Society's ChildS


Phoenix

22 Show Horses Killed in Fast-Moving New Jersey Barn Fire


The Associated Press
Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:58 UTC
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© Dawn J. Benko/The Star-LedgerFirefighters from the Lafayette Fire Department put out hotspots.
Authorities say a fast-moving fire destroyed a barn owned by a noted New Jersey equestrian family, killing 22 show horses worth tens of thousands of dollars each.

State Police Sgt. Brian Polite says the barn was engulfed in flames when troopers arrived around 1:40 a.m. Saturday in Lafayette. The blaze was soon extinguished, but all the horses inside were killed.

Betty Hahn, whose family owns the barn, tells The Star-Ledger that the animals were valued at $10,000 to $60,000 apiece. Her family has competed and won awards in equestrian competitions along the East Coast.

She said no hay or fuel was stored in the barn, so she's baffled about how the blaze began.

Officials would not say whether they considered the blaze suspicious, citing the ongoing investigation.
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Ambulance

Flaming-Horned Bull Fatally Gores Man in Spain

Harold Heckle
The Associated Press
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Alberto Saiz A reveler releases a bull with flaming horns during a festival in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals, in the streets of Gilet, a town near Valencia, Spain, in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012.
A flaming-horned bull trampled and fatally gored a man early Saturday during a festival in eastern Spain, an official said.

Large balls of flaming wax are traditionally affixed to the beasts' heads before they are let loose to rampage through squares and narrow streets in such festivals.

The mayor of Navajas, population 730, said emergency services in his town were unable to save the life of the 45-year-old man whose name was withheld. Jose Vicente Torres said the accident happened when the man, who had traveled from Alboraia, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the south, tripped just as the bull was released.

Torres said the bull charged the man, gored him and then stamped on his head, causing him "irreversible injuries." He said he had offered his condolences to the man's family, but would not cancel similar events scheduled for early Sunday.

"Although ours is a small town, many people from outside come to visit our feast dedicated to Saint Anton," Torres said, adding that black bows had been tied to town hall flags as a mark of respect and mourning.
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Heart - Black

US: 3 Dead in Fire at New York House Rented by Students


The Associated Press
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
A fire tore through a private home being rented by Marist College students near campus early Saturday morning, killing three people, authorities said.

The victims were identified as two female Marist students in their early 20s and one male, who was not a student at the school. Their names have not been released. Four other people in the house escaped without serious injuries.

Marist College postponed two basketball games "out of respect for the students affected by this tragedy," Deborah DiCaprio, Marist's vice president and dean for student affairs, said in a statement Saturday.

The off-campus house on Fairview Avenue was being rented by six female Marist students, Town Police Chief Thomas Mauro said.
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© unknownDevastation: The fire which killed three people in Poughkeepsie early yesterday morning
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Phoenix

Canada: British Columbia Mill Explosion and Fire Injures at Least 19 People, 2 Missing


CBC News
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© unknown
Two people are unaccounted for after a fire and explosion tore through a sawmill east of Burns Lake, B.C., on Friday, officials confirmed.

In a written statement released Saturday by the Burns Lake Native Development Corporation, the Village of Burns Lake and the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, officials say two people are missing "according to information from the scene of the incident." No names have been released.

In an interview with Global Television Saturday morning, Burns Lake fire chief Jim McBride said he believed they were probably dead.

Nineteen people suffered minor to serious injuries, Northern Health Authority spokesman Steve Raper told CBC News on Saturday.

Five people have been released from hospital, while seven were taken to the University Hospital of Northern B.C. Prince George. Two others were taken to hospital in Smithers, one was transported to hospital in Vanderhoof and four people with critical injuries were airlifted to hospitals in Edmonton and Vancouver.
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Display

Anonymous' Megaupload Revenge Shows Copyright Compromise Isn't Possible

Dashiell Bennett
The Atlantic Wire
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:02 UTC
police line tape @ megaupload
© n/a
Anonymous' devious and speedy campaign to undermine the defenders of copyright yesterday served both as revenge for the loss of Megaupload and a demonstration of the futility of trying to police the Wild West of the Internet.

Within minutes of the Justice Department's triumphant announcement about the seizing of the massive file-sharing site, their own website was taken offline by a massive denial of service attack. The Web presences of the FBI, the MPAA, the RIAA, and several entertainment corporations involved in the case soon followed, as those tasked with protecting the Web from piracy were once again unable to protect themselves.

The speed and ease with which those sites were taken down should certainly give pause to those who think that any Congressional act is likely to stop troublemakers on the internet. As Gawker's Adrian Chen explained, the method used to launch the attacks was both simple and crafty - supporters simply distributed an innocent looking link that, once clicked, temporarily turned the user's computer into attack bot, often without their knowledge. There's little harm to the user, but it allows those doing the attacking to quickly and easily enlist thousands of Internet users to join in the fun/mayhem.
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Info

Indian teacher stunned by $10bln bank balance


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse
An Indian high school teacher, with a monthly salary of around $700, was astounded when a routine online check of his bank account showed a balance of almost $10 billion.

Parijat Saha, from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, said he had checked his State Bank of India account online last Sunday to confirm reception of a 10,000 rupee ($200) interest payment.

"Instead I saw this astronomical amount," he told AFP by telephone.

The account showed a balance of 496 billion rupees.
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Dollar

Canada: A Federal Agency Costing Millions of Dollars 'Does Nothing'

Andy Radia
Political Points
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
If the Harper government is serious about cutting 'the waste' in Ottawa, here's a good place to start.

According to a CBC News exclusive story, a federal agency ironically created by the fiscally conservative Harper government in 2008, is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and is pretty much achieving nothing.

The Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board (CEIFB), which reports to Parliament through the Minister of Human Resources, was conceived to set EI premium rates, to manage EI surpluses, and to oversee a $2 billion contingency fund.

But as CBC reports, government policy has made the CEIFB redundant.

In all three years the CEIFB has been in existence, the Harper government capped EI rates in 2009 so the Board hasn't had to set EI premiums.
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Info

Best of the Web: Subculture of Americans Prepares for Civilization's Collapse

Jim Forsyth
Reuters
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:44 UTC
Nuclear Bomb
© Global Research

When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.

"In an instant, anything can happen," she told Reuters. "And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared."

Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as "preppers." Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.

They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.

Preppers, though are, worried about no government.

Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a "survival center," complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.

"I think this economy is about to fall apart," she said.
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Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: South African Weather Bill Creates a Storm of Controversy

John Platt
Mother Nature Network
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:44 UTC
Lightning over Cape Town, South Africa.
© Warren Tyrer/FlickrLightning over Cape Town, South Africa.
Proposed law would make unauthorized storm predictions punishable by heavy fines and 10 years in jail.

A proposed law in South Africa would theoretically punish anyone who makes a prediction about severe weather or air pollution with heavy fines or jail time if they did not first receive written permission from the government-funded South African Weather Service (SAWS).

As written, the South African Weather Service Amendment Bill would affect not just TV weathermen and online weather sites but also community-based weather services. First offenses would be punished with a fine or up to 5 million rand (about $630,000) or five years in jail. The fines and jail time would be doubled for subsequent offenses.

The law was widely but inaccurately reported last week as punishing weather forecasters who make incorrect predictions with jail time, perhaps inspired by a Daily Telegraph headline that read "South African weather forecasters who get it wrong face imprisonment." The Telegraph story itself accurately reported on the bill, which has been criticized for creating a monopoly for SAWS weather reports, including radar images and text message alerts, which are only available to the public after paying a subscription fee.

Comment: The PTB really ARE AFRAID of the changing weather and they know they have no control over what is happening with climate change. They want to keep control at all costs and this is about the stupidest thing we've ever heard of in that respect. Do they think that not announcing violent weather will prevent it from happening? What about the millions of people put at risk without warning? Can you people believe that whoever came up with this retarded idea can actually dress himself?

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Radar

Escalating Cyber War Spells Trouble for Internet Freedom

Eric Blair
Activist Post
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:40 UTC
cyberwar graphic
© n/a
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." - Gandhi

The cyber war escalated to a whole new level yesterday. The U.S. government shut down the popular website MegaUpload at the behest of corporate interests. The Feds accused MegaUpload of stealing $500 million in potential lost revenue from copyright holders.

Almost immediately, the hacktivist group Anonymous retaliated by launching massive DDoS attacks on several websites including the US Copyright Office, Department of Justice, FBI.gov, Universal Music Group, Music Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The attack called "Operation MegaUpload" is also said to be targeting Whitehouse.gov.

Many Internet freedom and privacy activists are cheering Anonymous' assault against the U.S. Government and the corporate interests that control it. But I'm getting the eerie feeling that Anonymous is playing right into the hands of those who wish to control and censor the Internet.
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