Society's ChildS


Bad Guys

Texas man indicted for creating fraudulent campaign PACs, using funds for personal financial gain

Michael Burke
The Hill
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 01:39 UTC
Texan Kyle Gerald Prall fake PAC
© GettyPrall allegedly raised more than $300,000 in contributions to "Feel Bern," more than $165,000 in contributions to "Trump Victory" and more than $73,000 in contributions to "HC4President," and spent little of that money for political purposes and pocketed much of it.
A Texas man has been indicted in federal court on counts including mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering that stem from allegations that he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for fraudulent political committees.

Kyle Gerald Prall is accused of setting up political committees named "Feel Bern," "HC4President" and "Trump Victory" and soliciting donations he claimed would support the candidacies of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Prall was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Austin.

Prall allegedly raised more than $300,000 in contributions to "Feel Bern," more than $165,000 in contributions to "Trump Victory" and more than $73,000 in contributions to "HC4President," according to the indictment. He spent little of that money for political purposes and pocketed much of it, according to the indictment.
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Pistol

In Germany? KKK police raid seizes guns, knives in a surprising location

David Brennan
Newsweek
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 07:10 UTC
KKKWeapons
© The Telegraph
Police in Germany have seized more than 100 weapons in a series of raids targeting members of an extreme right-wing group claiming to be part of the Ku Klux Klan.

Officers descended on 12 apartments in eight German states on Wednesday, looking for evidence linked to a group calling itself the National Socialist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Deutschland.

Two hundred officers were involved in the searches, according to The Associated Press, targeting properties in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate, Saxony Anhalt and Thuringia.

Among the more than 100 weapons discovered were air guns, swords, machetes and knives, Baden-Württemberg prosecutors said.

Seventeen people-between the ages of 17 and 59-were targeted, though Deutsche Welle noted that no arrests had been confirmed. Around 40 people are under investigation for links to the group, investigators said.

Comment: See also: Study finds Ku Klux Klan underground cells currently active in Germany

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Snowflake

Google executive sparks meltdown after using the word 'family'

Peter Hasson
The Daily Caller
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 18:13 UTC
google
© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Google executive sparked a fierce backlash from employees by using the word "family" in a weekly, company-wide presentation, according to internal documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Many Google employees became angry that the term was used while discussing a product aimed at children, because it implied that families have children, the documents show. The backlash grew large enough that a Google vice president addressed the controversy and solicited feedback on how the company could become more inclusive.

TheDCNF received the documents from a source who insisted upon anonymity in order to share them.

One employee stormed out of the March 2017 presentation after a presenter "continued to show (awesome) Unicorn product features which continually use the word 'family' as a synonym for 'household with children,'" he explained in an internal thread. That employee posted an extended rant, which was well-received by his colleagues, on why linking families to children is "offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong."
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Chess

War on free media: RT to seek Judicial Review of Ofcom's Dec 20 breach findings


RT
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 17:29 UTC
rt studios
© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev
RT seeks judicial review of Ofcom decisions related to the broadcaster.

"Today RT has informed Ofcom that it will be seeking Judicial Review of Ofcom's decisions and process in its breach findings of 20th December against the network. Ofcom investigated 10 RT programmes, and decided that 7 were in breach; we firmly believe that none were in breach. RT is left with no choice other than to seek Judicial Review of the matter.

RT determinedly adheres to the Ofcom Code. Ofcom itself has recognised that RT's compliance record 'has not been materially out of line with other broadcasters.'
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Russian Flag

Poll finds almost half of Russians see USSR collapse as shameful


RT
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 16:28 UTC
ussr soviet memorabilia souvenir
© Sputnik / Ruslan Krivobok / FileUSSR-themed memorabilia sold in a souvenir shop in Moscow.
The collapse of the Soviet Union is considered a reason to be ashamed by 45 percent of Russians according to a recent opinion poll. The only option that scored higher is Russia's failure to eradicate poverty.

The poll conducted in late 2018 by the Levada Center is its latest study of what Russians are proud and ashamed of about their nation. The demise of the USSR saw a rebound in popularity from a low point of 28 percent in mid-2015, and is at a level comparable with the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The only more popular answer is Russia's failure to eradicate poverty, which was named as a reason to be ashamed by 61 percent of the people polled. This answer has topped Levada's polls for decades.
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Heart - Black

A controversial startup that charges $8,000 to fill your veins with young blood now claims to be up and running in 5 cities across the US

Erin Brodwin
Business Insider
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:40 UTC
blood bag
To Jesse Karmazin, a startup founder and Stanford Medical School graduate, blood is the next big government-approved drug.

Roughly three years ago, Karmazin launched Ambrosia, a startup that fills the veins of older people with blood from younger donors, hoping the procedure would help conquer aging by rejuvenating the body's organs. As Business Insider previously reported, there's little to no evidence to suggest this would work.

The company is now up and running, Karmazin told Business Insider on Wednesday. Ambrosia recently revamped its website with a list of clinic locations and is now accepting payments for the procedure via PayPal. Two options are listed: 1 liter of young blood for $8,000, or 2 liters for $12,000.

Comment: It's amazing how all these old conspiracy theories about what the elites are up to are all coming true! None the less, it would be nice to see some actual evidence of benefit rather than simply anecdotal reports of feeling better (which could easily be chalked up to placebo effect). If there is potential for treating actual diseases or conditions, perhaps this is a treatment that may actually be feasible in the future. But rich old people taking the blood of the young to defy aging is just creepy.

See also:

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Heart - Black

Ohio hospital fires doctor accused of giving lethal doses of fentanyl to 27 intensive care patients

Connor Boyd
Daily Mail
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 12:03 UTC
Mount Carmel West Hospital Ohio
© AP PhotoMount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus, where Dr Husel allegedly gave the pensioner the lethal dose
An Ohio doctor is under investigation for allegedly giving 'excessive and potentially fatal' doses of fentanyl to at least 27 intensive care patients.

William Husel has been accused of ordering lethal amounts of the drug for patients at Mount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus.

Mount Carmel has fired Husel, notified authorities and suspended 20 employees - including pharmacists and nurses who administered medication - pending further investigation.

The announcement came after a family sued the hospital, alleging medicine was used to hasten 79-year-old Janet Kavanaugh's death.
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Light Saber

Common Sense: South Dakota to consider bill banning Transgender students from competing against opposite biological sex

Warner Todd Huston
Brietbart
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
transgender unfair advantage wrestling
© AP Photo/Dallas Morning News/Jae S. LeeIn this Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 photo, Euless Trinity’s Mack Beggs, top, wrestles Lewisville’s Elyse Nelson in the second round of the 110-pound girls division during the 6A Region II wrestling meet at Allen High School in Allen, Texas.
State lawmakers in South Dakota introduced a bill this week that would require students who consider themselves to be transgender, to participate in school sports that correspond to their assigned biological sex, not of the gender they have assumed.

The new bill would rescind current rules adopted by the South Dakota High School Activities Association in 2015 that allows transgender kids to participate in school sports under their assumed sexual choice, instead of their biological gender, the Daily Wire reported.

The bill was introduced Tuesday by Republicans Senator Jim Bolin (Canton) and Representative Thomas Brunner (Nisland).

Comment: See also:

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Laptop

Is Facebook's '10 Year Challenge' a privacy scheme disguised as a meme?

Jason Silverstein and Christopher Brito
CBS News
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 22:03 UTC
Zuckerberg
© Wired
It's the simple meme that's taking over your social media feeds: the "10 Year Challenge," where users upload side-by-side photos of themselves from a decade ago and now.

But it might not be so simple.

Facebook on Wednesday distanced itself from the "10 Year Challenge" after an article set off speculation that the social media giant could be secretly mining data from the photos to improve its facial recognition algorithms. It's a scenario that those who have studied social media companies don't rule out, despite Facebook's denials.

The photo challenge gives Facebook "a perfect storm for machine learning," said Amy Webb, a professor at NYU Stern School of Business with an upcoming book about how artificial intelligence can manipulate humans.

Comment: See: Carve-outs for tech giants: Facebook gave 150+ firms unhindered access to users' data under secretive partnerships

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X

The EU Copyright Directive spells the end of a free and open Internet - you could tip the balance

Cory Doctorow
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 10:55 UTC
content blocked
The new EU Copyright Directive is progressing at an alarming rate. This week, the EU is asking its member-states to approve new negotiating positions for the final language. Once they get it, they're planning to hold a final vote before pushing this drastic, radical new law into 28 countries and 500,000,000 people.

While the majority of the rules in the new Directive are inoffensive updates to European copyright law, two parts of the Directive represent pose a dire threat to the global Internet:
  • Article 11: A proposal to make platforms pay for linking to news sites by creating a non-waivable right to license any links from for-profit services (where those links include more than a word or two from the story or its headline). Article 11 fails to define "news sites," "commercial platforms" and "links," which invites 28 European nations to create 28 mutually exclusive, contradictory licensing regimes. Additionally, the fact that the "linking right" can't be waived means that open-access, public-interest, nonprofit and Creative Commons news sites can't opt out of the system.
  • Article 13: A proposal to end the appearance of unlicensed copyrighted works on big user-generated content platforms, even for an instant. Initially, this included an explicit mandate to develop "filters" that would examine every social media posting by everyone in the world and check whether it matched entries in an open, crowdsourced database of supposedly copyrighted materials. In its current form, the rule says that filters "should be avoided" but does not explain how billions of social media posts, videos, audio files, and blog posts should be monitored for infringement without automated filtering systems.

Comment: See also:

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