean tourist died from the disease while on holiday in the country. Like other areas of the world, the epidemic was shrouded in confusion which was exacerbated in China by official denials that it existed there.
However, more recently, organizations such as UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS, have commended the Chinese government on advancements in the attitude on AIDS.
In June, UNAIDS reported that its executive director had visited the country and praised the government's "major investments in China's AIDS response and a dramatic scale-up of HIV prevention, treatment and care programs."
The new regulations also include several other changes, including raising the age limit to 60, increasing the amount donated from 200 ml to 400 ml and shortening the required period of time between donations. CNN
You probably shouldn’t Google how to kill someone before killing someone
By Ned Hepburn
A couple from Florida (where else?) have been tied to a murder after hundreds of text messages, Facebook messages, and Google searches revealed that they had turned to the Internet to find out how to craft an alibi as well as communicate to each other various ways to carry out the murder of Juliana Mensch, a 19 year old roommate of the couple. James Ayers, 32, was arrested a few days ago after apparently confessing to a friend. His girlfriend Nicole Okrzesik, 23, was arrested soon after yet blamed the murder on Ayers. And then the police checked their phones.
Turns out that Okzresik had extensively Googled how to kill someone the night of the murder. The Broward/Palm Beach New Times has links to everything she did on her phone that night (they even have the text messages.) More
Man jailed after bragging "I think I got away with it" on Facebook
A man was convicted of an assault after he bragged to friends on Facebook during his trial that he thought he had got away with it.
06 Jun 2012
Michael Ruse, 21, believed the two week trial had gone well and decided to share the news online before the jury was due to go out.
Ruse, who had denied beating up a friend's dad, wrote a status update shortly before the jury was due to go out, saying: "Another week at court!"
When asked by a friend about the case he said: "Yeah I think I get away with it tbh (to be honest) x," adding it was "looking good."
The exchange was printed out and delivered anonymously to the court, where it was handed to the prosecution.
Confronted by the new evidence Ruse, who used the name Michael Miles online, had little choice but to change his plea to guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.
Ruse, who has previous convictions for assault and criminal damage, then went back on the social networking site to describe the judge as "stuck up" hours before his sentencing.
Judge Ian Pearson said Ruse's stupidity was no excuse.
He said: "You pleaded guilty part way through the trial only really because you were stupid enough to put on Facebook what amounted to a full confession.
"Your stupidity really is not much mitigation."
Ruse, of Leigh Park, near Portsmouth, Hants, was given a 46 week prison sentence, suspended for two years, and put on a six month curfew from 7pm to 7am.
Russell Pyne, defending, said his client had planned to move away from Leigh Park and change his ways.
He said: "He needs help with regards to thinking skills."
During the trial, Portsmouth Crown Court heard Ruse's friend, Terry Reeve, 20, had thrown a brick at his own dad's car earlier in the day in March last year.
Ruse and Reeve then armed themselves with a baseball bat and a baton and attacked the 45-year-old lorry driver in the street in Leigh Park.
Reeve's father was left with a cut to his head and bruises all over his body.
Reeve, of Leigh Park, was found guilty of the assault and of criminal damage after the trial. He was jailed for a year and 55 days.
Michael Williams, defending Reeve, said he had not had a happy childhood.
He said: "The reason that he perhaps thinks with his fists first comes from his father."
After the hearing, Ruse went back on Facebook to say: "Boom! Im (sic) coming home best start sorting myself out. Tag for 6 months...and got to stay out of trouble for 2 years."
He was also fined £250 in court costs. Telegraph
We've F*****g had enough': Fed-up residents in Austrian village named Fucking to vote to change name
Village set to change name to Fuking or Fugging in bid to stop pranksters stealing signs and poking fun at residents
17 Apr 2012
Residents of a picture postcard Austrian village named Fucking are to vote this week about whether to change the name.
The final straw has been a growing number of calls by pranksters from abroad who ring up locals and ask in English "Is That Fucking" - before bursting into laughter and hanging up.
"The phone calls are really the final straw", said local Mayor Franz Meindl, who confirmed that the villages street signs were regularly stolen even though they had been welded on steel posts set in concrete in the ground.
Drivers heading into the village often disturbed naked couples romping in front of the signs, and local entrepreneurs made the situation worse by flogging off Fucking postcards - Fucking Christmas cards and even more recently a Fucking beer.
Residents last voted on the subject in 1996 when it decided to keep the name despite problems caused by American servicemen from across the border in Germany that drove to the region just to be photographed in front of signs. They then sent the snaps back home to their girlfriends and wives.
If the name change goes ahead, they will be following in the footsteps of stadium bosses in Switzerland who were forced to change their name from Wankdorf because red-faced stars were too embarrassed to play there.
The name of the venue - in Bern - was changed to Stade de Suisse after concert dates dried up. One of the few who did not cancel was Robbie Williams who played in front of 40,000 fans and asked the crowd: "Is this place really called ‘Wankdorf’? What kind of name is that?"
The name is taken from a neighbourhood in Bern and comes from the word 'Wank' meaning to sway or rock from side to side and 'Dorf' meaning village. But the Wankdorf shopping centre next door to the stadium kept it's name - and the Swiss village of Wank also kept its name. In fact two years ago Wank residents urged the Fucking residents to lighten up - open a few guests houses and sell souvenirs to cash in on their fame.
The Wank Guest House, they said, was full all year round.
But the suggestion failed to win any supporters among the 100 residents of the village of Fucking, who are so fed up that they are this week gathering in the village hall to decide whether to change the spelling of Fucking to either 'Fuking' or 'Fugging'.
Historians have found that in the 16th Century Fucking was spelled with g instead of ck and many want this to be reinstated.
Local mayor Franz Meindl added: "I always wanted the name to stay but it's just got too much now. The only problem is that we need all of the Fucking residents to agree to the name change, everyone needs to agree for it to happen.
"As you can imagine there are heated discussions about the name change."
If the name change does go ahead there will still be plenty to amuse the pranksters when Fucking vanishes.
Also available on the online Austrian telephone book are the villages of "Oberfucking" "Windpassing", "Wankham" and "Rottenegg". Mirror
Sky diver to break sound barrier with jump from edge of space
A skydiver is set to become the first person to break the sound barrier during a free fall by leaping from a balloon on the edge of space later this year.
By Richard Gray
05 Feb 2012It is the ultimate in parachute jumps: from the edge of space, Felix Baumgartner will leap from a balloon, plummeting to the ground 120,000 feet below.
After 35 seconds he will break the sound barrier, and finally, at 5,000 feet he will deploy a parachute and – hopefully – land safely on the ground.
During his 10-minute journey to earth the Austrian will travel at more than 690 miles per hour inside a special suit, which must protect him from temperatures as low as -94 degrees F.
He will rely on its oxygen tanks as the air is too thin to breathe – and hope that the sheer force of the fall does not make him blackout.
The team working with the Austrian will this week announce that an attempt to make the record breaking jump will take place in August above New Mexico.
Writing on his blog about being given the chance to make the jump, Mr Baumgartner said: "I am struggling to find the right words to express my happiness, how relieved and motivated I am."
Mr Baumgartner said he hoped his stunt would help provide valuable information about how humans will cope in the future with space tourism and open up new types of extreme sports such as space diving.
He added: "I always feel the danger because you might always be subject to an unexpected or emergency event. One single mistake might cause a real catastrophe. You are worried about being where humans shouldn't be.
"The longest time I've spent inside the suit with the front part of the helmet closed, is three hours, and to be honest, it was horrible.
"To jump and break the sound barrier will not be a mere record breaking experience or another extreme event that ends once the mission is accomplished.
"This is an experience that will simulate the first human landing on the moon, and will benefit scientific research."
Mr Baumgartner, who has also "base jumped" – parachuted from low altitudes – off the right arm of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is hoping to beat a record held for 50 years by Joe Kittinger, a US air force colonel who jumped from 102,800 feet in 1960.
The skydive, which is being sponsored by energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, will attempt to break four world records – the highest altitude freefall, the highest manned balloon flight, the longest distance travelled in freefall and the speed record for the fastest freefall.
Mr Baumgartner, who is a helicopter pilot when he is not skydiving, will travel into the Earth's stratosphere in a specially adapted scientific weather balloon.
The huge helium balloon, which will inflate to be around 400 feet wide, will carry a pressurised capsule up to 120,000 feet in around three hours. Commercial airliners typically cruise at altitudes of between 30,000 to 39,000 feet.
At 23 miles up, the air pressure is 1,000 times less than it is at sea level and air is so thin that without his own oxygen supply Mr Baumgartner would suffocate. His blood would begin to boil because the boiling point of liquids falls as pressure falls.
A custom made pressurised suit similar to those used by Nasa astronauts will protect him from the harsh environment. Engineers have spent nearly two years developing and testing the suit in preparation for the jump.
Oxygen cylinders packed into the parachute pack will supply him with 20 minutes of oxygen, more than enough for the 10 minute skydive.
The parachute itself has also had to be adapted so that Mr Baumgartner can reach the cords to open it while inside the pressure suit, which makes it difficult for him to move around freely.
Once the balloon reaches its highest altitude, Mr Baumgartner will open the specially constructed capsule, before launching himself into the unknown.
Scientists working on his team estimate he will break through the sound barrier after around 35 seconds in the thin air of the stratosphere, reaching Mach 1.2.
At this altitude, the speed of sound is 690 miles per hour, slower than at sea level where the sound barrier is reached at 768 miles per hour because of the difference in temperature and air density.
The helmet of his suit has been constructed to help protect him from the sonic boom as his passes through the sound barrier. It will also feature a heated visor and sun shield to help keep his vision clear.
After around 5 minutes of freefall, Mr Baumgartner, will open his parachute at 4,986 feet. The increased air resistance as the atmosphere thickens will help to slow him down before pulling the parachute.
A further five minutes later he is due to land back safely back on the ground.
The supersonic skydive is not without its complications, however. Among the greatest danger he will face after jumping is going into a spin which would cause him to blackout.
This almost killed Kittinger in training during 1959 when a stabilising parachute failed to open.
Mr Baumgartner plans to use the skills he has developed over 2,500 jumps to control his own free fall, using movements of his arms and legs to control his flight.
His team hope to have him land as close as possible to the take of zone in New Mexico, but even the slightest breath of wind could throw him off course and he could drift up to 150 miles with just a light breeze.
The jump was supposed to take place last year, but a legal case lodged against Red Bull by a promoter called Daniel Hogan who claimed the stunt was his idea saw all preparations being abandoned and Red Bull cancelled the project. Last July, however, the legal dispute was resolved and the case was dismissed.
He also faces competition from other skydivers hoping to break the record before him. Michel Fournier, a 67-year-old retired US Air Force colonel, is also hoping to jump from an altitude of 25 miles but has faced delays. He also expects to make his jump attempt in 2012. Telegraph Photo and comments.
Kim Jong Un Looking at Things
Feb 1, 2012
Like father, like son. Since the recent death of Kim Jong Il, North Korean state-run media has been releasing a series of images of the "Great Successor," Kim Jong Un, visiting schools, factories, and military facilities. These visits, which were frequently publicized by his father and his grandfather Kim Il Sung, are called "field guidance" trips -- opportunities for the supreme leader to give on-the-spot advice. For decades, the North Korean myth-making machine endowed Kim Jong Il with amazing wisdom, prowess, and intelligence, and it continues that tradition now with his son, touting him as a marksman, poet, economic genius, and wise military strategist. Little is actually known about Kim Jong Un. Even his age remains in doubt -- he may be 28, 29, or 30. Based on the state-released photos collected here, he is following closely in his father's footsteps, albeit with a touch more visible affection. [35 photos]
Glacier thief arrested in Chile
Police hold man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from a glacier in Patagonia to sell as designer ice cubes for cocktails
Rory Carroll
1 February 2012
Climate change sceptics have acquired a new explanation for why glaciers are retreating: it's not global warming, it's theft.
Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.
Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.
Authorities have accused the driver of theft and are considering adding violation of national monuments to the charge sheet.
Scientists say Jorge Montt, part of the Bernardo O'Higgins national park, is retreating by half a mile a year, making it one of the world's fastest shrinking glaciers.
Environmentalists have cited it as evidence that man-made climate change is warming the planet. Sceptics have cited other explanations for retreating glaciers, but theft – until now – was not one of them. It may be the only case in which both sides agree human activity was to blame. Gruniad
Naoto Matsumura lights a cigarette, which he considers relatively good for his health.
"I would get sick if I stopped smoking; I have a lot to worry about.
"It's now impossible for me to meet with Japan's mainstream media," he explains. "If I say bad things about Tepco, and the government, they won't run it because Tepco is their sponsor."
One tabloid magazine, Friday, did run a two-page feature on Matsumura, with bizarre photos of him feeding an ostrich — which it quipped in bad taste was "the official mascot of Tepco."
Lone Holdout's First Nuclear Winter Looms in Tohoku by Christopher Johnson
December 21, 2011 Japan Times
MIHARU VILLAGE, Fukushima Prefecture — As bitter winds blow around cesium and other radioactive particles spewed from the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactors, Naoto Matsumura lights a cigarette, which he considers relatively good for his health.
In the zone: Naoto Matsumura, who believes he is the only person still living in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. (Christopher Johnson Photo) "I would get sick if I stopped smoking; I have a lot to worry about," says Matsumura, 52, who reckons he is the only person still living within a 20-km radius of the world's worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.
According to reports from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency published in August, following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, and subsequent explosions at three reactors about 13 km from Matsumura's door, the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has released 168 times more radiation than the atomic bombs that razed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Living without electricity or enough money to fill his generators with gas, even as the mercury is already dipping below zero, Matsumura wonders if his neighbor's supply of charcoal will be enough to keep him warm through the frigid winter in his corner of the once-thriving town of Tomioka that used to be home to 16,000 people.
He's worried, too, that the hundreds of animals he's been feeding since the area's other residents were evacuated in haste on March 12 — some 400 cows, 60 pigs, 30 fowl, 10 dogs, more than 100 cats, and an ostrich — won't survive to see another spring.
"They need help from humans," he says while lighting another of the 20-odd cigarettes he admits to smoking a day. "My supplies to feed them will be gone by the end of December. They need food, and buildings for shelter from the winter. I'm the only one taking care of everything. The government should do it, but I'm doing it."
As we stand in a rice field outside the exclusion zone about 40 km due west of the ongoing meltdowns, Matsumura tells me that he comes from an ancestral line of samurai, and he was raised by a "spartan" father to work hard and think for himself.
A lifelong farmer, he's lived alone since separating from his wife 10 years ago. When his worried children, aged 23 and 21, called from their homes in distant Saitama Prefecture after the explosions in March, Matsumura says he told them: "Don't worry. If the whole world dies from this nuclear disaster, I'm still not going to die. I'm not going to leave here."
Indeed, this silver-haired, soft-spoken man of the land who has enjoyed playing golf in Saipan and the Philippines, says he now views himself as a lone maverick in a toxic desert — one hunted by an invisible enemy called "radioactivity" eating away at living things now and into the future. As the other animals perish around him, he wonders when it will be his turn.
All Matsumura's friends have left, and they no longer ask him to bring their stuff to them in the temporary shelters they must now inhabit. The automatic vending machines, which used to light up the country roads, no longer work.
After sunset, he is surrounded by miles of total darkness devoid of human movement. He has no television or Internet, only a cellphone that loses charge all too quickly. He stokes up a charcoal fire in his house, tucks himself into a futon, and goes to sleep by 7 p.m. — haunted by nightmares of what could be happening inside his body.
Waking with the rising sun, he eats another can of food, and takes his dogs for a 20-minute walk among barren fields. He spends daylight hours cleaning grave sites and tending to animals withering around him in their stalls, sheds and barns. Meanwhile, cows and pigs and other animals set free by their fleeing owners in March now fend for themselves in wild, radiation-contaminated nature.
Even nine months after everybody else fled on March 12, Matsumura says he is still shocked by the scenes of cruel death he encounters daily: the bones of cows that starved tied up or in confined spaces after they'd eaten all their fodder; a locked cage full of 20 shrivelled canaries denied by their keeper's panic even a chance to fly away free.
"People don't want to see dead animals. They would be shocked if they saw it for themselves. I see it every day," this animal-lover says quietly with real feeling.
His efforts to publicize the plight of the animals haven't worked, he says. He tells how he once showed a low-level government official around nearby Tomioka town — formerly famous for having one of the longest cherry-blossom tunnels in Japan — and told him they should at least take away carcasses. But even though Tepco brings in thousands of workers to stabilize the reactors, he says the official told him: "Sorry, Mr. Matsumura, we can't do anything inside the 20-km evacuation zone."
On April 21, more than a month after the ongoing disaster began, Matsumura joined a protest outside Tepco's headquarters in Tokyo. "I told them, 'Take care of the pets and farm animals, it's your responsibility.' But they only said, 'We are studying it.' They still haven't taken action," he reported.
In September, he showed two lower-level Tepco officials around Tomioka. During their conversation together, he says, "I told them to tell the top people about what they saw. Maybe they told them, but the top guys pretend they don't know anything," he said, pausing to light a cigarette. "They don't have human hearts. They only think about money."
Though he's not alone in lambasting Tepco, Matsumura's rage is more intense than most. He blames Tepco for "killing" his 100-year-old aunt, who he says died from exhaustion after being moved from several hospitals between Tomioka and finally Aizu-Wakamatsu in western Fukushima Prefecture.
"Many people died like that because of Tepco," he declares. "It's a terrible company. They have more power than the national parliament, because they control the supply of electricity, and they have power over the media through advertising."
He says Tepco, which will need massive taxpayer funding to stay afloat, has only paid nuclear refugees ¥1 million each in compensation (about $12,000).
Yet the company, which claims to be on schedule with its plan to achieve a cold shutdown of the damaged reactors by the new year, saw fit to present itself in a positive light when, on Nov. 12, it invited 35 journalists (including four from overseas) for a first media view of its wrecked nuclear plant.
"I think it's remarkable that we've come this far," Environment Minister Goshi Hosono told those on the tour. "The situation at the beginning was extremely severe. At least we can say we have overcome the worst."
Such hints of hubris, however, sit uneasily with the established facts.
In November, the esteemed journal Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences carried the results of an international research study led by Teppei Yasunari of the Universities Space Research Association in Maryland. This found that radioactive cesium had "strongly contaminated" the soils in "large areas" of eastern and northeastern Japan, including Fukushima Prefecture, while western Japan had been relatively sheltered by mountain ranges. (To view this report, visit www.pnas.org/content/108/49/19530.)
Since the release of those findings, the Tokyo government has recently banned the sale of rice from large swaths of Fukushima Prefecture after high levels of cesium were found in crops from Onami, about 65 km northwest of the nuclear power plants.
Though Matsumura, who doesn't have a geiger counter, says he somehow thinks radiation levels are decreasing, he believes it's not safe for former residents to return to Tomioka. And he's adamant that children shouldn't eat rice from eastern Fukushima Prefecture, though he does himself.
Parking his white Suzuki truck near Koriyama City train station outside the evacuation zone, he says that his plight and that of the animals in his locality is not widely known in Japan — largely, he riles, because TV companies have ignored him or repeatedly canceled segments about him.
"It's now impossible for me to meet with Japan's mainstream media," he explains. "If I say bad things about Tepco, and the government, they won't run it because Tepco is their sponsor."
One tabloid magazine, Friday, did run a two-page feature on Matsumura, with bizarre photos of him feeding an ostrich — which it quipped in bad taste was "the official mascot of Tepco."
So, as he believes himself to have been ostracized in his native Japan, Matsumura has made a few trips to Tokyo to beg foreign journalists to tell the truth about Fukushima. To reach him inside the no-entry evacuation zone, one such from Italy walked along railway tracks for 20 km under cover of darkness to evade police patrols. Searching for him, as their meeting was prearranged, Matsumura says he could hear the man's footsteps in a pitch-black railway tunnel. "When he was about 10 meters away, I called out ghost noises — and he was dumbstruck with fear. He later told me he'd thought his heart was about to explode."
Another visit Matsumura received recently was on a Sunday afternoon in November. The farmer tells how an ambulance suddenly showed up at his door. "I was a bit unnerved that they'd come into my house, and I didn't know who'd sent them," he said, adding that "they checked my body and my health, but they didn't find anything bad in particular."
He gets most passionate talking about the abandoned animals and about nuclear energy. "The whole world should stop using this bad form of energy. Anything we build with our hands can break someday," he says. "Governments should stop lying to us. Everybody in Fukushima — everybody — doesn't believe the news about the nuclear situation."
As he prepares to leave me at the station and return to his home in the no-go zone before night falls, he says that Tomioka, like other towns in the evacuation zone, will disappear unless drastic action is taken immediately.
As he put it: "Only senior citizens are saying they want to move back, not the younger people. Eventually, in 20 years, all these elders will pass away, and there won't be any younger generation to maintain the circle of life. Nobody will be left."
But for now, he says, he's going to stay. "I am not bored or depressed, because I'm used to being alone. I know I am doing the right thing. My own doctor says I'm a 'champion of radiation.'" Common Dreams
Giant LEGO Man Washes Up On Florida Beach
Another body has washed up on a Florida Beach after a long and enduring swim. Only this time, it happened to be an 8 ft tall LEGO man. Jeff Hindman was out for a morning stroll along Siesta Key Beach yesterday morning when he noticed a massive shape floating in the shallow water. He waded in to investigate and discovered a giant LEGO man. more
Christmas traditions can be utterly hilarious
Ksenia Obraztsova
28.11.2011
Shortly before Christmas, many Catalans (residents of Catalonia, Spain) put up little figurines to arrange the Nativity Scene in front of their houses. This is a common tradition both in the United States of America and in Europe. However, somewhere in a corner of this traditional Christmas installation, the Spaniards put a figurine of a little man who is busy defecating. The roots of this tradition are hard to explain, but the Catalans say that there is something reassuring about it.
It used to be a figurine of a common peasant. Nowadays, souvenir shops offer a variety of figurines of defecating starts of Hollywood, sports and politics. The figurines are available in porcelain, paper and even chocolate.
Such figurines are known as caganer (the sh*tter). They don't give it to friends as presents. If a guest wants to be lucky next year, he or she will have to find the pooping man, which the house owners had hidden.
Figurines of US President Barack Obama with his brave slogan "Yes, we can" has been a hit of sales during the recent years. Defecating European politicians are also available.
In Italy, children receive their Christmas presents on January 6th. This is the day when La Befana, the good witch, flies on her broom from one home to another delivering presents to children. For mischievous children, the witch brings cabbage leaves. Legend has it that Befana set off on her journey to the crib of Jesus Christ too late and lost the guiding star out of sight. She has been trying to find baby Jesus since that time so she leaves presents in every home in a hope to find him there.
The festive season starts with the visit of Saint Nicholas. He does not show up in person, as it happens in Germany and Austria. He shows his presents on the bedroom door. The Christmas tree is not a centerpiece of festivities - the crib is (presepio). The Italians hold something like a family lottery on Christmas Eve, when each family member randomly picks a piece of paper with the number of their present written on it. The Italians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, or Bambino Gesu, on December 25.
In Poland, the Christmas night is a night of miracles. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve, even animals can speak like humans. There are special Christmas traditions in Poland. The Poles put an extra plate on their festive tables for unexpected guests. They serve their table with not less than twelve dishes. They also put a wisp of hay underneath the table. The hay symbolizes the Bethlehem cave in which Jesus Christ was born. The Poles fast the day before Christmas dinner. The dinner starts with the reading of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
The incredibly superstitious Icelanders begin their Christmas preparations on December 12. On this day, 13 troll-like creatures come out of their cage in which they live during the whole year with their troll mother and a giant cat.
Every night, one of the trolls roams about the towns and villages spying on people. The trolls leave presents to well-behaved children. They put the presents in their shoes. Each troll has its own name and temper. Some of them licks plates and saucepans clean, another one slams the doors, another one likes to steal smoked lamb from the chimney.
If children misbehaved much during the year, they can be visited by the mother of those trolls - Gryla, or what is even worse - her Christmas cat. Gryla has three eyes, she is all covered with warts and has ugly teeth.
There is a mixture of pagan and Christmas traditions in Mexico. Chaos reigns in the streets of Mexican cities during Christmas days. Children entertain themselves with piñata - a toy stuffed with fruits and candy. On December 24, many Mexicans gather near churches, where they make fires and arrange fireworks. Pravda
Reefer Madness: CA Cop Worries Legalizing Pot Will Make Window Washers Fall From High-Rises -- And Kill Passersby
By Kristen Gwynne
November 22, 2011
Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department’s Robert McMahon has been drinking the Kool-Aid, and he is very worried about how decriminalized pot may affect California's future. His vision is straight out of a 1930s pot propaganda film.
“What will happen to our kids if this stuff is legal? Think about 20 years from now what L.A. will look like?” he asks RollingOut.com.
McMahon is of the following opinion:“We’re talking about loss of work and collisions, work-related industrial injuries. Somebody comes to work stoned, and they are working some heavy equipment or up on a high-rise — a window washer that’s stoned — not only could he [or she] injure himself, but some of his or her negligence could cause someone else to be injured.” (emphasis added)
Of course, marijuana is not nearly as impairing or dangerous as alcohol. And legalizing marijuana does not necessarily mean more people will smoke it, or that more window washers will smoke it, or that more window washers will smoke it before work and then fall from a giant high-rise only to land on a mother pushing her infant in a stroller. Okay, so I added that last part.
But when I imagine a California where marijuana is legal, I don't see any of this at all. Instead, I imagine 1,401 fewer people in California jails. I imagine a more racially just society because California’s African-American population faces 10 times greater odds of being imprisoned for marijuana than other racial/ethnic groups. If marijuana were legal nationally, I would go so far as to imagine a Mexico with less inter-cartel violence and fewer drug-related deaths. I imagine adults smoking marijuana in the comfort of their own homes, or on the street, without facing ramifications that may ruin their lives in ways that pot alone never could have. I imagine kids with futures not defined by the fact that they were caught smoking weed, locked-up, and trapped by criminal records that hammer away at educational and employment opportunities. I imagine more possibilities, more justice -- not the marijuana-induced mayhem that McMahon and fellow prohibitionists can only dream of, because weed is not the demon they believe it to be. AlterNet
He said some constituents had asked him to introduce the bill, and he hoped that if someone is caught kidnapping someone and using these devices on an unwilling victim, that this would be another offense with which they could be charged.Whoa boy,whoa whoa whoa, say that again.
if someone is caught kidnapping someone and using these devices on an unwilling victim,Full story: It's A Funny Old World
Pakistan orders text message filtering
Nov 18, 2011,
Islamabad - Pakistani authorities have directed mobile phone companies to ban what they called 'offensive' text messages, officials confirmed on Friday.
Telecommunication watchdog Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered all mobile phone operators this week to arrange to filter the text messages containing 'obscene' words by November 21.
'We have taken action on the innumerable, repeated complaints from consumers,' said Mohammad Younis, a PTA spokesman. 'They say they constantly receive text messages that contain unwanted, undesired and obscene words.'
Officials from the five major operators - Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong - confirmed that they were working on software that could block the words deemed unwanted by the PTA.
Younis did not explain how many words were in the initial list, but he confirmed they included words in English, the national language Urdu as well as Punjabi, Pashtu, Sindhi and Balochi.
Media reports said the list initially contained 1,500 words.
The unconfirmed list circulated on the internet contained medical terms like athlete's foot, breast and condom. Everyday words like deeper, fairy and harder made the list. Jesus Christ was also included.
The move to control SMS content stirred suspicions among the country's 100 million mobile users and 18.5 million internet users among the population of more than 170 million.
Contributors to various social networking sites condemned the move.
'This funny and extremely foolish decision will have one outcome: the emergence of a new language, where the ordinary words will be used to communicate the profane. And that is very dangerous,' wrote Noon Memon on the website of The Express Tribune.
'So I cannot message about Dick Cheney, Randi Zuckerberg, an American internet entrepreneur and a former marketing director of Facebook.' In Urdu randi means a prostitute and the term 'dick' is included in the banned list.
The authorities defended the plan and said it was to protect Islamic culture.
'Abusive language has become so common in our society these days that even the girls use such a language that nobody wants to hear,' Younis said.
'The way the girls talk - this is terrible. Our society does not allow that. Many families were destroyed due to this. Divorces took place and even people were murdered. We cannot control it 100 per cent but we are doing as much as we can do,' he added.
Some analysts see it as a first step to control text messages that have been a major source of criticism of government and the military's attempts to deal with the problems the country faces - a declining economy and terrorism.
A writer at the Express Tribune said that the whole scheme was devised 'to control texts/jokes regarding the Supremo of Pakistan,' an apparent reference to President Asif Ali Zardari, who is widely disliked for his alleged involvement in corruption. M&C
A man goes to see a clinical psychologist. After completing the clinical interview, the clinical psychologist decides that she will administer the Rorschach Inkblot test. The clinical psychologist shows the man the first inkblot and he says he sees a man and a woman making love at the beach. In the second, a man and a woman making love in a hot-tub. The third, he says has a man and a woman making love in a park. In all of the inkblots, the man sees a couple making love. At the end of the test, the clinical psychologist looks over her notes and says, "You seem to have a preoccupation with sex." The man replies, "You're the one with the dirty pictures." (Sourced from the web)
Shortly before Mitt Romney departed the governor’s office, 11 of his top aides purchased 17 state-issued hard drives, (The ones in use) purging the Romney administration’s email records in advance of his presidential campaign. In retrospect, the move seems rather odd, especially for a Republican candidate who likes to talk about transparency.
Maybe this was a standard practice for modern Massachusetts governors? Apparently not. more
Stopping Police and DAs from Using Condoms to Convict Sex Workers
By Crystal DeBoise
11.14.2011Last winter, “Sheila,” a sex worker in her early 20s, had just finished her counseling session with me at the Sex Workers Project, and was heading out the door. Sheila was seeking counseling from the Sex Workers Project to help her make a career change, but had no financial support and was still working in the sex industry. I gestured towards our colorful shoebox of condoms, lube and pamphlets about safe sex and reminded her to take whatever she needed. She looked at me as if I were suggesting she walk into the January snow barefoot and said, “Are you crazy? I’m not carrying those things around! You want me to get arrested or something?”
Sheila was referring to a situation in New York that permits the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution, resulting in their collection and confiscation from women who are detained by the police. This practice is an outright slap in the face to the decades of hard work that public health advocates have undertaken to increase safe sex, decrease HIV and create a positive shift in the cultural acceptance of condom use. This policy discourages a stigmatized and marginalized group of sexually active people from carrying the tools they need to be healthy and safe. And this occurs despite the fact that the New York City itself runs a free condom distribution program because “Using a condom every time you have anal, oral or vaginal sex protects you and your partners from getting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases … and prevents unplanned pregnancies.”
Staff at the Sex Workers Project had been seeing police reports of arrested sex workers that listed the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution for some time. Many of the arrests were not of even sex workers, but, rather, incidents of profiling transgender individuals as sex workers — their personal condoms were confiscated and used as “evidence” of prostitution.
Sentiments like the one Sheila shared have become more prevalent among sex workers, and for good reason. Prostitution convictions have an extremely negative impact on the lives of sex workers.
Arrests themselves are often abusive and traumatic, as well as costly. A criminal record is a major hurdle to joining the mainstream job force. Many jobs require disclosure of crimes or out-and-out disqualify people who have such records. When hired despite their records, those with prostitution-related crimes on their record often face discrimination on the job; others encounter sexual harassment when arrests for prostitution are disclosed. If carrying condoms increases the chance that a sex worker will have to experience these consequences, there’s a difficult decision to be made.
New York State Bill A1008/S323, cosponsored by more than a dozen state senators, would stop police and prosecutors from using possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution in specified criminal or civil proceedings. According to the summary of the bill, it “provides that possession of a condom may not be received in evidence in any trial, hearing or proceeding as evidence of prostitution, patronizing a prostitute, promoting prostitution, permitting prostitution, maintaining a premises for prostitution, lewdness or assignation, or maintaining a bawdy house.”
The explanation for the bill says, “It does not promote public health and welfare if the law discourages prostitutes from carrying condoms. If anything, their use by prostitutes should be encouraged by public policy ….” As of fall 2011, the bill was sitting in Judiciary Committee of the NY State Senate and the Codes Committee of the NY Assembly.
The Sex Workers Project is participating in an active campaign to support the passage of the bill this legislative session. Our online public service announcement explains its importance, and we have an ongoing petition with over 5,600 signatures at Change.org. Thirteen organizations have signed statements in support of the bill, and our staff holds legislative advocacy sessions for sex workers and allies where supporters can join our “pink postcard” campaign to send a message to state senators and assembly members.
Our activism is needed to make sure that this simple health and safety measure is put into place. If the bill passes, sex workers and the general public will be able to feel confident that the condoms they have in their pockets will not be used to assist law enforcement in accusing them of committing crimes. Feministe
"Is Iran building a nuclear weapon? Little is known for certain. However, on June 6, 2008, Israeli Transport Minister, Shaul Mofaz said; "If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it".
Persian Incursion explores the political and military effects of an Israeli military campaign against Iran. It uses rules adapted from Harpoon 4 to resolve the military action. But its goal is to look beyond the military action by modeling the political and intelligence actions and consequences of a potential political conflict by including a card-based diplomatic/political component to the game. more
My last day of a holiday in Majorca, a very still autumn Sunday, I partook of the Majorcan thing, promenading. Strolling along, I heard in the distance, an angel making music.
When I finally arrived at the source of this incredible sound, there stood this angel in the guise of a hobo blowing a trumpet.
I sat a goodly while in a near state of rapture listening to this fellow making music, he really was that good.
We got to chatting, and the shorter of it, we went on the piss at his local, a little non-tourist Spanish bar, and proceeded to get rat arsed on thirty bob bottles of vino callapso.
He more than I, I have to say, for whatever my Father left me on his demise, he left me a thirst and a frightening tolerance for grog.
As this German, for that's what he turned out to be, started getting worse for wear, the barman explained, "His problem is he makes too much money" something I could well believe.
While he was still coherent, the trumpet player told me he had once been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic but had come off the rails big time, seemingly there was an obstacle on the track that resulted in eine grosse katastrophe. Sounded a lot like a woman to me.
DOLPHIN WITH ARMS – PREPARES FOR BATTLE
July 28th, 2011
By Frank Lake
TOKYO — Ginzo, the dolphin with human arms, is leading a dolphin fight against Japanese fishermen.
Japanese fisherman are preparing for their annual dolphin hunt. Once again they are preparing for a slaughter like this:
But, they have a formidable opponent this time – GINZO, the DOLPHIN WITH HUMAN ARMS.
Ginzo is leading a battalion of angry dolphins in a counter-attack against fishermen. Several local citizens in “the cove” heard a human voice coming from Ginzo, who gave a passionate and dramatic plea for all dolphins to defend themselves – aggressively – against the blood-thirsty fishermen.
Japanese police and coast guard officers have held a security drill to practice protecting a village from the bloody battle they are anticipating for the annual dolphin hunt.
A Wakayama prefectural police official says Wednesday’s drill was aimed at guarding the southwestern town of Taiji from protesters before hunting season starts in September.
About 10,000 law enforcement officers gathered in the bay where the Oscar-winning film “The Cove” was filmed.
Japan allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat but the government defends the hunts as tradition.
But that’s the way it used to be… Now, GINZO is take the matter into HIS OWN HANDS and will stop the Japanese fishermen from slaughtering his people again.
WWN’s intrepid reporter, Dr. Taxi, will be at The Cove to cover the battle. He will be embedded with Ginzo’s platoon. Stay tuned… WWN
Breast milk ice cream goes on sale in Covent GardenBest link and clip here.
A restaurant in London's Covent Garden is serving a new range of ice cream, made with breast milk.
The dessert, called Baby Gaga, is churned with donations from London mother Victoria Hiley, and served with a rusk and an optional shot of Calpol or Bonjela.
Mrs Hiley, 35, said if adults realised how tasty breast milk was more new mothers would be encouraged to breastfeed.
Each serving of Baby Gaga at Icecreamists costs £14.
Mrs Hiley's donation was expressed on site and pasteurised before being churned with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.
Icecreamists founder Matt O'Connor placed an advert appealing for breast milk donations and believes his new recipe will be a success.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
What's the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash?”
End Quote Victoria Hiley Mother
"If it's good enough for our children, it's good enough for the rest of us," he said.
"Some people will hear about it and go yuck - but actually it's pure organic, free-range and totally natural."
Mrs Hiley, who gets £15 for every 10 ounces of milk she donates to the company, said it was a great "recession beater".
"What's the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash?" she added.
"I teach women how to get started on breastfeeding their babies. There's very little support for women and every little helps."
Mr O'Connor said 14 other women had come forward to offer their services. Health checks for the lactating women were the same used by hospitals to screen blood donors.
"No-one's done anything interesting with ice cream in the last hundred years," he added. BBC+clip
A television channel dedicated to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has appeared on Arab satellite networks.
Its launch came on the third anniversary, on the Islamic calendar, of the former president's execution.
It is not clear who is behind the channel which broadcasts the speeches, images and even poetry of Saddam Hussein, backed with patriotic music.
It is broadcast from outside Iraq and some analysts suspect his former political supporters of bankrolling it. more
Stalin voted third-best Russian
Former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten by medieval prince Alexander Nevsky in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian.
Stalin came third, despite being responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviets in labour camps and purges.
Alexander Nevsky fought off European invaders in the 13th century to preserve a united Russia. more
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