• Girl died apparently after finding drugs in house • Owner, a respected academic, bailed by police Friends of a schoolgirl who died after apparently finding drugs during a party at the home of respected academic gathered in a park to hold a vigil in memory of the popular teenager. Fifteen-year-old Isobel Reilly died following the party at the house of Brian Dodgeon, who works at the University of London’s Institute of Education. Dodgeon, 60, who was allegedly not present at the time of the party on Friday night and Saturday morning, has been arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs and child abandonment. Isobel was at the party with Dodgeon’s daughter and other friends. A postmortem has not yet taken place, but one theory police are looking at is that Isobel and others found drugs including ecstasy at the house and tried them. One of Isobel’s friends called 999 at around 4am on Saturday when she stopped breathing. The London Ambulance Service took Isobel from the house in North Kensington, west London, to hospital, but she died later that morning. Dodgeon’s 14-year-old daughter and two teenage boys were detained in hospital for observation before being discharged. The youngsters are believed to have spent the evening partying after Dodgeon and his partner went out for the night. Neighbours, who had been warned that a party would be taking place, reported that the event got out of hand and fighting broke out. On Monday friends of Isobel gathered at Chiswick Common, west London, to pay their respects to the popular teenager. Dozens laid flowers and left tributes. One from Denisha Forde read: “RIP Issy. You didn’t deserve to die. You was a lovely girl who’s in a better place. You’ll be missed by everyone, you know even though you’re gone I still feel you’re here. It brings tears to my eyes just writing this.” Another from Daisy Onipede said: “Them jokes, memories on the bus to Chiswick literally almost every day … Gonna miss you so much! Heaven’s lucky to have a beautiful angel like you.” Parents of Isobel’s friends expressed shock at what happened. One father said: “My boy was at the party that night but he shouldn’t have even been there. When I found out I went to pick him up at 11.30pm. “He didn’t take anything. They hadn’t gone looking for stuff by then. It was about 2am that they found them and by 4am Issy was dead. He added: “I can’t imagine how the dad is feeling. It’s such a waste of life.” Isobel’s English teacher, Jaye Williamson, said she was a “larger than life, lovely character” who will be sadly missed. She said the whole school was devastated over what had happened and warned of the dangers of drugs, adding: “We all know the kind of things teenagers get into. She [Issy] got caught out. Everyone is just racked with grief.” One of Isobel’s friends sang the Mariah Carey song Hero, Adele’s Make You Feel My Love and Ave Maria. In a statement, Isobel’s family, who live in nearby Acton, said: “Isobel’s family and friends are devastated and heartbroken by her untimely death. We hope that if anything positive comes from this dreadful event, it is that others will make the right decisions to be safe and well in the future. “We would very much appreciate time to grieve for our beloved Issy in private. If anyone has any information concerning Issy’s death could they please contact the police.” Tony Ryan, head of Chiswick Community School, said: “Isobel was an extremely popular girl at our school and counted many of her fellow pupils as friends. “Her tragically early death is devastating news to everyone associated with the school and all our thoughts are with her family at this time.” Dodgeon, who has written papers on subjects ranging from alcohol consumption to social housing and rural population rates, has been bailed until June. Professor Chris Husbands, the director of the Institute of Education, said: “The institute was deeply sorry to hear of the tragic events and extends its sympathy to Isobel Reilly’s family and friends. “We understand that a police inquiry has begun into those events. My senior team and I will be meeting tomorrow morning to make appropriate decisions on the way we will proceed.” Crime Drugs Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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VIENNA — A man turning dirt in his back yard stumbled onto buried treasure – hundreds of pieces of centuries-old jewelry and other precious objects that Austrian authorities described Friday as a fairy-tale find. Austria’s department in charge of national antiquities said the trove consists of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates and other pieces or fragments, many encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral and other ornaments. It says the objects are about 650 years old and are being evaluated for their provenance and worth. While not assigning a monetary value to the buried bling, the enthusiastic language from the normally staid Federal Office for Memorials reflected the significance it attached to the discovery. “Fairy tales still exist!” said its statement. “Private individual finds sensational treasure in garden.” It described the ornaments as “one of the qualitatively most significant discoveries of medieval treasure in Austria.” The statement gave no details and an automated telephone message said the office had closed early on Good Friday. But the Austria Press Agency cited memorials office employee Karin Derler as saying the man came across the “breathtaking” objects years ago while digging in his back yard to expand a small pond. The weekly Profil magazine identified the man only as Andreas K. from Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, and said he asked not to be named. While he found the ornaments in 2007, Andreas K. did not report it to the memorials office until after rediscovering the dirt-encrusted objects in a basement box while packing up after selling his house two years ago, said Profil. The soil had dried and some had fallen off, revealing precious metal and jewels underneath. He initially posted photos on the Internet, where collectors alerted him to the potential value of the pieces, leading him to pack them in a plastic bag and lug them to the memorials office, the magazine said in its Friday edition. Neither Profil nor the memorials office statement said when Andreas K. first alerted Austrian authorities and it was unclear why they waited until Friday to announce the discovery. Memorials office president Barbara Neubauer told Profil the objects were a “sensational find.” The magazine said the finder was not interested in cashing in on the trove and was considering loaning the collection to one of Austria’s museums.
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After the iPhone and Android tracking revelations of last week, a researcher finds out how to query Google’s database of home and business router locations Google really does have a very big location map – and that may include where your router is. The results of its giant Street View exercise in which it took pictures of houses and shops but also gathered locations of Wi-Fi networks and – oops! – collected data from open Wi-Fi networks has all been collated. And what’s more, you can query it yourself. Got a Wi-Fi router? Got admin access to its interface? Then you can get its MAC address and plug it into the “android map” interface offered by Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher who last week showed that Android phones transmit their location data (as uncovered by another researcher , Magnus Eriksson) The page where you can plug in the details is at http://samy.pl/androidmap/ , and comes with an example MAC address in there, which if you click it shows the details that are held – log/lat, country, country code, region, county, city, street, house number, postal code, and “accuracy” – an interesting idea, though it’s not immediately obvious whether that’s accuracy in metres or some other metric. As Kamkar explains, android map exposes the data that Google has been collecting from virtually all Android devices and street view cars, using them essentially as global wardriving machines. When the phone detects any wireless network, encrypted or otherwise, it sends the BSSID (MAC address) of the router along with signal strength, and most importantly, GPS coordinates up to the mothership. This page allows you to ping that database and find exactly where any wi-fi router in the world is located. Personally, I tried it for the two Wi-Fi routers in my home, and it turned up nothing. It could be that the data for Britain has been wiped, or that my routers weren’t turned on the day Google drove by (it certainly did, because it’s got a pic of the front of the house) or that it somehow didn’t reach the car. Scary? Encouraging? If all this data is somehow open sourced, is that useful or not? Google Data protection Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal editorial page finds it amusing that “Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman” (the columnist for the New York Times )
Continue reading …David Brooks still stands by his man, Rep. Paul Ryan’s ‘Junk Science’ Budget
April 24, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media On Meet The Press today, David Brooks was still trying to bail out his young idol, Paul Ryan, who hurt the GOP brand very badly by trying to dismantle our safety net programs with his budget. Brooks digs deep in bizarroland by saying that even though he doesn’t agree with everything Ryan proposed, he’s still a hero for starting the debate and confronting the question. Sure, one way to try and put out a fire is to throw gasoline on it too. Meet The Press : MR. GREGORY: And there is a lack of compromise and a great desire for compromise. David Brooks, Ron Brownstein in the National Journal writes in his column this week something that I really think sets up this discussion very well. He said, “Leading thinkers in both parties say that events of the past two weeks have locked in place a major part of the 2012 general-election contest. “The debate will revolve around a big question more often dodged than confronted: How much government are Americans willing to pay for? Before the conversation is over, the answer could produce uncomfortable moments for President Obama and Republicans alike, not to mention voters themselves.” MR. DAVID BROOKS: Yeah. Well, that’s what I liked about the Ryan plan . It actually confronts you with that question. Listen, the average senior citizen is–pays about $150,000 into Medicare, pays in $150,000. They get out of it, the system, about $450,000. That $300,000, a large chunk of it is being paid for by their grandkids. And so Ryan said, “Is that moral? Is that what you really–what we want to leave a legacy?” So what he did was extremely politically foolhardy, but–and I don’t agree with every part of his plan–but he asked people to face the question, the, the implications of their choices. And so I, I think everybody’s going to have to do that in many different ways, but I thought what he did was a step in the right direction. Brooks is seriously demented if Ryan ever thought in “moral’ terms and the idea that he’s brave is nonsense. This is what Conservatives really believe and have been fighting for all these years. Ryan said this about the vote: Ryan, R-Wis., the plan’s architect, said of the House action today: “This is our defining moment.” Almost the entire Republican HOUSE voted for Ryan’s plan which backs up their long held beliefs. Is that a step in the right direction? The Beltway media is still congratulating Ryan for putting out a junk science budget proposal that would destroy Medicare and Medicaid. Fareed Zakaria did it earlier today. I actually like his show and many things he says, but not on this. What’s so brave about Ryan’s plan? Please tell me? Why not congratulate the CPC like Krugman did for releasing their budget proposal that calls for tax hikes and cuts to the Military Industrial Complex? As usual Dana Milbank loves to punch liberals because his beltway friends will cheer, but maybe he should read The Economist . which isn’t a left leaning publication on the CPC budget. They actually praised it because it more seriously balanced the budget without adding 6 trillion to the debt as Ryan’s did and finds it much more courageous. Mr Ryan’s plan adds (by its own claims) $6 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, but promises to balance the budget by sometime in the 2030s by cutting programmes for the poor and the elderly. The Progressive Caucus’s plan would (by its own claims) balance the budget by 2021 by cutting defence spending and raising taxes, mainly on rich people. Mr Ryan has been fulsomely praised for his courage. The Progressive Caucus has not. I’m not really sure what “courage” is supposed to mean here, but this seems precisely backwards. For 30 years, certainly since Walter Mondale got creamed by Ronald Reagan, the most dangerous thing a politician can do has been to call for tax hikes. Politicians who call for higher taxes are punished, which is why they don’t do it. I’m curious to see what adjectives people would apply to the Progressive Congressional Caucus’s budget proposal. But it’s hard for me to imagine the media calling a proposal to raise taxes “courageous” and “honest”. And my sense is that the disparate treatment here is a structural bias rooted in class . Of course we won’t hear about this Economist column on the Sunday Talk Shows because of a structural bias rooted in pundits.
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We almost got in a fight at a Ryan Adams show once, when a particularly engaged patron took offense at the brusque manner with which we bumped our way to the front of the house before the set started. Pretty sure the dude said something about how he’d been waiting in the spot for a while, and then we chuckled dismissively and said something annoying like “bro, it’s a show ” and then more words were… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Vulture Discovery Date : 22/04/2011 21:30 Number of articles : 2
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House of Rainbow church offers underground prayer and preaching to Christians ostracised by rampant homophobia When Ade’s aunt learned he was gay, the then 16-year-old Nigerian was made to go through an exorcism to expel “the demon of homosexuality”. “The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to kneel down, holding candles in my hands,” recalls Ade, now 25, as he sits in a cafe in Lagos. He does not wish to reveal his full name. “He kept shouting ‘Come out! Come out! Come out!’ in a fevered voice … I was allowed to go back to church after that but I had to pretend to be straight.” In a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, it is no surprise that many of Ade’s friends – those who, like him, are both gay and religious – stay away from church altogether for fear of being outed. However, an alternative could soon be at hand. Ade is helping to resurrect a religious refuge for himself and his friends. He is part of the team restarting House of Rainbow, the country’s only gay church, which was forced to close in 2008 after a witch-hunt stirred by exposés in local newspapers. The Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay, the gay minister who founded the church, is leading the comeback even though he remains in self-imposed exile in London. “Religion is a backbone to life in Nigeria, so we all want to go to church,” he says. “But we don’t want to lie to God about who we are.” Macaulay first set up House of Rainbow in 2006, when he openly held Sunday services in a Lagos hotel hall decked out with rainbow flags. A public backlash culminated in members being beaten as they left church. Macaulay fled to the UK after death threats. This year, he has recruited a small team that includes Ade as his local leader in Lagos. In his voluntary role, Ade started holding prayer sessions and Bible study groups at his house at the end of last month. A full church might be set up again if it is considered safe. The project could even spread beyond the borders of Africa’s most populous country. Macaulay has recently recruited a local leader in Accra, the capital of nearby Ghana. He is considering applications from Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Religious groups are central to Nigeria’s culture of homophobia. Pentecostalism, an evangelical school of Christianity thought to have started in America just over a century ago, has blossomed in southern Nigeria and across Africa in recent decades. The “megachurches” in and around Lagos can attract tens of thousands of worshippers to a single service. Pentecostal pastors often see gay desire as the work of demons. “You might start casually but, once you get into it, you will be possessed by the spirit,” says Emmanuel Owoyemi, a pastor in Lagos. Meanwhile, in Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north, 12 states have adopted sharia law over the last decade. Gay sex carries the death penalty under sharia, although no executions have yet taken place. A national anti-gay marriage bill, which pushes for jail sentences for anyone who even assists gay marriage, has been before Nigeria’s parliament since 2009. Being gay is regarded as an offence across much of Africa. Uganda’s parliament continues to debate a proposed law that would introduce the death penalty in some cases. Malawi’s president only pardoned a gay couple last year sentenced to 14 years in jail after an international outcry. Apart from being on the wrong side of the law, many homosexual Nigerians say exclusion from church is one of the hardest parts of being gay. “We are brought up to believe that you should belong to a religion. We feel that, if we don’t go to church, God will not answer our prayers,” says a young gay man in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. “When I recently told a friend I was having financial difficulties, he said, ‘When did you last go to church?’” In oil-rich Nigeria, where corruption robs many of even basic services, religious groups provide more than spiritual assistance. Muslim movements such as Izala have built schools in the north, while southern pentecostal groups such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God run universities. “[We] lose out on all these services,” says the young man. Some argue that African homophobia is slowly waning. Marc Epprecht, an expert on sexuality in Africa at Queen’s University in Canada, says the continent’s growing number of gay rights groups are challenging negative stereotypes. He adds that despite the bad press it attracts, African homophobia is not markedly stronger than that of poor or patriarchal parts of the Middle East and South America. Macaulay, however, is not taking any chances this time. Prayer sessions are being held in secret locations. No unknown newcomers are being admitted. He continues to preach via YouTube from London – he thinks it would be unwise to return home. “We have learnt our lesson,” he says. “It is a hostile situation.” Nigeria Gay rights Christianity Religion guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rush Limbaugh says: Left Upset With Obama Because "White People Are Not Shining The Shoes Of Black People"
April 24, 2011 No CommentRush Limbaugh is getting more racist as time goes by. I know, I know, he’s been truly racist already, but I’m telling you, his vitriol is increasing and will continue as the election grows near. It’s getting me very nervous. Limbaugh: Left Upset With Obama Because “White People Are Not Shining The Shoes Of Black People He rambles on about the left and their anger and blacks and whatever you can make of it. Yes, progressives aren’t happy about many things, but not who’s shining whose shoes. He’s been trying to gin up phony racism coming from the African American community ever since Obama was elected. Here’s a flashback post I wrote on 10/10/09, when he used a clipped audio from Detroit via WJR Detroit’s Ken Rogulski. Rush Limbaugh Uses Innocent Detroiters As Show Pinata The conservo-talk reporter cherry picked through the audio booty until he found the absolute best soundbite that would most perfectly frame the city as one filled with Obama-fawning morons, black Sambos, and greedy welfare grabbers – precisely, as Limbaugh would later argue, the kind of rank idiots who would vote for someone like America’s first black president. Surely Ken’s heart must have been pounding as he attached the audio to his corporate email and double checked the top-secret “To” address that would land the .MpP3 directly onto the desk of Rush’s long time producer, Kitt Carson. JACKPOT! Carson fast-tracked the audio to the OXYmoron, and by noon it was airing live. “Where’s the money coming from?!” Rogulski quickly quizzes. “Obama!” the giddy resident chirps, confident the day will end in a bill being paid, or a week’s worth of groceries to stuff into the old fridge. “And where does Obama get it from?!” Rogulski follows up. To the more politically refined in the conservative talk world, the answer is loud and clear – TAXPAYERS. But Rogulski knows full well these “Motown simpletons” will not be so cynical as to believe he’s recording them with intentions of caricaturing them later as thigh-slapping morons. “I dunno! His stash, I dunno. But he givin’ to us! We love him!” — And Rush could not have been happier. No editing necessary for his staff, no double checking, it was packaged, edited and air ready. And for three straight days, the AM Shock Talker pounded the audio candy like he had just been told the funniest joke this week. Listen to how the first audio soundbite is edited to end with a laugh, which to the racist’s ear is a dog-whistle. To a bigot, it is the laugh of bug-eyed Jemima. But to the rest of America, it is the innocent guffaw of a child holding out her hands for a cool drink of water in one of the hottest economic downturns in a century . This is sickening stuff. Lost in all this garbage is that George Bush and Conservative policies after Clinton left office with a “surplus’ have put this country in a very bad position as well as the rest of the world. Conservatives like to forget that they burned down the house already.
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Civics Lesson 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll 2011 « Pro President Obama Blog White House Easter Egg Roll 2011 . The President and First Lady are hosting the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 25, 2011 with the theme of “Get Up and Go!” promoting health and wellness. … gosip hangat: The Apprentice series 5 episode 3 pt1 Easter Egg Roll 2011 : Willow Smith to celebrate Ea… What To Buy for Valentine’s Day? The Internet Know… Warning for road clean-up volunteers beware of met… Mr. Olympia 2010 Promo+Powerlifting/Bodybuilding T.. … gosip hangat: I look skinnier with eye shadow! day#6 Easter Egg Roll 2011 : Willow Smith to celebrate Ea… What To Buy for Valentine’s Day? The Internet Know… Warning for road clean-up volunteers beware of met… Mr. Olympia 2010 Promo+Powerlifting/Bodybuilding T.. … gosip hangat: SHADE 45 Charles Hamilton Talks About Drug Past LIP … Easter Egg Roll 2011 : Willow Smith to celebrate Ea… What To Buy for Valentine’s Day? The Internet Know… Warning for road clean-up volunteers beware of met… Mr. Olympia 2010 Promo+Powerlifting/Bodybuilding T.. … Purple_malia13 says: Easter egg roll 2011 .. It's going to be amazing !!
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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters In all honesty, I don’t believe that the entire tea party movement is racist. I believe it’s a naive movement which allowed itself to be co-opted by the wealthy powers that be, but that’s another argument entirely. What I do believe, however, is that the tea party movement houses vindictively racist elements who can’t get over the fact that an African-American… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Pam’s House Blend Discovery Date : 20/04/2011 20:12 Number of articles : 5
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