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Thousands protest in Dublin over water charges imposed by government

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© goobambherald / YouTube
Tens of thousands of people took part in the anti-water charges protest in Ireland on Saturday, marching through the capital of Dublin to show their dissatisfaction with the government's policy.

It was the first mass rally in the last six months to protest the water charges imposed by the government. Organized by the Right2Water campaign group, it was the fifth major demonstration since the controversial utility fee was levied.

The protesters gathered at two meeting points located near the train stations of Heuston in the western part of the city, and Connoly in the city's east. The demonstration began at 2 pm local time, as crowds of people marched through Dublin's quays to Spire on O'Connel Street in the city center.

Dozens of small groups of local residents joined the protesters, with a number of smaller columns of demonstrators marching in from the suburbs, Irish media reports.


Heart - Black

Transport of tons of whale meat to Japan via Iceland sparks outrage

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© iyoshi Ota / Reuters
A vessel with 1,816 tons of whale meat from Iceland has been delivered to Osaka, Japan, traveling through the Arctic Ocean apparently not to face the anti-whaling groups located in the Indian Ocean.

1,816 tons of meat accounts for about 40 percent of the country's annual consumption, The Japan Times reported. The ship left Iceland with the cargo three months earlier, according to Newsweek.

The Winter Bay is initially a Norwegian vessel flying the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis, a so-called "flag of convenience", allowing fewer regulations and taxes.

Over 1 million people signed a petition demanding that the ship removes the flag on the activist website Avaaz.


Bulb

American boxer Roy Jones Jr. asks Putin for Russian passport over cup of tea in Crimea

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© Aleksey Nikolskyi / Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with U.S. boxer Roy Jones, Jr. in Sevastopol, Crimea, August 19, 2015
During their brief meeting in Crimea, famous boxing champion Roy Jones Jr. has asked President Putin for a Russian passport which would help facilitate business. Putin noted that fans would be thrilled, promising assistance if the champ spends enough time in Russia.

The 46-year-old US boxer and rapper who will take part in a show in Sevastopol this weekend, opted to stay away from politics during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city, and said that sport could help "build a bridge" between the US and Russia.

Finding a common interest with Putin in his favorite martial art, judo, the champion told the Russian President that as a kid, before turning to the boxing ring, he wanted to master the Japanese sport. However Putin, who initially began training in sambo before switching to judo at the age of 14 (which he continues to practice today), praised Jones' achievements in the sport he had chosen.

"You were highly successful in boxing - like no one else... I don't think there have been any others like you in the world,"Putin said, noting Jones' unique achievement: Starting his career as a middleweight to gradually go on winning titles up to the heavyweight.


Comment: More and more Westerners are seeing that, beyond the Western media propaganda that demonizes him, Putin is a worthy statesman who is doing good for Russia. More people should follow Roy Jones Jr.'s lead.


Star of David

Orthodox Jewish school teaches 3yo children 'non-Jews are evil', want to kill Jews

orthodox jews
© Andrew Winning / Reuters
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish schoolchildren as young as three are being taught that "non-Jews" are evil and want to kill Jewish people, an anonymous whistleblower has revealed.

According to the Independent, worksheets that allude to the horrors of the Holocaust are being handed out to three and four year old schoolchildren at the Beis Rochel boys' school in Stamford Hill, North London.

In the documents, non-Jews are referred to as "evil goyim." In Yiddish, the term "goyim" means someone who is not Jewish. Nazis are also referred to as "goyim."

The worksheet asks questions related to the holiday of 21 Kislev, observed by Satmer Jews as the day its founder and holy Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, escaped the Nazis.

Speaking to the Independent, the source said one question on the sheet asks: "What have the evil goyim done with the synagogues and cheders?" The answer in the completed worksheet reads: "Burned them."

Another question asks: "What did the goyim want to do with all the Jews?" The correct worksheet answer is: "Kill them."

The worksheet "doesn't explicitly refer to the Holocaust" but it teaches young children to be "very afraid" and treat non-Jews "very suspiciously because of what they did to us in the past," the source told the paper.

Comment: Just goes to show that followers and leaders of any religion can be racist, intolerant, ignorant, and a harm to children. Rather than work on finding common ground and working together to solve the world's problems, these individuals reinforce fictitious divisions and conflicts, and foster a sense of fear and separation. Is this what religion should be?


Christmas Tree

Tuning out: Drug use among college students rising, 6 percent use marijuana daily

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© Cliff DesPeaux / Reuters
The number of US college students regularly smoking marijuana has reached the highest point since 1980, a new study has found. Daily or near-daily marijuana use was reported by 5.9 percent of college kids in 2014— up from 3.5 percent in 2007.

It means that one in every 17 college students surveyed by University of Michigan researchers for the 'Monitoring the Future' nationwide study smokes marijuana on a daily/near-daily basis, defined as use on 20 or more occasions in the prior 30 days.

The percent using marijuana once or more in the prior 30 days rose from 17 percent in 2006 to 21 percent in 2014. Use in the prior 12 months rose from 30 percent in 2006 to 34 percent in 2014. Both of these measures leveled in 2014, according to the study. The annual survey has been reporting on US college students' substance use of all kinds for 35 years.

"It's clear that for the past seven or eight years there has been an increase in marijuana use among the nation's college students," the study's main author Lloyd Johnston said. "And this largely parallels an increase we have been seeing among high school seniors."

Researchers attribute the increase to the fact that marijuana use has recently come to be perceived as dangerous by fewer adolescents and young adults. While 55 percent of all high school graduates aged between 19 and 22 saw regular marijuana use as dangerous in 2006, only 35 percent considered it as such by 2014.

Magic Wand

New guidelines urge police to use psychics and clairvoyants for help in solving cases

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Police officers hunting for missing people should "not rule out" any tip-offs from witches, psychics and clairvoyants, according to new official guidelines.

In a consultation document from the College of Policing (COP), which lists new guidelines on how police should handle inquiries on missing persons, officers are urged to examine a psychic's methods and "accredited success" before heeding their supernatural advice.

The consultation, which runs until October 9, aims to offer official guidance for police officers and support them in missing person's investigations.

"Any information received from psychics should be evaluated in the context of the case, and should never become a distraction to the overall investigation and search strategy unless it can be verified," the consultation paper said.

Eye 1

Predators abound: Christian Academy co-founder charged with allowing sex offender to work around students and covering it up

Joan Ellen
© WTVD/screen grab
Freedom Christian Academy co-founder Joan Ellen
Freedom Christian Academy co-founder Joan Ellen Dayton was expected enter a plea on Tuesday to charges that she knowingly allowed a sex offender to work around students and then tried to cover it up.

According to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina, Dayton violated the Sex Offender Registration Act by "aiding and abetting the violations committed by Paul Conner of being on school property," the Fayetteville Observer reported.

Investigators said that Dayton allowed Conner to work at Freedom Christian Academy during the 2011-12 academic year while his wife was working as a teacher. The sheriff's office was notified after a parent discovered that Conner was a sex offender.

Dayton surrendered herself at the sheriff's office on Monday. She was charged with three Sex Offender Registration Act violations, including conspiracy to allow a sex offender on protected premises.

"There's a duty, particularly on the school principal - a statute that provides a duty for persons who are aware of a sex offender violating the registration act," Cumberland County Sheriff's Office attorney Ronnie Mitchell told the Observer. "Their duty is to report that. Not to cover that up. And so a failure to make that report to law enforcement is itself a separate felony."

2 + 2 = 4

Nebraska Teacher's union attacks new school board member for homeschooling children

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The Lincoln, Nebraska teacher's union is stirring criticism against a newly elected conservative board member after he decided to homeschool his children, despite initial plans to send them to public schools.

Newly elected school board member Matt Schulte wrote in a Journal Star questionnaire during his campaign that he planned to send his two oldest children to Maxey Elementary this school year. Schulte's wife, Kristin, is a teacher and the couple homeschooled their oldest son through first grade, according to the news site.

But Schulte, who runs a local education nonprofit called Campus Life, later decided against the move and explained why in a statement to the Journal Star.

"After much thought and prayer we have decided not to send out two oldest children to public school this year," he wrote. "This does not reflect in any way on the quality of education (Lincoln Public Schools) provides, but is clearly the best educational choice for our children."

Comment: Common Core idiocy triggers homeschooling surge in North Carolina


Nuke

'Political rhetoric, not science': Greenpeace slams IAEA Fukushima report

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© Damir Sagolj / Reuters
Greenpeace has lashed out against the conclusions of IAEA's latest report on the Fukushima disaster, calling the claim that radioactive exposure is "unlikely" to result in increased thyroid cancer risk in children a political rhetoric rather than science.

On Monday, IAEA said that despite uncertainties about the radiation doses incurred by children immediately after the accident, "an increase in childhood thyroid cancer attributable to the accident is unlikely."

READ MORE: Child cancers 'attributable' to Fukushima disaster 'unlikely' to increase - IAEA

On Tuesday, Greenpeace slammed the conclusions of the UN body as being 'political rhetoric'.

"Nobody knows how much radiation citizens were exposed to in the immediate days following the disaster. If you don't know the doses, then you can't conclude there won't be any consequences. To say otherwise is political rhetoric, not science," said Kendra Ulrich, senior global energy campaigner with Greenpeace Japan.

Part of the reason why no solid data is available regarding the potential exposure of the civilian population, as IAEA notes, resulted from the chaos and unpreparedness of the authorities to deal with and document the radiological impact of the March 2011 industrial disaster. Besides security and design "weaknesses" at the nuclear facility, IAEA also noted the government's failure to swiftly and uniformly distribute stable iodine to block radiological effects in humans.

Family

The number of ultra-poor Americans has doubled in the last 20 years

Homeless person
If you've been paying attention to the economy for the past seven years or so, you've probably been wondering when the whole charade is going to come crashing down. When will all of those inflated markets and debts reach their apex, and start crumbling under the weight of economic reality, and leave us all destitute? There have been plenty of predictions, but none have truly come to fruition.

Well the truth of the matter is that there may not be a single day when everything grinds to a halt, and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that our standard of living is crumbling in slow motion. For many Americans the end has already arrived, and their ranks are growing a little more every day. In fact, the number of Americans that are earning what amounts to a third world wage, has doubled over the past 20 years.