Society's ChildS


Pistol

Police looking for gunman in Edison, NJ Halloween party shooting

Edison Township, nj welcome board
© mycentraljersey.com
Police are looking for the gunman who shot and injured two men who were attending a Halloween party at a hotel in Raritan Center early Friday.

None of the injuries are considered life-threatening, according to police.

Police said a 21-year-old man from Newark was shot in the arm and abdomen and a 20-year-old man from East Orange was shot in the leg. Both men were transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for treatment of serious injuries.

About 12:42 a.m., police were dispatched to a report of a disturbance at the E Hotel Banquet and Conference Center, 3050 Woodbridge Ave., where a large group of people had been attending a Halloween party.

When police arrived, they found party guests fleeing from the hotel's banquet hall on foot and in cars. Other guests were found inside, some arguing and fighting, police said.

Bomb

13 killed, 16 injured in attack on hotel in Somali capital, Mogadishu

Somali attack
© Feisal Omar / ReutersSomali security officers secure the scene of a suicide car bomb explosion, at the gate of Naso Hablod Two Hotel in Hamarweyne district of Mogadishu, Somalia October 28, 2017.
At least 13 people have been killed and 16 injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a hotel in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, according to police. The attack was followed by gunfire, with a second blast reportedly being heard in the area minutes later.

The assailants targeted the popular Nasa-Hablod hotel located near the presidential palace and frequented by Somalia's politicians and local elites. Al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that its fighters are still inside the hotel.

Comment: See also: Two bomb blasts strike Mogadishu, Somalia; 22 people killed


Robot

Exponential improvements in AI means you could lose your job to a robot much sooner than you think

robots jobs
I want to tell you straight off what this story is about: Sometime in the next 40 years, robots are going to take your job.

I don't care what your job is. If you dig ditches, a robot will dig them better. If you're a magazine writer, a robot will write your articles better. If you're a doctor, IBM's Watson will no longer "assist" you in finding the right diagnosis from its database of millions of case studies and journal articles. It will just be a better doctor than you.

And CEOs? Sorry. Robots will run companies better than you do. Artistic types? Robots will paint and write and sculpt better than you. Think you have social skills that no robot can match? Yes, they can. Within 20 years, maybe half of you will be out of jobs. A couple of decades after that, most of the rest of you will be out of jobs.

In one sense, this all sounds great. Let the robots have the damn jobs! No more dragging yourself out of bed at 6 a.m. or spending long days on your feet. We'll be free to read or write poetry or play video games or whatever we want to do. And a century from now, this is most likely how things will turn out. Humanity will enter a golden age.

But what about 20 years from now? Or 30? We won't all be out of jobs by then, but a lot of us will-and it will be no golden age. Until we figure out how to fairly distribute the fruits of robot labor, it will be an era of mass joblessness and mass poverty. Working-class job losses played a big role in the 2016 election, and if we don't want a long succession of demagogues blustering their way into office because machines are taking away people's livelihoods, this needs to change, and fast. Along with global warming, the transition to a workless future is the biggest challenge by far that progressive politics-not to mention all of humanity-faces. And yet it's barely on our radar.

Footprints

Optical illusion pedestrian crossing installed in Icelandic town to slow drivers down

Pedestrian crossing
© Movementway / Global Look Press
A 3D zebra crossing has been rolled out in the Icelandic town of Ísafjörður in the hope that the optical illusion will impel drivers to slow down.

The creative road markings were installed after Icelandic environmental commissioner Ralf Trylla was inspired by a similar project in New Delhi, India aimed at tackling speeding. Trylla enlisted local Icelandic contractor Vegmálun GÍH who redesigned the crossing to create the appearance of stripes jumping out of the road.

Oscar

Chaplin and Polanski: Child rapists that were hailed by Hollywood

charlie chaplin
As the curtain gets pulled back and the predators in Hollywood scatter like cockroaches, every new finding leads to more questions. As the Harvey Weinstein scandal snowballed into Hollywood pedogate, Americans are finding out that children have long been the prey of Tinseltown's elite. But how far back does this depraved madness go? According to many horrifying cases over the 20th century, the answer to that question is at least 100 years.

Hollywood's proclivity for underage sex dates back ages-if he were alive, you could just ask Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin, the man George Bernard Shaw called "the only true genius motion pictures ever produced" had a depraved affinity for children. Only because of his status and money did this Hollywood legend avoid being locked up.

Chaplin's first underage victim was Mildred Harris. While it is unclear as to when their relationship began, at the ripe young age of 16, Harris gave birth to Chaplin's child. To avoid being prosecuted for statutory rape, Chaplin married Harris-a trend he would use the rest of his life.

Syringe

Baby forcibly removed at gunpoint after parents refuse to vaccinate

Luke Maguire and Louise McKever and son Bobby
  • Luke Maguire and Louise McKever claimed son Bobby was injured by Bexsero Meningitis B vaccine
  • Video uploaded to FB showed Bobby having seizures after the jab has had over three million views and 44,000 shares
  • After refusing further vaccines, they were harassed by police and social services
  • Social worker told parents that if they stopped talking about vaccines publicly, they would stop hounding them
  • Baby Bobby 'stolen' at gunpoint in Sunday morning police raid after Luke was falsely arrested for being in possession of a firearm
  • The family believe they've been set up.
A heartbroken young couple tell of their despair after their only son has been snatched in a terrifying police raid.

Handcuffs

US citizen leaves ISIS shortly after joining, gets 20yrs in prison

Prison
© Stephen Hird / Reuters
A US citizen has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of joining and providing material support to Islamic State. The man had stated that he "wasn't thinking straight," and left the group shortly after joining.

Mohamad Khweis, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, was handed his sentence Friday in the Eastern District of Virginia by US District Judge Liam O'Grady. He was captured by Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq in March 2016, and subsequently handed over to US authorities.

Khweis is the first US citizen to be captured on the battlefield, according to a press release by the Department of Justice.

Trial Attorney Raj Parekh, of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section, and Assistant US Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick, who serves in the Eastern District of Virginia, prosecuted the case.

Propaganda

Antifa Australia: I established a terror movement in Australia, and I quit - Shayne Hunter

Shayne Hunter
© UnknownShayne Hunter established the far-left terror group Antifa in Australia, but has since quit the movement.
Shayne Hunter established the far-left and violent Antifa movement in Australia. After four years the Brisbane man quit. Here's why.

ANTIFA is a growing extreme group who believe violence is legitimate.

I got radicalised in Sydney. I was originally concerned about Western intervention in Syria. Radical left wing people dominated rallies and I started to associate with them more. My so-called 'normal' friends drifted away.

We would hang out at an anarchist library in Sydney. Here a bunch of people on the dole gather enough money to rent out the space and run a bookshop. It's like extremist networking.

I came to believe that war was a symptom of bigger systems at play in society and they were the real enemy, like white supremacy and patriarchy. Antifa believe these systems need to be smashed through a process of 'de-platforming' to save the world. People who don't necessarily agree on everything are united to attack their common enemy - anyone in the right wing of politics.

Comment: See also:


Cell Phone

Giving your child a smartphone is like giving them a gram of cocaine

girl on smart phone
Giving your child a smartphone is like "giving them a gram of cocaine", a top addiction therapist has warned.

Time spent messaging friends on Snapchat and Instagram can be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers as drugs and alcohol, and should be treated as such, school leaders and teachers were told at an education conference in London.

Speaking alongside experts in technology addiction and adolescent development, Harley Street rehab clinic specialist Mandy Saligari said screen time was too often overlooked as a potential vehicle for addiction in young people.

Airplane

Travelers coming to the US will face stricter screening

Airport travelers
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
New security measures including stricter passenger screening take effect on Thursday on all U.S.-bound flights to comply with government requirements designed to avoid an in-cabin ban on laptops, airlines said.

Airlines contacted by Reuters said the new measures could include short security interviews with passengers at check-in or the boarding gate, sparking concerns over flight delays and extended processing time.

They will affect 325,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the United States, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries.

The United States announced the new rules in June to end its restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats.