Month: September 2014

This was unexpected

Tony Thompson,

Imagine being a geek father who enjoys spending endless hours with a daughter who loves and adores you.

Imagine being thrilled that a friend bought you and your daughter a gift-a game that might provide many hours of enjoyment for both you and your daughter.

Imagine looking at the box and realizing that all the player characters were male.

Imagine being a father who cares about his daughter having characters she can identify with.

If you can imagine all of that, you can imagine the frustration felt by Peter V Brett when his friend gave him the game Justice League: Axis of Villains from DC Comics and and game maker Wonderforge.

Brett was not a happy camper and neither was his daughter:

“What girl can I be?” Cassie asked, digging through the game pieces.

“I don’t think there are any girls, sweetie,” I said, anger building in me. Cause really, DC & Wonderforge? WTF? You know it’s 2014, right?

Cassie put down the game pieces. “I don’t want to play this, then.” She turned and moved to leave the room, and it broke my heart. In part for her, and in part because I love superheroes, and this should be something we can share.

“How about if we make our own girl pieces to play?” I asked. “It can be an art project.”

She immediately brightened. “That’s a great idea!”

Despite this, Brett wasn’t happy and expressed his frustration on Twitter.  In no time at all, someone came to his rescue and gave him a link to Derivative Crafts (yes, this is a problem others have faced before).  On his blog, Brett expressed his frustration, stating:

When comics and game designers exclude or otherwise diminish the role of female characters, they are really telling girls they are not welcome. That sure, they CAN play, but they can’t have full immersion. Full immersion is for boys only.

And fuck that.

I fixed this shitty game, but I shouldn’t have HAD to. We have a right to expect (and demand) that comics companies and the game designers they license to do better. Sure, it’s a free country and they have a right to make boys only games if they want, but we don’t need to support it, or stay quiet about it.

Not long after, The Mary Sue picked up the story and signal boosted it. Today, there was an update on the story: the game maker apologized.

Yeah. I know.

This isn’t how these things often go.  We’re so accustomed to doubling down and digging ever deeper holes. Yet here we have a clear-cut apology.

Hi Peter,

We read your post about the Axis of Villains game and wanted to write back.

First off, let me just say that we screwed up, and everyone here knows it. It’s an internal regret for our team that we did not include female super heroes in the game. And it’s a personal regret because so many of us are parents of daughters, who understand firsthand the importance of developing playthings that are inclusive and convey to girls a sense that they can do or be anything. I myself am a mom of 3- and 4-year-old girls and I share your views 100%.

In any case, I wanted to let you know that as a company we really learned the lesson. For our next game, DC Super Friends Matching, we included 3 female super heroes: Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Hawkgirl. This game is a better example of our work. (I’d love to send you a copy if you think your daughter might enjoy it.) If we ever do another run of the Axis game, we will revise it to include female characters.

Read the rest of the apology and Peter V Brett’s comments here.

This was unexpected
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Police Brutality 9.26.14

Tony Thompson

Minutes after making a cheerful Facebook post, police gun down Tommy McClain

Nichole Mottern explained to the OutPost that McClain was living with her, her husband (who is McClain’s cousin) and the couple’s two children.

The trio had gone out earlier in the evening to celebrate her husbands birthday, when they arrived back at their townhouse, her husband was intoxicated and went up to bed.

According to Mottern, her and McClain were chatting in front of the house, when she ran inside for two minutes to go and check on her husband.

She says she saw an officer lurking around the back of her house, then run towards the front.  She ran to the front door and was blinded by the lights off the officers.

“The cops were out there screaming, ‘Put your hands up! Put your hands up.’ I put my hands up,” Mottern told the OutPost. “Tommy was already out there. He sits out there and smokes cigarettes. He came out from beside the porch… He started to put his hands up. He walked out into the grass… [The officers] were telling him to come.”

“A cop yelled, ‘He’s got a gun.’ They all fired,” Mottern explained, “I saw him getting shot from all different angles. First shot fired and then they all fired. It wasn’t one cop. It was them all. There were a lot of cops… He crumpled down into the ground. There was nothing in his hand.”

 * * * *

Police officers can beat a college student and get away with it.  And that’s not even the worst part of this story.

Former Prince George’s County police officer James Harrison was found guilty of second-degree assault and was given a one-year suspended sentence in December of 2012 for the brutal beating of a UMD student, which was caught on video in 2010.

Harrison only ended up serving 30 days of home confinement.

Despite being convicted of a felony Harrison was able to retire before the trial and keep his full pension. But that is not the worst of it.

This week ABC7 News reports that Judge Beverly Woodard, an Associate Judge with the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, has thrown out the conviction all together.

Now, with his felony criminal record cleared, Harrison could be a cop again.

Jack McKenna, the student who was beaten to a pulp by Harrison and another officer for no reason at all, called the judges decision “frightening.”

“It sends a message that they (the police) can do whatever they want,” McKenna, now a second-year law student, said Tuesday. “If they can get away with beating me up on national TV for doing nothing, it really makes me scared for what’s going to happen to those in a dark alley when the cameras aren’t shining.”

Harrison was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced. What does it say about the current state of the justice system in America if this criminal can be made into a non-criminal, literally overnight, by a judge who doesn’t even have to give a reason why she did it?

According to Jon Erzen, a spokesman for the Office of the State Attorney, prosecutors were surprised at the judge’s decision too. “They (jurors) said Mr. Harrison’s actions were not acceptable policing and they were criminal,” Erzen told ABC 7 News.

Mckenna received $2,000,000 in tax payer dollars to drop a civil suit against the Prince George’s County police department but his attorney was apparently fuming after hearing this atrocious news.

“It means that police officers can think they can commit an act, a savage act of brutality, and get away with it,” said lawyer Terrell Roberts.

* * * *

Cop handcuffs teen. Cop chokes handcuffed teen.  Cop tells handcuffed teen he just choked ‘Do you want to die in this patrol car tonight?’  Handcuffed and choked teen is black.

Police officer Corporal James Johnson, of Wilmington, North Carolina, was recently indicted for choking a 16-year-old suspect while he was handcuffed.  The whole incident was filmed by a camera that was inside the police car, and for months the police department has been preventing that video from reaching the public.

The family and the prosecuting attorneys have seen the video, and according to court documents, officer Johnson can be seen choking young Tyrell Rivers while he was handcuffed, and the officer can also be heard yelling “Do you want to die in this patrol car tonight?”.

Rivers was charged with resisting arrest and booked on a number of drug charges on the night in question, April 4th 2014.  The officer’s indictment came just months later, this past June, when someone at the District Attorney’s office stumbled across the tape.  The frightening specifics of the encounter remained a secret for months, until the details of the tape were published this week when local media sources obtained court documents which specifically mentioned some of the officer’s comments that night.

Johnson and his attorney argue that Rivers was aggressive on the night in question and that Johnson was not choking him, but using a pressure point technique called “brachial flexus” to try and subdue Rivers.  However, the claims of the officer are allegedly not supported by the video evidence.

According to local WECT 6, A grand jury indicted Corporal Johnson on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and willful failure to discharge duties.

Investigators pointed out in the court documents that Johnson never mentioned the choke hold in his use of force report.  In the report, he had only made mention of the use of his stun gun, not the choke hold.

The Rivers family is demanding the immediate release of the video to the public, but the police department has done everything in their power to keep it under wraps.

“This is a big case that happened with a young person and young people right now want to know what actually happened, so to not release the video, I think it creates a great wedge between the community and the police as far as the relationship,” Vance Williams, a spokesperson for Rivers family said.

Johnson is currently on unpaid suspension according to a statement released by the police department.

I wonder how it’s determined if a cop will get paid after such behavior.  Darren Wilson killed an unarmed teen and continued to get paid.  Johnson choked and threatened a teen, but was put on unpaid suspension.  I know it’s completely different jurisdictions, but it seems strange to me.

Here’s a link to the video.

Police Brutality 9.26.14

Science, Skepticism, & Social Justice links

Tony Thompson, ,

Man sets a new world record by diving more than 1000 feet

Diving off the coast of Dahab, Egypt, Gabr reached a depth of 1,090 feet 4 inches (332.35 meters). The previous record holder for the deepest scuba dive, Nuno Gomes of South Africa, also dove off the coast of Dahab, in 2005, reaching a depth of 1,044 feet (318.21 m).

To put these depths into perspective, three American football fields laid end to end would measure 900 feet (274.32 m) long — less than the distance these divers reached underwater. Most recreational scuba divers only dive as deep as 130 feet (40 meters), according to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.

It took Gabr only about 12 minutes to reach the record depth, which he achieved with the help of a specially tagged rope that he pulled along with him from the surface, Guinness World Records officials said in a statement. However, the trip back up to the surface took much longer — about 15 hours. Returning too quickly from such depths is associated with a number of health risks, such as decompression sickness (also known as the bends) and nitrogen narcosis from excess nitrogen in the brain, which Gabr luckily avoided.

15 hours to return to the surface? I wonder if he got bored with all that waiting.

****

Paralyzed rats walk with spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord injury is one of the leading causes of paralysis in the US, and the outlook for the vast majority of patients is depressingly bleak. The spinal cord is essential for movement because it acts as a middle man between the brain and the rest of the body; when it is injured, the flow of information to other body parts can be disrupted, resulting in the inability to move some or all limbs. Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment, so for many the paralysis is permanent.

But recently, there have been some encouraging developments in treatment as scientists figured out a way to mimic the brain signals required for movement by directly stimulating the spinal cord with electrical pulses. Remarkably, this experimental therapy allowed four paraplegic men to regain some voluntary movement in their hips, ankles and toes.

The problem with this technique, which is known as epidural electrical stimulation (EES), is that the amplitude and frequency of electrical pulses need to be constantly adjusted, which is difficult to achieve while an individual is attempting to walk. To overcome this limitation, EPFL researchers have developed algorithms that automatically adjust the pulses in real-time during locomotion, dramatically improving the control of movement.

For the study, the researchers used paralyzed rats whose spinal cords were completely severed. They surgically implanted electrodes into their spines and then placed them on a treadmill, supporting them with a robotic harness. After testing out different pulses and monitoring walking patterns, the researchers discovered that there was a relationship between how high the rat lifted its limbs and pulse frequency. Using this information, the researchers were able to develop an algorithm that constantly monitored the rats’ movement. This data was then fed back into the system which allowed automatic, rapid adjustments in the stimulation in real time, mimicking the way that neurons fire naturally.

The rats were able to walk 1,000 steps without failure and were even able to climb staircases. “We have complete control of the rat’s hind legs,” EPFL neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine said in a news release. “The rat has no voluntary control of its limbs, but the severed spinal cord can be reactivated and stimulated to perform natural walking.”

If they can successfully adapt this for use on humans, this could benefit so many people.  Science-continuing to advance understanding and making lives better.

****

Bob Carroll of The Skeptic’s Dictionary asks a few questions in an entry on Political Skepticism

Most skeptics don’t do politics unless religion is involved. Some don’t do religion unless politics is involved. Most skeptics, however, whether they do politics or religion, claim to be involved in some sort of consumer protection. They have no problem with criticizing and debunking various so-called alternative health practices. People are risking their lives and wasting their money on treatments that provide false hope at worst and some sort of placebo effect at best. Most skeptics have no problem with criticizing and debunking pseudoscientific ideas such as perpetual motion machines, free energy claims, and junk science programs that promise to unleash all that potential you have in your brain, your heart, or your body. People are wasting their time and their money on programs and devices that have no plausible scientific support. Most skeptics have no problem criticizing and debunking people who claim to be psychic. People are being emotionally manipulated at great expense by those who claim to get messages from the dead or see into the future. So why–when people are being manipulated, robbed, or physically and emotionally abused by those cloaked in the authority of religion or the state–do some skeptics balk at going there to criticize and debunk? One answer is tradition: skeptics have traditionally focused on exposing psychic fraud, paranormal mischief, and pseudoscientific quackery. In any case, there are only a few prominent skeptics who stay away from anything to do with religion, but most still do not spend much time scrutinizing the political scene for deception, fraud, abuse, unethical extortion of money, and lies that do much more damage to us than all the psychics, supplement pushers, cancer quacks, detoxers, and promoters of brain-enhancing exercises put together.

[…]

Where are the skeptics questioning the long-term effects of creating a nationwide militarized network of local police departments that not only monitor our every move, but are prepared to turn against our own citizens? What kind of Homeland Security is that? Add to all this the federal government’s monitoring of phone conversations that have nothing to do with national security or terrorism and what do you have? A recipe for a very dark future, all begun under the guise of protecting us from foreign enemies–those terrorists who “hate our freedom.

****

Police Militarization Infographic

Science, Skepticism, & Social Justice links

Science, Skepticism, & Social Justice links

Tony Thompson, ,

Man sets a new world record by diving more than 1000 feet

Diving off the coast of Dahab, Egypt, Gabr reached a depth of 1,090 feet 4 inches (332.35 meters). The previous record holder for the deepest scuba dive, Nuno Gomes of South Africa, also dove off the coast of Dahab, in 2005, reaching a depth of 1,044 feet (318.21 m).

To put these depths into perspective, three American football fields laid end to end would measure 900 feet (274.32 m) long — less than the distance these divers reached underwater. Most recreational scuba divers only dive as deep as 130 feet (40 meters), according to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.

It took Gabr only about 12 minutes to reach the record depth, which he achieved with the help of a specially tagged rope that he pulled along with him from the surface, Guinness World Records officials said in a statement. However, the trip back up to the surface took much longer — about 15 hours. Returning too quickly from such depths is associated with a number of health risks, such as decompression sickness (also known as the bends) and nitrogen narcosis from excess nitrogen in the brain, which Gabr luckily avoided.

15 hours to return to the surface? I wonder if he got bored with all that waiting.

****

Paralyzed rats walk with spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord injury is one of the leading causes of paralysis in the US, and the outlook for the vast majority of patients is depressingly bleak. The spinal cord is essential for movement because it acts as a middle man between the brain and the rest of the body; when it is injured, the flow of information to other body parts can be disrupted, resulting in the inability to move some or all limbs. Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment, so for many the paralysis is permanent.

But recently, there have been some encouraging developments in treatment as scientists figured out a way to mimic the brain signals required for movement by directly stimulating the spinal cord with electrical pulses. Remarkably, this experimental therapy allowed four paraplegic men to regain some voluntary movement in their hips, ankles and toes.

The problem with this technique, which is known as epidural electrical stimulation (EES), is that the amplitude and frequency of electrical pulses need to be constantly adjusted, which is difficult to achieve while an individual is attempting to walk. To overcome this limitation, EPFL researchers have developed algorithms that automatically adjust the pulses in real-time during locomotion, dramatically improving the control of movement.

For the study, the researchers used paralyzed rats whose spinal cords were completely severed. They surgically implanted electrodes into their spines and then placed them on a treadmill, supporting them with a robotic harness. After testing out different pulses and monitoring walking patterns, the researchers discovered that there was a relationship between how high the rat lifted its limbs and pulse frequency. Using this information, the researchers were able to develop an algorithm that constantly monitored the rats’ movement. This data was then fed back into the system which allowed automatic, rapid adjustments in the stimulation in real time, mimicking the way that neurons fire naturally.

The rats were able to walk 1,000 steps without failure and were even able to climb staircases. “We have complete control of the rat’s hind legs,” EPFL neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine said in a news release. “The rat has no voluntary control of its limbs, but the severed spinal cord can be reactivated and stimulated to perform natural walking.”

If they can successfully adapt this for use on humans, this could benefit so many people.  Science-continuing to advance understanding and making lives better.

****

Bob Carroll of The Skeptic’s Dictionary asks a few questions in an entry on Political Skepticism

Most skeptics don’t do politics unless religion is involved. Some don’t do religion unless politics is involved. Most skeptics, however, whether they do politics or religion, claim to be involved in some sort of consumer protection. They have no problem with criticizing and debunking various so-called alternative health practices. People are risking their lives and wasting their money on treatments that provide false hope at worst and some sort of placebo effect at best. Most skeptics have no problem with criticizing and debunking pseudoscientific ideas such as perpetual motion machines, free energy claims, and junk science programs that promise to unleash all that potential you have in your brain, your heart, or your body. People are wasting their time and their money on programs and devices that have no plausible scientific support. Most skeptics have no problem criticizing and debunking people who claim to be psychic. People are being emotionally manipulated at great expense by those who claim to get messages from the dead or see into the future. So why–when people are being manipulated, robbed, or physically and emotionally abused by those cloaked in the authority of religion or the state–do some skeptics balk at going there to criticize and debunk? One answer is tradition: skeptics have traditionally focused on exposing psychic fraud, paranormal mischief, and pseudoscientific quackery. In any case, there are only a few prominent skeptics who stay away from anything to do with religion, but most still do not spend much time scrutinizing the political scene for deception, fraud, abuse, unethical extortion of money, and lies that do much more damage to us than all the psychics, supplement pushers, cancer quacks, detoxers, and promoters of brain-enhancing exercises put together.

[…]

Where are the skeptics questioning the long-term effects of creating a nationwide militarized network of local police departments that not only monitor our every move, but are prepared to turn against our own citizens? What kind of Homeland Security is that? Add to all this the federal government’s monitoring of phone conversations that have nothing to do with national security or terrorism and what do you have? A recipe for a very dark future, all begun under the guise of protecting us from foreign enemies–those terrorists who “hate our freedom.

****

Police Militarization Infographic

Science, Skepticism, & Social Justice links

The baggage of religious belief

Tony Thompson,

Over at En Tequila es Verdad, Dana wrote (in response to this post):

Getting over gods is a great start, but it’s only a beginning. Once the gods are gone, we’re left with people, and civilization, and all of the imperfections that plague both. I’m sorry, but losing religion doesn’t mean all problems are solved. Religion amplifies some of our worst qualities, but those are still human qualities, and they remain once religion is gone.

I used to think it would be easier to fix things like sexism and homophobia and racism once religion was gone. But looking at how so many of our atheist celebrities and their fans have reacted to even the most mild requests to please not make sexist assumptions or do sexist things, I’ve realized it can actually be harder. The men (and some women) who have let go of gods seem so assured of their own rightness that they refuse to listen to the people affected by their words and actions. They sneer at the evidence presented, although they pretend that evidence is important to them. They don’t question their assumptions. They don’t do the hard work, but worse, don’t believe they need to. They got what they feel is the most important question right. They coast on that. And when people don’t go along for the ride, they get pissed.

I agree with her (obviously). Eliminating religion and religious belief will likely make the world a little better, but it’s not going to make the world a harmonious one because there are a host of other problems that exist. These problems are independent of religion, but they are also interconnected with religion. Religious belief helps sustain and propagate many of the social ills in the world.  As I wrote on Dana’s blog:

Continue reading “The baggage of religious belief” →

The baggage of religious belief

More Police Brutality

Tony Thompson

I remember a time when I was ignorant of police brutality stories.  I navigated through life without any concern for the lives of people around me. I didn’t pay attention to politics, and despite my atheism, I didn’t pay attention to religious issues.  I certainly didn’t pay attention to the brutal actions shown by police officers across the U.S.  In the last few years, that’s changed.  Now I read about this stuff very often. I don’t really have to go looking far either.  It’s become ubiquitous in American society (and that’s not a good thing).  Here are 5 recent examples of police brutality.

 

#1- Pittsburgh cops Tased man while he was praying for his dead son in ER: lawsuit

A Pittsburgh couple filed a federal civil rights suit accusing police of mistreating them while their son died, WPXI-TV reported on Thursday.

The suit accuses an officer of unlawfully using his Taser against Rev. Earl Baldwin Jr. on June 24, 2012. Baldwin said that at the time, he was in the emergency room of UPMC Mercy Hospital attempting to pray for his stepson, 23-year-old Mileek Grissom. Grissom was shot and killed that day while reportedly trying to break up a fight.

If you follow the link, you’ll be able to watch the video.  Do note the race of the Reverend.

****

#2- Family says LA deputy shot 14 year old ‘4 or 5 times in the back’

Louisiana State Police were investigating on Wednesday after a Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a 14-year-old boy.

Louisiana State Police Trooper Evan Harrell said that deputies responded at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday to a 911 call alleging that armed individuals were seen running into an abandoned home in Houma’s Village East neighborhood, The Time-Pacayunereported.

The first deputy to enter the home reportedly shot the boy. Harrell said that a weapon was found “in close proximity” to the dead body.

Harrell would not say where or how many times the boy was shot.

“The individual that was fatally wounded, his family, everybody deserves a proper investigation, and that’s what we’re here to do,” Harrell insisted. “And until we get everything nailed down, squared away, we’ll be out here as long as it takes.”

The family of the boy, who was identified him as 14-year-old as Cameron Tillman, said that he was “shot four or five times in the back,” according to WWLTV.

Tillman’s brother, Andre, said that his brother heard a knock at the door of the abandoned home and opened it because he thought it was a joke.

“My little brother thought somebody was just clowning, because somebody is always clowning by the door,” Andre Tillman recalled. “He opened [it] and the man just shot him. He didn’t have nothing in his hand.”

Tillman’s aunt told WWLTV that her nephew would never have been holding a gun.

“He wouldn’t even hold a BB gun,” she said. “That’s the type of kid he was. He wouldn’t hold a BB gun, better yet, a water gun. But to have a real gun and apparently point it at a cop or something? No.”

I’m sure it’s no big deal. They just killed a black kid.  This is the United States of White Supremacy, where black lives don’t matter, right?

****

#3- Street Vendors punched, kicked, and beaten by members of the NYPD

On Sunday, at 6:00 PM, dozens of New York City police officers descended on a Brooklyn street fair and within seconds began to punch, kick, hit, wrestle to the ground, handcuff, and otherwise assault vendors and passersby.

Why?

As this video shows, one NYPD officer announced it was 6:00 PM and time for the fair to end. Officers are responsible for clearing the street so traffic can resume.

But vendors, as evidenced in the video, seem to have been given no time at all, and immediately and from out of nowhere, police began the attack on the largely Latino population.

“6 o’clock it’s 6 o’clock,” one police officer announces as the video begins. “You guys know the rules. Simple.”

****

#4- South Carolina State Trooper fired and arrested for shooting man reaching for his ID

The video, taken with a dashboard camera, shows 31-year-old Sean Groubert shooting at 35-year-old Levar Jones multiple times on Sept. 4, hitting him in the hip. At the time, Jones, who was standing outside of his vehicle with his hands up, was reaching inside for his license at Groubert’s request.

Jones then falls out of the frame, but can be heard asking Groubert, “Why did you pull me over?”

“A seatbelt violation, sir,” Groubert replies.

“I just pulled it off right there at the corner to pull in the gas station,” Jones yells in response.

“Well, I got help coming to you, okay?” Groubert tells him.

Groubert was fired on Sept. 19. The footage was released following his arrest on Wednesday. He is charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and being held on $75,000 bond.

****

#5- NYPD officers accused of tasering pregnant woman and throwing her to the ground

At about 1:00 AM Saturday morning, Sandra Amezquita was in a Brooklyn restaurant with her family. Police reportedly had the family come outside the restaurant and arrested Amezquita’s 17-year-old son, Jhohan Lemos, for possession of a knife. It’s not known how police knew he had a knife.

That’s when things got ugly.

Amezquita reportedly was upset with how brutally police officers were treating her son. Cops, as evidenced in the video below, threw her to the ground, belly first, into the middle of the street.

The New York Daily News describes 5-foot-4 Amezquita as “clearly pregnant,” and the police as “tackling” her to the ground.

The baby’s father, Ronel Lemos, said he watched in horror as his wife hit the ground belly-first.

“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they’re going to kill my wife,” Lemos, 50, told the Daily News on Tuesday.

“I was afraid something happened to my baby. I am still afraid that something is wrong,” she said, referring to the abdominal pain that persists.

Amezquita suffered vaginal bleeding after the incident, and her belly and arm still bear bruises.

She was given a summons for disorderly conduct and her husband was arrested for assaulting a police officer, cops said.

More Police Brutality

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner’s History Project

Tony Thompson, ,

This week, poet and performance artist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner stood before the world leaders at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit.  She was one of 4 people out of 544 chosen to address the Summit.  She says she wanted to “bring my people’s message out to the world, that climate change is a threat we need to take more seriously.”  Poetry has been part of her life since she was young and she uses her poetry to address social and environmental issues.

On her blog Iep Jeltok , she writes: “My poetry mainly focuses on raising awareness surrounding the issues and threats faced by my people. Nuclear testing conducted in our islands, militarism, the rising sea level as a result of climate change, forced migration, adaptation and racism in America.”

In one such poem, The History Project, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner expresses the frustration she and her people have felt over the nuclear tests run by the United States on their island home in the Marshall Islands.

Here’s the video.  She delivers a powerful, passionate performance:

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner’s History Project

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner's History Project

Tony Thompson, ,

This week, poet and performance artist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner stood before the world leaders at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit.  She was one of 4 people out of 544 chosen to address the Summit.  She says she wanted to “bring my people’s message out to the world, that climate change is a threat we need to take more seriously.”  Poetry has been part of her life since she was young and she uses her poetry to address social and environmental issues.

On her blog Iep Jeltok , she writes: “My poetry mainly focuses on raising awareness surrounding the issues and threats faced by my people. Nuclear testing conducted in our islands, militarism, the rising sea level as a result of climate change, forced migration, adaptation and racism in America.”

In one such poem, The History Project, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner expresses the frustration she and her people have felt over the nuclear tests run by the United States on their island home in the Marshall Islands.

Here’s the video.  She delivers a powerful, passionate performance:

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner's History Project

Weed Pizza?

Tony Thompson

Hungry? Want to get stoned? Why not do both at the same time?

Stoned Oven Gourmet Pizza in Los Angeles can help you with that.

LA Weekly reported that the mastermind behind the pizzas, 24-year-old Henry Mark, has been increasing production of his pizza pies ever since he opened shop earlier this year. He developed his recipes for his different pizzas with his former partner and Soho House chef, using a THC concentrate from Mendocino. And since it’s always tricky with edibles on how they can affect people differently, Mark suggests eating a quarter of the pizza, washing it down with some water, and waiting 30 minutes before going at it again.

Weed Pizza?