Misery in Trump's Alligator Alcatraz (CNN)

Trump to open 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention site in red state Florida (Spectrum News)

'It's a type of torture': Hear what it's like inside 'Alligator Alcatraz'

(CNN) July 26, 2025: CNN talked to immigrants being detained at the Florida facility and created a 3D model to explore what conditions are like inside. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez reports. #CNN #News

Alligator Alcatraz ICE prisoner CHAINED for hours in scalding heat

Alligator Alcatraz ICE prisoner CHAINED for hours in scalding heat

(Status Coup News) July 25, 2025: Status Coup reporter Ashley Bishop reports on a prisoner at ICE's so-called Alligator Alcatraz prison describing what he called him being "tortured" by guard at the controversial prison in Florida's Everglades. The Nicaraguan man was placed in chains outside in a four-by-four-foot square in what guards call the "box." He was then left outside—chained—for several hours in the scolding heat without water.

SCN needs more viewers to sign up as paid members for as low as $5 bucks a month to stay ON-THE-GROUND and send reporters back to Florida to cover Alligator Alcatraz. SUPPORT: statuscoup.com/join. #alligatoralcatraz #detentioncenter #cruelty #institutionalracism #ice

• Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The LOVE (metta) I found in Buddhist Burma

Sayalay Khema Cari, Thabarwa Center, Italy; Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

When I arrived in Burma (Myanmar), I had to share a room with a fellow meditator, a Burmese gal. On the first night, I was provided with clean bedsheets and a mosquito net, but I didn't want to use the net.

The Burmese woman insisted I use it, as there were many mosquitoes. But I didn't want to, and she gave up asking. The next night she removed her own mosquito net. I was surprised and asked her why. She explained that if she were under her mosquito net, all the mosquitoes in the room would bite me. So she wanted to share the bites with me. ❤️

I want to love without limits.

That day I understood how different and how much kinder the minds of Theravada Burmese Buddhists are.

This story describes exactly their way of seeing things: Not only would they share what little they had, but they would share another person's burden, too. They would endure more to reduce someone else's suffering. At least that's what they would aim to do by their intention. I became a Western Buddhist nun. Every culture has beautiful qualities. We can learn from all of them to help recover our humanity and develop our hearts to be as vast as the sky.

Shamans and scientists in Shangri La (video)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; A. Ruzo, Anna Sussman, G. Washington (Snap)

Glynn Washington outdid himself this week on SnapJudgment.org with Shangri La (#712)

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SHANGRI LA: The Boiling River of Peru: On the most recent Snap, "Shangri La." Some say it doesn't exist; others are already out the door. Featuring stories about a mythical Peruvian boiling river and...

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Graduate student and would-be geologist Andres Ruzo tried to track down a legendary river he heard his grandfather talk about in stories when he was a little boy. He found the stuff of legends and then was faced with the choices and burdens of knowing a valuable secret. More in Ruzo’s book, The Boiling River.

Scientist and Shaman in Shangri La

Scientist Andres Ruzo in the dense, green Amazon jungle searching for a river (F.I.P.)

Adventure and Discover in the Amazon

In this exciting adventure mixed with amazing scientific study, a young, exuberant explorer and geoscientist journeys deep into the Amazon -- where rivers boil and legends come to life.

When Andrés Ruzo was just a small boy in Peru, his grandfather told him the story of a mysterious legend: There is a river deep in the Amazon that boils as if a fire burns below it.

Twelve years later, Ruzo -- now a geoscientist -- hears his aunt mention that she herself had visited this strange river.
 
Determined to discover if the boiling river is real, Ruzo secures the help of the local shaman and sets out on a scientific expedition/journey deep into the Amazon. What he finds astounds him:

Anna Sussman (snapjudgment.org)

In this long, wide, and winding river, the waters run so hot that locals brew tea in them; small animals that fall in are instantly cooked. As he studies the river, Ruzo faces challenges more complex than he had ever imagined.
 
The Boiling River follows this young explorer as he navigates a tangle of competing interests -- local shamans, illegal cattle farmers and loggers, and oil companies.

This true account reads like a modern-day adventure, complete with extraordinary characters, captivating plot twists, and jaw-dropping details -- including stunning photographs and a never-before-published account about this incredible natural wonder.

Ultimately, The Boiling River is about a man trying to understand the moral obligation that comes with scientific discovery -- to protect a sacred site from misuse, neglect, even from his own discovery. More

Boiling River: Snap Judgment "Shangri La" (PRX, Public Radio Exchange, April 30, 2016)

• Legendary river of Amazon is geological anomaly (Forbes) Andrés Ruzo, a PhD candidate in geophysics at SMU, has spent years studying a very peculiar phenomenon in the Amazon. 
• Andrés Ruzo, Geologist info, facts, news, photos (Nat Geo)
• Peruvian immigrant Andres Ruzo: A Serial Entrepreneur...

VAXXED: How vaccines cause autism (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; Lisa Garr, TheAwareShow.com (KPFK); JJU; vaxxedthemovie.com

Vaccine and Autism Truth Exposed

Dr. Andrew Wakefield MD, a highly acclaimed gastroenterologist who publicly disclosed the link between the MMR vaccine and autism in 1998, is the co-founder and director of the AutismMediaChannel.com. He publicly advocates for safe vaccines, which are possible, and campaigns for the rights of the skyrocketing number of families with vaccine-injured children ignored by the pharmaceutical companies making billions on selling unnecessary vaccinations for kids and others.
 
There has long been a suspicion that there is a causal link between certain vaccines and autism. Now there's proof that the CDC intentionally omitted crucial data in their final report on the relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism.

That proof -- revealed by a CDC whistleblower -- is finally being exposed. Film producer Del Bigtree and medical doctor and director Andrew Wakefield made the new documentary, "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe." Lisa Garr gets the details from Dr. Wakefield and Del Bigtree in this eye-opening interview. More

(The Health Ranger) VAXXED: ABC News interview Big Pharma fears

Del Bigtree is the producer of the controversial documentary "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe," directed by Dr. Wakefield. Bigtree was an Emmy Award-winning producer of the daytime talk show "The Doctors" for six years. Del has a background as a filmmaker and investigative medical journalist.

There has long been a suspicion that there is a link between vaccines and autism.  And now there's proof that the CDC intentionally omitted crucial data in their final report on the relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. That proof is finally being exposed -- with little thanks to Robert DeNiro and Tribeca, who caved in under pressure to ban the film.

• VIDEO: Vaccine Injuries and Exemptions: the Right to Refuse (AutismOne Media) with Patti Finn

Mass vaccinations cause harm
Richie Allen Show (facebook.com) (youtube.com)

Friendship: Fool vs. Foe (Jataka)

Wisdom Quarterly; E.B. Cowell (ed.), The Jataka: Stories of the Buddha's Former Births (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1895), Book 1, No. 44. "Mosquito and Carpenter" (Makassa Jataka)

Vishvakarma or "Carpenter's Cave," Ajanta/Ellora Buddhist archeological site India, has a carved cathedral-shaped ceiling giving the impression of wooden beams (nozomiiqel/CC)

  

"Senseless friends" -- A rebirth story was recounted by the Buddha while on alms round in Magadha, about certain foolish villagers in a neighboring hamlet. Tradition has it that after traveling from the prosperous city of Sāvatthi to the kingdom of Magadha [where King Bimbisara reigned], the Buddha arrived at the village with its throngs of fools. 

(science.howstuffworks.com)

These foolish villagers met together one day debating, "Friends, when we are at work in the jungle, mosquitoes devour us, which hinders our work. Arming ourselves with bows, arrows, and other weapons, let us go to war with the mosquitoes and shoot or hack them all to death." 

Off they went to the jungle shouting, "Shoot down the mosquitoes!" But they shot and struck one another until they were in a sad state and returned only to sink on the ground in or within the village or at its entrance.

  

Surrounded by the Monastic Order, the Buddha entered the village on a quest for alms. The sensible inhabitants of the village as soon as they saw the Buddha set up a pavilion at the village entrance. And after bestowing the wandering ascetics headed by the Buddha with alms, they bowed respectfully and seated themselves. 

  

Observing wounded men lying around on this side and that, the Buddha asked the monastics, "These disabled men laying about, what happened to them?" 

"Venerable sir," they explained, "they went forth bent on war with the mosquitoes, only to shoot one another and so disable themselves."
 

The Buddha then said, "This is not the first time that these foolish people have dealt out blows to themselves instead of to the mosquitoes they meant to kill. In former times, too, there were those who set out to hit a mosquito only to hit a fellow-creature instead." So saying, at the villagers' request, he told this story of the past.

(Nh53/flickr.com)

  

JATAKA 

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisat gained his livelihood as a trader.

 

In those ancient days, in a frontier village in Kasi, there lived a number of carpenters. By chance one of them, a balding gray-haired man, was whittling away at some wood. His scalp glistened like a copper bowl as a mosquito settled on it and stung him like a dart.

 

The carpenter said to his beloved son who was sitting nearby: "Be a good boy, son. There's a mosquito stinging my head. Drive it away."

 

"Hold still, father," answered the son. "One blow will settle it."

 

Now at that very moment the Bodhisat arrived at the village to trade. And he was sitting in the carpenter's shop.

 

"Rid me of it!" cried the father.

 

"All right, father," answered the son, who was standing behind the old man raising a sharp axe intent on killing just the mosquito. He swung and cleft his father's head in two. The old man fell dead on the spot.

  

The Bodhisat, an eye-witness to this tragic event, thought to himself: "Better than having such a foolish 'friend' is having an enemy with sense, for even just the fear of human vengeance will deter from killing a person." Then he recited these lines: 
 

Senseless friends are worse than sensible foes;

Witness the son who sought the gadfly to slay,

But, poor fool, instead cleft his father's skull in two.

  

So saying the Bodhisat rose up and departed, later passing away to fare according to his karmic deserts. As for the carpenter, his body was cremated by his kinsfolk.

CONCLUSION

"Therefore, lay followers," said the Buddha, "in bygone times too there were those who, seeking to hit a mosquito, struck down a fellow-creature." This lesson ended, he pointed out the connection by identifying the rebirth: "In those days I myself was the wise and good trader who departed after repeating the stanza."

Part III. Friendship

Buddha at Sukhothai (Aidan McRae Thomson/flickr)

(Wisdom Quarterly translation, "A Brief Code of Buddhist Ethics," DN 31)
FALSE FRIENDS
..."These four, young householder, should be understood as Foes in the Guise of Friends:

1. one who borrows your possessions,
2. one who renders lip-service,
3. one who flatters,
4. one who encourages ruin.

[Why?] "In four ways, young householder, should one who borrows your possessions be understood to be a foe in the guise of a friend:

One borrows with no thought of returning,
appropriating everything.
One gives little wanting much in return.
What one must do one does out of fear.
One is always looking out for selfish ends.

"In four ways, young householder, should one who renders lip-service be understood to be an adversary disguised as a friend:

1. One speaks proudly of favors attempted in the past.
2. One makes friendly vows regarding the future.
3. One tries to gain favor with empty words.
4. One pleads inability when an opportunity to be of service actually arises.

"In four ways, young householder, should one who flatters be understood to be a foe masquerading as a friend: More on friendship

Mutant Mosquitoes set Loose

(...ology.com) Malaysia has just unleashed 6,000 mutated mosquitoes into the wild in the hopes of thinning the population of disease-carrying parasites in their home country. A picture of the inevitable insectoid future:

Imagine waking to the unceasing sound of a dull but insistent whine, huddled atop a forgotten hill at the fringes of what was once civilization. Imagine an Earth whose plentiful fields have all been transformed, through decades of skeeter domination, into enormous, steaming swamps. Imagine the bloodsucking swarms drift like baleful clouds over the skies of the world's great cities, probing the ruined towers for survivors with their slime-slick proboscises.

And all because a country wanted to do something about a dangerous disease. The facts in the case are as follows: Malaysia intends for its 6,000 newest civil servants to help stop the spread of dengue fever... More>>

• More (...ology.com)

Do you suffer from desire?
Buddhism teaches that [tanha, "craving"] is the root of all suffering, and... I’m in this bind when it comes to Buddhism.

First Mammoth cloning experiment now underway

Keanu Reeves says "Matrix" 4 and 5 coming

Buddhist Artist Spotlight: Duncan Sheik
A practicing Buddhist, Duncan wrote a forward to the book The Way of Youth: Buddhist Common Sense for Handling Life’s Questions and regularly works for human rights issues in Tibet and elsewhere.

The Pope blesses social networking

"Hunger Games" movie finally gets release date

Why "Women's Magazines" can s*ck it
I read the book Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn and it really resonated with me: this is the life I'm leading RIGHT NOW. Slow down, take things for what they are, and learn to celebrate the moment. You don't have to be an expert in mediation or Buddhism to appreciate that... Women aren't the only ones looking ahead (in fact, many women are scared of the future or commitment)...

Southeast Asia: Anti-malaria tolerance

WHO warns of tolerance to anti-malaria drug
Increased drug resistance could undermine malaria control efforts (Swiss Radio).

RANGOON, Burma (IRIN) - Tolerance to artemisinin, the most effective anti-malarial drug available, is emerging in Myanmar and could pose a major challenge to regional malaria control, says the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO, researchers, and health officials are already trying to contain the spread of resistant strains of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite along the Thai-Cambodian border. The parasite causes the most deadly form of malaria.

Preliminary studies in 2008-09 by the Mekong countries of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam, show tolerance elsewhere, with the drug proving less effective and taking longer than it did previously to control the parasite. The studies, presented late last year at a WHO regional workshop of health officials, show tolerance may have extended to areas along the Burma-Thailand, Burma-China, and Cambodia-Vietnam borders. More>>

Man bitten by 2,000 malarial mosquitoes

A mosquito lands on a man's hand Friday, June 26, 2009, in Olmsted Falls, Ohio (AP/Mark Duncan).

Some people will go to extreme lengths to avoid mosquito bites. They'll wear long sleeves and pants in the heat of summer, surround themselves with citronella candles and torches, and spray foul-smelling chemicals all over their bodies -- or simply not set foot outside when they know the bugs are biting.

Stephen Hoffman isn't quite like those people. In fact, he has gone out of his way to get bitten. Years ago, he let 2,000 mosquitoes feast on his arm and inject perhaps 200,000 parasites into his bloodstream. Why? Well, for one thing, it made him immune to malaria.

He's also the CEO of Sanaria, a Rockville, Maryland-based company that aims to develop and commercialize a malaria vaccine. But he doesn't plan on subjecting all of us to as many bites as he has suffered. Receiving the vaccine that Hoffman hopes to create, in fact, wouldn't involve any mosquito bites at all. "It would have to be delivered by needle and syringe," he says. Creating the vaccine is another matter, however, and it calls for more brave volunteers willing to serve as mosquito fodder.

Progress toward a malaria vaccine, including a major new advance that European scientists reported this week, has already demanded a blood sacrifice from hundreds of people. Some, like Hoffman, have had scientific reasons for getting involved. More>>

Beating back Mosquito-borne Epidemic

Workers in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, fumigate city streets as part of a campaign to curb the breeding of mosquitoes (AP/Eranga Jayawardena).

Dengue fever -- an acute febrile disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus that affects tens of millions of people a year worldwide -- is a particular threat in tropical areas such as Sri Lanka. And health officials there say this year's epidemic is the worst since 2000.

So far this year, 146 Sri Lankans have died of dengue fever, and more than 10,000 have been infected. Unlike many tropical diseases, dengue is as serious a threat in cities as it is in rural areas. The situation in Sri Lanka is made worse by the tens of thousands of Tamil civil war refugees crowded into displacement camps during the recent climax of the country's culmination of decades of fighting.

Officials expect the situation to worsen soon with the beginning of monsoon season. "We are very worried about the outbreak of diseases," Suresh Bartlett, the director of the Sri Lanka program for the aid agency World Vision, said last week. "When the rains come in two weeks or so, I can't imagine what conditions will be like due to the lack of any proper drainage and toilet system." Source