My Internet Brain

Woolwich Attack: A journalist’s guide to reporting violent death

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:40:18 +0100

Woolwich Attack: A journalist’s guide to reporting violent death:

In light of newspaper layoffs and in the interests of continued professional education, we at Ceasefire are proud to continue our free online advisory course for journalists. This week’s topic: how do you report violent death?

Great satire, really cuts to the heart of the racist approaches most media take to violent death.

Ask your mobile provider what's happening to your data!

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:15 +0100

Ask your mobile provider what's happening to your data!:

EE have sold data – where they are, for example – about their customers to polling company to Ipsos MORI. Ipsos MORI are trying to now sell it to the police.

O2 and Vodafone are doing similar deals to sell on information about their customers. It’s time to clear up what’s happening to the information all the mobile companies have about us.

If you’re with a UK network, contact your provider with the tool above and tell them “fuck no, don’t do this, ta”

unapproachableblackchicks: “On May 6, 1937, in the midst of...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:00:15 +0100

unapproachableblackchicks:

“On May 6, 1937, in the midst of tobacco workers strikes and protests in Richmond, Va., 400 Black women tobacco stemmers spontaneously went on strike at I.N. Vaughan over meager wages and lousy working conditions. The women averaged $3 a week in wages, sometimes working more than 80 hours a week in cramped conditions with dust coating the air and their lungs.

Writing in The Crisis, W.E.B. Du Bois described the upsurge among Black women and men tobacco workers as part of the great industrial union organizing drives, “In the spring of 1937, the great impetus given by the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations] to unionization within the basic industries had repercussions as far south as Richmond where three hundred tobacco stemmers in the Carrington and Michaux plant undertook a spontaneous strike.”

Read more

awesomes

Palestinians Demolish Part of Apartheid Wall

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:12:54 +0100

Palestinians Demolish Part of Apartheid Wall:

A group of 20 Palestinians drilled a hole in the separation wall near Jerusalem to reconnect two Palestinian villages.

Video footage shows protesters using a sledgehammer to break through the concrete wall and tearing the metal beams.

A-MAZING

Amazing and short video from Palestinians in Al-Araqib (inside...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:18 +0100

Amazing and short video from Palestinians in Al-Araqib (inside Israel) and Susiya (inside the West Bank), documenting Israel’s ongoing efforts to remove them from their land and their homes.

Al-Araqib has been demolished FOURTY-EIGHT TIMES.

70% of houses in Susiya have a demolition order out against them. Settlers have set fire to Palestinian’s homes whilst they’re still in them, and then not let the emergency services through. They regularly beat farmers attending to their land, which the Israeli army ignores.

Whether inside the Green Line or outside, Israel wants to ethnically cleanse the land of any Palestinians.

More info on the film From Al-Araqib to Susiya

TW: Rroma & Sinti Holocaust (Porrajmos)

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:30:13 +0100

big-gadje-world:

There are not as many photographs of the Rromani Holocaust, or at least the ones that do exist are more difficult to find.

Rromani women at Ravensbruck

Rromani at (I believe) Auschwitz

Rromani being deported by German soldiers in Poland.

Rromani children at Jargeau interment camp, France.

Rromani at Marzahn internment camp; the first Rromani interment camp in Nazi occupied Europe.

Rromani being deported from Asperg, Germany.

The Rromani section of the Lodz ghetto; Brzezinska Street entrance.

Rromani children in the Rivesaltes camp.

Arrival of Rromani prisoners at Auschwitz.

Romanian soldiers force Rromani men to load corpses onto trucks in Targu-Frumos.

For those who insist that non-targeted Europeans “didn’t know”.

Rromani being deported to Auschwitz from Remscheid.

Rromani women in the Warsaw ghetto.

Rromani being escorted to an execution site in Nazi occupied Serbia.

Rromani in Belzec death camp.

Rromani being deported to Belzec.

Rromani prisoner at Auschwitz.

Rromani being used as slave labor in Nazi occupied Europe.

Rromani women at Ravensbruck.

Rromani being executed in Poland.

Deportation of Rromani & Jews in Serbia.

Rromani children at St. Josefspflege; about 40 children whose parents were already deported. Many were used in scientific experiments by “racial researcher” Eva Justin. In 1944, they were all deported to Auschwitz; all but 4 were murdered in the gas chambers.

Rromani being subjected to “racial hygiene” experiments by having casts made of their faces & skulls.

Rromani in a camp in Radom, Poland.

Deportation of Rromani in Germany.

Rromani prisoners often wore patches of a black triangle. Sometimes the letter Z was marked on them. Others had “Z” tattooed onto their arms. It stands for “Zigeuner”; a slur that loosely translates to “Gypsy” & comes from the old Romanian word “Tigan”, which means “slave”.

Rromani children who were victims of Nazi medical & racial experiments at Auschwitz.

Other Rromani children at Auschwitz-Birkenau

The Lety camp for Rromani in the former Czechoslovakia. The camp was destroyed & sold by the Czech government to pig farmers; they refuse to give Rromani rights to the land for a memorial.

Rromani prisoners at Lety.

Jews, Rromani & ethnic Serbs in the Jasenovac camp, Croatia, former Yugoslavia.

Jewish, Rromani & Serbian prisoners at Jasenovac.

The Ustashi (Croatian Nazi militia) execute prisoners (Rromani, Serbs & Jews) near the Jasenovac camp.

The children of Jasenovac.

Concentration camp identification card Maria Bihari, a Rromani child.

Rromani arriving at Birkenau.

Rromani concentration camp prisoners.

Rromani playing music for Nazi soldiers at a French internment camp.

Rromani at an internment camp (possibly also in France).

Rromani at Bergen-Belsen.

Rromani concentration camp, Montreuil-Bellay, in France.

Rromani children in Auschwitz.

Rromani interned in unknown concentration camp, France.

Rromani girl being deported in a cattle car. She was nick-named Setella & there is a book about trying to find the actual identity of this girl.

Nazi soldiers shooting Rromani civilians in unknown location.

Rromani woman & child likely arriving at Auschwitz.

Babi Yar Massacre; About 100,000 Jews, Rromani, ethnic Russians & Ukrainians were murdered over a three day period.

Rromani women & children at Ustica camp.

Rromani prisoner identification photographs.

Rromani watch as Nazi occupation occurred. Chances are that they were likely killed or deported shortly after.

Rromani woman displays her concentration camp identification tattoo.

NA BISTER.

a depressing but necessary post, I feel - Rromani people too often forgotten in traditional Holocaust recounting

Went to see Public Enemy at the Young Vic last night, and it...

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:15:27 +0100

Went to see Public Enemy at the Young Vic last night, and it was well good - if you’re in London, there are still £10 tickets for under-25s (for us old bastards it’s only £20).

Visualizing the major causes of death in the 20th...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:20:03 +0100

Visualizing the major causes of death in the 20th Century.

Originally a 6m x 2m commission by the Wellcome Collection as a companion piece to the London exhibition: ‘Death: A Self-Portrait – The Richard Harris Collection’ (Nov 2012).

Some inevitable double-counting, broad estimations and ball-park figures.

I love Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a...

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:40:06 +0100

I love Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People!

It’s an analysis of around a thousand Hollywood films involving Arabs, and turns up some shocking stats (~25% include anti-Arab slurs).

I didn’t even remember the racist-for-no-reason inclusion of Arabs into Back To The Future, how many women in burqas there are in the background of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

There’s even a special part of the film on Palestinians, and how they’re presented in American films only as terrorists and never as an occupied people. Also, I love that as it’s targeted at Americans, they have to specify that Yemen is “a real country in the Middle East”.

Kudos, Jack Shaheen, kudos (as long as you gloss over the “we’re over anti-black racism” bit)

Yup that’s me

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:59:46 +0100

Yup that’s me

Senior Fatah officials call for single democratic state, not two-state solution

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:23 +0100

Senior Fatah officials call for single democratic state, not two-state solution:

Calling the two-state solution unrealistic, senior Fatah members issued a document Wednesday calling for the establishment of one democratic country in the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

The initiative, which was the culmination of two years of discussion, coincided with the 65th anniversary of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) − the forced exile of more than 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 and after and the dispersal of the Palestinian people between different countries and regimes.

While the Palestinian Liberation Organization held a small procession in Ramallah to mark the Nakba on Wednesday, some 20 men and two women congregated in a hall in the El Bireh municipality to sign the document called “the popular movement project for one democratic state in historic Palestine.”

It states that “the racist Israeli policy of separation and segregation” has made the two-state solution (based on pre-1967 borders) unrealistic. Therefore, the most desirable option left for the Palestinian people and the one that will allow the right of return is: “a democratic state for all its citizens, which will be based on a democratic constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and will guarantee freedom and equal rights, without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion, gender, skin color, language, nationality, political opinion, social origin and place of birth.”

Most of the participants behind the initiative are identified with Fatah; a minority are members of other organizations in the PLO. They include Fatah member Radi Jarai, the former deputy director for prisoner affairs; Munir Abushi, the former governor of Salfit; and Prof. Uri Davis from the department of Israel studies at Al Quds University. When asked by Haaretz whether the intention was for “one state of the Palestinian people and members of the Jewish religion and others,” Davis responded that members were still discussing different concepts and definitions, and that he personally supports “one state for two peoples.”

Well interesting! Wasn’t expecting that move from Fatah. Not sure how other parties will take it, or how Palestinians on the ground will react…

nievie: arachnis-deathicus: Gonna quickly throw in an epic...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:52:48 +0100

nievie:

arachnis-deathicus:

Gonna quickly throw in an epic quote I found on this article.

KJKJ: Gene Roddenberry, with balls of brass, got up on national tv and said, “hey people, if a geneticist took all the best DNA from planet Earth and put it together to make the best human the world has ever seen - he wouldn’t be a white guy.”

This is why I find the casting of a white actor in this role to be so repugnant. They are not whitewashing an Asian role, they are saying that the best genetic material that the entirety of this world and it’s diversity has to offer….still comes from a white guy.

Reblogging again for that

Yup.

Exercise doesn't help depression, study concludes

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:45:31 +0100

Exercise doesn't help depression, study concludes:

emmajeans:

madmaudlingoes:

onamissiontocivilize:

knitmeapony:

lytah:

missvoltairine:

tooyoungforthelivingdead:

A study into whether physical activity alleviates the symptoms of depression has found there is no benefit.

Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that adding a physical activity intervention to usual care did not reduce symptoms of depression more than usual care alone.

This contrasts with current clinical guidance which recommends exercise to help those suffering from the mental illness, which affects one in six adults in Britain at any one time.

I thought this was true and all - fuck yeah, randomised controlled trials!

i’m waiting for the study that proves that yoga at sunrise actually makes depression worse

The full text of the paper mentioned.

I am really pleased about this finding because being told to just go exercise when you’re going through a major depressive episode is infuriating. It’s about as helpful as being told to just stop being sad. (OH WORD, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT. THANKS, MAN.) Nine times out of ten, the people suggesting it have never themselves experienced a day of depression in their lives, and fail to understand the problem to an extent that would be funny if it weren’t so… depressing.

On the other hand, I’m kind of invested in the idea that exercise helps (helps ME, that is), and it feels weird to now know that what I’m experiencing is the placebo effect. Maybe it’s just the routine of it that helps.

That said, it is not lost on me that it wasn’t until I started taking antidepressants that I found the motivation to exercise every day and the will to follow through on it. :\

Reblogging for both the link and commentary.

I’m on week seven of regular exercise (though it’s weightlifting with lots of stretching and very little cardio because I find cardio fucking boring) and I feel somewhat better. I think I feel better because my joints ache less so I don’t have so much pain weighing me down. But I know that doesn’t work for everyone. Hell it doesn’t always work for me, especially if I’m tired. I think I just like the feeling of fuck yes, I lifted that weight.

And whatever works for you, do it! I think it’s worthwhile to distinguish the supposed neurochemical benefits of exercise (which is what this study specifically addresses, near the end—the so-called “runner’s high”) from other possible benefits, which won’t be the same for everyone and aren’t necessarily exclusive to exercise, or even a type of exercise. The main thing is to shuck the assumption that exercise has to improve depression symptoms.

(I’m the opposite of you—I find lifting dull, but there’s a weird sense of accomplishment I get when I manage to stay on the elliptical all 30 minutes. Even if I’m counting down the last ten in eighteen-second increments and converting it into letter grades in my head.

…yeah.)

Are there other studies that prove the opposite? Which results are replicable?
I know I feel better having moved my body, and I feel better when I cling to my routine/s… I’ll happily believe that this is related to feeling a sense of achievement/accomplishment, and that my runners high is due to more controlled breathing - but I’m nervous that people will point to this study and say exercise doesn’t help with depression full-stop.

Also, here’s a link from someone who knows more than me, critiquing this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2012/jun/08/1

It’s a good point, and one I had in my head but didn’t really explain well enough in the first post - this research only says that “specific interventions to encourage people to exercise didn’t have much long-term impact on patient outcomes beyond the effects of their conventional therapy”.

i.e. it’s not that exercise doesn’t help you as an individual, it’s that asking people to exercise didn’t make a difference (long term) on top of other treatments for depression (like antidepressants)

thanks emmajeans!

Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic...

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:20:15 +0100

Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing that happened in 1948 when the state of Israel was created on Palestinian land, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

Check out Remi Kenazi’s new video Nakba, and thepalestineyoudontknow’s post yesterday about the Nakba and Palestinian refugees today.

apheline: autostraddle: Transitioning While Genderqueer...

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:40:05 +0100

apheline:

autostraddle:

Transitioning While Genderqueer (Despite the Standards of Care)

feature image via Shutterstock

trans*scribe illustration ©rosa middleton, 2013

CLICK HERE FOR MORE…

View Post

Autostraddle posted an article I wrote! This makes me enormously happy (flappy happy)!

Thanks to Laneia and Rachel for all their hard work in putting this series together. If you don’t know, Autostraddle is the most awesome queer women’s news site around so you should totally check them out.

“So, if I don’t identify with the accepted trans* narrative, why, you ask, did I want to transition? Why should people who don’t fit into that narrative be able to transition at all? As I touched on before, if I have to choose a box that says “male” or a box that says “female,” I would prefer the one that says “female.” That box just feels more comfortable to me. Even for people like me who don’t really buy into the whole concept of boxes, one box can feel so uncomfortable that death begins to seem like a fairly nice alternative.”

mmmmmmhmmmmmmm. lovely piece!

Exercise doesn't help depression, study concludes

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:51:42 +0100

Exercise doesn't help depression, study concludes:

A study into whether physical activity alleviates the symptoms of depression has found there is no benefit.

Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that adding a physical activity intervention to usual care did not reduce symptoms of depression more than usual care alone.

This contrasts with current clinical guidance which recommends exercise to help those suffering from the mental illness, which affects one in six adults in Britain at any one time.

I thought this was true and all - fuck yeah, randomised controlled trials!

A survey for nonbinary/genderqueer folk

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:29 +0100

A survey for nonbinary/genderqueer folk:

lottelodge:

lottelodge:

It says: “I’m running a bit of an informal data-gathering thing to see how people express their nonbinary gender. I’ll publish the results in July 2013 if I get more than 100 respondents.”

It’s pretty short!

It’s only like four questions, about preferred pronouns and titles and stuff.

If you’re one of us, do the survey, maybe?

this comic’s by an artist called Suzy X, you should credit...

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:17:02 +0100

this comic’s by an artist called Suzy X, you should credit it, she’s great :)

thesubversivesound: Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that...

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:24:13 +0100

thesubversivesound:

Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that described itself as “A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature,” edited by Emma Goldman. Alexander Berkman, another well-known anarchist, was the magazine’s editor from 1907 to 1915. It published longer articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women’s emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual “who’s who” of the radical left in the United States in the years prior to 1920.

In 1917, Mother Earth began to openly call for opposition to US entry into World War I and specifically to disobey government laws on conscription and registration for the military draft. On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for acts of interference in US foreign policy and espionage. The Act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged “disloyalty” to the U.S. government. After Goldman and Berkman continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman’s offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman’s journal The Blast, were seized. As a US Justice Department news release reported:

A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy’s friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contain 10,000 names, were also seized.

Mother Earth remained in monthly circulation until August 1917. Berkman and Goldman were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, and were later deported.

You can get collected editions of a lot of the old paper now - if you haven’t seen them before, maybe check one out?

They’re boss.

creepingfeminism: Omg so I went full on rage machine like I’m talking DANGEROUS today at these...

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:56 +0100

creepingfeminism:

Omg so I went full on rage machine like I’m talking DANGEROUS today at these fucking american christian anti-choicers that turned up in Oxford city centre today with all their signs and bullshit. Stood up on the steps with them, screaming in their faces getting raggo! It was so funny but I was so furious, got up and stepped to this guy yelling “HAVE YOU EVER BEEN PREGNANT? HAVE YOU?” and I unplugged their mic cos I was tired of his shit but of course the police got all narky about that. so we just continued to scream at them and wave our signs (that I quickly made on the bus down there!) in front of their faces until they admitted defeat.

They’re gonna be back tomorrow though, so I’m gearing up to get rowdy again!

when I grow up, I wanna be like Subi