Society's ChildS


Stock Up

Bitcoin soars above $11,000 for the first time in 15 months


CNBC
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 10:47 UTC
bitcoin
© Global Look Press / Klaus Ohlenschläger
Bitcoin surged above the $11,000 mark on Monday hitting a more than 15-month high, as a high-profile project from Facebook throws cryptocurrencies back into the spotlight.

The digital coin hit an intraday high of $11,307.69 around 5:30 a.m. HK/SIN Monday, according to Coindesk's Bitcoin Price Index, which takes into account the price of the cryptocurrency across various exchanges. That's the highest level since March 5, 2018. Bitcoin had pared some of those gains and was trading at around $10,624.10 at 10:05 a.m. HK/SIN Monday.

Investors appear to be shrugging off some of the memories from the burst of the bitcoin bubble after it hit a record high of over $19,000 in December 2017. The price of the cryptocurrency came crashing down over the course of 2018 and into the start of 2019 where it fell to the low-to-mid $3,000 mark.
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Poll finds Americans are growing less tolerant of the 'LGBTQ' movement

Susan Miller
USA Today
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 10:47 UTC
India lgbt
Young people are growing less tolerant of LGBTQ individuals, a jarring turn for a generation traditionally considered embracing and open, a survey released Monday shows.

The number of Americans 18 to 34 who are comfortable interacting with LGBTQ people slipped from 53% in 2017 to 45% in 2018 - the only age group to show a decline, according to the annual Accelerating Acceptance report. And that is down from 63% in 2016.

Driving the dilution of acceptance are young women whose overall comfort levels plunged from 64% in 2017 to 52% in 2018, says the survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD.
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Fire

Massive blasts hit military warehouse in south Kazakhstan - One dead, dozens injured


RFE/RL
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:40 UTC
south Kazakhstan blast
A screen grab from an amateur video shows the blast hit the military warehouse.
One person has been killed and dozens injured following a series of massive blasts at an ammunition warehouse in southern Kazakhstan that prompted the authorities to evacuate tens of thousands of people, Kazakh officials say.

Defense Minister Nurlan Ermekbaev said a fire erupted in the warehouse town of Arys in the Turkistan region early in the morning causing explosions. The cause of the fire is unclear, he added.

Turkistan Governor Omirzaq Shokeev told reporters that a man was killed by a shell that hit his car while he was trying to escape the area when the blasts started.

Authorities are warning that the situation remains dangerous in the area as the explosions still continue and might last for several days.

Comment: RT collated footage and provides a few more details :
One person was killed and dozens injured after a powerful explosion rocked an ammunition depot at an army base in southern Kazakhstan, resulting in apocalyptic scenes of massive fire and smoke billowing from the site.

The fire at the base near the town of Arys started with a single blast on Monday morning, according to preliminary reports, before spreading and triggering more explosions.





See also:

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Sherlock

Large crater found in field believed to be WWII bomb, caused minor earthquake


BBC
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 03:52 UTC
field german crater
© Westhessen policeA drone showed the impact of the blast
It was not immediately clear what caused a blast so powerful that it registered as a minor earthquake.

The blast, at 03:52 (01:52 GMT) on Sunday, startled residents near the central German town of Limburg, leaving a crater 10m (33ft) wide and four metres deep in a field.

A photo taken by a drone later revealed the impact of the night-time explosion.

Initially police said "no definitive indication" had been found of a suspected unexploded bomb.
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Wine n Glass

A third of women only date men because of the free food: study

Suzy Weiss
New York Post
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 13:57 UTC
dinner date
© Shutterstock
The results are in: she only wanted to try that hot new restaurant.

A new study published Friday in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology journal found that a quarter to a third of heterosexual women have gone on a date with a guy they weren't interested in - just for a free meal.

"Foodie calls," can happen when money's tight, the grocery store is out of a favorite frozen meal, or a must-try entree is just too extravagant to justify - when the tab comes out of your own bank account.

Two studies, the first conducted with 820 women, and the second with 327, asked participants if they ever engaged in a plate for play: 23% of the women copped to it in the first study, 33% in the second.

Comment: See also:

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X

Facebook removed from S&P list of 'ethical' companies

Lucas Nolan
Breitbart
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 06:41 UTC
zuckerberg water
The Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe at Facebook has been removed from the S&P list of ethical companies following a number of scandals surrounding the company.

The Telegraph reports that Facebook has been removed from Standard & Poor's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Index after the company received a score of 22 for social responsibility and only 6 for governance, out of a possible 100, scoring extremely poorly.

Reid Steadman, S&P's social and governance chief, stated that the growing number of privacy concerns around the company including "a lack of transparency as to why Facebook collects and shares certain user information," resulted in low scores for the firm. S&P cited the Cambridge Analytica scandal as one of the reasons for the tech giant's poor performance.

"These events have created uncertainty about Facebook's diligence regarding privacy protection, and the effectiveness of the company risk management processes and how the company enforces them," Steadman said. "These issues caused the company to lag behind its peers in terms of ESG performance."

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

E. Jean Carroll says 'most people think of rape as being sexy' in bizarre CNN interview

Patrick Howley
Big League Politics
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 19:51 UTC
e.jeancarroll
E. Jean Carroll gave a bizarre interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday in which she said that her alleged assault by President Donald Trump was "not sexual," and noted that most people think of rape as being sexy due to their "fantasies." Trump of course has denied this woman's claim in New York magazine, which is not backed up by any concrete evidence.
E. Jean Carroll, who offered an accusation that President Donald Trump attacked her with no video evidence, has praised Hillary Clinton and called herself a "radical feminist" in the same interview. Carroll notably did not make her accusation against Trump during the 2016 election or the first two years of Trump's presidency.
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Sanctions level 90? US embargoes popular video game in Iran & Syria


RT
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:17 UTC
gamers
© AFP / Behrouz Mehri / FILE PHOTO
Washington's economic war against Iran took a turn for the petty this weekend, as gamers in Iran and Syria found themselves unable to play popular video game 'League of Legends' due to new "restrictions" by the US government.

First, they came for the politicians, then, the businessmen... and now, they have come for the gamers. While it is not clear what threat civilians playing computer games pose to the United States, League players in Syria and Iran have been totally unable to log in to the game's online server since Saturday, instead being greeted by a message from game developer Riot:

"Due to US laws and regulations, players in your country cannot access League of Legends at this time. Such restrictions are subject to change by the US government, so if and when that happens, we will look forward to having you back on the rift."

Comment: See also:

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Jet5

Two Eurofighter jets collide in midair over Germany, one pilot killed


BBC
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 20:48 UTC
eurofighter crash
Plumes of smoke as fighter jets crash over Germany
A pilot has been killed in an air collision involving two German air force Eurofighter jets in the Müritz area of north-eastern Germany.

While both pilots managed to eject from the planes, only one of them survived.

One of the Eurofighters went down in a forest while the other crashed near a village about 10km (6 miles) away, the interior ministry in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said.

The pilot who survived was found dangling from a tree by rescue teams.

Comment: This does not bode well for Merkel and Macron's dreams of an EU army: See also:

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Eye 1

Judge condemned for forcing woman with mental disabilities to have abortion


RT
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:26 UTC
Monitoring fetal heartbeat
© Getty Images / Neil Thomas
The catholic church has condemned a UK court's "sad and distressing" decision to force a woman with mental disabilities to have an abortion at 22-weeks.

The London-based woman in her twenties has the mental capacity of a six to nine-year-old child according to the Catholic News Agency. The woman is under the care of a National Health Service (NHS) trust, which is understood to have launched the case against the woman who reportedly originated from Nigeria.

The woman and her mother both dispute the case and the latter has offered to care for her grandchild, however doctors argued that the birth would be more traumatic for the expectant mother than an abortion.

Justice Nathalie Lieven from the Court of Protection, a legal arm specifically tasked with resolving cases involving people deemed incapable of making their own decisions, handed down the "heartbreaking" ruling on June 21.
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