One of India’s last bastions of free media, NDTV, has been taken over by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, believed to have close ties to Modi. NDTV now parrots much of Modi’s BJP-RSS fanatical beliefs and goals fanning the flames of violence towards Muslims, Christians and low caste Dalits.

NDTV’s former executive editor and longtime anchor Ravish Kumar, one of India’s most prominent TV journalists who has reported critically on Modi’s Hindu nationalist policies, is the subject of Vinay Shukla’s film While We Watched, which is being released this week in theaters in the United States.

Kumar, in his unwavering pursuit of truth amidst the challenging the autocratic rule of Prime Minister Modi. Kumar reminds us that Modi has not had a single press conference for the past nine years and is using mass media to generate intense hostility towards India’s minorities. Modi was banned from the United States for nearly a decade for his role as Chief Minister of Gujarat during which time he refused to stop the violence against Muslims. -more-

I served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After the war, I returned to Vietnam with my wife as a tourist. We visited North and South Vietnam and then went on to Cambodia and Laos. It was a fascination but sobering visit. While in both Cambodia and Laos, we saw many limbless villagers on crude artificial legs whose limbs had been lost by unexploded, U.S.-sourced ordinance. -more-

Dangerous False Alarms in the Service of Commerce
Driving down Sacramento with the car radio on, an ad for Inspire (a sleep-apnea device) came on. The pitch got me wondering how much surgery was involved to surgically install one of these CPAP replacement devices inside the body and, if it runs on electricity, how do you recharge the batteries when suddenly… "Honnnnk!"

Two blasts from a car horn startled me. My right foot hovered over the brake pedal. I quickly glanced over both shoulders, expecting to see a truck obscured by a blind spot coming within a few feet of a collision. But the nearby lanes were empty. I almost slammed on my brakes for nothing.

After that odd scare-from-nowhere experience, I had a thought about what had just happened. I waited until the next time I heard that Inspire ad pop up on the car radio and—Bingo! The startling blast of a honking didn't come out of nowhere: it came out of the radio. It was part of the Inspire commercial.

I had become the target of an "audio trigger" inserted to snatch a listener's attention. (I've noticed other radio commercials that insert the background sound of a ringing cellphone to seize a listener's focus.)

This acoustic trickery is effective and that's what makes it dangerous. I've contacted the solons in Sacto to consider enacting legislation to forbid radio commercials from containing bogus "emergency" sound effects that can prompt potentially dangerous reactions from unsuspecting drivers.

Speaking of Auto Accidents….
There's an odd thing about movie-industry lingo. When a new film is released, the press announces that it is about to "hit the screen." And when the movie opens for business, the hope is that it will prove to become a "hit."

Last week the neighborhood Elmwood Cinema, became the first movie theater to "take a hit." Literally.

A bizarre traffic accident briefly threatened to close the Elmwood just as it was preparing to showcase the new blockbuster, Oppenheimer.

Some staffers at the theater explained what happened. -more-

The rules of life differ for persons with almost any psychiatric condition versus those without one. The great "work ethic" is not appropriate for those who suffer from a mind-altering brain illness and who take mind-altering drugs to deal with that condition. Regardless of how much we might yearn to see ourselves as not disabled, we people who have a mental illness or similar condition need to take more care of ourselves, and we need to back off from overdoing it.

Schizophrenia, Bipolar, and/or Depression are better labeled a "condition," rather than an "illness." The language used matters, because the word "illness" has connotations of being sick, while the word, "condition" means we are merely different. Being seen as different is a more positive description. And when we have a neurological difference, it can mean we don't always fit in with the conventional work world. But it doesn't have to mean we are deficient. -more-

Worth Noting:

Council goes on summer recess from July 26 through September 11.

• Monday:
  • At 3 pm Council goes into closed session.
  • At 6 pm Council meets in the hybrid format on the appeal of the approval by ZAB of the Construction of a Community Center at Willard Park.
  • At 6:30 pm the PAB has a special meeting in the hybrid format.
• Tuesday:
  • At 4 pm City Council meets in the hybrid format to adopt the Civic Center Design Plan.
  • At 6 pm Council meets in the hybrid format with ALPR as item 38 on the agenda.
  • At 6 pm the Zero Waste Commission meets in person.
• Wednesday:
  • At 7 pm the Commission on the Status of Women meets in person, no agenda is posted.
• Thursday:
  • At 6:30 pm the Community Health Commission meets in person.
  • At 7 pm ZAB meets in the hybrid format.
• Friday: A
  • t 8:30 pm Movies in the Park is showing DC League of Super Pets.
• Saturday:
  • From 12:30 – 3:30 pm is the Adopt-a-Spot potluck in Cedar Rose Park.

Give Feedback on Art Proposals for Two Public Artworks at Aquatic Park. Deadline August 4 at 5 pm.

https://communityfeedback.opengov.com/portals/portal257/Issue_12979

Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

Directions with links to ZOOM support for activating Closed Captioning and Save Transcript are at the bottom of this calendar.

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS -more-