Society's Child

ANOTHER scientist dies while jogging in Greece

The Sun, UK
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 13:49 UTC

Natalie Christopher

Rescuers found her body on Wednesday at the bottom of a ravine in an area known as Katafygi.

A large rock - which may have been dislodged by her in the fall - appeared to have crushed her.

Search teams left the body there overnight so a coroner can examine her in the morning as police refused to rule out foul play.

Police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos said it was too early to tell if she fell or was pushed.

He said: "At this point we don't know how she died.

"We have to await the report from the coroner, which will take two to three days, to have the answers."

Investigators are said to be probing the possibility the scientist - a keen climber - was attempting to scale a steep slope without equipment, according to local reports.

Comment: The murder of Dr Eaton in Crete was also initially believed to have been an accident while jogging...

Not an accident: American molecular biologist, Suzanne Eaton was asphyxiated & dumped into old Nazi bunker in Crete - UPDATE: Suspect confesses grisly details

Unlicensed "health coach" claims health advice is free speech—court disagrees

Beth Mole
ARS Technica
Sat, 20 Jul 2019 13:31 UTC

A federal court on Wednesday rejected claims by an unlicensed "health coach" that the unqualified health advice she provided to paying clients was protected speech under the First Amendment.

In rejecting her claim, the court affirmed that states do indeed have the right to require that anyone charging for health and medical services — in this case, dietetics and nutrition advice — be qualified and licensed. (State laws governing who can offer personalized nutrition services vary considerably, however.)

Heather Del Castillo, a "holistic health coach" based in Florida, brought the case in October of 2017 shortly after she was busted in an undercover investigation by the state health department. At the time, Del Castillo was running a health-coaching business called Constitution Nutrition, which offered a personalized, six-month health and dietary program. The program involved 13 in-home consulting sessions, 12 of which cost $95 each.

Comment: On the one hand, one can see why Florida wouldn't want just any old person off the street with no training charging for 'health advice' that could potentially be damaging. But it's a sticky situation when one considers 1) the terrible health advice offered by sanctioned government health bodies, 2) the fact that a number of people who are self-educated on health are well equipped to help others heal, and 3) many people are looking for health advice outside of government issued dietary recommendations (because they know they're a bunch of BS). Essentially, this ruling is infringing on the rights of its citizens to hire services of their choosing. A different solution is clearly needed here.

See also:

'You don't have any rights': CBP agents interrogate US citizen returning from Venezuela, seize his phone

Max Blumenthal
The Grayzone
Sat, 03 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC

The detention of a US citizen returning from Venezuela was an apparent extension of the US government's efforts to punish citizens who have protested its policy of regime change and economic warfare.

A US citizen has told The Grayzone that the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service detained him on his way home from Venezuela and violated his privacy.

Sergio Lazo Torrez, a 31 year-old Nicaraguan-American, said the CBP forced him to open his cellphone, grilled him about his political beliefs, and demanded information about his contact with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Torrez was returning to the Washington, DC area on the evening of August 2 when he was detained by CBP at Dulles International Airport in Vienna, Virginia. He had just participated in a week-long tour of Venezuela with over a dozen US citizens, including this journalist and two other reporters for The Grayzone.

During the trip, the group met with members of local social movements, leaders of workers' cooperatives, artists, and elected officials. On August 1, the visitors accepted an invitation to meet with Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. The meeting apparently triggered the US government's decision to target Torrez.

"They said that while I was being held I didn't have any rights," Torrez told The Grayzone, referring to the CBP. "I said, 'Can I call my lawyer?' They said, 'No, you don't have any rights, it doesn't matter if you call a lawyer. First of all, you can't even use your phone and second of all, you don't have any rights to do anything.'"

Comment: See also:

Children are at the center of a booming smuggling industry

Charlotte Cuthbertson
The Epoch Times
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC

© Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times
A group of illegal aliens walk up the road after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, near McAllen, Texas, on April 18, 2019.

A 33-year-old Honduran male illegally crossed the U.S. border with his 15-year-old "son" recently. After an investigation, it was discovered that the man had borrowed the boy from the boy's mother in Honduras to use in an attempt to be released into the United States quickly as a family unit. He presented a fake birth certificate for the boy.

Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents are uncovering thousands of such stories as smugglers and illegal aliens learn that a child is an adult's ticket into the United States, due to legal loopholes.

In this case, the child didn't have any family in the United States, and the man told agents he had planned to drop the boy off with an unknown male in Nebraska. "He also stated that smuggling fees are considerably less expensive when adults are traveling with a child," according to case notes obtained by The Epoch Times. The man confessed when he was faced with a DNA test. He was charged with alien smuggling.

Matthew Albence, acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a congressional hearing on July 25:

"By requiring the release of family units before the conclusion of immigration proceedings, seemingly well-intentioned court rulings and legislation are being exploited by transnational criminal organizations and human smugglers. These despicable smugglers have created an entire illicit industry with untold millions of dollars being made through the sale, rental, and recycling of children — utilized by unscrupulous adults to pose as family units."

Meet the carpenter making crosses for every single mass shooting victim in the US

Jonathan Vigliotti
CBS News
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:27 UTC

There is something heartbreaking about how routine carpenter Greg Zanis' deliveries have become. But in El Paso, they are the crosses Zanis says he must bear.

"Gun violence, you know, victims, they flock to me. They understand what it is that my messages is it's about. Let's remember these names, let's remember these people," Zanis said.

He made his first cross after the 1996 murder of his father-in-law. The first mass shooting he went to was Columbine. Since then, he's provided more than 26,000 wooden memorials at the site of mass murders and other tragedies across the country.

"I did Las Vegas where 58 people were killed. I did Parkland, Florida. I did Sandy Hook. I did the Orlando night club," he said. Zanis' next stop is Dayton, Ohio, where nine were killed this weekend.

He has delivered mostly crosses, but Stars of David and crescent moons, as well. So far, he's driven more than half a million miles, the distance to the moon and back, to bring light to communities grieving. "It's about the heart and I want you to remember these family members in a very unique way," Zanis said.

Truck stop: Another US freight company unexpectedly shuts down

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 23:05 UTC

Yet another trucking company has fallen victim to the recession in freight this year, according to FreightWaves. Terrill Transportation of Livermore, California shut its doors unexpectedly on July 30. The company had been in business 25 years.

Customer Manny Bhandal, president of Bhandal Bros. Inc., said that three of his trucks arrived at Terrill on July 30 to drop off a shipment and were turned away. Kevin Terrill, president of Terrill Transportation, did not respond to FreightWaves.

"We did get an email from one of their receiving clerks, basically apologizing that they couldn't receive our trucks because they were ceasing operations. This year has been very tough on a lot of companies."

A chief executive of another trucking company based in the Northwest called Kevin Terrill, who confirmed the news over the phone:

"He [Kevin] said rate concessions on both the trucking and warehousing side, driver wages being up and the tough environment to do business in California were to blame for the closure."

Terrill had 30 trucks and 36 company drivers, in addition to 12 owner-operators. This closure marks the seventh freight company to shut down in 2019 alone, after NEMF, Falcon, Williams Trucking of Dothan, Alabama, and Indiana-based A.L.A. and Starlite Trucking and LME.

Comment: See also: Over 2,500 truck drivers lose their jobs in 2019

Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership — here's why it doesn't have mass shootings

Hilary Brueck
Business Insider
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 10:23 UTC

Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.

The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.

The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit.

Comment: There is clearly something fundamentally different about the Swiss as compared to Americans. Despite wide access to firearms, they clearly have little reason or desire to go around shooting each other. Looking more deeply into this fact may be the key to discovering what's behind the US' penchant for gun violence.

See also:

Far-right accounts retweeted by Trump keep getting suspended

Kevin Poulsen
The Daily Beast
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 00:18 UTC

Nearly 10 percent of the unverified accounts retweeted by President Trump since his inauguration are currently suspended from Twitter for various violations of the platform's policies, ranging from hate speech to running fake sockpuppet accounts, a Daily Beast analysis has found.

The most recent occurrence was last week, when Twitter tapped the brakes on "LYNNTHO06607841" just hours after Trump retweeted the account's proclamation that "DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE ENEMIES OF AMERICA!" Before it was boarded up, the account's timeline was thick with all-caps conspiracy theories targeting prominent Democrats, including a recent tweet claiming Bill and Hillary Clinton "torture and sacrifice children" to get at "a drug that can only be found inside the human skull."

The suspension set The Daily Beast wondering about the ultimate fate of other Twitter users plucked from relative obscurity by a presidential retweet. Do they thrive and flourish in the limelight, or are they like child stars who often lose their way later in life?

By our count, Trump has picked his retweets from 488 accounts since his swearing-in. Most are public figures, media outlets, and government agencies sporting the familiar blue "verified" check mark attesting to the account-holder's identity. Of the 178 unverified users, Twitter had 16 on suspended status as of Thursday, when we made the count, with their tweets silenced and their timelines blocked from public view. The number dropped to 15 on Friday when one account returned from a 60-day ban. A single verified account, operated by the far-right group British First, was suspended after Trump retweeted three violent anti-Muslim smears.

Comment: See also:

Diversity, inclusion and anti-excellence: A former dean of the Yale Law School sounds a warning

Bret Stephens
The New York Times
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 00:01 UTC

Anyone who has followed the news from college campuses over the past few years knows they are experiencing forms of unrest unseen since the late 1960s.

Now, as then, campuses have become an arena for political combat. Now, as then, race is a central issue. Now, as then, students rail against an unpopular president and an ostensibly rigged system. Now, as then, liberal professors are being bullied, denounced, demoted, threatened, sued and sometimes even assaulted by radical students.

But there are some important differences, too. None of today's students risk being drafted into an unpopular, distant war. Unlike the campus rebels of the '60s, today's student activists don't want more freedom to act, speak, and think as they please. Usually they want less.

Comment: See also:

Environmentalism in a nutshell: McDonald's new paper straws aren't recyclable — but its axed plastic ones were

Rob Picheta
CNN
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:49 UTC

McDonald's has reportedly admitted that its new paper straws, rolled out last year to help "protect the environment," can't be recycled — unlike the plastic versions they replaced.

The straws were introduced to all 1,361 McDonald's restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland after a trial last year.

But the fast food giant acknowledged on Monday that the new versions are too thick to be processed by its recyclers.

Comment: Much like the replacement of traditional light bulbs with CFLs, and even renewable energy sources, environmental solutions only serve as virtue signals, offering nothing but a pseudo-solution with a side of frustration for the consumer having to switch to inferior, and sometimes dangerous, products. People really have no idea what they're doing.

See also:

When is Space Weather Scary? & Top Science Updates | S0 News Nov.5.2021 [Link]

parzival

'Pfizer Shares Surge After Release Of 'Miracle' COVID Pill That Is 89% Effective At Preventing Hospitalization' [Link] * 'Take four red capsules....

parzival

.. .. RT, airplanes, 9/11 & Pelostine: [Link]

Jibrish

Let's go pfizzer! or, Rumor is these 'inexplicably timed, heavily publicized, odd' funds are an additional, off the books entitlement to them...

Jibrish

"Although there isn't a currently known asteroid that's on an impact course with the Earth,…..” They might just fix that next October.

L. Wood

Society's Child

ANOTHER scientist dies while jogging in Greece

Unlicensed "health coach" claims health advice is free speech—court disagrees

'You don't have any rights': CBP agents interrogate US citizen returning from Venezuela, seize his phone

Children are at the center of a booming smuggling industry

Meet the carpenter making crosses for every single mass shooting victim in the US

Truck stop: Another US freight company unexpectedly shuts down

Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership — here's why it doesn't have mass shootings

Far-right accounts retweeted by Trump keep getting suspended

Diversity, inclusion and anti-excellence: A former dean of the Yale Law School sounds a warning

Environmentalism in a nutshell: McDonald's new paper straws aren't recyclable — but its axed plastic ones were

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