region:south florida

  • Drake’s Plan
    http://africasacountry.com/2018/03/office-convos-drakes-plan

    Canadian rapper Drake recently went on a giving binge in South Florida. The giving doubled as visuals for his single, “God’s Plan.” What is he trying to say? That’s when we asked around the office. The participants are Sean Jacobs, Dylan Valley, Boima Tucker, Shona Kambarami and Haythem Guesmi. * Sean: What did you make of this?…

  • New Study Finds Sea Level Rise Has Accelerated – gCaptain
    http://gcaptain.com/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-has-accelerated
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnReLNLAZ0

    Global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, rather than increasing steadily, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data.

    This acceleration, driven mainly by increased melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise projected by 2100 when compared to projections that assume a constant rate of sea level rise, according to lead author Steve Nerem. Nerem is a professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, a fellow at Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and a member of NASA’s Sea Level Change team.

    If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level will rise 26 inches (65 centimeters) by 2100 — enough to cause significant problems for coastal cities, according to the new assessment by Nerem and colleagues from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; CU Boulder; the University of South Florida in Tampa; and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The team, driven to understand and better predict Earth’s response to a warming world, published their work Feb. 12 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    This is almost certainly a conservative estimate,” Nerem said. “Our extrapolation assumes that sea level continues to change in the future as it has over the last 25 years. Given the large changes we are seeing in the ice sheets today, that’s not likely.

  • Les sites en texte seul font leur retour
    https://www.poynter.org/news/text-only-news-sites-are-slowly-making-comeback-heres-why

    A few days before Hurricane Irma hit South Florida, I received a query on Twitter from a graphic designer named Eric Bailey.

    “Has anyone researched news sites capability to provide low-bandwidth communication of critical info during crisis situations?” he asked.

    The question was timely — two days later, CNN announced that they created a text-only version of their site with no ads or videos.

  • Puerto Rico Puts Its Prisons in Flood Zones | The Marshall Project
    https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/09/21/puerto-rico-puts-its-prisons-in-flood-zones

    Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning as a category 4 storm. With winds measuring 155 miles per hour, by mid-day local media were reporting that all of Puerto Rico had lost power. The whole island, home to 3.4 million people, is currently under a flash flood warning, and the National Weather Service in San Juan is advising people to move to higher ground.

    While it will be difficult for most people to move to safety, it will be harder still for people who are incarcerated in Puerto Rico’s 29 territorial and federal prisons. As you can see from our map, the prisons are clustered around eight complexes across the island, most along the coast and near high-risk flood areas.

    During last month’s flooding in Houston following Hurricane Harvey, nearly 6,000 inmates in five Texas prisons were evacuated. The same happened in south and central Florida, where over 7,000 prisoners were moved across the state in anticipation of Hurricane Irma.

    Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane Irma, less than two weeks ago, which spared the island the brunt of the fierce weather but did leave mounds of debris and about 63 percent of the island, about 1.5 million power clients, without electricity. Now Hurricane Maria has cut off communication with most government officials and the re

  • Senate hearing hears more dire Zika warnings | Miami Herald
    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article89422647.html

    • 40 countries, territories in Western Hemisphere have mosquito-born transmission
    •7 microcephalic infants have been born in the United States
    •CDC head says health agency diverting funds from other needs to fight Zika

    […]
    Republicans, who hold majorities in both the House and Senate, have blocked a $1.9 billion emergency Zika-prevention package President Barack Obama sent to Congress in February.

    The Senate overwhelmingly approved a compromise $1.1 billion bill in May, but when it was returned to the chamber last month, House Republicans in a conference committee had inserted provisions unrelated to Zika that Democrats have long opposed.

    Among the provisions are limits on Obamacare, restrictions on abortions, funding cuts for birth control and the lifting of key environmental controls.

    Branding those provisions “poisons pills,” Senate Democrats last month voted down the altered Zika measure, leaving it at an impasse. Rubio and Sen. Bill Nelson, an Orlando Democrat, want a new vote on a clean bill limited to the Zika response.
    […]
    Florida, [Rubio, a Miami Republican] said, reported 13 new infections Monday. With those, the state had a total 282 known cases – 129 of them in South Florida – more than any other state except New York.
    […]
    Pregnant women are most at risk because Zika can cause birth defects such as microcephaly, a congenital condition marked by abnormally small heads and stunted brain development in infants.

    There have been 599 cases of Zika among pregnant women in the United States and its territories, Frieden said Wednesday. Seven infants have been born with Zika-related birth defects, he said.
    […]
    The vast majority of the almost 1,200 Zika cases in the continental United States and Hawaii have come through contact among people who have traveled in Puerto Rico, Brazil or other heavily infected places.

  • British security company G4S confirms that Florida shooter is one of their own | openDemocracy
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/shinealight/clare-sambrook/british-security-company-g4s-confirms-that-florida-shooter-is-one-of-

    The international security company G4S has confirmed that Omar Mateen, who slaughtered 50 people in the Pulse LGBT nightclub, was one of their employees.

    “We are deeply shocked by this tragic event,” said the company’s North America CEO John Kenning. “We can confirm that Omar Mateen had been employed by G4S since September 10th, 2007. Mateen was off-duty at the time of the incident. He was employed at a gated retirement community in South Florida.

    “Mateen underwent company screening and background checks when he was recruited in 2007 and the check revealed nothing of concern. His screening was repeated in 2013 with no findings.

    “We are cooperating fully with all law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, as they conduct their investigations. In 2013, we learned that Mateen had been questioned by the FBI but that the enquiries were subsequently closed. We were not made aware of any alleged connections between Mateen and terrorist activities, and were unaware of any further FBI investigations.

    “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the victims of this unspeakable tragedy, and their friends and families.”

    G4S claims expertise in vetting and screening employees: “A robust employee screening programme helps organisations minimise the risk of making inappropriate recruitment decisions,” G4S tells potential customers. “We have a wealth of experience in developing and implementing background checks and security clearance for companies in the private and public sector.”

    But time and again racist, misogynist and otherwise dangerous people have slipped through the company’s own screening process and been given power over vulnerable people. Repeatedly the company’s readiness to act in response to warnings has been found wanting.

  • Hillary Clinton, With Little Notice, Vows to Embrace an Extremist Agenda on Israel
    Glenn Greenwald | Feb. 18 2016
    https://theintercept.com/2016/02/18/hillary-clinton-with-little-notice-vows-to-embrace-an-extremist-agenda

    Former President Bill Clinton on Monday met in secret (no press allowed) with roughly 100 leaders of South Florida’s Jewish community and, as The Times of Israel reports, “he vowed that, if elected, Hillary Clinton would make it one of her top priorities to strengthen the US-Israel alliance.” He also “stressed the close bond that he and his wife have with the State of Israel.”

    It may be tempting to dismiss this as standard, vapid Clintonian politicking: adeptly telling everyone what they want to hear and making them believe it. After all, is it even physically possible to “strengthen the US-Israel alliance” beyond what it already entails: billions of dollars in American taxpayer money transferred every year, sophisticated weapons fed to them as they bomb their defenseless neighbors, blindly loyal diplomatic support and protection for everything they do?

    But Bill Clinton’s vow of even greater support for Israel is completely consistent with what Hillary Clinton herself has been telling American-Jewish audiences for months. In November, she published an Op-Ed in The Forward in which she vowed to strengthen relations not only with Israel but also with its extremist Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.(...)

  • Visualizing Risk and Potential: Migrants in Zones of Transit

    This month, Youth Circulations features a series of conversations between two migration scholars, Heide Castañeda (University of South Florida) and Kristin Yarris (University of Oregon). Drs. Castañeda and Yarris creatively and critically examine representations of the circulation of Central American and Mexican migrants through what they describe as a zone of transit in Western Mexico. Their research is funded by The Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and is a collaboration with Dr. Juan Manuel Mendoza, of the Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa.

    This is why photography is a powerful medium: It permits not only the documentation of the risks and desperations associated with migration, but in offering a human portrait of the journey, can provoke a sense of obligation to respond in meaningful ways. As the Department of Homeland Security currently enacts a series of raids targeting hundreds of Central American families, this issue must not be a convenient pawn in the political games of an election year. The circumstances spurring migration have not changed. People must be treated as refugees seeking protection and given meaningful access to due process provisions that exist under U.S. and international refugee law.

    http://www.youthcirculations.com/blog/2016/1/25/visualizing-risk-and-potential-migrants-in-zones-of-transit

    #Mexique #Amérique_centrale #migrations #photographie #critique_photographique #analyse_d'images
    cc @albertocampiphoto

  • Photographer Bill Yates unearths album of photos taken at Sweetheart Rink, Florida | Daily Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3249720/Meet-kids-Sweetheart-Rink-Photographer-unearths-incredible-album-portra

    They are a collection of hundreds of photos that capture an incredible moment in time and history.

    But the series of snapshots of a rural Florida rollerskating rink in 1972 and 73 have been languishing in a box pretty much since they were taken - until now.

    The Sweetheart Rink was the place to be in downtown Tampa when student photographer Bill Yates, who was then 26, stumbled upon it during his final year at the University of South Florida. ’That was big time, going to the skating rink,’ he told The Bitter Southerner.

    By the summer of 1973, Yates had become as commonplace at Sweethearts as Pepsi and cigarettes. He took around 800 photos of the many walks of life that hung out there each weekend.

    He said the era was a very exciting time for everyone. ’You had the Women’s Movement and the Civil Rights movement. You had Vietnam raging. You had the hippies. You had sex, drugs and rock and roll. Music was changing dramatically. All that stuff from California had moved east.’

    His photos gained him admission to the graduate photography program at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was encouraged to ’start from scratch’. So he put his Sweetheart pictures and negatives into a box and forgot about them for more than three decades.

    It was only when he was looking back over his career that he decided to get them out and take another look. The incredible snaps will now be displayed at New Orleans’ Ogden Museum of Southern Art from October 3.

  • Montée du niveau des océans: la #Floride en première ligne
    http://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/22/floride-montee-du-niveau-des-oceans_n_5193303.html

    Le maire de Miami-Beach, Philip Levine, a quant à lui raconté comment, lors d’inondations, les habitants sont forcés de traverser les rues avec de l’eau jusqu’aux genoux pour rentrer chez eux.

    Warming world’s rising seas wash away some of South Florida’s glitz
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/warming-worlds-rising-seas-wash-away-some-of-south-floridas-glitz-20141220-1

    What was not so widely reported was that South Beach stank of shit. There is no nice way to put it. The place smelled of human waste. There had been a brief, heavy downpour but the water could not escape, so the sewers backed up and filled the roads. The traffic slowed to walking pace or seized entirely, and the models tottering between the restaurants and hotels and clubs had to pick wide arcs on the pavements to avoid the nasty pools swelling from the gutters.

  • A Look Back at 10 of the Most Iconic ’Gay’ Films :: EDGE on the Net
    http://www.edgeonthenet.com/entertainment/movies/features/150415/a_look_back_at_10_of_the_most_iconic_%E2%80%99gay%E2%80%99_films

    A Look Back at 10 of the Most Iconic ’Gay’ Films
    by Gary M. Kramer
    South Florida Gay News
    Friday Oct 11, 2013

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    Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain
    Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain (Source:Focus Features)

    There are films about gay history (Milk), and there are historic gay films (Brokeback Mountain). Both should be celebrated in Gay History Month.

    While there are many reasons why a film is “classic,” these ten titles (listed alphabetically) are of historical cinematic importance - either because they were groundbreaking, award-winning, or the first film to depict a particular aspect of queer life for mass audiences. In some cases, they are all of the above. This is my no means a definitive list, but certainly a good primer on getting one’s gay film history straight.

    The Boys in the Band (1970) Mart Crowley’s landmark 1968 play became a landmark 1970 film directed by William Friedkin. Featuring an all-male cast, the film’s eight gay men plus one guest celebrate a birthday party that is anything but a happy experience. The dialogue is crisp ("Show me a happy homosexual, and I’ll show you a gay corpse") and witty ("Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?"). And the performances are terrific (the cast first performed together on stage). If “The Boys in the Band” is a bit dated today, the film is key to “the evolution of gay and lesbian history and culture,” according to Clayton Robey, whose fine 2011 documentary “Making the Boys” chronicles Crowley’s success.

    Brokeback Mountain (2005) Perhaps no other film in the history of cinema has achieved the crossover success of “the gay cowboy film.” Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger (in one of the most remarkable performances in queer film history) as lovers who try to deal with their feelings towards one another in the repressed West of the 1960s-1980s, this tearjerker is one of the great romantic dramas of all time - gay or otherwise.

    Cabaret (1972) It is hard to believe “Cabaret” is more than 40 years old, but this fantastic Bob Fosse directed musical still holds up. Liza Minnelli gives an indelible, Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles, the singer at the Kit-Kat club (where most of the songs are performed). She falls in love with bisexual Brian (Michael York) while the Nazis take over Germany. The Kander and Ebb songs are dark but catchy - “Maybe This Time” is especially great - and Joel Grey’s notable turn as the Emcee won him an Oscar, too.

    Cruising (1980) William Friedkin ("Boys in the Band") angered the queer community with this thriller starring Al Pacino as a cop going undercover in the gay S&M scene to ferret out a serial killer. While the film was subjected to protests during shooting and its theatrical release, much of the anxiety about the film was how it depicted the gay community. However, seen now, “Cruising” is a fascinating (if dated) character study with a provocative final scene.

    While the film still may be somewhat offensive, it also deserves reconsideration. “Interior. Leather Bar.,” made earlier this year by Travis Mathews and James Franco, attempted to “recreate” 40 lost minutes from Cruising with mixed results.

    Midnight Cowboy (1969) The only X-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar, “Midnight Cowboy” depicts the intense friendship between Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who wants to be a hustler, and Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a disabled con man. Queer British filmmaker John Schlesinger’s New York-set film speaks volumes about being an outsider, as Joe and Ratso - two losers trying to survive against oppression - ably attest. The film has many outstanding sequences, from Joe’s gay encounter with a young student (Bob Balaban) to a psychedelic party featuring Warhol superstars.

    Philadelphia (1993) The first major theatrical release Hollywood made about the AIDS crisis, “Philadelphia” is memorable not just for Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning performance but for how it presented issues important to the queer community (such as hospital visitation rights and legal issues in the workplace). While some queer viewers complained there was barely a kiss between Hanks and Antonio Banderas (who played his lover), the film tackled an important topic well, and is a crucial film in the gay historical canon.

    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) The film itself is not particularly good, but the theatrical experience is what makes “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” a must-see. Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) have car trouble and enter the strange castle/world of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania. Music and mayhem ensue. And as Dr. Frank advises, “Don’t dream it, be it.”

    Some Like it Hot (1959) This terrific cross-dressing comedy has Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) donning drag while on the run from the mob. Joining an all-female band, featuring singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the guys find being women helps them be better men - especially when Joe falls hard for Sugar, and Jerry is pursued by Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), who gets the hilarious final line. Full of slapstick, songs, and inspired silliness (Curtis pretending to be Cary Grant is quite amusing), “Some Like It Hot” was daring for its time, but forever fabulous.

    The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Milk (2008) Rob Epstein’s Oscar-winning documentary presented the charismatic Harvey Milk from his efforts to become the first openly gay elected official to public office in San Francisco, and his subsequent assassination. The story was also brilliantly told in Gus Van Sant’s biopic, “Milk,” almost 25 years later, which earned Oscars for Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black, respectively, for their performance and script.

    Seeing both films back to back, one can appreciate how accurate Van Sant was in capturing the era and scenes right out of the doc, and both films deftly incorporated archival footage. “Times” and “Milk” are essential queer history titles; both emphasize its subject’s call to GLBT folks to come out and be heard.

    Word Is Out (1977) The remarkable “Word is Out” was the first full-length documentary by queer filmmakers about queer subjects. The profiles consist of twenty-six gay men and women from a cross-section of the queer community. While these individuals have only sexual orientation in common, their poignant, emotionally charged portraits about when they knew they were gay speak to more universal experiences. The film may seem like something from a time capsule now, but it’s an important part of gay cinema history.

  • U.S. Olympic Committee adds sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy | Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida
    http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2013/10/us-olympic-committee-adds-sexual-orientation-to-its-non-discrim

    U.S. Olympic Committee adds sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy
    BY EDDIE PELLS
    AP NATIONAL WRITER

    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. Olympic Committee board revised its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation, a nod to its disapproval of the Russian anti-gay law recently passed by the Olympic host country.

    At his annual address to the USOC Assembly on Friday, CEO Scott Blackmun said the federation is not in the business of trying to influence Russian policy.

    “The fact that we do not think it is our role to advocate for a change in the Russian law does not mean that we support the law, and we do not,” Blackmun said.

    The board passed the measure Thursday, a week after chairman Larry Probst, a new member of the International Olympic Committee, said he would support a similar change to the IOC Olympic charter. Currently, it does not mention sexual orientation as a form of discrimination.

    “We thought it would be good to take a look at our own code of conduct,” Probst said after the USOC’s quarterly board meeting. “It was the appropriate thing for us to do. It’s important to us to walk the talk.”

    Click here to read more.

  • Bank robbery suspect wants NSA phone records for his defense - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-phone-records-fisa-broward-20130612,0,5434900.story

    The prosecution had told defense attorneys that they were unable to obtain Brown’s cellphone records from the period before September 2010 because his carrier, MetroPCS, had not held on to them.

    ...

    Louis argued in court Wednesday that the government should be forced to turn over phone location records for two cellphones Brown may have used because it could prove he was not present for one of the attempted bank robberies, on July 26 on Federal Highway in Lighthouse Point.

    “The president of the United States has recognized this program has been ongoing since 2006 … to gather the phone numbers [and related information] of everybody including my client in 2010,” Louis said.

    via @dascritch

    #prism #nsa