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Recycling underwear?
Norway tells conscripts to return underwear after service
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Conscripts in Norway have been ordered to return their underwear, bras and socks after the end of their military service so that the next group of recruits can use them.
The Norwegian military said Monday that it is struggling with dwindling supplies, in part due to the pandemic.
The Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization said because of “a challenging stockpile situation, this move is necessary as it provides the Armed Forces with greater garment volumes available for new soldiers starting their initial service.”
Its press spokesman Hans Meisingset said that with “proper checks and cleaning, the reuse of garments is considered an adequate and sound practice.”
Until recently, the roughly 8,000 young men and women who every year do their military service returned their outer clothing but were allowed to leave barracks with the underwear and socks they were issued.
Military service is mandatory for both men and women in Norway and lasts between 12 and 19 months.
Meisingset said the pandemic was not the only reason why the stock of garments is low for some items. It also depends on finance, contracts and other issues.
NATO-member Norway’s national defense magazine, Forsvarets Forum, reported that it was not the first time that the Armed Forces had struggled with such shortcomings, with a union spokesman saying it “has been a recurring problem” for years. In June 2020, a third of the soldiers’ clothing and equipment was missing.
“A year ago, we looked at exactly the same shortcomings in close-fitting clothing that we see now, and earlier this autumn, the largest and smallest sizes of footwear were missing,” Eirik Sjoehelle Eiksund was quoted as saying. adding that he believed it was due to errors in the system around ordering and delivery.
Death row inmates sue to be killed by firing squad
A trial is scheduled to take place to determine the constitutionality
of the current form of killing by lethal injection
Two death row inmates in the US state of Oklahoma are petitioning a judge to allow a firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection, arguing it would be quicker and have less room for error than the current mode of execution.
Donald Anthony Grant, who murdered two people during a 2001 robbery, and Gilbert Ray Postelle, who murdered four people in a 2005 shooting while high on methamphetamine, have appealed to US District Judge Stephen Friot to delay their executions until a trial can determine whether lethal injection is a constitutional form of killing death row inmates.
According to AP, a trial on the matter is set to take place on February 28. However, Grant and Postelle are due to be executed weeks before on January 27 and February 17 respectively.
Both men were denied clemency last year.
Attorney Jim Stronski told the judge that while a firing squad “may be gruesome to look at, we all agree it will be quicker.” Though Judge Friot said there was “a lot” for him to get his “mind around,” he suggested that a decision would be made by the end of the week.
Experts involved with the appeal have claimed that death by firing squad would be either completely or almost painless and have less room for error than lethal injection, which has led to several cases of excruciating executions.
John Marion Grant, another Oklahoma death row inmate who was executed last year, “began convulsing about two dozen times” during his execution by lethal injection and vomited on his own face before he was eventually pronounced dead around 21 minutes after the first injection.
In 2014, Amherst College Professor Austin Sarat revealed that the rate of botched lethal injections was 7% higher than other forms of execution.
Similar cases have been used to argue in favor of alternative methods of execution, such as the firing squad, which was widely used in the US before lethal injection became the default option in all 27 states that still use capital punishment. A moratorium on executions has been in effect in California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
South Korean presidential candidate gets to the root of the problem
Presidential candidate makes free hair loss treatment his campaign pledge
One in five South Koreans suffer from balding, according to
the country’s Democratic Party
The South Korean ruling party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is trying to win the hearts and heads of voters going into the March election by promising to include hair loss treatment in the national health insurance plan.
Helping those “suffering from hair loss” is going to be among his priorities if he becomes president, Lee announced in a Facebook post on Friday.
“I will expand the national insurance plan’s coverage of hair loss treatment drugs and actively look into including hair transplants for the treatment of serious cases of hair loss as well,” he vowed.
The Democratic Party politician insisted that his plan will allow the creation of a stable market for hair loss medication in South Korea, promoting the development of new drugs to tackle the problem and lowering the price of the existing ones.
Lee’s camp floated the idea of expanding national health insurance to cover hair loss treatment last week. The candidate even held a meeting with a group of voters who were affected by the problem.
The Democratic Party said that around 10 million of the country’s population of over 51 million have been suffering from hair loss. Those people have been forced to buy expensive drugs from abroad or resort to prostate medication as a cheaper substitute.
While many Koreans were enthusiastic about Lee’s initiative, there were some who accused him of pursuing a populist policy that is only going to put the country’s health insurance service under more financial pressure.
The 57-year-old responded to the critics in his post, arguing that “the anxiety, social phobia and severed relationships that people with hair loss suffer from are directly connected to the quality of life, and with the discriminatory attention they receive in everyday life, [hair loss] can’t be regarded as a personal matter.”
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