Society's ChildS


Yoda

Putin's popularity continues to ride high in latest Russian poll


RT
Thu, 05 May 2016 20:21 UTC
putin tee shirt
© Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik
Over 80 percent of Russians approve of the work of their president, and the number of Vladimir Putin supporters is high even among members of opposition parties, according to the latest public opinion research.

The government-owned agency VTSIOM reported on Thursday that the share of Russians who said they are happy with Vladimir Putin's performance as president is 82 percent. Even more Russians - 84 percent - said they are ready to vote for Putin at the presidential elections.

According to the same research, 76 percent of members of Russia's Communist Party said they are satisfied with Putin as the leader of their country and 79 percent of Communists claimed they would give Putin their support at presidential polls.

Members of the Liberal Democratic party hold similar views, with 69 percent claiming general approval of Putin's current policies and 76 percent promising to vote for the incumbent in the next presidential polls.
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War Whore

Army captain sues Obama for unconstitutional war against ISIS

Melissa Dykes
Mint Press
Thu, 05 May 2016 20:14 UTC
Army Capt. Nathan Smith
Army Capt. Nathan Smith
Most Americans don't even know how many countries their government is currently bombing (it was at least seven by 2014). Obama dropped 23,144 bombs in Middle Eastern countries in 2015 alone. By that count, you'd think ISIS would be erased from the face of the planet.

Instead, more and more "boots" are being placed "on the ground" in Iraq and Syria all the time. Just because no one has said it's an official "war" doesn't make it anything less... and people aren't even paying attention anymore to whether or not the wars our government is waging are actually Constitutional or not.
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Colosseum

Russian conductor Gergiev leads orchestra in ruins of Palmyra


RT
Thu, 05 May 2016 18:38 UTC
palmyra orchestra
© RT

Comment: At this same location, the U.S.-backed Daesh psychopaths conducted a mass execution of Syrian soldiers. The Russians played music. That says all you need to know about the difference in mentality between the two 'superpowers'.


A Russian symphony orchestra led by Valery Gergiev has given a unique performance in ancient Palmyra, recently liberated from Islamic State militants. The concert was devoted to the victims of extremists, and intends to instill hope that peace can triumph over war and terrorism.

The symphony orchestra concert was titled "Praying for Palmyra - Music revives ancient ruins" and was performed in the Roman Theater of Palmyra, one of the few sites still largely intact after Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) captured the city. The venue served as the main site for the annual Palmyra festival prior to the terrorists' rampage in the region.

The musical show commemorates those who fell while liberating the city from IS, and also backs the tremendous efforts needed to restore Palmyra's ruined architectural gems, the organizers said.

Gergiev was among the first to offer support to the embattled city, which was devastated by terrorists during its 10-month occupation. Palmyra was liberated by Syrian troops with Russian air support in March.

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Padlock

Illinois school district installs fingerprint scanners in school cafeterias

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Wed, 04 May 2016 18:19 UTC
Fingerprint scanner
Students and faculty at Harrison Street Elementary School just love the new thumbprint scanner in the school's lunch line, but civil rights experts are warning parents about serious privacy concerns with the technology.

The Geneva Unit District 304 replaced a different biometric scanner system for school lunch lines this year with devices from a local company, PushCoin Inc., that read students' thumb prints to track their accounts, the Daily Herald reports.

"It's good, because you don't have to carry your own money or anything like that," fifth-grader Quinlan Bobeczko told the news site. "It's just there. Your thumb is easy, because you just have to put your thumb on (the device)."

Officials in several area school districts are watching District 304 in hopes of installing similar devices in their schools.

East Maine Elementary District 63 spokeswoman Janet Bishop said the district hired PushCoin Inc. this spring to begin offering the thumb scan option this month, and Lake Zurich Unit District 95 board president Doug Goldberg said schools there will implement the biometric scanners in the 2016-17 school year, the Daily Herald reports.

Comment: Privacy concerns raised as more than one million pupils are fingerprinted in UK schools

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V

Clashes in Paris as police tear gas groups protesting decision to evict asylum seekers from high school under renovation


RT
Wed, 04 May 2016 15:56 UTC
migrants fighting paris police
© Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFPMigrants' supporters clashes with anti-riot policemen to protest against the Jean-Jaurès highschool evacuation by the police in Paris on May 4, 2016
Police in Paris have deployed tear gas against demonstrators and refugees who protested the authorities' decision to evict at least 277 asylum seekers who had been living in a high school under renovation for about two weeks.

The demonstrators, some of them wearing masks and hoods, formed a human chain to prevent police officers from entering the building of Jean Jaurès School, French media reported.

"Everyone hates the police," and "Solidarity with Refugees," protesters chanted, before starting to throw objects at police, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police, in turn, deployed tear gas against the demonstrators. When they finally managed to enter the school, they faced a barricade made of chairs and tables piled up to block them.

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Radar

US freight rail traffic plunges: Haunting pictures of transportation recession

Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Wed, 04 May 2016 14:24 UTC
Idle trains in Arizona
Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units.

The coal industry is in a horrible condition and cannot compete with US natural gas at current prices. Coal-fired power plants are being retired. Demand for steam coal is plunging. Major US coal miners - even the largest one - are now bankrupt. So in April, carloads of coal plummeted 40% from the already beaten-down levels a year ago. The AAR report:
Rail coal traffic continues to suffer due to low natural gas prices and high coal stockpiles at power plants. Coal accounted for just 26% of non-intermodal rail traffic for US railroads in April 2016, down from 36% in April 2015 and 45% as recently as late 2011.
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Newspaper

Waking up: Majority of Germans think the media is controlled by political, economic elites

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Thu, 05 May 2016 14:16 UTC
Caution: media is not a reflection of reality
According to a recent survey, the majority of people in Germany view the news media as simply a pillar of the government and the powerfully elite. Only one third of the respondents think that the German news media is truly independent, while the majority view the government and parties as having control over particular policies, and the lobbyists and advertisers having control over the economic news.

More than half of the respondents viewed the news media as controlled by the "powerful" in the country, a view which manifested in recent years in the wake of going through crisis after crisis as the media began to be viewed simply as part of the system, or, the Fourth Estate.

Another major issue brought forth by the respondents is that the media reports only the problems, never presents any solutions, and when it came to consequences of political decisions very little reporting was done on the impacts those decisions had on the people.
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Health

Safe haven baby boxes arrive in US


RT
Thu, 05 May 2016 03:34 UTC
Baby in a box
© Tony Gentile / Reuters
Baby hatches may be common in parts of Europe and Asia, but the first two in the US have just now arrived. Indiana is embracing the boxes that will allow women to anonymously surrender their children, making abandonment safer and easier.

The first baby box in the US can be found in Woodburn, Indiana, where the padded, climate controlled container will send an alarm to emergency responders when a baby is deposited, according to AP. There is no word on whether it will be able to tell the difference between an actual baby and somebody shoving in garbage to mess with the authorities.
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Quenelle

Army Captain sues Obama for fighting ISIS without authorization from Congress


RT
Thu, 05 May 2016 11:43 UTC
Obama ISIS
An Army Captain is suing President Barack Obama, arguing that the war against Islamic State is illegal because it has not been authorized by Congress.

"Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, when the President introduces United States armed forces into hostilities... he must either get approval from Congress within sixty day to continue the operation, in the form of a declaration of war... [the] President did not get Congress's approval for his war against ISIS in Iraq or Syria... the war is therefore illegal," said Captain Nathan Michael Smith, a military intelligence officer, in court documents filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday.

The court documents say that the 1973 War Powers Resolution was enacted by Congress to prevent presidential overreach and protect Congress' right to vote on whether and when to go to war. The resolution was created after Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon escalated the war in Vietnam and extended it into Laos and Thailand as a general "war against communism."

Comment: Further reading: Lame duck Obama: Grasping for an imperial legacy

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Airplane

'Severe and unexpected' turbulence injures 32 on Etihad flight to Indonesia

Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 04 May 2016 21:30 UTC
severe turbulence on Etihad flight
© NETCitizenJournalist, FacebookPassengers could be heard screaming and crying as their flight encountered severe turbulence.
More than 30 passengers are being treated for injuries after their Etihad Airways flight encountered severe turbulence just before landing.

Flight EY474 travelling from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta encountered "severe and unexpected" turbulence 45 minutes before landing on Wednesday.

Passengers were seen screaming, crying and hugging each other in a video filmed by a passenger, which showed the plane rocking violently from side to side.

Oxygen masks tumbled from the ceiling, passengers told Jakarta-based news website Okezone .

"It happened when I was performing prayer," passenger Nenden Nurhaini told the website. "The plane suddenly began to shake so fast."


Medical teams met passengers as they disembarked from the Airbus A330-200, which landed safely at Soekarno Hatta International Airport.

Comment: A few months ago freak turbulence injured over 20 people on board an Air Canada flight from Shanghai to Toronto. According to a Canadian physics professor specializing in atmospheric turbulence, breaking "gravity waves" may have been responsible for the incident. For related articles, see also:

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