iPhone Slow Motion Video showing knockout

I find something artistically beautiful about this video. There must be a deeper meaning here.

In a society that profits from your self doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act

A typical example of Hollywood chauvinism

What better example of Hollywood than this photo? The men can dress like shlepps, be older than 30, and look out of shape but the girl has to be perfectly dressed, sexually provocative, less than 30, and in shape (or have a high metabolism).

So typical of the double standard in the industry yet we're in the year 2015!!! Probably because the owners of these studios are rich, old chauvinists who still offer roles to actresses and actors in exchange for sex.

These idiots are the ones who are creating major films and distributing them worldwide!!! Incredible, isn't it? No wonder so many Hollywood movies are so terribly written, acted, and executed. Did you see the Wikileaks transcript of the way these high paid executives talk to each other about actors and actresses? The whole industry is fucked up by bigamists and chauvinists. I am amazed ANY great movie makes it through given the circumstances. You can throw a billion dollars into a movie project and it's still crap because the people heading it are crap.

Kanye West kissing himself

A recent photo of that idiot rapper known as Kanye West.

If I have to see his arrogant mug every time I read the news, somewhere online or in newspapers, I only want to see a truthful representation of him every time. This photo is a very good representation of the "real" Kanye West.

(inside story) Holly Madison reveals hell with Hef in Playboy Mansion

This, she thought, was clearly the way out. She was Holly Sue Cullen back then, a girl from a small town in Alaska, and she’d come to Los Angeles to get famous. How, exactly, she didn’t know, but not long after arriving, she was spotted by a friend of Hugh Hefner’s and invited to a party at the Playboy Mansion.

She was 22 years old, a college dropout who’d picked up extra shifts at Hooters to make ends meet. Soon she’d become Holly Madison, one of the most ­famous Playmates ever.

(crazy video) Kids Sex Dancing

This shouldn't surprise me -- knowing just how low some corners of the world's societies will morally go -- but it doesn't cease to amaze. These are actually prepubescent kids pretending to have sex as a dance! I don't recall my own childhood having any moments like this where we were all so educated about sex between adults. But this doesn't look like education it looks like perversion, lol. These poor kids, I think, why can't their society just let them play sports and with toys instead of acting like this? What went wrong with the social fabric here? When did this deterioration of moral values and sense of self-awareness begin?

There are a lot of unanswered questions in this video as well. I originally found it here on Vidmax, http://vidmax.com/video/114122--Maybe-NSFW-Sex-ed-sure-has-changed-since-I-was-in-school, but the country, the city, why there are only kids in this video, etc., has not been explained. If I were to guess, based on all past videos of everything I've ever seen, this could be Brazil or the Caribbean.

It also raises the whole question about cultural superiority. Is my culture superior for not letting their kids do whatever they want like this (regarding these little sex parties or whatever it is they're doing here; or drugs; or stealing; etc.)? Is there really such a thing as universal moral values that are firm no matter what society in the world is compared against them?

MPs ‘shocked’ that one in five reported crimes is never investigated

One in five crime reports made to the police end up in the bin and are never investigated, according to research by RTL news.

The broadcaster says tens of thousands of complaints are ignored, even if the impact on the victim has been serious or if a suspect has been identified.

RTL bases its claim on research carried out into 360,000 crime reports made over almost two years.

It found in 37% of cases the crime was solved, and this was particularly the case with serious crimes such murder and grievous bodily harm. In 42% of cases police start an inquiry but it remains unsolved. This is often the case with burglary and muggings.

However in 21% of cases, nothing is done. For example, only one in four reports of car theft are ever investigated. Some 35,000 burglaries were not looked into, even though justice ministry guidelines say this is a high impact crime and every case should be investigated.

Wrong conclusions

In a reaction, the police issued a statement saying that RTL had drawn the wrong conclusions from the data, which had been obtained using freedom of information legislation.

For example, the definition of burglary includes attempted break-ins as well as break-ins in sheds and outhouses and these make up the bulk of cases which are not followed up, the statement said.

Nevertheless, MPs have said they are shocked by the results and have called for a debate with ministers.

Gerrit van de Kamp of the police union ACP told RTL the police have no choice but to leave some crimes uninvestigated. ‘Politicians have wrongly stoked expectations that all crimes are investigated,’ he said.

Dutch News
June 24th, 2015
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/06/mps-shocked-that-one-in-five-reported-crimes-is-never-investigated/

As you may know I'm an American expat living in The Netherlands. I thought the number of cases Dutch police investigate would be much lower than the figure given in this article, though, because whenever I see Dutch police they are either bunched up together in a group and chatting and laughing away or there are 2 of them searching to give people tickets for riding their bikes through busy market streets, for example. At the same time, though, I don't know how many are working undercover.

One day I was at the police station to file a complaint -- I can't remember what the complaint was about but it wasn't anything major -- and a Muslim woman in front of me told the officer at the desk that "I walked into my apartment and saw a stranger in my home. A man, I don't know him, was in my apartment and I need your help." The officer looked at her and then went to the back office where other officers were and they chatted for a few minutes. Then the officer came back and said "you have to call your lawyer because there's nothing we can do about this because it's a non-violent crime."

Breaking into someone's apartment is a non-violent crime?! I was surprised they said that. Then I started to wonder if they'd have taken her complaint more seriously had she been a regular white Dutch woman rather than a seemingly foreign Muslim.

I also often read about people being sentenced to only 6 months to a few years for murder. There's even a serial killer named Willem Holleeder who keeps going in and out of jail because of the weak justice system here regarding persons who commit violence.

Dutch career criminal Willem Holleeder

Nevertheless it's mostly a non-violent country altogether. Most of the crimes here are theft related where you never see the thief (not robbery), domestic violence, or drug cartel members shooting each other dead. There are also 1%er motorcycle gangs -- such as Satudarah -- but they mostly keep to themselves and if they are practicing extortion it's very quietly and out of public sight.

Some members of the Dutch motorcycle criminal gang Saturadah

The Dukes of Oxy: How a Band of Teen Wrestlers Built a Smuggling Empire

How a crew of hard-partying Florida teens cashed in on an epidemic and built a multimillion-dollar OxyContin smuggling ring

BY GUY LAWSON April 9, 2015

By 18, Doug Dodd was supplying thousands of pills that his wrestling team buddy Lance Barabas sent across the country. "Minimum risk, maximum profit," Dodd recalls. "It was so sweet." Courtesy of Douglas Dodd

The gutted teddy bears were tossed everywhere, the slit carcasses and polyester innards strewn on the floor and kitchen table along with tens of thousands of dollars in fifties and hundreds — stacks of notes being tallied in an automatic money counter. On the table, there was a Glock .45, a Remington .308 sniper rifle, and scores of pharmaceutical vials containing thousands of opiate pills.

Standing at the threshold of a luxury condo in Tampa, Florida, Doug Dodd looked on in horror at the spectacle of a drug dealer's den of iniquity. Dodd was only 19, a student taking business courses at a local community college — when he wasn't busy being a big-time narcotics trafficker — but he could see the obvious: His best friend was out of control.

Redneck speaks out against white racism in America

DH: This is the first time I've seen a redneck in a video saying something intelligent and moral about racism in America. The fact that jobs and leadership positions, and the justice system, generally favors white skinned people is obvious to everyone except for the white racists themselves.

His name is Dixon White, heres his Youtube channel (I think this is his Youtube channel, anyway -- I see many of his personal videos there): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrwoWJ8cYyW9U8Fik7yATw

He and I are very similar in the respect that we believe if you stay silent, and never speak out against ignorance or evil, that you allow a social problem to become bigger. To speak or write against such things is a way of saying "I resist". People often underestimate the power of the spoken word. Protests aren't necessarily people taking to the street with signs. A protest can come in many different forms.

(funny videos) Remote Control FailArmy Compilation

I'm keeping this video on my blog for posterity's sake. There's a reason for this. A lot of people say "what goes on the Internet stays there forever" but I'm telling you this is absolutely not true. Websites come and go, links change and become broken, what was visible in 1998 or 2005 is mostly no longer visible. My personal reason for having a website, or having a blog, is to put something forward for a long time that will withstand the sands of time. As long as I'm alive, so to speak, this blog will be around and I'm only 38 and still healthy. This blog will continue to evolve in many different ways.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video. I loved it.

New Witness Account Undermines Mexican Government Narrative Of Missing Students

By Anabel Hernández & Steve Fisher

At the end of the night of Sept. 26, 2014, in the Mexican city of Iguala, it rained. The lifeless bodies of Daniel Solís and Julio César Ramírez, two students from a rural teachers college in the nearby town of Tixtla, lay drenched on the asphalt. No one had been able to help them. Their classmates, who had traveled to the town to steal buses to drive to a political protest, had run off in terror as an unidentified shooter opened fire. Everyone tried to escape the chaos at the same time, but Daniel and Julio didn’t make it.

The authorities arrived around 3:20 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 27, about three hours after the killings, to take away the bodies and gather evidence from the corner of Juan Alvarez and Periférico streets. Reports written by forensic experts leave no doubts about the severity of the violence inflicted against the students, who only had rocks to defend themselves. Three buses had been shot up and dozens of empty rounds lay on the ground, along with a fragment of a finger, pools of blood and leather sandals. Their owners were either dead, hiding or disappeared.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans have gone missing in recent years, but the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students has become a rallying point for much of the Mexican public, and provoked the most serious political crisis for the federal government in decades. Once the darling of the international media, President Enrique Peña Nieto saw his domestic approval rating and his image abroad plummet because of repeated accusations that his administration mishandled the investigation into what became of the 43 students.

French minister says Nutella spread 'damages environment'

France's Ecology Minister Segolene Royal has urged people to stop eating Nutella because it is made with palm oil and damages the environment.

Ms Royal said the chocolate-hazelnut spread contributed to deforestation because oil palms were replacing trees.
Ferrero, the Italian chocolate firm which owns Nutella, said it has made commitments to source palm oil in a responsible way.

French senators tried unsuccessfully to impose a 300% tax on palm oil in 2011.

They argued that the oil was dangerously fattening and that its cultivation harmed the environment.
'Massive deforestation'

On Tuesday, Ms Royal said that Nutella should be made from "other ingredients".

"We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it's made with palm oil," she said, during an interview with French television network Canal+.

Ferrero gets almost 80% of its palm oil from Malaysia, according to AFP news agency. The rest of its supply comes from Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Italian group said that it was aware of the environmental stakes involved.

In February, it announced that all of its products were produced with palm fruit oil that was 100% certified as sustainable according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) supply chain.

BBC News
June 17th, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33163534

I used to love Nutella. I first tried it in 1994 on French bread when I was on vacation in France. I was instantly addicted. I was 17 years old then. Every morning I'd go to the local bakery in Rouen to buy a loaf of bread and I'd eat the entire loaf with Nutella and a few glasses of milk.

Mo Farah 'missed two drugs tests' before London 2012 gold medals

Great Britain's Mo Farah missed two drugs tests before he went on to become a double gold medallist at the 2012 Olympics, a newspaper has claimed.

According to the Daily Mail,  Farah's first missed test appears to have been in early 2010, months before he joined Alberto Salazar's Nike Oregon Project.

The Mail says the second one came at Farah's home in February 2011, when he claimed not to have heard the doorbell.

Salazar is accused of doping Galen Rupp in 2002 but denies the claims.

Allegations Salazar practised doping techniques on US runner Rupp were made in a BBC documentary called 'Catch Me If You Can', produced by Panorama and US investigative journalism specialists ProPublica.

Rupp has denied allegations in the programme that he was given the banned anabolic steroid testosterone by Salazar as a 16-year-old.

The documentary made no suggestion that middle distance runner Farah, 32, has been involved in doping.

Farah announced he was joining Salazar in early 2011.

His gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at London 2012 were among the defining moments of the Games.

At the time, UK anti-doping (Ukad) rules stated that an athlete who missed three tests in any 18-month period (now 12 months) could face up to a four-year ban.

That meant Farah could have been ruled out of his home Olympics with one more breach of the rules.

The Mail claims to have had access to legal documents showing Farah and his team appealed to Ukad over his second missed test.

Ukad accepted that "intent and negligence are not the same thing" but, according to the Mail, added it was clearly Farah's "own fault" he had missed the second test.

The Mail claimed further correspondence showed Salazar had warned Farah on 5 May, 2011: "If you miss another test, they will hang you."

BBC News
June 17th, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/athletics/33178292

I don't watch the Olympics but I know this guy is world famous for his running ability. I have the impression that most professional athletes in the Olympics or in biking still cheat. There are documentaries and articles explaining how they can still elude the system and win medals. Makes me cynical about the two sports.

The true cost of adult film

By Stoya (an adult performer) - Working in pornography means talking about – and doing, filming, distributing and marketing – things that frequently go undiscussed in public. Adult performers share sexual tastes and boundaries with each other in extreme detail before performing a scene, sometimes mere moments after initially meeting. And whether we’re at a public appearance or have just disclosed our job to a new acquaintance on a train, strangers often react to our documented physical and sexual openness as though it gives them a rare safe space to confess; to ask their unanswered questions about sex and to air their secrets and shames.

In stark contrast to all this discussion of bodies and sexuality, one thing we rarely talk about openly is pay. Which makes us a lot like many other workers.

US says woman will appear on new $10 note

The US Treasury Department says a redesigned $10 note will feature a woman, but who she will be has not been decided.

The new note will debut in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the US Constitution's 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The treasury will seek the public's input in the selection, looking for a "champion for our inclusive democracy".
Former US political leaders - all white men - currently headline US notes.

The woman who the Treasury Department ultimately selects will replace Alexander Hamilton, a key figure in the American Revolution and the first secretary of the US Treasury.

Hamilton began appearing on the $10 note in 1929. He along with diplomat and inventor Ben Franklin are the only non-presidents featured on current US notes.

Women have been featured on US money before, but the notes and coins were not widely used. Most recently women's rights activist Susan B Anthony and Native American Sacagawea appeared on dollar coins, but both coins quickly went out circulation.

The primary goal of the redesign is to add measures to thwart counterfeiters, the Treasury Department said. But women's groups have recently pressed for more representation on US notes.

"We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I'm proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman," said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

In March, an independent group held a contest to select a woman to headline the $20 note, replacing former President Andrew Jackson.

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman was the public's top choice, beating out finalists, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights activist Rosa Parks and leader of the Cherokee nation Wilma Mankiller.

Tubman was known as the "conductor" of the Underground Railroad that allowed many slaves to escape to freedom in the 1850s.

Mr Lew will make a decision about the selected woman by the end of year.

BBC News
June 18th, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33177528

One woman is a good start. Different races would be nice, as well.

Offering Services, ISIS Digs In Deeper in Seized Territories

Deir al-Zour, Syria, in 2014. Since taking control of the area, the Islamic State has been attacked and has not granted some of the liberties that it permits elsewhere. AHMAD ABOUD / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

By BEN HUBBARD
JUNE 16, 2015

ERBIL, Iraq — In northern Syria, the jihadists of the Islamic State have fixed power lines, dug sewage systems and painted sidewalks. In Raqqa, they search markets and slaughterhouses for expired food and sick animals. Farther south, in Deir al-Zour, they have imposed taxes on farmers and shopkeepers and fined men for wearing short beards.

The group runs regular buses across the border with Iraq to Mosul, where it publicly kills captives and trains children for guerrilla war. Last month, it reopened a luxury hotel in the city and offered three free nights to newlyweds, meals included.

A year after the Islamic State seized Mosul, and 10 months after the United States and its allies began a campaign of airstrikes against it, the jihadist group continues to dig in, stitching itself deeper into the fabric of the communities it controls.

Here's What Really Happened To The Cars From 'Pimp My Ride'

"Pimp My Ride" premiered on MTV in 2004 with a straightforward premise that was beautiful in its simplicity: Take a kid with a beat up car and have the rapper Xzibit orchestrate a massive and ridiculous upgrade. The theme song explained it all in just a few lines: "So you wanna be a player, but your wheels ain't fly / You gotta hit us up, to get a pimp't out ride."

But although the show operated within such a minimal framework, things were a bit more complicated behind the scenes. From cars that would break down in a matter of weeks to fat-shaming a contestant to one MTV employee apparently trying to convince another car owner to break up with his girlfriend, there was a lot more to the creation of this show than Xzibit simply saying, "Yo dawg."

The Huffington Post spoke with three of the kids who got their cars pimped: Jake Glazier from Season 4 and Seth Martino and Justin Dearinger from Season 6. All three had previously done brief AMAs on Reddit about their time on the show. (It should be noted that each appeared on "Pimp My Ride" near the latter half of its run.) And for a perspective from the other side of the camera, co-executive producer Larry Hochberg responded to a few of the claims made by contestants.

The Superpower Police Now Use to Tackle Crime

Police officers with the rare ability to recognise faces they’ve barely glimpsed are helping identify criminals: take a test to find out if you share their talent 

 Police officers with the rare ability to recognise faces they’ve barely glimpsed are helping identify criminals: take a test to find out if you share their talent On 28 August 2014, 14-year-old Alice Gross went missing in West London. She was last seen on CCTV walking along a canal towpath in the summer rain, toting her black backpack. London’s Metropolitan Police deployed their biggest search party since the 2005 London bombings – a team of 600 officers spread across eight forces – to find her. But it was only after using the CCTV to piece together the events that they discovered the teenager’s body, nearly five weeks later, in the River Brent. They also zeroed in on a suspect: Latvian construction worker Arnis Zalkalns.

Throughout the operation, a special team of 10 officers in the Metropolitan Police were testing out their skills formally for the very first time. They were called the super-recognisers. “The attitude used to be anyone with two eyes can view CCTV, but not everyone sees things in the same way,” says Ch Det Insp Mick Neville, head of the Central Forensic Image Team. This elite group viewed thousands of hours of grainy, low-quality footage and, within days, identified both the victim and the as-yet-unknown suspect Zalkalns. They also were able to map out their movements precisely enough to draw a timeline and help conclude the case. Their special skill? A super-human ability to instantly recognise faces they barely know.

 

Scientists are only just beginning to understand why some people have the skill and how it works. Progress is being made in identifying who possesses it, though – and there is even an online test anyone can take to see if they might qualify.

(my music video) Edge of Tomorrow movie + Fire and Gasoline song by Sia

Yes, I know you'll either like this or hate this one. But at the time, when I made it, the two (the movie scene and the song) both had a strong and similar emotional effect on me so I had to put the two together.

If you want to see this in high quality you can "full screen" this or click the wheel, in the lower-right, and change it to "720p".

Chicago gangs shooting at each other with fireworks in the streets (lol)

This is great. I wish all gang members fought each other this way.

(warning: graphic) Young bully encounters old bully on the metro

I completely understand the older man's point about some young guys always violently challenging people and bullying people. But I'd have just let the kid run his mouth unless he got within arm's length and presented a real threat. I also don't see a need to use a knife or kill someone who is unarmed and not a major physical threat. Now if it was 2 or more people then I'd say 'maybe' a knife or gun is necessary because at that point I could be killed. But it depends even then because I wouldn't want to murder anyone unless there is no other option left. A lot of good fighters normally knockout the first threat, quickly, and then go for the second one after that rather than escalate the situation using weapons. This looks more like a case of one bully vs. another bully, that's all.

I think all men and women with good hearts should be trained in the martial arts and all men and women with bad hearts should be denied this kind of knowledge. I learned jujitsu for around 10 years prior to leaving America and moving to The Netherlands -- but I rarely tell anyone I know it and I always pretend I don't know how to fight. My first tactic is to always try to calm a potentially violent person -- you'd be surprised how staying calm and just talking to someone changes their mind most of the time. But I also understand that some people won't calm down no matter what you tell them -- in which case the "arm's length" rule comes into effect (meaning if they come within arm's length they're too much of a threat to speak to anymore and a violent reaction is needed).

I really hate violence, though. 99% of the time it's so unnecessary and sad to watch. I always feel a mixture of emotions when I watch violence. As a matter of fact I watch violent video clips every single day of my life and I have been for over a decade. It's not that I like violence it's just that I'm fascinated by it -- the dynamics of the entire event.

Obama Supporters Sign Petition to NUKE RUSSIA so America will Stay World's Superpower

These Americans are uneducated or insane. I'm thinking the former. If America launched a nuclear strike at Russia we'd be in World War 3. And to think they have the power to vote for President... And by the way I see Russians, sometimes, here in The Netherlands and haven't had a problem with a single one of them. I think Putin is a mass murdering dictator but do I think the Russian people deserve to be killed with a nuclear strike? Of course not!

Bear in mind, though, that this video could be fake and created by American Republicans to make American Democrats look bad. Nevertheless I was raised in America and I'm well aware of the ignorance of many Americans regarding world politics.

Video Quality Test Page (you can ignore this I'm just editing shizit, right now, prior to deleting this)

Video file uploaded from hard drive to New Page on Blogger.com

Video file uploaded from Google drive and embedded within New Page HTML on Blogger.com

Sex Dolls That Talk Back

 
This is the fifth episode in a Bits video series, called Robotica, examining how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives.

Matt McMullen has proved that some people are willing to spend thousands on sex dolls.

Mr. McMullen, the creator of the RealDoll, says he has sold over 5,000 customizable, life-size dolls since 1996, with prices from $5,000 to $10,000. Not only can his customers decide on body type and skin, hair and eye color, but on a recent day in the company’s factory in San Marcos, Calif., a craftsman was even furnishing one doll with custom-ordered toes.

Mr. McMullen’s new project, which he is calling Realbotix, is an attempt to animate the doll. He has assembled a small team that includes engineers who have worked for Hanson Robotics, a robotics lab that produces shockingly lifelike humanoid robots.

Mr. McMullen is first focusing on developing convincing artificial intelligence, and a robotic head that can blink and open and close its mouth. He’s also working to integrate other emerging technologies, like a mobile app that acts like a virtual assistant and companion, and virtual reality headsets that can be used separately or in tandem with the physical doll.

One of the challenges that Mr. McMullen will have to contend with is the so-called uncanny valley. It is a concept first written about in 1970 by a Japanese researcher, that says people’s responses to robots will shift sharply from empathy to revulsion the more closely the robots resemble humans. In other words, something robotic that looks alive, but is not completely convincing, will creep people out.

In a paper, the researcher, Masahiro Mori, then a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, likened the experience to encountering a prosthetic limb.

“We could be startled during a handshake by its limp boneless grip together with its texture and coldness,” he wrote. When that happens, according to Mr. Mori, “we lose our sense of affinity, and the hand becomes uncanny.”

With Realbotix, Mr. McMullen is trying to avoid that sense of uncanny by creating products that still look like dolls and not, as he says, copies of people.

Mr. McMullen says the Realbotix head, which can be attached to the existing RealDoll body, will cost around $10,000, and be commercially available in two years. The full body, which he will begin developing next, will most likely range from $30,000 to $60,000. — Emma Cott

New York Times
June 11th, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/technology/robotica-sex-robot-realdoll.html

Ehm... almost but not real enough yet. Maybe in 10 more years I'll have sex with a robot and then I'll brag about it online.
"Yeah... I just had sex with a robot for the first time and it was... electrifying."
Does it constitute as cheating if you fuck a robot and your partner doesn't realize it? Hm. What a powerful philosophical question. (Not. It's just an inanimate object -- like that guy who was arresting for fucking a park bench http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/Man-who-had-sex-with-park-benc…. Not much difference just a more complicated inanimate object, that's all, and for women I suppose it would be a more realistic dildo surrounded by what could be considered a man but is actually a heap of rubber, plastic, and machinery.)

Does it really matter? I don't even find this debate that intellectually challenging or stimulating. I think virtual reality will be more interesting, though (where you are more a part of the machine and can less tell the difference -- this is going to happen as well).

Inside Mosul: What's life like under Islamic State?

Exclusive footage from Iraq's second city of Mosul reveals how Islamic State wields power over people's everyday life, a year after it was captured.

Secretly filmed videos obtained by the BBC's Ghadi Sary show mosques being blown up, abandoned schools, and women being forced to cover up their bodies.

Residents said they were living in fear of punishment according to the group's extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

They also described IS preparations for an expected government offensive.

The fall of Mosul marked the start of a lightning advance across the north that saw the army routed and hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes.

My life as a pro-Putin propagandist in Russia’s secret 'troll factory'

Lyudmila Savchuk tells how she was ordered to blog about ‘great Putin’ and ‘bad opposition’ to the Kremlin

When Lyudmila Savchuk heard about the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov earlier this year she was shocked and saddened.

“I felt the bullets between my own shoulders,” she said, recalling how the Kremlin critic was gunned down near Moscow's Red Square in February.

Yet within hours of Mr Nemtsov's death, Ms Savchuk and her colleagues were going online to pour bile on the former deputy prime minister and claim he was killed by his own friends rather than by government hitmen, as many suspect.

“I was so upset that I almost gave myself away,” she said. “But I was 007. I fulfilled my task.”

The "007" role that Ms Savchuk refers is her own extroardinary one-woman spying mission, which has lifted the lid on the propaganda machine that props up the rule of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.

Freelance journalist Lyudmila Savchuk (Dmitri Beliakov/The Telegraph)

Schizophrenic teen, age 15, bludgeons his mother to death with a sledgehammer. A couple years later he decides he wants to talk to the media in order to be free again...

Dr. Phil

March 22nd, 2015

http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/2418 

This interview pains me, deeply, because my brother acquired schizophrenia when he was 16 years old and his particular way of speaking and not feeling anything, and laughing at innappropriate moments, mirrored this guy's symptoms. It's a steady, slow deteriorating of the mind until you have a person who is no longer living in reality but in a half-reality at all times.

The hatred toward the mother is something a lot of schizophrenics experience. I don't know why but they always target the ones closest to them within the family. I still hurt when thinking about my brother (he died in 2002) having a condition he couldn't control.

I think Dr. Phil isn't a real therapist, that he asks a lot of his questions for ratings and emotional impact, but it's still a fascinating interview considering the guest.

(humor - my video) Billy Ray Cyrus talks about his daughter Miley Cyrus' musical fame

here

I created this video because it humors me that Miley Cyrus' dad, another famous musician, would insist that Miley is "evolving" and "very smart".

I also learned how to add captions by uploading the .srt file with video, today, something I'd stabbed at before but finally accomplished today.

Marinaleda, a socialist utopia in Spain

here

Marinaleda is a small and remote village of Andalusia, one of the poorest regions in Spain. The town, with a population of 2,700 citizens, has a unique political and economic system of a strong socialist nature. As a result Marinaleda has virtually full employment in Andalusia, a region where the unemployment rate is more than 36%. The wage is equal for all workers, they earn 47 euro a day for six and a half hours of work. Moreover, the land is communal property. Unlike the rest of Spain, where the housing crisis is very strong due to speculation, with 216 daily evictions on average, Marinaleda has a self-building house programme that allows everyone to build their own house with a 15 Euro rent per month. Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo is the charismatic mayor of the city, in charge since 1979. He is well known in Spain for his commitment to the Andalusian peasants and his fight against capitalist economy. The political system of Marinaleda provides a direct and participatory democracy, all decisions are made by the community by means of popular assembly. In Marinaleda there are no priests nor police, and it is the community itself that takes care of any possible conflict. The city also counts with strong social measures, such as a nursery for 12 euros per month and a swimming pool for 3 euro for the duration of the summer. Notwithstanding the context of strong economic crisis, the socialist utopia of Marinaleda still provides a model of sustainable development alternative to capitalism.

Vimeo.com
2014
https://vimeo.com/89487871

Mark my words: Capitalism is a failure, communism is a failure. But a combination of the best aspects of both systems can positively transform every society in the world.

American teenager beaten by Israeli police

15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir

Last summer, the world was shocked by images of 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir being beaten by Israeli police. The American teenager had been overseas visiting his family, when he was given a brutal beating by Israeli police. His cousin, Muhammad Abu Khdeir video taped the initial contact between the youth and the police.

The video clearly shows the teen being beaten, while additional officers sit on him, cuff him, kick and punch him repeatedly. One officer appears to kick the boy while he is unconscious.

Very few rushed to the defense of the Israeli police, but still some tried to blame the victim – as so often happens in police brutality cases. But now, Tariq has been cleared of all wrongdoing, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Tariq was detained for almost two full weeks before being allowed to return home. And after that, his cousin who took the video burned alive in retaliation for filming the police.

Initially, the police had claimed that the youth was “carrying a slingshot” at a protest. But the American Consulate in Jerusalem just announced on Wednesday that Tariq had not done anything wrong whatsoever. Moreover, they say he is free to enter or travel through Israel to visit family any time he wants, since he committed no crime.

One of the officers who beat Tariqwas finally criminally charged in September for assaulting a minor. An internal investigation said that evidence they found from the tape, which the deceased Muhammad filmed, “support[ed] the guilt of the police officer suspected of severe violent crimes.”

That sounds like a big victory, but two of the most brutal officers in the video have not been charged at all. Tariq said that for real justice to be served, these two Israeli officers need to face charges for beating him.

“I hope everyone, every officer that took part in my beating is taken to justice,” he clarified for the press.

(Article by Zeidy David and M.A. Hussein; thanks to Cop Block Israel and the Hashlamah Project Foundation for bringing this story to our attention)

Counter Current News
January 31st, 2015
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/01/american-teen-israeli-police-cleared-of-wrongdoing-but-no-charges-for-two-cops-in-video/

So does anyone here think the mainstream American news media on TV or radio is going to talk about this story? Considering who owns the media and what their agenda is I give this a big "NO".

Just imagine how many times these racist Israeli police have been beating Palestinians, for nothing more than being Palestinian, and maybe you'll understand why Palestinians throw rocks or become violent martyrs. If Jewish Zionists are taking their land, beating them, and sanctioning them, what do you expect the outcome would be? Would any other race of people react differently to such ethnic cleansing / oppression?

The irony is that the Jews were oppressed and cleansed, themselves, by the Nazis. How is it that the Zionists among them somehow forgot their own history?

Ex-Philly police captain protests in Ferguson, blasts American policing

'Police really are oppressing not only the black community, but also the whites.'

A retired Philadelphia police captain is blasting U.S. policing, calling it “an oppressive organization now controlled by the one-percent of corporate America.”

Former Capt. Ray Lewis was in Ferguson, Mo., this week, demonstrating in uniform against the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.

Lewis was interviewed by news service Al Jazeera on Nov. 24.

When asked why he had traveled to the mid-West to join the protest, Lewis gave this statement:

For one, I want to give the residents of Ferguson the knowledge there are some police that do support them. The second thing, I want to try to get a message to mainstream America that the system is corrupt, that police really are oppressing not only the black community, but also the whites.

They’re an oppressive organization now controlled by the one percent of corporate America. Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries.

In an interview this morning with Philly.com, Lewis said his quotes were reported correctly and that he stood by his words.

Lewis flew to Missouri on Saturday, "because all indications were that it was going to end poorly and I had no doubt because of the way they were notifying police departments all over the country."

"The St. Louis police said they had no idea about the way the grand jury was going to rule," Lewis said. "That was an outright lie."

Lewis, who retired from the Philadelphia Police in 2004, has been in the limelight several times supporting policing reform. He was cited for disorderly conduct in New York City during Occupy Wall Street in 2011 for disregarding orders to move off the street.  At the time he was dressed in his full police uniform.

He said that following his arrest, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey threatened to " take any and all necessary action to protect the integrity of the uniform"  and John McNesby, president of FOP Lodge No. 5, vowed to have him arrested.

Lewis said he dismissed the commissioner's words as "thug language" and challenged Ramsey and McNesby to cite a law preventing him from wearing his uniform.

"I was highlighting the integrity of the uniform," Lewis said, "because I was sticking up for people who were being oppressed by the corporations and the government."

Once assigned to North Philadelphia districts, Lewis said he joined the police department to become a patrol officer "because that's where you have daily interaction with people."

He retired after 24 years on the street, pulled up stakes and moved to the Catskills in New York. For eight years he lived "a very Walden-esque life style." In 2011, he read about the Occupy movement, read their declaration of 23 bullet points and decided he agreed with everyone of them.

Lewis then watched the documentary "Inside Job" which he said solidified his new outlook.

"It showed how the system is corrupt to the bone," he said.

The major problem with policing in the United States begins before an officer is hired, he said. Every recruit is put through a battery of tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test which is supposed to assess psychological fitness.

"One of the aspects of a personality is a degree of sensitivity and compassion," he said. "Unfortunately, they do not hire those people that score high on sensitivity. They reject them believing those people will quit because they can't handle the blood and guts on the street. They view that as wasted training money.

"What they don't realize is that hiring the insensitive individual is going to result in brutality cases, and when those cases go to court, that's where they lose millions," Lewis said. "It's pennywise and pound foolish."

philly.com
November 26th, 2015
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Ex-Philly_police_captain_blasts_American_policing.html

I cannot say enough just how much I respect this guy. 24 years in the police and also a former police captain. This is the first police officer I've seen that tells 100% the truth about the problem regarding police in America. A lot of police in America have this attitude that they should always be feared and always obeyed. And the so-called "good" cops do nothing to stop the bad ones who break laws or beat people up, kill them, frame them, for no good reason.

Jennifer Lopez Moroccan concert sparks calls for minister's resignation

J-Lo's music concert in Rabat, Morocco - notice the male performers lustfully staring at her like a bunch of mindless monkeys

A concert by the pop star Jennifer Lopez in Morocco has led to calls for the country's communication minister to resign, according to local media.

Prominent members of the ruling Justice and Development Party said the singer's performance at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat was "a breach of public decency".

The Minister of Communication Mustapha Khalfi was criticised for allowing the gig to air on public television.

He has rejected calls for his resignation, newspapers say.

Lopez, who is often referred to as J-Lo, performed in front of 160,000 people at the festival on Friday.

The event was transmitted, with a short delay, on the 2M public TV network to the delight of fans.

But local media criticised the singer for her "suggestive poses" and for being "scantily" dressed.

A number of MPs have requested that the "education, culture and communications committee of parliament hold a meeting" to discuss why the show was broadcast.

Speaking on Twitter, Mr Khalfi said he planned to contact 2M TV's ethics committee to discuss the issue. "What was broadcast is unacceptable and goes against broadcasting law," he added.

Singer and producer Pharrell Williams also performed at the festival over the weekend, with Usher, Placebo and Maroon 5 also scheduled to take to the stage over the coming days.

BBC News
June 2nd, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32979805

What makes this interesting to me isn't J-lo or the conservative Moroccan media reacting to her scantily clad sexual poses. It's the fact that the conservative part of my mind agrees with the Moroccan media that women shouldn't be presented in such a demeaning, meaningless way.

There's a time and place for sex and sexuality. If it's music I think your number one priority shouldn't be about how pretty or handsome you look, your sex appeal, it should be your craft (lyrics, harmony of sound, and perhaps a real dance performance that interprets each song rather than simply using sexual dance moves the whole time).

I think the entertainment industry of America is still making a concerted effort to dumb the world down and present all critical thought as a negative, unnecessary part of being human when, at its core, critical thought encourages individual and social growth.



Headline of the story, photos, and photo captions sometimes changed to improve or update article content. Quoted text always as originally posted by source.

Front Page News? REALLY???

The Huffington Post apparently thinks one third of its front page "news" should be about celebrities.

I enjoy reading the Huffington Post, from time to time, because, by American political standards at least, I am mostly a leftist at heart. I think the leftists generally do a better job at critiquing society and pointing out problems, and believing in fairness, than the rightists do. Again, though, this is just a general statement as I intrinsically prefer considering an idea, in and of itself, without applying any kind of ideology (be it political, religious, or what have you) because it is in this early stage that the idea can still be seen in a more objective light. Oftentimes after we apply ideology to an idea the idea itself fades and distorts in our memories.

But I digress.

One online trend that I see, across different news sites both left and right wing oriented, is to put the Celebrity Section on the right side of the website's Home Page. I find this catering to the lowest common denominator type audience, the popcorn eating crowd who doesn't really discern between reality and fakery, on the front page of any supposedly reputable news source a tarnishing of that news source's reputation. Because my view about how the news should be transmitted is Old School: News should always focus on the facts, be as objective as possible, and enlighten the public or improve society in some way. Having one third of the Front Page be dedicated to this or that celebrity does not constitute "news" to me. Such a section belongs in the Entertainment tab somewhere else.

Is your colleague pure evil?

Obstruction, silent treatment and underhandedness. Is your colleague just evil or is there something more?

Picture these three work scenarios:

You ask a colleague for documents needed to take the project to the next level. No response.
You then ask your colleague a question at the copy machine. She pretends not to hear you.
During a meeting, your colleague jokes sarcastically about sensitive matters in front of others to embarrass you.

Chances are you may be dealing with passive-aggressive behaviour, where a person tries to act appropriately on the surface, but has a negative and obstructive attitude behind that façade, explained  Preston Ni, a communications professor and the author of How to Successfully Handle Passive-Aggressive People. He points to a Chinese proverb to sum it up nicely: “Behind the smile there's a hidden knife.”

The greedy rich vs. the minimum wage

Who will win this contest?