tagged w/ Current News UK
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The Prison Reform Trust has said that thousands of people with mental health problems are ending up in jail rather than getting treatment.The Prison Reform Trust has said that thousands of people with mental health problems... more
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ClareW
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added this
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4 years ago
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Ever wondered where the F-word came from? Here's a little etymology lesson for what I'd argue is the most versatile four letter word in the English language. And I'd like to do a poll. What do you think it's best used as:
A. an interjection (OH F**K!)
B. a verb (those dogs are f**king)
C. an adverb (it's f**king hot)
D. a noun (he is a dodgy f**ker)
I think I choose D.Ever wondered where the F-word came from? Here's a little etymology lesson for... more
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London, (IRNA): The deputy commander of Israeli ground forces during the recent Gaza massacres has cancelled 20 speaking engagements during a planned tour of Britain, according to the Jewish organisers of his secret visit.
Colonel Geva Rapp was understood to have fled back to Israel fearing a citizens’ arrest for war crimes during his visit to Britain which was aimed to defend the slaughter of more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza to members of the country’s estimated 270,000 Jewish community.
“Due to the negative security situation and increasing risk that was steadily brewing around Colonel Geva Rapps' visit to the UK, our guest has asked us to cancel all further speaking engagements,” said Rabbi Naftali Schiff, executive director of Aish UK educational organisation.
The cancellation was revealed in an internal email obtained by councillors from all four parties on Birmingham City Council, who welcomed the decision after condemning his invitation to Britain’s second largest city as both “offensive and provocative.”
“In view of the massacre of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, including over 400 children, we feel this person should be charged with war crimes instead of being encouraged to travel freely in the UK,” the local councillors said in a statement.
The signatories, all from different wards in Birmingham, included Salma Yaqood from the Respect Party, James Hutchings from the Conservative, Tahir Ali from Labour and Tariq Khan from the Liberal Democrats.
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The pressure mounts against IsrahellLondon, (IRNA): The deputy commander of Israeli ground forces during the recent Gaza... more
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It's not enough to simply text a friend and ask where they are these days. Thankfully, with Google's (slightly scary) new 'Latitude' addition to Google Maps, now you can find out where they are without them really knowing and turn up to surprise them. The new service allows mobile phone users to share their location with friends and family and spot which of their contacts are nearby. Once signed up, an icon of the user's location, as well as their chums', will appear on Google Maps on their phone.
It's accurate to within a hundred yards or so, and at the moment it's only available on Blackberry phones and devices running Windows Mobile and Symbian 360 but it'll be rolled out to iPhone and Google Android users in the next couple of weeks.
Not quite over that ex and want to gatecrash their romantic lunch with their new partner to confess love and sob into their sleeve? Latitude!
Friends no longer inviting you out on nights but you're not going to let that stop you turning up anyway, if only you knew where they were knocking back the drinks? Latitude!
More info here, as well as the link above: http://tinyurl.com/googlelatitudeIt's not enough to simply text a friend and ask where they are these days.... more
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richjm
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4 years ago
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I think it's safe to say that after just five years, Facebook has transformed the way we think about the internet and online social interaction. Though not the first of its kind, FB is certainly the most popular with 150 million users and revenues of $300 million last year.
Of course, now there are sites like Twitter biting at the heels of Facebook. So what's going to happen to FB in the future? I can't imagine it will die off as quickly as it rose to power. But I do think it's going to have to try to keep up with all the innovative new sites.
Apparently everyone is getting a mystery virtual gift for Facebook's birthday. What will it be?I think it's safe to say that after just five years, Facebook has transformed the... more
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI firmly reject denial of the Holocaust, a week and a half after the Vatican rehabilitated a bishop who denied the Nazis had intentionally murdered 6 million Jews.
The pope and the Vatican must make absolutely clear that there can be no denial of the Holocaust," Merkel said.
The pope in January lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson and several other clergy members who had been expelled from the Catholic Church in 1988.
The pope's move came days after the broadcast of an interview in which Williamson -- a member of the Society of Saint Pius X -- denied the Nazis had used gas chambers.
"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," Williamson said in the interview with a Swedish television station, which also appeared on various Web sites after its broadcast. "I believe there were no gas chambers," he added.
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Does the Pope deny the holocaust? Why would he show favor to someone who defends and sympathizes with Nazis?German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI firmly reject... more
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Japan may be struggling with a deepening recession, rising job losses and tumbling stocks but an unusual source of wealth has been found in a rather unlikely place - the sewers.
A sewage treatment facility in Nagano prefecture, north-west of Tokyo, has reported a yield of gold extracted from sludge to rival production levels at some of the best mines in the world.
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of gold has been found at the Suwa treatment facility in the past year, with more than 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash recorded from incinerated sludge.
The gold yield significantly surpasses levels at Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's leading gold mines, where 20 to 40 grammes of the precious metal are found per tonne of ore.
The unexpected presence of soaring levels of gold in sewage has been attributed to the high concentration of precision equipment manufacturers using the precious metal in the Nagano region.
While the facility has so far received £38,500 (5 million yen) for the gold, it is predicting its coffers could swell by £116,000 (15 million yen) by the end of the financial year next month as a result of the precious metal.Japan may be struggling with a deepening recession, rising job losses and tumbling... more
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Watching the boob tube may increase the risk of depression according to a new study. Apparently each additional hour of daily tv viewing by adolescents will boost the odds of being depressed by 8%. While results don't prove a direct causal relationship between tv and depression, they claim that time spent watching takes away from other more healthful things like sleeping and physical activity. However, watching videos, playing computer games and listening to the radio did not carry a similar risk.Watching the boob tube may increase the risk of depression according to a new study.... more
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MySpace officials say about 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from its huge online social networking Web site.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said Tuesday the new figure is nearly double what MySpace officials originally acknowledged last year when detailing who had used their site.
Cooper and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have led the charge seeking efforts to make social networking Web sites safer. MySpace officials sent the numbers to Blumenthal's office Tuesday.
Last year, the attorneys general received agreements from MySpace and rival online networking site Facebook to push toward making their sites safer for young users. Both implemented dozens of safeguards, including limiting how older users can search members under 18.MySpace officials say about 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from... more
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Homer Simpson has waded into the politics arena again, this time telling Barack Obama how to sort out the global financial crisis. Now you may think Homer's probably not the greatest candidate to be giving political advice, and you'd be right, but his idea does sound pretty sweet...
Speaking to Skymag, big daddy Simpson said, "If I was President Obama for a day, I'd order the Treasury to stop printing money and start brewing beer. That would end this depression pretty damn fast!"
He also discussed how him and Marge keep their marriage alive; "We study books that combine lovemaking and eating, like The Joy Of Soup and The Caramel Sutra."
"My ideal date ends in a spot of passion, followed by a night of drinking, followed by a morning when I call in sick for work."Homer Simpson has waded into the politics arena again, this time telling Barack Obama... more
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Is crying merely a carry-over from childhood that will never get the same positive results it did when we were young?
"Some researchers say that the common psychological wisdom about crying — crying as a healthy catharsis — is incomplete and misleading. Having a “good cry” can and usually does allow people to recover some mental balance after a loss. But not always and not for everyone, argues a review article in the current issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Placing such high expectation on a tearful breakdown most likely sets some people up for emotional confusion afterward.
This call for a more nuanced view of crying stems partly from a critique of previous studies. Over the years, psychologists have confirmed many common observations about crying. It is infectious. Women break down more easily and more often than men, for reasons that are very likely biochemical as well as cultural. And the physical experience mirrors the psychological one: heart rate and breathing peak during the storm and taper off as the sky clears.
When asked about tearful episodes, most people, as expected, insist that the crying allowed them to absorb a blow, to feel better and even to think more clearly about something or someone they had lost.
At least that’s the way they remember it — and that’s the rub, said Jonathan Rottenberg, a psychologist at the University of South Florida and a co-author of the review paper. “A lot of the data supporting the conventional wisdom is based on people thinking back over time,” he said, “and it’s contaminated by people’s beliefs about what crying should do.”"Is crying merely a carry-over from childhood that will never get the same positive... more
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Interesting thing about this is that the communist newspaper is writing about sex and sexuality. 30 years ago they said "there's no sex in the USSR", but now there is suddenly sex and even the distinct definition between men and women.
"Men are mysterious beings. There is no way women can ever understand men’s logic, just like men can never understand what women want from them. Women typically think of men as strange human beings, whose actions go beyond their understanding. For example, men do not want to meet a woman again after a very good date, they can suddenly disappear and leave phone calls and text messages unanswered, they say that they never want to get married, but then become faithful husbands."Interesting thing about this is that the communist newspaper is writing about sex and... more
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mcamca
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added this
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4 years ago
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A new Chinese family planning study has shown that birth defects have risen by 40 per cent in just six years.A new Chinese family planning study has shown that birth defects have risen by 40 per... more
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Due to an apparent lack of funding, London's only dedicated rape crisis centre is due to be closed this year. They need £250,000 per year just to make ends meet. In the statement from the RASASC, they said they were too busy to get involved in activism and fundraising, and is a sign of a backlash against the women's movement by local authorities.
"Victims are not normally strong enough to tie themselves to the railings outside Downing Street, shouting 'this has happened and I don't have any help'. Survivors of sexual abuse don't want people to know what happened to them. They won't be marching to Whitehall."
The NHS offers no specialised rape assistence. Do you think that it's up to the victims of rape to drive publicity and fundraising for the rape crisis centre? Do you agree that this is a sign of a backlash?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/30/rape-crisis-centreDue to an apparent lack of funding, London's only dedicated rape crisis centre is... more
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Ecotastic!
Use:
1. Insert a paper in the middle of the printer
2. Put the coffee or tea dregs into the ink case on the top of the printer
3. Move the ink case left and right as you draw on a paper
4. When the print finishes, pull out the paper from the printer and wash the ink caseEcotastic!
Use:
1. Insert a paper in the middle of the printer
2. Put the... more
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It's like something out of a science fiction novel or a Harry Potter book. Engineers from Duke University have constructed a device that can "cloak" items placed on a mirror surface.
First designed in 2006, the new version of the device is a more sophisticated and complicated design that can cloak a wider variety of waves. To create the new device, the researchers developed a new set of mathematical algorithms which, in turn, are used to engineer artificially structured "metamaterials" that have properties not found in natural materials. The metamaterials are what form the cloaking structures, which bend electromagnetic waves, like light, around an object, so it appears the object is no longer there.
[More at Link]It's like something out of a science fiction novel or a Harry Potter book.... more
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It may be futile to try producing stem cells by putting human DNA into cow or rabbit eggs and making hybrid cloned embryos, a strategy that triggered controversy recently in Britain, a new study says.
The animal eggs don't reprogram human DNA in the right way to generate stem cells, researchers report.
"Instead of turning on the right genes, it turns out the animal eggs actually turn them off," said senior study author Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass.
Another scientist disputed that conclusion.
The idea of using animal-human "hybrid" embryos drew fire last year in Britain as authorities pondered whether to let scientists try it. Opponents objected to mixing human and animal material and worried that such research could lead to genetically modified babies.
Hybrid embryos have been made elsewhere, but there's no widely accepted report of getting stem cells from them. Animal eggs are attractive because human ones are hard to get for research.
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Animal-human embryos?It may be futile to try producing stem cells by putting human DNA into cow or rabbit... more
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Designer Yael Mer’s quirky Evacuation Skirt was conceived after the flooding in New Orleans. She says she wanted to raise the question of whether emergency and beauty can be intertwined. “The skirt keeps its glamorous look when it’s deflated on the one hand, and on the other, it inflates into a kayak with the right amount of volume to carry a grown up woman.”Designer Yael Mer’s quirky Evacuation Skirt was conceived after the flooding in... more
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Population: The elephant in the room.
Uncontrolled population growth threatens to undermine efforts to save the planet; the environmental movement must stop running scared of this controversial topic.
It's the great taboo of environmentalism: the size and growth of the human population.
It has a profound impact on all life on Earth, yet for decades it has been conspicuously absent from public debate.
Most natural scientists agree our growing numbers and our unchecked impact on the natural environment move us inexorably toward global calamities of unthinkable severity.
They agree the need to address population has become desperate.
Yet many environmentalists avoid the subject, a few objecting strongly to any focus on our numbers.
Some activists insist acting to influence population growth infringes on human rights; they maintain that it is best to leave the problem alone.
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What do we do about the population problem? How do we address the problem without infringing on human rights? Perhaps more to the point, is it a human right to have as many kids as you please?Population: The elephant in the room.
Uncontrolled population growth threatens to... more
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And the winner is: organic.
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