FSP-Microcosm News-Global Community Report: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Eight Steps to Empire: The Culture Wars (Excerpt)

Eight Steps to Empire: The Culture Wars (Excerpt) | Operation Paul Revere InfoWars.com Contest

Published on Apr 6, 2013

Eight Steps to Empire: The Culture Wars is a documentary exploring the concept of empire in the modern era. The film looks at the usage of diversion and cultural subversion as mechanisms of social control.

This 24-minute excerpt from the film is submitted as part of InfoWars.com's Operation Paul Revere Contest (www.infowars.com/contest).

Originally scheduled for release in Spring 2011, the film's release date has been pushed back due to a lack of funding. Production has been slow as the movie is being produced by a single person working on a $500 desktop computer.

For updates, follow:
eightstepstoempire.com
@8steps2empire
facebook/eightstepstoempire

Click here to watch the previously released trailer for the film: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThKfZpPOjvI

Thank you for your support. Please share.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All use of copyrighted material in this material is for the non-commercial purpose of social, political, and cultural critique, and intended to be educational. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this film is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

More than 100 teenagers were rescued over the weekend in a sex-trafficking crackdown that swept more than 70 cities : FBI

Over 100 Teens Rescued in Sex-Trafficking Raids Praise104.7 FM

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More than 100 teens rescued in weekend sex-trafficking raids, FBI says

By Pete Williams and Erin McClam, NBC News

More than 100 teenagers — many of them children from broken homes — were rescued over the weekend in a sex-trafficking crackdown that swept more than 70 cities, the FBI said Monday.
The youngest victim was 13 years old, the agency said.
The sting resulted in the arrest of 159 “pimps” from San Francisco to Miami who were involved in the commercial exploitation of both adults and children, said Ronald Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division.
It was the FBI’s largest action to date focusing on the recovery of sexually exploited children, and took law enforcement agencies to streets, motels, casinos and social media platforms, Hosko said. He said he hoped it would focus attention on sex trafficking, “this threat that robs us of our children.”
The pimps preyed in particular on troubled children, authorities said. In some of the cases, they used a popular online classified site, Backpage, to sell the children for sex, authorities said.

Read More Here

Monday, July 29, 2013

Nine-year-old Giant Panda Yuan Yuan successfully gave birth to a baby girl cub named Tuan Tuan : Taipei Zoo

Adorable pictures show rare baby panda Tuan Tuan poking her tongue out and giving a wave as she goes from strength to strength in her first few weeks of life

Tuan Tuan is growing fast and has already doubled in weight
The rare baby cub is beginning to gain some of her black and white coat
The Taipei Zoo celebrated her birth after seven attempts at impregnating mother Yuan Yuan over the past three years
Yuan Yuan and another panda were given as a gift to the country of Taiwan from China

By Jaymi Mccann
PUBLISHED: 19:57 EST, 28 July 2013 | UPDATED: 01:34 EST, 29 July 2013

It was a momentous occasion earlier this month when nine-year-old Giant Panda Yuan Yuan successfully gave birth to a baby girl cub named Tuan Tuan.

The panda was born at the Taipei Zoo after three years filled with seven failed pregnancies for the mother. Natural pregnancy among pandas is relatively rare.

Now a few weeks older, baby Tuan Tuan is growing fast and has doubled in weight.
The cub is still being cared for behind the scenes at the zoo, and visitors won't get to see the baby until she is three-months old. To update Tuan Tuan's admirers, the zoo released a new set of photos of the growing cub hamming it up for the camera.

Smiling for the camera: Newborn Giant Panda cub Tuan Tuan is growing fast behind the scenes at the Taipei Zoo

Hello world! Tuan Tuan was born completely pink, but now she is beginning to gain her black and white color

Counting the days: Zoo visitors won't get to see the cub until she is three-months old

Miracle baby: Tuan Tuan is mother Yuan Yuan's first cub after Zoo officials tried for three years to impregnate her through artificial insemination

Gift of life: Mother Yuan Yuan was a gift to the Taiwain government from China

Reunion: Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan together mean 'reunion'

She's staying: China has agreed to let the baby panda stay in Taiwan, though they previously stipulated that any cubs must be returned to the mainland

A new study has revealed that some of Central Asia’s most spectacular and least-known large mammals are being adversely affected by a growing cashmere demand.

Wildlife Extra

Catwalk cashmere threatens snow leopards and other large mammals in Central Asia

A new study has revealed that some of Central Asia’s most spectacular and least-known large mammals, such as the saiga, are being adversely affected by a sharp increase in goat herds for the cashmere trade. Joel Berger/WCS

Central Asia's large mammals threatened by demand from fashion victims
July 2013. The global demand for cashmere garments is making fashion victims of endangered snow leopards (Panthera uncial) and other native large mammals in Central Asia, reveals new research published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology.
Cashmere trade
The UK is among the top four leading importers of Mongolian cashmere, a trade which has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry since socialist countries such as China and Mongolia have transitioned to free markets. To support global demand for the luxurious lightweight goat hair, local herders across Mongolia, India and China's Tibetan Plateau have significantly increased livestock production. In Mongolia alone, numbers of domestic goats have grown consistently, from 5 million heads in 1990 to close to 14 million in 2010.
Threat to wild mammals
This growth in livestock is increasing the threats to endangered mammals in Central Asia such as the saiga and chiru antelope, Przewalski horses, ibex, Bactrian camel, argali and Himalayan blue sheep. Domestic goats compete with these native herbivores for the same plant food source. The wild mammals are also suffering from a reduction in their range, displacement to marginal habitats and the risk of being killed by feral and domestic dogs that accompany the herders. Human-animal conflict is also on the increase as livestock and large carnivores such as the endangered snow leopard interact more, leading to retaliatory killings by herders.

A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Snow Leopard Trust reveals that some of Central Asia’s most spectacular and least-known large mammals, including the chiru or Tibetan antelope (pictured), are being adversely affected by a sharp increase in goat herds for the cashmere trade. Photo courtesy of Joel Berger/WCS

Snow leopard prey losing ground to domestic sheep and goats
The report is co-authored by an international team comprising Joel Berger and Bayarbaatar Buuveibaatar, both of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Whitley Award winner Charudutt Mishra. The latest research by Mishra's group shows that ultimately, the population of wild sheep and goats determines the population of the snow leopard. As the wild prey of the snow leopard is out competed by livestock, the snow leopard loses ground.

Read More Here

While Connecticut Waits, Police Talk Newtown Shooting Across U.S.

The Courant

By DAVE ALTIMARI, daltimar@courant.com The Hartford Courant

8:46 p.m. EDT, July 27, 2013

While law enforcement officials have released few details of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre to Connecticut residents, state police and Newtown officers have increased their trips across the country, in some cases sharing graphic details of what they saw inside the school.
In March, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other politicians criticized state police for releasing details of the investigation at out-of-state conferences. A police report has been delayed for months, and state law enforcement officials have attempted to push through legislation intended to keep secret some details of the shootings that killed 20 first-graders and six adults.
Since then, state and Newtown police have spoken at or are scheduled to speak at forums from Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. to Maine:

•The head of the crime squad leading the investigation, along with an FBI profiler, will speak in California in August.
•State police will speak about Newtown at child advocacy conference in Dallas in August.
•State police, including Lt. Paul Vance, the department spokesman, will discuss Newtown in Billings, Mont., in October.
•Since April, Newtown officers have spoken at conferences in Maine, Michigan and Nashville, Tenn., among others.
•Two weeks ago, a Newtown officer described entering Sandy Hook school and encountering a horrific scene when he spoke at a conference in Orlando, Fla., according to a Florida newspaper report of the conference and another article online.
In March, Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who will issue the final investigative report on the shooting, ordered police to stop discussing details of the investigation at conferences. The ban was instituted after the New York Daily News reported that state police Col. Danny Stebbins told New Orleans conference attendees that shooter Adam Lanza had created a spreadsheet of mass killings going back 30 years.
"To prevent such disclosure in the future, I have instructed that any and all such presentations involving evidence in the criminal investigation be ceased while the investigation is pending and my report is still outstanding," Sedensky said at the time.

Read More Here