Mainstream media quick to judge a person quilty and slow to report they were innocent

                                    Good Day Humboldt County! 

  Sensational headlines followed by stories that stir the public’s anger or horror, compete daily in the nation’s newspapers, magazines and blogs. A war of words waged to get your attention.

  News outlets are constantly searching for stories designed to invoke a gut reaction among readers. You see them everyday. You don’t always hear about how they end up unless it goes badly for the accused.           

 The following story is a recent example of the media rushing to judgment, and then not following the case after learning a person is innocent:

“When Marvin Washington Jr. (pictured) was arrested last month for allegedly spitting into a customer's sweet tea at a McDonald’s in Simpsonville, S.C., the incident made news around the globe. When the charges were dismissed a few weeks later? The media barely paid it any attention.

Since then, Marvin Washington, 19, has embarked on a campaign to clear his name and convince the world that he is not the person behind the initial headlines. The college freshman says he aims to get a graduate degree in healthcare and become a nurse practitioner. And he fears the incident will haunt him forever, or scuttle his job chances if a future employer Googles his name and finds the original story.

"I worry that people will only remember the first part -- that I got arrested. They probably won’t care that the case got dropped, they will probably assume I did it. And I want to tell them, 'I didn’t do that, I’m not that type of person.' I want them to know, 'I’m a good young man' and that these allegations were false," he told the Los Angeles Times.” (Read full story here.)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Forecasters say Internet traffic is going to explode by 2016

Buckle up and hold onto your phones, tablets, digital video clips and Wi-Fi connections, because they're all contributing to a global explosion in Internet traffic.

It's expected to increase four times to 1.3 zettabytes by 2016, according to Cisco's VIsual Networking Index Forecast.

That's a lot of traffic and a whole lot of bytes (one zettabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes).

By 2016, Internet traffic globally is expected to reach 150 petabytes an hour, or "the equivalent of 278 million people streaming an HD movie ... simultaneously," Cisco says. The highest-traffic generating countries in 2016 will be the United States, followed by China, says Cisco.

(source)

‘The Times They are a Changin’ - Bob Dylan awarded the Medal of Freedom

                   Good day Humboldt County!

 As a longtime fan of Bob Dylan, I thought it was really cool to see him recognized for his achievements … by the establishment.

Ironic isn’t it? Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest.

 A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.

Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard.

Singer, songwriter, poet, artist and now Medal of Freedom Winner.

“On Tuesday, Bob Dylan received the nation's highest civilian honor, accepting the Medal of Freedom from President Obama.

"There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music," Obama said of the singer.The Medal of Freedom is presented to individuals who have made "meritorious contributions to the national interest of the United States, to world peace, or to other significant endeavors," according to the White House.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Art Today: Luiz Luxvich makes startlingly clear images of splashing water

High-speed liquid photography and the excitement of resulting abstract-modernist compositions.

Luiz Luxvich, a master of liquid photography lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has a fantastic gallery online, bursting with variety of colorful creations. Enjoy!

(images credit: Luiz Luxvich)

Living Underground: The past merges with the present in the caves of Cappadocia

  

                                                           Good Day Humboldt County!

The road traveled today is in Turkey. It takes us to a place where people still live in the vast Cappadocian Cave Homes that date back 3500 years. Cities, empires and religions have risen and fallen around these unique underground havens once used by early Christians to hide from Roman armies, yet they remain occupied to this day. Stretching 100 square miles with 200+ underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages. Visitors can still explore secret rooms and ancient temples and see the remarkably storied history of each new civilization building on the work of the last. Centered in modern day Turkey, this region has passed between hands many times. Contemporary residents speak a hybrid of Greek and Turkish. Bus tours, hotels and other visitor-oriented services comprise much of their current economic system. Built up over time for defense as much as shelter, narrow passageways have made it notoriously difficult for invaders to penetrate the perimeters of many of these underground cave complexes.

In part, due to their secret locations and the naturally temperature-controlled nature of the cave interiors, many religious artifacts and artworks have survived for over a thousand years. All the while, surface structures have been erected and destroyed while modern architecture mixes in strange hybrids with historic temples and above-ground houses.

While many buildings remain occupied, many more are now deserted – from homes to entire churches and underground cathedrals. For all we know, some rooms and structures are forever lost and buried, hidden so well they will never be found again. (Images via Mekiares)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Reflections from WW II: ‘Hemp For Victory’ - view entire film by U.S. government

HEMP FOR VICTORY

Produced by the US Government in 1942.

You may be Interesting to learn that Dupont Chemical funded the anti- hemp / marijuana effort. This is because they had patents on new synthetic fibers and Hemp had a new machine that would put them out of business if hemp were to be used for clothes. Dupont also sold - and still does many of the chemicals to wood pulp producers... so we continue to cut down forests... when Hemp could save millions of trees, be used as an alternative bio fuel and the US could easily grow enough hemp to eliminate the need for oil... so Big oil does not want hemp legal either. Neither do the drug companies... they can't patent it. They would rather keep selling you their drugs. By keeping it illegal the lawyers, courts etc... also make a buck.

You can only get high from the female flower - nobody has ever died from smoking a joint. Of course the alcohol and tobacco companies would prefer to keep their monopoly as well. So we have all the BIG Corporate players... against legalizing it. Yet if it were legalized - we would solve many issues and have a multi billion dollar hemp economy as it can be used for 1000's of products.

Strange Geographies: the forgotten High School of Goldfield, Neveda

                Good Day Humboldt County!

  I felt like exploring the past today, and found this story. My father and I were touring Nevada back in 2000, looking for remnants of the Old West when we came upon this old high school.

  It was in pretty bad shape. At the time we weren’t aware of it’s history and knew little about Goldfield’s colorful history.

  Goldfield High School, was built during the boom years in 1907. It graduated its last class in 1952, and has stood proud but shuttered ever since, impressive on the outside, decaying within.

Over the past few years, a small team of dedicated volunteers has begun trying to save the high school, but restoring it to its former glory is a gargantuan task. Vandals and the elements have had their way with the building for many years, and it will take many more to lift it from the beautiful state of decay it’s in today.

Photo - The teacher’s writing on this board is still readable. Looks like a pop quiz: 5. What is the most important country in the Western hemisphere? Anyone care to take a guess?

by Ransom Riggs/writer for Mental Floss

“At the turn of the last century, Goldfield was a mining boomtown — prospectors were pulling millions of dollars worth of ore out of the ground each year, and with a population that ballooned to more than 30,000 by 1904, it was the largest town in the state of Nevada. It was a classic Old West success story: gun-slinging heroes like Wyatt Earp trod its wooden sidewalks, and in a society where the real measure of a town’s worth was its bar-and-whorehouse scene, Goldfield had the rest beat: Tex Rickard’s Northern Saloon had a bar so long it required 80 bartenders to run it. Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about Goldfield if everything had kept going like gangbusters.

By 1920s, the gold mines had started to peter out, and in 1923 a moonshine still exploded and started a fire that took most of the town’s wooden buildings with it. Today about 400 people remain in Goldfield, a semi-ghost town set among the barren wastes of Nevada’s high desert, surrounded by ghost stories and empty buildings — many of which are impressive stone and brick structures that survived the 1923 fire.” (More photos here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: What happened to the real meaning of Memorial Day?

                                        

                   By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
 Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I’d like to talk about how it has been transformed into something else, and what it means to most Americans.
Barbecues and beer. Getting into vehicles and traveling for fun. A three-day weekend. A time to go to the beach and burn ourselves to a crisp. A day off from school. A break in the work week. All of these activities and more go through the average American’s head regarding a holiday originally designed to mourn our military dead.
What a bizarre twist for Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day. Once it was a day of remembrance for those who died in our nation's service. Now, it’s a time to hope that gas prices don’t get too high for travel.
While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove the origins of the day. Historians think the day had many separate beginnings as towns held spontaneous gatherings to honor the Civil War dead in the 1860s.

  Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5th 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on May 30th, 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
It’s not important what was the very first town to honor the war dead. It is important  that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

 Were you aware of this history? Are your children aware of this history?  Did you know the first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873? By 1890 it was recognized by all the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring those who died in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in all of our wars.
Traditional observance of Memorial Day has faded over the years. Many Americans  have forgotten its meaning and traditions. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember to fly the flag at half-mast for the day.
While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, not just those fallen in service to our country. What happened? How did this day turn into a free-for-all three-day vacation? Many feel when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day.’

 As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in Dec. 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, all Americans "Voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to Taps."

  What we need is a full return to the original day of observance. On January 19, 1999 Senator Inouye introduced bill S 189 which proposed to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day to May 30th instead of "the last Monday in May." To date, there have been no further developments on the bill. Go to Http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html if you think that we should restore the traditional day of observance.
  Meanwhile, if someone wants to start a new three-day holiday at the end of May, I say go for it. Call it “Barbecue Day and Travel Too,” a day of escape from drudgery.
  As It Stands, the true meaning of Memorial Day is rapidly becoming a trivia question!

Frog man gets his kicks at the Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calaveras

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               “Wow! I didn’t know frogs could fly!”

That’s what Brent Bloom looks like he’s saying while urging on his frog, Jumping Bob, at the Jumping Frog Jubilee, May 20, in Calaveras County, California.

photo source - Chris Weeks / AP

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Repressed but Rediscovered: World War II Army film dealt with returning veterans having PTSD (they didn’t call it that back then)

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After watching this video do you think it’s still relevant today?

              Good Day Humboldt County!

  Sometimes we have to undergo painful journeys in our lives and we’re forever affected by them. As a combat Vietnam veteran I have had my share.

  I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So you can see my interest in sharing this article with you. This being Memorial Day Weekend and all, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to remember those old warriors from WW II and how they dealt with PTSD, or what they called it back then… “Shell Shock.”

The original film “Let There Be Light,” was considered too controversial and was suppressed. It broke ground by showing both black and white soldiers freely mixing at the hospital, sharing both group therapy sessions and playing sports together.

"The guns are quiet now," is the first line in John Huston's 1946 short film, "Let There Be Light," which focuses on World War II veterans dealing with what we'd today call post-traumatic stress disorder.

A fully restored version of Huston's original film is available for free online viewing for three months on the National Film Preservation Foundation's website. And in a time when modern veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are dealing with similiar issues, many believe that the 65-year-old footage can still be relevant.

"We don't know what combination it was that (the Army) didn't like," said Annette Melville, director of the National Film Preservation Foundation, which funded the film's restoration.

Not only was the film suppressed, but in 1947, the Army released "Shades of Gray," a film that's essentially a remake of Huston's work, even lifting dialogue from "Let There Be Light" and putting it into the mouths of actors -- all of them white.” (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…