Society's ChildS


Laptop

London riots: how BlackBerry Messenger played a key role

Josh Halladay
Guardian
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:13 UTC
london riots
© Ray Tang/Rex FeaturesLondon riots: a looted O2 mobile phone store in Tottenham Hale retail park.

In October 1985, on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham where the death of Cynthia Jarrett sparked riots that culminated in the brutal murder of PC Keith Blakelock, a community leader stood on his chair at a packed open-air meeting.

The man bellowed into a megaphone to the 150 residents in front of him: "You tell them that it's a life for a life from now on. This is war."

Over whoops and cheers from the residents, he turned to a huddle of police officers standing 50 yards away and warned: "I hope you're listening. There is no way I am going to condemn the actions of the youth on Sunday night."

Twenty six years later, police officers are still listening - but the megaphones and open-air meetings have been largely replaced. This weekend's north London riots, the Daily Mail announced on Monday, were "fuelled by social media".
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People

UK: New Unrest in North London a Night After Rioting

Raphael G. Satter
My Way News
Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:36 UTC
burned bus,london
© AP Photo/Akira SuemoriA burned bus is seen in Tottenham, north London, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011 after a demonstration against the death of a local man turned violent and cars and shops were set ablaze. One police officer was hospitalized and seven others were injured during riots after a north London suburb exploded in anger Saturday night following a gathering to protest the Thursday shooting by police of the 29-year-old.
London - New unrest erupted on north London's streets late Sunday, a day after rioting and looting in a deprived area amid community anger over a fatal police shooting.

Police deployed extra officers on London's streets to prevent a repeat of Saturday's violence in north London's Tottenham area, which appeared to be quiet Sunday night.

But disturbances broke out in Enfield, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Tottenham. TV footage showed riot and mounted police patrolling the streets, and there were also images of smashed shop windows, and police with dogs detaining at least one man.

A peaceful protest against the killing of a 29-year-old man in Tottenham degenerated into a Saturday night rampage, with rioters torching a double-decker bus, destroying patrol cars and trashing a shopping mall in the nearby Wood Green district.

In Enfield, there were reports that a police car was vandalized, and Sky News television reported that several hundred young people were on the streets causing trouble, with footage showing a looted pharmacy.
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Handcuffs

Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home


Associated Press
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:34 UTC
Stockholm - A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.

Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.

The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.
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Butterfly

New Zealand: Man Dies After Being Sucked Into Plane Engine

Greg Wilson
NBC
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:44 UTC
Image

An engineer working on an airplane engine in New Zealand was sucked into the machine and killed.

Air New Zealand confirmed the man's death, saying he was working on the Lockheed C-130 Hercules engine early Monday. He was identified by local television reports as Miles Hunter, 51. The engine was not attached to a plane, but was on a stand when the incident occurred.

Rob Fyfe, chief executive of Air New Zealand, told TVNZ News that officials were at a "complete loss" as to how the incident occurred.
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Heart - Black

US: 30,000 college students kicked out of food aid program in Michigan

Paul Egan
The Detroit News
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:01 UTC
food stamp card
© Unknown
State's new eligibility rules to save $75M; more students got aid than thought

Michigan has removed about 30,000 college students from its food stamp program - close to double the initial estimate - saving about $75 million a year, says Human Services Director Maura Corrigan.

Federal rules don't allow most college students to collect food stamps, but Michigan had created its own rules that made nearly all students eligible, said Brian Rooney, Corrigan's deputy director. As a result, the number of Michigan college students on this form of welfare made the state a national leader. For example, Michigan had 10 times the number of students on food stamps as either Illinois or California, Rooney said.

Cutting off the students is part of what Corrigan says is an effort to change the culture of the state's welfare department and slash tens of millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse.

"Maybe (students) could go get a part-time job - that's what I did," said Corrigan, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court who attended Detroit's Marygrove College and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.


Comment: Considering the state of the US economy, and that of Detroit in particular, this is a rather rich statement.


"We want to encourage people to be self-sufficient, not to be dependent on the government," she said in an interview with The Detroit News.

But critics say state funding has shrunk and tuition has skyrocketed since Corrigan attended college in the late '60s and early '70s. They cite Michigan's still-battered economy and say the suffering the cuts will create won't be apparent until after cash-strapped students return to campuses this fall.
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Bizarro Earth

Florida, US: Lakeland Mom Jailed for Allegedly Biting Son


WTSP 10
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:53 UTC
Image
© WTSP 10
A Lakeland mother has been arrested for child abuse after family members said she bit her son.

Police investigated 26-year-old Ann Marie Kane after Department of Children and Families officials reported three adult-sized bite marks on her son.

According to an arrest report, Kane admitted biting the boy in the past because he was biting his siblings.

DCF has investigated Kane several times in the past. They removed the children from her care during the most recent investigation.

She was being held in the Polk County Jail on Saturday.
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Padlock

Housekeeper Says Queens Monk Kept Her As "Slave"


NBC
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:41 UTC
judge
© Getty Images/OJO Images
A housekeeper has accused a Korean Buddhist monk and his family of forcing her to work as a slave in their Queens home.

According to the New York Times, the lawsuit alleges the family kept the woman a prisoner in their Queens home for 12 years under threat of death.

The woman says the family allowed her outside occasionally but used threats to keep her from reporting them.
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2 + 2 = 4

Obama Administration Exempting Schools From Federal Law's Testing Mandate

Donna Gordon Blankinship
CNS News
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:00 UTC
arne duncan
© CNSNews.com/Penny StarrSecretary of Education Arne Duncan addresses a summit designed to prevent and punish sexual and gender-based violence in U.S. schools.
State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

The plan to offer waivers to all 50 states, as long as they meet other school reform requirements, comes at the request of President Barack Obama, Duncan said. More details on the waivers will come in September, he said.

The goal of the No Child Left Behind law is to have every student proficient in math and reading by 2014. States have been required to bring more students up to the math and reading standards each year, based on tests that usually take place each spring. The step-by-step ramping up of the 9-year-old law has caused heartburn in states and most school districts, because more and more schools are labeled as failures as too few of their students meet testing goals.
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Arrow Up

Gold soars to record above $1,700 on debt fears

Frank Tang
Reuters
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:24 UTC
gold
© Reuters/Bobby YipFive-tael (6.65 ounces or 190 grams) gold bars are seen at a jewellery store in Hong Kong in this April 21, 2011 illustration photo.
Gold vaulted to record highs above $1,700 an ounce on Monday, surging nearly 3 percent as European Central Bank's buying of Italian and Spanish bonds failed to ease debt fears after Standard & Poor's cut the top-notch AAA credit rating of the United States.

Wall Street plunged nearly 4 percent and other riskier assets collapsed as skittish investors sought a refuge from other safe havens such as U.S. Treasuries in the first session since S&P's downgrade, sending gold's option volatility to its highest level since May 2010 on bets the metal could rally further.

Gold is poised for its biggest one-day gain in nine months as investors bet that nothing short of further government intervention would stave off deepening woes. The Federal Open Market Committee's meeting on Tuesday may hint whether the U.S. central bank will ease monetary policy further.
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Eye 1

The World Runs Out of Options

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph.co.uk
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:00 UTC
Image
© BloombergEven Germany's most ardent pro-Europeans seem to have given up trying to find a solution - they are building an alibi for EMU break-up instead.
The Great Reprieve is exhausted. The world has used up the three years' grace gained by extreme stimulus after the debt bubble burst in 2008.

This time we face the risk of double-dip recession without shock absorbers. Interest rates are already at or near zero in much of the OECD club. Fiscal deficits are stretched to the limits of safety.

Far from loosening, the US is on track to tighten by 2pc of GDP next year, and Europe by 1pc to 2pc, into the slowdown.

China has already pushed credit to 200pc of GDP. It cannot repeat the trick.

The Anglo-Saxons can print more money, but the gains in asset prices for the rich are offset by losses from fuel and food inflation for the poor. This is a destructive trade-off.
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