The Kiffness performs viral ‘eating the cats' track live in Munich. More pain for Trump.

The Kiffness is a talented South African musician renown for this satirical music. He has latched onto Trump's egg-on-the-face rant about Haitian migrants eating cats and made a funny song about it. More pain for Trump.

"My initial desire to remix the quote was because I thought it was amusing and outlandish, but I also recognized the melodic element to the statement. I decided to give it a shot and I had the basic idea for the song in a matter of minutes," The Kiffness told Newsweek of his inspiration to remix the line from the debate.

Here is a video on this:

About The Kiffness

The Kiffness is the stage name of David Scott, a South African musician, producer, and internet personality, renowned for his satirical, humorous, and socially conscious music content. He gained widespread fame through his innovative remixes of viral internet videos, as well as his original songs and clever musical parodies.

Key Facts about The Kiffness:

• Full Name: David Scott
• Born: 1988, in Cape Town, South Africa
• Education: Studied jazz at Rhodes University in South Africa
• Musical Style: Primarily electronic, with influences from jazz, house, funk, and pop

Early Life and Career

David Scott was musically inclined from a young age, learning piano and trumpet. He formed The Kiffness in 2011, initially as a live electronic act that performed energetic house and electronic dance music (EDM) at various festivals and events. "Kiff" is South African slang for "cool" or "awesome," which reflects the fun, positive, and lighthearted nature of his musical persona.

Over time, Scott's music evolved to incorporate more humor and social commentary, often addressing political and societal issues in South Africa. This shift in tone helped him gain more widespread attention, as he used his platform to speak out on issues like government corruption, load shedding (power cuts), and social inequalities.

Rise to Fame with Viral Internet Videos

The Kiffness skyrocketed to global recognition by remixing viral internet content, often featuring animals, news clips, and quirky internet personalities. His most well-known viral remixes include songs featuring meowing cats, yodeling goats, and quirky interviews. These videos not only display his musical creativity but also his ability to adapt viral trends into humorous, catchy songs.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, his unique remixes, especially those incorporating viral animal videos, found a huge audience online. The popularity of these videos led to massive growth on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

One of his standout collaborations is the remix of a popular Russian cat video, where a cat meows in a distinct rhythmic pattern, and The Kiffness adds layers of instrumental and vocal harmonies, creating a viral hit.

Social Commentary and Satire

David Scott frequently uses his platform to make biting social commentary on political and social issues, both in South Africa and globally. His humor is sharp and often takes aim at government corruption, corporate greed, and environmental issues, but he always manages to balance it with light-heartedness and wit.

For example, he created a satirical song about South Africa's frequent power outages due to Eskom, the country's electricity supplier, and he has voiced his frustrations with governmental mismanagement in a way that resonates with many South Africans.

Activism and Advocacy

Beyond humor and satire, Scott is also vocal about issues he cares about, such as animal rights, environmental conservation, and promoting fairness in the music industry. He has advocated for fair compensation for musicians and transparency in the streaming industry, criticizing unfair royalty payouts from platforms like Spotify.

Personal Life

David Scott is married to Jute Scott, who is also part of The Kiffness’s videos and acts as a behind-the-scenes collaborator on many projects. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and continues to produce content that blends music, humor, and social awareness.

Impact and Legacy

The Kiffness has not only entertained millions worldwide with his catchy remixes and satirical content but has also managed to turn viral trends into meaningful social commentary. His ability to mix humor, music, and activism has solidified him as one of South Africa's most prominent internet personalities and a global viral sensation.

His work exemplifies how internet culture and music can merge to create viral, impactful content that transcends language and cultural barriers, making him a unique and influential figure in both the South African and global music scenes.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

American politics has descended into funny cat memes

We can thank the great man himself, Donald Trump, for the dumbing down of American politics into cat memes (see below for definition). Political discourse is now a social media fun activity. Where's the serious debate about serious stuff that affects us all? I say 'us all' because the decisions of the president of the United States affects the world.

I am referring to the latest debacle over the much-reported Haitian migrant cat eating rumours. And they are all rumours. Check out the post below for more on that:

Story about Haitians eating cats was third or fourth hand and unsubstantiated

Trump made a meal out of the rumour and stated it as fact in that criticial debate with Kamala Harris. He got egg on his face and he can't get it off thanks to the avalanche of memes 😱😃!

Here is a comment by a Guardian journalist with whom I agree:

"The debate over Springfield also illustrates the continuing “memeification” of politics – the turning of politics more into a collection of signals and symbols than discussions of content or policy. Trump has always insisted on dragging politics into the gutter. He is only able to do so, though, because the desire to feed the outrage machine rather than engage in nuanced discussion has become such an integral feature of politics."

And here are just two examples of what has happened in terms of meme imagery:

And another!

Both were created by AI, probably DALL E3. Bing Copilot uses DALLE.

What is a meme? Answer: 

A meme is a piece of content, typically in the form of an image, video, or text, that spreads rapidly across the internet, often with humorous or satirical intent. Memes are usually simple, easily recognizable, and can evolve over time as they are adapted by different people to reflect various situations, ideas, or emotions.

They often rely on shared cultural references, making them relatable to specific groups. For instance, a meme might use a popular image or phrase to comment on everyday experiences or current events in a light-hearted way.

In essence, memes are a form of digital cultural shorthand, using humor to connect people through shared understanding or collective experiences.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Tech gurus should be prioritising the development of AI to reliably detect child abuse images and block them

Huw Edwards' recent arrest for possessing child abuse image, several of which were category A, the worst kind that were sent to him on an app on his phone brings to mind the question as to whether AI can detect these images and prevent them being transmitted over the internet in one form or another. 

AI should be able to detect these images and block them thereby curb the activities of these paedophiles. AI should also be able to provide evidence on the people transmitting these images and creating them. 

One commenter on the BBC said that AI could stop these images. But my research came up with a different answer.

My research using AI came up with the following:

Absolutely, tech gurus should prioritize the development of AI to reliably detect child abuse images.

Given the rapid evolution of technology and its misuse for nefarious purposes, AI presents a crucial tool in combating this horrific crime. Here's why:

• Scale and Speed: AI can process vast amounts of data at unprecedented speeds, enabling the detection of harmful content before it's widely disseminated.
• Accuracy Improvement: Continued development can significantly enhance AI's ability to differentiate between innocent and harmful images, reducing false positives and negatives.
• Proactive Approach: By staying ahead of the curve, AI can help prevent the creation and distribution of such materials.
• Supporting Law Enforcement: Advanced AI can provide invaluable support to law enforcement agencies in investigations and prosecutions.

However, it's essential to approach this challenge holistically. While AI is a powerful tool, it's not a silver bullet. A multi-faceted approach involving:  

• Stronger laws and regulations
• Increased public awareness
• Collaboration between tech companies, law enforcement, and child protection organizations

Is equally crucial for effectively addressing this issue.

Challenges and Techniques in AI Detection of Child Abuse Images

Challenges

Developing AI capable of reliably detecting child abuse images is a formidable task due to several factors:

• Image Manipulation: Sophisticated techniques like deepfakes and image editing make it increasingly difficult to identify authentic and manipulated content.
• Data Scarcity: A limited amount of publicly available labeled data for training AI models is a significant hurdle.
• Ethical Considerations: Accessing and processing sensitive images raises ethical concerns about privacy and potential harm to victims.
• Real-time Detection: The need for rapid identification of new and evolving threats requires AI systems capable of real-time analysis.

Potential Techniques

Despite these challenges, significant progress has been made in developing AI solutions. Some key techniques include:

• Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs): These are particularly effective in image recognition tasks, capable of identifying patterns and features indicative of child abuse.
• Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): GANs can be used to generate synthetic images for training and testing AI models, addressing the data scarcity issue.
• Hashing Algorithms: These can be used to create unique identifiers for images, allowing for rapid comparison and detection of known abusive content.
• Federated Learning: This approach allows multiple organizations to collaborate on AI model development without sharing sensitive data, addressing privacy concerns.

Additional Considerations

• Human-in-the-Loop: Integrating human experts into the AI decision-making process can improve accuracy and reduce false positives/negatives.
• Continuous Learning: AI models should be continually updated with new data to adapt to evolving threats.
• Transparency and Accountability: Clear guidelines and regulations are essential to ensure responsible AI development and usage.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Social media tempts teenagers to skive and the family cat benefits!

High rates of school absence because of Internet addiction in teenagers leads to social media tempting teenagers to skive, stay at home, and as a consequence be company for the family cat. 💕😊 - if there is one.

If a person is prone to stay at home no matter whether they are a teenager at school or a worker at work, they will be with their cat more often and it would be an antidote to what I see is a major problem with domestic cats: separation anxiety as their owner is at work all day and the kids at school.

The story is about Internet addiction in teenagers concerns skiving and not going to school but for me this is as much a story about that as it is about keeping the cat at home company. 💕🙄

A study decided that teenagers skive as mentioned. It found that teenage girls seem to be more vulnerable to this than boys and more vulnerable to excessive use of the Internet. The more often a teenager uses the Internet the more likely it is that they are addicted to it.

The research took place in Finland. They took data from a national biennial survey. They asked children how much they neglected friends and family and failed to eat or sleep because of their time online. They asked how anxious they were when they weren't online.

Just over 2% of the more than 86,000 children in the school years eight and nine (aged 14 to 16) in Finland who participated were found to use the Internet excessively. Girls were 96% more likely than boys to fall into this category.

3 to 4% of the children reported high rates of absence from school. Those who spent excessive amounts of time on social media had a 38% higher risk of truancy. They also had a 24% higher risk of medical school absences.

The researchers decided that digital media may be tempting teens to stay at home and avoid school which affected their learning. The research is published in the British Medical Journal's Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

As you can see the study was based on self reporting from teenagers. They may have overestimated or underestimated the amount of time they spent on social media online.

Excessive Internet use is not the same as addiction. There is no agreed clinical definition of Internet addiction. It was suggested by another scientist that the research does not help understand the effects of Internet use in children.

But as mentioned above, I would suggest that there is one benefit if there is a family cat. They have some company and social media Internet addiction can remove the problem of separation anxiety for domestic cats.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Academically gifted postgraduate university student with a history of abusing cats is REJECTED

NEWS AND OPINION: This is a another story from China and as it happens another story about a Chinese university student. I've just written about a Chinese university student who was expelled because of his alleged abuse of his pet cat in an horrific manner. In this instance, the student who is named Xu is reported to have a history of abusing cats and as a consequence he was rejected by two top Chinese universities. China Daily reports on this and is the source of this blog post.

Academically gifted postgraduate Chinese student. This is a fictional creation. Not a real person.

It is alleged that he was abusing cats in his dormitory at Southeast University in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Like other cat abusers he posted videos of his miscreant behaviour online. This took place in February. In one clip he is shown putting a cat in a bucket of water and treading on the cat's head.

The videos were evidence against him. He was investigated and interviewed with his parents. He admitted wrongdoing and promised not to repeat it.

He is an engineering graduate. He was applying for a masters program at Nanjing University School of Physics late in 2023.

He had the highest total score among the applicants for the course but was nonetheless rejected because it his alleged cat abuse. It indicates that the University is taking a moral stance.

There appears to be no definitive statement from the University confirming that he was rejected because of his cat abuse but it is reported that "his abuse of cats may have affected their decision."

Chinese citizens commenting on the University's Sina Weibo blog urged the University to be cautious about enrolling Xu. The comment indicated that morality plays a role in selecting candidates. One commenter said: "Morality prevails over intelligence and academic performance".

The former editor-in-chief of Global Times wanted Xu to be given a chance. He said that posting the video of animal abuse was clearly a serious mistake but indicated he thought he had potential psychological problems. Notwithstanding that, he suggested that "society should provide the student with an opportunity for correction, allowing this young person to have prospects and hope."

Hu wanted the student to progress in life and be given the opportunity to do so. Comment: the big question here is whether Xu has the capacity to correct his behaviour because as Hu stated it appears that Xu has mental health problems. And therefore he needs treatment and he needs to be certified as being mentally well enough to participate in such a course before being allowed to do so.

Comment: The Chinese government needs to make that all important step of introducing general animal welfare laws to protect all animals. Laws can change opinions and attitudes as they gradually embue the citizens with a different attitude towards animal sentience and welfare. Animal welfare laws can indirectly set moral standards as is the case with the UK's Animal Welfare Act 2006

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Each of Taylor Swift's cats worth £80 million each? True or false?

The Mirror newspaper tell us that Taylor Swift's cats which comprise one Ragdoll and two Scottish Fold cats are each worth £80 million in terms of their ability to earn revenue. The valuation comes from a website AllAboutCat.com. It's pure speculation actually. 

The valuations must be based upon their individual social media accounts and how much revenue they earn. They will certainly be good earners because they are associated with Taylor Swift who is the top social media star on the planet as far as I know.

A lot of cats don't like cameras and in Meredith's case it won't help her earnings potential! Image: Instagram (believed).

Taylor Swift is approaching a personal valuation of US$1 billion. It's no surprise that her cats have a good value as well in terms of their ability to earn money but it's simply a spin off from her. Her Ragdoll cat Benjamin Button would just be another Ragdoll cat in another home with no value other than their purchase price but for the fact that Taylor Swift looks after him, lives with him and promotes him on her social media webpages.

The conclusion is that we don't know for sure how much Swift's three cats are worth individually or jointly.

Anybody valuing them would do so subjectively because it's too difficult to quantify objectively. In case you aren't aware, Taylor Swift's three cats are Olivia Benson, Meredith Grey and as mentioned Benjamin button.

RELATED: Do cats hate cameras? Taylor Swift’s cat Meredith does!

My research indicates that it's unlikely that they generate a huge amount of income on their own to justify these valuations. Their value, as mentioned, mainly lies in the fact that they are cat companions to Taylor Swift.

Their earnings probably come from merchandise promotions using their image or appearances in media projects.

Their worth would be based on licensing agreement values, the amount they earn through endorsements and customer demand for products or media promotions featuring the cats.

Taylor Swift's enormous wealth is based on her talent as a musician and songwriter. Not on the presence or value of her cats. Although they probably polish up her image nicely. Did she adopt them for that purpose?

Separately, I don't think it's all a bed of roses for Taylor Swift and her cats. She tends to treat them as babies and I think that is incorrect - best to respect the cat. And she promotes the Scottish Fold which is a breed which should not be promoted because they are inherently unhealthy. In fact, it's a breed which should not exist if you are really concerned about animal welfare.

RELATED: Osteochondrodysplasia is seen in ALL Scottish Fold cats.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

One key factor in making more money as a social media influencer

There is, according to a study, one key aspect of making more money if you are in the business of being a social media influencer, which, I have to add is incredibly competitive. Very few make it big in this profession and the kind of money you can earn in the lower echelons will be tiny. However, there appears to be a universal rule to make more money and the formula is: the more skin someone shows, the more profitable the post.

JoJo Barbie has 10.3 million followers. She flashes the flesh a lot while showing off her bum and breasts. Image: Instagram. This is her latest post at 16th November 2023.

An assistant professor of Erasmus University Rotterdam did some research on this. She first started to get interested in the topic after buying a fitness programme from the site of Amanda Bisk, a yoga teacher and Instagram influencer.

She asked herself why did she buy into this fitness programme and how does Amanda influence her? And there was a clue in that Amanda shows a lot of flesh. She wondered whether this was the key reason why Bisk is successful.

She decided to study it more scientifically. She asked an influencer agency for the market rates for the top 100 accounts in each of the following five categories: fashion, fitness, music, photography and food.

For those who don't know, most Instagram influences make their money from posting sponsored content on their Instagram pages. The advertisers pay influencers to create posts promoting their products.

And for the top accounts ranging from 1.4 million to 65.8 million followers (an awful lot as you can see) the average estimated price paid for each sponsored picture is about £14,500 (as at the date of this article)!

Most of the influencers post twice per week and therefore they make almost £30,000 a week!

There are other factors such as how many engaged followers there are i.e. those they make comments and enter into a dialogue, and how many 'likes' there are. 

Male influences earn more than female influences which is unsurprising.

Armed with the information from the agency she studied the nudity factor (as I have called it), which is if the post featured nudity to the point where more than 50% of the person was naked or the image focused on the breast or bottom, they found that the advertising revenue was 4% higher!

So, flashing the flesh, breast and bum increases earnings by 4%. Think on that. And if you are new to the market and have a nice body and don't mind showing it off it probably pays to flash the flesh.

Newcomers should also realise that the top influencers have a team working for them who help decide what is more successful and what is likely to fail. Essentially it appears that the advisers are able to better target an audience and provide the audience with what they want. Perhaps they are able to look at things far more objectively which means they are more businesslike.

But the underlying principle or formula is to be 50% naked!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Elon Musk places free speech above financial profit

Elon musk is brave. As you know he owns Twitter X. He is a great supporter of free speech. He says that unless you can accept someone you don't like saying something you don't like you don't have free speech. 

He is obviously anti-the cancel culture movement. And thank God for that. Indeed, free speech is more important than perhaps anything else and is protected by the American constitution. All democracies should have free speech but the woke movement and the cancel culture movement and, in this instance, financial profit curtailed it.

Elon Musk. Image credit see base of article.

But Elon Musk has reinstated a couple of Twitter users who were banned. One is Tommy Robinson who was suspended in 2018 and the other is Katie Hopkins who was banned in 2020. They both thanked him on Twitter and Musk explained their reinstatement in a post: "Why are their account handles on this platform? Free speech is allowed, provided laws are not broken."

He has continued to restore controversial accounts. But this is despite the fact that there was an exodus of advertisers from his platform because of...free speech leading to controversial tweets. This tells me that he places free speech above financial profit. Twitter X is struggling to make a profit.

Tom Robertson is a very controversial figure. He founded the English Defence League which is a far-right group. He stepped down from that in 2013. And Hopkins is also very controversial. She is also a right winger perhaps an extreme right-winger and very outspoken. She has compared migrants to cockroaches and in 2017 said on the platform that "we need a final solution" after the bombings in Manchester.

Perhaps Musk believes that in due course, over time, advertisers on Twitter X will come back as they realise that free speech is so important. It is very shortsighted of advertisers and very stereotypical of them to withhold their business from a platform that advocates free speech.

Image credit: By (U.S. Air Force photo by Trevor cokley) - https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7132411/usafa-hosts-elon-musk, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134662229

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Meta, parent company of Facebook, have agreed to a new online fraud charter in the UK

Facebook has agreed to introduce measures to stop fraudsters 'selling' on their platform. The new charter will require anyone who is asking for payment to have their details verified by Meta first. And further, the changes will require sellers on Facebook Marketplace to verify their identity and location before they can sell something.

UK police say that Facebook facilitates organised crime because they can sell stolen goods on the platform. There has been a surge and continues to be a surge in shoplifting in the UK. A lot of this is conducted by organised crime and they sell their stolen items on Facebook and other outlets such as eBay.

This will be a voluntary agreement committing tech companies to a new standard of verification and vetting of people who use these social media platforms to sell services and goods.

The only problem that I have is whether the charter will be properly enforced because at the moment Facebook is unable to enforce their policies with many people selling kittens and cats online (my area of expertise) and sometimes fraudulently because they take money without actually providing the animal.

In any case, it is a very bad idea to purchase a kitten or cat online sight unseen from somebody you don't know. It just doesn't work. It's entirely wrong and promotes the bad people who engage in these sorts of scams and dodgy businesses.

It's reported that there are "soaring rates of authorised push payment fraud". This is when a customer is tricked into authorising a payment to an account controlled by a criminal or criminals.

There has been a 29% rise in the number of romance scams. This type of fraud has netted £18.5 million for the criminals involved in the first six months of 2023!

There are some shocking stories about romance fraud on social media. A former police officer was taken in. She handed over her retirement fund of more than £100,000 to a scammer she met on a dating website. He said that he was involved in building apartments in Cyprus. He persuaded her to buy a plot. Can you believe it?

Other scams have netted the criminals £239 million over the first six months of this year. Research indicates that 60% of all reported authorised push payment fraud is connected to Meta. Meta also owns WhatsApp and Instagram.

However, it's nice to read that Mehta has agreed to this online fraud charter in the UK.

In the modern world full of fraud and bad behavior always be vigilant and switched on to scammers trying to steal your money.

Here is an infographic I created earlier which may be useful:

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

NO EVIDENCE that using Facebook is bad for mental health - new study!

A lot of experts have consistently said over a long time that Facebook is addictive and bad for mental health especially for today's youngsters who can spend hours on the site daily. Now The Times reports that:

There is no evidence that the global adoption of Facebook is linked to psychological harm, a study has suggested.

So, you can go back on Facebook (FB) if you ever left it and check out some more funny cat pics or cat rescues! Seriously though I have to doubt this research. Oxford University said that Facebook users may even benefit from the social media site. 

Is this harmful or beneficial? Image in public domain.

The checked-out data from a million people in 72 countries. Facebook's owner, Meta allowed access to user data. But it took 3 years to get the information and write it up!

The researchers said that Meta did not fund the research. This information is intended to tell us that the report is not a Meta PR exercise. But is it?! It might be. Meta wants more research on the wellbeing of users. This study is certainly a boost to Meta's public profile.

Some earlier research found that FB is liked to increased incidences of mental health problems. The new research has been challenged by some campaigners.

The new study said that "evidence for harm is on balance more speculative than conclusive."

The lead author of the new study, Professor Andrew Przybylski, said that earlier studies have been proven to be inaccurate because they focused on the UK and USA over a short timeframe and relied on surveys from people about their social media use.

The professor added that "The best global data does not support the idea that the expansion of social media has a negative global association with wellbeing across nations and different demographics."

The study looked at 2 age brackets: 13-34 and 35-plus for the years 2008-2019.

There was a "small but significant" indication that FB users' wellbeing improved.

A critic, Fances Haugen said that "the study isn't well designed to assess the actual impact of Facebook". She said that people should be cautious about the finding that using FB is beneficial.

Another critic, the Molly Rose Foundation said that "the coroner at Molly's inquest...concluded that the torrent of harmful content that she was algorithmically fed contributed to her death". And "that Meta's own research has long found that Instagram [also owned by FB] has adverse impacts on the health and wellbeing of young people."

What do you think?

Shocking video footage shows a male teenager hurling a cat off a quarry ledge to water hundreds of feet below

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is another one of those sick videos. Made doubly sick by the fact that the young man who throws the domestic cat off a cliff into water hundreds of feet below allowed himself to be videoed by his friend and then they upload the video to the Internet. These are young people who simply do not have a moral compass. Nobody has taught them the difference between right and wrong. Nobody has taught them about criminal behaviour, about animal sentience, about pain and distress that can be suffered by animals under the circumstances that they have created.

UPDATE 17th July 2023: The police say that the event took place some time ago and the cat was dead when the man threw it off the cliff. No crime was committed.

18-year-old male throws cat off the edge of a cliff to water hundreds of feet below in a quarry. Image is a video screenshot.

They are entirely ignorant and it is a shocking reflection, in my view, of broken Britain which includes broken parenting. This is an abject failure in parenting. And so often the victim of this miscreant, criminal behaviour is the domestic cat because they happen to be there. They are available as victims. It's just pure bad luck. The cat is no doubt trusting of this person. They allowed themselves to be picked up (or the man killed the cat beforehand).

Domestic cats should not trust people that they don't know because they can be untrustworthy. The story is all over the Internet and there is a video which I will not put on this webpage. The pictures at the beginning of the article are screenshots from the video. They are adequate to tell the story.

The young man appears to be holding a black-and-white cat in one hand before hurling it over the ledge and watching the cat as it falls into the water far below. He says "I'm sorry" before throwing the animal. Another bizarre aspect of this video and of his behaviour. If he is sorry for what he is about to do why do it? Mixed up kid, right?

A second young person is watching in the background. A third person recorded the video and we can hear him laughing while he records it. That, too, is very typical of this form of highly ignorant behaviour.

As expected, there has been a huge backlash online from decent-minded people who simply scratch their heads and ask how could the person do it. One person remarked that it was "absolutely disgusting [and that it] makes me feel sick".

Lancashire police (the North of England) responded to the video clip and posted: "Thanks for flagging. We are aware and we are looking into the incident and where it happened."

A spokesperson for the police force said: "We are aware of a video which has been posted on social media which appears to show an act of cruelty to a cat in the Carnforth area. This is a matter which we are investigating. We are establishing the exact circumstances and where it happened. Anyone with information is asked to call 101, quoting log 1803 of July 10, 2023."

No one knows whether the animal survived while others speculated that the animal may have been dead before he threw him/her over the edge of the cliff.

Later, the police confirmed that they had made an arrest. They said: "Further to our earlier post about a video of a cat appearing to be thrown from a cliff into water, we can confirm a man has been arrested. An 18-year-old man from Carnforth has been arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty and is in custody."

Suicidal social media influencer quits after death threats because she killed two cats as a child

You may remember this story. It is rather disturbing in several ways. The woman concerned is Emma Claiir. Her name is spelled correctly. The headline is: "Social media influencer quits and says that she was left suicidal after receiving death threats because of her admission that she killed two cats as a child."

She is an Australian. In April, she admitted to her 105,000 followers that she killed two cats when she was a child. Her admission occurred on an episode of her pod cast, Simply Chaotic. 

Emma Claiir. Image: Instagram.

It was a bizarre confession. Her co-host, Christy Jean, on the pod cast was stunned by it. She said that she didn't mean to kill the cats but that she was a child.

She said: "I was swinging my cat around. Like, I was thinking it was a stuffed toy. And I accidental let go of it."

She believes that the cat died from fright rather than because of injuries suffered as it was hurled across the room. During her confession, she giggled and explained that "this happened years and years and years [ago]". And she went on to explain that she also killed her best friend's cat by accident.

Her honest confession shattered her life. She received widespread criticism and she was dropped by makeup company MCoBeauty not long afterwards. Three more brands then cut ties with her. One of them is a vegan make up company that promotes how it does not test its products on animals. You can understand why they cut ties.

Social media influencers depend upon these sorts of arrangements to generate an income stream. So, she lost a lot of income. We don't know the precise amounts but it may be that she decided that it was no longer worth it being a social media influencer.

But it goes deeper and wider than that. She says that the story got taken out of proportion and that people started to witch-hunt her. She felt that they wanted to destroy her.

She said:

"I lost my job; my mental health was impacted massively and people were just having a laugh about it. I realised it was taking me away from my son and making me not present with him so I took a small break."

She added:

"Since my return after that people decided it was okay to spread cheating rumours, make up lies and try to continue to ruin the life of a new mother who was already pretty open about her mental health struggles in life. Not only did I have haters trying to ruin my life and spread hate and rumours but I also had close friends doing the same. Friends who I thought were there for me, friends who I trusted and friends who I thought would never stab me in the back."

She reached breaking point. She felt unsafe in her own bubble. She started to feel unsafe in her home. Her anxiety increased when she went out into public places. She felt violated. There were death threats. The lies and rumours mounted and became louder and oppressive.

She considered ending her life. Eventually her mental health "finally crumbled. I entered a very dark space that was extremely scary and unfamiliar".

She told herself that the only way to make the nightmare go away was to take her own life. She said:

"The only way to make the haters happy was if I disappeared for good and officially left this world. Maybe my son and my husband really would be better off without me and I should just let them go, maybe my friends and family will also be better off without me, so I should just let them go. These are thoughts no new mother should be having."

She left a very long post on social media in which she signed off from the role of social media influencer. It concludes like this:

"Now to end. I have and always will be a mental health advocate. It is something that is so close to my heart and something I witness every day in myself and my family. Working online I always wanted to be open about my struggles and help those who needed it, help those who needed to feel less alone or those who needed that little push to get the help they needed. I never would have gotten through what I went through if it wasn't for seeking help from professionals and those around me. Check in with your family, your friends and most importantly yourself. Take a step back and ask yourself if your actions could be damaging and dangerous to someone's mental health. And lastly always remember that the online space can be horrible, fake and harmful whether you have a following or not, so it's okay, strong and powerful to walk away when needed. With love, Emma Claiir."

Comment: I really, really think that she's much better off quitting being a social media influencer. That kind of role is indeed potentially and often actually very toxic. She made a mistake and she's paid the price. But I think there is a silver lining for her; to live a more normal life not a fake life on social media pretending to be somebody she probably isn't.

7-second, shallow cat video gets 3.8 million hits. The world is becoming lazy and frivolous.

7-second, shallow cat video gets 3.8 million hits. The world is becoming lazy and frivolous.

I know that I am a grumpy old man and nobody wants to listen to me. I know that nobody will read this. But I will say it anyway. This is a seven second video which has received 3.8 million hits on TikTok. It surely reminds us that the world has become lazy and frivolous. Covid-19 made the world lazy. The Millennium or Gen X generation are lazier than we were when I was a kid.

It is just that the kids are lazier - and I'm talking here of comprehensive school kids - they are becoming rowdier, more apathetic and more aggressive in the classroom. They are becoming more disrespectful of their teachers. They walk out of classes. There is an increase in bad behaviour in comprehensive schools in the UK and it is causing teachers to seriously consider leaving the profession.

A total of 78% of secondary teachers said that they would leave teaching if they were offered a job in a different sector which offered a better work-life balance.

The head teacher of a girls' secondary school in Barnet, north London, said that "We never had that level of defiance from students, for example, walking out of classrooms, and the level of apathy that we are facing now. We didn't have that before Covid, and I think other school leaders are saying the same."

Self-discipline is missing at school children level. I'm generalising. Clearly there are many schoolkids who are self-discipline and to our achievers. But there are far too many who are apathetic and don't give a damn. 

One reason is because the adults of this world, the grown-ups, have created and continue to create a world that children find unpalatable. This is a reference to, for example, global warming. Children just don't see a future. And couples are no longer deciding to have a family because I believe the same problem. The future looks too uncomfortable to bring a child into it.

There is also a gradual dying of that old-fashioned idea of self-discipline. Self-indulgence is on the increase. I believe that self-discipline is being replaced by self-indulgence and I think we can thank the Internet for that. Particularly social media which is populated by navel gazing young people.

YouTube is also populated by young people making rude and stupid comments. TikTok is pretty much the same. Just tons and tons of frivolous fluffy nonsensical videos which don't, for me, move forward the world. It doesn't progress anything. It is just idle entertainment. Not all of it of course but if you just surf through TikTok, in general, you see this fluffy nonsense.

I think that it is a symptom of the world gradually going off the rails. We are not moving in the right direction. And I do not see a lot of hope in today's youth. I don't think that they are going to change the world for the better. Quite the contrary: it's going to get worse. Sorry to be so disillusioned by today's young people but that's how I see it.

How can this 7-second video attract so many viewers? It's a nothing video.

Wives should not tell husbands to take their cat or dog to the veterinarian (the surprising reason)

The TikTok video below on Ben the Vet's TikTok page is very short but very clear! Ben has used a TikTok facility called "duet". This is when you take the TikTok video of one person and put a video of yourself next to it in a split screen effect. I presume you can also comment on the video but this is impossible when, as is the case in this example, the female delivers a rant about not letting your husband take your pet to the vet!

But Ben does not disagree with her. The point that the lady is making - and I presume she is either a veterinarian or a vet tech - is that when wives tell husbands to take the family cat or dog to the vet without being emotionally engaged and/or without full knowledge of what is going on, they are unhelpful to the veterinarian in diagnosing the illness.

Without knowing more, I have a feeling that this advice mainly applies to domestic cats and not dogs. It is fairly common knowledge that the husband will be more invested in the family dog than the family cat. And it works both ways because the wife is much more likely to be invested in the caregiving of the domestic cat. They may also be equally involved in dog caregiving but it might be fair to say that the 'man of the house' - to use a classic old-fashioned term - is the person in charge of the dog. Is that fair comment?

RELATED: Disgruntled pet owners disillusioned with private equity-owned veterinary practices in UK.

Wives should not tell husbands to take their cat or dog to the veterinarian. And Ben the Vet on TikTok does not disagree! Screenshot.

And the presumption here is that veterinarians like to receive decent input from the patient's owner in the consultation room. They need to ask questions of the owner to hear the history of the disease sometimes.  The backstory and lead up to the current symptoms. This allows them to better understand the presented health problem.

I have always said that a cat caregiver who knows a little bit about cat health can be useful to a veterinarian. It also allows the caregiver to keep an eye on what's going on in a knowledgeable way.

Not all professionals are good at their job. Not all veterinarians are good veterinarians. An intelligent cat caregiver of long-standing who has read up about the domestic cat's behaviour and health may know almost as much as a recently qualified veterinarian.

You don't want to get into an argument with a veterinarian about diagnosis and treatment but you do want to provide useful input to speed things up and improve the accuracy of the diagnosis and therefore the treatment.

Veterinarian exasperated with viral cat videos with one showing morbidly obese cat

Exasperated Ben the Vet. Screenshot.

Viral cat videos can be abusive of the cat. This is what exasperates Ben the Vet on TikTok. Of course, he is concerned with health but also with reality like me. There is a lot of shortsightedness across a swath of cat owners about concern for their cat's welfare as they dive into video making in an effort to make a mark within this highly competitive area of internet social media.

The video says it all. And I am very sympathetic to his views. I've been saying these things myself for 15 years. The problem is that people want to make interesting videos. I understand that and am also sympathetic to their desires. Cats are interesting to a lot of people. Unfortunately, it can lead to cat abuse in various forms sometimes very mild and sometimes more severe. 

RELATED: 34% of cats featured in ‘funny cat videos’ are upset and stressed.

It has been shown that sometimes cats become stressed during these viral videos. So, the videos are, without being tiresome, not uncommonly an abuse and exploitation of the domestic cat to entertain people which is what PETA hates and me as well. 

I like Ben because he voices my thoughts perhaps better than I can. Veterinarians anyway have a status which they can use to help educate society. People tend to listen to them. And he points out that this cat is morbidly obese to the point where it will seriously jeopardise the cat's health. The owner appears to have ignored this point and tried to make a funny viral video on the back of it. 

As a vet he doesn't like it. He is exasperated. As a non-vet I don't like it either. The first duty of a cat caregiver is to keep them safe and within that umbrella it means keeping them healthy. 

After that it is our duty to entertain them and keep them happy and not for them to entertain us although inevitably, they do if they are well cared for.

Twitter on the brink of shutdown and it's going to affect animal rescue!

I'm being very speculative in this short article, but it occurred to me that Elon Musk's approach to staff management at Twitter may have a very detrimental effect upon animal welfare across the planet. 

He's been brutal in his takeover of Twitter which has resulted in some reports suggesting that up to 75% of employees have refused to take up his offer of working long hours and providing 'exceptional performance'. To him, only that would qualify as a 'passing grade' in his words.

Twitter has seen mass resignations following an email from Mr Musk, it has been claimed. Image: Getty Images.

And therefore, there's been a mass exodus of employees. It appears that he is risking losing his $44 billion which was the price of Twitter. Apparently, he overpaid quite substantially for the social media website which is relatively small compared to websites such as Facebook. 

As I understand it, it's about 10th in the league of social media sites by size. But it is influential, and a lot of animal welfare operations rely on it for effective communication and promotion.

Elon Musk seems to be unconcerned because he said that: "We just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage". But a lot of engineers have walked out and there is a possibility that understaffing Twitter will gradually undermine the functionality of the website. 

Things will start to go wrong because not enough engineers and developers are around to fix the ongoing problems.

It appears that Elon Musk has decided that Twitter is populated by lazy staffers. He wants to weed out anybody that he considers by his standards to be lazy and not contributing enough but is he being too brutal and direct?

He's offered three months' severance for those employees who want to leave. Over the weekend he is closing down the Twitter offices. Why is he doing this? I've heard on the news that he is frightened of a disgruntled employee sabotaging Twitter.

One employee, a tech writer called Gergley Orosz said that: "[It] sounds like playing hardball does not work. Of course, it doesn't."

It would be disappointing to lose Twitter. Firstly, I don't mind in the slightest, but it would negatively impact animal welfare I believe.

Stalker abducted former lover's cockapoo in campaign of hate

NEWS AND OPINION: A classic story of an embittered man who harassed a pretty woman and abducted her attractive dog.

Hannah Rasekh with her cockapoo and the man, Bashar Ayoub, who harassed and threatened her. Hands up, this is a Sun montage. If The Sun objects, please tell me in a comment.

The basic story is pretty commonplace and rather typical but with a twist as a dog was involved. Sorry no cat stories today 😢😎.

Hannah Rasekh was born in the UK and has a Palestinian heritage. She is an influencer on social media and has a boutique in Al Amman, Jordan. 

She met Bashar Ayoub in Dubai in 2017. Bashar Ayoub is a property developer with some wealth, and he lives in a £2 million flat in a posh part of London (Belgravia). Hannah Rasekh lives in South Kensington, West London.

She decided to split up from Bashar Ayoub claiming that he had "emotionally and psychologically" abused her. Bashar Ayoub was obviously enraged, and he embarked on a campaign of harassment and nasty threats. 

I set out some of those threats below but before I do so I will bring into the story Rasekh's cockapoo, Ted, who was abducted by Ayoub. 

He turned up at her home while she was not there, but her parents were as they were housesitting and said that he was a friend who had offered to walk her dog. He took the dog and did not return him. He therefore abducted Ted. We are told that he returned the dog several weeks later.

He couldn't stop himself harassing her because even after Hannah Rasekh had contacted the police and the police were actually inside her home, Ayoub called her 85 times. The police warned Ayoub not to contact her but within hours he started his campaign again and phoned Rasekh 64 times together with sending her abusive messages.

In one he said: "Die you thief you thieving whore, I pray you die, I pray you die every day, you whore."

He also said in another text: "I'll rip you apart, all of you, your whole family you c****. He sent 35 emails to her between January 4 and January 5 in 2022 in which he called her a "bitch".

His behaviour inevitably led him to the criminal courts where he admitted one charge of stalking with fear of harm and violence between April 4 and September 5.

He was granted conditional bail. The condition is that he does not contact Hannah Rasekh directly or indirectly. 

He must wear a GPS tag to ensure that he does not go near her home. He will be sentenced at Westminster magistrates' Court on December 8. The max he can get is 10 years in jail.

My thanks to The Times newspaper.

Kurt Zouma banned from keeping cats for 5 years plus given 180 hrs community service

You may remember the viral news story of West Ham defender Kurt Zouma kicking his Bengal cat in the living room and slapping the cat in the kitchen while the cat was in the arms of his son as I recall. I think that's an example of child abuse as well as cat abuse but that aspect of the video was not addressed.

Photo: DANIEL LEAL /AFP

The video was made and uploaded to social media by his brother Yoan. Both of them pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, Kurt to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a cat under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Yoan to aiding and abetting.

Recently, they returned to the Magistrates' Court for a sentencing hearing and the result was that Kurt Zouma has been ordered to carry out 180 hours of community service and he has been banned from keeping cats five years.

His brother admitted one count of aiding, abetting and counselling or procuring his older brother to commit an offence and was ordered to carry out 140 hours-community service.

Kurt Zouma was ordered to pay £9000 in costs. A West Ham club spokesman said that they condemn "in the strongest terms any form of animal abuse or cruelty. This type of behaviour is unacceptable and is not in line with the values of the football club."

To play the video below: click center play button followed by the play button bottom-left 😎. Yeh, it's two stage at the moment but it should work!

Zouma was fined by West Ham football club two weeks salary amounting to £250,000, as I recall. Perhaps it was one week salary, I'm unsure but he was fined heavily but of course he is a France international football and therefore paid very well, extraordinarily well as all premiership footballers are by his club.

RELATED: RSPCA prosecute Kurt Zouma and his brother Yoan under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

West Ham never suspended him from playing for the club. There was criticism of that. And the West Ham supporters took the Mickey out of him and the crime as it happens. That wasn't a great response in my opinion.

The judge at the Magistrates' Court made very important point. Because Zuma and his brother are role models for many young people, they have to carry the burden of the added responsibility of behaving to a high standard when not playing football.

The judge did say that both of them had expressed genuine remorse but said: "You must be aware that others look up to you and many young people aspire to emulate you."

Update 10 months later 05/11/22: The Guardian newspaper updates us on this saga. West Ham's Kurt Zouma is in the news today. He is showing great remorse. He said: "I have done something very bad. I have great remorse".

He also said: "It’s been a difficult spell for me and my family. Obviously, I have done something very bad, and I apologise again for what I’ve done. I know it was very tough for people to watch and to see that and obviously I feel very, very sorry."

And further he said: "I have great remorse about it and now I’m trying to move on with my family and looking ahead. I learned from it, that’s the most important thing, I would say. Obviously, I had support from many, many people around me who helped me stay focused on football and I try to stay happy.

“The club has been unbelievable with me, the support that I received from my teammates, from the staff, and everyone at the club, and even from the fans, has been unreal, and they helped me stay focused on the game, to try to do my best on the pitch all the time and, obviously, I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done. This club is like my family.”

There you are - an update. I wonder like anybody else whether his expressions of remorse are genuine or whether he is saying it to try and regain some of his popularity. His character has been besmirched by his behaviour and I'm sure that he wants to turn the clock back.

Chris Packham appeals to Gary Lineker on Twitter to get involved in the Zouma cat kicking incident

 Here is the tweet by Chris Packham directed at Gary Lineker.

Hello @GaryLineker Chris here . You may have seen that an @premierleague footballer from @WestHam has been filmed kicking and slapping a cat . As a great ambassador for sports and sportsmen and women can I call upon you to help ensure this is dealt with appropriately . Please RT pic.twitter.com/oM8P4pNKJc

— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) February 8, 2022

Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

It is not clear to me what he specifically wants Gary Lineker to do. My guess is that he wants Lineker to put pressure on West Ham administration to punish Zouma more and perhaps terminate his contract with West Ham if it is feasible as per the terms of Zouma's contract.

We are still waiting for the RSPCA to reach a decision on what to do: prosecute Zouma or not. They are taking far too long over this. The evidence is in the video. It is plain for all to see. I guess they need to interview Zouma and the other people in the video. But the sluggishness of their investigation indicates a lack of commitment to prosecute.

Chris Packham publicly communicating with Gary Linker on Twitter. Screenshot

They are probably scared to make a decision as the case is so high profile. It was viral news for days. The cats are still with the RSPCA as far as I am aware. They should be taken from him permanently and rehomed.

The cat he kicked was a Bengal cat I believe. We don't know what filial. If the cat is a high filial such as and F2 the incident supports the desire of Packham and others to change the licensing laws on keeping high filial wild cat hybrids so that the licensing of these exotic cats is refused by the local authorities. This would stop the ownership of high filial wild cat hybrids in the UK by the backdoor.

Packham sees wild cat hybrids as damaging the conservation of the wild cats as the breeders need servals to create F1 Savannah cats and Asiatic leopard cats to create F1 Bengal cats. It is the importation of these wild cats into the UK which damages their conservation.

Cold Sphynx cat looking like an old man in a doorway

This is a picture of a cold Sphynx cat bent over in a slightly strange position with an interesting expression and an overall appearance which reminds me of an old man with a bent back walking down a street or standing in a doorway on a cold winter night. Perhaps my imagination is running riot and perhaps I am anthropomorphising this cat too much. We nearly always anthropomorphise our cats. But look at the expression on his face. At the base of the page I explain why I think he has taken up this position.

Sphynx cat huddles over warm air vent to keep warm inside the home. Photo: Reddit.

It's a peculiar position and his owner says that he always does this when he's cold. And when I read that information I questioned what she was doing. Why did she allow him to get cold and then photograph him and upload the photograph to the Internet?

Would it not have been better if she had kept him warm? The trouble with that suggestion is that if she had kept him warm he wouldn't have looked like this. And she wouldn't have been able to take an interesting photograph of her cat. In turn, that would have prevented her uploading an interesting cat photograph to the Internet. You can see what I'm getting at. A problem for Sphynx cats is that they are very photogenic. You can get a lot of very good photographs of these hairless cats.

She let him get cold so she could get a good picture for social media consumption. Personally, I don't like it. I think social media is undermining cat welfare. And I'm including YouTube. All those funny cat videos are in fact videos of cats often being stressed and anxious. People don't like to discuss it but I refuse to let it go.

RELATED: Do Sphynx cats smell?

I don't want to be curmudgeonly but there has to be a balance between animal welfare and making some money on YouTube through advertising. That is the reason why people make funny cat videos. You can make more money on YouTube advertising through Google AdSense then you can through a website i.e. the written word. YouTube can be quite a good earner.

The problem is that the YouTube administrators have gradually, over the years, added to the amount of advertising on uploaded videos. They've absolutely maxed it out to the point where it can be irritating to watch a video because it is interrupted too much by adverts. I'm digressing.

RELATED: Are Sphynx cats hypoallergenic?

Back to the cat. Despite my criticism, it is an interesting photograph. I would say that the reason why he looks like this is because he's keeping himself warm over the warm air vent which is right in front of him! The photographer knows that.

It is hardly worth saying but Sphynx cats are hairless and therefore they feel the cold. You've got to keep your home warm. That's going to cost extra money. Sphynx cats require enhanced cat caretaking (bathing for instance) which is perhaps something that people don't take fully into consideration when they adopt one.