• • • google suggested • • •
• • • some of the things I read in antisocial isolation • • •
How Acupuncture Became a Radical Remedy in the Bronx
When Black and brown activists created Lincoln Detox, they also helped spread Eastern medicine.
The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, seized this mobile chest x-ray unit in 1970. A few months later, they and members of the Black Panther Party occupied part of Lincoln Hospital to establish a drug detoxification program.
IN THE EARLY 2000S, JUAN Cortez was living in New York City and battling a years-long addiction to drugs, when he noticed a crowd of people standing outside a building on East 140th Street in the Bronx. Recognizing the group as fellow users, he approached and asked what was inside the building. Cortez, who was in his late 20s, with a lean build and ever-present Yankees hat on his shaved head, was told it was a recovery program. Part of the treatment involved getting acupuncture every morning.
At Lincoln Hospital’s Recovery Center, Cortez eventually succeeded in overcoming his addiction, using a combination of acupuncture and other therapies. He went on to become a trained acupuncturist and is now manager of holistic services at New York Harm Reduction Educators, a nonprofit social-service organization that provides walk-in and mobile holistic services to the city’s houseless or marginalized residents.
“When you think about acupuncture, massage therapy, Reiki, yoga, sound therapy, you think about a ‘spa day,’ you think about people that have money who are able to attain those services,” Cortez says. “Not poor people in the projects.”
While there remains ongoing scientific debate as to the efficacy of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine in treating addiction, some practitioners believe it has myriad benefits, particularly in helping with anxiety, inflammation, and stress. But the story of how acupuncture came to be a widespread treatment in the United States—sometimes associated most commonly with privilege—begins nearly 50 years ago, in New York’s South Bronx, with a subversive alliance of Black and brown activists. …
The General That Said “No!” to Hitler
A different type of courage.
General Dietrich von Saucken and Adolf Hitler.
General Dietrich von Saucken clapped his hands in front of Hitler and, with remarkable courage, said, “I will not receive orders from a local leader!” Do not imagine that this courage came from the lack of sense or stupidity within a man, oh no, this courage came from a man that knew what he was talking about and had the courage to prove that Hitler was a bad tactician.
Hitler was stuck thinking that World War II used the same strategies and tactics as World War I which he had the honor to fight in. This type of warfare was totally different, with the use of more armored vehicles, more air combat, and especially more extended combat. Hitler was still stuck with the mentality of trench warfare from World War I.
General Dietrich von Saucken
General Dietrich was one of the best generals in the German army with lots of combat experience from World War I. He was wounded 7 times during the First World War, fought for the German army, and at one point was stationed in Russia, where he also learned the language. During World War II, General Dietrich von Saucken took part in numerous battles and was decorated for his heroic deeds, and it was extremely obvious that he tried to save as many men from his division as possible.
However, in February 1945, his position as general was removed because he insinuated that the war should not continue, as he did so in vain, but a month later he was reinstated due to the recognition of his merits and of the fact that he is an extremely good general.
Hitler summoned him to his bunker and ordered him to take part in East Prussia’s defense against the Red Army advance and to report everything that happened to Gauleiter Forster (the Gauleiter was a local party leader, each region having such a leader), but von Saucken did not accept such a thing, that he, a general, should receive orders from a local leader. At that moment, he slapped the table and objected, a behavior that caught the Nazi leader’s attention. …
‘A fowl of the law’: men sentenced for cooking chicken in Yellowstone hot spring
Three tourists boiled dinner in national park, leading to fines, a ban and some apt puns.
A view from the Grand Prismatic Overlook trail in Yellowstone national park.
When it comes to unthinking human behavior in America’s premier nature preserve, the retired Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey can reel off the examples.
There is the tourist who took a selfie in front of a bison only to be tossed in the air by it. There is the drone that crashed into bubbling park waters. And then there’s the latest story, which has driven him both to vexation and to punning.
Three tourists were charged and sentenced last week for preparing supper by boiling chickens in one of the park’s natural hot springs. Not only did they “run a fowl of the law”, Whittlesey says, they “cooked their own goose” by doing something a bit harebrained.
“It surprised me,” said Whittlesey, a four-decade tour guide in the park and author of the book Death In Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. “When I place them within the larger milieu of American tourists, it probably isn’t that extraordinary..” But because they were from the region, he said, they should have known better.
Morgan Warthin, a Yellowstone spokesperson, said that two Idahoans and a Utah man toted two “cooking pots” into a remote part of the park in August, where they dipped a pair of whole raw chickens, held in a burlap sack, into one of the Shoshone Geyser Basin’s boiling geothermal features.
One of the accused told a judge his intention was to “make dinner”. …
FINALLY . . .
New Zealand bird of the year: adult toy store endorses ‘polyamorous’ hihi
Small bird with unusually large genitals receives a boost as competition is also rocked by vote-rigging row.
Hihi or stitchbird, has been endorsed by a sex chain for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year contest.
The competition to elect New Zealand’s bird of the year has intensified with a vote-rigging scandal and an adult toy store endorsing a small, polyamorous bird with unusually large genitals.
The annual competition, which began 15 years ago to draw attention to native birds, many of which are endangered, has grown into a national obsession. Different types of birds have their own campaign managers and the competition is so fierce that this year has seen record early voting – with 40,000 ballots cast so far and five days still remaining
The poll’s success has attracted commercial interests, such as the endorsement this week by Adult Toy Megastore of the hihi, a “polyamorous, sexually fluid bird with big testicles”.
The hihi, or stitchbird, is the only bird in the world to mate face to face, according to a statement released by Adult Toy Megastore as part of its campaign endorsement. …
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
ONE MORE THING: Steve Bell’s If … Rudy Giuliani warns Donald Trump to go easy with the lawsuit
The Trump Presidential Library will be a deleted Twitter account.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) November 7, 2020
