Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Mystery spike in radioactivity being investigated by Finnish authorities

Radiation Spike
© AFP Photo/Pekka SakkiFinnish officials said 4,000 microbecquerels of the radioactive isotope caesium-137 per cubic metre of air were detected between March 3 and 4 over Helsinki.
Helsinki - Finnish authorities are investigating a mysterious "highly exceptional" spike in levels of radioactive caesium-137 detected over Helsinki, officials said Tuesday.

Nuclear safety regulator STUK said that while the radioactive surge last week posed no danger to human health, it was keen to get to the bottom of the cause.

"The detection was highly exceptional but from a nuclear safety perspective this level of caesium does not have any effect on human health," Tarja Ikaheimonen, the head of radiation surveillance at STUK, told AFP.

She said 4,000 microbecquerels of the radioactive isotope caesium-137 per cubic metre of air were detected between March 3 and 4, which is a thousand times more than usual but only one-millionth of a level that would require people to shelter themselves from the radiation.

One day later, on March 5, the amount of caesium was back to12 microbecquerels per cubic metre of air. "It means the level of radiation is down to a normal level," Ikaheimonen said.

The nuclear safety regulator said the measurements from its other detection spots around the country did not reveal similar anomalities during the same time period.

"We shall however continue to investigate the source of (this radiation) very actively," Ikaheimonen said.

Light Saber

Varoufakis replies to open letter by Green Members to DiEM25

European Greens Yanis Varoufakis
Following the Berlin Launch of DiEM25, eleven representatives of the GREENS (including two Members of the European Parliament) sent DiEM25 an Open Letter welcoming its 'birth' and urging us to unite in the fight for a Democratic, Sustainable, Humanist, Open Europe. Here is Yanis Varoufakis' reply to their Open Letter (which you can download here or here in pdf):

Dear Young European Greens,
Dear Florent, Julien, Karima, Michel, Rui , Vedran, Adam, Laura, Teo, Zakia, Patrick,

You are right: Dreaming of a united, democratised Europe is our only weapon against a divided, authoritarian, potentially Dark Continent.

Our common dream is the only antidote to the common nightmare already in the works. But to become an effective antidote we need to join forces.

We need to overcome the usual tendency of progressives to fall prey to the sirens of discord.

We need a broad coalition of European democrats from across the Left, Green, Liberal and Progressive Conservative divides.

As Brian Eno put it in DiEM's Berlin Launch, democrats are people who know that they do not possess the answers but who, at the same time, remain convinced that, together, it is possible to come up with good answers, helpful actions, and sensible policies.

Bulb

China prioritizes scientific investment in new economic development plan

China Premier Li Keqiang
© Damir Sagolj/Reuters/NewscomKicking off the National People’s Congress on Saturday, China Premier Li Keqiang promised strong support for science.
China will invest heavily in S&T over the next 5 years and cut red tape hampering science spending with the hope that innovation will help the country weather its economic slowdown.

In a speech to open the National People's Congress on 5 March, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang—the country's top economic official—gave a broad-brush overview of the central government's draft plan for economic development during the 13th 5-year plan, which runs from 2016 to 2020. Major elements include boosting science spending, which will rise 9.1% this year to 271 billion yuans ($41 billion), reducing bureaucratic barriers for scientists, and improving environmental protection while curbing carbon emissions and other pollutants.

"Innovation is the primary driving force for development and must occupy a central place in China's development strategy," Li told delegates on the first day of the 2-week congress. Li's speech, considered a guidepost for the specific policies that will be fleshed out in the next year or two, used the word "innovation" 61 times—nearly double the mentions it received in his work report last year, the state-run Xinhua News Agency pointed out.

Comment: Creativity vs Entropy: China the new 'center of civilization'?


Wolf

Reverse Robin Hood: 6 billion dollar businesses preying on the poor

Western Union
© Jeremy Brooks/flickr/cc'Making money off poor people remains a booming business,' laments Quigley.
Many see families in poverty and seek to help. Others see families in poverty and see opportunities for profit.

Here are six examples of billion dollar industries which are built on separating poor people, especially people of color, from their money, the reverse Robin Hood.

Check Cashing Businesses

Check cashing businesses. Cash a $100 check? At Walmart that will be $3. At TD bank non-customers pay $5 to cash a check from their bank.

Nearly 10 million households containing 25 million people do not have any bank account according to the FDIC. Most because they did not have enough money to keep a minimum balance in their account.

Check cashing business are part of a $100 billion industry of more than 6,500 check cashing businesses in the US, many which also provide money orders, utility bill payments and the like, according to testimony provided to Congress by the industry.

Magnify

Aleppo residents to RT: Truce hasn't changed anything, attacks by terrorists have intensified

Destruction in Aleppo
© GettyDestruction in Aleppo
Piles of rubble which once were houses, never-ending shelling and civilians who have nowhere to go - RT's Lizzie Phelan visited the Kurdish-populated Aleppo district of Sheikh-Maqsood, which has been caught in the crossfire of terrorist artillery.

Having spent just two hours in Sheikh-Maqsood, Phelan said she rarely had a moment when she did not hear shelling. She passed by the ruins of a building which was leveled the day before. A whole family died there - four women and three children.

"We saw something flying towards the house and then there was an explosion. The building collapsed in just a few seconds," their neighbor told the RT crew.

Phelan counted nine destroyed buildings in the neighborhood close to two front lines.


Cross

Christianity today: Creepy father posts ad for marriage to 'godly' virgin daughter in Christian magazine

Christian virgin for sale
© Christianity Today via NY Daily News

Comment: This is the result of decades and decades of religion degrading women and marriage to the point of selling cattle. It is completely immoral and depicts how misguided religion and society have become.

See also:

A Christian magazine has issued an apology after running a personal ad written by an Illinois father looking to find a husband for his daughter.

The ad appeared in the jobs section of Christianity Today with "Son-In-Law" listed as an available position, the Daily Beast reported.

"Her: godly, gorgeous, athletic, educated, careered, humorous, travelled, bilingual, 26-year-old virgin," the ad read. "You: unworthy, though becoming less so daily."

The father then went on to leave his email address for suitors to "apply."

Rachel Stewart -- whose father reportedly posted the job listing -- learned about the ad after readers of her blog brought it to her attention.

"At least it's appropriate they placed it in the Employment Opportunities section because putting up with this father-in-law's shenanigans is a full time job, without any paid vacation," Stewart wrote in a since-deleted blog post, according to The Daily Beast.

Stewart wrote that she was "impressed, but not surprised" by the ad. When she confronted her father Stephen about it, he reportedly closed his office door and defended his decision to place the ad. He then read it aloud to her.

Rachel added that her father had been working on a plan to find her a husband, but refused to give her any details. He called the plan "El Grande," or the "The Big One."

"I'm just nervous if this doesn't work out, next I'll find my face plastered on a billboard," Rachel wrote in the blog post. "Oh gosh, now I'm giving him ideas."

Eye 1

Federal court rules no constitutional right to consensual BDSM sex

consensual bdsm
© Herwig Prammer / Reuters
A federal district court has ruled there is no constitutional right to practice consensual BDSM sex in a case over the expulsion of a George Mason University student for having such a relationship. However, a much bigger precedent was set by the case.

At the end of February, Judge TS Ellis of the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed the case through summary judgment, noting that GMU had violated Doe's right to due process by not properly handling the appeals process.

"This is the first sexual campus misconduct suit in which the plaintiff won on summary judgment, meaning there is no genuine dispute of material facts," James Dillon, Doe's lawyer, told RT. "We want him to get a clean record and to be able to go back to school."

The case centers on a now-former couple, John Doe, a GMU student, and Jane Roe, a student at another university, who had engaged in a BDSM sexual relationship. BDSM refers to bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism, and may involve biting, choking, spanking, the use of restraints, or other, even more untoward, activities.

Black Magic

Virginia passes law approving execution by electric chair

electric chair
© Reuters
Virginia senators have passed a bill allowing condemned inmates to be executed via the electric chair. The legislation comes amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs, though Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe has not said whether he will sign it.

The bill won approval in a tight 22-17 vote in the Virginia Senate on Monday. If Governor McAuliffe vetoes the legislation, lawmakers will have to somehow garner more support to override it and pass the bill into law. It is expected to be sent to the governor this week.

Supporters say that death penalty abolitionists are making it difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs. Democratic leader Senator Dick Saslaw said that when offenders murder multiple people, they no longer deserve to be treated humanely.

"When you commit acts like that, you give you up your right to as far as I'm concerned to say well I want to die humanely," Senator Saslaw told the Associated Press.

Comment: If the state doesn't have enough drugs to administer death by lethal injection, maybe they should just let the prisoner live instead of finding another, more cruel way to kill people.


Health

Passenger train derails in California, injuring 14

ace train derails
© KGO-TV
At least 14 people have been injured, four of them seriously, after a commuter train traveling from Silicon Valley to Stockton derailed and two of its cars crashed into a local creek in California.

The incident took place in a rural area some 72km east of San Francisco on Monday night, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) train officials told KCBS radio, adding that there were at least 214 passengers on the train at the time of the incident.

At least four of the 14 people hurt in the incident received "serious" but "non-life-threatening" injuries, the Alameda Fire Department said. Officials added that it was raining heavily at the time of the incident.

Heart - Black

Tourist kills swan after dragging it from lake for selfie

swan selfie
All for the selfie: The female tourist is seen smiling for the camera as she drags the swan from the lake
This is the moment a female tourist dragged a swan from a lake in Macedonia in order to pose up for a photograph, before leaving it to die on the beach.

The woman, reportedly from Bulgaria, grabbed the unsuspecting swan by the wing and dragged it onto the pebble-strewn shoreline of Lake Ohrid, south-western Macedonia.

When the unidentified tourist had gotten her selfie snap, she abandoned the swan, which later died on the beach of Lake Ohrid, local media reports.

Shocked witnesses have described how the swan did not react to the woman walking up to it, as they are used to the presence of tourists visiting the town of Ohrid, which shares the lake's name.
swan selfie
Cruel: The brazen tourists then left the swan 'motionless' on the shores of Lake Ohrid

Comment: People have truly gone mad. They have lost whatever conscience and empathy they had and replaced it with a vain desire for attention. If you've ever wondered about alien abductions and why they occur, one need only look at the above despicable behavior. Those beings above us do what they want to us for their own selfish gratification without any consideration for the trauma that is being inflicted. And here we seethe maxim - as above, so below - applied. That this behavior is becoming more and more common should be even more cause for concern: