Internet, for the urban rich only?

This video from North Carolina in the USA says about itself:

Help Get High-Speed Internet to Rural America

Jun 12, 2009

Jack Kennedy’s online flower business is suffering because he can only get a slow dial-up connection or an expensive and unreliable satellite connection in rural N.C. Help get all Americans access to a fast, open and affordable Internet at www.freepress.net

By Jim Newell in the USA:

Mon Feb 11, 2013 2:46 am

Loss of Internet Access

It appears that I am about to lose Internet access, and the important point is that this means that large numbers of low income people are also about to lose access to the Internet.

It looks like dial-up access is about to be discontinued, and I can’t afford the other, more expensive, services.

The main data is that no computers now being sold have a telephone jack so that they can be used with dial-up. That will quickly reduce the number of dial-up users further. My own Internet provider is hinting that they will soon be ending their service. It is possible that there are plans afoot for telephone companies to end land line service, although I don’t know for sure about that.

Then, of course, once dial-up and perhaps landlines are gone, it will be easier for Internet providers to raise their prices.

Jim

From Wikipedia:

Dial-up connections to the Internet require no infrastructure other than the telephone network. Where telephone access is widely available, dial-up remains useful and it is often the only choice available for rural or remote areas, where broadband installations are not prevalent due to low population density, and high infrastructure cost. Dial-up access may also be an alternative for users on limited budgets, as it is offered free by some ISPs, though broadband is increasingly available at lower prices in many countries due to market competition.

From the Bankservice site in Bulgaria:

In addition, it is also to consider the SWIFT plans, as officially announced, to abolish the option of using a Dial-up as main connection, as well as the transfer from Single-I or Dual-I Economy (speed 64Kb, of which 8Kb guaranteed where 2Kb are for service traffic) to Dual-I Standard (full 64Kb). This would cost to SWIFT users with such independent connection one-off costs in the range of five to thirteen thousand USDollars and increase in the current costs by two to ten thousand USDollrs a year.

Related articles

• WATCH: Why U.S. Internet Is Still Slow (huffingtonpost.com)
• 3 Months After Sandy, Verizon Still Hasn’t Canceled Account Of Customer With Uninhabitable Home (consumerist.com)
• Internet still a problem for SMEs (xlntelecom.co.uk)

Swedish wolves update

This video is about wolves.

Translated from Vroege Vogels radio in the Netherlands today:

Friday, February 8, 2013 10.10

The Swedish government had recently given permission to shoot 16 wolves. But after fierce protests by pro animal groups this was suspended. Unfortunately, the decision came too late for three wolves.

USA: February 2013. Yet another Red wolf has been shot dead, adding to the spate of Red wolf shootings at the end of 2012. The wolf was found with a suspected gunshot wound on January 18, 2013, north of the Town of Fairfield, in Tyrrell County, North Carolina: here.

Prehistoric wolf bone on Texel island: here.

Related articles

• Wolf hunting in Sweden (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Sweden suspends wild wolf cull (bbc.co.uk)
• Swedish conservationists win temporary wolf-hunting ban (abc.net.au)
• Sweden wolf cull divides opinion (bbc.co.uk)
• Wolf hunt quota angers environmentalists (thelocal.se)
• How wolves evolved into man’s best friend (theweek.com)
• Wolf numbers up in Arizona, New Mexico (star-telegram.com)

Stop ‘fox penning’ in North Carolina, USA

This video from the USA is called The Real Fox-Coyote Enclosure. There are some unpleasant and graphic scenes in the video, please do not watch if you will be at all offended.

From Wildlife Extra:

Barbaric ‘fox penning’ still legal in North Carolina

Coyotes and foxes used to ‘train’ hunting dogs
December 2012. North Carolina, the state where 7 Critically Endangered Red wolves were ‘accidentally’ shot in the last few months of 2012 (Out of a total wild population of around 110), still allows a barbaric practice which has been banned elsewhere. Wild foxes and coyotes are trapped, captured, and then put into pens where hunting dogs are used to fight and kill them.

This practice, which is currently legal – but entirely inhumane – allows people to trap wild foxes and coyotes and place them in confined pens where hunting dogs are then “trained” to bay and kill them. Often the foxes and coyotes are mauled to death, sometimes after enduring several rounds of “hunts” and injuries.

Opponents of this barbaric practice claim that competitions are run in which the hunting dogs are scored on how quickly they can bay/kill the coyotes or foxes. It’s a cruel thing to do to any wild animal, and it is akin to dog fighting which is illegal in the US, because all of the animals involved are canids. While foxes have been long used for this practice, we are told that wild coyotes are also now trapped for use in fox pens because, being more resilient, they live longer than the foxes through the “hound training.”

Sign a petition

If you would like to help, please sign this petition calling for a ban on this practice in North Carolina. Click here.

Related articles

• Wildlife Activists Pushing To Outlaw Hunt Pens (charlotte.cbslocal.com)
• Push To Outlaw Hunt Pens (witn.com)
• Killing of red wolves may end coyote night hunts (newsobserver.com)
• When will coyote hunters know they’ve killed enough? (bangordailynews.com)
• PHOTOS: Collage of a Local Coyote Pup (b-townblog.com)

Anti-Wall Street march in Charlotte, USA

From the March on Wall Street South site in the USA:

2,500 march on Wall Street South: We need jobs, housing, justice, not war!

Braving extreme heat, more than 2,500 people from throughout the South and across the U.S. filled the streets of Charlotte on Sun., Sept. 2 for the March on Wall Street South. The demonstration confronted the banks and corporations headquartered in Charlotte that are wreaking havoc on communities throughout the country, and raised a people’s agenda for jobs and justice as the Democratic National Convention convenes here.

Participants came from cities throughout North Carolina, including Winston-Salem, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Rocky Mount, Greenville, Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Wilmington. Many traveled hours from cities such as Baltimore, MD; Atlanta, GA; Greenville, MS; Washington, DC; Tampa, FL; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY. A bus of more than 40 people, many of whom being foreclosed on by Bank of America and who are unemployed, spent 15 hours traveling from Detroit, MI.

The No Papers No Fear bus, which left Phoenix, AZ on July 29 with more than 40 undocumented people to arrive in Charlotte for the DNC, also joined the march with a spirited contingent against the deportations and criminalization of immigrant communities.

Also on the march were an unemployed workers contingent, a Southern labor contingent, a contingent against U.S. wars being waged at home and abroad, a no war no warming contingent, an LGBTQ contingent, and more.

“This was an historic demonstration that built an unprecedented level of unity between so many different groups and struggles on a grassroots level,” said Yen Alcala, an organizer with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South and Occupy Charlotte. “The March on Wall Street South showed what is possible when we unite, and pointed the finger at those who are responsible for the injustices being experienced by the 99% – the banks and corporations, and a political system that is controlled by the 1%. Building people’s power from the bottom up is the only solution to win jobs and justice for poor and working people.”

Along the march, demonstrators stopped in front of the Bank of America’s world headquarters and Duke Energy’s headquarters. At each stop, people who have been directly impacted by the practices of these banks and corporations –whose homes are being foreclosed on, who have massive amounts of student loan debt, and whose communities are being devastated by coal mining and energy rate hikes — spoke out and exposed these profit gauging institutions.

“The March on Wall Street South was a tremendous success,” said Elena Everett, another Coalition organizer. “Our message for jobs and justice was heard loud and clear by the bankers and the politicians of both parties. But this is just the beginning. We know that the only way that real change has ever been won is when people come together, get organized, and build social movements to raise demands to the powers that be. And that’s exactly what we’re doing — building a movement for jobs, education, healthcare, the environment, housing, and against wars, racism and bigotry, deportations, and jails.”

Throughout the remainder of the week, the MOWSS coalition will be supporting actions and events being developed by other groups, including the Undocubus and the Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3 at Wedgewood Baptist Church. The Coalition will also be mobilizing support for the reoccupation of Marshall Park being led by Occupy Charlotte.

See also here. And here.

Ten Undocumented Protesters Arrested At Democratic National Convention: here.

Texas: Austin police provocateurs infiltrated, entrapped Houston Occupy protesters: here.

Women workers’ campaign in New York, USA

This video from the USA is called North Carolina Paid Sick Days Campaign Press Conference.

Campaign for Paid Sick Days in New York Aims to Support Working Women. Yana Kunichoff, Truthout in the USA: “The lack of paid sick days affects all working people who are forced to ignore sore throats and runny noses for fear of being fired, but it disproportionately affects women. Concentrated in industries like caregiving and food service, and most likely to have to stay home if a child is ill, women also risk the most economically when forced to take an unplanned and unpaid sick day”: here.

Ladydrawers | Adventure-Style Living: How Gender Affects the Money Comics Creators Make. Anne Elizabeth Moore, Nicole Boyett and Alex Dahm, Truthout in the USA: “Last month, we presented some cold, hard facts about gender inequity in comics, and here’s the deal: women, trans folk and non-binary gender creators make up 46 percent of the industry – but only get about 10 percent of the slots available for publishing work. If you’re lucky enough to get that work published, the money adds up fast! But if it doesn’t: you might be in for a dangerous trek”: here.

US Baptist preacher wants gays in concentration camps

This video from the USA is called Pastor Says Kill Gays & Lesbians in Electrified Pen.

By Justin “Filthy Liberal Scum” Rosario in the USA:

Homosexual Final Solution: Pastor Wants Homosexuals Put Into Concentration Camps (VIDEO)

May 21, 2012

If hate had a voice and a face, it might just look and sound like Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church. Located in Maiden, North Carolina, Worley, who I will not refer to as “Pastor” because he is unworthy of that title, gave a sermon in which he railed against President Obama’s “coming out” in favor of same-sex marriage. The anger and loathing was palpable:

“I ain’t gonna vote for a baby killer and a homosexual lover! You said “did you mean to say that?” You better believe I did! God have mercy! It makes me pukin’ sick to think about…I don’t even whether to say this in the pulpit or not…can you imagine kissing some man?”

But the worst part was a minute earlier when Worley unveiled his master plan to rid the world of The Gay:

“Build a great, big, large fence…150 or 100 mile long…put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals (Is there some difference I’m unaware of? – FLS) and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out… feed’em and you know what? In a few years, they’ll die out… do you know why? They can’t reproduce!”

Sound familiar? It should. The Nazis had the same idea for the Jews. They called it The Final Solution. Round up all the “undesirables” which were predominantly Jews but also included homosexuals, Negroes and Gypsies (among others) and put them into camps with fences. Then starve them, then just kill them. Does that sound like I’m exaggerating Worley’s hate? May I remind you that the Nazis did not start off with genocide? It was a gradual escalation of atrocity. First it was deportation, then isolation in ghettos, then concentration camps and then mass murder.

North Carolina’s GOP Wants to Protect You From Discrimination–Except if You’re Gay: here.

US nuclear plant kills turtles

This video is called Green Turtle Swimming in Bonaire.

From WWAY in the USA:

Brunswick Nuclear Plant to blame for deaths of endangered sea turtles

Submitted by Marcy Cuevas on Tue, 05/15/2012 – 6:21pm

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — Three endangered sea turtles died recently near the Brunswick Nuclear Plant in Southport. The turtles died after getting into the canal that provides cooling water for plant operations.

The Brunswick Nuclear Plant is not far from the Atlantic Ocean. At times, migrating sea turtles make their way onto the property. This time, it had deadly consequences.

“It’s the filtration racks that are designed to block trash from getting into the cooling water, but sometimes they catch turtles, fish or other wildlife, and this is an example of one where an endangered sea turtle was actually killed,” said Tom Clements of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.

The plant found not one, but three green sea turtles dead in the intake canal last week. Clements learned about the first death via an e-mail from the plant on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website.

“Some of these things don’t reach the public unless you go searching for them,” he said.

Do Nuclear Reactors That Jump $900 Million in Three Months Now Get Taxpayer Guarantees? Here.

Blackwater mercenaries’ boss on trial?

This video is called Blackwater, America’s Private Army.

By Daniel Schulman in the USA:

AP: Ex-Blackwater Pres Faces Possible Indictment

Tue Mar. 23, 2010 8:58 AM PDT

The AP is reporting that the Justice Department may be preparing to indict a trio of ex-Blackwater officials on weapons charges, including the company‘s former president, Gary Jackson. The potential charges are connected to a June 2008 raid on the company’s North Carolina compound by federal agents, who seized nearly two dozen automatic weapons from Blackwater‘s armory. The guns, which included 17 Romanian AK-47s, had been purchased by Blackwater but were technically owned by the local sheriff’s office, which had inked an agreement with the company to store the weapons.

More Blackwater: here.

Blackwater Ex-President Indicted: here.

Bipartisan Mercs?: Blackwater Hires Powerful Democratic Lobbyist: here.

Coming soon: Blackwater Pro Shops with indoor firing ranges: here.