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Thu, 04 Nov 2021
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Rosatom: Blast that killed 5 Russian scientists through workers off a sea platform

Rosatom
© Reuters
The explosion of a secretive isotope-powered missile engine was so powerful that it blew the device into pieces and threw workers off a sea platform, Russian nuclear agency Rosatom said. Searches for the missing went on all day. Dramatic details of the tragedy that rocked the Arkhangelsk region this week, and that fueled western tabloids with rumors of a new Chernobyl-like disaster, were shared by the state atomic energy corporation on Saturday.

It revealed that the blast, which killed five employees and seriously injured three others, took place on a sea platform and followed a series of trials.

The test of the classified "liquid-propellant engine" went smoothly at first, but then the device caught fire and blew up, Rosatom said.

The blast threw several employees into the sea, giving some hope of finding them alive.

Comment: See also:
Rosatom: Engine blast from experimental 'isotope and liquid-propellant' research kills 5 Russian nuclear experts, 3 injured


Candle

Woman who saved 10-year-old boy from drowning learned later his siblings had died

Sylvan Beach Fishing Pier in La Porte, Texas.
© STOCK PHOTO/Shutterstock
Sylvan Beach Fishing Pier in La Porte, Texas.
The woman who saved the life of a drowning ten-year-old boy only learned afterwards that the child's three siblings died in the tragic incident.

Veronika Alvarez, 23, was with her dog at Sylvan Beach in Texas on Thursday afternoon when she saw two adults go under water.

The adults ultimately survived.

"I saw the mom and dad go under," she told KTRK in an interview.

Gift 3

'Bring migrants home with you to Hollywood': Salvini mocks Richard Gere for Med virtue-signalling

Matteo Salvini (left), Richard Gere (right)
© Global Look Press
Matteo Salvini (left) said he hopes Richard Gere (right) got a tan during his trip to a migrant ship.
In a stinging rebuke, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has mockingly suggested that Richard Gere should house migrants in his Hollywood villas after the actor involved himself in the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

The Pretty Woman star felt the wrath of the Italian interior minister after visiting the 'Open Arms' ship, which has been stranded in the Mediterranean since it collected over 120 migrants from rafts eight days ago.

The 69-year-old urged the Italian government to "stop demonizing people" and compared the situation to the policy approach taken by US President Donald Trump regarding migrants traveling to the US from Central America.

Propaganda

Carey Gillam: I'm a journalist. Monsanto built a step-by-step strategy to destroy my reputation

Carey Gillam interviews Dewayne ‘Lee’ Johnson
© Araceli Johnson
Carey Gillam interviews Dewayne ‘Lee’ Johnson, the first cancer patient to beat Monsanto in court.
Company records show an action plan that includes promoting certain search results and targeting book reviews

As a journalist who has covered corporate America for more than 30 years, very little shocks me about the propaganda tactics companies often deploy. I know the pressure companies can and do bring to bear when trying to effect positive coverage and limit reporting they deem negative about their business practices and products.

But when I recently received close to 50 pages of internal Monsanto communications about the company's plans to target me and my reputation, I was shocked.

I knew the company did not like the fact that in my 21 years of reporting on the agrochemical industry - mostly for Reuters - I wrote stories that quoted skeptics as well as fans of Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds. I knew the company didn't like me reporting about growing unease in the scientific community regarding research that connected Monsanto herbicides to human and environmental health problems. And I knew the company did not welcome the 2017 release of my book, Whitewash - The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science, which revealed the company's actions to suppress and manipulate the science surrounding its herbicide business.

Comment: See also:


Cardboard Box

The diversity paradox of ultra-liberalism: Katie Hopkins investigates Muslim parents' protests against LGBT ideology in UK schools

Katie Hopkins muslims
© Twitter/KTHopkins
Katie Hopkins joins Shakeel Afsar and Amir Ahmed in Birmingham for Eid celebrations
Controversial social commentator Katie Hopkins has joined forces with leaders of the Birmingham school protests against LGBT education equality, in a move which has angered many of their supporters.

In a tweet posted earlier today, anti-Islam activist Hopkins shared a photo of her in the home of Shakeel Afsar and alongside Amir Ahmed, who have both voraciously led protests challenging LGBT equality education at Anderton Park Primary School in the city.


Comment: Voraciously?? What, they devoured people?! Perhaps the word sought by the author was vociferously...


Writer and broadcaster Hopkins, who once stated "Islam disgusts me" but defended her views as "entirely rational", thanked Afsar for inviting her into his home for "Eid celebrations" and to "discuss the issues with LGBT teaching at Anderton Park Primary School".

It appears the 44-year-old media personality - who in 2017 was reported to the Metropolitan police for a tweet in which she called for a "final solution" as part of a longer anti-Muslim tirade - was in the Sparkhill and Balsall Heath area to report on the recent protest ban, as she earlier tweeted a photo of herself standing outside the school.


A temporary council injunction has currently been placed around the school banning protests, but the protesters have vowed to continue.

Comment: Indeed they are, and it's simultaneously being rolled out through the education system in every Western country.

The extremely divisive social issues it brings up is why Russia legislated against allowing such propaganda against minors back in 2013.

Watch Katie Hopkins's report from the Anderton Primary School in Birmingham, England:




Hiliter

UMass violated due process by punishing accused student with no hearing, appeals court rules

umass university
Public colleges in New England were put on notice this week: They are not allowed to severely punish students based solely on unvetted allegations.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for immediately suspending a student accused of assaulting his girlfriend.

James Haidak remained suspended for five months without a formal hearing, violating his constitutional right to due process, according to the three-judge panel.

The opinion by Judge William Kayatta concluded that public colleges must formally grant accused students the opportunity to be heard before punishment, absent some documented "exigency."

But the 1st Circuit stopped far short of the due-process requirements set over the past two years by the 6th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Briefcase

Lawsuit: US Figure Skating allowed abusive coach to continue to work with kids

David Raith
© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images,
U.S. Figure Skating Executive Director David Raith fields questions from the media during a press conference at the 2018 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships, January 3, 2018, in San Jose, Calif.
A former competitive figure skater says that he was sexually abused by once-celebrated Olympic coach Richard Callaghan in the years after the sport's national governing body dismissed complaints of sexual misconduct against him, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Adam Schmidt, formerly Baadani, now 34, filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court against U.S. Figure Skating, Onyx Ice Arena, and Callaghan — identified as Doe 1, Doe 2 and Doe 3 in the complaint, per California law — and others, alleging that he suffered "numerous sexual assaults" by Callaghan while training under him as a teenager in Michigan from about 1999 to 2001 and one specific instance of abuse at the 2001 Masters of Figure Skating competition in California after leaving Callaghan's stable of skaters.

Craig Maurizi, another former skater turned Olympic coach, had accused Callaghan of sexually abusing him when he was a young skater from about 1977 to 1986 in a grievance filed with the federation in 1999 that included statements from several other people who had either allegedly suffered or witnessed sexual misconduct by Callaghan.

Clipboard

Judges sign letter accusing American Bar Association of hiding controversy on campus sex rules

More than 100 legal professionals sign letter
judgement
© Blogtrepreneur/Flickr
The American Bar Association is voting on a resolution this week to recommend the addition of "affirmative consent" to the criminal code. The sexual-consent standard, which flips the burden of proof to the accused, is common in college Title IX policies.

But the ABA is facing blowback from 100 members of the American Law Institute, an elite organization composed of professors, attorneys, judges and other legal professionals.

The authors of Resolution 114 and its accompanying report falsely portrayed the ALI's own vote on affirmative consent three years ago, according to a letter from ALI members to ABA President Robert Carlson.

Even more noteworthy, nine signatories are current or retired judges - eight of them at the appellate level. A few more are affiliated with organizations that represent judges.

Propaganda

Report: Monsanto paid Google to bury unfavorable news

roundup google
© Monsanto/Victor Tangermann
Monsanto, the agrochemical company that's attained notoriety for its agricultural pesticides and genetically modified organisms, reportedly worked overtime to discredit investigative journalists criticizing the company — and even paid the search giant Google to suppress the findings.

Carey Gillam, a journalist with Reuters, was reporting on the health effects of Monsanto's products a few years back. As part of a massive damage-control campaign, the company worked to discredit her work as much as possible, according to an investigation by The Guardian. Perhaps most troubling: the company reportedly paid Google to promote search results that questioned Gillam's findings — a disturbing look into how readily the flow of online information can be manipulated.

Comment: It's not surprising that Monsanto would take steps like these for damage control. Neither is it surprising that Google's search results are open to the highest bidder. What's surprising is that people don't really seem to care.

See also:


Flashlight

Simultaneous wind farm and gas-fired power station failures blamed for Britain's worst power cuts in years - Millions affected

blackout UK

Commuters had to use the torches on their phones as they walked in complete darkness at Clapham Junction during a power cut.
One of the worst power cuts to hit Britain in years caused transport chaos across the country last night and hit the energy supplies of almost a million people.

Traffic lights stopped working, trains were cancelled, and stations were evacuated after a technical fault at two power generators run by National Grid triggered a 'major incident'.

On Friday evening, there were reports that the problems may have been caused by issues at a gas-fired power station - and at a wind farm off the coast of Yorkshire.

'What happened is a major offshore wind generation site and a gas turbine failed at the same time,' Devrim Celal, of Upside Energy in London, a contractor with National Grid, was reported saying. 'There was a significant shortage of generation, and that sudden drop created ripple effects across the country.'

Comment: It's amazing how one wide-scale power outage can reveal the fragility of our modern society. People complaining about taxi rides, kids being out past their bedtime, weak phone signals and even looting as soon as the security cameras go down, clearly have a lot to learn. If and when something truly catastrophic goes down, the majority of people are truly lost.

See also: 'Unexpected and unusual' major blackout knocks out power to swathes of UK