Society's ChildS


Arrow Down

Interest in Zuckerberg's Twitter rival collapses


RT
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:20 UTC
threads app
Threads reached 100 million sign-ups within just five days of launch, with Mark Zuckerberg celebrating every step of the way, but the actual usage of Meta's Twitter clone appears to have fallen off the proverbial cliff, data analysis has shown.

Zuckerberg chose to launch Threads as an Instagram spinoff, prompting the photo platform's user base to register for the text app when it launched on July 6. The cross-promotion helped the new platform reach ten million users in just seven hours, with Zuckerberg excitedly live-posting the growth.

Within a week, Threads made it to 150 million downloads globally, with India accounting for 33% of the new users and Brazil another 22%, according to Data.ai. Americans made up just 16% of downloads, with Mexico (8%) and Japan (5%) following suit.

In the same time frame, however, Threads saw its daily active users (DAU) collapse by 40% and the average daily time per user dropping fourfold, according to data from SensorTower. Only 16% of users came back on the seventh day after downloading, and time spent on Threads over the weekend was down 60% from its July 6 launch high.
Read More...
Bad Guys

France's denial day: Everyone understands why the country was engulfed in protests, but the authorities hush up the problem

Matthieu Buge
RT
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 11:57 UTC
macron
© Telmo Pinto / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesPresident of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron seen arriving with the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Thierry Burkhard in a troop vehicle, at Place de la Concorde.
Looking back on recent events in France, Bastille Day 2023 was surprisingly quiet. After days of riots, French President Emmanuel Macron led the ceremonies of France's national day, which celebrates... a revolution.

This quietness might be explained by the fact that the French authorities restricted movement during the evening, forbade the sale of fireworks, and deployed 130,000 policemen and troops over the country. These figures are interesting. 130,000. We are not talking about Ukraine's troops for its counteroffensive. No, we are talking about France, a nation which boasts about its democracy and art de vivre. However, the calm of the 14th of July 2023 shouldn't fool anyone, as the French elites remain in complete denial of the reality of the situation.

Riots started in France after the death of Nahel, a teenager of North African origin shot by a policeman. While chaos raged in the country under the astonished eyes of the rest of the world, and while travelers canceled their summer bookings in one of the most touristic countries in the world, politicians and journalists struggled to maintain a narrative that would not point to the main source of the problem - mass immigration.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Black equity director called a 'White supremacist' after speaking out about college's radical agenda: lawsuit

Hannah Grossman
Fox News
Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:22 UTC
Dr. Tabia Lee
© Fox News DigitalDr. Tabia Lee is suing De Anza Community College for alleged racial discrimination and First Amendment violations.
A Black equity director who worked at a taxpayer-backed California community college, accused her former employer of racial discrimination, retaliation and First Amendment violations after she committed thought crimes — "ideological discretion[s]" — that weren't in line with the administration's radical "antiracism," according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), said that De Anza Community College created a racially hostile environment for Dr. Tabia Lee and then fired her because she wasn't being "the right type of Black person." Namely, Lee did not support an extreme critical race theory agenda to "decenter whiteness."

Lee, as faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education, told Fox News Digital that she wanted people of all races, genders and sexual orientations to be included. She described witnessing minority groups — such as White gays and lesbians and Jews — being excluded from the "antiracist" mission.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Nearly half US millennials think misgendering should be illegal


RT
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:22 UTC
they pronouns transgender
© Getty Images / Dan Kitwood
More millennials support criminalizing misgendering than oppose the idea, a Newsweek poll conducted earlier this month and published on Saturday found. The idea had less support among both younger and older generations.

While 44% of poll respondents aged 25 to 34 said they believe referring to transgender people by the wrong pronouns should be a criminal offense, just 31% disagreed, while the rest were unsure or had no opinion on the matter.

Among the older age bracket of 35 to 44, which includes some millennials, support for criminalizing misgendering fell to 38%, with 35% against the idea.

Perhaps surprisingly, given that more of them identify as LGBTQ+ than any other age group, Generation Z was less likely than its millennial peers to support making incorrect pronoun use a crime - just 33% supported the idea, while 48% opposed it. Their views were more in line with the general US population, just 19% of whom want misgendering to be declared a crime, while 65% object to the idea.
Read More...
Quenelle

De-dollarization: India, Indonesia to use national currencies in bilateral


PressTV
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 10:09 UTC
trader India money
© ReutersA money trader counts Indian currency notes at a market in Kochi, India, March 27, 2020.
India and Indonesia have agreed to use their local currencies in bilateral trade amid a spreading trend of de-dollarization in countries across the globe weary of the negative impact of the greenback's fluctuations.

According to a senior Indian government official cited by US financial media on Monday, Delhi and Jakarta plan to settle bilateral transactions in local currencies.

The two heavily-populated countries also plan to link up their fast payment systems.

The agreements take place as India signed a similar pact with the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, which will see more trade done in the national currencies of the two countries, rupees and dirhams.

Comment: This signals how not only are nations are pivoting to the multipolar world, but that they are less afraid of the wrath of the ailing US empire, which, in Asia, may hamper the US' desperate provocations against China.

Read More...
People 2

Grassroots backlash helps defeat D.C. schools COVID vaccine mandate, CHD attorney says

Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
Children's Health Defense
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00 UTC
school
The District of Columbia last week ended its plan to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for children to attend school this upcoming academic year.

In announcing the decision, the Council of the District of Columbia noted that no state has mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren, that the public health emergency has ended and that not attending school has detrimental effects for children.

Commenting on the news, Kim Mack Rosenberg, acting general counsel for Children's Health Defense (CHD), told The Defender, "While I believe that mandates — whether in D.C. or elsewhere — were legally problematic from the outset, the council's decision to now remove the mandate is an important step to remedy a mandate that should never have been imposed."
Read More...
Megaphone

Tucker Carlson warns young conservatives to pay attention to topics with 'unapproved words'

Nanette Holt
The Epoch Times
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:01 UTC
tucker carlson TPUSA
© Natasha Holt/The Epoch TimesTucker Carlson delivers a mix of jovial and ominous remarks during the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on July 15, 2023.
Stay 'unaffected by the propaganda' and be aware of 'diversions,' he said.

Since his separation from Fox News, political commentator Tucker Carlson hasn't spoken much publicly — until this weekend.

In a rare spurt of appearances, he enjoyed the adulation of thousands of enthusiastic conservatives at political gatherings in two states.

On July 14, he publicly grilled most of the top-tier Republican presidential candidates — with the exception of former President Donald Trump — at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. As the nation's first state to caucus, it's been the midwestern mecca of political activity in recent weeks.

Comment: Tucker's entire speech is worth watching:


See also:

Read More...
Magic Hat

US 'soldier' faked Ukraine battlefield heroics - report


RT
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:17 UTC
James Vasquez
© TwitterJames Vasquez is pictured in a May 2023 Twitter post.
An American celebrated online and in the media has allegedly been outed as a hoaxer who aimed to get rich off his false image.

A US military veteran who claimed battlefield victories as a fighter in Ukraine and gained fame through media interviews and dramatic Twitter posts was reportedly lying about his exploits all along to create a false image from which he could profit after the conflict.

James Vasquez, who accumulated more than 400,000 followers on Twitter and was regularly quoted by the likes of CNN and the New York Times, falsely claimed battlefield achievements as his own, Business Insider reported on Sunday.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Satellite

From fields to front lines: Satellite data reveals the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food supply

Madeleine Clarke, Alison Donnellan, CSIRO
Phys.org
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 12:00 UTC
ukraine crops satellite
© Google, Maxar Technologies, CNES/AirbusTo access data on crop productivity after the invasion of Ukraine, our researchers used remote sensors like the Google Earth Engine.
One country produces about 12% of the grains (wheat, barley, maize and sunflower) traded globally. Developing countries in Africa and South Asia rely heavily on it. In fact, this country supplies up to 40% of the grain distributed by the United Nation's World Food Program.

This country is Ukraine, and it is at war.

It's a case study of how disruptions to agriculture supply chains by events such as war, drought or pandemics can have wide-ranging and complex impacts. In a globalized and increasingly interconnected world, understanding the flow-on effects of these major events is crucial.

Our researchers analyzed images of Ukrainian cropland and cargo shipping activity after the Russian invasion taken by satellites.

Their work, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, uses statistical modeling techniques to compare cropping and supply patterns in 2022 with historical data.

Comment: Interestingly this report came on the same day that the Black Sea Grain Deal was cancelled by Russia, following the West's refusal to implement its side of the agreements. Various experts and officials have since commented that this could lead to yet another spike in food prices, in addition to a decrease in food availability.

In addition, the establishment's brazen attack on the food supply continues apace:

Read More...
Wolf

Rex Heuermann's arrest 'tip of the iceberg' in Gilgo Beach murder cold case

Chris Eberhart
Fox News
Sat, 15 Jul 2023 20:14 UTC
Rex Heuermann Long Island prison
© Fox NewsRex Heuermann is seen leaving a Long Island prison.
Lawyer John Ray said the suspect's arrest could be just the beginning with other Long Island murders still unaccounted for

Rex Heuermann's arrest in Long Island's infamous cold case is a "good first step," but it's "just the tip of the iceberg," a documentary filmmaker and lawyer told Fox News Digital in separate interviews.

Heuermann, a 59-year-old married father of two and an architect working in Manhattan, allegedly killed three of the four women known as the "Gilgo Beach 4," and he's the prime suspect in the fourth woman's death.

But there were at least six more bodies found in the same area of Gilgo Beach that can't be forgotten, said John Ray, a lawyer who represents the families of Shannon Gilbert and Jessica Taylor.

Comment: Fox News also reports on the forensics and profiling that eventually pointed to Heuermann:
Criminologists who offered a psychological profile of the Gilgo Beach serial killer in 2011 came eerily close to describing suspect Rex Heuermann, who was arrested Thursday.

Serial killer experts told the New York Times in 2011 that the perpetrator who killed at least four women and dumped their bodies alongside Ocean Parkway in Long Island between 2007 and 2010 was likely to be an educated white male living on the South Shore of Long Island. Profilers said the suspect would have a job and be financially secure, drive an expensive car or truck, was likely to be married and would appear unassuming to most people.

"This is someone who can walk into a room and seem like your average Joe," said Scott Bonn, an assistant professor of sociology at Drew University in Madison, NJ, and serial-killer researcher.

"He has to be persuasive enough and rational enough that he is able to convince these women to meet him on these terms. He has demonstrated social skills. He may even be charming," he added, describing the man who murdered Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello.

Those descriptors are nearly an exact match for Heuermann, a Massapequa Park architect and married father of two who is now charged in connection to the Gilgo Beach murders.

Experts suggested the unknown subject would be in his mid-20s to mid-40s.

Heuermann, 59, would have been about 46 when the last victim, Costello, was killed in September 2010.

The placement of the victims' bodies was another major clue for profilers.

Rex Heuermann, 59, is tied to at least 11 murders after New York authorities discovered 11 sets of human remains strewn along a suburban Long Island beach highway between 2010 and 2011. (Jeffrey Simon Architecture & Design)

Eleven sets of human remains were discovered along a 10-mile stretch of a suburban Long Island beach highway. The area was remote enough to suggest that the perpetrator was familiar with the area, former FBI profiler Jim Clemente told the Times.

"He did not stumble upon that location," Clemente said. Since each of the victims disappeared in the summer, Clemente suggested there may be a "seasonal nature" to the killer's connection to the area. "It may be the time his wife or kids or parents are away for the summer," he suggested. "There are many possibilities."

Investigators said Friday that the murders took place at times when Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, and children were out of town. His wife was in Maryland when Waterman vanished, according to Heuermann's bail application.

She was in New Jersey when Costello disappeared and Iceland when Barthelemy was last seen alive, the document said.

[...]

Neighbors described Heuermann as a "creep" and expressed shock at his arrest.

Officials detailed in a bail application that Heuermann made "thousands" of Google searches for various explicit pornography and also searched for nearby sex workers. Among the Google searches that Heuermann allegedly made are "mistress long island" and "mature escorts Manhattan." Many allegedly involved child pornography.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney told Fox News on Friday that suspect Rex Heuermann's arrest came after five "hairs of significance" from four victims were able to be further studied thanks to mitochondrial DNA technology.

The suspect purportedly used burner phones, and New York authorities were able to use a perimeter of cell phone ping locations that matched calls made to some of the victims, according to the UK Guardian.

A bail application revealed that Heuermann was arrested with the additional help of DNA from a discarded pizza box.

Police towed a black Chevrolet Avalanche truck from Heuermann's property on Friday.
And just in:



Read More...