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A back garden in February, and a young man in a black vest is making a nomination. “First things first,” he shouts in a thick Welsh accent, opening a can of super-strength lager, “our old friend Kestrel: no introduction needed.”He downs the beer in one, stabbing the can with a knife so the liquid flows down his throat faster. “Next, I’ll introduce you to my little friend Donald.” At this point he produces the body of a one-day old chick normally used to feed reptiles, bites the head off and hurls the rest to the ground. Next, he pours a pint of vodka into which he cracks three eggs.“Now before I drink this I need to get myself psyched up,” he says, snorting a large spoonful of the muscle-building powder creatine. He screams, stubs the cigarette he is smoking out on his tongue, throws the butt into the vodka and downs the whole vile mixture in one. “I nominate you” – he shouts his friend’s name at a camera recording him, while trying not to retch. “So ------- man up.”This is just one gruesome example of the new worldwide internet drinking craze, NekNomination, that is now sweeping through Britain. The premise is simple. People film themselves downing a drink or concoction – more often that not, alcoholic – in one and post the video on social media. Then, they nominate a friend to outdo them. If the nominee doesn’t respond in 24 hours they are subjected to ridicule on their Facebook wall and Twitter timeline. It may sound absurd, but in a matter of weeks the game has become hugely popular. Now, it is starting to claim lives.Yesterday, police and health groups issued warnings about the “highly dangerous practice” after the first two British deaths were blamed on NekNominations. Isaac Richardson, from Colchester, and a 29-year-old man from Cardiff named as Stephen Brooks both died after being filmed drinking lethal amounts of spirits for the game.A week previously, two young Irish men, Ross Cummins, 22, and Jonny Byrne, 19, had died after apparently drinking spirits as part of the NekNomination trend.Richardson, 20, a former pupil at Colchester Royal Grammar School, died on Sunday evening while staying at a backpackers’ hostel in Woolwich, south-east London. He is said to have poured a bottle of white wine, vodka, a quarter of a bottle of whisky and a can of lager into a one-and-a-half litre pitcher after telling friends, “I want to outdo people; I want to do something that nobody has ever done.”His mother, whom he kissed goodbye only 10 hours before his death, said it was was the “worst day” of her life. Ken Jenkinson, Richardson’s former headmaster, said he was struggling to make sense of the death of the well-liked and polite young man. “We are desperately sorry to hear that Isaac was a victim of this highly dangerous activity, and we can only hope that others learn from this and do not put themselves at risk in this way,” he said.The danger of NekNominations, according to both experts and people who have been challenged to take part, is that it combines reckless binge drinking with the element of peer pressure generated by social media. The trend is said to have originated only a month ago in Australia, yet such is the power of the internet that it has spread quickly across the world.The fact that the dares involved often take place out of sight, with only a computer screen for company, terrifies parents. A few days ago one mother posted a picture of her 19-year-old student son collapsed on a sofa and covered in vomit after he had downed three bottles of spirits while taking part in the game.“It is shockingly dangerous and the really worrying thing is that it depends so much on peer pressure,” says Sarah Small, manager of an Action on Addiction treatment centre in Wiltshire and the mother of two teenagers.“When these videos are put up online they can go viral. There is a lot of bravado around it as well. This is another form of binge drinking. As a mother, it really does scare me.”Yet it is not just teenagers who are taking part. One Northern Irish businessman who owns a game shoot on the County Antrim coast has, in recent days, been filmed slicing the head off a bird, swallowing a live goldfish in a pint of gin and jumping off a cliff into the sea. He has since said he regretted the three-minute clip. Separately, Ross Fawcett, a 21-year-old British triathlete and Olympic hopeful, crashed in Ipswich while riding his bike and trying to down a bottle of beer for a NekNomination challenge. He reportedly lost a pint of blood after cutting his hand in the crash.Kate Miles, the 33-year-old chairman of the Wales Young Farmers’ Society, went so far as to issue a warning to its 6,000 members after she found herself being nominated online. “I had seen one or two [nominations] coming up on my Facebook but now, in the past couple of days, it seems to be almost every other message,” she said. “It’s not just young people; I’ve seen some in their forties doing it. It has become almost a rite of passage.”Miles publicly declined her nomination, yet even she felt the pressure. For some younger people it can be far harder to say no.“This has created a very dangerous cultural environment,” says Professor Mark Ellis, of the UK Faculty of Public Health. “A few things come together here, with social media and a real risk of peer pressure, especially combined with a substance that makes people very susceptible.“Young people think they are fine to do these things with no consequences. But the reality, as we have seen over the past few days, is that it is hugely dangerous. For each of these deaths there will be dozens who have attended A&E. One of the key things is that when you go out, your friends can look after you. But when people are doing this there really is nobody there to help.”Internet fads are ephemeral things, of course, and already we may have seen the peak of NekNominations. In recent days, perhaps in response to concerns, challenges have started to be replaced by so-called RakNominations, where people nominate their friends to outdo each other with acts of charity instead.Yet still, despite the deaths, thousands will likely be taking part in the coming days.One 26-year-old posted his NekNomination effort just this week. “First, I drank a tumbler of gin,” he wrote. “Then I downed a protein shake with an egg in it; and for the last one I tried to drink some beer with a hockey stick but ended up just soaking myself.” His occupation? He is a junior doctor, training in the north-west.“Obviously, in my profession I see that alcohol is a big health issue,” he says. “But most of my friends are doing it. There is a new video going up nearly every day. I’m quite friendly with the junior medical students, and it is very popular among them, too.”His nominated friends now have 24 hours to respond. And so, for the time being at least, the game goes on.
Juvenile initiation rite gone revolting?
Jesus died on the cross to show us that BDSM is a legitimate form of love.
There is only one truth and it is that people do have penises of different sizes and one of them is the longest.
You'll never self-actualize the subconscious canopy of stardust with that attitude.
Stopped at the killing baby chicken part.
