All posts by nedhamson

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

Total lunar eclipse turns moon “blood red” over China: Shanghaiist

The full eclipse was visible for only 12.3 minutes in China, the shortest total lunar eclipse over the past 134 years according to the Guangdong Astronomical Society.

via Total lunar eclipse turns moon “blood red” over China: Shanghaiist.

Germans deny signing GOP letter on Iran – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Reps. Doug Lamborn, R-Col., and Randy Weber, R-Tx., circulated a letter to world leaders last month that they claimed had been signed by four European lawmakers. Since then, two of the alleged supporters, German parliamentarians Johann Wadephul and Roderich Kiesewetter, have informed Al-Monitor that they were not involved.

“This letter never came to the attention of Dr. Wadephul nor Mr. Kiesewetter and therefore has not been signed by them,” a Wadephul spokeswoman told Al-Monitor via email. The parliamentarian followed up with a formal letter stating he had “at no time signed nor agreed to support” the letter.

via Germans deny signing GOP letter on Iran – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

In Four Loops, Marathon Conveys Palestinian Constraints – NYTimes.com

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The runners looped four times through this city, following a route that took them from the Church of the Nativity, traditionally considered Christ’s birthplace, down Bethlehem’s main avenue and alongside Israel’s looming separation barrier, scrawled with graffiti and blackened from hurled projectiles.

The Palestine Marathon, held last week, is a hemmed-in affair, much like the city where it is run. “In Bethlehem, there’s not a continuous 42 kilometers,” huffed Marwa Younis, 32, as she ran. “You have to run back and forth.”

But that is exactly why the organizers of the Right to Movement: Palestine Marathon chose to stage it here. What better way to draw attention to the constraints Palestinians say they face in their daily lives?

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

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Palestinian Leaders See Validation of Their Statehood EffortMARCH 18, 2015

Palestinian Council Questions Security Arrangement With IsraelMARCH 5, 2015

interactive Netanyahu and the SettlementsMARCH 12, 2015

“We want to send a message that we don’t have the right to movement — we are occupied and have the apartheid wall,” said an organizer, Diala Isid, referring to Israel’s 26-foot-high separation barrier, which surrounds the city on three sides. “So we thought, ‘Let’s make an international marathon.’ ”

via In Four Loops, Marathon Conveys Palestinian Constraints – NYTimes.com.

Seven Everyday Uses For Essential Oils. | Rebelle Society

6. Frankincense for scars.

The Three Wise Men had it right — frankincense is really a treasure, it has so many uses and is very potent. It smells great, making it an enjoyable addition to your skincare routine for acne scars, wrinkles and other scars. I love adding it to my facial moisturizer oil.

via Seven Everyday Uses For Essential Oils. | Rebelle Society.

Five Signs You Stumbled Upon A Charismatic Sociopath. | Rebelle Society

Once in a while, people come into your life with gorgeous truths and build up your hopes with immense promises, only to chatter them again in the blink of an eye. What happened?

Did they suddenly change their mind? Were they pretending the whole time? Were they summoned by alien spaceships and reprogrammed for emotional destruction? Or are they just your friendly neighborhood sociopath?

Afterall, the superpower of any sociopath is the art of deception and their ability to influence people. And this is where it gets super tricky…

How do you differentiate über intelligence and talent with deranged delusion?

via Five Signs You Stumbled Upon A Charismatic Sociopath. | Rebelle Society.

Fredrik Barth: An intellectual biography

The Pluto Press Blog - Independent, radical publishing

As a new biography of social anthropologist Fredrik Barth is published this month, we ask the author Thomas Hylland Eriksen, himself a renowned anthropologist, to expand on why he chose his subject…

‘Social scientists come in many shapes, some more interesting than others. One of the Fredrik Barthextremes is the wide-ranging scholar who circles the planet in a helicopter with a pair of binoculars, eventually developing a theory about life, the universe and everything. The opposite extreme is the khaki-clad explorer crawling on all fours while peering at the grains of sand on the beach through a magnifying glass. This is the end of the continuum where most anthropologists find themselves. Yet, the grains of sand are not enough. Indeed, a major ambition of anthropology consists in ‘seeing the world in a grain of sand’ (Blake), building social theory from everyday events in ordinary communities and discussing human universals through the…

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After Praising Moronic Indiana Law, Jeb Bush Comes To SF To Fundraise: SFist

Bush already made a tone-deaf comment this week, hoping perhaps for some airplay on Fox News, praising Pence for doing “the right thing,” and saying that “once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.”

Oh… just leave.

via After Praising Moronic Indiana Law, Jeb Bush Comes To SF To Fundraise: SFist.