The oft-repeated claim that Earth’s biota is entering a sixth “mass extinction” depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction rates are far above the “background” rates prevailing between the five previous mass extinctions.
Earlier estimates of extinction rates have been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass extinction.
First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2 mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100 years (that is, 2 E/MSY), which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates.
We then compare this rate with the current rate of mammal and vertebrate extinctions. The latter is conservatively low because listing a species as extinct requires meeting stringent criteria.
Even under our assumptions, which would tend to minimize evidence of an incipient mass extinction, the average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is up to 100 times higher than the background rate.
[Others report: The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.]
Under the 2 E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear.
These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way.
Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing…
HWH Comment: It appears now that human rights groups want the world to pity migrants who hijack ships on the open seas after they’re compassionately rescued, hold the crew members prisoners then redirect the ship on a course of their choosing. Do you think a better way could be found to freedom than risking landing in a foreign prison to be beaten, raped and tortured?
These aren’t desperate people; their opportunistic terrorists who would commit an international crime with no remorse or concern for the people who compassionately rescued them. They were rescued and hijacked the ship anyway and then complained that several ships passed their rickety boat by before the ship they hijacked picked them up.
Tanker hijacked by rescued migrants arrives safely in Malta
By STEPHEN CALLEJA and COLLEEN BARRY
3/28/2019
Armed forces stand onboard the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1, which was hijacked by migrants, in Valletta, Malta, Thursday March 28, 2019.
A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, before escorting it to a Maltese port.
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain before escorting it to a Maltese port.
Armed military personnel stood guard on the ship’s deck, and a dozen or so migrants were also visible, as the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1 docked at Boiler Wharf in the city of Senglea. Several police vans were lined up on shore to take custody of the migrants for investigation, and four migrants were led off the ship in handcuffs.
Authorities in Italy and Malta on Wednesday said that the group had hijacked the vessel after it rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea, and forced the crew to put the Libya-bound vessel on a course north toward Europe.
Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said the ship had rescued about 120 people and described what happened as “the first act of piracy on the high seas with migrants” as the alleged hijackers. Malta has put the number of migrants rescued at 108.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Twitter that the nation’s armed forces had conducted a “sensitive operation on high seas.”
“We do not shirk responsibility despite our size,” he said, pledging to follow international rules.
The ship had been heading toward Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa and the island nation of Malta when Maltese forces intercepted it.
Maltese armed forces established communications with the captain while the ship was still 30 nautical miles off shore. The captain said he was not in control of the vessel “and that he and his crew were being forced and threatened by a number of migrants to proceed to Malta,” the armed forces said. No details were given of what force and threats were used.
The special team that restored control to the captain was backed by a patrol vessel, two fast interceptor craft and a helicopter.
There was no immediate word on the condition of El Hiblu 1′s crew.
Humanitarian organizations say that migrants are mistreated and even tortured in Libya, and have protested protocols to return migrants rescued offshore to the lawless northern African nation. Meanwhile, both Italy and Malta have refused to open their ports to humanitarian ships that rescue migrants at sea, which has created numerous standoffs as European governments haggle over which will take them in.
While Italy’s interior minister called the hijacking an act of piracy, the humanitarian group Sea Watch disputed that term, saying the actions “were in self-defense against the deadly consequences forced upon them by Europe’s inhumane border policy.”
A private group that operates a rescue ship and monitors how governments treat migrants, Mediterranea, urged compassion for the group on the hijacked vessel and said it hoped European countries would act “in the name of fundamental rights, remembering that we are dealing with human beings fleeing hell.”
Mass migration to Europe has dropped sharply since 2015, when the continent received 1 million refugees and migrants from countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The surge created a humanitarian crisis in which desperate travelers frequently drowned and leading arrival spots such as Italy and Greece struggled to house large numbers of asylum-seekers.
Along with the dangerous sea journey itself, those who attempt to cross the Mediterranean risk being stopped by Libya’s coast guard and held in Libyan detention centers that human rights groups have described as bleak places where migrants allegedly suffer routine abuse.
EU members “alert the Libyan coast guard when refugees and migrants are spotted at sea so they can be taken back to Libya, despite knowing that people there are arbitrarily detained and exposed to widespread torture, rape, killings and exploitation,” said Matteo de Bellis, an international migration researcher for Amnesty International.
European Union member countries, responding to domestic opposition to welcoming immigrants, have decided to significantly downscale an EU operation in the Mediterranean, and have decided in principle to withdraw their ships, which would mean continuing the mission with air surveillance only. A formal decision has to be made by Sunday, when the mission mandate expires.
“This shameful decision has nothing to do with the needs of people who risk their lives at sea, but everything to do with the inability of European governments to agree on a way to share responsibility for them,” de Bellis said.
Commercial ships have been increasingly caught between European governments hostile to taking in new migrants and the international maritime law’s obligation to save people at sea.
Last November, dozens of migrants of a variety of nationalities seized control of a container ship that had picked them up in the Mediterranean, barricading themselves inside and refusing to disembark in the Libyan port of Misrata. After 10 days, Libyan authorities forcibly removed them from the ship and brought them to a detention center.
During the standoff, several migrants on the vessel told the AP that six commercial ships had seen their rickety boat foundering but passed them by before they were picked up by the seventh.
____
Barry reported from Milan. Lori Hinnant in Paris, Lorne Cooke in Brussels and Vanessa Gera in Rome also contributed.
SYDNEY (AP) — The gunman behind at least one of the mosque shootings in New Zealand that left 49 people dead on Friday tried to make a few things clear in the manifesto he left behind: He is a 28-year-old Australian white nationalist who hates immigrants. He was set off by attacks in Europe that were perpetrated by Muslims. He wanted revenge, and he wanted to create fear.
He also, quite clearly, wanted attention.
Though he claimed not to covet fame, the gunman — whose name was not immediately released by police — left behind a 74-page document posted on social media under the name Brenton Tarrant in which he said he hoped to survive the attack to better spread his ideas in the media.
He also livestreamed to the world in graphic detail his assault on the worshippers at Christchurch’s Al Noor Mosque.
That rampage killed at least 41 people, while an attack on a second mosque in the city not long after killed several more. Police did not say whether the same person was responsible for both shootings.
While his manifesto and video were an obvious and contemptuous ploy for infamy, they do contain important clues for a public trying to understand why anyone would target dozens of innocent people who were simply spending an afternoon engaged in prayer.
There could be no more perplexing a setting for a mass slaughter than New Zealand, a nation so placid and so isolated from the mass shootings that plague the U.S. that even police officers rarely carry guns.Yet the gunman himself highlighted New Zealand’s remoteness as a reason he chose it. He wrote that an attack in New Zealand would show that no place on earth was safe and that even a country as far away as New Zealand is subject to mass immigration.He said he grew up in a working-class Australian family, had a typical childhood and was a poor student. A woman who said she was a colleague of his when he worked as a personal trainer in the Australian city of Grafton said she was shocked by the allegations against him.
“I can’t … believe that somebody I’ve probably had daily dealings with and had shared conversations and interacted with would be able of something to this extreme,” Tracey Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Beyond his white nationalistic ideals, he also considers himself an environmentalist and a fascist who believes China is the nation that most aligns with his political and social values. He has contempt for the wealthiest 1 percent. And he singled out American conservative commentator Candace Owens as the person who had influenced him the most.In a tweet, Owens responded by saying that if the media portrayed her as the inspiration for the attack, it had better hire lawyers.
Throughout the manifesto, the theme he returns to most often is conflict between people of European descent and Muslims, often framing it in terms of the Crusades.
He wrote that the episode that pushed him toward violence took place in 2017 while he was touring through Western Europe. That was when an Uzbek man drove a truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, killing five. The Australian was particularly enraged by the death of an 11-year-old Swedish girl in the attack.
He said his desire for violence grew when he arrived in France, where he became enraged by the sight of immigrants in the cities and towns he visited.
And so he began to plot his attack. Three months ago, he started planning to target Christchurch. He claimed not to be a direct member of any organization or group, though he said he has donated to many nationalist groups. He also claimed he contacted an anti-immigration group called the reborn Knights Templar and got the blessing of Anders Breivik for the attack.
Breivik is a right-wing Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in Oslo and a nearby island in 2011. Breivik’s lawyer Oeystein Storrvik told Norway’s VG newspaper that his client, who is in prison, has “very limited contacts with the surrounding world, so it seems very unlikely that he has had contact” with the New Zealand gunman.
The gunman had a long wish list for what he hoped the attack would achieve. He hoped it would reduce immigration by intimidating immigrants. He hoped to drive a wedge between NATO and the Turkish people. He hoped to further polarize and destabilize the West. And he hoped to create more conflict over gun laws in the U.S., thus leading to a civil war that would ultimately result in a separation of races.
Though he claimed not to be a Nazi, in the video he livestreamed of the shooting the number 14 is seen on his rifle. That may be a reference to the “14 Words,” a white supremacist slogan attributed in part to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also used the symbol of the Schwarze Sonne, or black sun, which “has become synonymous with myriad far-right groups who traffic in neo-Nazi,” according to the center.
His victims, he wrote, were chosen because he saw them as invaders who would replace the white race. He predicted he would feel no remorse for their deaths. And in the video he livestreamed of his shooting, no remorse can be seen or heard. Instead, he simply says: “Let’s get this party started.”
Then he picks up his gun, storms into the mosque, and cuts down one innocent life after another.
When it is over, he climbs back into his car, where he has left his music playing — the song “Fire” by the English rock band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. And right after the singer bellows, “I am the god of hellfire!” the gunman drives away.
HWH Comment: How about instead of a news outlet telling us what he wrote and what it meant, let the public see what he wrote, and let each individual use their own brains to figure out what he meant. This article so far seems to be more about Jews wanting him to be a Nazi. If you’re not sure, then don’t put it out there.
Netanyahu’s comments have shattered that illusion.
His comments that the country belongs to ‘Jewish people alone’ strike to the heart of the nature of Israel.
Ben White The Independent Voices
Netanyahu is desperate, in the face of an electoral challenge from former military chiefs of staff as well as the looming indictments for corruption allegations ( EPA )
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in the headlines on Sunday, after declaring on social media that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”. The Likud leader later doubled down, telling his cabinet that Israel is “the nation state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people”.
Netanyahu’s comments are the latest grim episode in an election season that will see Israelis going to the polls on 9 April. Just last month, the prime minister helped engineer an election merger that could see far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) enter the Knesset.
That latter piece of realpolitik in particular prompted outrage from a number of Israeli politicians, analysts and even US-based groups better known for their Israel advocacy. According to the critics, Netanyahu’s boosting of the far-right and indulging of racist rhetoric endangers Israeli democracy.
Netanyahu is desperate, in the face of an electoral challenge from former military chiefs of staff as well as the looming indictments for corruption allegations. But recent developments are not just about motivating a right-wing base – the problem goes much deeper than an embattled demagogue.Netanyahu’s election manoeuvres offer an opportunity to shine a spotlight on an uncomfortable truth: namely that only under the most superficial definition can Israel be considered a democracy.
Consider the following:
Millions of Palestinians are subjected to a military regime which, for 52 years, has facilitated the establishment of illegal settlements. Settlers are Israeli citizens, and vote. The Palestinians they live among – whose land the settlers inhabit and colonise – are not.
The April elections will lead to the formation of Israel’s 35th government. Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip began during Israel’s 13th government.
Those Palestinians who do have Israeli citizenship, meanwhile, are very much second-class citizens – as Netanyahu has been at pains to emphasize.
Yes, the Jewish Nation-State law passed last year is significant in that regard, defining Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people”, and asserting that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”.
But the legislation was consistent with de jure and de facto discrimination going back to the very foundation of the state of Israel.As conflict studies scholar Nadim Rouhana wrote in 2010, “there are few honest observers in Israel who dispute that a Jewish state, by definition, privileges one group of citizens over another”.
This is an inequality “expressed in various ways, including in Israel’s Basic Laws and its laws of land control, immigration and resource distribution” – as documented by Palestinian citizens themselves, as well as international NGOs and human rights experts.
Finally – and this is regrettably rarely taken into account – there are millions of Palestinians who, expelled from their homes in the 1948 Nakba and prevented from returning ever since, are denied their rightful citizenship and thus suffrage…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Saturday he would soon sign an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal resources.
Trump is highlighting concerns from some conservatives that their voices were being censored, whether on social media or at the nation’s universities. He did not go into more detail about what the order would say, but his comments immediately drew scrutiny from those who noted that public research universities already have a constitutional obligation to protect free speech.
“An executive order is unnecessary as public research universities are already bound by the First Amendment, which they deeply respect and honor,” said Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. “It is core to their academic mission.”
Trump invited Hayden Williams to join him Saturday while he addressed activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference. Williams was punched Feb. 19 while on the campus of University of California, Berkeley. He was recruiting for the conservative group Talking Points USA.Two men approached and one punched him during a confrontation captured on student cellphones. University of California, Berkeley police arrested a suspect, Zachary Greenberg, on Friday.Williams, who had a black eye, told Fox News that the men objected to a sign that said “Hate Crime Hoaxes Hurt Real Victims.”
Neither Williams nor Greenberg are affiliated with UC Berkeley.Trump told the audience Saturday that Williams “took a hard punch in the face for all of us.” Meanwhile, Williams said many conservative students face “discrimination, harassment or worse if they dare speak up on campus.”
Trump offered no details about what the executive order might say about what has become a thorny issue on college campuses…
HWH COMMENT: It’s unfortunate that one would need to use an Executive Order to establish and maintain a climate of free speech in any institution in the USA. But that’s an example of how the Constitution is being trampled on by those who can’t and won’t tolerate opposing views. It happens all over social media. People are not only abused and intimidated but the perpetrators are encouraged by Facebook employees by turning a blind eye to offenders and in many cases Facebook employees are the perpetrators of hateful actions toward the people whose opinions they disagree with.
It appears that the very people who preach tolerance to everybody else are the most intolerant of everybody else’s views, unless they’re the same as theirs.
If they even suspect that someone is a Trump supporter or a supporter of any of his policies, the target gets brutally threatened, verbally assaulted and gutted by Facebook trolls. Facebook knows who these trolls are and lets them operate with impunity, siding with the bullies and the deniers of free speech, while punishing the victims with threats of hate crime prosecution when they defend themselves against the perpetrators.
When Facebook calls your response hate speech, which is a hate crime, that implies prosecutorial action, which suggests that Facebook is impersonating law enforcement to silence opposing views. Facebook should not have a view. It is not the place of Facebook computer programmers and workers to be punishing anybody for their political and social views – or any views – on anything.
HWH COMMENTARY: This segment is a perfect example of how CNN and black Africans explain Don Lemon’s racism against white people. “It’s true”, is their defense.
Well, it’s also true that some black Africans exhibit ape/monkey motor behavior. When walking, talking, singing they bend over and sway their arms back and forth and raise one arm at a time to their chests. The guy who sang at the Super Bowl halftime show did it – a lot. It’s not racist to point that out. It’s interesting. Drunk black Africans do it even more. It’s a little weird walking into a predominately black African drinking place to see the movement all around you, if you’re not used to it. They pound the bar a lot too, for attention. Males do it more often than females.
Whites also mimic blacks who do it, especially in the entertainment world. Even some women, especially Hispanic. They’re bringing their crotches into the songs or the talk. They spread their legs like monkeys do and start shaking their stuff with their hands.
We have senses for the purpose of observation – for recognition purposes. For example, reading is an observation exercise. Read this book with your eyes, then remove the book and we’re going to test what you read. Color the dot within the circle – another observational exercise.
If you don’t want me to observe that you dyed your hair blonde, then why do it? People pretty much walk, talk, move, dress, act to leave impressions in the minds of those who observe them – or to influence positively or negatively or anywhere in-between those they encounter in person, through the media, through gossip even.
If you don’t want me to look at your bare breasts, then why bare them? That’s the point – to rattle you, to shock you, to peak your interest, to distract you.
If you don’t want me to look at your bare ass, when you’re walking in front of me, then pull your pants up so I don’t have to look. Oh well, ‘you don’t have to look’, but everybody knows that people look at what is uncommon. Or what is sensual or sexual or grotesque or beautiful.
Powers of observation – very important to remember. It’s part of being an animal. We survive and thrive based on our observational skills. No justice no peace means war if black Africans aren’t allowed revenge when a police officer shoots a black person pretending to have a gun. Burning cities, businesses means war. War means death to white people.
War chants are terror tactics black Africans in America use to oppress white people – the white guy – as Don Lemon and Barak Obama famously refer to them. The Don Lemons and Barak Obamas of the world group all whites together. Or all men. Well, all white men are not the same. Oh, far right, extremist white men. Not many of those around blowing up towers. But they’re keeping Border People approaching the border from illegally crossing. Not that I’ve seen. Thousands of people got tuckered out Lemon says, so didn’t even try to cross? They didn’t walk the thousands of miles that Lemon claimed they did. They were driven. They only walked when the cameras were on or when stopping for breakfast, lunch, dinner and for the night – to sleep.
Don Lemon who was giving his own biased belief, was probably drunk when he said it, then CNN had to scramble to keep him on the show. The guy’s a train wreck.
Antifa (People against Fascism aka proanarchism) are mostly rich white non-observant Jews’ kids. Not many people with pick-up trucks in that crowd, who break protest laws, cover their faces with hoods, carry large burning torches, flame throwers. Toss police cruisers. Terrorize a nation in support of black Africans who break laws. They’re about as left-leaning as you get. They incite mob behavior and anybody watching the behavior – it’s all over the television. “A good cop is a dead cop”.
Maybe those white cops shouldn’t go out next time there’s a domestic violence call coming from the home of a rich and famous black person who paints all white people with the same brush. Transparent paint is what they use, because whites don’t have a color according to people of color. That tells the story right there.
Black Africans in America strip all white people of their color as a strategy to remove their power by removing their skin, after they take their souls, their hearts and now their observational senses. The purpose is to turn the white people black – or kill them, whichever benefits them the most.
It was true that recent gun violence could be attributed to white males, but their political or religious affiliation didn’t cause the strikes. They were popped. Probably by the media – that’s the source of most popping these days.
Don Lemon says things that even silly white people wouldn’t say. I’m not really sure where he gets his commentary. I do know that had a white commentator said that about blacks in America they would have been fired, even though most gun violence is perpetrated by blacks and many blacks have murdered many white police officers. You have to be careful when accusing white people that you get the correct group. Not all white people are the same.
Jews want to be considered a race, so many of those so-called white people were actually white Jews.
“…WHITE OFFICERS ARE NO MORE LIKELY TO USE LETHAL FORCE AGAINST MINORITIES THAN NONWHITE OFFICERS.”
Researchers looked at every use of deadly force by officers across the United States and discovered that the killing of black suspects is a police problem, not a white police problem. Further, the killing of unarmed suspects of any race is extremely rare. (https://www.futurity.org/police-killings-african-americans-1836722/)
The main topic of the show in question was not “WHO POSES THE GREATEST TERROR THREAT IN AMERICA TODAY?” Don Lemon morphed it into the only topic that everybody was talking about the next day.
There are shootings all over the USA everyday. Yet, he picked this one supermarket killing by a white male to point out to the world that the greatest threat to America today is white men. That was prejudicial, since he has no proof of the future threat. His anti-white republican guy feelings were hanging out all over the world stage.
The reason why white people get fired and metaphorically dismembered before the world and black people don’t for engaging in the same behavior is because white people don’t fight back; they’re not going to burn cities and terrorize a nation over it. So the intelligence agencies make a decision to feed a few high profile white people to the blacks to chew up as an appeasement tool. The CIA knows that white people will take the unequal, unfair punishment, just because they’re built that way.
Tables can, and as history has proven, turn. The white guys, as the black racists like to call them, will fight back and those white guys who fed the blacks their white meat dinners will be first on the menu.
Violence isn’t the white person’s first line of defense like it is with black people. Generally speaking.
White people don’t identify with their color. There’s no such thing as a white group of brothers and sisters that compares with a black group, even though worldwide whites are a minority race. Even the neo-Nazis aren’t on anybody’s ‘hang out with’ list, except other neo-Nazis. Nobody hangs with Jews, because Jews don’t hang with anybody else. They’re white separatists – in the USA and other English speaking nations. In non-English speaking nations their identity changes. Everywhere Jews populated, you’ll find them.
White people identify with their socio-economic class only to the extent that they share a demographic and frequent the same shops and engage in similar activities. Most white people don’t belong to clubs that focus on their race. There’s no running to a white person or leader or group if a white person has been wronged by a person of a different race. Whites don’t have leaders who tell them what to think, say and do.
Don Lemon said we shouldn’t demonize people, then went right into demonizing white men. Who did he mean by “we”? I guess in his Book of Racial Teachings white men aren’t people.
Don Lemon is a RACE BAITER AND RACIAL INCITER.
By Lindsey Bever November 1, 2018
During a recent segment about a supermarket shooting in Kentucky, CNN host Don Lemon said that “the biggest terror threat in this country is white men.”Lemon was speaking on live television Monday about an incident in which a white man allegedly shot and killed two black people outside a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Ky., not far from Louisville.
The incident, which is being investigated as a hate crime, occurred during the same week that 13 potential explosive devices were sent to prominent Democratic and media figures across the country and 11 people were killed in a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. A white man was charged in the latter case.
“I keep trying to point out to people not to demonize any one group or any one ethnicity. But we keep thinking that the biggest terror threat is something else — some people who are marching towards the border like it’s imminent,” Lemon told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, referring to the Central American migrant caravan walking toward the United States. He added that “the last time they did this, a couple hundred people came and they — most of them didn’t get into the country. Most of them got tuckered out before they even made it to the border.”
“So,” he said, “we have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them. There is no ban — you know, they had the Muslim ban. There is no white-guy ban. So what do we do about that?”
On Wednesday, following the backlash, Lemon doubled down.
“Earlier this week, I made some comments about that in a conversation with Chris,” he said during a broadcast Wednesday night. “I said that the biggest terror threat in this country comes from radicals on the far right, primarily white men. That angered some people. But let’s put emotion aside and look at the cold hard facts. The evidence is overwhelming.”
Lemon pointed to a recent Government Accountability Office report that shows that since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, far-right violent extremists have killed 106 people in 62 attacks in the United States, while radical Islamist violent extremists have killed 119 people in 23 attacks.
He also referenced several studies, including a 2017 report from the Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund and the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal, which found that from 2008 to 2016, there were almost twice as many terrorist incidents carried out on U.S. soil by right-wing extremists — many of whom are white — than by Islamist extremists.
It showed there were 115 incidents involving right-wing extremists and that those that ended in death were more deadly than incidents carried out by other groups.
“So people who were angered about what I said are missing the entire point,” Lemon said about his earlier statements. “We don’t need to worry about people who are thousands of miles away. The biggest threats are homegrown. The facts prove that.”
HWH: In reference to terrorism Don Lemon said, “we don’t need to worry about people who are thousands of miles away”.
I guess he slept through 9-11. Or maybe he drank and drugged his way through it. Either way he doesn’t remember that the terrorists who struck the USA on 9-11 all lived thousands of miles away.
Don lemon is an embarrassment to the country and CNN news outlet. How could a news commentator not know that?
Leaky blood vessels in the brain may be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say.
They followed 161 older adults for five years and found that those with the most severe memory declines had the greatest leakage in their brain’s blood vessels, regardless of whether the Alzheimer’s-related proteins amyloid and tau were present.
The findings could help with earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and suggest a new drug target for slowing down or preventing the disease, according to the researchers from the University of Southern California.
“The fact that we’re seeing the blood vessels leaking, independent of tau and independent of amyloid, when people have cognitive [mental] impairment on a mild level, suggests it could be a totally separate process or a very early process,” said study senior author Dr. Berislav Zlokovic. He is director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the university’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
“That was surprising, that this blood-brain barrier breakdown is occurring independently,” Zlokovic added in a university news release…
HWH Comment: There are currently 2,208 billionaires in the world today with a combined worth of 9.1 trillion dollars.
Acting on just the dollar amount and not the red tape and cost of liquidating the funds, put them in a large cash vat and equally divided 9.1 trillion dollars among every live human in the world (population 7.6 billion) how much would each person receive in a one-time payment?
1,197.00 (one thousand, one hundred nine-seven dollars)
If you stripped all these morally corrupt individuals of their wealth as punishment for hoarding power through cash and gave them the same 1,197.00 each, how much of a stimulus would 9.1 trillion dollars be to the world economy? Now we’re not making any adjustments here, like people always do, such as giving Africans less because the amount in US. dollars can buy more in many locations. None of that funny business to level the playing field even more.
In most countries it wouldn’t buy much.
It could give each person a hundred dollars a month to buy food for one year around the world. That’s it.
You know, if you keep leveling the playing field we’ll all be back living a step above the cave dwellers.
MEET THE MEMBERS OF THE THREE COMMAS CLUB
Capitalism’s global conquest continues as entrepreneurs around the globe mint fortunes in everything from cryptocurrencies to telecom to bridal dresses. Forbes has pinned down a record 2,208 billionaires from 72 countries and territories including the first ever from Hungary and Zimbabwe.
This elite group is worth $9.1 trillion, up 18% since last year. Their average net worth is a record $4.1 billion. Americans lead the way with a record 585 billionaires, followed by mainland China with 373.
Centi-billionaire Jeff Bezos secures the list’s top spot for the first time, becoming the only person to appear in the Forbes ranks with a 12-figure fortune. Bezos’s fortune leapt more than $39 billion, the list’s biggest one-year gain ever. He moves ahead of Bill Gates, who is now number 2. It is the biggest gap between no. 1 and 2 since 2001.
Bernard Arnault, with a fortune of $72 billion, reclaims the title of richest European for the first time since 2012. There are 259 newcomers including the first ever cryptocurrency billionaires; two Canadians whose toy company is behind Hatchimals and PAW Patrol; two Americans who founded online retailer Wayfair; and a 35-year-old heiress who runs In-N-Out Burger.
Even in such a strong year, 121 dropped out due to falling fortunes or political headwinds, including all 10 Saudi Arabians. Click here for more on Forbes methodology, credits and acknowledgments.THE 2018 LIST…
HWH Commentary: This is shocking if it’s true. No wonder Border People are desperate to be here. The streets really are paved with Gold. But guess who’s paying for the fraud? Yep, the hard-working American living from pay check to pay check. Prices rise on everything, social services go to Hispanics first, then blacks, then white, then Chinese. It’s a discriminatory system. First to apply should be the rule. But social workers and office staff notoriously change dates and alter applications.
My identification was stolen a few years ago and the IRS and Social Security treated me as if I were the criminal. They never would tell me who stole it. They put me through hoops that were all unnecessary.
It’s not a few bad apples. Everyone comes to the USA with a scam in mind. The country is already built. They’re not coming here to build anything but their own bank accounts off the backs of those who work the hardest for the least amount.
It’s the few good ones that we base all our immigration polices on. That’s what gets us into immigration trouble, where we end up with fifteen million (and increasing rapidly) people living in the USA illegally at the tax payers expense.
Don’t let those crocodile tears fool you. They bear children for the purpose of exploiting them, like the Chinese bear them for the purpose of switching kids with their neighbors so they won’t feel guilty eating them.
Animal rights activists wonder why the Chinese and all Oriental Asian Peoples are so emotionally distant from the suffering they or others inflict upon other animals.
Hey, they did it to their own children. They turned the conscience switch off for what they called necessary for survival. How long can a kid last? Depends on the size. Why do you think they put so little meat into their dishes and they cut it up so small? So it’ll last, and so they won’t recognize any feature that resembles who they are. These weren’t cows. But even cows are put into meat grinders so they won’t be recognized as the farmer’s child’s pet, when she eats it.
Asians don’t have cemeteries. They eat their dead. Their stomachs are final resting places.
Indians float their dying families on rafts out in the middle of a body of water without an anchor to finish dying, where only vultures and water animals can eat them, or neighboring tribes up or down stream. Probably some kind of peace offering to the Gods of the animals (including humans) they hunt. They don’t have cemeteries either. All this talk about ancient burial grounds is nonsense.
Where are the Mexican graveyards in USA? Probably in your stomach.
It seems all they’re allowed to do is open Mexican restaurants and employ the whole tribe. Ever hear of a white family opening a Mexican restaurant or Chinese restaurant or Greek or Jewish? That’s discrimination. They only give permits to certain ethnicities to operate certain ethnic restaurants.
I know, I know, they do other work jobs too.
But why only Indians and Pakistanis can own convenience stores? And why does the IRS let them charge beer and wine as grocery? Isn’t that discrimination?
Okay, okay mostly Indians and Pakistanis. It’s like the government decides what immigrants are going to do before they even get here. Or is it the other way around? Why do most immigrants when they get here want to start a small business instead of learn a skill to do something else? Probably because they can employ the whole family who doesn’t speak English. When I grew up there wasn’t anyone I knew who wanted to be a store owner. What would they sell?
Now, every immigrant comes with a dream of hanging out a shingle and selling something. America has too many sellers and not enough buyers as a result.
In Cleveland there’s a restaurant downtown that applied for a permit to serve dog meat on the menu. Word has it that they were denied, but since they’re upscale and entertain out-of-towners and probably visiting foreigners, they know the people to go to for fresh dog meat. They all have back rooms and secrets in the kitchen and after hour parties.
Japanese people (alright, some Japanese people) cook dogs alive by paralyzing them first. They cook them slowly. It’s a sick world we live in. Hey, the Japanese don’t do it as a necessity to survive. They turn that conscience switch off too. Rural people do it. They keep the head of the chicken sticking out of the pot, with the rest of the body of the live chicken bound by the pot so it can’t move while being cooked, then they slowly cook it to death.
“I cooked it to death”. Where do you think that saying comes from? The slow cooking process too – makes the animal more tender.
Hispanics have been scamming people in the USA forever (for as long as most people can remember and before that). It’s how they operate. Mostly? NO, not with this one.
It’s time to bust that operation wide open. Is it so strange that out of all the departments in the government they’d pick the IRS to scam? I mean those IRS people are diligent. They’re ruthless. So how does this go on this long? DRUG MONEY (CARTEL INSURANCE POLICY). They get paid off. Just like south-of-the-border. Drug money is everywhere. Money talks and walks. It’s the most versatile commodity.
Where do the drug lords in the USA do their banking? Come on, they do it somewhere. Where do they launder it? You don’t know and you don’t care, that’s why so many people want to ice ICE and the FBI? If there’s no one to investigate them, they can operate with impunity. Law enforcement is okay with them, because they can more easily own them. Sometimes even they need a cop. They have families; their security force can’t be all places with all family members all the time.
Yeah, all these people who publicly state to eliminate the FBI and ICE have been bought or want to be bought and their public declaration is their first knock on the cartels door.
HWH Comment: The word ‘meat’ does not clearly come from livestock as Sen. Carol Blood claims. Meat has historically been used to refer to many types of plant food. Sen. Carol Blood should focus on turning Nebraska’s animal slaughter industries into plant meat industries or technology or anything other than continuing selling for consumption the atrocities committed against cattle and all other ‘destined for our plate’ animals. She lacks vision, hope, ingenuity and a better plan for the future of Nebraska. I’d say Nebraska needs a better advocate than one who advocates holding onto an industry that’s doomed.
There is no truth in advertising cattle as livestock. They’re deadstock. There is no truth to the claim that animals are on this earth as a food for human consumption. Animals are not food, except in the deviant minds of those who thirst for the blood and flesh of other creatures. Or by those who raise and sell victims of torture and slaughter for profit.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — More than four months after Missouri became the first U.S. state to regulate the term “meat” on product labels, Nebraska’s powerful farm groups are pushing for similar protection from veggie burgers, tofu dogs and other items that look and taste like real meat.
Nebraska lawmakers will consider a bill this year to prevent companies that package and sell food from advertising plant-based, insect-based and lab-grown products as meat. Similar measures are pending in Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.
The issue strikes a particularly strong chord in Nebraska, one of the nation’s top states for livestock production, where cars roll down the interstate with “Beef State” license plates and the governor each year proclaims May as “Beef Month.”
Farm groups have found an unusual ally in state Sen. Carol Blood, a city-dwelling vegetarian from the Omaha suburb of Bellevue. Blood, who grew up on a farm, said she introduced the measure because agriculture is Nebraska’s largest industry and needs to be protected for the good of the whole state.“
I’m not bringing this bill to tell people what they can and can’t eat,” she said. “All I’m asking for is truth in advertising. It’s clear that meat comes from livestock, and livestock is our livelihood in Nebraska.”
Nebraska led the nation in commercial red meat production in 2017 and had the most feed cows as of last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Livestock and livestock product sales generated an estimated $12.1 billion for the state’s economy in 2016, according to the USDA’s most recent available data.
The measure is certain to face resistance from food producers that sell plant-based alternatives, as well as those working with the emerging science of meat grown by culturing cells in a lab. Critics say the bill infringes on the free-speech rights of companies that produce vegetarian alternatives to real meat.
The Good Food Institute, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and plant-based food company Tofurkey have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Missouri law . They argue the law unfairly stifles competition.
The Nebraska bill “would censor food labels and create consumer confusion where there is none,” said Jessica Almy, director of policy for the Washington-based Good Food Institute. “You can’t censor speech just to promote one industry’s financial success.”…
How to be One Step Ahead of Pickpockets in Barcelona
A vibrantly artistic heart, incredible food, better drink and unforgettable nightlife make Barcelona one of Spain, and Europe’s most enticing cities.
Unfortunately the Catalonian capital also bears another, more dubious honour: Barcelona is the pickpocket capital of the world. Spain’s soaring unemployment rate, a wealth of tourist wallets and scarce legal deterrent for petty crimes has created some kind of larcenous perfect storm.
There’s no need to go and cancel your flights. Sure, petty theft could almost number among Barcelona’s leading industries, but the perpetrators are out for easy pickings which, after a few quick tips, won’t be you. Violent crime is also very rare, so as long as you can keep a hand on your wallet you have nothing to fear in Barcelona.
Spotting a Pickpocket – Common Scams in Barcelona – Where They Strike – Protecting Your Belongings – Spotting a Pickpocket
The crooks often work in groups, preying on distracted and disoriented tourists. One hand captures your attention while the other rifles through your bag.
It might seem rude or culturally insensitive to question odd or overly friendly behaviour from strangers while you’re travelling but this is the attitude pickpockets rely on.
Of course you don’t want to be constantly wound up and paranoid when you’re trying to relax. But, if you do feel suspicious, it’s easy to brush your hand over your wallet, pull your bag closer or have a quick look over your shoulder. Don’t be afraid to confront anyone following you either, although there’s no need to get aggressive. If the thieves know you’re onto them they’ll quickly skulk off to await an easier target.
Forewarned is forearmed so if you can recognise a dodgy character or situation you’ll know when to crank up the defences and then you can spend the rest of your holiday being pleasantly distracted.
Common Scams in Barcelona
The Flower Scam
One of the most popular traps involves a couple of unassuming ladies offering you a flower. Don’t take it. The flower is just an excuse for the women to get close and get into your pockets. If you do take it, you’ll soon learn it wasn’t a gift. The women will demand money for it, pestering you for some tiny amount. When you decide it’s worth un centavo to be rid of them, they will kindly reach into your wallet to help you locate the right coin, simultaneously clearing out all your notes.
Obviously letting a stranger put their hands in your wallet isn’t a great idea but these sneaky couples can be very persistent. Even if you don’t take the flower they may grab your hands, urging you to accept it, all the while getting themselves closer to you and your valuables. The best approach is not to acknowledge them at all, don’t slow down or stop. If you do end up with a flower in your hand just drop it on the ground and continue on your way. You might cop a few curses but at least you’ll keep you stuff.
The Pigeon Poo Scam
Another classic trick is for someone to spray paint or milk onto your clothes. A kindly local will quickly approach to tell you about your unfortunate accident and offer to help clean you up. The aim is for you to drop what you’re carrying as you attend to the stain, or for your helpful friend to get his hands into your pockets. If you do find yourself the target of this messy method, politely but firmly refuse any assistance. Keep a tight hold on your possessions and walk away quickly. You can clean yourself up later.
Antifa Website Calls for ‘Slaughter’ of ‘Fascistic Border Patrol Dogs and Their Bosses’
BY DEBRA HEINE SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
In a post Thursday at far-left antifa website Incendiary News, an activist advocated for revolutionaries to rise up and “slaughter” what he called “fascistic Border Patrol dogs and their bosses,” Far Left Watch reported on Friday.
Disturbingly, far-left activists have in recent months become more brazenly militant and violent in their rhetoric on their websites and social media, as PJ Media has documented.
The author of the Incendiary News piece, Ulrike Salazar, likens Border Patrol agents to SS troops who “take away young boys and girls, tear apart families, throw away undesirables into dark and cramped dungeons.
“Then, after decrying all of the so-called atrocities committed by Border Patrol against illegal immigrants, Salazar writes: “This author only hopes that this chapter in American history will also include the moment when revolutionaries rose up with the masses and slaughtered the fascistic Border Patrol dogs and their bosses, slaying them with revolutionary fire and justice.”…
Chinese Scientist Claims to Use Crispr to Make First Genetically Edited Babies
The researcher, He Jiankui, offered no evidence or data to back up his assertions. If true, some fear the feat could open the door to “designer babies.”
A microplate from Chinese scientist He Jiankui’s lab, containing embryos whose genes have been edited. Dr. He’s announcement prompted a statement from a group of 122 scientists condemning his actions as “crazy.”
Ever since scientists created the powerful gene editing technique Crispr, they have braced apprehensively for the day when it would be used to create a genetically altered human being. Many nations banned such work, fearing it could be misused to alter everything from eye color to I.Q.
Now, the moment they feared may have come. On Monday, a scientist in China announced that he had created the world’s first genetically edited babies, twin girls who were born this month.
The researcher, He Jiankui, said that he had altered a gene in the embryos, before having them implanted in the mother’s womb, with the goal of making the babies resistant to infection with H.I.V. He has not published the research in any journal and did not share any evidence or data that definitively proved he had done it.
But his previous work is known to many experts in the field, who said — many with alarm — that it was entirely possible he had.
“It’s scary,” said Dr. Alexander Marson, a gene editing expert at the University of California in San Francisco.
While the United States and many other countries have made it illegal to deliberately alter the genes of human embryos, it is not against the law to do so in China, but the practice is opposed by many researchers there. A group of 122 Chinese scientists issued a statement calling Dr. He’s actions “crazy” and his claims “a huge blow to the global reputation and development of Chinese science.”
If human embryos can be routinely edited, many scientists, ethicists and policymakers fear a slippery slope to a future in which babies are genetically engineered for traits — like athletic or intellectual prowess — that have nothing to do with preventing devastating medical conditions.
While those possibilities might seem far in the future, a different concern is urgent and immediate: safety. The methods used for gene editing can inadvertently alter other genes in unpredictable ways. Dr. He said that did not happen in this case, but it is a worry that looms over the field.
Dr. He made his announcement on the eve of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong, saying that he had recruited several couples in which the man had H.I.V. and then used in vitro fertilization to create human embryos that were resistant to the virus that causes AIDS. He said he did it by directing Crispr-Cas9 to deliberately disable a gene, known as CCR₅, that is used to make a protein H.I.V. needs to enter cells.
Dr. He said the experiment worked for a couple whose twin girls were born in November. He said there were no adverse effects on other genes…
Vietnam’s dog meat culture clashes with modern tastes
Vietnamese officials in Hanoi have asked residents to stop eating dog meat, citing health and public image concerns. Vendors and enthusiasts now fear a nationwide ban on what they consider to be a traditional delicacy.
Hoang has been eating dog meat since he was young. He can’t imagine there will be a time that he won’t be eating it at least twice a month. However, Vietnamese officials announced in September that dog and cat meat should no longer be served in the inner districts of the capital city Hanoi because it’s offensive to tourists and can spread diseases like rabies.
Dog meat lovers and restaurant owners fear that the government will try to expand the ban and decide to officially forbid eating dog and cat meat entirely.
“I don’t see how they can ban it. The demand is just too high,” Hoang said at a restaurant in Vietnam’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City.
In a small alley in Ho Chi Minh City, at least four restaurants serve dog meat, or “Thit cho.” People gather around small tables to dine on the canine meat, complementing it with rice wine or beer.
Hoang, who declined to give his full name, is sitting at a table with three good friends. “For us it’s a tradition to eat dog meat. It’s just as normal as eating seafood or chicken,” he told DW.
It’s a point many Vietnamese people make. For them eating dog meat is no different than eating any other type of meat. Additionally, some Vietnamese believe that eating dog meat by the end of the month will help them to get rid of bad luck gathered in the weeks before. It’s why these types of restaurants are always more crowded when the month comes to an end…
…Tradition vs. international image
The Vietnamese government has a different view on things. Officials in Hanoi say that eating dog meat is damaging the reputation and image of the capital city. They also say that eating the meat could lead to a deadly rabies infection.
In Ho Chi Minh City, authorities are also taking a tougher stand. In September, the city’s largest dog meat market was raided. According to Vietnamese state media, many vendors were fined and a large amount of raw dog meat was confiscated because it came from unknown sources. In Vietnam dogs are often stolen from pet lovers and then sold to restaurants.
Mr. Chien, who didn’t want to give his full name, has been selling dog meat for 10 years in Ho Chi Minh City. He said that pressure on him and his colleagues has grown in the past five years. He needs to be very transparent about where his dog meat comes from.
“All the meat I’m selling comes from a qualified supplier,” he told DW. “I have all the papers and licenses that are necessary. Society has been looking down on us, so I need to have my business as clean as possible,” he added.
His restaurant is a popular establishment in the city. Each month he attracts about 1,000 customers, whom altogether eat about 100 dogs per month. “It’s a business. If there’s demand, then there is supply,” Chien said.
An estimated 5 million dogs are consumed every year in Vietnam. Only China, where roughly 20 million dogs are consumed every year, eats more of “man’s best friend.”
Animal rights activists support a ban on dog meat. They have been campaigning for years to get the controversial dish removed from menus, pointing out that the slaughter of dogs and cats is brutal and that Vietnamese people often fear for the safety of their pets.
Mr. Chien is aware of the resistance to dog meat. He said he will stop selling it if the government issues a ban – but he doubts it will go that far. “I think it’s a tradition that’s been here too long to ban it entirely.”
HWH COMMENT: It’s hard to believe that massive numbers of people living in the twenty-first century, still try to marginalize and demonize women of child bearing age. Menstruating women are evil? Where does that even come from? And why on earth would half the human population of such countries go along with it? And even now that the ban against menstruating women in temples has been lifted, the men and many women won’t abide by it.
Do you know what happens when these anti-women-minded people flock to the USA? They bring that sexist culture with them. They are not here to assimilate. They don’t like American values, unless they benefit the men in their cultures. The women get more of the same, no matter where they reside. They are here to make more money. Oddly, most of the women embrace the same sexist mores as their male counterparts embrace.
The article states, “some religious figures consider menstruating women to be impure”. Just stop it. It’s part of their culture to denigrate women – all women. Menstruation is just an excuse to keep the men and women separate. Oh, I see. If a woman is menstruating, then she can’t get pregnant, so let us all separate the women from the men during these years, so they won’t be tempted by the devil leaving open a door to allow for adultery absent consequences. Yes, that solves that problem. It’s not the woman’s fault. It’s the devil leaving her open like that. So we keep the men away – as long as the devil is with her. But they need to go to temple to talk business. Then we keep the women away. They belong home anyway.
Nice try. Whoa, how long did that go on? Thousands of years? I’m losing my optimism about the future, given it takes so long for people even to recognize a wrong, much less remedy it.
Some religious figures consider menstruating women to be impure. But the court ruled 4-1 the practice of excluding women cannot be regarded as an essential religious practice. The temple argued the celibate nature of Sabarimala temple’s presiding deity Lord Ayyappa was protected by India’s Constitution.
The top court’s verdict is part a string of recent rulings that recognize more rights of women, challenging deeply conservative Indian society. On Thursday, it scrapped a law which did not allow wives to bring criminal charges against adulterous husbands.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra in part of Friday’s judgment said devotion could not be discriminatory and a patriarchal notion could not trump equality in devotion. “Religion cannot be the cover to deny women the right to worship. To treat women as children of a lesser God is to blink at constitutional morality,” he said.
Rahul Eswaran, an attorney for the temple, said its management would seek a review of the court’s decision. It noted girls and women of other ages were allowed in the temple without restrictions. Chhavi Methi, a women’s rights activist, hailed the court verdict, but said its acceptance by temple authorities remained to be seen.
“I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it, but its implementation might pose a problem,” she said.
Sabarimala is surrounded by mountains and dense forests in its location at the Periyar Tiger Reserve in southern Kerala state. Up to 50 million devotees visit the temple every year.
Several temples across India have banned women, saying it is intended to preserve the purity of their shrines. The operators of a temple in Rajasthan state believe Hindu god Kartikeya curses women who enter the temple, instead of blessing them…
speedos swim bikini on male gets him ousted from high-class hotel swimming pool
HWH COMMENTARY: There’s a gay parade every year in Cleveland/Lakewood, and many young and old gay men wear jock straps, fast-dancing in the street, flipping their genitals at passersby.
Most people go to parades with their children, the same with hotels. I have to wonder why both gay men and straight women want to expose their stuff.
They must be nudists at heart or they feel they can get away with indecent exposure, because they’re covering up a bit or because they’re gay.
Strange, but I don’t see gay women doing the same that straight women do. They hang our their breasts for everyone to see, then call a guy a pervert for looking, when that’s what they wanted. It’s a power trip. It’s a rush – to get people to react to the way you look or your behavior. Women use it to throw men off-balance when interviewed for cable news shows. I see it all the time on television. Men don’t know where to look.
It’s like ‘safe bars’ where gays can have sex in restrooms without being harassed for it. They go into a predominantly straight place and bit by bit work to turn it into a gay place, where they feel comfortable to act out their gay behavior.
I think straight men have been wearing such suits in Europe for decades. So, it’s not just a gay behavior, because many gays are more modest; it’s a certain type of male and female who want to show their genitals or breasts to the world. Maybe that’s how they value themselves.
Shockers is what they are. They want attention and they know they’ll get it. Then they complain about it when they do. The best thing is to steer clear of exhibitionists. Nothing good will come from an interaction; don’t even act like you notice.
It’s like muslim women going into public swimming pools fully wrapped in robes and scarves. They want to shock people and see their response. I wonder how Yahoo even gets these stories. To me, they’re mostly staged.
Then, some people like to act in public like they act at home. If they have a right to do as they want, then others have a right not to like their behavior and to voice that view.
This whole notion, that only one side of a view deserves to be voiced or heard, made popular by democrats making it part of their social engineering platform of anarchy within all systems is prejudicial and discriminatory. Only half the people get that privilege, however. The other half are told in no uncertain terms to stand down.
Some are calling this discrimination.
“I can do whatever I want to do and you can’t criticize me for it or make me abide by your rules in your hotel swimming pool.” Now, that’s discrimination.
I live in a gay community. Gays are big participants in criticizing everything about everyone. Yet criticize them and their sky falls.
Get a room. Like everybody else.
Do gay men refuse to wear a jacket in a restaurant that requires it?
How about this guy? Think he dons a jacket when fine dining his date, because the restaurant requires a certain type of attire?
This sell-off came just a week after CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained to the mediathat he would not take down web sites with information known to be false, including Holocaust denial.
That kind of baffling blunder suggests a corporation and CEO that has lost its way entirely, that simply has no idea what its brand is.
How can Facebook stop climate misinformation when its ‘fact-checkers’ are deniers?
“This is pent-up anger, and the markets exploded at Facebook,” marketing professor Scott Galloway, author of a book on the tech giant, told Yahoo. “It’s deeper than a one-day sell-off. It’s like when your husband screams at you for leaving the garage door open. It’s not about the garage door. It’s about something else.”
The fact is Zuckerberg has made three devastating and inexcusable blunders with his company that have all but destroyed its brand, as I as explained in my new book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions:
Facebook has never had a coherent brand story.
Facebook isn’t in sync with its customers on the core value of privacy.
Zuckerberg turned Facebook into the world’s biggest media company, but even to this day he refuses to accept the many responsibilities that role entails.
The nuances of sexual consent have been on the table recently thanks to the #MeToo movement, and one state in Australia is trying to clarify what consent should actually look like.
The new law states, in effect, that if you want to have sex you must ask for it clearly, and then hear a verbal “yes” back, under new reforms announced by the New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia, the New York Post reports.
The state, which is on the east coast of Australia (Sydney is its capital), has placed sexual consent at the core of a strategy to battle sexual assault after a high-profile rape case seemed to show that the existing laws did not protect victims…
THE SECRETS ARE hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They are an integral part of one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks – and they are also linked to a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.
The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” It is a collaboration that dates back decades. Little known, however, is that its scope is not restricted to AT&T’s customers. According to the NSA’s documents, it values AT&T not only because it “has access to information that transits the nation,” but also because it maintains unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. The NSA exploits these relationships for surveillance purposes, commandeering AT&T’s massive infrastructure and using it as a platform to covertly tap into communications processed by other companies…
With more than one billion active users on Facebook worldwide, there is no active head of security or head of an advertising program and no mention of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) that conducts social experiments on Facebook.
Under each category of leadership there was no mention of advertisement nor security. Given that’s how Facebook makes its money, one might think those departments would be reflected in their prospectus. But neither are.
Would you want Mark Zuckerberg to be in charge of the security and privacy of over one billion people around the world, with no government oversight?
“More than one billion people are active on Facebook. More than 100 million people use Instagram every month. Facebook announces new data center in Altoona, Iowa. More than 100 million people use Facebook For Every Phone each month.”
Leadership
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer
David Wehner, Chief Financial Officer
Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer
Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer
Headquarters
1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025
Employees
25,105 employees as of December 31, 2017
Statistics
1.4 billion daily active users on average for December 2017
2.13 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2017
US offices
Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Miami, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C.
International offices
Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Bengaluru, Berlin, Bogota, Brasilia, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Dublin, Gurgaon, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Karlsruhe, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Manila, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Mumbai, New Delhi, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw
Data Centers
Prineville, Forest City, Luleå, Altoona, Fort Worth, Clonee, Los Lunas, Odense, Papillion, New Albany, Henrico, Newton
Board of Directors
Mark Zuckerberg Founder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook
Marc Andreessen Co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Susan Desmond-Hellmann CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Reed Hastings Chairman and CEO, Netflix
Erskine Bowles President Emeritus, the University of North Carolina
Peter Thiel Partner, Founders Fund
Sheryl Sandberg COO, Facebook
Jan Koum Founder and CEO, WhatsApp
Kenneth I. Chenault Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst
FRIDAY, April 13, 2018 (HealthDay News) — You may want to think twice about that Caesar salad.
As a recent outbreak of serious illness from the E. coli stomach bug continues to spread across the United States, experts say romaine lettuce grown in Arizona could be the culprit.
Since the last update on Tuesday, “18 more ill people have been reported, bringing the total to 35 ill people in 11 states,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release issued Friday.
Overall, 22 people have been hospitalized with the E. coli O157:H7 strain, across 11 states. No deaths have occurred, but in three cases patients developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, the CDC said.
Illnesses include nine cases in Pennsylvania, eight cases in Idaho, seven cases in New Jersey, two cases each in Connecticut, New York and Ohio, and one case each in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington.
The CDC says that, based on its investigation, “chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and could make people sick.”…
THESE RHINOS ARE SO HAPPY ABOUT THE ‘MEATPACKERS GETTING BUSTED’ NEWS story THAT THEY’RE STACKING UP TO TAKE A LOOK – MAYBE THEY CAN JUMP THE FENCE TOO!! LOL (WHAT?!)
We thought they only picked fruits and vegetables. Now they’re packing animals too? They’re slaughtering them, then shipping them to PARTS UNKNOWN for Anthony Bourdain’s personal use? Now that’s a job everybody wants.
meatpacking – meat-processing. WHICH IS IT? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Animal Processing and Animal Packing facilities are protected by the USA government.
Nobody knows what really goes on there. The public is not allowed an up close and personal view – you know, like school kids get to go to dairy plants (actually bottling plants) to see how milk is made, actually how milk is bottled (not made). There are no school trips to a slaughter house now called a meat – not animal – processing plant for the purpose of sanitizing the act for public approval. Kind of like enhanced interrogation isn’t called torture, and death by enhanced interrogation isn’t called slaughter, but it really is.
“A slaughter plant breaks down the whole carcass into cuts of meat, whereas a rendering facility produces a variety of by-products.
There are two types of rendering facilities – independent and integrated.
An independent plant is one that picks up grease, blood, feathers and offal (internal organs and entrails) for further processing and development.
Integrated facilities are physically connected to the slaughter plant and operate in conjunction with each other.
The by-products of slaughter are used to make several essential products that fall into two categories: edible and inedible.
Inedible: tallow and grease for livestock feed, blood meal, soap and fatty-acids.
Edible: these plants process fatty animal tissue into edible fats and proteins. The only material that goes into these products (which are USDA and FSIS inspected) are fats from the animals carcass. THERE IS NO BONE OR OTHER INEDIBLE MATERIAL THAT ENTERS THE EDIBLE FOOD SUPPLY…Source
Bureau Of Labor Statistics list those who work in the industry as of May 2016 as:
51-3023 Slaughterers and Meat Packers
Work in slaughtering, meat packing, or wholesale establishments performing precision functions involving the preparation of meat. Work may include specialized slaughtering tasks, cutting standard or premium cuts of meat for marketing, making sausage, or wrapping meats. Excludes “Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers” (51-3022) who perform routine meat cutting. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes513023.htm
So, these are government listed jobs with estimated hourly and yearly wages. Depending on state it could range from 18k to 33k annual income.
Yeah, so why are they hiding workers who aren’t plant-pickers? Looks like because they can. The slaughter industry is anything but transparent. What goes on there – what really goes on there – humans rarely see or even hear about. It’s a corrupt, evil environment that needs to see the light of sunshine.
For the activists who get in? and then report on it? They’re persecuted. Forever.
OPEN THE DOORS BOYS AND GIRLS.
Animal Processing COW Processing PANDA PROCESSING
Animal Rendering PIG Rendering REINDEER RENDERING
Animal Packing BIRD Rendering DOG PACKING
They’re Processing the LITHUANIAN for rendering and packing.
I can’t help but think of the families of all those enslaved, tortured, slaughtered, broken up, destroyed forever, by the Hand of Human Men & Women & Children who through their actions say, YOU DON’T MATTER BECAUSE WE DON’T CARE.
Newsweek SAYS:
ICE Raid At Meatpacking Plant Leads To 97 Immigrants Arrested
Maria Perez, Newsweek Sat, Apr 7 12:01 PM EDT
Ninety-seven people were taken into custody during a federal immigration raid at a Tennessee meat processing plant on Thursday, civil rights activists told the Associated Press.
The raid, which took place at Southeastern Provision, a meat processing plant in Bean Station in Tennessee, detained 86 people for being in the country illegally and 11 others based on criminal charges, spokeswoman Tammy Spicer for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told the AP.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, executed a federal criminal search warrant at Southeastern Provisions.
During that search, HSI encountered 97 individuals who are subject to removal from the United States,” Spicer said in a statement sent to Newsweek…
Marijuana could reduce drug and alcohol relapses for addicts
Abby Haglage
Mon, Mar 26 8:59 PM EDT
The surprising way medical marijuana can actually help addicts.
Marijuana is now legal for medical use in 29 states, and it’s no longer a secret that the drug has medicinal benefits. It’s been shown to drastically reduce the number of seizures in children, diminish the effects of post traumatic stress disorder, and relieve nausea in cancer patients.
Marijuana provides several health benefits. Many of the drug’s benefits derive from cannabidiol (CBD), one of its more than 100 active components. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes a high, cannabidiol does not have psychoactive effects — meaning that an individual can experience the medical benefits without having to experience the high.
CBD’s psychological and neurological benefits, like the ones mentioned above, have been known for some time. But this month, scientists may have found another, potentially groundbreaking advantage of the drug: a means of curb relapse rates in those suffering from addiction.
The findings appeared in a study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology that was conducted by a group of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. To perform the preclinical trial, the scientists subjected rats to a daily intake of alcohol or cocaine that resulted in addictive behavior.
Once the animals showed signs of addiction, the researchers began to apply a gel containing cannabidiol onto the rats’ skin, once a day for a week. The addicted rats treated with CBD demonstrated not only less anxiety but also fewer relapses when confronted with situations found to trigger the addictive behavior as they recovered from addiction to either alcohol or cocaine. The researchers concluded that the treatment “effectively reduced relapse provoked by stress and drug cues” as well as “reduced anxiety and impulsivity.”
Friedbert Weiss, the lead author of the study and a professor in Scripps’s department of neuroscience, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the outcome the team has observed is promising. “The results provide proof of principle supporting the potential of CBD in relapse prevention along two dimensions: beneficial actions across several vulnerability states and long-lasting effects with only brief treatment.”
The length of time that the effects seem to last was particularly heartening. Although the CBD treatment was ended after seven days, the rats showed reduced relapse rates for five full months afterward — an outcome the researchers called “quite unexpected.”
If it can be shown to produce a similar effect in human trials, it could offer major benefits for the millions of people currently addicted to drugs in the United States…
McConnell looks to complete hemp’s comeback as crop
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a full pardon for hemp. The Kentucky Republican on Monday previewed legislation seeking to free the plant from its ties to marijuana and let it take root as a legitimate crop.
McConnell said Monday, March 26, 2018, that he’ll introduce legislation to legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity.
March 27, 2018 Hemp — marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin — would be removed from the controlled substances list under the bill he’s offering, McConnell said. The result would legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity.
“We’re going to give it everything we’ve got to pull it off,” the Senate’s top leader told hemp advocates in his home state. The crop has been grown on an experimental basis in a number of states in recent years, and Kentucky has been at the forefront of hemp’s comeback. Kentucky agriculture officials have approved more than 12,000 acres (4,800 hectares) to be grown in the state this year, and 57 Kentucky processors are helping turn the raw product into a multitude of products.
Growing hemp without a federal permit has long been banned owing to its classification as a controlled substance related to marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, but hemp has a negligible amount of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.
Hemp got a limited reprieve with the 2014 federal Farm Bill. McConnell helped push for the provision that allows state agriculture departments to designate hemp projects for research and development. Since then, 34 states have authorized hemp research, while actual production occurred in 19 states last year, said Eric Steenstra, president of the advocacy group Vote Hemp. Hemp production totaled about 25,500 acres (10,300 hectares) in 2017, more than double the 2016 output, he said.
Supporters said the bill would bring more certainty for farmers, agribusinesses and investors looking at the crop. “The goal of this new bill, should it become law, is to simply remove the roadblocks altogether,” McConnell said. “It would encourage innovation and development and support to domestic production of hemp.”
The crop, which once thrived in Kentucky, was historically used for rope, clothing and mulch from the fiber, hemp milk and cooking oil from the seeds, and soap and lotions. Other uses include building materials, animal bedding and biofuels.
Hemp advocates, who have fought for years to restore the crop’s legitimacy, praised McConnell for putting his political clout behind the effort. “This is a huge development for the hemp industry,” Steenstra said.
“Sen. McConnell’s support is critical to helping us move hemp from research and pilot programs to full commercial production.”…
HWH: If you’re confused over who is called Hispanic and who is called Latino you have lots of company. Even those who are Hispanic and/or Latino can’t agree. The comments to this article will leave you even more confused.
Difference between Latin America and Central America
…South America is a geographical entity: the subcontinent or continent south of Central America.
Latin America is a cultural entity: countries in the Americas where a Latin language is spoken (Spanish, Portuguese, French). The geographical notion is very clear: South America ranges from the Panama Isthmus to Cape Horn.
Hispanic vs. Latino: what’s the difference?
AUGUST 7, 2013 by SANDRA FERNANDEZ
176 Comments
Many people use Hispanic and Latino as interchangeable words. They’re not. While there is a huge overlap between the two, they don’t mean the same thing and cannot be used as if they do. This is an easy mistake to make, and I do it myself every once in a while (often from laziness), but it’s important to note the differences.Hispanic refers to language.
Latino refers to geography.Basically, you are Hispanic if you and/or your ancestry come from a country where they speak Spanish. You are Latino if you and/or your ancestry come from a Latin American country.
But wait… isn’t that the same thing?
No, dear friend, it’s not.
Hispanic excludes the nearly 200 million Brazilians who, while accurately labelled Latinos, speak Portuguese. They are Latinos, they are not Hispanic.
Hispanic includes the nearly 50 million Spaniards (population of Spain) who could never be called Latinos.
When picking which one to use you have to know what you’re trying to say. For HispanicHouston.com we used language as the guide, and we ended up with Hispanic instead of Latino. A weird decision if you consider that we also decided not to have the site in Spanish. (But that’s another soapbox for another day.)
So, as a Mexican American, I am Hispanic and Latina. Brazilian Americans are Latinos but not Hispanic. And, Spanish Americans are Hispanic but not Latinos.
