Culture:Inmates, Hunger Strike

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A day after California prison officials declared a 3-week-old hunger strike by thousands of convicts over, an inmate advocacy group said on Friday that at least 150 prisoners were still refusing to eat.

The protest began at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California and spread to at least 4,000 inmates in seven other facilities at its height late last month, with prisoners demanding an end to what they called inhumane treatment.

Many of the grievances focused on the prison system's use of solitary confinement to enforce discipline and for what inmates say is a means of coercing them to "rat out" prison gang members.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced on Thursday the hunger strike had ended after prison officials agreed to review procedures by which certain convicts are classified as too dangerous for the general inmate population.

But inmate representatives later said that as of Friday 150 convicts were continuing their protest at two prisons because conditions in which they are held remained unaddressed.

"We know that there are people still going at Calipatria (State Prison) and Salinas Valley (State Prison)," said Isaac Ontiveros, a spokesman for the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. "They have been clear that they are willing to keep going at great peril to their own health."

Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton denied this was true. "The mass hunger strike ended yesterday," she said, adding that Calipatria's group gave up its protest by Wednesday. But she acknowledged that four Pelican Bay inmates were still refusing to eat because they did not believe the strike was over. The weeks of tension coincided with California's implementation of a state-mandated plan to ease prison overcrowding by shifting responsibility for thousands of inmates and ex-convicts to county authorities.

An earlier round of protests originated at Pelican Bay in July and ended a few weeks later after corrections officials promised concessions. But the hunger strike resumed on September 26 and later spread to other prisons throughout the state.

At its peak, prison officials counted more than 4,200 inmates as participants, though prisoner rights groups said that as many as 12,000 convicts had at some point joined in refusing food.

Inmates were pressing a list of five demands -- an end to group punishments; an end to a "debriefing" policy that requires an inmate to identify fellow gang members in exchange for getting out of solitary confinement; an end to long-term solitary confinement; adequate and nutritious food; and greater privileges for prisoners confined to isolation indefinitely.

"If you're in the SHU (secure housing unit), there's an unwritten rule that the only ways you can get out are to make parole, debrief, or die," said Carol Strickman, an attorney for the group Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, which helped broker a deal to end the protests. "They want you to give it up ... to name names, rat out people."

Prison officials aim to modify their "secure housing unit admissions" policy by early 2012, Thornton said.

(via yahoonews)

Culture: Reality Check

So I was up early researching things happening all over the world, and I stumbled across some very unsettling news. I always knew about starvation, but I'm guilty of never really focusing on the issue until now. Did you know someone dies of starvation every 6 seconds!?
...and to my suprise hunger is the No. 1 cause of death, AIDS and Cancer follow after, wow. So you mean to tell me that an illness we can control and have thousands of cures for (different foods, water, etc) is the leading cause of death. I have a serious problem with this, and myself because I've done nothing to help, we all don't have millions of dollars, but we all can do something! Clicking a button and making a donation isn't enough for me, I'll be doing something hands on, soon!

Culture: Bhutan:The Fifth Dragon King Marries a Commoner

Love can be found in the tiniest places, even in Bhutan, a very small Himalayan nation. I love when men and when of royal standards choose to marry the person they truly have a desire for. The concept of hand picking a bride from a list of eligible royals, as if their a victim behind a two-way mirror picking out the suspect,..where's the love in that? Love should never be determined by which to people can be worth more as a union, don't get me wrong you and your companion being a blessed unit financial is awesome...but if that were to be taken away, what finer grain holds your love together? Anyone can want to be married, yet, not everyone wants to be a companion and the searcher of your soul.

Getty Images

PUNAKHA, Bhutan — The fifth Dragon King came down from his golden throne to place a silk crown upon the head of his bride. Monks chanted in celebration and she took her seat beside him Thursday, becoming the new queen of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan holds the hand of Queen Jetsun Pema, a 21 year old student at London's Regent College, after their wedding on today, October 13, 2011.












(via today)

Culture:World News: Fear rises, floods rise in Thailand

Fear rises in Bangkok, as floods rise in Thailand

Thailand's capital was braced for unprecedented flooding Wednesday, amid the monsoon rains that have overwhelmed much of the country as well as Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines in recent weeks.
"It's going to be clearer over the next couple days" whether Bangkok can be spared the brunt of the flooding said Matthew Cochrane, spokesperson for the International Red Cross in Bangkok.
So far, 281 people have been killed and four people are missing in Thailand, according to the country's Flood Relief Operations Command. Some 60 of the country's 76 provinces have so far been affected, impacting some eight million people.
"It's really quite serious, these are the worst floods in Thailand since 1949," Cochrane said.


"These floods started in June really and started to move south and have really caused huge damage the whole way down," Cochrane said. "They've affected hundreds and hundreds of villages and towns, they've wiped out 2.5 million acres of farmland. This is a very, very serious disaster."
Over half a million square kilometers -- an area the size of Spain -- are affected by the floods in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, according to CNN meteorologist Jenny Harrison.






(via CNN)

Culture:Sports: Detroit Lions 5-0 #TeamMichigan

For starters, the Detroit Lions were on Monday Night Football, for the first time in 10 years! Major.

....and now their 5-0? I must say as aa Michigan native, I'm proud!

Detroit Lions fans counted down the final seconds — as if it was New Year's Eve — when the franchise finished its first Monday night game in a decade. Matthew Stafford's second touchdown pass put Detroit ahead in the third quarter and Jahvid Best's 88-yard run later in the period gave the Lions a double-digit lead in a 24-13 win over the Chicago Bears.

 

''It was electric,'' Stafford said. ''Our fans came out and did an unbelievable job.''
The Lions did a pretty good job, too.

Detroit (5-0) is undefeated through five games for the first time since 1956 — the year before its last NFL title. Lions coach Jim Schwartz, though, refused to be celebrate, pointing to the team's next game on Sunday at home against the San Francisco 49ers.
''We'll start on San Fran in about an hour and a half,'' Schwartz said shortly after midnight.
The defending NFC North champion Bears (2-3) are off to their worst start since 2007. They are three games behind Detroit and defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay (5-0) in the division.

Stafford lofted a pass to Calvin Johnson for a 73-yard score — extending his NFL-record start with nine TD catches in five games — early in the second quarter.
Best's 88-yard run was the second-longest in franchise history, trailing only Bob Hoernschemeyer's 96-yard run against the New York Yankees on Nov. 23, 1950. It was 3 yards longer than Barry Sanders' longest gain on the ground.

Smith was dumbfounded that Best wasn't touched on the run through a hole up the middle and past the secondary.

''Hard to swallow,'' Smith said. ''Jahvid Best is a good player, but we can't let that happen.''
Stafford was 19 of 26 for 219 yards with two TDs, including the go-ahead score to Brandon Pettigrew from 18 yards with 9:55 to go in the third quarter. Best more than doubled his previous career-high with 163 yards rushing on 12 carries. Johnson finished with five catches for 130 yards and for the first time this season, he didn't score twice, but he made an impact as usual against a team that tried to slow him down with double coverage.





(via foxsports)

Culture: Politics " The 9-9-9 Plan"

I am a Democrat, however I thought this was very interesting, being that either way things go for the upcoming Presidential election, we will all be affected by it in some manner.

  There was one clear winner from Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, based on the simple metrics of name recognition: businessman Herman Cain's "9-9-9 Plan."

Facts about the "9-9-9 Plan" here.

 Virtually all the candidates at the debate table had something to say about Cain's plan to replace the tax code with three, flat nine-percent federal taxes on consumption, business and income. Cain, once delegated to the remote wings of the debate stage, has enjoyed a surge in the polls ever since he won the straw poll in Orlando, Fla., last month, and at the first debate since he joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the top tier, Cain and his policy proposals took up more of the debate's time than the ideas floated by any other candidate.
Of course, this isn't to say that any of them praised Cain's idea. Far from it. In fact, everyone who had an opportunity took shots at the plan.

  Former Utah Gov. Huntsman reduced it to "a catchy phrase" and joined former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in saying it would never be signed into law.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested that the 9-9-9 scheme would be "inadequate" to solve the nation's problems.

"Herman, I have had the experience in my life of taking on some tough problems," Romney said when Cain asked if he could name every single one of the 59-points in his economic plan. "And I must admit that simple answers are always very helpful, but oftentimes inadequate."
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann even made a joke that referenced the mark of Satan from the Book of Revelation.

"You turn the 9-9-9 plan upside down, and the devil's in the details," referring to the number "666"--the mark of the beast described in Revelation. But none of his detractors were able to stop Cain from repeating the line all night. Perhaps not anticipating that the candidates would spend their own time discussing Cain's proposal, the moderators ran a pre-arranged clip of Cain touting it a few weeks ago and asked all the candidates to comment on it. Again. So they did, and the "9-9-9 Plan" got a fresh dose of air time.

It was as if every time the candidates mentioned those words--"9-9-9"--Cain got a little more powerful.

This is one marketing scheme, however, that won't last without an upgrade.
One independent analysis of the Cain's plan suggests that it would not create enough revenue to sustain the government's most basic functions. When asked about this, Cain simply dismissed the premise and repeated the "9-9-9" pitch.

"The problem with that analysis is that it is incorrect," Cain said, dismissively.
If he wants to stay in the top tier, he'll have to come up with something better than that. As a lesser-known candidate who only received precious few opportunities to speak in past debates, he could say his bit about the 9-9-9 Plan, and the moderator would move on. But the platform he has earned by landing at the top will require him to expand on his ideas and even come up with new ones.
But at least for tonight, everyone's talking about the 9-9-9 plan, and Cain couldn't have asked for a better gift from his opponents.






(via yahoonews)