Society's ChildS


Nuke

First traces of radioactive isotope found near Fukushima wastewater release


RT
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:02 UTC
Nukeplant
© Toshifumi TanuichiFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
The concentration of tritium was almost 6,000 times lower than the maximum permitted level, according to Japanese experts...

Japanese energy company Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has recorded traces of tritium in the ocean near the Fukushima wastewater discharge site for the first time, according to a statement released on Friday.

TEPCO reported that the concentration of tritium - a radioactive isotope of hydrogen - was detected in samples taken on August 31 at 11 points within 3km of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. At 200 meters - the closest point from which treated wastewater is being released into the ocean - the concentration was found to be 10 becquerel per liter (bq/l), which is a unit used to measure radioactivity.

Japanese experts said the reading was only slightly above the lower limit of detection of 8.6 bq/l, and is about 6,000 times less than the permissible level of 60,000 bq/l established by Japan's International Commission on Radiological Protection. The detected levels are also 1,050 times lower than the acceptable norm for drinking water set by the World Health Organization.

In samples taken from other measuring points within 10km from the water discharge site, tritium concentration levels were found to be below the lower limit of detection of 7.6 to 7.7 bq/l.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Colorado school overturns Gadsden Flag ban after student goes viral

James Bickerton
Newsweek
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:09 UTC
gadsen flag don't tread on me
© Getty/Jon CherryA man with a Gadsden flag during the Kentucky Freedom Rally at the capitol building on August 28, 2021, in Frankfort, Kentucky.
The Colorado Springs school that sparked conservative outrage after telling a 12-year-old boy he had to remove a patch displaying the Gadsden flag from his backpack due to "its origins with slavery" has reversed course, saying he can continue bringing it to lessons.

According to The Denver Gazette, the boy's family was notified of the decision by The Vanguard School on Tuesday following an emergency meeting by its board of directors.

In an email sent to the families of students at the school, the board said: "From Vanguard's founding we have proudly supported our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the ordered liberty that all Americans have enjoyed for almost 250 years.

Comment:



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Toys

Puerile WaPo hack Philip Bump throws tantrum when questioned about his prior lies: "You don't listen to the press . . . I'm telling you"

Jonathan Turley
jonathanturley.org
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:48 UTC
Philip bump washington post column
© C-SPANAuthor Philip Bump
I recently wrote how the Washington Post issued a statement that declared that the newspaper was "standing by" columnist Philip Bump on his proven false claims on subjects ranging from Lafayette Park to Russian collusion. Bump's prior claims have not only been conclusively shown to be false but other major media outlets have now rejected those claims. However, the Post claimed this week that they are in fact true in response to one of my earlier columns.

Now, Miranda Devine at the New York Post has written about a meltdown by Bump in a podcast interview with Noam Dworman, owner of New York's own Comedy Cellar. Dworman had asked Bump to explain some of his claims and Bump offered one of the most vivid examples of the new media and it is chilling. After declaring that "I'm gonna lose my mind," he stormed out of the interview after refusing to address the contradictions and dubious claims in his prior columns.

Dworman's podcast interview stands as one of the most revealing and vivid examples of how the media has changed in the age of rage. Bump moves quickly from the conversational to crazed when simply asked about the basis for his claims in the Washington Post.

Comment: Bump's bitterness against Trump is longstanding. No wonder he is well-regarded at the Washington Post: He seems to have a history as a liar-for-hire:

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Pistol

Jacksonville shooting gives US media the 'white racist' narrative it craves

Robert Bridge
RT
Thu, 31 Aug 2023 19:59 UTC
rally against white supremacy
© Sean Rayford / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFPRally against white supremacy in Jacksonville, Florida, August 28, 2023.
Ryan Palmeter's despicable murder of three is spun to support the claim white people are the black community's worst enemies.

Last Saturday, 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock handgun, killed three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida before committing suicide. As it became immediately clear from the news reports, Palmeter was a radicalized white male and deeply racist, of that there can be no doubt. So here we have a tragedy that reinforces the idea that white Americans, by their inherent 'supremacist' nature, are attacking black people en masse. Is there any truth to this narrative?

First, it's important to understand that the vast majority of crime in the United States is intra-racial, meaning that crimes against white, black and Hispanic people are committed overwhelmingly by members of their own race (The notable exception is the Asian-American population, who are more often victimized by members of other races). However, the mainstream media rarely if ever mentions the interracial crime statistics between white and black people, and for good reason.
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Magnify

Israel's police open fire as Eritrean protest results in clashes, dozens injured

Ohad Zwigenberg
Associated Press
Sat, 02 Sep 2023 12:00 UTC
eritrea protest
Eritrean protesters clash with Israeli riot police in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday 2nd September 2023.
Violent protests have erupted between hundreds of Eritrean asylum-seekers and Israeli police in Tel Aviv on Saturday during a protest against an event organized by the Eritrean Embassy. The Israeli police said 27 officers were injured in the clashes, and at least three protesters were shot by police firing live rounds after they felt "real danger to their lives."

Israeli police in riot gear and on horses tried to corral the protesters, who broke through barricades and hurled chunks of sidewalk, batteries and rocks at the police.


Comment: So the police thought live ammunition was an appropriate response?


Similarly violent protests have popped up all over the world as Eritrea, one of the world's most repressive countries, marks 30 years of independence with festivals held by Eritrea's diaspora across Europe and North America. Earlier this year, Eritrea called anti-government protesters marching against these events "asylum scum."

Comment: Whilst Israel's security forces are notorious for their brutality towards non-Israeli citizens, as reported above, it is notable that there have been at least 2 similar Eritrean demonstrations in Europe recently, and both resulted in serious clashes with opposition demonstrators, as well as police: Footage of the shooting:



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Bizarro Earth

100+ UK schools threatened with partial closure over crumbling concrete fears, hospitals also affected

Louisa Clarence-Smith
The Telegraph
Thu, 31 Aug 2023 22:15 UTC
school uk
The Department for Education began reviewing the risks posed by RAAC in 2018 when the roof at a primary school in Gravesend, Kent, collapsed
Schools in England face a new lockdown as classrooms are forced to close because of crumbling concrete.

More than 100 schools and colleges were ordered to fully or partially shut on Thursday, affecting thousands of pupils, because of the risk that buildings will collapse.

Unions warned that could be "the tip of the iceberg", with hundreds more schools built with "crumbly" reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) expected to be told that they must shut classrooms and buildings.

The Department for Education (DfE) is facing questions about why it waited until the eve of the new school year to make the announcement, with teachers left scrambling to find alternatives for pupils.

Comment: As a sign of the sorry state the UK is in these days, 48 hours later a warning was issued about a variety of other government buildings:
England's concrete crisis could extend to hospitals and courts, experts say

[...]

Writing for the Times, she said the state of some public buildings was "jaw-dropping".

Newsnight revealed on Friday that it had seen reports from as far back as 1961 about aerated concrete concerns.

[...]

Chris Goodier, a professor of construction engineering and materials at Loughborough University, said "the scale of the problem is much bigger than schools".

Matthew Byatt, the head of the Institution of Structural Engineers, said any high-rise buildings with flat roofs constructed between the late 1960s and earl 1990s could contain Raac.

Ministers have so far refused to publish the names of the affected schools or 34 other public buildings identified as containing Raac.

They include 24 hospitals, seven court buildings and four Department for Work and Pensions facilities.
[...]

Government-commissioned surveyors rated the risk of identified Raac panels in schools from critical to low. Only those deemed critical were immediately closed for remedial work.

The DfE's U-turn - which means all buildings or areas with Raac must close - follows instances where the material collapsed despite it being considered low risk.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday, the schools minister, Nick Gibb, said the department had discovered a "number of instances" over the summer.

This included a beam collapsing at one school, with no sign "that it was a critical risk".

Gibb has also said the tally of 154 schools so far identified with the material was sure to rise.
Lockdowns demonstrated just how harmful remote learning and the disruption of schooling can be for children, especially for those whose parents can't afford to compensate for the loss of schooling; and it's mostly low income schools that built these portacabins.

See also:

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Binoculars

Speculation grows that Warren Buffett is "bracing for a recession" as consumer confidence plummets and retailers fall on hard times

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00 UTC
Warren Buffett
The Biden administration is trying really hard to convince us that the U.S. economy is doing just fine, but the numbers just keep getting worse and worse. Consumer confidence is plummeting, large corporations are conducting mass layoffs all over the country, and major retailers are really struggling right now. Meanwhile, some of the smartest guys in the financial world are making moves that would only make sense if the economy was headed for big trouble. Earlier this month, I wrote about how Michael Burry has bet 1.6 billion dollars that the stock market is going to crash. He made a ton of money in 2008 by being on the correct side of the financial crisis, and he plans to make even more money this time around. This week, speculation has been growing that Warren Buffett also believes that a major downturn is coming. In fact, Business Insider is warning that Warren Buffett "may be bracing for a recession" because he has been selling off stocks at a staggering pace...
Berkshire sold a net $8 billion of stocks and slowed its pace of buybacks last quarter, sparking a 13% rise in its money pile to a near-record $147 billion.

The sprawling conglomerate has now disposed of a net $33 billion of stocks over the past three quarters, fueling a $38 billion increase in its stash of cash, cash equivalents, and Treasury bills during that time.

Buffett's second-quarter moves "are consistent with the anticipation of a recession and the fact that stocks are currently pricey," Hanke told Insider.
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Sherlock

Fifty years since coup, Chile seeks answers about its disappeared

Natalia A. Ramos Miranda
Reuters
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:40 UTC
chile coup
© REUTERS/Ivan AlvaradoA human silhouette reading 'I am Sergio Reyes Navarrete, lover of books and music' is seen in memory of detained and missing people at Jose Domingo Canas memorial house, a former detention, torture and forced disappearance quarters of the secret police of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the coup d'etat, in Santiago, Chile, August 30, 2023
As Chile readies to mark 50 years since the 1973 coup against then President Salvador Allende, the country is increasingly asking a question about the thousands who disappeared in the years of military dictatorship that followed: "Where are they?".

The South American country is ramping up a hunt, with a National Search Plan launched on Wednesday by progressive President Gabriel Boric to consolidate the reams of case files and investigations, hoping to unearth new leads.

During the bloody 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, some 40,175 people were executed, detained and disappeared, or tortured as political prisoners, according to the Ministry of Justice, based on fact finding by various commissions.

There are 1,469 people who were victims of forced disappearance, of which 1,092 were detained and disappeared, while 377 were executed and their remains never returned.
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Stock Down

Woke Disney sued over 'fraudulent scheme' to hide streaming losses

Alexandra Steigrad
NY Post
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:46 UTC
bob chapek
© REUTERSThe lawsuit cites former Disney CEO Bob Chapek in particular for allegedly deliberately misleading shareholders about the high costs related to its streaming division.
Disney shareholders accused the media giant's leadership of misleading investors with "a fraudulent scheme designed to hide the extent of Disney+ losses," according to a new lawsuit.

The complaint, filed by New Jersey-based Stourbridge Investments on Aug. 23 in Delaware federal court, claims Disney management under then-CEO Bob Chapek tried to conceal the "staggering costs" it incurred while attempting to boost its subscriber count and promise profitability by the end of 2024.

The suit was lodged the day before Disney shares closed at a nine-year low of $82.47 per share — far below the $100 the stock traded at after Bob Iger replaced the ousted Chapek last November.

The stock was at $84.16 in midday trading on Wednesday.

Investors claimed they were deliberately duped by statements from Chapek — specifically one from December 2020 — which boasted that "Disney+ has exceeded our wildest expectations" and "bolstered our confidence" despite suspicious profitability forecasts.
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Books

Florida school board forced to remove dozens of books after parents read 'graphic' passages aloud at meetings

Nikolas Lanum
Fox News
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:11 UTC
School District of Indian River County remove porn from library lgbt books queer
© Screenshot/School District of Indian River CountyThe Indian River County (Florida) School Board unanimously voted to remove books from school shelves during a meeting Monday.
One concerned citizen was escorted away from the podium by security while reading

A Florida school board voted unanimously to remove several dozen books from school shelves after concerned citizens read graphic excerpts from the hotly debated novels.

The board decided to remove the books in question because of a rule signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May that states parents "shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection."

Under HB 1069, if a school board denies parents the right to read passages considered "pornographic" or "harmful to minors," the school district must discontinue the use of such materials.

During the Monday meeting at the Indian River County School Board, over 30 parents and community members successfully had the books removed when they were cut off from speaking at the podium.

Comment: Why should it take parents publicly embarrassing their school boards to get filth out of their children's school libraries? Those running the libraries choose the books. Who is screening them? It's clear the board has no idea what's happening on the ground in the classrooms for which they are responsible.

Behold the cognitive dissonance of this woke parent:



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