All posts by nedhamson

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

ELLE UK Persuades Pharrell Williams into Becoming the Latest Red Face Disgrace

It’s time we stop settling for meaningless apologies and demand that celebrities and brands be held accountable for their actions. It may seem overkill, but we should still be bombarding ELLE, ELLE UK, American Express, and Pharrell’s label and discussing why this is an issue that cannot be fixed with words. Corrective actions must be taken because the only way to stop this willful ignorance is if the offenders feel the consequences, whether it’s through fines or being dropped from labels and tours or losing sponsorships. At this point, an apology doesn’t it cut it because the magazine will still be released with the same cover and the same disrespectful photographs. Pharrell and ELLE magazine will still be promoting and profiting from their blatant disregard of indigenous people and that is unacceptable. Our ancestors did not sacrifice their lives to preserve our cultural heritage so that vapid celebrities, designers and hipsters could feel superior, exotic and trendy by playing “Indian”.

via ELLE UK Persuades Pharrell Williams into Becoming the Latest Red Face Disgrace.

Drones give farmers an eye in the sky to check on crop progress — ScienceDaily

Dennis Bowman, a crop sciences educator with U. of I. Extension, is using two drones to take aerial pictures of crops growing in research plots on the farms.

Bowman intentionally made mistakes on one test plot — “areas where we didn’t apply enough nitrogen fertilizer, where we simulated mistakes in the applicator, where we shut the boom off for a short period of time or plugged it up and ran for a while,” Bowman said. “As the crop gets up and going, we’ll fly over it and see if we can detect those areas sooner than we could visually from the ground. (Watch the drone in action.)

via Drones give farmers an eye in the sky to check on crop progress — ScienceDaily.

Obama Says He’s Not ‘Surprised’ by Bowe Bergdahl Backlash – The Wire

Obama Says He’s Not ‘Surprised’ by Bowe Bergdahl Backlash

President Obama isn’t “surprised” that the administration’s prisoner exchange to free POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl ended up being a big Washington controversy, because apparently nothing ever surprises him anymore. The remarks, from the president’s press conference in Brussels on Thursday, come as at least one Republican senator — Lindsey Graham — has called for Congress to consider impeaching Obama.

Legislators

and conservatives are mad that 1) Obama didn’t give Congress 30 days’ notice before exchanging five Guantanamo prisoners for the U.S. soldier and 2) that Bergdahl was captured after walking off his base in Afghanistan, with the implication that he was deserting his post. When asked about his take on that negative reaction, Obama said:

I’m never surprised by controversies that are whipped up in Washington, all right? That’s — that’s par for the course. But I’ll repeat what I said two days ago. We have a basic principle. We do not leave anybody wearing the American uniform behind. We had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated and we were deeply concerned about. And we saw an opportunity and we seized it. And I make no apologies for that.

Obama was also asked, essentially, whether his administration would do things differently if they could, both to loop in Congress a bit more to the exchange beforehand, and to spare the soldier’s family the villianization that has followed what he seemed to think would be a positive Saturday Rose Garden announcement.  Here’s the rest of his response, via the Wall Street Journal:

We had discussed with Congress the possibility that something like this might occur. But because of the nature of the folks that we were dealing with and the fragile nature of these negotiations, we felt it was important to go ahead and do what we did. And we’re now explaining to Congress the details of how we moved forward.

But this basic principle that we don’t leave anybody behind and this basic recognition that often means prisoner exchanges with enemies is not unique to my administration. It dates back to the beginning of our republic, and with respect to how we announced it, I think it was important for people to understand that this is not some abstraction. This is not a political football. You have a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land who they hadn’t seen in five years and weren’t sure whether they’d ever see again.

And as commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, I am responsible for those kids, and I get letters from parents who say, if you are, in fact, sending my child into war, make sure that that child is being taken care of. And I write too many letters to folks who, unfortunately, don’t see their children again after fighting a war. I make absolutely no apologies for making sure that we get back a young man to his parents and that the American people understand that this is somebody’s child and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.

via Obama Says He’s Not ‘Surprised’ by Bowe Bergdahl Backlash – The Wire.

TeaParty weirdness in Mississippi – 3 McDaniel Allies Were Hanging Out In a Locked Mississippi Courthouse with Some Ballots – The Wire

McDaniel faced off against incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in the Republican primary election on Tuesday, where neither won enough voted to avoid a runoff later this month. But after the results were announced, Janis Lane (president of the Central Mississippi Tea Party), Scott Brewster (McDaniel’s coalition director), and another man were in the building from around 2 a.m. until 3:45 a.m. early Wednesday morning.

The sheriff’s department spokesman, Othor Cain, told The Clarion-Ledger that the investigation is looking into how the three entered the building, which would be easier if their stories lined up. “There are conflicting stories from the three of them, which began to raise the red flag, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” Cain said. “No official charges have been filed at this point, but we don’t know where the investigation will lead us.”

Brewster’s involvement is interesting considering his connection to the Clayton Thomas Kelly fiasco, when the pro-McDaniel blogger illegally video tapped Cochran’s wife in her nursing home. McDaniel and most of his campaign officials denied knowing anything about the video, but Brewster said he remembered when the video came out and “think(s) people made some calls” to have it removed.

But even without that connection the story is very weird. The county’s Republican executive chairman, Pete Perry, told the Clarion-Ledger he had a “concern with someone being in the courthouse with all the election material down there.” The ballots were secure but some of the precinct information was not.

via 3 McDaniel Allies Were Hanging Out In a Locked Mississippi Courthouse with Some Ballots – The Wire.

D-day 70th anniversary: ‘I remember every detail of the landing even now’ | World news | theguardian.com

Foote, from Tottington in Lancashire, has no shortage of stories to tell. He arrived in Normandy on D-day on Juno beach with the 51st Highland Division of the Scottish Horse Regiment and spent the rest of the war moving across Europe. He was with the Allied forces that relieved the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

Foote was just 23 when he jumped off the landing craft along with Canadian troops from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and ran on to the French beach “at tea time … don’t ask when that was because we didn’t know what day it was let alone the time,” he says.

“I remember every detail of the landing even now. It was a terrifying experience,” he adds. “We just kept moving. It was the same after D-day, we kept moving across Europe fighting all the way.”

via D-day 70th anniversary: ‘I remember every detail of the landing even now’ | World news | theguardian.com.

Britain’s first secret trial: this way lies trouble | Owen Jones | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Two men, known only as AB and CD, have been charged with terrorism; journalists were forbidden from disclosing even this simple fact until newspapers overturned a gagging order. But for the first time in centuries – and in a direct challenge to the Magna Carta of 1215 – the entire trial will be held in secrecy.

A basic principle that democrats of all hues should surely champion is that justice is done, and is seen to be done. As Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti has put it: “Transparency isn’t an optional luxury in the justice system – it’s key to ensuring fairness and protecting the rule of law.” But it is the precedent that should disturb us. It isn’t one of the authoritarian anti-terror laws passed by New Labour or the coalition responsible for this assault on justice, it is being justified with provisions under common law. Yet once this precedent is established and a centuries-old tradition of justice broken, it will be much easier to hold trials in total secrecy in future.

Indeed, this government’s Justice and Security Act, passed last year, allows for the extension of secret courts, or “closed material procedures” to use the proper legal jargon. Instead of judges, ministers will be given powers over evidence in court, risking the principle of a fair trial. Liberty has suggested it could be used to keep “dirty state secrets” away from victims and the public, and 700 legal experts signed a letter condemning it as “dangerous and unnecessary”. Sadly, to no avail.

via Britain’s first secret trial: this way lies trouble | Owen Jones | Comment is free | theguardian.com.

34 Injured, Children Tossed Out Window In 5-Alarm Fire On Staten Island: Gothamist

“The father was stuck up there, dangling his son outside…he couldn’t do anything — black smoke was just billowing out that window. So I went underneath — he threw him right to me and I caught his son… I yelled out to him, ‘just throw them out, just throw them out.'”

DiSimone caught the boy, who seems to be around 5 years old, while his fiancee caught a girl who seems to be around 3 years old.

Firefighters also rushed into the buildings to rescue residents. The FDNY’s Eric Bischoff told WABC 7:

“It was an extraordinary rescue that occurred here tonight. Upon arrival, firefighters had seen that two small children were already thrown from the window. Looking at the second-floor window, heavy fire was blowing out of the window, and two civilians were trapped, screaming, behind window bars. The quick actions of the firefighters made the difference between life and death. Three of the firefighters from Ladder 81 had to send in the aerial ladder and broke the window bars. By that time, the two civilians were already overcome and passed out by smoke. They entered the raging inferno an extricated those victims, who I am told have survived.

All told, the FDNY rescued 11 residents, including six children. The injured civilians and firefighters suffered minor injuries.

via 34 Injured, Children Tossed Out Window In 5-Alarm Fire On Staten Island: Gothamist.

After Bribery Scandal, High-Level Departures at Walmart – NYTimes.com

{When the smoke clears and the Feds let Walmart off the hook, how long do you think it will be before they start cheating again?}

While the circumstances surrounding each executive’s departure are unclear, a pattern has emerged. At least eight of Walmart’s most senior executives in Mexico, India and Bentonville, Ark., have left the company since the latter part of 2011, when Walmart learned of The Times’s investigation. In the same two years, the company has revamped its global compliance program. In a move that swims against the current of Walmart’s corporate culture, the company has increased its compliance staff by more than 30 percent, to 2,000 people, in that short time.

Other changes the company has made — including mandating that any potential foreign corruption violations be reported to corporate headquarters and the board — may make it more difficult for senior executives to plead ignorance in the future.

It is in Walmart’s interest, particularly as it negotiates with federal prosecutors, to show how it has strengthened its compliance efforts.

“The more proactive you can be in terms of setting up good compliance program, the more favorably the Department of Justice will look on it when you’re sitting across the table,” said David Schertler, a criminal defense lawyer. “One thing you can be pretty much assured of is that they’re letting the Department of Justice know, even if they’re not making it public.”

via After Bribery Scandal, High-Level Departures at Walmart – NYTimes.com.

Single Dose of Antibiotic Found Effective in Quelling MRSA – NYTimes.com

Any questions about thoroughness of the research and lack or any bias?
“The study was led by researchers at Duke University and designed and funded by the Medicines Company, the maker of the antibiotic, oritavancin. The drug, to be sold as Orbactiv, may be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as early as August under a special fast-track process, the company said.” Hope it works well but if it adds to the problem of drug resistant bacteria – this model of research must change.

via Single Dose of Antibiotic Found Effective in Quelling MRSA – NYTimes.com.