Society's ChildS


Pirates

West finds another funding source for war of terror via antiquities smuggling from conflict states

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Limestone funerary relief
"Many antique collectors unwillingly support terrorists like Islamic State, " Michel van Rijn, one of the most successful smugglers of antique artifacts in the past century, told German broadcaster Das Erste this month.

And smuggling is booming in Iraq and Syria right now. In Iraq, 4,500 archaeological sites, some of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, are reportedly controlled by Islamic State and are exposed to looting. Iraqi intelligence claim that Islamic State alone has collected as much as $36 million from the sales of artifacts, some of them thousands of years old. The accounts data have not been released for verification but, whatever the exact number is, the sale of conflict antiquities to fund military and paramilitary activity is real and systematic.

Pistol

14-year-old girl dies a week after Marysville school shooting

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© 6ABC
Another of the teenagers wounded in a Washington state high school shooting has died, raising to four the number of fatalities after a student opened fire in a cafeteria a week ago.

Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, died late Friday afternoon, officials at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett said.

Zoe Galasso, 14, was killed during the shooting Oct. 24 by a popular freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Gia Soriano, also 14, died Sunday at the Everett hospital.

Two other students remain hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Andrew Fryberg, 15, was in critical condition Friday and Nate Hatch, 14, was in satisfactory condition.

The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, 15, died of a self-inflicted wound.

Binoculars

Marchers protest Ireland's new tax on water supply

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© TheJournal.ie
Organizers say at least 100,000 people are marching against Ireland's new tax on water, a charge imposed as part of the country's successful exit from an international bailout.

Saturday's street demonstrations across Ireland organized by the Right2Water campaign are some of the largest since 2008 when the country started raising taxes and cutting spending amid a deepening financial crisis. European Union and International Monetary Fund experts who oversaw Ireland's 2010 bailout recommended that Ireland create a water utility charge to help regain control of budget deficits.

The water charges introduced Oct. 1 are expected to cost a typical household 278 euros ($350) annually. Tens of thousands are refusing to pay.

Handcuffs

Spain police nab 19 suspected of trafficking women

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© iStock
Spanish police say they have arrested 19 people suspected of smuggling Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian women into the country for the purpose of prostitution.

Police say women were enticed from various locations in Russia through travel agencies or adverts for jobs abroad and flown into the European Union's borderless Schengen zone using different airports and false passports that included Spanish, Finnish and Dutch tourist visas.

They were then allegedly forced to work in nightclubs.

A police statement on Saturday added that 16 other people were charged and four nightclubs in the southern Mediterranean coastal city of El Ejido closed.

Attention

Teen's disappearance helps reveal Alabama sex ring

Stephanie Hanke
© AP Photo/Jay ReevesIn this Oct. 21, 2014 photo, Stephanie Hanke, stepmother of missing teenager Brittney Wood, looks over materials related to the search for the youth at her home in Mobile, Ala. The teen hasn't been seen since May 2012 and is presumed dead, but 11 relatives and family friends have since been arrested as members of an alleged ring that swapped children for sex. Authorities said Wood could have been a key witness.
By most accounts, 19-year-old Brittney Wood was with uncle Donnie Holland the night of May 30, 2012, the last time anyone saw her. Holland - who was under investigation for horrific sex crimes at the time - died from a bullet within days in what was ruled a suicide.

The investigation that followed has publicly unraveled what authorities describe as a dark, twisted tale of perversion in the working-class neighborhoods and piney backwoods of coastal Alabama.

Eight of Woods' adult relatives and three family friends have been charged with dozens of felonies in two counties as the alleged members of an incestuous ring that authorities say shared children for group sex. Holland was the leader, prosecutors say, of what has been described as the largest sex ring ever uncovered in Alabama. Wood was a victim and likely key witness.

"Brittney could have been huge," said prosecutor Teresa Heinz. "She could have corroborated so many things."

Wood is presumed dead, but authorities haven't found a trace of her and no one is charged in her disappearance.

Black Magic

Monsanto's slick new marketing director tries to pull the wool over the eyes of millennials

monsanto protests
Biotech behemoth Monsanto may control much of the world's food supply, but they have yet to beat the "face of corporate evil" rap they've been handed by many of the roughly 80 million millennials who constitute their future consumer base, and who may or may not like the idea of their fresh-faced babies' formula being seasoned with glyphosate runoff from genetically engineered soy.

Thus, meet Vance Crowe, Monsanto's new, slick, 32-year-old Director of Millennial Engagement, who says actually Monsanto is pretty hip, and a woman in a sweater and ponytail works for them, and he's met a farmer with a handlebar moustache, and really, kids, it's all good, if genetically engineered.

Comment: No slick marketing campaign is going to be able to hide the predatory tactics and the increasing knowledge of the environmental and health devastation wrought by this corporation. If anyone has any lingering doubts as to the nature of this corporate monster, read:

Monsanto: The complete history of the world's most evil corporation


Water

#Droughtshaming: Residents play water cop while Big Agra gets away with sucking California dry

bike rider
Amid California's record drought, towns up and down the state are rolling out smartphone apps that enable people to snap pictures of neighbors and businesses who are violating water restriction rules and "play water cop":
The apps put more boots on the ground to spot waste and leaks that might go unnoticed, officials say. They say the high-tech citizen reporting programs are intended to encourage water conservation, and not to be used as evidence to fine offenders.

But at least one private company is taking things a step further. Creators of Vizsafe, a neighborhood watch app, have added a feature allowing users to map photos of water wasters - a practice dubbed "drought shaming" on Twitter and Instagram.
Here are a few examples:

Ambulance

Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two rocket plane crashes after "in-flight anomaly"

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© ABC News
Virgin Galactic said plane designed for commercial space travel was undertaking test flight in California when an 'in-flight anomaly' occurred

Richard Branson's plans for commercial space travel suffered a blow on Friday when one of his "rocket planes", SpaceShipTwo, crashed.

The plane was undertaking a test flight from its base in the Mojave desert when an "anomaly" occurred, Virgin Galactic said.
- Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic)October 31, 2014

#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming.
According to NBC News, the aircraft was forced to wait on the runway at the test site for three hours, while the ground team assessed the weather conditions, before it took off.

Analysts have been sceptical about whether Branson's plans for commercial space travel can be achieved. The launch date has been repeatedly delayed.

Almost 700 people, including Tom Hanks and Angelina Jolie, have paid to book a two-hour journey on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, which would include a planned five minutes of weightlessness.

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© Reuters/Gene BlevinsSpaceship Two rocket plane
Update: California Highway Patrol now says 1 person, believed to be a pilot, is dead and one injured.

Comment: It's interesting that this event comes on the heels of the Antares rocket explosion:


Evil Rays

Children in the UK considering suicide at all time high rates

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© Reuters/Suhaib Salem
More children in Britain are considering suicide than ever before, according to ChildLine, which claims to have received more than 34,000 calls in one year from under-18s seeking guidance

ChildLine, which is run by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said it had received 34,500 calls since 2013 - double the number it received in 2011.

According to the charity's 'On the Edge' report, published on Friday, almost 6,000 children told ChildLine counselors they had previously attempted suicide, many of them aged between 12 and 15.

Head of ChildLine Sue Minto said the rise of cyber-bullying on social media had exacerbated the problem, as it meant young people "couldn't escape" bullying.

"When I was a child you could go home, shut the door and you would have some escape and some release and a chance to pull yourself together again," she told BBC news.

"That doesn't happen for our children and young people. They live in a highly pressurized world where the internet never sleeps and even if they turn off their phone, it's still there waiting for them," she added.

Heart - Black

Red Cross diverted funds for hurricane relief to their own PR campaign

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© Reuters / Lucas JacksonRed Cross volunteers walk past the remaining foundations of homes destroyed by the storm surge of superstorm Sandy in the Staten Island borough neighborhood of Oakwood in New York, November 28, 2012
The American Red Cross was ill-equipped to provide aid to victims of Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac, a new report suggests, and allocated resources not towards offering help, but on generating publicity.

A new report conducted jointly by ProPublica and NPR raises concerns about how the humanitarian group conducted itself in the wake of the storms that occurred in 2012 and 2011, respectively, and claims that the organization's actions were "politically driven" and not on par with how the Red Cross routinely acts in such situations.

Through internal documents obtained by journalists and interviews conducted with those close to the Red Cross' response to those emergencies, the reports published this week by both media outlets conclude that evidence depicts "an organization so consumed with public relations that it hindered the charity's ability to provide disaster services."

Among the allegations unearthed in the new report are claims that "as many as 40 percent" of the agency's emergency vehicles were used as backdrops during pressers, not for providing relief, during those emergencies, and accusations that Red Cross headquarters in Washington "diverted assets for public relations purposes." According to one of the truck drivers, Jim Dunham, relief vehicles were ordered by the dozens to be deployed not to assist, but "just to be seen" at press conferences.

Comment: As you can see below, the Red Cross' use of funds and general mode of operation has been questionable and self-serving for a while now: