Gothique

Spellbound

Like many people I am more of an outsider than the leader of the pack. I am attracted to Gothic sub-culture. I've been to see Gothic bands and have a literary background in the indicated reading matter, but I always knew it was pointless to try and be a Goth.

One icon for me has been Siouxsie Sioux, eternally cool, eternally unattainable. I'd hate to be a music journalist trying to get her to open up, trying to find some way to penetrate her seamless armour.

Just lately I have fallen under the spell of Pantagruella I look at her photos and feel myself falling, subject to the gravity of an allure I can barely express.

They say the moon falls endlessly towards the Earth. I feel like that. I'm as close to the abyss as I can ever be. I need to be content with that.

Jelly Factory

Jelly Factory

Some games, are designed to be nothing more than fan service. Take Senran Kagura for example. The entire premise of that game, revolves around beating your opponent so badly that their clothing manages to explode into threads. Threads that somehow manage to keep certain bits of their anatomy covered. And of course your opponents are mostly busty girls. It’s a rather titillating sub-genre that has managed to carve a niche out for itself in Japan and the west. And the creators of Senran Kagura are going for something even more salacious in Valkyrie Drive.

Marvelous has a new franchise on the way, which will be hitting several media platforms. Valkyrie Drive was shown off at the AnimeJapan Expo on the weekend, with its creators announcing an anime series, console and mobile game launch. Starring several plucky anime girls, the series revolves around who can transform into weapons, through various methods. Kagayaki Mirai has the launch trailer, which may NSFW due to more jiggle than a jelly factory and the fact that this video may set off amber alerts. If you’ve ever watched anything that Kenichiro Takaki has had a hand in producing, you’ll know what to expect here:

Fire Horse

In Japan it is believed that women born in a hinoeuma year, the year of the Fire Horse in the fifth lunar calendar cycle, or every 60 years, are evil.

These women are considered dangerous and in league with spirits that are considered less than friendly. A woman born in a hinoeuma year would not make a good wife and thus men would avoid them at all costs. 

The last hinoeuma year was in 1966 and resulted in a huge spate of abortions across Japan - lest the child be a female.

Records show that Japan had a sharp decrease in birth rates in 1966 which is generally attributed to this superstition based on the old lunar calendar.

High

Win Harwood, a Windsor parenting expert , says research has shown that children as young as nine years old are experimenting with this game in spite of the risks.

“It is voluntary suffocation, to get a high," says Harwood.

The choking game, also known as blackout, cloud nine or flatliner, can cause seizures, blindness, paralysis and in the worst cases, death.

Harwood says the part of the human brain which assesses risk is not fully developed in a teenage brain. "They're looking for highs, from risk. It’s not the adult brain," says Harwood.

Even though videos showing tweens and teens doing the choking game either in groups or alone, Harwood says parents should talk to their kids about it.

"Kids can handle the information better than we can," says Harwood.

And Harwood has some tips for how parents can approach the subject with their kids, no matter how old they are.

"First of all, be calm. Talk about it like the nose on your face. Don't exaggerate the facts at all," she says.

Harwood says the goal should never be to control your children "because you can't."

Dr. Paul Bradford, a trauma physician at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, agrees it’s imperative parents talk to their kids, even if it can be difficult.

"If there's something we can do to alter a behaviour,” says Bradford. “It’s our duty to get that message out."

Read more: http://windsor.ctvnews.ca/deadly-choking-game-game-your-kids-might-be-playing-1.1186472#ixzz2MtxT5DW9

All I Hear Is Burn

An arrest warrant has been issued for a 60-year-old man who sent a malicious email to British MP, after he failed to appear in court over the matter.

Frank Zimmerman from Gloucester emailed Conservative MP Louise Mensch in August 2011 and told her to cease using Twitter or face the consequences. In April, he was convicted (in his absence) of sending by a public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing message.

Derby & Joan

Julia Killhard, Posh Slice, Freyda Nuffin; they aren't characters from a James Bond film but monikers for members of a fast growing sport in WA known as roller derby.

In roller derby, each team has five members on the track with the jammers trying to make as many laps as they can, while the other team's blockers try and stop them.

The bout, with regular interchanges from the bench, goes for an hour with jams consisting of two minutes or less.

For more detail check out Whip It and the earlier Kansas City Bomber.

Denial

A Bahraini policewoman pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of torturing a female journalist during last year's crackdown on anti-government protests, lawyers said.

The officer, Lieutenant Sara al-Musa, denied torturing Nazeeha Saeed, who is the Bahrain correspondent of France 24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya, and was not in court, the lawyers said.

The hearing was adjourned to June 24 for further deliberation.

Musa is accused of torturing Saeed while the journalist was in custody on May 22 last year.

The prosecution said last month that it had referred the case to the "high criminal court because the defendant is a public servant in the ministry of interior and has used force against the victim to make her confess to a crime."

To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=406015#ixzz1x0Z8YJKy
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