What's in the news?

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

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Caehlim

Adam Goodes, a professional footballer here in Australia, is being booed during his appearances on the field leading to him considering early retirement. (source)

This is believed to be because he called out a teenage girl for shouting racial slurs at him, resulting in the girl being removed by stadium security. He declined to press charges (although he could have) and asked the press not to harass the girl (they did anyway).

This is a man who has been awarded one of the most prestigious honours of the sport (the Brownlow medal for best and fairest) twice now. He was named Australian of the year in 2014 for his work in charity and campaigning against racism. Quite literally a national hero, now being jeered for not tolerating racism just because it came from a teenager.
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Drake Valentine

#1601
I'm surprise lion hunting in itself isn't illegal already.

Lions are already facing a high morality rate(especially males) upon their birth. Not all cubs will survive and it only worsens for them for the the ones that do, the males, that reach 'maturity' around age two. They are kicked out of their packs and forced to survive on their own, which is a tougher road than some may think ahead of them. There are manmade traps, human settlements, and then there is the rite of claiming a pride(term I think) of their own. This is not an easy feat either as it is often a fight to the death between the outsider lion and the current alpha of the pride. If the lion is successful, it only darkens further as he will infanticide all the cubs to insert his line of genes.

Then you have the hunters that prey on the lions, the lions that went through all these hardships, earned all these battle scars, only to be brought down through trapping.

There isn't that many lions left. 50 years ago there were around 400,000 and now and days there are 20 - 30 thousand and that is a lucky number.

Trophy hunters kill roughly 700 lions a year and these are generally males, which further handicap the population.

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Lustful Bride

I just heard that Friday the moon will actually look Blue in certain areas, Its a rare occurrence and wont happen again until 2018!!

Get your cameras ready everyone!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/29/world/blue-moon-july-31-irpt/

gaggedLouise

#1603
Quote from: Caehlim on July 29, 2015, 07:32:47 PM
Adam Goodes, a professional footballer here in Australia, is being booed during his appearances on the field leading to him considering early retirement. (source)

This is believed to be because he called out a teenage girl for shouting racial slurs at him, resulting in the girl being removed by stadium security. He declined to press charges (although he could have) and asked the press not to harass the girl (they did anyway).

This is a man who has been awarded one of the most prestigious honours of the sport (the Brownlow medal for best and fairest) twice now. He was named Australian of the year in 2014 for his work in charity and campaigning against racism. Quite literally a national hero, now being jeered for not tolerating racism just because it came from a teenager.

~sigh~ Teenage girls have a knack for winning the instant sympathy of many media outlets, even when they are spouting out silly, demeaning and injuring stuff at people they don't know. Even when some papers might admit the kid went too far, it seems to be a law that the girl can't get called out for what she said. At least not if she's looking good...

A teeny dancepop star from here, called Zara Larsson has  been driving some kind of media campaign styling herself as a champion of women's causes, but not by saying anything useful, mostly just by pushing venomously simplistic lines like "Hating men is a necessary, big part of feminism", "All males need to die a painful death", "How can you criticise that guy? You're white as fuck!" and the like, and firing off twitter feuds with various other stars in sports and music to fly her flag. Perhaps a good PR strategy to keep her in the public eye with her fans (who are mostly teenage girls) but it's not the least useful as feminist activism...

Last week Zara hosted a radio show all by herself, invited to talk and play records on national public radio. Of course a big part of it became a campaign spot. In a space of less than ten minutes, she boldly proclaimed "I hate men/guys/male pigs/what men do between raping and beating up women" about thirty times, and the show went on that way till I turned off the radio. Right. Occasionally in interviews she has hinted that by "hating men" she really means "I dislike the masculine social order" but she makes no real disctinction between those uh...separate senses; of course it sounds a lot punchier to rap out "I hate men" and imply that all men run around raping and abusing women on repeat and always act like they're on top of all women.

Most major newspapers seem to be 100% behind her, even lionizing her, and she's plainly considered untouchable. I'll add that part of her excuse for this kind of language is that she claims to have been targeted by foul and vengeful comments by lots of men on twitter and in comments to news pieces about her, but the evdience and examples she's offered of that kind of web venom, and that amount of real threats, are very flimsy, and it does look like she invited some fiery replies with  her own flamebait language.

The funny twist is that later in the programme, she proudly announced she would be working with Chris Brown for a few songs on her next album. Now what piece of news is Chris Brown most known for...? Beating up somebody, no? A female pop star? Last time I read about him in a paper it said he was "not allowed to enter Canada /from the U.S./ because of his many crimes..." ^_ ^ Not the kind of guy one would think a self-styled radical feminist media star would jump at cooperating with...

I really think the media should have been a little bit tougher here (not to mention the radio network), and put a few more questions to her about this kind of simplistic aggro-mongering, but a hottie teenage star is seen as standing miles beyond criticism, even if she's spouting out things she's going to feel embarrassed about in a few years time.  ::)

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Oniya

Quote from: gaggedLouise on July 30, 2015, 12:11:14 AM
The funny twist is that later in the programme, she proudly announced she would be working with Chris Brown for a few songs on her next album.


Hahahahaha! *iz ded*
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Dashenka

#1605
Quote from: Drake Valentine on July 29, 2015, 08:03:28 PM
I'm surprise lion hunting in itself isn't illegal already.

Lions are already facing a high morality rate(especially males) upon their birth. Not all cubs will survive and it only worsens for them for the the ones that do, the males, that reach 'maturity' around age two. They are kicked out of their packs and forced to survive on their own, which is a tougher road than some may think ahead of them. There are manmade traps, human settlements, and then there is the rite of claiming a pride(term I think) of their own. This is not an easy feat either as it is often a fight to the death between the outsider lion and the current alpha of the pride. If the lion is successful, it only darkens further as he will infanticide all the cubs to insert his line of genes.

Then you have the hunters that prey on the lions, the lions that went through all these hardships, earned all these battle scars, only to be brought down through trapping.

There isn't that many lions left. 50 years ago there were around 400,000 and now and days there are 20 - 30 thousand and that is a lucky number.

Trophy hunters kill roughly 700 lions a year and these are generally males, which further handicap the population.

The problem is that such throphies are allowed to be imported into most countries. You can't hunt in those countries itself but it's perfectly legal to go abroad and hunt and kill. If the US and the EU are banning all such trophies from being imported, there's no point in hunting them and we'll see a drop in hunting.

Why do you think the Siberian Tiger and the Kaluga are on the brink of extinction in Russia's far East? It's illegal to hunt them but the area is too big to patrol. Japan and China still have no import ban on such things so the Russian poachers kill the animals and ship them over to China or Japan and get good money for it.

Ban the trade and you'll put the poachers or hunters out of business.

Or give the normal tourists guns so they can shoot the hunters. With the American gun laws that shouldn't be a problem at all...


-edit-

Apparently the guy's fled his home and his dental practice days, I think are over.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/11769642/Cecil-the-lion-killers-Google-profile-flooded-with-angry-commemts.html

QuoteThrough his public relations consultant, Dr Palmer expressed his regret at killing Cecil and insisted that he believed he was on a legal hunt.

I don't see how that makes things better. Shooting animals for fun? They should have shot him in the leg with an arrow and then let him go home and finish him there.
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.

Lustful Bride

Quote from: Dashenka on July 30, 2015, 02:19:46 AM

Ban the trade and you'll put the poachers or hunters out of business.


No it wont, poachers and those creeps who cut open the animal and sell the parts on the black market will always find a way to keep on going. If it can be sold, killed, snorted, injected ,fucked, eaten, someone is finding a way to get it and use it.

Crimes don't stop just because you make em a crime, they just go into hiding. And that makes me sad, especially looking at how some people grind up rhino horns to make all kinds of shit, these poor animals being hunted to extinction just cause some idiot has never heard of Viagra.

Dashenka

Yes on the black market. But this (now ex) dentist just brought Cecil home as a trophy. You would at least get rid of that.
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.

Lustful Bride

Quote from: Dashenka on July 30, 2015, 09:27:59 AM
Yes on the black market. But this (now ex) dentist just brought Cecil home as a trophy. You would at least get rid of that.

Yes, a least. still sad and infuriating.

Cycle

I can't see any reason to try to put a positive spin on what Walter Palmer did.  He is filth.  Looking at the pictures of Cecil, there is an obvious and very regularly shaped indent/line in the mane, right behind the ear, that would suggest he was collared and hence warranting caution.  His "local professional guides"--the ones who lured the lion out the sanctuary--should also have been aware of Cecil's famous darker mane and at least paused to investigate further before proceeding to allow the filth to kill.  I have trouble believing that Palmer himself was wholly unaware of who was planning to kill.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03390/Cecil-and-lioness_3390402b.jpg
http://impressivemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Cecil-the-lion.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/07/23/11/2AC6A2DC00000578-0-image-a-14_1437647738627.jpg

It is hilarious that anyone who collects such trophies view themselves as "alpha males."  They're not.  If you need a trophy to feel good about yourself, then you are depending on a crutch. 

People who have real power and success do not need crutches.


Lustful Bride

Quote from: Cycle on July 30, 2015, 09:36:48 AM
It is hilarious that anyone who collects such trophies view themselves as "alpha males."  They're not.  If you need a trophy to feel good about yourself, then you are depending on a crutch. 

People who have real power and success do not need crutches.

That's it right in a nutshell!  ;D

Oniya

Quote from: Dashenka on July 30, 2015, 09:27:59 AM
Yes on the black market. But this (now ex) dentist just brought Cecil home as a trophy. You would at least get rid of that.

Actually, the hide and head were confiscated by Zimbabwean authorities.  So he doesn't even have that.
"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
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Cycle

If you look at a video of Cecil, it is even more obvious that the lion has something around his neck.


eBadger

Possibly another clue in the MH370 mystery, although unlikely to resolve as much as finding the actual crash:  http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/world/mh370-debris-investigation/

As for Cecil, his claim of ignorance is foolish.  If he didn't know what he was doing, he absolutely should have - hunting something like that, in a place like that, leaves a lot of onus to verify who you're working with and what you're doing.  You don't just nod happily at some random under the table deal in a foreign country and tromp off to claim that you didn't know any better. 

TaintedAndDelish


Just a different angle on this topic - I wonder how much of this pity for the lion stems from not living in an area where people are attacked by them?

eBadger

The Zimbabweans seem at least as ticked as we are, and probably far more so.  There are many phrases of 'beloved national icon' and 'star attraction'. 

Dashenka

Russia vetoes UN resolution for international tribunal regarding MH17

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33710088

I know many, if not all of you, will say... Told you so...

But still. I usually at least understand the Russian government but this time, I'm actually at a loss and deeply ashamed.

If Putin and the Russians are as they say (and which I believe) have nothing to do with it, why not have the tribunal, getting the Ukrainian rebels who shot down the airplane to justice.

???
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.

gaggedLouise

Concerning that other Malayisan Airlines plane, I really hope the piece of wreckage that washed ashore at a distant island off Madagascar can be identified soon, and that it's made clear if it is from the missing plane (and this sounds likely, so far).

It would at least confirm that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean, most likely between Australia and the southern polar seas, and was not whisked away to some mysterious location in Asia. It's a difficult story, but getting some kind of final confirmation that their loved ones are gone would bring a sense of closure to many of the relatives and friends, it would resolve the feeling of being in a vacuum.

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Dashenka

True. Experts already identified it as a piece of a Boeing 777 so it's 99% sure it's from Malaysian 370. They also found some bottles of water from China and Indonesia, adding to the conclusions.
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.

Cycle

Looks like Walter Palmer could be prosecuted under both Zimbabwe and U.S. laws.


TheGlyphstone

Quote from: Dashenka on July 31, 2015, 02:47:19 AM
Russia vetoes UN resolution for international tribunal regarding MH17

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33710088

I know many, if not all of you, will say... Told you so...

But still. I usually at least understand the Russian government but this time, I'm actually at a loss and deeply ashamed.

If Putin and the Russians are as they say (and which I believe) have nothing to do with it, why not have the tribunal, getting the Ukrainian rebels who shot down the airplane to justice.

???

Probably because they don't see any good outcome, whether to the tribunal itself or just details revealed during it. The rebels/separatists were using Russian military gear, and not the old outdated Soviet crap either. So either the Russian military was voluntarily supplying them, or else they have serious corruption/leaks in their supply chain that were selling off current-generation miltech in bulk. Neither of those make the Kremlin look good, so they might as well just can the whole thing even if they weren't specifically involved in the jet incident. It's the political variant of the old saying "better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt'.

Drake Valentine

Quote from: Cycle on July 31, 2015, 04:28:01 PM
Looks like Walter Palmer could be prosecuted under both Zimbabwe and U.S. laws.

That is good news, hope they do similar with the latter on the other two people that were involved.

"When I'm Done With You, You'll Be a:
Raped, Bloody, And Humiliated, Little Alice in Wonderland."

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Thumper

Quote from: Drake Valentine on July 29, 2015, 08:03:28 PM
I'm surprise lion hunting in itself isn't illegal already.

Lions are already facing a high morality rate(especially males) upon their birth. Not all cubs will survive and it only worsens for them for the the ones that do, the males, that reach 'maturity' around age two. They are kicked out of their packs and forced to survive on their own, which is a tougher road than some may think ahead of them. There are manmade traps, human settlements, and then there is the rite of claiming a pride(term I think) of their own. This is not an easy feat either as it is often a fight to the death between the outsider lion and the current alpha of the pride. If the lion is successful, it only darkens further as he will infanticide all the cubs to insert his line of genes.

Then you have the hunters that prey on the lions, the lions that went through all these hardships, earned all these battle scars, only to be brought down through trapping.

There isn't that many lions left. 50 years ago there were around 400,000 and now and days there are 20 - 30 thousand and that is a lucky number.

Trophy hunters kill roughly 700 lions a year and these are generally males, which further handicap the population.

Few mammals will actually fight to the death over breeding rights. The desire to spread their DNA is not as strong as the desire to live.

That said I don't want to see any species go extinct at our hands. Which is why proper policing and effective conservation plays such a large part in sustaining animal populations. However I also try to remember that ninety nine point nine percent of all animal species over the course of the history of our planet have gone extinct. And ninety nine point nine nine nine etc ad nausme went extinct long before man came along. No we should not be part of the problem. But at the same time we need to understand that extinction is going to happen. And sometimes it happens for a reason.

Deamonbane

The thing is, humanity has been present for what is being described as a mass extinction of many species that had no business being extinct. The only reason why they are is because humans are either hunting them to the point where their genetic diversity won't sustain them, or wrecking their natural habitat, making them undergo either the dubious process of adapting to living around humans, or migrating. Both of which mean decimation to their numbers.
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Thumper

I don't disagree that is occurring in some cases. And likely will in some parts of the world regardless of regulation and conservation. We are an invasive species. Though our conservation efforts have had a huge positive impact at least in my part of the world.

My point is that it's not going to be the end of life. Eventually we will either get our act together or we won't. Regardless of our outcome nature will survive and an equilibrium will eventually establish itself again. The damage done will correct itself after we've either fixed ourselves or caused our own extinction.