Lovstuhagen

joined 7 months ago
MODERATOR OF
 

JTA — Wikipedia’s editors have voted to declare the Anti-Defamation League “generally unreliable” on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, adding it to a list of banned and partially banned sources.

An overwhelming majority of editors involved in the debate about the ADL also voted to deem the organization unreliable on the topic of antisemitism, its core focus. A formal declaration on that count is expected next.

The decision about Israel-related citations, made last week, means that one of the most prominent and longstanding Jewish advocacy groups in the United States — and one historically seen as the leading US authority on antisemitism — is now grouped together with the National Inquirer, Newsmax, and Occupy Democrats as a source of propaganda or misinformation in the eyes of the online encyclopedia.

Moreover, in a near consensus, dozens of Wikipedia editors involved in the discussion said they believe the ADL should not be cited for factual information on antisemitism as well because it acts primarily as a pro-Israel organization and tends to label what they consider legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

“ADL no longer appears to adhere to a serious, mainstream and intellectually cogent definition of antisemitism, but has instead given into the shameless politicization of the very subject that it was originally esteemed for being reliable on,” wrote an editor known as Iskandar323, whose request for a discussion about the ADL ultimately led to the ban.

 
 

Tom Aspinall wants nothing more than to unify the UFC heavyweight title in a fight against Jon Jones, but he’s effectively given up any hope that it ever happens.

Despite a remarkable run through the UFC with eight wins and only one opponent even making it to the second round with him, Aspinall suddenly finds himself on the outside looking in while clutching onto an interim heavyweight title. While he’s waiting, Jon Jones is preparing to defend his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic in a fight expected in November at Madison Square Garden in New York.

What makes matters worse is that Jones may ultimately decide to retire from the sport if he beats Miocic, and while that might solidify Aspinall as the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, he prefers proving that in the cage.

“There is nowhere that you can find publicly, nowhere, him saying that he will fight me,” Aspinall said about Jones on the Believe You Me podcast. “It doesn’t exist. I challenge anybody watching this interview to go and find the statement, quote, a video where Jon Jones is saying that he’ll fight me after he’s fought Stipe. It doesn’t exist. The guy’s smart, and we know the guy’s a bit overweight these days. The guy sat there with the Cheeto fingers or whatever, Doritos on his fingers with his iPhone in hand waiting for me to get knocked out [by Curtis Blaydes] so he could start tweeting about it.

“Let’s be honest, and since I won that fight, he’s gone completely quiet. He’ll continue to go completely quiet about me until he retires. Because there’s no way on Earth that he’s going to fight me. Not a chance. I will retire Jon Jones without even fighting him.”

Of course, Jones has commented on Aspinall in the past, but he’s mostly stated that a fight against a legend like Miocic just means more to his career and legacy, which is why he’s openly pursued the matchup.

 

Israel Adesanya is widely regarded as one of the best middleweights in UFC history, but don’t expect former opponent Sean Strickland to sign any petitions to keep him on that list.

This past Saturday, Adesanya suffered a second consecutive loss for the first time in his MMA career when he fell by rear-naked choke submission to Dricus du Plessis in UFC 305’s main event. That fight came almost one year after Strickland dominated Adesanya over five rounds to claim the middleweight title in a stunning upset.

Despite those losses, Adesanya is still a highly revered former champion, but Strickland just doesn’t understand the hype around “The Last Stylebender.”

“I have an unpopular opinion, you guys aren’t going to like it. I just don’t think Izzy’s that good,” Strickland said on the Verse Us podcast. “So let me tell you why. Like, going into [UFC 293], I’m like, ‘I’m going to beat the fck out of you. You watch anime, you suck, I’m going to fck you up.’ Everybody is like, ‘Why would you say that about Izzy?’

“When he fought Kelvin [Gastelum], I think Kelvin sucks. Everyone’s like, ‘Izzy’s this and that.’ I’ve sparred Kelvin so many times, where I’m like, you kind of had a close fight with Kelvin — like, you’re not that fcking good. You fought fcking [Paulo] Costa. Costa was scared shitless of you. You fcking blew on him, he fell asleep. Izzy’s not that fcking good.”

Strickland said he spent significant time training with Gastelum when both fighters worked out of southern California, and ultimately clarified his feelings toward the TUF 17 winner.

“I love Kelvin. Kelvin is a standup guy,” Strickland said. “When I say you’re not that good, I’m talking about 90 percent of the [UFC] roster. I’m talking about the 10 percent of the f*cking most elite guys, that’s what I’m talking about and you’re not in that.

“When [Adesanya] fought Kelvin, I was like, ‘You let Kelvin have that close of a fight with you?’ If I fought Kelvin, Kelvin wouldn’t even touch me. It would be one of those fight where you’re like, ‘I just want this thing to f*cking end.’”

 

Ronda Rousey was only two fights into her MMA career when she signed with Strikeforce. Soon after, she became one of the faces of the sport and helped usher women into UFC.

It’s been documented many times over that UFC CEO Dana White famously said women would never fight in the octagon, but Rousey became the game-changer that altered his vision for the promotion. But all the way back in 2011, Rousey was just an up-an-coming fighter hoping she could make enough of an impact for someone like White to notice her.

Looking back now, Rousey admits she felt a responsibility to get White’s attention, especially with the knowledge that women were potentially on the cutting block after UFC purchased Strikeforce.

“People forget how fragile that situation was and how last-minute I was able to get us in,” Rousey told Chris Van Vliet. “Strikeforce was the only organization that was really showcasing women and that was because of Gina Carano, because her dad was involved with the Nevada Athletic Commission and was able to sanction fights for her and all these things.

“When she was gone, Cris Cyborg’s pumped to the f*cking gills with steroids. No one wants to watch that cheating ass bitch. Everything just tanked. The division was dying. The UFC bought Strikeforce and it was assumed they were just going to absorb all of the male talent that they liked and fold the whole organization, because that’s what they did with PRIDE, that’s what they did with WEC, that was their business model. So there was a matter of time.”

[more at link]

 
 

Scientists have found that human beings age at a molecular level in two accelerated bursts – first at the age of 44, and then again at 60.

In a study published in the journal Nature Aging, scientists at Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore followed 108 participants over several years to observe aging changes in their molecules — RNA, proteins and participants’ microbiomes.

The scientists found that human aging does not happen in a gradual, linear way. Rather, the majority of the molecules they studied showed accelerated, non-linear changes at the ages of 44 and 60.

Xiaotao Shen, an assistant professor in microbiome medicine at Nanyang Technological University and first author of the study, told CNN that the results show “we are not becoming old gradually.” Some points in time are particularly important for our aging and health, he added.

For example, the ability to metabolize caffeine notably decreases – first around the age of 40 and once more around 60. Components involved in metabolizing alcohol also diminish, particularly around the age of 40, Michael Snyder, chair of the department of genetics at Stanford and an author of the study, told CNN, referring to the two waves of aging.

Snyder added that, anecdotally, “people often get muscle injuries and see their fat accumulation hit in their 40s (related to lipid metabolism), and definitely sarcopenia (muscle loss) hit people in their 60s — this is a very big deal.”

 

The US military cannot turn away enlistees who have HIV, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, striking down the final part of a controversial Pentagon approach to the condition that has been chipped away at in recent years.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said the Pentagon’s ban on HIV-positive people seeking to enlist in the armed forces contributes “to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals.”

“Modern science has transformed the treatment of HIV,” Brinkema wrote in her ruling, saying that “asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads who maintain treatment are capable of performing all of their military duties, including worldwide deployment.”

The Pentagon, she added, “must allow similarly situated civilians seeking accession into the United States military to demonstrate the same and permit their enlistment, appointment, and induction.”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Well, I don't know, but if someone said that they are coming over and giving my mom some Cummingtonite we would have to fight.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I had a Colombian friend tell me about this phenomena as well. He is actually from a humble background there so he has a right to laugh at it, and I bring up how my family does this- my father hates his name, as it was given in the trend of bougie self-centered housewives of the 1950s, and this tradition has continued - girls named Hunter or Reighleigh and such and boys with names like Asher and Billings. This is also what poor white people often do these days, too.

I try to focus on bad, bougie white people names, but I allow myself the joy of laughing at any name. Maybe I shouldn't, but I am just having some fun.

I recollect asking a Chinese friend about a mutual Chinese person's name when I noticed that her name on her documents were different and the name sounded flashy - my spider sense for cringe bourgeois names tingled, and I brought it up, and he immediately smiled ear to ear when I asked "Is that like a name you pick when you think you are the main character of a TV show?"

A French friend had told me that there's this stereotype of poor French people giving their kids pure American names like 'Johnny' and 'Mickey,' etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

An entrepreneur who’s connected to missing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch theorized that the 160-foot superyacht Bayesian may have sunk because of its massive mast.

Scott Painter, who took over Lynch’s multi-billion dollar software company called Autonomy, founded in 1996, said Lynch’s yacht may have been more vulnerable during Monday morning’s tornado off the coast of Sicily because of its over 240-foot-tall mast.

The Bayesian, which capsized with 22 people on board had “an unusually large mast” for a single-masted ship, Painter told Daily Mail.

NY Post

 

But he and his 32-year-old wife, Yusleydis Blanca Loyola, refused to comply, police said.

Love that name

 
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That's right, I agree

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

To a degree it is a tool of them, yes, and I have seen their politics divide churches before...

But it still seems to be going too far by messing with the religious practices of the local people which I feel is undemocratic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Also double as good names for barbarians in a D & D campaign

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Similar:

The Israeli military has bombed a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, killing 15 members of one family, including nine children.

The civil defence spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said on Saturday that 15 people killed in the overnight attack were members of the al-Ejlah family, with three women among the dead. The total death toll from the attack was 16.

Al Jazeera

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Rokafella: We watched the battle [breakdancing competition] live, but we’ve watched many battles, sometimes in person, sometimes with one of our dancers, our b-girls, competing.

The kangaroo hop, that was a surprise.

However, what I’m trying to get at is that in b-girl battles occasionally, but more often than not, you will get dancers who are not at a high skill level. In general, we all have to work hard and we have to train. In general, we’re doing the same steps, but mentally, physically, there’s a lot of differences here.

And so when people want to criticise her performance, we trust that the judges will see what we’re seeing. And no, she does not get to move to the next bracket, so we trust that.

Kwikstep: My initial reaction when I saw Raygun was, how does she make it into this, to begin with? What were the checks and balances? In every event, there’s people in last place, but nobody’s focusing on that for days and days, making it into memes. And they’re on talk shows and all of that kind of stuff.

Let me give you an example. So I have a young man who called me, and he was almost in, I can say, in tears. His voice was shaking because he owns a school teaching breaking in a rural area.

And parents came in and said, “Teach my kids the kangaroo.” And he said, “Please don’t come in here and say that to me. It’s very disrespectful.” They didn’t listen. Now they’ve been asking him to teach their kids the kangaroo and sending him memes. He called me, said, “I don’t know what to do because I think I’m going to lose all my students and their parents because this is all they want.”

And I told them, if you lose all of them, it’s time for you to do something else. Because they weren’t loyal to you to begin with. If they had empathy, they would understand you and say, you know what? You’re right, I’m wrong. And remind people that this dance is about soldiers in the trenches.

If you look at the headlines at that time, it said, “New York can drop dead.” They left us for dead, literally. And post-civil rights, where I watched leaders get assassinated, I’m listening to rhymes that say “I am a somebody” and I’m cognisant that that comes from what? Civil rights marches. I am somebody.

And so when you have all of this happening in my mind and in my soul now, here I come to watch the Olympics, and I’m watching people at the top of their game. Some things are missing, but I’m like, it’s cool. The movement is what I’m watching. This is not just about moves. It’s about the movement of the people.

But then they chose to focus on her instead of, you know, Logistx or Sunny or Nicka, for that matter, who’s killing the game. They were incredible. And so you take away all the momentum to focus on this one person who doesn’t have the skillset. But it’s almost like a knee-jerk instinct to make a parody of a Black and Brown dance, because that’s what you were taught how to do. That’s not cool.

And I really feel bad for Raygun and what she has to deal with, because mental health is a real thing. And as a community, we come from a place where we’re mentally up against the wall, and this dance and music healed us. And so to turn around and take this very same culture and beat somebody up with it is not the right thing to do.

Al Jazeera

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Also keep in mind that the 48,000 soldiers are just the professionals. Belarus has conscription. They even recently reformed their draft procedures to allow text messages to count as official draft notices.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

It might get old, though, for both of us, lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

The good news is that this effect is transitory. Scientists also pointed out that the immune system is constantly rejuvenating. While some macrophages are attached to the tattoo ink, others will focus on their jobs.

On the other hand, some scientists are studying the potential that tattoos could positively stimulate the immune system. Researchers from the University of Alabama found that people who have extensive tattoos appear to have a higher amount of immune cells, such as antibodies, in their blood. They then concluded that frequent tattooing could act as training for the immune system.

However, since there were no clinical tests comparing how the immune system functions differently between those who have lots of tattoos and those who don’t, the above-mentioned statement is not ironclad.

Based

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Some guys just don't know all their options and have too much money to care.

view more: next ›