Hasta La Gadget!

If you play the guitar then chances are that every now and then you will have to whip out a tuner as guitars do go out of tune occasionally. Portable tuners and tuning apps have been around for a while now, but if you’re the proud owner of an Android Wear smartwatch, then perhaps atHandTuner could be of interest to you.

What makes atHandTuner different from the plethora of tuner apps available is the fact that it can be downloaded and installed on an Android Wear device. This means that essentially you would have a tuner with you on your wrist wherever you go. This might come in handy when your smartphone runs out of battery or in those instances where you find yourself in need of a tuner.

So how does atHandTuner fare compared to an actual tuner? For those who might be worried that it might not be as accurate as regular tuners, it certainly doesn’t seem to be the case. Cameron Summerson over at Android Police has taken the tuner out for a spin and based on his findings, it seems that atHandTuner is just as accurate as a regular tuner.

It also comes with a “clip on” mode that allows you to strap your watch to the headstock of the guitar and tune your guitar that way too, which could come in handy for those who prefer headstock tuners. The app is priced at $1.45 and if you’d like to get your hands on it, head on over to the Google Play Store for the download.

atHandTuner Is A Guitar Tuner For Your Android Wear Device , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

When Sony unveiled its PlayStation Vue streaming service, it painted a rosy picture of what you’ll get: tons of channels! You’ll never look at TV the same way again! But what’s it like to use in the real world? You won’t have to wait until the formal…

Hawaii is just getting used to the nasally monotone of its new governor, but David Ige — the Twitterverse has noted — sounds eerily familiar:

David Ige sounds like a child learning to read out loud using Kermit the Frog’s voice. #KITVdebate

— Chris =^•ｪ•^= (@frickenchris) October 1, 2014

My 12 yr old just said “David Ige sounds like Kermit the Frog”…I swear to God I never said that in front of him so you know he speaks truth!

— JREZ (@Maui_Native) November 3, 2014

What was David Ige looking for on a pig farm? #higov pic.twitter.com/XiFAPN6zHO

— Duke Aiona’s Brain (@DukeAionaHI) October 16, 2014

But Ige isn’t the only frog in the puddle. Turns out, the recognizable and calming inflection has gotten more than one politician elected.

Michigan governor Rick Snyder has been eliciting comparisons to everyone’s favorite Muppet since he was elected four years ago.

Twitter took note of the similarity again last week during Snyder’s State of the State address:

Just noticed that Governor Snyder sounds exactly like Kermit the frog. #StateoftheState

— Chris Felice (@CJFelice) January 21, 2015

Things that can’t be unheard: My Mom just said Governor Snyder sounds like Kermit the Frog.

— Vicious Sydney (@AussieGirl0809) January 21, 2015

Rick Snyder sounds like Kermit the Frog.

— Jesus (@JMar0623) January 21, 2015

While both governors may have frogs in their throats (sorry!), there can only be one gubernatorial Amphibitarian.

Check out the clips below of each governor’s State of the State address and help us decide who does the best “Kermit.” Runner up earns “Bert” status.

I received an email recently from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The violences (sic) that have started at the beginning of this week have continued up to now and it is reported that five people died only yesterday. The Internet was established only today but in town there is no activity.

Communications like these force me to cast aside writer’s malaise and try once again to examine events in Congo and explain the convoluted and psychotic forces operating there to interested readers.

Has President Joseph Kabila finally revealed his true colors to the world? At least 36 people, including a police officer, were killed in demonstrations against proposed changes to the constitution. The changes would require a national census before the 2016 presidential elections. Political opposition leaders say the changes were aimed at extending President Kabila’s term beyond the constitutionally mandated two terms.

Kabila assumed office in in 2001, ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Before Laurent Kabila, there was Joseph Mobutu (Mobutu Sese Seko) who staged a coup against President Joseph Kasavubu in 1965. Kasavubu’s Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, instrumental in forging Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960, was assassinated in 1961.

Images: Mobutu’s former palace dining room in Goma, now the Provincial Capitol and street scene in Goma near the palace grounds (Photos: G. Nienaber)

Whether Lumumba was directly killed by the CIA, Britain’s M16, or Congolese actors aided by Belgium, the inconvenient Lumumba was eliminated. Since Mobutu, it has been difficult for Congo’s leaders to stay alive, let alone retain power. It is reasonable to assume the younger Kabila’s proposed census could never be completed before 2016. Congo is an impoverished nation, with no roads, and no access to remote villages in a landscape the size of Western Europe.

It was a smart move on Kabila’s part to suggest the census to buy time.

The United States is expressing muted interest in the violence that has been ramping up as protests spread.

Demonstrations were held in cities across the country, including Kinshasa, Bukavu, Bunia, Goma, Lubumbashi, Mbandaka, and Uvira. In Kinshasa, protesters demonstrated on January 19, 20, and 21 near the Palais du Peuple parliament building, around the University of Kinshasa, and in Bandal, Kalamu, Kasa-vubu, Kimbanseke, Lemba, Limete, Makala, Masina, Matete, Ndjili, and Ngaba communes.

Village in Congo (Photo:G. Nienaber)

I realize the names mean nothing to readers who have never been to Congo. But names offer a sense of place to start a conversation about Congo. These are villages and cities populated with people living in a country where politicians, rebel armies, mercenaries and western interests control the world’s most valuable natural resources. The Congolese have no personal wealth at all. Average income in Congo is $288 per year. Do the simple math. This is less than a dollar a day.

Human Rights Watch, and other press accounts say at least four were killed by government security forces in the Provincial Capitol of Goma. Add the five we know about from my friend’s email and it as at least nine there. Then, remember this is Congo, and we will never know the true numbers. HRW documented a number of instances in which police or Republican Guard soldiers took away the bodies of those shot in an apparent attempt to remove evidence.

HRW announced on Tuesday that on January 26 the president of the human rights organization Synergie Congo Culture et Développement (Congo Culture and Development Synergy) was in the custody of Congo’s national intelligence agency. Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba was involved in mobilizing public participation in demonstrations against proposed changes to the electoral law, on January 12 and during the week of January 19, in the capital, Kinshasa. He has been missing since January 21.

A State Department Press Release issued on Sunday urged Kabila to sign legislation passed by the Congolese Assembly on Friday that requires elections to be completed no later than December 2016. This would seem to mitigate the conflicts, but Kabila has not indicated that he would accept the compromise. There is still uncertainty over the timing of the elections, including whether presidential polls will be held by the end of Kabila’s second five-year term next year. Protests continue at this writing and the government has blocked the Internet and social messaging forums.

After the 2006 presidential elections, HRW published an extensive report, “We Will Crush You.” The report documented evidence that Kabila’s was using violence and intimidation to eliminate political opposition in the country’s first democratically held elections in over 40 years. After his victory, Kabila stated for all to hear that he would be “severe” in governing Congo. The reprisals were especially severe in eastern Congo, where former General Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP army was leading an insurgency against Kabila’s regime. I wanted to use the adjective “brutal” to describe Kabila’s actions, but the report speaks for itself.

Kabila was not just focused on the CNDP. One could argue justification of reprisals against an insurgency, no matter how deep grass roots sympathy anchored the rebellion.

But the truth is another matter. Congolese state security forces killed an estimated 500 people and detained about 1,000 more, many of whom were tortured, after Joseph Kabila took office in 2006, according to reports from Human Rights Watch and others. The victims were political opponents.

The question is why HRW so systematically went after the CNDP in 2006 and its reincarnation, the M23, in 2012? During both insurgencies, press reports said that it was Congolese troops committing many if not most of the atrocities that are a by-product of war. Even the Oscar nominated movie, Virunga, which was filmed only with the cooperation of the Kabila government, skips over the root causes of the conflict. Let’s remember the 60,000 who vanished from an IDP camp, documented in the movie, without a blink from the filmmakers. Had the IDP issue been exposed or pursued during filming, it is certain the documentary would never have been made. Kabila would have “crushed” it. Many were fleeing the Congo army.

So now, we find HRW and the U.S. State Department crying crocodile tears over Kabila’s actions. Like the calculated actions of a psychopath, Kabila had telegraphed his intentions while he was carefully grooming the international press, NGOs, and filmmakers to ignore his pathological behavior against the opposition. Kabila successfully triangulated his relationships in order to justify vilification of anyone who successfully protested his regime.

Most people in the West just don’t care. We are not that “into” Congo. Only when there is a gruesome war, punctuated by rape and atrocity, does it become interesting. Only when the piercing screams of women and children penetrate the silence do we tune in to brief and incomplete news reports. We believe the psychopath because he has gathered a cheerleading international press corps to circle the palace, while the United Nations functions as the defacto palace guard.

Will the Congolese face another violent year, as Kabila makes good on his 2006 promise to “crush” opposition? Or, will Kabila sign the new legislation? A dictator ruling over a democracy is a dangerous entity. It offers nothing but cognitive dissonance. Let the people decide.

On the day that domestic violence survivor Marissa Alexander fired a warning shot at her abusive estranged husband Rico Gray, he assaulted her and threatened to kill her. Despite the shot causing no injuries, Alexander was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Alexander successfully appealed her unjust conviction and last November accepted a plea deal for three years with credit for time served. Today, unless the presiding judge chooses to add an additional five years to her sentence, she will walk out of the Duval County jail, though she will be required to wear a surveillance monitor and be on probation for two years.

Initially, Alexander invoked Stand Your Ground as a defense — the same defense that allowed George Zimmerman to go free after his murder of Trayvon Martin — but in her case, the judge found that Stand Your Ground did not apply. Instead, the burden was placed on Alexander to prove that she acted in self-defense.

Despite suffering years of abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, our justice system did not treat Marissa Alexander as someone who was simply defending herself, but rather as the wrongdoer. And her case is only one example of how the punishment economy created by our criminal justice system criminalizes victims.

In November 2012 in South Carolina, Whitlee Jones’ boyfriend dragged her down the street by her hair and beat her. After another confrontation, she stabbed him in self-defense and he died. A judge initially found that Jones had the right to kill her attacker under South Carolina’s version of Stand Your Ground, but prosecutors are fighting that decision, alleging that it does not apply in domestic violence cases where the two parties were housemates.

In October 2006 in Texas, Arlena Lindley’s abusive partner murdered her son. She was later sentenced to 45 years in prison for failing to protect her son from her abusive partner. An investigation by Buzzfeed found 28 mothers in 11 states sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to prevent partners from hurting their children, despite the mothers being victims of domestic violence themselves.

In many cases, victims of rape have been punished for refusing to testify against their assailants. In August 2012, a woman brought charges against a 63-year-old Nebraska man for assaulting her when she was a child. When she later changed her mind and refused to testify in order to avoid embarrassing her family, the judge threatened her with a contempt charge and 90 days of jail time.

In each of these instances, we can certainly blame faulty laws, like Stand Your Ground, for their inadequacies, identify how to fix them, and make incremental changes. But for systemic change to occur, we need to move away from being a society where our first inclination is always to punish someone in order to solve a problem.

In a punishment economy, punitive solutions are applied to all social problems, particularly those involving low-income people of color, because as a whole, the government prioritizes funding for prisons and policing over social support mechanisms.

A 2011 report from the NAACP found that within the last two decades, state spending on prisons grew at six times the rate of state spending on higher education. Between 2009 and 2012, states cut $5 billion in mental health services, while spending more on prisons and jails.

A funding decision made by the state government in Mississippi offers an especially illuminating example of what operating in an economy that values punishment looks like: In February 2013, the state government had millions of dollars in federal child-care funding for low-income families, but instead of increasing services, they gave a $14.7 million contract to Xerox to develop a security system requiring mothers using child care vouchers to scan their fingerprints when they picked up their children.

In a punishment economy, we criminalize students who act out by placing them in juvenile detention centers, instead of increasing funding for restorative justice counselors in schools. We imprison people who suffer from substance abuse and mental health problems, instead of improving and expanding publicly funded treatment programs. And instead of increasing the capacity of domestic violence organizations to support victims, we penalize those victims for the decisions they make in order to survive.

People of color in particular are often the targets of this punishment economy.
A common denominator in many of the above cases is that the person accused is a black woman. The #BlackLivesMatter movement aims to draw attention to the multiple ways in which our nation’s justice system fails to protect the lives of all black people.

The cases referenced above illustrate how the punishment economy hurts women, but its influence pervades our whole society and the end result is more people trapped in a cycle of mass criminalization and incarceration.

Now that Marissa Alexander has served time in prison, she is likely to face greater obstacles obtaining employment, housing, and health care. And when she returns home, she will have to pay $105 per week to the state in monitoring fees. The cost of punishment chases people long after they have served their time.

For change to happen, we must focus our resources on mechanisms of support. There is another way forward that does not involve punishment or jail. It’s time to stop criminalizing victims and provide help instead.