BIG NEWS:
Ricky Tic has shaved his beard off!
Friday Trio
6 hours ago
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Unspeakable cruelty
Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa.
New hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a Mercy For Animals undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries.
The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks' mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine.
For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as "sexers," who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.
Over 21 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at this facility.
For the surviving females, this is the beginning of a life of cruelty and confinement at the hands of the egg industry. Before even leaving the hatchery they will be snapped by their heads into a spinning debeaker a portion of their sensitive beaks removed by a laser. Workers toss and rummage through them before they are placed 100 per crowded box and shipped across the country.
The callous disregard for animal welfare at this facility is not isolated. In fact, the conditions documented during this investigation are completely standard and acceptable within the commercial egg industry. Referred to by Hy-Line corporate leaders as mere "genetic products," these chicks are treated just as they are viewed as inanimate objects, rather than the sentient creatures they are.
Driven by consumer demand, the egg industry will continue to exploit, abuse, and kill day-old animals as long as doing so remains profitable. Empowered consumers can put their ethics on the table by choosing kindness over cruelty at each meal by adopting an animal-friendly vegan diet.
New hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a Mercy For Animals undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries.
The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks' mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine.
For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as "sexers," who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.
Over 21 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at this facility.
For the surviving females, this is the beginning of a life of cruelty and confinement at the hands of the egg industry. Before even leaving the hatchery they will be snapped by their heads into a spinning debeaker a portion of their sensitive beaks removed by a laser. Workers toss and rummage through them before they are placed 100 per crowded box and shipped across the country.
The callous disregard for animal welfare at this facility is not isolated. In fact, the conditions documented during this investigation are completely standard and acceptable within the commercial egg industry. Referred to by Hy-Line corporate leaders as mere "genetic products," these chicks are treated just as they are viewed as inanimate objects, rather than the sentient creatures they are.
Driven by consumer demand, the egg industry will continue to exploit, abuse, and kill day-old animals as long as doing so remains profitable. Empowered consumers can put their ethics on the table by choosing kindness over cruelty at each meal by adopting an animal-friendly vegan diet.
Saeedeh Pouraghaei: the face of a new victim
New information is emerging about another victim of the Basij’s post-election violence. Saeedeh Pouraghaei was arrested because of her chants of Allahu-Akbar on the roof of her house in Dowlat Ave, in north of Tehran. Saeedeh was the only child of Abbas Pouraghaei who died two years ago of injuries sustained during the Iran-Iraq war. Saeedeh was arrested by the plain-clothed agents, and about 2o days after her arrest her mother was summoned to identify her body. Saeedeh’s mother says that the body was partially burned, and she recognized her daughter with difficulty. She was asked to announce “kidney failure” as the cause of death. According the Saeedeh’s family it seems that the body was intentionally burned to hide the evidence of rape and torture. Her body was not even handed over to her family, and they were just notified that she was secretly buried in Behesht Zahra cemetery in one of the unknown graves in section 309. Mir Hossein Mousavi attended Saeedeh’s funeral ceremony on Saturday in a mosque in Dowlat Ave.@ 'NIAC'
Blogger Fixes Its DMCA Takedown Process
You may recall earlier this year that Google was accused of invisibly deleting entire blog posts on Blogger when the RIAA would send takedown notices alleging that the blog posts contained unauthorized music. This was troubling for a few different reasons. First, on the RIAA side, there seems to be something of a double standard here, as many of the record labels purposely send MP3s to music bloggers to help promote their music... but then they decide to take some down? But the bigger issue was the way that Google was handling the whole issue. Bloggers were upset that entire blog posts just seemed to disappear entirely without any notice at all. Google claimed that it was alerting the bloggers, but it didn't seem to be doing a very good job of it, and making entire posts completely disappear based on the sayso of the record labels seemed to be a bit extreme. So it's good to see that Blogger has entirely revamped its takedown process for Blogger posts that get takedown notices.
First, for those issuing the takedown, they've switched from a manual (send a fax or letter) process to an electronic one -- which has the side benefit that Google can now get those takedown notices to ChillingEffects.org much faster. Google always passes along takedowns to ChillingEffects, but when the notices were faxed or typed it took a while before ChillingEffects could get them up, meaning that if content was taken down, there was often no way for the blogger in question to understand what happened (Google says it always emails the bloggers, but not everyone's email address is up-to-date).
On top of that, Google not only will notify people via email, but will put a notification in the Blogger admin dashboard, so the next time the blogger logs in they'll see it. Finally, and most importantly, to handle the "takedown," rather than totally deleting the posts as before, the posts are switched to draft mode, which allows the blogger to see the post and change it (if necessary). This seems like a much better policy than what Blogger/Google was doing before.
The one that that still seems to be missing (at least in this description) is the counternotice process. The process described in the announcement says that bloggers can adjust their post... but what if they don't believe it's actually infringing (fair use, authorized copy, different content, etc.)? It would be nice if Google also offered an easy counternotice procedure from directly within the Blogger admin as well -- so that a Blogger who has been falsely accused of a copyright violation can quickly counternotice and get the content back up.
@ 'Tech Dirt'
First, for those issuing the takedown, they've switched from a manual (send a fax or letter) process to an electronic one -- which has the side benefit that Google can now get those takedown notices to ChillingEffects.org much faster. Google always passes along takedowns to ChillingEffects, but when the notices were faxed or typed it took a while before ChillingEffects could get them up, meaning that if content was taken down, there was often no way for the blogger in question to understand what happened (Google says it always emails the bloggers, but not everyone's email address is up-to-date).
On top of that, Google not only will notify people via email, but will put a notification in the Blogger admin dashboard, so the next time the blogger logs in they'll see it. Finally, and most importantly, to handle the "takedown," rather than totally deleting the posts as before, the posts are switched to draft mode, which allows the blogger to see the post and change it (if necessary). This seems like a much better policy than what Blogger/Google was doing before.
The one that that still seems to be missing (at least in this description) is the counternotice process. The process described in the announcement says that bloggers can adjust their post... but what if they don't believe it's actually infringing (fair use, authorized copy, different content, etc.)? It would be nice if Google also offered an easy counternotice procedure from directly within the Blogger admin as well -- so that a Blogger who has been falsely accused of a copyright violation can quickly counternotice and get the content back up.
@ 'Tech Dirt'
A radical solution to end the Drug War: Legalize Everything
We've heard a lot about the terrible death toll Mexico has suffered during the drug war — over 11,000 souls so far. This helps to account for the startling lack of controversy that greeted last week's news that Mexico had suddenly decriminalized drugs — not just marijuana but also cocaine, LSD, and heroin. In place of the outrage and threats that U.S. officials expressed when Mexico tried to decriminalize in 2006 was a mild statement, from our new drug czar, that we are going to take a "wait and see" approach.
Still, we've heard nothing about the American death toll. Isn't that strange? So far as I can tell, nobody has even tried to come up with a number.
Until now. I've done some rough math, and this is what I found:
6,487.
To repeat, that's 6,487 dead Americans. Throw in overdoses and the cost of this country's paralyzing drug laws is closer to 15,000 lives.
Jerry Lawson from The Persuasions upcoming New York gig
God's In The Stones
Yesterday I received a really nice e/mail from Jerry Lawson thanking 'Exile' for pointing out that
The Persuasions a cappella Grateful Dead covers album 'Might As Well' was available to download from 'Never Get Out of the Boat'
Jerry who for nearly 40 years fronted the legendary a cappella group, The Persuasions and who has recorded and toured with numerous artists such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli, Joni Mitchell and Frank Zappa also has an upcoming gig in New York at the Bitter End on September 19th. Details are above. Check it out.
It is also nice when artists recognise the power of blogs to spread the word about groups that we like as Julie (Jerry's wife) said in the e/mail:
"My husband is Jerry Lawson, lead singer, arranger & producer of The Persuasions for 40 years & 22 albums. I spotted your blog and showed it to him. He is not a computer person so he asked me to thank you for sharing his music."
The Persuasions a cappella Grateful Dead covers album 'Might As Well' was available to download from 'Never Get Out of the Boat'
Jerry who for nearly 40 years fronted the legendary a cappella group, The Persuasions and who has recorded and toured with numerous artists such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli, Joni Mitchell and Frank Zappa also has an upcoming gig in New York at the Bitter End on September 19th. Details are above. Check it out.
It is also nice when artists recognise the power of blogs to spread the word about groups that we like as Julie (Jerry's wife) said in the e/mail:
"My husband is Jerry Lawson, lead singer, arranger & producer of The Persuasions for 40 years & 22 albums. I spotted your blog and showed it to him. He is not a computer person so he asked me to thank you for sharing his music."
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Ricky Tic in 'Ricky Tic & the Nazi'
...and don't forget Ricky Tic in 'How Germany Lost The War'
Notice also the painting on the wall of the flying 'thing' from the back of Ricky Tic's jacket which has been described as "like a pitbull body with fish fins and a horse’s head with doberman ears and a human ass being penetrated by the small end of a baseball bat.." LOL!
More on Phillip Garrido
"...Phillip Garrido has been named as a "person of interest" by investigators looking back at the unsolved murders. However, questions are also mounting about why the authorities did not take a greater interest in Garrido and his wife in recent years. In 2006, the police received an emergency call in which the caller said Garrido was housing children "in tents in his backyard" and also accused him of being a "psychotic sex addict". Despite this, the police never searched behind his house...It has also emerged that since last December officials, including parole agents and sheriff's deputies, had visited the couple some 16 times for a variety of reasons yet had failed to detect anything was wrong..."
@ 'The Guardian'
If you enter his home address of 'Walnut Avenue, Antioch California' into Google Earth and follow the road away from it you can see
Garrido's van trailing the Google van for a while!
If you enter his home address of 'Walnut Avenue, Antioch California' into Google Earth and follow the road away from it you can see
Garrido's van trailing the Google van for a while!
An interesting article by Beatrix Campbell at 'The Guardian'.
Yidcore -They Tried To Kill Us. They Failed. Let's Eat!
"After battling Adam Sandlers, Bettezillas and a fair few lawsuits, Melbourne band Yidcore now take on their greatest foe yet... PIGLER! The awesome new animated video - part Animal Farm, part 50's comic book and part South Park. Directed by Yeap Heng Shen and Produced by ANIMATION CLUB!"
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