Society's ChildS


Alarm Clock

Law professor: Congress must act now on sexbot industry - consequences unknown, could encourage rapists

Kate Hardiman
The College Fix
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:57 UTC
Congress building
© Sputnik/ Igor Mikhalev
As the sale and use of lifelike sex robots that allow people to simulate rape continues to gain steam, one famed law professor is sounding the alarm.

John Banzhaf, a well-known activist professor of public interest law at George Washington University Law School, says experts disagree on the consequences of allowing people to engage in mock acts of rape with humanoid dolls, and lawmakers should vet this issue as soon as possible.

Saying there's evidence rape sexbots may significantly increase the chance of rape to real women, the law should "no longer stand by and blindly ignore a major potential problem by doing nothing," he said in an email to The College Fix.

Sexbots, especially those which can be programmed to act as if they are being raped, and those which act and appear to be young children, are already here and in use, Banzhaf said.

Comment: Banzhaf is right about one thing: the need for studies. Especially considering this: But does it work? Pedophile treatment agency proposes child sex dolls to prevent child abuse

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Handcuffs

Houston cops suspect dating app used to lure 2 men to their deaths: Robbery or serial murder possible motives

Andrew Kragie
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:43 UTC
An Nguyen and Glenser Soliman
An Nguyen and Glenser Soliman
A dating app link-up may have lured two Houston-area men to their deaths in what could be the work of serial killers, Harris County sheriff's investigators said Monday in warning the public to be wary of meeting strangers online.

Investigators didn't publicly identify the app, but said the killers may have been targeting Asian men when they went after Glenser Soliman, a 44-year-old St. Luke's Medical Center nurse whose body was found Feb. 25, and An Vinh Nguyen, a 26-year-old University of Houston student last seen March 31.

Both of their vehicles were found abandoned in the Spring area. Nguyen's credit cards were also taken, though details were not available about whether items were stolen from Soliman.

Detectives warned there may be additional victims.

"It is possible that there were other victims, or victims that did get away who could give us more information," said lead investigator Mike Ritchie at a Monday news conference.

Two cousins who lived together in the Spring area in northwest Harris County are suspected in the deaths, Ritchie said.
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Boat

Just the beginning? Footage of confrontation between migrants and soldiers evokes sharp reaction from Naples residents


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:33 UTC
naples migrants soldiers
© Lello Cretella / Facebook
A video showing a confrontation between Italian soldiers and immigrants on the streets of Naples has gone viral. In the clip, the troops appear to arrest a man before being confronted by others, who attempt to wrest the detained man free.

The grainy video was posted to the Comitato Quartiere Vasto (the Vasto District Committee) group on Facebook, representing residents living in the Vasto area of central Naples near the Piazza Garibaldi.

The video shows soldiers arresting a man, who looks to be of African descent and is lying on the ground. Others are seen approaching the group and attempting to pull the detained man away. Eventually, two other black men succeed, but the patrol catches up to them and encircle the original suspect, while more onlookers arrive. Somebody is heard shouting, "Do not beat him!"

It is not clear what the man was being arrested for, nor whether he was being abused by the soldiers in any way. Another video taken at the same scene shows no sign of violence towards the soldiers.

The incident has provoked a sharp reaction from local residents.
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Attention

Russians should urgently repatriate their assets from the West

Jon Hellevig
Russia Insider
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:05 UTC
Uncle Sam poster
Don't say you weren't warned.
The Reich did it to the Jews in 1930s, now the American regime has set up a mechanism for arbitrary mass expropriation of assets of all Russians in the West.

The new law of sanctions on Russia is not just economic war - it is a war on the Russian people and now the millions of Russians who have assets in the West are on the frontline. Anyone working in private business, state corporations or in contracts with state corporations, is now a target of asset seizures by the American regime.

"It Can't Happen to Us"

These sanctions are no diplomatic squabble. They will get very personal for Russian businesses and professionals working with Russian companies. Any sector of business can be targeted by the US for such crimes as "closeness to elites", "oligarch". They are reminiscent of Stalin's terror and kangaroo courts in which anyone could be charged, tried and convicted, property seized and banished without a right to appeal.
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Red Flag

Government data reveals number of opioid drug overdoses in US break new record


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:43 UTC
opioid drug problems
© David Devins / Global Look Press
The first nine months of 2016 saw a sharp increase in opioid drug overdoses in the US compared to the prior year, according to new data by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The government is struggling to respond to the crisis.

Deaths due to drug overdose peaked in the third quarter of last year - 19.7 cases for every 100,000 people, compared to 16.7 in the same period the year before, according to newly released numbers from the NCHS, which is part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Centers attributed 33,000 deaths in 2015 to opioid drugs, including legal prescription painkillers as well as illicit drugs like heroin and street fentanyl.

"Opioid prescribing continues to fuel the epidemic. Today, nearly half of all US opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid," according to the CDC.
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Dollars

Entrepreneur plans to launch 'kosher' cryptocurrency for Jewish communities


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:18 UTC
Hasidic Jews
© Rob Stothard / Getty Images
Russian entrepreneur Viacheslav Semenchuk has announced plans for an initial coin offering (ICO) of the world's first kosher digital currency aimed specifically at Jewish communities across the globe.

The BitСoen, which comes from the Hebrew word 'priest,' has been created to simplify payments within Jewish communities, according to Semenchuk. At the same time, BitСoen can be bought by anyone.

Semenchuk said he has invested $500,000 in the project and the new cryptocurrendy is based on a separately developed blockchain.
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Bullseye

About time! Psychology professor blasts doctors for fat shaming and their microaggressions and sizeism towards overweight patients

Dave Urbanski
The Blaze
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 17:02 UTC
fat shaming
A psychology professor took "fat shaming" medical doctors to task, outlining the ways they're guilty of "microaggressions" and "sizeism" toward their obese patients.

"Disrespectful treatment and medical fat shaming, in an attempt to motivate people to change their behavior, is stressful and can cause patients to delay health care seeking or avoid interacting with providers," Joan Chrisler, a Connecticut College psychology professor, said during a symposium titled, "Weapons of Mass Distraction - Confronting Sizeism," at the American Psychological Association's annual convention last week.

She pointed to studies that show patients' psychological stress can be linked to doctors' negative interactions with them, a news release said.

"Implicit attitudes might be experienced by patients as microaggressions - for example, a provider's apparent reluctance to touch a fat patient, or a headshake, wince or 'tsk' while noting the patient's weight in the chart," Chrisler said. "Microaggressions are stressful over time and can contribute to the felt experience of stigmatization."

Comment: The West's obsession with thinness is a disease of the mind.

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Chart Bar

Fruits of Neoliberalism: Northern England youth 50% more likely to die prematurely than Southern counterparts


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 16:55 UTC
grave stones cemetery
© Phil Noble / Reuters
Young people in the North of England are 50 percent more likely to die prematurely than those in the South as a result of what academics have termed a "disease of despair."

A new study, led by the University of Manchester, found there were 49 percent more deaths among Northerners aged between 35 and 44 in 2015, while there were 29 percent more among the 25-34 bracket. This is up from two percent in the 1960s.

The research, which used Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from 1965 to 2015, also found that, generally, Northerners are 20 percent more likely to die before the age of 75 than Southerners.

Comment: Thanks to Thatcher and Blair's implementation of radical ideas about how society 'should' work.

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Red Flag

Suicide rate for teenage girls hits 40-year high

JOSH MAGNESS
Miami Herald
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 21:26 UTC
teen girl
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate of suicide among teenage girls hit a 40-year high in 2015.

Between 2007 and 2015, suicide rates for teenage boys and young men increased by over 30 percent and doubled among girls.

Struggles with suicidal ideation is something that Za'Kiyyah Abdullah Whitfield knows all too well.

Whitfield told ABC6 that she endured bullying for years because she is Muslim - and that the torment she endured worsened her depression and anxiety.

To cope with those emotions, the 17-year-old said she "started cutting and burning" herself.

"It made me feel like I could take the pressure head on, and I could just come home and do that later," she said. "So, it felt like my comfort zone."
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2 + 2 = 4

Looking for excuses: Britain chose Brexit because voters are poorly educated, say academics


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 16:55 UTC
EU flag and Big Ben
© Alberto Pezzali / Global Look Press
A group of British researchers has claimed the British population would have chosen to remain in the European Union if they had been better educated.

A new study published by academics at the University of Leicester suggests Britain would not have voted to leave if just 3 percent more of the voting public had attended university.

The study assessed the reasons why some Britons voted to withdraw from the bloc and found that the level of education was the "predominant factor" in a person's decision to vote Leave.

Other factors were also taken into account, yet the level of education was found to be far more important.
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