This article is a classic example of North Atlantic propaganda writing.
Cambodia remains one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, 48 years after the end of its brutal civil war.
Passive voice. It’s not that Cambodia was mined by someone, it just remains mined. Who mined it? Well, it apparently owns a brutal civil war, so presumably it mined itself?
It was a civil war rooted in the French colonialism in the area giving way to US dominance (like in Vietnam) in the USA’s campaign to encircle China with nuclear military bases. Yes, Cambodians did mine their own country and they used Chinese mines to do it. And they did it because they didn’t have many other choices when facing the US military and the puppet regimes of European colonialism.
Even worse than the historical context around the mining, there’s literally no context for anything. Are landmines a thing of the past? Absolutely not. The US is still using landmines despite 90% of the world signing a treaty to stop using them because of how they kill so many innocent people for decades. In fact, Cambodia is one of the classic examples of why the treaty was signed. But the US still uses them. How is that not relevant to a story about landmines in Cambodia? Because it’s a BBC article.
But the layers of propaganda keep going. Not only is Cambodia one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, it’s one of the world’s most heavily bombed countries. And these bombs, especially the unexploded cluster bombs, remain throughout the country as well, killing innocents decades later. And why is Cambodia one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world? The USA. So we’ve got a story about a high school finding land mines in it, a statement that Cambodia is passively one of the most mined countries in the world, but zero accountability, except to say “civil war” so it allows ignorant readers to imagine it was all Cambodians.
And as if that context isn’t enough to add, Cambodia is but ONE of the 30 countries the US has bombed, and it ranks among the top bombed countries in the history of the world along with North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. So, a story about Cambodia have unexploded ordinance in a school makes no mention of the context of unexploded ordinance in general, the basic history of who is responsible for the conflict (France, US) and how Cambodia is not exceptional for the region nor for the time period. None of that context matters, I guess.
But since we’re here, let’s add some more context. The bombings of Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia all came AFTER the USA nuked 2 civilian cities in Japan while in the middle of negotiations. Literally in the middle of negotiations, Japan is sending a message to the negotiators, the USA receives the message asking for dialog on particular points, and in response the USA nukes civilians in the world’s only ever nuclear attack. This is the context that precedes the US making 4 other countries the most bombed countries in the world. But, unlike in Japan, the US didn’t use nukes in these theaters. Instead, they left literally going on 50 years of unexploded ordinance in these countries that continues to kill people. And in Vietnam they brought in genocidal chemical warfare by developing and deploying Agent Orange. Agent Orange is a defoliant, and the US deployed it to literally destroy all of the leaves in massive chunks of rain forest because they claimed it would help them fight the Vietnamese better if the Vietnamese couldn’t hide in the trees. Well, turns out Agent Orange is so toxic that it still causes massive numbers of terrible disfiguring birth defects, stillbirths, and virulent cancers - not as bad but with echoes of the radiation poisoning in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are literal multi-generation mass murder campaigns.
I wish that was the end of the context, but instead what we see is the USA continue this centuries-long genocidal mass murder program in Yugoslavia where it directed NATO to drop Depleted Uranium bombs in a densely developed European country. That region also has multiple generations of terrible birth defect, still birth, and cancers many many times the incident rate for countries in the region that were not bombed with nuclear waste. The US then proceeded to kill a million Iraqis, in a conflict where it used white phosphorous which burned thousands of innocent people to death much like the use of napalm in Vietnam, and where it used depleted uranium rounds, much more prolifically. The birth defects, stillbirths, and cancers in Iraq are sky high, again a multi-generational mass murder campaign.
Apologists can pretend that the US didn’t understand what it was doing to the Vietnamese or the Japanese, that the weapons were new and hadn’t been tested, and the long term effects just weren’t understood. I don’t think that’s true. But even if it were, Henry Kissinger was the architect of what happened in Vietnam and Cambodia, and he’s still alive today. They sent him to talk with China recently. You don’t get to say the US didn’t understand the effects of white phosphorous, depleted uranium, landmines, and cluster munitions in the conflicts it created in Yugoslavia, Iraq, other parts of Africa, etc. You don’t get to say the US is a net force for good when it does these things consciously, knowingly, systematically, and against a global cry for peace and for deescalation.
This is the context in which an article is written detailing some landmines found in a Cambodian high school. Cambodia remains the most mined country in the world after a devastating 48-year civil war.
Regulate nicotine. It serves no purpose besides addicting people to a product. Once people are capable of making a real choice, the problem will become much less severe. Over time, it might even disappear completely.
Regardless of the health effects, addiction (and related expenses) can cost you hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. People go to counseling, join support groups, and buy nicotine patches to try and quit.
I say “try” because on average, former cigarette smokers had to try to quit several times before they were successful. Many former smokers say that quitting was extremely hard, maybe even the hardest thing they’ve done. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the same is true with vaping.
I don’t like nicotine because it’s used to manipulate and take advantage of people. The product/delivery method is irrelevant.
The delivery method for vaping is water vapor. The delivery method for cigarettes is to wrap the nicotine in poison and then burn it. And you see no difference?
Of course I see the difference. The fact that cigarettes are dangerous to your health is so screamingly obvious that I didn’t even think that was something we needed to tell each other.
My point is that nicotine makes it much harder to stop vaping or smoking once you decide you want to. That’s what I meant when I said “the product/delivery method is irrelevant”, and why I started my comment with “regardless of the health effects”.
It doesn’t matter how the nicotine gets into your system. It messes with you anyway. Regulating specific products is like playing an endless game of whack-a-mole. The industry will keep finding different ways to get you hooked.
We’ve tried regulating tobacco, so they found a nicotine delivery system that doesn’t rely on tobacco. Let’s attack the addiction problem at the source - regulate the nicotine. That way, when they come up with something new (like an energy drink or something) the existing laws still apply. The slow-moving government doesn’t have to play catch up. Consumers stay protected.
Nicotine addiction is not a PROBLEM though, no more than caffeine addiction. The problem is when the only legal way to get caffeine is by a cocktail of red bull and arsenic.
Nicotine is not the issue. The delivery method is the whole problem.
I think comparing vaping to drinking water is disingenuous - it is not needed and has active harms. Just because one thing is less harmful than another doesn't mean we can't regulate both heavily.
It does mean that, unless we are stupid or have ulterior motives, we should not regulate them equally heavily.
Besides, the science shows vaping is nearly harmless. I think that, again unless we are stupid, we should not be regulating it "heavily" at all. Just ban it for under-18s. Enforce that ban. That's all.
It should be regulated at least as much as food though don’t you think? Not just ban it for under 18s but specify what can or can’t go into a vape product.
Otherwise you’ll get companies using cheap but dangerous to inhale substances over more expensive safer substances that do the same job.
The science isn’t fully decided on vapes - AFAIK the PG/VG and nicotine are relatively harmless (though nicotine does carry some heart/stroke risks) but the flavours are generally only tested for safety when taken orally, not when atomised and inhaled. Flavourless vape juice is therefore probably safe, though hardly anybody sells it, it’s kinda unpleasant, and it does still carry some health risks.
Let me just rephrase what you said. Instead of "the science isn't fully decided", which paints an incorrect picture, let's rather say "of everything they've tested in a typical legal vape, everything is essentially harmless. Some of the components haven't been tested."
Saying "the science isn't fully decided" implies "eh, maybe it's dangerous, maybe it's not, 50/50". That's not at all the case. It's almost certainly all harmless. Just very addictive.
That’s not true. “The science isn’t fully decided” means that long-terms effects are extremely hard to measure, it literally takes decades. The amount of liquids of different flavors is so big that you can’t realistically test them all. Different flavors require different chemicals, you can get the same taste with different chemicals too. Yes, basic liquid is probably less harmful than cigarettes, but even for that there’s not enough data to say that this is a scientific fact.
It took rescue crews two hours to pull Wyatt Kauffman to safety on Tuesday after falling off a ledge at the popular tourist site’s North Rim.
Wyatt told a local television station he had fallen while moving out of the way so people could take pictures.
He said he had been squatting down and holding onto a rock with one hand when he lost his grip and started to fall back.
“After the fall, I don’t remember anything after that,” he told Phoenix television station KPNX while in hospital.
Wyatt was pulled to safety by a team from the Grand Canyon National Park, who rappelled down a cliff after deciding a helicopter rescue would not be possible due to the terrain.
“We’re extremely grateful for the work of everyone,” said Wyatt’s father, Brian Kauffman, who was home in North Dakota at the time of the accident.
Wyatt was pulled to safety by a team from the Grand Canyon National Park, who rappelled down a cliff after deciding a helicopter rescue would not be possible due to the terrain.
If this were a plot point in a movie, I would have called it a contrived excuse to have the heroes scale a rock wall.
There are various studies that definitely prove that they are harmful in short and medium term (less than traditional cigarettes) and already has lead to death. There hasn’t been a lot of research into long term effects as the trend is still new. So potential harm from long term usage is unknown.
Which studies? I’m legitimately curious as the only deaths I’ve heard of were because of the vitamin e acetate they were using in the knockoff cannabis pens.
The EVALI outbreak in US was determined to be caused by “illegal” products, but the materials to produce them are not banned in the US as far as I know.
How has vaping become more popular than smoking? Flavoring, lower cost, accessibility? Seems like those have fairly obvious solutions.
Furthermore, vaping by itself is not chemically addictive at all. It’s the nicotine content in vapes. So, along with the above options, if young people are offered a zero-nicotine product for significantly less than those that contain nicotine, I think it would be obvious which one they’d choose.
I know it’s not something you’re really allowed to say anymore but nicotine is enjoyable, people tend to vape for the nicotine similar to how alcohol free beer isn’t very popular
I’ve been outside for the last three nights in hopes of seeing it and possibly getting a pic or two, and each time it’s hazy or clouds roll overhead by the time I get to a good dark area to observe anything.
But that’s the beauty of the internet. I can always see it through someone else’s (better) camera at least. It’s nice to hope though…
Closest I got to see anything was I saw a bit of flash out of the corner of my eye twice, but that’s about it. Still going to go out again tonight for a bit and hope for the best… maybe I’ll get lucky.
I wish you luck. It certainly gets frustrating since the “100 meteor/hour” includes the whole sky and very faint meteors. I was at a mild suburban beach outside the metro areas (Bortle class 4/5) and saw maybe 10/ hour. That’s 1 every 6 minutes but could be 2 every 12, 3 after 18 mins, etc. Just gotta keep looking up. I tried to catch more while driving home and while taking out the trash but with much less success lol
Last night (well, early this morn) I did manage to see a few but didn’t manage to get any decent pics. Thankfully I live in a very low light pollution area so it’s not like I have to go far from my house, weather permitting. (according to lightpollutionmap.info my value is 0, but if it’s hazy I can see the glow from nearby towns.)
A high school in north-eastern Cambodia has been forced to close temporarily after thousands of unexploded munitions were discovered.
Cambodia remains one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, 48 years after the end of its brutal civil war.
At that time, the Queen Kosomak High School in Kratie province was being used as a military station.
Photos show tons of rusty explosives neatly stacked in rows, with grenades and anti-tank launchers among them.
In total, more than 2,000 pieces of ordnance was discovered over three days - Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, told AFP news agency.
Landmines that are scattered across the country have killed more than 64,000 people, while 25,000 amputees have been recorded since 1979, according to The Halo Trust.
The official IRNA news agency said a gunman attempted to enter the Shah Cheragh shrine and opened fire on visitors before he could be subdued.
Yadollah Bouali, the regional Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander, told State TV that “a terrorist entered the gate of the shrine and opened fire with a battle rifle”.
The semi-official Fars news agency meanwhile said that the gunman had tried to enter the shrine from the Bab al-Mahdi door but was met with “resistance” from “protection forces”.
Pictures from Tasnim showed bullet holes in what appeared to be the barred windows at the entrance to the shrine, one of Iran’s most important pilgrimage sites.
The main protagonist, identified as an Afghan national in his 30s named Hamed Badakhshan, was killed at the scene in the attack.
IS has claimed previous attacks in Iran, including the deadly twin bombings in 2017 that targeted the country’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Teens can unwittingly purchase altnoid vapes from gas stations, smoke shops, instagram, and more.
Buying boof vapes poise a much higher risk than other fake “marijuanas”.
To anyone dabbling in that lifestyle, it is not worth it. Only trust legal dispensaries. On the black/grey markets, you could be inhaling heavy metals, solvents, toxins, and other things you shouldn’t be vaporizing into your lungs.
You only get one pair of lungs, take care of them, lung damage is permanent. Vaping unregulated oils can risk things such as, chest pain, chemical burns, diminished breathing, headaches, lipoid pneumonia, collapsed lung.
It is possible to buy both fake packaging, and prefilled vapes in fake packaging from China.
If that’s not an option, look into making your own distillate. It’s cheaper and cleaner, it tastes better, and you don’t support terrible practices.
Doesn’t the article only mention the banning of disposable vapes? Did you know there is enough lithium in all the disposable vapes used in a year, to make 1200 electric car batteries. Per year. In the UK alone.
Great, but that's not why they were banned. I was talking about the US though, where a great many jurisdictions are totally banning vapes, or banning all flavored vape juice, due to this hysteria.
Because parents have been told they’re not allow to discipline their kids, so instead they have to blame everything else for their failed crotch spawn.
Lol I remember it being “SmokeFree 2020” when I was a teenager, guess that didn’t quite work out!
Also, I gotta wonder if banning vape alternatives such as nicotine pouches a few years back might have slightly impacted the availability/accessibility of vapes. Still reckon that was a bloody drongo move.
You can find vapes inspired by video games, they come in bright colours and flavours like bubble gum and candy floss," she said.
For long-term adult smokers, it’s seen as a less harmful alternative but the flipside to that is the exponential rise and accessibility of vaping to teenagers and at times younger children.
Marni Wilton said many vape shops had popped up recently around her Auckland suburb close to her sons’ local schools.
Ms Wilton said the new government regulations fail to address the problem: “This absolutely doesn’t go far enough to help our children.”
Ben Youdan, who has worked in tobacco control and campaigning for nearly 20 years both in the UK and New Zealand, said banning vaping only drives it to the black market rather than get young kids off it.
Mr Youdan is now director of Ash NZ, a lobby group campaigning for a smoke free New Zealand.
Iranian MPs have voted to review a controversial hijab law behind closed doors - meaning it is likely there will be no public debate on the matter.
It was drafted in response to months of mass protests triggered by the death in custody of a woman who was accused of not wearing her hijab correctly.
MPs called on Article 85 of Iran’s constitution to progress the legislation, which allows a parliamentary committee to review bills without public debate.
However MP Gholamreza Nouri-Qezeljeh warned that the move came with “dangers”, especially since a large portion of the bill focuses on “criminalising and punishing” hijab-related violations.
Her death sparked months of mass protests in Iran, which saw the morality police unit temporarily pause their controversial street patrols to enforce the dress code.
In August 2021, politicians voted in favour of using it to review a draconian internet bill - a decision that was met by fierce criticism from human rights groups.
Miss Universe Organisation (MUO) has cut ties with its Indonesian franchise after several contestants alleged sexual abuse days before the pageant’s crowning ceremony in Jakarta.
MUO also said it was also cancelling this year’s pageant in Malaysia which is run by the same company, PT Capella Swastika Karya.
It said it was evaluating its policies and procedures to avoid similar occurrences and said there were no measurement or body dimensions requirements to join its pageants worldwide.
“In light of what we have learned took place at Miss Universe Indonesia, it has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards, ethics, or expectations,” MUO posted on Saturday night.
Miss Universe, which is now on its 73rd edition, is popular in South-east Asia, especially in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, where winners go on to become celebrities and social media influencers.
Indonesia’s Ms Fabienne Nicole Groeneveld who who won the contest to represent her country in the 2023 Miss Universe finals in November will compete with the organisation’s support, MUO said.
The annual Perseid meteor shower has lit up skies across the world to the delight of those hoping to catch a glimpse of a shooting star.
As the debris hits the Earth’s atmosphere it burns up, resulting in the bright flashes known as shooting stars, which can be seen with the naked eye.
Heavy cloud over much of the UK meant many stargazers were disappointed, although some sightings were possible over Yorkshire, north-east England and parts of southern Scotland.
Looking ahead to the chances of spotting a shooting star over the coming days, BBC weather forecaster Billy Payne said many should be able to get a glimpse despite less than perfect conditions.
“I spent three hours looking out over the River Wye and although the cloud rolled in and out throughout, I saw quite a few meteors and the camera captured even more - they have all been combined to produce this photo.”
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