All posts by nedhamson

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

50 Years Ago Today, The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ Brought Love To The World: LAist

Fifty years ago today, the Beach Boys released their masterpiece Pet Sounds. Declared the second-best album of all-time by Rolling Stone, it’s the clearest marker of Brian Wilson’s genius, and many believe it’s essentially his first solo album in all but name. Sonically, Pet Sounds is an audiophile’s dream. Lyrically, the themes of Pet Sounds—depression, alienation, heartbreak, nostalgia—at times feel incongruous with the beautiful harmonies, melodies, and upbeat, almost manic orchestration. But these arrangements illuminate the truth that you could be just as unhappy and tormented under the warm California sun as anywhere else; an enormous departure from the Beach Boys’ previous identity as cheery surfer boys just looking to have fun, fun, fun.

Source: 50 Years Ago Today, The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ Brought Love To The World: LAist

Iranian sting uncovers ′un-Islamic′ criminal modeling ring | News | DW.COM | 16.05.2016

Iranian voters ushered President Hassan Rouhani into office in part over his more liberal stance, but his power is limited in the face of Iran’s myriad competing centers of power and the Supreme Leader. On Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said un-Islamic thoughts on the Internet should be watched and countered. Young women in Tehran leave some hair showing from their scarves. “This is a real battlefield. The clerics and seminary students should prepare to enter this field and fight against deviations and erroneous thoughts,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on his website. Iran blocks Facebook, Youtube and many other websites, but many Iranians get around censorship and filtering by using a virtual private network (VPN). Online sedition is monitored by a branch of the feared Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Source: Iranian sting uncovers ′un-Islamic′ criminal modeling ring | News | DW.COM | 16.05.2016

The women will win out because they are on the right side of history.

Two men kicked off plane in what captain calls ‘racist act’ – The Local

Shortly before the flight was due to take off from Moss airport in Rygge, just outside the Norwegian capital Oslo, passengers were asked to disembark and police carried out a search of the aircraft. Two men were detained by police for suspicious behaviour but were later released. Police said that the two men, one British and one Sri Lankan, had been heard arguing loudly in the toilet, and some passengers thought they heard the word ‘bomb’, according to media reports. Meanwhile, a passenger was removed from an easyJet flight in Pisa in early April after another passenger complained of “suspicious behaviour”. On the same day, Meghary Yemane-Tesfagiorgis, from London, told Britain’s ITV news that he was the victim of racial profiling after being asked to leave an easyJet plane that was readying for take-off from Rome on March 29th because another passenger “felt uncomfortable”.

Source: Two men kicked off plane in what captain calls ‘racist act’ – The Local

A Mother Goose Seeks Police For Help | 3CHICSPOLITICO

The goose led him 100 yards away to a grassy area near a creek. Sitting there was one of her babies, tangled up in a balloon string. He was kicking his feet, desperate for help. He was wary of helping the baby on his own, worried that the goose might attack him, so he called for help from the SPCA, but no wildlife rescuers were available at the moment.

Source: A Mother Goose Seeks Police For Help | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Luckily, Given’s colleague, Officer Cecilia Charron, came to help. She began to untangle the baby, and the mother goose just stood there and watched, quacking. She didn’t become aggressive, and just let Officer Charron do what she had to do to set the baby free. It’s like the mother goose knew they were helping. Once she untangled the baby, she put her down and she ran right to her mom and they went back to swimming in the creek. Charron teared up and said it was the highlight of her 24 years on the force.

Ghosts of ’68 in Election 2016

“In the midst of all this, civil rights giant Martin Luther King Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, and riots erupt across the cities of the United States. Two months later, Kennedy is murdered in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel just minutes after winning the California primary.”

I was attending American University – School of International Service at this time and worked part time at the Smithsonian. The morning after the assassination – school closed, students left and I went to work driving the wrong way down Rock Creek Parkway. When I got there, I could see machine guns on top of the Justice Department. When I lived in LA, I worked as a caterer and worked the kitchen the RFK was shot in. I watched them drive him to Arlington past the Natural History Building where I Worked

“In August, eight years after his defeat by John F. Kennedy, the Republicans bring back Richard Nixon as their presidential candidate and the Democrats select Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who has not run in a single primary, as their party’s standard-bearer.”

I grew up in John Birch Society country in LA and a friend of my mother once declined to go with Dick Nixon to her high school prom.

In the 1968 election, I voted for the Peace and Freedom Party – it was a mistake I will not repeat.

In Saner Thought

We have to admit that the election of 2016 is anything but normal….it has gotten damn right wacky.  So wacky that I am tuning most of it out.  There is only so much manure can be spread before my eyes glaze over and I turn to more interesting events and situations.

I have been looking for some historical perspective much to the chagrin of my readers….in the past their have been outsider candidates, convention fights and the atypical candidate…….and then I found a good piece in Consortium News….sure saved me a lot of headache trying to write something…..

The year was 1968 and it is a good one too……

Longtime observers of American politics have noted striking parallels between the unpredictable wartime election of 1968 and the bizarre presidential contest of 2016, another time of war and distress, as Michael Winship recalls.

Watching the mad, mad, mad, mad world that is…

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Duterte vows to kill criminals and reintroduce hanging in Philippines | World news | The Guardian

“What I will do is urge Congress to restore (the) death penalty by hanging,” Duterte, 71, told a press conference in Davao on Sunday. He also said he would give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders against organised criminals or those who violently resisted arrest. “If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police (will be) to shoot to kill. Shoot to kill for organised crime. You heard that? Shoot to kill for every organised crime,” he said. He said military sharp shooters would be enlisted in his campaign to kill criminals. Duterte also vowed to introduce a 2am curfew on drinking in public places, and ban children from walking on the streets alone late at night. If children were picked up on the streets, their parents would be arrested and thrown into jail for “abandonment”, he said. Duterte said he wanted capital punishment – which was abolished in 2006 under then-president Gloria Arroyo – to be reintroduced for a wide range of crimes, particularly drugs, but also rape, murder and robbery. He added he preferred death by hanging to a firing squad because he did not want to waste bullets, and because he believed snapping the spine with a noose was more humane. Advertisement The centrepiece of Duterte’s stunningly successful election campaign strategy was a pledge to end crime within three to six months of being elected. Duterte vowed during the campaign to kill tens of thousands criminals, outraging his critics but hypnotising tens of millions of Filipinos fed up with rampant crime and graft. On one occasion he said 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them. He complained on Sunday that people no longer feared the law, and he would change that. “We have a society now where obedience to the law is really a choice, an option only,” he said. “Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. I will kill you. No middle ground. As long as the requirements of the law are there, if you try to evade arrest, refuse arrest… and you put up a good fight or resist violently, I will say: ‘Kill them’.”

Source: Duterte vows to kill criminals and reintroduce hanging in Philippines | World news | The Guardian

Cape Grim carbon dioxide reading exceeds 400ppm landmark for first time – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Cape Grim, on the remote north-western tip of Tasmania, is the only station analysing baseline carbon levels in the southern hemisphere. Scientists warned last week that the world’s cleanest air was nearing the 400ppm milestone. Lead scientist Paul Krummel, from the CSIRO, said the landmark CO2 figure was concerning. “It’s probably one of the last places on Earth to actually reach this milestone, and it just highlights the ever-increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere,” he said. The key impacts of carbon monoxide is warming the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans. “Globally, this is going to contribute to rising temperatures, which we are already seeing in the atmosphere,” Mr Krummel said. “It’s another milestone that we’ve reached where it’s indicating that the health of the planet is probably in trouble.” Mr Krummel said initial analysis last year predicted Cape Grim would not record such high measurements until June or July. “It’s certainly come earlier than I expected … most likely due to El Nino effects on the CO2,” he said. The El Nino weather pattern causes hotter and drier conditions, preventing the growth of plants that would suck up carbon dioxide. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station is operated by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. It measures the presence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and ozone-depleting gases like aerosols. The station samples some of the cleanest air on the planet, derived from the Southern Ocean and unaffected by any nearby urban pollution. When measurements began in 1976, carbon dioxide levels were slightly more than 300 parts per million.

Source: Cape Grim carbon dioxide reading exceeds 400ppm landmark for first time – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Casablanca actor Madeleine LeBeau dies in Spain aged 92 | Film | The Guardian

Born near Paris in 1923, LeBeau fled France with Dalio just days before the Nazis swept into Paris in 1940. The couple feared for their lives after Dalio’s image was used on a Nazi propaganda poster as an example of how to spot Jewish-looking features. They made their way to California and, thanks in part to Dalio’s connections in Hollywood, LeBeau was signed up to the Warner Brothers studio. She landed parts in Hold Back the Dawn in 1941 and Gentleman Jim in 1942. In 1942 the pair were cast in Casablanca. LeBeau’s marriage to Dalio fell apart during the making of the film; he divorced her citing desertion and Warners ended her contract soon after. Although no longer backed by a major studio, she won roles in two more Hollywood films: Paris After Dark (1943) and Music for Millions (1944). When the war was over she returned to Europe and in 1963 starred in Fellini’s 8½ (1963).

Source: Casablanca actor Madeleine LeBeau dies in Spain aged 92 | Film | The Guardian

NYPD Used ‘Body Bags’ To Make 122 Arrests In 110 Days: Gothamist

Nonetheless, use of the bags appears relatively routine—though zipping them over the restrained person’s head, as was done in the inciting video, seems rarer. Attorney David Rankin, who has represented clients that have been restrained in EDP bags, told us in March that he’d never heard of the bag being zipped over someone’s head. And a source who works in the psychiatric emergency room of a New York City hospital said that she sees the “burritos” on a weekly basis, but has never seen one used to move someone, or cover a patient’s head.

Source: NYPD Used ‘Body Bags’ To Make 122 Arrests In 110 Days: Gothamist