Insights

Privacy

2010-06-01T22:22:00.002-04:00

Scratch that plan, they have simplified privacy settings. The previous post still applies and application settings still have to be customized. But it's easy now to control who sees your information. Check it out. I'm pleased with the change, for once.

D.I.Y. - How to REALLY make your facebook page private: Account Settings Privacy

2010-05-11T08:42:00.008-04:00

More changes came to facebook recently and it's more confusing than ever to make your facebook page completely private. They've made many new settings and have them all on automatic to be seen by "Everyone." Yes, that means if you don't change your settings and your potential new employer looks you up, seeing that old profile picture of you wildly shaking your groove thang, hammered on Mardi Gras, will be a cinch. I've had a lot of people ask me, "How do I make my facebook private?" Having changed the settings for family and friends I thought I'd make a post about how to do it yourself. There are several places you have to go to control your privacy; account settings, privacy settings, applications, and photos. And as a bonus I'll throw in some helpful tips about getting rid of annoying application invites and how to stop seeing farmville all over your newsfeed. I'll make a series of posts that address each of these settings. Today it's account settings privacy (notifications, e-mails, and advertising).

Account Settings Privacy:

From the drop down menu "Account" located at the top right corner of any Facebook page choose the link "Account Settings."

Notifications/E-mails
This has less to do with privacy and more to do with, in my opinion, convenience and annoyance. If you are tired of getting e-mails for everything you can change those settings in the "Notifications Tab." There you can check or uncheck depending on whether you want to receive or not receive e-mails for different actions that occur on facebook. Remember, if you uncheck everything you won't get any e-mails but you will always get notifications at the top left corner of the screen, next to the search box, and whenever you sign on you can check that. And new page, application, and group invitations will be shown on the right hand side of the screen, above the ads.

Facebook Ads
Now this does have to do with privacy, but more so for advertising than for people you don't know seeing your page.

Ads shown by third party applications
Facebook allows your information to used by third party advertisers. They say they don't allow you picture or name to be used yet (yes, they say in the future they may change their rules). So here you can stop them from using your information to sell products. You aren't being paid, so why let them? So here, under the title "Ads shown by third party applications" there is a drop down menu "Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to ... [drop down]." Click the drop down and choose "No one" then "Save changes"

Ads shown by facebook
Facebook uses your activity and information to show advertisements for Facebook on Facebook. Again, just don't like the idea of my information being used or purposes I didn't explicitly agree to. So to change the settings scroll down. "Show my social actions in Facebook Ads to ... [drop down]" choose "No one" and save your changes again.

Check back soon for the next privacy how-to. You should be in control of how your information is used, not Facebook.

Yep, the justice system is officially flailing. Taser much?

2010-04-29T20:19:00.005-04:00

A teen who forgot to return a DVD to the library was arrested. There was actually a warrant out for his arrest and when he was pulled over for speeding the cops booked him (read the blogged story here). That is outrageous and a complete waste of time and money.

It's up there with the teen who was arrested for doodling on her desk. The horrible marks she made in erasable marker were, "I love my friends Abby and Faith." Or the middle schooler who was arrested for farting and being a general pain by turning off his classmates computers. How about the 10 year old boy who was tasered by cops at a day care. Are you kidding me? Two fully grown adults couldn't subdue a 10 year old child? What kind of training are we wasting on these cops that makes them so incompetent and lazy that they can't grab the kid by his shoulders, sit him down, and help him to chill the eff out.

Ok, I'm on a roll now with these stories. Police tasered a 16 year old boy who had fallen 30 feet off a bridge and broken his back. Yes, that's right, they showed up to the scene, saw the boy lying there motionless and tasered him. Not once, but 19 times and didn't call an ambulance right now. I am a certified lifeguard, but even before taking that course I think it's common sense that you don't shock someone who just fell off a bridge. First step? CALL AN AMBULANCE!

Speaking of the inability to do their jobs, Maryland police officers (thankfully caught on video) jumped off their horses after a college game and attacked a student. The video clearly shows he did absolutely nothing to provoke any sort of response. In fact, right before being attacked he is seen merrily skipping and as he gets close to the horses he stops and moves back towards the wall. You have to check out the video and read the full story.

An out of control 5 year old in New Jersey was arrested for tearing papers off the walls and not calming down. She was even handcuffed. A 5 year old? Clearly the child needs to be talked to, or maybe she needed to run around the field a few times and scream. Let her get her energy and frustration out. There are ways to calm down a kid or let them wear themselves out, which they will, after a crazy hissy fit. There is no need to call in police officers and those police officers should not be arresting her. Cops either should not be allowed to respond to calls about unruly children or they ought to get proper training, like the same training child care professionals and teachers go through, to learn how to deal with children. I hope none of these guys are parents.

Here's my final crazy arrest story of the day. A 12 year old boy was arrested for opening a Christmas present early. The mother and grandmother told him not to open the present. Being the rebellious 12 year old he was, he did it anyway. His mom threatened to call the cops and so he gave her the present back. She called them anyways and he was arrested and charged with petty larceny. Give me a break. Ground the kid, that's what parents are supposed to do. Granted, in this story it sounds like the kid was a real pain in general, but I think this is a problem for a child psychologist or a special educator for children with behavioral issues, not the police. Don't have the cops parent your children, because as this blog shows, they do a pretty shitty job of it.

*I don't think cops are inherently taser happy, shitty baby sitters, or bad people. I do wish that the good guys out there would be up in arms and make some changes because these guys are making you all look like a bunch of incompetent morons that I wouldn't trust to feed my cat.

Alternet has a great blog about the racial discrepancies in the justice system. Very interesting, check it out.

Comments

2010-04-28T16:13:00.002-04:00

People often feel that the veil of invisibility on the internet allows them to say whatever they want, no matter how mean, ridiculous, or shitty. Often it's things people wouldn't even say in real life.

And on a slightly different note, the divide between "liberals" and "conservatives," between "republicans" and "democrats" is so outrageously exaggerated that our country will never make any real progress towards improving our schools, tax system, immigration, or healthcare until people begin to have real discussions. Why must you subscribe to "this" or "that" school of thought? It doesn't make sense, there are many ways of thinking. The government cannot work for the good of the people because there is a power struggle based on chauvinistic and masculine structural inequality that has been pervading the Western world for hundreds of years. It's a struggle between two sides of the same coin (ie, Republicans promise a "whale fight" no matter who Obama puts up for Supreme Court Justice). This struggle only slows down the progress of the people and diverts attention from really important issues that affect our daily lives and the health of people and the planet. Most of this has had a history of benefiting and increasing the profits of large corporations. All of this seems to succeed through extremely convincing propaganda in the media.

We all should do our own research, looking at all sides of biases, read the arguments of what you don't agree with with an open mind. Listen to people and ask questions. Abiding strictly to one way of thinking because someone told you to is not effective and it doesn't do anyone justice. I find that the most frustrating thing about political arguments, why don't we listen to the voice not represented by the forced majority? I say forced majority because perhaps if it there was more choice people wouldn't abide so strongly to being either heads or tails on one coin. People too easily believe anything they read or hear, why not do research if you feel affected by it? Even on Facebook when people repost Amber Alerts, why not look up to see if that Amber Alert is real? Often it's a hoax. As soon as you start doing that you start to see what you really believe and how you really feel about issues. What's more important to you, really? What issue actually affect you and what laws are either hurting or helping you? And I don't mean what they news says, I mean what you think and what research you've done into what's really happening. Always remember the news is a business and no matter how much journalistic integrity a news station might have, they can't and don't tell you everything. So never stop wondering, researching, reading, listening, and asking questions.

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. - Paulo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed

We too are ethnocentric and we often forget that we represent not the absolute wave of history but merely a worldview, and that modernity -- whether you identify it by the monikers Westernization, globalization, or free trade -- is but an expression of our cultural values. It is not some objective force removed from the constraints of culture. And it is certainly not the true and only wave of history. It is merely a constellation of beliefs, convictions, economic paradigms that represent one way of doing things, of going about the complex process of organizing human activities. - Wade Davis

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. - Buddha

Politician political correctness

2010-04-28T15:22:00.003-04:00

Maybe the reason nothing ever gets accomplished in politics these days is partly because politicians must act like perfectly polished puppets. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was overheard calling a woman he has just been filmed having a discussion with "bigoted" (read the story at the NYT). Maybe the woman was bigoted. Maybe too many people are bigoted and that's a major problem we should discuss. Does the woman need an apology? Of course, she was insulted publicly by the Prime Minister of Britain. But does there need to be a blow out of news coverage because it was so inappropriate to call anyone bigoted?

And be honest, how many people walk away from someone and complain, "Man, that guy was such an asshole." It's not shocking or surprising. We seem to forget politicians are real people. Real people who have to pretend to be these shining examples of moralism and good ethics, no wonder so many people consider politicians to be lying scumbags...in some ways we force them to be.

Political correctness is a term treated with a mix of frustration and relief. Many think people are being too sensitive and others believe changing our rhetoric is important to stopping prejudice. Perhaps we need to think about it with both these view points in mind and one more. What do these terms really mean and what are they doing?

In the case of Arizona's new immigration law they've replaced some terms for others. Alternet has an article about this very idea

This explains how last Friday Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill into law that basically says, “Cops can use the color of your skin as one factor for demanding proof of citizenship,” and then went on to tell reporters that “racial profiling is illegal.”

This is the age of political spinning, of wide spread propaganda feeding the media.

Being political correct can be important and recognize negative rhetoric while making a conscious effort to be more aware of the implications of certain terminology (think stereotypes). However the real issue perhaps is what people individually mean by what they're saying. When Brown called that voter bigoted he may have been addressing a bigger problem (that he perceived) about people being closeminded (the voter complained about Eastern European immigrants). And instead of focusing on prejudice and what we can do about it, the media has turned to the fact that he used the word "bigoted."

Political correctness is lacking one key feature. We don't address the why and search for the source of the problem. We have to dig deeper and think about the wider implications of what and why we say what we do. Calling someone a faggot, for example, is not only offensive because we think of it as an insult but it's offensive because of the history of the term. During the Spanish Inquisition (beginning in the late 1400s) heretics were burned at the stake. These people ranged from accused witches to followers of Judaism. Bundles of sticks (also known as faggots) were carried to the stake and the people designated to carry these sticks were more often than not homosexuals. When there wasn't enough sticks (or so the story goes) the homosexuals were then used to fuel the fire. This is perhaps where the crossover came from faggot meaning a bundle of sticks to being a derogatory term for gays. So this term carries a lot more weight than most middle schoolers are aware when they jokingly call a friend a "fag." We should be aware of what we're saying and where it came from, particularly when it's an insult or a stereotype. I remember first learning that tidbit on gurl.com when I was in middle school, it completely changed the way I thought about words and dialogue.

So, being politically correct is important but we must know why. And being politically correct shouldn't mean we can't say what we feel and freely discuss bigotry and prejudice.

Now go read Inga Muscio's book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence to learn about a term that is now derogatory but did not start out that way.

Comic books and tolerance

2010-04-27T23:12:00.002-04:00

Now this is what I'm talking about when I talk about cross cultural communication, peace, and generally chilling out. A comic book called "The 99" works to dispel stereotypes about Muslims. Check out the article here on CNN.com.

Born Free...maybe

2010-04-27T23:00:00.005-04:00

If you haven't heard about Arizona's newest immigration law (<--pdf link) I suggest you read this ABC article featuring a sheriff with the ca-hones to say he won't enforce it. It's legal racial profiling. To sum up the new law, any person suspected of being an immigrant can be arrested if they aren't carrying papers with them. That means anyone with an accent, darker skin, or a Mexican flag on their backpack has to carry their "papers" on them at all times. There are many many Americans who will be profiled under this new law, there are many many people legally here that will be profiled under this law, and maybe if they're lucky they'll find one or two illegal immigrants. The immigration system is flawed, not the people who want to come here. This is a country of immigrants, immigrants who trampled on the land of the original indigenous population (and in fact still DOES trample on Native American rights, but that's another post altogether), but a land of immigrants nonetheless. I hope the courts find this law to be unconstitutional because it's outrageous that such a law was passed. Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this is the state that in 1987 rescinded Martin Luther King day and didn't reenact it until 1992. It's a sad week for human rights in Arizona (and Oklahoma)

Updates on the backlash (4/29):
An Arizona police officer is suing the state for the right to not enforce the law.
Students in Arizona speak out against the new law, hoping to kill it before it goes into action this summer.
The stats that are being used to support the law are wrong, the truth tells another story.
Obama is against the new law and top lawyers are working on ways to challenge the law.

Healthcare

2010-04-27T22:54:00.004-04:00

Just to clarify on my previous post on healthcare because the title is misleading. I support healthcare change, I support a healthcare revolution. I believe some change is better than no change at all. I always wonder why not redirect taxes already taken from the American people and put it towards useful services like education and healthcare. An educated and healthy society is a productive (and hopefully happier) society. No one should lose their house because they get sick. And lawmakers shouldn't be telling us how healthcare should be when they have the cadillac of health insurance plans and are influenced by lobbying from the medical corporations.

Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping away women's rights?

2010-04-27T22:12:00.003-04:00

Abortion is no woman's first choice. We don't wake up in the morning, have a cup of coffee and think, "Oh, I hope I get pregnant today so I can have an abortion next month." Oklahoma apparently thinks women don't take it seriously. The Oklahoma Legislature approved (by overthrowing the governor's vetoes) two new laws on abortions, "one of which requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion" (NYT). And "no exceptions are made for rape and incest victims." Another piece of this terrible measure "prevents women who have had a disabled baby from suing a doctor for withholding information about birth defects while the child is in the womb" (NYT).

This law unconstitutionally invades a woman's right to privacy. They are considering another measure that would force any woman getting an abortion to fill out an intensive survey on why she is making that decision, and then post the results of those surveys online. Doctors are not in the position to judge and should not have the right to withhold information from patients. That goes against the Hippocratic oath. Patients have rights.

How much overpopulation can this world take? How many more unwanted children can our society support? How many more intrusions on rights will we stand for? When will we start looking at the source of problems?

The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as:

Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

This law is not free of coercion and the inability to sue doctors for withholding information is certainly breaking the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.

A woman, who normally has to do a bit of soul searching when first she found out she was pregnant and then had to decide what to do, now also has to be grilled by doctors and the government? Even a child, or a victim of incest, or a rape victim would have to go through these intensive measures after all the trauma they experienced. What about women who are victims of abuse? And even if the law was to integrate such measures it still would not be effective or right.

These laws are being made by people who do not understand the complex workings of human society. They cannot seem to grasp that there are many women in situations where they cannot care for a child, let alone carry a pregnancy to term (which is a dangerous and expensive venture at that). There are emotional, physical, and economic reasons. But these justifications do not need to proven in a court to a bunch of white collared law makers. It's a personal choice, albeit a difficult one. They cannot be measured out, weighed, and judged. We too often forget that life is not black in white, you do not stand on one side of the line or the other. Our creativity and capacity for compassion are extremely hindered by this thought process. The point is that in our lives, we all deserve freedom of choice.

an animated christmas card

2009-12-28T09:40:00.001-05:00

No to Healthcare DEform

2009-12-16T00:17:00.005-05:00

Having noticed the CNN headline "Obama: Health care reform passage is near" I nearly freaked out. It's a watered down version of something that could have made a difference. This bill basically prohibits abortion by not giving any subsidies when plans cover abortion (currently 87% of private insurancers cover it). So if insurers continue to cover it, low income people will not be able to use those plans because they won't be able to use subsidies towards them. Obama barely addressed the abortion issue, except to say that we are carrying out our country's tradition of not federally funding abortion. Why is that our country's tradition? The government should not be able to put their moral 2 cents into how we spend our insurance coverage, particularly when the procedure is LEGAL. I'd say it's much more immoral to use the impoverished as political pawns. I suppose though, in order for a society based on structural inequality to continue existing, it must continue the tradition of subjugation. Governments function best as small municipalities, where the possibility of true democracy can still exist. Truly, we should be looking towards our past and our future to discover the many different ways of living that could allow us the cultural (and political) diversity that this world needs. The fact that a small group of elected officials can decide the fate of an entire (and huge) country seems ridiculous.

And it will basically force every American to have health insurance, sure that sounds like a good plan, but not every American can AFFORD health insurance. Hence, even with some subsidies to help with payment, there will still be impoverished Americans unable to afford the health insurance they are being forced to obtain. They will either have to purchase insurance or have a 2% tax increase, although there is no guarantee that the increase will pay for what you need. And then what about those who are unemployed and/or homeless so they pay no taxes on their income? Do they, the people in the most dire need, get health care under the federal program? These questions need to be clarified.

The bill will partly paid for by taxing plastic surgery. A move that has been called sexist and discriminating. Plastic surgeons have expressed their unhappiness with the move. The majority of plastic surgery patients are middle-class women (86% of plastic surgery patients are women). In a society that rewards the youthful (literally, women who are perceived to be more beautiful make more money), where we are constantly bombarded by an unrealistic ideal of beauty, women are trained to seek that perfection, often in the form of plastic surgery. I am not a huge supporter of cosmetic plastic surgery but I understand the desire. There is no clear line in this bill as to what is considered cosmetic surgery and what is considered reconstructive (where does gender reassignment fall?). I fear that that someone who needs a lot of reconstructive surgery may be taxed for the certain procedures that work towards improving their appearance yet may have no medical benefit (perhaps even after a catastrophic accident).

The bill's cost for 10 years is equivalent to the cost of one year of the Iraq war. I am so endlessly frustrated that our government would pay for a war to try and "stabilize" a country halfway around the world, instead of take care of their own people in this country. The people pay for that war with their taxes, yet have little say over the direction of those dollars. I am outraged that the news has not brought any of these inconsistencies to the forefront of the discussion.

I want health care reform, I support universal health care (let's divert the war dollars to take care of what really matters: health care, education, and enviornment). Quite frankly, the current system sucks. I'm lucky to live in a state that has a good program for low-income individuals (and as a recent college graduate in a terrible job market I certainly fall under that category). However, my parents are not so lucky. Although this year two of their children are no longer under their health care plan, the rate per month stays the same. They will always pay an outrageous sum per month for their insurance, even when it is only supporting the two of them.

Basically the bill uses low-income and middle class women as pawns in a political war. It's a watered down symbolic gesture. It's a gesture that fails because rather than say "We are America, home of the American dream, and we take care of our citizens" it says, "We are America, and we would rather blow up your citizens than give health care to ours." AND it includes a move towards overturning roe vs wade. NO NO NO. Take out the discriminatory elements and I could maybe get on board as a first move towards health care reform. As it stands, like communism, it was a good bill in theory but it will never work.

Physics Advice...from Tiger Woods??

2009-12-13T00:54:00.004-05:00

Tiger Woods, the newest thing for the media to leech onto. Forget about the surge in Afghanistan and the fact that when Obama accepted the Noble Peace Prize he said that war was sometimes necessary for peace, rapid climate change, or even at a more superficial level forget about the horrendous breech of privacy on the part of facebook's newest downgrade. The real shock and horror in the world is that Tiger Woods cheated on his wife and got busy with a lot of other ladies. It's really no big deal to ANY of us. Yeah, I get it, we love gossip. The real tragedy to me though is, that a book found in his crashed SUV has been flying off the shelves now. It's an out of print book about physics, yes, let's follow Tiger Woods' lead. He clearly is a real genius in the sciences. Too bad his latest experiment ended in a moral fail and an epic crash. Sweet.

Facebook Privacy - Update or downgrade? Reduces many privacy controls.

2009-12-11T00:57:00.006-05:00

I haven't posted in a hot minute, but here's one. This is a letter I wrote to facebook because I was so annoyed that I had to spend over a half hour changing my privacy settings so that my profile was completely private again. I already did that the last time they had a major update.

You might have updated some privacy settings in a positive way but there are options that allowed for better privacy that are now gone. Such as the ability to customize what searchers see, rather than just who searches. For example, before I could choose to have searchers see no profile picture, only see "Mutual Friends" and not "All Friends". Now I can't choose because it's all lumped into one category. Honestly, excuse my crudeness, but it's bullshit. And having Everyone be able to see the pages I am a fan of is also not right, I don't want people to publicly affiliate me with pages I choose to privately be a fan of, whether political, religious, or funny. I will no longer be using the "Fan" option, of anything, because I don't want to broadcast it to the Facebook World.

My biggest peeve is that I can't control what is shown on my wall and news feed. Before I could choose to not display relationship changes on my wall. I didn't have to tell everyone that I liked or commented on someone's wall or status. I didn't have any real problems with the previous facebook changes, but this one will most likely dramatically reduce the amount of time I spend on the site. I don't want to spend an extra 10 minutes after every facebook session deleting posts on my walls about what I did while on facebook. Who I talk to is my business, and clearly I'm not saying anything incredibly private on someone else's wall, but I don't need it to be easy for someone to follow what I do so closely. Although, I do like that I can control who comments on my posts and who can see what my friends post on my wall. I know that to stay competitive and meet demands you have to continually update your services, but I'm shocked by this update. It's a step back, not forward. It took me at least 30 minutes to update all of my privacy setting to prevent Everyone from seeing my page. And as the only Kristance Harlow on facebook, and perhaps anywhere, I have to be careful about what gets associated with my name. There is no one else that it could be confused with. I'm very disappointed and you probably won't even read this or care. So, I'll be posting my critique in other venues as well. Perhaps it won't make the biggest difference in the world, but I think it should be heard.

I may be choosing to use your site and I don't have to make that choice. We pay you through the advertisements you get because of the traffic on your site. Without users like me there would be no facebook. Please consider these critiques and bring back some of the customizable privacy settings. Perhaps there could be a "Basic" privacy setting page, such as there is now, and an "Advanced" page to control specific settings within each grouping. Such as the Basic for "Photos and Videos of Me" would be as it is now, allowing you to choose who sees both of those. The Advanced would let the user control the privacy settings for the Photos Tagged of Me and the Videos Tagged of Me as separate entities.

Stop with the ridiculous changes, this is not twitter, nor do I want it to be. I don't want to share my private profile with the world, before I didn't believe what people were saying about the new update (like how it encourage sharing with Everyone), but now I do. Frankly, it's crap.

NOTE*
Everyone: you must change your privacy settings for almost everything. After clicking on several of the "suggested friends" I've noticed that many people's photos tab are no longer friends only, and the profile pictures as an album are ALL set to "everyone" and I can see many non-friends' personal info, the only privacy that hasn't changed is the inability to see other people's walls. So, you might want to change those settings asap.

twitter

2009-11-09T03:02:00.002-05:00

When I don't have time to update this blog with awesomely interesting news and events, I'll be tweeting. I'll post links to news and sites that if I had time I'd be writing about. So check out my twitter: twitter.com/krispymints.

Hollywood superstardom, of course it overshadows

2009-09-23T13:31:00.003-04:00

In the making of Eat, Pray, Love the movie, Julia Roberts is upsetting the locals in India where she is shooting. We have become so ethnocentric, no, we have become so famouscentric that anything to do with the media and movies and money, overshadows the real world. The issue is that it is currently some scenes are being filmed inside a Hindu temple during the festival of Navratri, a very important 9 day long Hinduism religious festival worshiping the Goddess Durga. And what's ironic, or perhaps not so in our famouscentric world, is that the book Eat, Pray, Love is a story of a woman who is quite the opposite of this alleged inconsiderate behavior. I can't say I'm surprised though.

Are we really still interested in her?

2009-09-23T13:14:00.006-04:00

Sarah Palin delivered a speech to investors in Hong Kong, well, that makes sense seeing as she's studied so much business, signal eye roll. She's a half-term governor whose outspoken moral values do not even jive with what appears to be her personal moral life. I don't mean to be 'one of those people' who goes and talks about her daughter becoming pregnant, because I am not here to judge that, however she had the opportunity to be a realist conservative, and to help bridge the divide between liberal and conservatives. However, she has continued to stand for abstinence only education and her home town charged women for rape kits until 2000. And this is in a state that has the highest rate of rape and the highest rate of women murdered by men. I have a hard time respecting her as a woman who has accomplished a lot when she seems to have such little respect for her fellow women. Reminds me a little of a speech I attended at Mount Holyoke College by the anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly. I went wondering what her perspective was, and I left unbelievably angry when she refused to answer my questions about violence against women. She alluded to the idea that lots of the women had it coming, or more precisely that we should just wait longer for conclusive evidence before protecting women who finally come in with a claim of abuse. I think there are few times in my life where I have been as angry. Yes, there are the sad minority that probably abuse the justice system, but the truth is the majority of domestic abuse cases are never even exposed. We need to be there for victims of abuse and not judge and blame them for their situation. It is not our place to change the past (ie, telling a woman she shouldn't have gone after the bad boy), but rather help others gain personal agency to improve their future and their now. Damn, self-righteous, ignorant, close-minded &#%*@es. /rant

Justice system = EPIC FAIL

2009-09-13T22:51:00.005-04:00

Not that the justice system failing in any country is news, but I wanted to post another ridiculous (and true) story about it. A family was attacked in their home, held hostage, and told they would die if they did not go along with their captors' demands. At one point this family was able to overtake their captors and attacked them in return. One of the burglars suffered severe injuries such as a cracked skull. Now the father has been found guilty of a crime and may face a heavy jail term and other members of the family are on trial for the same crime of "inflicting bodily harm with intent." Not only will the victims of the original crime be punished, the burglar/kidnapper will most likely be receiving monetary compensation for his injuries. While the attack back may have been excessive, shouldn't we at least just call it a wash since this guy was threatening to kill this man's children? When your loved ones are threatened and held hostage who knows how you'd react. Should we have to censor our actions in a situation where your adrenaline is all we're surviving on, when you and your family may die, all because you're afraid you'll f%!@ up the kidnapper too badly? I'm not sure, but I definitely label this specific case: epic fail.

Save the Bushmen

2009-09-13T20:54:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't know about the plight of the Bushmen, I will fill you in. The Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana are part of a 100,000 year old culture. They are part of the oldest culture in modern human history, their non-materialistic hunting and gathering lifestyle has survived colonialism, wars, and climate changes. Now, however, our materialistic and increasingly globalized and corrupt world is trying to destroy the Bushmen and force them from their ancestral lands. They were removed to settlement camps, just as the Native Americans were and the Aborigines, where the people were exposed to AIDs, alcoholism, and violence. In 2006 the courts ruled that their removal was unlawful, however, their deplorable living conditions have continued as the government has offered little help in transporting the people back to their homes. They also have not allowed access to their water borehole, nor have they allowed them to hunt as they promised.

Cultural diversity is just as important as biodiversity. This planet will die if we continue to allow cultures to die (along with them dies wisdom, healing ideologies, philosophies, languages, the uniqueness of humankind). It's not right, and we cannot sit and do nothing. So I implore you to realize how your life is playing a role in the war on cultural diversity. Support different ways of living. Plus, the world would be hella boring if we all believed in and liked the same shit.

Reinvision how we live - don't try and stop nature

2009-08-28T22:21:00.002-04:00

Bill gates and other scientists are proposing a method to stop hurricanes by bringing up cold water from the sea depths to slow down the momentum of a hurricane that is fueled by warm water.

Does anyone else see a problem with this? Are we going to continue to try and control the earth's natural cycles? Or are we going to recognize that we need to change our way of life to be in harmony with it? Because I tell you, I think nature is going to win out eventually.

Put my docu on youtube

2009-07-20T21:16:00.000-04:00

In the summer of 2007 I lived in Himalayas of India and taught Tibetan Buddhist Nuns English. This is a short documentary about that journey.

Mayhem State

2009-05-04T00:14:00.003-04:00

Check out the rough trailer for the web series "Mayhem State." It's a series about college students, for college students, and by college students. My class produced the series this past semester, it should be airing online in the fall!

Shaken & Stirred - a positive message wins college video contest

2009-04-30T03:13:00.004-04:00

The University of Vermont's Health Center has announced the winners of what will hopefully be an annual video contest. Students finished the sentence "The life I live looks like..." through videos that showcase living a fun life without excessive alcohol use. I was the student voice on the judging panel and while every entry was interesting, creative, and note-worthy in their own right, I am especially excited to share the Grand Prize winning entry. "The Real Groovy UV" is a hip-hop/rap music video by a group of students. There's a nasty technical issue where the video is frozen and the audio is just a lot of scratchy noise (not the fault of the contestants) from :19 to :54, so skip ahead of that.

These guys have some serious marketing talent. As a soon to be UVM alum, I can say it paints a pretty accurate picture. Can't decide where to go to college? Ch-ch-check this out.

Author says book is influenced by growing up around cannibals

2009-04-28T21:35:00.005-04:00

One of the top read stories on CNN.com has a catching headline, "Best-selling author shaped by cannibals, Christianity." The article is a short piece about Ted Dekker, a Christian thriller writer, and his childhood. We are all shaped by our experiences, and Dekker's childhood memories are valid insofar that they have played a role in how he now understands the world. However, this article is an outrageous mockery of news reporting with little journalistic integrity.

Eric Marrapodi, the reporter of this story, blatantly perpetuates harmful misrepresentations of indigenous peoples in the first two lines of the article.

Ted Dekker spent his formative years living with cannibals. It's a helpful background for an author who writes novels about serial killers.

The parallel Marrapodi draws between cultures with cannibalistic rituals and serial killers is outrageous. The continued existence of cannibalism myths in the media is a symptom of cultural inequality and gross misrepresentation. I do not deny the existence of cannibalism in Papua New Guinea, nor in other parts of the world, but the conversation on it is mainly a practice in stereotyping and defining groups as taboo, horrifying, and human flesh feasting sub-humans.

"I grew up in one of the darkest places in the world you can imagine, in [the] jungle, with cannibals. I know we have certain images in our mind when we talk about cannibals, but we're talking about animism, heavy spiritualism, tremendous amounts of fear," Dekker says.

This is the most ridiculous descriptions of a place that I have ever read. Perceiving the jungle as dark and bad is a dualistic conceptualization that draws rigid lines between "us" and "them". Such dialogue only tries to express superiority of one way of thinking over another. The social dynamics of a culture cannot be understood by juxtaposing dominant and marginalized discourses. Animism is the belief that souls don't only exist in humans, but also in animals, plants, even geological features like volcanoes. Heavy spiritualism is dark? Dekker's parents were Christian missionaries, obviously very devoted to their religion, that is very heavy spiritualism.

Indigenous identities have been suppressed and damaged by hundreds of years of colonization. The image of the cannibal is part of of this. This image has long been used to justify racism and point out difference.

Ted Dekker tries to inject [the] remembered anxiety [of hearing about two people being cannibalized when he was 6 years old] into his work. "I grew up in this environment, and it affected the way I viewed light and darkness. My parents brought into that very dark [and] ominous setting hope, light, penicillin, hygiene. The culture changed dramatically, not as a result of Christianity -- at least not upfront -- but as a result of them bringing into a very dark place hope and light. My stories reflect that paradigm shift."

The truth here is that Dekker never let go of a dramatized version of his childhood and has been successful in exploiting that. Letting go and growing up would require recognition of the Kangime as a beautiful human culture whose practices were and are just as valid as his Christian heritage. He would have to de-romanticize them and see them as unique people with individual hopes, dreams and memories and whose understandings of the world are shaped by their own cultural and personal experiences.

The other truth here is that Eric Marrapodi confuses taboo and criminal cannibalism with culturally accepted ritual cannibalism. In the 1960s and '70s there were a lot of trials in New Guinea where people stood on trial for cannibalism. Many were acquitted because the practice was not wrong in the eyes of their communities. There are few, if any, societies left today where cannibalism is an accepted ritual. That doesn't change that the rhetoric of cannibals as blood-thirsty savages is biased, prejudice and perpetuates the marginalization of minorities.

The postcononial guilt has recognized victimization of indigenous peoples sometimes to the point of robbing them of their agency by interpreting the noble savage as having an inherently indigenous way of thing about the world without individual autonomy. Cannibals have not yet fallen under that romanticized ideal and instead are used for a dualistic dance to further civilize all those who aren't involved in what the dominant culture perceives as disgusting, horrific, and primitive. This historical and cultural construct of the savage native has pervaded our minds for too long. These constructs have become more than an imaginary perception into a serious reality played out everyday, like in this news article.

A journalist has a responsibility to be non-biased in his or her reporting. Bias is impossible to completely get rid of, but definitely don't use prejudice stereotypes. The factual-type language he uses (such as "true-life horrors" and "living with cannibals...[is] helpful background for...writ[ing] novels about serial killers") is ridiculous. He wrote this as if it was a common sense, non-prejudice, everyone-can-relate kind of idea. You get an F on this one Marapoddi, better luck next time.

I could go into my views on missionaries, but that's a whole other blog.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

2009-04-23T06:24:00.003-04:00

I just watched the film, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and bawled my eyes out. You need to see that, and you need to see Life is Beautiful if you haven't already.

This CNN article references a college freshman in California who had never heard of the holocaust. That shocked me. There have been a lot of atrocious crimes committed by mankind, and they must be remembered and hopefully people will wise up and they will never, ever, be repeated again. It's okay if you don't know about something, even at the risk of sounding dumb, ask about it. Or look it up. Read. Talk to people. Engage and open your mind and be willing to change your mind.

Plan B Available to 17 Year Olds

2009-04-22T23:16:00.003-04:00

Oh wow, if you are only a year away from being of age you can now get plan b. Underage pregnancies are just as big a deal (if not more of one) as unplanned/unwanted adult pregnancies. This is a step in the right direction IMO, but it should have happened long ago and be not only for 17 year olds. If a teenager has sex, they should have the right to decide what to do about the consequences. The effects of the human population growth on the environment is outrageous, and the news should be what we need to do to bring it down (::cough::lowerbirthrates::cough::). It's about using multiple approaches. And Plan-B is NOT abortion, which to me wouldn't matter anyway because I'm pro-choice. I'm from the Empiricism school of thought, all knowledge arises from experience and the attempt to justify controlling other's lives with your ideas is just a lame attempt to exert power. That's just my two-cents though.

Man arrested for Burlington pillow fight

2009-04-21T23:11:00.002-04:00

About a week ago a friend of mine sent me an invite to a "Burlington Pillow Fight Flash-Mob" on Friday, May 17.

Bring a pillow and a container in which to conceal it. Assemble on the street as if you were loitering, do not acknowledge anyone else participating. Our host will shout 'pillow fight' and we will all spontaneously break into a big miasma of feathers and pillows.

There will be a pre-event meeting outside Radio Bean around 5pm. Be there and enjoy.

UPDATE: GUIDELINES

+ Soft pillows only!
+ Swing lightly, many people will be swinging at once.
+ Do not swing at people without pillows or with cameras.
+ Remove glasses beforehand!
+ The event is free and appropriate for all ages.
+ Wait until the signal to begin.
+ This event is more fun with feathers!

Over 50 people gathered before hand to discuss safety and logistics before heading down the pedestrian shopping street, Church Street. Dan Cassler, the group admin and flash mob organizer, blew a whistle to star the fight and another one to end it 90 seconds later. I wish I had been there to see it. Everything went fine until Cassler was arrested for starting a pillow fight. The utter ridiculousness of this is mind boggling, especially in such a liberal, creative, and unique a city as Burlington. Performances are a regular occurrence on Church Street once the weather is nice enough to hang around outside. This was no different. I hope the judge laughs in the face of the prosecution and dismisses this as a case of Debbie-Downerism on the case of the arresting officer.

Myth: Eskimos have 100 different words for snow

2009-04-20T20:25:00.003-04:00

I'm here again to shatter your belief system and tell you, Eskimos do not have hundreds of different words for snow. In fact, anyone who knows anything about Inuit language has ever said they do. (And the word Eskimo, according to linguists and according to Alaskan Eskimos, is not always offensive so put away your liberal political correct knee-jerk reaction for a minute). This myth about the numerous words for different kinds of snow is not based on any fact at all. It's actually a pretty stupid myth that doesn't make much sense at all. Snow to a culture that lives in the snow would pretty much just be what it is, like how sand is just sand to someone living on the beach. And we also have a lot of "words" for "snow", blizzard, sleet, hail, avalange, flurry, dusting, powder snow, hardpacked snow, snow drift, etc, etc.

Before you foward everyone on your contact list that interesting fact your Aunt Sue sent you, just google it. This bit of advice applies to safety warnings, virus alerts, pictures with amazing captions, and so called facts.

Don't be worried about this grandmother living alone: an 86 year old beat and captured a burglar in her home

2009-04-17T18:05:00.002-04:00

This little old woman found a burglar in her UK home and didn't take it lightly. She approached him by the fridge and smacked him with her cane. She continued to beat him until he started cry. After directing the weeping thief to a stool she called the police.

When the police came they were killing themselves laughing. My niece arrived and said [she] looked like a schoolteacher with a naughty child.

Who says old age equals vulnerability to being taken advantage of? This spunky 86 year old is the definition of bad ass.

Google - Changing the world one auto-suggestion at a time

2009-04-10T23:28:00.004-04:00

We all know about google and how they auto-suggest and auto-correct search entries. Most of the time this consists of suggesting the search entry "Brad Pitt" if you start to type "Brad " or telling you "Washinton" is actually spelled "Washington" and giving you the option of searching again with the corret spelling. However, this isn't the only feature of Google's auto-suggest

When I typed: "it is easy to" the suggestions were inspiring and insightful quotes:
"it is easy to welcome innovation and accept new ideas. what most people find difficult however is accepting the way these new ideas are put into practice."
"it is easy to forget how perfectly life works out. when you are down you believe that things never work in your favor. but if you look back you see that in many cases things happened exactly the way they needed to."
"it is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you."
"it is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion it is easy in solitude to live after our own but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

The entry "it is not" has these suggestions:
"it is not our darkness but our light that most frightens us"
"it is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
"it is hard enough to remember my opinions without also remembering my reasons for them"

Is Google trying to influence readers by offering up sprinkles of wisdom? Maybe they're trying to inspire and change the world one Google-Suggestion at a time.

Billy Bob and his immature hissy fit on a Canadian radio show

2009-04-09T10:54:00.006-04:00

Have you seen this interview with Billy Bob Thorton? There are no words to describe his bitchfit. All I can say is WATCH IT and you will see the ridiculousness. He is totally unprofessional and childish. Comparing himself to Tom Petty is insulting to Tom Petty and just a sad attempt to steal the glory of classic and talented bands. He also says that playing for Canadians is like having mashed potatoes without gravy, does he not realize he is on a Canadian radio show having an interview for his Canadian fans? Moron.

Watch the temper tantrum unfold:

Favorite Things

2009-04-07T14:35:00.002-04:00

This is my first short film. It's an experimental animation. Film, animation and graphic art can be made without owning an expensive program. I drew my animations in PowerPoint, captured it with IShowU, recorded audio with GarageBand, and put it together with iMovie HD.

Vermont Legalizes Same Sex Marriage

2009-04-07T13:33:00.004-04:00

Vermont's House and Senate voted Tuesday to override the governor's veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. (CNN)

As a Vermonter I've always been disappointed that our forward thinking state hadn't legalized same-sex marriage after being the first state to recognize civil unions. I jumped for joy when I read this headline. I was feeding my Facebook addiction and celebrated by giving the Thumbs Up to all the statuses that were feeling the positive vibes of equality. That is, until I came across one very negative review of these recent changes. "It's a sad state of immorality for Vermont. I'm ashamed of those who voted for it. They need to read leviticus."

I can get down with other people's beliefs. Everyone is coming from a different place and has a different perspective. "Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit" (Wade Davis). BUT, blaming immorality on not reading Leviticus? Give me a break. Even if you are Christian, Leviticus is the most ridiculous chapter in the whole Bible.

You may condemn homosexuality by using Leviticus 18:22

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

If you're going to go that path I have a few more rules I hope you're enforcing:

Don't eat shellfish or any water-dwelling creature that doesn't have scales. (Leviticus 11:9-10)

Diagnose skin rashes via a priest. (Leviticus 13:1-46)

Don't plant a field with different seeds and make sure to throw out that polyester/cotton blend sweater because you can't wear clothes with two kinds of material. And don't let your cows roam around in the same field as goats or horses, cattle can't graze together. (Leviticus 19:19)

Put down that razor and those scissors and stop shaving your beard and cutting your hair! (Leviticus 19:27)

I sure hope you aren't for strict immigration laws because you're supposed to treat them as your native-born kin. (Leviticus 19:33)

Kids who mouth off to their parent's should be put to death. (Leviticus 20:9)

People with physical defects (including little people, hunchbacks, and the blind) cannot go to God's altar. (Leviticus 20:17-23)

If you're real careful, and do all that, then I might entertain a conversation that includes Leviticus. I really wish I could've just "thumbs down" that negative vibe status.

38 States Instead of 50?

2008-08-25T21:51:00.003-04:00

In 1973 George Etzel Pearcy, with a strong political backing, proposed a remapping of the United States of America. The plan would have isolated larger cities, reducing the number of cities vying for a state's tax dollars. The state lines would have moved into a more 'natural' boundaries, such as rivers and mountains. But because his plan called for an overhauling of the USA's infrastructure the government backed out and it (obviously) never went into action.

It's similar to the cartographic errors of the common world map which makes Greenland and Africa the same size. The Peter's Projection Map (or the Gall-Peters Projection Map) adjusts these spaces to their 'true' sizes in relation to each other.

The major importance of mapping and remapping is how people of the world are represented. By misrepresenting their space, they are reduced to numbers and skewed in proportions.

The act of mapping, with political names (Chinese Taipei vs Taiwan) and non-real boundaries, is a problem within itself. The land is only marked off by peoples involved (or forced to be involved) in the majority culture. Land-ownership, as we practice it, puts humans so far 'above' any life on this planet that non-human life is all but forgotten. Fences prevent natural migration and harm native species.

Maps are the political representation of space and peoples, your world view is most likely laid out on the map you saw throughout secondary school.

Faith Forum, Now Hear the Truths

2008-08-18T00:18:00.003-04:00

The candidates are confessing their deepest sins to evangelists who need to hear, "I love unborn babies and Christ." So I'm going to take this opportunity to shed some light on ridiculous rumors and propoganda.

Edwards cheated on his wife, confessed it to her and they dealt with it privately and stayed together. This has blown up in the news yet McCain's affair and subsequent dumping of his tragedy-stricken wife (horrible car accident) doesn't really matter. I hear a lot of partisan blame but the truth is that an awful lot of people cheat. People in power feel entitled and when you add a spouse struggling with their health the likelihood increases.

Anyone who has seen Fox News cover the candidates has heard - "Osama, er I mean Obama." "Barack HUSSEIN Obama. That's his name!" "Obama went to a madrasah, an Arab school!".

Truth:
Obama is a black man in a white dominated country that still reeks of imperialism. His name is not John or George or Bill, it's Barrack. Apparently his parents didn't get the memo about making sure your children don't share a similar name as any anti-American leaders. His name should be of no discussion. To make it so only highlights the prejudice in this country that forces a strange kind of sameness that one has to adopts in order to take advantage of the 'American Dream'. I sure hope there is never an anti-American leader named "William George Smith" because then a whole lot of people will be screwed.

'Madrasah' translated into English means 'school'. It doesn't mean any certain kind of school, just the word for school in the language Arabic. Just because the majority of the Taliban speak Arabic doesn't mean Arabic is some secret language of terrorists. That's straight up stupid.

Get back to the issues McCain and Obama. How are you going to affect my college loans? My parent's inability to retire? My health care? Are you going to do anything about the dumbing down of America's children? What about global warming? The polar bears and other animals facing extinction? The death of the oceans?

Missing Vermont Girl Found?

2008-07-02T21:14:00.002-04:00

The body of a 12 year old girl was found near the home of the girl who was the subject of the first ever Vermont amber alert. As a Vermonter it was extremely disturbing to hear about the missing girl. The developments in the case are even more upsetting; a child sex ring, molestation, incest. Who can you trust?

Mandela was ON the terrorism watch list?

2008-07-02T01:28:00.002-04:00

According to CNN.com

Mandela and other members of the African National Congress have been on the list because of their fight against South Africa's apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994.

They should never have been on that list, as John Kerry says. I'm shocked they were ever on this list and I'm even more shocked that he was still on this list even after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Apparently this list is about foreigners who do criminal and terrorist doings, and thanks to H. R. 5690 it just doesn't include the African National Congress. Well, I guess that's good news though, one step at a time.

Woman Dies on Hospital Floor

2008-07-02T01:15:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm back. I'll be blogging again after a long hiatus and the first story is a real doozy. I'm sure you've heard by now about the woman who fell and was dying on the hospital floor, if you haven't seen the surveillance video you can watch it right here:

I really don't know what to say, would you let someone lie there like that? On an AOL poll 0% of people said they would "Do nothing" but obviously someone is lying. Anyone remember the elderly man who was recently involved in a hit and run while bystanders just watched and walked away? If you forgot I'll show you that tape too:

I hope that never happens to me, grow a pair and lend a hand. Stupid passiveness, unwilling to save someone's life but not unwilling to wage wars, typical.

that's what's up

2007-12-11T07:54:00.003-05:00

*Update* Now the article I wrote has been completely removed from the paper's website. I didn't know that reporting on tenant's opinions of their landlords was such a big issue. To think how much pull one landlord has in censoring media in a small Vermont city makes me worried about how much is censored because of the discontent of larger companies and big wigs.

"Though I disagree with everything you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it." -NOT Voltaire; it was some scholar that was studying Voltaire, and summed up his beliefs in this statement

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." -John Morley

"Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the words they speak or write."
Hugo L. Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1963

"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing." Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971

Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism. ~David Ben-Gurion

OOOH

2007-11-21T00:30:00.001-05:00

Sorry, you'll get some new posts asap. Maybe I'll hit you up with some juicy reality TV show gossip or letting you in on some news thats buried behind the headline, "EU 'sexual history' quiz denied".

Now, not only do we have I Love New York going on, we have some crazy millionaire Bachelor who's dumpin' chicks left and right. "I never thought I'd meet anyone like you. I hate to say this..." Same thing to every girl. No WONDER he wanted to go on this show, he can't decide which beautiful girl he actually likes. Repeating how wonderful everyone is, he's either a liar who doesn't like to get chicks pissed, or he literally loves everyone and is doomed to always want more than he can get. Plus, Project Runway is on now too. Legit, AMAZING season. Really amazing hot gay man who is an amazing designer and living with HIV (superhero deluxe) who I hope stays on the show just so I can watch him walk around, legit.

See it on original eonline.com page

Confused man is killed by a taser

2007-11-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

Image diagram from BBC.com's article on this same story.

A man in a Canadian airport was distraught because the person he was waiting for didn't show up at baggage claim. The Russian man spoke no English, he threw a computer and a chair. Bystanders told security that they needed a translator, before a translator arrived one officer asks if he can taser the man. The man was taserd and tackled by multiple officers, he later died. Before the video surfaced the story from the officers' side was, "he tried to fight with us". This video shows that it was clearly not the case. The interviewee near the end of the video tries to reinforce that this video is from one persons view. Hardly, it's video evidence with no commentary, not some shaky eye-witness account. All the actions and conversation is recorded, it's obvious that police all over the world need to chill the eff out.

Mount Holyoke College recently decided not to give tasers to officers on their campus. It was voted down last year, the reason being that there was not enough of a threat. Many students feared that the tasers could be abused, with good reason.

This most recent abuse of power is another drop in a seemingly overflowing bucket.

It's not as if the dangers of tasers were never known. Many studies have highlighted how lethal this weapon could be.

Instead of dealing with real dangers in airports, they tasered and killed a distraught man in baggage claim.

Trigger happy?

2007-11-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

Coming on the heels of the Italian police shooting of an unarmed man before a soccer game, police shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old New Yorker, Khiel Coppin. According to CNN, Coppin had a history of mental illness and was freaking out at his mom after she tried to have him hospitalized. It was the mother who called the police, Coppin exited out a window and started crossing the street to the police, reports say he had his hands up. They ordered him to stop and when he didn't five officers fired twenty shots before they realized, "Oh, he isn't armed..." In fact, he was never armed, he had a hairbrush as he exited the window, and dropped it before approaching the police.

A serious probe needs to investigate the shooting. It seems cops are a little trigger happy, remember the man who was killed before his wedding? He was unarmed also.

Not to mention the slew of attacks by police with tasers on unarmed citizens. Andrew Meyer, a college student at the University of Florida, was asking a slew of questions to the guest speaker, John Kerry, during a Q&A time. After trying to quickly escort him from the microphone, really, before he had made his point, campus police tasered him multiple times. He was maybe being a little obnoxious in some people's opinion, but he certainly wasn't doing anything illegal. He only wanted to make a point, and Kerry didn't do a damn thing to stop it from happening.

Those are only a few of the events that have happened in the past couple years regarding police taking advantage of their power.

Well, I guess we can rest easy knowing that outspoken college kids, unarmed fiances, and hairbrush wielding boys with a history of mental illness will no longer be free to roam the streets.

Walkin with that sexy swagger means you ain't ready to breed

2007-11-12T00:16:00.000-05:00

According to a BBC News article:

A sexy swing of the hips may attract admiring glances, but it is not a covert sign a woman is ready to breed, according to researchers.

A Queen's University, Ontario, team examined volunteers' walks and the levels of sex hormones in their saliva.

They found those with alluring walks were the furthest away from ovulation.

Now THAT is interesting.

Turkey doesn't make you sleepy

2007-11-10T16:52:00.000-05:00

Ever find yourself stuffing yourself with turkey and then napping? It's probably all in your head. Contrary to popular belief, turkey doesn't make you sleepy. When the tryptophan is extracted and purified it becomes a mild sleep aid and that's probably where the myth came from. The small levels of the chemical in turkey are not high enough to have any affect on you. What makes you tired on Thanksgiving is probably eating so many carbs and eating so much. In fact, foods like soy and beef have higher levels of tryptophan than turkey.

Betchur sayin, "Well slap my arse and call me Shirley! I didn't know that!"

Smart babies watch tv? I don't think so.

2007-11-10T15:51:00.000-05:00

Baby Einstein, a sub-company of Disney, created a lot of buzz when it came out with DVDs meant to boost your child's intelligence.

Really, just a way to take advantage of America's TV addicted population, Baby Einstein creates DVDs for different stages of a child's development. Parents just park their kids in front of the TV and BAM, brilliant babies.

The University of Washington conducted a study on infants aged 8 to 16 months. Baby Einstein was not associated with smarter kids. Instead, it was associated with a slower language development and lower scores on tests that scored language abilities. Even if parent's start Baby Einstein at 17 months, there is no correlation either negative or positive, with watching the DVDs after 16 months of age.

The Baby Einstein company tries to defend their stance on their website, basically saying that babies watch TV all the time, so who cares.

a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 68% of all babies under two years old watch screen media on any given day. The Baby Einstein Company believes that when used properly, developmentally-appropriate video content can be a useful tool for parents and little ones to enjoy together.

And, of course, Kaiser wouldn't have any other agenda, not to say that they are biased, but it is important to remember where funding comes from. We're talking about an insurance company here, not a scientific foundation. Just sayin....

I'm an a TV watcher, and I know that I'd be better off reading than vegging out in front of the TV, even if I'm watching History Channel documentaries.

I guess Madonna has it right, no TV for the kiddies.

Update - Not just Australia

2007-11-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

Those toys I mentioned in the last article were also just pulled off the shelves in the USA after children in this country were also hospitalized for getting drugged by GHB.

I'm even more into the whole organic corn-husk dolls for Christmas presents this year.

The Chinese toy makers strike again

2007-11-07T12:46:00.001-05:00

Australians are banning a toy made in China because it may contain chemicals linked to the date rape drug GHB.

Several children have been hospitalized after swallowing beads that had come off the toy. The one million toys are supposedly only in Australia and a spokesperson said that future drug-rape-beads are going to taste bad, having a "foul-tasting ingredient".

Trust me, that is not going to stop a little kid from eating the beads, get rid of the dangerous ingredients and make toys WITHOUT the date rape drug. Parents put soap in kids' mouths when they say a bad word, if that isn't going to stop them from swearing, a nasty tasting bead isn't about to stop a baby from chewing on his big sister's toy.

That's it, I'm moving the woods and when I have kids, they're going to have corn husk dolls made from organic corn. I'm taking a stand, no date rape drugs for anyone, especially kids. It's just bad news.

Why does anyone still buy Mattel?

2007-11-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

Chances are you and everyone you know has played with Mattel Toys at some point. As one of the most popular toy companies Mattel produces Barbie™, American Girl™, Fischer Price™, Disney™ brand toys, and Hot Wheels™; just to name a few of the most popular toys in all of American kid-hood. If you're a kid with cable, you've just got to have the newest Barbie and Ken Malibu Vacation Special Edition Collection, hell, I'm not a kid and I itch for some sweet Hot Wheels every time one of those bad boys drives onto my screen.

But, if you've been paying attention to the news, you know that Mattel has had to recall millions of Chinese produced toys, primarily due to lead paint. The newest recall has to do with a choking hazard in baby toys. 155,000 toys are in this recall. Mattel claims that the recall is to ensure safety because these toys were produced before the

implementation of the three-point check testing system, the company has voluntarily recalled a production run of a single product sold in three markets due to impermissible levels of lead.

Not only are the toys choke hazards, they are (surprise, surprise), LEAD POISONING HAZARDS. Not to mention problems with magnets in toys that spurred a large recall.

Supposedly Mattel is being affected financially by all these recalls. It's hard to believe that it's affecting them this much if they still aren't able to stop using lead paint. Just get that paint out of their manufacturers warehouses. It's obviously a wide spread problem that is not being tackled. With the holiday season around the corner, who is going to buy Mattel's products? And how are these parent's going to appease their American Girl-obsessed kids?

With all the lead-paint fright it's hard to remember the legal toxins that reside in children's toys. Ever heard of PVC? According to Mark Schapiro's book "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power", the toxic toys we allow are children to play with are thought to be safest. That cute, soft toy you bought for your baby to chew on probably contains polyvinyl chloride additives, which make it so soft and 'safe' for them to play with. It's not just playing with cancer, it's depleting testosterone in baby boys:

A mounting body of scientific evidence suggests that phthalates impede the production of testosterone and disrupt the sexual development of infant boys.

Let's give kids cancer, lead-poisoning, and prevent them from producing offspring. Great idea.

A Reality TV Fart

2007-11-06T01:21:00.001-05:00

Now, for some pop culture. Our girl New York from Flava of Love is back with her second season of I Love New York. And for real, there is more drama than any catfight-show could hope to conjure up. If people don't know about the drama on this season, you better tune in for some serious ridiculousness.

She's got a little snake in the house who she almost kicked out in the beginning for being too obnoxious and showy with money. None of that has gone away, she just gave him enough space to weasel his way into her confidence and become a little tattle-tale. I can't believe that anyone would want to behave like that on television. Tailor Made readily admits to being "manipulative and strategic". He hope that by staying manipulative, he'll be able to get with New York. So, he shakes Cheesy's hand and says, "Congrats, take a solo date with New York" and then runs upstairs and says to her, "I would never give up a date with you. I did not tell him he could have a date, baby."

"I was hoping there would be some type of rift between Mr. Wise and Twenty Pack. So I realized I would have to look for another fish to fry....We should target someone and tarnish their reputation." - Tailor Made. And that on the left, is Tailor Made being really manly with his self defense....arm swinging?

I guess he really fits in with Sister Patterson who's a complete psycho. I like New York, I'd love to go shopping with her and then go get wasted. But her mom, maaan alive, she is one evil bitch of a character. Now, to give the show credit, it is a partially scripted show.

Now to get back to Tailor Made. He may have a moisturized face thanks to his nightly, manly, Jasonesque lotion mask, but his snaky attitude and shirtless physique and thin man love handles outshine his smooth face and dollar bills. Don't get me wrong, I, am not a body scrutinizer, but if your that cocky, have SOMETHING to show for it.

Let's be real, Tailor Made and New York are meant for each other. She thinks his deceiving ass is ingenious, and anyone who won't snitch isn't there for New York. Even though he spit in someone's face, he's still on the show.

No wonder his wife divorced him, he's a little boy too attached to his $2,000 suit.

Ready to Be Green!

2007-11-05T00:29:00.001-05:00

According to BBC.com, the world is ready to make sacrifices for eco-friendly living.

Overall, 83% of respondents throughout the world agreed that individuals would definitely or probably have to make lifestyle changes to reduce the amount of climate-changing gases they produce.

Ya think? Human caused pollution and climate change isn't about to slow down if we keep on pumpin' the same emissions into the atmosphere. When it comes to spending tax dollars on

Worldwide 50% are in favour and 44% are opposed.

It would have been interesting to know who was opposed because they think global warming is a conspiracy invented by the liberal media to brain wash us, or who thinks it's a lost cause, and who's secretly a little excited for the global catastrophe that's sure to ensue if we don't do something.

One of the most surprising revelations is that the Chinese are ahead of the game when it comes to gung-ho citizens (which is fitting because of the origin of that phrase).

The Chinese are the most enthusiastic when it comes to energy taxes - 85% of those polled saying they were in favour, 24 percentage points more than in the next most-supportive countries.

It's all very ironic considering the slew of criticism against the Chinese for their poor pollution control. Just a year ago, a thick cloud of coal dust danced its way from Northern China all the way to Seoul.

All I have to say is, way to go China, your communist butts are kickin' our Democracy spreadin' asses when it comes to trying to save the planet.

Exploitation or Science?

2007-11-04T15:58:00.001-05:00

Scientists have unveiled King Tut's mummified face. Currently, he is one of the few mummies remaining in the tombs, while the other corpses are on display in museums.

The move is part of a plan to protect the remains. Archaeologists say they are under threat from the heat and the humidity brought into the tomb by the vast numbers of tourists visiting each year.

But is it really the answer? How can we reconcile the tourist industry while respecting this powerful culture? To harm a pharaoh, even after death, was to harm the pharaoh's existence in the afterlife. Putting Egyptian mummified corpses into museums is not necessary to build interest in Egyptian studies.

The British explorer who discovered King Tut's tomb desecrated the body when plundering the goods for personal gain.

In an effort to extricate the treasures, Carter and his team cut the body into pieces, chopping off the limbs and head, and using hot knives and wires to remove the gold mask which was fused to Tutankhamun's face by the embalming process.

King Tut had to be 'reconstructed' from the remains of his cut-apart body. Now, because of further modern intervention, the mummy will have to be re-preserved. King Tut, though, is one of the lucky ones, he remains in his final resting place.

So, is it science or exploitation?