Society's ChildS

Sherlock

British tabloid claims to have found THOUSANDS of pages of docs from UK's secret lab at Porton Down in dumpster

porton down
© AFP / NIKLAS HALLEโ€™N; Getty / DNY59
Files from the UK's top-security chemical lab at Porton Down were allegedly found in a public dumpster. A former MI5 agent told RT that, if true, it could have been done by a spy or whistleblower.

British tabloid the Daily Star claimed to have discovered thousands of pages of documents from the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down inside a simple wheeled trash bin in a London car park. The publication said that it was initially alerted about the stash of documents last week by "a member of the public."

The paper shared a photo of its reporter holding a thick pack of white paper as he was standing next to a green garbage container. The documents are dated from the early 1980s to 2017. To back up the potentially bombshell find, the DS provided what appears to be a screenshot of one of the documents, which contains rubberstamp marks signed 'duty station officer' and 'Ministry of Defence'.

Marijuana

North Carolina proposes smokable hemp ban as demand grows

Hemp plant
© AP Photo/Gerry BroomeIn this photo taken Thursday, June 20, 2019, packaged smokable hemp flower is seen on the counter at the Hemp Farmacy in Raleigh, N.C. A proposed ban on smokable hemp is making its way through North Carolina's General Assembly after the product's popularity surged in the six months since the passage of the federal Hemp Farming Act of 2018.
North Carolina is the latest state considering a ban on smokable hemp, a product that's exploding along with the health craze surrounding a compound in the plant known as CBD.

Besides federal regulations laid out in the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, the Food and Drug Administration has no additional regulations on smokable hemp, leaving states to figure out how to govern it themselves.

This year, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas banned smokable hemp entirely, while Kansas banned products including hemp cigarettes and cigars. Tennessee prohibited smokable hemp sales to minors.

North Carolina's House is considering a smokable hemp ban after it recently passed the state Senate.

Comment: See also: Hemp 101: The incredibly versatile plant


Blackbox

'Projects that change cities': World experts design future metropolitan life at Moscow Urban Forum

future city
© Reuters/Christian Hartmann/ FILE PHOTO
A booming economy is not the only characteristic of a truly modern city, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin told RT, adding that people's needs, quality of life, and social equality play a central role in modern urban development.

Any future urban development strategy should be "human-centered," the mayor said, speaking to RT at this year's Moscow Urban Forum - an event attended by hundreds of city officials, heads of property development companies, urban specialists, architects, and scientists from more than 70 countries.

"The life of the big modern cities is based on human capital and people prefer to move to the places where they feel comfortable," Sobyanin explained. "This forum is a broad discussion about the quality of life, about the ways of making city life human-centered, focused on its citizens."

Bizarro Earth

Trump prediction comes to pass: Charlottesville cancels Thomas Jefferson's birthday

thomas jefferson
© Wikimedia CommonsThomas Jefferson
The city of Charlottesville, Virginia, will no longer celebrate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, and third president of the United States.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday:
Charlottesville, Virginia, will no longer celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday as an official city holiday and instead will observe a day recognizing the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans.

The city council voted Monday night to scrap the decades-old April 13 holiday honoring the slave-holding president and Founding Father. Charlottesville will now mark Liberation and Freedom Day on March 3, the day U.S. Army forces arrived in the city in 1865.

Magnify

Western media dubs Russia's mobile power plant 'floating Chernobyl', but is it?

Akademik Lomonosov
© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov
With the horrors of HBO's dramatization of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster fresh in mind, the Western media has begun fearmongering about Russia's latest nuclear innovation - a floating power plant built to serve the isolated Arctic.

The mainstream media has dramatically dubbed the plant a "floating Chernobyl" - but is it all just hyperbole? In reality, the plant is based on long-established technology and concerns over nuclear Armageddon in the Arctic seem overblown to say the least.

The Russian-built Akademik Lomonosov was issued a 10-year operating license in June and is slated to be towed to its final destination - the small Arctic port of Pevek in the remote Chukotka Region. There it will begin supplying heat and electricity to local consumers before year's end.

Propaganda

Corbyn calls for independent inquiry into 'frailty' claims

corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn looking particularly old and frail drinking his cuppa.
Jeremy Corbyn has called for a "speedy and thorough" independent investigation into reported claims by senior civil servants that he is "too frail" to be prime minister.

The Labour leader, in a letter to the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, said the matter had "undermined confidence in the principle of civil service neutrality" as he called for an inquiry.

The Times reported at the weekend that it had been told by two senior civil servants that Corbyn, 70, may have to stand down due to health issues. The report drew a furious response from Labour, which denounced the comments as a "scurrilous" attempt to undermine the party's efforts to gain power.

Comment: From the original article: Jeremy Corbyn too frail to be PM, fears civil service
The future of Mr Corbyn, 70, was openly discussed at an event attended by mandarins this month amid suggestions that he has become "too frail and is losing his memory".

They say they are increasingly worried about the prospect of him becoming prime minister because he is being "propped up" by his advisers and lacks a firm grasp of both foreign affairs and the domestic agenda.

One senior civil servant said: "When does someone say [he] is too ill to carry on as leader of the Labour Party let alone...
Sounds like hot air to further discredit and undermine Corbyn... nothing new here.

See also:


Bullseye

Germans display 'F*** You Greta' bumper stickers to protest being lectured about global warming

fuck you Greta Thunberg


Turns out adults don't like being told by a child how to live their lives.


German drivers have begun displaying 'f*ck you Greta' bumper stickers to protest against being lectured about global warming by a 16-year-old child.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish teen climate activist who has been heavily promoted by the establishment and was placed on the front cover of Time Magazine back in May.

Ingmar Rentzhog, founder of the non-profit We Don't Have Time Foundation, claimed to have 'discovered' Thunberg and used her to push climate change messaging.

Comment: See also:


USA

Massive turnout as Trump delivers first Independence Day address at US National Mall since Truman in 1951


Comment: This is one of only a handful of US media reports about this event that did not either insinuate that Trump pushed for this event in order to declare the US a dictatorship, downplay its massive turnout, or suggest that, because it rained, 'God' disfavors Trump. This 'unreality' in the US infosphere is an extraordinary indicator of the chasm that exists between elites and people in the USA.


salute america 4 july military parade
© Getty ImagesPeople react to a military fly-over on the National Mall while President Donald Trump gives his speech during Fourth of July festivities.
President Trump honored American history and heroes ranging from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. during a rousing Fourth of July speech punctuated by displays of the country's military air power.

Speaking before a cheering crowd that repeatedly erupted in chants of "USA! USA!," Trump hailed US innovations in science, medicine and space exploration during his 45-minute "Salute to America" speech on the National Mall in Washington, DC.


Comment: What was so hard about this event for Trump's powerful enemies - themselves mostly American and otherwise similarly die-hard 'exceptionalists' - to accept?

In what way do they perceive - or merely instinctively sense - that it hurts their plans or power?

Is it because the foundational tenet of America's independence means independence from Britain, about which America's Transatlanticists are ultra-sensitive?

Is it because the military should never be seen to be 'with' the president, but 'independent', thus controlled from the shadows?

Is it because they're vaguely self-aware that their military conduct is shameful, especially relative to its righteous use by rivals like Russia?

America, a land of strange contradictions!


Attention

Putin confirms deadly fire was aboard nuclear-powered research submarine on highly classified mission

Losharik russian submarine
Reported picture of Losharik - Reports say that the Losharik, also called the AS-12, was on a research mission to measure sea depths in the Barents Sea within Russian territorial waters.
When the story first broke yesterday that fourteen seaman aboard a Russian submarine died when a fire broke out while in Russian territorial waters in the Arctic region, there were conflicting accounts over the nature of the underwater vessel, specifically, whether it was a deep-sea research submersible or whether it was a nuclear powered submarine. Speculation was fueled further when the fact that many among the deceased were high ranking naval officers was revealed โ€” unusual for a mere underwater "research" vessel.

Russian President Putin has now confirmed it was indeed a nuclear-powered submarine after officials declined to reveal even the most basic details, citing its "secret mission". As CBS reports:
Putin met Thursday with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who had returned from the Navy's Arctic base of Severomorsk, and asked him about the submersible's nuclear reactor. Shoigu said the reactor is "completely isolated now" and it is "in full working order."
The blaze has been identified as starting in the sub's battery compartment and spreading from there, causing 14 crewmen to succumb to smoke inhalation, while an undisclosed number survived. Norwegian officials had also previously reported that they have discovered no unusual levels of radiation near the accident.

Comment: RT adds that the fire broke out in the sub's battery compartment:
The nuclear reactor on the submersible has been fully isolated," Sergey Shoigi told President Vladimir Putin.

The vessel's crew also "conducted all necessary measures to protect the reactor. It's fully functional. So we hope the repair of the submersible can be done quickly."

The main cause of the tragedy was a fire which broke out in the sub's battery compartment and "managed to somewhat spread." Battery malfunction was earlier viewed as the likely cause of the deadly blaze by Russian defense experts.

The president and the minister also discussed compensation for the families of the 14 officers who died in the fire.

"We are working with each family individually," Shoigu said, adding that "all necessary help will be provided."
See also:


Star of David

'Women have no place in politics': Israeli rabbi sparks wave of criticism for chauvinistic comments

Shlomo Aviner West Bank rabbi
© AFPShlomo Aviner, a leading West Bank rabbi.
Hardline conservative Israeli rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, has said that women have no role in politics, arguing that former justice minister Ayelet Shaked should not lead the right wing coalition party, stoking a wave of criticism.

Aviner told an Israeli broadcaster on Thursday that "It's not ok" for Shaked to head up the Union of Right Wing Parties (URWP), adding "the complicated whirlwind of politics is not the arena for the female role."

Aviner's comments come on the heels of a letter which he signed alongside dozens of fellow religious leaders urging the URWP to back a "God fearing and Torah observant" candidate, though the rabbi went further than the letter itself, which did not single out Shaked.

Though she served as a member of the Knesset for the Orthodox Jewish Home Party until 2018, Shaked is an avowed secularist.

The rabbi provoked a torrent of disapproval from lawmakers across the spectrum of Israeli politics, who slammed the comments as bigoted.

Comment: No stranger to controversy, indeed: