Winckel

the witch is dead - چنین گفت دهری

mortal - kendrak

Despite my liberal views now, I valued you for much you did, divisive though you were - Winckel

Glad to see you back, Winckel, although I don't have anything positive to say about this evil creature. - Son of Groucho

Apparently they had a party to celebrate her demise in Glasgow. - Eithne Herd

i wonder when the queen is going to die? after john major and tony Blair ?! - رامین

:) - Son of Groucho

""An IC3 male": that's what the police officer called me after he stopped me. IC3 is the code for a black person. I didn't like being called an IC3, but it's better than being called a nigger. That's what 21-year-old Mauro Demetrio was called as he sat in the back of a police van in August last year. "The problem with you," said PC Alex MacFarlane, who arrested Demetrio during the summer riots, "is that you will always be a nigger … you will always have black skin colour … don't hide behind your colour." I am a patron of Newham Monitoring project, set up to keep tabs on police behaviour and racist attacks, so I knew about the Demetrio case just after it happened. The moment I heard about it I thought: this is the one! Demetrio had secretly recorded the comments; the officer would be unable to deny what he had said. Here was the incident, I believed, that would finally bring to light the reality of police racism that many of us experience all the time. This isn't the first time such a recording has been made. In 1991, Malkjit Singh Natt of Forest Gate recorded an officer saying, "go and set fire to yourself", but the case was never brought to trial. In 2005 a savvy teenager (who can't be named) recorded an officer saying he would "smash his Arab face in". That officer was not convicted either. So I had seen it all before. But this was different: this trial was in 2012, and the recording was clear. This had to be the one. But it wasn't to be. This week MacFarlane was cleared by a judge of criminal racist abuse after two consecutive juries failed to reach a verdict. Prosecutors have decided not to seek a third trial. MacFarlane's defence against the charge was that Demetrio had used the word "nigger" first, in reference to himself. MacFarlane repeated the word, he said, in a misguided attempt to turn Demetrio's life around: "I had formed an impression in my mind that he had low self-esteem," the officer said. "I wanted him to reconsider his lifestyle, to not view his skin colour as the reason behind the problems he had." Following this logic, if I saw someone in a wheelchair who I thought lacked self-esteem, I could insult them, to make them stronger. Following this logic, we would all feel better if we were insulted, even the police. I am surprised any jury members accepted it. But then for many of us IC3s or IC2s – Asian males – racist language from the police is something we expect. Last year I watched two officers stop and search an Asian man late at night. "Do I look like a terrorist?" the lad asked. "You may not look like one, but you smell like one," was the reply. There was no one recording, and now I wonder if it would have made the blindest bit of difference. What would get a policeman using such language convicted? Would the jury have to actually witness the offence themselves? Would they have to taste firsthand, as I have done many times, the abuse of power: the kickings, the false arrests, the stop and searches? This was a jury of what are called my "peers" but for them, perhaps, the police appear as upright people, there to help. That may be their cosy reality – but it's a million miles from that of many inner-city youth, who too often experience the police as an occupying force, obstructing their movement and giving them grief. I was an angry young black man once. Sometimes, when I was desperate, my anger spilt over and I smashed windows of police cars; it made me riot, it made me burn "Babylon", so I understand how many young people feel. Demetrio tried to do the right thing: he brought his case to court, he was told to have faith, and then he lost. The feeling of injustice he's going through, I have experienced too. In 2003 my cousin Mikey was killed in police custody. My family went to court too, but although the inquest verdict acknowledged that Mikey was killed by the way police restrained him, there was still no justice. I could make a list of others who have died, or been abused by police, but instead I'll quote from my own poem, What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us: "Why are we paying for a police force that will not work for us?" More than 10 years on, I am still asking that question." - Winckel

as an IC1 male I share his concern. We seem unable to convict bent cops, even with reliable photographic proof. - Winckel

"A man was arrested, handcuffed and put in a cell overnight after filming police officers apparently having a coffee break in a bar while on duty. Management trainee Jake Coplestone, 20, claims that when police handed back his iPhone containing the footage, the handset had been tampered with repeatedly in a crude attempt to crack the password – resulting in it being ‘locked’ for 42 years. But he was able to retrieve the  51-second video, and show it to The Mail on Sunday. It shows five officers relaxing late in the evening in the Azuza, a bar and coffee shop, during a weekend shift in Marlborough, Wiltshire, five weeks ago. Mr Coplestone claims that following the filming he was approached by two of the officers and accused of being drunk and disorderly, then arrested. Wiltshire Police dispute his account and claim he was warned to leave the area because he was committing a public order offence, but was arrested when he returned. However, the force last night launched an investigation into his allegation that he was arrested because he had filmed the officers.   More... Police overwhelmed by 4,000 ‘petty squabbles’ on Facebook and Twitter, with three arrests a day for offensive messages 'ID cards by the back door': Drivers face order to carry licence at all times Recalling the incident, Mr Coplestone and one of his friends said he was approached by the officers who had seen him filming. The friends say the officers discussed whether to arrest 6ft 5in Mr Coplestone under Section 60 of the Public Order Act, then decided on ‘drunk and disorderly’ after he protested. At this point, Mr Coplestone says, he was seized by one of the officers and led off to a car park behind the Azuza venue just off Marlborough High Street where police patrol vehicles were parked. Mr Coplestone says he was handcuffed and bundled into a vehicle and taken to the custody suite at Swindon. There, he claims he repeatedly asked to be breathalysed to prove that he was not drunk but that was refused. Wiltshire Police policy is to offer breathalyser tests only to drink-driving suspects. Instead, he says, he was put in a cell overnight and released the next day. Mr Coplestone says his mobile phone was returned five days later – after the intervention of his solicitor and on condition he paid an £80 fixed penalty – but it was blocked, with a screen message saying ‘iPhone is disabled, try again in 22,461,058 minutes’. With help from a software programme ironically named Jail Break, he was able to unlock the phone and retrieve the film. Azuza: Jake Coplestone filmed officers apparently having a break in the Wiltshire bar and cafe while on duty Mr Coplestone, who played rugby for a south-west England under-16 squad, said: ‘The only logical explanation for my phone being disabled for 42 years is that someone had been trying to access my files to delete the video footage of officers in the club. I was not drunk and disorderly and  I believe the only reason for my arrest was my taking footage of the officers standing at the bar. ‘I’m discussing what to do, including court action and a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, with my solicitor.’ Chief Superintendent Paul Mills, Head of Local Policing, said in a statement: ‘No formal complaint has been made and the Force have not seen the alleged footage. However, due to the serious allegations being made by Jacob Coplestone, this will now be subject to an investigation by the Force Professional Standards Department who are responsible for the oversight of all conduct matters attaining to police officers and staff.’ Ch Supt Mills said records showed Mr Coplestone chose to pay the fixed penalty rather than have the matter heard in court. Mr Coplestone’s allegations, if upheld, will add to the Wiltshire force’s tarnished reputation. The IPCC is already investigating failures in the case of murdered Becky Godden. Taxi driver Christopher Halliwell couldn’t be tried for the crime, even though he confessed, as detectives had denied him his rights under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Last year Deputy Chief Constable David Ainsworth, 49, hanged himself after 13 female staff made 26 separate complaints against him of inappropriate sexual advances." - Winckel

routine police corruption seems to me to be one of the greatest issues facing the UK - Winckel

"On the way to the Apple Store today to buy AppleCare+ for my wife’s new iPhone 5, we passed the new Microsoft Store, coincidentally in the middle of their Surface with Windows RT launch. (That is actually the product’s name. “Surface with Windows RT”.) They had set up a table and an Xbox demo in the hallway and were giving away “Microsoft Surface”-branded disposable rain ponchos (this entire mall is indoors, including the parking, and it didn’t rain today) and muffin fragments (much like when you order a soda on a plane, they pour a third of it into a little plastic cup full of hollow ice cylinders, and they don’t let you keep the rest of the can). An employee with a microphone in front of the Xbox kiosk was talking to the audience of nobody as if it were a dance party. The store is creepy: so many elements are embarrassingly similar to the Apple Store on the next floor. Microsoft even ripped off trivial elements that easily could have been different, such as the employee uniform. There’s a huge elephant in the room, and we can all see it, but Microsoft still implicitly denies it. There were far more employees than customers, and I was curious, so I thought I’d stop in to take a look at Microsoft’s new tablet. The employees in the store were overly enthusiastic, especially for 3:47 PM, and practically mobbed anyone who entered. “HEY! WELCOME TO THE MICROSOFT STORE! WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY THE NEW SURFACE?” The salesman launched into an elaborate pitch. He wasn’t a confident speaker, so the rote was obvious. I wanted to jump right in and start playing with the software, but the salesman kept butting in and driving “my” demo. The first thing he had me do was detach and reattach the keyboard cover. Click. He sold the keyboard cover hard. “Nobody else has a cover like this.” The staff loved Adam so much that he later vomited in the Apple Store. The salesman then showed off the kickstand and started flipping through the applications himself. I wondered if this was how the press got to “use” the Surface before today. When we finally broke the salesman’s concentration so we could pick it up and start playing with it, Tiff and I both had the same first impression: it’s heavy. On paper, it’s 1.5 pounds (without the half-pound keyboard), like the iPad 1 and a bit heavier than the iPad 3. But it’s not just heavy: it feels dense, like the iPhone 4 and 4S (and notably not like the iPhone 5). Like the Zune, the Surface might always be competing with the previous-generation iPad. Microsoft has approximately matched the weight of the already-too-heavy iPad 3 right as Apple is releasing the far lighter iPad Mini. (And Microsoft just launched this tablet at $500 as everyone else is moving to much lower pricing.) I tried rotating the Surface. There was a long enough delay that I thought rotation just wasn’t supported, then it kicked in and the newly laid out screen just popped in. No transition, no animation. I switched to a different app and tried the same thing with the same results. Rotation was always slow and sloppy. My demo was interrupted as another employee walked through the store, shouting enthusiastically, “WE HAVE WORKSHOPS IN THE BACK!” Nobody followed him there. The diagonally-oriented camera is strange. In the one orientation it’s optimized for, it’s slightly annoying. In any other orientation, it’s almost intolerable. If I brought home a Surface and didn’t know this was a design decision, I might assume the camera was broken and return it. The maps app is very sluggish and doesn’t use vector graphics, making it feel old. iOS is so responsive and so liberal with animations that it has a very tactile feel, and rather than thinking “tap this button to open” or “swipe across this box to share”, conceptually, you just move the things on the screen with your fingers. The distinction seems subtle, but it’s important. Every action on the Surface feels deliberate. It feels like you’re using a computer. The standard gestures don’t help, requiring many in-from-the-edge swipes that not only aren’t discoverable but also frequently conflict with scrolling. My gestures often didn’t work, and it wasn’t clear whether there just wasn’t a hidden context menu at that moment or I just screwed up the swipe. Most of the animations also aren’t helpful, with minimal spatial consistency. Many animations seem arbitrary, not hinting at anything behaviorally useful. Microsoft has applied animations and gestures in Windows 8 about as effectively as they applied color in Windows XP and transparency in Windows Vista: they knew that Apple had been successful with these features, so they made a checklist and just applied them haphazardly. “Apple does animations, so now we do animations! Apple does gestures, so now we have gestures!” An employee was stationed by these big letters on the floor to instruct people to exit to the left, rather than stepping over them. I’ve never been given instructions on how to exit “other stores”. The keyboards are both decent but unmemorable. Every Surface had its own Touch Cover (no physical key movement), and the employees were frantically passing around a single Type Cover (traditional slim keys). Since everyone wanted to try the Type Cover, I only got a few seconds with it, but it was comparable to good iPad keyboards like Logitech’s. The Touch Cover is one of the Surface’s biggest innovations. I thought I would hate it, but I didn’t. It’s not like typing on a completely flat surface: each “key” is raised slightly, so while there isn’t any mechanical feedback, it does feel a bit like a keyboard. But since it responds to touches rather than mechanical pressure, you can’t rest your fingers on it without triggering key presses. Your fingers must hover over it, which makes it easy to get misaligned from your expected positions and type a bunch of wrong characters. I had a hard time keeping alignment when I needed to stretch for the boundary keys, including Shift. Every time I typed a capital letter, I mistyped the next few letters. I couldn’t type on the Touch Cover significantly faster than with the on-screen keyboard, so I question its purpose. Moreover, since the Touch Cover and Type Cover are so close in price and nearly indistinguishable in size and weight, I’m not sure why the Touch Cover exists at all other than to be different from “other tablets”. I don’t know why someone would get it instead of the Type Cover. I went to another Surface and was greeted by another salesman. He also aggressively demoed the tablet for me, not letting me take over for more than three seconds at a time. It was obvious that they had all had the same training and were instructed to hard-sell the same talking points. The pitches were aggressive, fast-paced, and competitively defensive: they often mentioned “other tablets” and didn’t let me forget which features were “not available on any other tablet”. He kept showing me the home screen and how to rearrange my icons, even though I kept wanting to explore the apps. He showed me Office, which was almost unusable: it was extremely sluggish, and touch targets were tiny and difficult to hit. He said this was the only tablet that could run Office, and if you used Office at work, this was therefore the only tablet that you could use at work. I played dumb. He asked what kind of computer I had at home. I told him the truth: that I used to have PCs, but now I had an old Mac and wanted to see the newer options out there. He showed me the L-shaped magnetic power connector, which can be plugged in either way, and showed how the magnet safely disconnects when the cable is pulled. It was vaguely familiar, but I continued to play dumb. I asked about 3G options, which the Surface doesn’t have. He said it would restrict me from being able to use it anywhere (?), so I pushed a little further, and he said nobody wants two bills and you can just use tethering and why mess with the pesky 3G connection? He started selling me on the screen quality, saying it had a better screen than any other tablet. I asked, “What do you mean? Which other tablets?” I couldn’t get him to say “iPad”, but he did say it was better than “Retina screens”. I broke character slightly. “I don’t know, I saw the Retina iPad upstairs and I can’t see the pixels at all on it. On here, I can see the pixels clearly.” “No you can’t. Where can you see the individual pixels?” “Right there. See, the left stroke on that capital ‘D’ has one solid pixel on the left and a half-shaded pixel on the right.” He scaled the icon up to “zoom in”, which, of course, changes what the physical pixels display. “I can’t see any pixels!” I gave up. It was like arguing with a Tea Partier. But I figured, now that I had broken character a little, I’d risk a bit more. “Did you apply to work at the Apple Store upstairs first, or did you always want to work here?” “No, I went right here. Always been a PC guy. I like being able to customize things, like upgrading my sound card—” I couldn’t resist. “Oh, can you upgrade the sound card in the Surface?” “No, but… I started working here before the Surface came out.” (This Microsoft Store opened 28 days ago.) “But you can add more RAM to this, right over here, this is an SDXC slot, which means Extra Capacity.” Like John Moltz, I’m left to ask the question: why buy a Surface instead of an iPad? For the price, you can almost buy two baseline iPad Minis. Or you can buy a 32 GB iPad Mini with LTE and a Smart Cover. But I don’t think many Surface buyers are going to comparison-shop with the iPad, or vice versa. It’s very clear who the Surface is for, and it’s not us. The Surface is partially for Microsoft’s world of denial: the world in which this store contains no elephants and Microsoft invented the silver store with the glass front and the glowing logo and blue shirts and white lanyards and these table layouts and the modern tablet and its magnetic power cable. In that world, this is a groundbreaking new tablet that you can finally use at work and leave your big creaky plastic Dell laptop behind when you go to the conference room to have a conference call on the starfish phone with all of the wires and dysfunctional communication. But it’s also for people like that salesman who don’t agree with Apple’s choices: people who want to have more hardware options, more customization, more hackability, and fewer people saying “no” to what they can do on their devices. Apple’s products say, “You can’t do that because we think it would suck.” Microsoft’s products say, “We’ll let you try to do anything on anything if you really want to, even if it sucks.” People who dislike Apple’s approach or whose requirements are incompatible with it will always exist in great numbers, and the Surface is for them. It’ll probably sell well, especially if Microsoft can expand their retail presence quickly. But it’s not for me at all. Not even for testing, experimenting, or curiosity. It feels too much like using a Windows PC, which was exactly Microsoft’s intention, and it will appeal to people who want that. But that’s a world I fled 8 years ago with no intention of returning." - Winckel

Thank you, Mina, all the best to you and yours! - Stephan Planken

Hopefully not what this Winter has in store for us! - Son of Groucho

bondage barbie?? - Winckel

O_O - CarlC

#Hello Winckel ! :) - Ouistitis

Hi Ouistitis - Winckel

Former company director Colin Farmer, 61, was hit in the back by 50,000 volt stun device and then handcuffed whilst on his way to met friends for a drink in his local pub. Police had earlier been dispatched after reports of a man roaming around Chorley town centre in Lancs armed with a sword. A patrolman spotted stroke victim Mr Farmer walking down the street using his white stick to get around and wrongly assumed he was the swordsman. Today Mr Farmer who used to run an architect's practise said he had made a formal complaint and is pursuing legal action against Lancashire Police which has apologised and begun an investigation. "The whole thing was like being trapped in a nightmare," said said Mr Farmer, a Fellow of The Instute of directors for 20 years. "I didn't even know the police were there. I heard this man shouting. I thought they were shouting at some people. "I certainly didn't know they were police - and I certainly didn't know they were shouting at me. "I thought I was going to be attacked by some hooligans. The next thing they fired a Taser at me, though I didn't know it was a taser at the time. "I just felt this thump in my back. As soon as the taser hit me I hit the ground. "I hit my head on the floor, then this policeman came around. I said 'I'm blind, I'm blind. I'm blind'. "This policeman knelt on me and dragged my arms round my back and handcuffed me so tight I've had bruises since. "I said 'you're hurting me, I'm blind' - and there's no way he could not have seen my stick on the floor. "I walk at a snail's pace. They could have walked past me, driven past me in the van, or said drop your weapon. "It's a sad excuse. They wouldn't even stop when I said I'm blind. I was absolutely terrified. I thought any second I'm going to have another stroke and this one will kill me." Mr Farmer's horrific ordeal began at about 5.45pm on Friday. He was walking along Peter Street close to the Parmesan and Pepper restaurant when the incident took place. After he was tasered Mr Farmer was taken to Chorley Hospital for treatment and was later released. He said the explanations police gave him for their actions was that they had received reports of someone wielding a Samurai sword. Mr Farmer has suffered two strokes - one in November 2008, and another in March this year, when he spent two month in hospital. Chief Supt Stuart Williams, of Chorley Police said the matter had been referred to the IPCC, adding: "On Friday evening we received a number of reports that a man was walking through Chorley armed with a samurai sword. ''A description of the offender was circulated to officers and patrols were sent to look for the man. "One of the officers who arrived in Chorley believed he had located the offender. Despite asking the man to stop, he failed to do so and the officer discharged his taser. "It then became apparent that this man was not the person we were looking for and officers attended to him straight away. ''He was taken to Chorley Hospital by police officers who stayed with him whilst he was checked over by medics. They then took him to meet his friends in Chorley at his request. "Lancashire Constabulary deeply regrets what has happened. We have clearly put this man through a traumatic experience and we are extremely sorry for that. ''Officers have remained in contact with him and his family over the past few days to enquire about his recovery and we will continue to keep in touch with him and keep him informed of our inquiry. "We have launched an urgent investigation to understand what lessons can be learned and the matter has also been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission." - Winckel

It's worth reading the detail of this, not just the headline. These people shouldn't be let on the streets. - Winckel

The retailer's advert, using the tag "For every woman you are", features models ranging from size 8 to 16 who are supposed to portray the body shapes of real Marks and Spencer customers. But online comments have criticised the advert for Shapewear control underwear, which is designed to help women smooth out their curves, it was reported. M&S has dropped its celebrity models, including Twiggy and Myleene Klass, for the latest campaign - to focus on "real" women. It features ten models including a grey-haired 56-year-old, Yasmina Rossi. But the Shapewear campaign has led to a backlash by some customers, the Daily Mail reported. One wrote on Twitter: "It annoys me that there is only one curvy model on the M+S ad and five skinny rakes". Another wrote: "Only one of these is over size 14 and even she has no wobbly bits at all." Another comment, on the M&S Facebook page, said: "The whole 'plus size' model rigmarole is a bit devious. These women are models. "They are just bigger models than most of the other ones. But they are still glamazons with great proportions, long legs, toned bodies. They need to know those 'plus size models' are not the norm either." However, others praised the campaign, with one woman writing: "I would just like to thank M&S for using models that are not just size 0. Well done M&S." The retailer said that the size and shape of the models in the image had not been digitally altered. A spokesman said: "We're really proud of our campaign, which celebrates women, and our customers have told us they love it too." - Winckel

Real Women!!! Get real, women are humans they grow old and will have wobbly bits just like men. - Nemo

"It is the type of planet they've been searching for across the Milky Way galaxy and they found it circling a star right next door – 25 trillion miles away. But the Earthlike planet is so hot its surface may be like molten lava. Life cannot survive the 2,200 degree heat of the planet, so close to its star that it circles it every few days. The astronomers who found it say it's likely there are other planets circling the same star, a little farther away where it may be cool enough for water and life. And those planets might fit the not-too-hot, not-too-cold description sometimes call the Goldilocks Zone. That means that in the star system Alpha Centauri B, a just-right planet could be closer than astronomers had once imagined. It's so close that from some southern places on Earth, you can see Alpha Centauri B in the night sky without a telescope. But it's still so far that a trip there using current technology would take tens of thousands of years. But the wow factor of finding such a planet so close has some astronomers already talking about how to speed up a 25 trillion-mile rocket trip there. Scientists have already started pressuring NASA and the European Space Agency to come up with missions to send something out that way to get a look at least. The research was released online Tuesday in the journal Nature. There has been a European-US competition to find the nearest and most Earthlike exoplanets – planets outside our solar system. So far scientists have found 842 of them, but think they number in the billions. While the newly discovered planet circles Alpha Centauri B, it's part of a system of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, B and the slightly more distant Proxima Centauri. Systems with two or more stars are more common than single stars like our sun, astronomers say. This planet has the smallest mass – a measurement of weight that doesn't include gravity – that has been found outside our solar system so far. With a mass of about 1.1 times the size of Earth, it is strikingly similar in size. Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, who heads the European planet-hunting team, said this means "there's a very good prospect of detecting a planet in the habitable zone that is very close to us." And one of the European team's main competitors, Geoff Marcy of the University of California Berkeley, gushed even more about the scientific significance. "This is a historic discovery," he wrote in an email. "There could well be an Earth-size planet in that Goldilocks sweet spot, not too cold and not too hot, making Alpha Centauri a compelling target to search for intelligent life." Harvard planet-hunter David Charbonneau and others used the same word to describe the discovery: "Wow." Charbonneau said when it comes to looking for interesting exoplanets "the single most important consideration is the distance from us to the star" and this one is as close as you can get. He said astronomers usually impress the public by talking about how far away things are, but this is not, at least in cosmic terms. Alpha Centauri was the first place the private Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence program looked in its decade-long hunt for radio signals that signify alien intelligent life. Nothing was found, but that doesn't mean nothing is there, said SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak. The European team spent four years using the European southern Observatory in Chile to look for planets at Alpha Centauri B and its sister stars Alpha Centauri A and Proxima Centauri. They used a technique that finds other worlds by looking for subtle changes in a star's speed as it races through the galaxy. Part of the problem is that the star is so close and so bright – though not as bright as the sun – that it made it harder to look for planets, said study lead author Xavier Dumusque of the Geneva Observatory. One astronomer who wasn't part of the research team, wondered in a companion article in Nature if the team had enough evidence to back such an extraordinary claim. But other astronomers said they had no doubt and Udry said the team calculated that there was only a 1-in-1,000 chance that they were wrong about the planet and that something else was causing the signal they saw. Finding such a planet close by required a significant stroke of good luck, said University of California Santa Cruz astronomer Greg Laughlin. Dumusque described what it might be like on this odd and still unnamed hot planet. Its closest star is so near that it would always hang huge in the sky. And whichever side of the planet faced the star would be broiling hot, with the other side icy cold. Because of the mass of the planet, it's likely a rocky surface like Earth, Dumusque said. But the rocks would be "more like lava, like a lava planet." "If there are any inhabitants there, they're made of asbestos," joked Shostak." - Winckel

"Rose endured a nightmare evening as the England under-21s secured qualification for Euro 2013 on a night marred by sickening chants and a mass brawl after the final whistle, revealing he had also been pelted with stones during the second half. The Tottenham midfielder, on loan at Sunderland, was dismissed at the end for kicking the ball into the stands, his second bookable offence, and made gestures with his hands under in his armpits in a response to the disgraceful abuse as he left the field. The 22 year-old was also confronted by Serbian players, resulting in an ugly brawl involving players and staff from both sides. Steve Wigley, Pearce's assistant, was attacked as he attempted to retreat to the tunnel while goalkeeping coach Martin Thomas also appeared to be headbutted. England goalkeeper Jack Butland had a seat thrown at him. Rose has revealed he and his team-mates had heard monkey chants before the game had even kicked off and insists the Serbian Football Association must be punished by Uefa. RELATED ARTICLES 1pm: Henry Winter international football webchat 17 Oct 2012 'Serbia have nothing to apologise for' 17 Oct 2012 England U21s run gauntlet of Serbian race hate 16 Oct 2012 Rose subjected to monkey chants 17 Oct 2012 Henry Winter: Uefa must take villains to task 16 Oct 2012 England players abused and headbutted 16 Oct 2012 He said: "The monkey chants started when we went out for the warm-up. I asked the lads if they could hear it and they said they could. I went to see 'Wigs' [Steve Wigley] and I told him what was happening and he just said 'try your best to get through it' and people would deal with it after the game. "In the first half I went to get the ball for a throw-in and the fans started with the monkey chanting again. But the first half was nowhere near as bad as the second. Two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in and whenever I touched the ball there was monkey chanting. "After 60 minutes my mind wasn't really on the game, I was just so angry. It was just so hard to concentrate and I could have cost the lads the game because I made a few mistakes through not concentrating. My mind wasn't on the game. "After 90 minutes of abuse I expressed my emotions as soon as we scored. The next thing I know I've turned around and the Serbian players had all run over and surrounded me, pushing me and a brawl broke out. "I remember getting slapped twice and then I got ushered away – that's when I kicked the ball and the referee sent me off. I don't understand it, the game had finished. "They have to be banned. I don't understand what else they can learn from it, they have to be banned." The FA have already demanded action from Uefa, while the Professional Footballers Association and Kick It Out have also called on Serbia to be banned. In 2007 the Serbian Football Federation was fined £16,000 at the Under-21 European Championship in Netherlands after their supporters racially abused England's Nedum Onouha." - Winckel

I find this utterly disgraceful - these serb fans who used or condone racist abuse need to just crawl back into their hole. They have no role in sport. - Winckel

Apple on Tuesday announced a special event to be held on October 23, 2012 in San Jose. The event is scheduled to take place at 10:00 am PT. Unlike other recent events that have been held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple will hold this event at the California Theatre in San Jose . It is widely expected that Apple will use this event to unveil a smaller form-factor iPad. - Winckel

Scuttlepad: Twitter for Kids http://appscout.pcmag.com/mobile-... - chaz2b

The Conservative chief whip will meet leaders of the backbenchers 1922 committee amid growing anger among its executive over the way his outburst at police has dominated the headlines in recent weeks. Mr Mitchell is facing calls to quit after repeatedly refusing to disclose exactly what he recalls saying to police officers who stopped him cycling through the main gates to Downing Street. It was alleged that he called police “f****** plebs” and “morons” but Mr Mitchell has denied using “the words attributed” to him. He stayed away from the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham last week despite being the party’s only MP in the area, but this failed to quell speculation over his future. On Wednesday, Mr Mitchell faces the toughest test of his authority since the row erupted. He is certain to be barracked by Labour MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions and will also meet senior backbenchers to hear the mood among his Conservative colleagues. The “1922 Committee” of Conservative MPs will meet to discuss any concerns they have over Mr Mitchell, and other issues, on Wednesday. One senior MP said that a delegation from the committee would then meet with Mr Mitchell to relay details from the meeting. “He is not a credible figure,” the MP said. “He is doing so much reputational damage to the party and to David Cameron." However, it will be “difficult” for Cameron to sack Mr Mitchell after refusing to do so for so long. “We are not happy with Andrew Mitchell. Locally, everybody is asking questions: ‘Why is this guy still in a job?’ The ’22 is there for backbenchers to raise anything and everything. “There are a lot who are still talking about Andrew Mitchell and who are cross.” Should Andrew Mitchell step down? Yes No Vote View Results Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, may also be asked to raise backbench concerns over Mr Mitchell with the Prime Minister during their regular discussions. However, up to 10 ministers, including two in the Cabinet, believe he cannot continue in his post as chief whip, responsible for enforcing discipline among Tory MPs. One Cabinet minister said Mr Mitchell’s position was “completely undermined” while another said it would be better if he quit “sooner rather than later”. Parliament returns this week giving MPs their first opportunity to express their concerns directly to Mr Mitchell since the controversy. Mr Mitchell met representatives from his local police forces in his Sutton Coldfield constituency on Friday in an attempt to clear the air. But he declined once again to disclose exactly what he remembers saying during the row, insisting only that he did not use the language that had been reported. The Police Federation have said that Mr Mitchell may be called to give evidence to Scotland Yard because he is implying that the Downing Street officers made “a false report”. An investigation should take place into allegations of wrongdoing by the police, the Federation argued. However, senior Conservatives rallied to Mr Mitchell’s defence yesterday, accusing the Police Federation of attempting to use the controversy to damage the government in retaliation for public spending cuts. Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, said it was time to move on from the row claimed it was "a mistake" for the Police Federation to "try to use this in the way they are". “It’s clearly very unfortunate, what happened in the first place, with Andrew in Downing Street,” he said. “It was very unfortunate, his conduct was unacceptable, he’s accepted that. He’s apologised. I think really the matter should be left there. “I think it’s a mistake for the Police Federation to be trying to use this in the way that they are.” Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party Chairman, said Mr Mitchell was wrong to have been rude to the police, but claimed he had not received a single complaint about the chief whip from “a single MP”. “Clearly he shouldn’t have been rude,” he said. “It’s time to draw a line and move on.” - Winckel

:-) - Winckel

There sure are a lot of cats in that capsule - COMPLICATED MR. NOODLE

:-) - Winckel

:-D - Visconte Cobram

Женское движение FEMEN возмущено чудовищным инцидентом связанным с обстрелом религиозными фанатиками юной пакистанской правозащитницы Малалы Юсуфзаи. FEMEN желает скорейшего выздоровления маленькой героине и призывает мировую общественность к анализу подлинных причин преступлений против женщин на Ближнем Востоке. Ответственность за геноцид женщин в Пакистане должны нести не отдельные варварские группировки (как нам пытаются преподнести), а официальный Исламабад, с его теократическим исламским режимом. Религиозная нетерпимость к женщине становится вдвойне опасней, когда она признается и поощряется государством, как официальная идеология. Сегодня любой, кто поддерживает исламские политические режимы должен понимать,что он является палачом для миллионов женщин и девочек, замкнутых в тухлом религиозном гетто Ближнего Востока. - Winckel

The visual style of the poster somehow reminds me also some kind of radicalism but in opposite direction, I don't know. In general I miss something in their protests and actions anyway [maybe I have a problem with a neo-feminist movement which has "MEN" in it]. They gain popularity but I am not quite sure if they "really" gonna reach anything (I hope so). I guess most people see them as screaming naked women and most men see them as just boobs. Maybe they will be heard by this way of protesting but I am afraid in few years it will become indifferent. - Mistaken Identity

"Billy Graham last night endorsed Mitt Romney for president, and shortly thereafter, his website was scrubbed of a statement Graham or his organization made calling Mormonism a “cult.” “It was an honor to meet and host Governor Romney in my home today, especially since I knew his late father former Michigan Governor George Romney, whom I considered a friend,” the 93-year old Christian Evangelist Southern Baptist minister said via a statement. ”I have followed Mitt Romney’s career in business, the Olympic Games, as governor of Massachusetts and, of course, as a candidate for president of the United States.” “What impresses me even more than Governor Romney’s successful career are his values and strong moral convictions. I appreciate his faithful commitment to his impressive family, particularly his wife Ann of 43 years and his five married sons. “It was a privilege to pray with Governor Romney—for his family and our country. I will turn 94 the day after the upcoming election, and I believe America is at a crossroads. I hope millions of Americans will join me in praying for our nation and to vote for candidates who will support the biblical definition of marriage, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms.” As of June 5, 2010, if not much earlier, Billy Graham’s website stated: A cult is any group which teaches doctrines or beliefs that deviate from the biblical message of the Christian faith. It is very important that we recognize cults and avoid any involvement with them. Cults often teach some Christian truth mixed with error, which may be difficult to detect. There are some features common to most cults: • They do not adhere solely to the sixty-six books of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. They add their “special revelations” to the Bible and view them as equally authoritative. • They do not accept that our relationship to Jesus Christ is a reality “by grace through faith” alone, but promote instead a salvation by works. • They do not give Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, full recognition as the second Person of the Trinity, composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Some of these groups are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church, Unitarians, Spiritists, Scientologists, and others. [Bolding ours] Today, the Sacramento Bee and other media outlets, including Graham’s own website, posted Graham’s statement endorsing Mitt Romney for president, and two commenters posted a link to the 2010 Graham statement classifying the Mormon religion as a cult. Hours later, that page no longer exists:   A Google webcache of that page confirms its prior existence, and an Archive.org webcache first crawled that page on June 5, 2010. Here’s a screenshot of the Google web cache:   Additionally, a search for the word “Mormon” on Billy Graham’s website identifies six pages, yet none of those pages have the word “Mormon” on them as of this writing, yet most of them still have the word “cult” on them. Billy Graham is 93 years old and in frail health. He’s been in and out of hospitals as recently as August. It is unlikely that Billy Graham actually wrote the statement his organization released in his name. Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, earlier this year was widely condemned for comments he made on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” when he strongly questioned President Barack Obama’s faith as a Christian. “I can’t say categorically,” if Obama is a Christian, the younger Graham stated. Franklin Graham was present yesterday during the Romney visit, as the image, right, shows. Billy Graham has been a spiritual adviser to numerous presidents since Truman. Unsurprisingly, Graham, a televangelist pioneer, is devoutly anti-gay, and in May, just prior to the North Carolina vote to ban same-sex marriage in their constitution passed, released full-page anti-gay marriage ads in 14 newspapers supporting North Carolina’s Amendment One banning marriage equality in that state permanently." - Winckel

Probably that's how satan takes over America as my good friend Sanatorium prophesied :-) - Winckel

:-) - Winckel

Sorry Google is already doing that. - CW