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Question

Reports of drone disrupts flights at New Jersey airport, US

airport

Newark Liberty International Airport
Flights in and out of New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport were disrupted Tuesday night after reports of a drone flying near Teterboro Airport.

Initially, the Federal Aviation Administration said there were reports of two drones. Later, they said there were two reports of one drone.

The reports came from the flight crew of a Southwest flight and of a United flight. FAA spokesman Greg Martin told CNN that the agency stopped flights at the airport after the initial report over the smaller regional airport some 15 miles away.

Both airports serve the greater metro New York City area.The drone was reportedly flying at 3,500 feet and has since cleared the airspace over the airport, Martin said.

Comment: For an idea of just how numerous, confusing and conflicting these sightings of 'drones' at airports have been, check out: London airports order military-grade anti-drone equipment worth "several million"


Fire

Two ships on Kerch Strait catch fire, one apparently 'struck by a blast' - UPDATE

Kerch Strait ship fire
Two ships have caught fire while moving through the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from mainland Russia, Russian officials said. One of the vessels was apparently rocked by an explosion.

One vessel was "allegedly struck by a blast," which caused fire that then spilled over to another ship, an official with the Russian Maritime and River Transport Agency said.

Clouds of black smoke can be seen billowing over a vessel engulfed by a blaze on YouTube footage, which claims to show the scene of the incident. Another ship can be seen floating nearby, although it is unclear, if it caught on fire as well.

Comment: UPDATE: 23.01.2019 at 2:20

Sputnik provides more details on the blast:
Four Turkish Nationals Died, 8 Rescued in Kerch Strait Tanker Fire

As many as four Turkish nationals were killed, eight were rescued and four went missing after the fire broke out on board two tankers in the Kerch Strait, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to preliminary information, the fire broke out on Monday during the transfer of the liquefied natural gas from one vessel to another.

The Russian Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) said 12 people were rescued, 10 died and 10 were reported missing.

"As a result of the fire on the two Tanzania-flagged ships, Maestro and Kandi, in the Kerch Strait, four out of 16 of our citizens who were crew members died, eight were saved, and the search of four missing is ongoing," the statement read.

Previously, Rosmorrechflot told Sputnik that there has been no oil spill or other environmental damage after the incident.
This is just the latest in a string of worldwide fuel related explosions, but this particular incident occurred in the Kerch strait, an area Ukraine has been using to antagonize Russia:


Attention

Syrian refugee, 16, suing FB for not taking action against Tommy Robinson's false claims saying the boy attacked English girls

Syrian refugee Jamal

Syrian refugee Jamal, 16, was 'waterboarded' by a school bully and is now set to take legal action against Facebook
The Syrian refugee who was allegedly 'waterboarded' by a school bully is taking legal action against Facebook over claims he attacked English girls.

Lawyers acting for 16-year-old Jamal are preparing to sue the internet giant for allowing English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson to peddle false accusations about him on its site.

In a highly unusual case, Facebook stands accused of allowing Robinson to make a series of poisonous rants about Jamal because the far-Right activist's popularity makes the company money. The boy's legal team says the social media company was 'fully aware of the reckless and pernicious nature' of Robinson's videos and has 'profited from defamation'.

Comment: Robinson states he was embarrassed at being 'had'. But that's not the only thing for him to be embarrassed about. He used his biases and influence to inflame outrage on the right against an already victimized boy. This is no different from what we see on left, most glaringly in the recent incident involving the 'MAGA' kids and Nathan Phillips, the Native American 'elder'. People on both the left and right are having their emotional strings pulled. It's not like this is a modern phenomenon either (although the effects are amplified through technology). We see this same act played throughout history: the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, the lynchings of black people in America, and so on.

The awful reality is that there is something in the human nature of the masses that loves a good public stoning. Ideological possession allows for people to drop their inhibitions and engage their inner animal. It blinds people to the nuances of reality as well as our commonly shared humanity. Tough times are made worse by call-out culture and the vengeance it demands. The public will not develop a better society by 'naming and shaming' their neighbors. We get it namely through the hard work of assuming the small responsibilities in our own world and making productive contributions to others. That comes first. If we master those things, then we might begin to tackle more complicated tasks and build our competence.

Ideally, it would be competent people who are tasked with the responsibility of identifying social harm, as this remains a need. Unfortunately, there are not very many competent people in the media. Many people also give trust away too easily when it comes to accepting what is depicted in the news. This too can be a sign of ideological possession, but it is also an indication of lazy thinking that we all share as a fundamental operation in our minds (Daniel Kahneman describes the process as 'system one' in his book Thinking Fast and Slow). Perhaps some people will learn as these incidents continue and become increasingly more intense. Others, as we see, will continue to favor their fixed beliefs over reality. That's a rough road to travel.


Info

No kidding: University study shows three quarters of people dissatisfied with 'undemocratic', 'self-interested' & 'divided' political parties

UK parliament
Research by the University of Sheffield has revealed more than three quarters of people are dissatisfied with political parties and has identified the seven main qualities people want to see in parties today.

Gathering data through a survey administered by YouGov and three public workshops, research led by Dr Kate Dommett and Dr Luke Temple asked people about their attitudes towards parties, including how people believe parties are behaving now and how they would like to see parties work.

The top words used to describe political parties by workshop participants included 'unrepresentative', 'undemocratic', 'self-interested' and 'divided'. Seventy-seven per cent of those surveyed said they were fairly or very dissatisfied with parties.

Comment: What doesn't seem to be covered in this survey are questions showing the public's awareness (or lack thereof) of psychopaths in positions of power - being the main reason why most voters will likely remain grossly dissatisfied with party politics.




Pirates

The 'toxic masculinity' meme has poisoned society

gillette ad toxic masculinity
© Procter & Gamble Co.
Gillette’s ill-judged ‘toxic masculinity’ ad.
Over the weekend, a disturbing video of a group of boys from a Catholic School in Covington, Kentucky catapulted Twitter into one of its regular nervous breakdowns. The video appeared to show the boys surrounding and taunting a lone, elderly Native American man as he chanted and played a drum in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The Indian was a veteran; his demeanor was stoic and dignified. The boys were loud and rowdy, the kind adults routinely cross the street to avoid. They were also-with one or two exceptions-white. A few were wearing MAGA hats. They had just come from the annual anti-abortion March for Life.

In other words, the video could have been scripted by a gender-studies professor from Middlebury, staged by the director of Gillette's viral ad on toxic masculinity, and given an official seal of approval from the American Psychological Association, the august organization whose recently published guidelines elaborating on the evils of "traditional codes of masculinity" made waves a few weeks ago. There it was: toxic (white) masculinity, for all to see and deplore.

Whistle

Vulture journalist who wished death on Covington students and their parents gets fired

Erik Abriss

Erik Abriss
Digital company INE Entertainment has fired a journalist who publicly wished for the death of several Covington Catholic High School students and their parents in a pair of tweets over the weekend. Aside from his job as a post-production supervisor at INE, Erik Abriss is a contributor to New York Media's pop culture site Vulture.

"We were surprised and upset to see the inflammatory and offensive rhetoric used on Erik Abriss' Twitter account this weekend. He worked with the company in our post-production department and never as a writer," the company said in a statement to TheWrap on Monday.

"While we appreciated his work, it is clear that he is no longer aligned with our company's core values of respect and tolerance. Therefore, as of January 21, 2019, we have severed ties with Abriss."

Passions ran high on social media Saturday after video emerged of several students from Covington, many of whom were wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, surrounding a Native American elder who was in Washington, D.C. for the Indigenous Peoples' March. Many viewers believed the teens were attempting to taunt the elder, Nathan Phillips.

Hiliter

Southeastern Louisiana University ban offensive jokes, posters and cartoons

cartoon sketch
© Pixabay
The "discrimination and harassment policy" of Southeastern Louisiana University lists "offensive jokes," "posters," "cartoons," and "drawings" as "prohibited conduct" that can be considered "harassment."

"This conduct need not have intent to harm; if severe enough, it does not have to consist of repeated incidents; and it need not be directed against a specific individual/group of Individuals," the school's policy states.

As The College Fix notes, the university has received a "Red Light" rating from the pro-free-speech group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - a rating reserved for schools that have "at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech." FIRE's senior program officer Laura Beltz told The Fix that, although she did not know of any students who had recently been disciplined under the policy, that doesn't mean that the existence of such a restrictive policy was harmless.

"It's important to remember that, even when not enforced, policies that restrict constitutionally protected expression have an impermissible chilling effect on speech," Beltz told The Fix. "To use two policies at Southeastern Louisiana as an example, students may be discouraged from expressing themselves if they read a policy that requires registration of expressive activities a full seven days in advance, or one that calls things like 'offensive jokes' punishable harassment."

Comment: See also:


Arrow Down

Fake news media doubles down on losing hand, accuses Covington students of racism during old sporting event

Covington Catholic school black out
Instead of apologizing for terrorizing the students of Covington Catholic High School, the mainstream media is now digging up old school photos from before the children even went there to some-how prove that the kids might be racist.

Four years ago, the school had continued a tradition where they had "white out," "black out," and "blue out" sporting events. The media has ignored the other colors and focused on photos they found of a "black out" game.

Beginning last year, the school banned face paint for the games. Additionally, this has nothing to do with the children or the families - it was the school.


Comment: There are many who realized they got duped by the initial fake news coverage of this event and promptly apologized once they understood the fuller picture. However, there are always those who are so consumed by ideology that they cannot and will not adjust their perceptions once new information becomes available. Their cognitive disability becomes all the more apparent in situations like this, and this is good. Rational people are better able to spot them and see how such distorted thoughts are not only without merit or value, but also in how such distortions are actually harmful.

A huge lesson for many who saw they were misled was in seeing how context matters. Some obviously have a hard time with this lesson as can be seen in those who insist on staying off the rails.


Bomb

Derry: Security alerts lifted as police claim all three were 'hoaxes'

Londonderry explosion
© Steven McAuley/PA Images
Londonderry explosion
A 50-YEAR-old man remained in police custody overnight, while four others were released "unconditionally" by the PSNI in connection with the car bomb that exploded in Derry city on Saturday evening.

It came after a number of security alerts in the city yesterday. Although a number of hijackings took place, police declared late last night that the alerts were "hoaxes".

As part of its investigation into the explosion which the PSNI says was carried out by a group called "the New IRA", two 21-year-olds, a 42-year-old and a 34-year old were all arrested in the past few days. They've since been released without charge.

There were no injuries in the car bomb on Saturday night, and the attack has been roundly condemned in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain.

The PSNI responded to three security incidents in Derry yesterday that involved two vehicle hijackings and another incident where a van was reported abandoned outside a girls' secondary school.

Comment: See also:
Northern Ireland: Police make arrests in courthouse car bombing deemed a terrorist attack by the 'New IRA'


Chess

Twitter suspends account that ignited Covington 'MAGA kids' controversy

maga hat
Twitter suspended an account on Monday afternoon that helped spread a controversial encounter between a Native American elder and a group of high school students wearing Make America Great Again hats.

The account claimed to belong to a California schoolteacher. Its profile photo was not of a schoolteacher, but of a blogger based in Brazil, CNN Business found. Twitter suspended the account soon after CNN Business asked about it.

The account, with the username @2020fight, was set up in December 2016 and appeared to be the tweets of a woman named Talia living in California. "Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020," its Twitter bio read. Since the beginning of this year, the account had tweeted on average 130 times a day and had more than 40,000 followers.

Late on Friday, the account posted a minute-long video showing the now-iconic confrontation between a Native American elder and the high school students, with the caption, "This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March."