Britain’s Eton College asks teenage candidates to justify shooting protesters
End the Lie – Independent News
May 24, 2013
Boys from Eton college (Reuters / Eddie Keogh)
UK’s elite school asked 13-year old boys to pretend to be Prime Minister and justify the army shooting dead 25 protesters in a speech to win a scholarship it is revealed.
The question, which was put to students applying for the King’s Scholarship, worth one tenth of Eton’s £32,000 a year fees, is entitled “Concerning Cruelty, Clemency and Whether It Is better To Be Loved than Feared”, and follows a passage from Machiavelli.
“The year is 2040. There have been riots in the streets of London after Britain has run out of petrol because of an oil crisis in the Middle East. Protesters have attacked public buildings. Several policemen have died. Consequently, the government has deployed the army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have stopped but 25 protestors have been killed by the army,” the question reads.
Candidates are then asked to imagine that they were the Prime Minister and to write a speech for broadcast to the nation on why the decision to deploy the army against violent protests was both necessary and morally right.
The paper was set in April 2011, just after the student riots in which the headquarters of the Conservative Party and the treasury were hit and, by coincidence, just before the August 2011 riots, which injured many and caused millions of pounds of damage. At the time David Cameron warned that the army might be deployed.
The question caused uproar, with many taking to twitter to express their disagreement.
Seriously, that Eton scholarship exam question is spectacular: etoncollege.com/userfiles/file… twitter.com/flashboy/statu…
— Tom Phillips (@flashboy) May 23, 2013
This leaked scholarship exam paper from Eton is beyond parody & v revealing about Cameron’s Britain lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/05/2…
— Johann Hari (@johannhari101) May 24, 2013
Huh, my tweet about burning Eton to the ground didn’t seem to lose me any followers. Seems you lot are the right sort.
— Michael Richmond (@Sisyphusa) May 24, 2013
Damian Walter tweeted sarcastically, “having been born into a council estate single parent family, I would never question the superiority of Eton boys with millionaire parents.”
The headmaster of Eton College, Tony Little, emailed the US paper the Huffington Post saying the question has been taken out of context and that Eton School does not favor any particular political viewpoint.
“We are looking for candidates who can see both sides of an idea and express them clearly. High ability candidates at this level are often asked to put themselves in someone else’s shoes,” he wrote.
He then compared the question to a GCSE level English question, which is sat by all secondary school 16-year olds in England and Wales as well as those from fee paying public schools, in which he imagined a question, “Imagine you are Lady Macbeth, write a diary entry to express your feelings on receiving your husband’s letter.”
He added that a similar question in this year’s paper was about a community without any government.
Both the current British Prime Minister David Cameron and the London Mayor Boris Johnson went to Eton, Boris was also a King’s Scholar.
Source: RT
VIDEO — Arab League warns against foreign interference in Syria
PressTV
May 24, 2013
The Arab League has held an urgent meeting on Syria at its headquarters in Cairo. The meeting was aimed at developing a unified Arab stance regarding the international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.
VIDEO — Toppling The Monsanto Pyramid!
Press For Truth
May 24, 2013
Monsanto’s days are numbered. The time has come to put an end to Monsanto’s reign of power. Join the food revolution on May 25th. Together we march for freedom…together we march to put Monsanto on notice that free human being from all over the world will no longer support their monopoly. Join us on May 25th. We the people have the power. We the people have had enough of Monsanto’s reckless behavior.On May 25th We the people together will topple the Monsanto pyramid.
Visit the March-Against-Monsanto website:
http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/
Visit the March Against Monsanto Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainst…
Find a March Against Monsanto rally near you:
http://www.march-against-monsanto.com…
Support independent media by contributing to the PFT Fundraiser: http://www.gofundme.com/2sghd4
or
Donate through Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr…
Adam Kokesh RELEASED
via Twitter / adamkokesh
May 24, 2013
Released 130524 with felony charges reduced to citations which I refused to sign. Played hardball. Won. Talk to… fb.me/2CVNQvoNZ
— Adam Kokesh (@adamkokesh) May 24, 2013
Scientists Discover A Woman Who Can See 99 Million More Colours Than The Rest Of Us
CBC.ca
May 23, 2013
Most people can see a pretty wide range of colours – about a million hues, according to scientists.
We perceive all those gradations in colour using cells in our eyes called “cones”. Most people have three cones, making us “trichromats”. People with colour blindness have only two cones that function normally, so they’re called “dichromats”.
Now, a scientist in Newcastle, England has apparently discovered a woman who can see 99 million more colours than the average person. Her ability to perceive all those colours is extremely rare.
She’s a tetrachromat, with four cone cells in her eyes, and she’s able to see many colours that haven’t even been named, since trichromats can’t perceive them.
Dr. Gabriele Jordan from Newcastle University has been searching for a tetrachromat for 20 years, and two years ago, she says she found her first one.
Although the woman (who hasn’t been named publicly – she’s a doctor living in northern England) is said to be the first tetrachromat discovered by scientists, experts believe there are others.
In the course of their search, Dr. Jordan’s team has found many other people with four cones in their eyes, but none of them passed the test for “super colour vision.”
“We now know tetrachromacy exists,” Dr. Jordan told Discover Magazine. “But we don’t know what allows someone to become functionally tetrachromatic, when most four-coned women aren’t.”
Top US diplomat vows wider military aid for anti-Damascus militant gangs
PressTV
May 23, 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) in a meeting with Jordan’s ruler King Abdullah II
US Secretary of State John Kerry has again vowed expanded military support for foreign-backed militant gangs in Syria if “diplomacy” fails to end what he claimed as a civil war in the country.
Speaking in the Jordan capital of Amman on Wednesday, Kerry said the US and its partners, in Western Europe and mainly Arab dictatorships in the region as well as Turkey, will widen their support for anti-Damascus gangs in the country by “sending more weapons or taking other measures short of sending American forces,” The Washington Post reports Thursday.
The development comes as Syrian troops are on the verge of recapturing major Syrian city of Qusayr on the Lebanese border from the foreign-backed insurgents in the country.
Kerry, meanwhile, also tried to lower expectations for an international effort to bring the highly divided opposition groups and the Syrian government to the negotiation table amid persisting differences among militant leaders and new international worries about the existence of radical terrorists among opposition forces.
The top US diplomat also sounded pessimistic about the prospect of convening an ‘international peace conference’ in Geneva next month in efforts to “negotiate a cease-fire” and form a “transition government,” the report adds.
“In the event that we can’t find that way forward…, we will also talk about our continued support and growing support for the opposition in order to permit them to continue to fight,” Kerry said.
This is while the Syrian army has successfully concluded the first phase of its operation in the strategic western city of Qusayr, according to press reports.
Syrian forces have inflicted major losses on the militants in the city, destroying their weaponry and equipment.
The Syrian army has also found several caches of weapons, mostly containing Israeli-made ammunition.
The senior commander of the terrorist group al-Nusra Front, Abu Omar, was reportedly also among those killed in battle on May 21.
MFB/MFB
Portland Voters Reject Water Fluoridation for the Fourth Time
Late Tuesday night over 60 percent of Portland area voters rejected a proposal to begin fluoridating the city’s water supply.
Photo: AP/Don Ryan
by Derrick Broze
Intellihub.com
May 24, 2013
Mayor Charlie Hales expressed his disappointment in a statement. “The measure lost despite my own ‘yes’ vote.That’s sure disappointing, but I accept the will of the voters.”
Portland voters first turned down fluoridation when the process began in the 1950′s, and again during the 1960′s. It was briefly approved in 1978, however that plan was overturned two years later, before any fluoride was ever added to the water.
After rumors of backroom deals between the City Council and fluoridation supporters emerged, clean water activists sprung to action. In response to last years city council vote to begin fluoridating water serving 900,000 citizens, protestors organized efforts to bring the issue to the public for a vote. After gathering over 40,000 signatures the measure was brought forth.
The issue also wound up politicizing a statewide health report that showed falling cavity and tooth decay rates in the state over the past five years. One of the report’s authors said she felt pressure by Upstream Health, the group spearheading fluoridation efforts, to present the findings in a certain way.
Oregon Live covered the details of the report:
“The percentage of children who already had a cavity fell from 64 to 52 statewide, according to the survey. That represents a drop of nearly one-fifth.
The percentage of children with untreated decay also declined from 36 to 20 statewide, the survey found. That’s down by nearly half.
And the other major measure, rampant decay — which is defined as seven treated or untreated cavities — fell from 20 percent to 14 percent statewide. That’s down by about one-third. “
With this latest rejection Portland becomes the largest city in the United States that does not add fluoride to the water. Speaking to the Portland Tribune, Kim Kaminski, leader of Clean Water Portland said, “At a very fundamental level, people understand that we don’t want more chemicals in our water.”
This year marks the 68th anniversary of fluoridation – the first U.S. city to adjust the fluoride levels in its water supply was Grand Rapids, Mich. on January 25, 1945, according to the American Dental Association.
Despite the fact that most mainstream health organizations, including the American Medical Association, endorse fluoridation over 200 communities have rejected the practice in recent years. Opponents of fluoridation in Portland worry by adding fluoride to the water it will ruin the city’s famously pristine water supply, as well as violate an individuals civil liberties, by forced medicating through the water.
Portlands stance against water fluoridation has become an attacking point for many publications around the country. Accusations of being anti-science, or a conspiracy theorist abound for those opposing the controversial practice.
Despite a recent Salon article that claims the Fluoride Free movement is “Without a study to stand on” there are a number of studies that show a variety of health concerns . The article also states, “The (fluoride) ion occurs naturally in ground water in varying levels, some that are in fact too high.” While this claim is true it is also misleading.
When a city chooses to add “fluoride” to the water supply they are actually adding the toxic substance hydrofluorosilic acid. Hydrofluorosilic acid is a by-product of phosphate mining, and if not for cities purchasing the substance for millions of dollars, it would have to be disposed of at a hefty cost to the producer.
The history books are filled with examples of medical and scientific practices that were seen as safe at one point only to be demonized later. The early critics of any common practice are often ridiculed until new evidence creates a shift in understanding and future practices. When it comes to water fluoridation we are dealing with a similar situation.
For more information on the dangers of water fluoridation and how you can get involved please check out the Fluoride Action Network. (www.fluoridealert.org)
sources:
^http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/153165-inspired-water-fight-sends-message
PN 