Society's ChildS


Recycle

German state media creates video game with climate "deniers" as villains

James Murphy
The New American
Sun, 01 Sep 2024 13:30 UTC
Xbox controller, video game controller
© simpson33/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Unhappy with the amount of sense that climate realists are making, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), a German state broadcaster, has come up with a virtual-reality video game in which the player can shoot them with laser guns. GreenGuardiansVR is set to be released to the public this fall.

GreenGuardiansVR

In the game, a dastardly corporation known as the "Environment Venture Income League," or EVIL, invites youths to "learn about the wonders of fossil fuels." The logo for the corporation is the word "evil" spelled out in large block letters, with the "i" doubling as a smokestack emitting multicolored puffs of smoke.

If this sounds like a parody of the climate movement, it's not. GreenGuardiansVR is set to debut at Gamescom, a Cologne-based video game fair this autumn. The game is targeted at youths aged 14-25.

In a press release, project manager Tim Philipp from the SWR Innovation Lab explained his reason for creating the violent game:
We realized that young people from Generation Z are primarily attracted by entertaining content. Youth between the ages of 14 and 25 want to have something to do; they want to be involved and interact in groups.
"Something to do" like killing those who disagree with the climate apocalypse.

Comment: It's the desire of not just the nutcases in the climate movement but also those in ideological movements of all stripes to kill those who don't conform. Better to avoid all ideologies lest one becomes a similarly mindless and murderous ideologue.

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Snakes in Suits

Grenfell Tower fire: UK inquiry blames avoidable deaths on incompetence and greed

Michael Holden and Catarina Demony
Reuters
Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:24 UTC
Grenfell
© REUTERS/Toby Melville/File PhotoGrenfell Tower, June 2017
A public inquiry into the devastating 2017 London Grenfell Tower blaze that killed 72 people blamed the disaster on failings by the government, construction industry and, most of all, the firms involved in fitting the exterior with flammable cladding.

The fire ripped through the 23-storey social housing block in one of London's richest areas during the early hours of June 14, 2017. It was Britain's deadliest blaze in a residential building since World War Two.

"The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable," said inquiry chair Martin Moore-Bick.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Anxiety referrals for UK children doubles to 200,000 in just 4 years

Andrew Gregory
The Guardian
Tue, 27 Aug 2024 23:48 UTC
A Child
More than 500 children a day in England are being referred to NHS mental health services for anxiety, more than double the rate of before the pandemic began, the Guardian can reveal.

In 2023-24 there were 204,526 new referrals of patients aged 17 or under where the primary cause was anxiety, official figures show. In 2019-20, the year before Covid-19 struck, the total was 98,953. In 2016-17 it was 3,879.

The alarming increase means children are now being referred to NHS mental health services in England for anxiety at a rate of one every three minutes or almost 4,000 a week.

Doctors, NHS officials and health leaders said in interviews that the surge in anxiety referrals was "staggering" and "shocking" and laid bare an urgent need to tackle the crisis in children's mental health.

Comment: It seems likely that a substantial proportion of those presenting for anxiety will have been, in part, influenced by the US trend for medicalising developmental challenges and medicating children. Similar to how the gender dysphoria social contagion began in earnest a decade or so ago in the US and, in recent years has begun to proliferate in certain countries in Europe.

That said, living standards in the UK are collapsing, and markers for personal and societal health are also sliding, and this follows the nearly two-year-long lockdowns, which saw neglect and abuse spike, and so UK children, relatively, do have reasons to be more anxious than usual:

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Colosseum

Japan pushes for four-day work week to boost declining birth rate

Vikrant Singh
WION
Sat, 31 Aug 2024 23:34 UTC
japan salaryman
In Japan, at least 54 people die annually because of overwork
In Japan, at least 54 people die annually because of overwork, revealed a government white paper. The societal attitude is such that working overtime and for longer hours is considered cool in Japan, leading to the problem of "karoshi," which means "death from overwork" in Japanese.

Now, the Japanese government is pushing for a major change. It's asking its companies and employees to follow a four-day workweek model. The model was first backed by lawmakers in 2021 but today only eight per cent of Japanese companies allow their employees to take at least three days off a week.

Data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reveal that seven per cent of companies offer just legally mandated one day off per week.

Comment: They're going to need to do better than that, because various countries, and with less cultural problems than Japan, have attempted to encourage people to get married and have larger families, and with much more significant incentives, and have only had a modicum of success:

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Dollars

'Fraud': US bank glitch goes viral, customers use 'hack' to withdraw money they don't have

Jordan Valinsky
CNN
Tue, 03 Sep 2024 23:13 UTC
Bank surveillance
© Reuters/Brendan McDermott
A number of viral TikTok videos had some people believing they could get "free" cash from Chase ATMs. But it was just a glitch - and those customers were actually committing fraud, according to the bank.

Over the weekend, videos appeared on the app showing people depositing checks for large sums of money at Chase ATMs and then making a withdrawal for a smaller yet substantial amount, leading them to believe they had discovered a bug and were hitting the jackpot.

The problem is that this is just a form of check fraud, a criminal offense. Chase said in a statement to CNN that the issue has "been addressed" and warned people not to try it.

Comment: It's perhaps a sign of just how poorly educated people are these days, and how susceptible they are to social contagion, especially that which involves money.

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Propaganda

Nord Stream sabotage: How Western media outlets do their governments' dirty work

Tarik Cyril Amar
RT
Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:27 UTC
Nord Stream sabotage
© Swedish Coast Guard via APFILE PHOTO
Most of the 'fourth estate' is no longer able or willing to hold politicians accountable, and act instead like another branch of power

When some combination of Western and Ukrainian terrorists with obvious state support - we still don't know who and how precisely - destroyed the Nord Stream I and II Baltic Sea pipelines in September 2022, they caused an ecological catastrophe by releasing an unprecedented amount of the climate killer gas methane into our atmosphere. In other words, they made a hell of a stink. But that immediate impact pales in comparison with the rotten stench generated by the politics of cover-up that have followed the attack.

We have gotten so used to the European and German response that it's hard to grasp just how perverse it has been. Usually, the victims of a crime do not try to cover it up. And yet, despite being the targets of a perfidious assault on critical energy infrastructure, both the EU as a whole and Berlin in particular have done everything they could to delay investigations and obfuscate and downplay the attack, while avoiding finding or naming all its perpetrators.

Indeed, Sweden and Denmark, both directly affected by the sabotage, simply and quickly abandoned any attempt at investigation. NATO, of course, if it followed its own rules, would have moved heaven and earth to identify and then, in accordance with precedent, bomb the aggressor state behind the attack on its members.

Comment:
1) See also about the same case: 2) The Nord Stream sabotage event and the subsequent bumbling investigation and indifferent statements about it from several Governments have offered many opportunities for learning. Perhaps some young people becoming aware of the world around them as they mature for the first time in their lives come to realize from their own experience that their Government is not as open as it claims but hiding what ought to be public and lying to them as it suits the occasion.

3) The author lays out his observations as if it is something new or fairly recent that the media is doing more to hide than to reveal, however that is hardly the case:

Ex-German media boss admits on live radio the national news agenda is govt controlled which has:
This week, during a radio event in Berlin, the retired head of ZDF Bonn, Dr Wolfgang Herles, dropped a bombshell. He admitted the network, and others, takes orders from the government on what, and what not, to report.
Also from Germany but relating to an older case; the way it is done today may be different: 4) See also: 5) There still seems to be a market for propaganda: Most people today want to be propagandized In other words for such people something like the Nord Stream sabotage is not a big issue; it does not register.

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Cow Skull

Finally: Oregon allows drug decriminalization law to expire

Sarah Fortinsky
The Hill
Tue, 03 Sep 2024 20:26 UTC
Portland open air drug market
© Toby Canham for DailyMail.comOpen air drug markets have become part of the Portland landscape.
Oregon's 2020 drug decriminalization law expired Sunday, ending the first-in-the-nation experiment that made possession of small amounts of hard drugs punishable by a ticket and maximum $100 fine.

As of Sunday, possession of personal-use quantities of illicit drugs will be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison.

The new law, passed in March, recriminalizes drug use and makes it easier for police to combat public drug use, introducing harsher penalties for those selling drugs in parks.

Comment: No sane person would have expected things to end any other way for daft libtards of Oregon.

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Star of David

Protests sweep Israel after hostage deaths


RT
Mon, 02 Sep 2024 02:58 UTC
protest
© Ariel Schalit/APIsraeli protesters demand a hostage deal with Hamas • Tel Aviv • September 1, 2024
Public discontent with the Netanyahu government has escalated after the bodies of six Israeli hostages were found in Gaza. Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Israeli cities on Sunday, demanding an immediate ceasefire deal with Hamas after the bodies of six hostages were discovered in Gaza tunnels.

Israel's largest trade union called for a nationwide strike to shut down the "entire Israeli economy" on Monday, with the support of rights groups, to pressure the government to sign a truce and secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Sunday's demonstrations were the largest since Israel launched its war on Hamas in response to the October 7 attack, which left around 1,200 Israelis dead and 200 taken hostage. Organizers described the rally as an "endless sea of protesters," estimating a crowd of 300,000 people in Tel Aviv and an additional 200,000 in other cities across the country.

Comment: Israel on strike! Protesters take to the streets:
Israel's trade unions staged a mass strike on Monday to pressure the country's government to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas and secure the release of hostages being held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza.

The industrial action was called by Israel's largest trade union, Histadrut, after the bodies of six hostages were discovered in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David announced on Sunday:
"The entire Israeli economy will strike" on Monday morning, and that "the entire nation will come to a standstill and unite in a shared cry to bring the hostages back."
The union represents about 800,000 Israeli workers.

According to local media reports, hundreds of protesters blocked roads and intersections across Israel, departures from the Ben Gurion international airport near Jerusalem were temporarily suspended, and light rail and bus routes around the country were also at a standstill. Schools, universities, hospitals and local municipalities, as well as private business owners, were also reportedly expected to join the industrial action.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday that he was trying to use his power in the government to prevent Netanyahu from yielding to protesters' demands and agree to a "reckless deal."


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Vinyl

Ukrainian anthem found in US voter database code


RT
Mon, 02 Sep 2024 15:06 UTC
votery
© Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu/Getty ImagesUS voting machine
A review of the software responsible for compiling voter lists in New Hampshire reportedly revealed that it was connected to servers outside the US.

The Ukrainian anthem has been found embedded in the source code of the voter database in the state of New Hampshire, the development of which had apparently been outsourced to offshore programmers, according to Politico.

Election officials had previously decided to replace the state's voter registration database before the upcoming 2024 presidential election and reportedly turned to a small Connecticut-based IT firm called WSD Digital to develop the software.

However, upon reviewing the completed project, it was revealed that the firm had offshored some of the work. Given that this posed a risk of unknown coders outside the US having access to the software and potentially being able to manipulate voter lists, New Hampshire officials hired a forensic firm to scour the code for signs of hidden malware.

The probe reportedly revealed a number of "unwelcome surprises," Politico claimed, citing a person familiar with the investigation. These included the use of open-source code, software which had been misconfigured to connect to servers outside the country, and the lyrics to the Ukrainian national anthem.

Comment: The accused: Tehran denies doing to US what the US (very capably and intentionally) does to itself.

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Quenelle

US Marines attacked in Türkiye


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2024 15:43 UTC
US marines attacked in Turkey
The group behind the incident says American troops have "Palestinian blood" on their hands

Members of a nationalist youth organization attacked two US Marines in the Turkish city of Izmir on Monday. The service members had disembarked from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, which arrived on deployment in the Mediterranean Sea.

A video of the altercation shows a group of men holding down a plain-clothed Marine, with one of the assailants placing a white sack over his head. The mob reportedly yelled "Yankee, go home!" as they attacked the servicemen.

According to the Izmir governor's office, security forces "quickly intervened in the incident," detaining 15 suspects.

"The two Marines were aided by other Marines in the area and were subsequently taken to a local hospital for evaluation as a precaution but were not injured and have returned to the USS Wasp," Commander Timothy Gorman, a spokesman for US Naval Forces Europe-Africa, said.

The US Embassy released a statement, saying the Americans "are now safe." The diplomats thanked the Turkish authorities for "their rapid response and ongoing investigation."

Comment: This happens at the same time that Turkiye is applying for BRICS membership. Turkiye is slowly having to chose a side as sitting on the fence is not bringing benefits in the long run.

See also:

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