Thursday, 6 May 2010
US Army goes Gaga
The dancing soldiers are with the 82nd Airborne stationed in Afghanistan and their Lady Gaga sendup is a YouTube sensation. Surprisingly, it's gotten a thumbs up from military brass.
Harold Levine liked the video so much he created a Facebook page devoted to its star, Aaron Melcher. He walked Michelle Norris through Melcher's version of "Telephone," and compared it to Lady Gaga's original.
Over 3 million people have watched the video on Youtube, and Levine thinks that's because, in a time of unhappy news, it's become the feel good video of the week. "I think people really have an affection and love for the service people who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq," he says. "We like to think that the brave men and women of the United States armed forces who are serving in what are relatively godforsaken places are well enough and happy enough and have enough leisure time that they can do something like this. And send it to us to show us that they're OK."
"This is a couple guys located in afghanistan, that re-made the music video by Lady Gaga....Telephone. Prepare yourself for a fantastical journey.
Right now this is the temporary version, we have more scenes to cut, and edit, however with guys always on mission it is harder to film than you think"
Right now this is the temporary version, we have more scenes to cut, and edit, however with guys always on mission it is harder to film than you think"
(youtube text)
3.330.854 views in the last 12 days!!
What a game!
FT Motherwell [6 - 6] Hibernian
11′ [0 - 1] C. Nish
16′ [1 - 1] G. Coke
20′ [1 - 2] C. Nish
28′ [1 - 3] D. Riordan
36′ [1 - 4] C. Nish
39′ [2 - 4] J. Sutton
56′ [2 - 5] A. Stokes
65′ [2 - 6] A. Stokes
67′ [3 - 6] G. Coke
72′ [4 - 6] T. Hateley
76′ [5 - 6] J. Sutton
90′ [6 - 6] L. Jutkiewicz
Six away goals, four goals advance but only a draw...
The Terminator's only chance at a presidential run is to go back time and change the country of his birth
MORE
US school for disabled forces students to wear packs that deliver massive electric shocks
Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) has filed a report and urgent appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture alleging that the Judge Rotenberg Center for the disabled, located in Massachusetts, violates the UN Convention against Torture.
The rights group submitted their report this week, titled "Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center," after an in-depth investigation revealed use of restraint boards, isolation, food deprivation and electric shocks in efforts to control the behaviors of its disabled and emotionally troubled students.
Findings in the MDRI report include the center's practice of subjecting children to electric shocks on the legs, arms, soles of feet and torso -- in many cases for years -- as well as some for more than a decade. Electronic shocks are administered by remote-controlled packs attached to a child's back called a Graduated Electronic Decelerators (GEI).
The disabilities group notes that stun guns typically deliver three to four milliamps per shock. GEI packs, meanwhile, shock students with 45 milliamps -- more than ten times the amperage of a typical stun gun.
A former employee of the center told an investigator, "When you start working there, they show you this video which says the shock is 'like a bee sting' and that it does not really hurt the kids. One kid, you could smell the flesh burning, he had so many shocks. These kids are under constant fear, 24/7. They sleep with them on, eat with them on. It made me sick and I could not sleep. I prayed to God someone would help these kids."
Noting that it believes United States law fails to provide needed protections to children and adults with disabilities, MDRI calls for the immediate end to the use of electric shock and long-term restraints as a form of behavior modification or treatment and a ban on the infliction of severe pain for so-called therapeutic purposes.
"Torture as treatment should be banned and prosecuted under criminal law," the report states.
The U.S. Department of Justice opened a "routine investigation" of the center in February of this year in response to a September 2009 letter signed by 31 disability organizations claiming that the center violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Judge Rotenberg CEO and founder Dr. Matthew L. Israel began his first program in California back in 1977. In 1981, a 14-year old boy died face down, tied to his bed, while living in the California center. Dr. Israel was not held responsible for the death. After an investigation by the State of California, Israel relocated to Rhode Island, and then to Massachusetts, where his facility still operates today.
Mother Jones magazine published an extensive investigative report on the Rotenberg Center in 2007 titled "School of Shock." Reporter Jennifer Gonnerman asked, "How many times do you have to zap a child before it's torture?"
Children at the Judge Rotenberg Center are often shackled, restrained and secluded for months at a time, the report says. Social isolation, and food deprivation as forms of punishment are common. Mock and threatened stabbings -- to forcibly elicit unacceptable behaviors resulting in electric shock punishments (Labeled as Behavioral Research Lessons or BRLs, by the center) were reported to MDRI as well as state regulatory bodies.
A former student of the center reportedly tells MDRI, "The worst thing ever was the BRLs. They try and make you do a bad behavior and then they punish you. The first time I had a BRL, two guys came in the room and grabbed me – I had no idea what was going on. They held a knife to my throat and I started to scream and I got shocked. I had BRLs three times a week for stuff I didn't even do. It went on for about six months or more. I was in a constant state of paranoia and fear. I never knew if a door opened if I would get one. It was more stress than I could ever imagine. Horror."
Behaviors that the center deemed "aggressive," as well as those considered "minor," or "non-compliant" -- such as raising one's hand without permission -- are all considered punishable by electric shocks, restraints, and other punishments to students.
"One girl who was blind, deaf and non-verbal was moaning and rocking," a former teacher says in the report. "Her moaning was like a cry. The staff shocked her for moaning. Turned out she had broken a tooth. Another child had an accident in the bathroom and was shocked."
The rights group investigation found that the Rotenberg center is the only known facility in the United States, "Or perhaps the world," that employs the use of electricity, long-term restraints and other punishments to deliberately inflict pain upon its children and then refer to it as "treatment." The electric shocks alone are cited as having possible long-term effects such as muscle stiffness, impotence, damage to teeth, scarring of the skin, hair loss, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), severe depression, chronic anxiety, memory loss and sleep disturbances.
The MDRI report states that more than any other source for its information, they relied upon information readily obtained from the Judge Rotenberg Center's own website.
In response to MDRI's report, the Judge Rotenberg Center said, "There is no credible evidence that for these most severe forms of behavior disorders, there is any pharmacological or psychological treatment that can effectively treat these students or even keep them safe. JRC is the only program willing to address the reality of these children’s disorders and endure the political firestorm in order to save these children and give them an education and a future."
The complete response from the center can be read in full at JRC's website
Diana Sweet @'Raw Story'
STL - The Quest For Sound
The mysterious Harz-based producer breaks his silent state: RA's Todd L. Burns tracks down Stephan Laubner for his first English language interview, finding that there's much more than house music to talk about with the multi-faceted artist and label owner.
paul__lewis Labour's private polling shows "more than 20%" voters in marginals still undecided. Turnout set to be highest since '97.
David Cameron accused of being dishonest over links with 'Conservative madrasa'
A screengrab from Conor Burns's website, showing him with David Cameron. Burns was until recently the vice-president of the Young Britons' Foundation
David Cameron has been accused of being "completely dishonest" about his links to a controversial Conservative party affiliate whose leadership has described the NHS as the biggest waste of money in the UK and suggested that the waterboarding of prisoners can be justified.
In an interview prior to the election campaign, the Tory leader denied all knowledge of the Young Britons' Foundation, which has been dubbed "the Conservative madrasa" because of its radical views and role in training young party activists, including some parliamentary candidates.
Asked about his links to the group last month, Cameron said: "I don't know anything about the Young Britons' Foundation."
But Cameron had already contributed to a YBF-branded guide to essential reading for young Conservatives, according to the YBF's chief executive, Donal Blaney, a Kent-based solicitor. The Guardian has also obtained photographs of him meeting the organisation's director of strategy, vice-president, and then operations director before he denied knowledge of the group. Its director of research, Alex Deane, was formerly Cameron's chief of staff.
The YBF's leaders promote a version of free-market liberalism in line with the US neoconservative movement and some of its residential camps for young party activists involving visits to shooting ranges to fire sub-machine guns and assault rifles. In an article on his own website, entitled Scrap the NHS, not just targets", its chief executive, Donal Blaney, wrote: "Would it not now be better to say that the NHS – in its current incarnation – is finished?"
Its president is Daniel Hannan MEP, a staunch critic of the NHS, which Cameron has claimed is his top priority should he become prime minister.
Senior members of the shadow cabinet have repeatedly tried to distance themselves from the YBF despite having spoken at YBF events. Eric Pickles, the party chairman, and Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, spoke at the YBF's parliamentary rally in March, but tried to distance themselves from the group afterwards. Fox was listed as a member of the YBF's parliamentary council on its website until the page was removed recently.
"The YBF's tentacles reach deep into the shadow cabinet and show the influence of the extreme anti-NHS, pro-torture, neocon wing of the party," said Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman. "If Cameron claims not to know who they are he is being completely dishonest."
In a circular email about a planned YBF-branded manual called Reading the Right Books: Essential Reading for Young Conservatives, Blaney wrote to YBF supporters on 8 January 2009 stating: "I have so far received some 50 suggestions from MPs including from David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Damian Green, David Davis, Jeremy Hunt, Oliver Letwin and David Willetts." He repeats his assertion about Cameron's involvement on the YBF website.
Cameron has also been photographed endorsing the Conservative candidate for Bournemouth West, Conor Burns, who until recently was the YBF's vice-president, shaking hands with Paul Osborn, the YBF's director of strategy and presenting an award for political activism to Christian May, who was then YBF operations director.
Cameron's spokesman could neither confirm nor deny whether he had worked with the YBF on the planned book.
"Amongst the many hundreds of letters and emails David Cameron's office receives every day, they occasionally include requests for book recommendations," a spokesman said. "The YBF is independent of the Conservative party."
Labour MP Jon Cruddas said: "At best, Mr Cameron has been elusive about his links to the YBF, at worst he is systematically involved in a 'madrasa' for far-right views which he has again and again attempted to disguise. This doesn't bode well if he becomes prime minister on Friday."
On Monday, the YBF launched a nationwide leaflet and video campaign against a hung parliament, which suggested such an outcome could cause unemployment to hit 5 million, Britain to lose its place on the UN security council, and the BNP to eventually win 20 seats in the House of Commons if proportional representation is introduced as a result.
Huhne said yesterday it was a "coordinated, expensively funded and probably illegal smear operation with links right to the top of the Conservative party".
The Lib Dems believe the 500,000-leaflet campaign would have cost more than £10,000, the limit before you have to register with the Electoral Commission, and could therefore be illegal.
Robert Booth @'The Guardian'
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Zoo magazine advises cutting women’s faces
Zoo Magazine (UK) has published an ‘advice’ column suggesting that a guy who can’t get over his ex should cut her face “so then no one will want her”
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