Society's ChildS


Comet 2

Meteor-encrusted medals up for grabs at Sochi 2014


rbth.ru
Sat, 27 Jul 2013 07:10 UTC
Sochi Olympic champions that happen to win their medals on February 15, 2014 - one year after the meteor crashed in the Urals - will receive special medals inlaid with tiny pieces of the celestial object.

A select few athletes lucky enough to win gold medals on a specific date at the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will be awarded an extra set of medals with bits of the meteor embedded in them; this is being done for the first anniversary of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteor, the Ministry of Culture of the Chelyabinsk Region reported.

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Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee President Dmitry Chernyshenko presented the medals of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to the public. The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee showed a video presenting the medals and telling about their main idea. "The medals embody the idea of the brand and the contrasting effects of our country, where Europe meets Asia, where pristine nature comes in touch with a metropolis, and where innovations neighbor the richest culture of Russia," the presentation video says.
The medals will be crafted at an arms factory in the Urals, the report indicated, citing the region's Minister of Culture Alexei Betekhtin. Apparently, the medals, which have yet to be designed, will be awarded to athletes on February 15, 2014, marking exactly one year since the meteor crash. "We will award our medals to all athletes who win gold medals on that day, because the meteor, just like the Olympic Games, is an event of global significance," Betekhtin said.

According to a spokesperson for the regional Ministry of Culture, the meteor-inlaid medals will be awarded in addition to the regular set of Olympic prizes. The medals will most likely be gold-plated.

The meteor, dubbed "Chelyabinsk," crashed in Chelyabinsk Region on February 15, 2013, causing a powerful shock wave that damaged buildings and smashed windows in Chelyabinsk, and injured over 1,600 people.

First published in Russian in RIA Novosti.
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Attention

Best of the Web: It's time to start taking this global food riot model seriously

Michael Byrne
Motherboard
Sat, 27 Jul 2013 17:44 UTC
Global Food Riot
© Motherboard
You should already know the name Yaneer Bar-Yam. He's the founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and made news for a 2011 paper tying global food prices to 2008 and 2011 riot outbreaks in Africa, and the general theory that above a certain benchmark food price, the conditions for rioting become prime.

It's not a strict cause and effect relationship - if value x, then riots - simply an observation that the probability of riots spikes at a certain point. Other things, like, say, Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself on fire, might be the actual trigger, but day-to-day survival as it pertains to food is what allows the gun to fire.

Bar-Yam's model has another "success," according to a paper posted on the arVix pre-print server last week. Rioting that occurred last year during a platinum miner's strike in South Africa - in which 34 strikers were killed by government forces - coincided neatly with a spike in the global price of maize. Stagnant wages matched with spiking food costs yields unrest. It matches well with a similar spike in 2008 that resulted in another series of riots in the country.
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Fish

American tourist in Greece kills and eats rare six-legged octopus

Daniel Johnson
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:39 UTC
Hexapus
© SWNSLabros Hydras with his daughter Areti and son Arion with the six legged octopus or hexapus.
Labros Hydras, 49, pulled the 'hexapus' from the sea while snorkelling in Greece, and following local tradition he smashed it against a rock to kill it before taking it to a nearby tavern to cook.

But after the chef refused to cook the rare animal, the father-of-two fried it for himself before doing some research and realising what he had done.

Mr Labros, a mechanical engineer living in Washington DC, said he was "horrified" when he found out what he had eaten.

"I wanted to find out more, but there was no internet where we were", Mr Labros said.

"I then called my friend who is a biologist and he told me it was true and I was horrified.
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Stock Down

Extreme fear is reasonable: Economic collapse is inevitable

Monty Pelerin
Monty Pelerin's World
Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:29 UTC
Fear
© Monty Pelerin's World
It is nearly impossible to convince people that an economic collapse is likely, perhaps inevitable. It is beyond anything they have seen or can imagine. I attribute that to a normalcy bias, an inherent weakness of experiential learners.

For many, accepting something that has not occurred during their time on the planet is not possible. The laws of economics and mathematics may shape history but they are not controlled by history.

The form of cataclysm and its timing is indeterminable. Political decisions continue to shape both. The madmen who are responsible for the coming disaster continue to behave as if they can manage to avoid it.

Violating Einstein's definition of insanity, they continue to apply the same poison that caused the problem. These fools believe they can manage complexities they do not understand. We are bigger fools for providing them the authority to indulge their hubris and wreak such damage.
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Sheriff

Useless NYPD: Cops had 'no special duty' to protect man they watched being slashed while trying to stop subway serial killer


Top Information Post
Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:07 UTC
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Joseph Lozito
He's a bona-fide hero who stopped the so-called "Butcher of Brighton Beach" at the end of a 28-hour city killing spree - but a Manhattan judge yesterday said a father of two is entitled to zero from the city for his injuries in the harrowing 2011 subway encounter.

Joseph Lozito sued the NYPD in January 2012, claiming police officers did nothing to help him as he confronted violent madman Maksim Gelman on a packed No. 3 train.

But Judge Margaret Chan tossed the case yesterday, saying that while she lauded Lozito's bravery, cops did not have a specific charge of saving him from Gelman.

Because "no direct promises of protection were made to Mr. Lozito," the police had "no special duty" to protect him.
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Stormtrooper

95-year-old dies after confrontation with Chicago police


Chicago Tribune
Sat, 27 Jul 2013 11:06 UTC
ambulance
© Tribune illustration
Illinois - A 95-year-old resident of a Park Forest senior living community who was wielding a 12-inch blade and a cane was shocked with a Taser and then hit by bean-bag rounds from police before later dying at a south suburban hospital, according to authorities.

According to an e-mailed press release from Park Forest police, officers were sent to 101 Main Street in Park Forest about 8:42 p.m. to help a private ambulance company with a "combative" resident of the home there. The Victory Centre of Park Forest, a supportive living community for adults 65 and older according to its website, is at that address.

The resident of the faculty was being "involuntarily" committed for medical treatment by staff at the Victory Centre, the release said.

When police arrived, the man was threatening staff and paramedics with a metal cane and a 2-foot metal shoehorn, the release said. Police demanded that he drop the cane and shoehorn, but he did not comply and then picked up a "12-inch butcher type kitchen knife."
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Briefcase

Berezovsky assets seized in Russia


RIA Novosti
Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:07 UTC
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© RIA Novosti. Sergei GuneewBoris Berezovsky
Property of which the late Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky is a beneficiary has been seized in Russia but has yet to be fully valued, the head of the Federal Bailiff Service said Friday.

Some local media reports put the figure at 300 million rubles ($940,000), but that could not be independently verified.

Berezovsky had resided in self-imposed exile in Britain since 2000 until his death on March 23 this year at age 67. Russian authorities had launched a dozen cases against him on numerous charges, including fraud, failing to repatriate foreign currency revenues and abuse of office.
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Eye 1

U.S. scholar backs out of Israel trip after consulate assigns her 'subordinate' status due to birth in Pakistan

Philip Weiss
mondoweiss.net
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:07 UTC
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Professor Kavita Khory
More evidence if any were needed of the racially-discriminatory policies of Israeli border authorities. Last spring, Kavita Khory, a Professor of Political Science at Mount Holyoke College, signed up for a one-week, all expenses paid tour of Israel for scholars of international relations aimed at providing a "deeper understanding" of the politics of the area. The trip of a dozen scholars was sponsored by Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Well Khory got a deeper understanding. She didn't end up going because of the way Israel treated her prospectively, on account of her having been born in Pakistan. And Congress is thinking of extending no-visa privileges to Israelis seeking to come to the U.S.?
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Eye 1

Elite hacker Barnaby Jack dies ahead of Black Hat event


BBC
Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:56 UTC
An elite hacker who was due to demonstrate how heart implants could be hacked has died unexpectedly in San Francisco.

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Barnaby Jack died on Thursday, the city's medical examiner's office told Reuters, but did not give more details.

He had been due to give a presentation into medical device vulnerabilities at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas taking place next week.

He had said one technique could kill a man from 30 feet (nine metres) away.

IOActive, the security firm at which Mr Jack was director of embedded devices, said it was preparing a statement.

In a tweet, the company said: "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed."

His sister Amberleigh Jack, who lives in New Zealand, told Reuters news agency he was 35.

Mr Jack became one of the most famous hackers on the planet after a 2010 demonstration in which he hacked a cashpoint, making it give out money. The technique was dubbed "Jackpotting".
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Crusader

Religion to disappear by 2041 claims new study

Rebecca Savastio
Guardian Express
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 13:42 UTC
Religions To Disappear
© Guardian Express
Author and noted biopsychologist Nigel Barber has completed a new study that shows Atheism is most prevalent in developed countries, and, according to his projections, religion will completely disappear by 2041. His findings are discussed in his new book Why Atheism Will Replace Religion. A new study that clarifies his earlier research will be published in August. His findings focus on studying trends within countries around the world and the fact that "Atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries"-
In my new study of 137 countries (1), I also found that atheism increases for countries with a well-developed welfare state (as indexed by high taxation rates). Moreover, countries with a more equal distribution of income had more atheists. My study improved on earlier research by taking account of whether a country is mostly Moslem (where atheism is criminalized) or formerly Communist (where religion was suppressed) and accounted for three-quarters of country differences in atheism.
His main thesis stems from the phenomenon of religion declining as personal wealth increases. He cites the reason as people having less of a need for supernatural beliefs when the tangible, natural world is providing for their needs. He says the majority of the world will come to view religion as completely irrelevant by 2041.
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