Kay opened the door after a series of heavy knocks. It was getting late, her husband was away for work and she just assumed it was the next door neighbours. Two police men stood outside her door, behind them flashing lights and several other police officers carrying large black bags. The senior of the pair spoke in a stern tone, “I am sergeant Dibbles, we are here because child exploitation material has been detected on your devices and through your communications.” Kay was moved aside as the army of police officers entered her home. She was led to the kitchen where she was recorded and made...

One of the current trending intrigues asks how a mother, Lindsay Clancy, should be handled. She has admitted to the murder of her three children. Despite the usual cavalcade of conspiracy theorists and online detectives insisting she may be a patsy, or set up. The human and systemic need to find culpability fuels the torches towards blame targets. Is she responsible for her own actions? This has become one aspect of modern Western life. The disavowing of personal responsibility. We can no longer claim that demons or evil spirits are responsible, that inner voice is a mental health condition,...

Dave DeCamp from Antiwar.com reported in a recent piece that the Pentagon admitted in its annual report to having committed two large-scale massacres against civilians in Yemen. The Pentagon acknowledged that hundreds of civilians, including children were killed and injured in a series of strikes. A public and open admission of war crimes. Another in an endless series. There has been an ongoing war against Yemen over the past decade, the United States and it’s coalition of Gulf nations have imposed embargoes and inflicted attacks on the populace. An act of punishment against the Houthi...

A former high school baseball player, with a successful businessman as a father and, a promising young man with a ‘bright future’ ahead of him avoided prison for the rape, strangulation, and violent assault of two teenage girls. He was facing up to 78 years in prison, and was instead granted a youthful offender status. Where he must attend community service and counselling. Butler pleaded ‘no contest” to the charges. And the district attorney claimed that Butler had suffered more than his victims by being subjected to the process of trial and harm to his credibility as a young man. The case...

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe" Roy Batty played by Rutger Hauer said in his ‘Tears in the Rain’, speech at the end of Blade Runner. A film that grapples with the reality of biological and synthetic life, what is real and with the many versions of the film, what’s the real ending, the real message and who is, synthetic. What symbolism means, or doesn’t. We live in a post Blade Runner world of 2019, the replicants as imagined then, are yet to exist but there is a drive and affinity for artificial depictions of life. Bots and agents, who replicate life, or at the very least the...

Duncan paused the moment he heard the knock at his front door. It was loud. Assertive. He cautiously stood behind the heavy wood, “yes, hello.” “It’s the police, is Mr Duncan Trywood home?” a firm female voice asked. “Yes, I am him.” “Can you please open the door so we may ask you some questions?” “OK,” he eased the door open. It was close to dark, he could see the bright lights from a police car pointed at his house. Two portly female officers stood in his porch, one held a folder. Near their car was a rod thin male officer who looked more like a boy who would chase electric trains, rather...