Tag: uk

Media Lens – ‘Damning Evidence’ Becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed Report On Congenital Birth Defects In Iraq


News analysis and media criticism

In a 2010 alert, ‘Beyond Hiroshima – The Non-Reporting Of Fallujah’s Cancer Catastrophe’, we noted the almost non-existent media response to the publication of a new study that had found high rates of infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city. The dramatic increases in these rates exceeded even those found in survivors of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn was a lone exception in reporting these awful findings. 

The War Is Responsible – ‘No Other Explanation’

The new WHO/MOH report was originally due to be published in November 2012, but it was indefinitely postponed with no satisfactory reason given. Months passed. Meanwhile, in March 2013, the BBC included areport on its World News channel about birth defects and cancer in Iraq. BBC reporter Yalda Hakim interviewed Dr Mushin Sabbak at Basra Maternity Hospital. He told her that he believed that ‘mercury, lead, uranium’ from the war were responsible for a 60 per cent increase in birth defects there since 2003. ‘We have no other explanation than this,’ he added. (An edited version of the World News segment appearedhere on BBC News.)

Chemical weapons use. Let’s prosecute!

Oh wait a minute it seems that it may have been America and Britain…

*silence and tumbleweed*

It must be nice being The Good Guys. Can’t do any wrong.

Media Lens – ‘Damning Evidence’ Becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed Report On Congenital Birth Defects In Iraq

Media Lens – ‘Damning Evidence’ Becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed Report On Congenital Birth Defects In Iraq


News analysis and media criticism

In a 2010 alert, ‘Beyond Hiroshima – The Non-Reporting Of Fallujah’s Cancer Catastrophe’, we noted the almost non-existent media response to the publication of a new study that had found high rates of infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city. The dramatic increases in these rates exceeded even those found in survivors of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn was a lone exception in reporting these awful findings. 

The War Is Responsible – ‘No Other Explanation’

The new WHO/MOH report was originally due to be published in November 2012, but it was indefinitely postponed with no satisfactory reason given. Months passed. Meanwhile, in March 2013, the BBC included areport on its World News channel about birth defects and cancer in Iraq. BBC reporter Yalda Hakim interviewed Dr Mushin Sabbak at Basra Maternity Hospital. He told her that he believed that ‘mercury, lead, uranium’ from the war were responsible for a 60 per cent increase in birth defects there since 2003. ‘We have no other explanation than this,’ he added. (An edited version of the World News segment appearedhere on BBC News.)

Chemical weapons use. Let’s prosecute!

Oh wait a minute it seems that it may have been America and Britain…

*silence and tumbleweed*

It must be nice being The Good Guys. Can’t do any wrong.

Media Lens – ‘Damning Evidence’ Becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed Report On Congenital Birth Defects In Iraq


Even though the derivation for the word Blighty, as a slang term for Britain, most likely comes from a corruption of the word vilayati, it is a source of amusement to me that blight is also a plant disease which is “a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs”

What Britain did to her colonies, discuss.

Even though the derivation for the word Blighty, as a slang term for Britain, most likely comes from a corruption of the word vilayati, it is a source of amusement to me that blight is also a plant disease which is “a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs”

What Britain did to her colonies, discuss.

Reading the Riots | UK news | The Guardian


A data-driven study into the causes and consequences of the August riots

This is all essential research for those who are interested in gaining a real understanding of what happened after the murder of Mark Duggan by the police in the summer of 2011.

Reading the Riots | UK news | The Guardian

Reading the Riots | UK news | The Guardian


A data-driven study into the causes and consequences of the August riots

This is all essential research for those who are interested in gaining a real understanding of what happened after the murder of Mark Duggan by the police in the summer of 2011.

Reading the Riots | UK news | The Guardian

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation


Glenn Greenwald: The detention of my partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended

This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism. It’s bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It’s worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by. But the UK puppets and their owners in the US national security state obviously are unconstrained by even those minimal scruples.

If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further. Beyond that, every time the US and UK governments show their true character to the world – when they prevent the Bolivian President’s plane from flying safely home, when they threaten journalists with prosecution, when they engage in behavior like what they did today – all they do is helpfully underscore why it’s so dangerous to allow them to exercise vast, unchecked spying power in the dark.

Terrible but as a friend pointed out to me poc get arrested and detained for no reason every day of the year. 

So this is terrible but we live in a terrible fucking world.

So that would be a reason to defy all of this.

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation


Glenn Greenwald: The detention of my partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended

This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism. It’s bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It’s worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by. But the UK puppets and their owners in the US national security state obviously are unconstrained by even those minimal scruples.

If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further. Beyond that, every time the US and UK governments show their true character to the world – when they prevent the Bolivian President’s plane from flying safely home, when they threaten journalists with prosecution, when they engage in behavior like what they did today – all they do is helpfully underscore why it’s so dangerous to allow them to exercise vast, unchecked spying power in the dark.

Terrible but as a friend pointed out to me poc get arrested and detained for no reason every day of the year. 

So this is terrible but we live in a terrible fucking world.

So that would be a reason to defy all of this.

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation

Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours


David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act

So the family of journalists are terrorists now?

Excellent work Britain you are doing a great job protecting our freedoms…

Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours

Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours


David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act

So the family of journalists are terrorists now?

Excellent work Britain you are doing a great job protecting our freedoms…

Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours

New threat posed to Shaker Aamer


Letters: He has suffered over 11 years of illegal imprisonment. He must not be sent for further abuse or even death in Saudi Arabia

So it seems that Saudi Arabia may be the rug under which the American Security Forces are attempting to sweep Mr. Shaker Aamer.

This seems to be a touch, what’s the word, inhuman?

New threat posed to Shaker Aamer

New threat posed to Shaker Aamer


Letters: He has suffered over 11 years of illegal imprisonment. He must not be sent for further abuse or even death in Saudi Arabia

So it seems that Saudi Arabia may be the rug under which the American Security Forces are attempting to sweep Mr. Shaker Aamer.

This seems to be a touch, what’s the word, inhuman?

New threat posed to Shaker Aamer

Can ‘geek parties’ save you money?


In our modern gadget-obsessed society, we are often more likely to wait to get a new product, rather than attempt to repair our current one when it is broken.

Restart is an international movement which aims to buck this trend. It educates people on how to do basic repairs to everyday objects, from digital cameras to kettles.

At “parties” around the world, experts gather to help people who bring along broken items.

They do the repairs themselves, while demonstrating what they are doing, to demystify the process.

LJ Rich went to a Restart party in Camden, London, to learn more.

This is wonderful. Restart Parties for all!

More details here: The Restart Project

Can ‘geek parties’ save you money?

Can ‘geek parties’ save you money?


In our modern gadget-obsessed society, we are often more likely to wait to get a new product, rather than attempt to repair our current one when it is broken.

Restart is an international movement which aims to buck this trend. It educates people on how to do basic repairs to everyday objects, from digital cameras to kettles.

At “parties” around the world, experts gather to help people who bring along broken items.

They do the repairs themselves, while demonstrating what they are doing, to demystify the process.

LJ Rich went to a Restart party in Camden, London, to learn more.

This is wonderful. Restart Parties for all!

More details here: The Restart Project

Can ‘geek parties’ save you money?

Sorry, Britain: Bain Capital Now Owns the Majority of Your Blood Plasma Supply


“Is there no limit to what and how this coalition government will privatise?” exclaimed former UK Health Minister.

This is surely one of the oddest stories of the day.

Sorry, Britain: Bain Capital Now Owns the Majority of Your Blood Plasma Supply

Sorry, Britain: Bain Capital Now Owns the Majority of Your Blood Plasma Supply


“Is there no limit to what and how this coalition government will privatise?” exclaimed former UK Health Minister.

This is surely one of the oddest stories of the day.

Sorry, Britain: Bain Capital Now Owns the Majority of Your Blood Plasma Supply

UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year


UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year by Gizmodo UK. The on-off, up-down, will-they-won’t-they issue of porn filtering looks like it’s about to come to some sort of (throbbing) head, with the latest governmen 0.

If I ever return to the UK I will be opting in with great glee and lack of shame. Just to defend my right and others right to privacy of course…

UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year

UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year


UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year by Gizmodo UK. The on-off, up-down, will-they-won’t-they issue of porn filtering looks like it’s about to come to some sort of (throbbing) head, with the latest governmen 0.

If I ever return to the UK I will be opting in with great glee and lack of shame. Just to defend my right and others right to privacy of course…

UK ISPs Enforcing “Opt-in” Porn Filtering From the End of the Year

Imprison the Royal Family and Abolish the Monarchy


As the world waits with bated breath for the emergence of the latest—and cutest—member of the British Royal Family, allow us to put forth a gentle reminder: In a just world, this innocent child would be going up for adoption, since its family would have been imprisoned for crimes against humanity.

I like this because it’s angry.

Imprison the Royal Family and Abolish the Monarchy

Imprison the Royal Family and Abolish the Monarchy


As the world waits with bated breath for the emergence of the latest—and cutest—member of the British Royal Family, allow us to put forth a gentle reminder: In a just world, this innocent child would be going up for adoption, since its family would have been imprisoned for crimes against humanity.

I like this because it’s angry.

Imprison the Royal Family and Abolish the Monarchy


Reporter 1 – So, you’ve received the same official email that I have received. I’ve already read out the details of that email. Could you now read out the details of that email in a similar way using slightly different words?
–
Reporter 2 – Of course and I’ll also pepper it with some generalisations from a fact pack I was given by an underpaid researcher and finish it off with a description of the crowd that everybody at home can see behind me.
–
Reporter 1 – Thank you so much.

real news fresh from The Fourth Estate.

Reporter 1 – So, you’ve received the same official email that I have received. I’ve already read out the details of that email. Could you now read out the details of that email in a similar way using slightly different words?
–
Reporter 2 – Of course and I’ll also pepper it with some generalisations from a fact pack I was given by an underpaid researcher and finish it off with a description of the crowd that everybody at home can see behind me.
–
Reporter 1 – Thank you so much.

real news fresh from The Fourth Estate.

Culture of Illusion – Put a saddle on that chicken.


Tastes like chicken?
Tastes like chicken?

So it turns out that, quite by accident, horse meat is the most popular dish in Britain, possibly. So many years of eating and enjoying Findus crispy pancakes are now meaning I have to reconfigure my taste buds. Do I like horse meat? I probably like horse meat.