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Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.

Howard Zinn

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A 21-year-old New Jersey woman named Susan Atrach was charged with hacking Gomez’s email and stealing digital property from her, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The college student now faces a total of 11 felony counts and, if convicted, could serve a maximum sentence of nine years and eight months in state prison. Atrach is expected to be arraigned in court on or before Aug. 27 and the prosecutor is recommending that bail be set at $250,000.

[paulkell]

If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however ofter Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.

George Orwell, 1984

[paulkell]

A new type of solar panels powered by bacteria developed by the researchers at the University of British Columbia takes advantage of the capacity of some microorganisms to produce energy from light, even in low-light conditions. In this case, it is a combination of modified bacteria and photosynthetic elements. The result is a biogenic compound, a series of photovoltaic cells made from living organisms. These new photovoltaic cells are more efficient than the most common synthetic panels, conserving a good part of their capacity to produce energy even when there is no direct sunlight, or it’s cloudy, for example. As the researchers explain, previous efforts to manufacture biogenic solar panels have focused on using the natural agent that some bacteria use to perform photosynthesis. However, extracting the photosensitive agent without causing excessive damage is a complicated and expensive process.

[paulkell]

It is not what you can do for your country, but what you can do for all of mankind.

Mike Norton

[paulkell]

A racist road rage incident that occurred over the weekend is under investigation in Chester County. The incident occurred at some point on Saturday afternoon on Route 30 in Coatesville. A woman was driving with her son in the car when a man in a gray Jeep began shouting slurs. She wrote on social media that the man tried to run her off the road. Part of the incident was caught on camera, and the man can be heard yelling "Go back to Africa!" repeatedly. No arrests have been made. Police said that the incident is under investigation.

[paulkell]

Corey Charron stepped up and targeted DeLaGhetto saying, “First place is something you’ve never really done, your family had a Jackie Chan lookalike contest and everybody won.” The 32-year-old YouTuber then came back with a burn and a nod to the first “Rush Hour” movie: “You talking about Jackie Chan? Jackie Chan is tight fam. ‘Rush Hour’ taught us that behind all the evil sh*t, there’s always the white man.”

[paulkell]

A woman posted a Facebook Live video on Saturday afternoon in which she says someone painted racist graffiti on a property she had listed for sale. The video shows the spray painted messages "[N-word]s keep out" and "Hail Trump." The home is on Ogden Avenue in south Toledo. Police tweeted on Saturday night around 11 p.m. that a suspect was in custody for the vandalism. The suspect is Patricia Edelen, who lives on across the street from the vandalized property. She has been accused of criminal damaging/endangering property to cause/create substantial risk of physical harm and ethnic intimidation.

[paulkell]

WWE announced Sunday that pro-wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has been reinstated to the organization's Hall of Fame after a three-year suspension that was handed down after audio emerged of Hogan going on a racist tirade on a sex tape made in 2012. In the wake of those July, 2015 revelations, WWE had terminated Hogan's contract and scrubbed all mentions of him from its website. A search of the site Monday morning found numerous mentions of Hogan, including his Hall of Fame biography. However, the company told Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports that it had not signed Hogan, a six-time WWE champion, to any sort of contract. "This second chance follows Hogan's numerous public apologies and volunteering to work with young people, where he is helping them learn from his mistake," WWE said in a statement. "These efforts led to a recent induction into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame."

[paulkell]

Black men between the ages of 18 and 30 years old who have experienced abuse, relatives' drug addictions, being shot or having loved ones shot decided to turn their pain into support for others like them. The reason: those who end up in ERs or treatment facilities get asked, "What were you doing?" as opposed to, "What happened to you?" Last week, participants graduated from the Community Health Worker Peer Project in Philadelphia, which is now in its third year (funded until 2020). The project is hosted by John Rich and Theodore Corbin, physicians and cofounders of the Drexel University Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice.

[paulkell]

Best-selling atheist author Richard Dawkins has once again been branded “racist” after he tweeted that the sound of cathedral bells is much more pleasant than the “aggressive-sounding Muslim Allahu Akbar.” The Arabic phrase – which means ‘God is Greatest’ – is used by Muslims, usually to express gratitude and commitment to Allah, and it’s sung at the beginning of the call to prayer. It also has negative connotations as a number of terrorists have shouted the words before carrying out attacks. Dawkins, who has previously faced a barrage of criticism for claiming in a 2013 tweet that Islam is the “greatest force for evil in the world today,” was again accused of Islamophobia on Tuesday morning after sending a provocative tweet.

[paulkell]

Exactly seven months before the 2016 presidential election, Russian government hackers made it onto a Democratic committee’s network. One of their carefully crafted fraudulent emails had hit pay dirt, enticing an employee to click a link and enter her password.

[paulkell]

A white man in North Carolina was caught screaming racial epithets at a family for having a "F*ck Trump" sign in their yard. “It smells like g*ddamn weed in your entire f*cking house, that’s why the cops are coming right now, motherf*cker!” the man screamed before returning to his truck. “I’m gonna get you, n*gger! N*gger, n*gger, n*gger!” The family being verbally assaulted attempted to get video of the harasser's license plate, which further enraged the man.

[paulkell]

An advanced new radio telescope, known as MeerKAT, has begun operations—and it has already captured a spectacular image that is the clearest view of our galaxy's center to date. The picture reveals, in incredible detail, a fiery region surrounding the supermassive black hole that lies at the heart of the Milky Way, around 25,000 light-years away.

[paulkell]

According to GasBuddy, the average price of a gallon of gas is $3.16 in Utah, while the national average is $2.88. The average, however, is rising. This is the second week in a row that the national average gas price has moved higher, rising X cents to $2.88 per gallon today, according to a news release.

[paulkell]

A former Orange Coast College student charged with vandalizing campus security vehicles and violating protective orders to stay away from the school faces up to a year in jail following a plea bargain last week, his attorney said Monday. Robert Bouton McDougal pleaded guilty to a single felony count of vandalism and eight misdemeanors on Thursday, according to court records. The felony will be reduced to a misdemeanor at sentencing, his attorney, John Christl, said.

[paulkell]

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, “We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy”