Bon Iver’s teaser last month, which contained one line of lyrics, “It might be over soon,” was followed up Saturday by two new songs being uploaded to the band’s YouTube channel.
The two songs were uploaded in the form of seven videos, because they have various language hard subtitles.
The two songs are titled “d E A T h b R E a s T” and “(OVER S∞∞N)”
The two songs are part of Bon Iver’s new album, expected to be released in September.
(OVER S∞∞N)
d E A T h b R E a s T
Between Thursday Afternoon and Friday morning, bombs exploded and buildings were set on fire in several cities in Thailand, including Trang, Hua Hin and Phuket.
Rumors are swirling in Thailand about who is behind the attacks, but police have caught one perpetrator who informed them of 11 bombs planted in Hua Hin, reportedly.
So far, three people have died and dozens have been injured by the bombs.
The locations include important tourism areas for Thailand, and many of the victims are foreigners.
August 12 is a national holiday in the country, the queen’s birthday, referred to as “Mother’s Day,” and on August 7 Thais voted in a referendum for a new constitution, signifying what many to consider to be a victory for the country’s military-led government and paving the way for a general election in 2017.
List of attack locations:
August 11:
3.20 pm: Bomb blast at Centre Point in Trang killed 1 injured 7.
10.15 pm: Bomb blast at Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan in front of Johnny Bar and Rain Tree Bar killed 1 injured 20, ten of which were foreigners.
August 12:
2.30 am: Fire at Lee Mart Department Store in Trang, around Bt100 million in damage.
8.02 am: Two bomb blasts in front of Surat Thani Police Station killed 1 injured many.
8.05 am: Two bomb blasts in Phuket’s Patong Beach many people injured.
8.50 am: Fire at Lotus Department Store in Nakorn Si Thammarat.
9.14 am: The other two bomb blasts at Hua Hin Clock Tower in Prachuap Khiri Khan.
10.00am: Hua Hin Market Village evacuated.
10:05am: Suspicious device found at 19 Rai, close to Hua Hin Immigration office
10.30am: Explosion in Phang Nga, no reports of casualties.
11:10am: Suspicious device found at Hua Hin train station
The state’s appeal of the ruling in favor of Norwegian political mass killer Anders Breivik has undergone a change in judges.
Justice Ellen Mo was set to preside over the appeal — in May the Oslo District Court found that Breivik’s charges that the state was treating him unfairly according to the EU Convention on Human Rights, ie violating his human rights, and the state appealed the decision — but her service in government has caused her to be dropped.
Mo served briefly under the Labour Government in 2000-2001. She was Finance Minister under premier Jens Stoltenbert.
Breivik’s attacks targeted the Labour Party, whose policies Breivik considered detrimental to Norway. In particular, the mass immigration policies that Breivik and a minority of Norwegians at the time took issue with. Since that time, largely due to several large-scale attacks in various Western countries and a change in media coverage of violence committed by Muslims, more Norwegians have taken stances against mass immigration.
The appeal will begin November 29 and is expected to take around four days.
According to scientists, the number of Americans drinking PFAS-contaminated water may be much higher than the 6 million figure initially reported.
A recent Harvard Harvard study found that almost across 30 states tested, 194 of 4864 water supplies contained PFASs (perfluoroalkyl substances) — a chemical that has been around for 60 years and which is used for nonstick cooking utensils, as well as food packaging and firefighting foams.
The chemicals break down slowly and remain in our environment for a long time, including in drinking water.
PFASs have been linked to cancer and other health problrms.
The water supplies in a few states accounted for most of the contaminated sources: California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois, in order of contamination levels.
“For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFASs, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences,” lead author Xindi Hu, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS, said in a statement.
She said the number of water supplies contaminated with PFASs may be much higher than the 6 million initially reported, however.
“The actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water are lacking for almost a third of the US population — about 100 million people,” she said.
Use of PFASs by large companies has led to many lawsuits. For example, DuPont is currently facing 3500 personal injury lawsuits for illegal dumping of PFOA byproducts (perflurooctanoic acid) into the Ohio Rive, leading to kidney and testicular cancer and other ailments, according to the plaintiffs.
After attending the premiere of director David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad,” South African band Die Antwoord sent out a message on Instagram calling out the director for “ripping off” their unique zef styles.
The Instagram message came from Yolandi Visser’s prawn_star account, and read:
“Cara [Delevingne] & Jared [Leto] told us how much u were talkin abt us on set but u never asked our permision to rip us off,” messaged Yolandi.
“An when ninja texted u sayin wassup wif dat u said nothin like a scared lil bitch. U were jus flauntin our names pretendin to b down. u aint down an u never will b. but before we knew da extent of ur two face nature – u invited us to ur movie premiere(which i didnt wanna go to) but ninja went , tinkin ur solid guy an mayb there was jus a lil “misunderstandin”. Den poor ninja had to sit thru dat hole bullshit movie. An u even got da nerve to say wassup to him smilin – an ninja has to b nice cus he is there wif his kid. But we all tink u wack.”
Yolandi included some advice in her message to the director, whose film has already brought in almost $200 million in its first two weekends at the box office:
“U shud start a crew called:,’im a fake fuck’ ask kanye if he wants to join u. Cum show ur pretty face at my studios. U know Muggs & u know where da Soul Assasin Studios at. we watin for u.”
Yolandi posted a video with her message showing a few of the style elements the band reckons Ayer ripped off, including a photo of Marilyn Manson as well:
“yes David Ayer u jockin our style. callin ninja up before your movie came our pretendin 2b down, so it looks OK when u bite our black & white graf style & our opening sequence to umshiniwam & an all da lil tiny details u nibbeld dat other people wont see but we notice.”
Thailand has been considering tracking tourists with phone technology, and now plans have been approved by the nation’s telecom regulator.
The purpose of the move is to catch visitors who overstay their visa, according to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), who also considers the technology not to be an invasion of privacy.
Phones for tourists would come with special SIM cards that would have tracking that could not be disabled.
The regulator also made mention of how the tracking could be used on Thai nationals as well, saying it could help police catch criminals on the run, although police would need a warrant in these cases.
The government stated they liked the plan: “It will be helpful, if any foreigner comes and commit crimes, because in the past they have been able to flee or it can be difficult to find them,” said Pongsathorn Chansri, an official in the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
Tourists will still be able to use SIMs brought from their own countries and use those, however, said NBTC.
States are no longer allowed to label genetically engineered fish, according to Steve Mashuda, a litigator who is managing attorney for the Oceans program at Earth Justice.
Mashuda has been involved in a legal challenge to the government’s approval of GE salmon for human consumption.
Recently the House and Senate passed a bill prohibiting states from from labeling these fish. And on Friday, July 29, the bill was signed into law.
“Additionally, the FDA is still failing to analyze and prevent the risks these fish can cause to wild salmon and the environment,” wrote Mashuda in a notice about the recent developments.
Mashuda’s team will challenge the decision in court, he stated.
“[W]e’re up against powerful forces trying to bring these fish to market at any expense.”
The fish in question are the spawn of a company called AquaBounty Technologies and are engineered in laboratories to grow twice as fast as wild salmon.
AquaBounty plans to produce the GE salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and send the salmon on a 5,000-mile journey before they reach U.S. supermarkets.
The salmon will be grown to market size in a facility in Panama, processed into fillets, then shipped to the United States for sale.
AquaBounty has publicly announced plans to ultimately grow its GE fish in the United States and other places around the world. Despite this, the FDA has chosen to limit the scope of its review to the Canada and Panama facilities.
U.S. Atlantic salmon, and many populations of Pacific salmon, are protected by the Endangered Species Act and in danger of extinction.
“Not only can these engineered salmon crossbreed with wild native fish, they can also threaten wild populations by out-competing them for scarce resources and habitat, or by introducing new diseases,” warned Mashuda.
Starting Saturday evening, no alcohol can legally be sold in Thailand, in accordance with the country’s new Referendum Act.
Polling will take place on Sunday, and the act forbids selling or giving away alcohol from 6 P.M. the night before. The ban will continue until 12 midnight Sunday night.
Violating the 2016 Referendum Act is punishable by up to six months in prison and a 10,000 baht fine.
Sales will be permitted at duty-free stores, but the alcohol cannot be consumed within the country until Monday morning.
“Zika is now here,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Saturday.
Although many Americans had brought back infection from abroad already — over 1,600 known cases — until several infected people were recently tested for other transmission methods, no known cases of U.S. mosquito-borne Zika had existed, although it had been known that mosquitoes in the south of the country could carry the virus.
So far four Americans have been found to have contracted the virus by mosquitoes in the Miami area.
Health officials have said they do not expect infection to be as widespread as it has been in other countries because of better sanitation, mosquito control and use of window screens.
The biggest health concerns are for pregnant women.
“If I were a pregnant woman right now, I would go on the assumption that there’s mosquito transmission all over the Miami area,” warned Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
In addition to four confirmed cases, medical authorities have said they expect there are many others already infected — and not just in Florida.
“This is not just a Florida issue. It’s a national issue – we just happen to be at the forefront,” said Governor Rick Scott.
German investigators in the case of Munich mass shooter David Ali Sonboly, who early on stated that the man was linked to Norwegian political mass killer Anders Breivik — Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae was quoted saying there was an “obvious” link, which was widely reported in the media — have changed their minds on that point.
German authorities are now discounting the reports that Sonboly had been particularly influenced by a study of Breivik’s attack, although the attack on Utoya took place five years earlier to the day.
Sonboly purchased a 9mm pistol on the internet, according to Bavarian investigators. He may have lured victims to the mall by promising them free food at a restaurant there. He fired 57 bullets of 300 he brought in a backpack before being silenced by one police bullet.
Sonboly was a German with Iranian citizenship. He possessed a collection of books about mass shootings in his room, according to police.
He is believed to have planned the mall attack one year in advance.
The young man had a history of psychiatric treatment, having been counselled for a period of two months.
The video, released by the Islamic State shortly after the train attack in Wurzburg, Germany, has been confirmed by the Bavarian interior minister to be the attacker, a 17-year-old Afghani asylum seeker Muhammad Riyad.
The video the Islamic State published shows the youth explaining the motive for his actions, placing his attack in the context of perceived injustices committed against Muslims by Western nations.
He also explains that he planned the attack well in advance, while living in Germany
Translation by Gatestone Institute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huUnAC9_jjk&feature=youtu.be
German shoe company Birkenstock is the first major brand ever to pull out of Amazon’s U.S. online store.
The business relationship will end in January.
Birkenstock said it also will forbid all it’s third-party sellers from using Amazon to sell their shoes.
The problem, according to Birkenstock, is Amazon does not provide sufficient assistance in combating counterfeit, particularly from China, which hurts company profits for many companies big and small.
Birkenstock USA CEO David Kahan (obtained by CNBC): “The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an ‘open market,’ creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand. Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible.
The CEO also said that Amazon won’t help prevent counterfeits unless companies let Amazon sell their whole product line.
Photo: Michael Rehfeldt