News

[Scheherazade]

They refuse to rally for neo-Nazis, but as long as the price is right a new type of German mercenary will take to the streets and protest for you.
Young, good-looking, and available for around 150 euros (£100), more than 300 would-be protesters are marketing themselves on a German rental website.

They feature next to cars, DVDs, office furniture and holiday homes.

For some, these protesters show how soulless life has become. For others, they breathe new life into old causes.

Staging a protest

Their descriptions read like those on a dating site.

Next to a black and white posed picture, Melanie lists her details from her jeans size to her shoe size and tells potential protest organisers that she is willing to be deployed up to 100km around Berlin.

Six hours of Melanie bearing your banner or shouting your slogan will set you back 145 euros.

A spokesperson for erento.com was unable to say how many demonstrators had been booked since the service was launched earlier this month, but that there had certainly been demand.

Organisations using the service are unlikely to reveal themselves, keen to pass off their protesters as genuine supporters of the cause. But German media reported a Munich march had hired protesters because its own adherents were too old to stand for hours waving banners.

Erento.com stresses that no protester needs to offer their services to a cause they object to, and therefore many may genuinely believe in the protest they are joining.

But the fact they are paid has perturbed a number of commentators in Germany, especially those who remember the passion-fuelled protests of 1968.

"It seems to confirm the increasingly common assumption," wrote one, "that democracy is for sale".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6292341.stm

[Scheherazade]

Spain is to overhaul its clothing sizes for women as part of a government drive to ease pressure on young girls over their body size.

There are fears that efforts to conform could be leading to eating disorders.

The move follows Spain's ban of ultra-thin models on the catwalk during Madrid fashion week last September.

Among the range of measures being introduced in Spain to address the body image issue, is an agreement that shop window mannequins should get larger.

It is a source of frustration for customers and shop assistants alike that in Spain women tend to go into the changing rooms with an armful of different sizes never knowing which one will fit this time or whether any will fit at all.

Survey of sizes

But by 2008 those days could be over. Spain's biggest fashion retailers have bowed to government pressure to standardise their sizes and reflect the real size of Spain's growing population.

For the first time ever the National Consumer Institute will measure Spanish females - more than 8,000 of them to be exact - between the ages of 12 and 70.

Spanish fashion houses will then try to fit them, rather than the other way round.

They have also agreed to decorate their shop windows with slightly bigger mannequins.

The health ministry described the current ones as unreal dolls of alien dimensions, which it sees as directly encouraging eating disorders such as anorexia.

The move is likely to affect women and girls all over the world as international brands such as Mango and Zara have signed up to the agreement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6300793.stm

[Basil]

Good luck, Themis! Godspeed! Bon voyage! Auf Wiedersehen!

THEMIS Ready For Launch

[RobinHood3000]

Not that gossip is right to spread, but there was a quote in here I wanted to point out:

"The problem that we have is that in the U.S., we judge sexual behavior harshly," Dyson says.

To which I say: WHAT???

Article

[Virgil]

Strange story. My wife says that someday they may find my body in front of a computer after a year. So if my name shows up on the Who's Online here for weeks on end without posting, someone call the police.

Man's body found in front of TV year after death
Television was still on, authorities say; body partially mummified

Vincenzo Ricardo, 70, apparently died of natural causes, said Dr. Stuart Dawson, Suffolk County’s deputy chief medical examiner.

Police found Ricardo’s body this week when they investigated a report of burst pipes.

The home’s dry air had preserved his features, morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus said.

“You could see his face. He still had hair on his head,” Bacchus said.

Ricardo’s wife died years ago, and he lived alone, Dawson said.

“He hasn’t been heard from in over a year. That’s the part that baffles me,” he said. “Nobody sounded the alarm.”

Neighbors said they had thought Ricardo was in a hospital or nursing home.

“We never thought to check on him,” said neighbor Diane Devon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17202448/

[Nightshade]

Novelists Ian Rankin and Julian Barnes to fight Tessa Jowell's decision not to protect Sherlock Holmes' house
By Anthony Barnes, Art & Media Correspondent
Published: 11 February 2007
The leafy country mansion Undershaw, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created his most famous work, The Hound of the Baskervilles, is at the centre of a literary controversy.

The home is revered by millions of Sherlock Holmes devotees around the world. Campaigners are furious that their efforts to upgrade the listed status of the 36-room property in Surrey, designed partly by Conan Doyle himself, to preserve it for future generations, have been blocked by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The writer was judged not significant enough to merit such a move.

Leading writers - including Julian Barnes and Ian Rankin - have condemned the Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell, for failing to recognise the author's place in the nation's cultural canon.

Barnes, whose own Booker-shortlisted novel Arthur & George features the home extensively, has criticised Ms Jowell for the "regrettable" failing.

He told The Independent On Sunday: "Given that you can't channel-surf without coming across a Conan Doyle adaptation of some sort, I think the Secretary of State is profoundly misguided. It's a fine and interesting property and a rare example of a house where a writer was the co-architect of their house. The only other I can think of is Thomas Hardy's."

Rankin, the creator of Inspector Rebus,has also added his voice to the criticism. He said it appeared to be "literary snobbery", and added: "He created one of the most recognisable and archetypal figures in literature, and if his house is not worth saving, then I would say that no house is worth saving."

The home was commissioned in 1896 at Hindhead in Surrey because the area's "microclimate" was said to help ease the difficulties of TB sufferers, a condition that his wife Louisa had been diagnosed with three years earlier. Conan Doyle lived there until 1906, writing Baskervilles and many other stories at the location, as well as entertaining guests such as Bram Stoker and Virginia Woolf.

It is now in a terrible state of disrepair after years of neglect, and lead from the roof has recently been stolen. Water is said to gush through the home during rainstorms and stained-glass windows, based on Conan Doyle family designs, have been damaged.

Recent plans to divide the property into flats and build more homes in the grounds were recently turned down. Although it has Grade II listed status, the Victorian Society wanted this raised to Grade I, to give added protection and attract funding for its preservation.

However, the Department for Culture turned down the application after its advisers from English Heritage noted that Conan Doyle "cannot be said to be an author of the standing of... Charles Dickens or Jane Austen".

more

[Scheherazade]

Cadbury Schweppes has apologised after a marketing stunt forced the closure of a historic graveyard in the US city of Boston.

The 347-year-old Old Granary Burial Ground was shut after Cadbury's Dr Pepper unit hid a gold coin there as part of a 23-city treasure hunt promotion.

Thousands of people flocked to the cemetery to find the coin, prompting fears that graves would be desecrated.

The cemetery is the final resting place of American Revolutionary patriots Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, as well as about 5,000 other people.

Customers entering the promotion bought specially-marked bottles of Dr Petter each day to get codes printed on them.

Entering the codes on the Dr Pepper website brought up daily clues.

Advertisement

The 29th clue for Boston indicated the coin was in the vicinity of the Orpheum Theatre, across the street from the cemetery, with the 30th and final clue saying: "You're hot on the trail, though the place may feel chilly. The coin rests by the name of a patriot at rest in Philly."

That clue was released Tuesday at 3 am, and within minutes, dozens of people were camped out in front of the cemetery, waiting for it to open.

Cadbury Schweppes donated the $10,000 (£5,000) Boston prize to the graveyard for "its time and trouble,'' the Boston Globe reported.

It also said that the company would pay the city $500 (£255) for a police team called to guard the cemetery.

The problems caused Dr Pepper to cancel the entire promotion, meaning that the top prize of $1m (£510,000) will not be won.

"It absolutely is disrespectful," said Boston Parks Commissioner Toni Pollak. "It's an affront to the people who are buried there, our nation's ancestors."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...253153,00.html

[Scheherazade]

Thousands of British children think cows lay eggs, a survey has suggested.

Townies fared worst in the research designed to find out if kids know where their food comes from.

Dairy Farmers of Britain asked more than 1,000 children aged eight to 15 where they believed food like cheese, yoghurt and beef burgers originated.

Although knowledge improved with age, more than one in 10 (11%) of eight-year-olds did not know that pork chops come from pigs.

City children were almost three times as likely not know that beef burgers come from cows as their rural counterparts - 8% against 3%.

One in 10 townie children did not know where yoghurt comes from, compared to 6% of those from the countryside.

Worst of all, 2% of city kids in the sample survey thought that eggs come from cows, and that bacon is from cows or sheep.

Welsh children proved to be the least clued-up when it comes to cheese - with 11% unaware that it came from cows or sheep, compared to just 3% in the East Midlands.

But there was one piece of reassuring news for dairy farmers - all of the children knew that cows produce milk.

Dairy Farmers' Phil Gibson said: "With the Government and health organisations encouraging healthy eating in schools, it is important that children are taught about the way food is produced as well as what it contains."

:: Dairy Farmers of Britain is a company owned and run by 2,750 farmers in England and Wales.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...569871,00.html

[Scheherazade]

A dolphin is dying of a broken heart after its beloved trainer was killed by her neighbour in a frenzied attack.

Mary G was rescued from the Adriatic Sea and nurtured back to full health by Tamara Monti at the Oltremare water park in Riccione, Italy.

But the 37-year-old was stabbed to death at her flat by neighbour Alessandro Doto.

He claimed he had been driven mad by the constant barking of Ms Monti's two dogs.

Now Mary G is refusing her diet of milk and squid and has lost 50kg in weight. She has also failed to respond to treatment for a gastric infection.

Leonardo Stanzani, the park's director, said Ms Monti had become the dolphin's "substitute mother".

"The relationship between a dolphin and its trainer is always special but this time it was especially close," Mr Stanzani told The Times.

"Tamara was constantly stroking Mary, who would nuzzle her cheek."

Keepers are hoping the introduction of an older dolphin called Pele into Mary G's aquarium will help cheer her up.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...252170,00.html

[Scheherazade]

An 80-year-old woman has crashed her car into a driving test centre in Florida, after being summoned to retake a road safety examination. Therese Smith smashed into the office's waiting room, injuring 11 people.

It is thought she was moving out of her parking space but accelerated too hard, propelling her through an outside wall.

The accident was caught on surveillance camera and shows people rushing up to Ms Smith who was still buckled in her seat belt. No-one was seriously hurt.

The videotape also shows a man in a Superman costume walking around the car, but he did not stop to help the driver or any of the victims. His identity is unknown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6414003.stm


I wanna know who the guy in Superman costume was!!!

[kilted exile]

Asylum seekers targeted by gangs

Clad in the youth uniform of shellsuits, baseball caps and trainers, the teenagers swig from half empty MD 20/20 bottles.

The scene in the shadow of a decaying tower block is played out in towns and cities across the UK by bored youngsters hanging around on street corners.


Swastika graffiti

Hardly an asylum seeker haven?
Maimed by teenage racist gang

But this is Scotland's largest city and these youths are part of a worrying new trend - self styled street gangs which increasingly target asylum seekers and refugees.

Some of those now terrorising housing schemes in Glasgow have allegedly formed tentative links with Nazi groups and display a fevered determination to attack refugees and asylum seekers.

Glasgow's gangs are nothing new. They have a long and violent history dating back to fiercesome battles fought over long-forgotten streets during the 18th century.

As the city positions itself as a post-industrial success story, many would rather forget the city's notorious street gangs and their appetite for Clockwork Orange-style "recreational violence".

But this new breed of (predominantly) teenage thugs have been quick to capitalise on the sinister opportunities offered by the internet.

Gang websites and online forums proliferate with links to extremist groups such as Combat 18 and loyalist paramilitaries. Notorious gangs such as the Toryglen Nazi Circus, the Young Toryglen Toi and the Bowery Wee Mob have websites daubed with Nazi insignia and links to far right discussion forums.


GANG WARS
A new generation of Glasgow's gangs target asylum seekers

In the south side of Glasgow, one gang member, who asked not to be named, said: "Why shouldn't we give them a hard time?

"They (asylum seekers) are dropped in here from all over the place and end up with the best houses in the scheme.

"We just give them grief and it can get a bit mental."

Groups, such as the BNP, have already used recent flashpoints such as the Kriss Donald murder trial to fuel racial hatred.

The case, one of Scotland's most high profile racially motivated murders, became a cause celebre for gang members who use message boards to discuss attacks on asylum seekers and refugees.

Several gang web pages, complete with pictures of gang members in various states of intoxication, are linked to another series of websites billing themselves as a forum for "national socialists worldwide".

An entry from Glasgow used a number of racial epithets and issued an ominous warning about the Kriss Donald murder.

It said: "It's a disgrace. Imagine if it was an ethnic child who was snatched off the street, tortured and killed.

"Gone but never forgotten, wee man, justice is coming."

Some of these gangs have a fiercesome reputation for violence and are quick to defend their territory against "outsiders".

It would appear for many of them, that asylum seekers and refugees have formed an easily identifiable target.

One area in Glasgow has more than 300 asylum seeker and refugee families.

Gang signs

While some members of the community have welcomed asylum seekers with open arms, gangs of youths have also tried to make their lives a misery.

The area is dotted with aging multi-storey flats and run-down shop fronts. Most of them are emblazoned with gang signs and racially offensive graffiti.

One local community activist said: "There were some real problems and at one time we thought the asylum seekers would have to get bussed in and out.

"It's a youth problem. These kids have nothing to do and they are fiercely territorial. Drink is often involved too.

"Then when you add a group of asylum seekers or refugees who in some cases look different or have a different cultural background, these gangs can react.

"You do get swastikas daubed on shop fronts and that type of thing and it is totally unacceptable.

"Whether that is part of youthful bravado and an attempt to look tough or of something more sinister remains to be seen. It is very worrying."

Fears of a growing politicisation of gangs and the specific targeting of ethnic minorities comes at a time when there is already a massive exodus among asylum seekers.

Nearly all of Scotland's asylum seekers are based in Glasgow, but research has shown two-thirds leave the city once the Home Office has approved their claims.

A Scottish Executive study labelled the levels of racial harassment "shocking".

Dr Susan Batchelor, a leading criminologist at the University of Glasgow, said asylum seekers and refugees were an easy target for young gang members.


She said: "These gangs are very territorial. Some of them are quick to chase out anyone who enters their patch and asylum seekers would fall into that category.

"As a group, asylum seekers and refugees are easily 'othered'. They perhaps speak a different language or have a different culture and it is very easy for them to be singled out.

"I have met some of the people involved in gangs and they were very insular. I interviewed young people from Possil in the north of the city and yet they had still never been into the city centre.

Extra officers

"Gangs are about belonging, and race and ethnicity are a very quick way to differentiate people."

Last year, a crackdown on youth gangs in Glasgow was stepped up. About 90 extra police officers have been posted on the streets in "hot spot" areas as part of Operation Tag.

Plain clothes "spotters" are used to "identify and disrupt" gangs which cause the most trouble between 1800 BST and 2200 BST on Friday and Saturday.

Extra officers have already been posted from police offices at Govan, New Gorbals, Cathcart, Giffnock and Pollok.

However, for asylum seekers in particular, these gangs and their deep-seated territorialism means that, as yet, they have little chance of making a happy and productive new home in Scotland.

link

Ok, now my cooments............

1) I like the link to Clockwork Orange "recreational violence" its very true for a lot of these people the night isnt complete unless you've attempted to chib some pure dobber man, or gi'en some daftie a malky.

2) This really isnt anything new, its just finally the BBC has writtensomething about it, it is a link through the football casuals which was where these people used to "graduate" to. There was always the same "linkage" when I was growing up as well. But with the internet it is more visible, and we can no longer sweep it under the carpet and believe Scotland has no race problems

3) I have always wondered why asylum seekers would be sent to Glasgow, they are basically just exchanging warzones.

4) Just incase anyone is worried about these people leading anyone astray, here is an example of one of these gang sites. Half the time the links dont work and you also need to be able to understand hieroglyphics as far as I can figure out to be able to make any sense of it.

[Scheherazade]

Body parts from China intended for a US laboratory have been mistakenly sent to a Michigan home by a delivery firm. The recipient, in Cascade near Grand Rapids, said her husband opened two packages - one containing a liver, the other a partial human head.

"He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear," she told the Grand Rapids Press newspaper.

The delivery company, DHL, said it was not immediately clear what happened but the labels were reportedly in Chinese.

The company says it is co-operating with investigators.

The authorities believe 28 more bubble-wrapped human organs could have been dispersed across the country.

The body parts - which are preserved - were for medical research, police spokesman Roger Parent said.

"There will definitely be a shock to people if they see these things, but there is no hazard to health," he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6416459.stm

[RobinHood3000]

Well. That's bizarre. Remind me to be wary about opening DHL packages in Chinese at my door.

[Scheherazade]

There really is something in the way she moves, according to researchers.
An hourglass figure has long been perceived to be the ideal figure for a woman to have.

But New York University researchers have found that to be found attractive, a woman had to move in a feminine way - swaying her hips.

Men, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper found, were more attractive if they moved with a "shoulder swagger".

The waist-hip ratio has long been thought to be key to Western perceptions of attractiveness, with a small waist and bigger hips the ideal combination.

Marilyn Monroe, and now Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez are famous examples of women with that figure.

Its popularity may be down to media images, or because Western women do not need to have strong and muscular bodies in order to carry out manual labour, unlike women in developing countries.

But the US research, which was also published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests they would never have achieved their sex symbol status if they did not move in the right way.

Not just measurements

The team carried out a series of studies involving over 700 participants who were shown a variety of animations and videos of people moving.

Some showed shadow figures, where it was not possible to see if it was a man or a woman, while others obviously showed a man or a woman.

No matter which format was being used, the participants rated women or "female" figures as more attractive if their hips swayed as they walked, while men were more attractive if they had the characteristic shoulder movement.

The research also confirmed the waist-hip ratio assumption, with women's attractiveness being rated higher if their waist-hip ratio was small and men's being higher if their ratio was large.

The ideal waist-hip ratio for women is to have a waist measurement which is no more than 70% of their hip measurement.

But Kerri Johnson and Louis Tassinary who led the research, say their work shows attractiveness is not as simple as the difference between two measurements.

Writing in PNAS, the researchers said: "The body's shape and motion provoke basic social perceptions, biological sex and gender - ie masculinity or femininity respectively.

"The compatibility of these basic precepts predicts perceived attractiveness."

The team say their findings only apply to Western cultures, and other societies will judge attractiveness depending on their most prized feminine and masculine traits.

Dr George Fieldman, principal lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College said: "This is quite plausible.

"It's the movement which attracts, and not just the waist-hip ratio per se."

He added: "It would be interesting to see what the ideal combination of measurements and wiggle is."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6444851.stm?ls

[hockeychick8792]

WOW!!! There are some pretty interesting stories out there. Please do tell more, but watch what you say