Society's ChildS


Black Cat

Fifth Grade Psychopaths Try to Poison Teacher's Coffee, Cupcake

Hilary Tuttle
The Huffington Post
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:52 UTC
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(US - California) Teachers beware: The bad apples in your classrooms may be the ones left on educators' desks.

One instructor at Balderas Elementary in Fresno, Calif., learned this lesson first-hand as three fifth grade students were expelled Saturday for attempting to poison their teacher.

According to Fresno TV station CBS47, two boys and one girl attempted to feed their teacher rat poison in a cup of coffee and, later, in the frosting of a cupcake. The CBS affiliate reported that the plot was uncovered two months after an attempt when "a parent was bragging that her son saved the teacher's life by preventing her from drinking the poisoned coffee." The boy in question was allegedly the one who came up with the idea in the first place.
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Black Cat

Jim Crow for the Poor - Columnist Thinks Poor Should Feel More Humiliation and Pain

Simon Maloy
Media Matters
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:03 UTC
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© presstv.com
I refuse to believe that this is real, and that someone is actually arguing this as a serious proposal, and that said proposal was deemed serious enough for publication by a secondary party, but it seems too earnestly argued to be parody, and nowhere is it identified as such.

A columnist at the Daily Caller writes today that people receiving food stamps should be forced to shop at government-owned stores selling sub-standard food so that they can feel the "humiliation and pain in receiving government assistance."

Oh, and they should "lose the privilege of voting."
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Beaker

China Chemical Plant Blast Leaves 13 Dead, Many Injured


BBC News
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:23 UTC
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© Getty ImagesMost windows are shattered at another workshop of the same facility
An explosion at a chemical factory in northern China has killed at least 13 people, state officials said.

Part of the plant was flattened by the blast and witnesses said houses within a 2km diameter had windows smashed.

Police believe the blast, which left another 43 people injured, may have been caused by chemicals.

The blast took place at 0920 (0120GMT) at the Keeper Chemical Plant in Zhaoxian County, state media said.
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Die

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill trial delayed in bid to reach deal


The Guardian
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:41 UTC
deepwater fire
© Associated PressFire boat response crews spray water on the burning remnants of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010
A judge in New Orleans has ordered that the start date be put back a week to allow more time to try to negotiate a settlement

The gigantic civil trial resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster has been delayed for one week, just hours before it was due to get underway in a New Orleans court on Monday to give BP and lawyers for the tens of thousands who lost their livelihoods time to negotiate a settlement.

Judge Carl Barbier issued an order on Sunday afternoon putting off the start date until 5 March, citing reasons of "judicial efficiency".

A joint statement issued by BP and the plaintiffs' steering committee said the delay was granted to give the armies of lawyers from both sides more time to reach a deal. "This adjournment is intended to allow BP and the PSC more time to continue settlement discussions and attempt to reach an agreement," the statement said.
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Briefcase

BP 'close to deal' on Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill


BBC
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:51 UTC
deepwater fire
© Associated PressThe Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010 destroying the ecosystem of the Gulf, as well as the health of the people in the surrounding areas.
A partial settlement of claims against BP for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in the US is very close, sources have told the BBC.

The agreement would be between BP and individuals and companies seeking compensation. BP is yet to comment.

One lawyer told the BBC a deal between BP and US federal and state governments was not close, and talks had halted.

The drilling rig exploded in April 2010 killing 11 men and spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has so far paid $7.5bn in clean-up costs and compensation.
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Stop

Marine Disasters on the Increase: Recent Cruise Ship Accidents

David Cutler
Chicago Tribune News
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:41 UTC
The crippled cruise ship Costa Allegra, with 636 passengers and 413 crew on board, was being towed to the Seychelles main island on Tuesday after an engine room fire knocked out its power in the Indian Ocean.

The vessel's sister ship, the Costa Concordia, capsized off the coast of Italy last month killing at least 25 people.

Here are details of some other recent cruise ship accidents:

Crashes

Costa Europa: The liner slammed into the pier in February 2010 as its captain tried to dock at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in high winds. Three crew were killed and four passengers were injured. The Costa Europa had been on an 18-day cruise from Dubai to Savona and had over 1,400 passengers on board.

Costa Concordia: In 2008, the giant Italian vessel hit the dockside in Palermo, Sicily, in bad weather, causing damage to the bow.

Power Failure

Costa Classica: A power failure was blamed for the Costa Classica smashing into a cargo vessel in China's Yangtze River, injuring three people in late 2010.
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Eye 1

Googlegeddon Approaches - How To Protect Yourself

Peregrin Wood
Irregular Times
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:43 UTC
google

In three days from now, Google will implement a unified privacy policy that will allow it to mix data about user activity from all of its different services, creating a huge database that details people's interests and activities.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a good article about this coming event. The article gives a little tip about how to erase your web search history: You have to go to Google.com/history and clear your web history.

Doing this clears the history of your use of the Google search engine, but it doesn't affect the data collected about your use of the other Google services. So, taking this action might prevent Google from using all your search data from the last several years to share a consumer profile of you with its corporate customers... for a while.
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Wolf

FOX news edits audience response to John Bolton blowback question

buckingthesystem
YouTube
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:21 UTC


During a taping of the Stossel show at the 2012 International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington D.C., I got to confront neo-conservative war monger John Bolton on the issue of blowback, and it miraculously made it's way onto the Stossel show! I'm guessing we have the man himself, John Stossel, to thank for that.

Of course, this is Fox we're talking about, so there is some disingenuous editing. But the content of my question and Bolton's response is completely intact! Thank you Stossel!
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Bandaid

Best of the Web: Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill

Bruce Levine, Ph.D.
Madinamerica.com
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:26 UTC
In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority-sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society's most oppressive authorities.
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Boat

Italian cruise ship adrift off Seychelles taken in tow


BBC News
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:27 UTC
A cruise ship left adrift in the Indian Ocean after a power failure with more than 1,000 people on board has been taken in tow, the BBC has learned.
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© Agence France-PresseThe Costa Allegra has more than 1,000 people on board

A French fishing vessel is taking the Costa Allegra to a nearby island where passengers will be disembarked before being transferred to the Seychelles.

A fire in the ship's generator room caused it to lose all power.

The ship is from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, which capsized off the Italian coast in January, killing 32.

The BBC's Katy Watson on Seychelles says that the ship is being towed to the Desroches island, near Alphonse island, south-west of the Seychelles.
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