Society's ChildS


Airplane

Boeing's standards 'progressively declining' - top airline boss


RT
Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:31 UTC
Boeing 777
© Getty Images / the_guitar_mann
US aerospace giant Boeing is in the "last chance saloon" in light of the long decline in the company's manufacturing performance, Tim Clark, the head of Emirates Airline, has said.

One of the most high-profile figures in aviation, Clark told the Financial Times on Sunday that he had seen a "progressive decline" in Boeing's standards, which he put down to long-running management and governance missteps, including prioritizing financial performance over engineering excellence. Clark also said he was preparing to send his own engineers to oversee the US plane maker's production lines.

"They have got to instill this safety culture which is second to none. They've got to get their manufacturing processes under review so there are no corners cut etc. I'm sure [chief executive] Dave Calhoun and [commercial head] Stan Deal are on that . . . this is the last chance saloon," said Clark, who has held senior roles at Emirates since the 1980s and has been the airline's president since 2003. One of Boeing's largest customers, Emirates in November placed an order for 95 wide-body Boeing 777 and 787 jets.

Boeing's previous management made numerous mistakes, the Emirates boss claimed. Those included outsourcing some of its manufacturing and moving parts of the 787 production to South Carolina to cut costs following battles with unions at its primary base north of Seattle, Washington. Boeing lost "skills and competencies" through the move, argued Clark.
Read More...
Bomb

Russia's FSB foils Ukrainian terrorist plot against senior official


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:58 UTC
German-made DM22 anti-tank mine, FSB
© Federal Security Service of the Russian FederationThe warhead of a German-made DM22 anti-tank mine, seized from the suspects.
Russia's security service (FSB) has apprehended three suspects on suspicion of working for Ukrainian intelligence agency the SBU. The group was allegedly plotting an attack on a motorcade transporting a senior official from the Crimean Peninsula, the agency said on Monday.

Footage released by the FSB shows the suspects, an apparent couple and another man, detained at unspecified locations. Arresting agents also seized various equipment from the group, including an improvised explosive device packed with steel balls, as well as a German-made DM22 anti-tank directional mine. Mines of the type have been supplied to Kiev by Berlin amid the ongoing conflict.

The detained suspects have already admitted their involvement in the alleged plot, giving testimony on their roles and on the involvement of the SBU. The attack was set to be conducted in the city of Simferopol, the agency noted, without revealing what senior official had been targeted.
Read More...
Road Cone

Viral videos of Tesla drivers using VR headsets prompt US government alarm


Reuters
Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:56 UTC
Tesla truck, VR, VR driving Tesla
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said human drivers must pay attention at all times after videos emerged of people driving Teslas while wearing what appeared to be Apple's recently released Vision Pro headset.

Buttigieg responded on X to a video that had more than 24 million views of a Tesla driver who appeared to be gesturing with his hands to manipulate a virtual reality field.


Comment: When wild technologies meet stupid people, everyone suffers.

Read More...
Megaphone

Spanish farmers blockade roads, joining EU peers' protests


Reuters
Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:29 UTC
Spanish farmer protesters, Spanish tractors
© REUTERS/Albert GeaFarmers drive their tractors as they protest over price pressures, taxes and green regulation, grievances shared by farmers across Europe, in Girona, Spain, February 6, 2024.
Spanish farmers blocked traffic on some of the country's main highways on Tuesday, joining colleagues in other European countries protesting against high costs, bureaucracy and competition from non-EU nations.

"With different shades, in the whole of the European Union, we have the same problems," Donaciano Dujo, vice president of ASAJA, one the largest farmers associations in Spain, told national broadcaster TVE.

ASAJA and other associations had called for protests from Thursday, but many farmers took to the roads with their tractors on Tuesday, snarling traffic throughout the country from Seville and Granada in the south up to Girona near the French border, traffic authorities said.

"The countryside is fed up," Dujo said.

In Girona, tractors could be seen gathering ahead of the day of protests, carrying placards with one reading "without farmers there is no food".

Like colleagues in France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal, Spanish farmers are complaining about the increasing weight of European bureaucracy, low produce prices and rising costs.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Ukrainian official tries to justify the killing of 28 civilians in Russian bakery


RT
Mon, 05 Feb 2024 16:38 UTC
Rescuers searching for survivors
© Sputnik / Yevgeny BiyatovRescuers searching for survivors after a Ukrainian strike on a bakery in the city of Lisichansk in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic.
Petr Andryuschenko called the strike "heavenly punishment," insisting it was legitimate because it claimed the life of Lugansk's emergencies minister

The emergencies minister of Russia's Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), Aleksey Poteleschenko, was confirmed on Monday as being among the victims of the recent Ukrainian strike on a bakery in the city of Lisichansk. The attack claimed the lives of 28 civilians.

Moscow has denounced Kiev for the "terrorist attack." However, former aide to the mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryuschenko (who fled the city in early 2022 following the outbreak of conflict) has suggested that the death of the regional minister in the attack legitimized the murder of 27 others.

Comment: Considering the technological support from NATO, how many targets are selected without the involvement of Western military advisors. High powered precise strikes are needed to create the effect observed. Earlier there was in At least 20 killed in Ukrainian attack on bakery in Russian city - Emergencies Ministry:
No official information on weaponry used by the Ukrainian military to strike the bakery was readily available. Some media reports, however, suggested the building was struck by a projectile launched from a US-supplied HIMARS missile system.
On Wednesday, during a visit to Kiev, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said that GLSDB (Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb) munitions (which can hit targets at a distance of up to 150km) were already on their way to Ukraine.

Nuland, a foreign policy hawk, is widely seen as one of the key figures in the 2014 Maidan coup which led to the toppling of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and plunged the country into turmoil. The US official ended up in the media spotlight after she famously handed out pastries to protesters in the Ukrainian capital in late 2013.

Commenting on the announcement on Thursday, Antonov called it "irresponsible" and "simply shocking." He described the GLSDB delivery as "a kind of a reaction to the terrorist attack by Ukrainian thugs" on an Il-76 Russian cargo plane with 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, three Russian troops, and six crew members aboard.

Moscow has said that the aircraft, which was transporting the POWs to the border region of Belgorod for further exchange, was downed by Kiev's US-supplied Patriot air defense system.
In general: If the supporters of Israel and of Ukraine are the same, may that explain what is accepted by the West when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine?

Read More...
Rainbow

Amy Hamm: The gender activists are the ones spreading division

Amy Hamm
National Post
Mon, 05 Feb 2024 08:06 UTC
Protect Trans Kids activists
© Ashley Fraser/PostmediaA group of activists joined together for the Protect Trans Kids (again) protest to show support for anti-LGBT hate, rallying together at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin and marching to Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Oct. 21, 2023.
Last November, the Post ran a column by transwoman Julia Malott who allegedly supports my right to free expression but simultaneously believes that my "persona" has devolved and that I've become divisive and resentful. The devolution, she wrote, occurred during my three-year-and-counting legal battle with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives over my political speech on women's rights and the binary nature of human sex.

I could lose my nursing license and job because I said that males can never become females. I am resentful and I have changed after facing years of legal, professional, and personal abuses — but I haven't devolved.

Twenty years ago, no one would have batted an eye if a health care professional said that only women can give birth, or that women do not have penises. Today? You'll get hauled into a disciplinary tribunal for daring to say so. And just because I've insisted on loudly repeating these facts — it's obvious that human males don't birth offspring, whatever gender-obsessed "queer" activists think — I am called divisive, by detractors and supporters alike. That's wrong. What's divisive is our culture, with its increasingly pathological aversion to basic truths.
Read More...
Star of David

Lawyers of Israeli teen claim diplomatic immunity after intentionally running over police officer

Ted Scouten
CBS
Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:06 UTC
Avraham Gil
© Local 10During a bond hearing on Sunday, Gil's lawyers argued that the teen’s charges should be dropped as they claim Miami-Dade law doesn’t apply to him because he had consular immunity. 
In bond court, we learned of a claim for diplomatic immunity. The 19-year-old is the son of a consular officer at the Israeli Consulate.

"The state will be deferring to defense counsel's representation that diplomatic immunity bars this crime," the prosecutor said.

Last Saturday, Gil was on his motorcycle and is accused of running down a Sunny Isles Beach police officer while weaving in traffic, leaving that officer injured. That officer was dealing with a traffic stop.

Comment: News report on the incident:



Read More...
Cardboard Box

Apple, Google, online payment goes down across UK at major supermarket

Oliver Price
Daily Mail
Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:05 UTC
tesco
Reports of Tesco payments not working spiked at around 1pm today on Down Detector, where people can log the issues they face with websites and services
Tesco shoppers have today been left fuming as contactless payment systems have gone down at supermarkets across the UK causing 'huge queues like Christmas'.

All forms of the speedy payment method such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet were reportedly not working at Tesco stores.

Customers said they faced massive waits in queues to pay for their shopping.


Comment: With cash?


The issue was caused by a by a third-party system that has also affected a number of businesses today.

Comment: It's incidents like these that highlight just how important cash is, and how vulnerable the digital system is: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group

Read More...
Bomb

Iraqi Shiite militia claims drone attack on U.S. base in Syria


Xinhua
Sat, 03 Feb 2024 11:29 UTC
A member of an Iraqi Shiite militant group.
© Hadi Mizban/APA member of an Iraqi Shiite militant group.
An Iraqi Shiite militia on Saturday claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed in an online statement that its fighters launched an explosive-laden drone to attack a U.S. base in Kharab al-Jir town in Syria's northeastern province of al-Hasakah, without giving details about casualties.

The attack by the Iraqi armed group is part of a series of retaliatory measures against the U.S. forces amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, the statement added.
Read More...
Clipboard

Poll: Majority of Americans believe COVID-19 vaccines "caused a significant number of unexplained deaths"

Laura Harris
SpikeProtein.news
Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:57 UTC
COVID-19 vaccine
© Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty ImagesA health care worker fills a syringe with Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in a file image.
A recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports reveals that 53 percent of American adults believe it is likely that side effects from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine have "caused a significant number of unexplained deaths."

The survey, conducted between Jan. 7 and 9 on 1,133 American adults, shows a four-point increase from 2022 in the number of Americans who believe that the vaccines may be linked to unexplained deaths in the United States.

Now, 30 percent of respondents said it is "very likely" that the vaccines are connected, in contrast to just 16 percent who find it "not at all likely" that a significant number of deaths can be attributed to the COVID-19 vaccines. Another 11 percent remain unsure, while the rest either find it slightly likely or unlikely that the vaccines are involved.

Comment:

Read More...