Society's ChildS


Fire

Trust in self-driving cars in decline following fatal crashes involving Tesla, Uber


RT
Sat, 26 May 2018 16:03 UTC
Self-driving car crashes
© Rescue Media / Reuters
Trust in autonomous cars is in decline, a new survey reveals. In the wake of a number of high-profile fatalities, RT looks at some of the most deadly car crashes involving autonomous cars, from Tesla to Uber.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) found 73 percent of drivers surveyed said they would be "too afraid" to ride in a completely autonomous car. In late 2017, only 63 percent said the same. The study shows the biggest increase in fear is among millenials, which is bound to worry tech firms investing billions in the technology.

Man dies in Tesla Model S, China, January, 2016

On January 20, 2016, a Tesla Model S sedan killed Gao Yuning in Handan in China's Hebei province. Yuning was using the car's autopilot function when it crashed into the back of a road-sweeper truck. His family sued Tesla, seeking an admission that the autopilot was faulty.

Comment: Majority of Americans 'not comfortable' with self-driving cars - poll

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Stormtrooper

A quarter of Ukrainian troops under criminal investigation since April 2014 - more than 27,000 criminals cases opened


The Duran
Tue, 29 May 2018 13:31 UTC
Ukranian soldiers


5,179 crimes committed by Ukrainian soldiers in 2018 alone.

The military prosecutor's offices of Ukraine have opened more than 27,000 criminal cases against 43,000 Ukrainian servicemen since April 2014, which is about 25 percent of all soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the chief military prosecutor, Anatolii Matios, said Tuesday, as reported by Sputnik.

"Since April 2014, the crime rate among military personnel has increased dramatically and remains consistently high ... During the entire period, military prosecutor's offices registered ... 27,200 criminal offenses and crimes, which were committed by 43,000 military personnel. This is one-fourth of the army," Matios said as broadcast by the 112 Ukraina TV channel.

He added that since the beginning of 2018, servicemen had committed a combined total of 5,179 crimes.

Since 2014, Ukrainian authorities have been carrying out a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in the country's east that refused to recognize the new government in Kiev, which came to power after what they considered to be a coup.

Comment: That's what happens when a pathological government is imposed on the people. A society under pathocratic rule has nowhere to go but down.

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Attention

Facebook 'apology tour' is anything but charming

Joumanna Bercetche
CNBC
Mon, 28 May 2018 09:57 UTC
Mark Zuckerberg
© Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesMark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018.
Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was in Europe last week on what is being dubbed an "apology tour."

This was the first time Zuckerberg set ground on the continent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke that compromised the data of about 2.7 million nationals on the continent. This was supposed to be his opportunity to apologize to European lawmakers for allowing the social media platform to be used for malpractice and to dispel some of their concerns about its handling of user information.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite go to plan.

The European Parliament session Tuesday was mired with controversy from the outset. Originally, the testimony in Brussels was arranged as a closed-door meeting with only a select group of policymakers in attendance. This infuriated European lawmakers who insisted on a public hearing similar to the one Zuckerberg had on Capitol Hill six weeks ago. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani eventually acceded and allowed the session to be webstreamed live to the world.

Comment: See also: Happy GDPR day! US news sites block themselves from European users, Facebook sued as EU privacy rules come into force

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Cow Skull

USDA Wildlife Services killed over 1.3 million native animals in 2017 in the name of Big Agriculture

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 28 May 2018 12:30 UTC
big agriculture
Data released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that more than 1.3 million native animals were killed by Wildlife Services in 2017 - and despite the fact that the slaughter of wolves, cougars, and birds was funded by taxpayers to benefit the agriculture industry, it is receiving very little media attention.

The total number of animals killed by USDA in 2017 was 2.3 million, and many of the species were killed by the thousands as members of Wildlife Services responded to requests from agricultural corporations by turning to lethal measures to remove the animals by employing the use of poisons, gases, snares, and firearms.

According to the report from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the death toll in 2017 included 69,041 coyotes - 15,631 were shot and killed by snipers on fixed-wing aircrafts, 14,062 were trapped with snares and 12,119 were killed by cyanide poison; 23,646 beavers - the majority were caught by traps and 2,375 were killed by firearms; and 15,933 prairie dogs - the overwhelming majority were targeted and killed by firearms.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

New Jersey cop caught on camera punching beach-goer in the head


RT
Tue, 29 May 2018 11:18 UTC
Jersey cops
© Timothy A. Clary / AFP
A video showing a police officer punching a girl in the head as she apparently resisted arrest on a New Jersey beach on Saturday has gone viral.

Footage of the incident was shared on social media by Twitter user @HewittLexy, who said she was sleeping on Wildwood Beach when she woke up to the altercation just after 4pm local time. RT has reached out to Wildwood Police Department for comment on the video.

Comment: Yet another example of cops using excessive force and acting like brutes. And why not? History shows there will be no consequences.

See also:

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Propaganda

'Ignorance or fake news': Russian Embassy derides UK tabloid the Daily Mirror, claiming masked Kiev thugs are 'Russian'


RT
Mon, 28 May 2018 16:23 UTC
Kiev Liverpool football fans
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
The Russian Embassy in London has admonished British tabloid the Daily Mirror for insinuating football thugs who attacked Liverpool fans in Kiev were Russian ultras, deriding the article as "ignorance or conscious fake news".

Liverpool fans were left bloodied and bruised after an unprovoked attack from a 20-strong group of masked hooligans before Saturday's Champions League final between their team and Real Madrid in the Ukrainian capital. The attack saw the fans pelted with bricks and chairs at a city-center chicken restaurant.

Comment: Leave it to UK tabloid journalism to spin every story they can manage to somehow denigrate Russia or Russians.

See also:

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Snakes in Suits

UK government to raid 90 year old charity fund to pay off 0.6% of national debt as economy continues to burn


RT
Sun, 27 May 2018 09:38 UTC
union jack piggy bank
© Darrin Zammit / Reuters
The UK government intends to force open a £475 million ($640 million) charity fund untouched since 1928. It wants to put the money towards paying off national debt.

The National Fund was established 90 years ago when an anonymous benefactor donated £500,000 on the condition that it must stay untouched until it was large enough to pay off the entire national debt.

The fund currently stands at £475 million, representing just 0.06 percent of the country's total debt. UK's total public debt is estimated at £1.7 trillion ($2.3 trillion), about twice the level it was before the 2008 financial crisis.

Comment: Considering successive UK governments have overseen rocketing homelessness and unemployment with millions more in poverty and using foodbanks, and have robbed the country of any remaining publicly owned asset, their shameless attempts to snatch a charitable fund to cover up their pathological greed should come as no surprise:

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Pistol

Liège, Belgium shooting: Two police and a passer-by dead


BBC
Tue, 29 May 2018 10:30 UTC
Belgium shooting
© AFPThe situation is said to be under control with officers at the scene
A man has shot dead two police officers and a nearby driver in the eastern Belgian city of Liège.

The gunman took a female cleaner hostage at a school before being killed by police. Two other police officers were also injured.

The man's motive is not yet clear but terror prosecutors are looking after the case.

Comment: Same script, different city.

See also:

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Network

Telling it like it is: WikiLeaks calls QAnon a likely 'Pied Piper' operation

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Mon, 28 May 2018 00:01 UTC
Wikileaks tweet Qanon
A few months back I started having bizarre interactions on social media of a kind I'd never experienced previously. Suddenly, whenever I'd write about President Trump's nonstop warmongering and capitulations to longstanding neoconservative agendas like implementing aggressive new cold war escalations against Russia along multiple fronts, the illegal occupation of Syria with the stated goal of effecting regime change, increasing troop presence in Afghanistan, unprecedented civilian deaths in drone strikes, facilitating the slaughter of civilians in Yemen, or the administration's open regime change policy against Iran, I'd get all these weird accounts telling me things like "Trust the plan" and "This is the Art of the Deal, Trump is playing 4-D chess", and saying I should research something called "QAnon" or "Q".

It happens literally every time I write anything critical of this administration; a deluge of commenters telling me in effect, "Shush. Calm down. This is nothing. What looks like Trump facilitating longtime establishment agendas just like his predecessors is actually brilliant strategic maneuvering." Every single time, without a single solitary exception.

Comment: We pretty much called this from the get-go. Anyone promoting a savior, and claiming Trump is a savant genius playing 4D chess, is at the very least delusional, but possibly nefarious. It might be trolls, it might be an intelligence operation psy-op. The net effect is the same.

See also:

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Light Saber

Pepe Escobar's Iran diary: bracing for all-out economic war

Pepe Escobar
Source
Mon, 28 May 2018 23:47 UTC
Imam Reza shrine Mashhad Iran
© Asia Times/Pepe EscobarDawn comes to Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
The minute you set foot in the streets of Mashhad, the air smelling of saffron, a fine breeze oozing from the mountains, it hits you; you're in the heart of the Ancient Silk Road and the New Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

To the east, the Afghan border is only three hours away on an excellent highway. To the north, the Turkmenistan border is less than four hours away. To the northwest is the Caspian Sea. To the south is the Indian Ocean and the port of Chabahar, the entry point for the Indian version of the Silk Roads. The Tehran-Mashhad railway is being built by the Chinese.

A group of us - including American friends, whose visas were approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government - have gathered in Mashhad for the New Horizon Conference of independent thinkers. Right after a storm, I'm in a van on the way to the spectacular Imam Reza shrine with Alexander Dugin, which the usual suspects love to describe as "the world's most dangerous philosopher," or Putin's Rasputin.
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