Guest View: Legalize drugs for everyone's sake


Charles H. Jones
Sat, November 20, 2021

It would be easy to read the article on Measure 110 (Oct 29) and think that drug criminalization was related to drug addiction. Let’s look at history to see if this is the case. In particular, let’s consider the science, or lack thereof, behind the implementation of drug laws.

A common argument for drug laws is that someone knows somebody who is grateful they were arrested and forced into rehabilitation. Well, I know a former addict that is grateful they were not arrested because a record would have significantly reduced the chances of them having the professional career they had. But such tit-for-tat anecdotal stories don’t represent scientific data. Going deeper, the absurdity of (the church-group financed) "Reefer Madness" – which, among other things, implied marijuana would make you a murderer – illustrates the lack of science in the 1930s when drug laws were being put in place. Further, the government continues to ignore its own study by the Shafer Commission which recommended decriminalizing marijuana in 1972.

So, what was the motivation? In the 1930s Randolph Hearst and other publishers associated marijuana with supposedly crazy and dangerous Mexicans, while "Reefer Madness’" use of parties featuring jazz helped associate marijuana with Black Americans. And there is the interview with John Ehrlichman (Nixon’s domestic policy chief) published in Harper’s magazine, where he says, "[The war on drugs] was authored by President Nixon not for reasons of health or science, but rather simple prejudice … We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities … Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.”

The consequences of this racist motivation have been huge. Studies consistently show that minorities have been disproportionately targeted and incarcerated for drug possession. A specific example was the longer sentences for crack (vs. powdered) cocaine possession in the 1980s. Incarceration contributes to multigenerational poverty. Not only does a person lose personal income by being incarcerated and paying related judicial costs, but also the entire family loses income and parental involvement.

We need better ways of helping people with addiction, but within the context of drug laws, addiction is a red herring misdirecting attention from much greater harm. Addiction also is used as a red herring for the unhoused (addiction is a symptom, not a cause). It’s harder to afford housing when you can’t get a job because of a drug arrest. Another red herring is violence. From Prohibition to drug cartels, the vast majority of drug-related violence is due to the illegality of drugs, not their use.

Mental health is another victim of drug demonization. In addition to the trauma of homelessness and incarceration (individually and to families) the understanding of the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin and similar drugs was delayed by decades because of the Reefer Madness hysteria around LSD in the 1960s.

Here are some questions relevant to Measure 110 and decriminalizing drugs. How many people will get jobs that they would not otherwise have gotten because of a drug arrest? How many more people will be able to afford higher education because their parents got those jobs? How many more people will be able to afford housing because of a decrease in stigma associated with drug use and arrest? Since many people can’t afford time off of work, what role does this cost in time and money play in people not showing up to court? Even though overprescription of opioids has increased addiction, not every user of opioids (or other drugs) is an addict. What role does this play in people not calling drug hotlines when cited for possession?

The harm from drug criminalization has accumulated over nearly a century. Undoing this harm by decriminalizing – or legalizing – drugs will take generations, not months. But the mere fact that fewer people are developing rap sheets or being harassed on the streets for harmless drug possession is already a positive step towards changing social and economic inequity.

It is unfortunate that even many proponents of decriminalizing or legalizing drugs are unaware of, or unwilling to acknowledge, the racist origins of the war on drugs or the far-ranging harm these laws have caused.

The evidence supports legalizing drugs for everyone’s sake.

Charles H. Jones, PhD is a retired mathematician. He organizes the Eugene Atheist Pub Social on Meetup.com and writes the Starting From Doubt blog.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Guest View: Legalize drugs for everyone's sake

Japanese, Korean and Turkish languages originated from farmers in northeast China, study reveals



Carl Samson
Fri, November 19, 2021

Five languages — Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Tungusic and Turkish — belonging to the Transeurasian family are claimed to have emerged from a common ancestor who farmed northeast China some 9,000 years ago, according to a new study.

Key findings: Using linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence, an international team of researchers from Asia, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and the U.S. found that the languages can be traced back to the beginning of millet cultivation in China’s West Liao River. Over time, these millet farmers — who belong to the Amur gene pool — migrated to neighboring regions and left their descendants admixing with other populations.

Whether the five languages descended from one common ancestor has long been a subject of debate. However, recent studies have shown “a reliable core of evidence” supporting the theory, the researchers said.

The spread of the languages reportedly involved two major phases. The first phase, which occurred in the early to middle Neolithic Ages, saw the spread of Amur-related millet farmers in the West Liao River to contiguous regions. The second phase, which occurred in the late Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, saw the mixture of their descendants with Yellow River, western Eurasian and Jomon people. During this period, they also started farming rice and western Eurasian crops in addition to raising livestock.

A qualitative analysis using data from 250 vocabulary concepts in 98 Transeurasian languages allowed the researchers to identify which words emerged in particular regions at a particular time. For instance, ancestral languages that separated during the Neolithic Age -- the final division of the Stone Age -- used words related to millets but not other crops.

Aside from linguistic analysis, the researchers studied data from 255 archaeological sites in northern China, Japan, Korea and the Primorye in Far East Russia. They also conducted genome analyses of 19 ancient individuals from Korea, Kyushu, the Amur and the Ryukyus and combined them with existing data on those who lived in north and east Asia between 9,500 and 300 years ago.

Why this matters: The study, published in the science journal Nature, reflects how agriculture after the Ice Age fueled the dispersal of Transeurasian languages, one of the world’s major language families. It also highlights the complexity of a shared origin of cultures regarded as unique from each other today.

“Accepting that the roots of one's language — and to an extent one's culture — lie beyond present national boundaries can require a kind of reorientation of identity, and this is not always an easy step for people to take,” lead researcher Martine Robbeets said in a statement. “But the science of human history shows us that the history of all languages, cultures, and peoples is one of extended interaction and mixture.”

Robbeets, who heads the Archaeolinguistic Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, added that merging linguistics, archeology and genetics allowed the team to gain “a more balanced and richer understanding” of Transeurasian migration. In their paper, the researchers said such a process of triangulation specifically supported their farming hypothesis and concluded that agriculture had driven the early spread of Transeurasian speakers.

Still, the researchers believe further study is needed to deepen the knowledge on human migrations in Neolithic Northeast Asia. They also recognized the need to understand the influence of succeeding pastoralist population movements.

“There was far more to the creation of the Transeurasian language family, as an ultimate whole, than just one primary Neolithic pulse of migration,” said Mark Hudson, a co-author from the Archaeolinguistic Research Group. “There is still so much to learn.”

UN-backed floating city built to withstand Category 5 hurricanes is headed to South Korea


Aria Bendix
Fri, November 19, 2021

A rendering of OCEANIX's floating city.Oceanix

South Korea agreed to host a UN-backed floating city prototype on Thursday.


The project's designers envision a flood-proof city that produces its own food and water.


They expect to fully construct the prototype in Busan, a large port city, in 2025.

More than two years ago, a group of builders, engineers, and architects crowded around a table at the United Nations to discuss an ambitious concept: a floating city that could withstand natural disasters, including floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes.

The idea wasn't entirely novel: Designers and developers have fantasized for decades about building artificial islands and metropolises on water. Even Homer envisioned a mythical floating city roughly 13 centuries ago.

But those visions were notoriously hard to advance — often because local governments wouldn't sign off on the proposals, citing concerns that there were better uses for the land.

The UN-backed project cleared that hurdle Thursday, when the city of Busan, South Korea, agreed to host a floating city in collaboration with the project's designer, OCEANIX, and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). Like many coastal cities, Busan is threatened by rising sea levels.

"It just happened that Bhutan is the best place for us to deploy this prototype," Itai Madamombe, co-founder of OCEANIX, told Insider. "But this is something that we hope will be useful to all coastal cities around the world, and all coastal communities who are facing the challenge of sea level rise."

The flood-proof city could be completed by 2025

OCEANIX's floating city is essentially a collection of hexagonal platforms perched atop the water.

Hexagons are widely considered among the most efficient architectural shapes: They allow builders to conserve both space and material. Picture the orderly inside of a beehive — essentially a web of interlocked hexagons.

The city's platforms would be bolstered by a limestone coating two to three times harder than concrete, but still buoyant. The material is created by exposing underwater minerals to an electric current. In the presence of that current, it becomes stronger with time and can repair itself, allowing it to withstand harsh weather conditions.

OCEANIX's rendering of "ocean farming" underneath the platforms.Oceanix

The goal is to develop a flood-proof city that rises with the sea and produces its own food, energy, and fresh water. Cages underneath the platforms could be used to house scallops, kelp, or other forms of seafood. And aquaponic systems could use waste from fish to fertilize plants.

But the design isn't set in stone — and OCEANIX hasn't determined the size of the city yet.

Madamombe said her team will collaborate with local designers in South Korea to tailor the prototype to the local environment. OCEANIX will unveil the results of those efforts at a second UN roundtable in April, she said. From there, the team will start engineering the platforms and securing approval for construction.

The cost, subject to change depending on final design and materials, is an estimated $200 million.

"All together, it will take a total of three years," Madamombe said. "So we anticipate that by 2025, we'll see this prototype in water."

Busan is vulnerable to flooding from typhoons

A mockup of the platforms floating on water.Oceanix

Busan, a city of 3.4 million people, is home to one the world's busiest ports, so local builders and engineers have experience building along the water, Madamombe said.

The development would ultimately serve as a model for future floating cities around the world.

Both hurricanes and floods are becoming more frequent and intense as global temperatures continue to climb. A recent study from Climate Central, a nonprofit research group, found that in the worst-case scenario — 4 degrees of warming — at least 50 major cities would lose most of their populated areas over the next 200 to 2,000 years because of rising sea levels.

Coastal cities like Busan are particularly vulnerable.

Though the water surrounding Busan is mostly calm, the city has also been hard hit by typhoons in the last decade, including Typhoon Chaba, which flooded the city in 2016, and Typhoon Kong-rey, which resulted in 55,000 power outages in Busan in 2018.

Madamombe said UN-Habitat will collect data on how the Busan development fares. Her team hopes to apply those lessons to its next project: OCEANIX is in talks with at least 10 other governments about building more floating cities, Madamombe said.

These 5 Trader Joe's Products Tested Off-the-Charts for Lead, Lawsuit Alleges



Caroline Delbert
Fri, November 19, 2021, 12:31 PM·4 min read

Five popular Trader Joe's foods tested off-the-charts for lead.


The tests followed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocol and used mass spectrometry to measure lead levels.

An attorney who has filed a lawsuit against the popular food chain says he wants to see these products pulled from the shelves or labeled to indicate high lead levels.

A Los Angeles–based environmental attorney has filed a lawsuit against the massive Trader Joe's grocery chain in the state of California, alleging that some of the company's products contain high levels of lead.

During standard testing for heavy metals, as established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an independent lab found up to 50 times the legal daily limit for lead consumption in five popular Trader Joe's food products, according to the complaint. The results raise questions about the safety of prepared food products as well as the testing itself.

Trader Joe's did not immediately return Popular Mechanics' request for comment.

Trader Joe's is a Monrovia, California–based grocery chain with over 500 stores around the United States. The first dates back to 1967, but the chain has seen its most explosive growth in the last ten years. The stores specialize in house-branded products, with up to 80 percent of its merchandise bearing the Trader Joe's label.

All five items named in the lawsuit are Trader Joe's-brand products. The company keeps mum about the supply chain for its products, but people still speculate about which third-party manufacturers produce which items. If these products are actually made by other major brands, the company's alleged lead problem could be much more far-reaching than this single lawsuit suggests.

Here are the items that are named in the Trader Joe's lawsuit, along with their respective lead levels (the recommended daily maximum for ingested lead is 0.5 micrograms total):


Super Spinach Salad: 25.3 micrograms


Panak Paneer: 16.2 micrograms


Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry: 10.4 micrograms


Organic Pesto Tortellini: 10.0 micrograms


Vegetarian Spring Rolls: 4.4 micrograms

The items were tested using the FDA standard test, known colloquially as "EAM 4.7." EAM stands for Elemental Analysis Manual for Food and Related Products. "This resource serves as a reference, for analysts at the FDA and around the world, providing not only general analytical information and procedures and detailed laboratory methods, but also helpful notes from analysts' experiences using these methods," the FDA explains online.

EAM 4.7 is a specific chapter. Take a deep breath: "Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometric Determination of Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Mercury, and Other Elements in Food Using Microwave Assisted Digestion."

In the test, food is "digested" by applying acid to it and swirling the resulting mixture in a pressurized, heated digestion vessel. After that, an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer is used to interpret the chemical elements in the thermally-digested sample. The sample is turned into a spray aerosol, then charged plasma (full of ions) is used to help highlight the individual elements that make up the sample.

✅ How Do Heavy Metals Impact Your Health?

Heavy metals are a loosely defined as a category of metallic elements that we consider "heavy" due to their high atomic weights. In environmental testing, the term refers to elements like lead and mercury, which can do damage to plants and animals if they're present in large quantities.

Cadmium, lead, and mercury are all heavy metals with respective atomic weights of 112.4, 207.2, and 200.6. (While arsenic isn't technically a heavy metal, it's often found in compounds with lead, for example.) When these metals accumulate in large amounts in your body, they cause damage, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Even the heavy metals your body needs in very small amounts, like iron, can become harmful in high quantities.

The presence of foreign matter in your body is a risk factor for diseases like cancer, but it's also dangerous on its own as heavy metal poisoning. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) explains:

Toxicity can result from sudden, severe exposure, or from chronic exposure over time. Symptoms can vary depending on the metal involved, the amount absorbed, and the age of the person exposed. For example, young children are more susceptible to the effects of lead exposure because they absorb more compared with adults and their brains are still developing.

Attorney Vineet Dubey, of Custodio & Dubey—the plaintiff's law firm—confirmed to Popular Mechanics by email that these five products were the ones that contained the highest amounts of lead, according to the lab results, but they weren't the only products that contained lead: "Other items were tested, all of which had lead content, but not high enough to include in this lawsuit," he says.

"The immediate goal is to have these products pulled off the shelves and not sold again unless the lead is removed," Dubey explains. "The long-term goal is to force Trader Joe's to require stricter testing of any food products they sell to consumers to make sure they are not selling food tainted with lead."

SCREWS OAN WORKERS

OAN asks judge to drop the company's executives from Dominion's defamation lawsuit — but leave employees on the hook

Jacob Shamsian
Fri, November 19, 2021

Chanel Rion of One America News Network speak's to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany during a White House press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 20, 2020 in Washington, DC.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

One America News filed a motion to dismiss Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.


The far-right news network asked the judge to drop executives Charles and Robert Herring as defendants.


Its lawyer said two OAN employees named in the suit could defend themselves in Colorado instead of DC.

The far-right media organization One America News (OAN) asked a judge to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over election conspiracy theories — or, failing that, to at least let the company's executives off the hook.

"The allegations related to OAN, Charles Herring, and Robert Herring, Sr. demonstrate that they have insufficient contacts with this jurisdiction to hale them into court here," Blaine C. Kimrey, an attorney representing all the defendants in the lawsuit, wrote in a motion filed to court Thursday night.

But the judge can leave two the OAN employees named in the lawsuit as defendants, Kimrey wrote. On-air talent Chanel Rion is already embroiled in a similar lawsuit in Colorado, he argued. Correspondent Christina Bobb would benefit from moving it to Colorado as well, Kimrey wrote, because courts there move faster than the ones in Washington, DC.

"Rion is already litigating these same issues in Colorado and Bobb is an OAN employee who would benefit from the convenience afforded to OAN," Kimrey wrote. "Any minor convenience to Bobb is clearly outweighed by Colorado being the more convenient forum for all other parties."

Dominion filed the lawsuit against OAN in August, demanding $1.6 billion in damages and accusing the company of pushing damaging, false conspiracy theories about the election technology company's role in the 2020 presidential election. The lawsuit named Rion and Bobb as defendants; it also named Robert Herring, Sr. and Charles Herring, the father-son duo who founded OAN and serve as CEO and president, respectively.

Unlike Fox News and Newsmax, which Dominion later sued, OAN doubled down on election conspiracy theories in its programming in the wake of lawsuit threats — even as it quietly deleted stories from its website.

Dominion's lawsuit said the network "deputized" Rion "as an in-house spokesperson for all Dominion-related content." It also accused Bobb of "simultaneously and covertly moonlighting as a Trump Campaign advisor" as OAN "[raced] to the bottom with Fox [News] and other outlets such as Newsmax to spread false and manufactured stories about election fraud."
OAN wants the lawsuit moved to Colorado if it isn't dismissed

OAN's attorney argued that Dominion's lawsuit in DC should be moved to Colorado if it isn't dismissed. He pointed out that Dominion is based in Denver, and the lawsuit has factual similarities to a separate lawsuit filed by Eric Coomer, a former Dominion executive, in the state.

The defendants in Coomer's defamation case include Rion, One America News, and parent company Herring Networks.

"While not their home state, Colorado is much more convenient for California residents OAN, Charles Herring, and Robert Herring, Sr. than the District of Columbia (in part because OAN and Rion are already litigating these issues there)," Kimrey wrote.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is interviewed by the One America News Network during former U.S. president Donald Trump's rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington, Ohio, U.S., June 26, 2021.Gaelen Morse/Reuters

Dominion's defamation lawsuit against OAN is one of many it and rival technology company Smartmatic has filed against election conspiracy theorists and media organizations they say perpetuated those false theories.

It filed most of those cases in federal court in DC because that's where it alleges the defamatory actions took place, including three against conspiracy theorists Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Lindell and his company MyPillow.

Days before Dominion filed its lawsuit against OAN, US District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who is overseeing the cases, ruled against all of their motions to dismiss and allowed the cases to proceed in DC federal court.

The same day Dominion sued OAN, it also sued Newsmax and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne filed a motion to dismiss the case on Wednesday, arguing his remarks about Dominion's role in the 2020 election were justified and didn't rise to the level of defamation. Newsmax hasn't yet filed a motion in response to the election technology company, but settled Coomer's lawsuit against the company earlier this year.

A judge in Delware state court is still weighing whether to accept Fox News' motion to dismiss Dominion's lawsuit against it.

Elon Musk reportedly asks Tesla managers who don't execute orders to 'resign immediately,' according to leaked emails

Emily Walsh
Sat, November 20, 2021

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Pool

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has three options for managers if they get a request from him, according to emails obtained by CNBC.

The two leaked emails were sent by Musk to "everybody" at Tesla during the first week of October.

The emails discuss listening to music at work and what managers should do when they're sent directions by Musk.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tells managers who don't execute orders or explain why he's wrong that they will have to "resign immediately," according to leaked emails obtained by CNBC.

The two emails were sent by Musk to "everybody" at Tesla during the first week of October. During that time, Tesla announced it delivered a record 241,300 vehicles during the third quarter of 2021, and "Full Self Driving Beta" was launched and later put on hold after safety concerns. The company also lost a lawsuit against a former Tesla employee who said he was racially harassed while working as an agency staffer.

Musk's first email discusses factory employees listening to music while working. The CEO said that he supports "any little touches that make work more enjoyable" and that listening to music was allowed as long as employees had one earbud out for safety reasons.

His second email details the three steps managers should do when they're sent directions. Musk tells them to reply and explain why what he said was incorrect since he can occasionally be "plain wrong," to ask for clarification, or to execute the directions because "if none of the above are done, that manager will be asked to resign immediately."

Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request to comment on the leaked emails.

Musk, who is known for his alternative corporate communication style, has had emails leaked in the past. The CEO typically takes to Twitter to communicate his thoughts and the latest news associated with two of his major companies Tesla and SpaceX.

BRO CULTURE

Report: Activision Took Years To Fire Someone Who Signed Emails '1-800-ALLCOCK'


Ethan Gach
Fri, November 19, 2021


A California lawsuit earlier this year alleged sexual harassment, discrimination, and a pervasive “frat boy culture” at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. At least in one instance, that culture included an employee signing all of his work emails as “1-800-ALLCOCK.”

That detail comes from the latest episode of The Wall Street Journal podcast which elaborates on some of its recent bombshell investigative report outlining new instances of misconduct and coverups, including by CEO Bobby Kotick.

“There was one example where an Activision employee had for years just signed his email signature 1-800-ALLCOCK,” reporter Kirsten Grind said in a transcript of the podcast. “So if you were a woman, you would get that email and that was just the normal course, right? Just guys being guys joking about it and you just sort of felt like that was what happened at Activision.”

Activision reportedly didn’t take action regarding the email signature until it received a complaint about it just this past summer, at which point it fired the employee after a month-long investigation. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The podcast episode also interviewed a former employee about her time at Sledgehammer Games, maker of the recently released Call of Duty: Vanguard. Ashley Mark, hired as a quality assurance analyst in 2016 during the production of Call of Duty: WWII, described the male-dominated workplace like this:

You’ve got people who want to...Basically are very nerdy, want to make a good game, and then you’ve got the gun-loving group because it’s Call of Duty so you’re going to attract people who love guns, and then you have got people who are really into fitness. There’s a lot of people who are into fitness at least at that time at Sledgehammer Games. So there were people who would go into groups and that you would go to the gym and they would just get pumped up. So it’s very masculine.

Mark recalled a 2017 studio anniversary party where one former Sledgehammer manager “put his arm around my female coworker almost like a choke hold” while hugging her and repeatedly saying her name. That former manager told The Wall Street Journal he didn’t remember the details of the evening in question because he was too drunk, but confirmed he was put on a two-week paid suspension before being moved to a different role.

Sledgehammer Games was also where one former female employee was reportedly raped twice, incidents that were not investigated until she sent a letter from her lawyer after she had already left the company. According to the new podcast episode, when she originally to her complaint to studio HR, a representative for the department tried to get her to down play what had happened and reframe it in a more positive light.

Until recently, most of the attention has been on allegations about past misconduct and discrimination at Blizzard. But these latest reports reinforce parts of the original California lawsuit which cited booze-filled offices and work events, and negligent HR departments, as recipes for mistreatment across the entire Activision Blizzard business.

This week, the heads of both PlayStation and Xbox spoke out about the latest revelations. Girls Who Code cut ties with the company. And some shareholders joined over 2,000 current Activision Blizzard employees in calling for Kotick to resign.

“It’s pretty clear that the only forces that can create change at Activision are its customers (whose money is the ultimate corporate goal), its investors and the employees whose talent makes Activision’s games worth buying,” Paul Reiche, former head of Activision Blizzard’s Skylanders studio, told Axios today. “If the new stories I have read are true, I can’t see how Activision can continue its success without new leadership”

Microsoft reportedly evaluating relationship with Activision amid CEO turmoil

Brett Molina, USA TODAY
Thu, November 18, 2021,

Activision Blizzard says it hired a law firm to help ensure a "respectful and inclusive" workplace.

Microsoft is reportedly evaluating its relationship with video game publisher Activision Blizzard following allegations CEO Bobby Kotick knew for years about sexual misconduct claims at the company.

Xbox head Phil Spencer sent an email to staff, according to Bloomberg, saying he is "evaluating all aspects of our relationship" with Activision Blizzard following a report from The Wall Street Journal claiming Kotick didn't inform the board of allegations of sexual misconduct at the publisher.

In a statement emailed to USA TODAY in response to the report, Spencer said he personally has strong values for a welcoming and inclusive environment for Xbox employees.

"This is not a destination but a journey that we will always be on," said Spencer. "The leadership at Xbox and Microsoft stand by our teams and support them in building a safer environment for all."

Activision told USA TODAY in an emailed statement it respects feedback from its partners and is engaging with them further.

Employees at Activision Blizzard staged a second walkout demanding Kotick be removed as CEO, NBC News reported. A Twitter account representing employees of the company shared a petition seeking Kotick's removal that has more than 1,000 signatures.



In a statement released Tuesday after the Journal report, Activision's board showed support for Kotick. "The Board remains confident that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention," it said.

Earlier this year, the state of California sued Activision Blizzard claiming the publisher fostered a sexist culture and paid women less than men despite doing more work.

The lawsuit prompted employees' initial walkout urging changes within the company's culture.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Activision Blizzard: Microsoft reportedly evaluating relationship

Xbox is re-evaluating its relationship with Activision Blizzard


Kris Holt
·Contributing Writer
Thu, November 18, 2021

Phil Spencer is reportedly reassessing Xbox's relationship with Activision Blizzard following new bombshell reports about the company and CEO Bobby Kotick. Spencer, who runs Microsoft's Xbox division, reportedly told employees in an email that he's “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments,” in the wake of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

In the memo, which was obtained by Bloomberg, Spencer said he and other leaders at Xbox are “disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” that reportedly took place at Activision Blizzard. "This type of behavior has no place in our industry,” Spencer wrote.

Kotick is said to have known about instances of sexual misconduct at the company for years without reporting them to the board. He has also been accused of mistreating women on numerous occasions.

Spencer has joined Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan in expressing deep concern about the situation. In an internal memo, which also leaked earlier this week, Ryan wrote that he was "disheartened and frankly stunned to read” The Journal's report. He also criticized Activision's response to the allegations. Earlier this week, the company told Engadget that the report presented a “misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO.”

More than 900 Activision Blizzard employees and contractors have now signed a petition demanding Kotick's removal. A shareholder group has also urged the board to remove Kotick and for the board's two longest-serving directors to retire by the end of the year. In addition, Polygon and Eurogamer both called for Kotick's resignation. Strongly worded statements from leaders at Microsoft and Sony, two of Activision Blizzard's most important business partners, will further crank up the pressure.

"We respect all feedback from our valued partners and are engaging with them further," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Engadget. "We have detailed important changes we have implemented in recent weeks, and we will continue to do so. We are committed to the work of ensuring our culture and workplace are safe, diverse, and inclusive. We know it will take time, but we will not stop until we have the best workplace for our team."

Activision Faces Internal Rifts in Bid to Blunt Uproar Over CEO



Jason Schreier
Wed, November 17, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Some employees at Activision Blizzard Inc. said they were let down by internal meetings that were held Wednesday morning to discuss the new revelations about the company and Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick.

The gatherings took place on video calls across the game publisher’s three primary organizations, Activision, Blizzard and King. Executives in charge of each division took questions and shared similar talking points after the Wall Street Journal reported detailed allegations that Kotick was aware of sexual misconduct at the company years before a California lawsuit made them public this summer and failed to report alleged instances of rape to the board.

Hours after the article was published on Tuesday, more than a hundred employees staged a walkout to demand Kotick’s resignation. The board said it’s standing by Kotick, but partners and shareholders have raised questions about his handling of the crisis. Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan criticized Activision’s response in an email to staff Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. When asked for comment, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which owns more than a million shares in Activision, said in a statement that it recognizes that sexual harassment and misconduct incidents can result in “significant” risks to its portfolio holdings and that it continually monitors its holdings to address those risks.

The leaders said Kotick would be working to “regain trust” of employees throughout the company, according to partial transcripts from two of the meetings shared with Bloomberg. Activision president Rob Kostich told people in his group that Kotick wouldn’t be resigning, according to two attendees. Blizzard’s top executive, Mike Ybarra, told staff in what appeared to be pre-recorded remarks that he understood their frustrations and apologized for not being more active as a leader, according to two attendees.

Some employees of King, the makers of Candy Crush, asked whether a sudden announcement on Monday that they’d be getting bonus vacation days next week for Thanksgiving was meant to preempt the article. Activision Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre denied that was the reason. In response to a question about whether Activision’s newly instituted “zero tolerance” policy on harassment, announced last month, would also apply to Kotick, Alegre said that his boss was “deeply and personally committed to doing the right things.”

Alegre also addressed the reported pay disparity between Ybarra and Jennifer Oneal, who were named co-leaders of Blizzard this summer following the lawsuit. Oneal, who resigned earlier this month, said she was paid less than Ybarra. Alegre said that Oneal was paid “differently” than Ybarra because of complications involving cash and equity and that “they were both offered the exact same compensation.”

But Oneal told Blizzard employees that she wasn’t offered compensation equal to Ybarra’s until she tendered her resignation, according to a Slack transcript reviewed by Bloomberg. Gaming website IGN earlier reported on the Slack exchange. Pay discrimination was one of the items listed in the California lawsuit.

The company also told staff that it’s banning alcohol in all offices. Many people were given the opportunity to take paid mental health days, which some staff said hadn’t mollified them. On video calls and in Slack channels across the company, calls for Kotick’s ousting continue. Many Activision Blizzard employees are even publicly demanding on their own personal Twitter feeds that the CEO be fired.

In an email to Blizzard staff on Tuesday reviewed by Bloomberg, Ybarra wrote that “if there’s a silver lining to the last few months, it’s that they’ve proven that Blizzard is full of incredible employees who are making progress every day to improve our culture, our game communities, and ourselves.” Ybarra added that “our best years are ahead of us.”

But with morale low and Kotick still in place, some employees are skeptical about that.

AMERICA'S BIRD

Wild turkeys are everywhere: How they made their comeback and why they taste different


Susan Pike
Thu, November 18, 2021,

For those of us old enough to remember the 1970s, turkeys were not part of the normal backdrop of life in New England like they are now. Today, turkeys are everywhere.

Huge flocks graze on suburban lawns and block roads. They visit our porches. They menace our pets and our children. They chase us away if they don’t like what we’re doing. But, back in the early 1970s, there were no wild turkeys in New England. In fact, there hadn’t been any in these parts since the mid-1800s when they were driven to near extinction by over-hunting.

It is estimated there were as few as 30,000 wild turkeys left in the United States by the early 1900s, a tiny number given there are now a whopping 7 million or more wild turkeys nationwide. They were on their way to extinction.

A wild turkey crosses a street in Kittery in 2020, approaching potholes in the road.

When did wild turkey restoration efforts begin?

It wasn’t until the Pittman-Roberson Act of 1937 that efforts began to bring the wild turkey back by taxing sporting arms and ammunition, and paying for programs to bring back wildlife. The 1940 federal Wildlife Restoration program began returning wild turkeys to their original habitat. This was good timing: the shift of farming out of New England and the widespread failure of farms during the Great Depression heralded the return of forests, ideal habitat for the reintroduced turkeys. However, It took awhile for turkeys to make it back to New England.

Wild turkeys leave an area near a bird feeder and head to the woods in South Berwick on a cloudy Wednesday morning Nov. 10, 2021.

Early efforts to reintroduce wild turkeys failed. It was difficult to capture large numbers of wild turkeys to transplant to new locations, so early reintroduction efforts focused on using captive-bred wild turkeys. These were genetically wild birds, but because they were raised in captivity they never received normal parental training and so never learned the social behaviors and survival skills necessary to be successful in the wild. It wasn't until methods were developed that were geared towards capturing large numbers of wild birds that turkeys were finally able to be successfully transplanted into their restored habitat.

How do you catch a flock of wild turkeys?

The cannon-net was the real game changer. This involved concealing a folded mesh net on the ground and setting out bait for turkeys as the trapper waited in a nearby blind. When the turkeys arrived, the trapper could remotely detonate black-powder cannons that would propel the net over the unsuspecting turkeys.

A wild turkey perches on a backyard deck of Jamie Eno's home in Dover.

After some unsuccessful starts, wild turkeys were reintroduced into New Hampshire and Maine in the 1970s. In 1975, New Hampshire Fish and Game officials transplanted 25 wild turkeys from New York and Pennsylvania into the Connecticut River Valley, a location that was picked because of its large number of dairy farms. Dairy farms have a lot of corn waste and manure that can provide food for overwintering turkeys (turkeys do not migrate and do not do well during harsh winters). In 10 short years, New Hampshire had a large enough turkey population to open a hunting season.

Nature news: Salamanders on hunt for their winter homes. Should you help?

How many wild turkeys are there in NH, Maine?

Maine’s reintroduction efforts in 1978 were equally successful. Forty-one wild turkeys were transplanted from Vermont to the southern towns of York and Eliot. These turkey reintroductions exceeded expectations. Maine now has a solid population of approximately 60,000 birds, New Hampshire has close to 45,000, according to wildlife officials.

The rural-suburban communities found throughout Maine and New Hampshire provide the conditions wild turkeys need to thrive: large tracts of mature hardwood forest (especially nut-producing oaks and beech) interspersed with mature pine as well as grassy openings and thickets for raising their young. Bird feeders and farms help them overwinter north of their normal range by providing a stable source of food.

2020 hunting season: Maine hunters get more cracks at wild turkeys

The wild turkey reintroduction has been a huge success. In just 50 years, they have grown from tiny populations found in a fraction of their original habitat to burgeoning populations wherever they have been reintroduced. Wild turkeys are now found throughout the United States, in every state except Alaska. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, wild turkeys occupy more square miles of habitat than any other game bird in North America, a tribute to modern wildlife management practices and to the resilience of the wild turkey.

When can you hunt wild turkeys?

These robust populations of turkeys delight turkey hunters everywhere. According to New Hampshire Fish and Game Turkey Project Leader Alison Keating, the New Hampshire wild turkey population has remained relatively stable for the past several years. Turkeys are more abundant in the southern part of the state than the northern part due to more suitable habitat and milder winters in the southern part of the state. A spring and a fall hunt help to keep the wild turkey population under control.

Bears in the back yard?: A NH Fish and Game expert explains rise in Seacoast bear sightings

What does wild turkey taste like?

According to Keating, wild turkey is a fundamentally different dining experience than domesticated turkey (a sub-species of wild turkey). In general, wild turkeys are smaller than domestic turkeys. An adult male turkey typically weighs between 15 to 25 pounds. They do not have as much breast meat as a domestic farm-raised bird because wild turkeys use their breast more for flying and they eat a wild diet of nuts, seeds and berries as opposed to domestic turkeys being given feed (generally corn-based) on a farm. Wild turkey meat is darker, more intense in flavor and has a firmer texture.

Susan Pike

Susan Pike, a researcher and an environmental sciences and biology teacher at Dover High School, welcomes your ideas for future column topics. She may be reached at spike3116@gmail.com. Read more of her Nature News columns online at Seacoastonline.com and pikes-hikes.com, and follow her on Instagram @pikeshikes.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Wild turkeys in Seacoast NH and Maine, once over-hunted, bounce back

The story about Benjamin Franklin wanting the National Bird to be a turkey is just a myth. This false story began as a result of a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter criticizing the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying that it looked more like a turkey.

Did Benjamin Franklin Want the National Bird To Be A Turkey?

'Sad & disgusting': Enes Kanter says Lebron James chooses 'money over morals' on China and slave labor



Bryan Ke
Fri, November 19, 2021


The Boston Celtics’ Enes Kanter recently took another jab at Los Angeles Lakers star player LeBron James for reportedly choosing money over morals on the issues of forced labor in China, Uyghurs and Tibet.

What happened: Kanter, 29, took to social media on Thursday to again call out James, 36, for not standing up against Nike and its alleged use of forced labor when manufacturing its shoes.

“Money over Morals for the ‘King,’” Kanter tweeted, referencing James. “Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do “shut up & dribble” when Big Boss (China) says so.”

“Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?” the NBA center asked James.

He also posted pictures of four new sneakers featuring James. On one of the sneakers, the "Space Jam 2" star can be seen being crowned by China's Xi Jinping. The other shoes’ messages read, “I Am Informed and Educated on the Situation” and “Hey, Still Researching and Getting Educated?”

Kanter has been speaking out against China on several political issues, including their treatment of Uyghurs, Tibet and Taiwan. Last week, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the NBA star for supporting Taiwan's freedom. He also called for the boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing while calling Xi an "insecure tyrant."

Lessened court time: Speaking to “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday, OutKick founder Clay Travis claimed Kanter is facing consequences for his strong criticism of China on the basketball court. This is a claim that the basketball player seemingly hinted at in an Instagram post he shared this week.

Travis believes Kanter’s continued criticism of China and its leader has resulted in him being given less playing time.

The player appeared in all 72 games with the Portland Trailblazers in 2020, with an average of 24.4 minutes on the court. However, Kanter reportedly only played eight minutes during Monday’s Cleveland Cavaliers game, which was his first court appearance since Oct. 30.

“My thing is strictly basketball,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said about Kanter’s lessened court appearance. “We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him and that’s limited his time to some extent. Nothing basketball-related will be based on (social media).”

Get Used to Expensive Coffee. And It’ll Probably Taste Worse Too




Archie Hunter, Marvin G Perez and Mumbi Gitau
Fri, November 19, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Coffee snobs  cognoscenti have a lot to worry about right now. A global shortage of beans is already threatening to push up prices at cafes and supermarkets. Now, your morning cappuccino or latte might start leaving a bitter taste for other reasons too.

The world is facing a desperate shortfall of arabica coffee, the variety that gives the smoothest flavor and makes up about 60% of world production. Supplies were decimated after extreme weather destroyed crops, and with a La Nina pattern forecast through early 2022 expected to further hurt yields, it could take years for the market to recover. Arabica prices are surging to reflect the mounting crisis, while global shipping congestion is making it even harder to get beans where they are needed.

“This is not just a short-term issue,” said Kona Haque, who leads research at commodity trader ED&F Man in London. “It’s actually something that we’re going to be factoring in for the next couple of years.”

Coffee roasters and retailers must now decide whether to increase their own prices. But they’ve got another option too: arabica’s harsher cousin, robusta. Some are already using more of the cheaper variety, which is typically drunk in instant coffees and contains more caffeine that gives it a bitter flavor.

The crisis has its roots in Brazil, the world’s main supplier of arabica, where once-in-a-generation frosts followed droughts to wreak havoc on the crops. Crucially, it’s not just the current harvest that farmers have to worry about, some have been “stumping” or removing badly damaged trees; newly planted ones will take several years to mature. On top of that, they’re also grappling with surging costs for fertilizers and labor shortages.

Arabica bean prices have spiked by about 80% this year. While researchers and analysts are still busy surveying the remnants of Brazil’s damaged coffee harvest, the reports so far are not encouraging.

In the meanwhile, just about everyone in the supply chain is scrambling for beans.

“We have a lot of customers who don’t usually buy from us buying bigger quantities and different origins than what is normal,” says Joanne Berry, head of sourcing and procurement at Tropiq, a Norwegian company that buys high-grade, specialty coffee for roasters around Europe. “We have disproportionate demand I think because of the general lack of supply.”

While robusta prices have also risen this year, they’ve lagged arabica’s gains and are less than half the price. That makes it increasingly tempting for roasters to use more in their products.

Some cafes and brands focus exclusively on one or the other variety, but many use a blend of both to create a specific taste. Arabica is sweeter and typically used in drinks like cappuccinos and lattes, robusta has traditionally been popular in Italy for espresso or freeze-dried for use in instant coffee.

Both varieties have been caught up in the logistics snarl-ups that are gripping the world at the moment. Coffee is shipped in containers, and a global shortage has restricted exports of millions of bags to demand epicenters such as the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Vietnam, the biggest exporter of robusta, is expecting a second bumper crop this year, but freight holdups mean exporters are struggling to ship the beans out. Still, unlike arabica, traders know that it’s just a matter of time and the robusta will hit the market eventually.

Of course, many brands and cafes will be reluctant to risk alienating customers by changing blends and flavor profiles. In a small and rough poll of premium coffee stores in the City of London this week, all the staff that Bloomberg spoke to were adamant that there were no plans to add robusta to their mix.

Any switching that does happen globally is likely to be slow, though some roasters in Brazil are already making the change.

Either way, it’s looking increasingly likely that coffee retail prices are set to rise.

Roasters from Nestle SA to Israel-based Strauss Group Ltd have already flagged that the increased price will eventually be transferred to end-consumers, another example of inflation in the post-pandemic economy. It’s not just coffee bean costs that have risen, said said ED&F Man's Haque.

"Coffee roasting companies are also facing higher labor costs and energy bills,” she said. “And because inflation is already being flagged, I think consumers can be almost certain of what’s going to happen."