Society's ChildS


Camcorder

Stop smoking, ditch the pajamas, stay at your desk: how 'bossware' tech is secretly monitoring you working at home

Rob Lyons
RT
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:51 UTC
work from home
© Reuters/Adnan AbidiMarketing specialist works from her home in New Delhi
Think you can take a sneaky break or have a lie-in because you're 'working' remotely? Forget it. Employers are increasingly deploying surveillance software to check how productive staff are at home.

Lockdown and its aftermath has led more and more employees to work from home. Many big firms have already said they won't even attempt to get back staff back to the office until next year, at the earliest, amid discussions about how working from home could become the new normal for at least part of the week.

Working from home has a lot of advantages for many people. It can make childcare easier, for example. Employees can avoid having to deal with annoying colleagues, or coughing up for long, expensive and often uncomfortable commutes.

They can also avoid having their bosses constantly looking over their shoulder - or can they?

Employers are using ever more sophisticated measures to keep tabs on their home-working staff, anxious that they might be shirking, and introducing new rules governing how their workers appear and act.
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NPC

Airlines now have 'flights to nowhere' for people who miss flying

Frankie Lantican
Vice
Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:27 UTC
aisle plane
© Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash
As the pandemic continues to disrupt the travel industry, airlines have started offering new services that consider limitations in the "new normal." When flying out of the country isn't an option, passengers can now go on trips with no destination. They've been dubbed "flights to nowhere."

On Sunday, Sept. 13, The Straits Times reported that Singapore Airlines is looking to launch no-destination trips by the end of October as a way to boost the business. Specific details have not been finalized but the package could reportedly include staycation offers, shopping vouchers, and limousine service to ferry customers around the city-state.

The idea has sparked concerns among environmentalists in Singapore. In a statement, environmental activism group SG Climate Rally said the service "encourages carbon-intensive travel for no good reason."

Comment: We can expect to see similarly bizarre coping mechanisms to arise as our planet descends into a particular kind of madness.

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Broom

Siberian cult leader 'Vissarion' who claims to be 're-incarnation of Jesus Christ' arrested over psychological violence

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:12 UTC
vissarion
© RuptlyFootage screenshot
Police in Siberia have arrested three leaders of the notorious 'Church of the Last Testament' religious sect on suspicion of using psychological violence to extract income, resulting in "serious harm" to their followers.

Founded in 1991, the movement forbids its adherents from smoking, drinking or exchanging money, and they live as vegetarian subsistence farmers. The sect's creator, Sergey Torop, believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and brands himself as 'Vissarion'.

According to Russia's Investigative Committee, Torop, along with other leaders Vadim Redkin and Vladimir Vedernikov, will be charged with "creating a religious association whose activities involve violence against citizens."

Comment: Wikipedia notes:
Vissarion rejected his first wife and married a nineteen-year-old who had lived with him since she was a girl of seven. He has six children from the two marriages.[8]


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Cult

Melbourne Uni chief says Victoria must address 'difficult' ethical questions

Chip Le Grand
The Age
Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:56 UTC
University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell
© Justin McManusUniversity of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell
"Every answer to that question is valid in one way or another. If you were to say we have no appetite whatsoever for any deaths from this virus, that is a perfectly reasonable position to take, but you have to take that position knowing the consequences.

"If that decision stops people dying now from the virus, what are the economic consequences of that for people and how will that play out in terms of future mortality? It would be crazy if, hypothetically, we stop 100 people [dying] from the virus but over the next two years, 200 people died from [the effects of] poverty and mental health."

Professor Maskell says decision-makers must consider the role of quality-adjusted life year (QALY), a unit of measurement used by economists to predict and assess the impact of health policies. In simple terms, it assumes that a life near its end, whether because of disease or advanced age, is empirically different to a healthy life closer to its beginning.

Comment: Happily outlining the demise of the University as it was meant to be. This one has drunk the Covid koolaid in full.

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Mr. Potato

Most '2020' study so far? Paper implies believing in conspiracy theories helps spread Covid


MedicalXpress
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 20:23 UTC
covid19
Belief in conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic is not only persistent but also is associated with reluctance to accept a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available and to engage in behaviors such as mask-wearing that can prevent its spread, according to researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.


Comment: This article is almost impossible to comment on without being labeled conspiracy theory. But what the heck, here we go. There's no good evidence mask-wearing can "prevent" Covid's spread. And there's no reason to trust in the efficacy of a vaccine.


In a new study, based on a two-wave national panel survey conducted in late March and mid-July, the researchers find that belief in conspiracy theories about the source and seriousness of the pandemic persisted across the four-month period. These beliefs in March were associated with increasing reluctance to adopt preventive behaviors in July, including actions such as mask-wearing and accepting a vaccine when one is available.


Comment: Derp, whaddya know? Beliefs are associated with actions. Glad to finally have that cleared up for us.


"Belief in pandemic conspiracy theories appears to be an obstacle to minimizing the spread of COVID-19," said Dan Romer, research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, who co-authored the study with APPC director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "To control the pandemic we need high rates of mask-wearing, physical distancing, and hand-washing now — and of vaccination when a safe and effective vaccine is available."


Comment: Belief in pandemic conspiracy is an obstacle to BS fear-mongering propaganda. To control people's minds, we need high rates of mask-wearing, physical distancing, hand-washing, vaccination, and blindly doing what the authorities tell you to do.


The study was published today in the journal Social Science & Medicine.
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Oscar

Sad celebs self-congratulate their wokeness at Emmys ... with no audience to applause!

Karen Townsend
NewsBusters
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 16:03 UTC
Emmys Mark Ruffalo
Touted as the first big televised awards event, the 72nd Emmy Awards aired on September 20 on ABC. The host of the virtual event was late night show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Kimmel's jokes and bits in front of no live audience were cringe-inducing. Two notable instances came when his opening monologue took a hit at MAGA rallies and when banter with actor Anthony Anderson included a demand for Kimmel to shout "Black Lives Matter!" so "Mike Pence can hear it."

Schitt's Creek was the big winner of the evening. The cast and crew were participating remotely from Canada, where the show hails from. Kimmel made a crack after one award saying, "Trump should have built that wall on the northern border." Kimmel went on to ask if the president had tweeted about the awards show yet. He pretended to remember that it was Sunday so Trump was "probably at church." The winners for Schitt's Creek were apolitical until their last award and even then it was mild by Hollywood standards.

Comment: In case you missed (and chances are high you did because no one cares about the Emmys or celebrities anymore), there was also this cringing scene that essentially sees Kimmel 'bend the knee' to BLM in a wholly degrading and embarrassing 'performance'.



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Propaganda

The US is not founded on slavery after all? #1619Gate trends as NYT project memory-holes its central claim


RT
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 20:10 UTC
BLM protester
© Reuters/Erin Scott
In what seemed like damage control after President Donald Trump threatened to defund schools teaching the 1619 Project, the New York Times has dropped its claim that US history began with slavery, triggering an immense backlash.

All hell broke loose after the chief author of the 1619 Project attempted on Friday to quietly reverse course on the project's claim that 1619 - the year the first African slaves arrived on American shores - was the nation's "true" founding. Critics also revealed that the paper itself had quietly changed its own text. Even one of the project leader's former colleagues ripped into the paper's lapse in "journalistic ethics" on Sunday, triggering further backlash to the backlash.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

"End school to prison pipeline" - New Kim Klacik ad highlights how liberals destroyed Baltimore


Zerohedge
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 20:15 UTC
Kim Klacik
Readers may recall, in mid-August, we pointed out Kim Klacik, the GOP congressional candidate from Baltimore, is attempting to take late Elijah Cummings' congressional seat in Maryland's 7th congressional district.

However, there just one problem, she's a Republican, nevertheless, a young black millennial, who has been embraced by President Trump and top Republicans.

For more color on Maryland's 7th District, which covers the northern and eastern boundaries of Baltimore County, the majority of Howard County, and a decent chunk of eastern and western parts of Baltimore City, which have been dominated by Democrats for a little more than half a century.

Klacik was propelled into the spotlight in August when her campaign released a video of her walking the streets of Baltimore. She showed people "the real Baltimore," outlining how decades of Democratic policies have imploded communities:
"Democrats don't want you to see this. They're scared that I'm exposing what life is like in Democrat-run cities. That's why I'm running for Congress Because All Black Lives Matter Baltimore Matters. And black people don't have to vote Democrat."

Comment: Klacik certainly has a point now, doesn't she?

Watch how the liberal media shuts her down in this interview. Warning: crude language by commentator The Salty Cracker:



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Yoda

Blunt truth: Former police commander says immigrants are behind wave of violent crime blighting Sweden, but authorities refuse to admit it

Kevin Hurley
RT
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:53 UTC
Rinkeby Stockholms Sweden no-go zones
© Global Look Press Rinkeby, Stockholms ln, Sweden
Police and politicians fudge the issue for fear of not being politically correct. But until they accept violent crime is being carried out by Somali and Arab gangs, they won't be able to tackle it. It's a lesson for the UK too.

Sweden is under assault, with its residents enduring frequent bombings, hand grenade attacks, murders, and shootings. Last year, there were 257 bomb attacks, following 162 the year before. With a population of just 10 million, that would be the equivalent of more than 1,600 bomb attacks being carried out annually here in Britain. Almost none of these incidents was motivated by terrorism.

So, how has one of the previously most peaceful and liberal countries in the world been turned into such a den of criminal depravity? And why have the authorities allowed this descent into anarchy?

Comment: AMEN.

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Attention

Slavoj Zizek warns the treatment of Assange is an assault on everyone's personal freedoms

Slavoj Zizek
RT
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:13 UTC
assange protest canary cage london
© Reuters / PETER NICHOLLSVivienne Westwood demonstrates in support of Julian Assange, in London
Julian Assange has had his rights stripped away in a case that should alarm millions, but too few people care because his character has been assassinated. He might have to go to prison before he gets the support he deserves.

There is an old joke from the time of World War I about an exchange of telegrams between the German Army headquarters and the Austrian-Hungarian HQ. From Berlin to Vienna, the message is "The situation on our part of the front is serious, but not catastrophic," and the reply from Vienna is: "With us, the situation is catastrophic, but not serious."

The reply from Vienna seems to offer a model for how we react to crises today, from the Covid-19 pandemic to forest fires on the west coast of the US (and elsewhere): 'Yeah, we know a catastrophe is pending, media warn us all the time, but somehow we are not ready to take the situation seriously...'
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