Society's ChildS


Blackbox

TSA Screeners Spooked by Apple's 'Futuristic Artifact'

Rik Myslewski
The Register
Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Design Award winning developer snagged by suspicious scanners
Image
© unknownThe glowing 'futuristic artifact' that aroused the TSA's suspicions
A glowing, cube-shaped Apple Design Award trophy prompted US Transportation Security Administration airport staffers to give one award winner special scrutiny when he tried to board a flight back to his Seattle digs.

Juraj Hlaváč had won the award at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco for the educational game Bobo Explores Light developed by his company, Game Collage. The award itself is a small silver cube that glows from within.

As Hlaváč explains, "As I was heading back to Seattle from WWDC, I was only traveling with a small backpack. I bundled the Apple Design Award into a t-shirt when I packed that morning, shoved it into my backpack, and forgot all about it when I got the airport."

When his backpack went through the x-ray scanner, however, the TSA staffer manning the machine was concerned about the cube that appeared in the scan, called another TSAer, then another, until as Hlaváč says, "there was small crowd scrutinizing the image."
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Dollar

Financial crisis is boom time for mafia


EU Observer
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:09 UTC
Euro
© WikipediaGrasso: 'They've got liquid cash, they've got ready money ... and not just in Europe'
Struggling banks in the EU and beyond are becoming more willing to launder dirty cash for organised crime.

Italy's anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso drew attention to one of the lesser known aspects of the crisis at a hearing in the European Parliament's new anti-mafia committee on Tuesday (19 June).

He told press: "The current economic crisis is making criminal groups even more powerful because they've got liquid cash, they've got ready money ... and not just in Europe, but in other countries where there are fragile economies and they can influence politicians."

His line was echoed by Jean-Francois Gayraud, the chief superintedent of the French police.

Comment: The difference between bankers and the mafia is becoming increasingly indistinguishable.

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Crusader

What should be happening in every country: More Icelandic bankers arrested


Ice News
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:42 UTC
eat the bankers
© Jamie Wiseman
Iceland's special prosecutor into the banking crisis has confirmed that raids have taken place today and that arrests have been made. The Central Bank of Iceland is among the institutions under investigation.

Special Prosecutor, Olafur Thor Hauksson told Visir.is that house searches are taking place in at least three places today as part of investigations into the central bank, MP Bank and Straumur Bank.

Stefan Johann Stefansson at the central bank confirmed that agents were in the building conducting searches; and it has also been confirmed that searches are underway at MP Bank and ALMC (formerly Straumur).

An ALMC spokesman said that the premises are indeed being searched and that the bank's staff members are doing their best to help.

In other news, four people have so far been arrested today in connection with the special prosecutor's investigation into Landsbanki.

Comment: The rest of the world would benefit from following the example set by Iceland: Arresting the corrupt bankers who are responsible for the current economic turmoil.

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Airplane

Passengers' terror as JetBlue Airbus 'careens wildly through the skies' for FOUR hours after it suffers mechanical meltdown

Louise Boyle
DailyMail.co.uk
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:16 UTC
A JetBlue Airbus was sent careening wildly through the skies for fours after a mechanical meltdown. The 155 people on board the Las Vegas to New York flight were left terrified as the A320 aircraft lurched from side to side and went into steep turns after its hydraulic system failed. Travis McGhie, a passenger on the Sunday afternoon flight, said: 'It was four hours of hell.'

Another passenger, Tom Mizer, told the New York Post: 'People were getting sick. Some people were throwing up. There were a lot of people getting nauseous.' They said that crew members of Flight 194 'did everything they could to prevent panic', with one attendant walking down the aisles trying to reassure people.

Mr Mizer said: 'She said "Look at me, I'm smiling. If I was scared, you would know it. If I'm not scared, you don't need to be."' Mr McGhie added that there was no screaming, but 'there were definitely people reacting out loud'. He said: 'The plane kind of felt out of control. It wasn't able to balance itself, and the air was choppy.'

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Light Saber

Father Who Killed Daughter's Alleged Molester Won't Face Charges In Lavaca County, Texas

Paul J. Weber and Ramit Plushnick-Masti
The Huffington Post
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:08 UTC
father kills molester
© Associated Press/Victoria Advocate, Carolina Astrain
Hearing his 5-year-old daughter crying from behind a barn, a father ran and discovered the unthinkable: A man molesting her. The father pulled the man off his daughter, authorities say, and started pummeling him to death with his fists.

With his daughter finally safe, the father frantically called 911, begging a dispatcher to find his rural ranch and send an ambulance.

"Come on! This guy is going to die on me!" the man is heard screaming on the 911 call. "I don't know what to do!"

A recording of the tape was played during a news conference Tuesday where the Lavaca County district attorney and sheriff announced that the father would not face charges.

In declining to indict the 23-year-old father in the June 9 killing of Jesus Mora Flores, a Lavaca County grand jury reached the same conclusion as investigators and many of the father's neighbors: He was authorized to use deadly force to protect his daughter.
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Stop

Law enforcement restricts media wildfire coverage

Dan Elliott
Associated Press
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:31 UTC
FILE - In this Friday, June 15,2012 file photo Army National Guardsmen
© AP Photo/Ed Andrieski,FileFILE - In this Friday, June 15,2012 file photo Army National Guardsmen Spc. Rachel Cornett, right, and Sgt. Timothy Apodaca let a fire truck pass their road block leading to the Poudre Canyon on the High Park wildfire west of Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado has some of the tightest restrictions on news media coverage of wildfires, keeping reporters miles away from burn areas and erecting barriers to access to officials in the know and as well as victims.
Denver, Colorado - Reporters covering northern Colorado's massive wildfire cannot enter areas that have been evacuated - an unusual restriction even for this state, where local officials have extensive powers at fire scenes and journalists are usually kept miles from the flames.

In Nevada, a newspaper photographer covering a brush fire this week was roughed up, handcuffed and cited for obstruction, his editor said. The newspaper is preparing a formal complaint.

Tension between news organizations and authorities is commonplace during emergencies, including wildfires in the drought-stricken West. But in many cases, journalists seeking to tell firefighters' and victims' stories face strict controls on the flow of information.

Law enforcement holds the upper hand, said Kelly McBride, who studies journalism ethics.
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Compass

Iranian Navy Thwarts Pirate Attack on Cargo Vessel


Fars News
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 06:42 UTC
Image
© Unknown
An attempt by pirates to hijack an Iranian cargo vessel in waters South of India was foiled after timely action by Iranian naval forces.

Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Seyed Mahmoud Moussavi said that the Iranian vessel came under attack by 8 pirate speedboats 90 miles South of India's Southern port city of Cochin.

Moussavi stated that the Iranian naval forces' swift and timely action and heavy firepower forced the pirates to flee the scene.

The Iranian Navy dispatched several fleets of warships to the Gulf of Aden and North of the Indian Ocean to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.

The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.
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Eye 2

Executive coach's observations: 'Finance is an amoral world, bordering on the immoral'

Joris Luyendijk
The Joris Luyendijk banking blog
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:37 UTC
A psychologist compares the 'twisted minds' of some executives to those of paedophiles he has tried to treat in the past
This blog suffers from an inevitable selection bias, as it can only feature those people in finance who agree to be interviewed. Hence, a second category of interviews with people who come into close contact with the kind of bankers who are unlikely to talk to me. Such as this elegantly dressed man in his early 40s. A psychologist by training, he has been working as an 'executive coach' for the past few years. He orders a coffee, then a glass of red wine.
ceo psychopaths
© Stefan Rousseau/Press Association'Those CEOs and managing directors at banks with their millions? They deserve our pity, really.'
"In two decades as a psychologist I have encountered perhaps half a dozen people in whom I could not detect at least something positive, if only a sliver. The psychopaths are a really rare breed. But they seduce the rest.

"I am sure your readers are familiar with psychological research comparing the personality traits of prison populations with those of successful managers. It found remarkable similarities; they are narcissistic, egocentric, manipulative ... The research has been replicated over at least 12 different populations and the findings are consistent. Criminals and CEOs are remarkably similar.

"We're moving slightly beyond my field of expertise but a question I often ask myself is: who are the owners of those major banks and corporations who figured out that if they want to make so much money, they need to get a psychopath in who will then turn the entire organisation into a ruthless money-making soul-destroying machine? That's pretty clever, isn't it? To find a psychopath to do that for you?
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Attention

'Al-Qaida' gunman takes hostages in Toulouse bank

Kim Willsher
The Guardian
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:42 UTC
Man is reported to have fired shot while holding up to four people in French city.

Image
© Bruno Martin/APElite police officers arrive at the bank, where a man is holding four people hostage.
A gunman claiming links to al-Qaida was holding four employees of a bank hostage in southern France on Wednesday, not far from the former home of drive-by killer Mohamed Merah, who shot seven people dead in March, including three Jewish schoolchildren.

Police were called to the CIC bank in an eastern suburb of Toulouse after the alarm was raised around 11am local time. Police, who immediately blocked roads and surrounded the bank, said the gunman had fired at least one shot shortly before midday.

Police have made contact with the gunman, who claims to have explosives and has demanded to speak to officers from Raid, the elite special forces police brigade based in Paris. A bomb disposal team is now at the scene.

Comment: Merah was not a murderer but one of the several people that was used by psychopaths in power for political purposes. For the real story of what happened surrounding the Merah case and why the elder Merah has every right to be outraged, see these articles:
Sott Focus: Toulouse Attacks: The Official Story of the Death of Mohamed Merah is a Lie
Sott Focus: Sarkozy The American's 9/11: Mohamed Merah: 'Liquidated' French Intelligence Asset
Sarkozy's Coup d'État: Mohamed Merah was French Intelligence Asset

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Alarm Clock

Pathology Once Again Excused as Art in the Fashion World

Catherine Scott
Alternet.org
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:21 UTC
A fashion magazine's editors think we need to look beyond the injuries and start seeing "beauty" in a maimed female face?

Image
© 12 Magazine / H&M
Treating women like dirt is hardly a new tactic for the fashion industry, with its long history of objectifying the female body, idealizing physically impossible beauty types and glamorizing violence against women. Bulgaria-based 12 magazine, however, has hit a new low with an inexplicable photo spread in its latest issue titled, "Victim of Beauty" [TRIGGER WARNING].

The six images are all close-up portraits of young, attractive white models sporting various gruesome injuries: one boasts a black eye, another a slit throat and a third sports a split lip and a bruised neck. Scrolling through this montage of burns, bruises and gashes, it's easy to forget you're looking at a "fashion" photo shoot; the images more closely resemble police files of horrendous domestic violence.

Comment: For many years now, some in creative fields have purposely obsfucated their own pathological worldview from the general public by labeling what they produce as "art". Those with empathy see no beauty in mutilation yet often are unwittingly infected by the psychopathic views of those in charge. In short, they are under the influence of ponerization and thus have accepted what is abnormal for normal. For more information on psychopathy and ponerology, see these Sott links:

Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

Psychopaths Among Us

What is a psychopath?

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