BlueBox News

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

One of the most beautiful things, in the world is the night sky when it is cloudless and not raining. This photo I found on the laptop, shows you the beauty that is sadly lost on Humans.

18 Questions answered

I thought after the serious few posts, I would make my Blog a little interesting with some questions, that I have personally answered.

What’s the coolest costume you’ve had for Halloween?

When I was about 12, I dressed up as a zombie scarecrow, the scarecrow mask I got out of my doctor who magazine. I covered myself in fake blood and carried around my doll’s hair salon head. I scared my best friend at the time. (She ran away from me, as I carried a kitchen knife too).

What was the last nice thing you did for your mum?

I made her a cup of coffee for her and say that “I love you”.

Which celebrity would you most like to get to know?

Mmm, there are so many but it I had a time machine I would meet all the actors and actresses that were involved in making doctor who special for me.

If you ruled the world, what would you change?

I would change the rules about benefits and make it so people who need it more gets it and half footballers pay to buy things for third world countries.

Who was your first crush?

My first crush was my best friend and doctor who buddy Joss.

What was your favourite movie as a kid?

I’m not sure, didn’t really watch TV.

Describe your favourite place to go on holidays?

I like going all over as I enjoyed, Scotland, wales, Plymouth, Spain, Turkey, Crete, France and etc.

What would you do on a perfect day?

Spending my time in bed watching doctor who with cuddles.

What’s the cheesiest song you know off by heart?

I listen to anything from death metal to rock/pop.

If you could have been a child prodigy, what would have been your skill?

Be able to play a guitar and sing.

What’s the one thing you’d be really disappointed if you never got a chance to do it?

Driving from Scotland to the bottom of France/ Spain; or going to Germany.

What was the last book you really loved?

The last book I read which was a few days ago was the book thief and I loved it.

What fictional character do you have the biggest crush on?

The doctor from doctor who, not for his looks but his personality is amazing and he is everything you need.

What would your parents be surprised to learn about you?

That I am not innocent ;)

What’s the one thing you’ll never do again?

Be anyone’s second choice.

What’s the most awkward to explain thing you’ve ever been caught doing?

Having sex with my boyfriend; sister’s boyfriend walked in

What music do you like listening to the most?

Death metal or screamo.

Describe your fighting style: drunken master or angry monkey?

Angry monkey or if I’m drunk the drunken master.

Tom & Jerry

I have grew up watching Tom&Jerry, but I find this story a little shocking. As a child you don't care about the colour of the skin of the character, for heaven's sake the Simpson's are YELLOW. Next they will be saying is sexist to not show the female characters. But the only characters you fully see are the animals in the episodes. But it is about a cat chasing a mouse, like sisters and brothers fighting against each other apart from you don't want to eat your siblings.

Tom and Jerry cartoons on television are being accompanied by a warning that they may depict scenes of "racial prejudice".

The classic cat and mouse cartoons, some made more than 70 years ago, carry a warning for subscribers to Amazon Prime Instant Video. There have been claims of racist stereotyping in the depiction of a black maid in the cartoon series. Amazon's warning says such prejudice was once "commonplace" in US society.

Tom and Jerry, once a staple of children's television on British television, is being presented with a cautionary note about "ethnic and racial prejudices". Amazon's streaming subscription service, formerly branded as LoveFilm, includes the cartoons in its comedy collection.

But Tom and Jerry: The Complete Second Volume is accompanied by the caution: "Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today." The wording is similar to disclaimers accompanying some collections of the cartoons on DVD.

The warning was attacked as "empty-headed" by cultural commentator and professor of sociology, Frank Furedi, who said it was a form of a "false piousness" and a type of censorship which "seems to be sweeping cultural life". "We're reading history backwards, judging people in the past by our values," said Prof Furedi from the University of Kent.

Tom and Jerry was first produced by the MGM film studio in 1940. The cartoons, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby, ran until 1957, with carefully choreographed chase scenes set in the homes and gardens of suburban America. There were more than a hundred short films made in this original series, winning seven academy awards. These included the Cat Concerto in 1946, the Two Mouseketeers in 1951 and Johann Mouse in 1952.

In the subsequent decades there have been numerous re-launched television versions of the series, with varying styles and varying degrees of critical approval. The claims of racism are longstanding. When the original versions were shown on US television in the 1960s some scenes were edited.

There have also been complaints about the characters smoking cigarettes, with changes made to recent screenings. Steve Abrahart, senior lecturer in animation at De Montfort University, said the quality of animation in the early Tom and Jerry films was "superb". The cartoons are still seen as being among the best made, he said. But Mr Abrahart said the attention to detail of the early versions was lost in some of the later re-makes.

On the question of the portrayals of race and ethnicity, he said today's animation students were not shocked by what they saw in old cartoons. He said they understood how attitudes changed over time.

As well as racial stereotypes, he said there were questions about the representation of women and other nationalities in animations from the 1940s. The idea of running warnings ahead of potentially upsetting moments in films or books has become a controversial topic in US universities.

There have been calls for the use of "trigger warnings" which could flag up to students that they are about to come across descriptions of physical brutality, aggressive language or sexual violence. The suggestion that these should be inserted into lessons about classic texts has angered some academics.

Prof Furedi said calls for such trigger warnings were a form of "narcissism", with the concerns not really being about the content of a book or work of art but about individual students asserting their own importance. "A tolerant society needs to discuss disturbing art," he said.

Martin Goldberg failings 'an accident waiting to happen'

Failings to fully investigate a teacher who took indecent photographs of pupils were "an accident waiting to happen", an ex-child protection chief has said.

Martin Goldberg, 46, deputy head of a Southend private school, had images of children undressing in changing rooms. UK authorities were alerted in 2012 in a global operation but Essex Police did not speak to him until 9 September. Jim Gamble, the ex-Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) head, said the failings were "awful".

The Home Office has been asked to comment.

Mr Goldberg, who taught at Thorpe Hall School, was found dead the day after being interviewed by police. His name was on a list of people who had bought online DVDs and videos, some of which showed graphic images of children. Toronto Police's "Project Spade" passed the list to the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in July 2012. The unit did not share the information with local police forces until November 2013 and then Essex Police failed to act on it for 10 months.Names on the list included the Suffolk doctor Myles Bradbury, who this month admitted abusing young patients at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

The delay in passing the information on is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Mr Gamble, who resigned in a row over CEOP's future in 2010, said: "This was an accident waiting to happen. "When I resigned, we were dealing with 600 or 700 reports a month, and we were struggling with that. "But in the last few years, CEOP has been dealing with 1,800 a month. It's not possible to deal with those volumes without there being huge room for error." CEOP was absorbed into the National Crime Agency last October - something Mr Gamble believes diverted resources away from the unit.

"What is happened is awful, and I'm not trying to excuse it," he said.

"But what I don't want to see is the very few staff doing far, far too much work being demonised, when actually this is an issue that should go right to the heart of leadership." Essex's Police and Crime Commissioner, Nick Alston, said he was concerned about the length of time it took Essex Police to act on the information about Goldberg once it had been passed on.

'Urgent improvements vital'

"In my judgement, there's been a failing here that we need to understand and put right," he said.

Home Affairs Select Committee Chairman Keith Vaz said the delay in acting on the information was "totally unacceptable". He said he had written to the National Crime Agency and the Canadian authorities to ask what steps were taken after they acquired the details. "It is vital that urgent improvements are made to strengthen international co-operation and speed up action following receipt of information, especially where suspects have daily contact with children in their place of work," Mr Vaz said.

Essex Police said it was acting on 18 lines of inquiry from Project Spade. So far two people have been charged with possessing indecent images of children - one a fireman, another a bus driver. A third arrested man has been released.

The force said four other suspects are retired and the others are in low-risk occupations. Twelve properties have been searched.

Alice Gross murder: Police identify body in river

It always breaks my heart when a young girl goes missing. So when I read an article like this is really makes me think of how many sick and twisted people are out there…

A body found in a west London river is that of missing Alice Gross, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.

The 14-year-old's body was found on Tuesday night in the River Brent. She was last seen on 28 August when she left her home in Hanwell, west London. Alice's parents say they have been "left completely devastated" and thanked the local community for its help in the search.

A post-Morten examination began earlier at Uxbridge Mortuary. Police said: "Due to the complex nature of this investigation the post-Morten is still ongoing and will resume tomorrow."

Alice's parents Rosalind Hodgkiss and Jose Gross, said: "It is difficult to comprehend that our sweet and beautiful daughter was the victim of a terrible crime. Why anyone would want to hurt her is something that we are struggling to come to terms with."

Her school said in a statement she was "outstanding and talented".

If dog is man’s best friend then why is there animal cruelty!

When you buy a pet, such as a dog or a cat then why do people let them out or just leave them in their houses as when they move miles away. Dog’s trust helps recover unwanted animals and looks after them. Which I think means that there is no need to abandon them. Looking through cases on animal cruel always putting a downer on your day if you have a heart; but if you don’t like animals then maybe not so much.

You may like to think that a pet is a like child of the family that it is your property to look after. You wouldn’t leave a child without a parent or even if you couldn’t or didn’t want to try to look after your child, then there are people that would and should be willing to take your young child in, this is of course knowing as fostering or adopting. Some people will do this for the money but most people will do it because they like children and want to make these children have a life that is happy. So looking after a pet should be seen in a similar way.

As there are similar elements to looking after children and looking after a pet such as you have to feed and water both and show both love, whether that is playing with them or just making sure you play with them both. One you put on a lead and the other you push is a pram.

One thing that I think should be mention is that there are videos and articles that are going around about Bestiality, which is the sexual act between human beings and animals. This is or was hard believe until I looked through articles on animal cruelty. On one case that I looked at was about a man who thought in it was a good idea to have sex with a fully grown horse. First of all, I would like to point out this farm where this case happened was rumoured to best place to perform these bestiality acts on the animals. But anyway this man who’s best idea was to perform these acts with a horse which later killed him as the horse ripped his colon. I think what was the worst thing about this case was that it killed him after having sex with the horse. Well he died in hospital after being dropped off by a friend who helped him perform his act that should only be descripted as stupid and insane.

Another case about this kind of abuse is that woman 18 and over are performing acts with dogs, which having a dog myself finds it really hard to believe that they are finding their furring pets obviously sexually attractive which should be thought as wrong on so many levels. And surely should be stopped but the government in every country doesn’t care.

This thing bestiality is also a very sick person’s form of porn which should be illegal. Like all porn as it is degrading for woman and all guys expect girls to perform like porn stars. But animal porn should be shut down but people who sort through the web links should search for and block.

So to summarise, animal cruel and abuse of all animals, not just the household pets, should be fought against and stopped.