What Makes People Tick?

The English language can be confusing... However so can those who speak the language! England, Britain or the United Kingdom? English, British or perhaps Yuukayeean? Here's an easy tool to help you remember! I don't know why people get confused,  it's very simple... pic.twitter.com/xUCJ2X6fs8 — The Lazy Dog (@TheLazyDog_) March 9, 2013 Disclaimer: Yes, we did make up the word Yuukayeean. Call it attempted humour. Or just silly.  

"Surveys suggest that as few as    one in 10 cases [of rape] are ever    reported to the police in many countries" Top 5 Countries with the Highest Rates of Rape  The International Business Times (UK), January 2014 The Times of India reports in a July 2014 article that "If one goes by the latest statistics of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), every day 93 women are being raped in the country." The article explains that the total number of reported rape cases in India has gone up. In 2012, a total of 24,923 rapes were reported while in 2013 the total number came to 33,707. This means that more women are coming forward and filing reports; more women are speaking up about what is being done to them. I can only hope the trend continues, and 2014 will see even more reports.  Wikipedia's article Rape in India puts the above numbers into perspective. Looking at the same data, the article explains that "24,923 rape cases were reported a...

English soccer team Liverpool sends and then deletes a Rosh Hashanah Tweet after protests against the Tweet as the Jerusalem Post reports. Rational people might ask why. The answer is given by the article's title: Liverpool deleted the tweet after 'anti-Semitic posts'. Yes, you did read that right. “ Liverpool FC would like to wish all our Jewish supporters around the world a happy new year. #RoshHashanah ,” the tweet read. A few hours later, the tweet was removed after the anti-Semitic abuse ensued. The story was originally reported by The Guardian.  “Due to a number of offensive comments that were attached to a tweet on the official LFC twitter account, the tweet and comments have since been removed from the account,” the club told the Guardian. Source: English soccer club Liverpool deletes Rosh HaShanah tweet after anti-Semitic posts , The Jerusalem Post  Source: Jerusalem Post How judgemental is our society that wishing Jewish people the world over a happy ...

This is absolutely shocking. British newspaper Metro News reports that 23-year old Lithuanian Aurimas Medvedevas killed his two-month old baby daughter the day her mother went back to work for the very first time since giving birth. The man's 22-year old partner Dzesika Urbikaite came home from her first day back at work to find the nine week old baby dead in her cot. Mr. Medvedevas was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison. Jailing him today, judge Timothy Pontius said the brutality of the attack on a defenceless baby almost defied belief. He said the fact that baby Aukse suffered considerably for hours before her eventual death ‘demonstrated a callousness that is as incredible as it is inhuman’.  Prosecutor Karim Khalil QC told jurors: ‘For reasons known only to him, he took hold of his own baby, he bit her on the head, he struck her repeatedly and he shook her hard. As a result of all that she died, not immediately, but a few hours later.’  The nine-week-old ...

A women's clothing store in the United Kingdom named after an Egyptian mythological figure becomes the target of hate mail and harassment, as the UK's  Daily Mail reports . Source:  Isis Boutique  Facebook page Jill Campbell is the owner of women's clothing store Isis Boutique in Malvern    (Worcestershire). Her store is named after the Egyptian goddess Isis. Ms Campbell came up with the name after leaving Oxford in 2007, explaining "The river in Oxford is named locally as ISIS and it is also the Egyptian goddess of magic, mystique, beauty and femininity which is everything the shop is all about." The boutique has been in business for seven years. The past few months, as the western world has been getting to know the terrorists and murderers in Iraq and Syria known as "ISIS", Ms. Campbell's store has been coming under threat. Not because she supports ISIS or anything like that but because the name of her boutique sounds similar to one of th...

Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans spoke to the United Nations Security Council about the 'downing' of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 carrying a total of 298 innocent men, women and children, 193 of whom were Dutch. Parts of Mr. Timmermans' speech were shown on Dutch television news ( NOS Nieuws ) such as the statement I transcribed below in order to share it with readers of this blog. Minister Timmermans' speech can be viewed here on YouTube . Any transcription errors are mine. "Just for one minute, I'm not addressing you as representatives of your countries... But as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers.  Just imagine that you first get the news that your husband was killed. And then within two or three days you see images of some thug removing a wedding band from their hands. Just imagine that this could be your spouse.   To my dying day I will not understand that it took so much time for the rescue workers to be allowed to do their ...

BBC News reports earlier today that Dutch experts have been given limited access to some of the bodies of the victims of the rocket attack against Malaysian Airlines flight #MH17. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country lost 193 people, said all political and economic options were on the table if access to the crash site remained unsatisfactory.  "We want our people back," he told parliament in The Hague. Source: MH17 plane crash: Dutch experts examine bodies , BBC News

The Daily Mail reports that more than half of British women hate their bikini body so much they'd rather stay home than go on a summer holiday. Listing a stunning amount of figures, the article explains in percentages exactly what parts of their bodies women are most unhappy with. Tummies, muffin tops, breasts, hips, thighs... It seems that British women really don't like any part of their body when coupled with a bikini. The study asked a 1000 women a series of questions which resulted in some very interesting figures. For instance: * 53% of women admit they hate the sight of themselves in a swimsuit so much that they would rather miss out on a sunshine break than strip off  * Just 1% claim to have no beach hang-ups at all Source:  British women hate their bikini body so much they'd rather stay home , The Daily Mail Online Am I the only one asking WHY for crying out loud women in Britain and the world over are buying into this idea that we need to "look go...

Source : Screencap from Adopt a Coin , Corinium Museum website How cool is this! You can adopt a Roman coin from the Tetbury Coin Hoard - discovered in 2010 - for just £10 and help preserve Roman-British history at the same time! Cirencester is a town in east Gloucestershire, England, to the north-west of London. The Roman name for the town was Corinium and the town's Corinium Museum is well-known for its extensive Roman collection. Coins from the Tetbury Coin Hoard are to be displayed by the Museum. The hoard consists of approximately 1500 coins dating from AD 260s – 280s. "Adopt a Roman Coin from Corinium Museum to help raise £15,000 to conserve and display the Tetbury Coin Hoard! The Tetbury Hoard was discovered in 2010 and excavated in the days following its discovery. The coins, and the vessel they were found in, were declared Treasure and initially sent to the British Museum for analysis. They have now been generously donated to the Museum by the landowner and...

Apparently, when two people love each other and want to get married to seal that love, this man's idea of the Christian God gets angry and punishes an entire country. Why? Read on at the BBC website .  "[UKIP councillor David] Silvester, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, defected from the Tories in protest at Mr Cameron's support for same-sex unions. In the letter to the Henley Standard he wrote: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war." Religion fascinates me in all its ways, shapes and forms. Religious people also fascinate me, as do their actions, reactions, responses and modern-day interpretations of (for instance) Old Testament stories. How do religions adapt to modern-day society, if they do at all? And how do religious people adapt, if they do? ...