Society's ChildS


Snakes in Suits

CEOs of top US companies got highest pay raise since 2013 last year


RT
Tue, 23 May 2017 16:00 UTC
skyline
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
A study by executive data firm Equilar for the Associated Press (AP) found a typical chief executive officer of the largest US companies got an 8.5 percent pay raise last year, raking in $11.5 million in salary, stock, and other compensation.

According to the research, over the last five years, median CEO pay has jumped by 19.6 percent, not accounting for inflation. That's nearly double the 10.9 percent rise in the average weekly paycheck for full-time employees across the country.

It also found compensation dropped for nine of the ten companies scoring the lowest on "Say on Pay" votes, where shareholders have the right to vote on the remuneration of executives.

"It's all out of whack right now," Heather Slavkin Corzo, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment told AP, adding CEOs for major US companies make 347 times more than the average worker.
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Arrow Up

Olive oil prices spike sharply due to Mediterranean drought


RT
Tue, 23 May 2017 15:49 UTC
olive oil harvest
© Marcelo del Pozo / Reuters
The drought that hit major olive producers around the Mediterranean has had a significant effect on consumers all over the world with the price of extra virgin olive oil surging by nearly a quarter this year.

Olive oil production in Greece, Italy, Tunisia and, to a lesser extent, Spain is expected to decrease in 2017 sharply.

"Italy is terrible, Greece is terrible, and Tunisia is terrible. Can you imagine if Spain had also been down sharply?" said Panayotis Karantonis, director of the Athens-based Greek Association of Olive Oil Processors and Packers, as quoted by FT.

The International Olive Council (IOC) expects global output to fall 14 percent in this year, while in Italy production may be halved in the 12 months to September.

Greece will be down 20 percent and Tunisia 17 percent, while Spanish output is likely to face a drop of seven percent.
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Network

'Bigger than WannaCry': New malware employs 7 NSA exploits, Croatian expert warns


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 15:43 UTC
laptop screen
© Thomas Samson / AFP
Seven cyber exploits purportedly stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA) have been identified in 'EternalRocks', a new type of malware detected by a Croatian tech security advisor.

Similar to the WannaCry malware which struck hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide this month, EternalRocks apparently draws on NSA-identified network exploits EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalRoman, and EternalSynergy.

The worm utilizes DoublePulsar, Architouch and SMBtouch, a series of tools released in an apparent NSA leak by hacking group ShadowBrokers.
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Pills

10 music legends who were killed by the war on drugs and big pharma

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Mon, 22 May 2017 15:36 UTC
10 Music Legends killed by big pharma
"Chris's death is a loss that escapes words and has created an emptiness in my heart that will never be filled," Vicky Cornell, wife of late Soundgarden and Audioslave musician, Chris Cornell, lamented in a statement. "As everyone who knew him commented, Chris was a devoted father and husband. He was my best friend."

Vicky, reverently recalling Chris' time spent with their children over Mother's Day and plans for a Memorial Day vacation, expressed pain and grief in that Friday morning announcement following his death in the wee hours Thursday morning.

But she also suggested a pharmaceutical frequently prescribed to combat addiction played a role in the rocker's death — Ativan, a benzodiazepine similar to Valium or Xanax, came up in Vicky's last conversation with Cornell.
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People 2

Remarkably pathological ads that exemplify how the advertising industry degrades women and men

Nathaniel Mauka
Waking Times
Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00 UTC
degrading ads
With all the scientific developments in neuroscience, perhaps none have been utilized so thoroughly and so effectively for social engineering as in the advertising industry.

If you thought you could get away from the influence of this machine, you're mistaken. Nearly a century after Coca-Cola took cocaine out of its most popular beverage, neuroscientists have found that soft drinks still work like illicit drugs, as does fat, salt, and sugar on our brains - but strangely, so do the images we "consume." Are you sure that you are motivated by your own, sovereign mind or are other forces at play?


Comment: Depends on the type of fat, we need the salt, and yes sugar is quite bad for us.


This massive industry manufactures societal problems such as sexism, gender, race, and age division, depression, etc. by using subtle (and not so subtle) programming that is plugged directly into the brains of millions of people across the globe.
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Sheriff

Cops assault, strike 14yo girl as her mom watches in horror

Matt Agorist
Free Thought Project
Tue, 23 May 2017 15:09 UTC
San Antonio police hit 14yr old girl
A video uploaded to Facebook of an incident Saturday night has a family and community members crying foul as it shows multiple San Antonio police officers manhandle and allegedly hit a 14-year-old girl.

The brief video was taken by a bystander during an alleged altercation between two males at a teenager's quinceañera, the Latin American celebration of a girl turning 15-years-old.

The 14-year-old victim and her mother attended the quinceañera and were in the parking lot leaving when police showed up.
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Jet5

What's behind the US' new approach to Syria


Sputnik
Sun, 21 May 2017 13:49 UTC
Syrian soldier
© AP Photo/ Hawar News Agency
The US' top officials have recently announced that the US is changing tactics in Syria and is working on the possible de-confliction of operations in Syria with Russia. Russian media suggested what might be behind the revised US' policies.

This week, Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the US has changed its tactics in Syria following the order by President Trump to increase the pressure on the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh) in Iraq and Syria, and leave the beleaguered fighters with no avenue of escape.

"He directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS," Mattis said Friday during a Pentagon briefing on the counter-ISIS campaign.
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Info

A sneak peek in Homs recently liberated by Syrian army


Sputnik
Tue, 23 May 2017 13:32 UTC
Damaged buildings in Homs, Syria
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Alaeddin
The last group of militants and their family members withdrew from the district of Al Waer in Syria's Homs within some 24 hours on Monday, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the city.

Police officers, journalists, soldiers, civilians and armed militants crowded at an evacuation center. Tension ran high, with everyone bracing for the withdrawal of the most irreconcilable radicals wearing black masks and loading their personal possessions onto buses while toting assault rifles.

The Sputnik correspondent witnessed a moment that will go down in history when Al Waer residents saw off bus convoys with tears of joy welling up in their eyes, as they looked forward to restored peace. On the last day at the evacuation center, the correspondent had a rare opportunity to speak with those who forbade local residents to leave the district of Al Waer over the past six years and fought against the Syrian army as recently as the day before.

Comment: More on Homs: Homs sweet Homs: Why the liberation of one of Syria's biggest cities matters

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Music

Festivals in UK to allow revellers to test drugs before they take them

Joe Nerssessian
The Independent
Mon, 22 May 2017 13:28 UTC
revellers
The scheme to allow festival-goers to test drugs before they take them is expected to be rolled out to between six and 10 events this year
Some of Britain's biggest music festivals are poised to allow revellers to test their drugs before they take them.

For the first time this summer, Reading and Leeds festivals and a number of other live music events are aiming to introduce the testing of illegal drugs for attendees with the support of local police forces.

Melvin Benn, head of Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic, revealed the pioneering scheme to the Press Association and expects it at "between six and 10 festivals this year".
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Bizarro Earth

Lost the plot: US lawyers to argue female genital mutilation is constitutional


RT
Tue, 23 May 2017 13:09 UTC
female genital mutilation
© iegfried Modola / Reuters
Lawyers will argue in a landmark trial that female genital mutilation is a right under religious freedom protected by the First Amendment. Two Detroit doctors and one of their wives are facing multiple federal charges for cutting two seven-year-old girls.

Defense lawyers will argue the doctors didn't cut the girls' genitalia and only scraped it, and that the government's prosecution is culturally and religiously insensitive and their clients were practicing their beliefs, according to the Independent.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been banned in the US since 1996. The practice involves removing part of the clitoris or clitoral hood, and is common in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.


Comment: Female genital mutilation is barbaric and anyone who thinks it's OK to mutilate a young girl should have their head examined!

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