Society's ChildS


Palette

Incredible Louvre art installation left in shreds by visitors hours after completion


RT
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 13:26 UTC
Louvre art museum
© Reuters / Charles Platiau
An enormous and impressive paper installation outside the Louvre art museum in Paris that took days to put in place was destroyed by visitors in mere hours, sparking anger on social media.

The courtyard collage was created by French artist JR to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the art gallery's iconic pyramid. Using 2,000 sheets of paper, and with the help of 400 volunteers over four days, he created an optical illusion that made it appear that the pyramid outside the gallery was rising out of a large quarry of white rock.

The 17,000 sq meter (183,000 sq ft) Anamorphosis installation was completed on Friday, but within hours, members of the public had trampled over the paper and taken strips of it as souvenirs. People weren't able to properly see the optical illusion because of the damage, and took to Twitter to express their disappointment, with one person describing it as being like looking at a "garbage dump in a hurricane."

By Sunday, the artwork was completely destroyed by visitors.
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Pirates

More tears? Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo samples fail India's quality tests


RT
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 15:03 UTC
Johnson & Johnson baby products
© Reuters / Brendan McDermidBottles of Johnson's baby powder and Johnson's baby shampoo.
India's drugs control agency has revealed that samples of Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) baby shampoo taken from two batches had failed the quality test as they contained "harmful ingredients."

The watchdog's findings come just a few months after Indian authorities launched an investigation into the company's baby powder to see if it contains cancer-causing asbestos. Samples of J&J's baby shampoo and soap products have been also collected as a matter of routine.

The American pharmaceutical company rejected the findings. J&J stated that the results it received from the regulator indicated that formaldehyde had been discovered in the samples. Formaldehyde is known as a carcinogen (a substance capable of causing cancer) and is used to make building materials. Research studies have established a link between formaldehyde and a higher risk of leukemia.

"We do not accept the interim results given to us, which mentioned samples to 'contain harmful ingredients - identification positive for formaldehyde,'" a J&J spokeswoman told Reuters.

Comment: Woman with cancer who used J&J talc awarded $29 million by California jury

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Cow

Anti-vegan protester gets arrested after eating a raw squirrel at vegan market - a week after eating pig's head

Tariq Tahir
The Sun
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:15 UTC
sv3rige anti-vegan raw meat
The pony-tailed protestor wearing a 'VEGANISM = MALNUTRITION' t-shirt was seen holding the decapitated squirrel and eating its insides at the Soho Vegan Market on London's Rupert Street.

He also had what appeared to be a roasted woodcock tied around his neck in the footage taken by a bystander.

As he tried to explain the reasons for his protest, a shocked onlooker can be heard asking him: "Why are you doing this? I eat meat, but I don't do this."

Comment: While Sv3rige's trolling of the vegan community can be humorous at times, and his YouTube series Vegans: The Epitome of Malnourishment is a useful public service, his antics really aren't the best way to further the cause. It's the same shock tactics militant vegan organizations like PETA regularly engage in, and probably does much more to strengthen the resolve of vegans than make them question their choices. Carnivores would be well-advised not to make this nutbar their spokesperson. He's more interested in self-promotion than 'saving vegans'.

See also:

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Stock Down

New York City's minimum wage law is killing a once-thriving restaurant scene


NY Post
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 09:43 UTC
restaurant
New York City restaurants are eliminating jobs, reducing employee hours and raising prices due to the higher costs of the $15/hour minimum wage.

A once-growing industry is contracting, according to an online survey conducted by the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an association representing restaurants in the city.

Last year, "full-service restaurants recorded a 1.6 percent job loss, which is the first recorded annual loss in two decades," said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the trade group.

Comment: Also see:

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Dollars

New York City's 2020 budget set to include 'congestion toll,' mansion tax & ban on plastic bags

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 09:43 UTC
New York City
New York state is nearing completion of a 2020 budget deal that's going to result in "congestion tolls" in Manhattan, alongside a "mansion tax" and a ban on single-use plastic bags, according to Bloomberg. State leaders and Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed this week on a spending plan for 2020 that allocates for 2% budget growth for the ninth year in a row. The plan increases spending for education aid and provides tax relief for the middle class, according to the Governor.

Lawmakers will be discussing the budget again Sunday night to try and meet a midnight deadline to pass it. The proposed "congestion tolls" will make New York City the first American city to charge drivers for access. It's projected to raise $1 billion, which will then be used to pay debt service (of course) on the $15 billion in Metropolitan Transportation Authority bonds outstanding.

MTA's Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority has not yet released details on the toll program, which is expected to be implemented after December 2020.
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Attention

'It was a nightmare': Man first on scene of London stabbing reveals victim's agony during knife rampage


Daily Mail
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 09:43 UTC
London stabbing
Police on the scene near Fore Street, Edmonton, London, near where a person was stabbed just a short distance from where a middle aged woman was knifed
A plumber who was first on the scene of one of the North London stabbings has described how he 'saw blood pouring out of the back' of one of the four victims, as the man with a knife wound shouted: 'Why has this happened to me?'

Roger Blackman rushed to help a man who was knifed on the street on Sunday morning in the fourth act of violence in a 14-hour rampage in Edmonton, London.

Police said a lone attacker had carried out the four attacks on Saturday and Sunday, apparently targeting 'random' victims who were 'alone and vulnerable' and leaving one of them, a 45-year-old woman, fighting for her life.

Detectives have made two arrests but the attacker, described as a tall, skinny black man wearing a hood, may still be at large.

Police promised 'enhanced and dedicated police activity around the clock' to keep the area safe but have warned the public to be vigilant.
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Eye 1

The globalisation of ethnonationalism

Ben Sixsmith
Quillette
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 07:35 UTC
books
In Reading Lolita in Tehran, the Iranian author and professor Azar Nafisi discussed her experiences teaching the novels of Austen, Joyce and Nabokov to Iranian students as the Islamic Revolution transformed the country. Nafisi related their themes of empowerment and resistance to the oppression and the censorship she saw around herself. For liberals, this was among the most inspiring stories of globalisation. Art and ideas that had been dreamed up on one side of the world could reach and change people on the other. Liberal values could take root in authoritarian societies and grow, and spread their branches and flower throughout them.

This has always been a challenge for conservative governments and nationalistic governments. "European civilisation will have a beneficial effect on us," said the Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp:
... not only with its science and technology, but also in matters of taste and morality. But this influence is permissible only to the extent that it helps dismantle the Persian one. The moment it attempts to supplant what it destroys, it has itself become harmful and should be resisted.

Comment: See also: The Christchurch Shooting and the Normalization of Anti-Muslim Terrorism

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Fire

China: Second factory explosion in a month leaves 7 dead

Dandan Li
Bloomberg
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 20:35 UTC
Waffer Technology factory
© HandoutThe blast happened at the Kunshan Waffer Technology factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu.
A blast at a Taiwan-listed company's factory in China on Sunday killed seven people, the government says, just over a week after an explosion in the same eastern province left scores dead.

The explosion at a metal-processing plant owned by Waffer Technology (Kunshan) Ltd. also injured five people, the government of Kunshan, which is in Jiangsu province and borders Shanghai, said in a post on its Weibo social media account. The blast was caused by a container of scrap metal bursting into flames and setting a workshop ablaze just after 7 a.m., the government said.

Waffer Technology (Kunshan) is a major production base for Taiwan-listed Waffer Technology Corp., according to the latter's website.

Comment: Although the causes may differ, China is no stranger to explosions at factories and other manufacturers, as the South China Morning Post reports:
There have been other deadly blasts in Kunshan, an industrial city near Shanghai. In August 2014, an explosion at an auto parts factory claimed 146 lives and injured 114 others. The local work safety authority said the factory, Zhongrong Metal Production, had ignored several warnings about the potential for an explosion. Following the blast, 14 company executives and local government officials were jailed for between three and seven years, while 35 other officials were disciplined and demoted.
See also:

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Briefcase

Jayda Fransen, ex-Britain First deputy leader, convicted for hate speech


BBC News
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Jayda Fransen
© PACEMAKERJayda Fransen, outside court in 2018
A former deputy leader of far-right group Britain First has been convicted of stirring up hatred during a speech about Islam in Belfast. Jayda Fransen, 33, was found guilty over a speech at a rally in August 2017. She was also convicted for separate comments at a peace wall in the city.

Britain First leader Paul Golding, 37, and two other Englishmen, John Banks and Paul Rimmer, were acquitted on similar charges.

The judge, when convicting Fransen, of Moat Avenue in Donaghadee, County Down, described her words as "a general, vehement attack against a religious group".

She was told to return to Belfast Magistrates' Court for sentencing in May.

Freedom of expression

All four defendants were on trial over speeches given during the 'Northern Ireland Against Terrorism' event two years ago. They were accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting words intended to stir up hatred or arouse fear.

Comment: See also:

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Brick Wall

Spain: Vox party leader wants Morocco to pay for anti-migrant wall. Sound familiar?


RT
Sat, 30 Mar 2019 11:31 UTC
Migrants spain
© Reuters/Jon NazcaMigrants disembarking from a rescue boat at dawn in Malaga, Spain in January 2019.
The leader of the Spanish far-right party, Vox, is taking a page from Donald Trump's immigration policy, by calling for a wall to stop an influx of immigrants coming into the country and wanting someone else to pay for it.

Santiago Abascal is calling for "insurmountable walls" to be built along Spain's borders to stop the "wave of illegal immigrants" coming from North Africa to "blackmail the European Union," and claims Morocco should foot the bill.

The politician put forward the proposals in his recently published book, while also calling for the army to be deployed and given "the necessary orders" to defend the borders in Ceuta and Melilla - the two entry points into Spain from the North African coast -until the wall is erected.

Abascal said he also wants to build a "psychological wall" against illegal immigration across Europe. The 42-year-old claims the mental wall would consist of "informing immigrants that those who enter illegally in Europe will never be able to regularize their situation nor will they have the right to stay, nor will they have social assistance, nor will they be given a health card."

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