THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

The Stockholm syndrome was born 40 years ago in a Stockholm bank. A man named Jan Erik Olsson was present that day, he remembers eveything! On August 23, a 32-years old (Olsson) stormed into the Kreditbanken on the central Normalmstrong Square, pulled out a gun and took 4 hostages, screaming: 

"The party is starting! Everyone, face down!"

This attack has been the beginning of what American psychiatrists call "The Stockholm syndrome": the relationship between victims and kidnappers that can develop during the course of a sequester. The attack became something else after many days.
Olsson (the kidnapper) had a wig with brown cream on his face, just to look like an Arab terrorist. When he took off everything in front of the hostages, he started to talk about his life, his dreams, his fears and his children The first sign that things were starting to change was when one of the hostages asked permission to go to the toilet. Olsson said yes even if he knew that he would escape. The hostage came back, neverthless the police tried to convince him to flee. Later, the Swedish Prime Minister telephoned and Kristin Enmarkl, one of the hostages, picked up. She said that they were not scared of Olsson, but of the police. 
This incomprenhensible behavior upset public opinion.
Later, the Stockholm syndrome was explained by Ochberg who has dedicated his whole life explaining this syndrome.

“I’m a 12-year-old boy who likes music and doesn’t like global warming.” This is how Aitan Grossman opens his website, KidEarth, where he is using his love of music to help solve the climate crisis: “I’m not old enough to solve the problem,” he says. He’s old enough to try, however, and try he does.

While still a 6th grader and in preparation for the community service requirement for his bar mitzvah, Aitan composed and wrote a song he called “100 Generations,” which he sent out to schools around the world, asking students everywhere to join the chorus. Enlisting the aid of friends, their school’s music teacher, and his own father, Aidan recorded his song, posted it on YouTube, and formed the nonprofit organization KidEarth to funnel money from sales and donations into the environmental movement. That was in 2008. From all over the world, children responded. Aitan’s song has been sung and recorded in Botswana, Ethiopia, France, Guatamala, Taiwan, and, of course, many places across the United States, where Aitan and his family live. His instructions are simple: “Sing our song with us, share it with your friends, and, if you can, buy a copy so we can give money to environmental groups that are working hard to stop climate change right now.” He has three goals: to raise awareness of this problem that is gripping the earth and endangering the lives of all the species on it, to get his song recorded by lots of children, and, as he says, “to inspire kids that if they want to do something, they can get it done. He chose the theme of a hundred generations because he wanted to get across that while nature is eternal, humankind can cause its destruction.

The Celts

The Celts were the first habitants of Britain.
There were many groups, speaking a common language. The word "Celt" comes from the Greek word Keltoi which means 'barbarians'.
The Celts loved bright colours, infact they dyed their clothes into bright colours.  They also loved to wear jewellery made from bronze, gold, silver.
The Celts ate what they could grow or hunt: plants, animals and insects.
They lived in scattered villages in round houses made of wattle and daub. The houses had no windows but they had a hole in the roof and the animals were kept inside for protection.
The Celts believed in many gods and goddesses: over 400. They believed that the human soul lived inside the head so they nailed them over the doors after their death.

The origins of the "selfie"!

A selfie is a self-portrait photography taken by a camera or a smartphone. The term was first coined by Jim Krause in his 2005 book 'Photo Idea Index'.
Selfies began on MySpace with the digital camera. On this social network people could put up a little bit of their biogrpahy and pictures of themselves. That's where selfies were born!
This trend has come to the rise of ths selfie stick (a monopod that attaches to a smartphone and holds it in place, while its handle extend so the user can fit a group or the background into the photo and snap the selfie with a press of a button).
There are many types of selfie:

• The best side of me
• The bed selfie
•  The beach feet brag selfie
• The bathroom selfie
• The gym selfie
• I saw a celebrity selfie  
• The duckface selfie

 

 

My Articles

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My Diamante Poem

Homeless in Hollywood

Some people as Bruce Turner don't have to imagine having no home, no job, no family and no friends and trying to survive on the streets of one of the most dangerous cities. He spent two-and-a-half years living on the streets in Skid Row in Los Angeles, an area full of homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes. Bruce, who is originally from Los Angeles, has been used drugs for 40 years, before becoming homeless. When he lived on the streets, he survived because of selling drugs and cheating people out of their money. Now, his life has changed. He stopped taking drugs and started working with the Los Angeles Mission, who has been assisting homeless people in LA for more than 70 years. Bruce started partecipating at the Mission two years ago. Recently he had a second job and soon he will get his own apartment. He said that being homeless was rough, but it was also fun because he could do anything he wanted. He had no bills. There were also women, so he involved with women. Some people think that who's living in Skid Row street is because of drugs, but they don't know that there are no drugs. The highest percentage of people out there have mental problems. Some others are lost and don't want to be found. For Bruce, the most misconception about homeless people is that they are dumb and dirty, but they're not. There are a lot of smart people out there and some others walk around looking sharp everyday: you can never tell they're homeless. People misjudge too much the homeless. They're not dumb because they nedd to be smart to survive!

Belt up, young men!

Florida's attempt to ban teenagers from "sagging": wearing jeans low just to show their panties, it has many precedents. In 2008, on the campaign trail, Obama told MTV that teenagers should pull up their pants. One year before the mayor of Delcombresaid that anyone who wears low jeans should pay a fine of $500 and spend six months in jails. The look os most associated to the hip-hop culture, that was born in the early 90's. The godfather of the skinny jeans, Heidi Silmane, deisgned his denims to sit well below the hip-bone, and a loot of brands have followed. Those kinds of jeans are not even easy to wear! So why do they do that? The answer is simply: rebellion. The look comes from prisoners having their belts taken away in case they use them to hang them. Showing your underpants in only an echo of lawless attitude. There's also a fact that showing your arse is just an insult that is centuries older than hip-hop. Hip-hop also permeated that boys pay no attention that a look could may seem threatening. When womes wear wear their jeans so low it shows off their knickers it's considerated alluring, while if boys do that it's a moral panic. Mosty gay-man have avoited the saggy-jeaned look. In fact, pointing out that in displaying your bottom you might be making it an object of deisre. Otherwise, no amount of nagging will stop young men sagging!

Voodoo donuts, the magic is in the hole.

Oregon is full of many bizarre tourist attractions. A fine example comes in the form of “Voodoo Doughnut” at 22 South-West Third Street. When you walk in you’ll see an oversize doughnut sculpture hanging on the wall. In the chiller cabinet big colorful doughnuts are waiting for customers. Open 24 hours a day, Voodoo Doughnut is the brainchild of two entrepreneurs and artists, Tres and Catdaddy. They wanted to open a bar, basically, is how this... how it ended up... and they couldn’t get a liquor licence. It was, like, really hard, and so they were like, “Well, let’s just do doughnuts!” And so they ended up going down to LA and went to Doughnut College, and decided to open up a doughnut shop, and wanted to do something a little bit different, and, you know, they kind of stayed with the bar idea and decided to be open all night, instead of during the day. Prices for these hand-made doughnuts start at under a dollar and go up to nearly five dollars for the most elaborate creations. The menu is constantly changing. You still find lots of All-American ingredients, such as Oreo cookies or grape frosting, and often a good dose of sexual innuendo. Death also features on the Voodoo Doughnut menu. Staff will be more than happy to prepare a coffin full of doughnuts. Sometimes new bands play in the store, there are Swahili lessons and doughnut-eating competitions. And customers can even get married beneath a holy doughnut. Yet Voodoo Doughnut’s pride and joy is the Voodoo Doll, which comes with a stake through its little heart.

 

Religious symblos

rak, random act of kindness.

A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or people wishing either to assist or to cheer up an individual person or people. The phrase may have been coined by Anne Herber. Random acts of kindness are a means by which we make a deliberate attempt to brighten another person's day by doing something thoughtful, nice, and caring. Kindness is a way of showing others that they count and that, even in the face of hostility and selfishness, you're making a stand for kindness. This concept has become an organized celebration through various events around the world, as well as referring to a general call to action in the name of kindness. And you don't need to wait for someone else to initiate a day or week of celebrations to practice random acts of kindness; you can put them into play any time you like! 

How to do rak?

1. Be kind.

2. Be thoughtful.

3. Use your manners as a form of kindness.

4. Give out compliments generously. 

5. Think about people who quietly make a difference to your community and thank them. 

6. Cheer up the lonely.

7. Volunteer.

8. Shower a coworker with kindness.

9. Share a little wealth around.

10. Give your family a break.

11. Hold a friends night-in.

12. Send a message.

13. Forgive somebody.

14. Share a smile.

15. Expect nothing.

My new year's resolutions.

The most populare new year's resolutions.                                                                My new year's resolutions.

• Lose Weight                                                                                                                             • Lose Weight

• Volunteer to Help Others                                                                                                     • Go to the gym
• Quit Smoking                                                                                                                          •  Study more
• Get a Better Education                                                                                                           • Be more obedient
• Get a Better Job                                                                                                                       • Help my parents
• Save Money                                                                                                                              • Cut my hair
• Get Fit                                                                                                                                        • Help others                    

• Eat Healthy Food                                                                                                                   • Save money
• Manage Stress                                                                                                                        •  Love more myself                       

• Manage Debt                                                                                                                          • Take a journey
• Take a Trip                                                                                                                              • Learn German
• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle                                                                                               • Spend more time with family
• Drink Less Alcohol                                                                                                               • Be organized

- Palindromes.

A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward or forward. 
Palindromes have been created for many centuries. Greeks are known to have often inscribed the following onto their fountains: 

Nipson anomemata me monan opsin.

It means:  wash the sin as well as the face. The word "palindrome" was coined by the English playwright Ben Jonson in the 17th century from the Greeks. 
Palindromes often consist of a sentence or phrase: "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm", Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog!
They can also be composed by a word: eye, Bob, Anna; or even number: 131, 5885, 989, 232, 6446. 

Here are some palindromes:

• If I had a Hi-Fi.
• Eva, can I see bees in a cave?
• Madam, I'm Adam.
 • No lemon, no melon.
• Was it a cat I saw?
• Now I see bees, I won.
• May a moody baby doom a yam?
• Dennis sinned.
• Madam, in Eden I'm Adam.

"Friends Forever."

There once lived a mouse and a frog who were very good friends. Every morning the frog would go to visit the mouse who lived in a hole inside a tree.  The mouse very much enjoyed the company of the frog, but the mouse didn't  realised that the frog was growing increasingly frustrated because it was always him who had to visit the mouse and never the other way around. The lazy little mouse didn't know it at the time, but he was slowly making an enemy of his good friend, the frog. One afternoon, when it was time to return home, the frog decided that he had had enough of this one-sided friendship. And so the frog tied one end of a piece of string to his leg, and then tied the other end of the piece of string to the little mouse’s tail without telling him. The frog said goodbye to the mouse, and then dived into the pond at the foot of the tree far below. All at once, completely to his surprise, the string pulled tight on the mouse’s tail and he was dragged from the safety of his tree and sent tumbling into the air towards the pond below. The poor little mouse can't swim, and as much as he struggled and struggled to free his tail, he could not untie the piece of string. After much splashing and struggling, the poor mouse finally drowned in the pond. 

‘That will teach you to make a fool out of me, you lazy mouse,’ said the frog.

But this misdeed did not go unnoticed: high up in the sky, a hawk spotted the little mouse floating in the water below. And so the hungry hawk swooped down towards the pond to grab the little mouse for its dinner. Only on that time the frog remembered he was still tied to the mouse by the piece of string.  It was then that the frog realised the error of his ways. In setting a trap for his friend, the frog had also set a trap for himself and sealed his own fate. And now he too would be eaten by the hawk because of his wicked plan.

 There is an old African proverb that goes... ‘Do not dig too deep a pit for your enemy because you may fall into it yourself.’

Punishment. ✗

Delinquent children under 16 could be tagged with electronic devices: the system uses an electronic device, about the size of a large watch, fastened to the criminal's wrist or ankle. It send a message to a monitoring centre which can detect if the criminals goes away from his home or not in some specified hours. It should help to reduce the number of people in prisons.

One time a man was found guilty of burglary in Mississippi, and the judges sayd that he must stand on a street corner for three hours on three days carrying a sign that read "I'm a convicted thief."
This was public shaming. In Arkansas shoplifters have been obliged to stand outside the stores with signs admitting their crimes.
In Philadelphia a butcher had to put and advice which he confessed that he sold contaminated meat.
In Texas a man who raped his wife was forced to make a public apology.
Supporters say that public humilation creates a powerful deterrent to a wide range of crimes, from drunk driving to child abuse. Instead critics think that America is going back to the 17th century Puritan age and say that these punishments are focused on revenge and not on justice.

Some supporters said that judges should be more careful on the victims of crime than crimes, particulary when they decide the punishment.Some people want prisoners working a 40-hour week to pay reparations directly to the victims of their crime. Some other people think that is better if victims of burglary 'steal' something from thieves' house.
In Britain shoplifters have been sent back to work in the same shop and talk to the owners.

However it is also important to take into account the feelings of the victims, many of whom do not want to make contact with the criminals.

Where are they now? Linda Blair.←

In 1973 Linda Blair appeared in "The Exorcist", a film definided as the scariest movie ever. When she had the part of Regan (the child who was possessed by the devil) Linda was only 14 years old. After 35 years, Blair still lives in relative obscury.

Child star.
Linda Blair was born on January  22nd 1959, she started working as a model and as an actress when she was very young, she was only 6 years old. When she grew up, at 12 years old, had appeared in over 75 commercials. When she did the audition for the role of Regan in "The Exorcist" she was just one of the 600 children who applied for the part. Her performance was memorable, specially in the scene which her head spin around. But the reality is that the moviment it's not made by her. It was a dummy while the voce of Regan was dubbed by an older actress: Mercedes McCambridge.

Problems.
Linda appeared in several other films as a teenager and as a lot of teens like her, decided to "live life in the fast line". This led to problems with the law. When she was 18 years old, she went to Florida to partecipate the funerals of the members of the rock band "Lynyrd Skynyrd", who had been killed in a plane crash. In Florida, one of her friends, persuaded her to go with her to buy cocaine. Linda heard that the dealers had also some pedigree puppies, so she called the dealers from her home in Connecticut: unfortunately the Drug Enforcement Agency was tapping the call, and so she was arrested. She received three years probation.

Today.
She continuated to act in films, but she only did "walk-on" parts. She also had others interests: she has written a book about vegan cookery. The name was "Going Vegan!", and she also is a campaigner for animal rights. As for early stardom she now says: "I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to be in Disney movies. I wanted to be in Lessie, I wanted to be in Flipper. I didn't want to be a monster."

 

Pollution✗

Basically, we have a 'polluted life'. Everything about us is polluted: air, water, land.. everything. And we don't really see how dangerous this problem is, that's why we keep polluting.

Other things that are absolutely wrongs are:

- Global warming;

- Greenhouse effects;

- Melting ice;

- Ozone layer.

Global warming is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of Earth's climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the increased energy has been stored in the oceans. the term "global warming" is also used to refer to increases in average temperature of the air and sea at Earth's surface. 

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. It results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases.

Melting is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. Substances in the molten state generally have reduced viscosity with elevated temperature.

The ozone layer or ozone shield refers to a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's UV radiation. It contains high concentrations of ozone relative to other parts of the atmosphere, although it is still very small relative to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer was discovered in 1913 by the French physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson.

I don't know if there's a resolution for those problems. I just know that if we do right thing, also little things, the world will be a better place.

Body painting.

Body Painting is a fascinating form of art that takes usually a team of people to create a  spectacular art right on the human body. Many artists create the most  innovative and expressive forms of body art in the world.

We have complied some of the best animal body art . Emma Fay from the UK, Gesine Marwedel from Germany and Johannes Stoetter from Italy are just of the artists that have taken animal body art to the extreme. These mind blowing images of body art will prove that these artists and their models are wondrous masters of Body paintings.

Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. It is common in militaries all over the world for soldiers in combat scenarios to paint their faces and other exposed body parts (hands, for example) in natural colors such as green, tan, and loam for camouflage purposes.

Many artists work professionally as body painters across the world. Their work is seen regularly in television commercials, such as the Natrel Plus campaign featuring models camouflaged as trees. Body painters also work frequently in the film arena especially in science fiction with more and more elaborate alien creations being body painted. Stills advertising also used body painting with hundreds of body painting looks on the pages of the world's magazines every year.

Crime food.

A new problem of our times is 'crime food'. Criminal gangs are selling billions of dollars of fake food to supermarkets around the world. The food could be very dangerous. In Britain, tons of horse meat ended up in products that were labeled as beef. British police recently found a product that used cheaper peanut powder instead of almond flour. This could kill a lot of people. Infact in China, in 2008, six babies died because of fake milk. In it, there was fake milk powder.
 Gangs can make a lot of money from fake food. It is also safer than selling drugs. The assistant director of Interpol, Michael Ellis, told the BBC that food crime is very similar to the drugs trade. The British government said it was a difficult problem to tackle. It said that using technology might be the only way to beat the criminal gangs.

Bansky←

Banksy is a pseudonymous United Kingdom-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves."

— Banksy, Wall and Piece

Banksy once characterised graffiti as a form of underclass "revenge", or guerriggla warfare that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy.

Peter Gibson, a spokesman, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism, and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organisation, was quoted as saying: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism."

Blek expressed a different perspective later that same year, in the documentary Graffiti Wars, stating:

"When I see Banksy making a man with a child or Banksy making rats, of course I see immediately where he takes the idea. I do feel angry. When you're an artist you use your own techniques. It's difficult to find a technique and style in art so when you have a style and you see someone else is taking it and reproducing it, you don't like that. I'm not sure about his integrity. Maybe he has to show his face now and show what kind of guy he is."