Society's ChildS


Gold Coins

Getting worried? Now Austria demands an audit of its offshore held gold

Austrian gold coin
© Unknown
First it was Germany, now another AAA-rated European country is starting to get concerned about its hard assets.

Overnight Bloomberg reported that following in Bundesbank's footsteps, Austria will audit its gold reserves located in the UK, which represent 80% of its total gold holdings. This gold reserve reviews held at Bank of England in London will be first conducted by external auditors, Christian Gutleder, a spokesman for the Austrian central bank, says via telephone.

As a reminder, Austria held 80% of its roughly 280 tons of gold in U.K., according to last annual report.

Gutleder explained that the Central bank has checked its reserves regularly in the past, adding that gold reserves haven't changed since 2007. Which begs the question: why check them now then?

According to the official explanation that review comes after euro-skeptic Freedom Party demanded more transparency, repatriation of reserves. Perhaps it is time to rename the Euroskeptic party into the "we doubt our gold is where you say it is" skeptics. A better explanation was provided by the Austrian Trend magazine, which said that "the measure is seen as a consequence of growing public pressure. There is a rising disbelief among Austrians about the existence of the gold."

Cult

Sexual Assault in the Bakken Shale "Man Camps"

man camps
© Evelyn HockstienA man camp outside of Watford City, North Dakota
Former Rosebud Sioux Tribe Police Chief Grace Her Many Horses took a temporary job working in the Bakken Region near Newtown, North Dakota. This Bakken Basin stretches from Montana to North Dakota and it is rich in shale oil supplies. She began work in June of last year until October of the same year. It was her first experience with Man Camps. She seen them before while driving past on the way to pow-wows but this was going to be the very first time she would enter the premises and work the area as a law enforcement officer. This seasoned professional would be in for a rude surprise.

"When I first got there some of the things they talked about, in any of these areas, was they told the men 'Don't go out and party. Don't get drunk and pass out. Because you're going to get raped," she said without hesitation.

It's not exactly something you would expect to hear from a workers' camp but these places are not exactly your ordinary laborers' camps. The depth of depravity and dubious behavior are commonplace in these so-called Man Camps. No one will say that all of the inhabitants are criminal but there is definitely an element there that has rocked the local law enforcement officials to the very core of their morals and value systems.

There are identifiable variables that remain constant: These oil workers usually come from desperate conditions. These workers usually have a family they have left elsewhere so they are not looking to start new relations. These workers are paid an excessive amount of money. These workers are well aware their employment is only temporary. These workers know they are living in a remote environment where law enforcement is already stretched beyond its limits and the temptation for criminal behavior is very strong. Unfortunately, most of America still cannot comprehend this information.

"Sexual assaults on the male population has increased by 75% in that area," she continued. That kind of statistic makes maximum security prisons look like the minor league. "One of the things we ran into while working up there was a 15 year old boy had gone missing. He was found in one of the Man Camps with one of the oil workers. They were passing him around from trailer to trailer."

He went there looking for a job and was hired by individuals within the Man Camp to do light cleaning in and around their personal areas. The young teenager was forced into sex slavery. It's the kind of thing you hear about in the ghettos of third world countries; not in the quiet and remote countryside.

The victims aren't just males but females too. Everyone has heard by now of the missing school teacher that was kidnapped as she was out jogging, repeatedly sexually assaulted, and murdered near one of these Man Camps. The age of the Man Camp victims varies. The assailants are not necessarily looking for male and female adults. They are also going after little girls.

Grace Her Many Horse recalls one specific instance where "We found a crying, naked, four year old girl running down one of the roads right outside of the Man Camp. She had been sexually assaulted."

Handcuffs

Cops had THREE bizarre encounters with Elliot Rodger over the last year but didn't arrest him after finding him 'polite'

rodger apartment
© ReutersAn investigators' van leaves an apartment complex where suspect Elliot Rodger lived, and where it is believed that he stabbed his three roommates, before he allegedly went on a shooting spree that killed 6 people and injured 13
Police had 'three contacts' with suspect Elliot Rodger before a mass shooting on Friday night in Isla Vista that left seven dead and thirteen injured.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said on Saturday that police had conducted a 'welfare check' on 22-year-old Rodger on April 30.

Police spokeswoman Kelly Hoover has said the wellness check will be reviewed as authorities continue their investigation.

On January 15, 2014, Rodger made a citizen's arrest when his roommate allegedly stole three candles from him worth $22, Brown said.

Rodger also called police on July 31, 2013 and claimed to be the victim of assault, Brown said, though police believe Rodger may have actually been the aggressor. No charges were filed.

Attorney Alan Shifman earlier told reporters that the Rodger family called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos 'regarding suicide and the killing of people' that Rodger had been posting.

Police interviewed Rodger and found him to be a 'perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,' but noted that he had few friends and no girlfriend, he added. Police did not find a history of guns.


Comment: This is just one area where a general knowledge of ponerology would do the world a lot of good. Rodger was obviously mentally disturbed: his shallow affect contrasted to his overly emotional wording, his asocial demeanor, his 'weird' behavior resulting in few friends, his hypersensitive reactions to perceived insults and slights. Not to mention his pathological and contradictory views of himself and women. On the one hand all he wanted was to 'love and be loved', he was a 'perfect gentleman', and he despised the 'cruel and heartless' girls who did not accept his advances (if there even were any). On the other hand, he displays his own cruelty and heartlessness, utter lack of 'gentlemanly' qualities, and love in the act of premeditated murder.

Forget about gun laws! If police had an iota of psychological knowledge, this tragedy could have been prevented. Of course, for this to work, the police forces themselves would have to be purged of their own psychopaths.


V

Donetsk crowds protest Ukrainian elections, besiege richest oligarch's mansion

donetsk activists
© RIA Novosti / Natalia SeliverstovaActivists take part in a demonstration against the new Kiev government at Lenin square in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, on May 25, 2014.
Several thousand people took part in an anti-govt rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, rejecting Sunday elections and hailing the region's self-determination. The crowd then marched to a residence of Ukraine's wealthiest oligarch, blocking it.

As people in Kiev cast their votes at the May 25 Ukrainian presidential elections amid almost celebratory atmosphere, there was a strong mood of rejection and anger in the industrial center of Donetsk, the heart of volatile eastern Donetsk Region - and the capital of the recently proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

Hundreds of people flocked to the city's center during the day to demonstrate against the early elections, which they believe are unable to represent their interests and concerns. The so-called "anti-terrorist operation," launched by Kiev authorities against the dissent in the east has set many people against the Ukrainian state as it now stands.

Similar action took place in Kharkov, where over 2,000 people gathered to denounce Ukraine's presidential election. This resulted in some clashes after police tried to arrest a man with St. George's ribbons and the crowd intervened on his behalf.

Clock

Man admits killing Australian 'vampire' prostitute to avenge alleged rape

Image
© John Hart/Herald SunShane Chartres-Abbott, self-confessed vampire and prostitute, outside the County Court where he was facing a rape charge.
Three other men are on trial for the murder and have pleaded not guilty

An Australian man admitted on Wednesday that he killed a male prostitute who styled himself as a vampire, saying he did so to avenge a woman who was allegedly raped and had part of her tongue bitten off.

The man - who is appearing as the prosecution's key witness in the high-profile Melbourne trial, and cannot be named for legal reasons - told the court that he shot 28-year-old sex worker Shane Chartres-Abbott near his suburban home in June 2003.

Three other men are on trial for the murder and have pleaded not guilty.

The unnamed man said he shot Chartres-Abbott after one of the accused, 42-year-old Warren Shea, told him about the escort's alleged rape of the ex-girlfriend of the second defendant, Mark Perry, 46.

The witness told the court that he carried out the shooting as "a favour".

Family

Judge's order barring deadbeat dad from fathering more kids upheld by Ohio court

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© Naturallymoi.comAsim Taylor
An Ohio appeals court upheld a judge's decision to bar a man from having any more children until he made good on child support payments for those he already has.

Lorain County Probate Judge James Walther issued an order last year prohibiting Asim Taylor from having any children for the five years he was on probation for failing to pay the $100,000 in child support for his four current children.

"I put this condition on for one reason and one reason alone," Walther told Taylor at the time of his sentencing. "It's your personal responsibility to pay for these kids."

If Taylor violates the terms of his probation by impregnating another woman, he faces an automatic jail sentence of one year. Judge Walther also stipulated that he would remove the ban if Taylor paid the child support he already owed.

Taylor's attorney claimed that the prohibition was unconstitutional, because the only way Taylor could meet the order's demand that he "make all reasonable efforts to avoid impregnating a woman" was abstinence.

Arrow Up

U.S. Supreme Court: Police can stop vehicles based on anonymous tips

"The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

- Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting in Olmstead v. United States (1928)
Traffic Stop
© Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. - In a recent 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court set the legal precedent which allows police to initiate traffic stops based solely on anonymous tips. The Navarette v. California decision was so dangerous that one Justice called it "a freedom-destroying cocktail."

On August 23, 2008, Pravdo Navarette was stopped by a California Highway Patrol (CHP). No police officer ever witnessed Navarette driving in a way that would have indicated that he was impaired behind the wheel of his truck. Instead, entire basis for the stop was an anonymous phone call to police alleging that Navarette had driven dangerously. The caller identified the make, model and license plate number of the truck. Fifteen minutes later, a highway patrolman proceeded to follow Navarette for five minutes before finally pulling him over.

Once officers had Navarette on the side of the road, they observed that he was not intoxicated. However, officers began fishing for reasons to search the vehicle. One officer reported smelling the odor of marijuana. Police proceeded to search his truck, found a bundle of cannabis, and then arrested both men in the vehicle.

Water

Texas town seeks solution to drought with 'toilet water'

Toilet
© Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock
The old adage of "desperate times call for desperate measures" has been taken up by a drought-stricken Texas town that's looking to a new source for its drinking water: its toilets. Wichita Falls, a city of about 100,000 located in the north of the state, is well into its third year of the severe water shortage that's affecting much of much of the west. Mandatory water conservation measures have already reduced residents' water usage by more than a third, but when city officials realized that remaining water supplies would still run out in about two years, they decided that Fido was on to something when he deigned to drink from the porcelain bowl.

OK, not exactly. The city's new direct potable reuse project, as it's called, is far more involved than slaking your thirst at the toilet rather than at the tap. Instead, in a $13 million effort designed by Wichita Falls' Public Works department, the city has installed a 13-mile pipeline connecting its water treatment plant (where ordinary tap water is filtered and purified before entering the city's pipes) with its wastewater treatment plant (i.e., all the stuff that goes down drains - not just toilet water, which makes up about 20 percent of the mix, but also water from sinks, tubs, washing machines, and dishwashers), creating a two-destination, multi-step cleansing system. Wastewater is first treated at its respective plant, then sent down the pipeline to be treated once more with all the rest of the drinking water. The project, now in its final stages of testing, should begin producing about five million gallon of water per day by early July.

Black Magic

Chilling drug cartel style threat messages found on El Paso, TX billboards

el paso drug cartel billboard
© AP Photo/El Paso Times, Victor CalzadaAn El Paso, Texas police officer checks a makeshift mannequin Thursday, May 22, 2014, which was left hanging on a billboard along with the message, “silver or lead” in Spanish, a threat heard in Mexico signifying pay up or get shot. El Paso police were investigating two mysterious messages painted onto billboards in the border city that included mannequins dressed in suits hanging from nooses.
El Paso police were investigating two mysterious messages painted onto billboards in the border city that included mannequins dressed in suits hanging from nooses.

The El Paso Times reported that motorists alerted police to the graffiti early Thursday morning. Both billboard companies said the painted messages were vandalism and not paid advertisements. They have been removed.

Chart Pie

Europe against sanctions on Russia: It would mean 'cutting the trees they are sitting on'

global CEO Summit
© RIA Novosti / Vladimir AstapkovichSt. Petersburg hosts Global CEO Summit
While this year's Int Economic Forum in St Petersburg saw fewer foreign guests due to sanctions tension, those who chose to leave politics aside told RT imposing economic restrictions on Moscow would mean "cutting the trees" they are "sitting on".

Here's what the top managers told RT at the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

Reiner Hartman, Chairman at the Association of European Businesses
"We as investors have a success story in this country for 22 years. We've started from scratch and we have now such a fantastic story... We have investors from Europe, from the United States, from South America, from Africa, from Asia. They are all here. And why are we being taken hostage by irresponsible, I must say, political decision making people?"

"I've heard about 20 or 57 Chinese high-tech companies ready just to move in and replace Alstom, Siemens, BASF, and Bayer, just to name the few. It's amazing!"