What's in the news?

[gaggedLouise]

We should also remember that one of the officers who was killed trying to stop these terrorists was also himself a Muslim. Ahmed Merabet, the officer who was shot at point blank after being injured.

As were the Ertegün brothers - Ahmet and Nesuhi, founders of Atlantic Records and the impressarios and backers of some of the most innovative American and British music acts of the last sixty years (Ahmet was also the chairman and founder of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame...). Culturally they came from a Muslim Turkish background, and I think at least Ahmet remained a Muslim. in denomination terms, all his life - his remains were buried at a Sufi burial ground in Turkey, and this likely requires one to have remained a Muslim.

Of course they were not fanatic or singleminded about their religion, perhaps not even very committed, but just because somebody's a Muslim it doesn't mean they have to make it the dominant fact of their lives does it? I think most people who love rock and soul music owe a debt in some sense to the Ertegun brothers, they and their company were hugely influential, courageous and genuinely committed to music.

[Callie Del Noire]

Hm. What's your opinion based on, exactly?

Consider this. For the last 80 years or so, the west (and others including folks in the Middle East), have been propping up thugs and brigands against threats like the commies.  Add in actions like the overthrow on the Iranian government in the 50's basically at the request of oil interests who refused to share their their profits with the country they were pumping it out off, the creation of religious schools specifically to ferment militant action and the outright sponsorship of brigandage, murder, assassination and repression throat the region.

The Saudis, Saddam, and others paid the men that formed ISIL for YEARS to do their bidding. The Iranians did the same. Pretty much anyone with money did. The moderate Islamic leaders learned you could be one of two types of moderate Muslims in the region.

The quiet or the dead. Is it much surprise when leaders throught the Mid East AND the west do f-all for moderate elements for decades that the dogs you feed for so long bite your hand when you stop?

[Warlock]

Decided to butt in on a lighter note. Can't say much about Charlie Hebdo, as an atheist seeing others be killed for what the murderers percieve as blasphemy is heartwrenching.

Here in Sweden there've been some controversy surrounding the children's branch of our state-controlled TV channel when they publized the following video on their Facebook page for sex educational reasons, also aired on one of their shows called ''Bacillakuten'' (roughly translated as ''Germ-emergency'').
Snoppen och Snippan

Edit: Changed the video link to a youtube one.

[consortium11]

So, the two remaining men who committed the Charlie Hebdo attack appear to be surrounded but have taken a hostage.

There's also another hostage crisis; a man (who is reported to be the same one who killed a police officer in a separate attack yesterday) entered a kosher supermarket, killed two people and has taken more hostages (seemingly including women and children).

The woman who was reported as being part of the above mentioned police killing is still at large.

[gaggedLouise]

Seriously this is just getting worse and worse. The Charlie-Hebdo killers seem to have exited the building but went out firing on the cops, and they were killed themselves in police self-defence - disastrous for a coming inquiry and a surefire pointer to coming revenge attacks.  :-(

[Warlock]

Oh.... :(

Edit: Hopefully they can find something when they have a hearing with their friends, families.

[consortium11]

The hostage with the Charlie Hebdo killers is seemingly still alive.

In the other hostage incident the police stormed the building; gunman and four hostages reported dead, 10 alive.

[consortium11]

Just when you thought enough was enough there's now apparently another hostage situation, this time in a jewellery store in Montpellier, although it's not known if this is linked to the earlier incidents.

[gaggedLouise]

Ten to one that somebody tries to attack a French embassy somewhere in the near future. Or tries to poison bottles of French wine...  ???

[Beorning]

Okay, some Polish news from today:

• The Swiss franc's value changes surprisingly, causing trouble for quite a lot of people who have bank loans made in this currency
• There are five Oscar nominations for Polish filmmakers! Ida gets nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography. Joanna and Our Curse get nominations for Documentary - Short Subject. Finally, Anna B. Sheppard (who is Polish, actually) gets nomination for Costume Design on Maleficent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JIXxo8qUn0

• We have another crisis regarding coal mines. The government plans to shut down (or, rather, merely "reform" - or so they claim...) four mines and the miners are protesting. This situation... makes me angry. I empathize with the miners in their fear of losing their jobs - apparently, some of these mines are main employers in their home towns, so closing them down could be disastrous to these towns. On the other hand, I'm a bit wary of miners' unions, as they often stopped reforms that were necessary and were unwilling to compromise... So, the news in the vein of "Miners refuse all government proposals" anger me. Finally, I'm angry with our politicians, who all have failed to deal with the problems of our mining industry for 25 years now. Too often, the subsequent governments were too afraid to touch the subject and kept using temporary measures that didn't address the industry's real problems...
• Starting this week, the "day after" contraception pills are available without prescription at our pharmacies. Conservative politicians and activists are furious... And I'm shaking my head here. I realize that making these drugs prescription-free is tied to medical controversies, but when I listen to our conservatives, what I'm hearing is that they are, basically, angered that the pills make it easier for people to have sex. I just heard one of those politicians on TV and she said that openly: those pills are bad, because they lead to indecency. Come on...

[Kythia]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-30845570

The last person in the country who was born under Queen Victoria has died aged 114

[gaggedLouise]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-30845570

The last person in the country who was born under Queen Victoria has died aged 114

Amazing, isn't it? (I mean the span across the century, not the fact that said person has passed on)

There will still be people alive in both the UK, Sweden and some other European countries who are able to remember the day their mothers were first able to vote in a national election, shortly after the First World War.

[Beorning]

I agree that it's amazing... The past seems so far away - and yet, it was so long ago...

Speaking of amazing things, here's something I just saw on TV:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/14/377229939/free-climbers-close-in-on-summit-of-yosemite-s-el-capitan

19 days of climbing! With just their hands and feet! Amazing...

[Oniya]

They found the Beagle-2!

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/missing-spacecraft-beagle-2-finally-located-on-mars-european-space-agency-says/story-fnjwlcze-1227187823233

[Kythia]

750th anniversary of our first parliament today. Pretty cool.

[consortium11]

Page 3 of the Sun is somewhat of an institution in the UK. It features a large picture of a topless lady along with a somewhat trite caption about political events ("Nicole, 22, from Essex thinks that the announced reductions in the armed forces are a concerning matter"). It's been the launching pad for a number of glamor models and, perhaps most notably, tabloid, gossip magazine and reality TV show fodder Katie Price/Jordan.

Fairly obviously having a topless model on the third page of the countries biggest selling newspaper causes a fair amount of controversy and there's been a long running and well publicized campaign to end it. It appeared that they were going to get their way; over the last couple of days Page 3 had used bikini shots rather than topless ones and the rumor mill was going crazy talking about how Page 3 was over. Campaigners and politicians gave interviews talking about it etc etc.

Turn out the Sun was, to use internet parlance, simply trolling everyone.

I actually have a serious point to add to this.

If your concern about Page 3 was "nipples!" then sure, replacing the traditional Page 3 topless model with a bikini one is a victory. But if your concern about Page 3 had more depth than objecting to nipples being on display, if your objection was how it objectified women and treated them as something to ogle and fantasize about or if your objection was that the trite caption gained humor because the implication was was "Nicole, 22, from Essex" didn't think whatever the caption said it did, then how is it replacing the topless model with a bikini one can be seen as a victory (as many did when it seemed to be the case)? There's little difference between a sexualised picture of a woman in a bikini and a sexualised topless model outside of a think bit of material. The overall tone and message are the same. If your concern about Page 3 went further than "nipples!" then anything outside of removing the sexualised image of a woman from the page entirely isn't a victory.

(I'd also note that the images of Page 3 are frequently less sexualised then those featuring clothed models. To give an example compare the (NSFW) Page 3 picture that heralds the return of the feature to say this shot from FHM. The topless Sun shot features a girl grinning in a non-sexual way and winking at the camera... the only obviosuly sexual aspect of it is the fact she's topless. The FHM shot features Elisha Cuthbert looking at the camera in a pretty obviously seductive way with soft eyes, arching her back against a wall and pulling and twisting the thin top she had over her bikini in a pretty obviously sexual way. I'm pretty sure I know which image I feel is more sexualised)

Let's stop the war on nipples shall we? From both sides of a political divide.   

[Lustful Bride]

Bryant Gumbel calls the NRA a Curse upon the American landscape.

And its members are Pigs who don't care about human life.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/bryant-gumbel-nra/ar-AA8ryIM?ocid=ansFoxnews11


I don't like what this man says but again its his right as said in the First Amendment to have free speech. And I would lay down my life to defend his right....but I will protest by never watching his stuff. Which is easy cause I don't like Sports anyway.  :P (aside from soccer...go USA team! win us one for once!)

Cause hey, not all of us are angels and a fair amount are assholes. But to lump all people together into one group and call them all bad is the sign of an ignorant fool.

[Lustful Bride]

Saudi King Abdullah has just passed away. His brother now sits as king.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/saudi-king-abdullah-dies-new-ruler-is-salman/ar-AA8uraA?ocid=HPCDHP

[LisztesFerenc]

Bryant Gumbel calls the NRA a Curse upon the American landscape.

And its members are Pigs who don't care about human life.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/bryant-gumbel-nra/ar-AA8ryIM?ocid=ansFoxnews11


I don't like what this man says but again its his right as said in the First Amendment to have free speech. And I would lay down my life to defend his right....but I will protest by never watching his stuff. Which is easy cause I don't like Sports anyway.  :P (aside from soccer...go USA team! win us one for once!)

Cause hey, not all of us are angels and a fair amount are assholes. But to lump all people together into one group and call them all bad is the sign of an ignorant fool.

  The exchange is:

A story you personally took on last season, about the "Eat What You Kill" movement, would you have done that five, ten years ago?

There are a few things I hate more than the NRA. I mean truly. I think they're pigs. I think they don't care about human life. I think they are a curse upon the American landscape. So we got that on the record." (He then goes on to answer the question, saying he is "willing to separate")

  You added the context of its members, its perfectly possibly all three comments (pigs, curse, don't care about human life) is directed at the people who run the organization and not at the people who simply have membership in it.

  Given that the NRA has opposed some pretty reasonable measure, like the idea that maybe stalkers should not be able to purchase firearms*, I can't say I'm really that bothered by his comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/nra-stalkers-_n_5530097.html

[Lustful Bride]

  The exchange is:

A story you personally took on last season, about the "Eat What You Kill" movement, would you have done that five, ten years ago?

There are a few things I hate more than the NRA. I mean truly. I think they're pigs. I think they don't care about human life. I think they are a curse upon the American landscape. So we got that on the record." (He then goes on to answer the question, saying he is "willing to separate")

  You added the context of its members, its perfectly possibly all three comments (pigs, curse, don't care about human life) is directed at the people who run the organization and not at the people who simply have membership in it.

  Given that the NRA has opposed some pretty reasonable measure, like the idea that maybe stalkers should not be able to purchase firearms*, I can't say I'm really that bothered by his comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/nra-stalkers-_n_5530097.html

Okay.  :-)

*Wishes I had more to say but I just have no idea what to say beyond "I don't 100% Agree with you but that's okay"*  :P

[Valthazar]

Given that the NRA has opposed some pretty reasonable measure, like the idea that maybe stalkers should not be able to purchase firearms*, I can't say I'm really that bothered by his comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/nra-stalkers-_n_5530097.html

Slightly off-topic:    This proposal (which I support) is more of a distraction than anything game changing.  Until federal background checks are expanded to include private sales at gun shows and unlicensed online sales, bills like this are ineffective since a stalker can still buy guns.

77% of all voters support background checks on private sales - including many on the Right.  The US is actually more unified in perspective than we think, but it's sadly just lobbyists and congressional politics that makes people seem so polarized.

[Dimir]

Scientists may release GMO mosquitoes in the Key West area of Florida in an attempt to fight against dengue fever.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/millions-of-gmo-mosquitoes-could-be-released-in-florida-in-bid-to-fight-viral-disease-1.2205020

[TheGlyphstone]

So genetic engineering has finally gotten a potential practical use besides allowing Monsanto to enforce its copyright on seed stock. That's pretty cool actually, right up until the ScyFy original movie about giant killer mosquitoes.

[DarknessBorne]

Genetically engineered killer mosquitoes?  That really bites.  I mean, literally, as in now I'll have to carry a giant can of Raid everywhere I go to avoid being bitten.

[Beorning]

So genetic engineering has finally gotten a potential practical use besides allowing Monsanto to enforce its copyright on seed stock. That's pretty cool actually, right up until the ScyFy original movie about giant killer mosquitoes.

It does sound like a setup for a cheap monster movie, doesn't it?