Category Archives: Fail!

Cyclist Killed By Hit & Run Driver In Queens : Gothamist

A cyclist and a pedestrian were both killed on North Conduit Avenue yesterday morning, their deaths coming around three miles and five hours apart. According to an NYPD release, 50-year-old Wayne White was killed by a hit and run driver as he biked west on North Conduit Avenue at around 5 a.m.. Police told the Daily News that the car struck White from behind and then fled the scene.

An NYPD spokesman said the driver is still at large. White lives roughly a mile from where he was killed.

In a study of 628 cycling fatalities nationwide from 2011 through 2013 [PDF], the League of American Bicyclists found that 40% of the cyclists killed were rear-ended; 88% of the drivers who killed the cyclists walked free.

via Cyclist Killed By Hit & Run Driver In Queens : Gothamist.

Indian minister says rapes happen ‘accidentally’ | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

{Seems there are stupid and biased men in power all over the globe – who also don’t know enough to just shut it!}

Politicians also came under fire after the fatal gang-rape in Delhi in 2012, a crime that angered the nation and shone a global spotlight on India’s treatment of women.

Several politicians have sought to blame tight jeans, short skirts and other Western influences for the country’s rise in rapes, while the head of a village council pointed to chowmein which he claimed led to hormone imbalances among men.

via Indian minister says rapes happen ‘accidentally’ | News , International | THE DAILY STAR.

Avian Flu Diary: PAHO: Chikungunya Numbers Jump Nearly 30K In Past Week

While rarely fatal, Chikungunya can produce a severe fever and excruciating joint pain usually lasting for at least a week.  Some studies (cite) indicate significant arthritis-like sequelae can persist for months or even years post-infection.

 

With an incubation period of between 3 and 7 days, and the enormous amount of international travel to, and from, the Caribbean, the concern is that this virus will soon migrate to other areas that also have a favorable climate and the right kind of mosquitoes.

 

Brazil is particularly at risk this summer with the FIFA World Cup, something we discussed yesterday.

 

But then, so is the United States, and even parts of Europe (Italy saw a mini-epidemic in 2007 when just one infected traveler started a chain of infection that eventually touched 300 people).

 

The good news, at least in most of the United States, is that most of us live and work in air-conditioned spaces, and live in regions that maintain pretty good mosquito control programs, and so we aren’t as apt to be continually exposed to (and bitten by) mosquitoes as people living in the Caribbean.

 

But as a native Floridian, I can assure you that it is pretty much impossible to totally avoid feeding our unofficial `state bird’.

 

The state of Florida is concerned enough that it has issued warnings to the public, and is actively Preparing For Chikungunya.  In March the CDC held a Chikungunya Webinar and last December they released a CDC HAN Advisory On Recognizing & Treating Chikungunya Infection.

No one knows if Chikungunya will spread rapidly in the United States, like West Nile Virus has over the past 15 years, or produce infrequent and highly sporadic outbreaks, as has Dengue.

 

But given its rapid global expansion over the past nine years, no one in public health is taking the threat lightly.

via Avian Flu Diary: PAHO: Chikungunya Numbers Jump Nearly 30K In Past Week.

I still get abuse from Twitter trolls, says Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington | Media | The Guardian

Rebecca Adlington is far from the only high-profile female to receive abuse and criticism on Twitter. Other public figures have been attacked over their appearance – and much worse. The activist and writer Caroline Criado-Perez, the academic Mary Beard and the MP Stella Creasy were among the women targeted. Following public outcry Twitter has introduced an in-tweet “report abuse” button on all platforms.

Caroline Criado-Perez

The feminist activist and writer, who ran a successful campaign to keep a woman on a British banknotes, received persistent graphic rape and death threats on the site. She later said of the abuse: “Men get attacked because they’ve said or done something someone doesn’t like, whereas women get attacked because they’re visible”. Two people were later jailed.

Mary Beard

The historian Mary Beard fell victim to a torrent of abuse, which she called “truly vile”, following an appearance on BBC1’s Question Time. Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge University, said of the experience: “[T]he misogyny here is truly gobsmacking … It would be quite enough to put many women off appearing in public.”

Stella Creasy

The Labour politician received a barrage of rape and death threats via Twitter after she offered her support to Caroline Criado-Perez. The MP said later there should be no distinction between online and offline behaviour. “It’s absolutely harassment; it’s absolutely designed to intimidate, to scare, to frighten you; and it’s absolutely an issue we need to see both technology companies and police understand is part of the modern world,” she said.

via I still get abuse from Twitter trolls, says Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington | Media | The Guardian.

No candle-lit vigils for raped and murdered girls — New Internationalist

It’s been pointed out that these girls are not dalit, though most Indian newspapers reported otherwise. They were, nevertheless, extremely poor, powerless and from a lower caste. The perpetrators, apparently, routinely molested and raped lower caste women and this particularly brazen rape and murder, was to teach the poor and powerless a lesson, to show them their place in the feudal, caste hierarchy. Recently, dalit and lower caste people had protested against the behaviour of the dominant caste Yadav men who until now have ruled the roost in the surrounding villages. The local policeman who slapped the victim’s father belonged to the same caste as the perpetrators. And two policemen reportedly, not merely abetted in the crime, but participated in the assault too.

The girls’ bodies bore marks of excessive brutality. The usual scratches, bite marks, bruises, but also  a pattern of  blood clotting which indicated beating and torture. And the post mortem revealed they were hanged while still alive. Commentators have pointed out that the levels of violence and viciousness in the new rape culture is frightening, calling for immediate and effective action. Much of it comes from the porn which circulates freely on mobile phones. It’s not merely rape now. And  the fact that I write ‘merely rape’ illustrates how terrifying  the situation is.  Almost as though one has to be grateful one is ‘merely raped’.

It is with a heavy heart that I note, that the outpouring of grief and outrage which rocked India in December 2012 for the Nirbhaya Delhi rape victim, is noticeably absent in cities across India, for the Badaun cousins. They are not middle class, dominant caste, city women. These were two lower caste, village girls. Not ‘people like us’.

via No candle-lit vigils for raped and murdered girls — New Internationalist.

Report of bed bugs in Butler County court | www.journal-news.com

Hearings scheduled for an Oxford courtroom this afternoon are being diverted to Butler County Area II Court due to a report of bed bugs allegedly in the courtroom.

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said he received a report that bugs, possibly bed bugs, were at the defense table in Butler County Area I Court in Oxford.

“The court administrator needs to determine if there is a bed bug problem,” Gmoser said. “If it is determined it is bed bugs, I don’t want my staff there exposed to it.”

Area I Judge Robert Lyons held court this morning in Oxford, but at the court’s request the afternoon docket has been moved to Area II Court in Hamilton, according to court employee Chrystal Hershner. The court administrator is not in today, she said.

Lyons said someone reported seeing a bed bug in the court and they contacted the city of Oxford, which owns the building.

“It was going to be several hours before they could get their with exterminators to check it out, so we took the high road,” Lyons said. Cases not already called on the morning docket were given a continuance, the judge said.

The judge said there is no confirmation yet what type of bug was seen. He said there should be a determination by Friday.

via Report of bed bugs in Butler County court | www.journal-news.com.

Bergdahl Walked Away Before, Military Report Says – NYTimes.com

Its portrayal of him as a soldier is said to be positive, with quotes from both commanders and squadmates — apparently including some of the men now criticizing him — describing him as punctual, always in the correct uniform and asking good questions. It quotes colleagues as saying that he expressed some boredom and frustration that they were not “kicking down doors” more to go after insurgents who were destroying schools.

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The report is also said to contain no mention of any alleged intercepts of radio or cellphone traffic indicating that Sergeant Bergdahl was asking villagers if anyone spoke English and trying to get in touch with the Taliban, as two former squadmates told CNN this week in separate interviews that they remembered hearing about from a translator who received the report.

A leaked military activity report that contemporaneously logged significant events during the initial eight-day search for Sergeant Bergdahl says that at 10:12 a.m. local time on June 30, about six hours after he was reported missing, an unidentified man was overheard on a radio or cellphone saying that an American soldier with a camera “is looking for someone who speaks English.”

Still, the log says nothing about the unidentified man’s saying that the American wanted to get in touch with the Taliban.

via Bergdahl Walked Away Before, Military Report Says – NYTimes.com.

vintage everyday: Coca-Cola Advertisements in Nazi Germany in the 1930s

Coca-Cola was one of the three official beverage sponsors with a Getraenkedienst (beverage service) at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Athletic competition was a Nazi ideal and the Coca-Cola GmbH cashed in heavily on this infatuation by becoming one of the biggest sponsors of sports events, most notably the annual Deutschlandrundfahrt (National Bycicle Championships) and the Soccer Cup.

via vintage everyday: Coca-Cola Advertisements in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

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.