Massive Population Drop Found for Native Americans, DNA Shows

Massive Population Drop Found for Native Americans, DNA Shows Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published December 5, 2011

The number of Native Americans quickly shrank by roughly half following European contact about 500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.

The finding supports historical accounts that Europeans triggered a wave of disease, warfare, and enslavement in the New World that had devastating effects for indigenous populations across the Americas.

(Related: "Guns, Germs and Steel—Jared Diamond on Geography as Power.")

Using samples of ancient and modern mitochondrial DNA—which is passed down only from mothers to daughters—the researchers calculated a demographic history for American Indians. (Get an overview of human genetics.)

Based on the data, the team estimates that the Native American population was at an all-time high about 5,000 years ago.

The population then reached a low point about 500 years ago—only a few years after Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World and before extensive European colonization began.

OpEdNews - Article: Understanding American Racism

OpEdNews - Article: Understanding American Racism: In recent times the New York Times, the York Daily News and Metro New York all reported on the expose that cops from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had posted a series of racist rants on the social networking website Facebook. The threats to "drop a bomb and wipe them all out" and the characterization of a group of Black people from the Caribbean enjoying their culture in the adopted homeland as "animals and savages" underscored the nature of white supremacist racism and the fact that in the Age of Obama it's still very much alive and well.

If anything racism in the United States is on the upswing and threatens a social explosion that will define America in the 21st century. And it points to the fact that America has not yet confronted or come to grips with the legacy of white racism. Or maybe it's a DNA thing and it will take generations of inbreeding to "wash it out of the system." So while I am no sociologist and profess no training in race relations I crave the forgiveness of the intellectually informed for any mistake that I may make in writing this piece. But I believe that there must be a discussion on racism in American today.

Events, News — Historic Event for Mumia to be held on Dec. 9 at National Constitution Center

Historic Event for Mumia to be held on Dec. 9 at National Constitution Center

* THIS EVENT WILL STREAM LIVE. TO WATCH CLICK HERE!
* ON DEC. 10 THERE WILL BE A FOLLOW UP FUNDRAISER TO THIS EVENT FEATURING PROFESSOR GRIFF, C RAYZ WALZ, REBEL DIAZ AND MANY MORE. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

The Marmar Experience - Pepper Spray Is Just the Beginning: Here Are More Hypermilitarized Weapons Your Local PD Could Use

The Marmar Experience - Pepper Spray Is Just the Beginning: Here Are More Hypermilitarized Weapons Your Local PD Could Use: On Friday, November 18, a group of UC Davis students staged a sit-in to protect their Occupy encampment from destruction by a horde of riot police. Seated on the ground, the students defensively ducked as Lt. John Pike approached them. They were right to do so: Pike aimed a riot-extinguisher at them, showering the crowd of unarmed students with pepper spray as calmly as if he were watering his garden. A group of officers then proceeded to break up the crowd with batons and arrest them. The video of the incident has since gone viral.

The counterinsurgency-like tactics used to subdue unarmed, peaceful demonstrators at Occupy encampments around the country have left people shocked and appalled at the grotesque treatment of protesters as if they were violent enemy combatants. This dynamic was captured best by a photo published in the News Observer showing machine-gun toting police officers dressed in combat attire, pointing their weapons at unarmed Occupy Chapel Hill demonstrators.

City to Sharply Increase Solitary Confinement on Rikers Island � Solitary Watch

City to Sharply Increase Solitary Confinement on Rikers Island � Solitary Watch: By Jean Casella and Dina Levy

Over the past year, the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC) has quietly implemented a massive expansion in the number of solitary confinement units on Rikers Island. By the end of 2011, the number of “punitive segregation” cells at Rikers will have grown by 45 percent, from 681 to a total of 990 cells. Some of these cells, in which prisoners are isolated for up to 23 hours a day, hold juveniles, inmates with mental illness, and pre-trial detainees not yet convicted of any crime. Once the expansion is complete, New York City’s island jail will have one of the highest rates of solitary confinement in the country.

In increasing its use of solitary confinement at this time, NYDOC is bucking a national trend. A growing body of academic research suggests that solitary confinement can cause severe psychological damage, and may in fact increase both violent behavior and suicide rates among prisoners. In recent years, criminal justice reformers and human rights and civil liberties advocates have increasingly questioned the widespread and routine use of solitary confinement in America’s prisons and jails, and states from Maine to Mississippi have taken steps to reduce the number of inmates they hold in isolation.

Revealed: Mark Duggan was not armed when shot by police | UK news | The Guardian

Revealed: Mark Duggan was not armed when shot by police | UK news | The Guardian: The investigation into the death of Mark Duggan has found no forensic evidence that he was carrying a gun when he was shot dead by police on 4 August, the Guardian has learned.

A gun collected by Duggan earlier in the day was recovered 10 to 14 feet away, on the other side of a low fence from his body. He was killed outside the vehicle he was travelling in, after a police marksman fired twice.

The new details raise questions about the official version of events. The shooting triggered some of the worst riots in modern British history, which began in Tottenham, north London, in response to the treatment of the Duggan family. The investigation into Duggan's death is being carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), but the Guardian has learned new details of the shooting, and a much more complex picture than first revealed is emerging.