Society's ChildS


Quenelle - Golden

Net neutrality is being stolen from us in a undemocratic heist

Jason Koebler
Motherboard
Wed, 13 Dec 2017 17:51 UTC
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai
© Michael ReynoldsFCC Chairman Ajit Pai
This is a looting by telecom monopolists and an FCC commissioner who has shown no interest in engaging with the American people.

These are the facts: Millions of Americans have asked the Federal Communications Commission to keep its current net neutrality regulations, which protect the free and open internet. These regulations were enacted as a result of decades of hearings, meetings, and legal battles. They have broad bipartisan public support. The current regulations have been upheld in court. They have not decreased investment in broadband, according to broadband companies themselves. And they are about to be dismantled.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has called those fighting to protect the open internet "hyperbolic" and "desperate." He reads "mean tweets" to create viral hate clicks for conservative publications, jokes about being an industry shill at the "Telecom Prom," and says Hollywood celebrities are the reason everyone is so riled up. His public pitch for repealing the regulations - to the extent that there is one at all - often boils down to suggesting that people who want the regulations to remain in place are hysterical or are overblowing the situation.
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Robot

Can't be repeated enough: Former Facebook executive warns 'you are being programmed'

Rozina Sini
BBC
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 17:47 UTC
Facebook programming
© PA
A former Facebook executive has criticised the social network for ripping society apart during a question and answer session.

Chamath Palihapitiya, who worked as Facebook's vice president for user growth, was speaking at an event run by the Stanford Graduate School of Business on 10 November in which he described feeling "tremendous guilt' in helping the company attract two billion users.

His comments echoed remarks by Sean Parker, one of the early pioneers of Facebook, who spoke on 8 November, saying the social network provided "a dopamine hit and a social validation feedback loop, that exploited a vulnerability in human psychology."

However, coverage this week has seen thousands responding to Palihaptiya's words.

"We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," he told the audience.
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Ambulance

Beverly Hills anesthesiologist charged with murder of a 71-year-old patient


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:30 UTC
Rodeo Plastic Surgery
Rodeo Plastic Surgery
A Beverly Hills anesthesiologist was charged Wednesday with the murder of a 71-year-old patient.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said on Sept. 26, Stephen Kyosung Kim sedated his patient, Dr. Mark Greenspan, at Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery Center before a procedure.

According to prosecutors, Kim then injected himself with drugs during the procedure. While Greenspan was in the facility's recovery room, prosecutors allege Kim gave him a lethal dose of Demerol.
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Light Saber

RT America Managing Director: We will be expanding and will use all legal means to defend ourselves


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:30 UTC
rt newsdesk
RT America will expand and use all legal means possible to defend itself, despite its recent registration as a 'foreign agent', the broadcaster's managing director said.

"[RT America] will be expanding," Alexey Nikolov told Sputnik news agency on Thursday. "What we are doing irritates some people, because people who are unwelcome at the other channels continue to come to us, but most people are interested in what we are doing, and this interest is growing. We understand that we are doing the right thing, and we will be expanding,"

According to Nikolov, the channel will use all legal means it can to defend its "righteousness." "Everything that can be done from a legal standpoint, we are certainly doing because we are sure that there are a number of things that have to do with the violation of law," he added.
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Red Flag

Rape case collapses as judge reveals police withheld text messages that could have cleared defendant


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:23 UTC
Liam Allan
© Liam Allan / FacebookLiam Allan
A rape trial judge has called for an urgent inquiry after it was revealed police failings led to the collapse of a case. Evidence which could have potentially cleared the name of Liam Allan, 22, was not handed over to Croydon Crown Court, despite Allan being on bail for almost two years.

On Thursday, his trial was ceased after it emerged vital evidence had been withheld.

Officers within the Metropolitan Police had refused to hand over the phone records of Allan's alleged victim - a woman who says he raped and sexually assaulted her on six occasions - and had told Allan's lawyers there was nothing of interest in them.


Comment: This is actually standard operating procedure. Police are under pressure from the feminist lobby to do something about "rape culture" which doesn't exist, so they have taken to suppressing exculpatory evidence.


However, when a new prosecution barrister took over the case just one day before the trial began, the phone records were handed over. A staggering 40,000 messages were taken from the handset and showed the woman had asked the undergraduate student for sex on more than one occasion.
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Quenelle

Free the Net: Tech giants blast threat to 'freedom & innovation'


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:18 UTC
Supporters of Net Neutrality protest the FCC
© Kyle Grillot / ReutersSupporters of Net Neutrality protest the FCC's recent decision to repeal the program in Los Angeles, California, November 28, 2017.
Amazon, Netflix, Facebook and many other tech giants have blasted Congress' decision to repeal net neutrality, branding it 'harmful' for all internet users.

"I am extremely disappointed in the FCC decision to remove the #NetNeutrality protections," wrote Amazon's Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels on Twitter. "We'll continue to work with our peers, partners and customers to find ways to ensure an open and fair internet that can continue to drive massive innovation."
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Target

Police in Berlin raid suspected ISIS houses seizing physical evidence and data storage devices


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:13 UTC
german police
© Paul Zinken / Reuters
Authorities in Berlin have raided the homes of suspected members of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), seizing evidence and data storage devices, the city's public prosecutor's office has said. It remains unclear whether any arrests were made.

Some 130 police officers were involved in the operation, searching nine addresses in Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt, security officials said in a statement, though they did not specify if any arrests had been made. Local media, however, reported several people detained.

"The General Prosecutor's Office in Berlin is investigating four suspects, aged between 18 and 21, who are suspected of membership in a terrorist organization (IS) as well as of preparing a serious crime against the state," the statement reads.

Two are suspected of travelling from Berlin to an IS-controlled zone - through Istanbul - in November 2016, while another is suspected of receiving combat and explosives training from IS terrorists. The fourth is believed to have helped the others travel there, by driving them to an airport, the police said.
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Star of David

Israel's High Court has ruled that the IDF can't keep the bodies of slain Palestinians


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:03 UTC
Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant during his funeral in Gaza City
© Mohammed Salem / ReutersA mourner reacts as he carries the body of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant during his funeral in Gaza City December 12, 2017
Israel's High Court has ruled that the Israeli military can't keep the bodies of slain Palestinians for prisoner and body swaps. Instead of banning the widely-condemned practice, however, the court gave the Israeli government time to enshrine it in law.

In ruling that bodies cannot serve as bargaining chips, the court acted on a petition filed by families of deceased Palestinians whose remains have been retrieved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), most recently in October, when IDF destroyed an underground tunnel leading from Gaza to the Israeli city of Negev. Five bodies of Islamic Jihad members were discovered by the Israeli forces at the time and have been held since then.

"The State of Israel, as a nation of laws, cannot hold on to corpses for the purposes of negotiations at a time when there is no specific and explicit law that allows it do so," the court stated in its decision, as cited by the Times of Israel.
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Crusader

FSB raids ISIS cell that planned attacks on Kazan Cathedral & other St. Petersburg landmarks


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 16:30 UTC
Kazan cathedral, Saint Petersburg
© Getty Images
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained suspected members of a terrorist cell linked to Islamic State. A series of weekend bombings was planned in St. Petersburg, with the iconic Kazan Cathedral among the targets.

The attacks were planned to involve "a suicide bomber blowing [himself] up inside a religious facility and the murder of civilians with improvised explosive devises in places of mass gatherings," the FSB statement said.

The cell members were detained overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the FSB reported. During the raid, law enforcement agents seized "a large amount of explosive materials, elements of IEDs, automatic arms, ammunition and extremist literature." A bomb-making workshop was dismantled as part of the bust.
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Handcuffs

93yo woman arrested, evicted for not paying rent

Adrianna Iwasinski
clickorlando.com
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 06:07 UTC
93 year old woman
Eustis police arrested a 93-year-old woman accused of trespassing after the independent living facility in which she lived reported that she has refused to pay rent for the past three months.

Juanita Fitzgerald, 93, has a birthday coming up Friday. She was held in the Lake County Jail on a $500 bond and has been there since Tuesday. Fitzgerald was released Thursday on her own recognizance, a Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

Fitzgerald did not have to pay bond but must appear for a Dec. 27 court appearance, officials said.

Karen Twinem, with National Church Residences, which owns the Franklin House where Fitzgerald has lived since April 2011, said Fitzgerald told the staff she held back the rent because she thought she was going to die soon.

Comment: Juanita Fitzgerald is celebrating her 94th birthday and most probably suffering from some degree of age related dementia. It's appalling she would have hand cuffs slapped on her and spend 5 days in the slammer. This is one example of how America takes cakes care of their elderly. Shameful.

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