8 year old boy with Alopecia sent home from school over improper hairstyle

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PHILADELPHIA - The family of a little boy with a debilitating skin disease says he's told to stay home from school over a haircut.

FOX 29's Bruce Gordon sat down and talked with the family.

Zion Williams, 8, enjoyed racing around on his scooter Friday.

But he and his mom know he should have been in school.

The second grader's been held home from Shiloh Christian Academy since Wednesday morning, when he was turned away, for violating the school's ban on "long hair."

Mom says her son suffers from Alopecia. One of every 50 Americans lives with the autoimmune skin disease. It makes your hair fall out, whether completely, or in patches.

Zion's been under treatment at Drexel University to try and get the hair to regrow.

Those treatments include shots on his head. But they're working, and the hair is starting to grow back.

Mom says the school rejected a doctor's note asking that Zion be exempted from the "short hair rule."

"I think it's heartless. It's heartless that he would actually take him out of school because of something so simple as a haircut," she said.

The principal and pastor at Shiloh is Bishop Derrick Williams. He declined our invitation to talk on camera.

Moments later, he answered a phone call and eventually agreed to cut Zion's hair a break.

He's allowed back at school starting Tuesday, with his hair the length that it is.

Gordon has more details in this video report.

source: http://www.foxnews.com/

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A gun you can PRINT: Weapon made on home 3D device is successfully tested

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Looking more like a hairdryer than a conventional firearm, the Liberator was made with a 3D printer bought on eBay for £5,000

he world’s first gun built with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in America.

Made of plastic, the terrifying innovation in theory enables anyone to manufacture the pistol and smuggle it on to planes or across borders.

Looking more like a hairdryer than a conventional firearm, the Liberator was made with a 3D printer bought on eBay for £5,000.

Makers Defence Distributed fired it for the first time on a range near Austin, Texas, at the weekend and vow to put blueprints online.

The gun was made by first creating a 3D image of the firearm using graphics software which then slices the image into hundreds of ultra-thin horizontal layers.

These are printed using a laser which cuts each piece and fuses it to the previous layer with resin until it is complete.

Only the firing pin, a nail that can be bought anywhere, is made of metal.

Defence Distributed chief Cody Wilson, 25, said: “There are states all over the world that say you can’t own firearms and that’s not true any more.

“I’m seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have whatever you want.

"It’s not up to the political players any more.

“I recognise the tool might be used to harm other people – it’s a gun.

"But I don’t think that’s a reason not to do it or a reason not to put it out there.”

The development comes as President Obama battles for stricter firearm controls in the wake of the Sandy Hook School massacre in Connecticut which left 26 shot dead.

US politicians on both sides of the divide have already called for laws to outlaw the Liberator.

Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer labelled the innovation “stomach-churning”.

He said: “Now anyone – a terrorist, someone who is mentally ill, an abusive husband, a criminal – can essentially open a gun factory in their garage.

“It must be stopped.”
source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gun-you-can-print-weapon-1872927

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Artist Has Self-Portrait Painting Approved as Drivers License Photograph

Fredrik Saker's driving licence does not look exceptional.

His severe face stares out from the plastic issued by the Swedish Transport Agency. It does not flatter him.

But it is highly unusual because the likeness on the licence is a self-portrait, not a photograph.

The 29-year-old Swedish artist wanted to prove to himself that he was good enough to paint a work that could pass as a photograph.

And, as he told the BBC, his work now has an official seal of approval.

"I was a bit surprised but very satisfied when I received the licence.

"I was happy with the painting, but I was nervous. Perhaps it would not get through."

Mr Saker had studied the code of the Swedish Transport Board before he submitted his likeness. It required a photo to be submitted that was a recent likeness. But nowhere did specify that the photograph had to be of the subject.

So Mr Saker thought a photograph of a self-portrait would do just as well.

The Swedish Transport Board told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter: "We have examined the original documents and compared them with his previous driving licence. The picture we have received looks like any other photo, so we have had no reason to question it."
The artist's impression of himself - a photo or a painting?

To get the official stamp of approval, Mr Saker worked on his self-portrait for about 100 hours with brushes he termed ridiculously fine, with barely any bristles.

The technique may hark back to the art of the 16th Century miniaturists like Nicholas Hilliard, but Mr Saker's inspiration has been technology and questions of identity.

"The picture's title is 'This is not me'," he told the BBC, "after Magritte, whose 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe" sat beneath a picture of a pipe.

"Like Magritte, I want to question of what is true and what is false, and question what a picture or a photo actually is.

"Since I have a history of Alzheimer's (the most common form of dementia), strokes and other brain-related illnesses in my family, I know that the human mind and perception can change in a matter of seconds, and what appears true to one person can be exactly the opposite to someone else."
Saker has been inspired by Rene Magritte

Another inspiration was the Norwegian-born artist, Kjartan Slettemark, who made a career through questions of identity and travelled round Europe in the 1970s on a passport in which his head and beard had been superimposed on a photograph of the US president, Richard Nixon.

For his licence, Mr Saker deliberately set out to paint himself as he is - on a bad day.

"I don't look good. My face is flushed and I am having a bad hair day.

"None of my friends ever says, 'Look at my driving licence, don't I look good?

"This picture is a milestone. It's a sign that my painting is getting better. Now I am embarking on another eight to 10 similar paintings. I start shooting a couple of people in the next couple of weeks and we will soon be reapplying for licences."

Mr Saker intends to exhibit all the paintings when they are completed, but for now, policemen can get a free viewing if ever they stop him on Sweden's roads.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20739778

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