Last rhinos in Mozambique killed by fucking pussy poachers
The 15 threatened animals were shot dead for their horns last month in the Mozambican part of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also covers South Africa and Zimbabwe.
They were thought to be the last of an estimated 300 that roamed through the special conservation area when it was established as “the world’s greatest animal kingdom” in a treaty signed by the three countries’ then presidents in 2002.
The latest deaths, and Mozambique’s failure to tackle poaching, has prompted threats by South Africa to re-erect fences between their reserves.
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Yeah if you are a poacher or like to kill any animals or humans for fun, you are a fucking pussy and deserve to die a slow, horrible death.
~ Reverend Zepto, blogg.com
Marijuana Has Won The War On Drugs
(From www.businessinsider.com)
At least when it comes to marijuana, the war on drugs is over.
Two states have passed marijuana legalization laws that fly in the face of national drug policy.
Polling on the issue shows a rejection of prohibition. The opinions of law enforcement commanders has begun to shift.
Now, for the first time, when a marijuana lobbyist calls a member of Congress, they get asked for money, not hung up on, Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML told Business Insider. And, as St. Pierre was proud to point out, the man in the White House personally invented a new way to smoke marijuana in high school.
Times They are a-Changin’
Read more at businessinsider.com
Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up feds’ surveillance – or, FUCK the DEA
(from news.cnet.com)
Encryption used in Apple’s iMessage chat service has stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on suspects’ conversations, an internal government document reveals.
An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices” even with a court order approved by a federal judge.
The DEA’s warning, marked “law enforcement sensitive,” is the most detailed example to date of the technological obstacles — FBI director Robert Mueller has called it the “Going Dark” problem — that police face when attempting to conduct court-authorized surveillance on non-traditional forms of communication.
read more at news.cnet.com
Syria – 2012/11/29 – uploaded just before the internet was shut down – NSFW
“Yala ya shabab” its means literally “Lets go guys/men” in context it means “Get your asses over here and help”
“Sheelo hathda walad” means literally “take this boy out.” A lot of people are saying prayers out loud. He keeps repeating the time and date.
At 4:31, they all shout الله أكبر (allahu akbar), which, although it literally means “god is the greatest”, in this context would be loosely translated as “oh my god” or “holy shit”.
This is what man is capable of.
These are our brothers and sisters.
The video was taken in Aleppo, where the Syrian opposition and the Syrian government are fighting for control. This is from a rebel held neighborhood, and you’re correct in that the Syrian government has been shelling and bombing rebel held neighborhoods indiscriminately. Of course, its not entirely one-sided as the rebels themselves have been accused of using car bombs in civilian areas controlled by the government. Nonetheless, this particular video definitely highlights how civilians are caught up in this horrible conflict.
Civil War. The head of Syria’s government, a man named Assad, is a dictator. He is not a good leader, he does things the people don’t, violates human rights, and cannot be replaced by an election. The people of Syria decided they have had quite enough of their dictator, so they joined a movement known as the “Arab Spring”, and started protesting in the street demeaning that Assad step down from power. Assad declined to step down, choosing instead to begin killing some of the protesters. Some parts of Syria turned to rebellion and took up arms to fight back and try to violently over throw the government. Assad responded to this by ordering his air force to drop bombs on parts of the country,often urban areas, where those rebels are popular and have support. This video shows the aftermath of one of the bombings.
Savita Halappanavar’s medically unnecessary death
“This is a Catholic country,” was what Irish doctors told Savita Halappanavar after she learned she was miscarrying her pregnancy and asked for an abortion to avoid further complications. She spent three days in agonising pain, eventually shaking, vomiting and passing out. She again asked for an abortion and was refused, because the foetus still had a heartbeat.
Then she died.
She died of septicaemia and E Coli. She died after three and a half days of excruciating pain. She died after repeatedly begging for an end to the pregnancy that was poisoning her. Her death would have been avoided if she had been given an abortion when she asked for it – when it was clear she was miscarrying, and that non-intervention would put her at risk. But the foetus, which had no chance of survival, still had a heartbeat. Its right to life quite literally trumped hers.
US politicians and “pro-life” advocates like Joe Walsh will tell you that there are no circumstances under which women need abortions to avoid death or injury. The Republican platform doesn’t include an exception for medically necessary abortion. And the Republican party is trying to put laws similar to those in Ireland on the books in the United States – laws that would allow emergency room doctors to refuse to perform abortions, even in cases where the pregnant woman’s life or health depends on terminating the pregnancy. The GOP isn’t exactly the most science-friendly or fact-reliant crowd in the world, but to them, women like Savita either don’t exist or just don’t matter.
Traditional & Social Media Collide Over Obama/Romney Debate
(via dailykos.com)
This’ll be brief, but it’s interesting to me, and…well, this is where I write about stuff that’s interesting to me.
Today, in the digesting of the first Presidential debate, we are confronted with the collision of two nearly independent media realms: traditional broadcast, and the newly-risen social media, which have orders of magnitude more penetration, sophistication, and response speed than they did in 2008. And what we’re hearing from those two media realms is, for perhaps the first time ever, sharply divergent in relation to the same single event.
Traditional broadcast media: ”Romney won!!!!!”
Social media: ”Romney lied like a rug on every major topic he addressed, and here’s documentation.”
Now, don’t get me wrong: Romney swung for the rafters because he had to, Obama played it cautious because he could—but too cautiously, in the end— and so the “optics”, as pols and pundits like to say, were clearly in Romney’s favor. This, too, was noted in the record-breaking avalanche of tweets, liveblog streams and Facebook posts that tracked the debate in real time and continued after it.
But let’s face it: the traditional broadcast media has turned strictly into entertainment, and it needs a competitive horse race. So it was nearly impossible for Romney to lose this debate in their eyes, given how badly they needed him to win it.
What is interesting to me is that the sense I am getting of the emerging gestalt of the debate—the narrative understanding by the mainstream public—is a merging of these two story lines.
In other words: “Mitt Romney won by lying.”
Oil sheen mysteriously appears off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast
(via cnn.com)
An oil sheen about four miles long has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.
It was not immediately clear where the oil is coming from, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Tippets.
The Coast Guard found out about the oil sheen on September 16 after someone spotted it on a satellite image from the multinational oil and gas company BP, Tippets said. A Coast Guard response team went to the location to collect samples, and sent them to the Coast Guard Marine Safety Lab in Connecticut for testing. Test results are expected in a few weeks, Tippets said.
The service’s Marine Safety Unit Morgan City, in Louisiana, is heading up the investigation of the spill, which is in the part of the Gulf officially designated MC252. No one has reported any adverse effects on the environment or marine life, Tippets said.
The sheen is near the spot where, on April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded over the Macondo well, killing 11 workers and spewing oil that spread across a huge portion of the Gulf.
Gulf’s dolphins pay heavy price for BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill
(from rawstory.com)
A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America’s worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.
The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.
More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. The spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico and its coastline in what President Barack Obama called America’s worst environmental disaster.
Marijuana And Cancer: Scientists Find Cannabis Compound Stops Metastasis In Aggressive Cancers
(from huffingtonpost.com)
A pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco has found that a compound derived from marijuana could stop metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancer, potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever.
“It took us about 20 years of research to figure this out, but we are very excited,” said Pierre Desprez, one of the scientists behind the discovery, to The Huffington Post. “We want to get started with trials as soon as possible.”
Walmart to sell Genetically Modified Corn
Monsanto has developed genetically modified sweet corn, and it’s the first time that the company is doing this with fresh produce, as opposed to processed foods.
Activists have worked to try to keep it off store shelves, and its health effects are still being debated.
Read more at www.businessinsider.com
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This is just one more reason not to shop at Walmart.
Chick-fil-A agrees to end anti-gay donations, mandates equal treatment of gays
Article here: chicagophoenix.com
So hmmm… What to do. On one side, this is good to hear. On the other side, Dan Cathy is a bigoted asshole and should be fired for what he said, and Chick-fil-A should make a public apology to the world, AND every cent they made on the “I am a Bigoted Christian and I hate FAGS day at Chick-fil-A” should be donated to LGBT charities.
On second thought, Fuck Chick-fil-A and Fuck those bigoted asshats that must always try to control others.
Paul Ryan – Man of Lies
foxnews.com (jeebus – I never thought I would link to an anti Republican article at the FAUX NEWS website)
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There are more… Paul Ryan’s pants are certainly on fire.
Police State – Tampa Florida – now
These are police at the ready to stem and control protesters at the republican national convention (an event whereby the party leader is officially nominated for the eventual electoral campaign for presidency).
People who went to the convention with the intent of disrupting proceedings will most likely be detained until the convention has completed.
They have covered their names, and are wearing full body gear to obfuscate themselves in the event misconduct of theirs could be taped.
(from reddit.com)
Trapwire – NYT said it wasn’t a story. Then the story was banned
(via dailykos.com)
If you’re an activist, you can’t afford not to learn about the “cyber-industrial complex,” as someone at the CIA-linked firm In-Q-Tel called it last year. If you’re not an activist, you’ve got a couple more years until it effects you even more than it does already, in more direct ways that will nonetheless continue to be covert, and on your dime. Democratic institutions are being damaged in ways never before seen, usually without a word from the media. Many of those words are inaccurate to boot.
Trapwire surveillance linked to Anonymizer
( read the full article at darkernet )
Anonymizer, the company that brings you free anonymous email facilities, called nyms, as well as similar secure services used by activists all over the world, is actually owned by Cubic Corporations, the parent company that owns Abraxis, which in turn owns Trapwire. So, it’s possible, if not probable that all those activists around the world who believe their emails are safe may well be sending messages that go straight into Trapwire, the surveillance system that monitors activists. This could be lifted straight out of a political conspiracy movie – but it isn’t. Furthermore, Cubic Corporation runs transport smart cards around the world, including USA, Australia and London (Oyster card): a link with Trapwire too?
Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity has landed safely
https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232348380431544320
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/aug/06/curiosity-rover-mars-landing-live-blog
Today
Is national gay kiss day at your local Chick-Fil-A! Get your asses in there and show some love!
RIP Gore Vidal 1925-2012
“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return”
~Gore Vidal
