All posts by nedhamson

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

Bulldozers Raze Ancient Urban Farm in Turkey | Green Prophet

The Yedikule neighborhood of Istanbul is on edge as bulldozers recently razed two gardens that have been cultivated for the last 1,500 years, The Atlantic Cities reports. This is taking place in tandem with the ongoing Gezi Park saga despite a court’s ruling that the latter should not be cleared to make way for a shopping mall.

Dating back to the 400′s, the farms are located beside the ancient walls encircling Istanbul’s historic core, writes Jennifer Hattam, who we have interviewed in the past about her work with the popular eco-blog Treehugger.

via Bulldozers Raze Ancient Urban Farm in Turkey | Green Prophet.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Peace Is a Dream in My Land

Peace Is a Dream in My Land

July 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

I lost my pen in blood.

I lost my knowledge in ignorance.

I lost my way in a street filled with dead bodies.

Peace is a dream in my land.

Dust from bomb blasts cover me.

Body parts surround me.

I turn my face to the sky when it rains.

Peace is a dream in my land.

How long can we wait for peace?

How long can we live in fear of living?

How many family members can we lose?

Peace is a dream in my land.

Religion is supposed to save people’s lives.

Religion is killing people.

Hands rise in prayer to save this land from evil.

Peace is a dream in my land.

People hate each other.

People kill each other.

Life is is more worthless than anything.

Peace is a dream in my land.

My beautiful land looks like a graveyard.

The houses are in ruins.

Dust has taken over the green.

Peace is a dream in my land.

Will all this end?

Will we ever live without war?

There is ongoing war in my land.

Peace is a dream in my land.

By Shogofa

via Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Peace Is a Dream in My Land.

Oakland: 8-Year-Old Girl Shot, Killed During Sleepover: SFist

Marking Oakland’s 54th homicide of the year, an 8-year-old girl was shot and killed inside an apartment last night during a sleepover. Alaysha Carradine was killed after “someone fired into the apartment’s front security screen door” a little after 11 pm in the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue. She was hit in the neck and later succumbed to injuries at a nearby hospital.

Two other children, a 4-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl, and their 68-year-old grandmother were also wounded in the attack. They are in stable condition.

Oakland Tribune has more:

Khamel Hardin, 22, who lives in the apartment, said he was in the living room with the children when he heard gunshots and shot pierce the door and “whiz” through the air.

“It was like a bomb, explosion,” said Hardin. “I was dodging shots. I tried to get them out of the way.”

The shooting happened in Dimond District, “an area unaccustomed to such violence.”

via Oakland: 8-Year-Old Girl Shot, Killed During Sleepover: SFist.

Killing in Cairo: the full story of the Republican Guards’ club shootings | World news | guardian.co.uk

Killing in Cairo: the full story of the Republican Guards’ club shootings  <The story from perspective of reporter and people he spoke with. He was not there and videos could not capture all that happened – that said, it may or may not be fully accurate>

In the early hours of 8 July 2013, 51 Muslim Brotherhood supporters camped outside the Republican Guards’ club in Cairo were killed by security forces. The Egyptian military claimed the demonstrators had attempted to break into the building with the aid of armed motorcyclists.

After examining video evidence and interviewing with eyewitnesses, medics and demonstrators Patrick Kingsley finds a different story – a coordinated assault on largely peaceful civilians. ‘If they’d just wanted to break the sit-in, they could have done it in other ways. But they wanted to kill us,’ a survivor says

via Killing in Cairo: the full story of the Republican Guards’ club shootings | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Kirkpatrick and the Myth of Egypt’s “Liberals”

Send this to the New York Times

Nervana

 If you would like to read a perfect example of a monochromic simplification of the complex Egyptian political scene, take a look at David Kirkpatrick’s piece in the New York Times: Egyptian Liberals Embrace the Military, Brooking No Dissent.

 His opening paragraph begins with, “In the square where liberals and Islamists once chanted together for democracy, demonstrators now carry posters hailing as a national hero the general who ousted the country’s first elected president, Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

 Like many western analysts, Kirkpatrick has redefined the various shades of non-Islamism in Egypt as liberalism. It has become a lazy way to lump together anyone with the slightest unease about the Muslim Brotherhood’s failed policy within one broad, simple definition. In a rather absurd way it labels in one big condescending swoop both ex-regime supporters and army supporters as “liberals.”

 He continued by saying, “Liberal…

View original post 1,036 more words

Plans to test 5-year-olds is not the coalition’s worst policy – but it’s their stupidest

Spot on!

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s UK education today)

Have any government ministers ever actually spoken to a 4-year-old child?

Because formally testing children at that age has got to be the stupidest idea the coalition has come up with yet.

This is what a formal test of a 4-year-old is likely to look like:

EXAMINER: Hello, what’s your name?

4-YEAR-OLD: Tom.

EXAMINER: Hello, Tom. And what’s your surname?

4-YEAR-OLD: I like sausages. Do you think we’re going to have sausages for tea today?

EXAMINER: Erm, I don’t know. Your surname?

4-YEAR-OLD: Trump.

EXAMINER: Trump’s your surname?

4-YEAR-OLD: He he he …. (blowing raspberries and laughing hysterically) … that’s what a trump sounds like. 

EXAMINER: Right. OK. Well maybe we can forget the surname. Let’s have a look at these shapes and can you tell me which one is the square?

4-YEAR-OLD: (without moving) Yes.

EXAMINER: Can you show me by pointing?

4-YEAR-OLD:…

View original post 426 more words

Black-legged ticks connected to encephalitis cases in New York state | Vaccine News Daily

Black-legged ticks, which are known for spreading Lyme disease, were linked to Powassan encephalitis in New York state, according to a study recently published in Parasites and Vectors.

Powassan encephalitis is a disease caused by the Powassan virus and the deer tick virus. The virus spreads from infected ticks and can cause encephalitis, meningitis and central nervous system disruption. Reported cases have a 10 to 15 percent fatality rate, and many survivors suffer long-term neurological damage.

“We’ve seen a rise in this rare but serious illness in parts of New York state that are hotspots for Lyme disease,” Rick Ostfeld, one of the paper’s authors, said. “And we suspected it was tied to an increase in black-legged ticks carrying deer tick virus, particularly on the east side of the Hudson River.

via Black-legged ticks connected to encephalitis cases in New York state | Vaccine News Daily.

KSA Announces Two New MERS-CoV Cases

MOH: ‘Two New Cases of Novel Coronavirus Recorded in Asir’

17 July 2013

Within the framework of the epidemiological surveillance of the novel Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that two confirmed cases of this virus have been recorded. The first case is for a 26-old-year Saudi male in Asir, who was in contact with one of the confirmed cases. The second case is for a 42-year-old female resident working at the health sector in Asir. Both cases have mild symptoms that not required admitting to hospital.

via KSA Announces Two New MERS-CoV Cases.

Horse Slaughter Plants Hope to Open Aug. 5

The attorney representing newly licensed horse slaughterhouses in New Mexico and Iowa says the plants are set to open Aug. 5.

But lawyer Blair Dunn says those plans hinge on an Aug. 2 court date before a federal judge in New Mexico overseeing a lawsuit by animal protection groups.

The Humane Society of the United States, Front Range Equine Rescue of Larkspur, Colo., and others filed the suit against the Department of Agriculture, alleging it failed to conduct the proper environmental reviews before issuing permits for Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., and Responsible Transportation in Sigourney, Iowa.

Dunn says the judge will decide whether to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the plants from opening. They would be the first horse slaughterhouses to operate domestically since 2007.

via Horse Slaughter Plants Hope to Open Aug. 5.