Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bug

World's oldest spider 'No.16' dies at age 43

Henry Bodkin
The Telegraph
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 17:43 UTC
trap door spider
© Curtin University
Number 16 has left scientists 'miserable' after dying aged 43
The world's oldest known spider has died at the age of 43, outliving its nearest rival by 15 years, Australian scientists have reported.

Affectionately known as "Number 16", the female Giaus Villosus or trapdoor spider had been under observation in the wild since its birth in 1974.

The arachnid is believed to have survived for so long by sticking to one protected burrow its entire life and expending the minimum of energy.

Previously the oldest known spider was a tarantula in Mexico, which died at the age of 28.

Published the Pacific Conservation Biology Journal, the research is the life's work of Barbara York Main, now 88, who first set eyes on Number 16 shortly after its birth.
      Read More...
Eye 1

Collapse of Iran nuclear deal would hurt EU business says ex-diplomat


Sputnik
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 21:38 UTC
merkel macron
© AP Photo / Michael Sohn
Although French President Emmanuel Macron took every effort to reach a compromise on the Iran nuclear agreement with Donald Trump, serious disagreements on the accord still remain, former French Ambassador to Iran Francois Nicoullaud said, shedding light on the potential consequences of Trump's withdrawal from the deal.

If the Trump administration withdraws from the Iran nuclear agreement and resumes anti-Iranian sanctions it will inevitably hit the US' European allies, says former French Ambassador to Iran Francois Nicoullaud, commenting on President Emmanuel Macron's recent visit to Washington.

"Donald Trump did not make concessions, and so did President Macron. Despite the feeling that an agreement has been reached, serious differences still persist," Nicoullaud told Sputnik France.

Comment: See: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Wags the Iran Riot Dog, Kim Talks Korean Peace

      Read More...
Network

Twitterati challenge journalist who complained Douma testimony as 'bizarre & underwhelming'


RT
Sat, 28 Apr 2018 16:17 UTC
Douma
© Bart Maat / AFP
Witnesses giving public testimony about the alleged chemical attack in Douma - what can be uncomfortable about that? A lot, according to one journalist, as the event was organized by Russia. Readers were not convinced.

The Intercept's Robert Mackey took issue with Russia's decision to allow an 11-year-old "victim" of the alleged attack to speak at The Hague about his experience, claiming that the boy's testimony was an affront to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) ongoing investigation and included nothing to support the theory that the gas attack was staged.

"Rather than wait for @OPCW to verify its claim that there was no chemical attack in Syria, Russia staged its own event at OPCW headquarters in The Hague and flew in an 11-year-old witness who said nothing to support the theory that he acted in a hoax video,"Mackey wrote on Twitter, linking to his Intercept piece.

In his article, Mackey cites an OPCW statement which recommended that the boy, Hassan Diab, and sixteen other witnesses be interviewed by the fact-finding mission, and that the briefing should be postponed until after the investigation is completed.
      Read More...
Cupcake Pink

Holding a royal wedding amid Britain's third-world level 21% poverty rate is a provocation

John Wight
Sputnik
Sat, 28 Apr 2018 17:08 UTC
poverty uk
The days of a royal birth or wedding being able to forge a national consensus in Britain are over. Not now. Not when so many are suffering. Not when social and economic injustice has reached Dickensian levels. And certainly not when revulsion of the country's power elite has become so entrenched.

On the contrary, such royal events only serve to emphasise the incompatibility of the monarchy with democracy and the nation's collective intelligence in the 21st century.

How could it be otherwise at a time of rising poverty, brute inequality, social injustice, and growing public anger over a political and media establishment whose detachment from the lived experience of millions is near complete?
      Read More...
Cow

Left-wing hypocrisy: Media Matters says no boycott for Joy Reid, blasts 'right-wing chicanery'

Jon Levine
The Wrap
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:02 UTC
Joy Reid
"There's no corrective action they seek here. Just revenge," Angelo Carusone tells TheWrap

Media Matters for America will not launch any advertiser boycott against Joy Reid. The non-profit watchdog group's president Angelo Carusone told TheWrap on Wednesday his group will not target the MSNBC host after mounting pressure from those who have called out an old blog post of hers as being bigoted toward the LGBT community.

In a public Twitter conversation on Wednesday, Carusone answered a question from TheWrap, saying that Reid's past post will not trigger a Twitter boycott from his group. He called the effort to draw attention to Media Matters on the topic of Reid "bulls-t" and "right wing chicanery."

"I hope people can separate, especially media figures, can separate out difference," said Carusone. "There's no corrective action they seek here. Just revenge."

Comment:

      Read More...
Eye 1

Saudi employers beat and sexually abuse Bangladeshi teen maid then dump her at hospital

Areeb Ullah
Middle East Eye
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 11:45 UTC
Activists say the maid has been repeatedly beaten by her Saudi employers

Activists say the maid has been repeatedly beaten by her Saudi employers
A Bangladeshi woman's family is pleading for her rescue from Saudi Arabia after her Saudi employers had subjected her to sexual abuse and broke her leg by throwing her down two flights of stairs.

Activists and relatives say the 19-year-old woman, who works as a housemaid in Riyadh, was pushed while trying to escape months of abuse at the hands of her employers.

Her impassioned plea for help was recorded from her workplace days before her employer dumped her with a broken leg in a Riyadh hospital, and ran away.

According to NGO workers and the woman's family, the Bangladeshi embassy in the Saudi capital had previously refused to get her out of the country, instead telling her to "run away".

Comment: Sadly, stories like this are all too common. But then what would you expect from Saudi Arabia which treats its own people, particularly women (excluding their 'royalty', for the most part) like second class citizen's - and worse:

      Read More...
Hearts

Korea win-win: Emotional reactions after historic Moon-Kim meeting

Claire Lee
The Korea Herald
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 16:42 UTC
korea summit
© Yonhap
Students at an elementary school in Gwangju, Jeolla Province, cheer in joy as they watch North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands wiht his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in in the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade.
Han Na-eun, a 30-year-old professional in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, normally spends her morning attending meetings, or preparing her next project at work.

On Friday, however, things were different. All of her coworkers stopped what they were doing, eyes fixed on TV for the historic moment President Moon Jae-in shook hands with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un.

The two leaders met at the heavily fortified demilitarized zone in the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade.

"I have to say I was touched," Han told The Korea Herald. "Everything about it was surreal. Throughout my 20s, I experienced two conservative governments led by Park Geun-hye, and Lee Myung-bak. I never imagined that I would watch any South Korean president and Kim Jong-un in the same TV shot. Everyone in my office was emotional."

Indeed, for many South Koreans, the summit also gave them their first chance to hear Kim Jong-un's voice on live TV.

"It was very, very weird to hear Kim Jong-un's voice on TV," said Kim Kyung-ah, a 32-year-old mother in Seoul.

"I mean, I always knew that he existed. But today was the first time where I felt, 'Oh my god, Kim Jong-un is a real person!' Up until today, it always felt like Kim was some sort of a cartoon character. It was refreshing to see him talking about normal things like cold noodles, not nuclear weapons or wars."

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
USA

Poll shows Americans on Trump's side over Russia probe - losing patience with Mueller

Michael Patrick Leahy
Breitbart News
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 16:45 UTC
trump
© Fabrie Coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty
A national poll conducted of 1,000 likely voters by McLaughlin & Associates and former Clinton pollster Dick Morris provided exclusively to Breitbart News shows support for President Trump and suspicion of the investigation of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

By a margin of 51 percent to 33 percent, voters do not believe Mueller has found "real evidence of corruption by the president."

More specifically, by a margin of 10 points, 43 percent to 33 percent, voters feel that Mueller has not uncovered any evidence that "President Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election."

A plurality of voters, 43 percent to 35 percent, said that Mueller's investigation has "overstepped its designated purpose to investigate links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Trump by investigating individuals who had nothing to do with Russia."

The poll also shows that voters are losing patience with Mueller's probe.
      Read More...
Shoe

Mass exodus? Economists warn over 800K will leave high tax states New York and California in next three years

Robert Frank
CNBC
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 20:25 UTC
US 1040 Tax return
Conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are predicting a new mass exodus of wealth from New York and California because of the new tax law. But academics who have studied taxes and migration call the forecast "pure nonsense."

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined "So Long, California. Sayonara, New York," Laffer and Moore (who have both advised President Donald Trump) say the new tax bill will cause a net 800,000 people to move out of California and New York over the next three years.

The tax changes limit the deduction of state and local taxes to $10,000, so many high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states will actually face a tax increase under the new tax code.

Comment: People have already been fleeing both California and New York primarily due to the high cost of living, among other reasons:

      Read More...
Arrow Up

Tucker Carlson demolishes ludicrous hacking fantasy by 'progressive' hypocrite Joy Reid

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 17:03 UTC
joy reid
MSNBC's Joy Reid is a "progressive" left darling, but back in 2006, her blog posts showed she was anti-gay to the extreme.

Reid claims she never wrote the blog posts and was hacked by Russian agents.

Only a moron believes Joy Reid's ridiculous excuse, trying to cover up her homophobe racist rants.

Joy Reid was in the tank for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential elections, who also explained away her lazy, loser campaign on, you guessed it...Russian hackers.

In December Joy Reid apologized for a series of homophobic blog posts from 2007-2009.


Comment: Just when you think the 'Russian hacking' farce cannot possibly get any more ridiculous...

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts