Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalActivists marking 100th anniversary of NAACP's silent parade see scary parallels
Organizer says unlike 1917 march against Woodrow Wilson’s civil rights failures, this had no demands but adds: ‘I don’t know that we’re in such a different space’
Jamiles Lartey in New York
@JamilesLartey
Saturday 29 July 2017 11.15 EDT
On a July day in 1917, in the face of a presidential administration seen as taking regressive steps on civil rights, nearly 10,000 black Americans walked down Fifth Avenue in New York. Wearing uniform clothing and carrying signs, demanding federal action over the lynchings of black men, they marched in total silence.
A century later, also clad in white, a much smaller group assembled outside Bryant Park on Friday. They were there to commemorate the occasion in a world, attendees said, that did not feel altogether changed.
“It just seems like we’ve gone in a circle,” said Sacha Dent, an educator from the city. “And it’s the same thing with not just things that are like lynchings and close to lynchings but just the hate … everywhere.”
The attendees held portraits of well-known victims of police and vigilante violence – Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice – and of people who lost their lives after traumatic encounters with the criminal justice system, such as Sandra Bland and Kalief Browder.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/29/naacp-silent-parade-100th-anniversary-march-new-york-city
The Left and Venezuela
CLAUDIO KATZ LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
JULY 30, 2017
During the last two months Venezuela has been faced with a terrible wave of violence. It has already resulted in more than 60 deaths along with looted schools, burned public buildings, destroyed public transportation and emptied hospitals. The major media, however, simply engage in a running stream of gruesome denunciations of the government. They have installed the image of a dictator in conflict with the opposition democrats.
But the statistics do not corroborate that narrative, especially when it comes to those who have fallen. When the number had risen to 39, an initial report pointed to only four who were victims of the security forces. The remainder had died in looting or shoot-outs within the opposition mobilizations. Another assessment noted that 60 per cent of those killed had absolutely nothing to do with the clashes.
These characterizations are consistent with the estimates that attribute most of the murders to snipers linked with the opposition. More recent inquiries report that most of the victims lost their lives through vandalism or settlements of accounts.
There are numerous denunciations as well of incursions by paramilitary groups linked to the Right. And there are indications that much of the violence enjoys local protection from municipalities governed by the opposition.
More:
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-left-and-venezuela
More hints of Martian hot springs may hold promise for Mars 2020 mission
One potential landing site appears to have ridges that hint at past hydrothermal activity
BY ASHLEY YEAGER
11:10AM, JULY 26, 2017
ANCIENT FEATURES Northeast Syrtis Major (shown) is a candidate landing site for the Mars 2020 mission. The bedrock in
the region is more than 4 billion years old. Certain ridges there may be the result of ancient hot springs, a new study of similar features elsewhere on Mars suggests.
Ancient hot springs may have bubbled up at a spot just south of the Martian equator. Left-behind mineral deposits described in a new study are not the first evidence of such features on Mars. But if confirmed, the discovery could affect where NASA’s Mars 2020 mission rover lands to start its hunt for signs of life.
The spot scrutinized in the new study is called Margaritifer Terra. This heavily cratered site with lots of fractures in its surface may have formed from magma or melting rock from asteroid impacts. Analysis of high-resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests not all of the site’s features resulted from volcanic activity or heavy hits to the Martian surface. Certain ridges along fractures in one of the region’s impact craters have mineral deposits that may have come from the upwelling of water from ancient hot springs, researchers report July 15 in Geophysical Research Letters.
Hot springs hint at hydrothermal activity. “That kind of hydrothermal environment is favorable to life on Earth, and may have been so on Mars, too,” says study coauthor Rebecca Thomas of University of Colorado Boulder. Chemical-rich fluids typically flow freely at hydrothermal vents, providing energy for life in a harsh environment. This habitat, Thomas says, can also lay down sulfur- or silica-rich mineral deposits, which are good at preserving evidence of life, most likely microbes in the case of Mars.
While it is unclear what type of minerals line the ridges analyzed in the study, the team suggests that because volcanic activity was in the area, along with evidence of flowing fluids, the deposits are probably the result of hot springs and thus rich in sulfur or silica.
More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/more-hints-martian-hot-springs-may-hold-promise-mars-2020-mission?tgt=nr
Fish cant recognise faces if theyre upside down just like us
26 July 2017
Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world
By Karl Gruber
Species: Japanese rice fish or the medaka (Oryzias latipes)
Habitat: Rice paddies, marshes, ponds and slow-moving streams in East Asia
Are you good with faces? So is the Japanese rice fish – at least, it is if the faces are the right way up. Just like humans, the tiny fish has no problem recognising faces orientated the usual way, but, again like us, it struggles when they are inverted. The finding indicates that the fish may have developed a unique brain pathway for face recognition, just as humans have.
We have no problem identifying most objects in our environment – say, a chair – no matter what way up they are. But faces are different. It is relatively easy for us to spot the differences between two faces, even if they are physically similar, if we see them in photographs the right way up. But if the images are upside down, telling them apart gets a bit tricky.
“This is because we have a specific brain area for processing faces, and when the face is upside down, we process the image through object processing pathways, and not the face-processing pathways any more,” says Mu-Yun Wang at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Until now, this face-inversion effect was considered exclusive to mammals as it has only been observed in primates and sheep.
More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2141907-fish-cant-recognise-faces-if-theyre-upside-down-just-like-us/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=ILC&utm_campaign=webpush&cmpid=ILC%257CNSNS%257C2016-GLOBAL-webpush-fish-faces
Pope Francis paving way for "Antichrist"
written by Adriaan Alsema July 27, 2017
An ultra-conservative university and television network director has fallen out of grace with Colombia’s Catholic church after claiming Pope Francis is a “false prophet” who is “paving the way for the Antichrist.”
The influential but radical Jose Galat, director of the Great Colombia university and Teleamiga television network, almost spewed fire when interviewed by Blu Radio about an impending papal visit to Colombia.
. . .
Galat belongs to the unofficial fascistic branch of the Catholic Church, once loyal to Laureano Gomez, Colombia’s only openly fascist president who was elected in 1949 and ousted in a military coup in 1953.
. . .
However, Colombia’s ultra-conservative Catholics like Galat continue to support a fascistic interpretation of Catholicism and conservatism, which is particularly popular in the country’s second largest city, Medellin.
https://colombiareports.com/pope-francis-paving-way-antichrist/
Skull of 1,000 year old Arctic chieftain's infant heir found encased in Persian bronze bowl
By The Siberian Times reporter
27 July 2017
Medieval child's remains buried with a knife and fur clothes for protection in the afterlife by mystery polar civilisation.
The skull pieces were discovered by archeologists above the Arctic Circle on the remote permafrost Gydan peninsula close to the Kara Sea in Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region.
Scientists last year announced the find of the turquoise-coloured bronze bowl fragment - originally from Persia, some 6,000 kilometres to the south - but now say that this unique discovery in the extreme north of Russia was part of an elaborate burial of a child from an elite family, aged no older than three when he or she died. Earlier the bowl was identified as a cup.
Archeologist Andrey Gusev, researcher at the Arctic Research Centre, Salekhard, suggested the child was born to a medieval polar potentate.
'We can definitely say that this child was not ordinary,' he said. 'He or she was from some wealthy family, judging by the things laid in the grave. The parents could afford quite expensive things, especially the bowl - it was imported.'
More:
http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/skull-of-1000-year-old-arctic-chieftains-infant-heir-found-encased-in-persian-bronze-cup/
'Defiant' ex-military contractor who stole secrets gets life in prison for sexually exploiting under
'Defiant' ex-military contractor who stole secrets gets life in prison for sexually exploiting underage girls
Paula McMahonContact Reporter
Sun Sentinel
JULY 21, 6:45 PM
The strange legal saga of Christopher Glenn – which stretched from Honduras where he abused underaged girls to his mom’s Century Village condo in West Palm Beach where he was arrested by the FBI – ended Friday when he was sentenced to life in federal prison.
Glenn, 37, is a computer whiz who spent most of his adult life working overseas and earning six figures as a private contractor for the Department of Defense.
But it all fell apart when he got caught stealing classified secrets from the military. The investigation into that revealed he had been using his position and wealth to sexually exploit vulnerable, poverty-stricken underage girls in Honduras. A jury convicted him earlier this year of committing multiple crimes against eight girls, including sex-trafficking of minors and sexual assault.
Prosecutors said Glenn – who acted as his own defense attorney, spending hours trying to justify his actions – had been flouting the law for his entire adult life.
More:
http://www.trbimg.com/img-59724e1b/turbine/fl-1500663321-7hngr5rrcj-snap-image/700/700x394
People and wildlife now threatened by rapid destruction of central America's forests
25-JUL-2017
'Human Footprint and Cow's Hoofprint' report shows illegal cattle ranching is responsible for more than 90 percent of forest loss in remaining wildlife strongholds
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY
NEW YORK (July 25, 2017) - Central America's largest remaining forests are disappearing at a precipitous rate due to illegal cattle ranching, oil palm plantations, and other human-related activities, all of which are putting local communities and the region's wildlife species at high risk.
A new comprehensive study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) titled the "Human Footprint and Cow's Hoofprint Analysis" was presented this month for validation and analysis by indigenous groups, protected area agencies, and civil society organizations from nine countries. This spurred the development of a joint commitment known as "The Petén Declaration." Signed by 25 of the attending organizations, the declaration recognizes the causes of forest loss and commits to concrete actions to address them.
One of the most alarming discoveries made by the study's research team is that the three largest remaining forest blocks in Central America have been reduced in size by more than 23 percent in the past 15 years. The study was conducted by WCS in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Organization of American States to understand and protect Mesoamerica's last great forests. Data for the analysis was collected using satellite imagery, census data on people and cattle/agriculture, publications, interviews, and via a megaflyover expedition: an ambitious plane-based survey across the region's largest forests.
"The disappearance of huge swaths of forests over such a short time period has grave implications for the indigenous peoples in the region and the natural resources on which they depend," said Victor Hugo Ramos, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the WCS Mesoamerica program.
More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/wcs-paw072517.php
Argentina and Chile Sing to Violeta Parra
Argentina and Chile Sing to Violeta Parra
By Maylín Vidal
Buenos Aires, Jul 20 (Prensa Latina) The pain, joy, injustice, her fears, feelings that Violeta parra shed through her songs, were extolled here in a homage that twinned again Argentina and Chile in an emotive evening.
The majestic theater Colon was witness to a historic concert in tribute to this great Chilean artist on the centennial of her birth, a magical night in a full theater with President Michelle Bachelet in the main balcony.
Two peoples so linked to the life of Parra got together to revere her extraortdinary art, one night, especially the eve, had as main protagonists her grandson and daughter, Angel and Javiera Parra, with the emotions on the skin.
'It hurts to admit that my homeland, for many years, turned its back on her, even when she was alive, her courage, rebelliousness, her way of creating without concessions, caused bitterness. Afterward, the dictatorship tried to deny her, hide her, break her', said Bachelet, main promoter of the tribute to the author.
More:
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=15839&SEO=argentina-and-chile-sing-to-violeta-parra
Lyrics of one of her famous songs:
Translation Notes:
1) Some inversion in this song, but thats nothing new.
2) Title: The title of this song is rather symbolic as it imitates the common Biblical form of thanking God in Spanish. As such I imitated the common form of doing this in English, Thanks be to God, and translated the title to Thanks be to Life.
Gracias a la Vida -- Thanks be to Life
Written by: Violeta Parra
Translated by: gift_of_song
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
---It gave two bright stars that when opened*
perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
---perfectly distinguish the black from the white
y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
---and the starry depths of the far off high sky
y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo.
---and in the multitudes the man that I love.
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me ha dado el oido que en todo su ancho
---It gave me an ear that within its width
graba noche y dia grillos y canarios,
---records night and day crickets and canaries,
martillos, turbinas, ladridos, chubascos,
---hammers, turbines, barking, rainstorms,
y la voz tan tierna de mi bien amado.
---and the oh so tender voice of my dearly beloved.
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me ha dado el sonido y el abedecedario
---It has given me sound and the alphabet
con él las palabras que pienso y declaro
---with it the words that I think and declare
madre, amigo, hermano y luz alumbrando,
---mother, friend, brother and shining light,
la ruta del alma del que estoy amando.
---the route to the soul of the one I am in love with.
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
---It has given me the march of my tired feet
con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos,
---with them I walked through cities and puddles,
playas y desiertos, montañas y llanos,
---beaches and deserts, mountains and plains,
y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio.
---and your house, your street and your courtyard.
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me dio el corazón que agita su marco
---It has given me a heart that speeds its beating
cuando miro el fruto del cerebro humano,
---when I look at the fruit of the human mind,**
cuando miro el bueno tan lejos del malo,
---when I look at the good which is so far from the evil,
cuando miro el fondo de tus ojos claros.
---when I look into the depths of your clear eyes.
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much
me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto,
---It has given me laughter and it has given me sorrow
así yo distingo dicha de quebranto
---in that way I can distinguish happiness from grief
los dos materiales que forman mi canto
---the two materials that form my song
y el canto de ustedes que es el mismo canto
---and your song which is the same song
y el canto de todos que es mi propio canto.
---and the song of everyone which is my own song.
Gracias a la Vida que me ha dado tanto . . .
---Thanks be to Life that has given me so much . . .
NOTES:
*Luceros: in Spanish this is an extremely poetic way to say "eyes," because it compares them to bright stars.
**I don't know how common this expression is in English so I wrote this note: when she says fruit, she's talking about the accomplishments or results that have come from the human mind.
http://lyrical-extasis.livejournal.com/1940.html
~ ~ ~
Wikipedia:
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the "Chilean New Song", the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile, becoming acknowledged as "The Mother of Latin American folk". In 2011 Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos).
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Parra
~ ~ ~
VIOLETA PARRA - Gracias a la vida ( Thanks to life) ORIGINAL version
~ ~ ~
Gracias a la vida, sung by Mercedes Sosa, also an incredible musical force from the same era, from Argentina, despised by the military dictatorship in that country for her political beliefs.
Her Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Sosa
INSIDE THE RAINFOREST'S MEDICINE CABINET
last updated:
20/07/2017
How can isolated and vulnerable rural communities prepare for catastrophic natural events and become more resilient in the face of climate change? This episode of Aid Zone takes us to Bolivia, where an EU-funded project is helping traditional healers share and enrich their ancestral knowledge.
When floods and other disasters hit isolated rural communities in Bolivia, traditional medicine is often all they have in terms of health care.
Over twenty indigenous communities are regularly flooded in the Amazon basin of Bolivia. That’s the case of Capaina, near San Buenaventura, along the river Beni. About 25 families of the Tacana ethnic group live there. Natural disasters can isolate communities for months, and traditional medicine then turns out to be the most effective first response to diseases.
Doña Juanita and Doña Antonia are curanderas, or local healers: they know how to use plants to look after people.
More:
http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/20/inside-the-rainforest-s-medicine-cabinet?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+euronews%2Fen%2Fnews+%28euronews+-+news+-+en%29
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