Month: February 2020

Does Digital Exclusion Undermine Social Media’s Democratizing Capacity? — Massimo Ragnedda

Mutsvairo, B. & Ragnedda, M. (2019). Does Digital Exclusion Undermine Social Media’s Democratizing Capacity? New Global Studies, doi:10.1515/ngs-2019-0035 Claims have been made that the advent of social media and its assumed ability to fuel social strife and organize anti-government protests has empowered people around the world to successfully challenge repressive authorities. However, in an era […]

via Does Digital Exclusion Undermine Social Media’s Democratizing Capacity? — Massimo Ragnedda

The killer nurses of the third Reich WW2

Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The philosophies of the Nazi party, of which he was head, were based on eugenics – a pseudoscience that had much traction around the world at the time.

Eugenics dictated that only the healthiest and fittest be allowed to procreate and to live. The Nazis’ racial policies, which divided human races into levels of fitness for life, synergised with eugenics to support programmes declaring certain people ‘life unworthy of life‘ or ‘useless feeders.’

Under such policies, people with mental illnesses, physical and intellectual disabilities, and conditions such as epilepsy, chronic alcoholism and a range of genetic diseases, were considered a burden on society and should be annihilated.

To this end, in 1939, Hitler, through his personal physician Dr Karl Brandt, set up the ‘T4′ programme – the systematic, state-sanctioned murder of the disabled and chronically ill. The first people to be killed were disabled children.

The main killing centres were hospitals and homes for the disabled. Parents and carers were encouraged to place their loved ones and children into institutions. They would then be moved to another institution a long way from home, and contact between child and parent ceased.

After some months, parents received a letter saying that their child had died of something like pneumonia or appendicitis and that the parents could come and collect their ashes and pay for the funeral.

Doctors would assess the patients and make a mark on a standard questionnaire that dictated whether the person was to be killed or allowed to live.

While doctors made the decisions about who should live or die, the nurses did the killing. The killings took place in hospitals. Who constitutes the largest proportion of the workforce in a hospital? It’s the nurses, and it was the nurses who killed.

They used intravenous injections, lethal doses of drugs such as phenobarbitone, or starvation or hypothermia from exposure.

Memorial to the Children Victims of the War, Lidice, Czech Republic.

What made the nurses do this, surely they were there to care for patients?

In Hitler’s Germany, propaganda underpinned everything.

Propaganda about ‘life unworthy of life’ and ‘useless feeders’ was everywhere, even in arithmetic exercises for primary school children.

Many people genuinely believed that by removing these burdens on society, Germany would be a better place. Nurses, too, succumbed to the propaganda. Many believed that they were doing the right thing, that Germany would be a better place because of these policies.

Of course, there were many who disagreed and would not take part. These nurses were not punished, nor ostracised – they were moved to another hospital or another ward.

In other words, the nurses who participated in this murder did so willingly and voluntarily.

Tudor period

The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England whose first monarch was Henry VII (b.1457, r.1485–1509). Historian John Guy (1988) argued that “England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors” than at any time in a hundred years.

Population and economy
Following the Black Death and the agricultural depression of the late 15th century, the population began to increase. It was less than 2 million in 1600. The growing population stimulated economic growth, accelerated the commercialisation of agriculture, increased the production and export of wool, encouraged trade, and promoted the growth of London.[2]

The high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 15th century and early 16th century were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to an influx of New World gold and a rising population, set the stage for social upheaval with the gap between the rich and poor widening. This was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, with manorial lords beginning the process of enclosure of village lands that previously had been open to everyone.

This Country.

This is so real it is funny. What do you think?

Programme Name: This Country – TX: n/a – Episode: Threatening Letters (No. 2) – Picture Shows: Big Mandy (ASHLEY MCGUIRE), Kurtan (CHARLIE COOPER), Kerry (DAISY MAY COOPER) – (C) BBC – Photographer: Ollie Upton

The Isley Brothers Twist And Shout From 1961.

In the annals of music history, The Isley Brothers hold a unique place. Ever since the sibling quartet of O’Kelly, Rudolph, Ronald and Vernon started out as a gospel-turned-doo wop outfit back in 1954, the Isleys have followed a path that’s served as a mirror to the changes contemporary rhythm and blues has experienced right up until the present day. What other group can claim that they’ve been covered by The Beatles, acted as a proving ground for Jimi Hendrix, been at the forefront of 1970s funk and served as a major touchstone for hip-hop heavyweights like The Notorious B.I.G. and Ice Cube?

Ronald and younger brother Ernie Isley are the two remaining siblings out on the road as The Isley Brothers. The group is still creatively viable thanks to Tower of Peace, an upcoming project recorded with longtime admirer Carlos Santana that’s set to drop in the spring. It’s an experience Ernie Isley enjoyed quite a bit.

“It was great. Carlos Santana is a fan of our music and we’re fans of his. He was being played in all the dormitories when I was in college, so to have a chance to play with him in the studio and watch him play [was great],” he said.

Santana was equally excited about this opportunity, particularly after getting Ron Isley to sing on a couple of songs from last year’s Santana IV.

“Just to be in the same room as Ronnie Isley is like everything. He did ‘Twist and Shout’ before The Beatles arrived and did it on The Ed Sullivan Show and he did the real ‘Twist and Shout,’” Santana explained. “My wife [drummer Cindy Blackmon] and I recorded 15 songs in four days with [The Isley Brothers]—which is going to be the next album that comes out after [Santana IV], which is going to be called Tower of Peace. When you hear these songs, it’s going to freak you out.”

With O’Kelly, Rudolph and Ronald proving to be the foundation for the group, (Vernon was killed after getting hit by a car when he was 13), the Isley Brothers were 1960s pop/R&B heavyweights thanks to hits like “Shout,” “Twist and Shout” and “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You).”

Once younger brothers Marvin and Ernie joined the group along with brother-in-law Chris Jasper, the Isley Brothers moved in a harder funk direction that found them reinterpreting songs by non-R&B artists like Seals & Croft (“Summer Breeze”) and Stephen Stills (“Love the One You’re With”) and coming up with their own classic hits (“That Lady,” “Live It Up,” “Fight the Power,” “Harvest for the World”). It was this kind of creative malleability that’s enabled the Isleys to stay relevant to the point that the band was sampled by rapper Kendrick Lamar for 2015’s critically acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly.

It’s a facet of the group that Ernie Isley is rightfully proud of, particularly when he fondly recalls Hendrix’s stint in the band from March 1963 to November 1965.

“It’s great to have Isley on the Hendrix resume in terms of his life and journey and it’s also great to have Hendrix on the Isley resume in terms of where our career musically wound up going,” Isley explained. “‘Shout’ is a record that sounds one way. ‘Twist and Shout’ sounds a different way. ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ released by Motown sounds a different way. ‘It’s Your Thing’ sounds a different way, but it’s the same group. And then you have ‘That Lady,’—‘That Lady?’…that’s the same group. We were able to musically chase and capture what we were after. It’s crossed generations and musical boundaries. In that way, it’s been our gift.”

The Isley Brothers will appear on Jan. 14 at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 237 West 42nd St. NYC. For more information, visit www.bbkingblues.com or call 212-997-4144.

They will also be at NYCB Theatre @ Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd., Westbury on Jan. 15. For more information, visit www.livenation.com or call 877-598-8497.

Here it is for your delectation!

History about £1 pound coin

Edge
The edge is not only milled but also inscribed. The inscription in Latin reads:-
DECUS ET TUTAMEN
Which may be translated as “an ornament and a safeguard”. This inscription dates back to the first machine-struck coins minted in 1662 and was a device to prevent “clipping”.

Llantrisant Mint Mark
On the milled edge of the coin is the Llantrisant mint mark – a cross crosslet. This is the first United Kingdom coin to be struck with this distinctive feature. The shape of the cross alluding to Llantrisant, which translated from the Welsh means “Church or Parish of the Three Saints”.

Design Competition
The design process for the pound coin began with a competition for the reverse design of the new coin. The entries were judged by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, whose President is the Duke of Edinburgh, and the selected design by Eric Sewell, formerly Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint, was then submitted for the approval of Her Majesty The Queen.

by simon schofield

Ultimate pancake recipe

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Love making pancakes? Why not try one of our ideas for savoury pancakes or give some fluffy American style pancakes a go!