A Conversation for Ask h2g2

What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16761

Bald Bloke

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/unearthed-levellers-crossrail-robert-lockyer-teach-us-today


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16762

swl

Read any satirical magazines lately? The police may be after you.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/10/police-several-forces-seek-details-charlie-hebdo-readers

"Police from several UK forces seek details of Charlie Hebdo readers

In at least two cases – in Wiltshire and in Presteigne, Wales – officers have requested that newsagents hand over the names of customers who bought the magazine."


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16763

Baron Grim

~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Dyfed-Powys police spokeswoman declined to say why officers sought the names of Charlie Hebdo readers but said: “Following the recent terrorism incidents, Dyfed Powys police have been undertaking an assessment of community tensions across the force area.

“Visits were made to newsagents who were maybe distributing the Charlie Hebdo magazine to encourage the newsagent owners to be vigilant. We can confirm the visits were only made to enhance public safety and to provide community reassurance.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Doublespeak, pure and simple. The Ministry of Love is ever vigilant.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16764

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

smiley - brr
Wow.
Boston has had over 7 feet of snow this month.
http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2015/02/10/new-england-braces-for-another-big-snow-storm/
Think kind thoughts for paulh.
smiley - snowman
~jwf~


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16765

Bald Bloke

A good news story for once...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31365272


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16766

hammondorgan

Bart the cat is in the news again, his owner wants him back but the Humane society in the USA say he shouldn't have been buried alive, (Bart not the owner) and they're refusing to hand him back. Apparently the society are making a fortune in donations and are running a daily blog on Bart's progress!


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16767

Pastey

Virgin Media are expanding their fibre network in cities, rural campaigners are complaining: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31454827

This article does actually point out that BT are getting government (actually EU, but close enough) funding to get broadband out to the rural areas, and that Virgin is a private business, with no government funding. Which is quite an unbiased article for the beeb.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16768

Bald Bloke

BT of course are also a private company...
Most EU money comes with strings attached that also require the countries government to contribute as well.
Their past record on getting stuff done has not been good, so I'm not optimistic for rural broadband.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16769

Bald Bloke

Not really a news story but worth a read.
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/docs/Legal_Oddities.pdf


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16770

Baron Grim

Here's a link to the zombie cat story (still ongoing): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ugly-custody-battle-for-bart-the-zombie-cat-that-rose-from-the-grave-10045617.html




Thanks for that link Bald Bloke. I'll repost it to the Useless Facts thread as blue laws were once common posts there until we all tired of either disputing them or finding they're true but uninforced.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16771

Recumbentman

Nice collection of laws!


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16772

hammondorgan

Ken Clark says the Tory's have to stop depending on wealthy donors to maintain their funding! He thinks that the public might believe there is something dodgy going on, are we allowed to say dodgy? Honestly, can't we be allowed to trust our elected representatives?


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16773

Baron Grim

I've spent a good portion of this afternoon reading this in-depth look at ISIS. Calling it "un-Islamic" as Obama has done recently along with many others is a mistake. To understand the Islamic State one needs to look at early Islam and the prohecies of Mohammed. This could also give clues to their future actions and how to react to them. Their main goal is to bring about the apocalypse. And to do so they must expand the caliphate. Denying them territory may be the best tactic and could lead them to self destruct.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16774

Maria

Ataturk abolished caliphate.
There cant be any calipha. Calipha means heir, sucesor. It was a fiction during the Otoman empire, to that fiction Ataturk put an end.

IS has nothing to do with Islamic culture. They are a bunch of nuts with a lot of money. (Part of that money comes from selling antiques and ancient relics to riches, saudí and western ones. Those treasures were looted during the Irak war, sponsored by the democratic west. Another part comes from the civilized friends, the same ones that created the talibans)


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16775

hammondorgan

We shouldn't be debating in religious or ideological terms, ISIS are simply criminals, whether through international law, the Geneva convention for example, and of course in any country where they operate they are purveyors of murder, mayhem and terrorism, whoever or whatever they claim to worship is immaterial, to try to understand them through analysing their superstitious claptrap is just useless prevarication while innocent people are being slaughtered. It partly stems from the recent trend to 'multi-faith' inclusivity, it's all rubbish whatever religion people happen to follow, some Muslim elements are hate crazed psychopaths, nowt to do with faith. We have to simply defeat them militarily no matter how hard it might be.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16776

Baron Grim

Conveniently, IS does not recognize the Ottoman caliphate.

While I agree wholeheartedly that IS does not represent Muslims or Islamic culture, however to say they have nothing to do with Islamic culture is simply wrong. They are trying to recreate a centuries old (and mostly abandoned) state of "pure", takfiri Islam. I'll assume you haven't read the article I cited as it addresses this directly and at length.

But I'm not here to have a religious argument. If you don't want to read the article, don't.

I was just citing it as a "News story that caught my attention."

smiley - simpost The above post by hammondorgan was posted while I was responding to Maria, but I assume also didn't read the full article I cited. Or if otherwise, still not worth arguing over.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16777

Recumbentman

Calling a group of people "hate crazed psychopaths" doesn't really explain their behaviour or how they have come to gain power.

There are always such people around, it must be assumed. Things get dangerous when they are no longer kept quiet by their equals.

Sociopaths begin to be tolerated, then followed, and even democratically elected, when the society they belong to feels they have a strong grievance.

What could this sense of grievance come from? How do we counter it?

If we don't ask these questions we are going to be perpetually at war.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16778

Xanatic

It's a long article but worth the read. As is wisely said, know your enemy or you have lost half the battle.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16779

Maria


Yes It´s long but I´ve given up reading it because of the inconsistence.

To start with, the author wants to highlight that IS is "very islamic" he uses italics for very. However he doesn´t offer any reliable source of koranic texts, on contrary: "Koran is against innovation" . False, just consider the role of science in Islam.

Yihad means effort, personal effort to be a good muslim, if the yihab is needed to defend your land then you have to follow some rules such as not to kill women, children , old people, blind ones, nor mentally disordered people. Not to destroy buildings nor crops...etc. And of course Islam means peace.

The article is another islamophobic panflet with a varnish of intellectualism and research. He is also a bit arrogant on saying that the west is failing to defeat Is beacause they haven´t considered the fidelity with which those lunatics read the koran.

That´s makes no sense, first because the koran doesnt says what the lunatics say it says, and second they are a monster created by the erratic policies of USA, UK and Israel, a monster that has gone out of their hands.
It´s terrorism, just that.


What news story has caught your attention today.

Post 16780

Maria

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13227

That link makes clear the context about those words about Rome the writer in Baron Grim´s link (The Atlantic) relates to the readings of Koran.

"....And somehow if the danger comes into Europe, that's worse than if Arabs are suffering the blight of the Islamic State. In fact, the Islamic State knows this, which is why in the execution video that was shot in Libya, they very pointedly said we are now this side of the Mediterranean, but soon we will be in Rome. And that, I think, is a direct threat to the West, a direct provocation to the West. It was also, of course, a direct provocation to Egypt, because they killed 21 Egyptian laborers who were in Libya and were kidnapped during the course of this year."

The allusion to Rome has a context prepared by the NATO bombings of Lybia in 2011, not becuse of what the koran says, or not says.


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