‘Gay Dog’ Refused Entry To Australian Restaurant
“An Australian restaurant that refused a blind man entry because a waiter thought his seeing-eye dog was ‘gay’ has been ordered to apologise and pay compensation.
Ian Jolly was told he could not take guide dog Nudge into Adelaide’s Thai Spice last May because a member of staff objected, The Sunday Mail reported.
The restaurant’s owners said a misunderstanding had arisen between Jolly’s female companion and a waiter who understood the woman ‘to be saying she wanted to bring a gay dog into the restaurant’.
‘The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog,’ the owners said in a statement to South Australia’s Equal Opportunity Tribunal.
The tribunal on Friday ordered the restaurant to pay Jolly 1,500 dollars (1,400 US) and offer him a written apology for discriminating against him on the grounds of disability.
The restaurant, which displays a ‘guide dogs welcome’ sign, refused to comment to the newspaper and was unavailable to respond on Sunday.”
Read more at Yahoo News
Man ‘Survives Without Food’ For 70 Years
“Indian doctors are studying a remarkable 83-year-old holy man who claims to have spent the last seven decades without food and water. Military medics hope the experiments on Prahlad Jani can help soldiers develop their survival strategies. The long-haired and bearded yogi is under 24-hour observation by a team of 30 doctors during three weeks of tests at a hospital in the western city of Ahmedabad.
Two cameras have been set up in his room, while a mobile camera films him when he goes outside, guaranteeing round-the-clock observation. His body will be scanned and his brain and heart activity measured with electrodes. “The observation from this study may throw light on human survival without food and water,” said Dr G. Ilavazahagan, who is directing the research. “This may help in working out strategies for survival during natural calamities, extreme stressful conditions and extra-terrestrial explorations like future missions to the Moon and Mars by the human race.”
Since the experiment began on April 22, Jani has neither eaten nor drunk and has not been to the toilet. “The exercise of taking this yogi under the medical scanner is to understand what energy supports his existence,” Dr Ilavazahagan added. “Jani says he meditates to get energy. Our soldiers will not be able to meditate, but we would still like to find out more about the man and his body.”
Jani, who dresses in red and wears a nose ring, grew up in Charod village in the Mehsana district in Gujarat. He claims to have been blessed by a goddess when he was aged eight, which has enabled him to survive without sustenance.”
Read more at Yahoo News
Thank you…
… for such lovely comments about the Dench sequence. I’ll endeavour to do the same again with future pictures. For those of who could see no difference between pictures 2 and 3, there were none: I have now removed the duplicate image. What a der-brain. Nearly left it in on purpose just to provide confusion.
Incidentally, my favourite comment was this:
“This picture shows so much talent, I’m truly impressed. But there’s a coldness to it, a barely perceptible but nevertheless evident sense of unkindness, disdain, superciliousness that I believe characterizes all of the artist’s work, both in visual art & in performance. This may be the sort of thing that will change with increasing age &, one hopes, wisdom.”
Fingers crossed.
x
(update, few days later: too much may have been read into this quote inclusion by commenters… I included it because its haughty tone made me laugh, that was all. The irony in my statement may have been lost, a common problem of blogging)
Documentaries – from May 10th
Starting on May 10th, your blogger presents 3 documentaries on C4 under the title ‘Derren Brown Investigates’ (a title I’m slightly unconvinced by but I couldn’t think of a better one). In each, I spend time with someone making paranormal claims, observing their world, looking at the weight of evidence for and against.
There are three documentaries: one with a British psychic medium, another with a ghosthunter from the US, and a third concerns a Russian system of human development that claims to ‘cure’ blindness. Each has quite a different feel.
I have approached these documentaries quite openly: as a magician, and someone steeped in the world of the paranormal, I would love to find something that I can’t explain. I remember a friend at University showing me an apparent demonstration of ‘Chi’ that got me giggly and excited for (more…)
Dench Sequence
As some of you have asked, here is a sequence of images showing how ‘Grande Dame’ was painted. It’s still yet to get it photographed to best reflect the original, but when I do I’ll put it on derrenbrownart.com with prints for sale.
As ever, acrylics on canvas, this one 5 foot x 5 foot.
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Derren Brown Interview – Big Issue
Derren Brown divides opinion. To some, he is the ultimate modern showman, adapting old fashioned music hall tricks for the digital age. He is one of the few personalities in contemporary broadcasting who creates water-cooler TV – remember the lottery numbers trick? And the Russian roulette? Had us going, didn’t it? To others, though, he is the devil incarnate.
On my way to meet him at Milton Keynes Theatre one early spring afternoon, nagging thoughts gnaw. Will I be strong enough to resist his mental powers? Will a touch of the elbow and a whispered word lead me to empty my bank account into his? Will I conduct the interview with my trousers on my head?
Upon meeting him, there is no protracted handshake, no disarming touch, no snap hypnosis and certainly no warm regards from Beelzebub.
Just a kind introduction, friendly conversation and a relaxed demeanour from a casually dressed, gently balding man as he gets ready to start his evening’s work. A disappointment? Not exactly. A relief? Most certainly. Although, a part of me thinks this could all be part of the act, that he’s sizing me up, ready to spring his trap with a click of the fingers.
Brown has been doing this for roughly 20 years. Still, it appears, he may be as nervous of his quarry as we are of him.“I’m acutely aware that the reasons you choose things like magic or hypnosis are often very ego-driven,” he states flatly and honestly.
(more…)
Study To Examine Cancer Risk In Mobile Phone Use
“Thousands of people are to be studied over the course of 20 or 30 years to see if the long-term use of mobile phones increases the risk of developing brain tumours and other medical disorders, as part of the largest ever study into the subject.
At least 250,000 mobile phone users will be monitored as part of the multi-million-pound Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (Cosmos), which aims to settle the debate over whether there are any serious health risks from using the devices once and for all.
Previous research has relied on studying people who have already developed illnesses, which has led to suggestions that they suffered from an inherent “recall” bias, such as people having more vivid memories of holding their mobile phones to the side of their head which developed a brain tumour. Cosmos will pick up diseases and symptoms as they arise and changes in people’s health will be compared with their usage of mobile phones, taking into account both the number and duration of calls and the positioning of handsets.
Volunteers taking part in the study will be aged 18 to 69 and recruited through co-operating network operators. Between 90,000 and 100,000 people are expected to participate in the UK, with others joining from Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. The total cost of the study for the first five years is estimated at £5-7 million. The UK arm alone will cost £3.1m, jointly funded by the Government and industry.”
Read more at The Independent (thanks, Soulmate02)
Can Acupuncture Have Real Effects?
“Rats with damaged spines can walk again thanks to acupuncture. But it’s not due to improvements in their energy flow or ‘chi’. Instead, the ancient treatment seems to stop nerve cell death by reducing inflammation.
Acupuncture’s scientific credentials are growing. Trials show that it improves sensory and motor functions in people with spinal cord injuries.
To find out why, Doo Choi and his colleagues at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea, damaged the spines of 75 rats. One-third were given acupuncture in two locations: Shuigou – between their snout and mouth, and Yanglingquan – in the upper hind leg. Others received no treatment or “simulated acupuncture”.
After 35 days, the acupuncture group were able to stand at a steeper incline than the others and walk better. Staining their paws with ink revealed that their forelimb-hindlimb coordination was fairly consistent and that there was very little toe dragging, whereas the control groups still dragged their feet.”
Read more at New Scientist (thanks, Mill)
Car Steered With Eyes
“‘Keep your eyes on the road!’ Scientists at Freie Universität working under the computer science professor Raúl Rojas have given a completely new meaning to this standard rule for drivers: Using software they developed, they can steer a car with their eyes.
On the site of the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport, the head of the project, Raul Rojas, and his team from the Artificial Intelligence Group recently demonstrated how they can steer the vehicle that is equipped with complex electronics just by eye. More than 60 journalists from around the world were there to watch.”
Read more at Science Daily (thanks, SuZi)
