All posts by nedhamson

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

OAS pressure on Venezuela ′a pretext to remove Maduro?′ | Americas | DW.COM | 01.06.2016 – “Let Venezuela settle it’s own politics – no more coups!”

A suspension of Venezuela’s membership in the Organization of American States will not end the country’s crisis overnight, says expert, but it might unsettle Maduro’s presidency – in one or another way.

Source: OAS pressure on Venezuela ′a pretext to remove Maduro?′ | Americas | DW.COM | 01.06.2016

Former Trump University Workers Call the School a ‘Lie’ and a ‘Scheme’ in Testimony – The New York Times – “Real story is the trillion or two that similar for-profit “universities” have bilked from low-income students using government-backed student loans.”

In blunt testimony revealed on Tuesday, former managers of Trump University, the for-profit school started by Donald J. Trump, portray it as an unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump’s insights. One sales manager for Trump University, Ronald Schnackenberg, recounted how he was reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class, despite his conclusion that it would endanger their economic future. He watched with disgust, he said, as a fellow Trump University salesman persuaded the couple to purchase the class anyway. “I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme,” Mr. Schnackenberg wrote in his testimony, “and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”

Source: Former Trump University Workers Call the School a ‘Lie’ and a ‘Scheme’ in Testimony – The New York Times

Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

It surprises me how in the most liberal of feminist American spaces, there remains incredible discomfort — if not outright bigotry and discrimination — towards women who choose to wear a headscarf. As a Muslim woman who does not wear a headscarf and is often read as racially (and religiously) ambiguous, I’ve been around far too many self-proclaimed liberals and feminists who feel comfortable indulging their racism around me—commenting on how Muslim women are oppressed, naive, brainwashed, being beaten by scary brown and black men, and/or suffering from intense mind control by choosing to cover their hair. Other times, parents of white friends (or white friends themselves) will connect my lack of a headscarf to progressivism, labeling me as a “good” Muslim woman who is politically sharp enough not to adorn the hijab.Well I do adorn hijab. Almost every day. I cover most of my legs, arms, and try to wear loose clothing. The Qur’an requires men and women to wear hijab—or dress modestly—but does not specify exactly what covering up looks like. Muslims are not a monolith (surprise!) and therefore differ on what modesty requires, meaning that there are a variety of practices in different cultures and countries: for some, including my family, hijab means a headscarf, for others like myself, it means wanting to wear a headscarf but not feeling safe enough to do so in their home country. For others it means a style of dress that includes a niqab (face covering), abaya (loose black gown), or none of the above.

Source: Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

Humans of New York

“When I was six months old, I was dropped off at an orphanage in Northern China with a little note pinned on my shirt. It only had the name of my village. The orphanage named me Gaoanna, which translates to ‘Girl From High Mountains.’ My mother decided to adopt me after she received my picture in the mail. She was 45 at the time. She had recently gotten divorced. She’d never had children. So it’s just been the two of us my whole life. I remember one time in high school, we got in an argument and my mom got very emotional. She started crying and said: ‘We can’t fight. It’s just the two of us. We have to stick together.’ At that moment I realized how much I had changed my mom’s life. She’d known from the start, of course. But it was something I needed to learn.”

Source: Humans of New York

GraphicConverter 10 Adds Face Recognition, Live Photos, Collage, More prMac

Lemke Software GmbH today is proud to announce the release and immediate availability of GraphicConverter 10, the major update to their popular image editing utility for Mac OS X. This “Swiss Army knife” of graphics programs offers users the ability to convert over 200 different graphic file formats into any of almost 80 graphic formats.GraphicConverter has over 1.5 million users all over the world. The app makes it easy to work with almost any graphics format, from almost any source. GraphicConverter also fully supports Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, offering compatibility with the latest Macs.

Source: GraphicConverter 10 Adds Face Recognition, Live Photos, Collage, More prMac

I have been using GC since the mid-90s – always a treat when browsing, opening and mass converting files.

Multistate E coli outbreak prompts General Mills flour recall | CIDRAP

Who do you trust? Who can you trust?

Minneapolis-based food processor General Mills today announced a recall of Gold Medal, Wondra, and Signature Kitchens flour in connection with an outbreak of 38 Escherichia coli O121 infections in 20 states. In a press release, the company said E coli O121 has not been found in any of its flour or in the manufacturing facility, nor have consumers reported any confirmed illnesses to the firm, but the recall is being issued out of abundant caution. The recall involves about 10 million pounds of flour, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today. General Mills said the products are sold in Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel, Shaws, Vons, United, Randalls, and Acme stores.

Source: Multistate E coli outbreak prompts General Mills flour recall | CIDRAP

OpenFlights: FAQ

What can I do with OpenFlights? Quite a few things: Track exactly how far you’ve flown and how much time you’ve spent sitting on a plane. (Quite a few of our members have been to the Moon and back, but nobody has yet reached Mars.) See at a glance where you’ve been and where you’re going. Rapidly search your flight history: now when did I go to the Bahamas, and on what airline? Share your flights and trips with friends. Check where you can fly to from any airport, or any pair of airports. (Learn more) Check where you can fly to with any airline. (Learn more) Coordinate flights for conferences and other events. (Learn more) View your flights in gorgeous 3D with Google Earth and other visualization apps. (Learn more)

Source: OpenFlights: FAQ

Gorilla Harambe’s death: Silverback protecting boy from threat of screaming crowd, expert says – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Professor Kaplan described male silverback gorillas as “gentle giants” and “conflict negotiators”. “What makes the incident so controversial and tragic is that it’s been known now, for at least 30 years, by various incidences in American and English zoos, that gorillas are very gentle and the males have one role: to keep the peace in the group,” she said. “So he is a conflict negotiator and peace maker.” Male silverback gorillas are “not aggressive” but instead “their entire personality is for peace-keeping,” Professor Kaplan said. “They are not carnivores, they don’t kill other things, they don’t kill other people. They don’t attack willy-nilly,” she said. “What they do in the wild is, if there is a real threat perceived by the silverback male, they will charge forward as a warning and sometimes he will use branches to make a bit of a percussion sound as well. [He will] rattle the tree a bit and flay his arms around and that usually convinces [the opponent] to backtrack really quickly.”

Source: Gorilla Harambe’s death: Silverback protecting boy from threat of screaming crowd, expert says – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Israelis are no longer buying what Netanyahu is selling | +972 Magazine

It’s not just a change in the people running the country. It’s not just the fact that people no longer want to work with him, including diehard rightists. It is the fundamental psychological change taking place here over the past few weeks, which signals one thing: Netanyahu is no longer able to tell the story of Israel. His point of view, the story he is trying to sell — the Holocaust and the Mufti — are no longer the point of view of most Israelis. At least not entirely. This is a drastic change from the past few decades. Things we must pay attention to: Netanyahu’s story of “widening the coalition” has turned into the story of Ya’alon’s resignation and the appointment of a defense minister whom nearly every Israeli (and non-Israeli) prefers didn’t get the job. If Israelis wanted Liberman as a top political leader, his party would not have just barely passed the election threshold. Never has a prime minister appointed a defuse minister so beyond the consensus, and the Israeli public understood this immediately. This is the most important failure in Bibi’s story. The story that an Arab attacked dozens of policemen in Tel Aviv didn’t work either: Israelis know that their police force is violent, and that appointing Roni Alsheikh to police commissioner was a poor choice. And even at the end of last week, when Netanyahu tried to connect the “Left” and the “media” to a horrifying case of rape (this is the prime minister of Israel), Minister Avi Gabai, one of the most honest and respected people in the government, announced that he was resigning, explicitly saying it was due to the danger of appointing Liberman. Including those same “trends” that Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yair Golan warned against last month. The story is everything. And Netanyahu can no longer tell the story like he could in the past. This is wonderful news; for the first time in a decade, there is a feeling that fewer and fewer people feel the need to protect him, while more people no longer believe his lies or theatrics. Honest rightists such as Moshe Ya’alon and Moseh Arens, Avi Gabai and Orly Levy are saying “enough is enough.” And I believe, perhaps, that we are closer to the end than it seems.

Source: Israelis are no longer buying what Netanyahu is selling | +972 Magazine