All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Dating Dangerous Liaisons | From Behind the Pen

Image Credit: cottonbro studio

While I am not a fan of dating or finding a date through an app, I try not to judge those who do. But every day I see evidence of the danger presented when the heart overrules the head. Dating apps have been gaining momentum from extortion through fake profiles and photos, to death and criminality.

Sometimes, people think this only occurs with the young and naïve believing in a state of alleged reality that those individuals masquerading as the real person depicted in the photos on these apps are tried and true. But we also find that people over 50, 60, and 70 are being spammed, scammed, and flimflammed. Victim exploitation occurs when prime candidates want to get back out on the dating scene, but are oversharing information about their loneliness, that they are a widow or widower, they are isolated and lonely, or these scammers detect obvious neediness. Bingo! They check into your life and don’t check out, at least not that easy anyway, and without repercussions.

Often I wonder how these people can live with themselves, taking things so far and threatening their victims because their victims have unknowingly fed them all they need to know to take advantage of and manipulate them to financial ruin, criminal prosecution, winding up on a missing persons report, or even death. I’ve known of a few people who are considered smart, with educational achievements, and appear to have good common sense who vow to the validity of some of these dating apps, only to come out on the losing end of the deal because they were played like a monopoly game, resulting in no love and no satisfaction.

While there are some success stories with these dating apps, you must be careful about who you let into your life and personal space when they knock. I’m sure that the developers of these dating apps designed their objective to connect like-minded people looking for love or companionship. But as always, when something has been developed for good, like social media in general, we find that shady characters look for ways to manipulate a person’s trust and see where such individuals are desperate by offering too much or all of themselves before realizing they are in too deep.

If you are using one or more of these apps, please exercise caution, because these exploiters are seasoned by what they do. They could care less about your hurt feelings or pride, they just care about how much they can extort from you.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Source: Dating Dangerous Liaisons | From Behind the Pen

Dominica High Court overturns ban on same-sex relations

Dominica’s High Court has overturned a ban on consensual same-sex relations in the Caribbean island nation.

The court ruled parts of the law that criminalised same-sex activity went against the country’s constitution.

A gay man living in Dominica who brought the case said the law violated his constitutional rights.

LGBTQ activists welcomed the decision, hailing it as “a significant milestone in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ rights in the Caribbean”…

Source: Dominica High Court overturns ban on same-sex relations

British aid workers ‘died from blast wounds’ in Gaza – inquest

Reuters/World Central Kitchen An image showing John Chapman, James Kirby and James HendersonReuters/World Central Kitchen
John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby were among seven World Central Kitchen workers killed in the strike

Three British aid workers killed during an Israeli air strike on Gaza died from blast injuries, an inquest has heard.

James Kirby, 47, from Street in Somerset, James Henderson, 33, from Falmouth in Cornwall and John Chapman, 57, from Poole in Dorset, died on 1 April.

An inquest into their deaths was opened at Avon Coroner’s Court in Flax Bourton, near Bristol, earlier.

It heard that initial post-mortem results found all three men died from injuries to their head, chest and limbs. The inquest has been adjourned until later this year.

Mr Kirby, who was born in Bristol, was one of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers who died while travelling with a convoy leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, south of Gaza City…

Source: British aid workers ‘died from blast wounds’ in Gaza – inquest

Granderson: Republicans aren’t protecting elections. They don’t want democracy – Los Angeles Times

The next time Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stands in front of a microphone to talk about election integrity, I want you to remember this: Nearly a third of voters in Louisiana are Black, and yet Black voters had control over less than 20% of the state’s congressional districts. White voters make up less than 60% of the electorate yet had control over more than 80% of the power.

When the Democratic governor vetoed attempts to suppress the Black vote, the Republican state Legislature overrode the veto. When a federal judge said another map should be drawn, the Supreme Court delayed action until it had decided a similar question about Alabama…

Johnson’s party has been working to suppress Black votes for decades, so what is he talking about when he trumpets “election integrity”?

His appearance with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month was ostensibly about an election reform bill, meant to address a crisis those two men love to hype: the claim that millions of noncitizens are voting in our elections. The facts show that claim isn’t true. What is true is that within months of taking office in 2017, Trump established a commission to investigate his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election, and the Republican-led group — which included a handful of conservative secretaries of state — didn’t find anything.

Source: Granderson: Republicans aren’t protecting elections. They don’t want democracy – Los Angeles Times

Watch Iconic Artists at Work: Rare Videos of Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Renoir, Monet, Pollock & More | Open Culture

Claude Monet, 1915:

 

 

We’ve all seen their works in fixed form, enshrined in museums and printed in books. But there’s something special about watching a great artist at work. Over the years, we’ve posted film clips of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century caught in the act of creation. Today we’ve gathered together eight of our all-time favorites.

Above is the only known film footage of the French Impressionist Claude Monet, made when he was 74 years old, painting alongside a lily pond in his garden at Giverny. The footage was shot in the summer of 1915 by the French actor and dramatist Sacha Guitry for his patriotic World War I‑era film, Ceux de Chez Nous, or “Those of Our Land.” For more information, see our previous post, “Rare Film: Claude Monet at Work in His Famous Garden at Giverny, 1915.”

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1915:

 

 

You may never look at a painting by the French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in quite the same way after seeing the footage above, which is also from Sacha Guitry’s Ceux de Chez Nous. Renoir suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis during the last decades of his life. By the time this film was made in June of 1915, the 74-year-old Renoir was physically deformed and in constant pain. The painter’s 14-year-old son Claude is shown placing the brush in his father’s permanently clenched hand. To learn more about the footage and about Renoir’s terrible struggle with arthritis, be sure to read our post, “Astonishing Film of Arthritic Impressionist Painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1915).”

Auguste Rodin, 1915:

 

 

The footage above, again by Sacha Guitry, shows the French sculptor Auguste Rodin in several locations, including his studio at the dilapidated Hôtel Biron in Paris, which later became the Musée Rodin. The film was made in late 1915, when Rodin was 74 years old. For more on Rodin and the Hôtel Biron, please see: “Rare Film of Sculptor Auguste Rodin working at his Studio in Paris (1915).”

Source: Watch Iconic Artists at Work: Rare Videos of Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Renoir, Monet, Pollock & More | Open Culture

Council of Europe human rights watchdog condemns UK’s Rwanda bill | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian

The Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog has condemned Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law”.

The body’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, said the bill, expected to be signed into law on Tuesday after passing its parliamentary stages on Monday night, was a grave concern and should not be used to remove asylum seekers or infringe on judges’ independence.

“I am concerned that the Rwanda bill enables the implementation of a policy of removing people to Rwanda without any prior assessment of their asylum claims by the UK authorities in the majority of cases,” O’Flaherty said, adding that the bill “significantly excludes the ability of UK courts to fully and independently scrutinise the issues brought before them”.

The UK remains a member of the pan-European body that promotes human rights, democracy and the rule of law across the continent.

O’Flaherty warned that the UK was prohibited from subjecting, even indirectly, people to “refoulement” – the act of forcing a refugee or asylum seeker to a country or territory where he or she is likely to face persecution – including under article 3 of the European convention on human rights, under the refugee convention, and under “a range of other international instruments”.

Source: Council of Europe human rights watchdog condemns UK’s Rwanda bill | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian

#art, Aqui uno de mis expresionistas preferidos – Here’s One of My Favourite Expressionists – JaZzArt en València

…Oskar Kokoschka not only lived in Vienna, but also in Dresden, Berlin, and as we will see, in many other cities. He joined the army as a volunteer when the First World War broke out and served in a cavalry regiment. He was gravely wounded in battle, but continued to paint and develop his talent… In 1934, he had to flee Austria because the Nazis considered him a degenerate due to his art, and he headed to Prague. But soon the German army began recruiting in Czechoslovakia, and Kokoschka had to flee again, this time to the United Kingdom… After the war, he travelled to the US and did not return to Europe until 1953, choosing to live in Switzerland until the end of his days. He died in 1980 in Montreux.

(2022)

Source: #art, Aqui uno de mis expresionistas preferidos – Here’s One of My Favourite Expressionists – JaZzArt en València