Healthy Food, Eating, and Nutrition Pussy Riot: Russia’s unwitting gift to the women of the Arab Spring What if a feminist post-punk collective's action in Moscow could influence the cause of women everywhere, starting with protesters in Arab countries? A group of burqa-clad women have ditched their veiled attire for brightly coloured dresses and balaclavas, and have made their way into the Masjid al-Haram[1]. In a gesture of defiance against the Saudi establishment and the clerical-patriarchal hierarchy, the women, in a series of gyrating sequences, burst into a chorus of nasheeds,[2] invoking the Virgin Mary to bless their feminist crusade and curse the country’s religious elite for being in cahoots with Crown Prince Abdullah. The tight grip of religious orthodoxy precludes the possibility of any Pussy Riot repetition on Arabian soil. Even murmurs of a feminist-inspired stunt staging a provocative spectacle in the holy of holies would have the mutaween[3] and religious Gestapo jackbooting through the Meccan precinct, and would probably signal the death knell for women’s rights. Notes
Cannabis eases multiple sclerosis (MS) stiffness per study published in neurology journal Yellowj/Shuttertsock.com Use of cannabis extract helps ease painful muscle stiffness among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a large trial published on Tuesday in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The "Phase III" test -- the final stage in a process to vet a new drug or medical process -- took place among 22 centres in Britain. Over 12 weeks, 144 patients were given daily tablets of tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the active ingredient in cannabis, and 135 were given a dummy pill, also called a placebo. Doses were gradually escalated, from 2.5 milligrams to a maximum of 25 mg for two weeks, following top-up doses for the remaining two weeks. At the end of the study, 29.4 percent of people in the cannabis group said they had experienced relief from muscle spasms, compared to 15.7 percent in the placebo group, according to an 11-point rating. They also reported improvement in sleep quality.
Deep Read: The Blair necessity | Opinion | Comment and Analysis For years it seems impregnable, then suddenly the citadel collapses. An ideology, a fact, a regime appears fixed, unshakeable, almost geological. Then an inch of mortar falls, and the stonework begins to slide. Something of this kind happened over the weekend. When Desmond Tutu wrote that Tony Blair should be treading the path to The Hague, he de-normalised what Blair has done. The offence is known by two names in international law: the crime of aggression and a crime against peace. That the invasion of Iraq falls into this category looks indisputable. His foreign secretary, Jack Straw, told Blair that for the war to be legal, "i) there must be an armed attack upon a state or such an attack must be imminent; ii) the use of force must be necessary and other means to reverse/avert the attack must be unavailable; iii) the acts in self-defence must be proportionate and strictly confined to the object of stopping the attack." But while the case against Blair is strong, the means are weak.
Blair, Bush should be tried for Iraq: Tutu reply to post by Skinon So we should just let them get away with it? And what do you propose as justice? Locking them up in a cage? What do such things accomplish? More importantly - how will it affect what lay in store for the future? No point in the nuremburg trials i spose. Not really, no. If we constantly dont stand up, letting the government do what they want when they want then we are all going to go down the -o wait thats right. How is this standing up to "the government?" He's a former president - at least in the case of Bush. The purpose behind executing, jailing, or exiling an individual was to prevent them from causing more damage to society. If you were to kill someone and be brought to trial for it ten years after the fact, having committed no other serious offenses and living a productive lifestyle - is it justice to imprison you (remove you from your source of income), fine you into bankruptcy, etc? No. We are all doomed because of exactly this stance. None.
Arrest warrant sought for Tony Blair posted on Aug, 29 2012 @ 08:32 AM So... Tony came to saffaland.. now he might get... Not likely IMO, PrezZuma is a puppet. Honestly I don't have an expertly opinion on what the implications are, should the Police be forced to uphold international law... maybe our esteemed members might elaborate on this.. Might Tony need to go hide in the Ecuadorian embassy in Pretoria? This only popped up like two hours ago, lets see where it takes us. www.timeslive.co.za (visit the link for the full news article) edit on 29/8/12 by PadawanGandalf because: (no reason given) Bush and Blair must face Hague: Tutu The South African peace icon, writing in The Observer newspaper, accused the pair of lying about weapons of mass destruction and said the invasion left the world more destabilised and divided "than any other conflict in history". Tutu argued that different standards appeared to apply for prosecuting African leaders than western counterparts, and added that the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient for Blair and Bush to face trial. "On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague," Tutu wrote in the weekly Sunday newspaper. "But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world." "I did not deem it appropriate to have this discussion...
Pirate Bay co-founder arrested in Cambodia: police Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was handed a one-year prison sentence by a Swedish court in 2009 for promoting copyright infringement but failed to show up to serve his term at the start of this year. He was detained in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Cambodia’s national police spokesman said. “His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology,” Kirth Chantharith told AFP. “We don’t have an extradition treaty with Sweden but we’ll look into our laws and see how we can handle this case,” he said, adding that Cambodia was awaiting more information and documents from the Swedish authorities. The Swedish embassy in Phnom Penh was not immediately available for comment. Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay, which claims to have more than 31 million users, makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.
Occupy.Here Hopes to Create a Free, Open, Unregulated Community Without the Internet Dan Phiffer’s Occupy.here. (image courtesy the artist) Dan Phiffer, a New York-based web designer and member of art and technology collective, Future Archaeology, is one of the ten recipients of the Rhizome Commission Program Grants for 2012, which were announced on July 16, to continue his work on Occupy.here. Rhizome, for those who may not know, is a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to new art practices engaging technology. I had seen Phiffer’s work at the Activist Technology Demo Day at Eyebeam, as well at FEAST Brooklyn early this year. Ben Valentine: Tell me about yourself and what led you to make Occupy.here? Dan Phiffer: Last fall, I was visiting Zuccotti Park [during Occupy Wall Street] pretty regularly, and I had some great experiences talking to random people I met there. Mostly I build websites for a living, and I’d been doing some other projects that involved hacked wifi routers. Occupiers on the Brooklyn Bridge. DP: It didn’t really catch on.
Occupy the US: Musings on Horizontal Decision-Making and Bureaucracy | Marianne Maeckelbergh | The year 2011 has breathed new life into horizontal models of democratic decision-making. With the rise of the 15 May movement and the occupy movement horizontal decision-making became one of the key political structures for organising responses to the current global economic crisis. The current historical juncture requires reflection on these decision-making methods and here I explore a few of the important lessons that seem to stand out after participating in these processes in Barcelona, New York and Oakland. Whirlwind History Horizontal decision-making was, of course, never invented as such. Importantly, these decision-making methods were not just practiced as procedures, but as the building blocks for the alternative models of social and political organization being proposed by these movements. The Political Values Underlying Horizontal Decision-Making General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street. 1. 2. 3. 4. From Political Values to Economic Relations
Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit has her finger on the pulse of Occupy, that “bouncing baby” born with equal strife and joy just a year ago – and our nascent movement is indeed alive, well, and growing bigger and deeper than many pessimists and realists have grown accustomed to believing. Solnit lists a plethora of exciting achievements, and several silent, lesser known victories achieved by Occupy and other insurrectionary movements this year, but with sobriety, she also reminds us that “one year” is an absurdly brief amount of time to evaluate any movement that matters. For example, one year into the Civil Rights movement, “the montgomery bus boycott was still in progress, catalyzed by an unknown secretary and a preacher from Atlanta...that is, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.” We continue to chip away at the once daunting and impenetrable “Wall” of Wall Street. One day soon there will be more fissures and fractures in the system than then there are excuses for its persistence.
Blair 'safe from arrest' Herschel Mayers, chief executive of Discovery Life, said yesterday that the former British Prime Minister will have his own protection service and that additional security will be provided. Protesters have threatened to place Blair under citizen's arrest when he speaks at the Sandton Convention Centre. Abdul Razak Noorbhai, one of the protest organisers, said Blair's involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 made him a war criminal. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was also set to speak at the summit, withdrew two days ago after calls from trade unions and religious groups that he should refrain from sharing a platform with Blair. "Hip-hip-hooray to that!" Mayers said Tutu has since been replaced in the line-up by fitness guru Tim Noakes. The chances of someone inside the venue performing a "citizen's arrest" on Blair - as suggested on the website www.arrestblair.org - is just about impossible, according to Mayers. "I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge."
Arrest warrant sought for Tony Blair "We filed a complaint with the SA Police Service yesterday and a 'crimes against the state' docket was opened," Muhammed Vawda, secretary of Spoc, said today. "A case number was issued and it will go to the National Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision." Blair and former US president George W Bush were found guilty in absentia of crimes against humanity by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in November last year. They were also found guilty of genocide for their roles in the Iraq War.The tribunal was presided over by five judges. The court acknowledged that the verdict was non-enforceable, but the findings were reported to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Daily Maverick reported that the official UK government inquiry into the Iraq War, the Chilcot Inquiry, is only set to release a report late into 2013, which will run more than 1-million words. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu withdrew from the summit yesterday because of Blair's attendance.
Pussy Riot: Fearing Arrest, 2 Members Of Russian Punk Band Escape Country MOSCOW -- Two members of the punk band Pussy Riot have fled Russia to avoid prosecution for a protest against Vladimir Putin that sent three of their band mates to prison, the group said Sunday. Five members of the feminist group took part in a provocative performance inside Moscow's main cathedral in February to protest the Russian leader's rule and his cozy relationship with the Orthodox Church. The women wore their trademark garishly colored balaclavas, which made it difficult for police to identify them, and only three were arrested. After a controversial trial that highlighted Putin's crackdown on dissent since he began a third presidential term in May, the three band members were convicted of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison on Aug. 17. Pussy Riot tweeted on Sunday that the two activists had fled Russia and are "recruiting foreign feminists to prepare new protest actions."