diseases old and new: Affluenza, Influenza… Melanin

Editorial Cartoon: by Matt Davies in Newsday

“The cellphone video of the last moments of Eric Garner’s life was watched millions of times on the Internet, clearly showing a white police officer holding the unarmed black man in a chokehold, even as he repeatedly gasped, 'I can’t breathe.'
     But despite that visual evidence, and a medical examiner’s ruling that the chokehold contributed to the death, a Staten Island grand jury decided Wednesday not to bring any charges against the officer involved, prompting protests across the country and sending thousands onto New York’s streets, where they marched, chanted and blocked traffic into the next morning.
     While legal experts note it’s impossible to know how the grand jurors reached their conclusion, they say the Garner case, like Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, once again raised concerns about the influence local prosecutors have over the process of charging the police officers they work with on a daily basis.”
— Tom Hays And Colleen Long, Associated Press via metro news
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“Authorities said the teen and friends were seen on surveillance video stealing two cases of beer from a store. He had seven passengers in his Ford F-350, was speeding and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, according to testimony during the trial. His pickup truck slammed into the four pedestrians, killing Brian Jennings, a 43-year-old Burleson youth minister; Breanna Mitchell of Lillian, 24; Shelby Boyles, 21; and her 52-year-old mother, Hollie Boyles. […]
     ‘Money always seems to keep you out of trouble,’ [Eric] Boyles said. ‘Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If you had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.’ […]
     A psychologist called as an expert defense witness said the boy suffered from ‘affluenza […].”
— Huffington Post
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“Sadly, many dark spot correctors still use ingredients proven dangerous. Using a product with these ingredients can have worse effects than simply not seeing results. These can cause serious damage to your health:

Foxincitin-vitriol: this carcinogenic chemical is actually banned in most countries- except the US! Why? Besides increasing skin sensitivity, it has been linked to tumor growth! This is not something you want to be rubbing into your skin.

Redstate-dumbassbullshit: Believe it or not, [it’s] still used in some skin products. The reason - it's cheap. Be very careful of this as it is one of the most harmful things you can put near your body. [It] can destroy your kidneys and nervous system. [It’s] used more often the you think, so always, ALWAYS read the label before buying!.”
— Karen Weathers, Consumer’s Guides [bolderized by Michael Hale]
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killing us softly

"This is a ray gun that shoots either a beam of burning sensation at your victim, or else an invisible wave that induces horrible nausea.” — Paul's Ponderings

“[…] the controversy in Ferguson remains what it’s always been: A jarring and dispiriting reminder that the Declaration of Independence’s assertion of universal human equality (the 'promissory note,' as Martin Luther King Jr. once called it) remains, for millions of Americans, a debt unpaid. […]
     If we can combat the dual influences of a Ferguson elite that wants national attention to drift elsewhere; and a national media that dislikes policy and favors more watchable, clickable, shareable and fundamentally empty manifestations of the culture war — if we can do that, there’s hope that even though the killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson will always be an obscenity, it won’t have been entirely in vain. So let’s ignore those in American society who would rather debate the merits of trashing a bodega than the killing of a child, and let’s not listen to those who would use this opportunity to relitigate the civil rights movement, the Rodney King riots or the Trayvon Martin case. Let’s honor the wishes of Michael Brown’s parents and decline to ‘just make noise’ in favor of making ‘a difference.’”
— Elias Isquith, Salon
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“[…] But growth prospects for cop-cams are modest compared to non-lethal or 'soft-kill' weapons — a global market projected to reach $1.63 billion in 2014. While Taser’s stun gun is currently the most effective person-to-person immobilizer, various 'crowd-control' weapons have also found a home in police departments nationwide, thanks to the Pentagon’s combat surplus.
     The results of military R&D can be bizarre. There’s the LRAD acoustic cannon (used in Ferguson), which blasts intense sound waves that cause immediate headaches. A 'Ray Gun' shoots excruciatingly hot beams of electromagnetic radiation. And the infamous 'Puke Ray' emits flashing, multi-color light pulses that induce nausea. […]
     Stingray is a device that mimics a cell tower to indiscriminately trick nearby phones into transmitting metadata (location, call duration, etc.) and even call content. It’s one of the police’s latest ventures into NSA territory, to 'Collect It All, Know It All.' Police departments that use Stingrays must sign non-disclosure agreements with the Harris Corporation, Stingray’s manufacturer; so far 42 law enforcement agencies in 17 states use them, according to the ACLU. It complains that the police have tried to deliberately conceal the practice from judges during criminal investigations.
     The problem with Stingray — and similar devices that mass-compile data, such as license plate recognition, biometrics, predictive policing algorithms and drones — is its propensity to violate privacy rights, says Dave Maass, of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Essential questions, like who can use them and on whom and when, are not discussed in courts or with the public, Maass says. Which just makes it easier for law enforcement to adopt early and often: “It’s easier for police to adopt new devices without asking permission, and then force legislators to take them away and risk looking ‘soft on crime,’
— Nathan Siegel, OZY
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