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Tragic: Majority of teens U.K. think porn makes life harder to handle


RT
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 11:08 UTC
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© Reuters/Marko DjuricaApproximately 80 percent of 18 year olds said that pornography was too easy to access, while 60 percent said its pervasiveness had complicated the process of growing up
The majority of British teens believe internet porn is "addictive" and has a "damaging effect" on society, pressuring them to behave and acts in ways not experienced by previous generations, a new report has revealed.

The report produced by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) on Tuesday also says that nearly half of young Brits are "regularly exposed" to explicit images before the age of 14, while the vast majority say it has become "part of everyday life".

The study suggests that easier access to pornography had a negative effect on the sexual expectations of young people ; 77 percent of young women said that "pornography has led to pressure on girls and young women to look a certain way", while 46 percent of young people said sending explicit images and videos of themselves via social media was "part of everyday life".

Comment: It might be equally risky to allow a generation of young people to be raised on a diet of sex education, the way it is taught in schools. Child abuse and the hypersexualisation of our children is on the rise.
For more information, please see:

Ran Gavrieli: Why I stopped watching porn
Mommy, why is Daddy wearing a dress. Daddy, why does mommy have a moustache?

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Light Saber

Russia amends blacklist of agricultural products, removing nutritional supplements and special dietary products


RT
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
russia sanctions
© RIA Novosti / Aleksandr Kondratuk
The Russian government has amended its list of banned agricultural products, by removing lactose-free milk, young salmon and trout, as well as some vegetables and nutritional supplements from the list of restricted imports.

Seed potatoes, onions, and hybrid sweet corn can now be imported from Western countries after falling under Russia's food ban in early August.

The exceptions to the list also include dietary supplements that come from plants and vegetables like vitamins, protein powders, and others.

The government decree was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.

On August 7 Medvedev instigated the ban on imported beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, and fruit vegetables from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway.
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Laptop

Hackers stole MH370-related documents from Malaysian officials


RT
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:19 UTC
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© Reuters
A targeted phishing attack on a handful of Malaysian officials involved in investigating the disappearance of flight MH370 in March reportedly gave the perpetrators, presumably of Chinese origin, access to a trove of classified material.

The successful hacking attack affected some 30 computers belonging to officials in the Malaysia Airlines, the Civil Aviation Department and the National Security Council, Malaysian newspaper the Star reported on Wednesday.

The malware was posing as a PDF attachment to a new article emailed to the senior officials on March 9, a day after the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
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Red Flag

What constitutional rights? Police raid homes and prevent journalists from reporting in Ferguson

Nick Bernabe
The Anti-Media
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 23:28 UTC

According to journalists' firsthand accounts found in the live streaming video from Tim Pool of Vice News (posted above, but may not be currently live), police or National Guard troops are now sweeping houses door to door in Ferguson, MO.

This is a blatant violation of the constitution under the 4th amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
These door to door searches are presumably in response to shots being fired at authorities, which were supposedly also witnessed by journalists in the area.

Freedom of speech, protected by the 1st amendment, has also been suspended in Ferguson. According to Argus Radio's live stream, peaceful protesters were being mass arrested and hauled away on camera.

Freedom of the press has now basically been revoked in Ferguson as well. A "free speech area" was set up by police where press "were allowed" to report from. However, this area has now been closed and all journalists have been forced to leave the area or face arrest. Most live streaming journalists are in the process of relocating as I write this article.

Comment: Take notice! As more riots begin to appear across America because of food shortages, economic disparity, police brutality, etc., this is how the police and National Guard are going to respond. Forewarned is forearmed!

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Yoda

Protesting Ferguson - "I've been doing this since I was a teenager. I didn't think I would have to do it when I was 90."

Steven Hsieh
The Nation
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 08:06 UTC
Hedy Epstein Ferguson
© Steven HsiehSt. Louis Metropolitan Police officers escort Hedy Epstein, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, after arresting her for failure to disperse.
In the second week of protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer, St. Louis Metropolitan police on Monday arrested nine protesters for blocking the entrance of a state office building.

Among those arrested was Hedy Epstein, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who lives in St. Louis.

Epstein told The Nation, as two officers walked her to a police van. "We need to stand up today so that people won't have to do this when they're 90."

Roughly 125 protesters marched to the entrance of the historic Wainwright Building, which houses Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's downtown office. They demanded Nixon withdraw National Guard troops from Ferguson municipality, where peaceful protests throughout the week were disrupted by late night riots. The protesters also called for a special prosecutor to lead the investigation of Brown's death, as well as an expansion of the Department of Justice's existing investigation to look into patterns of civil rights violations across North St. Louis County.

The crowd kicked off the two-block march singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round." Participants took turns addressing the crowd, using a megaphone. The demonstrators chanted "Hey hey! Ho ho! National Guard has got to go!" and "Hands up! Don't shoot!"
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Smoking

Turbulent situation in the Middle East blamed for drop in Imperial Tobacco sales


RT.com
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 17:44 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Ahmad Al-Rubaye
The rise of Islamic extremism in the Middle East has disrupted sales growth at Imperial Tobacco, known around the world for its Davidoff and Gauloises cigarettes.

The world's fourth-largest cigarette company blamed the "turbulent situation in the Middle East" for falling cigarette and tobacco sales in Iraq, one of its key growth markets.

"It is difficult for distributors to get the product on the shelves. Roads are closed, some retailers can't get to their shop to open it," said Simon Evans, press officer at Imperial Tobacco.

"Security concerns are the main problem and affect the logistics of getting the product on the market there," he added. He confirmed that the current conflict in Iraq has had an impact on sales and stressed that they will continue to monitor the situation. Evans did not elaborate which areas have seen significant decreases in sales, as suppliers struggle to deliver cigarettes.

The firm's net tobacco revenue decreased by 1 percent to £4.75bn ($7.95 bn) in the nine months to 30 June.

"In several Middle Eastern markets, sales have been disrupted by the deteriorating security situation," Imperial Tobacco said in a statement.

The rise of the militant Islamic State (IS) group, also known as ISIS and ISIL, caused disruption to supply in the region. Road closures and damage to retail outlets are making it harder for Imperial's distributors to operate in affected areas, especially northern Iraq.
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Lemon

U.S. hysteria: Elderly woman kicked off flight after another passenger reported her for 'looking ill'

Ken Amaro
First Coast News
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:56 UTC
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If you look sick, sweaty, nervous, worried, or anxious... in short if you look human, you can now be barred from flying, like Suzanne Hays, age 72.
Suzanne Hays, 72, is soft spoken but don't be fooled by her demeanor. On August 5 Hays was traveling from Akron, Ohio to Orlando.

Hays had a flight change in Detroit and that change has become an experience she would like to forget.

"I was begging them not to throw me off the plane," said Hays.

Before Flight 19 would depart from Detroit to Orlando there was a problem. Hays said a passenger who was next to her decided to talk to the airline crew about her looking tired and drowsy.

"Then she came back and said they've moved us because I might be contagious," said Hays. "Contagious with what?" she wondered.

Shortly after that Hays said she was asked to leave the airplane. She said she was devastated.


Comment: For more information, see also:

Disabled man Baraka Kanaan 'forced to crawl off Delta Airlines flight'

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Apple Green

Semantic aphasia: Fighting continues during 'truce' in Gaza, IDF kills 5-year-old girl


RT
Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:38 UTC
Hamas rockets
© AFP Photo / David BuimovitchAssuming these are really Hamas rocket launches (photo taken 19 August), it shows the fraudulence of the videos of Iron Dome shooting non-existent 'rockets' out of the air.
Israeli-Palestinian rocket fire resumed on Tuesday after Gaza truce talks broke down. A 5-year-old girl and a woman became the first victims of renewed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Hamas launched around 50 rockets at Israel, hitting as far as Tel Aviv.


Comment: 50 rockets? According to whom? The notoriously mendacious Israeli government? Should we trust their numbers, especially when we know that Iron Dome is a total fraud?


Israel launched at least 35 airstrikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. One of the strikes hit a house in Gaza City, killing a woman and a 5-year-old child, according to Palestinian Health Ministry.

Reportedly, one of Israel's targets was Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, Israeli Channel 10 said.

The three people killed during the Israeli airstrikes included a wife and a child of the Hamas military wing's leader Mohammed Deif, AP cited senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.


Comment: Chances are, Deif's wife and child were the intended targets.

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Pistol

What I did after police killed my son

Michael Bell
Political Magazine
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:17 UTC
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After police in Kenosha, Wis., shot my 21-year-old son to death outside his house ten years ago - and then immediately cleared themselves of all wrongdoing - an African-American man approached me and said: "If they can shoot a white boy like a dog, imagine what we've been going through."

I could imagine it all too easily, just as the rest of the country has been seeing it all too clearly in the terrible images coming from Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown. On Friday, after a week of angry protests, the police in Ferguson finally identified the officer implicated in Brown's shooting, although the circumstances still remain unclear.

I have known the name of the policeman who killed my son, Michael, for ten years. And he is still working on the force in Kenosha.
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Alarm Clock

Emerging solar plants scorch birds in mid-air

Ellen Knickmeyer and John Locher
Associated Press
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:13 UTC
array of mirrors
© AP Photo/John LocherNew estimates for the plant near the California-Nevada border say thousands of birds are dying yearly, roasted by the concentrated sun rays from the mirrors.
Ivanpah Dry Lake, Calif. - Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays - "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

The deaths are "alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology," said Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. "There needs to be some caution."

The bird kills mark the latest instance in which the quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm. Solar farms have been criticized for their impacts on desert tortoises, and wind farms have killed birds, including numerous raptors.

"We take this issue very seriously," said Jeff Holland, a spokesman for NRG Solar of Carlsbad, California, the second of the three companies behind the plant. The third, Google, deferred comment to its partners.
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