In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; war] The fight against Boko Haram intensifies: "Nigerian forces have killed more than 300 Boko Haram fighters during an operation to recapture 11 towns and villages since the start of the week, the military said on Wednesday, as its war increasingly sucked in neighbors Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. The latest fighting comes as the tide has appeared to turn against Boko Haram, with neighboring countries plagued by cross-border attacks weighing in against the insurgents. Amid growing global concern, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin are preparing a 8,700-strong force to fight the Islamists." It continues to be incredible to me how little attention this multi-nation war is getting in Western media.

[CN: Terrorism; war] In President Obama's much-discussed op-ed on "Our Fight Against Violent Extremism," Boko Haram gets just a single sentence. The whole thing is worth a read, all the same. It's important for the US President to say things like: "In the face of this challenge, we must stand united internationally and here at home. We know that military force alone cannot solve this problem."

[CN: Police brutality; racism] Outgoing US Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department's investigation into Officer Darren Wilson's fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, is nearly complete: "My hope is, as I said, is that we will do this before I leave office, and I'm confident that we will do that... The reviews are under way. I was briefed on both of them, just last week, and I'm satisfied with the progress we have made and also comfortable in saying that I am going to be able to make those calls before I leave office." I fear that we're not going to like the outcome, and I hope I am wrong about that. But, again, the burden of proof for federal charges requires the establishment of intent, and I don't think they're going to find that here.

Good news in the fight against HIV/AIDS: "Scientists said Wednesday a new drug tested on monkeys provided an astonishingly effective shield against an animal version of the AIDS virus, a major gain in the quest for an HIV vaccine. ...The prototype drug, called eCD4-Ig, comprises two imitations of the receptors, or docking points, where HIV latches on to CD4 cells—the key defences of the immune cells. The mimics latch on to the virus, tricking it into prematurely launching the docking procedure. The virus can only execute the procedure once, rendering it unable to attach to CD4 cells thereafter."

[CN: Sexual harassment] Vice President Joe Biden has, once again, "gotten handsy" with a woman in public, this time the wife of recently confirmed Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, during his swearing in ceremony. We're always meant to understand "that's just how he is," but that is unacceptable no matter who the fuck is doing it. And it's truly embarrassing to me as a US woman that neither our presidents nor our vice-presidents seem to understand that.

Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, son of former president George H.W. Bush and brother of former president George W. Bush, wants us to know that "I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man—and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences." You know, I respect that. Now I hope that Jeb Bush will afford the same respect to women who want to make choices which are shaped by our own thinking and own experiences. Ha ha he won't!

[CN: Christian supremacy] I don't even know: "An Oklahoma bill banning Advanced Placement U.S. History would also require schools to instruct students in a long list of 'foundational documents,' including the Ten Commandments, two sermons, and three speeches by Ronald Reagan." For fuck's sake.

[CN: Misogyny; harassment; assault] Keira Knightley talks a bit about what it was like to navigate the aggressive paparazzi in the early days of her career: "Having 20 to 30 men who you don't know on a 24-hour surveillance outside your house calling you a 'whore' every time you leave the door to try to get a reaction from you is quite a difficult thing to deal with... You'd walk down he street and you'd have men trying to get under your skirt to take pictures up your skirt and all the time calling you a 'whore' or all the time spitting at you or all the time trying to get a reaction from the guy you were with because it would make the price of that photograph quadruple." This should not be legal the end.

Neat! "Engineers in the UK have found that limpets' teeth consist of the strongest biological material ever tested. Limpets use a tongue bristling with tiny teeth to scrape food off rocks and into their mouths, often swallowing particles of rock in the process. The teeth are made of a mineral-protein composite, which the researchers tested in tiny fragments in the laboratory. They found it was stronger than spider silk, as well as all but the very strongest of man-made materials." Wow.

Do you want to nominate a dog for the American Humane Association's 2015 Hero Dog Awards? Then get busy, because the nominations are officially open!