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- Wales
- 10 updates
Clampdown on nuisance callers
OFCOM says silent and abandoned calls are one of their most complained about subjects. The findings form part of a five-point action plan launched at the start of the year in efforts to resolve the problem.
Live updates
- Lynne Courtney
Get in touch says MP if you've had a nuisance call
A Welsh MP's calling for new laws to tackle nuisance phone calls. Alun Cairns wants to introduce a bill to legislate against cold calling and make it illegal for any commercial organisation to withold their number.
Alun Cairns MP on nuisance calls
Your views on nuisance calls:
- LP Timeline on Facebook says: "Definitely should be a clamp down, I get them constantly even though my number is never given out by myself, ex directory, ranging from accident compensation, to the latest who are borderline harassment free boilers, have asked them to be taken off their list."
- Corrina Price on Facebook says: "I get at least 6 a day, don't answer my home phone anymore."
You can join the conversation on our Facebook page or on Twitter @ITVWales
Bill to tackle nuisance calls
Conservative MP Alun Cairns wants to introduce a bill to legislate against nuisance calls and is asking for members of the public to come forward with evidence to back this bill. He says making businesses apply for permission to withhold their phone numbers could help stop us from getting them.
Alun Cairns MP says, "This is a significant issue, particularly for those who are at home during the day, many of whom are pensioners. It is not unusual for some to receive a dozen or more calls a day. The current process to complain is complicated and the laws are confusing."
Report: Study finds two nuisance calls received per week
The communications regulator Ofcom says it's cracking down on companies which make nuisance calls.
It's published research today, which found that people get an average of two calls a week, where someone tries to sell them something they don't want, or there's nobody on the end of the line, as Tom Sheldrick reports.
Telephone Preference Service responds to nuisance call figures
The communications regulator Ofcom says it's cracking down on companies which make nuisance calls.
It's published research today, which found that people get an average of two calls a week, where someone tries to sell them something they don't want, or there's nobody on the end of the line.
To help stop these calls, you can register with the Telephone Preference Service. The company has responded to the latest Ofcom figures:
- ITV Report
Ofcom advice for dealing with nuisance calls
Nuisance calls: Your views
Christine Price on Facebook: My phone ringer is turned off these days - sort of defeats the object I know, but they were driving me bonkers!
Laurie Parker on Facebook: We get them all the time so our landline is now unplugged. They've also started phoning our mobiles too - it's really annoying!
Phillip Gilliver on Facebook: We get them four or five times a day. We've had to install a phone with an answering machine for family to leave messages. We just don't answer the phone anymore.
Ofcom: 'Action' needed to tackle nuisance calls problem
Ofcom says it is working hard to reduce the "growing problem" of nuisance calls - but has called for more action.
It wants current regulations to be reviewed, and says it is working on ways of tackling the "root causes" of nuisance calls, which it will share with the UK Government.
Ofcom has announced it is investigating suspected abandoned and silent calls made by claims management companies, "using the full extent of its legal powers."
In January, it published a five-point action plan for tackling the problem - including trying to better trace the companies behind nuisance calls, and better enforcement.
TalkTalk was fined £750,000 last month for making an excessive number of abandoned and silent calls.
Two nuisance calls received per week, study finds
People experiencing nuisance calls get an average of two every week, according to research from the communications industries regulator Ofcom.
Nuisance calls include unwanted sales calls, where a call centre worker is on the other end of the line, recorded messages, or silent calls, where there is nobody there when you pick up.
Ofcom's research found:
- 82 percent of people received at least one unwanted call over a four-week period
- Among these consumers, they received an average of two nuisance calls per week
- More than half of identifiable unwanted recorded sales calls were from Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims companies
- 86 percent of nuisance calls were considered 'annoying', 7 percent 'worrying', and 3 percent 'distressing'
853 people around the UK with home landline phones were spoken to for the study.
It asked consumers to keep a diary to record all unwanted calls.
Latest ITV News reports
Ofcom advice for dealing with nuisance calls
A new study has found people receiving nuisance calls get an average of two per week.


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Four Thoughts: Washington-Oregon State & UCLA-ArizonaPosted by Connor Pelton on March 9th, 2012
The first two games of the Pac-12 reminded us of why we love this time of year. Four extremely talented teams were playing their hearts out for different things. Washington needed to avoid a bad loss to clinch an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament; Oregon State needed a win to get onto the NIT bubble; Arizona needed a win to keep alive its NCAA Tournament hopes; and UCLA needed a win to stay in the NIT field. Here are four things that stood out in the first two quarterfinal games.
- Oregon State's resiliency (part two) — We mentioned yesterday how resilient Oregon State was when it could have just rolled over after giving up a 16-point lead against Washington State. Today was almost an exact replica of yesterday's game (except played better). Oregon State led by as many as 15 before Washington went on a 33-10 run to lead 66-58 with 8:50 remaining. The Huskies were hitting everything they threw up, Oregon State was turning the ball over, and the pro-Washington crowd was on their feet. Once again, it looked as if the Beavers were ready to call it a season. Instead, Oregon State was able to force some turnovers and began knocking down their shots. Before you knew it, Jared Cunningham put home a layup to put the Beavers ahead 84-83 with 30 seconds to play. Over the next half-minute, both teams would miss a combined 10 free throws. But when it was all said and done, it was Oregon State dancing off the court with an 86-84 victory. Read the rest of this entry »

subset: commoncrawl


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What Christians Need to Know about Hinduism
- Marvin Olasky Editor in Chief, WORLD Magazine
- 2005 14 Jan
Hinduism is the world's third largest religion and the dominant one in India and Nepal; its 900 million adherents include many in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and other countries. Many Hindus call their faith Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion," and Vaidika Dharma, the truth of the Vedas. The name Hindu may be derived from the Persian word for Indian or the Persian word for the Indus river, sindhu.
Perhaps close to one million Hindus now live in the United States, so U.S. reporters recognize Hinduism's significance both domestically and internationally. But it's hard to make any generalizations at all about Hinduism since it consists of thousands of different groups that have developed over the past three thousand years. It has no single founder, consistent theological system, central religious organization, or single system of morality. It has colorful rituals and a huge variety of gods or subgods from which to choose.
That amorphous quality is one of Hinduism's chief appeals: it appears as a laid-back faith, especially in relation to a tightly wound one like Judaism. Hinduism's appeals today include its acceptance of other religions that do not challenge Hindu presuppositions and its lack of concern with scriptural precision.
Hinduism also offers a solution to the problem of why bad things happen to good people and good things to bad: it's because we are to look at the motion picture of goodness or evil, that contains all past lives of the soul in question, and not just to the snapshot of this life. Hindus say all souls experience samsara or "transmigration of the soul," a long-lasting cycle of births and rebirths. Cravings, attachments, and ignorance accumulate through these perpetual rebirths, resulting in greed, hatred, and violence.
The sum of good and bad deeds is called karma, and karma determines where the soul will be housed in its next life. Bad deeds can cause a person to be reborn at a lower level, or even as an animal. If a person is poor in brains, looks, or money, he is paying the price for actions in a previous life. When we fight our condition rather than accept it, we upset dharma, the righteous order of society, and make our next incarnation even worse.
So Hinduism in one sense is individualistic and choice-oriented: every Hindu family can have its own shrine, its own worship, and its own choice of gods. At the same time it is group oriented because the gods chosen to worship are normally those of the clan or subcaste; chapter 4 discusses the caste system. Hinduism offers a choice of paths to spiritual improvement. Of the three main ones, the Bhakti path is the most popular today: in it a devotee chooses a personal deity and prays to it with intense love and devotion, and that deity will offer benefits in return.
Other paths are available as well. The karma path emphasizes action, with good things happening to a person who keeps caste regulations, performs religious rites, and offers sacrifices. (Some modern temples say that the karma path also includes actions that lead to social improvements.) The Gyana path emphasizes knowledge, with those walking it gaining the understanding that will allow them to move closer to deity. Through pure acts, thoughts, or devotion, Hindus believe they can be reborn at a higher level, freed from ignorance and passion.
Relax, Hindus say, when a monotheist wonders about their apparently polytheistic penchant for worshipping numerous gods and goddesses. Hindus say that when they are worshipping those small gods they are actually bowing to Brahman, the supreme god, the impersonal ultimate reality, the world soul. They say the many gods merely represent various incarnations and manifestations of the supreme god and function in a way analogous to clothes: people wear different ones in different situations. Hindus argue that their numerous names for god signify not confusion but an intimate knowledge of divinity. A favorite analogy: Eskimos have forty-eight names for snow because they know snow intimately in its variations but still understand that all snow is essentially the same.
Hindus say the existence of multiple forms of god is a tribute to god's kindness. Here's the logic: The supreme being, they say, manifests himself in different ways constantly, and those manifestations are without starting point or end. To meditate on the supreme being, man has to use his finite capabilities to absorb infinite manifestations, which is impossible. Therefore, that which is infinite appears in billions of ways to help mankind visualize it. Think of billions of photos of the same person in different poses rather than billions of different people.
Since Hindus worship multiple forms of god, they can choose the form that works best in specific instances. For example, Hindus looking for tenderness and forgiveness worship a mother form of god—Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, etc.—and say that in doing so they can more easily attribute those sentiments to the deity they envision.
Moreover, variety is the spice of Hinduism. Urban temples in India typically have many objects of worship. Loudspeaker-blaring music, drums, food and merchandise sellers, and a variety of booths provide the backdrop for making fruit and vegetable sacrifices to major gods, popular local deities, and even dancing cobras.
Hinduism can also be optimistic because if rituals are performed correctly, gods turn into genies, ready to help their devotees. Hindus often depict subgods such as Vishnu with multiple arms or heads that allow them more opportunity to protect people. Multiple arms indicate omnipotence, dominance in all directions; multiple heads suggest omniscience. Vishnu in particular is often said to have often come to earth in avatars—various forms—so as to save humans from tyranny or natural disasters. For instance, he came in the form of a boar to destroy one demon, in a half-man, half-lion form to defeat another, and as a dwarf to beat a demon king.
The subgods are also available to help humans in other ways. Vishnu's avatars include the great hero Rama and the great dharma-establisher Krishna. Vishnu's wife Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and is a favorite among businessmen. Brahma's wife Saraswati is the goddess of learning and often the favorite deity of students in schools and colleges. Some Hindus also worship god families, such as Rama with his brother Lakshamana and wife Sita. Some Hindus worship the most powerful goddess, Gayatri, through recitation of the Gayatri Mantra, a chant about the light of the universe.
Many Hindus describe their religion as monistic, meaning that they believe there is no essential difference between God, man, and animals. Advaitic—"without dualism"—Hindus believe that everything and everyone is part of god: the universe is one unitary, organic whole, with no creator/creation separation. For reasons that are unclear, all creatures at some point split off from god, and we even think that split is natural, but we will find no true, lasting happiness until we lose our individuality by becoming reabsorbed into the cosmic whole from which we came.
Other Hindus, though, subscribe to a theistic sensibility, and one group of Hindu-Christian syncretists believes that the knowledge of Christ brought to India by the apostle Thomas two decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus underlies the worship of Vishnu and Shiva that began around that time. That's an intriguing but unproven theory that adds to the difficulty of trying to put a label on Hinduism. Perhaps it should merely be called a henotheistic religion, one stressing worship of a supreme cosmic force while recognizing other gods and goddesses as facets or aspects of that supreme force.
What most Hindus agree on is the need to transcend the process of transmigration that they believe affects all living beings. They hope to be liberated from cycles of rebirth and then in some manner be united with the universal spirit, Brahman. To move toward that goal a Hindu can do good works and live as those of his caste should. He can go on pilgrimages to the holy places in India and learn through meditation, yoga, and the help of a master. Especially when he is old, he should lead an ascetic lifestyle.
Large Hindu temples do not have such sacrifices, yet they are such big business that the government has taken them over, paying the salaries of both gurus and guards and collecting rents from the shops inside and outside the temple. Priests hold onto some concessions, so someone who offers fun for the whole family can do well. At one of India's largest temples, the famous Menakshi in the old pilgrimage city of Madurai, children and adults can pay two rupees (about four cents) to throw balls of butter at statues of two angry gods, Shiva and his wife Shakti, thus cooling them down.
Another Madurai-area temple has been at the same site for three hundred years but only three years ago made the big investment of putting up kid-friendly, colorfully painted giant figures linking the temple to a popular god, Ayannar. The temple priest, Ayyaavu, acknowledged frankly that "Ayannar doesn't belong here—the temple has its own mother goddesses—but, even though it's not our tradition, we wanted to have another public figure." The temple had the money to set up the statues because its village has been prosperous in recent years.
Hinduism's diversity encourages such entrepreneurial activity, but at the same time makes god-figures of choice part of the family. At the biggest Kali temple in Chennai, India, temple executive S. Bhattuchaji provided the daily feeding schedule of the temple's four-foot-tall statue of Kali, whom he called "Mother": "At 5:45 a.m. we wake Mother, wash her face, and give her a little food. At 8 we give her fruit and at 11:45 a full meal, including rice and fried vegetables, milk, honey, coconut, and curd mixed up together. You see what a good mood she is in now. She will rest, and at 4 we will wake Mother and give her a glass of coconut water along with fruit and sweets. At 6:45 we will bring more food to Mother, ring the bell, and have a big ceremony, and at 8 p.m. Mother will go to sleep."
Meanwhile villages commonly have small shrines near their boundaries dedicated to spirits of disease and illness. These spirits need to be appeased by prayers and offerings, such as food or pieces of red cloth. Other spirits that demand propitiation include poison deities, tiger deities, and snake deities. Some spirits are seen as living in old trees or at crossroads; deities known as kshetrapalas guard crops.
Stop back for Part Two tomorrow.
Marvin Olasky is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and the editor-in-chief of World, the national weekly news magazine from a biblical perspective (and the fourth most-read newsweekly in the United States). He has been a UT professor since 1983 and a World editor since 1992.


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Pull Out For What? 10 Most Fertile Rappers Of All-Time
Millions dream of being a rapper who rocks sold out crowds, uses $100 bills as toilet paper and smashes strange women without protection like the YOLO-minded rappers on this list. Why condom-allergic rappers continue to roll the dice, we'll never know, but they don't seem to mind paying child support/supporting their mini-tribe.
Here are the ten most fertile rappers of all-time. Take a look.
10 (and a possible) kids. 6 baby mamas. 1 million behind in child support. The condom-less Life & Times of Dark Man X.
Lil' Wayne
Only the condom-allergic gremlin knows how many random kids he actually has but we're sure he fathered at least 4 (that he's aware of).
Shawty Lo
He almost cashed in on a reality show starring his 11 kids and League of Extraordinary Baby mamas that was quickly shut down by the "haters."
Tip Huxtable has the same number of felonies as kids (8) but he's clearly a changed family man.
Master P
Between building his No Limit army and hopping out of golden tanks, P fathered 9 kids with several unnecessary letters in their names.
The struggle-crooning Rap star has four baby mamas (including Ciara) who all seem to be enjoying their sister-wife lifestyle.
Continue Slideshow
Chief Keef
The crusty filthball already has three kids at 18 as the unwashed face of the "Pull out for what?" movement.
The beloved/hated rapper was the father of 8 (with three on the way) at the time of his tragic death.
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