Society's Child

It's official: New Notre Dame will look like the old Notre Dame - Macron will oversee new agency responsible

Francesco Bandarin
The Arts Newspaper
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:12 UTC

The dozens of designs submitted in response to the competition run by the French government for creative proposals — the greenhouse roof, the stained-glass roof, the beam of light spire and the crystal spire — will remain just designs.

On 16 July, 95 days after the fire that destroyed the cathedral's roof and flèche (central spire), the law that will govern the restoration of the cathedral was finally approved by the French parliament. It explicitly states that the cathedral must be rebuilt as it looked before the fire. It recognises its Unesco World Heritage status and the need to respect existing international charters and practices, and it limits derogations to the existing heritage, planning, environmental and construction codes to the minimum.

In the new power map, there will be one master-mind only, French president Emmanuel Macron, who will directly and indirectly control all phases of an operation that would normally be the remit of the ministry of culture.

Comment: Macron in charge of France's cultural heritage? What could possibly go wrong...

Comment: See also:

Bees and beekeepers feel the sting of Trump Administration's anti-science efforts

Jessica A. Knoblauch
EcoWatch
Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:56 UTC

© CHRIS JORDAN-BLOCH / EARTHJUSTICE
Beekeeper Jeff Anderson works with members of his family in this photo from 2014. He once employed all of his adult children but can no longer afford to do so.

It's been a particularly terrible summer for bees. Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is allowing the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor back on the market. And just a few weeks prior, the USDA announced it is suspending data collection for its annual honeybee survey, which tracks honeybee populations across the U.S., providing critical information to farmers and scientists.

The Trump administration pushed for these two anti-bee actions, even though our nation's honeybee populations have been nosediving for years. Last winter, beekeepers reported a record 40 percent loss of their colonies.

Longtime beekeeper Jeff Anderson, owner of California-Minnesota Honey Farms, says the picture is even grimmer if you look at bee losses across the entire year, particularly in the spring and summer when farmers are spraying pesticides. It's not just bees that are suffering, he says. Beekeepers are also feeling the sting of the Trump administration's anti-bee and anti-science efforts. And consumers of healthy, fresh foods are next.

Comment: If the bees go, we all go. Government regulators would do well to keep this in mind (not that they care).

See also:

Intersectionalism is nonsense. But the backlash against it is very real

Debra Soh
Quillette
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 00:01 UTC

The campaign to silence those who question progressive ideas about race and privilege requires frequent rebranding. Labels such as "far-right" and "alt-right," which once might have served to strip a person of his or her livelihood and personal reputation, have become such common terms of abuse that they've effectively become meaningless. The words "white nationalist" once were used to describe someone who actually supported the creation of a white ethnostate. But now, activists are claiming that the mere act of making an "okay" hand gesture could mark you as a "white power" extremist — or at least someone who is "alt-right-adjacent." The goal of this perversion of language is to drive up the number of people who may be classified out of hand as extremists, and thereby disqualify even the mildest forms of dissent as de facto hate speech.

As a visible minority, I've experienced my share of prejudice and ignorance. I don't deny that racism exists and that it is repugnant. But the solution is not to divide society into ideological factions, with one side being publicly shamed and banished, while the other is given carte blanche to promote its own, increasingly fanatical, intersectional doctrines.

Comment: See also:

Apple suspends Siri response grading in response to privacy concerns

Matthew Panzarino
TechCrunch
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 09:32 UTC

In response to concerns raised by a Guardian story last week over how recordings of Siri queries are used for quality control, Apple is suspending the program world wide. Apple says it will review the process that it uses, called grading, to determine whether Siri is hearing queries correctly, or being invoked by mistake.

In addition, it will be issuing a software update in the future that will let Siri users choose whether they participate in the grading process or not.

The Guardian story from Alex Hern quoted extensively from a contractor at a firm hired by Apple to perform part of a Siri quality control process it calls grading. This takes snippets of audio, which are not connected to names or IDs of individuals, and has contractors listen to them to judge whether Siri is accurately hearing them — and whether Siri may have been invoked by mistake.

"We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy," Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch. "While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally. Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the ability to choose to participate in grading."

Comment: It looks like Amazon is also following suit. RT reports:

Amazon announced on Friday that it would allow users of its smartphone assistance app Alexa to deny the company access to their private conversations. "We take customer privacy seriously and continuously review our practices and procedures," the Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.

She said that Amazon would also be updating the app's settings for it to include a disclaimer informing the customers that Amazon might subject their recordings to manual review if they don't opt out.

That practice reportedly saw Amazon employees listening to and transcribing some of the recordings, with the stated goal of improving the virtual assistant's services. Amazon was not alone in spying on its customers while keeping them in the dark. Google and Apple were doing the same using Google Assistant and Siri, respectively.

It all came to an abrupt end after the clandestine practice was exposed in a series of groundbreaking revelations. Google came under intense scrutiny from a German watchdog after some 1,000 voice recordings were leaked to Dutch public broadcaster VRT NEWS last month. About one-tenth of recordings studied by VRT turned out to have been made in error, without a direct command by the customer. Caught red-handed, Google assured the regulator it would not be making any transcripts of speech data in the EU for at least the next three months.

Whether they actually will stop collecting the data remains to be seen, or rather, remain unseen. They'll get it, some way or another. See also:

Why are people across France demanding to know 'Where's Steve'?

The Local (France)
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 06:47 UTC

'Où est Steve' is the question that keeps being asked in France at the moment - but who is Steve and what do the people asking about him really want?

Who is Steve?

The question refers to Steve Maia Caniço, a 24-year-old teaching assistant who disappeared during the Fete de la Musique in Nantes in June. Thousands of people head to Nantes every year for the France-wide festival at the end of June, but this year trouble flared at the Nantes event.

At around 4.30am police turned up at the Quai Wilson to demand that the music stop and people go home. Clashes occurred, tear gas was fired, police charged, panic ensured and in the mayhem several people ended up in the River Loire.

Comment: See also:

AP source: At least 15 dead in El Paso, Texas, shooting

Cedar Attanasico, Michael Balsamo and Dianna Heidgerd
Associated Press
Sat, 03 Aug 2019 23:57 UTC

© Briana Sanchez/The El Paso Times via AP
People arrive at MacArthur Elementary looking for family and friends as the school is being used a re-unification center during the aftermath of a shooting at the Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, Saturday, Aug. 3, in El Paso, Texas. Multiple people were killed and one person was in custody after a shooter went on a rampage at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said.

At least 15 people were killed and many injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, and a 21-year-old man was taken into custody, law enforcement officials said.

Two law enforcement officials identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius of the Dallas area. One of the officials told The Associated Press that at least 15 people were killed. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly, and both spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Hospital officials said another 23 people were injured and being treated.

Most of the victims were shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez said at a news conference. He said the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school shopping season.

"This is unprecedented in El Paso," said Gomez, who added that many of the injured had life-threatening injuries.

Ninth protest rally in Hong Kong: Tear gas, throwing stones, clashes with police

RT
Sat, 03 Aug 2019 18:12 UTC

© Reuters / Tyrone Siu
Anti-extradition bill protesters pour water on tear gas as they attend a march in Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong is being rocked by a ninth weekend of anti-government protests, triggered by a controversial extradition bill. The police were forced to use tear gas as rowdy protesters pelted stones and torched objects.

Some 42,000 people showed up in Hong Kong's Mong Kok shopping district for a massive rally on Saturday, according to police figures. The march organizers, however, reported a figure thrice that, claiming that at least 120,000 were in attendance.

The two months of turbulent demonstrations were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions from the autonomous territory to China's mainland. The legislation was suspended amid the protests, but they continue as the activists now demand a complete withdrawal of the bill.

Comment: See also: US 'color revolution' and its struggles in Hong Kong

French police blast protesters with water cannon following silent march in Nantes

RT
Sat, 03 Aug 2019 13:14 UTC

French police used water cannon and tear gas on a crowd of demonstrators following a silent march in commemoration of a man who was found dead this week after going missing during a police raid on a music festival last month.

Protesters took to the streets for a 'Justice for Steve' march in Nantes city center on Saturday following the discovery of Steve Maia Canico's body on Tuesday. As well as holding a silent vigil, the crowd also chanted slogans denouncing French President Emmanuel Macron.

Tensions escalated during the march and the police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Demonstrators used street furniture to create makeshift barricades and these were later set on fire. The police said that 1,700 people took part in the demonstration and 33 arrests were made.

Comment: See also:

3 killed after bluff collapses onto beachgoers near San Diego

Mark Osborne
ABC News
Sat, 03 Aug 2019 01:19 UTC

© Mike Blake/Reuters
Emergency responders attend to a cliff collapse that has trapped people at a beach in Encinitas, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019.

Three people were killed Friday as a cliffside broke free and toppled onto beachgoers in Encinitas, California, on a sunny summer day at the popular seaside escape.

One person was found dead at the beach, while two others who were transported to a local hospital in critical condition were later pronounced dead, according to city officials. Two other people were pulled out from under the debris pile and taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The fire department was notified of the bluff collapse just before 3 p.m. local time.

"We are devastated by the tragedy today and our hearts go out to the victims and their families," Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear said in a statement. "We stand ready to help in any way possible. Our engineers and the public safety team are diligently working to assess bluff conditions."

UN: Sexual abuse of boys by U.S.-funded Afghan forces 'remains issue of concern'

Edwin Mora
Breitbart
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 17:26 UTC

The U.S.-funded Afghan National Police (ANP) continues to engage in the ancient local custom of men sexually abusing young boys, the United Nations reported this week.

ANP is a component of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), which the U.S. government has spent more than $80 billion to develop since the war in Afghanistan began in October 2001.

Known as bacha bazi, or "boy play," U.N. investigators found that the act by Afghan forces persists.

In February 2018, Afghanistan implemented revisions to its penal code that criminalized the cruel practice. However, the U.N. reported this past March, "Though bacha bazi is criminalized, prosecutions of cases involving the practice are rare and the practice remains common."

In its latest annual report on children and armed conflict issued on Tuesday, the U.N. declared, "the United Nations verified four cases of sexual violence [in 2018], affecting two boys and two girls, perpetrated by the Afghan National Police (3) and the Afghan local police (1). The two boys were used as bacha bazi."

U.N. officials noted in the March report that the ANP, a component of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), was behind the sexual abuse of the two boys.

Speak loudly and carry a big sick.

Robotech

The ship's going down; all resistance is 'fewtile'. They sold the fairytale 911 story....still do....(that had holes big enough to drive a 737...

Fewtile

Dr. RC says no one's talking much about a vaccine caused MCI (myocardial infarction) or stroke etc. Remember the pilots dying? The concern was and...

Rowan Cocoan

Their HELL bent in injecting this SHIT in to everyone and will stop at nothing until their demented goal is achieved. If you lose your job for not...

Winternights3

Someone deport this monstrous POS back to hell, or wherever. Anywhere with a good stockade 😤and his kids too

slbeaudry

Society's Child

It's official: New Notre Dame will look like the old Notre Dame - Macron will oversee new agency responsible

Bees and beekeepers feel the sting of Trump Administration's anti-science efforts

Intersectionalism is nonsense. But the backlash against it is very real

Apple suspends Siri response grading in response to privacy concerns

Why are people across France demanding to know 'Where's Steve'?

AP source: At least 15 dead in El Paso, Texas, shooting

Ninth protest rally in Hong Kong: Tear gas, throwing stones, clashes with police

French police blast protesters with water cannon following silent march in Nantes

3 killed after bluff collapses onto beachgoers near San Diego

UN: Sexual abuse of boys by U.S.-funded Afghan forces 'remains issue of concern'

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