Society's ChildS


Black Cat 2

New watchdog report states government bought dogs and cats from Asian markets for 'cannibal' experiments

Kassidy Vavra
New York Daily News
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 17:56 UTC
cute kitten
© EEI_Tony / Getty Images/iStockphotoU.S. government scientists bought dogs and cats from Asian meat markets and fed them to kittens in "cannibal" experiments, according to a watchdog report.
U.S. government scientists conducted experiments on thousands of kittens including "cannibal" studies where cats and dogs bought from Asian meat markets were fed to other cats, a watchdog report released Tuesday says.

The report from the White Coat Waste Project, obtained by the Daily News, says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has been breeding and using cats for studies since 1982 - and they are often killed a short time after the experiments take place. The USDA also made "false and misleading claims to Congress, the media, the public," the report claims.

"The USDA's taxpayer-funded kitten cannibalism experiments read like a burgeoning serial killer's diary," Justin Goodman, vice president of advocacy and public policy at White Coat Waste Project said in a statement sent to The News.

Not only does the government agency breed and kill cats on its own premises, the study states - but the ARS has also bought "hundreds of pet, stray or 'unwanted' " dogs and cats from Asian, African and Latin American countries. This happened as recently as 2015, the report said.

Comment: Contrary to popular belief animal experimentation isn't extraordinarily useful for human application:
The Health & Wellness Show: The Quackery and Cruelty of Animal Medical Research

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Stop

Pro-Palestinian student protesters blocked from campus during Queen's visit to King's College


RT
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 17:48 UTC
Queen and student protesters
© (L) Alastair Grant / Reuters; (R) KCL Justice4Cleaners ‏/ Twitter
It is 'outrageous' that King's College London (KCL) singled out pro-Palestinian student activists and blocked their access cards ahead of the Queen's visit to the campus as a 'security measure,' one student who was barred told RT.

"I got my ID card. I tapped it on the barrier and it wouldn't work. The barrier wouldn't open," Mehreen, one of the KCL students barred from entering the campus during the Queen's visit, told RT.

"I tapped [the ID card] about three times... by the third time I knew that this was intentional."

She, along with several campus groups, now accuses the police and KCL of "profiling" and going after them for staging peaceful pro-Palestinian protests. They had earlier launched a campaign denouncing the college's ties to Israeli institutions that work with arms companies.
"I'm a fee-paying student... and I'm not allowed to go to my lecture because I'm apparently a security threat to the queen? Outrageous."
Mehreen posted a video showing a campus security guard explaining that her access was blocked at the request of the Metropolitan Police. Others also shared videos of their ID cards not working.
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Evil Rays

Virtue signalling: Swedes say they can house a refugee, but refuse once given the opportunity


RT
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 17:40 UTC
swedes
© YouTube / Samhällsnytt
A Swedish TV channel took to the streets to quiz people on whether they would be willing to house a refugee, and then called their bluff by putting their answers to an immediate test.

Samhällsnytt (Social News) sent a reporter onto the streets of Sweden to quiz people on the country's current immigration policy and ask if they would be personally willing to help out.

Respondents said they believe the country should continue to take in refugees, and everyone featured said they'd be willing to provide accommodation for an immigrant in need in their own home.


However, once the do-gooders were presented with a (slightly intimidating) man to take home immediately, they quickly changed their tune and churned out a whole host of excuses as to why their particular accommodation would no longer be suitable.

Excuses ranged from having guests already renting their spare room, early morning meetings, busy schedules, leasing restrictions, homes that are too small, to sick children.

Comment: Read Jonathan Haidt's book The Righteous Mind to see why humans (not just Swedes!) do this. Human morality is often more giving the appearance of following social norms, than actually behaving in accordance with those norms.

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Attention

Shock wave from Chinese chemical plant explosion shatters windows miles away


RT
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 17:39 UTC
Chinese explosion site
© Reuters / StringerRescue workers are seen at the scene of the explosion that killed 47 and injured more than 600 people.
Incredible video footage of the explosion at a Chinese chemical plant shows how the sheer force shattered windows miles away. The death toll from the blast has risen to 62, with more than 600 people injured.

The explosion rocked the Chenjiagang Industrial Park in the city of Yancheng, in east China's Jiangsu province, on Thursday afternoon. The resultant fire was not brought under control until 3am the following day.

The death toll has risen to 62 people and about 640 were injured in the catastrophe, according to state media. Survivors were transported to 16 different hospitals where 32 are believed to be in a critical condition, and 58 others severely injured.

The blaze from the explosion spread to neighboring factories and even to a kindergarten where some children were injured.
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Eye 1

Facebook stored hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text visible by employees for years


Krebs on Security
Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:57 UTC
facebook
Hundreds of millions of Facebook users had their account passwords stored in plain text and searchable by thousands of Facebook employees - in some cases going back to 2012, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Facebook says an ongoing investigation has so far found no indication that employees have abused access to this data.

Facebook is probing a series of security failures in which employees built applications that logged unencrypted password data for Facebook users and stored it in plain text on internal company servers. That's according to a senior Facebook employee who is familiar with the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The Facebook source said the investigation so far indicates between 200 million and 600 million Facebook users may have had their account passwords stored in plain text and searchable by more than 20,000 Facebook employees. The source said Facebook is still trying to determine how many passwords were exposed and for how long, but so far the inquiry has uncovered archives with plain text user passwords dating back to 2012.
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Blue Planet

Famous falcon family returns to FM building spire in Moscow


RT
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 11:19 UTC
Falcon
© Global Look Press / Frans Lanting
A peregrine falcon family, which used to nest at the spire of the main building of Russia's Foreign Ministry, has finally returned home after a year of maintenance works on the roof.

The bird family was discovered by engineers, who were inspecting the roof for repairs work a few years ago. The ministry delayed the start of the repair work in order to wait for the peregrine chicks to grow up. When the works eventually started, the birds resettled to the spire of one of Moscow historic skyscrapers.

Peregrine falcons are very rare in big cities and mostly reside on the tops of high-rise buildings. In Moscow, peregrines nest at the spires of historic skyscrapers known as the Seven Sisters, which were built in the 1950s in so-called Stalinist style (a mix of Russian Baroque and Gothic). They include the main building of the FM and Moscow State University, and are considered an icon of Soviet architecture.
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Attention

New Zealand bookstore chain bans Jordan Peterson's books 'because terrorism'

Susan Edmunds
Stuff
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC
Jordan Peterson
© Mikko Stig/Rex/Shutterstock
Bookstore chain Whitcoulls appears to have stopped selling controversial right-wing author and speaker Jordan Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life amid concerns about "disturbing material" circulating around the Christchurch attacks.

A staff member at Whitcoulls in Albany said it was not available in any stores around the country. She did not know whether that was a permanent move. A search for the book on the chain's website does not return any hits.

Jordan Peterson was pictured with a fan wearing an "I'm a proud Islamophobe" t-shirt during his recent trip to New Zealand. The photo circulated on Twitter in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Comment: New Zealand authorities' reaction to the massacre has been completely fascist, of which this is just one example.

Also see:

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Star of David

'Day of mourning': General strike declared after Israeli forces kill 4 young Palestinians in 24 hours

Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC
Palestinian victims Israel IDF Omar Abu Laila Raed Hashem Muhammad Hamdan Zaid Imad Muhammad Nuri
© FacebookOne of the popular photos circulating on social media reads "In 24 hours, four martyrs," with photos of the deceased below
Israeli forces shot and killed four young Palestinian men over the course of 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday in the occupied West Bank.

On Tuesday evening, around 7:00 pm, Israeli forces raided the Ramallah-area Abwein village in the central West Bank, in search of 19-year-old Omar Abu Laila, who was believed to be responsible for an attack over the weekend that left one Israeli soldier and a settler dead.

After besieging the village and surrounding the house where Abu Laila had been hiding, Israeli forces engaged in a lengthy shootout, eventually shooting and killing the teenager.
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NPC

Pakistan student kills professor for organizing co-ed event because 'it went against Islam'


TRT World
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC
Associate professor Khalid Hameed
© TwitterThe Punjab provincial government said on Twitter that the student had been arrested and the chief minister had sought a report from the police.
A Pakistani student was arrested on Wednesday after stabbing his professor to death for organising a mixed-gender reception at a government college, police said.

Associate professor Khalid Hameed was killed on the campus of Sadiq Egerton College in the southern city of Bahawalpur, a local police official told AFP news agency.

"The professor had organised a gender mix reception for the new students and the event was supposed to take place tomorrow, on Thursday," he said.
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Star of David

Anti-Semitic graffiti defaces Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts

Shamar Walters
NBC News
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC
Jewish cemetery antisemitic graffiti
© Anti-Defamation League / via TwitterReward offered for info leading to arrest of people responsible for #AntiSemitic stmts of hate on dozens of graves in #FallRiverMA. Incredible work by @FallRiverPD today but they need the public's help. Silence is not an option...time to step up."
Authorities are investigating a possible hate crime after dozens of graves were vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Police found more than 20 gravestones defaced at the Hebrew Cemetery with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti on Sunday.

Authorities made the discovery after responding to call from a resident who lives close to the cemetery, according to a statement on the department's Facebook page. Some of the gravestones had also been pushed over.
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