Category Archives: Just strange

Tons Of Cali Voters Accidentally Registered With An Ultraconservative Fringe Party: LAist – ROTFLMAO – read what you sign folks!

Thousands of Californians intending to register as independent voters accidentally affiliated with the fringe, ultraconservative American Independent Party. An L.A .Times investigation finds that nearly three in four registered AIP voters— likely confused by the use of “Independent” in the name—did not realize they had joined the party.

Source: Tons Of Cali Voters Accidentally Registered With An Ultraconservative Fringe Party: LAist

UC Berkeley Student Removed From Flight Out Of LAX For Speaking Arabic: LAist  :(

26-year-old Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was on the phone with his uncle, telling him about a conference he’d attended in L.A.

Source: UC Berkeley Student Removed From Flight Out Of LAX For Speaking Arabic: LAist

According to SF Gate, a female passenger sitting near Makzhoomi looked at him and left her seat, telling an airplane employee she overheard him making “potentially threatening comments,” according to a statement from the airline.

A short time later, Makhzoomi was escorted him off the plane, where he was met by an Arabic-speaking employee who asked him, “Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?” Makzoomi told the Times he spoke to him “like I was an animal,” and told the employee, “‘This is what Islamophobia got this country into,’ and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane.”

“I had an emotional breakdown and cried a little bit,” Makhzoomi told SF Gate. “I was so afraid. I was so scared.”

Makhzoomi was “searched in front of a crowd of onlookers while half a dozen police officers, including one with a dog, stood watch” before he was questioned by FBI agents, who asked about his family; he lives with his mother and brother in Oakland, while his father, a former Iraqi diplomat, was thrown in prison by Saddam Hussein, and later killed by his regine. Makhzoomi said his family came to the U.S in 2010.

Hours later, Makhzoomi was allowed to leave the terminal, and his ticket was refunded by Southwest. He had to purchase another ticket from a different airline, and got back to Oakland nine hours later than he intended to.

Bernie Sanders Suspends Jewish Outreach Coordinator After Reports of Her Criticisms of Israel – First Draft. Political News, Now. – The New York Times

Two days after the announcement of her hiring, the Sanders presidential campaign suspended its national Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Zimmerman, on Thursday after revelations that she had posted vulgarities about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Facebook. “She has been suspended while we investigate the matter,” Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Senator Bernie Sanders, wrote in an email. Ms. Zimmerman’s suspension comes after a report on Wednesday in The Washington Free Beacon, which found a Facebook post in which she used a vulgarity and described Mr. Netanyahu as “arrogant, deceptive, cynical” and “manipulative.” She then used more aggressive language and continued that he had “sanctioned the murder of over 2,000 people this summer.” But members of the American Jewish establishment had been attacking her and the Sanders campaign since her appointment for her record of criticizing Israeli settlements and its policies in the West Bank and Gaza. Abe Foxman, the former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, also called for her firing.

Source: Bernie Sanders Suspends Jewish Outreach Coordinator After Reports of Her Criticisms of Israel – First Draft. Political News, Now. – The New York Times

Dilma Rousseff Targeted in Brazil by Lawmakers Facing Graft Cases of Their Own – The New York Times

In the impeachment case, she is not facing charges of graft. Instead, she is accused of using money from giant public banks to cover budget gaps, damaging Brazil’s economic credibility. Ms. Rousseff, then, is something of a rarity among Brazil’s major political figures: She has not been accused of stealing for herself. Eduardo Cunha, the powerful speaker of the lower house who is leading the impeachment effort, is going on trial at the country’s highest court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, on charges that he pocketed as much as $40 million in bribes. Mr. Cunha, an evangelical Christian radio commentator and economist who regularly issues Twitter messages quoting from the Bible, is accused of laundering the gains through an evangelical megachurch. Vice President Michel Temer, who is expected to take over if Ms. Rousseff is forced to step aside, has been accused of involvement in an illegal ethanol-purchasing scheme. Renan Calheiros, the Senate leader, who is also on the presidential succession chain, is under investigation over claims that he received bribes in the giant scandal surrounding the national oil company, Petrobras. He has also been accused of tax evasion and of allowing a lobbyist to pay child support for a daughter from an extramarital affair. Altogether, 60 percent of the 594 members of Brazil’s Congress face serious charges like bribery, electoral fraud, illegal deforestation, kidnapping and homicide, according to Transparency Brazil, a corruption-monitoring group.

Source: Dilma Rousseff Targeted in Brazil by Lawmakers Facing Graft Cases of Their Own – The New York Times

Can Great Apes Be Vaccinated Against Ebola and Other Diseases? | Smart News | Smithsonian – AKA – Human intervention and hubris destroys their environment and sets stage for vulnerability – so more will…?

“Our research has made it clear that viruses such as Ebola can affect gorillas and chimps, as can human respiratory viruses,” Walsh tells McKie. “Within five years, I would want all gorillas and chimpanzees that come anywhere near humans to be vaccinated against Ebola or respiratory diseases. That is the only way we can go.”

Source: Can Great Apes Be Vaccinated Against Ebola and Other Diseases? | Smart News | Smithsonian

4th yr in a row, 65k H-1B visas exhausted in 5 days – Times of India

The US Citizenship and Immigration Service did not give out the number of applications it got, but it is believed to be higher than last year’s 230,000. This will trigger a computer-generated process -also known as the lottery -to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced-degree exemption.

Source: 4th yr in a row, 65k H-1B visas exhausted in 5 days – Times of India

Long-term vegetarian diet changes human DNA raising risk of cancer and heart disease – Telegraph – {Talking about diets thousands of years old – not your dad’s diet and brought to you by research funded by???}

“Those whose ancestry derives from vegetarians are more likely to carry genetics that more rapidly metabolise plant fatty acids,” said Tom Brenna, Professor of Human Nutrition at Cornell.

Source: Long term vegetarian diet changes human DNA raising risk of cancer and heart disease – Telegraph

Terror Attacks Cast Light on Belgian Identity Crisis – SPIEGEL ONLINE – “Spiegel joins ISIS in attacking Belgium and promoting German takeover?”

Fears seem to be greater in Germany about Belgium’s nuclear power plants than in the country itself. Belgians tend to get used to things, that’s the habit. They tend to respond in ways similar to Françoise Georis, who opened up her Bio, dis-moi organic supermarket directly across the street from Tihange, because this type of store didn’t exist within a 15 kilometer radius of the nuclear power plant. She says she’s pleased to have plant workers among her customers, since “not everyone has their heart in the job that they do.” In general, she says, her customers are more afraid of genetically modified food than they are of radioactivity. Speaking a week before the terrorist attacks, she said she hardly even notices the nuclear power plant — and that’s the case for most here.

Source: Terror Attacks Cast Light on Belgian Identity Crisis – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Donald Trump Warns of ‘Riots’ if Party Blocks Him at Convention – First Draft. Political News, Now. – The New York Times

Is he yelling “fire” in a crowded theater or just paraphrasing his heroes Stalin, Hitler and Il Duce?

“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically,” Mr. Trump said. “I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous, many, many millions of people.” He added:” If you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it but I think bad things would happen.”

Source: Donald Trump Warns of ‘Riots’ if Party Blocks Him at Convention – First Draft. Political News, Now. – The New York Times