Society's ChildS


Dollar

One America News Network sues MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for $10 million

Shelby Talcott
The Daily Caller
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 14:56 UTC
rachel maddow
MSNBC "journalist" Rachel Maddow
One America News Network (OANN) filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit Monday against MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

OANN is suing Maddow, MSNBC, Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal for defamation, alleging Maddow "maliciously and recklessly" went after the network by suggesting it is a Russian state propaganda outlet, the complaint reads, according to Law and Crime. Maddow said that OANN "really, literally is Russian propaganda" on "The Rachel Maddow Show" in July.

Maddow's comment was based on The Daily Beast article stating OANN's Kristian Rouz is a "Russian national on the payroll of the Kremlin's official propaganda outlet, Sputnik." OANN demanded retraction from The Daily Beast reporter and Maddow on July 29.

Comment: Rachel Maddow spreading hysterical lies? Impossible!

See:

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Attention

British woman marries tree to protest proposed highway construction

S.M. Gibson
The Mind Unleashed
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 10:26 UTC
kate rose elder marries tree
© @SaveRimrose — Instagram
"My dad has been very supportive. He's been out in his van helping to organize everything for the big day."

A 34-year-old British woman married a tree on Saturday in a Merseyside park just outside of Liverpool.

Kate Cunningham wed the Elder tree located in Rimrose Valley Park as a way to garner publicity about her opposition to a three-mile long bypass which Highways England has proposed to construct in the area.

The planned road would alleviate traffic coming into the Port of Liverpool.
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Nebula

Tim Ferriss, the man who put his money behind psychedelic medicine

Benedict Carey
The New York Times
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:01 UTC
tim ferris
© Amy E. Price/Getty ImagesThe author and investor Tim Ferriss in 2017. He has set aside most of his projects to advance psychedelic medicine, “for macro reasons but also deeply personal ones.”
The announcement on Wednesday that Johns Hopkins Medicine was starting a new center to study psychedelic drugs for mental disorders was the latest chapter in a decades-long push by health nonprofits and wealthy donors to shake up psychiatry from the outside, bypassing the usual channels.

"Psychiatry is one of the most conservative specialties in medicine," said David Nichols, a medicinal chemist who founded the Heffter Research Institute in 1993 to fund psychedelic research. "We haven't really had new drugs for years, and the drug industry has quit the field because they don't have new targets" in the brain. "The field was basically stagnant, and we needed to try something different."

The fund-raising for the new Johns Hopkins center was largely driven by the author and investor Tim Ferriss, who said in a telephone interview that he had put aside most of his other projects to advance psychedelic medicine.

Comment: Shaking off the stigma against what many perceive as nothing more than party drugs is an uphill battle. But what research has been done on the medicinal uses of psychedelics shows a great deal of promise. At the end of the day, we won't know whether the use of psychedelic drugs is a useful therapeutic treatment until researchers have the freedom to do the necessary studies.

See also:

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Family

'Deeply demoralizing': Zizek on birth-streaming Aussie porn star & false authenticity


RT
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 09:05 UTC
pregnant belly
© Global Look Press / Liz Gregg
Mankind is one step closer to total depravity now, philosopher Slavoj Zizek said about the news that an Aussie porn star will sell a video of her giving birth. He added that clear moral basis is needed for humanity to stay afloat.

The news of an Australian porn star, Tyi Starr, announcing she would stream the very moment she would give birth to her child has recently hit the headlines and sparked indignation. The porn star herself says that she does not perceive her actions as "wrong" and has no need to defend them.

RT has spoken about the latest tendencies in the domain of public morality with the Slovenian cultural philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

Comment: More from Zizek:

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Newspaper

UK court bans man with low IQ from having sex

Martin Beckford
Telegraph
Mon, 04 Feb 2019 10:00 UTC
UK court room
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters

Comment: Please note this article is from 2011.


The 41 year-old had been in a relationship with a man whom he lived with and told officials "it would make me feel happy" for it to continue.

But his local council decided his "vigorous sex drive" was inappropriate and that with an IQ of 48 and a "moderate" learning disability, he did not understand what he was doing.

A psychiatrist involved in the case even tried to prevent the man being given sex education, on the grounds that it would leave him "confused".

Mr Justice Mostyn said the case was "legally, intellectually and morally" complex as sex is "one of the most basic human functions" and the court must "tread especially carefully" when the state tries to curtail it.
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Attention

Period-tracking apps share sensitive data with Facebook: study

Jackie Salo
New York Post
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 22:45 UTC
woman cellphone
© shutterstock
Period-tracking apps used by millions of women are sharing information about their sex lives and health with Facebook, a new study revealed.

Researchers with the advocacy group Privacy International published a report Monday that found two period-tracking apps, MIA Fem and Maya, sent data regarding users' health to the social media giant.

"When Maya asks you to enter how you feel and offers suggestions of symptoms you might have — suggestions like blood pressure, swelling or acne — one would hope this data would be treated with extra care," the study said. "But no, that information is shared with Facebook."

Both Maya and MIA Fem have sent information on users' contraception, the timing of their periods, symptoms during cycles and even the last time they had sex, to Facebook through the social media giant's Software Development Kit, which helps the site target ads, according to the study.

But Maya's parent company, Plackal Tech, has denied that any personally identifiable or medical data gets funneled to Facebook.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Well-organized, masked and black-clad protesters in Hong Kong willing to use force against police and private property


RT
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 23:23 UTC
Protesters burn debris in the street of Hong Kong sept 2019
© REUTERS/Anushree FadnavisProtesters burn debris in the street of Hong Kong, China September 8, 2019
A number of masked, black-clad protesters in Hong Kong are very organized and do not hesitate to use force against police or property, video footage from the autonomous Chinese city shows.

Video filmed by the news agency Ruptly on Sunday shows black-clad protesters preparing for confrontation with police, dismantling sidewalks to collect rubble as projectiles. They also smashed windows and barricaded the entrance of one MTR subway station.

"Using force is one of our methods, one of our methods to protect ourselves and to protest, since the fire is our war," one of the masked protesters told Ruptly.


Comment: They're well-organized because they have significant backing and help in coordinating the empire's latest color revolution:

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Eye 2

Trump admin considering proposal to monitor the mentally ill to prevent future shootings

Justine Coleman
The Hill
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 23:38 UTC
trump mass shootings mental illness
Trump believes America's mass shootings are a result of mental illness.
President Trump's administration is considering a proposal to study whether monitoring people with mental illnesses could prevent future violence, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Advisers to former NBC Chairman Bob Wright, a friend of the president, proposed the study to discover if technology like phones and smart watches could be utilized to determine if someone is at risk to commit a violent crime, according to the Post.

The reported proposal, coined SAFEHOME (Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping overcome Mental Extremes), is part of Wright's project to develop an agency to look for creative ways to solve health problems.

Wright has presented the proposed agency known as Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA) to the Trump administration, the Post reported. Ivanka Trump, the president's senior adviser and daughter, reportedly asked if the team advocating for the agency could also look into methods to stop mass shootings.

This potential study sparks public concerns regarding the invasion of privacy of those with mental illness.

Comment: Obviously those who commit such crimes are mentally ill in one respect or another, whether due to a pathological character disturbance, pharmaceuticals or being under the influence of something far more sinister. The problem is that in many cases, law enforcement often doesn't follow up on the knowledge it already has, and then there's the other kind of mass shooting:

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Airplane

French airline declares bankruptcy leaving 13,000 passengers stranded around the world

Ibtissem Guenfoud
ABC News
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Aigle Azur declares bankruptcy
Aigle Azur plane sits on the runway at Orly airport in Paris, Sept. 7, 2019.
Thousands of passengers of the French airline Aigle Azur have been stranded around the world for days after their planes were grounded due to bankruptcy.

The French airline stopped activity Friday and cancelled all flights. The company is in such a financial impasse that it can neither compensate its customers financially nor ensure the repatriation of travelers whose return flight has been canceled.

For passengers in airports, the situation may remain difficult for several days. Of the 13,000 still stranded, 11,000 passengers were booked on flights to and from Algeria, 600 to and from Mali, and the rest to and from Portugal, Russia, Lebanon, and a few dozen people with Brazil, Ukraine and Senegal.

I do not know when I will be able to go back because I have no money on my account. I cannot buy another ticket. Sao Paulo-Paris is between 750 and 1,700 euros", Marie, a young French woman stranded in Sao Paulo, Brazil, told French radio station RTL.

Comment: According to this article in January, there has been a rash of low-cost airlines that have gone bankrupt in Europe, primarily due to overcapacity and from 'excessively ambitious expansion plans' on the part of the airlines.

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Megaphone

Pilot strike cancels nearly 100% of British Airways flights

Michael Bartiromo
Fox News
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 20:22 UTC
Heathrow strike
© Matt Dunham/APA screen at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 displays a message from British Airways, which writes that it is "deeply sorry" about the cancelations.
British Airways to cancel 'nearly 100 percent' of flights amid pilot strike. The union says its going to 'cost the company considerably more than the investment needed to settle this dispute.'

"If your flight is canceled, please do not go to the airport."

This is obviously sage advice for any traveler, but it's a bit more urgent for anyone flying British Airways.

The airline, which issued the statement to The Telegraph, has canceled nearly "100 percent" of flights for Sept. 9 and Sept. 10 amid a dispute with the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA), which scheduled a strike for Monday and Tuesday.

"We understand the frustration and disruption BALPA's strike action has caused our customers. After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this," the airline wrote in a statement to Fox News. "We remain ready and willing to return to talks with BALPA."

Comment: See also: Largest strike in Ryanair's history leaves 400 flights cancelled and thousands of passengers affected

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