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Okinawans Want Their Land Back. Is That So Hard to Understand?

Jon Letman Truthout
Living in the USA where people learn world geography through frequently fought overseas wars, Americans are accustomed to reading about places where we've fought wars - Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. But one formerly war-ravaged part of the world most Americans don't think much about is Okinawa. What's it like to have 20 percent of your small, crowded island home occupied by more than 32 foreign military bases and some 50 restricted air and marine military training sites.

Status of Palestine in 2015

Mazin Qumsiyeh Human Rights Newsletter
Academic and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh shares his insights on status of Palestine.

Okinawans Want Their Land Back. Is That So Hard to Understand?

John LetmanOkinawa Truthout
Living in the USA where people learn world geography through frequently fought overseas wars, Americans are accustomed to reading about places where we've fought wars - Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. But one formerly war-ravaged part of the world most Americans don't think much about is Okinawa. What's it like to have 20 percent of your small, crowded island home occupied by more than 32 foreign military bases and some 50 restricted air and marine military training sites.

Artificial Intelligence For Biology?

Derek Lowe In the Pipeline
That's what computers are really good at, relentless grinding. I can't call it intelligence, and I can call it artificial intelligence only in the sense that an inflatable palm is an artificial tree. I realize that we do have to call it something, though, but the term "artificial intelligence" probably confuses more than it illuminates.

Nurses' Union Says Strike Authorized If Negotiations Fail

KAREN MATTHEWS and DEEPTI HAJELA AP
Leaders of the union representing 18,000 nurses at 14 private hospitals in New York City said Wednesday the nurses could go on strike over staffing levels if negotiations with management fail. "We need more nurses," said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association. "Our patients' well-being, their very lives, depend on real staffing standards that enable us to simply do our jobs, to deliver safe, quality care."

The Collective That Saved Jazz

Salim Muwakkil In These Times
The 1960s were a period of great ferment in many musical genres, but especially in jazz, where new and musically transgressive styles were combining with the political defiance that characterized the developing Black Power movement.