Hasta La Gadget!

Just before noon on April 3 2013, a jet dropped six cluster bombs on the Sheik Sa`eed neighborhood in Aleppo city, Syria, killing 11 civilians, including at least 7 children, and injuring many more. “Mahmoud,” a local resident who was sitting on the roof with several members of his family at the time of the attack, told Human Rights Watch on April 9 2013:

“Suddenly the jet came and dropped its bombs. The bombs fell from above, one after another, small bombs spread out in the sky. They were exploding everywhere, like a volcano erupting, on and on. Shrapnel hit me in my behind and back. I was taken to the hospital which was full of wounded people, many in critical condition.”

On the morning of 7 March 2013 a double cluster bomb strike on a southern district of Sarmin, a small town in the Idlib governorate, killed a 10-year-old girl, Amani al-Sheikh Ahmad, and a 25-year-old mother of two, Rania Kashtu, and injured more than 10 civilians, including several children.
A resident told Amnesty International:

“There were so many injured, they had horrible cuts and pieces of flesh missing. Little children were screaming in so much pain; it was heart breaking, and the medics in the field hospital didn’t know who to attend to first.”

Following a multiple cluster bomb attack on a densely populated housing estate in the Masaken Hanano district of Aleppo on 1 March 2013, 18-year-old Mahmoud, lay on the floor with shrapnel lacerations to his face, legs and arms. Blood was seeping through the bandages. Shaking and visibly in shock, he told Amnesty International :

“I was sitting outside my home with my friends; the little ones were playing around us. There were explosions; the children were screaming and then I don’t remember anything.”

These testimonies documented by Cluster Munition Coalition members provide just a snapshot of the human cost of the widespread and ongoing use of cluster munitions by Syrian government forces with mounting civilian casualties. The first recorded incident of use took place in July 2012 and in these 2 years Human Rights Watch has identified at least 224 locations in 10 of Syria’s 14 governorates where cluster munitions have been used. This data is incomplete as not all remnants have been recorded by video or other means, so the actual number of cluster munitions used in Syria is likely much higher. Updated figures on cluster munition use in Syria from The Cluster Munition Coalition’s research initiative, Cluster Munition Monitor will be released on September 2nd.

Cluster bombs have caused death and devastation in every conflict in which they have been used and deadly unexploded sub-munitions continue to kill and maim civilians long after conflict has ended. Use of this horrific weapon is comprehensively banned weapon under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The civilian suffering caused by use of cluster munitions and other banned weapons in Syria, including antipersonnel landmines and air-delivered incendiary weapons in populated areas is wholly unacceptable.

Today as campaigners around the world mark the fourth anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions first becoming binding international law, more than half the world’s nations have joined the treaty, stockpiles of the weapon are being destroyed in record numbers, hundreds of km2 of land has been cleared and States Party to the convention are legally obliged to provide victims of cluster munitions with adequate assistance.

There is now a powerful global stigma against the use of the weapon. More than 150 governments worldwide have spoken out since use of cluster munitions first began in Syria, a firestorm of international criticism – but two years on we need the world to continue to speak out against use of these deadly and banned weapons and for all states to prioritise the protection of civilians by joining the global ban. The rising toll of civilian casualties in Syria is an ongoing reminder that use of cluster munitions, like chemical weapons and others that affect civilians, is not acceptable by anyone, anywhere or at any time.

The job market is still not the greatest, but we just got one hopeful sign that it might be improving a bit.

The economy added 209,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Believe it or not, both of those numbers are encouraging.

The reason the first number is encouraging is because, duh, jobs. The encouraging part of the second number, the unemployment rate, is less obvious. Normally, higher unemployment is bad news, and people seeing HIGHER UNEMPLOYMENT on the evening news tonight will naturally assume the worst. But this time, unemployment actually rose for a good reason.

Here’s why: Technically speaking, unemployment is the percentage of people in the “labor force” who don’t have a job. To be counted in the labor force, you have to be looking for a job. One reason unemployment has fallen so quickly in recent years, from a peak of 10 percent back in 2009, is that a lot of people stopped looking for work. They took themselves out of the labor force. Once they stopped looking for work, they stopped being counted as “unemployed.” Voila, the unemployment rate goes down.

But in July, 329,000 people jumped into the labor force, and that’s the main reason the unemployment rate ticked higher. This is a hopeful sign: It could mean that people are hearing there are more jobs, and so they’re starting to look again. They’re just not finding those jobs right away, or at least not enough jobs for all 329,000 people. That’s why unemployment rose, as it sometimes does at times like this.

Here is a caveat salad: These labor-force numbers jump around a lot. We could easily see 500,000 people leave the labor force in August. A steadier number, the percentage of the working-age population in the labor force, is still dismally low. It ticked up a tiny bit in July. But at 62.9 percent, the labor-force participation rate is still near the lowest level since the 1970s:

More importantly, wages are still dead in the water — average hourly earnings for all employees are up just 2 percent in the past year, basically keeping pace with inflation. We’re still far from a fully healthy job market.

Romeo Santos’ voice may have taken him to the top of the charts time and again, but it doesn’t mean he’s a fan of it.

After two sold-out shows in New York, the King of Bachata spoke to HuffPost Voces about all the emotions that went into his historic achievement and opened up about what he think of his own voice.

Last month, the Bronx-born artist became the first Latin artist in 40 years to headline a concert at Yankee Stadium. But that wasn’t enough, Santos sold-out the venue — two nights in a row.

“I feel relief, because everything is over,” Santos told HuffPost. “It was a little stressful…to put on two shows of that magnitude on the production level, [with] surprises. It takes a lot of work. I feel proud to be able to say that I’m a part of very short list of artists who have completed a feat of this magnitude and I’m the first Latino to do it. It’s a huge honor.”

Santos has enjoyed the support of his Latino fans for several years, including while he was a frontman of the highly popular Bachata group Aventura, and it was that same audience that forced him to add a second concert date in his hometown.

“I felt proud, representing Latinos those two nights,” the artist continued. “I felt the spokesperson, the superhero of a community, of a culture and of a genre called Bachata.”

The crooner is currently basking in the success of his first two solo albums: Formula, Vol 1. and Formula, Vol. 2. Before releasing the first record in 2011, Santos admitted he did have doubts about how well he would do alone — but only briefly.

“I had one thing clear, that I was in the music industry, which means it’s all about the music,” Santos told HuffPost. “And when you give the public a genuine offer with quality, with interesting things that connect with the same fans that supported me when I started with Aventura, that’s what it’s about, about keeping that going.”

Throughout his career, many have noted that Santos’ high, suave singing voice is nothing like the deep, hoarse tones of his speaking voice. When asked about what he thinks when he hears his own voice, the artist gave a surprising answer.

“I don’t enjoy hearing myself talk… I don’t like my voice and I don’t enjoy my singing voice, I do what I do to bring pleasure and diversion to the fans. It is something that people have mentioned to me, and I think that the difference between [when I’m] singing and talking is because when I sing, I try to sing with a feeling that I don’t have when I’m talking because I sound very hoarse. [Singing is] very organic to me.”

Check out the two exclusive interviews with HuffPost Voces here and here.

Supporters of Republican and former GoDaddy executive Christine Jones may want to give her a wide berth at the gun ranges she’s been frequenting as she runs for governor of Arizona.

Jones told Phoenix television station KSAZ that she practices her aim in a potentially perilous manner: by shooting with her eyes closed.

“I don’t change clothes. I don’t change glasses,” Jones told the reporter, who interviewed her at a gun range. “I often shoot one-handed. I often shoot with my eyes closed.”

When the reporter asked her to clarify her last comment, Jones explained: “Because chances are if somebody attacks you it’s gonna be in the night.”

Jones has made her unambiguous support for the Second Amendment a distinctive feature of her campaign. A spokeswoman told The Huffington Post in June that at that point in the race she had met with supporters at nearly 20 gun stores across the state.

She is running against a handful of other Republicans in the race to succeed Gov. Jan Brewer (R), who can’t run again because of term limits. Arizona State Treasurer and former Cold Stone Creamery CEO Doug Ducey is considered Jones’ strongest rival for the Republican nomination.

(H/t Talking Points Memo)

Artist Kimiko Yoshida turns the classic notion of a bride on its head with her series of large-scale photographs taken over a course of years, “Something Blue.” Named for the old adage about bridal necessities — the old, the new, the borrowed and the “something blue” — the portraits feature Yoshida in various blue-tinged costumes. But instead of looking demure and feminine, as a bride with her sapphire pendant or hint-of-indigo bouquet is expected to, Yoshida could pass for a high profile extra in a Bjork video:

The Bride With Crown Of Thorns & Cross, 2008, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.

On display for the month of August at Seattle’s contemporary M.I.A. Gallery, the series gives away the premise with its titles. “Bride” is in each one, from The Bride With Crown Of Thorns, above, to the The Blue Yoruma Bride, shown below. The latter references the traditional attire of Nigerian brides, who wrap their heads in the gele, or scarf.

The Blue Yoruba Bride, Nigeria, 2005, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.

Yoshida is a hybrid performer — at once subject, artist and actor. She is the model for each photograph, each time inhabiting a different identity, whether an Egyptian bride or a Spanish one contemplating Picasso.

The Egyptian Bride Holding A Polished Bronze Mirror, 2005, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.

The Torero Bride With A Black Suit Of Lights, remembering Picasso, 2006, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.

These “playful, mutable brides,” contend the gallery notes, are “disconnected from reality and marital norms.” The notes link Yoshida’s interest in this kind of role play with the transformative power of a single color field: in this case, blue. The effect of monochrome is “disappearance.” Yoshida’s otherworldly portraits prove the point. Cast in one primary color, any old person — so colorful in daily life — becomes a symbol.

The Kikuyu Bride, 2008, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.

The Mao Bride (Red Guard Blue holding the Little Red Book), 2010, Kimiko Yoshida. Courtesy M.I.A. Gallery.