Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Despite dangers, 97% of American children under four have used mobile device


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 19:22 UTC
Image
© Michael Kooren / Reuters
Say goodbye to the days of puzzles and outdoor play - children these days are being kept occupied by more sophisticated toys. New research has found that a staggering 97 percent of US children under the age of four use mobile devices, regardless of family income.

The research - published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday - studied 350 children in a low-income, minority community. The findings noted an "almost universal exposure" to mobile devices, indicating that such technological luxuries are not limited to financially well-off families. In fact, the parents' education and the child's gender and ethnicity did not play a role in whether a child owned a mobile device.

The child participants were between six months and four years of age. The older the children were, the more likely they were to have their own technology. By age four, about three-quarters had their own mobile device, and half had their own TV.


Comment: It is rather startling how many young children are using mobile devices. The effects of daily use aren't even completely known, but what is known is that frequent use can have wide-ranging health effects:

Ninety-seven percent were found to have used a mobile device, and about half frequently multi-tasked, using more than one device at the same time.

The study also found that 20 percent of one-year-olds have their own tablet computer, and that 28 percent of two-year-olds can navigate a mobile device without help.
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V

Anonymous plots next Nov. 5th Million Mask March in UK - world-wide demonstrations expected


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 18:15 UTC
guy fawkes day protest UK
© Bernadett Szabo / ReutersProtesters hold up their Guy Fawkes masks on the Liberty Bridge during a demonstration by supporters of the Anonymous movement as part of the global "Million Mask March" protests, in Budapest, November 5, 2014.
Activist collective Anonymous have released details of the 2015 Million Mask March, which will see coordinated demonstrations in cities across the globe protesting against corruption, human rights abuses and censorship.

Following in the footsteps of previous marches, the worldwide demonstration will take place on November 5, coinciding with bonfire night in the UK.

This year's message is "building a better future through collective action," a statement from the group released on Monday reads.

Comment: For a more rounded view of Anonymous:

Ripe for Vectoring: The Darkness Corrupting Anonymous

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Quenelle - Golden

Quentin Tarantino is correct to stand with the victims of US police brutality

John Wight
RT
Sun, 01 Nov 2015 17:01 UTC
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© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AFPUS film director Quentin Tarantino (L) takes part in a march against police brutality called "Rise up October" on October 24, 2015, in New York
After taking a public stance in solidarity with the victims of lethal violence in the United States, Hollywood filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is learning that free speech in the land of the free comes at a price.

The movie director recently attended a public demonstration in New York to commemorate the victims of police killings in the US. He did so, he said, because he "stood on the side of the murdered."

Those are undoubtedly strong words, which predictably have met with a fierce reaction in the shape of politicians, chiefs of police, and commentators attacking him. Even more extreme has been the campaign launched by police unions across the country to boycott his movies - the latest of which, The Hateful Eight, is due for release in December.


Comment: Being anti-police brutality doesn't mean being anti-police! But the law enforcement individuals getting riled up here are so identified with their perceived right to abuse the public that they feel the need to lash out at the more-than-justified criticism.


Comment: You would think that there were at least some police and law enforcement organizations who are brave enough to come out in support of Tarantino and others' stance here. Where is the conscience and the bravery of these individuals - who must know that there is something very wrong with this picture? Perhaps it will be individuals like Tarantino who help make it safe to address this serious problem for what it is - to the extent that it is still possible in a ponerized Amerika. Big kudos to Quentin Tarantino for standing up to the pathocracy!

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Monkey Wrench

How are those anti-Russian sanctions working out? Russian manufacturing sector grows in October


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:26 UTC
Russian steel mill
© Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
Russia's factory activity expanded in October, growing for the first time in 11 months thanks to higher domestic demand, a Markit report showed Monday.

The Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector rose to 50.2 from 49.1 the previous month, edging above the 50.0 mark that separates expansion from contraction.

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Eye 1

Academic coach fired from Notre Dame for coercing students to have sex with her daughter

Roberta Bernstein
USA Today
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:25 UTC
University of Notre Dame
© U.S. News
The University of Notre Dame reportedly has fired a white, female academic coach "who allegedly coerced black football and basketball players into having sex with her daughter," according to the New York Daily News, which says it obtained an internal school report noting that the coach violated the university's "values" and its "discrimination harassment policy."

Additionally, a lawsuit was filed Friday against the employee and university, according to a report in the South Bend Tribune.

The suit, filed in St. Joseph County Circuit Court, reportedly claims the male student was "a victim of sexual harassment and racial discrimination."

According to the suit, the paper reports, "the employee began providing academic help to the male student this past spring and immediately 'initiated, directed and coordinated a sexually and racially motivated inappropriate and demeaning relationship' between the student and her daughter."

The daughter is allegedly a student at a nearby school.
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Airplane

First look at Russian jet crash site in Sinai (VIDEO)


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 06:12 UTC
Image
© RT
Shattered debris and burned out parts of the plane - an RT crew has reached the site of the Russian jet crash in Sinai where experts from the Russian Emergency Ministry are working to recover the remains of the victims and to investigate the tragic accident. Some may find the footage disturbing.

Comment: Read more:

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Pumpkin 2

Assistant prosecutor in West Virginia suspended after pulling gun on fake Halloween spiders

Matthew Diebel
USA Today
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:18 UTC
Spider
© The Economic Times, India
Many people are scared of spiders. Anxious around arachnids. Afraid of eight-legged insects.

And then there's Chris White. He's truly terrified.

Here's the tangled web:

White, an apparently arachnophobic assistant prosecutor in West Virginia has been suspended indefinitely after pulling a gun and threatening to shoot fake spiders that were being used as Halloween decorations in his office.

John Bennett, prosecuting attorney of Logan County, a district in the southwest of the state, told local media that one of his assistants, Chris White, had been put on paid leave after the incident.

Like they often do during holidays, Bennett told the Gazette-Mail, a newspaper in the state capital, Charleston, secretaries decorated the prosecutor's office at the beginning of October to mark Halloween.

"Some black, some brown — but some pretty good sized" spider decorations were hung, Bennett said.

White "told the secretaries that he was deathly afraid of spiders, got out a gun and walked down the hall into an office," Bennett told the paper. "He pulled out a chair, put a fake spider down and threatened to shoot all of the spiders in the place," adding that he was out of the office at the time but was told about the incident by shaken employees.

"He said they had spiders everyplace and he said he told them it wasn't funny and he couldn't stand them, and he did indeed get a gun out," Bennett told local TV station WCHS. "It had no clip in it, of course they wouldn't know that, I wouldn't either if I looked at it, to tell you the truth," Bennett added.
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War Whore

Nuclear war: What you didn't know

Graham Vanbergen
truepublica.org.uk
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:42 UTC
Image
A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT.‪ A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major focus of international relations policy since their debut.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
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Quenelle - Golden

Nearly half a million people support independent probe into US bombing of Doctors Without Borders


Sputnik
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 13:38 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Najim Rahim
A petition calling for the support of US President Barack Obama to launch an independent investigation into the deadly bombing of the Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan by US forces has gathered over 400,000 signatures.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, a medical organization that operates the hospital, initiated the petition, which was posted to the Change.org website, to investigate the October 3 US airstrike on the hospital. The bombing killed at least 30 medical staff and patients, including 3 children.

The United States, NATO, and the Afghan government have launched investigations. MSF said it was "impossible to expect the parties involved in the conflict to carry out independent and impartial investigations of acts in which they themselves are implicated."

Comment: A petition calling for the US to launch an 'independent investigation' into its own war crimes seems doomed to failure. Also see:

New evidence emerges showing the US deliberately attacked the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan

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Eye 2

Mark Fuhrman, former LAPD detective, convicted perjurer and racist, brings his 'expert analysis' on the Spring Valley incident to Fox News

William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:03 UTC
mark Fuhrman
© Fox News
When video emerged showing Deputy Ben Fields of Richland County, South Carolina assaulting a 16-year-old female high school student, Sean Hannity of Fox News turned to that network's in-house expert on police conduct to explain why the deputy's actions were "justified." As expected, Mark Fuhrman, a disgraced ex-LAPD homicide detective, convicted perjurer, and documented bigot, conferred his benediction on Fields.

"I'll tell you why it's not excessive," Fuhrman told Hannity, who is always eager to exonerate abusive police officers. "He [Fields] verbalized, he made contact, he verbalized, he was polite. He requested her. He verbally did that."

When the emotionally troubled - and recently orphaned - teenage girl remained sullenly uncooperative, the "next level is he put a hand on her," Fuhrman interpreted. "She escalated it from there" - which means that she tried to pull away from the armlock that had been applied to her by an apparently steroid-enhanced, armored, gun-toting male stranger twice her size. "He used soft control. He threw her to the ground, he handcuffed her" - and in doing so inflicted injuries that required hospitalization.

For all that the girl endured as summary punishment for being uncooperative in class, she should be abjectly grateful that Fields was restrained, according to Fuhrman: "He didn't use mace. He didn't use a Taser. He didn't use a stick. He didn't kick her. He didn't hit her. He didn't choke her. He used a minimal amount of force necessary to effect an arrest."
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