Nana Silvergrim

"April 12, 2013 | When McCraig and Miles Warren tried to claim their first-class seats on a US..."

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:55:13 +0200

“April 12, 2013 | When McCraig and Miles Warren tried to claim their first-class seats on a US Airways flight, an employee told them to first change into more appropriate attire, according to a federal discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday. A ticket counter employee repeatedly told the Warrens, who are both black, that their jeans, hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps violated an alleged first-class dress code. As the complaint states: Doe employee informed plaintiffs that it was US Airways policy that everyone in first class is required to wear slacks, button up shirts and no baseball caps. Doe employee demanded plaintiffs to change from jeans into slacks, a button-up shirt and told plaintiffs to remove their baseball caps. The Warrens reportedly headed to the restroom where Miles conferred to a white passenger, Michael Heffernan, that he was worried he’d miss his flight because of his apparent dress-code violation. So, imagine Miles’ surprise when he saw Mr. Heffernan and a friend sitting in first-class, wearing almost the exact same outfits that barred the Warrens from sitting in their seats—jeans and hoodies. Andrew Christie, a spokesperson for US Airways told AlterNet, “We’ve received the complaint and are currently reviewing it.””

- US Airways Tells Black Passengers to Change Out of Jeans and Hoodies Before Boarding First-Class | Alternet (via aboriginalpressnews)

"Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of..."

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:53:23 +0200

“Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women’s movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a prime minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity. MORRISSEY.”

- Singer Morrissey’s Scathing Letter to the Public About Margaret Thatcher: “A Terror Without an Atom of Humanity” | Alternet (via aboriginalpressnews)

Note: I don’t think it will be “never”, but it may take several generations because of status quo gender perceptions and oppression. With all the atrocities and terror spread by male presidents and prime ministers, people are still “voting” for males in such roles.

Gender plays no part in my book. I happen to be a woman. Do I want that door? Do I want “leadership”? Do I want “domination” (except as agreed-upon roleplay in a “bedroom”)? Nope. I am all for “dominion” tho.

Monsanto Company: Tell The Truth About Pesticide-Resistant "Superworms"!

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:40:30 +0200

Monsanto Company: Tell The Truth About Pesticide-Resistant "Superworms"!:

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

An agricultural giant called the Monsanto Company has risen to the top of the corporate food chains thanks to their genetically modified corn and soybean sees, seeds bred to withstand and even produce their own herbicides and pesticides.

But in the decades since they’ve appeared on the scene, two more things have sprung up: a new crop of “superweeds” that have evolved to resist our chemicals, and root worms that have become insecticide-resistant “superworms,” both of which are set to swarm the Midwest in the coming year.

Rather than come clean, Monsanto has been covering their tracks, working to market their corn as fresh produce and spending millions to kill California’s Prop 37 requirement to label their corn and soybeans as genetically modified products.

The FDA still doesn’t require safety studies for Monsanto’s new strains, they’re designing food to produce dangerous chemicals, and these same chemicals have been breeding superworms that will devastate the landscape in the decades to come.

Don’t stay silent. Please, join us in calling on Monsanto to stop fighting Prop 37 in California, and spread this information on the danger of genetically engineered crops to as many friends as you can.

It’s time we knew what’s in the food we’re eating and the crops these companies are growing. Stop the superworm swarm: Join us in calling for greater transparency at the Monsanto Company!

(Please click the headline to sign the petition.)

Suddenly, NYPD Doesn’t Love Surveillance Anymore #OpBigBrother

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:26:47 +0200

Suddenly, NYPD Doesn’t Love Surveillance Anymore #OpBigBrother:

Law enforcement agencies monitor our most basic acts. But try assigning them a watchdog and they resist with fury.

[…]

Suddenly, NYPD Doesn’t Love Surveillance Anymore | Alternet

From these examples we learn what tattooing meant for these...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:45:36 +0200

From these examples we learn what tattooing meant for these women. They were seen as not only more beautiful, but also possessing emotional and physical fortitude to endure pain and hardship, including the pain of childbirth. A woman’s tattooing was an affirmation of her strength and inherent spiritual power, procreative endowment, and as a form of clothing, an enhancement of beauty and a proclamation of her status. Finally, the tattoos were a form of recognition that allowed the soul of a woman to pass into the afterlife and join the glorious chain of her ancestors.

-Lane Wilcken, Filipino Tatoos: Ancient to Modern

Comfort Women II

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:41:00 +0200

Comfort Women II:

inthecoppice:

To follow up on my previous post, this is an article written by Mariko Oi from Tokyo, Japan on the ignorance of the main Japanese populace of the existence of comfort women.

Japanese people often fail to understand why neighbouring countries harbour a grudge over events that happened in the 1930s and 40s. The reason, in many cases, is that they barely learned any 20th Century history. I myself only got a full picture when I left Japan and went to school in Australia.

…

I also remember wondering why we couldn’t go straight to that period if it [the period of WWII] was so important, instead of wasting time on the Pleistocene epoch.

When we did finally get there, it turned out only 19 of the book’s 357 pages dealt with events between 1931 and 1945.

More details from the article:

200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII estimated to have been forced into become sex slaves for troops, or “comfort women”

In 1993 Japan acknowledged use of wartime brothels

In 2007 Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was forced to apologise after casting doubt on the existence of comfort women

This is the problem with male dominated societies, they don’t like to admit to the horrible things they do to women in order to assert their manhood. And after a while, denial becomes mistrust and then true belief that the bad things they did never happened.

marajade13: One of my facebook friends posted...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:39:15 +0200

marajade13:

One of my facebook friends posted this.

Seriously?

I am getting so sick and tired of people ragging on those who have foodstamps….

Filling out that application is fucking degrading as shit.

Do you think people who use foodstamps tote that fact around like a badge of honour? You think most of them go to the grocery store and don’t worry about what people will think or say?
Well they fucking do. I know at least five people who either have had to be on, or are still on, foodstamps. I have spent time looking into the matter pretty thoroughly, I’ve even filled out the application myself just to see what questions are asked.

This idea that people on foodstamps don’t deserve the help, and are wasting the help? That’s crap. That’s society trying to get you to not think about and care when we have a massive homeless population in the US, and an insane amount of people who are under the poverty line. (Our national poverty line, not necessarily the global poverty line).

It’s easy to not give a shit about those in need, about those who are struggling.

It’s really fucking easy to post “hilarious” pictures on facebook to perpetuate the notion that people don’t deserve the very little help that we as a nation are giving them.

It is less easy to take a second and think about what you’re doing, and those that you are brushing off as low-life, lazy bums who are to blame for their current state.
Check your privilege.

Manifestation en solidarité avec les Algonquins / Protest in solidarity with the Algonquins #Montreal

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:36:15 +0200

Manifestation en solidarité avec les Algonquins / Protest in solidarity with the Algonquins #Montreal:

[When] Thursday, April 4, 2013 [Time] 2:00pm in EDT

[Where] Bureaux de PF Résolu / Resolute’s office - 111, rue Duke, Montréal

Depuis des décennies, l’industrie forestière coupe massivement dans la réserve faunique La Vérendrye et ailleurs sur le territoire algonquin. Les Algonquins qui vivent de la forêt voient leur mode de vie traditionnel disparaître en même temps qu’elle. Elle leur procure nourriture, médecine et éducation, en plus d’être essentielle à la pratique de leur spiritualité. L’été dernier, des familles algonquines se sont levées pour tenter de faire cesser les coupes à blanc sur le territoire absolument vital de …

Manifestation en solidarité avec les Algonquins / Protest in solidarity with the Algonquins | Facebook

scinerds: What Makes Rain Smell So Good?By Joseph...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:30:37 +0200

scinerds:

What Makes Rain Smell So Good?
By Joseph Stromberg

Step outside after the first storm after a dry spell and it invariably hits you: the sweet, fresh, powerfully evocative smell of fresh rain.

If you’ve ever noticed this mysterious scent and wondered what’s responsible for it, you’re not alone.

Back in 1964, a pair of Australian scientists (Isabel Joy Bear and R. G. Thomas) began the scientific study of rain’s aroma in earnest with an article in Nature titled “Nature of Agrillaceous Odor.” In it, they coined the term petrichor to help explain the phenomenon, combining a pair of Greek roots: petra(stone) and ichor (the blood of gods in ancient myth).

In that study and subsequent research, they determined that one of the main causes of this distinctive smell is a blend of oils secreted by some plants during arid periods. When a rainstorm comes after a drought, compounds from the oils—which accumulate over time in dry rocks and soil—are mixed and released into the air. The duo also observed that the oils inhibit seed germination, and speculated that plants produce them to limit competition for scarce water supplies during dry times.

These airborne oils combine with other compounds to produce the smell. In moist, forested areas in particular, a common substance is geosmin, a chemical produced by a soil-dwelling bacteria known as actinomycetes. The bacteria secrete the compound when they produce spores, then the force of rain landing on the ground sends these spores up into the air, and the moist air conveys the chemical into our noses.

“It’s a very pleasant aroma, sort of a musky smell,” soil specialist Bill Ypsilantis told NPR during an interview on the topic. “You’ll also smell that when you are in your garden and you’re turning over your soil.”

Because these bacteria thrive in wet conditions and produce spores during dry spells, the smell of geosmin is often most pronounced when it rains for the first time in a while, because the largest supply of spores has collected in the soil. Studies have revealed that the human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin in particular—some people can detect it at concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion. (Coincidentally, it’s also responsible for the distinctively earthy taste in beets.)

Ozone—O_3,the molecule made up of three oxygen atoms bonded together—also plays a role in the smell, especially after thunderstorms. A lightning bolt’s electrical charge can split oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, and they often recombine into nitric oxide (NO), which then interacts with other chemicals in the atmosphere to produce ozone. Sometimes, you can even smell ozone in the air (it has a sharp scent reminiscent of chlorine) before a storm arrives because it can be carried over long distances from high altitudes.

But apart from the specific chemicals responsible, there’s also the deeper question of why we find the smell of rain pleasant in the first place. Some scientists have speculated that it’s a product of evolution.

Anthropologist Diana Young of the University of Queensland in Australia, for example, who studied the culture of Western Australia’s Pitjantjatjara people, has observed that they associate the smell of rain with the color green, hinting at the deep-seated link between a season’s first rain and the expectation of growth and associated game animals, both crucial for their diet. She calls this “cultural synesthesia”—the blending of different sensory experiences on a society-wide scale due to evolutionary history.

It’s not a major leap to imagine how other cultures might similarly have positive associations of rain embedded in their collective consciousness—humans around the world, after all, require either plants or animals to eat, and both are more plentiful in rainy times than during drought. If this hypothesis is correct, then the next time you relish the scent of fresh rain, think of it as a cultural imprint, derived from your ancestors.

Original Article

imsostrungoutt: Award shows are a waste of time and money. Too bad we can’t celebrate real art on...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:59:06 +0100

imsostrungoutt:

Award shows are a waste of time and money.
Too bad we can’t celebrate real art on TV for millions to see
And propaganda films like Zero Dark Thirty and Argo make me so frustrated. People can’t SEE how involved the government is with promoting themselves in movies!!

The CIA is NOT cool
The CIA and the FBI are gangs
These movies are meant to convince you otherwise

Screen Propaganda, Hollywood and the CIA

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:35:52 +0100

Screen Propaganda, Hollywood and the CIA

thegreenurbanist: climateadaptation: Drought has caused water...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:43:13 +0100

thegreenurbanist:

climateadaptation:

Drought has caused water levels on Lake Michigan to drop to lowest levels in recorded history. The lake feeds several rivers, which have also dropped levels and flow. Impacts include slowed shipping and nasty sewage backup. In fact, instead of the water flowing from the lake into the Chicago River, the river could actually reverse flow and empty into the lake. The Chicago River btw is “70-percent sewage.”

Drought could reverse flow of Chicago River

Water levels on Lake Michigan are the lowest in recorded history. If the level continues to drop, the Chicago River could reverse itself and send untreated sewage into Lake Michigan.

“We’ve been monitoring since 1918 and this is the lowest Lake Michigan and Lake Huron have been,” Roy Deda, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said. “There would be some potential water quality impact to the Great Lakes if we were to continue to lock vessels when the river is higher than the lake.”

“Our river is 70-percent sewage. I think we need to recognize that. This is an open sewer. It depends upon gravity to go away from us. If that gravity does not work with the lake going down, it goes the other way, and we have done nothing to deal with the contaminants that we need to actually invest in fixing,” Henry Henderson, Natural Resources Defense Council

The Army Corps of Engineers said it is carefully monitoring the situation, and if lake levels continue to drop, they may have to modify how they operate the locks to limit the amount of water that goes into the lake, which would have an impact on recreational boats and barge traffic.

Good reporting by ABC local WLS-Chicago

Would like to reiterate the line, “Our river is 70-percent sewage.”

terrasmiles: Love her!

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:41:11 +0100

terrasmiles:

Love her!

mamitah: youandewan -1988

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:38:33 +0100

mamitah:

youandewan -1988

Iranian Medicine Saving Lives of Americans while US Sanctions Killing Iranian Patients

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:11:44 +0100

Iranian Medicine Saving Lives of Americans while US Sanctions Killing Iranian Patients:

jayaprada:

Iranian medicine has been saving the lives of Americans while the illegal US-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic have been adversely affecting the lives of many Iranian patients.

A Sunday report on the website of the Wall Street Journal said the US Defense Department needs Iranian-researched and -produced medicine to treat the foreign forces in Afghanistan who get bitten by “Oxus cobras, Haly’s pit vipers” and other snakes peculiar to southwest Asia.

“Medical guidance issued by US Central Command says drugs made by Iran’s Razi Vaccine & Serum Research Institute ‘should be the first line of antivenin therapy,’” the report cited a US officer as saying.

“The Iranian antivenin is the best,” said Colonel Rob Russell, the medical director of the pharmacy at British-run Camp Bastion hospital, adjacent to the Camp Leatherneck US Marine base in southern Afghanistan.

The report highlighted the fact that antivenins produced in the US and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “won’t work on Afghan snake bites.”

This comes as the US-engineered sanctions are putting the lives of Iranian patients in jeopardy. Though the US has not imposed any bans on American firms to sell medicine and medical supplies to Iran, exporters have been required to apply for special licenses. In the wake of the sanctions, the impossibility of transferring money through banks has cast its cumbersome shadow upon medicine and healthcare in Iran, thereby jeopardizing the lives of millions of patients suffering from special diseases such as thalassemia, hemophilia, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and many others.

In November, a hemophiliac Iranian teenager lost his life in hospital due to the shortage of required medication caused by the US-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“The sheer idea of imposing illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic and jeopardizing the lives of millions of patients is indeed an act of brutality which runs counter to the very true spirit of humanity as well as to international humanitarian laws,” Dr. Salami wrote in an op-ed on the website of Press TV on October 19.

Referring to the Iranian antidotes, Hadi Zareh, the lead researcher in Razi’s antivenin department, said, “We make this to save lives, and it doesn’t matter if the person is Iranian or Afghan or American. We are happy to hear we have saved a person’s life, even an American soldier.”

The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The logical fallacy of American imperialism

"Things like racism are institutionalized. You might not know any bigots. You feel like “well I don’t..."

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:07:54 +0100

“Things like racism are institutionalized. You might not know any bigots. You feel like “well I don’t hate black people so I’m not a racist,” but you benefit from racism. Just by the merit, the color of your skin. The opportunities that you have, you’re privileged in ways that you might not even realize because you haven’t been deprived of certain things. We need to talk about these things in order for them to change.”

- Dave Chappelle (via foxynonsense) (via sinidentidades)

snowyowlwhitecotton: IdleNoMore Vancouver by rabble.ca on...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:06:18 +0100

snowyowlwhitecotton:

IdleNoMore Vancouver by rabble.ca on Flickr.

Mohawk Nation News | Harper calls in Sell-Outs

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 13:31:41 +0100

Mohawk Nation News | Harper calls in Sell-Outs:

aboriginalpressnews:

Mohawk Nation News | News and Articles by kahntineta, Mohawk Nation News Publisher: MNN. Jan. 4, 2013. Harper, take some food to Chief Theresa Spence now, she’s hungry! Canada’s Prime Minister did not call in the Haudenosaunee or the traditional people. He doesn’t want to hear the truth.

Harper wants poverty in the midst of plenty. So on January 11th he is calling in his band council puppets to tighten their strings inside a cozy warm meeting room. Not outside next to Chief Spence’s wigwam. Harper’s worried because his subsidiary corporation, AFN, is screwing up his timeline for his genocide business plan.

Harper wants to change “Idle No More” to “Indian No More”. It’s a PR nightmare for him, the Corporation of Canada and their bankster shareholders. He and his puppets have all taken an oath to the Queen of England. They need ever more money to control us and stop our disobedience.

2012 Gerald and Maas Suppressed News

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 13:29:20 +0100

2012 Gerald and Maas Suppressed News:

aboriginalpressnews:

“White Collar Genocidaires: an overview of genocide prevention for 2013”:
Genocide warnings for 2012 have focused on nation states resistant to Euro-American corporate expansion. Ancient divisions along racial, religious, ethnic lines are aggravated to their tactical use by foreign interests. An entire national group is placed at risk by de-stabilization and civil war to replace a local historically evolved government (ie. Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, Syria) with one representing Euro-American interests. The same policy directed against national groups continues to cause unnecessary deaths in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan. Each recurrence of what is an abnormal and military pattern of corporate economic expansion makes it less possible to separate the policy’s effect from genocidal intention… continued

Zapatistas can still change the rules of Mexico's politics

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:22:52 +0100

Zapatistas can still change the rules of Mexico's politics :

sinidentidades:

21 December 2012 was supposed to be the doomsday that ended the Mayan calendar cycle, but instead it marked the resurgence of the indigenous Zapatistas of south-east Mexico. After more than a year and a half without a public statement, the rebel Mayans of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) marched in total silence along the streets of five cities in the state of Chiapas.

In this beginning of the new Mayan cycle, more than 40,000 members of Zapatista “social bases” (who support the military structure but are not directly involved in it) walked in the rain. They marched with discipline and dignity, their faces covered with masks. They came to the cities from distant mountain communities with no public transport, in the largest mobilisation since the emergence of the EZLN in 1994. When the demonstration ended, the Zapatista general command issued a brief statement signed by their spokesman Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos: “Did you hear? It is the sound of your world collapsing/it is our world coming back.”

It can’t be said that the Zapatistas reappeared, because they never left. The EZLN was founded 28 years ago, and for the first 10 years it grew beneath the radar; 18 years ago, it appeared in public. Since then, it has spoken at times and been silent at times, but it has never been inactive. It has repeatedly been declared dead or irrelevant, but it has always come back.

Its first public appearance was on 1 January 1994, the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) came into force. Zapatistas declared war on the Mexican government and took military control of five cities in Chiapas. They fought for 10 days and finally accepted a truce in order to negotiate a peace. The painstaking peace process was derailed when the federal government refused to honour the commitment it made in February 1996 to acknowledge indigenous rights and culture in the national constitution.

To combat the Zapatistas, then-president Ernesto Zedillo, of the Institutional Revolutionary party (which returned to power in 2012), promoted low-intensity warfare and the formation of paramilitary groups. On 22 December 1997, one of those groups killed 45 people, most of them unarmed women and children who were praying for peace, in the Chiapas community of Acteal.

The magnitude of the 21 December Zapatista protest indicates that the counter-insurgency strategy followed by several governments has failed. It shows that the Zapatista project is a genuine expression of the Mayan world and many poor mestizo peasants in Chiapas. Guided by its own political calendar, faithful to its ethical commitments, and with the might of the government against it, the EZLN has reinforced its autonomous forms of governance and kept alive its political authority among the country’s indigenous peoples; its international networks of solidarity also remain active. .

Zapatistas have two levels of government, corresponding in part to the territorial settlements of the indigenous peoples. One is the regional government, the Council of Good Governance. The other is the autonomous municipality, which acts on a local level. Within these municipalities, the social bases elect their authorities and govern themselves, administering justice and solving land conflicts.

In their territories, the rebels have made their health and education systems function without the federal and state governments; they have organised production and commercialisation and maintain a standing military. They have solved the challenge of the generational replacement of military officers. As if these achievements were not enough, they have successfully tackled the menaces of drug-trafficking, public security and migration.

The EZLN has joined the new game of Mexican politics without an invitation, and now sits at the table. Its resurgence will challenge, and possibly even change, some of the rules of this often dirty game.