Society's ChildS


Snowflake Cold

Reality bites: Freezing New England changes its stance on all-renewable energy

Jazz Shaw
HotAir
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 12:01 UTC
blizzard maine
During a recent trip to Maine, my wife and I noticed the large number of wind turbines cluttering the peaks of the ridges around the otherwise scenic New England countryside, particularly in Vermont. There really are a lot of them, and that's the result of an ongoing push to get the region onto renewable energy as much as possible. Vermont in particular has been hammering wind power as the path to cut carbon emissions and make the state truly green in nature. And they've achieved an admirable level of success, despite the fact that people living near the wind farms are being driven batty by all the noise and the state is being forced to enact additional restrictions on turbine operation.

But for the most part, as I said, that was all well and good... at least as long as the weather was pleasant. Now, however, as I'm sure any of you living in the northeast are aware, there's a blistering bubble of arctic air throwing the region into a deep freeze. Suddenly the power grid is experiencing strains which aren't generally seen in more clement weather conditions. So how are they responding? Local Hartford, Vermont blogger Meredith Angwin has been keeping an eye on the grid and she's seeing an alarming trend (or at least alarming to environmentalists). As the temperature dropped, wind energy production waned just as demand was rising. And the local power companies responded by... burning oil.
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No Entry

GotNews' Charles Johnson gets banned from Facebook for writing "Hating the Russians is the last socially acceptable prejudice"


GotNews.com
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 01:23 UTC
charles johnson
© Peter Duke / Facebook
Facebook has censored the account of GotNews Editor-in-Chief Charles C. Johnson over a status he posted that simply read "Hating the Russians is the last socially acceptable prejudice."

Johnson wrote the innocuous post to highlight how pervasive anti-Russian prejudice is in the public discourse right now:
johnson facebook
© Facebook
Johnson then received a message from Facebook informing him that he has been temporarily blocked from posting for 30 days, and will not be able to post on Facebook in the meantime.

Comment: Facebook's anti-racism algorithms seem to have trouble discerning irony.

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Stock Down

Rape and STDs drop after Rhode Island accidentally decriminalized prostitution for 6 years

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 01:04 UTC
prostitution
In the Land of the Free, it is against the law to get paid to have sex - outside of Nevada - unless that sex is filmed, distributed on DVD, and taxed. One of the least talked about systems of oppression in the US is that of persecuting prostitution. Now, a recent study published in The Review of Economic Studies has revealed that prohibition of sex work is not only oppressive but actually has dire consequences in regards to rape and STDs.

When referencing prostitution, we are talking about the mutually beneficial exchange of sexual favors for money by two or more consenting partners; not forced human trafficking.

The study, titled: Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health examined a period of time in Rhode Island in which the state accidentally decriminalized prostitution.

In an incredibly ironic move, Rhode Island lawmakers sought in 2003 to strengthen its laws on prostitution. When the law was rewritten, however, its careful wording accidentally left out the language to explicitly forbid indoor prostitution. This created a loophole which essentially legalized indoor prostitution.

Because changes in government come at such a gruelingly slow pace, this newly created loophole - effectively the function of a bureaucratic typo - stayed on the books for a whopping six years after they noticed it.
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Snowflake

Idiotic math professor claims meritocracy in the classroom is a 'tool of whiteness'

Toni Airaksinen
Campus Reform
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 20:06 UTC
meritocracy
A math education professor at Brooklyn College contends in a recent academic article that "meritocracy" in math classes is a "tool of whiteness."

Laurie Rubel implicates both meritocracy and "color-blindness" as ideological precepts that hold back racial minorities from succeeding in math classes in an article for the peer-reviewed Journal of Mathematics Education.

Rubel, who taught high school math for nine years before becoming a professor, argues that while meritocracy is commonly linked to hard work and talent, it also "functions as a tool of whiteness" because it "ignores systemic barriers and institutional structures that prevent opportunity and success."

Comment: Laurie Rubel contends that the only solution to the race gap in test scores is to teach social justice instead of math. Then everyone will be equally libtarded!

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Attention

List of the top US cities with the worst bed bug infestations


Bloomberg
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 20:06 UTC
bedbugs
Baltimore is known for its historic neighborhoods, monuments, crab cakes - and, increasingly, its bed bugs.

For the second straight year, the U.S. port city ranked No. 1 on a Top 50 Bed Bug Cities list compiled by Atlanta-based pest control services company Orkin LLC.

The list, released Monday, is based on the most residential and commercial treatments for the seed-sized bloodsuckers from December 2016 to November 2017, and reflects a rising number of infestations across the U.S., according to Tim Husen, an Orkin entomologist.
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Stock Down

A financial 'time bomb' is heading for the states in 2018

Sheila Weinberg
Washington Examiner
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 20:06 UTC
State Treasurer
© Getty ImagesAcross all 50 states, we have seen expenditures creep up over the last 10 years in every category.
January is traditionally the time to put the past behind us, turn over a new leaf, and make plans for what's to come. Many indicators show the country's economy has been pumping on all cylinders this past year. Stocks are at record highs and the unemployment rate is at its lowest point in 17 years. Many would agree that the economy is moving in the right direction, which is excellent news.

Unfortunately, this optimistic news is somewhat undercut by worsening financial trajectories at the state government level from coast to coast. The nation is not in as good a shape as it seems.

Recently updated government financial disclosures show alarming levels of red ink on statehouse ledger books across the country. A 2017 analysis shows $1.5 trillion in state debt, a 15 percent increase over the previous year and part of a long-term worsening trend. In the last year, only seven states reported improved financials, while three were unchanged, and 40 are on a troubling downward trajectory.
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Bomb

ISIS recruit denies instructing 12yo boy how to blow up a German Christmas market


RT
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 01:54 UTC
polize
© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
Austrian prosecutors have filed charges against Lorenz K., the teenage son of Albanian immigrants who they say mentored and guided a 12-year old German-Iraqi boy through two failed Islamist attacks in late 2016.

The 55-page indictment delivered by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office and cited by Austrian media, alleges that Lorenz, now 18, pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the summer of 2016, and began contacting even younger boys in a bid to recruit them.

The 12-year-old resident of the town Ludwigshafen in Rhineland, Germany, with whom the 18-year-old had formed a bond, left a bag filled with unlit fireworks and nails near at a Christmas market on 26 November 2016, and outside the city hall a week later on December 3, when he was caught.

Investigators say the explosives would not have detonated on its own, but said Lorenz talked the the perpetrator through every step of the planned attack - from helping him prepare and successfully test the bomb; encouraging him to pick a market instead of a church; as well as writing to him on Whatsapp: "Put on a thick jacket... Then go behind a hut and light and run," minutes before the scheduled explosion.

Comment: See also: 12-year-old attempted to bomb Christmas market in south Germany, according to prosecutors

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Newspaper

Advocates want #MeToo conversation to include immigrant detention

Nomaan Merchant
Ottawa Citizen
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 20:22 UTC
T. Don Hutto Residential Center
© Donna McWilliam / APThis April 22, 2008, file photo shows an exterior view of the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas. Laura Monterrosa who is housed at the detention facility waiting to find out if she'll be allowed to stay in the United States, has accused a guard at the facility of groping her and suggesting they have sex. As the national discussion of sexual misconduct grows, advocates for immigrants say they hope the conversation will include immigrant detention facilities. They point to the FBI announcing in December 2017, that it had opened a civil rights investigation into Monterrosa's case as a positive sign.
While she waits at a detention centre in Texas to find out if she can stay in the United States, Laura Monterrosa fears that she put herself in danger by coming forward about sexual abuse.

Months after accusing a female guard at the facility of groping her and suggesting they have sex, Monterrosa says she still sees the guard in the dining hall and other parts of the facility. She recalled in a recent interview what the guard had said to her.
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Cardboard Box

10 percent of Amazon's employees need to be on food stamps in Ohio

David Rutz
Washington Free Beacon
Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:46 UTC
Amazon employees
Amazon ranks high on a list charting Ohio's employers with the most workers and their family members on food stamps, with a new report estimating that more than 10 percent of its workforce in the state qualifies for the federal aid.

The progressive policy group Policy Matters Ohio stated, as of August, Amazon had 1,430 workers and family members on food stamps, which helps low-income people purchase food. It ranks 19th on a list of 50 large employers in the state, according to the group.

Since a typical beneficiary gets benefits for roughly two people, that means the online retail giant has about 700 workers on the program in Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports:
To be on the list, a company has to have a large number of workers in the state. In addition, that company has to have a significant number of workers who don't make much money or maybe work part time.

Workers getting food stamps in essence becomes an additional taxpayer subsidy for the companies that pay low wages, said Zach Schiller, Policy Matters' research director.

"We've appreciated having more employment, but maybe we should be focusing economic development dollars on good jobs. It's pretty clear that a lot of these jobs are not good jobs," he said. "That should raise a policy question for our public officials, and that's why we think its worth pointing out."

Comment: This isn't the first (nor the last) story we'll read about the shoddy ways Amazon treats its employees:

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Arrow Down

Germany's new hate speech law quickly results in collateral damage - exactly as journalists warned

Tim Cushing
techdirt
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 03:25 UTC
social media hate speech laws
Germany's new hate speech law just went into effect at the beginning of the year and it's already paying off. But not in the way German government officials expected, nor in the way anyone who isn't in the German government wanted it to.

The law is a bad one: it criminalizes certain speech, which is already problematic. The problems go much deeper than that, though. Instead of targeting German citizens who post illegal speech, the government targets American social media platforms, demanding the removal of illegal posts in less than 24 hours on the pain of up to €50m fines. On top of that, employees of service providers tasked with removals can also be fined €5m personally for not reacting fast enough to government demands.

So, it's bad. And determining what is or isn't illegal is in the eyes of government beholders. Faced with the prospect of expensive fines, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are probably not going to be second-guessing many government requests for content deletion. Worse, it's going to encourage service providers to be proactive, amplifying the underlying vagueness of the German "hate speech" law. False positives are a given. We just didn't expect the collateral damage to occur so quickly.

Comment: Despite claims to the contrary, the vague wording of these laws effectively shuts down any criticism of the government's official narrative - exactly as intended!

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