Anorak

Reviews

Reviews Category

We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.

Westminster paedophiles: Bulic Forsythe, when PIE went gay and the death of scepticism

Bulic Forsythe

Bulic Forsythe

 

Westminster paedophiles: a look at reporting on allegations that VIPs abused and murdered children in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Daily Mirror brings news: “VIP paedophile scandal: Police pinpoint ‘dungeon’ flat linked to abuse parties and child murder”

Keir Mudie and Mark Conrad report that police have “identified a luxury flat in Pimlico, London, which is connected to a large cellar believed to have been used as a ‘holding area’ for abuse victims”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 16th, March 2015 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)


Nominative determinism: meet ISIS ‘apologist’ Furkan Derya

Furkan Derya

The Australian Daily Telegraph calls Furkan Derya.

Tim Blair’s story “Jihadi Bilardi spreading the hate in his own way” focused on the Australian teenager who relocated his angst to ISIS, one Jake Bilardi.

Bilardi, who died in a suicide bombing, was discussed by former Hume Islamic Youth Centre worker Furkan Derya in a Fairfax article. Blair uses Derya’s quote in his column. He adds an aside.

You can use it if you like. We double derya.

Spotter: @chrisdeerin

Posted: 16th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


31 minutes a night more sleep can kill you (but at last you won’t get diabetes)

daily express sleep kills

 

The Daily Express often leads with news of diabetes cures. In 2014, the Express told its reads that diabetes had been cured by cheese, jabs, chocolate, pills and sunshine. Today the paper says diabetes can be prevented by…sleeping.

But take not to sleep for too long. Thirty minutes more sleep is the recipe for good health, taking your nightly kip to eight hours. A minute longer and you are dead. Because too much sleep could kill you!

 

daily express sleep kills

Posted: 16th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Forget the #TekTimeCov murder: the real crime was on SnapChat

TekTimeCov

N

ews of a teenager stabbed to death outside a Coventry nightclub is reported thus in the Daily Mirror:

 Sick revellers ‘took photos of teenager dying from stab wounds and posted them on SnapChat’

Those “revellers” are unlikley have been revelling in a young’s man death outside Society nightclub in Coventry. And as for spotting the sickos, might that not be a word best used to describe the victim’s killer or killers?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 15th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Free Shilan Ozcelik the Londoner arrested for wanting to fight ISIS

Shilan Ozcelik

 

Do we know yet which side we are rooting for in the Syrian civil war? Once upon a time we are anti-Assad. Then we realised that some of the barrel-bombing dictator’s enemies were not our friends because they started to decapitate and burn people alive in snuff movies starring Islamic State’s leading video blogger Jihadi John. We had thought out best bet were the Kurds, who if not exactly holding the gates of Vienna were laying claim to land they were prepared to fight for.

And then we read of British teenage girl Shilan Ozcelik, 18. She’s been arrested for allegedly trying to fight for the glorious Kurds against Islamic State.

She might be a hero were it not for the British police.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 15th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Wiltshire headmistress punished naughty children by phoning God

Wiltshire school god call

No cold callers

To St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Devizes, Wiltshire, where God is on the phone.

There is talk of “outrage” that headmistress Sheila Jones “humiliated children” by standing in the school’s prayer room and telling God via her mobile phone that the children had misbehaved.

Some parents have called Ofsted, who have asked Wiltshire Council’s safeguarding team to investigate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 15th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell remain inconveniently innocent

The story of Prince Andrew and the underage ‘sex slave’ Victoria Roberts has down the British media’s newscycle. But elsewhere it nags on. Roberts claims to have shagged Prince Andrew three times while working as Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘masseuse’. Andrew denies it. All we know for certain is that they’ve met.

 

MoS2 Template Master

 

Over in the US, the Daily Caller has more on the billionaire and convicted sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein:

While Bill and Hillary Clinton may have cut off Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire convicted pedophile friend of Bill’s, Epstein’s chief procurer of teens for sex with Epstein and his A-list sex crime cronies, a woman named Ghislaine Maxwell, remains an intimate of the Clintons and is running a program funded by the Clinton Slush Fund a.k.a. The Clinton Foundation.

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell who died in mysterious cicumstances, is alleged to have introduced Andrew to Epstein. But as for being a madame, she denies all allegations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 13th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Police news: ISIS fag is a jacket in a tree

ISIS jacket flag
Have we let the murderous goons of Islamic State infect out minds? In Italy, police were called when a local spotted an Isis flag hanging outside an apartment building.
They called the police because they saw a flag. Incredible.
But the really sad thing is that the police responded, racing over to the apartment block in Porto Recanati, on Italy’s eastern coast. The police searched the building and questioned residents. They then noted that the ISIS flag was a jacket that had been blown into the trees after being hung out to dry.

Posted: 13th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Smiley the therapy dog with no eyes brightens people’s lives

SMiley therapy dog

 

Smiley, a golden retriever, was born without eyes.  He lives in Stouffville, Canada, working as a St. John’s Ambulance service dog. Smiley’s owner, Joanne George, rescued him from a puppy mill, when he was about 1 year old.

She introduced him to a deaf Great Dane named Tyler: She says:

“He was very scared, [the dogs] had never been out of that barn… Tyler was so bouncy and crazy and happy go lucky and [Smiley] turned into the same dog. He came out from underneath the tables where he was always hiding.”

She thought Smiley would make a good therapy dog.

 “There was this man Teddy, [he had] no speech, no communication at all. [The staff] had never seen Teddy smile before. [He] smiled when Smiley got into his vision.”

 

 

If that doesn’t make you feel better about your day, nothing will…

Posted: 13th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


When Stetson Kennedy, Mr. Ayak and Superman smashed the KKK

Stetson Kennedy KKK

 

On Flashbak the story of Stetson Kennedy, the campaigning journalist who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan in the 1940s and exposed their members to ridicule. He didn’t do it alone. He got Superman to help…

Read it all here.

 

 

Posted: 13th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Madeleine McCann: Zephany Nurse, Yeremi Vargas and Blackpool peadophiles

Madeleine McCann: a look at reporting on the missing child in the news.

The Daily Star has news on Page 11:

“Dad of Kidnapped Girls: Don’t Give Up Hope Over Maddie”

Morne and Celeste Nurse’s daughter was kidnapped from hospital in 1997 when she was three days old. The woman suspected of stealing the child  is “understood” to have suffered a stillbirth before her crime. She is not thought to be a threat to society because she has been released on police bail.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 12th, March 2015 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment


Tabloid tropes: why Daily Mail readers are happiest in the world

What is the happiest age of your life? No need to answer because the ‘Daily Mail Reporter’ knows. It’s 34.

 

daily mail happiest age of life

 

It used to be 33. But Suzannah Hills’ report for the Daily Mail is past its sell-by date.

 

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 20.07.16

 

 

We’re agreed, then.  37 it is. We’re happiest at 37. So says Katy Winter in the…Daily Mail:

 

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 20.09.22

 

 

We don’t know how old the Daily Mail Reporter is but we do know that they are covering their bases. Because they told us that the happiest ages are…38 and 40:

 

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 20.03.55

 

It’s all downhill after 40. Or is it. Because the Daily Mail has great news. The happiest age is… 58!

 

daily mail ageism

 

 

But what about the older readers? Can they be happy, too? Yes, they can! Because the happiest age is 69 (and 29)!

 

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 20.05.52

 

That’s not old. What about us? What about the 85-year-olds. Can we be happy? Yes!

 

 

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 20.02.55

 

Such are the facts…

 

Posted: 11th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Sex libel: All Indian males are suspected rapists

indian rape

 

YOU can libel an entire people, milions and millions of them. Did you know that all Indian males are suspected rapists? The Institute of Biochemistry at Leipzig University in Germany will not accept an innocent male Indian student’s internship application because hs is part of India’s “rape problem”.

Annette G Beck-Sickinger, professor of biochemistry, told the student via email:

“Unfortunately I don’t accept any Indian male students for internships. We hear a lot about the rape problem in India… I have many female students in my group, so I think this attitude is something I cannot support.”

Well, if you hear about it then it is better to err on the side of sense and caution. But in the inrtests if fairness, can Annette not offer him an appeal by castration?

Update: Beck-Sickinger has now apologised for being a monumenal, self-righteous fool. Well, sort of. She apologised for the “misunderstanding”.

 

Posted: 11th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Phone hacking: The Mirror ruined Steve McFadden’s love life, drove Paul Gascoigne to alcohol but murdered no-one

lucy hacking

 

The phone hacking scandal calls EastEnders actor Steve McFadden. He says Daily Mirror stories while he was romancing co-star Lucy Benjamin (above) “destroyed” their love affair.

McFadden is at the High Court to help the judges decide the amount of compensation to be awarded against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). The trial will determine the range of phone hacking and the amount of damages due.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 11th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Islamic State get torture tips from watching Teletubbies and Game of Thrones

Islamic state teletubbies

Islamic State: twinned with Laa-Laa land

 

Two newspapers lead with news of Mohammed Emwazi, although both continue to refer to him as Jihadi John. As Emwazi tells people he is now ‘the murderous loon formerly known as Jihadi John’, the Daily Mail says Emwazi is a victim only of his own free will. No news there. But the Daily Star has something. It says

This suggests that being a jihadi is not a fulltime job. There is considerable downtime. And that means lots of telly. Although Teletubbies and Game of Thrones could be passed off as research for new ways to maim, torture and murder people. (Top Gear is too right-wing.)

Maybe the TV shows are a form of torture? Spooks and goons have used TV music to unhinge minds, so why not the whole shows?

In 2003, we learned that the CIA used music to extract information from internees in Iraq. Rick Hoffman, a veteran of US psychological operations told the BBC that tunes from Sesame Street and Barney The Dinosaur were harnessed to break the will of Iraqi captives. In 1989 American troops surrounded General Noriega’s residence and blasted, among other horrors, the songs of Rick Astley. In 1993 police hit David Koresh’s compound near Waco with Tibetan chants.

These sounds are billed as torture light “futility music”.

Former prisoner Haj Ali said hearing David Gray singing “Babylon… Babylon… Babylon… over and over again. It was so loud I thought my head would burst. It went on for a day and a night.”

Songs can get into your head and stay there.

In Touching the Void, the film based on Joe Simpson and Simon Yates’ epically disastrous attempt to ascend Siula Grande (6,344m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985, Simpson’s tired mind is assaulted by Boney M’s Brown Girl in the Ring. He thinks “Bloody hell, I’m going to die to Boney M”:

 

 

Psychologists call it an “earworm“. It is a thought that will “arrive without permission and refuse to leave when we tell them to”.

But how can you get them out of your head? Dr Ira Hyman, a music psychologist at Western Washington University has an idea:

“The key is to find something that will give the right level of challenge. If you are cognitively engaged, it limits the ability of intrusive songs to enter your head. Something we can do automatically like driving or walking means you are not using all of your cognitive resource, so there is plenty of space left for that internal jukebox to start playing. Likewise, if you are trying something too hard, then your brain will not be engaged successfully, so that music can come back. You need to find that bit in the middle where there is not much space left in the brain. That will be different for each individual. It is like a Goldilocks effect – it can’t be too easy and it can’t be too hard, it has got to be just right.”

 

And now on ISTV:

Posted: 11th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Killer surgeon Padge-Victoria Windslowe was the ‘Travis Perkins of buttock injections’

adge-Victoria Windslowe is the self-styled  "the Michelangelo of buttocks injections".

 

Padge-Victoria Windslowe is the self-styled “the Michelangelo of buttocks injections”. Like you high-brow readers, we know Michelangelo to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle who gets his energy to whoop ass from pizzas. In turns out that Windslowe was referencing the Vatican ceiling painter who made David with the tiny penis.

And it further transpires she was more Travis Perkins or Tony Hart than Michelangelo, because in 2011 Padge-Victoria killed 20-year-old Claudia Aderotimi during an illegal surgical procedure that involved industrial-grade silicone and Krazy Glue.

Windslowe has been convicted of murder.

Posted: 10th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Giant ginger Scottish rats run amok at Cheltenham

The Daily Star leads with news of rats. Ginger Rats. Scottish Ginger Rats! It’s news you might miss because the Star’s front-page news is squashed between a riot of colourful adverts for horse racing at Cheltenham and the boast that it now the only tabloid with Page 3 Girls:

 

daily star ginger rats

 

News is that the “savage rodents have turned a reddish colour after pet rats were released and bred with wild ones. And they can be seen running wild every day in Lochpark Industrial Estate, Hawick, just 20 miles from England.”

And “the rats have been burrowing towards England”.

The entire story is based on the report of eyewitness Colin, who says: “I’ve seen white rats as well as ginger ones. Someone from the council came up but I’m not sure what stage they are at.”

The story continues in the Express, where the ginger Scottish rats are now “GIANT”. But the photo shows a small, cute rodent – because giant rats massed at the border can be hard to spot:

 

giant rats

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 10th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Free speech is quarantined in the zone of intolerance at Dixie State University, Utah

Jergins-Gillespie-Gee-Flyer-Obama-754x976

 

Free speech is under attack at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. A group called Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) says it has been banned from mocking Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. The YAL produced three flyers, one for each leader.

The Washington Free Beacon notes:

The flyers were not approved because the school policy does not permit students to “disparage” or “mock individuals.”

You can’t mock leaders? And one of them’s dead!

William Jergins, the president of YAL, told the Washington Free Beacon the move represented a “blanket denial of the expression of our beliefs in the way that we felt would be most readily understood and accepted by our fellow students”

What with this being America, Jergins and two of his colleagues aren’t just carrying on regardless. They’re suing:

The lawsuit claims Dixie State has “adopted and enforced excessive restrictions on the rights of students organizations, and limited student speech in open areas of the campus.”

Their case is being supported by free speech champions FIRE, whose President and CEO Greg Lukianoff states:

“One has to wonder how Dixie State students can engage in serious political discussions—or any discussion at all—when they are forced to follow the university’s ridiculous policies, which go so far as to forbid any poster in a residence hall that students or administrators can claim creates an ‘uncomfortable’ environment’…

“Dixie State unconstitutionally restricts access to open areas on campus for expressive activities by requiring that students request permission to speak several weeks in advance. And once approved, plaintiffs were relegated to a previously unknown “free speech zone” that comprises only around 0.1 percent of Dixie State University’s 100-acre campus,” states the lawsuit.

A free speech zone? We thought that was called America. But not any more it isn’t.

Jergins-Gillespie-Gee-Flyer-Guevara-754x976

 

The college has rules on flyers:

-39 CAMPUS ADVERTISING AND POSTING OF LITERATURE

39.2 All advertising literature must have a stamp of “approved advertising” to be considered legal for campus posting. This stamp is in the office of the vice president of student services.

39.4 Individuals posting “non-approved” literature may be cited for violation of Utah state law and fined for littering and/or violations listed above.

And if that’s not sad enough:

* All advertising materials should be computer generated or professionally produced.

• Materials must be in good taste (FCC guidelines), adhere to campus policy, look professional, and
not detract from the campus appearance. Dixie State University reserves the right to remove any
posted materials that do not meet our posting guideline

* [students display material] “may not single out any individual group(s) or entities in a derogatory manner.”

You need a permit for free speech on campus – the place where students should be challenging ideas. Self-expression needs approval. Your message should be “professionally” produced. Never mind the message, cop a load of that logo.

This would be remarkably pathetic if it were not typical of the West’s war on freedom of expression…

 

Posted: 8th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Arsenal sex scandal: shaven Alexis Sanchez and sex tape survivor Vale Roth

The Sun has a kiss ‘n’ tell. Readers meet Valentina Roth Soracco, billed on Instagram as a 23 year-old “former Olympic gymnast” who loves dancing. She wants to talk about sex with Arsenal striker Alexis Sacnhez.

This is a photo of her vaulting a staue in her native Chile:

 

 

Screen shot 2015-03-08 at 08.04.01

 

The story goes that the ‘troubled’ bikini model, TV dancer, WAG and sex tape sensation once dated the Arsenal player:

 ARSENAL star Alexis Sanchez was dumped by his fuming girlfriend after she caught his pals secretly filming them having sex.

Girlfriend?

Valentina hooked up with him while starring in a Chilean version of Strictly Come Dancing.

She told us: “His friend got hold of my mobile and messaged me to say Alexis wanted to get to know me. I was single at the time, I knew of Alexis, and I thought ‘Why not?’ so told the friend to get him to call. We started texting each other and finally met up a couple of months later when Alexis was home in Chile from Barcelona.”

She says they had sex.

More al fresco gymnastics

More al fresco gymnastics

 

She says:

“He took good care of himself. He was vain and waxed every hair on his body so he looked like a baby with muscles.”

She then tells a story about a night out in 2010. No-one saw them leave the club they were in because they left by different exits. They wound up in Alexis’ bedroom. She says they were having sex when she spotted two men watching them from within a wardrobe:

“A few seconds later I heard the door creaking. I jumped up and opened it and saw his friends. They were stood in the cupboard, red-faced, holding up a mobile phone. I grabbed it, ripped out the SIM card, threw the phone to the floor and smashed it to pieces.”

“I was furious. Alexis insisted he had nothing to do with it.”

 

Vale_Roth_se_abre_de_piernas

She then adds, and this is bit odd:

“I dressed and left immediately with a girlfriend.”

We do not get to know where or why the ‘girlfreind’ was there. But she says she smashed the phone and destroyed the video.

 

Screen shot 2015-03-08 at 09.47.36

 

She adds:

“When I see him on the TV for Arsenal I see a player who’s worshipped by millions — but he’s just an immature little boy who would be no one if it wasn’t for his talent with a ball. He needs to think long and hard how he treats women.”

 

Screen shot 2015-03-08 at 09.26.54

 

Some reports allege Roth needs money.

As yet there’s been no reply from Sanchez.

Such are the facts…

 

Posted: 8th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


7 creepy robots used by police (video)

robot congo

 

Robots are just great. The can help defuse bombs, find people trapped under rubble and provide defence when hazard chamicals have been spilled. They can also watch you and control you.

In the Congo, solar-powered aluminium robots are huge loom over the roads in Kinshasa. Equipped with red and green lights these robots regulate the flow of people and traffic and film the scenes, relaying pictures back to police HQ.

Bit odd.

But not as creepy as the Knightscope K5 is a five-foot-tall autonomous robot “that roams around your neighborhood, observing and gathering data and trying to predict where and when criminal activity will occur.”

Paul Detrick points us towards other creepy robots in this film:

 

Posted: 7th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment


Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadaev confess to killing Boris Nemtsov

Kommersant is reporting that the people arrested on suspicion of murdering Boris Nemtsov, Russia’s opposition leader, have already confessed.

Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadaev are in the confession box. They are said to be from the North Caucuses, perhaps Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. They have, reportedly, confessed to shooting Mr Nemtsov in the back four times as he strolled within sights of the Kremlin.

In Russian policing is swift and just.

The BBC reports:

Russian investigators have publicly offered multiple motives ranging from Nemtsov’s business dealings to his condemnation of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

What about suicide?

Nemtsov was killed just days before a march he was organising against the war in Ukraine.

He had also been drafting a report expected to expose covert Russian military involvement in the conflict…

One Russian MP, Nikolai Kovalyov, told Ria-Novosti news agency that the key thing was to “find out who ordered this assassination”.

The British remain insanely jealous of superior Russian policing:

 

1387_big

 

Posted: 7th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)


Immigrants Gave Me Diabetes: exploring a week of Daily Express front-page headlines

Immigrants gave me diabetes

Immigrants gave me diabetes

 

Immigrants Gave Me Diabetes: a look at the news behind this week’s Daily Express front pages:

Monday: “Asylum Bill Hits £726,000 A Day”

The Express says it cost the “taxpayer” £726,000 a day to house and feed asylum seekers”. These are people seeking refuge in the UK. The Express then says this is becasue “of the strong desire by migrants from around the world  to live here”. The paper soon turns aslyum seekers and the cost of caring for them into a story on legal migrant workers.

The Government says:

You must apply for asylum if you want to stay in the UK as a refugee. To be eligible you must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution… You won’t usually be allowed to work while your asylum claim is being considered.

Migrant workers are legal and can work.

The story continues on Page 7. There readers learn “one in three Met arrests is a migrant”.

The Express makes no mention of how many of these arrests end up with a charge or conviction nor how many migrants were arrested more than once. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty seems to have gone out of the window.

The Express then invites a source to opine:

Steven Woolfe, Ukip’s migration spokesman said: “It is inevitable that with high levels of immigration comes a high level of crime.”

A story on asylum seekers has been conflated with evils of migration and immigration. It’s as if the paper and its sources have an agenda.

In 2009, research concluded:

Immigrants from the eight Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in May 2004 are less likely to be claiming welfare benefits and less likely to be living in social housing than people born in the UK, according to a new paper from UCL. What is more, they have made a positive contribution to the UK fiscal system, paying more in taxes than they receive in direct and indirect public transfers (such as benefits, NHS healthcare and education).

Not all criminals, then.

 

Tuesday: “Paracetamol In New Health Alert”

TAKING a daily paracetamol tablet could put you at risk of deadly heart disease and kidney failure, a new study suggests.

The study was, reportedly, by Professor Philip Conaghan, MBBS, PhD, professor of musculoskeletal medicine, University of Leeds. He was aided by Emmert Roberts, from South London and the Maudsley Mental Health Trust, Maudsley Hospital, London. What the Express fails to note is that Prof. Conaghan told one medical organ:

Because this literature review was based on long-term observational data, there are many potential biases that could influence the results, so it cannot be called ‘hard’ data at all,” study author Philip Conaghan, MBBS, PhD… told Medscape Medical News.

“For example, one confounder that is impossible to measure is the use of over-the-counter medicines, which are usually not recorded and can include drugs with significant side effects, such as ibuprofen. Of course it’s almost impossible to get long-term data from clinical trials: They usually don’t run for many years, so we are dependent on this sort of imperfect data to explore long-term potential drug side-effects…

“[W]e should consider the benefit-risk ratio for particular conditions, and would need to see where paracetamol has demonstrated benefits. A recent study in Lancet suggested paracetamol wasn’t effective for treating acute lower back pain, although its safety was good over the 4-week period of that study,” Dr Conaghan said.

Such are the facts. And why let them stand in the way of a scary hadline?

 

Wednesday: “Arthritis Cure Is On The Way”

Just as it was in 2012.

The story tells of  cartiledge replacements within five years. Great news. It cannot come fast enough. But nowhere in the study is “five years” mentioned. And Giles Sheldrick’s front-page scoop is a rehashed press release from Arthritis Research UK.

 

Thursday: ‘How Statins Can Cause Diabetes”

But it is ok becasue in 2014 the Express reported that Diabetes has been cured. Now the paper leads:

“Pills raise the risk of getting disease by 46% say experts”

One expert says:

London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “Although the benefits are clear in reducing the risk of death in those with established heart ­disease this is not the case for a low-risk population. Millions see them as a magic pill but they are not. This research shows you are more likely to develop irreversible Type 2 diabetes than prevent a non-fatal heart attack if you are at low risk.”

If you are at low-risk…

The Express fails to record this from the research’s senior author Markku Laakso, MD, from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital:

“Even if statin treatment is increasing the risk of getting diabetes, statins are very effective in reducing cardiovascular risk. Therefore I wouldn’t make a conclusion from my study that people should stop statin treatment, especially those patients who have a history of myocardial infarction or so on.

“But what I would say is that people who are at the higher risk, if they are obese, if they have diabetes in the family, etc, should try to lower their statin dose, if possible, because high-dose statin treatment increases the risk vs lower-dose statin treatment,” he continued.

And another expert adds:

Asked to comment, Alvin C Powers, MD, from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, explained that there were limitations to the conclusions that could be drawn from this study.

Speaking as part of the Endocrine Society, he said: “The first thing is that this study did not examine the benefits of statin therapy, it examined only the risk of diabetes.”

And:

Dr. Gil Ross had these thoughts: “Based on several studies over the past five years, I’d come around to the belief that there was indeed an increased risk of diabetes consequent to statins — in the 10-15 percent range.”

 

Friday: “Keep Positive to Live Longer”

“Staying postive is the key to a longer life, scientists hve found”

So. The key to longevity is not the “the pill“, fat, butter or walking, or any other secret the Express has shared?

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and University College London studied the mental attitudes of 369 patients admitted to hospital with unstable angina and heart attacks and monitored their health for 46 months…

Professor Andrew Steptoe, who led the study, said: “Our research shows optimistic people are more likely to take advice about lifestyle changes on board, like quitting smoking and eating more healthily, and this results in better outcomes.”

So positive thinking is not the secret of long er life. Getting ill people to quit smoking and eat better might be.

“Our findings could be used to ­identify pessimistic patients and encourage them to make the necessary changes to their lifestyle that can ­ultimately lead to better health.”

Another medic adds:

“Suffering from a serious con­dition such as angina or heart attack can take a drastic emotional toll, which we know can lead to depression, further lowering the chances of a full recovery.”

And:

In their decade-long study, the researchers found 37 per cent of the most ­pessimistic patients went on to suffer further heart attacks, heart ­surgery or death in the four years after they were discharged from hospital compared with 19 per cent of the most optimistic.

This reserch – which involved asking patients who they felt about things – comes ahead of No Smoking Day on 11 March, when the BHF are urging smokers to quit for good. The Express does not mention that.

Professor Steptoe works with the British Heart Foundation. On their website you learn:

Professor Steptoe and team have found that people from lower socio-economic groups tend to suffer the biological effects of stress for longer than more affluent people, which in turn influences heart health. The researchers are now studying if a person’s socio-economic position, work stress, social support and social isolation might be important risk factors for developing heart disease.

There might be reasons why peopls are more or less positive.

Such are the facts…

Posted: 7th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


World Book Day: Salford boy banned from dressing as 50 Shades of Grey character

Playtime at a rough school

Playtime at a rough school

 

To mark World Book Day, school children are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character. Liam Scholes, 11, arrived at Sale High School dressed as Christian Grey, eponymous star of 50 Shades of Grey. He carried a mask and cable ties.

The school duly banned him from participating in themed events and the class photograph.

And that seems harsh given that in the 1930s sad-masochism was the stuff of boys comic books. Indeed 50 Shades of Grey was originally titled 50 Shades of Greyfriars, a work of Billy Bunter fan fiction:

 

bill bunter 50 shades

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 6th, March 2015 | In: Books, Reviews | Comment


At home with Mohammed Emwazi Britain’s last living executioner

emwazi

 

Having been told that Jihadi John is Mohammed Emwazi, the loveable rogue’s father is the subject of the Times‘ story: “No proof my son is Isis butcher, says father of Mohammed Emwazi.”

Which makes us wonder: where is Mo, then? Has he got in touch to dismiss the stories?

Jasem Emwazi, for it is he, has hired a lawyer in Kuwait. No, not to sell his story to the highest bidder or to auction his belongings to ghouls. That for later. The lawyer is there to stick to the facts, telling one and all:

“I am not sure that [Jihadi John] is my son. There is no proof that the man shown in the videos and photographs is my son, as the media has reported in the last few days.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 4th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Britain learns to love the Kurds as the ISIS cannibals makes a mother eat her son

For those of you still unconvinced that Islamic State is policed by depraved, murderous nutjobs comes news that jihadis fed a Kurdish fighter to his mother. The Sun leads with the news:

 

IMAG0001

 

We meet Yasir Abdulla, 36, who has left his home in Yorkshire to fight for a Kurdish homeland. Says he:

“I hate IS because of what happened to an old Kurdish woman from a nearby tribe. Her son was captured by IS fighters and taken as a prisoner to Mosul. She was determined to find her son and went to IS headquarters and asked to see him. The IS men told her to sit down because she had travelled a long way and said she should have some food before they took her to meet her son. They brought her cups of tea and fed her a meal of cooked meat, rice and soup. She thought they were kind. But they had killed him and chopped him up and after she finished the meal and asked to see her son they laughed and said, ‘You’ve just eaten him’.”

And, as ever, we hear the news that the killers do not represent Islam:

“All the tribes are united against IS. They burn people alive, they chop off people’s heads, there is no limit to their depravity. They are not Muslims, they have hijacked Islam. All they do is hate.”

He’s right. It’s tribal. It is Islam. It is nationalistic. It is far more complex than simply being a Muslim problem.

But what of the story of the poor woman who ate her son? It just ends. We want to know what happened to the mother forced into cannibalism. We want to know who did it.  We want to know if it is true. Of course, it sounds like it could be.

And what of the kurds, now called “brave” and noble, who are alone defending the West from barbarism, who with the other indigenous peoples of the area (and, yep, let’s include the Jews) are countering the notion that all of the Middle East is exclusively Arab land?

Why didn’t they have their own state, already?

In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland – generally referred to as “Kurdistan”. After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.

Who signed the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the final treaty concluding World War I. Well, Turkey, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia).

In 2010, the BBC wrote:

Could Turkish and Kurdish gangs become new ‘mafia’?

The Britsh Kurdish community is focused on Hackney and Harringey, London. The Kurds fled persecution in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, arriving in large numbers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Museum of London reports:

The Kurdish minority has frequently suffered oppression, for example in Turkey speaking Kurdish was banned from the 1920s.

A few Iraqi Kurds arrived in Britain after the 1958 coup in Iraq when the nationalist Ba’ath party seized power.

Iranians seeking asylum in London from Shi’ite Muslim Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution in 1979 included Kurds.

In 1988, thousands of Kurds were murdered with chemical weapons in the ‘Anfal’ military operations carried out under Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and some escaped to Britain when the Gulf War ended in 1991.

Kurds in Turkey are still not recognised as a separate culture and are discriminated against.

In the late 1980s Alevi Kurds began to come to Britain to escape persecution by Turkish Sunni fundamentalists.

Although Kurds in London may share political sympathies with other expatriates like the Turks, they are nevertheless determined to differentiate their culture from Turkish and other mainstream cultures.

British bureaucracy has often not distinguished Kurds from other refugees from Iran, Iraq and Turkey, so the exact number of Kurds in London is unknown.

They just need a State and a flag to be known by.

In 1999, the British State was no fan of exported Kurdish violence:

Kurdish language station Med-TV has had its licence suspended by the Independent Television Commission. The ITC said several broadcasts by the Kurdish-language company Med-TV had included calls to carry out violent acts in Turkey.

Med-TV has been given three weeks to convince the ITC to allow the station to continue broadcasting.

“The essence of these recent breaches is that the broadcasts contain calls to direct violence and criminal actions of various kinds,” ITC’s Director of Programmes and Cable, Sarah Thane, said.

The broadcasts were made after Turkey’s arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan last month. They featured messages from Kurdish leaders calling for acts of violence in Turkey.

There has been killing and mayhem in the name of Kurdistan in Turkey. But whereas once we condemned it, the West now applauds it. The Kurds have become a useful ally. We love them fighting hard for their ancestral homeland. It’s just that we don’t want them to have the land when the fighting is over. So. Thanks, Yasir, but don’t expect too much from the West…

Posted: 2nd, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)