What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Dashenka

He says he think the deal will be a train wreck.

I am getting worried now though. If anybody knows about train wrecks, it's him. He does have the experience to know a train wreck when he sees one.
Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals and I get my back into my living.

I don't need to fight to prove I'm right and I don't need to be forgiven.

Oniya

Quote from: Cycle on September 02, 2015, 06:35:33 PM
Just how stupid does he think we are?

Hey, it worked last time...

Besides, we aren't corporations.  Obviously, we can't be that important to him. 

#FeelTheBern
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17


Oniya

"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Lustful Bride

Apparently its a thing now where Americans are joining up with Anti-ISIS resistance forces and helping them keep control of their regions from the ISIS swarm.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-american-veterans-who-fight-isis-1441362601

More than 100 Americans (that we know of) have done this so far. I just want to say that these guys have balls big enough to block out the sun.  ;D

kylie

#1805
     Italy's top court released its detailed report on the March acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, in regard to the murder of Meredith Kercher in November 2007.

Quote
“The trial had oscillations which were the result of stunning flaws, or amnesia, in the investigation and omissions in the investigative activity,” the judges wrote in their decision...

Quote
The judges denounced as “illogical” the argument by prosecutors that there was not more physical evidence linking Knox and Sollecito to the crime because the then suspects selectively cleaned the crime scene, saying that such an act would have been impossible.

Instead of being wary of the lack of evidence, the panel said the lower court in Perugia that initially found Knox and Sollecito guilty in 2009 had ignored experts that had “clearly demonstrated possible contamination”. The lower court had also misinterpreted evidence about the knife that prosecutors argued was used as the murder weapon.

      Personally, I am quite impressed that Knox has gone on to speak for the exonerated and the erroneously prosecuted generally.  But often it's this sort of turbulent background, that leads to people being shaken enough to notice and examine the actually gaping holes in society. 


     

kylie

#1806
     Reports German intel has evidence of Isis using mustard gas against the Kurds in Iraq.
     

kylie

#1807
     Baltimore said to be planning to pay $6.4 million in settlement to Freddie Gray's family.

     And that's just for defusing the civil suit.  The criminal cases against the police officers involved are still pending.  The Baltimore Sun gives quite a few figures about how the city has historically chosen to allocate funds (and how not to) for civil cases regarding police violence, later in the linked article if you're curious. 

     It might appear that they are paying so much for this case in hopes of 1) avoiding still higher civil penalties should it go to federal courts and 2) perhaps convincing judges that the case should not be tried in Baltimore, because making that same settlement is often read by the public as presenting an admission of guilt regardless of defense saying they don't admit any.  Although I find that ironic -- why the interest in making such a move to help hussle the case out of town -- because your town is so obviously fed up with your police appearing so guilty?

Quote from: Baltimore Sun
The settlement — which is expected to be approved at Wednesday's meeting of the city's spending panel — will be paid out over two years, according to the mayor's office. The five-member board is controlled by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The payment is larger than the total of more than 120 other lawsuits brought against the police department for alleged brutality and misconduct since 2011.


     


eBadger

Quote from: Cycle on September 08, 2015, 11:26:31 AM
American volunteer killed in Nepal by the guy she met on couchsurfing.com.

Ugh.  These services were bound to draw the creeps and sleezes...

Tragic and horrible, but also a case of doing absolutely everything wrong.  From the sound of it, if it weren't for the cell phone and the guy's admission they wouldn't have any idea what happened to her. 

kylie

     I've used Couchsurfing a bit.  It's not all creeps by any means.  I've met people who were wonderfully kind and even run into friends from the past, who I didn't realize would host for such things.  But it does rely on people trusting each other, so there's always room for bad apples too.

     It's also sad it was a town like Pokhara, which is otherwise known as a pretty touristed place.  But the politics have been heating up terribly in Nepal last couple years.  Speculation, but I would guess that such disregard for life could be an isolated personal issue, and/or it might be somehow tied to the sense that locals and guides' lives and incomes have long been undervalued in service of foreigners (though perhaps you hear that much more around famous and high-risk places like Everest?).

   



     

Cycle

Draw a card from a deck.  If you get the ten of clubs, you die.  Anything else, you're fine.

To me, that's like using services such as couchsurfing.com

Really, why risk it?


eBadger

It's not just the service, although it doesn't thrill me; she was traveling alone/split away from her group, nobody knew where she was going to be, nobody knew what she was doing and it sounds like it was a month before anyone really knew she was missing.  That violates a lot of really basic safety precautions for travel. 

Oniya

Quote from: eBadger on September 08, 2015, 06:28:18 PM
It's not just the service, although it doesn't thrill me; she was traveling alone/split away from her group, nobody knew where she was going to be, nobody knew what she was doing and it sounds like it was a month before anyone really knew she was missing.  That violates a lot of really basic safety precautions for travel.

meeting someone that you've only talked to over the Internet.  Seriously - those are the kinds of precautions that I see recommended for women going across town for a date with someone from eHarmony, never mind sleeping on someone's couch halfway around the world.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

kylie

#1814
      People who do volunteer humanitarian work, and people who travel on a shoestring, and we might throw in people who travel to small villages in many agrarian or herder countries where building codes are nothing like what they are in downtown Western cities (though Pokhara probably isn't all quite there - maybe some of it is, I'm not sure) all quite often end up sleeping on someone's couch or staying in someone's attic and generally having very weak security.  I've done it a fair number of times. 

     I've had a camera taken and groaned about it, but I could have had my throat slit in my sleep.   I've been in converted rooms where anyone could have pretty well shouldered through the flimsy walls/door, and I didn't see another hotel of any sort in that village on the road into Tibet.  I've also been taken in by gaggles of Turks and Germans who were friendly as anything but I didn't know them until that day, and oh, you never think to ask whether they have exactly enough beds (never mind separate rooms) while you're talking about who are you and what exactly are you saying you'll show me and do you live exactly along the route I'm taking anyway...  I've slept in trains and minibuses in Eastern Europe and Mongolia on freezing nights, packed in with six to eight others at least in a tiny space where every time you move your legs, someone else seems to get offended but at least you're keeping each other a tad warmer - how secure is that.  And no one at the station bothers to ask in English, how many people do you think are going to be in that carriage btw.  Or there simply is no other bus going up across the country to where you're going. 

     For some people, this is nuts.  For some people, this is seeing the world and having real and raw relationships with the rest of it (I do plenty of staying in my room with my games these days, where I can afford to and I've already seen many of the sights and btw it's humid as anything here in August, and both locals and other foreigners pick on me constantly not that I mind, but it shows the expectations).  For some people, it's the only way to get from A to B without going broke.  Many, many people from poorer countries and even sections of society in Western countries very often end up traveling around sharing rooms with lots of people they don't know to be able to get into new places, for days or even months.  In fact, there are whole squads of foreigners packed into small rooms in many American cities.  I doubt they all know each other all that well, but that is how it is done all over when people are committed to get on with things.

     Sure, though she could have tried to cover more bases.  She probably should have tried to let someone familiar know where she was.  I don't know what her thinking was exactly about that...  Some of us don't like to always feel leashed to a base, though.  Even some women.  Go figure. 
     

kylie

    Cleveland to pay out $5.5 mil to family of Kenneth Jones shot by the police, in civil suit held in federal court.
     

eBadger

Quote from: kylie on September 08, 2015, 09:11:03 PMFor some people, it's the only way to get from A to B without going broke.  Many, many people from poorer countries and even sections of society in Western countries very often end up traveling around sharing rooms with lots of people they don't know to be able to get into new places, for days or even months. 

Hyup, I've been there and seen some of it, although you've apparently done far more than I.  But even for the poorest, traveling in groups is common, and having a clear destination and people who expect you to arrive is typical. 

Obviously, these are small things that won't remove every danger you've mentioned.  Murders occur in five star hotels with wifi and security guards.  Combined with some common sense and situational awareness, however, they do make a huge difference. 

Quote from: kylie on September 08, 2015, 09:11:03 PMSome of us don't like to always feel leashed to a base, though.  Even some women.  Go figure.

First off, the things I mentioned were drilled into me by the Corps.  They're guidelines useful for combat trained marines in peak shape, not a comment on gender. 

Beyond that, I can respect the desire for freedom, to be unaccountable and cut loose - in the raw is a good way of putting it.  I can also respect the spirit of adventure and daring that would send someone over Niagara Falls in a barrel; I just don't think it's a very good idea. 

kylie

     Even when you have a clear destination for yourself, there are many places in the world where there just aren't super secure accommodations unless maybe you have a lot of money to throw around.  And then there are quite a few really, where again there's just that one bus route and one ramshackle place to stay.  It can actually appear rather nicer to be sharing a room with someone or in some attic, in many cases.  If you're not familiar with the place and individual people, who knows which is really safer and you have to go on gut a lot.  I think that's probably often a part of doing volunteer or development work on a low budget.

     I wasn't saying that it's presuming women should always go it alone.  I just get tired of the bureaucratic tracking everyone, everywhere society too.  Particularly when it's often used to "track" and "advise" people into spending great amounts of money and for more conservative areas, being constantly guided and admonished about what makes you a 'proper' person (be it man, woman, or whatever).  You want safety?  It generally comes in degrees and probabilities not absolutes, yes.  How many Hollywood adventure movies follow a plot where stepping outside of your everday door or the 'safest' social role around, leads to all kinds of loss and perils.  But it's also true that the Western sense of safety presumes an infrastructure and economy and customs that in many places around the world, aren't there.  It doesn't mean they are all mid-90's Rwanda.  But yes, that can be the risk of really going anywhere 'outside.'
     

Oniya

I don't think it was necessarily 'bureaucratic tracking' that was being advised here.  More something like 'Hey, $volunteer_group, I'm going to be staying at $address with $some_guy.  I plan on showing up for a shift on $MMDD at ##:##.'
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Blythe

Woman arrested for trying to bite off a man's, erm, wossnames

...not what I expected to read in the news for my state this evening. >_>;

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Sherlock on September 09, 2015, 08:49:24 PM
...not what I expected to read in the news for my state this evening. >_>;
Only this evening?  ;)
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Blythe

Quote from: Cassandra LeMay on September 10, 2015, 09:53:16 AM
Only this evening?  ;)

My state is also the one that, a little while back, had that fellow who killed a man via an 'atomic wedgie.' I'm come to expect a certain level of 'weird' in my state news, but that article was a bit surprising.

consortium11

Jeremy Corbyn has just been elected leader of the Labour Party in the UK. And he won by a huge margin... 59% in the first round of voting.

What may be of interest to those in the US is that he was basically the Bernie Sanders figure of this election; a self-confessed socialist on the left of the party who conventional wisdom held was unelectable and was facing some big name establishment figures.

Oniya

Dame Vivienne Westwood visits David Cameron - in a tank!

QuoteThe 74-year-old came out in force to oppose the new fracking licenses which are being pushed through parts of northern England.

There is something inherently awesome (in both senses of the word) about a very dignified 74-year-old woman showing up in a tank.  This isn't the first time that she's confronted Cameron about fracking either.  Back in December, she and her son attempted to deliver a transparent (and sealed!) box of asbestos.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Dashenka

Cool action but utterly stupid.

Protesting against shale gas in a gas guzzling noisy tank is like demonstrating against whaling in a speedboat made of babyseals.
Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals and I get my back into my living.

I don't need to fight to prove I'm right and I don't need to be forgiven.