http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Marlborough Wed, 22 May 2013 18:48:38 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Marlborough Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:11:32 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39a_1365275297 Candlelicht Stem cell researcher Robert Lanza hopes to save thousands of lives -- and for a long time this caused him to fear for his own. "They bused these crazy people up from Kansas, and then they picnicked right outside our front door," he says as he gazes out of his window at the gray winter landscape of Marlborough, Massachusetts. "The public thought we had these little buggy-eyed embryos here and were ripping apart their limbs to get these cells." The physician always feared "somebody hiding in the bushes," waiting to attack him. At the time, a doctor was threatened at a nearby fertility clinic, and a pipe bomb exploded at a bio lab in Boston. "Back then I thought that there was probably a 50-50 chance that I was going to get knocked off because I was so visible," says the doctor. Then he leans back in his chair and laughs. Lanza likes to flirt with danger: "I said, okay, try to kill me -- I'm still going to do what I think is right." In Lanza's case, doing what is "right" involves working with therapies based on human stem cells. The blind shall see again; the paralyzed shall walk again; the hemophiliac shall not bleed anymore. That may sound like something out of the Bible, but Lanza is no faith healer. In fact, the US business magazine Fortune called him "the standard-bearer for stem cell research." The 57-year-old is the chief scientific officer at the US company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and one of the most flamboyant and controversial figures in this field of research. Militant anti-abortionists tried to hunt Lanza down because embryos had to die for his research. Just last year, the scientific journal Nature wrote that ACT has "a history of public blunders" and a reputation for "overhyping results." At the same time, however, Lanza is writing medical history. For over one year now, eye patients in the US and the UK have been treated with cells from ACT laboratories -- the first clinical stem cell trial worldwide. And there is a world premiere in the making: Lanza's team has cultivated blood platelets that could be tested in hospitals as early as this year. The researcher and his team didn't harvest the cells from embryonic stem cells, but rather from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from normal body cells. "It took a decade," says Lanza, "but now we are finally ready to move into the clinic with our stem cell therapies." The Making of a Rebel Scientist Lanza is a slender man with short hair that stands on end, and he speaks so quickly that his sentences tend to be cut off. His laboratory is located in an ugly commercial building on the outskirts of Marlborough. It's hard to imagine that a medical revolution is brewing in this dreary setting. The petri dishes, test tubes and steel containers filled with liquid nitrogen are teeming with human cells. The ACT "Master Cell Bank" cost $1 million (EUR770,000), says Lanza, "but these things grow like weeds once a stem cell line has been established." The cell factory is currently producing batches of iPS blood platelets. Emergency wards have a huge demand for these helpers in the body's natural clotting mechanism. Lanza explains that a lack of these elements can have dramatic consequences: His sister was seriously injured during an accident. The hospital didn't have enough blood platelet concentrate. "She bled to death," he says. Lanza wants to prevent something like that from ever happening again. His team has found ways to cultivate an "unlimited supply" of the cells. When frozen, he says, they can be kept for months. He is currently negotiating the final details of the planned study with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "We don't need any embryos to make iPS," Lanza says with pride. "If this type of stem cell works," he adds, "the whole ethical controversy will be eliminated." Venturing to start clinical trials now is seen as a bold step. But Lanza is used to falling out of line. Even back when he was a schoolboy -- just after the genetic code had been deciphered -- he decided to alter the genetic makeup of a white chicken to make it black. "So I went to my teacher and told him that I was going to change the genetic makeup of the birds," Lanza recounts. "He said: 'Lanza, you're going to go to hell.'" This merely encouraged the 13-year-old. He cobbled together some laboratory equipment. To gain support for his experiment, the youngster boarded a bus in his hometown of Stoughton, close to Boston, and went "looking for a Harvard professor," as he explains with a grin. At first, his journey appeared to end at the closed gates of Harvard Medical School. But Lanza soon saw "a short, balding guy" coming across the parking lot. "He was wearing khaki pants and had a bunch of keys," he says. "I thought he was the janitor." The boy had no idea that this was Stephen Kuffler, one of the most famous neurophysiologists of his time. Kuffler played along: He opened the door for Lanza, allowed the boy to explain to him how genetics worked, and pushed him up the stairs. This opened up a new universe for the up-and-coming scientist. He repeated his chicken experiment and landed his first publication in Nature. The Dawning of a New Medical Era Lanza likes to tell this story to visitors. It shows how zeal can overcome all obstacles. He is often compared to the main character played by Matt Damon in the film "Good Will Hunting," a highly talented outsider who, like Lanza, comes from a humble background. "Right from the beginning, I probably didn't follow the rules," says Lanza with a certain amount of pride. He studied medicine at Harvard. In South Africa, he worked with Christiaan Barnard, the surgeon who performed the world's first human heart transplant in 1967, and with Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine in the 1950s. Then, in 1996, the world's first cloned sheep, Dolly, was born in Britain -- and Lanza sensed that his hour had arrived. "I knew right away that cloning could revolutionize medicine," he says. With the help of cloned stem cells, the young researcher was convinced that a wide range of top-notch replacement parts could be created for the human body. The physician signed up with the biotech startup ACT. Working for the company in 2000, he cloned a gaur, an endangered wild bovine native to Southeast Asia. Later, his team managed to transform the frozen skin cells of a banteng into a living sample of this Asian wild cattle. The skin cells came from an animal that had died a quarter of a century earlier in the San Diego Zoo. For Lanza, these were just practice exercises. The ultimate goal for him was always people -- and he was at just the right place for that: In 2001, then-ACT CEO Michael West went before the press and announced that his company had cloned a human embryo for the first time. West spoke of the beginning of "a new era of medicine." Then all hell broke loose. Obstacles Along the Way When Lanza harkens back to those days, he becomes more serious. Although the ACT embryos had only grown to tiny balls consisting of six cells, for anti-abortion activists and pro-lifers the researcher was now the Antichrist incarnate. "I remember that I went down to Tennessee, to the Bible country, and I went to one of those churches to explain what we were really doing. As I went through the door with the minister, a guy got up and shouted "Murderer! Murderer!" Lanza hired a bodyguard. In the wake of the media coup, ACT started to founder. Investors withdrew from the company, and with George W. Bush in the White House, public funding for stem cell research dried up. "We went through multiple times where we lost the whole team," says Lanza, who notes that they even had their phone disconnected for a while. "Rather than curing diseases, we were trying to resolve theological problems," Lanza says bitterly. "And that's not what I studied medicine for." Talking about the issue has slowly made the doctor furious and, almost imperceptibly, his tone of voice is becoming shriller. Another story has to be told, that of a policeman standing in front of the door one day. Lanza was afraid that he would be arrested. But no: "He came into my office and said that he had a child who was slowly going blind," the physician recalls. "He said that he had heard of these cells that could supposedly help, and I said: 'Yes, I have these cells in a freezer, but I don't have the $20,000 to test them on mice.'" Lanza had to turn the man away. It pains him to this day. "I don't want to know how many people went blind because we lost our public funding," he says angrily. "Nobody gets it; they say everything is fine; no, it's not fine!" Ethical worries have slowed medical research into applications for stem cells. But scientists like Robert Lanza have developed less controversial ways to derive stem cells from normal body cells rather than embryos and are already launching the first clinical trials. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39a_1365275297 Candlelicht Non-Embryonic Stem Cells: The Dawning of a New Era of Hope Stem cells, medical research Sat, 06 Apr 2013 11:00:50 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e3f_1365259744 Bannedman Newcastle, United Kingdom: Drunk, alone and with no way to get home, a teenage girl was raped by three men on streets packed with passers-by during a four-hour ordeal. In series of attacks, the 17-year-old was preyed on by a trio of vile predators after being kicked out of a city nightclub for being drunk. The vulnerable schoolgirl was first assaulted by a stranger in a secluded alcove off Times Square in Newcastle, which was packed with drinkers. During this attack a second predator, Darren Carr, came over after noticing the barely conscious girl having sex, and also began raping her. And then a third stranger, Edward Fowler, arrived on the scene and carried her to secluded spot where he forced himself on her. More info: Newcastle Crown Court heard the victim's mother drove her and two friends into the city centre, on October 13 last year so they could go to Digital nightclub. But the pals had been drinking at home and the victim was already very drunk when she arrived in town. She was in such a state that club bar staff refused to serve her. And when she was found collapsed semi-conscious on the toilet floor, door staff made her leave. The first attacker then said he would take the victim outside and find her a taxi. But in the process of leaving she dropped her bag containing all her money and mobile phone. Prosecutor Caroline Goodwin said the offer of a taxi never emerged. "She leaves Digital night club with the defendant and is taken across to the alcove and it's there that (the first man) begins to have sexual intercourse with (the victim) in public. "The fact this was going on was very visible. "The CCTV evidence dramatically demonstrates this complainant was not in a position to give any form of consent." During the first rape, Carr, 26, then walked over. A doorman at another club overheard him ask if he could "have a go on her". The man replied saying he could do what he wanted because it wasn't "his lass". He then left the victim alone with Carr so he could rape her. Then just before 2am dad-of-two, Fowler, 25, arrived at the scene. The court was shown CCTV of the victim, who was barely able to stand, being half dragged and half carried along Marlborough Crescent, which was busy with revellers. Ms Goodwin explained: "She is being carried by the defendants. Physically lifted off the ground and she is incapable of walking." The men took the victim down Forth Banks, where she was then raped by Fowler. The men then tried to put the girl in a taxi, but she was so drunk the driver refused to take her. Fowler then left the victim with Carr, who carried her across town to a car park near the Old Assembly Rooms where the rapist stayed with her for almost two hours. And it was not until around 5.30am that she eventually got the strength to run away. The victim was found crying and slumped on the ground outside the Old Assembly Rooms by a passer-by. She told the stranger she had been raped and the woman called police. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/teenager-raped-newcastle-revellers-walked-2522642 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e3f_1365259744 Bannedman Teen Raped by 3 Scumbags as People Walked by Teen, rape, raped, by, 3, people, walk, by Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:09:34 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=238_1264086348 gregory_peckory Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 MARLBOROUGH - Robert Smith of Marlborough may have been better off calling the Better Business Bureau. Smith, 32, was arrested Tuesday and charged with prostitution after police said he called them to complain that two people he paid for sex didn't deliver services advertised. Jeanna Mercure, 22, of Manchester also was arrested on the same charge. Police said a third person is still under investigation. Police said Smith called them Monday to say he paid $150 a day earlier to Mercure and another person in exchange for sex with Mercure. He told police Mercure never lived up to her end of the bargain and he didn't get his money back. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=238_1264086348 gregory_peckory Man, woman arrested after sex fraud complaint prostitute, fraud, marlborough man, Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:40:32 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39d_1339864022 the demon (June 13th, 2012) Raw footage. The driver of a vehicle slams into an office nearly killing two ladies by only a few feet. News and info below. (NBC) An elderly woman escaped unharmed after she crashed her car into a storefront office in Marlboro, Massachusetts narrowly missing three women inside. "All of a sudden, it just felt like a bomb went off," said Amy Pizzi. "The influx of the crash coming in and all of a sudden there"s a car next to me." (Click link for further details). http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/caught-on-camera/elderly-driver-and-office-occupants-unharmed-when-car-slams-into-building Subscribe to the demon for war vids, current events and raw video. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39d_1339864022 the demon Elderly Driver Slams Into an Occupied Office Building (<span class="highlight">Marlborough</span>,Massachusetts) Driver,elderly,wreck,crash,car,vehicle,office,the demon,CCTV,security,camera,cam,raw,footage Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:49:54 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=63e_1213811394 rcoones 2of2 http://www.ashleymote.co.uk/?page_id=11 Why I am an MEP 1. When you are on the field of battle, you use every weapon at your disposal. Turning my back on the EU will not defeat it. And now, having been elected, I am a fifth-columnist within the city walls. But unlike most fifth-columnists, my foes know I am there... 2. The EU does not create wealth http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=63e_1213811394 rcoones MRG Ashley Mote - After European Union Lisbon Treaty No Then What? 2of2 rcoones ukip marlborough research group EU Constitution Treaty North American Union referendum spp European union conspiracy communism eurosceptic tony blair regions undemocratic democracy napoleonic law totalitarian eu uk, ukip, marlborough research grou Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:59:36 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=74b_1213808376 rcoones http://www.ashleymote.co.uk/?page_id=11 Why I am an MEP 1. When you are on the field of battle, you use every weapon at your disposal. Turning my back on the EU will not defeat it. And now, having been elected, I am a fifth-columnist within the city walls. But unlike most fifth-columnists, my foes know I am there... 2. The EU does not create wealth http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=74b_1213808376 rcoones MRG Ashley Mote - After European Union Lisbon Treaty No Then What? 1of2 rcoones ukip marlborough research group EU Constitution Treaty North American Union referendum spp European union conspiracy communism eurosceptic tony blair regions undemocratic democracy napoleonic law totalitarian eu uk, ukip, marlborough research grou Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:30:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c08_1345177252 Barremel A pukeko on a shopping spree turned heads in Blenheim, New Zealand this morning. The native bird, nicknamed Vernon, first headed to the National Bank. He was not buzzed in through the electronic doors, and headed off along Market St. The pukeko appeared to be scoping out unconventional items for a nest. He wandered into the Good 2 U discount store and tried to retrieve the metal binding spiral of a text book, see video below. Marlborough Express photographer Scott Hammond took pictures before working with the owner of the store, Paul Lim, to place the bird in a box to prevent it from coming to harm in traffic. A passerby, Rex Gapper, said the bird had been hanging around town for weeks and he had nicknamed it Vernon, after his brother. National Bank branch manager Nicky Strong offered the use of a back foyer where the bird was happily ensconced for a few hours with a bowl of water, awaiting collection. ''Everybody is loving it, everyone in the queue can see him and they're saying 'what is that bird doing there?'. He's nice and safe, he's not going to get hit by cars,'' she said. Nelson Marlborough Fish &amp; Game field officer Vaughan Lynn picked up the bird late morning and relocated it to a wetland out of town. It was very unusual to hear of a pukeko in the middle of town, he said. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c08_1345177252 Barremel Pukeko bird goes shopping pukeko, shopping Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:34:59 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=51d_1343325365 marc1921 Amy Payne Solar-cell manufacturer Solyndra became a household name when it collapsed, taking $627 million in American taxpayer dollars with it. It's the poster company for the government picking winners and losers-or really, just losers-in the energy market. But there are 12 more "green energy" losers that have declared bankruptcy despite attempts to prop them up with taxpayer money-and the list is growing. There's a reason why these companies could not rely solely on private financing and needed help from the government. They couldn't make it on their own; they couldn't even make it with extra taxpayer help. These green government "investments" take from one (by taxing or borrowing) and give to another, but they merely move money around. They do not create jobs. They send labor and resources to areas of the economy where they are wasted. Proponents of special financing and tax credits for solar companies claim that these benefits will pay for themselves down the line-but when the companies receiving them are going bankrupt, that is highly unlikely. Kate Adams, a member of Heritage's Young Leaders Program, and Heritage's Rachael Slobodien compiled a list of the 12 members of the Green Graveyard-companies that received taxpayer money for green initiatives yet have filed for bankruptcy. Abound Solar (Loveland, Colorado), manufacturer of thin film photovoltaic modules. Beacon Power (Tyngsborough, Massachusetts), designed and developed advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. Ener1 (Indianapolis, Indiana), built compact lithium-ion-powered battery solutions for hybrid and electric cars. Energy Conversion Devices (Rochester Hills, Michigan/Auburn Hills, Michigan), manufacturer of flexible thin film photovoltaic (PV) technology and a producer of batteries and other renewable energy-related products. Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Marlborough, Massachusetts), manufactured and installed solar panels. Mountain Plaza, Inc. (Dandridge, Tennessee), designed and implemented "truck-stop electrification" technology. Olsen's Crop Service and Olsens Mills Acquisition Co. (Berlin, Wisconsin), a private company producing ethanol. Range Fuels (Soperton, Georgia), tried to develop a technology that converted biomass into ethanol without the use of enzymes. Raser Technologies (Provo, Utah), geothermal power plants and technology licensing. Solyndra (Fremont, California), manufacturer of cylindrical panels of thin-film solar cells. Spectrawatt (Hopewell, New York), solar cell manufacturer. Thompson River Power LLC (Wayzata, Minnesota), designed and developed advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. Some lawmakers are looking for a solution. The aptly named No More Solyndras Act would prohibit any new loan guarantees from Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. As Heritage's Nicolas Loris wrote , Republicans and Democrats alike need to end their addiction to energy subsidies, or we're going to continue down the same failed path of wasteful spending...We don't need to fix the energy subsidy programs. We need to abolish them. President Obama said in 2010 that " the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra. " He couldn't be more wrong. Companies that are innovating and creating real value for consumers are the engine of economic growth, and they're doing it without millions in taxpayer funding. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/24/morning-bell-the-green-graveyard-of-taxpayer-funded-failures/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=51d_1343325365 marc1921 The Green Graveyard of Taxpayer-Funded Failures solyndra boondoggle Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:34:02 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=163_1317749482 jbpnw Shortly after 9:30 AM on October 3, 2011, Fayetteville Police Officers responded to a report of a robbery of the Taco Bell located at 2819 Raeford Road. During the course of the robbery, a suspect entered the business, grabbed one of the employees and demanded money from the business after threatening the employee. The manager complied and the suspect left the building after taking an undisclosed amount of cash and personal items belonging to the employees. The suspect also stole one of the employee's vehicle, a 2005 Hyundai Elantra, and drove away from the scene. A short time afterwards, police officers responding to the area found the Hyundai Elantra abandoned along Marlborough Road. The suspect is described as: o Black Male o 5'08" to 5'10" tall o Wearing o Grey hooded sweatshirt o Blue baseball cap with a large brim o Red bandanna across his face o Dark colored pants o Black and white sneakers Anyone recognizing the suspect from the robbery or having information about the crime are asked to call Detectives with the Fayetteville Police Department at (910) 433-1856 or Crime Stoppers at (910) 483-TIPS (8477). http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=163_1317749482 jbpnw Violent Taco Bell Robbery Caught On CCTV caught on tape, raw video, cctv, surveillance, armed robbery, taco bell Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:33:49 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=818_1284852015 cheezeybellend A Mail on Sunday investigation - which will alarm anyone concerned about animal cruelty - has revealed that schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues such as Ascot and Twickenham are controversially serving up meat slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic law to unwitting members of the public. All the beef, chicken and lamb sold to fans at Wembley has secretly been prepared in accordance with sharia law, while Cheltenham College, which boasts of its 'strong Christian ethos', is one of several top public schools which also serves halal chicken to pupils without informing them. Even Britain's biggest hotel and restaurant group Whitbread, which owns the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre chains, among many others, has admitted that more than three-quarters of its poultry is halal. Animal welfare campaigners have long called for a ban on the traditional Islamic way of preparing meat - which involves killing animals by drawing a knife across their throats, without stunning them first - saying it is cruel and causes unnecessary pain. Sharia law expressly forbids knocking the animal out with a bolt gun, as is usual in British slaughterhouses. Instead, it must be sentient when its throat is cut, and the blood allowed to drip from the carcass while a religious phrase in praise of Allah is recited. The extent of halal meat consumption, even in areas of Britain with a very small Muslim population, was revealed as the Pope, on his first visit to Britain, expressed fears that the country was not doing enough to preserve traditional Christian values and customs. In a strongly worded speech to Parliament, he said: 'There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.' But it is animal rights groups which have been most vociferous in their opposition to halal slaughter. Campaign organisation Viva!, whose supporters include Heather Mills and Joanna Lumley, said in a statement: 'Other practices which may be undertaken for religious reasons, such as polygamy or the stoning of adulterers, are not permitted in the UK. 'Religious freedom does not override other moral considerations and the suffering caused by this form of slaughter is so severe that it cannot be allowed to prevent action to be taken. Consumers can do their bit by boycotting places that persist in selling meat from unstunned animals. An RSPCA spokesman added: 'The public have a right to know how their meat is produced. Many people are extremely concerned about animal welfare. What The Mail on Sunday has discovered shows that people are not being kept informed. The key to a more humane death for these animals is that they are stunned before slaughter.' A spokesman for Twickenham, which sells only halal chicken despite not advertising the fact, insisted that the lack of transparency 'had never been an issue' and said: 'Our consideration is more for those who want halal, to ensure they get it.' Other institutions secretly serving up meat that is halal - or 'permissible' - include Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and one of London's biggest NHS Trusts, Guy's and St Thomas'. A spokesman for the London hospitals admitted: 'The only way people using the canteen would know they were -eating halal chicken would be if they asked a member of staff directly.' Whitbread, which also owns Table Table restaurants, Costa Coffee shops and Premier Inn hotels, admitted last night that 80 per cent of the chicken it served comes from halal poultry suppliers, including some in Muslim-dominated Turkey. A Whitbread spokesman said: 'We don't specify halal as a requirement in our procurement. We base our decision on quality and price. 'It just turns out that we source that amount of chicken from suppliers that happen to be halal. 'It is not mentioned on any of our menus because we don't think there is customer demand for that information. But if people started asking, then we would definitely provide it.' Rival operator Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the Harvester, Browns and Toby Carvery restaurant chains as well as pub chains All Bar One and O'Neill's, was even more opaque about the source of its meats. A spokesman said it had a 'broad range of suppliers' but declined to say how many were halal-certified. Ascot racecourse said it was easier to store and cook only one type of meat. 'All our chicken is halal. This is not advertised as the menus are kept as simple as possible,' said a spokesman. A Football Association spokesman confirmed: 'All the beef, chicken and lamb sold at Wembley Stadium is halal which means a large proportion of the meat on offer to our customers falls into this category.' Pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, is also served at the stadium. Cheltenham College boarding school in Gloucestershire admitted: 'We have not sent a letter, nor is there any note on menus that informs parents and pupils that the chicken served in the canteen is mostly halal.' Marlborough College, in Wiltshire, admitted that while halal chicken is usually served only to Muslims, it had 'occasionally' served it to all pupils. The school refused to say whether parents and pupils had been informed. Britain's Muslim community is exempt from regulations that require animals to be stunned before death, as is kosher meat prepared for the Jewish market. Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, said: 'I don't object to people of different religious groups being catered for but it's not something that should be imposed on everybody else. 'The vast majority of people in this country would not want meat of this origin. The outlets have a duty to let their customers know because some will object very strongly, not least because of the animal welfare implications of halal.' Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: 'We suspected that meat killed by the halal and kosher methods was being used for general consumption but we never imagined it was so widespread. It is disgraceful that people aren't being told if the food they are being served is from meat that has not been stunned prior to slaughter.' In 2003, Government advisory body the Farm Animal Welfare Council published a report declaring that the halal method of killing 'would inevitably trigger a barrage of sensory information to the brain in a sensible (conscious) animal'. Experts who contributed to the report concluded that 'such a massive injury would result in very significant pain and distress in the period before insensibility supervenes'. Muslim leaders insist that animal welfare measures are observed during slaughter. Guidelines issued by the Islamic Cultural Centre in London state that 'no stress or discomfort' should be inflicted on the animal and that the knife must be sharp and clean. Brutal reality of the ritual that allows animals to be slaughtered without being stunned first More than 40 million cattle, calves and sheep and more than 850 million poultry are slaughtered every year in Britain. The vast majority are stunned before slaughter but UK law allows the Jewish and Muslim communities to kill animals by religious methods without any form of stunning. A number of requirements have been put in place, however, in an attempt to reduce animal suffering. The rules state that the throat must be cut with one rapid, uninterrupted movement of the knife. Both carotid arteries and both jugular veins must be severed. In addition, the knife must be inspected before each animal is slaughtered to ensure that it is of sufficient size and sharpness. But welfare campaigners say the rules are not enough. The Government's independent advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, says sheep may lose consciousness within five to seven seconds of the cut. But research has shown that some calves remain brain-responsive for up to two minutes. This is because the carotid arteries can contract after the cut has been made, effectively sealing the severed ends and maintaining blood pressure in the brain. The RSPCA says all meat produced from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter should be clearly labelled so that it can be easily identified by consumers. Sharia law states that the abattoir involved in the process must be under the 'close and constant supervision' of an Islamic religious organisation. Under these rules, the cut must be made to the right side of the neck by cutting the two carotids, the two jugulars, the windpipe and the gullet, but without breaking the spinal cord. The carcass must empty of blood and a specific time should be allowed until the animal ceases to move before the next stage of the production process - de-skinning and removing the internal organs - may begin. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=818_1284852015 cheezeybellend Britain goes halal... but no-one tells the public: How famous institutions serve ritually slaughtered meat with no warning islamic,scum, halal,beheading,englandistan, Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:53:43 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f30_1249987913 HydrogenEconomy http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-killed-by-window-shard-after-row-1770381.html A man died when he was impaled on a large shard of glass after throwing a woman through a shop window in a street row. The 30-year-old victim was seen arguing with the woman in the Regent Street area of London's West End shortly after 2am today. Witnesses told police he hurled the woman against the window of a branch of Banana Republic up to three times. After several blows, the glass shattered and the couple fell through, leaving the man fatally wounded. Members of the public flagged down a police patrol who went to the shop, at the junction of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street. Paramedics also attended but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem examination will take place today. The woman, also 30, was taken to hospital for treatment to multiple cuts, none of which was thought to be life-threatening. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Shortly before 2.15am, officers on patrol were informed by a member of the public of an altercation in Great Marlborough Street. "When officers arrived at Great Marlborough Street, they found a male, believed to have gone through the window of a shop. A woman was also found at the scene, suffering cuts. "London Ambulance Service attended but the man, aged 30, was pronounced dead at the scene. "The woman, also aged 30, was taken to a central London hospital. Her injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. "Officers believe they know who the deceased is but await formal identification and next of kin to be informed. A post-mortem examination will be arranged in due course." Anyone with information should call Westminster Police on 020 7321 7434 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f30_1249987913 HydrogenEconomy Man killed by window shard after row man,skewered,impaled,glass,shard,row,fight Fri, 22 May 2009 22:55:39 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4c1_1243047211 SexOffenderIssues Pushing sex offenders to the edges of society may sound like a good way to keep communities, and especially kids, safe. But what if residency restriction laws - which are gaining ground in Massachusetts - have the opposite effect? By Catherine Elton | May 6, 2007 All across the state, they're getting out their maps. Citizens and elected officials are holding meetings and proposing laws, carving up communities into zones in which convicted sex offenders may and may not live when they reenter society. They are penciling in lines around schools, day-care centers, playgrounds, and other places where children congregate in the hope of preventing repeat offenses, unspeakable crimes against children. This phenomenon is by no means unique to Massachusetts. Residency restrictions are the latest fad in sex-crimes legislation, and they are popping up all over the country, creating a domino effect: When one community adopts a residency restriction law, neighboring towns, fearing a migration of sex offenders over city lines, move to adopt their own. It sounds to many like a good idea, but it may turn out to be just the opposite. The residency laws bring up serious civil liberties concerns, including that these measures apply to convicts after they have been punished and released and served their parole, and that in many cases, homeowners are exempt while renters may be required to move. And then there's the fact that this type of post-release regulation doesn't exist for other criminal classes: We don't prohibit arsonists from living near gas stations. But a less-discussed argument against the laws is that they don't actually work to prevent sex crimes against children. Studies have shown, for example, that the majority of these crimes are perpetrated by family members or acquaintances, that many sex crimes are never reported, and that sex offenders often molest outside the area where they live. Some scholars go so far as to say that the measures could put children in greater danger, not less - because the sex offenders go underground, because therapy works to prevent re-offense, and because limited resources are wasted enforcing the laws. "There is no evidence that residency restrictions work, and there are some pretty good arguments why they are not likely to be effective," says David Finkelhor, the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. "No one who has any real professional experience in the management of sex offenders thinks these laws make much sense." Still, they are growing in popularity. According to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 23 states have passed residency restrictions for sex offenders - as have hundreds of individual cities and towns across the country, at least five of which are in Massachusetts. In addition, local governments in communities around the state are in various stages of considering the laws, and there are several bills before the Legislature calling for statewide residency restrictions. The laws are offshoots of a legislative movement begun in the 1990s. In 1994, the federal Jacob Wetterling Act required states to track the whereabouts of released sex offenders. Wetterling, a Minnesota boy, was abducted in 1989, when he was 11 years old; he has never been found. An amendment to the Wetterling Act, Megan's Law, was passed by Congress in 1996 and made the contents of state sex-offender registries public. It is named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and murdered in New Jersey by her neighbor - a registered sex offender. Just last year, the Wetterling Act was amended further by the Adam Walsh Act, which requires states to post their registries online. Walsh was 6 when he was abducted and killed in Florida in 1981. Once public notification was enacted and average citizens started to find out where sex offenders lived, some of them weren't too happy about who turned up down the street, and the first residency restriction laws were enacted in the late 1990s. Then, according to Charles Onley, a research assistant with the national Center for Sex Offender Management, in 2005 two highly publicized murders of young girls by sex offenders - one in Florida and one in Iowa - brought the issue to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. When the Iowa Supreme Court upheld that state's residency restrictions after a class action suit said they violated the rights of offenders, the laws began to grow in popularity and increase in severity. Where states had mandated that offenders couldn't live within 500 or 1,000 feet of a school, Onley says, communities began to cast the net wider, to 2,000 or 2,500 feet, and to include libraries, churches, school-bus stops, and community swimming pools. Revere councilman George Rotondo is a nurse and the doting father of two young girls. Affable and outgoing, he seems motivated by a genuine desire to make the world - or at least his corner of it - a safer place for children. Merely contemplating the possibility that one of his daughters could fall victim to a sex offender is enough to move this burly man to tears. In 2005, Rotondo spearheaded the city ordinance that became Massachusetts's first residency restriction for sex offenders. "If you are an alcoholic, it's not wise to live near a bar or liquor store," he says. "We had sex offenders living across the street from a school where my daughter goes. There is something wrong with that. If you put kids near them, sooner or later they are going to get aroused and they are going to offend." Rotondo is not alone in his conviction. Carol Willoughby, of Southborough, is trying to push officials there to adopt a residency restriction. She runs a day-care center in her home and until very recently had a registered sex offender living two doors down. It was a situation she likens to "putting steak in front of a dog." There is a problem with this thinking, however. The perception that sex offenders can't help but re-offend, which for many is the central justification for residency restriction laws, is incorrect. Sex offenders have some of the lowest recidivism rates of any class of criminal - as few as 5.3 percent re-offend within three years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, as opposed to rates in the 65 to 80 percent range for drug offenders and thieves. Experts think this misperception persists because people conflate sex offenders with predatory pedophiles, who have higher rates of recidivism but represent only a fraction of sex offenders. "Are there men who might lurk in schoolyards?" asks Dr. Martin Kafka, a psychiatrist with Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital and the president of the Massachusetts Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. "Yes, but they're extremely exceptional." As Kafka explains, sex offenders are a heterogeneous group that includes, among others, rapists, flashers, and young adults who have sex - usually consensual - with slightly younger teens. The category also encompasses child molesters, the criminal designation for adults who have any sexual contact with children, including, says Kafka, those who inappropriately touch a child a single time, perhaps under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or out of depression, anger, or alienation. Pedophiles, on the other hand, are adults who are persistently sexually aroused by children or are obsessed by them as sexual objects; they make up about half of child molesters, according to Kafka. The State of Massachusetts sex-offender registry does differentiate among types of sex offenders. Released offenders belong to one of three tiers, with Level 1 representing those deemed to present the lowest degree of danger to the community and risk for re-offense and Level 3 the highest. The levels are determined on an individual basis by a state board that looks at a sex offender's criminal record as well as by his behavior in prison and on parole; his work, treatment, and counseling records; victim-impact statements; and many other factors. Residency restrictions in Massachusetts towns have so far been drafted to apply only to Level 2 and 3 offenders, and in some cases, only Level 3. (In some other states all offenders are seen as equal, and are subject to the same restrictions.) Nevertheless, Kafka believes this tiered system is by no means perfect. "It's a blunt tool," he says. Tiers or no, the idea that telling the public where sex offenders live - and keeping them out of certain places - can prevent sex crimes is based on false premises. "Sex offender registries and restriction zones are built on the concept that the person you must fear is the person you don't know," says Richard Wright, a criminologist who teaches at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater. But even though the laws were spurred by and are often named after the victims of high-profile cases where the harm to children was "awful, tragic, and real," he says, "these cases of stranger child sexual assault are the minority." Statistics from the US Department of Justice show that more than 90 percent of the juvenile victims of sex crimes know their assailant, and that child abductions by strangers - which are usually presumed to have a sexual component - are very rare; there were 115 such incidents nationwide in 1999, the latest year for which data are available. Then there's the problem of underreporting. "Most sex crimes are never known to the authorities," says Rutgers University criminologist Michelle Meloy, who has studied sex offenders as an academic and supervised them as a probation officer. "Estimates are that, at best, registration lists are looking at 10 to 15 percent of all 'sex offenders' in your area." Put another way, even if there is a stranger somewhere in a community who intends to sexually assault a child, the chances are slim that he (the majority of sex offenders are male) is on the registry. Worse than the prospect that the restrictions don't work, some experts say, is the very real possibility that they could put children in more danger, not less. Authorities in Iowa report that the number of sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown has more than doubled since statewide residency restrictions went into place there. Recent news reports have spotlighted five registered sex offenders who live under a highway bridge near Miami - with state approval - because city and county residency restrictions have made it so difficult for them to find housing. Numerous studies have shown that slipping to the fringes of society is a potentially dangerous outcome, because community reintegration, therapy, and stability help reduce recidivism among the majority of offenders. Residency restrictions can make these men feel like outcasts and force them to live in isolated environments away from therapy and support systems, and so could actually be setting them up for re-offense. "They put added stressors and disruptions in the lives of these men, many of whom are trying to get their life together," says Kafka, the Harvard psychiatrist. "You don't want to put stressors on people who have a stress-responsive vulnerability." John, a registered sex offender living in Massachusetts who asked that his last name and city of residence be omitted because he says he fears notoriety, echoes this sentiment. He was released from prison in 2004 after serving six years for raping two young children to whom he is related. He has been designated a Level 3 offender by the state - the highest level of risk for re-offense. Although the town where he lives doesn't have a residency restriction, he is concerned about the trend. "We are being scrutinized," he says, "segregated from the general public, and it's all counterproductive. There are a lot of feelings of rejection, isolation, and loneliness in my past. I wouldn't say they caused what I did, but these feelings help create a risky emotional state. I have done my time and I continue to do time - I am on probation and I suffer emotionally for what I did every day, as I am sure my victims do too. I am trying to do everything possible to be a productive member of society." There has been some backlash brewing around the country against residency restrictions. The state prosecutors' association in Iowa has called for the law there to be repealed, and restrictions are the subject of court challenges in other states. But these developments aside, there may not be an end to the current wave of panic over sex crimes - and the attendant legislative responses - any time soon. In fact, experts predict that it will only get worse. Steven Levy, an accountant, the father of two school-age girls, and a member of Marlborough's City Council, has been pushing a residency restriction there since late last year. His ordinance was passed but not signed by the mayor, who wanted to redraw some of the lines and make several other changes; at press time, a new version was coming up for a vote. Levy says that since Marlborough started debating the ordinance, he has been contacted by people in some 20 towns and cities around the state interested in getting similar measures implemented in their communities. He hopes that a groundswell of support will eventually convince Beacon Hill lawmakers to address the issue. If that happens, House Minority Leader Bradley Jones Jr. will be ready. For four legislative sessions, including the current one, he has presented a bill that would ban Level 3 offenders from living or working near schools, among other places. He said he's not sure whether his measure will fare any better this year than it has in the past, but it's clear to him under what circumstances it could. "Unfortunately," he says, "what causes this issue to advance are some very sad stories. As I often say, there are some bills that are one or two tragedies away from becoming a law." In his 1998 book Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America, historian Philip Jenkins argues that this kind of attention to sex crimes has come in waves in American history, and that our current period is reminiscent of the panic between the late 1930s and the early 1950s, when a series of "sexual psychopath" laws were enacted in response to some high-profile crimes and to exaggerated claims made in the press and by J. Edgar Hoover that the country was in the grips of a sex-crime epidemic. That cycle ended in the 1960s, Jenkins says, when thinking about the penal system shifted from a focus on punitive measures to rehabilitation and treatment. This time around, he doesn't foresee an ending. "It has ceased to be a cycle and has now been institutionalized," he says. "That has sabotaged the off switch." Jenkins believes that for a change to occur, there would have to be a major shift in the way citizens and lawmakers think about sex offenders. They would need to differentiate between the offenders who shouldn't be let out of jail and those who can be rehabilitated. Criminologist Michelle Meloy agrees. "We continue in the opposite direction of what empirical evidence suggests is our most likely option for success," she says. "Because we have this misconception that these folks are all dangerous, and therefore the only way to address them is with punitive measures, using resources for therapy has become less popular. The public needs to know that if we treat them in prison and supervise them in a community setting, they're less likely to re-offend." The public also needs to know that children are getting safer. According to the Children's Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services, sex crimes of all kinds have dropped substantially since the mid-1990s, after increasing between 1977 and 1991. Between 1991 and 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, substantiated sexual abuse cases dropped by 51 percent. The decline, says David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, is due to the increased incarceration of sex offenders, more intervention and prevention efforts, and better mental health treatment, including more widespread use of antidepressants and other psychiatric medicines. Residency restrictions didn't do a thing to help. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4c1_1243047211 SexOffenderIssues Behind the Picket Fence sex, sexual, offender, issues, study, recidivism,