Society's ChildS


Stock Down

Retailers go into 2017 with plans to close more storefronts

Jonathan Berr
CBS News
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:53 UTC
Macy's storefont, empty mall
© KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/BLOOMBERG NEWSShoppers walk on the promenade outside Macy’s at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, N.Y.
U.S. retailers have a problem they can't easily resolve: They have too many stores. And even though they've already announced slews of store closings, it's increasingly likely they'll have to shutter even more over the next few years. That's especially the case as consumers keep shifting their spending online, which has left the U.S. awash in unwanted retail space, or "overstored."

According to real estate information firm CoStar, nearly 1 billion square foot of retail space will be "rationalized" in the coming years through store closures and conversions to other uses. Many retailers also are seeking rent reductions as their productivity has slumped from an industry average of $330 in sales per square foot from $350 per square foot a decade ago.

The level of "overstoring" may only get worse. Retail analyst Jan Rogers Kniffen expects about half of all retail sales to be online by 2030, a huge increase from current figure of about 10 percent.

"A lot of these retailers are still in denial," said Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst at Edward Jones. "I think the Kohl's (KSS), the J.C. Penneys (JCP) of the world, they're in denial. At some point, there's probably not a need for 2,400 Kohl's and J.C. Penney's across the United States. There's probably not a need for 5,800 Walmart (WMT) Supercenters."
Read More...
Cult

Victims at Argentinian school for deaf say entire church hierarchy knew about pedophile priests yet did nothing

Almudena Calatrava
Associated Press
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 03:05 UTC
priest Nicola Corradi and Horacio Corbacho, pedophile priests argentina
© AP Photo/Emmanuel Rodriguez VillegasHandcuffed to a wheelchair, priest Nicola Corradi and the Rev. Horacio Corbacho, left, are escorted to a courtroom in Mendoza, Argentina, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016. In late November, police arrested Corradi and Corbacho, after several students came forward with shocking childhood tales of the sexual abuse suffered over years at a school for hearing impaired children, in remote northwestern Argentina.
The children said they wailed as the two Roman Catholic priests repeatedly raped them inside the small school chapel in remote northwestern Argentina. Only their tormenters would have heard their cries since the other children at the school were deaf.

The clerical sex abuse scandal unfolding at the Antonio Provolo Institute for hearing impaired children in Mendoza province would be shocking enough on its own. Except that dozens of students in the Provolo Institute's school in Italy were similarly abused for decades, allegedly by the same priest who now stands accused of raping and molesting young deaf Argentines.

And the Vatican knew about him since at least 2009, when the Italy victims went public with tales of shocking abuse against the most vulnerable of children and named names. In 2014, the Italian victims wrote directly to Pope Francis again naming the Rev. Nicola Corradi as a pedophile and flagged that he was living in Francis' native Argentina. Yet apparently, nothing was done.

Comment: It seems very little has changed, despite Pope Francis' promises to bring justice to victims and ensure such crimes will not be repeated: The Vatican has paid huge amounts of money to settle child molestation lawsuits

Read More...
Holly

Chinese man has been unknowingly cracking nuts with hand grenade for past 25 years


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 18:00 UTC
hand grenade
© WikipediaThe man will have to devise a new way to crack nuts.
A man in China has managed to cheat death for 25 years after only recently realizing a mysterious tool he was using to crack walnuts was actually a hand grenade.

The villager from Ankang, in China's Shaanxi province, only became aware of the dangerous item he possessed when he was handed a safety leaflet by police, advising locals on explosives that were illegal to possess.

Amongst the items listed was one object that bore a striking resemblance to the man's trusty nut cracking tool that he had been using for 25 years - a hand grenade.

The grenade was gifted to him by a friend, reported Huanqiu and had not detonated according to police, who were unsure whether it still contained explosives.
Read More...
People

Meet Daryl Davis, the black man who converted 200 KKK members simply by befriending them (VIDEO, PHOTOS)


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:44 UTC
black man KKK
© dajuan_n_only1 / Instagram
A Chicago man has made an unusual move to combat racism, cozying up to the Ku Klux Klan in order to change its members views on other races.

While befriending a group known for lynching and killing black Americans may seem like a strange way to spend your time, for musician Daryl Davis, the results pay off.

Read More...
Map

Russian military police arrive in Aleppo to help maintain security


Sputnik News
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:07 UTC
Aleppo
© Youssef KARWASHAN
A Russian military police battalion has made a forced march from the Hmeimim airbase to Aleppo to ensure security of Russian advisers, a de-mining squad and medics as well as to help Syrian authorities to maintain order in the liberated city, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

According to the ministry, the battalion has been airlifted to Syria after additional training.

"The battalion has conducted a forced march from the Hmeymim airbase to the city of Aleppo to carry out tasks as part of missions of the the Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation," the ministry said in a statement.

Comment: The Battle for Aleppo is over: Syrian Army declares Victory, claims 'full control' of city

Read More...
Heart - Black

Kicked, sexually assaulted, & peed on: Homeless Brits feel forced to suffer in silence for Christmas


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:31 UTC
homeless man
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
Homeless people in Britain are regularly "urinated on" and sexually assaulted, but fear reporting it to the police, a new report reveals.

According to a study from the country's biggest homelessness charity, Crisis, 80 percent of the rough sleepers interviewed had been attacked or abused in this year alone. However, over half of the victims confessed that they had not gone to the authorities because of the stigma attached to them.

The group's figures suggest that over one in three homeless people on the streets had been "deliberately hit or kicked," while a similar number had had things thrown at them. A small, but still significant, nine percent reported being peed on while on the street. More common, however, were threats of violence, which nearly 50 percent of rough sleepers claim to have suffered. An even higher number (59 percent) said they had been verbally abused or harassed.

A homeless man called Paul told the charity that it was during the holiday season that he found himself most abused. "I've been chucked over a subway," he said. "It was at Christmas time and everyone was going out getting drunk. You get more trouble at Christmas, I believe, than any other time. It's supposed to be a happy time."

"For anyone sleeping on the street, life can be a struggle just to survive," said Crisis chief executive Jon Sparks.
Read More...
People

Russians still regret USSR collapse, but believe restoration unrealistic


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC
The Soviet Emblem
© Natalia Seliverstova / SputnikThe Soviet emblem
Most Russian citizens do not believe that former Soviet republics can one day reunite on the same principles that bound together the USSR, but still think that some sort of a union state would be a promising project.

According to public opinion poll conducted by state-run agency VTSIOM in November this year the share of Russians who admit to regrets over the collapse of the Soviet Union is now about 63 percent, down from 65 percent in 2006.

At the same time, the share of respondents who believe that this collapse could have been prevented increased from 47 percent in 2006 to 56 percent in 2016.
Read More...
Heart

Thousands of Aleppo residents take to streets to celebrate liberation from terrorists, waving Syrian and Russian flags


Sputnik
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:42 UTC
aleppo residents
© REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki
On Thursday, the Syrian Army declared the complete liberation of Aleppo from terrorists. It was a cold windy day but thousands of Aleppo residents took to the streets to celebrate the end of five long years of fighting.

The victory in Aleppo is strategic and will turn the tide of the Syrian war which broke out in 2011.

In a recent interview with Al Watan newspaper, President Bashar Assad said that the Syrian Army taking control over Aleppo would radically change the situation across the entire country and would be a devastating blow to terrorists and their sponsors.

The fight for Aleppo was waged on the ground but also by diplomats. A special focus was placed on talks between and the United States and the most influential players in the Middle East.

Read More...
Propaganda

After lauding Russian ambassador's murder, New York Daily News shocked by blowback


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:12 UTC
porttrait Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov
© AFP2016/Natalia kolesnikova
Following an article praising the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov in Turkey, New York Daily News (NYDN) columnist Gersh Kuntzman has been surprised by pushback from readers, suggesting also that 'this is a disturbing trend' - that Americans may empathize with a Russian killed by an Islamic terrorist.

It seems that, despite the best efforts to revive mid-20th-century Cold War stereotypes, mainstream media is falling for them once again. The New York Daily News columnist now can attest to it, from his own experience. On Tuesday December 20, Kuntzman wrote a piece with a headline that speaks for itself: 'Don't cry for Russia's slain envoy, who was Putin's lackey.' The article glorified the murder of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, and stooped to calling it an example of "justice being served."


Comment: How low can the presstitutes go? Apparently praising terrorists for killing an ambassador is ok.

Read More...
Eye 1

Security company finds 700 million Android phones have spying firmware pre-installed

Mike Wehner
BGR
Tue, 20 Dec 2016 16:26 UTC
robot eating apple
© Flickr/asgw
The term "mobile phone security" is something of a joke these days, with the number of exploits, bugs, and breaches that are endlessly assaulting us and putting our personal information at risk. So, when security outfit Kryptowire sounded the alarm on Chinese company Adups for using its preinstalled apps to spy on Android users with Blu smartphones, it wasn't exactly a shock. Now, however, the impact of Adups alleged spying is growing in magnitude, and it's dragging other Android device manufacturers into the quagmire.

Adups is a company that facilitates over-the-air updates for mobile devices, so its firmware is preinstalled on lots of devices. However, the firmware does much more than it claims, and has the ability to snoop in areas that it shouldn't, and without the user ever knowing. That information can then be collected by Adups for whatever purposes it desires.

Trustlook, another digital security firm, dug deeper on what devices utilize Adups and could be used by the Chinese company to scrape your private information, and the list is absolutely massive. Trustlook says that over 700 million Android smartphones have Adups firmware installed that puts the user at risk of having text messages, call histories, and device information collected without their knowledge or consent.

Many of the manufacturers who utilize Adups are smaller companies who only release their devices in Asia or specific smaller markets. However, there are a few notable names on the list, including Lenovo, ZTE, and the aforementioned Blu.

The Blu R1 HD was the first device found to be relaying this sensitive information back to Adups, and the company took action to halt the app's nefarious habits, but it's now up to the rest of the dozens and dozens of manufacturers on the list to do the same. The best course of action right now seems to be keeping the phone as updated as possible, and installing any security patches that come down the pipeline.
Read More...