Sunday, August 23, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/2015/08/23/432622096/how-solitary-confinement-became-hardwired-in-u-s-prisons

How Solitary Confinement Became Hardwired In U.S. Prisons
Brian Mann
August 23, 2015

Photograph -- A part of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia is shown in 2008. The penitentiary opened in 1829, closed in 1971, and then historic preservationists reopened it to the public for tours in 1994.
Matt Rourke/AP
Photograph -- An archival image from 1950 of the interior of a cell used for solitary confinement at Eastern State Penitentiary.
Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, gift of Alan J. LeFebvre
Phot0ograph -- Former inmates, civilian staff and corrections officers returned to Eastern State this summer to talk about life in the prison. "This place here really did something to me psychologically," recalled former inmate Anthony Goodman (center).


First in a three-part report on solitary confinement use in U.S. prisons.

In the yard at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, gray-haired men make their way up to a small stage. A towering stone prison wall rises overhead. One by one they sit at a scratchy microphone and tell their stories — of being locked up 23 hours a day in a place that just about broke them.

"This place here really did something to me psychologically," says former inmate Anthony Goodman.

Eastern State is the prison where solitary confinement was pioneered in the U.S. It's a museum now, but the reunion here is a chance for former inmates to talk about what it meant to do time here.

"Because this place would make you go insane if you didn't know how to handle it," Goodman says.

Fred Kellner was a psychiatrist charged with looking after inmates' mental health. He says he knew conditions at Eastern State were hurting people, but he felt powerless.

NPR's Steve Inskeep interviews President Obama at the White House on Thursday.

IT'S ALL POLITICS

Obama Hopes To Seize Momentum For Criminal Justice Reform

"I remember being bothered by various situations. You can't do much about it because the most important thing in a prison is control. And that rules," he says. "If you expect to change it, you're in for depression."

Here's one of the first things you learn when you study the history of solitary confinement: People have had deep doubts about isolating inmates for a really long time.

The earliest experiments were carried out here at Eastern State in the 1800s in tiny, monastic cells. Sean Kelley, director of education at Eastern State, says at first people really believed that isolating criminals for long periods might help them heal, make them more virtuous.

Critics didn't buy it. The British author and activist Charles Dickens who visited in the 1840s described long-term isolation as "ghastly," a form of "torture." Kelley says the people running Eastern State didn't listen. Decade after decade they kept trying to make the system work.

"The officers and the administrators would write about the inmates becoming agitated. They would have to carry out really extreme physical punishments to maintain silence. They would literally put them in strait jackets and douse them in water in the wintertime and leave them outdoors," he says.

Former inmates, civilian staff and corrections officers returned to Eastern State this summer to talk about life in the prison. "This place here really did something to me psychologically," recalled former inmate Anthony Goodman (center).
Brian Mann/North County Public Radio
'It Has All Come Back Around'

Stories like that led to solitary confinement being widely discredited here in the U.S. and around the world. Beginning in the early 1900s, long-term isolation was used rarely with the most dangerous inmates and usually for only short periods, a week or two. But Kelley says the idea had woven itself deep in the DNA of American prisons.

"It is shocking to see that we've gone back to it. There are tens of thousands — they say 80,000 people on given day — living in solitary confinement in the United States. We're used to seeing this as being a historical practice, but it has all come back around," he says.

From Solitary To The Streets: Released Inmates Get Little Help
Solitary Confinement: Punishment Or Cruelty?

The big revival came in the 1980s and 1990s. The drug war sent a tidal wave of inmates surging into state and federal correctional facilities. There were riots, gang violence and assaults on guards.

Prison officials looking for a quick fix so started building new isolation wards in prisons, and they also designed an entirely new kind of prison known as a Supermax correctional facility.

These are separate prisons that function very much like Eastern State Penitentiary did in the 1800s, locking inmates in cells for 23 hours a day with little interaction with guards or other prisoners. Nazgol Ghandnoosh of The Sentencing Project says solitary confinement is now hardwired into the architecture of America's prisons.

"Right now there are are at least 20 Supermax prisons, and they hold 20,000 people," Ghandnoosh says. "[At] one of the prisons in California, Pelican Bay, for example, half of the prison population, 500 people, have been there for more than 10 years."

Some inmates have been confined in solitary for 20, 30, even 40 years at a time. The practice is now such a standard disciplinary tool in the U.S. that even nonviolent inmates are often placed in isolation for months or years at a time.

"I think it's very important for prison authorities and the public to reflect on whether it's humane to subject people to this form of isolation that play havoc with people's sanity," Ghandnoosh says.

An archival image from 1950 of the interior of a cell used for solitary confinement at Eastern State Penitentiary.
Juan Mendez is a special investigator on human rights with the United Nations. He's worked extensively on the issue of America's system of solitary confinement.

It's common, Mendez says, for prisons in the U.S. to hold young people, inmates with mental illness and pregnant mothers in long-term isolation.

"The psychiatric and medical literature is very clear. Deprivation of meaningful social contact does create pain and suffering," Mendez says.

Studies show that solitary confinement can lead to higher rates of suicide and other forms of mental illness, even in modern prisons where inmates in segregation cells are sometimes allowed radios or televisions. Those findings have led top prison administrators like Greg Marcantel in New Mexico to look for new ways to scale it back.

"It's very, very easy to overuse segregation. I mean, for a guy like me, it's safe, right? It's safe. If these prisons are quiet, I don't get fired," he says.

In all, a dozen states are looking to reform the way they use solitary confinement. But here's a sign of how hard it might be to shift away from long-term isolation in American prisons: As President Obama condemned the use solitary confinement last month, his administration is finishing construction of a new $200 million Supermax correctional facility in Illinois. Its hundreds of isolation cells are expected to begin holding inmates next year.




“The big revival came in the 1980s and 1990s. The drug war sent a tidal wave of inmates surging into state and federal correctional facilities. There were riots, gang violence and assaults on guards. Prison officials looking for a quick fix so started building new isolation wards in prisons, and they also designed an entirely new kind of prison known as a Supermax correctional facility. These are separate prisons that function very much like Eastern State Penitentiary did in the 1800s, locking inmates in cells for 23 hours a day with little interaction with guards or other prisoners. Nazgol Ghandnoosh of The Sentencing Project says solitary confinement is now hardwired into the architecture of America's prisons. …. Some inmates have been confined in solitary for 20, 30, even 40 years at a time. The practice is now such a standard disciplinary tool in the U.S. that even nonviolent inmates are often placed in isolation for months or years at a time. "I think it's very important for prison authorities and the public to reflect on whether it's humane to subject people to this form of isolation that play havoc with people's sanity," Ghandnoosh says.”

“In all, a dozen states are looking to reform the way they use solitary confinement. But here's a sign of how hard it might be to shift away from long-term isolation in American prisons: As President Obama condemned the use solitary confinement last month, his administration is finishing construction of a new $200 million Supermax correctional facility in Illinois. Its hundreds of isolation cells are expected to begin holding inmates next year.” This story is very depressing. “Obama’s administration,” it says, is about to open another Supermax. Why is he not preventing this? Many of these prisoners were non-violent criminals, and now may become too disturbed to function outside of prison. A few years ago there was a news report that George W. Bush’s henchman Dick Cheney had made a large investment in the private prison system, and a report during this last year that courts are increasingly imprisoning people for minor drug convictions. We have, it seems, a sizable population who are enduring this kind of “punishment” rather than being rehabilitated. I have heard “conservative” people in my daily life saying that the goal of prison is to “punish” rather than to improve the criminal. Hardheartedness has taken over, it seems, along with the conservative movement. We are in decline as a society, while the Republicans talk about the importance of the “Free Market”. Money and the “Market” are the primary or only interests of so many of those people. Helping people just seems like a waste of time and money to them. America is simply not the fair-minded and idealistic place that I used to think it was. I am lucky to live in a place where I can speak my mind, but we could have our freedoms and a fair government for everyone, also. One doesn’t exclude the other.





http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dozens-of-clinton-emails-were-classified-from-the-start-us-rules-suggest/ar-BBlXPkl?ocid=iehp

Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, US rules suggest
Reuters
8/22/15

Photograph -- AP Photo/John Locher In this Aug. 18, 2015, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks with people at a town hall meeting in North Las Vegas, Nev. Clinton's campaign is facing…
Photograph -- In this Aug. 18, 2015, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks with people at a town hall meeting in North Las Vegas, Nev. Clinton's campaign is facing fresh worries among congressional Democrats about her use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state. Poll results suggest the inquiry may be taking a toll on her presidential campaign.© AP Photo/John Locher


For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.

While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as "Classified," it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking. Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it.

But the details included in those "Classified" stamps - which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification - appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found.

The new stamps indicate that some of Clinton's emails from her time as the nation's most senior diplomat are filled with a type of information the U.S. government and the department's own regulations automatically deems classified from the get-go - regardless of whether it is already marked that way or not.

In the small fraction of emails made public so far, Reuters has found at least 30 email threads from 2009, representing scores of individual emails, that include what the State Department's own "Classified" stamps now identify as so-called 'foreign government information.' The U.S. government defines this as any information, written or spoken, provided in confidence to U.S. officials by their foreign counterparts.

…This sort of information, which the department says Clinton both sent and received in her emails, is the only kind that must be "presumed" classified, in part to protect national security and the integrity of diplomatic interactions, according to U.S. regulations examined by Reuters.

"It's born classified," said J. William Leonard, a former director of the U.S. government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). Leonard was director of ISOO, part of the White House's National Archives and Records Administration, from 2002 until 2008, and worked for both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

"If a foreign minister just told the secretary of state something in confidence, by U.S. rules that is classified at the moment it's in U.S. channels and U.S. possession," he said in a telephone interview, adding that for the State Department to say otherwise was "blowing smoke."

Reuters' findings may add to questions that Clinton has been facing over her adherence to rules concerning sensitive government information. Spokesmen for Clinton declined to answer questions, but Clinton and her staff maintain she did not mishandle any information.

"I did not send classified material, and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified," Clinton told reporters at a campaign event in Nevada on Tuesday.

Although it appears to be true for Clinton to say none of her emails included classification markings, a point she and her staff have emphasized, the government's standard nondisclosure agreement warns people authorized to handle classified information that it may not be marked that way and that it may come in oral form.

The State Department disputed Reuters' analysis but declined requests to explain how it was incorrect.

The findings of the Reuters review are separate from the recent analysis by the inspector general for U.S. intelligence agencies, who said last month that his office found four emails that contained classified government secrets at the time they were sent in a sample of 40 emails not yet made public.

The State Department has said it does not know whether the inspector general is correct. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the security of the copies of the emails outside the government's control.

FOR THE SECRETARY'S EYES ONLY

Clinton and her senior staff routinely sent foreign government information among themselves on unsecured networks several times a month, if the State Department's markings are correct. Within the 30 email threads reviewed by Reuters, Clinton herself sent at least 17 emails that contained this sort of information. In at least one case it was to a friend, Sidney Blumenthal, not in government.

The information appears to include privately shared comments by a prime minister, several foreign ministers and a foreign spy chief, unredacted bits of the emails show. Typically, Clinton and her staff first learned the information in private meetings, telephone calls or, less often, in email exchanges with the foreign officials.

In an email from November 2009, the principal private secretary to David Miliband, then the British foreign secretary, indicates that he is passing on information about Afghanistan from his boss in confidence. He writes to Huma Abedin, Clinton's most senior aide, that Miliband "very much wants the Secretary (only) to see this note."

Nearly five pages of entirely redacted information follow. Abedin forwarded it on to Clinton's private email account.

State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach, in an initial response to questions on how the department applies classification regulations, said that Reuters was making "outlandish accusations." In a later email, he said it was impossible for the department to know now whether any of the information was classified when it was first sent.

"We do not have the ability to go back and recreate all of the various factors that would have gone into the determinations," he wrote.

The Reuters review also found that the declassification dates the department has been marking on these emails suggest the department might believe the information was classified all along. Gerlach said this was incorrect.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS

A series of presidential executive orders has governed how officials should handle the ceaseless incoming stream of raw, usually unmarked information they acquire in their work. Since at least 2003, they have emphasized that information shared by a foreign government with an expectation or agreement of confidentiality is the only kind that is "presumed" classified.

The State Department's own regulations, as laid out in the Foreign Affairs Manual, have been unequivocal since at least 1999: all department employees "must ... safeguard foreign government and NATO RESTRICTED information as U.S. Government Confidential" or higher, according to the version in force in 2009, when these particular emails were sent.

"Confidential" is the lowest U.S. classification level for information that could harm national security if leaked, after "top secret" and "secret."

State Department staff, including the secretary of state, receive training on how to classify and handle sensitive information, the department has said. In March, Clinton said she was "certainly well aware" of classification requirements.

Reuters was unable to rule out the possibility that the State Department was now overclassifying the information in the emails, or applying the regulations in some other improper or unusual way.

John Fitzpatrick, the current ISOO director, said Reuters had correctly identified all the governing rules but said it would be inappropriate for his office to take a stance on Clinton's emails, in part because he did not know the context in which the information was given.

A spokeswoman for one of the foreign governments whose information appears in Clinton's emails said, on condition of anonymity to protect diplomatic relations, that the information was shared confidentially in 2009 with Clinton and her senior staff.

If so, it appears this information should have been classified at the time and not handled on a private unsecured email network, according to government regulations.

The foreign government expects all private exchanges with U.S. officials to be treated that way, the spokeswoman for the foreign government said.

Leonard, the former ISOO director, said this sort of information was improperly shared by officials through insecure channels more frequently than the public may realize, although more typically within the unsecured .gov email network than on private email accounts.

With few exceptions, officials are forbidden from sending classified information even via the .gov email network and must use a dedicated secure network instead. The difference in Clinton's case, Leonard said, is that so-called "spillages" of classified information within the .gov network are easier to track and contain.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen, editing by Ross Colvin)




“While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as "Classified," it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking. …. The new stamps indicate that some of Clinton's emails from her time as the nation's most senior diplomat are filled with a type of information the U.S. government and the department's own regulations automatically deems classified from the get-go - regardless of whether it is already marked that way or not. …. the only kind that must be "presumed" classified, in part to protect national security and the integrity of diplomatic interactions, according to U.S. regulations examined by Reuters. "It's born classified," said J. William Leonard, a former director of the U.S. government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). …. Within the 30 email threads reviewed by Reuters, Clinton herself sent at least 17 emails that contained this sort of information. In at least one case it was to a friend, Sidney Blumenthal, not in government. …. Typically, Clinton and her staff first learned the information in private meetings, telephone calls or, less often, in email exchanges with the foreign officials. …. He writes to Huma Abedin, Clinton's most senior aide, that Miliband "very much wants the Secretary (only) to see this note." Nearly five pages of entirely redacted information follow. Abedin forwarded it on to Clinton's private email account. …. The Reuters review also found that the declassification dates the department has been marking on these emails suggest the department might believe the information was classified all along. Gerlach said this was incorrect. …. The State Department's own regulations, as laid out in the Foreign Affairs Manual, have been unequivocal since at least 1999: all department employees "must ... safeguard foreign government and NATO RESTRICTED information as U.S. Government Confidential" or higher, according to the version in force in 2009, when these particular emails were sent. "Confidential" is the lowest U.S. classification level for information that could harm national security if leaked, after "top secret" and "secret." …. Reuters was unable to rule out the possibility that the State Department was now overclassifying the information in the emails, or applying the regulations in some other improper or unusual way. …. Leonard, the former ISOO director, said this sort of information was improperly shared by officials through insecure channels more frequently than the public may realize, although more typically within the unsecured .gov email network than on private email accounts. …. With few exceptions, officials are forbidden from sending classified information even via the .gov email network and must use a dedicated secure network instead.”

According to Leonard sending sensitive information through unsecured channels is fairly common, or at least more than the public knew. It was also known by some, and perhaps by Obama, that Clinton was using a private account for the transmissions. One article stated that Clinton was not the only high-ranking person to do that, so it certainly has not in the past been highly prohibited. The representative of an unnamed foreign government expressed the “expectation” that all such communications from him would be handled as confidential matter. I’m sure it will be from now on, but I don’t believe a clearcut understanding existed before now about that, so I would tend to forgive her. Her statement that always using the .gov account was “inconvenient” or something to that effect explains her action, but may not excuse it. I do hope that she won’t be charged with a crime, however, as one Republican voice has suggested.





http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/for-africas-hunted-albino-children-new-limbs-and-new-hope/ar-BBlQs4S?ocid=iehp

For Africa's hunted albino children, new limbs and new hope
By DAVID R. MARTIN and RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press
August 23, 2015

Photograph -- © AP Photo Baraka Lusambo, 5, of Tanzania reaches to touch Monica Watson, with the Global Medical Relief Fund, during a fitting for a prosthetic limb at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on…

NEW YORK (AP) — Like other little boys, Baraka Cosmas Lusambo loves to play soccer. When he hears music, his feet tap and his face breaks out into a wide smile. During summer pool time recently, he used his left hand to toss a ball through a basketball hoop while red arm floaties keep him above water.

The joy vanished, though, when he was reminded of the night men armed with torches and knives burst into his family's home in western Tanzania, knocked his mother unconscious and sliced off his other hand.

"We were simply sleeping when someone just arrived," Baraka said. "They came to me with machetes."

Baraka has albinism, a condition that leaves the afflicted with little or no pigment in their skin or eyes. In some traditional communities of Tanzania and other countries in Africa, albinos, as they're often called, are thought to have magical properties, and their body parts can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market as ingredients in witch doctors' potions said to give the user wealth and good luck.

Baraka and four other children with his condition have escaped the threat, at least temporarily, brought to the United States by the Global Medical Relief Fund, a charity started by Elissa Montanti in 1997 that helps children from crisis zones get custom prostheses.

Montanti, moved by an article she read about Baraka, reached out to Under the Same Sun, a Canada-based group that advocates for and protects people with albinism in Tanzania and had been sheltering Baraka since his attack in March.

When Montanti asked if she could help him, the group asked whether she would also help four other victims get prosthetics, as well. She agreed and brought all five to live for the summer at her charity's home in New York's Staten Island while they underwent the process of getting fitted for and learning to use prostheses about two hours away at Philadelphia Shriners Hospital for Children.

"They're not getting their arm back," Montanti said. "But they are getting something that is going help them lead a productive life and be part of society and not be looked upon as a freak or that they are less than whole."

Albinism affects about one out of every 15,000 people in Tanzania, according to the U.N. Anyone with the condition is at risk, and people attacked once can be attacked again

The government there outlawed witch doctors last year in hopes of curtailing the attacks, but the new law hasn't stopped the butchering. There has been a sharp increase in attacks in Tanzania and neighboring Malawi, according to the U.N. Tanzania recorded at least eight attacks in the past year.

The children have been in the U.S. since June. Once they receive their new limbs after a few months, they will return home to safe houses in Tanzania run by Under the Same Sun. Montanti's fund will bring them back to the U.S. to get new prostheses as they grow.

On a recent visit to the hospital, Baraka was fitted for a prosthetic right hand. He poked at the flesh-colored plastic hand as it lay beside him on the examination table. His atrophied right arm was barely able to lift the prototype prosthesis, but that was to be expected; it would grow stronger once the prosthetic hand was in place.

One of the other victims, 17-year-old Kabula Nkarango Masanja, said that her attackers asked her family for money, and that her mother offered the family's bicycle because they had none. The attackers refused, held the girl down and in three hacks cut off her right arm to the armpit. Before leaving with her arm in a plastic bag, her attackers told her mother other men would be back to take her daughter's organs — but they didn't return.

The girl thinks constantly about her missing limb.

"I feel bad because I still don't know what they did with my arm, where it is, what benefits they derived from it — or if they simply dumped it," said Kabula, a tall girl with a sweet voice who once sang "In the Sweet By and By" for the nonprofit group.

Between trips to the hospital, Montanti has filled the children's summer with typical American activities. In late July, the children went to a swimming pool for the first time ever. Volunteer lifeguards helped them navigate the water.

Montanti said that they've become like her adopted kids, and that she has grown especially close to Baraka.

As the group gathered recently for a barbecue dinner near the pool, Montanti interlocked one of her hands with Baraka's remaining one and whispered, "I love you."

Online:
Global Medical Relief Fund: http://www.gmrfchildren.org




Ignorance and primitive thinking still rules as an underlayer of religion, as long as that religion demands unthinking allegiance to mythology and magic. This is still occurring in the USA. I am not merely referring to the Fundamentalist and Dominionism that is active in the US right now. There is also “root magic” in parts of our cities, small towns and in the backwoods areas where people are very, very poor. That’s the bayous of the Gulf of Mexico, the mountains in Appalachia, the impoverished areas such as Hispanic and black neighborhoods everywhere which are without good housing, jobs, etc. Often there are elements of Christianity mixed in with it, but the real religion is magic.

Buddhists and upper class Christians such the Episcopalians, tend to focus on the uplifting of the human mind and improvements in aid to the underprivileged, but the poorest and least educated groups tend to want to solve their practical life problems through the power of their faith. The belief that God will help those who believe unerringly in the dogmas of a particular religion by performing a miracle is the basis of it. The result is the death of free and logical thought processes and even their prohibition, as when the Enlightenment movement in Europe had to fight the Catholic Church of the time over new scientific pieces of information such as whether the earth revolves around the sun and whether the earth is flat or round.

That scares me almost as much as the cultism, group hatred, and often violence that results. Both the education of the masses and the right to free speech are suspect to such people, as they nullify the power of their dogmas and their controlling position in society. Worse still, the Catholics and the Protestants -- as each came into power during the Reformation era -- tried to enforce their beliefs by suppression and execution. “Witches” were burned and heretics as well. Jews were universally punished, of course, and now in Europe and the US we have the Islamic individuals who are trying to escape their deathtrap in the Middle East. Of course, they do carry their own particular cult-like beliefs with them, such as the right of a father to kill his daughter if she “shames” the family by having a Christian or Jewish boyfriend.

The cutting off of an albino child’s arm to be sold as something magical or medicinal seems so outré that we fairly well-off white people in the US just can’t identify with it. When magic comes into a culture this kind of thing is the result. Tigers, bears, gorillas and now lions, as tigers have become more and more rare in the wild, are being decimated because they are being killed in Africa to serve the equally primitive views among some of the Asian cultures.

As cynical as I am about some of the political goings on here in the US, the number of such obscene practices is smaller here. There was one case of a woman with an Hispanic name who killed her child in attempted exorcism, because she had decided that girl was “demonic.” The Catholic Church and some that are Protestant as well do sometimes perform exorcisms here. That hits the news occasionally. Equally horrible is the cutting off of the most important parts of a woman’s genital organs in order to render her unable to enjoy sex. That is called “female circumcision.” It is an attempt to ensure that she will never voluntarily take a lover, which would “shame” the family.

I’m saying all these things because it is tempting to view this albino matter as a “primitive black African” belief. Well, it is primitive, but it does not mean that black people aren’t intelligent enough to be full citizens, vote in our elections and live in a Middle Class to wealthy neighborhood when they have the money to afford it. Most African Americans would never believe in such a thing, and many are going to college to be professors, teachers, lawyers and doctors and even starting businesses. Despite the failure of our educational system to totally transform the society of blacks in this country, much progress has been made, and we as “good” white people must continue to educate and send to a decent college our black children. I will be glad to see the time when football and basketball scholarships are not the primary funding for their educational costs, too. Scholarships need to be based on family need and the intellectual application and ability of the student in question. Not every kid is going to do well in sports, though they all seem to want to.

One of the basic beliefs of anthropologists and social scientists who go into societies which are still “untouched” by white ways and control and therefore “pristine,” is that their interactions must not destroy the tribe’s cultural unity and beliefs. I’m afraid I draw the line at practices like this, though. I think they should all, including those among Islamic societies, die a natural death as mass education takes over. I also want to see women and girls treated fairly and educated fully so that they can be doctors and lawyers. It is primarily would-be oligarchs who oppose the public school system here, and they do it because an educated group of people are much harder to dominate and control. That is, after all, the central goal of Fascist thinking – to dominate, sometimes eliminate or “purify,” as with the Nazis of WWII, and always to control.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-south-korea-talks-war-fears/

Rival Koreas hold high-level talks to defuse war fears
AP August 22, 2015

Photograph -- South Korean National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin, right, South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, second right, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Yang Gon, second left, and the top military aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong, Un Hwang Pyong-so, shake hands during the inter-Korean high-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea, in this picture provided by the Unification Ministry and released by Yonhap Aug. 22, 2015. REUTERS/THE UNIFICATION MINISTRY/YONHAP


PYONGYANG, North Korea -- South Korea and North Korea were holding their first high-level talks in nearly a year at a border village on Saturday to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation.

The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom, where the armistice ending fighting in the Korean War was agreed to in 1953, began early Saturday evening, shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry. North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

There was no word late Saturday night that the talks had ended. Marathon talks are not unusual for the Koreas, who have had long negotiating sessions in recent years over much less momentous issues.

At the meeting, South Korea's presidential national security director, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo sat down with Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People's Army, and Kim Yang Gon, a senior North Korean official responsible for South Korean affairs.

Hwang is considered by outside analysts to be North Korea's second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

The meeting came as a series of incidents raised fears that the conflict could spiral out of control, starting with a land mine attack, allegedly by the North, that maimed two South Korean soldiers and the South's resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts.

An official from South Korea's Defense Ministry, who didn't want to be named because of office rules, said that the South would continue with the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts during the meeting and would make a decision on whether to halt them depending on the result of the talks.

While the meeting offered a way for the rivals to avoid a collision for now, analysts in Seoul wondered whether the countries were standing too far apart to expect a quick agreement that could defuse the conflict.

"South Korea has openly vowed to cut off the vicious cycle of North Korean provocations, so it can't manage to walk off with a weak settlement," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul. "The South will also likely demand the North to take responsibility for the land mine attack and apologize, and there isn't much reason to think that Pyongyang would accept that."

Koh, however, said that Saturday's meeting might open the door to more meetings between the rivals to discuss a variety of issues.

South Korea had been using 11 loudspeaker systems along the border for the broadcasts, which included the latest news around the Korean Peninsula and the world, South Korean popular music and programs praising the South's democracy and economic affluence over the North's oppressive government, a senior military official said at a news conference, on condition of anonymity.

Each loudspeaker system has broadcast for more than 10 hours a day in three or four different time slots that were frequently changed for unpredictability, the official said. If North Korea attacks the loudspeakers, the South is ready to strike back at the North Korean units responsible for such attacks, he said.

Authoritarian North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is extremely sensitive to any criticism of its government. Analysts in Seoul also believe the North fears that the South's broadcasts could demoralize its front-line troops and inspire them to defect.

The high-level meeting was first proposed by Pyongyang on Friday afternoon. The rival countries reached an agreement for the meeting Saturday morning after the North accepted the South's demand that Hwang be present at the meeting, South Korea's presidential office said.

Hwang and Kim Yang Gon visited South Korea in October last year during the Asian Games in Incheon, but their meeting with Kim, the South's national security director, and then-Unification Ministry Ryoo Kihl-jae failed to improve ties between the countries.

In Pyongyang, businesses were open as usual Saturday and street stalls selling ice cream were crowded as residents took breaks from the summer sun under parasols. There were no visible signs of increased security measures, though even under normal situations the city is heavily secured and fortified. More than 240 South Koreans entered a jointly run industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

The North's state-run media has strongly ratcheted up its rhetoric, saying the whole nation is bracing for the possibility of an all-out war. Leader Kim Jong Un has been shown repeatedly on TV news broadcasts leading a strategy meeting with the top military brass to review the North's attack plan, and young people are reportedly swarming to recruitment centers to sign up to join the fight.

"We have exercised our self-restraint for decades," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday. "Now, no one's talk about self-restraint is helpful to putting the situation under control. The army and people of the DPRK are poised not just to counteract or make any retaliation, but not to rule out all-out war to protect the social system, their own choice, at the risk of their lives."

People were willing to talk about the tension and, as is common in public in North Korea - officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - they voiced support for their government's policies and their leader. They also used phrases like "puppet gangsters" to refer to South Korean authorities - everyday terms in the North, in both state media and conversation.

"I think that the South Korean puppet gangsters should have the clear idea that thousands of our people and soldiers are totally confident in winning at any cost because we have our respected leader with us," said Pyongyang citizen Choe Sin Ae.

It was not clear whether North Korea meant to attack immediately, if at all, but South Korea has vowed to continue the propaganda broadcasts, which it recently restarted following an 11-year stoppage after accusing Pyongyang of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.

Four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four F-15k South Korean fighter jets simulated bombings on Saturday, starting on South Korea's eastern coast and moving toward the U.S. base at Osan, near Seoul, officials said.

On Thursday, South Korea's military fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up a threat to attack the loudspeakers.

Thousands of residents in border towns were told to move to shelters ahead of the Saturday afternoon deadline, while fishermen were banned for the second straight day from entering waters near South Korean islands close to the disputed western sea border with North Korea, officials said.

The North denies responsibility for the land mine attack and says it didn't fire across the border, a claim Seoul says is nonsense.

The standoff comes during annual military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea calls the drills a preparation for invasion, although the U.S. and South Korea insist they are defensive in nature.



“… shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry. North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down. …. An official from South Korea's Defense Ministry, who didn't want to be named because of office rules, said that the South would continue with the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts during the meeting and would make a decision on whether to halt them depending on the result of the talks. …. While the meeting offered a way for the rivals to avoid a collision for now, analysts in Seoul wondered whether the countries were standing too far apart to expect a quick agreement that could defuse the conflict. …. South Korea had been using 11 loudspeaker systems along the border for the broadcasts, which included the latest news around the Korean Peninsula and the world, South Korean popular music and programs praising the South's democracy and economic affluence over the North's oppressive government, a senior military official said at a news conference, on condition of anonymity. Each loudspeaker system has broadcast for more than 10 hours a day in three or four different time slots that were frequently changed for unpredictability, the official said. If North Korea attacks the loudspeakers, the South is ready to strike back at the North Korean units responsible for such attacks, he said. Authoritarian North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is extremely sensitive to any criticism of its government. Analysts in Seoul also believe the North fears that the South's broadcasts could demoralize its front-line troops and inspire them to defect. …. The army and people of the DPRK are poised not just to counteract or make any retaliation, but not to rule out all-out war to protect the social system, their own choice, at the risk of their lives." People were willing to talk about the tension and, as is common in public in North Korea - officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - they voiced support for their government's policies and their leader. They also used phrases like "puppet gangsters" to refer to South Korean authorities…. Four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four F-15k South Korean fighter jets simulated bombings on Saturday, starting on South Korea's eastern coast and moving toward the U.S. base at Osan, near Seoul, officials said. On Thursday, South Korea's military fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up a threat to attack the loudspeakers.”

I remember the US used to broadcast loud American rock music at the jungles of North Vietnam to “destroy the morale” of the enemy. I don’t know if it did anything other than to keep them from sleeping, but it gave the Americans the feeling that they were doing something useful. What is happening in Korea seems to be just a case of mutual harassment and a show of military readiness to match the US/South Korean war games. I am tempted to put the whole display into the category of “bilgewater,” since nobody really intends to fight. It reminds me of my sister’s situation in Greensboro, NC some 15 years ago when the Baptist Church across from her house put out a loud speaker with a ranting minister preaching about hellfire and damnation. My sister just called the police, who came and made the church stop their broadcast. Freedom of religion doesn’t mean the right to disturb the peace.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/possible-superbug-discovered-at-southern-california-hospital/

Possible "superbug" discovered at L.A.-area hospital
CBS/AP
August 20, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Protocols questioned as scopes blamed for new superbug outbreak in L.A. hospital
15 PHOTOS -- 15 superbugs and other scary diseases


PASADENA, Calif. -- A Los Angeles-area hospital said Wednesday that some of its patients contracted an antibiotic-resistant "superbug" that has been linked to a type of medical scope and infected dozens of people around the country.

Huntington Memorial Hospital said in a statement that it notified public health authorities after several patients who had procedures using Olympus Corp. duodenoscopes were found to have the resistant pseudomonas bacteria.

The hospital said it has quarantined the scopes while it investigates whether they may be linked to the infections.


The statement made no mention of the total number of infected patients or their conditions.

However, the Los Angeles Times said the problem was discovered in June and three patient infections have been reported to health officials.

Drug-resistant bacterial infections around the country have been linked to contamination of the reusable scopes, which are used for a procedure known as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. The fiber-optic scopes are placed down a patient's throat and used to diagnose and treat gallstones, blockages and cancers of the digestive tract.

"The patients who experienced the bacterial growth were very ill before they underwent the scope procedure, and the risk of the procedure was explained to each patient and family," Huntington Memorial's statement said.

"This is a problem facing every hospital and we will be part of the solution. Guidelines in place for disinfecting and monitoring scopes for bacterial growth are in line with FDA and manufacturer standards," Huntington Hospital executive Dr. Paula Verrette said in a statement, CBS Los Angeles reported.

A dozen infections were reported earlier this year at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA's Ronald Reagan medical centers in Los Angeles. Three patients died.

The hospitals said the infections occurred even though the devices had been cleaned to the manufacturer's standards. They have since implemented more stringent disinfection procedures.

Olympus is the market leader for duodenoscopes in the U.S., accounting for about 85 percent of sales, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

On Monday, the FDA posted a warning letter online that said Olympus waited three years to alert regulators to a cluster of 16 infections in patients who underwent procedures using the scope in 2012.

Additionally, FDA inspectors found that the company has no standard procedure for promptly reporting serious problems with its devices, a requirement for medical device companies.

The company said it was reviewing the FDA's warning.

The FDA also posted warning letters Monday to two other scope manufacturers citing problems with the testing, design, reporting and quality control of their devices.



Pseudomonas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pseudomonas is a genus of Gram-negative, aerobic gammaproteobacteria, belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae containing 191 validly described species.[1] The members of the genus demonstrate a great deal of metabolic diversity, and consequently are able to colonize a wide range of niches.[2] Their ease of culture in vitro and availability of an increasing number of Pseudomonas strain genome sequences has made the genus an excellent focus for scientific research…. Because of their widespread occurrence in water and plant seeds such as dicots, the pseudomonads were observed early in the history of microbiology. The generic name Pseudomonas created for these organisms was defined in rather vague terms by Walter Migula in 1894 and 1900 as a genus of Gram-negative, rod-shaped and polar-flagellated bacteria with some sporulating species,[3][4] the latter statement was later proved incorrect and was due to refractive granules of reserve materials.

Secretion of exopolysaccharides such as alginate makes it difficult for pseudomonads to be phagocytosed by mammalian white blood cells.[17] Exopolysaccharide production also contributes to surface-colonising biofilms that are difficult to remove from food preparation surfaces. Growth of pseudomonads on spoiling foods can generate a "fruity" odor.

Antibiotic resistance[edit]

Being Gram-negative bacteria, most Pseudomonas spp. are naturally resistant to penicillin and the majority of related beta-lactam antibiotics, but a number are sensitive to piperacillin, imipenem, ticarcillin, or ciprofloxacin.[17] Aminoglycosides such as tobramycin, gentamicin, and amikacin are other choices for therapy. Development of multidrug resistance by P. aeruginosa isolates requires several different genetic events that include acquisition of different mutations and/or horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes.

Animal pathogens[edit]

Main article: Pseudomonas infection

Infectious species include P. aeruginosa, P. oryzihabitans, and P. plecoglossicida. P. aeruginosa flourishes in hospital environments, and is a particular problem in this environment, since it is the second-most common infection in hospitalized patients (nosocomial infections)[citation needed].

Food spoilage agents

As a result of their metabolic diversity, ability to grow at low temperatures, and ubiquitous nature, many Pseudomonas species can cause food spoilage. Notable examples include dairy spoilage by P. fragi,[34] mustiness in eggs caused by P. taetrolens and P. mudicolens,[35] and P. lundensis, which causes spoilage of milk, cheese, meat, and fish.[36]




“Huntington Memorial Hospital said in a statement that it notified public health authorities after several patients who had procedures using Olympus Corp. duodenoscopes were found to have the resistant pseudomonas bacteria. The hospital said it has quarantined the scopes while it investigates whether they may be linked to the infections. The statement made no mention of the total number of infected patients or their conditions. However, the Los Angeles Times said the problem was discovered in June and three patient infections have been reported to health officials. …. "The patients who experienced the bacterial growth were very ill before they underwent the scope procedure, and the risk of the procedure was explained to each patient and family," Huntington Memorial's statement said. "This is a problem facing every hospital and we will be part of the solution. Guidelines in place for disinfecting and monitoring scopes for bacterial growth are in line with FDA and manufacturer standards," Huntington Hospital executive Dr. Paula Verrette said in a statement, CBS Los Angeles reported. …. Three patients died. The hospitals said the infections occurred even though the devices had been cleaned to the manufacturer's standards. They have since implemented more stringent disinfection procedures. …. Olympus is the market leader for duodenoscopes in the U.S., accounting for about 85 percent of sales, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On Monday, the FDA posted a warning letter online that said Olympus waited three years to alert regulators to a cluster of 16 infections in patients who underwent procedures using the scope in 2012. Additionally, FDA inspectors found that the company has no standard procedure for promptly reporting serious problems with its devices, a requirement for medical device companies.”

The stories of people entering a hospital for something pretty simple like a broken leg and then dying of a serious contagious disease are legion. Some people are really terrified of being in a hospital, though I myself feel that for the most part they are clean enough. Any scope that enters the human digestive system could pick up bacteria, though. I realize now that one of these very scopes may have been used to examine my upper digestive tract just a couple of weeks ago. The good news is that I am perfectly fine, so I guess mine was cleaned well enough.

It is interesting – in the same way that watching a tarantula is interesting – that Olympus’ own recommended procedure for cleaning the scope was insufficient in several cases as compared to the hospital’s standard method. Olympus should at least update its instructions to the users of the scope. Equally “interesting” is the fact that “Olympus waited three years to alert regulators to a cluster of 16 infections in patients who underwent procedures using the scope in 2012. Shouldn’t the responsible managers of the company be subject to criminal charges for that? I think it’s called “criminal negligence.”

Of course that’s like the several kinds of cars in the last ten years which only after years of reported owner problems, finally issued a recall for the ignition key problem that ended up with the car motor dying while the owner was driving down the road. The key just “slipped out” spontaneously from the On position to the OFF spot. I believe one news report stated that it may have had to do with the driver having too many keys on the key chain, thus causing extra weight. I had heard years ago from a boyfriend that I should take my car key off my main key ring and keep it separately – that it “wasn’t good for the ignition switch.” Needless to say, at 70 mph that causes deadly crashes. When the motor dies the driver can’t even turn the steering wheel.

On the term “pseudomonas,” I have heard about it before but knew nothing in detail. See the Wikipedia article on the bacteria which is pretty common in the average kitchen. According to that article, “Growth of pseudomonads on spoiling foods can generate a "fruity" odor.” The only spoiled food I can think of that gets a “fruity” odor is milk. When it is just one day or so over the safety limit it can smell that way. I can taste it too, so I used to pour the whole carton out. Nowadays I only buy dry milk, so I mix up a small water pitcher full every couple of days, mix it with condensed canned milk to add a little sweetness and cream to the taste, and drink it all within that time period. I started that because when I bought whole milk it would almost always go bad before I could use it all. It gets rapidly more noxious after another day passes. I don’t see how those wandering herders of the early Neolithic times got beyond the “rotten milk” stage to cheese.

I think things like that – testing medicinal plants to see how much was good for pain and how much will kill you, for instance – were part of the role of the shamans and the “wise women.” Nowadays we tend to call them “witches.” How people got along before our technological age is invariably interesting to me. One place I would love to visit is in the British tourist guides, an archaeological experimental site – a Neolithic farm reconstruction. See “Butser Ancient Farm” if you go to England. As far as I know, the Celtic people were well past having anything to do with cave painting, but that’s okay. They would have busied themselves with weaving tartans with wool from their sheep, though. I’m sure it’s fascinating anyway.

http://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/ -- “Step back in time”

“Welcome to Butser Ancient Farm – a unique experimental archaeological site and a fascinating day out. Nestled into the rolling South Downs National Park, this ancient farm displays ongoing constructions of Iron Age buildings based on real sites, crops from prehistory and rare breeds of animals.

“We have a full programme of special events including fantastic Celtic festivals and workshops – such as making a coracle, Roman cooking, bushcraft skills or cave painting. A memorable family day out in Hampshire, just on the West Sussex border. Read here what our visitors say.”

Schools

A perfect venue for outdoor learning and a great way to bring history alive – 20,000 pupils visit Butser Ancient Farm every year, so why not bring your class too? Inspire their curiosity to find out more about the past!

We have embraced the new curriculum and activities are now available for Stone Age, Bronze Age, Anglo Saxons and Vikings as well as the Celts and Romans.

Teachers love:
•the quality of our enthusiastic team, who will lead you through an adventurous day transporting your pupils back to ancient times.
•our carefully planned activities that tie in with different aspects of Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 – from history and art to DT and maths.
•our atmospheric Great Roundhouse and impressive Roman villa.

Click HERE to see the information for teachers.

Inspiring staff and exciting topics

What are you studying? Celts, Romans, Invaders and Settlers, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, Houses and Homes, Discovery for Reception Age, Medicine through Time, Sustainable Technologies or Archaeology? Our stunning site and inspiring staff will bring the past to life. Your class can sit beside a large open fire in a roundhouse that is actually based on real archaeology. They can touch, smell and see what life would have been like. Pupils can also:
•compare Iron Age and present-day technologies.
•make mosaics with coloured tiles to learn about symmetry and repeating patterns.
•try the daily tasks such as spinning, pottery and wattling that helped early peoples survive.
•choose which house they would like to have lived in – and explain why.

***

We are one of the best-loved outdoor education venues in Hampshire, and close to the border with West Sussex. School trips this educational and this much fun are hard to find – contact us today on 02392 598838 or by email to talk about what you would like to do.

An unforgettable school trip in Hampshire
Our schools’ programme is led by education director, Maureen Page. She says: ‘The children’s imaginations are immediately activated and the whole day adds up to an unforgettable, enjoyable and highly instructive experience for pupils, teachers and parents alike. When children leave us at the end of an exhausting day, they are often spattered with mud and clay, but always have beaming smiles.’

Our visitors say:

“That was the BEST school trip I have ever been on” Rhea, Year 3

“There are appropriate and relevant activities for the children that are fast paced and pitched totally to retain their interest” Corpus Christi School

“The trip was supercalafragaliclixpaladous, that means amazing!” Mahele, Wiltshire

“My favourite thing was clunching with the mud and chalk to make the wall. Everything you said was fascinating” Rebecca, aged 10

“PS: I’m allowed to build a roundhouse in my back garden” Lewis, Year 6

“It is the ‘hands on’ activities that really provide the learning experiences.” ACS Cobham International Secondary School

Tuesday, June 17, 2014


Report on a typical school visit by a girl in year 8, Farnborough Hill

On 9 June 2014, I, along with the rest of Year 8, went to Butser Ancient Farm. We started the day in a replica of an Iron Age hut. In the centre of the room there was a fire, the roof was thatched and it was very dark and smoky inside. Each form was named after a different tribe, my form, 8A, were the ‘Artebates‘.

Throughout the day we did lots of different activities that related to Roman Britain. The first activity I did was spinning wool into yarn using a drop spindle. I actually found it quite hard as I kept ripping my wool and my thread was very thick! Next we did painting and visited a Roman villa. We only used three colours and had to paint one of the pictures depicted on the walls. The paint that was used in Roman Britain didn’t dry like our paint does today and instead rubs off like chalk if you brush it!

At lunch time we were given the opportunity to explore the farm and look at all the replica buildings from different eras. Our next task was cooking! We were each given a lump of dough, made only from flour and water, and had to wrap it in a spiral around a long stick. Then we cooked the bread by holding it over the embers of the fire in the Iron Age hut. This took a really long time and the smoke was very unpleasant, however the bread was actually quite tasty when we ate it afterwards!

Finally, to end the day we made jewellery out of copper wire, and twisted it into rings, pendants and bracelets. In summary, the trip was great fun and I learnt a lot about Iron Age Britain and the culture the Romans introduced.


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