Thursday, March 5, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/05/390920269/north-korea-attack-on-u-s-ambassador-is-deserved-punishment

North Korea: Attack On U.S. Ambassador Is 'Deserved Punishment'
Scott Neuman
March 5, 2015

Photograph – U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert leaves Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Seoul, South Korea, after the attack.
Yonhap/EPA/Landov

North Korea is calling an attack on U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert by a knife-wielding political activist "deserved punishment" for America's joint military exercises with Seoul. Meanwhile, Lippert, who has received stitches to his face and undergone surgery on his arm after the assault, says he is "doing well."

NPR's Elise Hu, reporting from Seoul, says South Korean nationalist Kim Ki Jong was subdued and is now in police custody. Lippert was shown immediately after the attack clutching his bloodied cheek and with blood on his hands. He received 80 stitches to close the gash on his face.

The attack took place Thursday at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul, where Lippert, 42, was scheduled to give a speech on "peace, unification of the two Koreas and the prospects of Korea-U.S. relations," according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

The newspaper says: "Lippert was attacked when he was starting to eat the first course of his breakfast and before his speech, said Saenuri lawmaker Chang Yoon-seok, who was seated next to the ambassador. Kim, who was seated at a distant table, approached and started slashing, Chang said. Lippert was talking about his son, who was born in Seoul in January."

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said the attacker had delivered a "knife shower of justice."

The State Department spokesperson strongly condemned the attack, but says a motive is still unclear. The spokesperson promised a full investigation.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the incident "an attack on the Korea-U.S. alliance" and said her government "is taking all necessary measures, including a thorough investigation and reinforced security."

The Associated Press notes that the 55-year-old attacker "is well-known among police and activists as one of a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. Such protesters often speak of their actions in terms of a war, of a struggle to the death."

The New York Times adds that Kim "told reporters that he had attacked Mr. Lippert to protest the annual joint military exercises that the United States started this week with South Korea."

The newspaper says: "Some left-leaning activists in South Korea have criticized the exercises, saying that they raise tensions with North Korea and hamper reconciliation efforts on the divided Korean Peninsula. North Korea has also condemned the exercises as a rehearsal for invasion, though both Washington and Seoul have said the drills are defensive in nature."

A statement released by State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf says U.S. law enforcement is coordinating with South Korean authorities to investigate the attack.

"We cannot speculate on a motive at this time," Harf said. "The U.S.-ROK alliance is strong; we will not be deterred by senseless acts of violence."



http://www.theasanforum.org/national-identity-under-transformation-new-challenges-to-south-korea/

National Identity under Transformation: New Challenges to South Korea
Kim Jiyoon
January 25,2014

Eleven years ago, observers of South Korea were stunned as they witnessed two critical events unfold in central Seoul. The first was one of reverie as the plaza of City Hall literally became a sea of red. People wearing red devil t-shirts, the mascot of the Korean national soccer team, gathered to root for the Korean national soccer team in the 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. The second was one of protest. In the same plaza, a huge mass again assembled in the winter to hold a candlelight vigil mourning the deaths of two junior high school girls killed by a US armored vehicle. The series of candlelight vigils generated public uproar against the perceived unfairness of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and sparked a wave of anti-Americanism. The incident created serious concerns about the ROK–US alliance and among the political elite of both countries. There was no shortage of scholarship depicting these two incidents as epitomizing the ethnic nationalism of Korea. They became prominent examples in a growing literature on Korean national identity.

Eleven years later, the situation has considerably changed. International relations surrounding the Korean peninsula, the ideological position of the Korean public as a whole, and inter-Korean relations have all gone through a significant transformation. Most importantly, a new generation is coming to the fore. Although a strong sense of ethnic homogeneity is persistent among Koreans, the emergence of a new, immigrant demographic appears to be changing this. The total immigrant population in South Korea is reported to surpass 3.1 percent of the total population in 2013 and it has been increasing for ten years.1 Seeing a foreigner on the streets of Seoul is no longer an uncommon thing and the degree of exposure of South Koreans to new culture, new language, and new people is higher than ever. This internal societal shift is, we argue below, leading to a change in thinking about national identity, i.e., “Koreanness.”

Any transformation in the nature of Korean national identity is anticipated to bring about consequences relating to international relations. Ample research confirms that South Korean national identity is critical to understanding Korea’s international relations, with countries such as the United States, China, Japan, and North Korea in particular. Most of these studies treat Korean national identity and the nationalism shared by the Korean people as being ethnically dominated. However, as the shape of ethnic  and demographic composition is shifting, we find evidence of a far-reaching change in Korean national identity as well.




“NPR's Elise Hu, reporting from Seoul, says South Korean nationalist Kim Ki Jong was subdued and is now in police custody. Lippert was shown immediately after the attack clutching his bloodied cheek and with blood on his hands. He received 80 stitches to close the gash on his face. The attack took place Thursday at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul, where Lippert, 42, was scheduled to give a speech on "peace, unification of the two Koreas and the prospects of Korea-U.S. relations," according to Korea JoongAng Daily.... The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said the attacker had delivered a "knife shower of justice." The State Department spokesperson strongly condemned the attack, but says a motive is still unclear. The spokesperson promised a full investigation. South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the incident "an attack on the Korea-U.S. alliance" and said her government "is taking all necessary measures, including a thorough investigation and reinforced security."... one of a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. Such protesters often speak of their actions in terms of a war, of a struggle to the death." The New York Times adds that Kim "told reporters that he had attacked Mr. Lippert to protest the annual joint military exercises that the United States started this week with South Korea."... A statement released by State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf says U.S. law enforcement is coordinating with South Korean authorities to investigate the attack. "We cannot speculate on a motive at this time," Harf said. "The U.S.-ROK alliance is strong; we will not be deterred by senseless acts of violence."

There is apparently a movement going on in South Korea to make peace at least with North Korea and possibly more. I remember an article a year or so ago about North Korea and South Korea allowing family visits between the two nations. There is a very human desire for family members separated by war to see each other, but if the nationalistic movement is focused on eliminating the US relationship we could be in some trouble. I wouldn't want us to find ourselves in a fight against North Korea or China. That could trigger a nuclear event and that would be an international environmental tragedy. That is the only thing I fear more than the overall deterioration of our life-fostering environment, due to the slower but so far unending pollution of the air and water.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/05/390976285/u-s-appeals-court-overturns-gag-order-in-mine-disaster-case

U.S. Appeals Court Overturns Gag Order In Mine Disaster Case
Howard Berkes
Correspondent, Investigations
MARCH 05, 2015

Photograph – Former Massey Energy Company Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship, seen in July 2010, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges associated with the 2010 West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 men.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP

A federal appeals court has vacated a sweeping gag order in the criminal case involving former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and the 2010 Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster.

More than two dozen news organizations, including The Charleston Gazette and NPR, filed appeals after U.S. District Judge Irene Berger sealed nearly all documents in the case and issued a broad gag ordersilencing attorneys, potential witnesses and families of the 29 victims of the mine disaster.

On Thursday, the three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., commended Judge Berger's "sincere and forthright proactive effort to ensure to the maximum extent possible that Blankenship's right to a fair trial before an impartial jury will be protected" but concluded the order must be vacated.

"The public enjoys a qualified right to access to criminal trials, pretrial proceedings, and 'documents submitted in the course of a trial," the appeals panel wrote. "The public will not be denied access absent 'specific findings ... demonstrating ... a substantial probability that the defendant's right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by publicity.' "

Berger issued the gag order in November after Blankenship was indicted for allegedly conspiring to violate mine safety law and mislead the public and the Securities and Exchange Commission about safety practices at Massey Energy. None of the parties in the case sought the gag order.

Thursday's ruling requires Berger to open to the media and public dozens of documents, pleadings and exhibits filed so far in the Blankenship case, including Blankenship's motions to dismiss the charges and remove Berger from the case.

The appeals court decision also means that anyone associated with the case will be allowed to speak about it publicly.

As Ken Ward reports in the Gazette, it's not clear when the documents will be unsealed.

"Blankenship's lawyers are hoping to keep at least one set of court briefs – those concerning the former Massey CEO's request for a change of venue — confidential," Ward reports.

The trial is expected to start April 20 in Beckley, W.Va.




“A federal appeals court has vacated a sweeping gag order in the criminal case involving former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and the 2010 Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster. More than two dozen news organizations, including The Charleston Gazette and NPR, filed appeals after U.S. District Judge Irene Berger sealed nearly all documents in the case and issued a broad gag ordersilencing attorneys, potential witnesses and families of the 29 victims of the mine disaster.... Berger issued the gag order in November after Blankenship was indicted for allegedly conspiring to violate mine safety law and mislead the public and the Securities and Exchange Commission about safety practices at Massey Energy. None of the parties in the case sought the gag order. Thursday's ruling requires Berger to open to the media and public dozens of documents, pleadings and exhibits filed so far in the Blankenship case, including Blankenship's motions to dismiss the charges and remove Berger from the case. The appeals court decision also means that anyone associated with the case will be allowed to speak about it publicly.”

While I want everyone to receive a fair trial, I don't want to see those who abuse their workers with low pay and dangerous, health-damaging working conditions to go unpunished. I will collect articles on this subject when the trial goes to court next month.





http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-raid-california-maternity-hotels-birth-tourists-n315996

Feds Raid California 'Maternity Hotels' for Birth Tourists
BY ANDREW BLANKSTEIN, ANNA SCHECTER AND TRACY CONNOR
March 3, 2015

Photograph – Image from a website that federal authorities say was used to recruit Chinese women to come to the U.S. to have their babies.

Southern California apartment complexes that doubled as "maternity hotels" for Chinese women who want made-in-America babies were raided early Tuesday, capping an unprecedented federal sting operation, officials said.

NBC News was on the scene as Homeland Security agents swept into The Carlyle, a luxury property in Irvine, California, which housed pregnant women and new moms who allegedly forked over $40,000 to $80,000 to give birth in the United States.

"I am doing this for the education of the next generation," one of the women told NBC News.

None of the women were arrested; they are being treated as material witnesses, and paramedics were on hand in case any of them went into labor during the sweep.

Instead, the investigation was aimed at ringleaders who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars tax-free to help Chinese nationals obtain visas and then pamper them until they delivered in an American hospital at a discount, court papers show.

"It's not necessarily illegal to come here to have the baby, but if you lie about your reasons for coming here, that's visa fraud," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Los Angeles.

All told, the feds raided 20 locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, targeting three competing birth tourism schemes, officials said. The suspected operators have not been charged but are being questioned.

The organizers who allegedly ran the Carlyle site, Chao Chen and Dong Li, used a website to drum up business, touting the benefits of a child with U.S. citizenship: 13 years of free education, low-cost college financial aid, less pollution, and a path for the entire family to emigrate when the child becomes an adult.

Clients were counseled on what lies to tell to obtain a tourist visa; how to fly through Hawaii, Las Vegas or Korea to avoid suspicious immigration officers at Los Angeles International Airport; and how to disguise their pregnancy in transit, according to search warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

The women were then set up at the Carlyle, which charges about $3,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment and features amenities including private balconies, a resort-style pool, and cabanas with flat-screen televisions.

A neighbor, Linda Trust, told NBC News she did find it strange that she had seen a forklift deliver a huge pile of diapers to the buildings but had never seen a baby.

The women's handlers provided transportation for doctor visits and trips to restaurants and shops, the court papers say. An agent tailing one of the suspects followed them to Target and Babies R Us.

They were funneled to several Orange County hospitals to deliver, but they didn't pay full price — approximately $25,000 — for medical services, officials said. Instead, they got reduced rates for the indigent, ranging from nothing to $4,000, the court papers say.

That translated into big losses for the hospitals. More than 400 babies linked to the scheme were born at just one facility in a two-year period, investigators said.

The investigators discovered that the parents of one baby born in April 2014 who paid the hospital just $4,000 were spending money at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, Rolex and Louis Vuitton, using an account with almost a quarter of a million dollars in it.

The fraud, authorities say, went beyond the visas.

Li didn't file a U.S. tax return and Chen didn't declare hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds, the affidavit says. In addition, Chen and his wife, Jie Zhu committed marriage fraud, pretending to be divorced so they could get "green-card" marriages in the U.S., the feds charged.

Efforts to reach Chen, Zhu and Li by phone were unsuccessful. It was not clear if they have retained legal counsel.

The phenomenon of foreigners coming to the U.S. to have babies is not new but appears to be growing. One study found that 40,000 children a year are born to women here on a travel visa, the affidavit notes.

Image from a website that federal authorities say was used to recruit Chinese women to come to the U.S. to have their babies.

Tuesday's crackdown marked the first large-scale federal probe of birth-tourism kingpins in the continental U.S.

In addition to the operation at the Carlyle, the feds zeroed in on two other alleged schemes.

Wen Rui Deng, Li Yan Lang and Wen Shan Sun were accused of charging women $10,000 to $25,000 to put them up at the Pheasant Ridge apartments in Rowland Heights, where the "one dragon service" included baby nurses, the court papers say.

A company called USA Happy Baby, run by Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong, set up at The Reserves apartments in Rancho Cucamonga, authorities charged.

The probe into the Carlyle started in June 2014 when the Irvine Police Department received an anonymous tip about the scheme that was turned over to Homeland Security. Separately, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services received a similar tip.

An agent posed as a client who wanted to arrange for his cousin to give birth in America, and got Chen to spill the details of the scheme — from how his China-based employees would "prep" the woman for her consulate interview to why she should not fly straight to LA.

"I don't do it because it's too risky," he said. "That's because 90 percent of the work is already done before they come over, and if they get sent back on the same plane, then I'm the one to blame for it."

The investigators went through Li's trash, examined hospital records, followed the suspects and their clients on a trip to a Chinese restaurant and and combed through bank records.

At one point, Chen was caught on tape fretting to the undercover that the government might realize he was not paying taxes he owed on money he collected in China. "I do file taxes but there are so many things that I can't explain clearly," he said.




“Southern California apartment complexes that doubled as "maternity hotels" for Chinese women who want made-in-America babies were raided early Tuesday, capping an unprecedented federal sting operation, officials said. NBC News was on the scene as Homeland Security agents swept into The Carlyle, a luxury property in Irvine, California, which housed pregnant women and new moms who allegedly forked over $40,000 to $80,000 to give birth in the United States. "I am doing this for the education of the next generation," one of the women told NBC News..... "It's not necessarily illegal to come here to have the baby, but if you lie about your reasons for coming here, that's visa fraud," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Los Angeles. All told, the feds raided 20 locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, targeting three competing birth tourism schemes, officials said. The suspected operators have not been charged but are being questioned.... Instead, they got reduced rates for the indigent, ranging from nothing to $4,000, the court papers say. That translated into big losses for the hospitals. More than 400 babies linked to the scheme were born at just one facility in a two-year period, investigators said.... One study found that 40,000 children a year are born to women here on a travel visa, the affidavit notes. Image from a website that federal authorities say was used to recruit Chinese women to come to the U.S. to have their babies. Tuesday's crackdown marked the first large-scale federal probe of birth-tourism kingpins in the continental U.S.... The probe into the Carlyle started in June 2014 when the Irvine Police Department received an anonymous tip about the scheme that was turned over to Homeland Security. Separately, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services received a similar tip. An agent posed as a client who wanted to arrange for his cousin to give birth in America, and got Chen to spill the details of the scheme — from how his China-based employees would "prep" the woman for her consulate interview to why she should not fly straight to LA.

Well, this story is definitely exciting! I'd heard of individual women from Mexico, Guatemala, etc. coming here so their baby would have citizenship and then they too would be allowed to stay, but the sheer scale of this is shocking. I don't see how the Chinese government would benefit by this plan, but I would think they would be aware of it, with such a large number of pregnant women coming here. Of course China has for several years had restrictions on how many babies are born in their country. They are feeling pressure from the ever growing Chinese population. I wonder if these mothers planned to become immigrants to the US, too. The one mother mentioned the US free education as being her motive. Despite our problems with poverty here in the US, people in many other countries still think this is the land of milk and honey. It is clear to me that we need to put a lid on illegal immigration, though I have a great deal of sympathy with the people who come here. They want to escape societies that are simply non-functioning as far as basic needs go. It really is sad. I want to help, but we are actually limited in what we can do, given the enormity of the need.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/03/390449785/in-france-young-muslims-often-straddle-two-worlds

In France, Young Muslims Often Straddle Two Worlds
Audie Cornish
MARCH 03, 2015

Photograph – Ismael Medjdoub's mother, Fatihah, was born in France in 1963. Her family had emigrated from Algeria earlier. She says young Muslims of her generation practiced their religion privately — unlike the current generation's very public assertion of its Muslim identity.
Bilal Qureshi/NPR

The French, with their national motto of "liberty, equality, fraternity," are so against religious and ethnic divisions that the government doesn't even collect this kind of data on its citizens, but it's believed that nearly 40 percent of the country's 7 million Muslims live in and around Paris.

Many live in poor suburban communities known asbanlieues., and the residents of these communities have felt increased scrutiny since three young Muslim men, each born and raised in France, killed 17 people in January's terror attacks in Paris.

The bustling Gare du Nord train station marks the frontier between central Paris and the banlieues, says Andrew Hussey, a British historian who has written about the tensions between France and its black and Arab minorities.

It's the place where the suburbs of northern Paris — which consist of mainly immigrant, minority populations, who are often very poor — come into contact with the relative affluence and comfort of the city center.

"The thing about the Gare du Nord is that that's where you feel — the kids from the banlieue feel excluded," he says, "They come here, and like it's a frontier zone between Paris over there — which is very well-heeled and very rich and very beautiful, and over there [the suburbs] — where they're sort of, you know, cast out into this world that's not quite connected to the center of France."

Ismael Medjdoub is one of these "kids from the banlieue" who straddles these two worlds. Medjdoub, 21, a third-generation Frenchman of Algerian descent, spends a lot of time on the subway getting to and from work and school — up to four hours every day, including Sunday.

Ismael Medjdoub grew up in one of Paris' banlieues. He spends up to two hours a day commuting from his home in Tremblay en France to work and to school at the prestigious Sorbonne in Paris.

Medjdoub is a student at the Sorbonne in Paris, and would like to get an apartment in the city, but he says his district number — it's like an American ZIP code — is hurting his chances.

Make no mistake, Medjdoub says that he's proud to be from a banlieue — his town, called Tremblay en France, is next to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport — but that he knows people look down on those communities.

"Every time that I say to someone I'm coming from suburbs, they have some pity for me that I cannot understand," he says.

He recalls an incident during his first year studying history at the Sorbonne. He had gone to see his professor, to apologize for a delay in turning in his schoolwork.

"He answered to me: 'Don't worry, you are coming from suburbs, so I know what you are feeling,' " Medjdoub says. "And I was — 'What? I mean, come on guy, I am living in a big house with two cats! So you see it's not the image that you are making of suburbs.' "

We arrive at the small, quiet station in Tremblay en France, a world apart from Paris. We meet Ismael's mother, Fatihah Medjdoub, at a nearby cafe.

As she adjusts the soft, blue-green jersey of her headscarf at the edges of her ears, Fatihah tells me that her family emigrated from Algeria, and that she was born in France in 1963. But she says times are different for her son's generation.

"Young people today claim to be more Muslim than they did during my time. We practiced an Islam that was much more ... I can't find the exact word, but we practiced Islam privately, at home," she says. "Today's generation practices an Islam that they seek to understand, and that can lead to prejudices against them."

Ismael agrees with his mother, and takes it one step further.

"Especially with the young generation — we are telling them that you are not able to wear the veil, and because they are denied in their identity, the only way they have to answer to the situation is not simply wearing a hijab (headscarf) but a niqab," he says, referring to an even more obscuring head covering that leaves only the eyes visible.

Despite these challenges, Ismael is adamant: "The fact is that I'm French. ... I will never deny my nationality, and I am very proud of it."

He knows that life would be very different if his family had stayed in Algeria.

"I'm just grateful to my country," he says, "and I want to contribute to make it better."




“Many live in poor suburban communities known asbanlieues., and the residents of these communities have felt increased scrutiny since three young Muslim men, each born and raised in France, killed 17 people in January's terror attacks in Paris. The bustling Gare du Nord train station marks the frontier between central Paris and the banlieues, says Andrew Hussey, a British historian who has written about the tensions between France and its black and Arab minorities. It's the place where the suburbs of northern Paris — which consist of mainly immigrant, minority populations, who are often very poor — come into contact with the relative affluence and comfort of the city center.... Make no mistake, Medjdoub says that he's proud to be from a banlieue — his town, called Tremblay en France, is next to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport — but that he knows people look down on those communities. "Every time that I say to someone I'm coming from suburbs, they have some pity for me that I cannot understand," he says.... As she adjusts the soft, blue-green jersey of her headscarf at the edges of her ears, Fatihah tells me that her family emigrated from Algeria, and that she was born in France in 1963. But she says times are different for her son's generation. "Young people today claim to be more Muslim than they did during my time. We practiced an Islam that was much more ... I can't find the exact word, but we practiced Islam privately, at home," she says. "Today's generation practices an Islam that they seek to understand, and that can lead to prejudices against them."... Despite these challenges, Ismael is adamant: "The fact is that I'm French. ... I will never deny my nationality, and I am very proud of it." He knows that life would be very different if his family had stayed in Algeria. "I'm just grateful to my country," he says, "and I want to contribute to make it better."

“...we practiced Islam privately, at home,” Ismael's mother said. While I am sad that people whose religion and traditions are different have to hide themselves in order to be safe, we are in a period when hostilities between groups are high. A very beautiful novel called The Chosen by Chaim Potok is one of my favorite modern novels. I also saw the movie, and the images of Orthodox Jewish dress and religious observances, including a wedding with stirring music and dancing, were both beautiful and a little frightening, because of the intensity of religious expression and the utterly alien visual images. Just recently a rather conservative Christian friend of mine sent me a news article from a city in the US showing a large number of Islamic men bent over in prayer outside their mosque. That also was frightening because there were so many of them -- at least a hundred -- and they were literally covering the streets so that people had to walk around them.

My reaction was that their prayers should be conducted in their mosque and not on the street. I am worried about racial and ethnic violence developing in this country. That's because when people allow themselves to experience differences at an emotional level, it shows that we must indeed approach each other with a certain conscious toleration rather than the absolute ease of being in a tight-knit peer group of equals. Personally, however, I prefer the potential danger from “the Other” to becoming part of group hatred. When I see someone different from me, that is someone whom I can learn from and embrace with a special joy if I allow myself to relax my instinctive fear response. As adults we can cross these cultural barriers and produce that most difficult thing, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” It just takes practice. I live in a HUD housing building with a large majority of blacks and some Hispanics. I simply smile happily at all of them and speak. I'm known widely and, as far as I can see, liked.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/almanac-remembering-the-very-first-selfie/

​Almanac: Remembering the very first selfie
CBS NEWS
March 1, 2015

Photograph – An 1839 daguerreotype taken by photographer Robert Cornelius, believed to be the first photographic self-portrait in America.  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac, March 1, 1809, 206 years ago today ... the day the photographer Robert Cornelius was born in Philadelphia.

This picture he took of himself in the fall of 1839 is believed to be the very first photographic self-portrait ever taken in America.

The first ... but hardly the last.

Many a famous photographer ... and any number of famous people, including a 23-year-old Frank Sinatra ... have played with self-portraiture in times since.

But it was with the invention of the cellphone camera that self-photography really took off.

Just about everywhere you go these days, somebody is taking a selfie, a term we are willing to wager Robert Cornelius himself NEVER used.

The selfie Ellen DeGeneres took of herself and friends at last year's Oscars (below) may well be the most-viewed ever.

Further enabling the practice has been the invention of the selfie stick -- "the stick of narcissism," some call it.

In fact, so ubiquitous has the selfie-stick become that many leading museums are now banning it from their galleries.

All of which somehow brings to mind those words from the ancient Book of Ecclesiastes ... "Behold, All is Vanity."




“And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac, March 1, 1809, 206 years ago today ... the day the photographer Robert Cornelius was born in Philadelphia. This picture he took of himself in the fall of 1839 is believed to be the very first photographic self-portrait ever taken in America. The first ... but hardly the last. Many a famous photographer ... and any number of famous people, including a 23-year-old Frank Sinatra ... have played with self-portraiture in times since. But it was with the invention of the cellphone camera that self-photography really took off.”

Though the writer of this article calls selfie-sticks and selfies narcissism and vanity, this is one fad that I consider to be uplifting, though it could be thought of as a status symbol, which goes against the grain with me. It comes from the gift humans have for harmless fun. I was particularly intrigued when Queen Elizabeth recently purposely walked into camera range behind a tourist and smiled broadly for the camera. That's the closest I've ever seen her come to having a strong sense of humor. There was one other time, though, when she was on a visit to President George W. Bush in the White House. He made one of his inimitable verbal gaffs, saying that “she visited the country in 1776.” She just smiled at him, half in wonder and half in pity.





http://www.npr.org/2015/02/21/387313451/can-you-dig-it-more-evidence-suggests-humans-from-the-ice-age

Can You Dig It? More Evidence Suggests Humans From The Ice Age
Greg Allen
FEBRUARY 28, 2015

Photograph – In Sellards' 1916 Florida Geological Survey report, markings suggest evidence of humans. Figs. 1-2 show engravings on a tusk from the Pleistocene of Florida. It's likely a lower, probodoscidian tusk of Mammut americanum.Fig. 3 is a bird bone fragment with markings.

In Florida, archaeologists are investigating a site that a century ago sparked a scientific controversy. Today, it's just a strip of land near an airport.

But in 1915, it was a spot that became world-famous because of the work of Elias Sellards, Florida's state geologist. Sellards led a scientific excavation of the site, where workers digging a drainage canal found fossilized animal bones and then, human remains.

Andy Hemmings of Mercyhurst University is the lead archaeologist on a project that has picked up where Sellards left off a century ago.

"Quite literally, where we're standing, they found what they, at the time, dubbed 'skeleton two' and 'skeleton three.' It turns out it's actually one individual, now known as Vero Man," Hemmings says.

The human remains were in a layer of soil that also contained bones from animals that lived in Florida during the Ice Age: mastodons, giant sloths and saber-toothed cats. Sellards said this was proof that people lived in Florida during the Ice Age, at least 14,000 years ago. At the time, most scientists believed humans had been in the New World no longer than 6,000 years.

An anthropologist from the Smithsonian, Ales Hrdlicka, led the charge attacking Sellards' findings. Hrdlicka believed the human remains were of someone who lived much later and had been buried in the lower strata. Vero Man was discredited and became largely an archaeological footnote.

But in Vero Beach, Fla., a quiet community known mostly for its citrus groves, Sandra Rawls says the site of Sellards' investigation, and its potential, was never forgotten. Several years ago, Rawls and others in the community formed a nonprofit group, the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee, or OVIASC.

"There were a lot of people who still remembered and knew a lot, are interested in the site. Many citizens had dug here, almost like a public park. Tons of fossils are in private collections that came out of here," Rawls says.

The group helped stop a water treatment plant from being built on the site and began raising money to fund a new archaeological investigation. That's when Mercyhurst University got involved. Archaeologists from the school are in their second year of work at the site.

Backhoes have dug a large pit to remove several feet of soil. A 24-by-60-foot tent now protects the area. Inside, under Andy Hemmings' direction, several college students are painstakingly beginning work on a layer of soil that was on the surface during the Ice Age.

"We don't even use shovels. You see spoons and trowels right now, very delicately trying to keep track," Hemmings says. "If there's interesting objects in them — bones, artifacts — we want to know where they came from."

In the first year, the dig uncovered a human artifact they believe dates back at least 11,000 years. But on a lower level, the crew uncovered charred remains of a dire wolf and an extinct horse.

Hemmings says it suggests people lived on the site even earlier, at least 14,000 years ago. "Our supposition is that all this burnt material did not arrive naturally, that it really is from a hearth, that it is people burning and cooking on this landscape," he says.

Those are preliminary findings, not yet published nor subjected to the rigorous peer review process. In the past, many similar claims have been later debunked. If the findings hold up, the principal investigator at Vero, James Adovasio, says they will help rewrite what we know about early man in the Americas.

"Vero becomes one of the earliest evidences of a human presence in the entire state of Florida, substantially older than it was thought to have been. It probably represents a lifestyle that we know very little about," Adavasio says.

Over the last few decades, archaeologists have uncovered other sites that have pushed back estimates of when humans arrived in the New World.

But so far, none of the oldest sites have yielded what many consider the smoking gun — human remains. John Shea, an anthropologist and expert on early man at Stony Brook University, says positively dated human remains would change a lot of minds.

"The bar is set high, but there are people looking for these things," Shea says. "The more they look, if there are genuinely fossils out here from this time period, they will find them. If they keep looking and they don't find them, well then, you know, one has to accept the hypothesis that maybe they aren't there."

That's one of the things that makes Vero so intriguing. Researchers believe there's the possibility that human bones could be found there again and dated conclusively to that early time period.




“In Florida, archaeologists are investigating a site that a century ago sparked a scientific controversy. Today, it's just a strip of land near an airport. But in 1915, it was a spot that became world-famous because of the work of Elias Sellards, Florida's state geologist. Sellards led a scientific excavation of the site, where workers digging a drainage canal found fossilized animal bones and then, human remains. .... The human remains were in a layer of soil that also contained bones from animals that lived in Florida during the Ice Age: mastodons, giant sloths and saber-toothed cats. Sellards said this was proof that people lived in Florida during the Ice Age, at least 14,000 years ago. …. Hrdlicka believed the human remains were of someone who lived much later and had been buried in the lower strata. Vero Man was discredited and became largely an archaeological footnote.... Several years ago, Rawls and others in the community formed a nonprofit group, the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee, or OVIASC. "There were a lot of people who still remembered and knew a lot, are interested in the site. Many citizens had dug here, almost like a public park. Tons of fossils are in private collections that came out of here," Rawls says. The group helped stop a water treatment plant from being built on the site and began raising money to fund a new archaeological investigation. That's when Mercyhurst University got involved. Archaeologists from the school are in their second year of work at the site.... "Our supposition is that all this burnt material did not arrive naturally, that it really is from a hearth, that it is people burning and cooking on this landscape," he says.”

“Over the last few decades, archaeologists have uncovered other sites that have pushed back estimates of when humans arrived in the New World. But so far, none of the oldest sites have yielded what many consider the smoking gun — human remains. John Shea, an anthropologist and expert on early man at Stony Brook University, says positively dated human remains would change a lot of minds.” American Indian archaeology is fascinating to me. I did read parts of a long and detailed modern book on American Indian archaeology which described a site on the Pacific coast of South America. That dig unearthed some stones that “seemed” to have been worked to produce tools, but not decisively, and at least one believed hearth site. Unfortunately there were no human remains found, and a wildfire could have burned the wood. That site is believed by one scientist to be from around 30,000 BP. That's much earlier than any other sites found so far in the New World. It is thought that those people, assuming it wasn't just a forest fire, came across from Asia to Alaska in boats rather then merely walking across the Bering Ice Bridge. They would have traveled along the coast, probably eating shellfish and sea mammals, until they came to South America. That would be a much easier trip than walking thousands of miles.

I was reading a few months ago about the spread of early homo sapiens out of Africa, into Asia and then to Europe. Bones dating from very early times were found in eastern Asia. Those bones most closely resemble the austronesians and the Ainu of today. A find from the 14,000 BP range called Kenniwick man also resembled the Ainu. Some American Indians have objected to the claim that a caucasoid group may have been in the US alongside the Asian related tribes who now live here. One Indian woman was quoted as saying, “whatever they looked like, they are our ancestors.” A good deal of hostility has been aroused among modern day Indians over the archaeological digs. They view those bones as their ancestors, and sacred.