Society's ChildS


USA

Voice of 'Charlie Brown' charged with stalking

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© Flickr CC
The actor who provided the voice for Charlie Brown in several classic "Peanuts" cartoons was arrested on an outstanding warrant at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that 56-year-old Peter Robbins is in custody on suspicion of one count of felony stalking and four felony counts of making criminal threats after being picked up when customs officials discovered Robbins was wanted by the San Diego County Sheriffs Department.

Bizarro Earth

Fox News host slams 'corrupt' climate scientists in argument with radio show caller

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Fox News host Brian Kilmeade
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade trashed climatologists on his radio show on Tuesday after a caller pointed out that the vast majority of climate scientists argue that global warming is, in fact, real.

"You mean the corrupt ones?" Kilmeade asked the caller, who called himself "John." "You mean the corrupt ones who admit they skew their findings?"

"I wish you could read my lips," John shot back. "Ninety-eight percent of the climatologists -"

"In your house," Kilmeade interrumpted. "How do they make their living, climatologists? Their industry has to be addressed. Believe me, for anyone, at the very least, to think it's settled science is a huge leap."

Arrow Down

Facebook apologizes for blocking Gay Marriage USA founder after posting photo of mixed-race couple

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© AFP Photo
Murray Lipp was unable to access service and received notification that photograph of a gay couple was 'offensive'.

Facebook has apologised after it blocked the operator of one of America's leading same-sex marriage campaigns from accessing the service when he posted a photograph of a mixed-race gay couple online.

Murray Lipp, the founder of the Gay Marriage USA Facebook page, which has 300,000 fans, received a notification that the photograph of a gay couple was "offensive". The photograph of the marriage of a bishop at a relatively small Pentecostal church movement with his husband resulted in a number of complaints.

In a message sent to Lipp by the Facebook administrators, he was told that he would be prohibited from posting content on to the Gay Marriage USA Facebook page for a week for breaking Facebook's "policies and community standards".

Airplane

'Prepare to die' t-shirt causes stir on flight

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FAMOUS LINE: Wynand Mullins wearing the T-shirt which caused a stir on a flight to Auckland. A flight attendant approached him saying some people felt intimidated by the words.
For many people it is just a famous, comical quote, but some passengers on a New Zealand-bound flight did not see the funny side in Wynand Mullins' T-shirt, which read "Prepare to die".

In hindsight, Mr Mullins says his T-shirt, with a popular quote from the fantasy film The Princess Bride, may not have been the best clothing choice for a flight, but he believes the reaction of Qantas was over the top.

Mr Mullins, a Kiwi living in Sydney, was one of the first to board his Auckland-bound flight on Sunday evening. While other passengers took their seats, Mr Mullins was approached by a flight attendant who said some people on board were intimidated by the words on his shirt.


Hotdog

Japanese eatery serves $110 dirt meals

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© ABC News
Next time you eat something that "tastes like dirt," it may very well be. Ne Quittez Pas, a Southern France-inspired restaurant in Japan, is now serving a $110 menu with dirt as the main ingredient.

RocketNews24 put the menu to the test, documenting each course. The menu includes a potato starch and dirt soup, a salad with dirt dressing, sea bass with dirt risotto, dirt gratin, dirt ice cream and dirt mint tea.

Dollar Gold

Woman conned by 'spiritual healer' out of 'blessed' jewellery

Conned Women
© The BalmoralBalmoral: The woman was taken to the hotel to meet the healer.
A Chinese woman has been conned out of thousands of pounds of jewellery and cash by a "spiritual healer" who said she would bless the valuables.

The 64-year-old Buddhist was approached by two Chinese women at around 3pm in the St James Centre, Edinburgh on Tuesday January 15. They asked if she wanted to meet with a spiritual healer.

The victim then went to meet a third Chinese woman, who claimed to be a healer, in the Balmoral Hotel. She was told her family's valuables and cash could be blessed.

The woman went home and gathered up large quantities of jewellery and money before placing them in a red bag and meeting the three women on the corner of West Register Street.

The bag was taken and "blessed" and the woman was told not to open the bag for a few weeks to allow the charm to work. However, she opened the bag a few days later and found her items had been swapped for junk.

Info

Oxford professor says genetically altering unborn babies personalities a moral obligation

Babies
© The Telegraph, UK
Genetically screening our offspring to make them better people is just "responsible parenting", claims an eminent Oxford academic, The Telegraph reports.

Professor Julian Savulescu, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics, said that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a "moral obligation" as it makes them grow up into "ethically better children", this based on a few genetic links to 'personality disorders'.

He said that we should actively give parents the choice to screen out personality flaws in their children as it meant they were then less likely to "harm themselves and others".

Studies show that the child's upbringing, including parenthood and schooling methods are the root causes of many 'personality flaws'. Other studies give strong evidence that nutrition, meditation and exercise greatly influence behavioural patterns and emotional well-being. This entire theory is also blind to the side effects of many medicines, vaccines, food additives and (some) GMO foods that have been proven to affect psychological behaviour, and this isn't even touching on the possible beneficial use of marijuana and other substances for those with undesired personality traits.

Question

Blast at African sorcerer's house kills 5

Police in Zimbabwe say they are investigating a massive explosion at a tribal sorcerer's house outside the capital, Harare.

Police officials said on Tuesday the blast killed five people.

The sorcerer, often known in the West as a witchdoctor, and a man seeking to improve his failing finances, were among the dead, witnesses said.

The explosion damaged 12 nearby houses in the Chitungwiza township.

Witnesses said crowds began sprinkling salt on nearby streets and footpaths afterward, a traditional belief to ward off evil spirits.

Army bomb disposal experts told neighbours they found no remnants of a bomb or petrol or gas containers.

In Zimbabwe superstition, sorcerers can use lightning, common during current rain storms, to eradicate enemies. Neighbours told reporters they feared a "lightning manufacturing process" was being carried out Monday.

People 2

Unemployment soars worldwide, with youth the most vulnerable

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© AFP Photo / Mario Tama)Applicants wait to meet potential employers at a Manhattan job fair in New York City
Global unemployment is at a record high in the wake of the financial crisis, says a UN report. A rise in joblessness of 5.1 million is expected in 2013, impacting the world's youth hardest in a climate of stifling austerity and economic instability.

UN agency, the International Labor Organization (ILO) released its annual report on worldwide employment on Tuesday, marking a significant worsening in unemployment trends.

The report states that approximately 197 million people were out of work in 2012, a rise of 4.2 million. Guy Ryder, director-general of the ILO, stated at the press conference accompanying the release of the report that "inadequacy of policy to counter" unemployment was largely to blame for the slump in investment and hiring.

Heart - Black

BigPharma giant Amgen given two-year regulations delay worth hundreds of millions

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H.R. 8, the bill that averted the fiscal cliff, included a section that granted the drug company Amgen a two-year delay in regulations of its drugs, even though Amgen recently pleaded guilty in a federal fraud case.

The bill will give Amgen two years to sell Sensipar without government price regulations, which means hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for Amgen.

Sensipar is an expensive prescription drug used by kidney dialysis patients. It is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over the next two-year period, since the legislation delays Medicare price restraints of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) drugs, reports the New York Times.

The bill does not specify Amgen by name, but it mainly affects the sale of Sensipar, costing the government hundreds of millions while allowing Amgen to keep its prices unregulated.