All posts by nedhamson

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

How Native American tribes are bringing back the bison from brink of extinction

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The continent’s largest land mammal plays crucial role in spiritual lives of the tribes

On 5,000 hectares of unploughed prairie in north-eastern Montana, hundreds of wild bison roam once again. But this herd is not in a national park or a protected sanctuary – they are on tribal lands. Belonging to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of Fort Peck Reservation, the 340 bison is the largest conservation herd in the ongoing bison restoration efforts by North America’s Indigenous people.

The bison – or as Native Americans call them, buffalo – are not just “sustenance,” according to Leroy Little Bear, a professor at the University of Lethbridge and a leader in the bison restoration efforts with the Blood Tribe. The continent’s largest land mammal plays a major role in the spiritual and cultural lives of numerous Native American tribes, an “integrated relationship,” he said.

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Turkey primed to start offensive against US-backed Kurds in Syria

The second Turk genocide begins – first the Armenians and now the Kurds.

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President Erdoğan’s planned attack on militias he sees as terrorists risks row with Trump

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that Turkey will launch a military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria within days, in a decision that could signal a shift in Turkish-US relations and have far-reaching consequences for Syria’s future.

Long frustrated by US support for Kurdish militias that Turkey views as terrorists, Erdoğan has threatened to push deeper into north-eastern Syria since sending Turkish forces into the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in February.

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Still have your childhood teddy? The psychological power of the toys we keep

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Infants often find comfort in ‘transitional objects’ that help them on the path to independence. Guardian readers discuss the security blankets and teddies they have held close

When he was four years old, Chris had a piece of blue cloth he took everywhere with him, which he called Boo-Boo. Now 60, a retired teacher, husband and father of three adult children, he still remembers the feeling of safety he found when he gently rubbed the soft fabric against his face or between his fingers. “My Boo-Boo provided me with the comfort and security I craved. I wanted it with me, a bit like I wanted my mum with me all the time when I was little,” he says.

Shortly before Chris’s first day at school, his mother told him that he could not take his Boo-Boo with him and that he should throw it into their fire. “I can see it now, the lounge and the open fire, my mum telling me that I had to throw this Boo-Boo in. I couldn’t have it any more, I had to grow up. I can’t remember whether I cried or not, I can just feel the anguish. I had a sense of loss, an emptiness, without understanding.”

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Revealed: Google’s ‘two-tier’ workforce training document

Are they just following the lead of USA auto firms and how they treat 3 tiers of employees over the past twenty years? Of maybe the fast food industry that works people under the hours needed for workman’s compensation or benefits protection? Every firm that uses “temp” workers is doing something similar.

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Exclusive: internal document shows how Google employees are trained to treat temps, vendors and contractors

Google staff are instructed not to reward certain workers with perks like T-shirts, invite them to all-hands meetings, or allow them to engage in professional development training, an internal training document seen by the Guardian reveals.

The guide instructs Google employees on the ins and outs of interacting with its tens of thousands of temps, vendors and contractors – a class of worker known at Google as TVCs.

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“Love Knows No Bounds” Demonstrators Gather at Border

On Monday, a peaceful demonstration of over 400 people led by faith leaders from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and indigenous communities took place at the U.S.-Mexico border separating San Diego and Tijuana. The event was held in solidarity with migrants facing violent anti-immigrant rhetoric and persecution from the U.S. government, and an increasingly militarized U.S. border. “I’m here to declare that every person has inherent worth and dignity,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary for the American Friends Service Committee. Held on International Human Rights Day, the demonstrations kicked off a week-long national call for actions called Love Knows No Borders: A moral call for migrant justice.

Source: “Love Knows No Bounds” Demonstrators Gather at Border

How would you make this poster come alive? (LOC)

The Library of Congress posted a photo:

How would you make this poster come alive? (LOC)

We invite you to explore and imagine. Poster House, a new museum, is accepting entries during December 2018 for their poster animating contest using a set of Library of Congress posters. Read more about it in our Picture This blog post, “Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate!”

And have a look at an earlier blog post that featured this very poster: Feast Your Eyes: Floating Pies.

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Lloyd J. Harriss Pies. [Milwaukee : 1947]

1 print (poster) : chromolithograph.

Summary: Poster shows George Washington crossing a river of cherry pies. It is a spoof on Emanuel Leutze’s painting of Washington crossing the Delaware

Notes:

• A.C. Schultz Litho. Co.

• Signed: Navigato.

Subjects:

• Washington, George,–1732-1799.

• Pies–1940-1950.

Format:

• Advertisements–1940-1950.

• Chromolithographs–1940-1950.

• Posters–American–1940-1950.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. No copyright renewal found in U.S. Copyright Office (checked 2014).

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.12815

Call number: POS – ADV 20th c. – Food. S273, no. 1 (C size)

Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate! | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

The Library’s vast, international poster collection is featured in the latest “Free to Use and Reuse” image set. You’ll find much to enjoy from the 1890s through the 1960s among the posters, which promote travel, commercial products, war propaganda, entertainment, and more. We selected these posters in a special collaboration with Poster House, a new museum opening in New York City in 2019.

Source: Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate! | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

President Trump Really May Go to Jail—For the Rest of His Life

Nearly two years ago, in the first month of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, I touched off a firestorm by telling the public what our Intelligence Community—publicly attacked as Nazis by our 45th president on the eve of his inauguration—felt about their new commander-in-chief. As I tweeted, passing on the viewpoint of a senior IC official: “He will die in jail.”

This utterance outraged the president’s defenders and was considered outré, even though everybody in the IC I’ve encountered who’s familiar with the Trump case—not a short list—feels similarly. America’s spies before Trump took his oath of office concluded that the Kremlin helped elect the president, and the IC, which deals in facts rather than spin, has never wavered on this point.

Simply put, our president has most likely committed crimes, above all conspiring with a hostile power to boost his 2016 campaign (including seeking financial gain from that unfriendly foreign country), which none of his predecessors did, so it’s increasingly likely that Trump will accrue punishments never visited on any American president.

Just how much hot water the president and his retinue are in came into focus last week with multiple bombshells dropped by the Department of Justice. First, the Special Counsel on Tuesday informed a Federal court that Michael Flynn, the president’s short-lived first national security adviser, had decisively flipped on Team Trump.

Read the rest at The Observer …