Society's ChildS


NPC

Twitterati lash out against Bollywood star for her intelligent, anti-war comments


RT
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:35 UTC
Sonam Kapoor Bollywood
© Instagram / sonamkapoor
As the tensions continue rising between India and Pakistan, activists and celebrities have called for calm, but one Bollywood star has incurred Twitter's wrath with her post.

33-year-old actress Sonam Kapoor shared a post promoting the idea that Hindu and Islamic fundamentalists have a lot in common and that the ordinary citizens of both India and Pakistan should oppose any potential armed conflict between the two nations.

The original post was made by a satirical account called Humans of Hindutva which typically posts inflammatory, often trolling comments, directed at right wingers and nationalists in India. "Laughter, empathy, fun and friendship are not part of our culture. If you don't like it then go to Pakistan you sickular piece of liberal," the page's 'about' section reads.
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Airplane

Reports: Fake bomb belt passed through security checks at Brussels airport security


RT
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:35 UTC
airport security
© Pixabay / Djedj
Reports are circulating in Belgian media that a counterfeit bomb belt passed through security checks at the same Brussels airport that was hit by two suicide bombings in 2016, raising serious concerns over public safety.

"On 1 October last year, I was asked to try to pass the security checkpoint with a fake bomb belt," the anonymous 'mystery passenger' told HLN. Such 'mystery passengers' are frequently used to test airport security procedures and personnel.

The belt looked very credible, with wires, a detonator and a substance that had the same density as real explosives. I wore it with an elastic velcro around my waist.
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NPC

Sebastian Gorka: 'Green New Deal will take away your home, truck & hamburgers!'


RT
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:35 UTC
Sebastian Gorka
Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka speaks during CPAC 2019.
Hamburgers, the iconic American fast-food staple, have become the latest battlefield in US culture and political wars, with conservatives accusing 'Green New Deal' Democrats of being secret Reds for going after red meat.

"They want to take your pickup truck, they want to rebuild your home, they want to take away your hamburgers," former White House staffer Dr. Sebastian Gorka thundered on Thursday, to the applause of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland. "This is what Stalin dreamt about, but never achieved."

"You are on the frontlines of the war against Communism coming back to America under the guise of democratic socialism," Gorka added.
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People 2

Studies show that asymmetries in the workplace do not indicate gender discrimination

Samuel Miller
The Post Millenial
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 10:10 UTC
man at computer
As I'm writing this, the October 30 conversation between Jordan Peterson and Helen Lewis accumulated over six million views on British GQ's YouTube channel.

Similar to a central point of contention that emerged in Jordan Peterson and Cathy Newman's conversation that went viral roughly a year ago (and which accumulated 14 million views on Channel 4 News' YouTube channel), Peterson and Lewis disagreed over whether asymmetries between men and women in terms of both (1) their representation in the workplace and (2) their earnings are markers of oppressive, discriminatory structures entrenched in our society that limit women's opportunities for vocational success, subordinating women as a class of people.

In both of these interviews, Peterson's interlocutors held that asymmetries are ipso facto the result of discrimination.

Peterson, alternatively, argued that asymmetries, such as the observed wage gap between men and women and different concentrations of men and women in certain professions, often arise from the confluence of various factors which have nothing to do with the albatross of discrimination.

Comment: See also:


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Attention

Government is the main problem, say record number of Americans

Jeffrey A. Tucker
AIER
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:33 UTC
Caution US government
Think of all the troubles in the world. Climate change. Student debt. Terrorism. Job insecurity. What's the number one most mentioned problem, according to a recent Gallup poll? Government itself. Thirty-five percent of Americans put that concern above all others. It's a record number, according to the pollsters who have been tracking this since 2001.
gallup poll government
Not only that: there have only been a handful of times when any number one issue clocked in with this level of intensity: terrorism after 9/11, Iraq after the war began, and the economy after 2008.

Comment: This issue really cannot be distilled down to a simple explanation that 'government' is not needed. Some form or another is needed. One of the big problems in the US is a lack of accountability within government systems as well as their connections with big business and interest groups. The scale, complexity, and existing structures that hold immense power don't provide any easy solutions. More than likely, the US has some very hard lessons to endure.

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Attention

Best of the Web: Inside the dark world of Facebook's content moderation

Casey Newton
The Verge
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:02 UTC
facebook censorship
© Corey Brickley
Content warning: This story contains discussion of serious mental health issues and racism.

The panic attacks started after Chloe watched a man die.

She spent the past three and a half weeks in training, trying to harden herself against the daily onslaught of disturbing posts: the hate speech, the violent attacks, the graphic pornography. In a few more days, she will become a full-time Facebook content moderator, or what the company she works for, a professional services vendor named Cognizant, opaquely calls a "process executive."

For this portion of her education, Chloe will have to moderate a Facebook post in front of her fellow trainees. When it's her turn, she walks to the front of the room, where a monitor displays a video that has been posted to the world's largest social network. None of the trainees have seen it before, Chloe included. She presses play.

Comment: There's obviously a lot going on with this story. Facebooks content moderators are exposed to the worlds' dregs of society on a consistent basis. That's going to be traumatizing in one way or another for most people.

It's true that suffering can also be a mechanism for growth. This is part of what SOTT was designed for. We look at the worst of the worst every day. However, we do for the most part stay away from graphic photos, videos, etc. It's not wise to stare into that abyss. But there can value in processing what is happening throughout the world and working to understand the very many influences at play. We also work to understand the flaws in our thinking, mechanisms of healing, and how our connection with others is essential for getting through this mess. This is very different from 'content moderation' where there is just exposure and arbitrary rules to dance around. And it is all being done in strict isolation.

These people are having their psyche repeatedly wounded with explicit imagery, and then they are being tasked with ruling on what thoughts and information are permissible. This is a horrible combination! Most people don't have the interest to understand ourselves or the world. It's unlikely the executives at Facebook have such a drive; same goes for the average content moderator. And yet, they are at the forefront of regulating information for the users of their technology.

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Pocket Knife

Stabbed man wanders through Russian hospital with knife embedded in his back


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 10:57 UTC
Stabbed man
© YouTube / Татар-информ
A half-naked man with a huge knife stuck in his back was caught on camera stumbling around a Russian hospital, zombie-like, in search of a smoke. The graphic footage shows the weapon still embedded as he wanders outside.

The bloody patient identified only as Vladimir, 34, was reportedly being treated at the Zelenodolsk central district hospital in Tatarstan on Monday when he insisted on going outside to smoke a cigarette.

Video footage of the heavily intoxicated man shows him wearily walking outside the hospital - against the orders of medical professionals - wearing nothing but his underwear. Worried doctors can be heard telling the patient that this smoke break could be his last, eventually convincing him to come back inside.
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Airplane

Plane spins, rolls off runway in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, miraculously staying intact


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 11:48 UTC
Airplane
© Ruptly
The blood-chilling moment a small plane spins while rolling off the runway in Moscow was caught on CCTV.

The footage shows a Golfstream business jet as it slides on its side and lands, barely avoiding crashing, in the snow-covered airfield of Sheremetyevo Airport.

The plane, which flew from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, had five people on board, including three passengers and two crew members. None were injured, media reported.
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2 + 2 = 4

12-year-old charged with drawing anti-Semitic graffiti on school playground

Augusta Anthony
CNN
Thu, 28 Feb 2019 18:06 UTC
swastika, hail Hitler graffiti
Anti-Semitic symbols and words were found drawn in chalk on an elementary school yard in New York City. A councilman tweeted the photos last week.
A 12-year-old boy was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment on Wednesday after anti-Semitic graffiti was found drawn on a schoolyard in Queens last week, according to NYPD spokesperson Detective George Tsourovakas.

Dozens of swastikas, a Nazi eagle and the words "Hail Hitler" (sic) were found drawn in chalk on the pavement of PS 139's schoolyard Friday morning. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had directed the State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to assist the New York Police Department in its investigation.

The boy has been released to his mother, Tsourovakas said. Police would not provide further details on the case. The boy is expected to appear in court at a later date to face the charge.
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Candle

Family of TV meteorologist says she struggled with eye surgery complications before suicide

Katie Kindelan and Sarah Messer
ABC News
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 06:23 UTC
Dan Rose and Jessica Starr
© Dan RoseDan Rose and Jessica Starr pose in this undated family photo.
Jessica Starr, a meteorologist for a Fox TV station in Detroit, took her own life last December, just two months after undergoing corrective laser eye surgery.

Now, Starr's family, speaking out for the first time since her death, says they believe Starr's struggles with complications from the eye surgery led to her death.

"Absolutely," Starr's husband, Dan Rose, told ABC News' Paula Faris in an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday on "Good Morning America." "There was nothing else that we can attribute it to."

"She really knew something was not right within a matter of days," Rose added. "She started to complain of incredibly dry eyes. She had almost no night vision. She had starbursts that she was seeing during the day and at night."
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