Society's ChildS


Cut

US: TSA Tells Air Travelers: No Wrapped Gifts

Joseph Straw
New York Daily News
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:32 UTC
TSA
© The Associated Press/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisA Transportation Security Administration screener removes a wrapped holiday present at Reagan National Airport.
Presents will be unwrapped and opened by screeners

The Transportation Security Administration has a tip for Santas traveling by air this holiday season: wrap those gifts after you fly, not before.

If you pack wrapped presents, the TSA's little helpers - airport screeners - will tear them open, surely putting the kibosh on fliers' holiday cheer.

The Grinchy message may not help the agency's lackluster public image, but the policy is a security no-brainer - wrapped presents would be a gift to terrorists hoping to slip threats onto airplanes.

The wrapping paper isn't only a tool of terrorists.

Last week screeners opened one traveler's gift-wrapped packages at Los Angeles International Airptort and found 35 pounds of marijuana, according to Los Angeles' Daily Breeze.
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Heart - Black

US: Ohio Executes Man for Killing 3 Sons in 1982

Kantele Franko
The Associated Press
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and CorrectionThis file photo shows Reginald Brooks, who is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, for fatally shooting his three sons while they slept in 1982, shortly after his wife filed for divorce.
Ohio has executed a man who fatally shot his three sons while they slept in 1982, shortly after his wife filed for divorce.

Sixty-six-year-old Reginald Brooks of East Cleveland died Tuesday afternoon. It was Ohio's first lethal injection in nearly six months.

The execution was delayed by more than three hours as attorneys exhausted Brooks' appeals, arguing he was schizophrenic and that his mental illness made him incompetent for execution. They also said information that could have favorably affected his trial was withheld.

Prosecutors acknowledged Brooks was mentally ill but disputed that he was incompetent and that information was hidden. They say he planned to kill the boys in vengeance against his wife.

Gov. John Kasich denied clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block execution.
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Handcuffs

US, Alabama: Police Arrest 13 People Protesting US State's New Immigration Law

Bob Johnson
The Associated Press
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Dave MartinProtestors march outside the Alabama Capitol during a demonstration against Alabama's immigration law in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011.
Police arrested 13 protesters in Alabama's capital Tuesday as they demonstrated against the state's strict new law clamping down on illegal immigrants.

About 100 people, most of them Hispanic and college-aged, chanted slogans as they marched in light rain around the state capitol and to the adjacent Statehouse where the legislature works.

"Undocumented, unafraid," ''No papers, no fear, immigrants are marching here," and "Ain't no power like the power of the people," were among the slogans the protesters chanted as they marched. Later, some were hauled off to jail in a yellow bus normally used by the city parks and recreation department.

Some sat down on Union Street between the Statehouse and the Capitol when police approached and warned them in English and Spanish that they would be arrested if they didn't move.

None did and police arrested 11 demonstrators, tying their hand with yellow straps and loading them into the bus.
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Pistol

US, California: Gunman Wounded by Police in UC Berkeley Shooting After Hundreds Descend on Campus for Protests

Lisa Leff and Terence Chea
The Associated Press
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Jeff ChiuThe shooting occurred at the Haas School of Business.
A man with a gun was shot by police Tuesday inside the business school at the University of California, Berkeley, after hundreds of students and anti-Wall Street activists descended on the campus for a day of protests.

The shooting occurred at the Haas School of Business on the east side of campus about a half-mile (half-kilometre) away from the protest site.

Ute Frey, a spokeswoman for the university, said officials did not yet know whether the suspect was part of the Occupy Cal movement.

University officials said a man carrying a gun was seen by a female staff member in an elevator at the business school after 2 p.m. The staff member called police at 2:17 p.m., saying she saw the man remove the gun from a backpack.

Police said they arrived at 2:19 p.m., and had to locate the suspect in the building. Officers found the suspect in a third-floor computer room where there were at least four students, university officials said.

The suspect raised the gun and was shot by an officer, according to the school. At the time, the four students were between the officer and the suspect, said UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau at an afternoon news conference.
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Eagle

US, New York: Judge Upholds Eviction of Wall St. Protesters

Basil Katz and Chris Francescani
Reuters
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz Bill Talen, known as Reverend Billy (C), delivers a speech to members of the Occupy Wall Street movement as they return to Zuccotti Park in New York November 15, 2011.
A judge upheld New York City's right to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters from a park on Tuesday after baton-wielding police in riot gear broke up a two-month-old demonstration against economic inequality.

Protesters who had been kicked out in a surprise predawn raid were allowed back 16 hours later but were banned from bringing the tents and sleeping bags that had turned a square-block park near Wall Street into an urban campground the past two months.

New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman found the city was justified in enforcing a ban on sleeping in Zuccotti Park, saying the new rules still protected protesters' free-speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The judge ruled merely that the case lacked the urgency to approve or strike down the new park rules immediately. The underlying case will be heard at a later date.

After the judge's ruling, police lifted barricades at two points, letting people back in one by one. Several hundred protesters were in the park under a light drizzle, and the crowd thinned as the night wore on. The mood was largely free of tension.
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Stormtrooper

US: NYPD Assaults Man & Punches Woman in Face at OWS / Liberty Plaza

davisfleetwood
YouTube
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:34 UTC

Dane from OWS is bounced by the NYPD and @ 1:45 of this video a woman brandishing a court order that affirmed the rights of protesters to occupy Liberty ark is punched in the face by NYPD.
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Info

High Childhood IQ Linked To Drug Use


redOrbit
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:32 UTC
IQ and Drugs
© redOrbit

New research suggests that a high childhood IQ may be linked to subsequent illegal drug use.

Researchers studied data from 8,000 people in the 1970 British Cohort Study, which is a large ongoing population based study.

The IQ scores of the participants were measured at the ages of 5 and 10 years by using a validated scale, and then the information that was gathered on self reported levels of psychological distress and drug use at the ages of 16 and 30.

The team found that about a third of men and a sixth of women had used marijuana by the age of 30, while 8.5 percent of men and 3.6 percent of women had used cocaine in the previous 12 months.

A similar pattern of use was found for other drugs, with overall drug use being twice as common among men as among women.

The analysis showed that men with high IQ scores at the age of 5 were around 50 percent more likely to have used amphetamines, ecstasy, and several illicit drugs than those with low scores.
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Stormtrooper

US: Police arrest reporters as press complains of media blackout at 'Occupy Wall St.'

Andrew Jones
The Raw Story
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:30 UTC
NYPD officers observe Occupy Wall protesters
© David Shankbone
"Occupy Wall Street" protesters weren't the only group who had a difficult morning thanks to NYPD's actions in Zuccotti Park.

A number of reporters complained of a media blackout from covering the morning raid. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed that several journalists were arrested by authorities.

The Associated Press reported that two of their reporters, writer Karen Matthews and photographer Seth Wenig, were taken into custody. The New York Daily News reported that their reporter Matthew Lysiak was also detained. NPR freelance reporter Julie Walker was arrested but indicated she has been released.

A photographer with Agance France Presse, a reporter for The Local East Village, and other journalists were also arrested. Police don't currently know the exact number of journalists were arrested.
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Nuke

Ex-Nuclear Engineer Speaks Out: 'TEPCO is a Terrible Company'

tokyobrowntabby
YouTube
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:17 UTC
Please click on "cc" to show English subtitles. Mr. Toshio Kimura is a former nuclear designer at TEPCO. He used to work at Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Plant. When the earthquake/tsunami hit, he was living 15km west of the plant, operating his own business of solar power generation and surfing in his free time. After the explosion of Unit 1 reactor, he and his family evacuated to Kochi Prefecture, where they live now.

Mr. Kimura has given talks at various anti-nuclear rallies around the country. This video is one of his talks at the rally held in Kochi Prefecture on April 29, 2011.

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Eye 1

CCTV taxi plan 'a staggering invasion of privacy'

Jerome Taylor
The Independent
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:30 UTC
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Plans to fit all taxis operating in the city of Oxford with audio recording devices have been branded a "staggering invasion of privacy" prompting calls for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to investigate how widespread the use of microphones on public transport has become.

Taxi drivers in the university town have been told that they need to install the £460 devices by 2015 or face having their licenses revoked. The microphones, accompanied by CCTV cameras, will activate once the ignition in the car is turned on and will remain recording for 30 minutes after the engine is turned off.

The council says the recording equipment is necessary to protect drivers and passengers as well as deal with any disputes over fares. Recorded information would only be accessible to the police or council officials.

But privacy campaigners say the plans represent a significant "ramping up" of surveillance culture in Britain and may well be in breach of Government guidelines.
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