Daily Archives: September 18, 2014

Rock on-Peace Out, Viva!

Scotland’s freedom could be won by teenagers – UPI.com

In March 2013, Scottish law was changed to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Thursday’s referendum for Scottish independence. The separatist Scottish National Party pushed for the change because, according to NBC News “younger voters are more inclined to vote with their hearts, not their heads — and embrace radical change by voting for the pro-independence Yes Scotland campaign.

“I think it will be a great thing to remember,” says 16-year-old Katie Cowan.

“If we get independence … to look back on that and know that we took part in it.”

“I was a bit nervous but it feels really good,” adds Scottish teen Lauren Forde.

“It’s our future and we should be allowed to have a say in it. It is going to be a bit weird in school tomorrow after the results, though.”

via Scotland’s freedom could be won by teenagers – UPI.com.

Uncategorized

Ebola: [New] Updated Charts

Mens et Manus

Last Update: 4 September 2014 [Charts]
Current Update: 16 September 2014 [Data Source]

Important Note: As y’all might remember, last week I wrote my first article for the Disease Daily on estimating the fatality of the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak. Simply put, assessing the fatality of this outbreak is not as simple as dividing the number of total deaths at time t by the number of total cases at time t; the lag time between case reporting and death reporting must be considered to properly assess the lethality of the outbreak. With this in mind, I’ve purposefully excluded all of my standard fatality-related Ebola charts from this update. That said, I’ll be updating my lag-adjusted fatality chart in the near future and hope to create similar visualizations at the country scale as well.
epicurve_9.16bycountry_cumulative_9.16lcr_9.16monthly_epicurve_9.16

View original post

Uncategorized

A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow

d|gI+Al hEGeM0n ...d|g|Z|nE

scotland

Scotland was first decisively settled after the end of the last glacial period (in the paleolithic), roughly 10,000 years ago. Prehistoric Scotland entered the Neolithic Era about 4000 BC, the Bronze Age about 2000 BC, and the Iron Age around 700 BC. The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, the Roman province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall, which once ran from the Clyde to the Forth. To the north lay the territory of Caledonia, whose people were described as “Picti” in Latin, meaning ‘painted ones’. Due to constant incursions from these Picti the Roman legions would be forced back to Hadrian’s Wall within 20 years of its construction, and forced to abandon the territory by the beginning of the 3rd century.

According to 9th- and 10th-century literature, the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata was founded…

View original post 541 more words

Uncategorized

Famous Scottish tennis player says YES to independence

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the Scottish independence debate!)

Personally speaking, a tennis player’s opinion is about as worthy as an Irish rock singer’s when it comes to the constitutional and economic intricacies of Scottish and UK separation.

But for some reason, Andy Murray’s lack of a public statement on the Scottish independence referendum has bothered A LOT OF people.

Well, Guardian journalists anyway.

But the Guardian can fret no more. Because in the early hours of this morning (hoping nobody would take much notice?) Murray tweeted this:

murray indy tweet

.

So that would be a Yes then.

.

Related articles by Tom Pride:

BBC reporter caught red-handed manipulating video in Scottish indy campaign

Panicking Cameron facing open rebellion in the event of both a YES and a NO vote

Queen’s radical plan for voters to think before voting ruled ‘unconstitutional’

Blair urges air strikes against Scotland in event of ‘Yes’ vote

Experts warn of zombie apocalypse in event of…

View original post 28 more words

Uncategorized

Cameron diagnosed with severe heart-in-mouth syndrome on day of Scottish referendum

Pickled?

Pride's Purge

(satire?)

The Prime Minister David Cameron is under medical supervision after doctors confirmed he was suffering from a severe form of heart-in-mouth syndrome on the day of the Scottish referendum.

Symptoms of heart-in-mouth syndrome include:

  • cold sweats
  • rapid breathing
  • outbreaks of goose bumps
  • clammy palms
  • pounding heart
  • eyes wide open
  • flared nostrils
  • furrowed eyebrows
  • hair standing on end
  • chills down spine
  • loose bowels

Mr Cameron’s health scare comes just days after medical experts revealed many members of the Conservative Party are suffering from a particularly nasty and chronic strain of foot-in-mouth virus which is resistant to any known form of treatment.

.

Related articles by Tom Pride:

BBC reporter caught red-handed manipulating video in Scottish indy campaign

Famous Scottish tennis player says YES to independence

Queen’s radical plan for voters to think before voting ruled ‘unconstitutional’

Blair urges air strikes against Scotland in event of ‘Yes’ vote

Experts warn of zombie apocalypse…

View original post 40 more words

Egyptian Spring, Fail!, human rights

Creepy/Fail: Egypt starts monitoring online communications | Egyptian Streets

Egypt’s interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim had released a statement claiming the regulation was intended to focus on developing Egypt’s security by monitoring criminal activity online.

The Minister, in June, added that the monitoring would provide the Ministry with information about illegal topics and issues against public morals and traditions.

A report leaked by state media newspaper Al-Ahram in June revealed that the monitoring will also aim to “create a database for influential persons and persons of interests and registering their connections with others.”

Egyptian social media users have reacted strongly against the move to monitor communications, criticizing its negative impacts on privacy and freedom of self-expression.

via Egypt starts monitoring online communications | Egyptian Streets.

Uncategorized

The Winery #poetry #haiku

penned in moon dust

V

long days of harvest

purple fruit  teases the sun

hands are stained

*

purple stained

children finger paint the scene

shoes off, wine poured

**

shoes on, wine poured

oak casks now silent

not too tired to dance

I was reminded of the harvest at a friend’s winery a few years ago. Chevrefeuille’s Carpe Diem prompt Vineyards

View original post

Fail!, Feminism, human rights

“Comfort women” who serviced U.S. soldiers demand justice – Salon.com

The lawsuit alleges that, since 1957, poor and undereducated South Korean women were pressured into prostitution in those government-designated zones around American military bases. Authorities should be legally held responsible because they turned a blind eye and therefore promoted the trade, according to the filing.

Former prostitutes say that the government rounded up bar workers — some of whom were girls in their mid-teens — and mandated that they undergo forced STD testing. The ones who tested positive for diseases were held against their will in quarantine and treatment centers, say the plaintiffs. “It was terrible. And we believe that the government was responsible for its negligence,” said Kim, the former sex worker, who was tested multiple times.

The government also sponsored etiquette and English-language classes for these hostesses, where they were praised for contributing to economic development and national security.

Scholars say the South Korean government, run by three dictators from the 1960s to 1980s, sought to please the US military out of fear that it would depart, while bringing in US dollars to buttress this struggling economy. In the past, the South Korean government has denied encouraging prostitution. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family would not comment on the litigation.

via “Comfort women” who serviced U.S. soldiers demand justice – Salon.com.

Fail!, Global Politics, human rights, peace

ISIS seizes 16 Kurdish villages in north Syria: Kurds | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

ISIS fighters have seized 16 Kurdish villages in northern Syria in a major advance towards the city of Ayn al-Arab at the border with Turkey, a Kurdish military official and an activist group said Thursday.

Ocalan Iso, a commander in Kurdish armed group YPG, told Reuters that ISIS fighters were using heavy weapons including tanks in their attack near the city, known as Kobani in Kurdish. He also said the Syrian Kurds were seeking support from other groups including the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) to fend off the advance by ISIS. Speaking via Skype, he said they wanted support “in all military aspects.”

Rami Abdel-Rahman, founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the villages had been seized in an ISIS advance that started Wednesday. “They have a large number of fighters,” he told Reuters by phone.

via ISIS seizes 16 Kurdish villages in north Syria: Kurds | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.