In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Earthquake; death; injury] As Nepal's people continue to search for survivors from the massive earthquake over the weekend, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala says the death toll may reach as many as 10,000 people. "International aid has finally begun arriving in the Himalayan nation of 28 million people, three days after Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake, but disbursement is slow. According to the home (interior) ministry, the confirmed death toll stands at 4,349, with more than 7,000 injured. 'The death toll could go up to 10,000 because information from remote villages hit by the earthquake is yet to come in,' Koirala said."

Again, please feel welcome and encouraged to drop into comments suggestions for how we may help individually, if we are able.

[CN: Terrorism; death] Boko Haram has made another attack, this time in the northeast Nigerian town of Damasak, and hundreds of people have been killed: "The discovery of hundreds of bodies, including women and children, and the latest attacks underline both the brutality of the conflict and the continuing threat posed by the extremists."

Stanley Greenberg persuasively argues that Democrats must embrace populist progressive policy: "Those who advocate such 'centrism' could not be more wrong. The key to both winning today's white working-class voters and building overwhelming majorities with the Rising American Electorate is a robust agenda of progressive reform and government activism."

[CN: Police brutality; racism; disablism] Daniel Covarrubias, 37, was killed by police after suffering from hallucinations and being hospitalized. Following his release: "Two officers found Covarrubias hiding atop a 25-foot-tall stack of lumber. They fired after Covarrubias allegedly reached into his pocket. It's unclear how many times Covarrubias was shot. He later died at the hospital. ...[Police] have not yet said whether Covarrubias had a weapon."

[CN: Transphobia] An important read by Marti Abernathy: "Media Supports Demonizing of Trans Children, Silent on Trans Reparative Therapy: [T]he safest track for transgender children is to let them find their own way without guilt or shame. But that doesn't make for a good debate, does it?"

In good news: "Tyson Foods Inc., which is the country's biggest poultry supplier, announced this week that it plans to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in its chicken flocks by 2017. The impending deadline is being described as 'one of the most aggressive timelines yet set by an American poultry company.'"

[CN: Misogyny; sexual assault] Comedian Tamale Rocks discovered a two-way mirror in the women's restroom at a Chicagoland bar, and the owner of the establishment responded with this pile of horseshit: "I will burn this fucking place to the ground before I get rid of that mirror. Do you know how much joy that mirror has brought to us? We're synonymous with Halloween. We do a freaky family fun day, and all the kids look in the mirror. This is a fun house, honey, and if you don’t like the two-way mirror, go fuck yourself." Um, okay.

In more good news: Viola Davis "will star in, produce, and exec produce a biopic on the life of Harriet Tubman, for HBO. ...Davis' Tubman film will be based on the 2004 book, Bound for the Promised Land—Harriet Tubman Portrait: of an American Hero, by historian Kate Clifford Larson, which draws from a trove of new documents and sources, as well as extensive genealogical research, to paint a portrait of a complex woman and her passionate pursuit of freedom."

RIP Jayne Meadows: "Jayne Meadows, a longtime television actress who was the widow of TV legend Steve Allen and the elder sister of actress Audrey Meadows, died of natural causes at her home in Encino, Calif., on Sunday night. She was 95." A three-time Emmy nominee, Meadows "received the Susan B. Anthony Award for her continued positive portrayals of women in her acting."

This is really fascinating: "Automatic cameras in the Ukrainian side of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have provided an insight into the previously unseen secret lives of wildlife that have made the contaminated landscape their home. ...In the first four months since the cameras were deployed, the team has 'trapped' more than 10,000 images of animals, suggesting the 30km zone, established shortly after the April 1986 disaster when a nuclear reactor exploded, ejecting radioactive material across the surrounding terrain and high into the atmosphere, is now home to a rich diversity of wildlife."

Cool: "Fossil hunters in Chile have unearthed the remains of a bizarre Jurassic dinosaur that combined a curious mixture of features from different prehistoric animals. The evolutionary muddle of a beast grew to the size of a small horse and was the most abundant animal to be found 145 million years ago, in what is now the Aysén region of Patagonia. The discovery ranks as one of the most remarkable dinosaur finds of the past 20 years, and promises to cause plenty of headaches for paleontologists hoping to place the animal in the dinosaur family tree."

And finally! Teeny Tiny Kitten Meets Big Dog. *melts*