h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

have you invented that Icy or is it true?

I´m going to tell my pupils, it´s very funny!

Sadly, I did not invent this one.

Or, the Big Bang Theory's permutation; Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.

http://ridexc.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rockpaperscissorslizardspock_by_iamthemiggy.jpg

Boko Haram has threatened to "sell" the hundreds of schoolgirls it abducted three weeks ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27283383

That goes beyond the whiter shade of pale.

I'm still shocked that that didn't make it as more of a headline story. That something like this can go on in the world, but because it doesn't directly affect western interests, it gets near totally ignored

At least the BBC and NPR have been covering it. The major US networks have completely ignored this until maybe this last week when their failure to cover the story started becoming a story.

Now they are covering the growing public protests.
Apparently it is gaining traction in many major cities.
It's going global!
Lots of video of angry crowds with hand painted signs.
Stories have to have visuals to make the US news nets.
And angry crowds with signage has a lot of appeal because
it makes people stop and wonder what the problem is and
who are these people and should I be out there marching.

~jwf~

What the ?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27286742

Is this just another sign that Putin yearns for "the good old days"?

Mental health patients forced to travel miles for care

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27285555

........for me, it is not just a question of saying the NHS is safe in my hands - of course it will be. David Cameron October 2006.

However it is spun, funding has been slashed. There are very few voluntary admissions any more because there are too few 'beds' to admit to and as a result most admissions are now under the Mental Health Act - you pretty much need to be sectioned to be admitted to hospital for care. And the chances are that you will be discharged before you are ready too.

PP.

Banning swearing is a strange one. We don't allow gratuitous swearing here, but we're not going to start closing accounts or fining people if they slip up.

Mental health care has always been one of those tricky ones I think, it's hard to quantify what someone's problem/course of treat is that's best for them, and therefore it's not easy to put it into a league table type thing where they can show results. So it seems to be one of the first to go.
Just look at the States and Regan, which suddenly led to a lot of homeless people, and a lot of targets for crime.

I noticed that story about Putin. Hasn't he got more important problems at the moment? It's a very weak attempt to distract the news media away from what's going on...

not easy to put on a league table...
exactly and the lack of opportunity to brag about how good we are in relation to other eu countries/america means we dont need to bother...
at least that's how it seems sometimes

I woke up this morning to this story that further suggests Russia is becoming much more totalitarian again.

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/309833033/pending-restrictions-cast-a-chill-over-russias-blogosphere

This will greatly restrict Russians freedoms on the internet. No more anonymity, no more access to foreign social networks. I'm sure these new laws will effectively end online dissent in Russia.

Nigeria kidnapped girls 'shown' in new Boko Haram video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27370041


Reporter ........... Nick Childs !

A Sudanese court has sentenced a woman to hang for apostasy - the abandonment of her religious faith - after she married a Christian man.

She is also sentenced to 100 lashes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27424064

Disgusting. Shameful. Barbaric. There just aren't enough words to describe how this makes me feel.

PP.

Yeah, this is the most heinous story I've read today.

There is no penalty for a man to marry an "infidel". But for a woman, it's 100 lashes.

She was never a muslim, but the mere fact that her absent father was makes her a muslim according to sharia.



I'm currently reading Sam Harris' book The End of Faith, and he makes a good point that modern day Islam is very similar to 14th century Christianity in many ways.

Christianity had a 600-year head start.

Not really. To all intents and purposes both are the same religion with the same Abrahamic origins, the same god and the same prophets.

They have just managed to screw up at different times.

PP.

Quite a serious topic, but I'm afraid I could take this one seriously given the headline and the image used:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22751349