Society's ChildS


Camcorder

Video of smoking orangutan at zoo in Indonesia sparks outrage


New York Post
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 12:17 UTC
Smoking orangutan at Indonesia zoo
© AP
A video of an orangutan smoking has brought more criticism of a zoo in Indonesia infamous for past animal welfare troubles.

In the video shot Sunday, a young man flicks his half-smoked cigarette into the primate's enclosure. It's picked up by the reddish-brown primate, who expertly puffs on it to laughter from the crowd.

Activist Marison Guciano said Wednesday the smoking ape is further evidence of a lack of supervision and education at Bandung Zoo, about 75 miles southwest of the capital, Jakarta.

Guciano said the man committed a crime but the privately owned zoo is mainly responsible because of its "ignorance of supervision and education for visitors."

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Bomb

Neo-fascist headquarters bombed in Italy


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 17:00 UTC
neo fascists
© Andreas Solaro / AFP
The headquarters of the neo-fascist Italian party CasaPound in Trento, northern Italy, has been bombed. It comes days after the parliamentary elections, which saw huge gains for the right-wing Northern League party.

Residents of Via Marighetto, the street on which CasaPound's office is located, were woken by the blast at around 4:30 am on Wednesday. No-one was injured by the explosion, reportedly a home-made device, though the entrance to the building was damaged. A slogan was also found painted at the scene: "The only useful vote - anti-fascism." However, the message was not accompanied by the symbol of any far-left group.

An investigation is ongoing into Wednesday's incident but the head of CasaPound Trento, Filippo Castaldini, has vowed the group will continue its political activities. Founded in 2003, CasaPound takes its name from the American fascist sympathizer and poet Ezra Pound, who moved to Italy and supported dictator Benito Mussolini in WWII. Its Trento headquarters have been targeted before - there was another explosion in March 2014, though again no one was injured.

Comment: Apparent anti-fascists have bombed neo-fascists. They should really just sit down and have a cappuccino together. They'll be surprised how much they have in common!

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Handcuffs

UK to build new prison wing in Nigeria to return convicted foreign nationals


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 16:51 UTC
prison man handcuffs
© Erika Kyte / Getty Images
The UK is to build a new wing at Kiri Kiri prison in Nigeria in a bid to relieve the packed detention systems at home and in the African country. The new 112-bed wing will cost the UK £700,000 ($972,000).

According to a statement released by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday, the new wing will be built as part of a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement. The UK and Nigeria reached the deal in 2014.

"As part of this agreement, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and the UK can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective countries," Johnson said.

Nigeria's prisons, some of which were built up to 100 years ago by British colonists, are severely overcrowded. The government said last month that the prison in the southern city of Port Harcourt had 5,000 inmates, despite having a capacity of less than 800. It said some 3,700 prisoners had been awaiting trial for more than five years.
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MIB

New documents show FBI paid Geek Squad staff as informants

Zack Whittaker
ZD Net
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 16:19 UTC
best buy store sign
© Lucy Nicholson / Reuters /FileBest Buy Geek Squad employees were working with the FBI to gather intelligence.
The relationship between the FBI and employees of Best Buy's computer and device repair unit Geek Squad is more complex than first thought, according to newly released documents.

Records posted Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation following a freedom of information lawsuit filed last year reveal that federal agents would pay Geek Squad managers who pass on information about illegal materials on devices sent in by customers for repairs.

The relationship goes back at least ten years, according to documents released as a result of the lawsuit.

The aim of the FBI's Louisville division was to maintain a "close liaison" with Geek Squad management to "glean case initiations and to support the division's Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs," the documents say.
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Bad Guys

Professional Russophobe Edward Lucas hysterically warns of possible poison 'attack' on England team at World Cup


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 16:08 UTC
russophobe Edward Lucas
Edward Lucas
UK journalist and self-styled 'Russia expert', Edward Lucas, has warned that the England football team could be poisoned on state orders at this summer's Russia 2018 World Cup.

Renowned Russophobe Lucas suggested that Russian authorities could covertly "attack" the England team in Russia, using alleged KGB methods of poison, and may even manipulate officials at the tournament.

"The Russians are the most brazen systematic cheats, when it comes to sporting events," Lucas told BBC Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine. "We've seen this colossal doping scandal and all the other things they've been up to with FIFA and so on, and I think the idea that this is going to be a fair tournament is already a very questionable one."
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Pocket Knife

Four people seriously injured after knife attack in Vienna


Sputnik
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 13:10 UTC
knife attack
Four people were seriously injured in two stabbing attacks in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday evening. Hours after the attack, Vienna police announced that they had arrested a suspect, but no motive has yet been offered.

A man reportedly attacked passerby indiscriminately with a knife in Praterstasse, a residential area by the Nestroyplatz metro station, next to Prater Park and just a few miles from Hofburg Castle. Praterstasse is also home to most of Vienna's Jewish population.

"A man attacked a family — a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter — with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger," said Viennese police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer to the Associated Press.

Comment: Update:

RT reports a second stabbing attack at Praterstern a half an hour later. Police are investigating a possible connection.
While police continue to look into a possible connection between the two incidents, local media reports indicate that the second incident was caused by a dispute between two young Afghanis in front of a food stall, with no apparent link to the earlier attack in front of the Japanese restaurant. Police on Twitter confirmed the "arrest" of the second attacker, stating that a possible connection to an earlier attack is a "subject of the investigation."

"We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," the city's police spokesman noted.


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Black Cat

Amazon's Alexa now emitting 'bone chilling' laughter & ignoring user commands


The Daily Mail
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:57 UTC
Amazon Alexa
There are plenty of stories of artificial intelligence gone wrong.

But recent reports from owners of Amazon Alexa devices are being called 'bone chillingly creepy.'

Some users say their Alexa-enabled gadgets start laughing totally unprompted.

Comment: Amazon thinks that they have a fix for the creepy laughter- but what about the defiant behavior?
The solution? Changing the prompt that needs to be spoken in order to solicit laughter from the wannabe human, according to an Amazon spokesman.
In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase "Alexa, laugh." We are changing that phrase to be "Alexa, can you laugh?" which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance "Alexa, laugh." We are also changing Alexa's response from simply laughter to "Sure, I can laugh" followed by laughter.


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USA

Sex offender awarded new trial after Texas judge used electric shocks to punish him

Jeff Caplan & Mitch Mitchell
Star-Telegram
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:57 UTC
State District Judge George Gallagher
© Star-Telegram archivesState District Judge George Gallagher ordered a convicted sex offender to be shocked during a trial in 2014.
State District Judge George Gallagher of Tarrant County told a bailiff on three occasions to punish an uncooperative defendant with electric shocks, and now the sex offender's conviction has been overturned and a new trial ordered.

Stun belts can be strapped around the legs of some defendants and used to deliver thousands of volts of electric shock in the instance a defendant turns violent or attempts to escape the courtroom. However, in the case of Terry Lee Morris, who was convicted in 2014 of charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl, an appeals court found that Gallagher used electric shocks as punishment after Morris failed to answer the judge's questions properly.

Gallagher, the District 396 judge since 2000, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman with the Tarrant County district attorney's office.
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Arrow Down

Woman petitions San Francisco airport to allow her to open a sex shop

Don Sweeney
The Sacramento Bee
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:57 UTC
San Francisco International airport
Nenna Joiner thinks a sex shop would be a perfect fit for San Francisco International Airport.

"When people get into an airport, and the plane is delayed, you got three or four hours to kill," the owner of Oakland's Feelmore Adult Gallery told the San Francisco Chronicle. "You're going to need something. Not just a power cord - not just a sandwich. You're going to need a vibrator, a condom, lubricant."

Joiner says her proposed "pop-up" shop wouldn't offer products banned by the Transportation Safety Administration, such as ropes or handcuffs, according to KGO.
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Handcuffs

Eastern Ontario woman with garrotte arrested after rally against Jordan Peterson


Canadian Press
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 12:20 UTC
Jordan Peterson
© The Canadian Press/Jason FransonJordan Peterson
A woman in eastern Ontario is facing numerous charges after taking part in a protest against a lecture by a controversial Toronto professor.

Police say a 38-year-old woman was arrested near Queen's University in Kingston Monday evening.

She's charged with mischief, assaulting police, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and for carrying a concealed weapon.

Comment: 'Lock 'em in and burn it down!' cries SJW at Queen's University/Peterson event in Ontario

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