Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

Harvey Rosenfield and Laura Antonini
The Washington Post
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:44 UTC
iphone china 2
© Reuters
Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you've likely never heard of are tapping vast troves of our personal data to generate secret "surveillance scores" - digital mug shots of millions of Americans - that supposedly predict our future behavior.

The firms sell their scoring services to major businesses across the U.S. economy.

People with low scores can suffer harsh consequences.

CoreLogic and TransUnion say that scores they peddle to landlords can predict whether a potential tenant will pay the rent on time, be able to "absorb rent increases," or break a lease. Large employers use HireVue, a firm that generates an "employability" score about candidates by analyzing "tens of thousands of factors," including a person's facial expressions and voice intonations. Other employers use Cornerstone's score, which considers where a job prospect lives and which web browser they use to judge how successful they will be at a job.

Comment: See also:

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Syringe

Russia could produce MILLIONS of Covid-19 vaccines every single month by 2021 - Trade & Industry Minister


RT
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 22:59 UTC
vaccine
© Global Look Press/FrankHoemann/SVEN SIMON
Production of Russia's homegrown coronavirus vaccine is due to begin in September, and by the start of 2021, the country could be creating several million doses a month. That's according to Russia's Minister of Trade and Industry.

Denis Manturov told news agency TASS that the vaccine will be produced in three Russian regions - Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Moscow Oblast - with a view to a widespread immunization campaign starting in October.

Moscow's Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which led the research of the domestic drug, has partnered with companies Generium, R-Pharm, and Binnopharm, with a view to starting serial production next month.

"We will be able to ensure the production volume of several hundred thousand doses of vaccine per month, with a subsequent increase to several million by the beginning of next year," Manturov said.

Gamalei is not the only Russian institution to be working on a Covid-19 vaccine, but thus far has been the most successful. In late July, immunized volunteers were released from hospital after receiving the drug and undergoing a month of observation.
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Handcuffs

Dunkin' Donuts staffer busted after cop finds 'thick piece of mucus' in coffee

Tamar Lapin
NY Post
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 22:35 UTC
Vincent J. Sessler
A Dunkin' Donuts employee in Chicago was arrested for allegedly hocking a loogie into a police officer's coffee.

Vincent J. Sessler, 25, was nabbed Friday after an Illinois State Trooper found a "large, thick piece of mucus which was later confirmed to be saliva" in his cup, cops said.

The officer had gone to the coffee shop Thursday around 10:20 p.m. for a cup of black coffee, local CBS affiliate WBBM-TV reported.

But when he took the lid off to cool the beverage down, he noticed what looked like a gob of spit floating on top, police said.

Following an investigation, cops arrested Sessler, who was charged with disorderly conduct, reckless conduct, and battery to a peace officer.
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Bullseye

American university students are coddled, thin-skinned snowflakes, and social media is to blame

Robert Bridge
RT
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 12:13 UTC
University
© Getty Images / Jon LovetteLocust Walk with students in fall, University of Pennsylvania, University City area, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The explosion of 'cancel culture' and the social justice mindset on college campuses across the US was inspired by social media, where the idea of creating digital 'safe spaces' without 'trolls' has invaded the real world.

For those born around 1995, this column will likely be filed away under the heading: 'Aging Generation X-er with No Clue Rails against Evils of Social Media.' And I suppose there may be some truth to that claim. After all, the greater part of my life - like that of many other people - was spent without access to handheld technologies and the endless apps, add-ons and what-nots. The reason is not because I lived on an island, or was born among the Amish, but because such technologies were not around in my time. In other words, the youth of Generation X was more defined by Alexander Graham Bell than Steve Jobs.

Comment: The idea that 'truth is relative' has been incubating in educational institutions and throughout society for decades: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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No Entry

Best of the Web: America's Frontline Doctors silenced by social media: Website removed after viral video censored

John C. A. Manley
Off Guardian
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:59 UTC
America's Frontline Doctors
As Global Research reported, America's Frontline Doctors held a press conference on Capitol Hill on Monday. Over 17 million people watched the video (below) before YouTube, Twitter and Facebook gave it the "misinformation" stamp of disapproval and deleted it.

Yet another censored video exposing the COVID charade. No big surprise... But then I tried to visit the organization's website and was met with the following message: "Website expired."

Their site is (was) hosted by SquareSpace. I have not yet found any explanation for the take-down. The hosting companies Acceptable Use Policy seems pretty reasonable. Nonetheless, point 3.1 is wide open for any sort of censorship, forbidding:
anything that's false, fraudulent, inaccurate or deceiving."

Comment:

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Bizarro Earth

The culture war against the past

Frank Furedi
Spiked
Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Defaced monument graffiti
© Getty ImagesMomentary erasure of history, and the message is...
Our elites have become uncomfortable with Western civilisation itself.

The cultural conflicts that have engulfed much of the Western world threaten to detach our societies from their past. Almost seamlessly the numerous disputes that have erupted over identity, race, gender and family life have reinforced one another and intermeshed. But in the end the venom is directed towards one central target - Western society's past. This project has little to do with the honourable mission of learning from the past. It is about treating the past as if it were current, and condemning historic figures and institutions as if they were our contemporaries. In this way, culture warriors seek to demonstrate their moral superiority over the centuries-old target of their outrage. Paradoxically, this crusade seeks to detach the present from the past.

It is important to understand that the culture war against the past is not confined to the vandalisation of old memorials and statues. The numerous demonstrations denouncing the misdeeds of Western empires or attacking historical figures like Jefferson, Gladstone or Churchill are in reality only the most vivid and striking symptoms of the cultural malaise afflicting the West.

The most significant feature of the war against the past is the complicity of cultural institutions and their leaders in these projects of estranging society from its traditions and history. It is not merely universities that promote a vision of the nation's past as one that people should view with shame. The claim that contemporary cultural institutions bear the burden of guilt for the crimes committed by their ancestors is widely internalised by the cultural elites. From their perspective, Western history is a story of unremitting violence and greed. There are no 'good old days' that can serve as a focus for redemption and nostalgia. Instead of nostalgia, the current regime promotes a vision of the past as 'the bad old days', inciting guilt, shame and self-loathing. This corrosive orientation towards one's history leads to constant performances of apology.

Comment: Global untethering: all whim and no promise. Clearly dumbing down has reached a new depth.

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Pistol

Bloody July: Portland police investigate highest number of murders in one month spanning 30 years

Emma Colton
Washington Examiner
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 01:11 UTC
Hatfield Fed. Courthouse
© AP/www.usnewsIn this July 2, 2020 photo released by the U.S. Attorney Office in Oregon and taken from security cameras, officers with the Federal Protective Service can be seen, top right, holding their shields up and guarding the doorway of the Hatfield Federal Courthouse after the glass door shattered.
Portland police officials are investigating the highest number of homicides over the course of a single month in more than three decades.

There were 63 shootings and 15 homicides in Portland in the month of July, according to Oregon Live, which police say is more killings than they've dealt with in one month for more than 30 years. "That's very concerning, to know that that many people have been killed in such a short period of time," Portland Police Department Chief Chuck Lovell told reporters.

The deaths and gun violence come amid the repeated nights of violence and riots that have plagued the city since George Floyd's death on Memorial Day.

Overall, 24 people have died in homicides in Portland since the beginning of 2020, with the most recent occurring just last Tuesday when a 34-year-old woman was stabbed to death after attending a vigil for a 27-year-old who was shot and killed in the city. Lovell said he would assign officers to the detective division to work on the homicide investigations.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Joe says 'No': Trader Joe's stands up to mob outrage, proving impotence of online activism


RT
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 16:46 UTC
TraderJoe's
© Flickr/Mike Mozart
Grocery chain Trader Joe's won't be changing its supposedly "racist" product labels. In an era where suspect tweets can ruin careers, the decision is a reminder that online activism doesn't always matter in real life.

According to more than 5,000 signatories of an online petition, some of the chain's branding - which sees its Italian range labeled 'Trader Giotto's', its Mexican range called 'Trader Jose's', and its Chinese food named 'Trader Ming's' - is racist.

The branding "exoticizes other cultures," the petition states. Furthermore, the petition alleges that the company's founder Joe Coulombe drew inspiration from a "racist" book about "traders on the high seas" that has been accused of "romanticizing Western Imperialism and fetishizing non-Western peoples."

The verbiage is typical of the woke left, and such is the cultural sway of that movement that the media took notice and Trader Joe's felt obliged to respond. In a statement to CNN, a spokeswoman said that the company recognized its apparent insensitivity and would be rebranding any offensive packaging.

A week later, the grocery chain about-turned and said that its packaging isn't "racist," that nothing would be renamed "based on petitions," and that its actual customers - not a small group of online busybodies - quite like the branding.
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Bad Guys

Scandalous: #MeToo activist accused of creating FAKE Twitter account of bisexual Native American professor who 'died' of Covid-19


RT
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 18:38 UTC
#metoo fake death covid twitter BethAnn McLaughlin
© Getty Images / TwitterBethAnn McLaughlin and her announcement about the 'death' of @Sciencing_Bi
A controversial #MeToo activist has been accused of operating a Twitter account belonging to a non-existent bisexual Native American professor. Suspicions were raised after she announced that her 'friend' had died from Covid-19.

BethAnn McLaughlin, a neuroscientist who founded the nonprofit group MeTooSTEM, allegedly created a fictional professor at Arizona State University (ASU), and tweeted as the imaginary anthropologist under the handle @Sciencing_Bi.

In an emotional eulogy for her purportedly made-up comrade, McLaughlin waxed poetic about how her friend worked tirelessly to help indigenous women overcome sexual assault and harassment. "She was powerful and she worked so stinking hard," the #MeToo ringleader wrote. She even held a Zoom memorial for her departed, but apparently not real, compatriot.
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Cult

Rioters target local police in Portland with glass bottles and lasers; WSJ still pushing 'mostly peaceful' canard

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 18:01 UTC
portland protest
© Noah Berger / Associated PressBlack Lives Matter protesters march through Portland, Ore. after rallying at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020.
Violence continued in Portland, Oregon, this weekend even after federal law enforcement pulled back to allow state and local police to take over. Yet the media, including the Wall Street Journal, described the Portland violence as "mostly peaceful."

On Thursday night, the first night after the Department of Homeland Security struck a deal with the State of Oregon, the violent demonstrations continued, with protesters setting various fires, including one in which a pig's head was set alight atop an American flag. On Friday night, the fires in the streets continue, with radical leftists burning Bibles on a U.S. flag.

On Saturday night, riots continued, with rioters targeting the Portland Police Department with some of the same weapons they had used against federal officers defending the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, including lasers aimed at officers:
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