rpannier
rpannier's JournalMartin Lewis sues Facebook over fake adverts with his name
Martin Lewis, the consumer advice and money-saving expert, is suing for defamation after it published dozens of fake adverts featuring his face and name.
He is seeking exemplary damages in the high court, arguing that Facebook failed to prevent or swiftly remove false advertising that has both tarnished his reputation and lured unwitting victims into costly scams.
Lewis said he would not profit from any damages won, which he would donate to charities combating fraud, but that he hoped the action would prompt the site to stamp out scam adverts.
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He said Facebook had failed to stop the adverts despite his complaints and action. “It is consistent, it is repeated. Other companies such as Outbrain who have run these adverts have taken them down. What is particularly pernicious about Facebook is that it says the onus is on me, so I have spent time and effort and stress repeatedly to have them taken down.
link
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/22/martin-lewis-sues-facebook-over-fake-ads-with-his-name
Wow! What a family (South Korea)
I'm referring to the Cho/Jo's (Depending on the English version you use-- the family uses Cho)
Cho Hyun-min, Senior Vice-President of Korean Air, and the youngest daughter of Hanjin Group (Korea) CEO/President Cho Yang-ho, has been suspended after it was revealed she threw water in the face of an advertising manager.
The Hanjin Group in true PR failure, first claimed she didn't hit hit the manager in the face. Then, likely realizing that throwing water on another person is unacceptable period, changed their story to, she threw the cup on the floor, Hyun-min (I guess before she knew the companies PR spin) claimes she pushed the cup of water, it landed on the floor and it accidentally hit the man (in the face).
For those of you unfamiliar with the Hanjin Group, Hyun-min's older sister Cho Hyun-ah is derisively referred to as the 'Nut Rage' after her melt down at JFK airport over a bag of nuts.
According to sources, the father has no anger issues, but all of his children do.
This is commonplace in Korea among the third generation Jaebol (the grandchildren of the founders of some of Korea's largest companies). Samsung's young heir's and heiresses have been described as petty, ignorant of how the company is run, corrupt and have been accused of using company assets as a personal piggy bank. Their father has been hospitalized, mostly in a coma, for many years. One of his children reportedly tried to run someone over with a car at the Shilla Hotel
Scientists discover 15 new planets orbiting red dwarf stars
Scientists have announced the discovery of 15 new planets orbiting small, cool stars near our solar system. The stars these planets are orbiting are called red dwarfs. The scientists say that one of the new planets is a “super-Earth” that could harbor liquid water on its surface.
One of the brightest of the red dwarf stars that have been discovered to have orbiting planets is called K2-155 and it is about 200 light years from Earth. This star has three transiting super-Earths that are slightly bigger than our planet. The outermost of those three planets is dubbed K2-155d and has a radius 1.6 times the Earth.
That planet is thought to be in the host star’s habitable zone. The findings the scientists have made are based on data from the Kepler spacecraft’s second mission and follow-up observations from ground-based telescopes including the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and Nordic Optical Telescope in Spain. Scientists say that K2-155d could potentially have liquid water on its surface based on three-dimensional global climate simulations.
The research team lead Teruyuki Hirano from the Tokyo Institute of Technology Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences says that in the simulations made by the team they assumed the composition of the planet was Earth-like. He points out there is no guarantee that is the case.
link
https://www.slashgear.com/scientists-discover-15-new-planets-orbiting-red-dwarf-stars-13523036/
Tony McGee got kicked out of Wyoming with the Black 14 but still made it to the Super Bowl
Tony McGee had no idea what would come next after he and 13 other black players were kicked off the undefeated and nationally ranked Wyoming Cowboys football team in the midst of the 1969 season. The defensive end had been playing like an All-American and maybe even a future pro, racking up 11 sacks in just four games. But now his football career, his college education and his entire future were in doubt.
One thing McGee knew for sure was that he would never play for Wyoming again. As far as he was concerned, the ouster of the group that came to be known as the Black 14 had revealed head coach Lloyd Eaton as not just a hard-edged taskmaster but also a hardheaded racist.
Wyoming’s black players had proposed wearing black armbands in their home game against Brigham Young University. A few wanted to protest the Mormon Church’s dictum forbidding black members from becoming priests. But for most of them, including McGee, the beef was more personal: BYU’s all-white squad had hurled racial slurs and cheap shots at black players during their game a year earlier.
But when the black Wyoming players raised the idea of a protest with their coach, Eaton did not want to hear it. Instead, he berated and insulted them, saying they were troublemakers, half of whom did not know their fathers. Then, he kicked them off the team. McGee recalls Eaton saying the players could go back home to live off “colored relief.” Or, if they were lucky, maybe they could go play for Morgan, Grambling or some other historically black college or university.
link
http://theundefeated.com/features/black-14-tony-mcgee-protest-kicked-out-of-wyoming-still-made-it-to-super-bowl/
Pictures from the First CPAC Conference -- sort of. (KInd of pic heavy)
The first pic is of Fritz Julius Kuhn, the leader of the German-American Bund (C-PAC of the 30's)
The Soft Power of the NRA (Rather long)
For all the concern about the NRA and its weird control over political discourse regarding guns, the one thing that people tend to ignore (and IMO is a big mistake) is the NRA''s soft power.
I spent the past few days going through NRA website and its affiliates and sites that support or link to the NRA (and there are a lot). The thing that is most interesting and disturbing (chillingly disturbing) is the amount of soft power they generate.
For clarification, hard power are things like donations from the NRA, lobbyists who visit, cajole, threaten legislators, governors, councilmen, etc and rallies they hold.
Soft Power is in the form of advertising, publications and programming. And lordy, do they have a lot of publications. Starting at their website, I found no less than 7 NRA publications (American Rifleman, American Hunter, America's First Freedom, Shooting Illustrated, Shooting Sports USA, NRA Family, Standing Guard) in addition to the President's Column, Regional Report and Political Report.
The NRA also has it's very own television network and radio network. Dana Loesch, Cam Edwards and Grant Stinchfield headline most of the homepage for the network. The also have four channels: NRANews (sponsored by Ruger), NRAWomen (Smith & Wesson), NRA Country and NRA Hunting. Not surprisingly, all their advertisers (partners) manufacture guns or ammo.
Why is this problematic?
Well, it's not new. Look at the x-tian reich. There are a half dozen x-tian networks on cable, hundreds on youtube and various networks on the internet. For over three decades networks like the 700 Club and Trinity Broadcasting have been piping in daily propaganda on how reich wing x-tians are being persecuted, how liberals are destroying the country, how the media is not presenting the true nature of the despair they are suffering and what the good reich wing x-tian can do about it -- often it involves sending money to the network.
It's effective and we shouldn't be surprised. It's an everyday event, they don't wait for something to happen, they pipe it over the TV every single day. The gloom and doom is mixed with uplifting stories about how prayer cured someone's cancer, made them rich or raised them from the dead (okay. I made the last one up. I've never seen or heard one where they were raised. But, they claim it has happened).
These hucksters become trusted 'friends' to the viewer. What they say resonates, not just because they parrot the viewer or listeners dissatisfaction, but because they provide answers, the provide hope and guidance. It's very comforting.
For people like you and I who find them exasperatingly annoying, it doesn't matter because we are not the target audience, we are not the chosen ones, our views are skewed by the MSM and so on.
The NRA has taken the fundie TV vision and turned it into a pro-gun, arm yourself for the zombie apocalypse and mixed that with the NRA Family: Dad, Mom, Brother, Sister and the AR-15 or Ruger. They show happy families out on a day of shooting. Women who are learning how to properly load, fire and clean their weapons. Yes, there is a show devoted to moms learning how to use a pistol. The women comment about how empowered and how safe their new firearm makes them feel -- Oh, and it's really cool, too. Oh, and they will sprinkle in Persons of Color to show that everyone can love having a gun.
Their opponents, advocates for some form of gun control, do not have that. There is no network devoted to the dangers of a heavily armed populace, anymore than there are numerous television networks devoted to Atheism on television. And this is where the NRA (and the x-tian fundies) win. This is why it's difficult to reach many of them, anymore than you can reach Alex Jones viewers, because they go to these networks everyday. They see shows devoted to 'responsible gun ownership' (the NRAs definition), that ordinary moms, dads and kids use guns safely (which is true) and it throws out enough propaganda in the form of wholesome family friendly talk, "I love my gun. I use it responsibly. I store it safely. We've never had anyone in our family shot be our gun. I feel safer knowing I can protect my children and my property. Etc."
After every major shooting, interest wanes and dies as people move on with their lives or a natural disaster or whatever happens. While the NRA Network continue pouring out publication and show about how swell weapons are, giving their viewers stories about the good guy with a gun (see below, they're promoting the guy in Texas), how you can be just like Bruce Willis in Die Hard and save dozens of people from a terrorist and or movie theater shooting and so on.
Below Are From Some of Their Publications I Rummaged Through on Line. These are not a complete list, nor are they all the stories. But, they're some examples of how they use propaganda.
In the publication America's First Freedom, which interestingly, has nothing to do with Speech, Assembly or Religion, but rather, yes guns we are (ahem) treated to a story on Stephen Willeford, that 'good guy with a gun' with the NRA loves to tout who tried to stop the guy who shot up the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in Texas.
For the record: The guy killed himself after his car careened off into a ditch while being chased by Willeford and another man
The article in giant letters throws in "But while their anti-gun narratives prevented most mainstream media outlets from acknowledging his actions, Willeford is a prime example of a good guy with a gun stopping a very bad guy with a gun." (Gotta get that talking point in).
The article goes on to castigate anti-gun groups, the media for their bias against guns. Taking great pains to show how Willeford because of his training and competence didn't freeze up. And that he 'may have' prevented this bad guy with a gun from killing others
This article, which is the first in a string of articles is clearly designed to provide talking points to their supporters and make them feel better about owning guns.
The sickly twisted story, which you have to scroll through the banner to find is the one titled, 'Enforce Existing Guns Laws to Reduce Criminal Violence.' I didn't read the article, I didn't see anywhere in the article where the NRA pointed out that it has done everything it can to gut and/or prevent these laws from seeing the light of day.
They also have an unlinked story titled, 'A Sacrifice Must Be Made.' I am uncertain what the story is about, since there doesn't seem to be a story.
America's First also has 'NRA American Warrior', 'Armed Citizen' and 'Legend in Arms.'
American Hunter and American Rifleman seem to be pretty much full of stories that hock weaponry. Though American Rifleman does have several stories on the history of various kinds of rifles used in warfare. Oh... and a picture of actor and water thief Tom Selleck looking at a gun
NRA Family is mildly interesting in that it spotlights a lot of younger women; Katie Harris, Tori Nonaka, Janae Sarabia and Molly Smith are featured in one article, they talk about how they started shooting and their choice of weapon. Courtney Smith headlines the selection of stories and Dania Rizzi, the 'rising shooting star' is in another. And Wendy Lefebvre has an article that encourages everyone to go hunting because it's just so wonderful.
NBC Sports apologizes for insensitive comments during PyeongChang opener
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) -- U.S. television network NBC Sports has apologized for broadcasting insensitive remarks relating to South Korea during the PyeongChang Winter Games' opening, according to Olympic officials Sunday.
The broadcaster came under fire after Joshua Cooper Ramo, an Asian commentator for NBC, said during the march by Japanese Olympic athletes at the opening ceremony Friday that Japan played an "important" role in South Korea's recent achievements as a nation.
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USA Today also reported that NBC apologized through a statement read live on its cable and satellite channel NBCSN on Saturday (local time). "We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize," NBCSN was quoted as saying.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/culturesports/2018/02/11/0702000000AEN20180211002000315.html
This guy is supposed to be knowledgeable about east Asia?
He's an idiot
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un to attend the Olympics
According to several South Korean news sources, she will be in the South on Friday, along with other high ranking North Korean officials.
Yo-jong has risen quickly through the ranks of North Korean government and is presently the Deputy Chief of the Propaganda and Agitation Department
from yonhap news:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2018/02/07/0401000000AEN20180207013500315.html
Kim Jong-un's dear sister, Kim Yo-jong, is set to become the first member of North Korea's ruling dynasty to set foot in the rival South this week.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul announced Wednesday that Kim Yo-jong, presumed to be aged about 30, will be part of a high-ranking government delegation attending the Winter Olympic opening ceremony slated for Friday.
The team will be led by Kim Yong-nam, the nominal head of state. Kim Yo-jong is widely believed to be powerful and close enough to the leader to directly represent his views.
The island that switches countries every six months
Next week, France will hand over 3,000 sq m (32,000 sq ft) of its territory to Spain without a single shot being fired. But in six months' time Spain will voluntarily hand back the land to France. It's been that way for more than 350 years.
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The Island of Faisans (Pheasant Island)
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But there it is - a peaceful, inaccessible island in the middle of the river, with tree cover and neatly trimmed grass, and an old monument which pays tribute to a remarkable historical event that happened here in 1659.
For three months, the Spanish and French negotiated the end to their long war on the island, as it was considered neutral territory. Wooden bridges were extended from both sides. The armies stood ready as the negotiations began.
A peace agreement was signed - the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Territory was swapped and the border demarcated. And the deal was sealed with a royal wedding, as the French King Louis XIV married the daughter of the Spanish King Philippe IV.
ink
http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42817859
These are called Condominium Properties or Condominia
The River Moselle and the Sauer and the Orr Tributaries are condominium between Luxembourg and Germany
Gule of Fonseca is a Tridominium between Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua
Parts of the Parana River and the mouth of the Iguassu River are shared between Brazil and Paraguay
Some former condominia include
688 AD Cyprus between the Byzantine Empire (Justinian II) and the Arab Empire ( Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan)
1941-3 Croatia was a condominium between Germany and Italy
1876-82 Egypt was one under Britain and France
1992-94 Walvis Bay Namibia and South Africa
Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg were an Austrian-Prussian condominium
The Oregon Country was an Anglo-American condominium from 1818 until 1846
A small area (Hadf and surroundings) on the Arabian Peninsula, a part of Oman, at one time was jointly ruled with the Emirati member state of Ajman.
New Hebrides formed a French–British condominium in 1906 until independence in 1980 as a republic, now called Vanuatu
Nursing Home Recreates Communist East Germany For Dementia Patients
It's said that time heals all wounds. But not for people afflicted with dementia like Gerda Noack. The 93-year-old German woman's memory is fading, as is her eyesight.
The losses scare her. On a recent morning at the AlexA Residence for Senior Citizens in Dresden, where she lives, Noack sounded anxious as she asked, over and over: "Where am I supposed to go?"
Director Gunter Wolfram gently took her arm and suggested they visit a government-run store from the former communist East Germany called Intershop. The once popular chain no longer exists — but a mockup of the store is only a few steps away.
snip
The sight soothes Noack, and her face lights up each time she recognizes something. Like a shopping bag made out of a polyester fabric called Dederon — a name based on DDR, the German initials for the German Democratic Republic. Or a laundry detergent called Spee.
link
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/01/22/578664161/nursing-home-recreates-communist-east-germany-for-dementia-patients
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