Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Iranian police forces have faced criticism from Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary who was appointed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for their re-invigorated campaign to do away with un-Islamic dress.

Ayatollah Shahroudi proclaimed, “Tough measures on social problems will backfire and have counter-productive effects.” Others have, of course, made it clear that un-Islamic dress can lead to moral corruption, engender innumerable vices, and hurt the Islamic character of the nation.

Some believe that no one had any issue with the creation of an Islamic atmosphere. The core of the matter revolves around the implementation of the Islamic dress code; additionally, heavy-handed measures should be shunned. For instance, Mehdi Ahmadi, information head of Tehran’s police, told Al Jazeera: “Some citizens may complain about the way the law is being enforced but they all agree with the plan itself.”

According to one student, “You simply can’t tell people what to wear. They don’t understand that use of force only brings hatred towards them, not love.” Nevertheless, Hojatoll-Islam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Iran’s interior minister who is in charge of policing, prognosticated positive feedback from the populace when he said, “People are unhappy with the social and moral status of the society. They expect that the fight against social insecurity be properly implemented.” Thus, Hujjat al-Islam Pour-Mohammadi re-iterated the necessity of proper implementation and methodology towards the restoration of morality in the Islamic Republic. Islamic officials and religious people affirm that this is indispensable to promote righteousness, curb sin, and bring open sinners to justice.

Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, hijab became mandatory in Iran for every woman including foreigners after over 98% of citizens voted for an Islamic government. Women may face caning up to 74 strokes for failing to observe hijab. In this recent crackdown, the authorities have arrested many citizens throughout the country. Not only have women been taken into custody for their hair being uncovered on their foreheads and tight clothes that show body shapes, For men they need to cover from knee to their waist as according to Sharia. Even a foreign journalist was detained because the photograph on her press card was indecent.

It has not been clear whence the directive for the re-newed clampdown emanated. Some have blamed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while Gholam Hossein Elham, the government spokesman, stated to reporters, “The police work as agents of the judiciary to confront crimes. The government as an executive body does not interfere in the affairs of the judiciary.” The following pre-election speech seems to corroborate this latter statement:

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Brett McKenzie is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the London North Centre riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Iranian police forces have faced criticism from Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary who was appointed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for their re-invigorated campaign to do away with un-Islamic dress.

Ayatollah Shahroudi proclaimed, “Tough measures on social problems will backfire and have counter-productive effects.” Others have, of course, made it clear that un-Islamic dress can lead to moral corruption, engender innumerable vices, and hurt the Islamic character of the nation.

Some believe that no one had any issue with the creation of an Islamic atmosphere. The core of the matter revolves around the implementation of the Islamic dress code; additionally, heavy-handed measures should be shunned. For instance, Mehdi Ahmadi, information head of Tehran’s police, told Al Jazeera: “Some citizens may complain about the way the law is being enforced but they all agree with the plan itself.”

According to one student, “You simply can’t tell people what to wear. They don’t understand that use of force only brings hatred towards them, not love.” Nevertheless, Hojatoll-Islam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Iran’s interior minister who is in charge of policing, prognosticated positive feedback from the populace when he said, “People are unhappy with the social and moral status of the society. They expect that the fight against social insecurity be properly implemented.” Thus, Hujjat al-Islam Pour-Mohammadi re-iterated the necessity of proper implementation and methodology towards the restoration of morality in the Islamic Republic. Islamic officials and religious people affirm that this is indispensable to promote righteousness, curb sin, and bring open sinners to justice.

Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, hijab became mandatory in Iran for every woman including foreigners after over 98% of citizens voted for an Islamic government. Women may face caning up to 74 strokes for failing to observe hijab. In this recent crackdown, the authorities have arrested many citizens throughout the country. Not only have women been taken into custody for their hair being uncovered on their foreheads and tight clothes that show body shapes, For men they need to cover from knee to their waist as according to Sharia. Even a foreign journalist was detained because the photograph on her press card was indecent.

It has not been clear whence the directive for the re-newed clampdown emanated. Some have blamed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while Gholam Hossein Elham, the government spokesman, stated to reporters, “The police work as agents of the judiciary to confront crimes. The government as an executive body does not interfere in the affairs of the judiciary.” The following pre-election speech seems to corroborate this latter statement:

Monday, January 25, 2010

Researchers say that ambidextrous children are at greater risk of difficulties at school, language problems, and disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those who are left-handed or right-handed. Dr Alina Rodriguez, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College, London, and a team of researchers from various European universities studied nearly 8,000 children from the north of Finland; 87 of these were ambidextrous (mixed-handed). Parents, teachers and the children themselves assessed language skills, academic achievement and behaviour. At ages 7 and 8, the ambidextrous children had double the rate of language problems and were twice as likely to have problems at school. At age 15 and 16, the proportion of those with ADHD symptoms was twice as many in the ambidextrous group, and their ADHD symptoms tended to be worse. Ambidextrous children in the study also had a higher rate of language problems.

The number of people who are ambidextrous is unclear, with estimates ranging from 1% to 5%. Scientists do not know why some people use both hands when the majority of people prefer to use one predominantly. The theory is that there is something different in the brains of ambidextrous people, although Rodriguez says that more work in the area is needed.

A person who prefers using their right hand will have a more dominant left hemisphere of the brain, which is the part of the brain for language skills. Rodriguez and her researchers have suggested that the right hemisphere of the brain of an ambidextrous child is weaker compared to that of a right-handed child, increasing their susceptible to problems with attention. Previous suggestions about the causes of ADHD include the possibility that a person’s right hemisphere has weaker function. Earlier studies have drawn links between dyslexia and being ambidextrous, and other studies are looking at the part that differences between the two sides of the brain play in language skills and psychosis.

Rodriguez emphasised that the research, published in the journal Pediatrics in the United States, did not show that all ambidextrous children would have such problems, pointing out that most of the children in the survey did not develop them. “Our study suggests that handedness is really a marker for atypical foetal brain development — showing that the brain is working in a different way to the norm”, she said, adding that other studies have shown atypical brain development to be associated with extraordinary creativeness. She also suggested that the results may assist schools and health care workers in targeting children at risk of problems.

Monday, June 12, 2017

On Friday night, Adam West, a US actor best known for his role as Batman in 1960s television series Batman, died at the age of 88 in Los Angeles, his family spokesperson said. Before his death, West “fought a short but brave battle with leukemia”, his family said via Facebook.

Actors Ben Affleck, Val Kilmer, and Mark Hamill, comic book writer Frank Miller, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as well as author Neil Gaiman paid tribute to Adam West via Twitter. Affleck and Kilmer portrayed the titular character in, the 2016 film Batman v Superman and the 1995 film Batman Forever respectively.

Burt Ward, who played the role of Batman’s sidekick Robin in the TV series with West, paid tribute via The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Julie Newmar, who played the role of Catwoman in the 1960s show, paid tribute as well via the BBC World Service radio program Newshour.DC Entertainment president and CEO Geoff Johns and publisher Jim Lee paid tribute via DC Comics’s official blog.

Adam West, younger of the two brothers, was born on September 19, 1928 in Washington. His father was a wheat farmer and his mother was a pianist and an opera singer. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in English literature from Whitman College and worked as a station master at Stanford while he was a graduate student.

West worked at McClatchy station in Sacramento, California before moving to Hawaii, where he hosted a weekday show in the late 1950s. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1959 and signed a contract with Warner Bros. He appeared in multiple series before portraying Detective Sergeant Steve Nelson in the 1959–62 television series, The Detectives, from 1961 to 1962. His film debut was the 1959 film The Young Philadelphians, starring Paul Newman. Before Batman, West appeared in many films throughout the 1960s.

Lyle Waggoner and Adam West auditioned for the role of Batman while Peter Deyell and Burt Ward auditioned for the role of Robin. Batman TV series debuted on January 12, 1966 on the ABC network. Though the first season was a success, two subsequent seasons had a significant drop in the Nielsen ratings, and it was cancelled in March 1968.

After Batman, West was given typecast roles throughout his career. He voiced Batman in animated shows, like The New Adventures of Batman, Legends of the Superheroes, and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show. He also voiced a role in an Academy Award-nominated 1997 short film Redux Riding Hood. He also voiced the role of Mayor Adam West in Family Guy, which MacFarlane called an “alternative universe” version of West.

West married Marcelle in 1970; each had two children from their previous marriages. After the marriage, the couple had two children. West is survived by his wife Marcelle, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Monday, May 23, 2005

The staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have entered a one-day strike this morning in dispute of impending job cuts and partial privatisation.

The industrial action follows union ballots at three of the leaders of journalism and broadcasting: Amicus, National Union of Jounalists and BECTU. The NUJ have already described the action as an “astonishing success” and its general secretary, Jeremy Dear, describes the union as “absolutely delighted with the level of support we have received for the strike.” The unions expect 11,000 of 27,000 BBC staff to take part in the strikes.

Due to the extensiveness of the strike it has affected the output of the BBC on its television and radio services. News and live services have been particularly badly affected following the unions aims to leave “blank screens and dead air”.

BBC Radio 4‘s Today, The World at One, PM and The World Tonight have all been cancelled; BBC One‘s 1 O’Clock News and 6 O’Clock News was shortened from half an hour to 15 minutes, although the 10 O’Clock News was unaffected. Live programming of BBC News 24, BBC World and Five Live have been extensively cut; and international output on the World Service has been impacted.

The most noticeable impact have been on the Breakfast programme, headed by just one presenter (against the usual two) and cut short for a pre-recorded interview. The leading serious news magazine programme, Newsnight, was also cancelled.

Some BBC radio celebrities appeared for work on their shows despite the strike. These include breakfast radio presenters Chris Moyles of BBC Radio 1, Terry Wogan of BBC Radio 2, and Shelagh Fogarty of BBC Radio 5.

Unlike a similar 1989 strike in which presenter Nicholas Witchell crossed the pickets to read news, those presenters who have decided to continue their positions have not been publicly denounced.

Striking staff have been picketing outside the main entrances of the BBC Television Centre in west London.

The strikes have occurred following the Corporation’s plans to cut 3780 jobs and privatise parts of the national service. It has claimed that these cuts are necessary to spend more on programming when they were announced in March by governing director Mark Thompson. The cuts aim to make savings of GBP 355 million (US$663.37 million, EUR 487 million ).

Unions have defied calls by BBC executives to partake in consultations over impending actions. The unions have responded by claiming that consultations would give their staff little say and that negotiations are the only way in which they will be listened to.

The ballot to strike which was held on May 12 also determined to strike for 48 hours on May 31 and June 1. It is unclear if any further action is planned.