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Cruel and unusual punishment: IDF violence in Gaza leaves 3 children a month disabled for life according to WHO


Middle Ease Monitor
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:03 UTC
gaza child amputee israel
© Ali Jadallah - Anadolu Agency
Palestinian student Mohammed Abu Hussain from Gaza, who lost his leg after being shot by an Israeli sniper during "Great March of Return" demonstrations, sits on a chair holding his crutches at the playground of his school in Gaza City, Gaza on 3 September 2018.
At least three children in the Gaza Strip are left permanently disabled every month as a result of armed conflict and Israeli violations, data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed.

The report by the WHO, released on Friday, cited data collected between March 2018 and March 2019, and stated that in the past year alone, a total of 172 Gazans were injured in such a way that they were left disabled for life, 36 of whom were children, meaning that one person is affected every other day.

Amputations make up an overwhelming proportion of permanent disabilities, with the most common cause being high-intensity gunshot wounds resulting in 121 amputations. Health agencies and organisations have warned that the number could rise if Gaza's medical services are not urgently upgraded.
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Handcuffs

Circuit court rules that police can't just arrest someone for cursing at them

Jon Miltimore
Foundation for Economic Education
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 13:50 UTC
police car
© Pixabay
The 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a US District Court decision that refused to throw out a civil lawsuit against an Arkansas police officer who arrested a man who yelled a curse word at the officer as he conducted a traffic stop on another citizen.

What Happened

According to court documents, in 2015 Arkansas State Trooper Lagarian Cross was performing a traffic stop on a Fort Smith highway when he heard a passerby yell "f*ck you" out of the window of a moving car. The remark prompted Cross to end his traffic stop and pursue the car. After making the stop, Cross arrested Eric Roshaun Thurairajah on a charge of disorderly conduct, stating the profanity constituted "unreasonable or excessive noise."

Thurairajah spent hours in jail for the utterance, court records say, before the charge was dropped and he was released under his own recognizance.

Thurairajah, however, was not done.
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Attention

Sacramento: Neighbors put out a warning after finding cats cut in half

Anna Giles
CBS Sacramento
Fri, 31 May 2019 13:41 UTC
Blue the cat
© Nancy Olsen
Blue the cat that was found chopped in half.
People in a Sacramento neighborhood said they're finding cats sliced in half and decapitated.

This is happening in the Arden Arcade area and neighbors want to warn others about the problem.

Nancy Olsen lives on Laurelwood Way and said her beloved family cat was found on a nearby school's front lawn, cut in half. She's convinced this isn't a coyote or other wild animal based on how the animal was cut.

"It's really hard to wrap your head around seeing your animal chopped in half and we don't know where the other half of his body was," she said.

Olsen had been a mother to her cat named Blue for five years. Her son found Blue severed last Saturday while he was out walking.
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NPC

New book 'Superior: The Return of Race Science' perpetuates myth that studying racial differences is racist

Bo Winegard and Noah Carl
Quillette
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:01 UTC
female races
© AdobeStock
A review of Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini, Beacon Press, 256 pages (May, 2019)

The races differ also in constitution, in acclimatisation, and in liability to certain diseases. Their mental characteristics are likewise very distinct...
~Charles Darwin, 1871, The Descent of Man

Angela Saini's new book, Superior, is a cautionary tale about the historical legacy, and putative return, of what she calls "race science." As far as we can determine, there are four main theses running through the book:
  • 'Race' is not a meaningful biological category
  • Genes can only contribute to population differences on certain "superficial" traits
  • Studying whether genes might contribute to population differences on non-superficial traits is tantamount to "scientific racism"
  • Almost everyone interested in whether genes might contribute to population differences on these other traits is a "scientific racist"

Comment: Here we have yet another example of how the sciences are under attack from Social Justice academics. Whenever an area of study is deemed to be out-of-bounds, one's red flags should be raised. Political correctness is a scourge on any area of society, but within the sciences, it is truly eggregious.

See also:

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Handcuffs

4 dead, 1 injured in motel shooting in Darwin, Australia - Gunman arrested

Neda Vanovac
ABC
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:05 UTC
darwin shooting
© ABC News: Clara Latter
The alleged gunman is being held at Royal Darwin Hospital.
The 45-year-old suspect, who witnesses said was armed with a pump-action shotgun, started his shooting spree at a motel in the CBD about 5:45pm before travelling in a ute to four other locations, including to the outskirts of the city and back again.

He was arrested after calling NT Police and trying to enter police headquarters in what Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said may have been an attempt to hand himself in.

The man was known to police, having been released on parole in January, and was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner told a media conference the incident was not believed to be terror-related.

Comment: This week also saw the deadliest mass shooting in the US so far this year: 12 dead, 4 injured by gunman at Virginia Beach Municipal Center

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Biohazard

How Monsanto manipulates journalists and academics

Carey Gillam
The Guardian
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 05:00 UTC
Roundup
© Mike Blake/Reuters

Monsanto's own emails and documents reveal a disinformation campaign to hide its weedkiller's possible links to cancer.

Over the past year, evidence of Monsanto's deceptive efforts to defend the safety of its top-selling Roundup herbicide have been laid bare for all to see. Through three civil trials, the public release of internal corporate communications has revealed conduct that all three juries have found so unethical as to warrant punishing punitive damage awards.

Much attention has been paid to Monsanto conversations in which company scientists casually discuss ghostwriting scientific papers and suppressing science that conflicts with corporate assertions of Roundup's safety. There has also been public outrage over internal records illustrating cozy relationships with friendly regulators which border on - and possibly cross into - collusion.

Comment: The above is only part of the reason Monsanto (Bayer) should be considered for the Lifetime Acheivement in Planetary Evil award. They are, quite simply, despicable and psychopathic, stopping at nothing to maintain the illusion that their products are safe, injuring and killing millions in the process. The murky, under-handed corporate espionage is simply jaw-dropping. And yet the EPA still recognizes glyphosate as "extremely safe". Nothing to worry about here, obviously.

See also:

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Stock Down

Anti-trust investigation coming? Facebook, Google regulatory woes erode $137 billion from FANG stocks

Elena Popina
Bloomberg
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 18:49 UTC
Facebook Google stock plunge
© Bloomberg
A wave of antitrust probe headlines on Facebook Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. just yanked about $137 billion from FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) stocks' market values.

Some $41 billion evaporated from Facebook on Monday as a person familiar with the matter said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will oversee antitrust scrutiny into whether the firm's practices harm competition in the digital market under an agreement with the Justice Department. That added to early-morning losses as the group was hammered by a report the Justice Department was preparing an antitrust investigation into Google. Some $52 billion was erased from Google's market value as the stock fell 6.9%, on pace for the lowest close since Jan. 3.

Comment: From Reuters:
Alphabet shares slide 6% on possible DoJ antitrust probe
June 3, 2019 / 6:07 PM

Alphabet Inc's shares closed 6% down on Monday following reports that the U.S. Justice Department may investigate Google for hampering competition.

The potential investigation represents the latest attack on a tech company by the Trump administration, which has accused social media companies and Google of suppressing conservative voices on their platforms online.

Alphabet's market capitalization was reduced by $54 billion as its shares recorded their biggest drop outside earnings since April 2011. Facebook Inc closed 7.5% down, while Amazon.com Inc fell about 5%.

Amazon shares were also pressured by news that the company could face heightened antitrust scrutiny under a new agreement between U.S. regulators, which puts the e-commerce giant under the trade commission's watch.

Evercore ISI analyst Kevin Rippey cut his price target on the Alphabet stock by $50 to $1,200, the second lowest on Wall Street and well below the median price target of $1,350...

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post said a possible investigation could lead to a breakup.

"To break up Google, the DoJ would likely have to file a lawsuit and convince judges that Google has undermined competition. It is very rare to break up a company but not unheard of," Post wrote in a note...

The U.S. Justice Department has jurisdiction for a potential probe of Apple Inc as part of a broader review of whether technology giants are using their size to act in an anti-competitive manner, two sources told Reuters.
See also:

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Stop

Reports allege that Huawei paused production of its smartphones after US blacklisting


Daily Mail
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 08:40 UTC
Huawei
Production lines for Huawei's smartphones have reportedly halted as the company grapples with the effects of a U.S. blacklisting.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, the ban by the U.S. has prevented Huawei from accessing supplies that are 'crucial for international sales' including chips made by Intel and access to Google's Android operating system.

The ban may also force Huawei to reassess its goal of becoming the most popular smartphone purveyor by 2020.
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Quenelle - Golden

Nobel Prize winner George P. Smith calls for boycott of physics contest held by Israel's Tel Aviv University

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
George P Smith at award ceremony

George P. Smith at award ceremony
The 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry is urging a boycott of a physics competition in Tel Aviv in July.

George P. Smith and 19 other scientists signed an open letter last week that calls on "all students and mentors from all over the world not to participate in the next International Physics Olympiad in Israel and to stand for human rights of the young Palestinian pupils and students, including their right to education."

Smith, emeritus professor of biology at the University of Missouri, won last year's Nobel Prize in chemistry for his invention of a process to evolve proteins that can be used to develop new medicines.

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Bullseye

School shooter drills are not only ineffective, but terrorize our kids pointlessly

Karol Markowicz
New York Post
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 21:33 UTC
school drills
As the school year meanders to a close, now is a good time for education departments across the land to make policy changes for the next year. One urgent step should be ending the insane lockdown drills our kids have to practice in their schools and tightening school security instead.

In New York City, the Department of Education implemented General Response Protocols that mandate that all public schools have four lockdown drills, in addition to fire drills, per year.

These "soft-lockdown" drills, ostensibly to prepare kids for a potential school shooter, require kids to hide in their classroom, sometimes in a closet, and remain quiet and out of view.

It would be one thing to prepare teachers and school staff for this kind of rare emergency. But having children hide in a closet and practice being quiet is at best a waste of time and at worst a way to emotionally scar the children we're trying to shield. Holding these drills four times per year is ludicrous.

Anyone who has ever played "the quiet game" with kids knows they are generally terrible at staying silent. And even if the kids somehow manage to remain quiet for an entire practice drill, there is no guarantee they will do the same in an actual lockdown situation.
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