Society's Child

'Calling bullsh*t': University of Washington course teaches how to identify BS

RT
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 14:11 UTC

© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
A screen shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the 20,000 mark following the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 25, 2017.

Professors at a university in Seattle, Washington are calling out "bullsh*t," offering students a course on identifying "BS." The pair have already seen huge interest in the spring course, which would cover topics including publication bias and fake news.

"Can you see the problem with the latest New York Times or Washington Post article fawning over some startup's big data analytics?" the course website reads. Developed by two professors from the University of Washington, 'Calling Bullsh*t' aims to enlighten its students on how to "identify BS, sift through the BS, to be able to respond to BS," the professors told KOMO.

Swedish Police find & defuse explosives planted in refugee camp

RT
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 13:59 UTC

Police in Gothenburg, Sweden defused an explosive device found at a local refugee center late Wednesday, after an employee of the camp spotted a suspicious object.

Residents of the camp were temporarily evacuated and the site was cordoned off. Explosives experts concluded that the object contained "some form of explosives."

Peter Adlersson, the press spokesman for the local police, said the incident was serious, according to Aftonbladet newspaper.

Austrian police detain 8 suspects in ISIS-linked raids

RT
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 13:59 UTC

Austrian police have arrested eight people in anti-terrorist raids conducted in Vienna and Graz, the country's APA news agency reports.

According to the local Kronen Zeitung newspaper, all of those detained were from the former Yugoslavia. Police and units from the Office for Protection of the Constitution have carried out several anti-terror raids targeting "extreme Salafists" since Thursday morning.

The raids focused on the networks of the Muslim preacher Mirsad O., also known as Ebu Tejma, who was recently arrested for hate preaching, Kronen Zeitung reports. In July of 2016, Mirsad O. was sentenced to 20 years in prison for committing murder and being part of a terrorist group. A 17-year old teenager arrested in Vienna last Friday over allegations that he was plotting a terrorist attack in the Austrian capital called the preacher his "idol."

Investigators check reports of widespread sexual abuse in 'exclusive' Moscow school

RT
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:50 UTC

Top management at a Moscow school for gifted children had allegedly sexually abused their students for many years, some of its supposed victims claimed, prompting authorities to look into the matter.

The principal and founder of a school in the Russian capital, along with his deputy for over 20 years, had been molesting girls who studied there, Meduza news portal reported earlier this week. A journalistic investigation referred to "numerous" reports from the school's alumni, as well as its former employees.

"We went to school with a feeling that we were special. And that's why we studied a lot. Our teachers promoted the idea that we were exclusive and that to get even more exclusive knowledge, we must be close to its sources, meaning the teachers," Meduza quoted one of the school alumni as saying.

Comment: After this scandal broke Russian Senator Yelena Mizulina called for tougher laws against child abusers, while Olga Vasilieva has called for patience while the investigation runs its course.

Further reading: Russian senator calls for tougher laws after school sex abuse scandal

After Russian media ran a story alleging numerous sex crimes at a Moscow school, Senator Yelena Mizulina announced plans to draft a bill that would punish child abuse by teachers or parents with life in prison.

Mizulina wrote on her personal website that she proposed to apply the toughest punishment possible in cases when the abuse is committed by people "close to the victim," such as parents or teachers.

'Rogue' parody government Twitter accounts multiply, defying Trump's alleged ban

RT
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 06:50 UTC

After several posts about President Donald Trump from government agency Twitter accounts were deleted, a number of "rogue" parody accounts were created.

After Trump's inauguration, the official Twitter account for the National Park Service (NPS) retweeted two posts, one that showed the difference in crowd size between former US President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 and Trump's, and another that linked to an article on webpages removed from the White House website.

The retweets from the NPS account were quickly taken down, along with similar tweets from other government accounts. Badlands National Park also had tweets taken down after they posted statistics on climate change. Meanwhile, several government Twitter accounts stopped tweeting all together.

Interview with Flemish priest in Syria: "Putin and Assad saved my life"

Wierd Duk
AD
Tue, 24 Jan 2017 09:21 UTC

Comment: This article has been translated by SOTT.net. Original article can be found here.

© Sjoerd Mouissie
The Western media coverage of Syria is according to Father Daniël Maes the greatest media lie of our time.

The Flemish Father Daniël Maes (78) lives in Syria in the sixth-century-old Mar Yakub monastery in the city of Qara, 90 kilometers north of the capital Damascus. Father Daniel has been a witness to the "civil war" and according to him, Western reports on the conflict in Syria are very misleading. In short: "the Americans and their allies want to completely ruin the country."

Interviewer: You are very critical of the media coverage on Syria. What is bothering you?

"The idea that a popular uprising took place against President Assad is completely false. I've been in Qara since 2010 and I have seen with my own eyes how agitators from outside Syria organized protests against the government and recruited young people. That was filmed and aired by Al Jazeera to give the impression that a rebellion was taking place. Murders were committed by foreign terrorists, against the Sunni and Christian communities, in an effort to sow religious and ethnic discord among the Syrian people. While in my experience, the Syrian people were actually very united.

Comment: Notice that Al Jazeera did the exact same thing in Libya:

Behind the Headlines: NATO Slaughter - James and Joanne Moriarty expose the truth about what happened in Libya

If you were a journalist in Libya during this time you were relatively safe; not because these animals respected journalists as neutral observers, but because the journalists were on their side. The Moriartys have evidence of embedded journalists, not least from Qatar-owned Al Jazeera, whose staff were among the terrorists from day one, personally calling in airstrikes and working side-by-side with the terrorists.

Before the war, this was a harmonious country: a secular state in which different religious communities lived side by side peacefully. There was hardly any poverty, education was free, and health care was good. It was only not possible to freely express your political views. But most people did not care about that."

"Fake News" is named Word of the Year by Macquarie Dictionary

Joanne Nova
JoNova
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 06:12 UTC

Bowing to the God of Political Correctness, Macquarie Dictionary has just named "Fake News" as Word of the Year.

In real English, "Fake news" is two words, otherwise known as a phrase. Separately both words have real and easy-to-understand meanings.

Together they have become the the latest meaningless slur as the mainstream media realize they are losing power and influence to the real news on blogs and in the alt-media.

The old-media is trying to stop the bleed by labeling the new media as "fake". Instead of namecalling, the old-media could win easily if it just reported the real news.

When a word that isn't a word wins Word of the Year prize, we know Macquarie has lost it. If any Macquarie products are on your back-to-school booklists, buy something else. Who wants to teach our kids fake English?

This is the latest attempt by wordsmiths to destroy the language honest people use. We need accurate words to slice and dice arguments of parasites, freeloaders, and self-serving fools. "News" used to mean the whole story and all the facts that matter. Fake news is what happens when a reporter hides half the story from their audience.

h/t and thanks to David B.

Kurdish 'hipsters' showing Iraq as you've never seen it before

Sputnik
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 20:21 UTC

A group of young Kurds living in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, decided to change the stereotypical image of Iraq, as a country devastated by terrorism and serious social problems. One needs to dig a little deeper to see that Iraq is so much more than that.

According to Turkish media reports, a group of 30 young people have created their own fashion movement on social media, or as they call themselves a "gentleman's club," which is aimed at improving the image of their country and carry out a kind of social reform.

The official name of the group on Instagram is "Mr. Erbil" and its primary focus is on fashion in Erbil.

The movement is becoming quite popular on social media as the group has 33 thousand followers to date.

US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard returns from fact-finding mission to Syria: 'The Syrian People Desperately Want Peace'

Tulsi Gabbard
Medium
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 03:33 UTC

We met these children at a shelter in Aleppo, whose families fled the eastern part of the city. The only thing these kids want, the only thing everyone I came across wants, is peace. Many of these children have only known war. Their families want nothing more than to go home, and get back to the way things were before the war to overthrow the government started. This is all they want.

As much of Washington prepared for the inauguration of President Donald Trump, I spent last week on a fact-finding mission in Syria and Lebanon to see and hear directly from the Syrian people. Their lives have been consumed by a horrific war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and forced millions to flee their homeland in search of peace.

It is clear now more than ever: this regime change war does not serve America's interest, and it certainly isn't in the interest of the Syrian people.

Comment: More on Rep. Gabbard fact-finding mission in Syria:

Rep. Gabbard calls on US to stop 'supporting terrorists' after meeting Syria civilians and Assad

Sorry libtards: Majority of Americans approve of Trump's 'America First' message

Rebecca Savransky
The Hill
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 00:47 UTC

A majority of Americans approve of the "America First" message President Trump conveyed in his inaugural address, according to a new poll.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 65 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to the president's message.

The poll also finds 49 percent of those who watched or heard the president's inauguration speech said it was excellent or good. Only 39 percent thought the speech was fair or poor.

Fifty-one percent of voters thought the speech was "optimistic," 46 percent said it was "presidential" and 44 percent said it was "inspiring."

Sixty-one percent of respondents said they agreed with the president's plan to "buy American and hire American."

After his first few days in office, Trump has an approval rating of 46 percent and a disapproval rating of 37 percent. Another 38 percent say the country is on the right track, and 62 percent say it's on the wrong track.

Comment: Trump's speech: Promise, hope, opportunity

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Society's Child

'Calling bullsh*t': University of Washington course teaches how to identify BS

Swedish Police find & defuse explosives planted in refugee camp

Austrian police detain 8 suspects in ISIS-linked raids

Investigators check reports of widespread sexual abuse in 'exclusive' Moscow school

'Rogue' parody government Twitter accounts multiply, defying Trump's alleged ban

Interview with Flemish priest in Syria: "Putin and Assad saved my life"

"Fake News" is named Word of the Year by Macquarie Dictionary

Kurdish 'hipsters' showing Iraq as you've never seen it before

US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard returns from fact-finding mission to Syria: 'The Syrian People Desperately Want Peace'

Sorry libtards: Majority of Americans approve of Trump's 'America First' message

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