Watch a Christian Family React Terribly To Their Conservative Son Coming Out As Gay

YOU’RE coming out as gay. So. You film yourself telling your Christian parents. Daniel Pierce is 19. He did just that. 

His stepmother, father, and grandparents reacted in a way it’s not to think he foresaw.

Anorak

Posted: 31st, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)

Police Kidnap ‘Our’ Ashya King And Lock Up His Parents

THE police kidnapped five-year-old Ashya King, removing him from his parents, Brett and Naghemeh King. His parents are under arrest.

Ashya King has a brain tumour. Disappointed with the treamtent he was receiving on the NHS, Ashya’s parents removed him from Southampton General Hostpital and drove to Spain. British doctors did not support the move.

So. The family were hunted. And then caught.

Hampshire Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead tells media:

“We don’t have many details on Ashya’s condition at this point in time, but what we do know is he was showing no visible signs of distress.”

Anorak

Posted: 31st, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)

Ashya King: Police Want The Parents Arrested And The Children In Foster Care

AYSHA King: A look at the missing child in the news media:

The Daily Mail brings to mind a scene from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The Bolivian Army are outside the door:

Spanish police have surrounded a flat in Marbella as part of the manhunt for the ‘desperate’ Jehovah’s Witness couple who smuggled their five-year-old son out of a hospital bed.
Hampshire Police have obtained a European arrest warrant for the parents, Brett and Naghmeh King, on the issue of ‘neglect’.

Readers learn:

…brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer and five-year survival remains low at 18.8 per cent.

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead has medical news:

“Health experts tell us that with the proper medical care Ashya has a good chance of survival, but he must get that professional care.”

The Express is emotive:

Missing boy latest: Manhunt moves to Spain amid fears Ashya King has ‘hours to live’

Anorak

Posted: 30th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)

God Speed Ashya King: The Police And Media Want Us To Grass Up His Family

THE Sun and other media have been tucking into the stgory of Ashya King, the desperately ill five-year-old taken from Southampton General Hosptial by his family and driven to France.

The Telegraph has taken sides:

A five-year-old boy with a brain tumour who was taken by his parents from hospital without the blessing of doctors is being fed by a battery-operated feeding tube which will run out in the next 12 hours.

The “blessing of doctors”? Are the men in white coats now religious figures?

What of the rights of Ashya King’s parents, Brett and Naghemeh King?

Where are they taking him? Disneyland for one last bit of family fun before goodbyes are said? We don’t know. But the Sun makes a link between the boy’s trip and the family’s religion.

Hampshire Police says Ashya King’s family have “strong links to the Marbella area”. Are they heading to the Costa Del Sol?

The Sun says the family are “on the run”.

They are not criminals. But the language is loaded.

Readers are orderd To “FIND ASHYA”. This is a story readers can play along with. It’s interactive. He’s not yet “Our Ashya”, but give it time and he will be.

Anorak

Posted: 30th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (7)

Disney Princess Says Dads Hit On Pocahontas More Than Mulan Or Silvermist

Superstar Michael Jackson is surrounded by fantasy as he stands with Snow White and Dopey, of the Seven Dwarfs fame on Friday, April 27, 1984 in Jackson’s Encino, California home. The Disney characters presented Jackson with a one-of-a-kind display featuring the characters in a scene representative of the 1937 classic film. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

A Disney Princesss is talking to the Mirror:

“I was hit on as Pocahontas more than Mulan or Silvermist, & it definitely has to do with the amount of clothing she’s wearing….there’s always the family that makes grandpa or the dad get a picture alone & they’d whisper how pretty I was or ask when I got off of work. I’d get slipped the occasional phone number on a napkin… Back when Toontown was still in the Magic Kingdom, there were three Princess rooms. One Cinderella, Aurora, & Belle in each one. If all three rooms were operating, that means when the girls went on break, other girls would replace them. So there were a total of six Cinderellas around the area at a time. None of the guests know this because there are attendants to take them into each room, one group at a time.

“It’s a very cool operation… Cinderella is in the Parade, doing breakfast, lunch, & dinner rotation at Cinderella’s castle, & she is in the princess room. At Epcot she is at the Norway breakfast. She’s also in the night time parade. She’s also in the main stage show at Magic Kingdom. That’s at least ten girls who are Cinderella in one day.

“It’s awesome to think about the fact that you never see two together.”

If you fancy Minnie Mouse, contact the security guard for directions to the cheese shoppe…

Anorak

Posted: 29th, August 2014 | In: Money, Reviews | Comment

Ashya King: Police And Media Criminalise The Boy’s Parents For Daring To Say ‘No’

WHY is the police looking for five-year-old Ashya King? And why is the media leading with the hunt for him?

Ashya King has a brain tumour. He was taken from Southampton General Hospital, where he’d been undergoing treatment.

He was taken not by a paedo or stranger. Ashya King was removed from the hospital’s care by this legal guardians, his parents Brett King, 51, and his wife Naghemeh, 45. The family took a cross-Channel ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg at 4pm yesterday with Ashya and his six brothers and sisters.

Police, who have a debatebale record when it comes to looking after chidlren (see Rotherham, Rochdale and Blackpool), tell media:

“We are working with our counterparts in France to activate their emergency child rescue alert procedures to locate the family as soon as possible.”

Anorak

Posted: 29th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Rotherham: It’s Not Islam It’s Pakistani Tribalism

ONE of the most enduring lessons I’ve ever learned in relation to problem-solving is that nine parts or more of the solution lie in defining accurately the nature of the problem, and the causes of it, writes Richard North. of the story that gangs of men of Parkistan heritage have been gang raping underage white girls.

…there is a strong constituency which would attribute this problem entirely to one thing – Islam. Nothing else is of any significance or relevance. 

This even mars this otherwise valuable report which attributes the motivation almost entirely to “Islamic doctrine”, despite it also noting the “hugely disproportionate presence of ‘Asians’, particularly those from the Islamic state of Pakistan”.

The point, of course, is that there is more than one common factor here. There is Islam and there is Pakistan. And, hidden from sight in the Pakistani communities prone to this behaviour is tribalism. While Islam is a powerful motivator and behavioural modifier, no studies of these communities can be complete without taking into account tribal mores. 

Yet, in the report to which I refer there are 416 references to Islam, but not a single mention of the tribe, or tribalism in any form. 

A lot of these communities, in fact, are Kashmiri, and many are Pashtun in origin. Any number of scholars have expended huge effort on understanding the relative effects of Islam and the tribal code of Pashtunwali, and the considerable differences between them, and for contemporary workers to ignore possible effects is illogical. 

Other tribal groupings have similar “honour codes” and these co-exist with Islam, the religion often forming an uneasy veneer layered over the original codes, which invariably take precedence over Islamic teachings. 

Understanding this, understanding how tribal communities work, and how differences in different types of tribe also affect behavioural patterns, goes a long way to understanding how some immigrant communities work, and what might happen when social disciplines fail. 

It was this that I sought to explore in my Brietbart piece, observing that the failure of our police and officials to understanding these dynamics have contributed to the lack of early and effective action. Putting it altogether, though, at the heart of these matters is a failure of law enforcement and, beyond that, sequential failures of complaint systems. 

Of these men that have committed so many heinous, I take them to be a cultural offshoot, locked in primitive, obsolete tribalism, to which fundamentalist Islam is but an overlay, a veneer. 

This is an offshoot that hates and fears its own women, and then gets its sexual gratification from abusing the women of other races. It is a sterile creed that is going nowhere. It can destroy, it can cause endless misery, but it cannot build or create. Hence, I say, fundamentalist Islam is the religion of losers. 

Their religion is attractive to them because they were losers first, and can eke out justification for their actions in ancient scripts. It is not the cause of their inadequacies. It is a symptom of them. 

But, I conclude, their criminality survives and prospers, not because of their inadequacies, but because of ours – reinforced by that profound ignorance which plagues our officials and administrators. If our officials had had a better understanding of what they were dealing with, and then enforced the law, much of which came to pass would never have happened. 

In my view, therefore, putting it all down to “Islam” is simplistic to the point of being dangerously misleading. We need to do better. 

Anorak

Posted: 29th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)

In Praise Of The Newsroom Typewriter: The Journalists’ Orchestra

The newsroom at the New York Times is seen as editorial staffers work feverishly to prepare a Monday edition, in this Nov. 5, 1978 file photo. A reader-submitted question related to how newsrooms are alerted to breaking news stories is being answered as part of an Associated Press Q&A column called “Ask AP.” (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)

I LOVE newspapers. Working in a newsroom was, to me, the most exciting job I could imagine. And then it changed. I’ve been in many newsrooms and one thing holds true for all of them: they are so quiet. But the Times is trying to change all that.

To the surprise of Times journalists, a tall speaker on a stand has been erected in the newsroom to pump out typewriter sounds, to increase energy levels and help reporters to hit deadlines. The audio begins with the gentle patter of a single typewriter and slowly builds to a crescendo, with the keys of ranks of machines hammering down as the paper’s print edition is due to go to press.

The development, which was described as a “trial” today by publisher News UK, has caused some bemusement among journalists, one of whom tried unsuccessfully to turn the sound off. The idea is one of a series of experiments introduced as The Times and other News UK titles have departed Wapping for new offices in the Baby Shard, London Bridge, South London.

When first blackouts were ordered, Seattle Times newsroom was blacked out by painting windows with black paint. Editors found that this was a little hard on the eyes, as the black paint absorbed most of the light. Next step was ““de-blacking the blackout” Dec. 19, 1941. Blackened windows were in turn painted white on the inside of the glass thus making the room much cheerier to work in. (AP Photo)
Date: 19/12/1941

Anorak

Posted: 29th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

When A 15-Year-Old Gun Show Worker Handed 8-Year-Old Christopher Bizilj An Uzi Sub Machine Gun To Fire

NEWS of the nine-year-old who killed her Uzi instructor on a Las Vegas shooting range reminds us of this story from 2008:

The teenager who worked at a gun show where 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj accidentally killed himself while shooting an Uzi testified today he twice suggested the boy’s father pick a less powerful weapon for the boy to shoot.

But Christopher’s father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, insisted that his son be allowed to fire the automatic weapon, Michael Spano told the court. Spano was 15 at the time of the 2008 Massachusetts gun expo and was put in charge of allowing people to fire the 9 mm Micro Uzi, a submachine gun that fires 20 rounds a second.

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Nine-Year-Old Shoots Uzi Instructor: NRA Just Tweets ‘7 Ways Children Can Have Fun at the Shooting Range’

 “[I]f children continually shoot the same bull’s-eye target, they can become tired, exhausted or bored. Sometimes they want, or rather need, to have fun at the range. That’s when it’s time to introduce other types of targets to change things up, so children have fun at the range.”

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Small World Theory: The ALS Icebucket Challenge And Six Degrees Of Separation

SO. We’ve all seen those videos of tossers throwing iced water over themselves: everyone from terribly famous people like Giselle Bundchen and Bill Gates to random Belgians standing under firefighting planes. But little do people know that this is one of the great examples of “small world” theory. A specialist branch of mathematics which tries to explain how the world is put together, how society communicates. Other examples include the Kevin Bacon game and an oddity called an Erdos Number. These sorts of examples are used to explain how news travels over the internet, among other things.

This ALS Icebucket Challenge is another example of this same idea: that while there’s billions of us out here we’re really only a few connections away from everyone else. It’s usually possibly to connect between two people in four or five steps: and it’s a very rate person indeed that we can’t get to in seven or less (think lost amazon tribes to get to that distance away from any one other person):

The challenge started with Charles Kennedy, a golfer from Florida, who was responding to a friend who told him ‘pour ice over your head and I’ll donate to the charity of your choice’.

Tim Worstall

Posted: 28th, August 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment

Revealed: The Most Hated Word In The English Language

AND the most hated word in the English language is… “moist”.

University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor Mark Liberman explains the thinking:

“[W]ord aversion is different from word rage, which is ‘where people get angry at jargon or slang associated with a despised group, or upset because a word or phrase is felt to be incorrectly used, or annoyed at language that they perceive as redundant, or overly complicated, or pretentious, or a cliché, or trendy, or politically incorrect’. That kind of dislike is more common. Grudges against irregardless, synergy, like, don’t go there, or retard fit comfortably in the word rage department.

What’s your least favourite word?

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann: Four ‘New Suspects’ And Nothing Else

MADELEINE McCann’s face peers out from the cover of today’s Daily Express. The news is, as ever, lacking in any fact other than one: she’s missing.

But the Express has news that “police want to quiz more suspects”.

What suspects?

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2014 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Vine: The Difference Between A Smoker And Non-Smoker’s Lungs

SPOT the difference between the lungs of a smoker and those of a non-smoker. Both non-smoker and smoker remain unwell:

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Police Investigate Video Games Developer Over ‘Global Thermonuclear War’ Drawing

HENRY Smith, a software developer, was working on a game called “Global Thermonuclear War.” He drew a scence depicting a nuclear attack on Washington. As you can see from the above image, it was a drawing full of details. The bombs is launched from somewhere in Russia. 

 The Guardian reports on what happened when the developer’s letting agency popped round to his flat and saw the drawing:

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment

ISIS Runs A Bellydancing School In Florida

ISIS is a bellydancing school based in sunny Florida. It can expect lots of gurning, beared men to rock up soon asking to join.

This outfit might catch on:

Join now! 

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

9-Year-Old Girls Kills Instructor On Bullets And Burgers Uzi Shooting Range

LET’S spare a thoght for the nine-year-old girl who lost control of her Uzi submachine gun and killed gun tutor Charles Vacca at a shooting range just south of Las Vegas. With the gun on “full-auto”, the girl fired. The recoil sent the gun over her head, shooting Vacca.

The girl was with her parents at Bullets and Burgers shooting range on vacation from New Jersey.

All right, go ahead and give me one shot,” he tells the girl, whose back is to the camera during the entire 27-second video. He then cheers when she fires one round at the target.

“All right full auto,” Vacca says. The video, which does not show the actual incident, ends with a series of shots being heard.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (9)

WHO Ban On E-Cigarettes Makes The Saddo Sticks Cool And Dangerous

SMOKING is supposed to be sublime. Smokers will tell you that it is. Of course it’s bad for you.

Smoking [cigarettes] reveals the essence of appropriation–displays, in its most abstract form, the motive behind all desire to possess something, to own at all…The cigarette…allows us, in a symbolic act, to take into ourselves the world around us, the whole landscape that smoking a cigarette accompanies.” -Richard Klein

Smoking tobacco is great. The bad news is that your hobby will kill you. Smoking marks you out as a social pariah, hated even more than the fat.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Zara Sells Holocaust-Inspired Fashion For Children

ZARA is selling a “striped ‘sheriff’ T-shirt” for junior police.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Fashion, Reviews | Comment

The Problem With Rotherham: 1,400 Abused Girls Makes For A Good Headline

ALL papers lead with news that 1,400 girls were sexually abused in Rotherham, Yorkshire. The news is full of chilling testimonies delivered by grown women. They talk of being gang raped when below the age of consent (some as youing as 11), kept compliant by drugs, gifts, drink and threats of murder against them and their families and being ferried about the country to sex parties. Some children picked up from schools.

The rapists were mostly gangs of Asian men. The victims were mostly white girls.

The police treated the victims with contempt. The council ignored the allegations.

Yesterday the leader of the council, Roger Stone, resigned his post because of what he called “historic failings”.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment

Arsenal Balls: Giroud’s Ankle Poses Questions For Edinson Cavani

HOW football journalism worsk with the Daily Mirror’s Ben Burrows. He’s looking at Arsenal. The headline begins with a quesion:

Arsenal transfer news and rumours: Nikola Zigic eyed as shock Olivier Giroud replacement?

Anorak holds the the theory that the answer to any headline questison is “No”. But Burrows has copy to file. And Arsenal are big news. He ploughs on:

Arsene Wenger has splashed more cash than normal this summer but with injuries mounting could well dip his toes in again before the deadline

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Vermon Moves To Abandon Failing War On Drugs

Anorak

Posted: 26th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

US Police Departments Lose 2 Humvees And Lots Of Assault Rifles

Anorak

Posted: 26th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)

Spiders Grow Stronger And Larger In The City

IF you want to encounter smaller spiders in your bed then move to the country; and if you love the big ones, it’s the city for you. Wired reports:

Something about city life appears to be causing spiders to grow larger than their rural counterparts. And if that’s not enough to give you nightmares, these bigger urban spiders are also multiplying faster.

A new study published today in PLOS One shows that golden orb weaver spiders living near heavily urbanized areas in Sydney, Australia tend to be bigger, better fed, and have more babies than those living in places less touched by human hands.

The study’s authors collected 222 of the creatures from parks and bushland throughout Sydney, and correlated their sizes to features of the built and natural landscape.

They dissected each specimen back at the lab, and determined its size, health, and fecundity by measuring four attributes: the length of the spider’s longest leg segment, the ratio of that leg segment to overall body weight, the amount of fat on the spider, and its ovary size.

To measure urbanization, the authors looked primarily at ground cover throughout the city, at several scales, where they collected each spider: Are surfaces mostly paved? Is there a lack of natural vegetation? Lawns as opposed to leaf litter?

“The landscape characteristics most associated with larger size of spiders were hard surfaces (concrete, roads etc) and lack of vegetation,” said Elizabeth Lowe, a Ph.D student studying arachnids at the University of Sydney.

A Cambodian girl offers deep-fried spiders to travelers at the town of Skun, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, July 25, 2006. The town is the most well-known place for selling deep-fried spiders to travelers, who stop by on their way to and from the country’s northern and northeastern provinces. ( AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Anorak

Posted: 26th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment

Local News Watch: Lincolnshire Ebola Crisis

LOCAL News Watch spots this gem in the Lincolnshire Echo.

Nobody in the county has been tested for the ebola virus.

Anorak

Posted: 26th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment