Society's Child

Not satire: Analysts touting hilarious idea that Russian operatives promoted sex toys on Instagram to 'sow discord' in the US

Hanna Kozlowska
Quartz
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 17:15 UTC

Two reports produced by independent researchers for the US Senate Intelligence Committee, released today (Dec. 17), show that Instagram was a much more significant tool in the hands of Russian operatives trying to influence US politics than previously thought-and was at times potentially more powerful than Facebook.

Between early 2015 and late 2017-during which the US elected Donald Trump as president - accounts associated with the Kremlin-sponsored Russian Internet Agency created more content on Instagram. These posts also received more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook, even though there are more ways to engage on Facebook, researchers from cybersecurity company New Knowledge, Columbia University and software research and development firm Canfield Research found in the 100-page report (pdf).

"Instagram was perhaps the most effective platform for the Internet Research Agency. Approximately 40% of its accounts achieved over 10,000 followers (a level colloquially referred to as "micro-influencers" by marketers); twelve accounts had over 100,000 followers ("influencer" level)," researchers said.

Bishops revolt against removal of Christmas carol's reference to Mary's virginity

RT
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 12:07 UTC

The popular Christmas carol 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing' has been updated to remove a reference to Jesus' mother's virginity, and clergymen are warning parishioners not to be "squeamish" about Mary's womb.

The line "offspring of a virgin's womb" has now been replaced with "offspring of the favored one" in the carol that will be sung in churches all across the UK over the Christmas period.

Not everyone is a fan of the remix, however. Senior Church of England clergy are warning choirs against opting for the updated version in their services, saying the new text could mislead those less familiar with Christian faith.

Comment: Surely the clergy involved in the 'remix' have better things to worry about than updating a Christmas carol - although for those squemish, it's very telling about their mental state. Besides, they'd all be better off educating themselves on the true history of Christianity:

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"We've had enough": France's Yellow Vests describe deteriorating quality of life

Alex Lantier
World Socialist Web
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 12:00 UTC

"Yellow vest" protesters mobilized for a fifth day of action in France on Saturday, facing a new police crackdown and clashes centered in provincial cities, as fewer protesters traveled to Paris.

Yellow Vest protesters on Opéra square

The interior ministry claimed that some 66,000 people had protested across France, down by half after the brutal crackdown organized the previous week in Paris. The mobilization in the capital was certainly smaller this Saturday, as thousands marched and clashed with police in large provincial cities across the coutnry.

In Paris, several thousand protested and 144 people were held in preventive detention, amid a new massive police clampdown in the capital. Large parts of the city and subway system were shut down, as armored cars, water cannon, horse-mounted military police, and riot police firing rubber bullets and tear gas occupied much of the city.

Comment: Amnesty International's damning report of violence by France's police on protesters, journalists and children

Comment: See also:

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Anything goes: Tanks on Maidan, president's gold bath, outrageous Ukraine fakes by disgraced Spiegel reporter

RT
Sat, 22 Dec 2018 20:52 UTC

One wonders just how outrageous 'fake news' must be in order to get busted, but Der Spiegel's ex-star reporter Claas Relotius got away with it all while writing for several outlets - maybe because it was about places like Ukraine.

Titled 'Bribing prohibited' Relotius' piece on the new Ukrainian police has all the elements of his trademark style: dramatic narrative, likeable heroes - and entirely made-up 'facts'.

The 'report', published by the Swiss magazine Reportagen in June 2016, tells a tale of two young people - Dimitri and Valeria - who became members of the rebranded police force of post-Maidan Ukraine. Given the recent revelations over his fictional reporting, it's now unclear whether Relotius met the duo in reality, but the story makes for a very compelling read indeed.

It states that each day before going on patrol, Dimitri and Valeria have been coming to the center of Kiev to pray near the "altar" erected in memory of those who died during the 2014 Euromaidan unrest. The two were among the protesters back then, it reveals, describing how they recall burning buildings, the "smell of corpses," a man "with a child in his arms" shot dead beside an old well - and a ruined wall, where dozens were "slayed by snipers" and "rolled over by tanks."

Wait, what? Given that the majority of victims in Kiev - both protesters and law enforcement officers - were killed over two days of murky clashes in February 2014, the "smell" of dead bodies appears to be a little of an exaggeration. No "old wells" could immediately be found in central Kiev, and there's nothing to back up the story about a "man with a child" either.

Comment: See also:

'Freegans' in Singapore find treasure in trash

Times of Malta/Reuters
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 19:57 UTC

© Times of Malta
Filipina domestic workers grab free items during a giveaway of donated and dumpster dived items at the house of Singaporean freegan Colin Lau.

A new movement in Singapore that seeks to reduce the amount of consumer waste in the affluent city-state is scavenging for unwanted goods, some in near-mint condition, that migrant workers can send home for the holidays.

"Freegans", broadly defined as people committed to cutting wasteful production and consumption, have connected with thousands of foreign labourers from lower-income countries, many of whom cannot afford the products sold in the city's shiny shopping malls.

In Singapore, the luxurious backdrop for the movie Crazy Rich Asians, what passes as trash for one household ends up in a shipping container on its way to the home country of a migrant worker.

"We should give whatever we have in excess to the poor instead of throwing it away," said Colin Lau, a member of the "Freegan in Singapore" Facebook group whose 6,500 members includes Singaporeans and foreigners.

Some members like Lau search dumpsters and rubbish bins, retrieving discarded items and re-using them or sharing with others in an effort to save money and the environment.

China's One Belt One Road is engine of growth for Eurasia, trade volume over $5 trillion for past five years

RT
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 19:33 UTC

© Reuters/Bobby Yip
A passerby casts a shadow over a map illustrating China’s “One Belt, One Road” megaproject at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China, on January 18, 2016.

It's been five years since Beijing announced the ambitious multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese companies have already built 82 economic and trade cooperation zones in 24 countries along the BRI routes.

The project has created more than 240,000 jobs in BRI countries, according to China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi.

"Over the past five years, trade volume in goods between China and countries involved in the initiative exceeded $5 trillion, and direct investment stands at over $70 billion," said Yang Jiechi, head of the office of Foreign Affairs of China's Communist Party.

He explained that under the framework of the initiative, over 11,000 freight trains are already running between China and Europe. They link nearly 100 cities across the region.

Courageous Gaza photographer vows to continue documenting protests despite narrow escape from IDF sniper fire

Ahmad Kabariti
Mondoweiss
Sat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC

Mohamed Asad shortly after he was grazed by bullet and his camera destroyed. December 21, 2018.

Gaza photographer Mohammed Asad tells the story of how he miraculously survived gunfire yesterday, just a few feet away from Mohammed al Jahjuh, 16, who was shot dead in the neck by a bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during the ongoing demonstrations near Israel's fence.

"Unlike the past 38 protests, everything was almost quiet except for seven to eight stone throwers, and no burning tires. I had just decided to go home with dozens of photos I took. But I felt someone thought it was time for me to leave, and he sent a bullet to my camera. He was an Israeli military sniper."

"Everything took place in less than a second. When I turned my back to the fence, my camera's strap jumped forward and a sudden sting scratched my cheek. Then I realized a bullet had penetrated the photographic apparatus. But I was completely confused because [Mohammed] al Jahjuh was bleeding and writhing in pain," Asad told Mondoweiss.

Comment: Killing the messenger - Israel targets journalists and photographers to hide their wholesale slaughter of unarmed Palestinians:

Liberals more likely to stereotype minorities than conservatives

Kenneth Nelson
Campus Reform
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:55 UTC

An Ivy League study suggests that white liberals are more likely than white conservatives to draw on stereotypes when conversing with minorities.

Cydney Dupree, a Yale University organizational behavior professor, and Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, conducted the study and found that white liberals tend to use "indirect forms of bias, drawing on negative stereotypes to affiliate with Blacks."

The study, titled "Self-Presentation in Interracial Settings: The Competence Downshift by White Liberals," indicated that liberals are less likely to show competence when speaking to minorities than are conservatives.

Comment: This is the natural result of being obsessed with victim status and race.

Pope Frances vows church will never again ignore sex abuse allegations, calls for guilty priests to turn themselves in

Ross Ibbetson
Daily Mail
Sat, 22 Dec 2018 16:09 UTC

© REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo
Pope Francis leads a special audience with members of a volunteers association from Sardinia island in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican November 30, 2018.

Pope Francis today vowed the Catholic Church will never again ignore allegations of sexual abuse and called on guilty priests to turn themselves in and face justice.

A litany of child sexual abuse scandals has rocked the Church for decades, with the pope as recently as Wednesday accepting the resignation of a US bishop over 'misconduct' with a minor.

'To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,' the pope said in his annual address to the Church's governing Curia at the Vatican on Friday.

He also added that he is determined to bring all guilty priests to justice.

Comment: Pope Francis has previously made similar promises, but as the rot runs throughout the Vatican hierarchy, either he is unable or unwilling to follow through on them.

Study: Average Facebook user would want more than $1k to quit for 1 year

RT
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 10:56 UTC

A new study has tried to estimate how attached users are to their Facebook accounts, by converting their social worth into monetary values. Users were asked how much money would make them quit using the social network.

Facebook has been constantly under fire recently for privacy breaches, political bias and market monopoly, sending its stocks tumbling 6 percent and user trust plummeting - according to surveys, at least. But not trusting Facebook and not using it are not the same thing, a study published earlier this week shows.

Plos One, a privately run peer-reviewed research journal based out of California, decided to assess Facebook's worth not to the stock markets, but to the average user.

The method worked through holding "experimental auctions" where the real money was placed based on their not using the site for various periods of time, from an hour to an entire year. The user essentially "bet" against how much time he or she would have to give up, which was chosen randomly. The study approached various demographics and samples, and yet fairly consistently came up similar results: "we consistently find that our 1,258 auction participants derive over $1000 of value annually on average from Facebook, reinforcing the idea that the computer age's effect on society's well-being is much larger than its effect on GDP. "

Comment: The answer to that lies in the 'dopamine hit' playing on people's psychological and physiological reactions in order to keep them 'hooked'. This is no accident and designed to keep you there as long as possible. A drug addict most likely won't trust their dealer except for the one thing they want - their next fix. 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

Not satire: Analysts touting hilarious idea that Russian operatives promoted sex toys on Instagram to 'sow discord' in the US

Bishops revolt against removal of Christmas carol's reference to Mary's virginity

"We've had enough": France's Yellow Vests describe deteriorating quality of life

Anything goes: Tanks on Maidan, president's gold bath, outrageous Ukraine fakes by disgraced Spiegel reporter

'Freegans' in Singapore find treasure in trash

China's One Belt One Road is engine of growth for Eurasia, trade volume over $5 trillion for past five years

Courageous Gaza photographer vows to continue documenting protests despite narrow escape from IDF sniper fire

Liberals more likely to stereotype minorities than conservatives

Pope Frances vows church will never again ignore sex abuse allegations, calls for guilty priests to turn themselves in

Study: Average Facebook user would want more than $1k to quit for 1 year

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