Why doesn’t the J-S have more balance from conservatives? – Rockford Register Star

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Why doesnt The Journal-Standard balance their local liberal contributors with local conservative contributors?

Case in point, starting with definitions. "Democracy," majority-ruled government exercised directly by the largest group of activists, resulting in mob rule. A mobocracy, leading to oppression of minorities, leading to revolutions. When the majority rules, there is no need for controlling supreme law. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Government becomes whatever the majority demands. Most leaders become dictators.

"Republic" 1. A form of government where citizens have the power and choose those who represent them. 2. A political order in which the supreme power lies in the body of legal, sovereign citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them. 3. A state or nation with a president as its titular head who is prevented from being a dictator by the constitution. "and to the Republic for which it stands". No true American patriot pledges allegiance to a democracy.

"Constitution" 1. The system of fundamental laws and principles that prescribes the nature, functions, and limits of a government. 2. The supreme law of the U.S., consisting of the document ratified by the original thirteen states (1787-1790).

"Constitutional Republic" A government of, by and for the people; whose supreme law is their constitution, which strictly limits their governments authority and power. Consequently, the U.S. has never been a democracy.

"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself" Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers propaganda minister.

For decades, politicians, leftists, Marxists, media, government schools, university professors and ignorant pseudo-intellectual snobs have constantly repeated the "democracy lie." America has only one government, our Constitutional Republic... "PERIOD", Full STOP!

Ultimately, with all due respect, I reject Pat and Chuck Wemstroms article in The Journal-Standard of April 24. Reasons; see above. My personal opinion is It only wastes time responding to leftist drivel, prattle and claptrap. Ive had a little time to waste. The Wemstroms had an open field for years without a weekly conservative counter. My repulse is with respect to Americas patriots. Nuff said, drop the mic.

Larry Shipley, a deplorable flat-lander conservative

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Why doesn't the J-S have more balance from conservatives? - Rockford Register Star

Why Im not downloading the COVIDSafe app – The Brag

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Im in no rush to allow the government to track and monitor me. Its a horrible and terrifying idea.

Yes, you can mount alegitimate argument that the COVIDsafe app in its current form is nothing really to be concerned about. However the current build and rollout is not the cause for alarm.

Facebook, Google and Amazon started very simply and safe too, and now they are using data points and tracking technology to manipulate and exploit the public, why would we allow the government to do so too? This is the same government which recently raided the ABC, essentially attacking freedoms without apology.

Also as Vox reported, governments in 30 countries have manipulated media online to silence critics, sow unrest or influence elections. Now the Australian government is asking us to give them consent to track us all in the name of safety and COVID-19.

Like all times of crisis, governments around the world are using this pandemic to implement policies and expectations which will deteriorate basic freedoms.

In the US, the government used the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to implement the Patriot Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that allowed, among other things, the government to collect citizens phone data. It was an unprecedented encroachment on personal rights.

Well, as governments become more authoritarian, more and more groups of people will get marginalised and abandoned. Think about all the profiling that happens at a police level with race and various other demographics?

Now imagine that same unjust profiling occurring where police have multiple data points they can access on a dashboard at any moment? We really arent far from that.

Even if you are a white rich male and dont have anything to worry about, ask yourself; what industry do you work in? What are your religious beliefs? Oppression and marginalisation does not stop, it slowly creeps until it consumes the whole public everyone is at risk who is not in office.

On a less dramatic example, we have seen how the Trump campaign manipulated the American people with unprecedented access to data via Cambridge Analytica. No one is immune from government manipulation.

You may be the most rational, balanced person in Australia, however everyone has one topic/issue that irritates or angers them the most. With enough data points, the government can determine what that issue is, then feed you information on how their opposition supports (or doesnt support) that issue so that you dont vote for them.

Even though, on balance, the current government may be far more corrupt and far more disconnected from your values than the opposition you are being fed very specific details which make you blind to that. And it wouldnt be your fault!

Back to Google, Facebook and Amazon. We are in a terrible place as a society with these services. They know everything about us, and worse still, they make no secret in how they use this information to exploit us for commercial gain.

Personally, I use them as little as possible now and have hard restrictions on all of their apps. Where I can, I use a fake name and fake photo.

I also post a lot less now, and certainly dont upload pictures as much as I once did. If it wasnt for work, Id delete these services. This was a big reason I switched back to Apple from Android too, you can control your security a lot better on Apple devices.

The bottom line is, think very carefully before you consent to the government getting access to your data.

Yes the data the COVIDsafe app collects now is limited and is anonymised. However it is just the foot in the door for the conservative government. It wont be long before they are incentivising the public to give them Facebook levels of data, entirely consensually. Just like weve done with the corporate tech giants.

Then governments will use that data to manipulate you, and when that happens, will your thoughts and your vote really be your own?

Luke Girgis is the CEO of The Brag Media. Father, Swans fan, C.S. Lewis and Seinfeld tragic.

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Australian governments rushing to reverse lockdown measures – World Socialist Web Site

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By Oscar Grenfell 1 May 2020

State and territory leaders are rushing to overturn lockdown measures introduced in response to the pandemic, even though their own modelling indicates that this will result in the more rapid spread of the coronavirus.

The Northern Territory is today lifting a raft of restrictions, while South Australia and other states have outlined roadmaps out of the crisis. This is despite continuing deaths and illness linked to at least four active COVID-19 clusters across the country, and ongoing community transmission.

The aim of all the governments is to create the conditions for broad sections of the working class to be herded back onto the job, so as to resume the flow of corporate profits.

The dangerous implications of this policy have already been demonstrated in sectors that have remained open throughout the crisis. In the construction industry, for instance, the unions and property developers have forced tens of thousands of workers to continue production despite the impossibility of social distancing and have refused to shut sites even when infections have occurred.

The state and territory announcements have been timed to coincide with a meeting today of the expanded national cabinet, composed of the federal government, along with premiers and chief ministers. Each of these gatherings, followed by a press conference of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy have been markers in the escalating back to work campaign.

In the lead-up to the meeting, Morrison has pressed for the state governments to plan for the reopening of restaurants, bars and clubs. The sector is clearly not essential, but accounts for at least $20 billion in revenue per year.

At the same time, state and federal authorities are rapidly moving to resume face-to-face teaching in the schools, despite widespread opposition, as a precondition for workers returning to their jobs.

The Northern Territory Labor government has thus far gone the furthest in reversing lockdown measures, announcing that from today outdoor activities involving pools and childrens playgrounds will reopen, while weddings and funerals can proceed with an unlimited number of attendees.

Beginning on May 15, indoor activities at cafes, gyms and food courts will be permitted and on June 5, all restrictions on mass sporting events, TAB gambling venues and cinemas will be abolished.

The territory is being used as a test case for broader measures, because its small population and isolation appear to have buffeted it from the worst effects of the pandemic.

That the NT cannot be shut-off from broader developments, however, as was shown this morning with the announcement that four Australian Defence Force personnel had been hospitalised in Darwin after reportedly contracting COVID-19 in the Middle East.

The territory is a hub of the Australian military, with Darwin hosting a major marine base directed against China. Some 2,500 US marines are set to arrive at the base in July, while an unknown number of US intelligence assets come and go from the spy base in Pine Gap near the town of Alice Springs, all year long. The US is currently one of the epicentres of the pandemic and there have already been large-scale outbreaks on board its naval vessels.

The move in the NT is particularly reckless, given that fewer than 5,000 tests have been conducted out of a population of some 250,000.

More than a quarter of Territorians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. They suffer the health consequences of centuries of oppression and many continue to live in communities that lack the most basic amenities. While for other demographics, individuals over the age of 60 are considered at risk of serious illness or death if they contract the coronavirus, among Aborigines, the warning age is just 50.

The South Australian state government is reportedly seeking to lift many of its restrictions within three weeks. The Victorian state of emergency concludes on May 11, which is the date that Morrison and state leaders have assigned for a review of all lockdown measures.

In New South Wales, the countrys most populous state and the largest centre of infections, government claims that the worst of the crisis is over have been dealt a blow by a spate of tragic deaths at the Newmarch House aged care home in Western Sydney and by ongoing reports of community transmission.

This morning state authorities announced the thirteenth death at the Newmarch facility. Family members have protested over several weeks that they have been denied information about the plight of their relatives and their health status.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian also revealed that there had been nine new confirmed infections over the previous 24 hours. At least four of them are a result of community transmission in the Penrith area.

The state is nevertheless proceeding with back to work measures, including the reopening of the schools.

This week, the Daily Telegraph published details of a previously secret matrix, which the NSW government is using to plan the end of the lockdown. It appears to provide a cost versus health analysis of a series of measures.

For instance, it is noted that the removal of restrictions on large-scale outdoor gatherings would result in a medium risk of new COVID-19 infections, but this is counted against the high economic and well-being benefits that would result from such a measure. The reintroduction of widespread retail shopping would similarly result in a medium risk of a coronavirus outbreak, but would have high economic benefits.

According to the Telegraph, the NSW state government is hoping that its recently announced abolition of limits on family visits will have been normalised by mid-May, prior to the lifting of other restrictions.

The Murdoch-press, however, claims that there is a group of cabinet ministers in NSW pushing for a faster relaxation of lockdown laws, including Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello. Two of those have portfolios that would receive a direct boost from a rapid reopening of the economy.

Similar calculations are being made nationally. This week the media revealed modelling by the Group of Eight universities, commissioned by the government to advise a route out of the crisis.

The academics presented two models. One would require the maintenance of most lockdown measures until at least June, aimed at the effective elimination of the spread of the virus. The other would involve the phased overturn of restrictions and a subsequent policy of controlled adaptation to COVID-19.

The proponents of the latter strategy bluntly stated that it would lead to a slightly higher number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths. All of their modelling is predicated on untested assertions that the health system will be capable of dealing with a rapid spike in infections. Nevertheless Morrison and other government representatives immediately declared that they were not seeking to eliminate the virus, because to do so would have too great an effect on the economy.

Governments are touting a decline in cases to justify the removal of lockdown measures. The reduction, however, is clearly the result of the policies they are seeking to overturn. Within the corridors of power, it is openly discussed that the abolition of the social distancing measures will result in a rapid spike in infections, and inevitably, in deaths.

The Murdoch-owned Australian has been among the most insistent advocates of a speedy return to work. Yesterday, its foreign editor Greg Sheridan spelt out what this would mean, declaring: [B]ased on everything we know about COVID-19 there will likely be a second and a third wave of the pandemic. They could easily be worse than the first. He concluded: Dont think the worst cannot come here.

Featured statements on the coronavirus pandemic

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Australian governments rushing to reverse lockdown measures - World Socialist Web Site

Johnson and Covid-19: Can human suffering have political advantages? – Prospect Magazine

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Now we can look the East End in the face. Buckingham Palace during the Blitz. Photo: PA

Now Boris Johnson has recovered from a nasty bout of coronavirus he may well contemplate the political advantage to be gained from having shared the ordeal of so many of his compatriots. The key reward is that he will be able to say with quite unaccustomed sincerity, I feel your pain. Solidarity is forged in adversity and where leadership is concerned nothing succeeds like suffering, as many historical examples attest.

In 1871 Edward, Prince of Wales caught typhoid fever, described as the pre-eminent filth disease of the Victorian period. It was presumed to have killed his father, and for over a month Edward himself, showing symptoms remarkably similar to those of coronavirus, hovered at deaths door. At the time the monarchy was in a parlous state. Queen Victoria, the Widow of Windsor, remained in purdah. Her eldest son had recently been embroiled in the scandalous Mordaunt divorce case and was widely regarded as (in Walter Bagehots phrase) a debauched booby. And there was an upsurge of republicanism, red caps of liberty being raised on poles in Trafalgar Square.

However, the princes illness provoked a tidal wave of sympathy that swept the country. Radicals sneered at the great epidemic of typhoid loyalty but, as the fervent public thanksgivings for his recovery demonstrated, it infected all classes of society. The republican movement subsided, a proposed enquiry into the crowns finances was roundly defeated in parliament and the queen could express confidence in the future of her dynasty. In fact, the reprobate Prince of Wales did more for royal popularity by contracting typhoid than he had ever accomplished in the full bloom of health.

Coincidentally Edwards grandson, George VI, provided another graphic illustration of the way in which experiencing a common affliction can bind ruler and ruled together. In the early days of the Blitz its victims occasionally booed the king and queen as they toured bombed districts, seeing the visits of these gilded folk as a show of slumming. But on 9th September 1940 Buckingham Palace was bombed. The queen famously (and perhaps apocryphally) declared that she could now look the East End in the face. Certainly the air raid was a huge propaganda coup for the king. It demonstrated that he was in as much peril as his subjects, who henceforth applauded his appearances. Despite the ill-disguised perpetuation of many royal privileges, the government could boast that in a Peoples War there was equality of sacrifice, that the sovereign was at one with his subjects. Thus was born a potent myth that has helped to sustain the monarchy ever since.

A well-trodden Via Dolorosa is often an individuals path to power. Churchill and De Gaulle, who would respectively stand on rooftops to watch the Blitz and brush off assassination attempts during the Algerian crisis, both did time in the trenches during the First World War. Many future leaders of colonised countries personified struggles for national independence by participating in the afflictions of their fellows. Dodging martyrdom during the Easter Rising, Eamon de Valera forfeited his own liberty in the cause of Irish freedom, and, on becoming Taoiseach, made ire a sovereign state. In India, Nehru and Gandhi exposed themselves to violence and spent many years in gaol, the former treated as a common criminal, the latter subjecting himself to the additional trauma ofhunger strikes. They thereby acquired moral authority that fatally undermined the British Raj and placed Nehru at the head of a self-governing subcontinent.

In Africa, prison was frequently a stepping-stone to palace. Kwame Nkrumah and his followers wore caps inscribed PG, for Prison Graduate, and he was thus able to establish himself not just as leader of an independent Ghana but as its Osagyefo, Redeemer. Jomo Kenyatta emerged from almost a decade of harsh incarceration to become both president of Kenya for life and Mzee, the father of his people. And of course Nelson Mandelas 27 years confinement, incurred for opposing apartheid, elevated him far above the grubby political fray. It manifested his nobility of character and endowed him with an almost Christ-like aura. Aung San Suu Kyi also acquired iconic status during the 15 years she spent under house arrest resisting oppression in Myanmar, earning the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. But reputations won by enduring pain can be lost by inflicting it. Suu Kyi went from heroine to villainess by coming to terms with the Burmese military junta and defending it against well-founded allegations of genocide.

So sinners as well as saints can climb to the top by facing communal hardship or, better still, by embracing danger. Stalins revolutionary activities earned him several spells of internal exile in Siberia, which he treated as a university, graduating eventually, of course, to the Kremlin. Having narrowly escaped a bullet during the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler spent a year in Landsberg Prison, dictating Mein Kampf and being hailed, even by the warders, as Der Fhrer.

If leaders of every stamp can be more or less sanctified by suffering, Johnson must stand a chance of benefiting from being one among many victims of the pandemic. But sympathy may be extinguished by anger over his lackadaisical early response to it, his swing from accepting herd immunity to imposing total lockdown and his ideological resistance to extending the Brexit transition despite the risk of compounding the present economic catastrophe. The blame for NHS shortages might reasonably be laid at his door. So Johnsons skin has been saved, but it may be harder to save his bacon.

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Johnson and Covid-19: Can human suffering have political advantages? - Prospect Magazine

State attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily – The Indian Express

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Written by Suraj Yengde | Updated: May 3, 2020 8:00:26 am In the country of Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, adjusting on the lines of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one cannot have such an inhuman response to the States failures.

To be a nationalist in India, especially the Right-wing variety, enjoins blaming the colonial regime for all the wrongs in the country. In this politics, the Left wing too puts the imperial government under deleterious scanner. The British regime of 200-odd years is a subject of numerous studies, conversations, celebrations and commemorations. Academia has devoted an entire gamut of postcolonial studies to study those years. Two generations later, this concept continues to peripherally entertain the social sciences discipline. However, the progenies of post-colonials, under the garb of liberal nationalists, stand up against the powers-that-be only when their control through zamindari and the capitalist class is threatened.

The imperial State had utilised its resources to target organisations and individuals who resisted its oppressive rule. Sedition and preventive detention were legal methods deployed to eliminate dissent. The State demanded complete submission to its authority.

Similar modus operandi have continued in post-Independent India. Governments under the Congress or the BJP have emulated their white predecessors in controlling any form of discontent by the poor and oppressed groups.

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If the legacy of sedition and draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Public Safety Act and National Security Act exist, it means the government doesnt honour the immense sacrifices of our countrys freedom fighters. It is because of them that we are supposedly enjoying freedoms in our country, though those freedoms are denied to anyone whom the ruling castes are at odds with.

It is not an accident that Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims remain disproportionately the prime target of these atrocious laws, along with anyone who dares defend civil liberties. In fact, many of the activists and scholars who have written against legislation like the UAPA find themselves incarcerated under them now.

The premise on which these laws exist in the first place is that there are internal threats to the Indian State i.e., that there exist citizens who challenge its authority. Any mature, democratic State would try to address the reasons behind this, instead of a concerted kneejerk approach. The State also attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily.

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It is in this context that one needs to ask what good is the Indian State offering Dalits aside from the breadcrumbs of reservations, which are still not implemented in totality. Mind you, the Supreme Courts attitude towards reservations is clear, in stating that states are not bound to give reservations in jobs and promotions. What steps does the State then plan to ensure the safety of its Constitutionally protected communities?

Dalit and Adivasi social and political movements need to consider waging a struggle against the draconian laws primarily aimed at penalising them, though the attempts by citizens to constitutionally organise against a mighty State might be considered by it as an assault on its so-called integrity. In a 2018 joint study by Common Cause and Lokniti, 27% of Adivasis said they feared being framed for anti-State Maoist activities, while 35% Dalits for petty crimes and 47% Muslims for terrorism-related charges.

These draconian laws have their DNA in British-era brutality. The victims of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre were people who had come together to protest against the Rowlatt Act, that led to incarceration without trial and judicial review. To continue with such draconian legislation is to continue with the legacy of British oppression.

Opinion |We will never know how many people died of starvation, because no state government will admit to starvation deaths

Under the UAPA, a person can be detained for 180 days without charges, giving ludicrous rights to the State. This way the government can conveniently put activists it considers a threat to national security behind bars. The States use of the UAPA shows it doesnt differentiate between dissent of political nature and criminal activity. One can also be sure that if the government is using draconian laws against Left-wing Dalit and Adivasi activists, the same will be repeated against people now enjoying profligacies of power.

A firm believer in parliamentary democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar stressed the importance of organising, agitating and opposition. We need an opposition to keep the powers in check.

In the country of Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, adjusting on the lines of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one cannot have such an inhuman response to the States failures. If we do not counter these laws, soon even Ambedkarism might be deemed a terrorist ideology, because it seeks justice and equality.

This article appeared in the print edition of May 3, 2020, under the name Sedition, UAPA denial of basic freedoms. Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly Dalitality column

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State attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily - The Indian Express

Government fails to supply amenities to well being employees, AIIMS Association raises questions – Sahiwal Tv

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The growing an infection of the corona virus in medical doctors and well being employees is discouraging these coronados. They are additionally nervous about their household as properly. Dr. Adarsh Pratap Singh, President of Resident Doctors Association of All Sciences Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, has mentioned that the federal government has failed to supply fundamental amenities and companies to well being employees in lots of hospitals. The Delhi authorities has requested the administrators of assorted authorities hospitals to hunt written explanations from medical doctors whove been discovered to be corona optimistic. Doctors have been requested how they obtained contaminated regardless of following the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), protected distance and different precautions.

->The affiliation has described the transfer as insensitive and has positioned ten calls for earlier than the federal government.

PPE deficiency and high quality: In many Kovid-19 hospitals, well being employees wouldnt have private protecting gear (PPE). Questions are being raised concerning the high quality of PPE in some hospitals. Government ought to take discover of this.

Doctors treating non-covid sufferers wouldnt have PPE: Patients additionally inadvertently carry infections to non-covid wards and medical doctors are contaminated with it. PPE is a should for each physician on this scenario.

Safe lodging for medical doctors: It is dangerous for a lot of well being employees to go dwelling at the moment. Because they will turn out to be contaminated attributable to group transmission. They want lodging at protected locations near hospitals.

Number of assessments decreased: More testing will scale back the chance of medical doctors, as it may possibly determine extra contaminated folks.

Kovid- 19 Long-term remedy of sufferers: The variety of well being employees is inadequate. Therefore an worker has to watch Kovid sufferers for an extended time frame. They are liable to getting contaminated by this.

Infection prevention and coaching discount: In many districts, well being employees will not be being given higher coaching to forestall this an infection. Immediate coaching might help them defend themselves and others.

Stress and anxiousness attributable to workload: The assault on well being employees by folks with out correct amenities and care is traumatic. They are discouraged by this.

Social harassment and assault: Despite the regulation to make sure the security of well being employees, theyre dealing with social oppression. Instead of being seen as a warrior, hes seen as a menace and harassed.

More funding in healthcare: It is time when the federal government wants to take a position extra to extend the infrastructure and capability to combat epidemics like Kovid-19.

Bring Private Practitioner again to work: Government well being employees are extra upset as a result of non-public practitioners have closed their clinics and dispensaries. To scale back the burden of presidency hospitals, they need to be requested to begin their very own clinics.

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Government fails to supply amenities to well being employees, AIIMS Association raises questions - Sahiwal Tv

IT expert warns of ‘digital surveillance’ in the name of fight against COVID-19 – Bulatlat

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By REIN TARINAYBulatlat.com

MANILA A digital security expert has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic may turn digital surveillance into a so-called new normal as many governments flaunt their respective contact tracing applications and programs to fight the spread of the deadly virus.

Internews community manager Tom Banaria found it alarming that several surveillance infrastructure are being used on people to contain the virus. If this becomes a the normal, he said, it will be very scary.

People are starting to accept that we need it so we can protect ourselves from COVID-19, Banaria said duringtodays Bulatlatan episode, titled COVID-themed cyber attacks and how to protect yourself.

Several international human rights watchdogs have earlier called out the attention of various governments on the increasing surveillance on the people, warning of possible human rights violations.

Governments must be able to show that measures implemented are provided for by law and are necessary, proportionate, time-bound, and that they are implemented with transparency and adequate oversight, Amnesty International said in a previous statement.

Previous case

This is not the first time that there has been an increase on digital surveillance in the name of protecting the people.

Amnesty International said government surveillance expanded significantly after the infamous 9/11 attacks. Once these capabilities and infrastructure are in place, the group said governments seldom have the political will to roll them back.

What this means in practice is that surveillance measures must be the least intrusive available to achieve the desired result. They must not do more harm than good, the Amnesty International said.

In early April, more than a hundred civil society groups have signed a joint statement, listing down at least eight conditions for governments who are resorting to digital surveillance amid the pandemic.

Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, also warned that governments are using the pandemic to build architecture of oppression.

As authoritarianism spreads, as emergency laws proliferate, as we sacrifice our rights, we also sacrifice our capability to arrest the slide into a less liberal and less free world. Do you truly believe that when the first wave, this second wave, the 16th wave of the coronavirus is a long-forgotten memory, that these capabilities will not be kept? That these datasets will not be kept? No matter how it is being used, what is being built is the architecture of oppression, Snowden said in an interview with Vice TV.

Bulatlat managing editor Ronalyn Olea cited a report showing contact tracing apps being used in 29 countries.Here in the Philippines, a digital contact tracing app is being used in Cebu City to supposedly aid the combat against the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, however, is in partnership with the Cebu police.

Given the poor human rights record of the Philippine police, Olea said she would not personally vouch for this app.

Olea said a recentstudyclaimed that at least 60 percent of the population would need to download the app for it to work but the more serious problem would be privacy concerns. Severalstudieshave shown that even anonymized data sets are at risk from re-identification.

Preying on fear

Meanwhile, Banaria said they continue to monitor reports on cyber-attacks, particularly phishing attacks, that prey on the peoples fear of the pandemic.

He shared practical tips to protect oneself from online scams and cyber-attacks. These are:

1. Think before you click Whenever working on your devices, always make sure that you are using a legitimate source. Always be vigilant especially whenever you are transacting via mobile banking.

2. Verify the link Cyber-attackers usually hide the real URL to their compromised websites through link-shortening applications. To verify the legitimacy of the URL, you may visit virustotal.com.

3. Use two-factor authentication Using two-factor authentication as security measure can protect your email, social media accounts, and online banking transactions from hackers and cyber-criminals.

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IT expert warns of 'digital surveillance' in the name of fight against COVID-19 - Bulatlat

Terror in a pandemic – The News International

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The pandemic rages on. It has infected more than two and a half million individuals worldwide, of which more than 186,000 have lost their lives. No cure or vaccine is in sight yet. The gasping deaths are attended by acute suffering, scare and utter helplessness. Most of these have occurred in some of the most developed countries of the world like the US, the UK, Holland, Spain, France and Italy, leading to populations shutting up in homes, with business, amusement and all the vestiges of a happy and normal life grinding to a halt.

The global economy is threatened to shrink, registering a long-term impact. With an unprecedented public health nightmare, rising unemployment, and shrinking growth, the world finds itself in a deep crisis; fear seems to have gripped mankind by the scruff of their soul. This crisis can be an opportunity for terrorists and extremists who can turn the crisis to their benefit in a number of ways.

The first use of the crisis that they are already making is in spreading a narrative of divine nemesis. Pretending to be the champions of a divine cause, they are claiming credit for the present crisis: something they are not responsible for. Playing on the psychology of fear, extremists are interpreting the pandemic and its appalling death toll as an example of the divine retribution visited upon rich and powerful nations as punishment for their misdeeds.

Unable to completely suppress their schadenfreude, terrorists are gloating over the visible helplessness of the governments they oppose. In a six-page statement issued by Al-Qaeda, The Way Forward: A Word of Advice on the Corona Virus Pandemic, Al-Qaeda addresses the Western world saying that this pandemic is a punishment from the Lord of the Worlds for injustice and oppression committed against Muslims specifically and mankind generally by the governments you elect.

The statement invites the Western world to embrace Islam, the hygiene-oriented religion that teaches principles of prevention to protect people from all forms of disease. Yes, they are mixing faith with the scientific lure of hygiene. Al-Qaeda, in the same statement, designates the Covid-19 virus as Allahs invisible soldier, almost crowing that the pandemic has exposed the brittleness of a global economy dominated by the US. The statement cleverly synthesizes a narrative of grievances and high moral ground.

In the same vein, Isis in an editorial of its newsletter Al-Naba, published in March declared that the current pandemic is an example of God's torment which has mostly struck the idolatrous nations.

In addition to building a narrative, terrorists see the present crisis as an opportunity to recruit and mount attacks because world governments are busy fighting the virus, and thus terrorist organizations can capitalize on their distraction to attack them. Isis has already made its intentions clear saying that it will not pity the crusaders, for their suffering but rather use their tribulations as an opportunity to recruit more fighters and launch attacks on their cities and unguarded prisons that hold the mujahideen. On the one hand, it advises its followers to take precautions for their protection but at the same time gives them the good news that if killed by the virus they will be regarded as martyrs.

The two brazen attacks by Isis in Afghanistan in March are consistent with their declared intentions. On March 6, 32 persons were killed in a mass shooting in Kabul, while on March 25, a suicide attack on a gurdwara in Kabul left 25 people dead.

Inside Pakistan, terrorists are on the backfoot, but extremism continues to persist. Hence, extremists will feel revived by the narratives of divine wrath developed from the Covid-19 pandemic. It is imperative for law-enforcement agencies, the Provincial Counter Terrorism Departments (CTDs), and the PTA to keep cyberspace and the social media under close watch so that the extremist propaganda is immediately spotted and countered, and the nemesis narratives are blocked or taken down.

The law has banned the unnecessary use of loudspeaker; it is suggested that local police and law-enforcement monitor closely the situation to ensure the strict implementation of this law to nip the potential relay of pro-jihadist narratives. The government should also stick to a policy of not giving in to such demands from various sections of society that clearly violate the public health advice given by public health professionals. In a crisis like this, precedence must be given by all to the professional findings rather than other considerations.

Lastly, in a crisis like this, terrorist outfits and proscribed organizations can revive their social work and charity operations if not closely monitored. Great vigilance has to be practised by the administration, police and CTDs to prevent proscribed organizations from raising funds under the garb of helping the poor and the destitute. These terrorist outfits engage in such activities to win the hearts of people, and to demonstrate their executive ability to carry out large operations like state institutions. They seek to rival the state in its functions, and aim for creating a state within the state.

There are 73 organizations proscribed by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in the country a number of them have had a long history of charity and social work. Pakistan has implemented a model charity law in order to combat terrorist financing in the country, and to put an end to the charity complexes developed by the banned outfits in the past.

The fund-raising operations of these outfits have been significantly demolished and their funding sources choked since early 2019. Hundreds of their members, including some key leaders, have been convicted and awarded heavy sentences to curb their terror funding operations. This momentum must be maintained so that they do not use the present crisis to sneak back into raising money and engaging in social service activities.

The writer is a senior police officer, currently a director general at Nacta, Islamabad.

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Terror in a pandemic - The News International

‘If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children’ – CNN

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Tripoli, Lebanon (CNN) -- A large bag of the thistly gundelia plant arrives at Um Ahmad's door as it does nearly every day. Wearing a double layered headscarf, she settles into a blue armchair. She has until the afternoon to trim the spines off the wild plant for her customers to cook.

"We work on the akoub (gundelia) so that we can live," says Um Ahmad, using a pseudonym.

When visitors walk into her dark, cavernous room to meet her, she doesn't even look up. A drama series blasts from an old TV.

"The akoub doesn't even come every day," says Um Ahmad, never meeting her guests' eyes.

Um Ahmad lives beneath a centuries-old souk (or marketplace) in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli.

Outside, the city roils with violent demonstrations, known as the "hunger protest." These started just as Lebanon was loosening its coronavirus lockdown, and beginning to contend with poor living conditions exacerbated by the near shutdown of the economy.

Nightly confrontations between demonstrators and the Lebanese army have rocked Tripoli over the last week, turning it into the epicenter of the country's renewed uprising against its political elite.

Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon, despite being home to some of its most high-profile billionaires. A slum stretches across the banks of the city's Abu Ali river, just minutes from pockets of extravagant wealth. The income disparity was always stark, but these days, Tripoli's locals say it is unbearable.

"No one has trust in the banks. No one has trust in the state. There's injustice, there's shame and there's oppression," says Ahmad Aich, who runs a shoe stand.

Aich's voice rises to a crescendo. As with many Tripoli natives, the conversation begins with the soft tones of a city folk known for their kindness to strangers, but quickly turns into a tirade about living conditions.

"The solution is for the army chief to round up all the politicians who robbed this country and to put them in jail," says Aich. "They pillaged the country and killed it and killed its people."

Calls for the army to deliver justice echo across Tripoli even as demonstrators hurl stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the armed forces. The military has responded with brute force. It has fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and, in some instances, live fire, at protesters, killing one on Monday and wounding dozens over the last week.

"The army are our brothers. What we want is for them to join us, take the politicians from their houses, and throw them in the garbage dump," says protester Ghassan, a 24-year-old handyman and a father-to-be who asked not to disclose his full name for security reasons.

"If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children," he adds.

Rising poverty

It is a dramatic drop in living standards for a country which in 2018 had the highest GDP per capita among the Arab world's non-oil producing nations.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese lira lost over half its value, hurting both merchants and consumers. Small shop owners are struggling to secure supplies, and the country's growing legions of poor people can't afford to buy them.

In Tripoli, many people say that most staple goods have at least doubled in price, making the working class increasingly reliant on aid from charities.

Amer El-Deek, 30, used to own a shoe stand and made ends meet with a daily income of $10. Now, he says, all he can do is beg and rely on food packages from an Islamic charity.

"We don't know how we're even alive," says Deek, the father of a six-year-old. "I now go to sleep and think: God, I hope I don't wake up. I hope I die tomorrow."

'Hunger protests'

When the "hunger protests" kicked off last week, few were surprised. "I see that a revolution of the hungry is coming," Hezbollah-backed MP and former intelligence chief Jamil El-Sayyed tweeted in December.

The uprising's largely peaceful protests turned violent after a nearly two-month respite due to coronavirus. In Tripoli, protesters staged large demonstrations outside politicians' homes vowing to avenge their alleged corruption. Nearly every bank branch in the city has been damaged by the protests, with demonstrators voicing their fury at the banking sector's discretionary capital controls.

On any given work day, long queues of people begging to withdraw their cash can be seen outside bank branches. Lebanese authorities have resisted calls to formalize capital controls, raising suspicions that the economic elite in Lebanon have been exercising their influence to remove their funds from the country, while small depositors are largely denied access to their life savings.

Young and old head to Tripoli's protest sites after Ramadan's Taraweeh prayers, which are performed after the fast is broken during the holy month.

They arrive on mopeds, gather in crowds and yell protest chants. Most do not wear face masks, and no one is observing government-mandated social distancing rules. That's because most of the people on Tripoli's streets believe that coronavirus doesn't exist here.

The lockdown has stoked resentment, fueled rumors of a government conspiracy to further impoverish the poor and ultimately ignited the protests.

"We don't have coronavirus here in Tripoli. Coronavirus is a heresy. (The politicians) made it up," says one city native, Marwan el-Zahed.

"What do I care about coronavirus," says another Tripolitan, Ahmad Abou Abdallah. "(The politicians) are worse than coronavirus. They are dirtier than coronavirus. They are making people hungry. Doesn't that make them worse than the virus?"

Fourteen cases of the coronavirus have been reported so far in Tripoli. In total, Lebanon has had 740 confirmed cases of the virus and 24 deaths. It has received some credit for a largely successful bid to contain the virus.

Underground, Um Ahmad is too busy working on her gundelia to talk politics. She has also lapsed into disillusionment.

"My situation is just as you see it," she says, gesturing to her home's conditions. "Sometimes I empty the pulp of zucchini for people. But also that doesn't come every day."

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'If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children' - CNN

A closer look at the Opposition that’s pious about ‘democracy’ today – Sunday Observer

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There should have been a provision in the Constitution that an essentially defeated parliament should never be reconvened, irrespective of the circumstances. It could be argued that there is no such thing as a defeated parliament except there is.

A parliament whose majority belongs to the political entity that was defeated at the last elections that were held, is a defeated parliament. Its a spent force, but more importantly, its a parliament that has been subject to censure by the people.

In less abstruse terms, it just means that the sovereign people of this country have given that parliament its marching orders.

If the next Legislature cannot be elected for very legitimate reasons, the censured parliament cannot profess to have any legitimate mandate to reconvene.

This writer is not going to consider the legal position of all this, at least not in this article. The legal issues could be subject to various interpretations and the laws can be gone through with a fine tooth comb. But the legal aspect is nothing, and should be nothing, if there is no morally acceptable claim for the dissolved parliament to resume sessions.

In other words, the people do not want an ignominious parliament to have anything to do with the affairs of the nation, especially at a time crucial decisions affecting the well being of the people are being made.

Democracy is not a bunch of laws. Parliament is an organic embodiment of the will of the people. Sumanthiran the democrat is in fact Sumanthiran the despot when he calls for a morally illegitimate parliament to be reconvened unilaterally.

Persecution

Sumanthirans understanding of the law is queer as his disdain for democratic process, despite his lawyerly credentials. Legally, parliament should represent the will of the people, as the people are sovereign in constitutional terms. When he is asking that parliament be reconvened unilaterally as a means of giving expression to democracy, Sumanthiran is talking through his hat.

The last parliaments Opposition at the time of its dissolution in March this year, has been treated with kid gloves, compared to the ugly campaign of persecution that was launched against the then Rajapaksa Opposition in the year 2015. The UNP sought to demonize the then Opposition after the 2015 elections by digging up swimming pools in search of the Rajapaksa billions.

Nobody found stashes of cash, but old pairs of rubber slippers were unearthed.

The new Government in 2020 had better things to do than look for lost rubbers of any sort of past UNP leaders, even though past UNPers had been particularly fond of sereppu soup (slipper broth). UNPers were not persecuted in 2020, and where they should have been, they were not even prosecuted.

How did the Opposition repay these acts of conciliation that were commendable doubly, considering how grossly the then Government went after the current President?

Its membership refused to pass the monies that were required to grant essential relief to the people. This cowardly stand was taken for the simple reason that the UNP knew a parliamentary poll was on the cards.

To hell with the people they figured, as long as we can stop the Government from obtaining a majority it deserved in parliament.

This kind of insensitivity to the peoples predicament has made the old parliament a symbol of oppression that was seen naturally enough as anti-people and anti-humanitarian.

To reconvene that parliament will not be a democratic act, it would be a thundering slap in the face of peoples will, and the power of one person one vote.

Belly laugh

That dated legislature was also the parliament of ghouls, monsters and brigands. Not the entire parliament but what was constituting the government benches, certainly, for the better part of its existence prior to November 2019.

Remember three Ministers having a raucous belly laugh when they were questioned about the circumstances of the Easter Sunday bombings? Remember how they blithely taxed the kitty bank savings accounts of the littlest kids?

Besides, there is no rationale whatsoever for the old parliament to be reconvened when the funds necessary to run the institutional machinery of government are legally obtainable through the Consolidated Fund.

Whats the Opposition constituted of the then government benches going to do, if the old parliament meets? Have a raucous belly laugh about the predicament of the people facing tough times and isolation even death on account of the Covid epidemic?

The old parliament is no instrument to combat the virus, because it WAS the virus. That legislature was the contagion that left nothing in the State coffers, which is the primary reason the Government is short of funds to ensure the wellbeing of a population besieged by the unexpected Covid 19.

Its track record on the economy is abysmal, but even more importantly it was a parliament that rubber stamped the various measures that compromised our war veterans and indeed caused an inimical UN Human Rights Council Resolution to be passed against the country with the concurrence of our own government.

Its a parliament that should have been home with the first dissolution in late 2018.

That dissolution was thwarted on legal grounds in the teeth of the obvious loss of mandate by the then rulers after the 2018 Municipal Council elections.

Anybody who wanted that dissolution to stand was called a conspirator, and the then government advanced the fiction that its continued existence at that time was in the interests of democracy.

Straight face

The Colombo centric green blinkered pukka sahibs went gadding about carrying placards at Independence Square against the subversion of democracy at that time.

It seemed democracy was subverted at that juncture, but only through the self serving desire of the then UNP government to stay on in power.

This fact was vindicated in the landslide victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential election in 2019. Now, the Sumanthirans of this world who were instrumental in the subversion of democracy on that occasion in 2018 by thwarting what was palpably the will of the people, want to subvert democracy once more, this time hiding behind a fig-leaf veneer of legalese about the peoples right to be represented.

The people have a right to be represented, but not by defeated shysters. But what do you expect from a parliament that was represented once upon a time by a goodly number of members who had lost the elections but were smuggled in through the backdoor on the National List?

Its these kinds of democrats who wanted a dated rogue parliament to be recalled. The great irony of it all is that they want to do this in the name of democracy.

Its an achievement that they can make such a call with a straight face, because these are the people who in the name of democracy postponed all the elections they could think of including the Provincial Council polls.

Which law did these people respect to postpone elections? Can the devil quote scriptures, one may ask.

After five plus years of irresponsible sabotaging of the political party that the President represents, the so called combined opposition forces now call for responsible cooperation with the same President.

The virus is no respecter of legality. This is true for Covid 19 as it is for the contagion of this combined opposition that destroyed democracy at every turn when in government.

This country needs to keep all types of viruses at bay. Its this same pestilence that was sabotaging this same President when he together with the incumbent Prime Minister, was waging war to end the reign of terror of the LTTE.

These same forces, the Sumanthirans now baying for democracy offered responsible cooperation at that time no doubt except they offered it to the greatest terrorist of all time, Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose idea of democracy was to kill Sri Lankan parliamentarians from time to time, as that was his favourite sport.

These Prabhakaran boot lickers for democracy tout democratic credentials today. These are the people who fed Sri Lankan democracy a liberal dose of cyanide, and were seen ringside, waiting for it to die.

Their brand of democracy should frighten the Sri Lankan people far more than a virulent virus by the name of Covid-19.

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A closer look at the Opposition that's pious about 'democracy' today - Sunday Observer

‘If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children’ – ABC17News.com

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Tripoli, Lebanon (CNN) A large bag of the thistly gundelia plant arrives at Um Ahmads door as it does nearly every day. Wearing a double layered headscarf, she settles into a blue armchair. She has until the afternoon to trim the spines off the wild plant for her customers to cook.

We work on the akoub (gundelia) so that we can live, says Um Ahmad, using a pseudonym.

When visitors walk into her dark, cavernous room to meet her, she doesnt even look up. A drama series blasts from an old TV.

I get paid 10,000 liras for five kilograms of this, she mumbles, peeling the stems of the spiny plant with a small curved knife. Because the Lebanese lira is in free-fall, her payment is worth just over $2.

The akoub doesnt even come every day, says Um Ahmad, never meeting her guests eyes.

Um Ahmad lives beneath a centuries-old souk (or marketplace) in Lebanons northern city of Tripoli.

Outside, the city roils with violent demonstrations, known as the hunger protest. These started just as Lebanon was loosening its coronavirus lockdown, and beginning to contend with poor living conditions exacerbated by the near shutdown of the economy.

Nightly confrontations between demonstrators and the Lebanese army have rocked Tripoli over the last week, turning it into the epicenter of the countrys renewed uprising against its political elite.

Protests against Lebanons political class, which has ruled the country since its civil war and is widely accused of corruption, engulfed its main urban centers in late 2019. At the time, tens of thousands of Tripolis protesters flocked onto the streets. The city was dubbed the bride of the revolution, both because of its energetic protests and because it was believed to have borne the brunt of political corruption.

Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon, despite being home to some of its most high-profile billionaires. A slum stretches across the banks of the citys Abu Ali river, just minutes from pockets of extravagant wealth. The income disparity was always stark, but these days, Tripolis locals say it is unbearable.

No one has trust in the banks. No one has trust in the state. Theres injustice, theres shame and theres oppression, says Ahmad Aich, who runs a shoe stand.

Aichs voice rises to a crescendo. As with many Tripoli natives, the conversation begins with the soft tones of a city folk known for their kindness to strangers, but quickly turns into a tirade about living conditions.

The solution is for the army chief to round up all the politicians who robbed this country and to put them in jail, says Aich. They pillaged the country and killed it and killed its people.

Calls for the army to deliver justice echo across Tripoli even as demonstrators hurl stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the armed forces. The military has responded with brute force. It has fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and, in some instances, live fire, at protesters, killing one on Monday and wounding dozens over the last week.

The army are our brothers. What we want is for them to join us, take the politicians from their houses, and throw them in the garbage dump, says protester Ghassan, a 24-year-old handyman and a father-to-be who asked not to disclose his full name for security reasons.

If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children, he adds.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called the demonstrations natural given growing economic hardship, but has accused rioters of infiltrating the protests in order to cause unrest. The Lebanese army also acknowledged the right to freedom of expression and cast suspicion on violent protesters. It said it would launch an investigation into Mondays death.

Lebanons economy has taken a nose dive since last year. Before an uprising gripped the country in October 2019, the World Bank said nearly one third of the population was living under the poverty line. Earlier this year, the bank updated that statistic to 45% for the year 2020. Now, after government measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus halted the economy, Lebanons government believes up to 75% of the country needs aid.

It is a dramatic drop in living standards for a country which in 2018 had the highest GDP per capita among the Arab worlds non-oil producing nations.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese lira lost over half its value, hurting both merchants and consumers. Small shop owners are struggling to secure supplies, and the countrys growing legions of poor people cant afford to buy them.

In Tripoli, many people say that most staple goods have at least doubled in price, making the working class increasingly reliant on aid from charities.

Amer El-Deek, 30, used to own a shoe stand and made ends meet with a daily income of $10. Now, he says, all he can do is beg and rely on food packages from an Islamic charity.

We dont know how were even alive, says Deek, the father of a six-year-old. I now go to sleep and think: God, I hope I dont wake up. I hope I die tomorrow.

When the hunger protests kicked off last week, few were surprised. I see that a revolution of the hungry is coming, Hezbollah-backed MP and former intelligence chief Jamil El-Sayyed tweeted in December.

The uprisings largely peaceful protests turned violent after a nearly two-month respite due to coronavirus. In Tripoli, protesters staged large demonstrations outside politicians homes vowing to avenge their alleged corruption. Nearly every bank branch in the city has been damaged by the protests, with demonstrators voicing their fury at the banking sectors discretionary capital controls.

On any given work day, long queues of people begging to withdraw their cash can be seen outside bank branches. Lebanese authorities have resisted calls to formalize capital controls, raising suspicions that the economic elite in Lebanon have been exercising their influence to remove their funds from the country, while small depositors are largely denied access to their life savings.

Young and old head to Tripolis protest sites after Ramadans Taraweeh prayers, which are performed after the fast is broken during the holy month.

They arrive on mopeds, gather in crowds and yell protest chants. Most do not wear face masks, and no one is observing government-mandated social distancing rules. Thats because most of the people on Tripolis streets believe that coronavirus doesnt exist here.

The lockdown has stoked resentment, fueled rumors of a government conspiracy to further impoverish the poor and ultimately ignited the protests.

We dont have coronavirus here in Tripoli. Coronavirus is a heresy. (The politicians) made it up, says one city native, Marwan el-Zahed.

What do I care about coronavirus, says another Tripolitan, Ahmad Abou Abdallah. (The politicians) are worse than coronavirus. They are dirtier than coronavirus. They are making people hungry. Doesnt that make them worse than the virus?

Read more: Violent protests erupt in Lebanon as pandemic makes financial crisis worse

Fourteen cases of the coronavirus have been reported so far in Tripoli. In total, Lebanon has had 740 confirmed cases of the virus and 24 deaths. It has received some credit for a largely successful bid to contain the virus.

Underground, Um Ahmad is too busy working on her gundelia to talk politics. She has also lapsed into disillusionment.

My situation is just as you see it, she says, gesturing to her homes conditions. Sometimes I empty the pulp of zucchini for people. But also that doesnt come every day.

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'If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children' - ABC17News.com

‘The antidote for bad speech is more speech,’ and more thoughts on press freedom from Justice Marvic Leonen – ABS-CBN News

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Journalists take a pause from reading COVID-19 charts and statistics for it is in the middle of the pandemic ravaging the entire world that we mark World Press Freedom Day today, May 3.

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, I joined an online forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) to listen to Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. He is oftentimes the lone dissenter in the Supreme Court, a reason why his arguments are much awaited and respected.

Why are journalists important? More so during the greatest crisis to hit us in our lifetime? Justice Leonen strove to answer the question.

But first he issued a challenge: Sift through the distractions caused by propaganda of vested interests, Justice Leonen exhorted the journalists in the forum. I think it is time that we as a people understand that there are certain kinds of information out therethat are only used to distract us from what is truly important.

Leonen lamented the effect of social media on a gullible public. Sadly many are now more convinced about the reckless posts made in social media and act on that basis, he says.If there is one important lesson from COVID-19, he adds, it is that it is important to trust science, to trust validation again.

An avid user of Twitter, Leonens posts dispense insights on the law and justice. He has also known how it is to become a viral sensation, having weighed in on last years Gerald Anderson-Bea Alonso break-up. His twitter feed has since been peppered with love advice where he unabashedly uses the hashtag #LabGuru.

In a previous ruling on a freedom of expression case, the Justice elaborates on why it is important to distinguish between a regular post and those from journalists on social media. In saying that freedom of the press is primordial, I would make a distinction between the real press and those that are posting only because they want to retweet or repost, the 57-year-old says. A retweet or a repost, and the number of people that retweet or repost or liked it does not make the post true.

Leonen says that journalism contains many of the ethics that are not there when someone posts a perceived fact or an opinion. Journalists will always have the ethic of balance. Journalists will always have the ethic of validation. Journalists will always have the ethic of accountability not only to themselves, but also to their institution and journalists also always have facts verified collectively within their institutions, he explains. You have your editors. You have the owners of your publication, or the owners of your broadcast media and therefore as differentiated from any other person that posts on social media the information that you provide are often sought as a result of balance, validation accountability and collectivity within your sector.

Freedom of expression is asserted against government. It is not asserted against a private entity.

Last April, Twitter took down "hundreds of accounts" tweeting under specific hashtags meant to defend the Philippine government response to the COVID-19 crisis.The accounts were found to be in violation of Twitters platform manipulation and spam policies, the social media site toldThe Washington Postin an email.

Asked byThe Washington Posts Regine Cabato what legal tools are available to combat systematized propaganda online, Justice Leonen says it will have to be a priority in the new normal where new laws will have to be drawn up. Freedom of expression is asserted against government. It is not asserted against a private entity. Freedom of expression in the Constitution is vis-a-vis government censorship; it is not against censorship by a private company like Twitter or Facebook. And I think this is a very important matter in terms of our legal order. The Constitution cannot be used as a tool against commercial interests, Leonen clarifies, When you join a platform like Twitter, more often than not, you are asked to read the terms of service. That requires specific legislation. The first tool that has to be developed is a tool in our statute books that will assist people with respect to commercial platforms that have become of public interest. He says this may even apply to the platform TikTok as well. The task, he says, will be for journalists to brainstorm and engage legislators more toward a new law.

How can journalists have a louder voice in the cacophony of free Facebook posts and free twitter accounts, Leonen himself ponders and urges: Get yourself heard more!

It may have been of little consolation to his audience, but Leonen said in a judicial doctrine involving freedom of expression that the antidote for bad speech is more speech.

The marketplace of ideas is not equal, he acknowledges. Some speak louder than others, some actually go there with a megaphone. Some actually go to the marketplace with an entire vehicle that has several megaphones on it, or even an entire screen. And therefore there are some whose voices are amplified because of vested interests, business interests, commercial interests, he says.

For Leonen, the value of freedom of the press now is underscored in four specific areas. He then itemizes the tasks of a journalist in this dark and uncertain period:

- The journalists should assist the public collectively face all our existential threats as part of humanity and realize what we are truly faced with.

- We should collectively reflect on why we have not learned from these existential threats and the causes of these existential threats. I am not referring only to COVID-19, I am referring to natural disasters caused by our political and economic structures such as climate change, also the causes of the oppression of certain identities, from the causes of feminism to racial discrimination.

- Journalists should nowassist the public sift thru the distractions caused by propaganda of vested interests.

- Journalists have to guard against in times of emergencies, the emergence of any kind of authoritarian or any kind of ideology that will support anything that undermines genuine and meaningful democracy.

Since March 15, the High Court agreed the Court will not shut down. It has held two online sessions since and has learned to embrace the digital world.

It also laid down exceptions where lower courts can physically convene if necessary to address a possible problem.

Leonen rattles off over a dozen publications, online sites, and broadcast media he follows to keep track of the news. I dont know if I have time for anything else. Sometimes I go through all the publications to see their take on things that are happening, not only in our country, but in different parts of the world, he says. So we are extremely aware of what is happening outside. We see the photos that many of you post and are like any human being affected by what we see and what we read.

A retweet or a repost, and the number of people that retweet or repost or liked it does not make the post true.

On top of that, the Justice says he has reread the Constitution during the lockdown and even committed it to memory.

He will emerge from the lockdowna better cook and a little more experienced in washing his clothes, the Justice says in jest. Leonen, a vegetarian, says hes been buying vegetables from an ambulant vendor pushing a cart that passes his home. And in parting, he dishes out one last bit of #LabGuru advice that might be appropriate for world going through a crisis that seem like no end is in sight: Walangforever.

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'The antidote for bad speech is more speech,' and more thoughts on press freedom from Justice Marvic Leonen - ABS-CBN News

When It Comes to Dalit and Tribal Rights, the Judiciary in India Just Does Not Get It – The Wire

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Though the Indian constitution envisaged the abolition of untouchability and an end to discrimination, prejudice is rampant among the affluent sections of society and those entrusted with upholding the constitution have tended to treat Dalits and Adivasis with utter insensitivity.

For years, mainstream discourse in society has focused on limiting the constitutional provisions enacted in favour of Dalits and Adivasis. In particular, two key concerns of these groups protection from atrocities, and adequate representation have been the target of several prejudices, stereotypes, and fake propaganda. It is unfortunate that even the Supreme Court of a constitutional democracy like ours has often failed to sift fact from fiction.

In 2018, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act 1989 (SC/ST Act). Instead of focusing on the poor implementation of the Act, the bench said its very application was perpetuating casteism, calling it an adversary of constitutional values. Clearly, the bench did not have any understanding of the social protection needed by Dalits and tribals.

Particularly in rural areas, these communities have to face social barriers and institutional apathy even to get a complaint registered for an atrocity committed upon them by the upper castes. The judgment of the court had added one more institutional barrier by endorsing a false stereotype against the Act that it is misused and that complaints under it are questionable. This judgment was later overturned by an amendment in the law made by parliament due to political pressure from Dalits and tribals, and the Supreme Court had to back off from its earlier position in a subsequent judgment upholding the validity of the amendment.

Also read: SC/ST Act: A Hostile Environment and an Atrocious Interpretation

The application of affirmative action policies through the constitutionally entrenched provisions of reservations has consistently been limited by the Supreme Court in a series of judgments. The language in these judgments reflects the inherent stereotypes against the idea of reservations. In February this year, a two-judge bench of the court held that a government is not bound to provide reservations, even if there is inadequacy in representation in services.

This view is damaging and contrary to the constitutional obligation of the state to provide adequate representation to Dalits and Adivasis. On one side, the Supreme Court has restricted the application of reservation through its consistent judgments by placing a mandatory condition for any government to collect data regarding the inadequate representation of Dalits and tribals and to exclude the creamy layer, before making reservation in promotion policies. But, on the other side, the court abdicated its responsibility by holding that it would not hold the government accountable even if the under-representation of Dalits and tribals in public services is brought to its notice.

Representational image of a protest against caste discrimination. Photo: PTI

In a recent constitution bench judgment delivered on April 22, the court, once again, made regressive remarks against the entire concept behind reservations. The court has held that 100% reservation provided to tribals by the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in Fifth Schedule areas is unconstitutional. In doing so, the court made an obiter dicta or observation that the affluent and socially and economically advanced classes within Dalits and tribals are not allowing the benefits of reservation to trickle down to the needy.

The constitution bench noted that there is a struggle within the Dalits and tribals community, and therefore the Central government should revise the list of castes or classes within those castes who can avail the benefits of reservations. The issue of revision of lists was not among the questions of law (as framed in the starting of the judgment) to be dealt by the bench. Yet, the judges could not refrain themselves from making negative remarks about reconsidering reservation structures for Dalits and tribals.

The court had, once again, ignored the basic premise behind implementing reservations, i.e. social representation. Social identities are so entrenched in our society that they often decide the fate of individuals. In some instances, Dalits have not been allowed to take out marriage procession or were attacked for growing a moustache. The discrimination and atrocities did not stop even when the Dalit belonged to so-called affluent class within Dalits a category which the court intends to exclude from representation.

Also read: If Community Recognises Itself As Dalit, How Can Court, Government Dictate Terms?

There is also no empirical backing to the claim that the benefits of reservations are not reaching the lowest lot. The observation made by the Supreme Court is ironic for two reasons. Firstly, the Supreme Court, which as an institution has always asked the government for data to question its reservation policies, is making negative claims about reservation based on the perception and beliefs of individual judges. Secondly, the court has ignored the issue of diversity within its own institution, and has largely been comprised of affluent sections from upper castes.

The judgment is also problematic for the insulting remarks made about the identity and culture of the tribals. The judgment authored by Justice Arun Mishra, and signed by Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah, and Aniruddha Bose, held that the primitive way of life of tribals makes them unfit to put up with the mainstream and to be governed by the ordinary laws.

It was further held:

The formal education, by and large, failed to reach them, and they remained a disadvantaged class, as such required a helping hand to uplift them and to make them contribute to the national development and not to remain part of the primitive culture. They are not supposed to be seen as a human zoo and source of enjoyment of primitive culture and for dance performances.

The manner in which the language in the judgment stereotyped tribals as traditionally being of primitive culture and a human zoo is completely insensitive by any scale and violates the dignity of tribals. The language of the court reflects regressive colonial constructs. If the Supreme Court was intending to show concern for tribals, it should have avoided these words which reflected typical and negative stereotypes against tribals.

The bench must be reminded of the first speech made by Jaipal Singh, a constituent assembly member belonging to a tribal community, and a passionate campaigner for Adivasi rights and equal representation. Speaking about the Objectives Resolution laid down by Jawaharlal Nehru, Jaipal Singh, in 1946, proudly said:

Sir, I am proud to be a Jungli, that is the name by which we are known in my part of the country. As a jungli, as an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me, the common sense of my people tells me that every one of us should march in that road of freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated, neglected for the last 6,000 years. This Resolution is not going to teach Adibasis democracy. You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people; you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth.

Also read: Indias Cocktail Recipe for Affirmative Action Should Be Replaced With a Simplified One

The identity, culture, and way of life of the tribals is respected by the constitution in text and spirit. The Supreme Court ought to have taken note of this in proper words and should not have spoken contrarily.

It was further noted in the same judgment that it is very hard for any elected government to have the political will to make revision in the concerns highlighted in the judgment. The court seems to have forgotten, or perhaps ignored the fact that policies made in favour of Dalits and tribals are not patronising in nature or made out of pity or charity. These freedoms have been won by Dalits and tribals after constant struggle and sacrifice, as they believe that their identity and way of life is in no way inferior to anyone elses in the country.

Adivasi protestors at a rally in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters/Parivartan Sharma

Each and every inch of progress of these communities towards equality has often come after the loss of several lives while facing social atrocities and oppression. The individuals from Dalit and tribal communities, whom the Supreme Court intends to remove from access to representation under the garb of the creamy layer and affluent sections, have sometimes occupied key positions in the government and have used it to push for legislation, schemes and initiatives for the rights of Dalits and tribals. The Supreme Court is damaging every bit of progress of Dalits and tribals made through democratic, political and administrative participation.

Instead, the court should consider dealing with questions like why the abolition of untouchability has failed in India or why a Dalit dies cleaning sewers every five days. The court which often pats its back for taking suo moto cognizance of instances of violation of fundamental rights, has never taken cognizance on its own of any instance when a Dalit has been murdered for breaking bigoted social barriers or for marrying outside his or her caste or when a Dalit dies while being forced to clean sewers due to inefficiency and apathy on the part of government authorities.

Of course, there are a few instances when the Supreme Court has supported the issues of these communities. For instance, in the BK Pavitra (II) case in 2019, a two-judge bench shattered the stereotypes and myths around merit and administrative efficiencies, which have been hurled at Dalits and tribals to ridicule them.

Therefore, the judges of the apex court must sit down and decide collectively: whether they want the Supreme Court of India to be known in history as a socially regressive institution like the US Supreme Court, which has been harshy criticised for its regressive decisions on issues relating to the African American community. Or, whether the court should tread the path of liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice, and set an example before others. The ball is technically in the court now.

Anurag Bhaskar is a lecturer at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat and an affiliate faculty with the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He tweets at @anurag_bhaskar.

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When It Comes to Dalit and Tribal Rights, the Judiciary in India Just Does Not Get It - The Wire

Echoing the Bible, Cosmos Concludes with a Materialist Origins Myth and Future Heavenly Bliss – Discovery Institute

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With its theme of Possible Worlds, the third season of Cosmos was awkwardly timed. The series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, concluded last week on Fox and the National Geographic Channel. It conjures dreams of interstellar travel at a moment when most people are much more concerned about whether they can make it to the grocery store and back without contracting COVID-19.

The backdrop of a pandemic was, of course, unique to this season. It probably contributed to a lower-than-hoped-for viewership. But as writers for Evolution News have demonstrated in recent weeks, Cosmos 3.0, as we call it, is in other ways right in line with its predecessors. Like the 1980 original with Carl Sagan and the 2014 reboot with Dr. Tyson, this Cosmos series advances numerous myths about the relationship between science and faith.

Here is the final narration from Cosmos 2020:

Stars make worlds, and a world made life. And there came a time when heat shot out from the molten heart of this world and it warmed the waters. And the matter that had rained down from the stars came alive. And that star stuff became aware. And that life was sculpted by the earth, and it struggles with the other living things. And a great tree grew up, one with many branches. And six times it was almost felled, but still it grows. And we are but one small branch, one that cannot live without its tree. And slowly we learned to read the book of nature, to learn her laws, to nurture the tree, to become a way for the cosmos to know itself, and to return to the stars.

Tyson ends his summary of cosmic history since the Big Bang with this soaring narrative focused on earth. It sounds like the exalted prose of the book of Genesis minus God. It is a worldview-shaping narrative, a myth in the anthropological sense.

When connected with earlier Cosmos episodes that give details (typically without sufficient evidence), this narrative answers profound questions. Or it seeks to answer them. Where did we come from? Answer: we are star stuff shaped by the branching tree of evolution, powered by unguided material processes. What is our purpose (teleology)? Answer: to be one of the ways, along with extraterrestrial civilizations, that the universe knows itself through science. Where are we going (eschatology)? Answer: our destiny is to become connected with civilizations located around countless other stars, and thereby be liberated from terrestrial religions and scientific infancy (Tyson earlier held a baby to make this point). Six times terrestrial life worked hard to avoid total extinction and succeeded, but in the seventh period we will enter our cosmic rest of extraterrestrial enlightenment.

While resting in the lap of ET we will read the Encyclopedia Galactica, Tyson suggests. This book represents the fantastically advanced accumulated knowledge of cosmic communal intelligent life, an idea that Carl Sagan helped transfer from science fiction to documentary film back in the 1980 Cosmos series. Well enjoy heavenly bliss while reading the good book. Thats a key message from the Cosmos franchise.

The season finale is titled: Seven Wonders of the New World. In Biblical terms, seven symbolizes completion. Are we uncovering Team Tysons numerological opium for the masses? The Cosmos storytellers invented a 2039 New York Worlds Fair with seven theme park attractions that celebrate cosmic history and lifes heroic accomplishments. The year 2039 would be the centennial of the 1939 New York Worlds Fair that helped awaken Carl Sagans scientific-materialist imagination (also depicted endearingly in this final episode). Sagans legacy grows with each multimillion-dollar retelling.

Such Worlds Fair science-fiction storytelling works well as it builds upon a certain measure of legitimate science. There are five widely recognized mass extinction events in our planets history. Throw in human-caused global warming as the sixth catastrophe (allegedly in the making in our own time) and you have a great recipe for cosmic mythology. Lets save our Mother Earth in act six and join the extraterrestrial choir of enlightened ETs in the triumphant seventh act. Hey everyone, make sure you oppose those fanatically religious geocentric, flat-earth-believing, climate-science deniers who are destined for extinction. Science is our only salvation. (See my historical analyses of Christianity as being responsible for flat-earth-belief here and unthinking resistance to Copernicanism here).

The makers of Cosmos wish to reach your heart with their message. Its a materialistic imitation of biblical religion and eschatology. Mother Nature is god and Tyson is her prophet. Learn her laws, he declares, echoing Moses. Nurture the Tree of Life she has mindlessly created. Countless times in the series Tyson says Come with me, imitating Jesus call for disciples.

The grand story is dressed up to look scientific, but at heart it is mostly materialistic mythology. Its bipolar identity teeters between atheism and pantheism. I make a rigorous case for this conclusion in my book Unbelievable, which includes the chapters Extraterrestrial Enlightenment and Preaching Anti-theism on TV: Cosmos. In the Cosmos chapter I discuss Cosmos 1980 and 2014. Cosmos 2020 dishes up more of the same. Many will swallow it.

Did you notice the timing of the season finale, on April 20? It aired two days before Earth Day, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary. Many now celebrate Earth Day within a Deep Ecology worldview that owes much to pre-modern pagan earth worship. Easter, which also falls at this time of year, had long ago largely displaced the old earth-worshipping holidays in Europe. Do the makers of Cosmos hope that Earth Day will win back this time of year from Easter? It sure looks that way when you combine my analysis here with this critique of the flimsy Cosmos treatment of global warming. It is no surprise that the National Geographic Channel blasted Cosmos viewers with many Earth Day-related TV advertisements (I lost count of just how many).

Meanwhile, after celebrating or ignoring Easter and Earth Day, many coronavirus-besieged earthlings toggle between anxiety and quarantined boredom. Cosmos 3.0 doesnt seem to be helping much. But for some people false hope is better than no hope at all. For some, futuristic dreams via Cosmos might bring comfort. Team Tyson envisions how in the near future a persons neural network (connectome) might be resurrected. In this future world, maybe with ETs help (or so the story goes), we will be able to recreate a deceased persons connectome. Its your own personal techno-Easter, if you will (provided that others in the future approve of your reappearance). The details for how this could happen are not provided. Sci-fi is under no such obligation. The constraints on this kind of storytelling are minimal.

Carl Sagans widow, Ann Druyan, is the key figure who made the Cosmos series rise again (twice now). She had this to say about her teams storytelling:

Every story that we tell has to satisfy different criteria. It has to be a way into a complex scientific idea or an important scientific idea. Were aiming for your brain, your eye, your heart, your senses, your ear via effects. Everything has to be working together in concert to give you a consummate experience, and to attract you to want to know more.

Referring to traditional religions, especially the one that celebrates Easter, she finally says in the same interview: I think we have a much better story to tell than they do. I doubt this even if both were treated as fictional narratives. Of course the truth or fiction of each story is the subject of the main debate.

Seth MacFarlane (a Hollywood atheist worried about the influence of intelligent design) introduced Ann Druyan to atheist Brannon Braga, who helped Ms. Druyan produce the two reboots of Cosmos. Heres a sample of how I treat Bragas key role in the Cosmos franchise. Its from the Cosmos chapter of my book Unbelievable. The materialist agenda of Braga is documented below and in my books footnotes (omitted here).

The executive producer of Cosmos 2014 says that he has spent most of his professional life creating myths for the greater truth of atheism. His name is Brannon Braga. Speaking at the 2006 International Atheist Conference, he celebrated his part in creating atheistic mythology in more than 150 episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation. He summed up his mission which violates the original Star Trek prime directive of not altering native culture as showing that religion sucks, isnt science great, and finally how the hell do we get the other 95 percent of the population to come to their senses? These are remarkable confessions. As we saw in Chapter 8, Kepler helped establish sci-fi as a way to promote very different ideas: God rules the cosmos, isnt science great, and finally how for heavens sake do we get the other 99.9 percent of the population to come to their senses so they can embrace Copernican astronomy?

According to Braga, teaching atheistic myth is the work of sci-fi films and TV documentaries like Cosmos. Indeed, he said that Cosmos 2014 was designed to combat dark forces of irrational thinking. He emphasized: Religion doesnt own awe and mystery. Science does it better. But as we have seen, rendering Christianity as the historical enemy of science is itself an exercise in unreasonable and reckless historiography. Myth, not science, recognizes the cosmos as all that is, or ever was, or ever will be. Sagan knew this statement would inspire awe because it imitated the biblical description of God. No doubt, Braga and his team of like-minded creators were delighted to rerun this mythical mantra at the beginning of Cosmos 2014. It served well the greater good of anti-theism.

Theres much more where that came from: Its Unbelievable!

Editors note: Find further reviews and commentary on the third season ofCosmos, Possible Worlds, here:

Image: Host Neil deGrasse Tyson in a screenshot from the trailerfor Cosmos 3.0, Possible Worlds.

Go here to see the original:

Echoing the Bible, Cosmos Concludes with a Materialist Origins Myth and Future Heavenly Bliss - Discovery Institute

What should humans do when Sun starts evaporating Earth’s oceans? Top physicist reveals – International Business Times, Singapore Edition

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ARE WE DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT MARTIANS?

Several solar experts believe that the sun's solar activity will dramatically increase in the future, and it could result in the evaporation of oceans in the earth's atmosphere. As oceans start evaporating, several species will die off, and gradually, the earth will become a barren land incapable of hosting life.

Paul Cally, a solar scientist believes that a forced greenhouse effect will gulp the earth in another 1.1 billion years as the sun's temperature gets increased drastically. The solar scientist also made it clear that the sun's luminosity will be increased by 1.4 times in 3.5 billion years, thus making earth inhabitable for life.

In order to combat this problem, popular American physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson believes that humans should terraform Mars to make the Red Planet a suitable place to host life.

"When our Sun becomes a red giant, when it begins to swell and engulf the orbit of Mercury, it's going to start getting very hot on Earth. We're going to need ways to terraform Mars, and then ship billions of people from Earth. Mars is cooler than Earth because it is one-and-a-half times further away. Hopefully, if humans are still around, we would have moved to a better location," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, Express.co.uk reports.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has several times claimed that his ultimate aim is to build a fully-fledged human colony on Mars. However, a few weeks back, Musk made some unexpected comments which clearly indicated that everything is not well with the planned Mars mission.

During the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington, Musk revealed that he is bothered about the Mars colonization mission. Musk added that he is unsure whether SpaceX will land humans on Mars before his death. "If we don't improve our pace of progress, I'm definitely going to be dead before we go to Mars. If it's taken us 18 years just to get ready to do the first people to orbit, we've got to improve our rate of innovation or, based on past trends, I am definitely going to be dead before Mars," said Musk.

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What should humans do when Sun starts evaporating Earth's oceans? Top physicist reveals - International Business Times, Singapore Edition

Turkey Time | Sports – Murray Ledger and Times

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I remember the moment like it is etched in stone. My back to a large oak, decoy in front of me, I sent a few yelps into the forest. I hadnt heard a turkey all morning, but that was about to change.

Instead of hearing him, I felt him. The vibrations hit from behind, and I could feel as well as hear the gobbler strutting. Suddenly, he let out a monstrous gobble, and it was so close and deafening that my body jumped off the forest floor.

In retrospect, I probably should have turned and sent a load of #2 shot his way. But I was too stunned, and was hoping he would walk right by me, his focus on the decoy. He didnt. He evaporated back into the woods, as only turkeys can do. One moment, they are the loudest thing in the forest; the next, they are ghosts. Its why they are so fun to hunt.

Forget television reruns. If you want a real show, now is the time to watch wild turkeys. Males are strutting their stuff, gobbling, and fighting each other. Females are choosing mates and starting to nest. And the result is some of the best entertainment of the year.

Mature males, called gobblers, can stand three feet tall and weigh 25 pounds, although most average 16. Gobblers have bright blue and red heads, long hair-like feathers called beards that hang from their chest, and sharp spurs used to fight other gobblers. Young males, called jakes, are smaller, have short beards and almost no spurs. Hens are even smaller, about 10 pounds, with bluish-gray heads, lacking spurs and beards (usually).

Once a gobbler has attracted hens, he will jealously guard them from other males. The daily routine starts with a gobbler calling from his tree roost at first light. After flying down, the gobbler will strut and gobble some more, attracting hens for breeding.

After mating, females sneak off to their nesting site, and each day lay a single egg within a leaf-lined nest. Hens lay until they have produced 8-15 eggs, covering the nest each day with leaves. After she has laid her last egg, she will incubate for 28 days. Just a few hours after hatching, the downy poults are following the hen into the woods. By the fall, they are self-sufficient.

Hunting turkeys is fun, but part of attraction of turkey time is the bonus nature. Graceful swallowtail butterflies flutter up the trail, while the flute-like melody of wood thrushes, the incessant peter peer peter of a tufted titmouse, and numerous other bird calls fill the air. The beautiful white blooms of dogwood trees light up the forest edges. A hairy woodpecker taps his bill against a tree as a territorial display, and the cadence sets off two grey tree frogs, hidden only a few feet away. And it is always fun to watch other predators, like a red-shouldered hawk swooping at my decoys.

Having the opportunity to hunt wild turkeys is a privilege, but we only have turkeys to hunt because of conservation. Once extirpated throughout much of its range, turkeys were reintroduced using trap and transfer efforts by KYDFWR and other state agencies. This work paid off, as turkeys have been restored throughout North America, and their current range is now larger than it was when the first Europeans arrived. In some places, particularly urban environments, turkeys have even become pests. The restoration of wild turkeys is one of the great conservation success stories in North America, and is a testament to the continued efforts that wildlife biologists, led by state agencies and the National Wild Turkey Foundation (NWTF), have made to preserve this iconic American species.

Famously, the wild turkey was Benjamin Franklins choice for our national symbol. I cannot argue with his logic. They are regal birds that never cease to entertain. They are now more abundant than when Franklin was alive, showing the same resilience that our nation has had during multiple conflicts. And, they taste delicious. I wont trade in the bald eagle just yet, but the wild turkey is definitely a close second, and deserves our respect and attentionespecially during this time of year.

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Turkey Time | Sports - Murray Ledger and Times

Murder Hornets Are The Latest Horror of 2020: Excruciating Stings, Ripping Heads Off Bees – Mediaite

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Asian giant hornet. Photo by t-mizo, via Flickr.

Just when you thought 2020 couldnt get any worse or weirder, we now have to worry about murder hornets, a variety of giant hornets native to Asia that have recently been spotted in Washington State, according to a report by the New York Times.

Vespa mandarinia, better known as the Asian giant hornet, can grow up to two inches long with a stinger of nearly one-quarter inch. That stinger delivers a venom that is described by those who have had the misfortune of experiencing it as excruciating and like having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh.

Multiple stings can be fatal to humans, and the hornets are known to aggressively attack in groups when defending their hives. In Japan alone, the hornets kill about 50 people a year.

The Times article paints a colorful-yet-terrifying profile of the insects, describing them as having mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins and a cartoonishly fierce face featuring teardrop eyes like Spider-Man, orange and black stripes that extend down its body like a tiger, and broad, wispy wings like a small dragonfly.

The hornets also pose a significant risk to honeybees, which the hornets target as a food source, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young. The Times interviewed one beekeeper who described how the hornets had decimated his bees:

In his decades of beekeeping, Ted McFall had never seen anything like it.

As he pulled his truck up to check on a group of hives near Custer, Wash., in November, he could spot from the window a mess of bee carcasses on the ground. As he looked closer, he saw a pile of dead members of the colony in front of a hive and more carnage inside thousands and thousands of bees with their heads torn from their bodies and no sign of a culprit.

Scientists are now in a battle against time to track down these hornets and eradicate them before they establish themselves in North America. So far, they have been spotted in Washington State, as well as White Rock and Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

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Murder Hornets Are The Latest Horror of 2020: Excruciating Stings, Ripping Heads Off Bees - Mediaite

Clothing colour guide to suit greys, redheads, blondes and brunettes! – RSVP Live

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Stylist to the stars Laura Mullets gives us her top tips.

As we edge in to brighter and warmer weather its important to make clothing choices that suit our style, reflect our mood, make us feel confident and that embrace the season.

Conventionally, when it comes to colour theory, blonde hair and lighter eyes go hand-in-hand with fair skin and tend to co-ordinate with either subdued pastel colours or the opposite. Think baby pinks, lavender, blue hues, sands, beige, mint, sage and jewel-toned bluish greens, purples and red as the contrasting tones. Its the middle spectrum ones and wheatier colours that can be complexion draining.

When it comes to clothing tones for brunettes, more saturated shades work particularly well. Opt for deep pinks and violets, vibrant blues and greens with a yellowish undertone. Warm greens are commonly called names like olive, khaki, pear, lime, pistachio etc and work with multi-tonal highlighted brunette hair.Cool greens are often called names like forest, bottle green and emerald. Ruby red, burgundy, plum tones are enhancing on brunettes. Purples are extremely flattering on women with dark hair and sallower skin too. A stylish way to enhance your features if youre a more minimal person is opting for a singular piece that really brings out your eye colour. Repeating and reflecting your eye colour in a top, tailored blazer, scarf or statement jewellery draws attention to your face and intensifies the colour of your eyes. Its a styling trick of the trade that packs a punch.

If you've got ginger-red or strawberry-blonde hair, it can be incredibly versatile when it comes to dressing. So if you're a redhead who feels constricted to a mundane colour palette, think again! Navy, cobalt and blue tones look regal but green is famously favoured as a quintessential wow factor complimentary tone. My expert advice is to layer your greens. Muted khaki-colours,jadetones and sage or pistachio can look incredibly sophisticated when you play with textures. Unlikely pairings lend versatility.

For example, a camo-style neutral sage jacket paired with a vibrant emerald slip skirt, soft green linen tee tucked in underneath and a snowy sneaker or washed out earthy green flat boho sandal to finish if youre exuding Summer styling. Opposites attract - luscious meets subdued. Relaxed glamour is the go-to vibe for SS20.

I think sunshine tones like buttery yellow can be gorgeous but not so much lemon sorbet which can be wishy washy. Also mustard can make a redhead look withdrawn so find the mid-point of the colour spectrum thats richer. Something that enhances and co-ordinates rather than being excessive or bland.

When it comes to clothing colours to go with grey hair think bold tones and contemporary tailored styles. Monochrome, navy, pure snowy white as opposed to creamier ivory and jewel tones like ruby, sapphire, cobalt, magenta and violet.

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Clothing colour guide to suit greys, redheads, blondes and brunettes! - RSVP Live

Learning to read the room is key to kindergarten success – Sydney Morning Herald

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So Wayne Bailey, if youre listening, you are my hero.

As luck would have it some mates of Baileys were listening, got in touch with him and he called the program.

You rescued me from this bully, Sandra got to tell him. Every time she saw a little red-headed boy thereafter, she thought of her knight in shining armour, Wayne.

I'm a ranga, Wayne said, then continued self-effacingly: Thats what us rangas do.

He added that, back in the 1960s, redheads were known as carrot tops.

Sandra then got to tell him: You were the sweetest well-mannered young man. You had a huge impact on the way I raised my children.

You could tell Wayne didnt know what to say. He was humbled. I was raised mainly by my grandmother who was an upstanding sort of a woman and shes rubbed off onto me in many ways.

And you rubbed off on me, and for that I am ever grateful, Sandra said.

Presenter Sarah Macdonald said she was moved to tears. It was what they call in radio a driveway moment a story that keeps you in the car after youve reached your destination just to listen.

I was moved by the story too because for many years, in the 1940s and 50s, my grandmother, Ettie Aiken, was the kindergarten teacher at Rosehill Infants.

Coincidentally, as I was listening I found her 1948 edition of the childhood classic Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, which shed read to generations of Rosehill Public kindergarteners, including my cousin. I was responding to one of those Facebook challenges from an Aiken relative to find seven books I love and post them on social media (Ive finally succumbed thats what prolonged isolation does to you).

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While thumbing through this well-worn and well-read book, out fell some old unsent Christmas cards, painted by Athol Thompson, an armless Tasmania artist whose work featured in the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Christmas card collection. Our family always bought and sent these Christmas cards, and simply seeing them was like receiving a message from beyond the grave from my grandmother.

She died 50 years ago, just before I started kindergarten. But my favourite memory is of her reading aloud from this book and her other May Gibbs classics. I still have them all and consider them old friends: Mr & Mrs Bear, Scotty in Gumnut Land, Ragged Blossom and my personal favourite, Little Obelia, who lay asleep in a pearl at the bottom of the ocean. While she slept a wonderful wisdom grew in her, which she would dispense only after going into her thinking room and counting up her pearls.

Like Little Obelia, Ive been going into my metaphoric thinking room a lot these days.

Retreating into the world of the gumnut babes and the bad banksia men was such a nostalgia trip like I think we're all taking at the moment because somehow the past is comforting. I even found, in some more recent editions of May Gibbs classics on my bookshelf, clippings from this newspaper about the fight to save Nutcote Cottage, her former home.

I was reminded of some precious pearls passed down Little Obelia-like - from my grandmother via my mother to me. When a child is cruel or a bully in the class or playground, theyre simply scared and testing the waters about how to navigate social situations. She felt that while learning to read was important, learning to read the room was more so.

"The key to kindergarten is learning kindness," she'd say.

So just as Wayne Bailey said his grandmother rubbed off on him in many ways, Ive vowed to let my own grandmother rub off on me since hearing his story. I think shed retired from teaching by the time Sandra and Wayne made it to kindy in 1960s Sydney. But the kindness ethos prevailed at Rosehill Infants. Wayne Bailey would have passed the kindergarten test with flying colours.

Helen Pitt is a journalist at the The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Learning to read the room is key to kindergarten success - Sydney Morning Herald

TONY MELTON: Bringing the country to the city – SCNow

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Florences City Center Farmers Market at 200 Sanborn St. is alive and well, open from 4 -7 p.m. Tuesdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

I have been blessed throughout my life to enjoy the fruits of both country and city lives, and today many farmers have enjoyed and learned the need of both. It appears that the dream of just about every city dweller is to someday have a farm in the country and supply produce back to the city folks. Through the years I have found a few differences between country and city-based farms. I have always thought of the country-farm as a means of survival to feed local families, and the city farm as providing luxury to city folks. However, today the role of the different farms has drastically changed because people are moving and changing, and most farms depend on both the country and city markets to stay in business.

First, on an early spring country-based farm, the selection of crops is usually a little limited. We usually grow the necessities on a country-based farm like plain white Irish potatoes, green cabbage, collards, mustard, and turnips. On a city-based farm, I have seen an endless variety of spring vegetables. For instance, Irish potatoes come in all shapes, types, and colors including banana (Russian Banana), round, and oblong shapes; red, pink, gold, yellow, orange and purple skins; red, pink, gold, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and white flesh.

Next, cabbage can be found in all shapes, types and colors including round, oval, flat, open, lettucy, and pointed heads; red, white, green, blue, and purple colors; smooth, savoy, semi-savoy, Napa, and Michilli types. If you get my drift, we could go on forever with Next and never get to Finally because there are thousands of colors, shapes, and varieties.

People wonder why I have given up trying to remember all the varieties. However, these are a few of my favorites: red, purple, and white carrots; orange, green, and purple cauliflower; endives and escarole; radicchio; arugula; orange, golden, white, and candy-striped beets; pac choi; broccoli raab; kohlrabi; and hundreds of different types and colors of lettuce. You may find many of these at your local seed/hardware store, but if not, you can order from catalogs, but you will pay a price.

Next, many country-based farms depend on rainfall, planting in wetter areas, or maybe a sprinkler to water, and crops are spread over a large area. However, on city-based farms, trickle irrigation is the rule. With trickle you dont wet the leaves of the crop; therefore, you dont encourage disease, you can water anytime day or night, and you put exactly the amount of water the plants need. Also, you can add fertilizer through the irrigation water, called fertigation. This allows the farmers to give the perfect environment for plant growth, crop yield, and use a very limited space.

Finally, the country-based farm is using less inputs including seed, irrigation and fertilizer costs and relying more on nature and the soil. The city-based farm has more inputs, but intensively produces more on a smaller plot of land.

The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

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TONY MELTON: Bringing the country to the city - SCNow