Society's ChildS


Laptop

Anonymous Downs Government, Music Industry Sites in Largest Attack Ever


RT.com
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:38 UTC
DOJ website page
© DOJ
Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.

In response to today's federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group.

"It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org," Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon.

Only hours before the DoJ and Universal sites went down, news broke that Megaupload, a massive file sharing site with a reported 50 million daily users, was taken down by federal agents. Four people linked to Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand and an international crackdown led agents to serving at least 20 search warrants across the globe.

The latest of sites to fall is FBI.gov, which finally broke at around 7:40 pm EST Thursday evening.
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Nuke

UK: Nuke support in UK hits record high

Andrew Orlowski
The Register
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:12 UTC
Keeping calm and carrying on

Public support for nuclear energy has reached an all-time high in the UK, less than a year after the Fukushima incident. There is an interesting gender gap, though.

Pollsters Ipsos MORI, who buttonholed about 1,000 Brits last month for its survey, found that 40 per cent of the sample [PDF] now hold favourable views of nuclear power, compared to 19 per cent who don't. Men (55 per cent) are much more likely than women (26 per cent) to view it positively. Nuclear energy has been viewed more positively than negatively since 2004.

The recovery comes about 10 months after the most publicised civilian nuclear emergency in 25 years: the incident at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plant, caused by a tsunami wiping out Japan's shores. Support for nuclear energy dipped but rapidly recovered.

uknukes
© The Register
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Laptop

Best of the Web: Anonymous Shuts Down Corporate and Government Websites Worldwide ... The Timing Couldn't Be Worse


Washington's Blog
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:43 UTC
anonymous graphic
© n/a
Anonymous Shuts Down MPAA, RIAA, FBI, DOJ and Copyright Office

Anonymous launched one of the largest hacking attacks in history today.

Gizmodo reports that - in response to the Feds' shutting down of the extremely popular file-sharing site MegaUpload - Anonymous has shut down the sites of the main corporate copyright enforcers, including:
  • Motion Picture Association of America
  • Recording Industry Association of America
  • Universal Music
  • EMI
Anonymous has also shut down the main U.S. governmental copyright enforcers, including:
  • U.S. Copyright Office
  • Department of Justice
  • FBI
Plus foreign agencies, including:
  • French copyright authority HADOPI

Comment: Comment by Michael Rivero of WhatReallyHappened:

I have had my doubts about "Anonymous" ever since they showed up supporting Julian Assange and his extortion racket pretending to be a whistle blower site. In aligning with the pirates and attacking the DOJ, anonymous has handed the US government more justification for draconian controls on the internet.

I see your true colors shining through.

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Life Preserver

Costa Concordia Passenger: Titanic Theme Played As Ship Hit Rocks


Huffington Post
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:08 UTC
Costa Concordia with titanic theme song

It was the height of irony as the Costa Concordia started going down.

A passenger has revealed that the Celine Dion song "My Heart Will Go On," made famous by the 1997 film Titanic, was playing in one of the ill-fated cruise ship's restaurants at the very moment the ship's hull was ripped open.

Swissman Yannick Sgaga tells the Tribune de Geneve newspaper that he and his brother were dining when the Concordia struck rocks near the Italian island of Giglio, starting an evacuation that Sgaga called "a demonstration of incompetence, recklessness and irresponsibility."
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Laptop

At least 7,000 websites black out their homepages in protest of SOPA and PIPA internet censorship bills

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:32 UTC
sopa

On January 18, 2012, thousands of websites from around the world came out in protest of two pieces of legislation that threaten to censor the internet as we know it. Google, WordPress, Wired.com, Wikipedia, Tumblr, The Daily Paul, reddit, NaturalNews, and thousands of other websites censored portions or all of their homepages and content in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261), and the Protect IP Act (S 968), which would essentially give large media conglomerates and the federal government unbridled power to censor the internet.

The website SopaStrike.com says the protest is the "largest online protest in history," and its creators are urging everyone who encounters a censored page to contact their Congressmen and oppose both SOPA and PIPA. The page also contains a full list of confirmed participants in the blackout, as well as an "unfiltered list" of all additional sites that said they planned to participate.
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Sherlock

US, California: Feet Found in Los Angeles Park Where Head, Hands Discovered


The Associated Press
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Jason Redmond Los Angeles Police detectives inspect a vehicle parked the wrong direction as they search the neighborhood below the Hollywood Sign after a plastic bag containing a human head was discovered Tuesday on a nearby trail in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012.
Los Angeles police worked to determine the identity of a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days - first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday.

Investigators will continue to beat the brush along a winding hiking trail on Thursday to see if they can find more body parts.

Authorities said the head came from a man in his 40s, 50s or 60s. Police believe all the body parts are from the same man but are trying to confirm that.

Dog walkers found a severed human head inside a plastic bag Tuesday after two of the dogs they were walking began toying with an object. When they shook the plastic bag, a human head fell out onto the ground, according to police Cmdr. Andrew Smith.
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Sheriff

Canada: Ex-Cop Who Allegedly Tried to Sell Informant Names to Mob Kills Himself

Andy Blatchford
The Canadian Press
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Canadian Press/Graham HughesThe body of a former Montreal police officer is removed from the Chateauneuf Hotel in Laval, Que., Wednesday, January 18, 2012.
A retired Montreal police officer who allegedly tried to sell the names of informants to the Mafia is believed to have committed suicide.

Several news outlets reported that the former cop's body was found in a hotel room north of Montreal on Wednesday - the same day La Presse named him as the alleged mole.

Police in the city of Laval confirmed that a man's body was found Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. inside the hotel by an employee, but they did not release his name.

Montreal police drew a connection between the death and an investigation into allegations a retired, 33-year veteran of their force offered names of informants to the Mob in exchange for money.

But Sgt. Ian Lafreniere of Montreal police, which also searched the hotel for clues, stopped short of identifying the victim in Laval as the alleged mole.
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Family

Norway authorities take away Indian couple's kids, say feeding with hands wrong


NDTV
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC

Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya - an Indian couple from Kolkata are living a nightmare in Norway. Their children - a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter - were taken away from them by Norway's child protective services and placed in foster care eight months ago.

The drastic measure was taken because, according to the child protective services, the couple were not bringing the children up properly. What did they do wrong? They fed the children with their hands and the infants slept in the same bed as the parents.

"My son was sleeping with my husband. They said he should sleep separately from your son," said Mrs Bhattacharya.

"Feeding a child with the hand is normal in Indian tradition and when the mother is feeding with a spoon there could be phases when she was overfeeding the child. They said it was force feeding. These are basically cultural differences," said Mr Bhattacharya.
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Heart - Black

US, California: 10-Year-Old Charged with Murder in Friend's Stabbing Death

R. Stickney and Paul Krueger
MSNBC
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknownRyan Carter, 12, was stabbed to death at his friend's home on Royal Road in El Cajon. The 10-year-old friend is accused in the killing.
A 10-year-old East County boy accused of stabbing a 12-year-old boy to death is facing murder and felony assault charges, according to the district attorney's office.

A hearing is scheduled in juvenile court on Thursday at 8 a.m.

Candles, flowers and a teddy bear sat outside the home of the 12-year-old Lakeside victim who was fatally stabbed Monday while visiting a friend.

While family and friends grapple with the loss of Ryan Carter, prosecutors moved ahead with their case.

"The district attorney's office has charged a juvenile with murder and felony assault in connection with the crime," prosecutors announced Wednesday afternoon.
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Eye 2

US, New York: Brooklyn thug sentenced to 200 years -- but not before series of outbursts

William J. Gorta
New York Post
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:25 UTC
Maksim Gelman.
© Spencer A. BurnettMaksim Gelman
A wild scene unfolded inside a Brooklyn courtroom today after the confessed madman who admitted to killing four people while on a 28-hour rampage got into a shouting match with the boyfriend of one of his victims and the judge who sentenced him to 200 years to life in prison.

Maksim Gelman, 24, flipped out at his sentencing hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court while Gerard Honig delivered a victim impact statement for his girlfriend Yelena Bulchenko who was killed during the rampage.

"You fell in love with a heroin addict you f--king faggot," Gelman yelled.

"You'll burn in hell for what you did," Gerard Honig replied.

Gelman was briefly ejected from the courtroom, but brought back when he promised he would behave.
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