Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

Instead of using animals, the medics will be expected to use human simulators, which resemble mannequins designed to react like the human body while being operated on, including the hemorrhaging of fake blood. However, the military will not entirely abandon the use of animals for medical training, as evidenced by the fact that the Army is soliciting bids for a five-year contract for goats to be used in the training of medics.   read more

Instead of settling for consent agreements and fines, DOJ claims it is now insisting on actual guilty pleas to felony charges. But critics remain skeptical, particularly because there is no indication that corporate executives will be held responsible for the crimes committed by the businesses they run. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone called the new model “beyond laughable.”   read more

Bowing to public criticism, a pending grand jury investigation and an FBI probe, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has banned its officers from shooting at suspects from the air except under exceptional circumstances. The change comes four months after a DPS sharpshooter in a helicopter shot and killed two Guatemalan immigrants hiding under a tarp in the back of a speeding pickup truck. DPS Director Steve McCraw insisted that the change was not a response to the shooting.   read more

Many of the plaintiffs have claimed they have no choice but to take legal action against polluters because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has refused to act. In June 2010, EPA presented two proposals for dealing with coal ash; one would classify it as “hazardous” and the other as “non-hazardous.” More than two and a half years later, the agency has yet to make a choice. According to government figures, there are 1,161 coal ash ponds and landfills in the United States.   read more

In 2010, Hrach Shilgevorkyan was stopped for speeding. A blood test revealed the presence of carboxy-THC, an inactive substance that stays in the body for up to four weeks after the smoking of marijuana, but which does not impair normal capabilities.   read more

During the 1984 restoration of democracy, Pita was elected to Uruguay’s national legislature on the minor party list “Movement for the Fatherland,” part of the right of center coalition known as the National Party. When the National Party pushed through a 1986 amnesty law protecting officials who participated in torture and murder under the military regime, however, Pita formed the People’s Current and joined Uruguay’s left of center political coalition.   read more

Sushi bars proved to be the most misleading in terms of which fish were being sold to customers, with 74% mislabeled. Nationally, 87% fish sold as snapper weren’t snapper and when it came to red snapper, only 7 of 120 samples were actually red snapper. Tuna fared little better with only 59% of alleged tuna being real tuna. In New York, tuna was almost never tuna according to Oceana, which found 94% of samples to be some other kind of fish.   read more

There were 38,329 drug overdose deaths nationwide, with medications and prescription drugs involved in nearly 60% of cases. Most of the fatalities involved addictive painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, which contributed to 75% of medication overdose deaths. Meanwhile, traffic fatalities went up in 2012 for the first time in seven years   read more

On February 19, a family of seven (three adults and four children) were kidnapped after visiting Waza National Park in the extreme north of Cameroon. At least one of them worked for a Lebanese construction company, GDF Suez, stationed nearby. This brings to fifteen the number of French hostages, all in Africa. It is thought that the victims have been transported across the border into Nigeria, where they are being held by a little-known Islamist group called Ansaru.   read more

Gary Friedman, a spokesman for the American Correctional Chaplains Association, told the Associated Press, “There are certainly enough Wiccan prisoners to merit their own chaplain." Wiccan minister Patrick McCollum puts the number at 2,000. Hartmann claimed there are at least as many inmates practicing the Wiccan religion in the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla as there are practicing Jewish, Muslim and Catholic inmates.   read more

In November 2010, Johnny sued the cabinet, permanent secretary and attorney general of St. Lucia over a pay dispute going back to her first tenure as ambassador in Washington. She asked the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for judicial review of St. Lucia’s decision to refuse her request for payment in lieu of vacation leave to which she was entitled under her employment contract, but the court refused.   read more

This year a record 71 countries submitted entries in the Best Foreign Language Film category. I managed to see 61 of these films. Although there were many entertaining movies, the overall mood was bleak. As one of my viewing companions put it, it’s as if the stories were conceived during the financial crisis of 2008, written in 2009, funded in 2010, produced in 2011 and released in 2012. Here are my comments on the five nominees, as well some non-nominees that I consider noteworthy.   read more

The favorite in this category is Searching for Sugar Man, simply because it is such a good story. However, I hope that more people will get see some of the other nominees, in particular 5 Broken Cameras. Searching for Sugar Man is the only one of the five documentary feature nominees that is uplifting and doesn’t deal with an important social or political issue that needs correcting. And yet it does start with such a struggle…the fight to end apartheid in South Africa.   read more

Three of this year’s five documentary short nominees have connections with New York. Three of them were produced by HBO and a fourth premiered on HBO. If there is an underlying theme to all five, it is that with all of the negativity in the world, there are still a lot of unheralded heroes out there who are trying to help others just because it’s the right thing to do.   read more

Unlike last year, this year’s set of live action shorts nominees are on the serious side with the notable exception of one and a half comedies, which, as usual, I prefer. Asad (South Africa/USA) A young boy living in a coastal village in Somalia, Asad wants to go out with the big kids and capture ships for ransom. Asad is the standout among this year’s nominees, compressing the plight and the hope of Somalis into 18 minutes.   read more

This year produced a relatively weak bunch of nominees skewed towards animators with big studio experience. Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” (USA) Madge drops off Maggie to spend the day at the Ayn Rand School for Tots. A bit of background for those who are unfamiliar with Ayn Rand: Rand (1905-1982) was an atheist philosopher whose ideas have attracted such supporters as Rep. Paul Ryan, ex-Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.   read more