Society's Child

BP oil spill: Dolphins plagued by death, disease years after rig explosion

The Huffington Post Canada
Wed, 12 Feb 2014 12:49 UTC

© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
A pod of Bottlenose dolphins swim under the oily water of Chandeleur Sound, La.. Oil giant BP PLC's oil rig exploded April 20, in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers.

Missing teeth. Lung disease. Extreme hormone levels.

Four years after BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, gushing some 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the region is rife with death and disease, according to a major U.S. study.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is the first of its kind since the devastating spill.

"I've never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals," lead author Lori Schwacke of the Medical University of South Carolina noted. "There is disease in any wild population. We just haven't seen animals that were in such bad shape as what we saw in Barataria Bay."

The American dream is dead

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Fri, 07 Feb 2014 08:00 UTC

"The U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity. But today, that dream is a myth."
Economist Joseph Stiglitz, Financial Times

If you follow the financial news, you already know that the American people are on an epic downer. Just check out some of these headlines I pulled up in a five minute Internet search and you'll see what I mean:

"Gloom and doom? Americans more pessimistic about future" Las Vegas Review

"U.S. Standard of Living Index Sinks to 10-Month Low; Expectations for future standard of living drops more than current satisfaction" Gallup

"Americans Still Pessimistic About Economy - Almost 70 percent think the economy is in bad shape" Time Magazine

'Slipping behind': Are we becoming a nation of pessimists?" NBC News

Income Inequality in the United States Fuels Pessimism and Threatens Social Cohesion" Center for American Progress.

And here's my personal favorite:

"NBC/WSJ poll: 60 percent say fire every member of Congress" NBC News

Spanish supermarket offers free bread and water to customers

Anne Sewell
Digital Journal
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 08:37 UTC

Every Tuesday for the whole of this year, customers will be queuing at 9 a.m. for the 200 free bottles of water and complementary bread on offer to Eroski supermarket customers in Carcaixent. They hope to help needy customers get by.

The Eroski food store is located in Carcaixent (Valencia), and starting on January 7 this year, staff began to hand out the 200 bottles of water and baguettes to customers who are having problems making ends meet in the continuing economic crisis.

While you might think it would be homeless people queuing for the offer, it is actually customers who regularly buy from the supermarket. They have to show a till receipt from a previous purchase (no matter how small) to get the special offer.

The manager of the store told El Mundo, "A queue forms before we open up the store, people want to make sure they get their basic goods."

"Others who notice the line outside the supermarket don't mind waiting in line for a while either as soon as they find out there's free bread and water," he added.

Filmmaker who documents Taiji dolphin drives detained in Osaka

Elizabeth Batt
Digital Journal
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:21 UTC

Osaka - BBC filmmaker and personal friend Martyn Stewart has been detained at Kansai Airport in Osaka on his way to document the dolphin drives that take place in Taiji, Japan. Stewart, known for his powerful filming, is being accused of eco-terrorism.

The filmmaker and producer of compelling short documentaries such as Dawn to Death, wrote several hours ago on his Facebook page:

I am locked in a cell room at Osaka airport waiting on an appeal to the high minister regarding my entry into Japan. I'm accused of being sea shepherd and an Eco terrorist, my footage is not liked in Japan apparently and have been accused of assaulting members of the public.

In 4 years of being here for the dolphins I have maintained the law and abided by their rules. My words and pictures did the rest. The government of Japan will do anything to protect the rights of the fishermen of Taiji and the barbaric treatment of the animals involved.

Please share far and wide to bring awareness to this corrupt government and those that want to continue to brutally treat these amazing animals. The condition I'm in and the treatment I have received is nothing short of criminal.

Stewart left for Japan yesterday - a trip he makes every year as part of an ongoing campaign to shed light on the annual dolphin massacre that occurs in Taiji between September and March every year.

The bigger the lie: Fund-raising video invents '$3000 fine for being gay in Russia'

Natalia Makarova
RT
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:22 UTC

The Sochi Olympics has attracted many protests. One, the Fair Games Project, launched an awareness campaign to support Russia's LGBT community with a high-profile ad asserting that being gay in Russia costs $3,000 in fines... Wait, really?

The Fair Games Project sent out their Public Service Announcement, titled "Russia Declares Discrimination Newest Olympic Sport," on February 6, a day ahead of the Sochi opening ceremony.

In the clip, scenes of a happy gay couple celebrating a birthday and subsequent marriage proposal are followed by the same two men violently beaten on a football pitch by players to general applause, as a crowd of viewers wave Russian flags.

The two-minute video, which also features the song "Freedom" by King Avriel, concludes with an ominous caption reading: "In Russia, the punishment for being gay is a $3,000 fine." A series of slides lists other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Uganda and Iran, where being gay is a crime. Various types of punishment, ranging from imprisonment to public stoning, are recounted.

Comment: See also:
Homosexuality is illegal in 14 U.S. states - It's legal in Russia

Ex-cop acquitted of killing homeless man chased out of restaurant by angry residents

RT
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:20 UTC

If a recent night out at Denny's is any indication, public life may not go back to normal any time soon for one California police officer even after being acquitted of murder.

Former Fullerton, California, police officer Manuel Ramos was one of two officials accused of beating a homeless schizophrenic man named Kelly Thomas to death back in 2011. Thomas was beaten and tasered multiple times during the confrontation, which left him in a coma. He died five days later in a hospital bed.

In a controversial trial that ended in January, both the 39-year-old Ramos and former Corporal Jay Cicinelli were found not guilty.

Although Ramos has been spared jail time, the rest of his public life looks like it's going to be more complicated, at least in the short term. Ramos doesn't live in Fullerton anymore, but some time after his acquittal he found himself visiting a local Denny's restaurant in the area, and local diners were not pleased to see him there.

According to a blog post by Orange County Weekly, Ramos was confronted by customers sitting next to him to the extent that he stood up and left the restaurant. A photo was also snapped of Ramos and posted on Facebook, with the caption reading:

Tory council charges £7.50 a sandbag and MP refuses to meet flood-hit residents

Melanie Vass
Bournemouth Echo
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 12:30 UTC

Angry residents in a flood-hit flat block have blasted a "total lack of support" from Christchurch council and their MP, saying they have been forced to buy their own sandbags.

Residents in Conifer Close - some of whom were evacuated on Christmas Day - say they are the "forgotten corner" of Christchurch and living in fear of further flooding.

Residents say they requested sandbags from the council but were told they would have to purchase Floodsacks at £30 for a pack of four.

Today, as the Government insisted councils shouldn't charge for sandbags and the cost would be met centrally, Christchurch council clarified their position saying they don't charge for them in an emergency and if the Environment Agency put out a red warning, they will provide them free of charge.

A spokesperson said at the moment people are concerned and are requesting them just in case, and in instance they charge £30 for a flood pack.

Residents at Conifer Close have suffered flooding issues since Christmas Day.

And yesterday, while PM David Cameron promised that "money is no object" when it comes to helping flood victims, Conifer Close residents told the Daily Echo they have had to buy their own sandbags and plastic sheeting.

They have also asked for help from their MP Chris Chope, but say he has not accepted their invitations to visit them.

Romania protests plan to develop Rosia Montana gold mine

DW.de
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:48 UTC

Thousands of people have turned out in Romania to protest plans by a Canadian company to develop Europe's biggest gold mine. The open-cast mine would involve the use of cyanide and the razing of four mountains.

An estimated 4,000 people demonstrated in the capital Bucharest, 3,500 people took to the streets of the northwestern city of Cluj and another 600 demonstrated in Timisoara to demand the mine project in Rosia Montana be dropped. They also called for the government to resign. Protesters marched past government headquarters on Sunday shouting "Your treason is measured in gold!"

The mine is believed to contain 314 tons of gold and 1,500 tons of silver which would be extricated in a couple of decades, according to the project plans.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta had opposed the project when he was a member of the opposition but is now backing it. The bill clearing the way for the mine to be developed has yet to be approved by parliament.

In commemoration of Chelyabinsk cometary event, Olympic gold medal winners on February 15th to receive medals inlaid with shards of recovered meteorite

sportable.is
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 06:48 UTC

In what should be filed under: ''most impressive Olympic medal news ever,'' Sochi brass have announced that all gold medals to be handed out on Feb. 15 will be embedded with shards of meteorite.

The move will mark the one-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor strike, which injured nearly 1,500 people.

"We will hand out our medals to all the athletes who will win gold on that day, because both the meteorite strike and the Olympic Games are global events," said Chelyabinsk Region Culture Minister Alexei Betekhtin.

Comment: It appears that the Russian craftsmen didn't just embed shards of Chelyabinsk meteorite into the medals... they first polished and cut the shards, then added lithographic engravings.

Chinese organizers of the 2008 Summer Games must have thought they'd set an impossible standard when they achieved a first by presenting medals inlaid with jade...

2008 Olympic Games Medals 'Gold inlaid with Jade' to be processed by June

The special design - gold inlaid with jade - requires two materials for the medals for the first time in Olympic history.

But they've been outdone by the Russians!

The Gig is Up: UK Energy secretary to raise concerns about political consensus breaking down as other parties denounce bad science of climate change

Rowena Mason
The Guardian
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC

© Danny Lawson/PA
Ed Davey says 'climate change denying conservatism' could create a diabolical cocktail that threatens the structure of UK climate change and energy policy.

Energy secretary to raise concerns about political consensus breaking down as other parties denounce science

Britain's climate change policy is under threat from a "diabolical cocktail" of nimbyism, denial of science and fear of Europe from politicians on the right, the energy secretary will say on Thursday.

Amid growing warnings about a potential link between global warming and extreme UK weather, Ed Davey will raise concerns that the politicial consensus about the need to tackle climate change is in danger of breaking down as some in the Conservative and Ukip parties try to discredit the science.

He will say that the actions of climate deniers are "undermining public trust in the scientific evidence for climate change" and that "we can see around us today the possible consequences of a world in which extreme weather events are much more likely".

Comment: The poor guys are stuck in their vacuum of a false dichotomy: Anthropocentric CO₂ emission based global warming versus denial that anything out of the ordinary is happening with local AND global weather. While the Met's Julia Slingo seems to have the sense to connect the local weather changes to the global situation, she is still speaking from the warming perspective. Astute observers will have noticed a slew of climate anomalies which negate their fairy tale bubble; such as the growing knowledge base that we are rapidly cooling and also witnessing a steep rise in global extreme weather, sinkhole, volcanic and meteor activity.

See: Extreme weather events and Earth Changes in March 2013

Did the asbestos laden control tower collapse into it own footprint too; from the jet fuel?

Jibrish

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JTF Truth

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DeliciousTears

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Rowan Cocoan

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LadyRad

Society's Child

BP oil spill: Dolphins plagued by death, disease years after rig explosion

The American dream is dead

Spanish supermarket offers free bread and water to customers

Filmmaker who documents Taiji dolphin drives detained in Osaka

The bigger the lie: Fund-raising video invents '$3000 fine for being gay in Russia'

Ex-cop acquitted of killing homeless man chased out of restaurant by angry residents

Tory council charges £7.50 a sandbag and MP refuses to meet flood-hit residents

Romania protests plan to develop Rosia Montana gold mine

In commemoration of Chelyabinsk cometary event, Olympic gold medal winners on February 15th to receive medals inlaid with shards of recovered meteorite

The Gig is Up: UK Energy secretary to raise concerns about political consensus breaking down as other parties denounce bad science of climate change

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