Amazon India target of police probe into marijuana smuggling

Police in central India allege Amazon India has been used for marijuana smuggling. Courtesy Jon Russell/flickr

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Police in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh say they've brought charges against executives of Amazon India for allegedly using the company's e-commerce market to smuggle marijuana.

The charges are the latest in an ongoing investigation by the Madhya Pradesh police into the alleged smuggling that's resulted in multiple arrests, reports The Times of India. Police have found inconsistencies in the response from Amazon India and officials have complained the company has been uncooperative with the investigation.

"The company is earning hugely from this country and they have a social responsibility towards citizens," Manoj Singh, a local police official told the paper. "We had sent our team to their offices but nothing much happened. They are shifting the onus. We have emailed notices to the authorities concerned."

Police last week arrested two men alleged to have used Amazon India to smuggle 44 pounds of marijuana, reports TechCrunch. However, police haven't said how many executives have been arrested.

A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch that the company complies with all applicable laws and doesn't allow illegal products to be listed.

"However, in case sellers list such products, as an intermediary, we take strict action as may be required under the law, when the same is highlighted to us," the company said in a statement. "The issue was notified to us and we are currently investigating it. We assure full co-operation and support required to Investigating Authorities and Law Enforcement agencies with ongoing investigations and ensure full compliance to applicable laws."

NASA taking aim at asteroid is first step toward planetary defense

By Paul Brinkmann

An illustration depicts NASA's DART spacecraft moments before crashing into the Dimorphos asteroid. Image courtesy of NASA


Nov. 21 (UPI) -- NASA's plan to whack an asteroid with a spacecraft to be launched late Tuesday from California is intended to provide insight into how humanity might prevent a collision with a planet-killing space rock, space agency officials said.

For the first time, a spacecraft will attempt next fall to smash into an asteroid as an experiment to show how such a space body could be deflected if it were headed toward Earth, Lori Glaze, NASA's director of planetary science, said Sunday in a press conference.

"I feel that once we've completed this test, we are going to learn an incredible amount and be so much more prepared in the future if, indeed, a potential asteroid could pose a threat," Glaze said.

But NASA doesn't know if it will learn everything it needs to know to defend Earth against such a deadly strike, officials said.

An image depicts the DART spacecraft nearing collision with the asteroid Dimorphos with the LICIACube small satellite, at left, observing. Image courtesy of Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins University

RELATED NASA chief calls for global effort to study asteroid threat

SpaceX plans to launch NASA's DART mission, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, at 10:20 p.m. PST Tuesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off at that time or wait for another launch window over a period of 84 days.

Many facts still are unknown about the outcome of the test, because NASA has little knowledge of the composition of the target asteroid -- Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium -- said Tom Statler, NASA's DART program scientist.

An illustration depicts the DART spacecraft nearing a planned collision with the asteroid Dimophos. Image courtesy of NASA

RELATED NASA plans crashing spacecraft into asteroid to study Earth-impact defense

"The issue of how prepared do we actually want to be -- that's a much broader discussion to be had across governments and the nations," Statler said. "In addition to being able to deflect an asteroid, we still need to study the sky and look for them."

The $330 million mission will fly to the Didymos asteroid system, which actually are twin bodies that circle each other.

The target asteroid, Dimorphos, is a satellite of Didymos. The DART spacecraft will fly into Dimorphos at 15,000 mph, after which Earth-based telescopes will monitor if and how the impact changes its path

.

RELATED Arecibo telescope collapse may complicate NASA asteroid mission

"It's so important that we track and monitor these small objects, as well as develop new techniques that can help us in the future to ensure that one of them and our planet Earth don't find themselves in the same place at the same time," Glaze said.

"This is a key test that NASA and other agencies want to perform before we have an actual need," she 

NASA chose the Didymos system of two asteroids because it offers a unique chance to obtain precise measurements from a small impact.

The DART spacecraft itself will be completely destroyed and throw out a cloud of debris, according to NASA, which also will help the agency measure the impact.

Target says it will be closed on US Thanksgiving Day -- from now on

IS IT A PAID DAY OFF FOR STAFF?


"What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard -- one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests' holiday wishes," Target's CEO said in a note to employees. File Photo by Mohammad Kheirkhah/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Big box retailer Target says it will keep all U.S. stores closed on Thanksgiving Day, which is something it did last year due to COVID-19, and will now do permanently.

The retail chain was effectively forced to close a year ago to keep away crowds and keep the virus from spreading.

Sales figures last year were better than expected, and Target now feels that online discounts and other opportunities can allow all employees to take Thanksgiving off.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said the chain is confident in its strategies to emphasize other days during the holiday shopping season, rather than any one day in particular.

The company said both store sales and digital sales grew in the third quarter by about 10% and 29%.

"What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard -- one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests' holiday wishes both within and well beyond store hours," Cornell wrote in a note to Target employees, according to MarketWatch.

Walmart, Target's chief rival, has also said that it will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

$100 million donation from Jeff Bezos is Obama Foundation's largest


Rep. John Lewis, D-S.C., waits to lead members of the Congressional Black Caucus into Statuary Hall for the memorial service for Rep. Elija Cummings in 2019. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to the Obama Foundation in honor of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis, the foundation's largest gift to date.

Bezos asked that the Obama Presidential Center -- which broke ground and expects at least a million visitors per year -- be named the John Lewis Plaza.

The foundation said that it's seeking to give opportunities to donors to name public spaces within the center. The center will include a presidential library, museum, athletic center and more.

"Dedicated public spaces at the center will honor civil rights icons, social justice heroes, and changemakers in public service, business, and entertainment," the foundation said.

The donation will help fund programs like the Girls Opportunity Alliance, My Brother's Keeper, the Global Leaders Program, and the Hometown Fund which supports Chicago's South Side.

Last week, Bezos announced $96.2 million in donations to a group working to end family homelessness and $2 billion in the climate crisis. He stepped down as the chief executive of Amazon in July and set out on philanthropic and business ventures.

Lewis died last year at age 80. He was a civil rights leader who worked to desegregate the Deep South and served in the House of Representatives for more than three decades.

CRIMINAL STATE CAPITALI$M
A $391 Million Fine Has China’s Board Members Quitting En Masse

Bloomberg News
Sun, November 21, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- China’s independent directors are quitting once coveted seats on the boards of listed companies, spooked by fines levied on five directors of Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co. that totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.

Independent directors of at least 20 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have resigned after a Guangzhou court ruled on Nov. 12 that some Kangmei executives and their external accountants were responsible for fabricating its financial statements. They were required to jointly compensate investors for a combined 2.5 billion yuan ($391 million) of losses.

Kangmei’s five independent directors are each liable for between 5% and 10% of the amount, equivalent to 123 million yuan to 246 million yuan, according to an exchange filing. They collected less than 200,000 yuan in annual director fees from the firm.

It’s rare for independent directors to be ordered to compensate investors in a civil litigation in China. The mass departures highlight a growing wariness among corporate executives as Chinese regulators crack down on the nation’s private sector, targeting industries from technology to education and more.

The securities regulator said it supported the court’s decision in one of China’s biggest fraud cases, which also saw Kangmei’s former chairman sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. The watchdog had earlier vowed “zero tolerance” for market misconduct at its mid-year meeting.

Kangmei in 2019 disclosed that it had overstated its cash positions by $4.3 billion using false documents and transaction records -- an amount one lawyer said was unprecedented in China. The firm admitted to “serious” deficiencies in its corporate governance and internal controls.

Most firms cited personal reasons in recent filings for the resignation of their independent directors. In some cases, that left companies short of the mandatory requirement of having at least 1/3 of board members as independent directors.

In a previous clampdown in 2016, China targeted academics who sit on the boards of listed firms. That followed a 2013 ban on top government officials holding paid corporate positions as part of the nation’s anti-corruption drive. Four of the five independent directors from Kangmei teach at domestic universities, local media reported.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Dior sparks local controversy over photo of Asian woman at Shanghai exhibition

Carl Samson
Fri, November 19, 2021

Dior has drawn criticism in China over a photo in its exhibition that purportedly caters to Western aesthetics vilifying Asian women.

Driving the news: The image, shot by Chinese photographer Chen Man, appeared in the French brand’s “LADY DIOR” exhibit in Shanghai. It shows an Asian woman wearing a traditional dress and holding a Dior bag to complete her look.

The photo, which was also posted on Dior’s Weibo page, soon became the subject of a hit piece from the state-owned Beijing Daily. The news outlet asked, “Is this the Asian woman in Dior’s eyes?” and slammed it for featuring “spooky eyes, gloomy face and Qing Dynasty armor.”

“The photographer is playing up to the brands, or the aesthetic tastes of the western world,” Bloomberg translated the publication as saying. “For years, Asian women have always appeared with small eyes and freckles from the Western perspective, but the Chinese way to appreciate art and beauty can’t be distorted by that.”


Controversial photo of Asian woman on Dior's Weibo
Image via Weibo

Some users pointed out that the image is reminiscent of Chen’s 2012 series called “Whatever the Weather,” which was shot for British magazine i-D. The series featured 12 women from different Chinese ethnic groups wearing modern spins on traditional clothing.

State-run Global Times took a more neutral approach on the issue. While reporting similar criticisms, the outlet acknowledged that some praised Chen’s work for departing from China’s own beauty standards, which include having large eyes and fair skin.


Photographer Chen Man
Image via Weibo

The big picture: The controversy has shed light on the need for international brands to exercise better cultural sensitivity in China, which has now become the world’s richest country. Dior has since removed the photo in question from its exhibition and Weibo account and so far escaped calls for a boycott.

This is not the first time Dior caused controversy in China. In 2019, the brand gave a presentation at a university that excluded Taiwan in a map of China. The ensuing backlash forced the company to issue an apology. “Dior always respects and upholds the one China principle, strictly safeguards China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and treasures the feelings of the Chinese people,” it said at the time, according to Reuters.

Still, Dior is only one of multiple luxury brands that have upset China over political and cultural insensitivities. In 2018, Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana released a series of ads that depicted Chinese people as lacking refinement in eating foreign food. Amid the scandal, co-founder Stefano Gabbana was also accused of calling China “the country of sh*t.” Fashion watchdog Diet Prada, which broke the controversy on Instagram, has been sued by the brand for defamation.

Featured Image via Weibo

Snakes are very useful. 'Leave the poor reptile alone.' | Commentary


Riley Davis
Sun, November 21, 2021

Among my friends and family, I’m known as the weird snake lover.

Because of that, every few weeks or so I’ll get a text with a grainy photo of a snake in a yard or by a local creek and some version of the message “let live or kill??” Nine times out of 10 it’s a harmless species of snake. But every single time, venomous or no, I’ll tell my friends to leave the poor reptile alone.

This isn’t borne out of my love for snakes, per se, even though I am definitely a fan (and because the most snake bites occur when humans try to move them). It’s because we understand so very little about a species that’s been feared and maligned for years. And as research continues and technologies evolve, one thing is becoming clear—snakes are potentially very useful in drug development, particularly venomous snakes.


Desperately seeking pythons: 5 ideas the state is considering to see - and capture - snakes

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That realization has never been truer than this year. Just recently the University of Arizona published a study identifying a key molecular mechanism responsible for COVID-19 mortality: an enzyme related to the toxins found in rattlesnake venom. Now, researchers are exploring whether there are ways to engineer the enzyme to treat long-haul COVID.

The eastern indigo snake is a large nonvenomous snake native to the eastern United States.

Research on snakes has historically been slow and fragmented, and for understandable reasons. Snake encounters used to be fairly rare, especially in developed countries, and many venomous species are elusive. But as climate change shifts environments and human settlements grow, snake encounters have been on the rise in some parts of the world.

The good news is that as technological advances continue and databases grow in the genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics fields, our understanding of how venoms can lead to new medicines has started to flourish, and not just as treatments for COVID. One of the first blood pressure drugs approved for clinical use came from studying the venom of a pit viper. The blood glucose drug Byetta was created using the saliva of the Gila monster, a venomous lizard found in North America. The antiplatelet drug Aggrastat was derived from a molecule found in the saw-scaled viper.

Invasive pythons sliver north in Everglades: May mean snake 'population is expanding'

And we might even have a universal antivenom in as little as five years. That’s according to researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions who are studying how to use camels to produce more stable antivenom that doesn’t require cold chain storage. This is huge news, especially for people in rural parts of the world, because antivenom is currently prohibitively expensive and hard to transport.

All of this is to say that while I love snakes, this isn’t a love letter to them, or a reprimand to anyone I see on Facebook asking if they should kill the snake in their yard. It’s a call to pause and consider the future the next time you stumble across a snake—or other creepy crawly species—and decide you should unalive it. If at all possible, don’t. The vast majority of snake species are harmless. And even if you do encounter the venomous kind (or, as I like to call them, a spicy nope rope), your best bet is to live and let live. Because there’s a future not too far from now where that scaly creature could very well save someone’s life.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Commentary: Medical research, like on COVID-19, benefits from snakes

FORTEAN PHENOMENA

Florida history: What’s behind the mystery of Coral Castle?

Eliot Kleinberg
Sun, November 21, 2021

In June 2019, we visited the assault on South Florida by Category 5 Hurricane Andrew. Homes were leveled, down to the slab. Cars were turned upside down. Sailboats were flung into trees.

Down in southern Miami-Dade County, one place was unscathed – thus increasing the mystery of Coral Castle. Here’s more from a 1994 feature.

The storm did collapse the roof of the attraction’s gift shop. But not the rest of Edward Leedskalnin’s baffling legacy.

Coral Castle: A fanciful myth?

If winds estimated to have gusted at up to 200 mph could not budge the 1,100 tons of Florida coral – in pieces ranging in size from 6 tons to 30 tons – how did a 5-foot, 100-pound man lift and position them? Decades after his feat, no one has yet come up with answers.

Leedskalnin did not say; the Latvian immigrant worked in obscurity and died the same way in 1951. The attraction was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

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His works exalt various scientific laws, Florida, the family, and a lost love.

Leedskalnin carved and sculpted using only handmade pulleys and levers salvaged from car and railroad junkyards. He claimed he employed the long-lost secrets of the Pyramids.

Coral Castle is a sculpture garden near Homestead. From 1923 to 1951, Edward Leedskalnin single-handedly carved more than 1,100 tons of coral rock.

The works of Edward Leedskalnin

Among his creations:

• A 9-ton gate that swings opens with the touch of a finger.

• A table in the shape of Florida; the geographically correct, 8-inch indentation representing Lake Okeechobee is kept filled with water.

• A 20-ton, 20-foot-tall telescope with a circular cutout that constantly points to the North Star.

• A sundial that tells time and indicates equinox and solstice days.

• The “throne room,”' a collection of several chairs. In one, called the “mad rocker,” two people sit facing each other and rock. Another, called the “mother-in-law” chair, is identified as the most uncomfortable one.

• The “world’s largest valentine” – a 2½-ton heart-shaped table with benches said to honor the fiancee who jilted him back in Latvia around 1915. Deciding the 27-year-old Leedskalnin was too old for her, the 16-year-old girl had broken up with him the night they were to marry.

Heartbroken, he roamed through Canada, Washington state and California before ending up in Florida City, in what then was the frontier of sparsely populated South Florida. He opened his attraction to the public in 1920 as “Ed's Place.” It’s mentioned in the classic 1939 WPA Guide to Florida, which we covered in a February 2020 column.

In 1939, opting for greater visibility along U.S. 1 and fortune that was never to materialize, Leedskalnin moved his entire inventory to its present location. Borrowing a mule and a wagon, Leedskalnin hauled the colossal carvings 10 miles and set them in place.

Again, no one knows how he did it.

Florida Time is a weekly column about Florida history by Eliot Kleinberg, a former staff writer for three decades at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, and the author of 10 books about Florida (www.ekfla.com).

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Coral Castle: A mysterious attraction built as a monument to lost love

Vaccinations urged against shingles, a viral infection that's on the rise


Kevin McClintock, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
Fri, November 19, 2021

Nov. 19—There's a life-altering infection out there that's plaguing people 65 and older, but it's not the novel coronavirus.

It's shingles, which is recognizable by a painful rash and blisters that scab and pus. While it looks like a skin rash to the naked eye, it's actually an infection to the nerve tissue buried beneath the skin, initiated by the same virus that causes the scourge of most children — chickenpox.

"(It's) not a fun thing," said Neosho resident Karol Meyers, who suffered through a round of shingles recently. "(I'm) hoping I don't ever get it again."

Shingles should never be taken lightly or brushed aside, said Dr. Henry Petry, geriatrician with Freeman Center for Geriatric Medicine.

"Almost all of the people who get it have had chickenpox in their lifetime," he said. "The older you are, the more likely you are to get it. Recent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) studies state that 1 out of 3 people probably the age of ... 65 or above are probably going to get it."

When shingles first breaks out, "it is very painful," Petry said. The rash — mostly centered on the chest or abdomen, but it can also appear on the head or face a few days following the onset of pain — "can blister, and it's usually linear, meaning it goes from the back (of the body or head) to the front."

During that time, people will feel varying degrees of pain, which can flare up anywhere on the body where there are nerves. When shingles "gets back (in the nerves) it's like an infection in that area, and it kind of inactivates it and makes it do funny things it's not supposed to do," he said.

When treated, an episode can last between seven and 10 days. If untreated, "there's the possibility of developing a type of neuropathy," which is damage or dysfunction of one or more nerves that result in sporadic pain, numbness, tingling and muscle weakness for years on end, Petry said.

"I've had a couple of (patients) who had it, but they didn't get (shingles) around the chest but down their leg, and they developed permanent foot drop from the changes to the sciatic nerve," he said. Petry also said that should the rash appear on the face and blisters form in the eye, it can cause blindness.

These long-term complications of pain and dysfunction "can be very devastating to the quality of life of that person if it's not treated," he said. "The older you are, the more likely you'll have a problem with it."

While it's impossible for two people who previously had chickenpox to pass shingles to one another, it is possible for someone with shingles to pass it to someone who has never previously had chickenpox, he said.

To that end, CDC officials have noticed a slight increase in shingles cases over the past 24 months, most likely due to stresses brought on by COVID-19.

"Stress is a big immune system depressant," Petry said. "Any time that you have a change in your immune system ... that suppresses it, it's down; I don't mean depressed, but you're down" physically. Major stresses, and some back-to-back-to-back stressors lasting for years, "can make your immune system more susceptible to everything, even to the common cold."

There are ways to lessen the risks from shingles. There are three different types of antiviral drugs that work effectively to rid the body of the infection; steroids also help to reduce some of the post-shingles neuropathy symptoms.

But the best and safest way to protect oneself from shingles is to get immunized against it. CDC officials recommend that healthy adults 50 and older get the two-dose vaccine Shingrix. The vaccine, which two years ago replaced a single-dose vaccine, is more than 90% effective at preventing shingles.

Vaccination against shingles "is the one thing that we really, really recommend as you get older ... in order to prevent the spread of it so it can't be a life-altering infection," Petry said.

Kevin McClintock is features editor for The Joplin Globe.

Patience pays off: Female bowhunter from Nashville arrows 15-point buck in Wayne County


Art Holden
Sun, November 21, 2021

Steph Genet, 29, of Nashville, shows off the 15-point buck she killed with a compound bow Oct. 31. She was hunting in Wayne County on her grandmother's farm.

Waiting for the chance to shoot an Ohio whitetail deer is nothing new for Holmes County hunter Steph Genet. She has enjoyed the process and knowledge she has garnered spending countless hours in the woods. Her patience finally paid off on the last day of October, when she shot a 15-point buck on her grandmother's property in Wayne County.

"It took me four years to shoot my first deer," said Genet, a 29-year-old who works for the Millersburg Police Department. "I was very particular. I wanted to make sure I could make a good shot, and, I was learning as I went."

Genet said it took years to learn the habits and deer movement on her grandma's farm, putting in countless hours of scouting. She got into deer hunting seriously in 2014, and shot her first deer, a big 10-pointer, in 2018 with a shotgun. Since then, she's killed two does with a shotgun, and her second buck with a crossbow. Her latest deer kill was with a Hoyt Klash compound bow set at 55 pounds and shooting a Montec G5 fixed-blade broadhead.

And while she has yet to put a tape to her big buck, she said its mass is as impressive as its forked tines, which give it "characteristic."

"I had a good deer on my trail camera last year, but to say this was the same deer might be a stretch," said Genet. "But, I did have this deer on my camera for a few weeks before Oct. 31."

'I turned around and saw this buck chasing three does'

On that now unforgettable Halloween hunt, Genet got in the woods at 1 p.m., and immediately had deer all around her.

"But, there was nothing close enough to actually shoot," she said. "Just before 5 p.m., a button buck was chilling in front of me and it kept looking behind me. I turned around and saw this buck chasing three does."

Wondering if she would ever get a chance to draw on the bruiser, the scenario soon turned in Genet's favor.

"The does left, and I think the buck smelled the scent lick I had hung up," explained Genet. "I think he thought the button buck was a doe, and he came my way. He came in broadside at 20 yards, it couldn't have been any more perfect."

Genet let her arrow fly, and the buck took off running.

"The arrow was still in him, and I waited an hour to get out of the woods," said Genet. "I called my parents to come help me look for it. They know that if I call them and I can't speak, they know it's something big."

But, in the dark, the three couldn't find the deer

"I think we pushed it, so I made the decision to come back at daylight," said Genet.

Genet had help again on the morning track, as she recruited her best friend, Brooke Yoder, who also brought along her 1 1/2-year-old Drahthaar dog, a cross between a German Shorthair Pointer and a Griffon. A bird dog by breed, Yoder is cross-training her Drahthaar to also track deer.

It took just nine minutes for the dog to find the buck, locating it 500 yards away from where it was shot. But, there's a little more to the story.

"I'm thankful for Brooke showing up, because she had her first child just a week earlier," said Genet. "She called her mom to stay with the baby, she brought her dog and trampled down through the woods."

Just another chapter in the story of Genet's memorable late October hunt, one born out of the love of the outdoors.

"I've logged hours sitting in the woods hunting," said Genet, who also squirrel, turkey, rabbit and dove hunts, and last year also learned to process her own deer. "When I'm hunting in the woods, that's where I'm most relaxed, it's a time to unwind.

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity to take a deer, especially a big buck like this. My patience paid off."

Outdoor correspondent Art Holden can be reached at letsplabal@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Straight shooter from Nashville grabs 15-point buck with bow