A video and audio recording taken in January that’s surfaced in late August appears to capture an unarmed, unaggressive St. Paul, Minnesota, man being immobilized with a stun gun in front of his children. The video — captured by Christopher Lollie, a musician from East St. Paul — is titled “Black man taken to jail for sitting in a public area.” It was uploaded to YouTube and has been viewed more than 20,000 times since. In the video description, Lollie wrote that police confiscated his phone after the arrest and held it for 6 months.
The video begins with a conversation between Lollie and a white female St. Paul officer who followed him through a skyway. During the exchange, the officer asks Lollie for his name repeatedly; however, he declined to give it to her without an explanation of why he must. She replied, “Because that’s what police do when they’re called.”
“Well, I know my rights, first off,” Lollie replied calmly. “Secondly, I don’t have to let you know who I am if I haven’t broken any laws.”
Lollie then explained that he was on his way to New Horizons Academy to pick up his children and had been sitting in a public area for about 10 minutes before an irate man approached him.
“That’s a public area,” he said. “If there’s no sign that says, ‘This is a private area, you can’t sit here,’ no one can tell me I can’t sit there.”
Over the course of a minute-long stroll, Lollie repeatedly told the officer that there was no problem. He explained that he had been sitting alone after getting off of work, telling the officer: “The problem is: I’m black.” Shortly after that exchange a second officer approaches and quickly escalates the situation. Lollie called out to the approaching male officer — who is also white — who asked what was happening. Lollie repeated his intention to pick up his children as the officer moved to grab him.
“I’ve got to go get my kids,” the man tells the second officer, pulling his arm away while asking not to be touched.
When Lollie asked not to be touched, the officer replied, “Well, you’re going to go to jail then.”
Lollie protested that he had not done anything wrong, and urged officers to wait; however, both continued to try and restrain him while telling him he was jail-bound.
“Come on, brother — this is assault,” Lollie said.
“I’m not here to argue, and I’m not your brother,” the male officer replied.
“I’m not doing anything wrong, sir,” Lollie stated once more.
“Put your hands behind your back, or this is gonna get ugly,” the male officer said.
The video tumbles to black as the male officer says, “You’re gonna get Tased.” At that point, a conversation that had been calm and respectful escalated to cries for help, and pleas for the officers to stop after he saw his children appear.
“My kids are right there!” he cried as the officer shouted at him to put his hands behind his back.
The clicking of the Taser can be heard shortly after Lollie asked an officer not to choke him, explaining that he has asthma. His cries echoed off the walls while the officers restrained him. Afterward, Lollie openly criticized the officers as racist and accused them of assault.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a working man. I take care of my kids, and I get this? You Tase me? For what?” he demanded. “I don’t have any f——- weapons. You’re the ones with the weapons here.”
Prior to the Taser deployment, Lollie neither raised his voice nor cursed at officers — a point he iterated once he was apparently cuffed. He also pleaded with police to let him go to his children, but was told, “Too late. You’re going to jail.”
In a statement St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith actually defends his officers’ actions as appropriate. He also contended that the video didn’t convey the whole picture, and stated that his officers were called by private security over a man who was trespassing in an employee’s only area of the First National Bank Building and refused to leave.
“He pulled away and resisted officers’ lawful orders,” Smith said. “They then used the force necessary to safely take him into custody.”
Smith said his officers believed Lollie might either run or fight with him, and that is why they decided to arrest him. Lollie was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and obstruction of the legal process. In July, all charges against him were dropped.
Many do not know that homosexual men are banned from donating blood. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned all men who have had at least one sexual encounter with another male since 1977 from donating blood. The data used against homosexual men is collected and presented to the FDA by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC). These two organizations have set the rules and guidelines for all blood donors. There is a shortage in the world’s blood supply, and not many young adults are volunteering to donate. There are thousands of homosexual men willing to donate healthy blood to save lives. European countries recently lifted the ban, allowing homosexuals to donate blood. They have set guidelines and restrictions that have improved their blood supply. In the United States, the only solution to this problem is to lift the ban and allow homosexuals to donate blood.
Marathon day crowds are cheering on their runners as they complete the finish line of their 26.1 miles. Excitement and other inspirational emotions can be felt among the crowd. The air is cold; you could see the heat steaming off many of the runners’ brightly colored clothes. Moments later a blast goes off near the sidelines where innocent bystanders wait to cheer on the last remaining runners. Soon the streets become filled with police, firefighters, and ambulances. Triage stations begin to assemble, and blood donation stations begin to collect blood from healthy donors. A medical doctor who was participating in the marathon went to donate blood only to find out that he was unable to donate because he was a homosexual. He, like many homosexuals in America, is banned from donating blood. Although having good intentions to donate blood in order to save a life sounds great, it is not acceptable according to the FDA. The policy banning homosexuals from donating blood and vital organs needs to be reviewed and revised. Allowing healthy, non-HIV positive homosexual men to donate will ensure greater quality among blood donors and increase the surplus of available blood and hard-to-obtain organs for transplant patients.
The Food and Drug Administration Policy on Homosexual blood donors
The following statement is part of the current policy that bans homosexuals or men who have sex with men (MSM) from becoming blood donors: “Men who have had sex with other men (MSM), at any time since 1977 [the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States] are currently deferred as blood donors” (Food and Drug Administration, 2013). The FDA passed the policy in 1988, later revised it in 1992, and continues to abide by the outdated policy without change. The FDA stated that it would modify its policy if new scientific data and more accurate testing for HIV and hepatitis become available (Food and Drug Administration, 2013). While studying the policy, one finds that the statements made regarding accurate scientific data are contradictory. In a section of the policy, the FDA informed the public about the reduced risk of HIV transfusions stating, “Today, the risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion has been reduced to about one per two million units of blood transfused. The risk of hepatitis C is about the same as for HIV, while the risk of hepatitis B is somewhat higher” (Food and Drug Administration, 2013). The CDC works together with the FDA to maintain public safety in all health related matters. The CDC has confirmed that current lab testing for HIV is 95 percent more accurate than the tests that date back to 1992 ( The United States Department of Health and Human Services). Therefore, the statement regarding medical research is invalid.
A policy bound by misleading data
The data used to support the FDA’s policy, which reports HIV infections among the MSM community, is misleading and biased. In one section the CDC reports that heterosexuals are included in their data pool, and in another report white heterosexual males are excluded from the data, making this an invalid report. In figure 1, there are four main groups that have been identified as those who have transmitted HIV infections. The CDC’s chart includes: MSM, Heterosexuals, Injection Drug Users, and MSM Injection Drug Users. As the data breaks down into subcategories (by race and sexual preference) one specific group of people is missing from the data: white heterosexual males. Without this data it can be said that it is scewed or invalid. The report suggests that white heterosexual males are not at risk for contracting HIV and therefore are allowed to donate. Doctor Vamvakas, a medical provider who studies Infectious Disease at the Univeristy Medical Center of Los Angeles, singled out the FDA and CDC regarding their biased, outdated policy. In his article, written in a well known medical journal called Transfusion, he stated that a female donor who has had sex with a man infected with HIV is allowed to donate blood as long as her blood test for the next 12 months is negative for the HIV antibody. However, a man who has had sex with another man, even if only once, since 1977 is banned from ever becoming a blood donor (Vamvakas, 2009). The FDA reported, “the deferral policy is based on the documented increased risk of certain transfusion transmissible infections, such as HIV” (Food and Drug Administration, 2013). The contradiction here would be that regardless of exposure, the female donor is still able to donate. Whereas the MSM, regardless of safe sex practices, is banned for life (Cantwell, 2005).
Figure 1: The CDC Fact Sheet: New HIV Infections in the United States: HIV Infections by Route of Transmission. December 2012
Figure 2: Estimated New HIV Infections in the United States, 2010, for the Most-Affected Sub-Populations; CDC Fact Sheet: December 2012
Blood Born Pathogens: We are all at risk
The FDA continues to single out MSM for contracting and transmitting blood born pathogens such as hepatitis because of their “highly risky” behavior (Food and Drug Administration, 2013). The CDC has conducted studies that show everyone is at risk for contracting blood born pathogens such as Hepatitis. Hepatitis is a condition in which the liver becomes inflamed. The liver is an essential organ because it filters blood, processes nutrients, and fights infections. When the liver becomes imflammed or damaged it can affects the body’s response system. According to the CDC, “Each year about 70,000 Americans become infected with a type of acute viral hepatitis. Currenlty 1.2 million people have chronic Hepatitis B, and 3.2 million people have chronic Hepatatis C. Of those living with chronic hepatitis many do not know they are infected” (Centers for Disease and Control, 2010). This goes to show that regardless of “risky behavior”, much of the nation is at risk, and it is known that not all homosexuals are responsible for the hepatatis virus.
Blood Shortage: Europe Lifts ban to improve surplus
The World’s blood supply is at an all time low. An article written by ABC News regarding the nation’s major blood shortage stated that the Red Cross needs 80,000 units of blood on hand daily. However, they are only collecting less than 36,000 pints of blood a day (Zabarenko, 2013). The American Red cross confirmed that 39 percent of HIV-negative adults are eligible to donate blood in a given year, yet only 5 percent will actually donate (Goldberg & Gates, 2010). Eruopean countries have conducted studies and recently changed their donor policy allowing MSM to donate blood. These men were volunteers and did not partake in male to male sexual behavior for 12 months(Halvard, Schmidt, Hourfar, Schuttrumpf, & Seifried, 2012). They were routinely checked and screened for the HIV antibody. Once the HIV test was negative for a period of 12 months, the blood was then collected and screened. The blood platelet levels continued to show healthy levels of normal blood. This scientific breakthrough allowed Europe to change its policy (Halvard, Schmidt, Hourfar, Schuttrumpf, & Seifried, 2012). Following the studies conducted in Eruope, the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles has confirmed that if the current MSM ban were to be completley lifted in the United States it is estimated that an additional 130,150 men would likely donate 219,200 additional pints of blood each year. If the United States followed Europe in lifting the ban, an estimated 53,269 additional men would donate blood each year (Goldberg & Gates, 2010).
There is no real reason as to why the FDA refuses to lift the ban or remotely open the topic up for discussion. The policy is outdated and calls for an update. Medical research today is more advanced than it was in 1992. Laboratory testing for HIV is accurate and can be even conducted in the privacy of your own home through an oral swab, and it takes only about a week to determine if the patient is HIV positive. Scientific research has also proven to be effective in removing HIV from semen. California passed a law in 2007 that allowed homosexual males who were HIV positive to donate their semen and have it cleansed from the virus to be able to have children (California Senate Bill 433, 2007). The women who were surrogate mothers were informed of the patients HIV status and instructed that the semen had been cleansed. The children, after being born, were tested to ensure they were not infected with the virus.
The homosexual community has been a target since the AIDS outbreak in the mid 70’s. The stigma today is that all homosexuals have HIV or AIDS, and that is not true. The CDC’s information sheets regarding HIV infections is clearly misleading and only shows data reported by specific groups. Of those groups, MSM are rated the highest because of “risky behavior”. One thing that the FDA failed to report was a case study that nearly ruined them due to human error. In 1993 HIV infected medication for hemophiliacs had been distributed throughout the world. Bayer, an American pharmaceutical company, discovered that the medication distributed had been infected with HIV. They decided to take it off the United States markets but failed to do so in European countires. This caused an estimated 6,000 patients who depended on the medcication to contract HIV (Hutchcraft, 1996). In reality everyone, regardless of their personal sex life, is potentially at risk for contracting any blood born pathogen.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services. The United States Department of Health and Human Services 2007 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey Report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.
An Act to Ammend Section 1644.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to public health, Senate Bill No. 433 (Sacramento August 27, 2007).
Belanger, G. A., Mcfarland, W., Raymond, F. H., & Custer, B. (2013, November). If the Permanent deferral were lifted would men who have sex with men want to donate blood, and if so, who would be eligible? Retrieved December 13, 2013, from Http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%Academic OneFile.
Cantwell, A. M. (2005, Noveber 27). The Gay Experiment That Started AIDS In America. Retrieved December 2, 2013, from Rense.com: http://rense.com/general68/gayex.htm
Center for Disease and Control . (2013, September). HIV Among Gay, Bisexual, and other Men who Have Sex with Men .
Centers for Disease and Control. (2009, March). CDC Fact Sheet Syphilis & MSM. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/std/
Centers for Disease and Control. (2010, June). Viral Hepatitis. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from www.cdc.gov: http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis
Food and Drug Administration. (2013, December). Food and Drug Administration: Blood donation from Men who have Sex with other Men Questions and Answers. Retrieved December 13, 2013, from http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/bloodbloodproducts/questionsaboutblood/ucm108186.htm
Goldberg, N. G., & Gates, G. J. (2010). Effects of Lifting Blood Donation Bans on Men Who Have Sex with Men. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from The William Institute School of Law: http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute
Halvard, B., Schmidt, M., Hourfar, K., Schuttrumpf, J., & Seifried, E. (2012). Sufficient Blood, Safe Blood; Can we have both? BMC Medicine . (B. Central, Ed.)
Hutchcraft, C. (1996, May 31). $640 Million Drug Firm Offer On Aids 6,000 Hemophiliac Victims would get $100,000 Each:. Chicago Tribune .
Vamvakas, E. C. (2009). Why are all men who have had sex with men even once since 1977 indefinitely deffered from donating blood? Transfusion, 49, 1073-1042.
Zabarenko, D. (2013, September 19). The Nation Has a Major Blood Shortage.
Youtuber Mark Rober demonstrates this new simple way for con artists to steal your ATM pin code without you noticing. Fortunately, the way to prevent this from happening is also very simple.
Your ATM pin code can be stolen discreetly, without you noticing at all. It’s because the con artist doesn’t even need to make an effort to take it from you! They can even steal it from you, even while you aren’t there!
How do they do this? One underhanded tactic is to use infrared cameras. Let’s say you go shopping at the supermarket, and you walk up to the counter to make your purchase with an ATM card. The last thing you do to complete your purchase is to enter a pin number.
Now as you’ve guessed, the con artist uses a discreet infrared camera, and can determine your pin number by using the heat signature you’ve left behind. This heat signature is open for 15 minutes, until it completely dissipates. Until then, this gives the con artist a window of opportunity to steal your pin code. This also includes door security systems, or anything that includes keys to be pressed.
The infrared camera was manufactured by a company called FLIR, a company which sells thermal imaging and infrared systems. This new infrared device just came out of the market and can be directly hooked up to the back of a smartphone. Back then, thermal imaging cameras were huge and expensive. Now, they only cost a hundred dollars and can be found at any Apple store.
A research conducted by USCD (University of San Diego, California) claimed that while using thermal imaging systems, they were able to guess the pin code 80% of the time if the image was taken right after the keys were pressed. Even if the image was taken a full 1-minute later, they still had a 50/50 chance of guessing the code correctly.
So, how exactly do you protect yourself from this? Metal keypads will absorb very little heat, and the heat signature dissipates quickly. However, if you are not using a metal keypad, here’s a little tip that you can do very quickly to protect yourself from harm. Just simply, rest your fingers on other buttons while you type in your code! It will hinder your original code from potential threats. As an added bonus, the bad guy might be watching you, so position yourself so that others can’t see you type in your code.
300,000 youths will be employed under a new scheme implemented by the Indian government. With over 10.2 percent youth employment in a country with an approximate population of 1.25 billion people, this comes at a time when it is much needed.
India is taking the initiative to not only employ and create jobs for the youths, but in turn, an environmental remedy is about to be indorsed. The employment scheme is going to potentially employ 300,000 youths to plant trees along the nation’s highways in a country that is 60 percent self- employed.
The highways equate to almost 63,000 miles of road across the country. Shipping and Rural Development Minister, Nitin Jairam Gadkari states that he has asked “officials to come out with a plan to plant 200 crore (2 billion trees along these stretches which in turn would create jobs for the unemployed on the one hand and protect the environment on the other.” This effort will help to promote the air quality in a country known for its increasing pollution with their growth as a global power. [1]
It has long been understood and studied that the planting of trees correlates with and lessens the amount of air pollution, specifically metal toxicity measured in houses. Metal toxicity is linked to several degenerative diseases pertaining to cardiovascular, cognitive and neurological health.
Vodafone, a leading telecom service provider has also started planting on a site to help create a wildlife corridor. 300,000 trees will be planted as a part of the new Billion Tree Campaign, implemented by the United Nation’s Environmental Program. Over a 100,000 trees will be planted in this corridor over a three year period. It will also create an extra 25,000 work days for direct jobs.[2]
India’s resourcefulness to employ youths for this environmental cause can only be applauded. It’s a wonder if the western countries will follow this beneficial initiative to offset the carbon footprint.
[1] Amanda Froelich (27 July 2014) “How India is Creating 300,000 Jobs and Planting 2 Billion More Trees.” http://www.trueactivist.com/how-india-is-creating-300000-jobs-and-planting-2-billion-more-trees/ (Retrieved 11 September 2014)
[2] (29 August 2014) “Grow-Trees.com and Vodafone India Begin Planting 300,000 Trees in Kanha-Pench.” (Retrieved 12 September 2014) http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Shownews.asp?newsid=31008
Here are three words for you: Virtual Private Network (more commonly referred to as VPN). If you’ve never heard of the term, or aren’t sure about its exact nature in our info tech world, then chances are you’ve never utilized one. A VPN is facilitated for several reasons, by individuals and the business sector alike. Anyone who initiates one for their time on the internet will have a variety of reasons. They can vary according to the individual’s needs and wants; scaling from minimal personal usage to access international television programs not available in their region, to encryption and security during time spent in cyberspace. In essence, a VPN is used to secure and encrypt communications when using an untrusted network which is in the public domain.[1]
The latter is the more common theme. In this day and age where big brother seems to lurk in every corner of our internet browser, more and more people, and companies, are resorting to the use of a VPN provider. In fact, as people are educating themselves on the realms of the digital jungle that is fast becoming a second home, the VPN is becoming a common household name. And why not? With hackers at the ready to steal your sensitive information, and government regimes watching and monitoring your every move, the VPN is now an essential addition to add to our daily internet rituals. In essence, public networks are cesspits, and if we dwell in them too long, without the correct protective elements, then we tend to ‘pick up’ those bugs which dwell in them.
When you use a VPN, the usual presentation is to launch a VPN client on your personal computer. You log in; your computer then “exchanges trusted keys with a server,” and once both systems have been authentically verified, your communication on the internet is secure.
However, not all VPNs are created equally. When searching for the right VPN for your own use, it is important to know what it is you are signing up for, and who with. You need to take into consideration connectivity protocols, features and server locations. The best VPNs will offer a good selection on these criteria. Most importantly, the VPN Provider should have a so called ‘no-logging policy’ which ensures that no user activity will be logged.
You need to be aware of other considerations such as trusting your provider with your data. In other words, what do they log? Everything outside of your VPN server is secure from eavesdropping, but those sharing the same provider may have access to your data. Some VPN providers keep logs in case a government requests them, so decide what is acceptable to you when it comes to logging.[2] AnonHQ recommends IPVanish as it fulfills all criteria regarding speed, security, support of all mobile devices and most importantly anonymity and safety: “IPVanish does not collect or log any traffic or use of its Virtual Private Network service”
Other features you may want to consider are:
Does your VPN provider offers Anti Malware/Spyware?
Do you have the option of securing your phone along with your computer via Mobile Apps?
Pricing of the provider.
Exit Servers if you want a country specific VPN.
Essentially, the million dollar question to ask yourself when you are considering a VPN (or not) is: how secure do you want to be next time you surf the net?
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