Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bacon

Western Australian vegan takes neighbors to court over smell of barbecue

Lisa Martin
The Guardian
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:04 UTC
bbq fish barbecue
© puhhha/Getty Images/iStockphoto
A vegan in Western Australia who took her neighbours to the supreme court with complaints about the smell of meat and fish from their barbecues has said she is considering further potential legal action.

The court and the state's administrative tribunal have both thrown out Cilla Carden's complaints about her neighbours, including their cooking smells, cigarette smoke, chairs scraping on concrete, reflective light and the sounds of children playing basketball and pet birds.


Comment: Maybe she wouldn't be so irritable if she started eating meat? Lack of proper nutrition can do a number on your brain and emotional regulation.


Carden, a massage therapist who lives at Girrawheen in Perth's north, says the ongoing dispute has robbed her of quality of life and claimed her neighbours actions are deliberate.

"They've put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish," Carden told Nine. "I can't enjoy my backyard, I can't go out there."

      Read More...
Heart - Black

'This place was hell': Julian Assange's brother on prison conditions


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:00 UTC
assange
© Sputnik
Gabriel Shipton, brother of jailed WikiLeaks co-founder, told a rally in London that the British prison system is "working its hardest at crushing any hope" Julian Assange has left.

Speaking at a rally outside the British Home Office in Westminster on Monday, Shipton described an emotional visit to his weakened and emaciated brother, currently serving a 50-week sentence at Belmarsh prison, ostensibly for skipping bail in 2012.

After embracing his brother for what he thought may be the last time, Shipton described speaking to his daughter afterwards, who wondered why her uncle was locked up. "'Has he done something bad, dad?' she asked. I struggled to explain in a way a five-year-old would understand."
      Read More...
Sherlock

Texas gunman was fired from his job before rampage, made several calls to the FBI and 911

Lucinda Holt & Mary Fernandez
The Independent
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 14:23 UTC
crime scene
© AP
Police surround the area behind Cinergy in Odessa
The 36-year-old man who terrorised two West Texas towns with an assault-style rifle on Saturday had been fired from his trucking job a few hours before he led authorities on a chaotic high-speed chase that ended with his death and the deaths of seven others.

Along a 15-mile stretch between the sister cities of Midland and Odessa, the aftermath of the gunman's rampage — in which he indiscriminately fired at motorists and police officers with an AR-15-style rifle while driving — clashed with the typically serene and dusty rural landscape of the region.

On Sunday, authorities continued to collect evidence from more than 15 crime scenes, scattered along highways, car dealerships and shopping malls, marked by police tape, bullet-riddled cars and a wrecked postal van the gunman had hijacked.

Authorities initially refused to name the gunman on Sunday, not wanting to give him "any notoriety for what he did," said Michael Gerke, the police chief of Odessa. But they later issued a statement identifying the gunman as Seth Aaron Ator, of Odessa.

Police officers shot and killed Ator in the parking lot of a movie theatre in Odessa, ending a shooting rampage that began after authorities had tried to pull him over for failing to signal a left turn.

Comment: According to RT, the shooter made several calls to 911 and the FBI before his rampage:
Shortly before he randomly shot dozens of people in West Texas on Saturday, the gunman called police, the FBI and 911 dispatchers, and made "rambling" statements in the wake of his job loss. His employer called 911 too, in vain.

Hours before carrying out the mass shooting that left seven dead and over 20 injured in Odessa, Texas, the gunman, Seth Aaron Ator, had made erratic calls to 911 and the FBI, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke told reporters on Monday.

FBI special agent Christopher Combs described Ator's call to the bureau as "rambling." It's been confirmed the calls were made after the shooter lost his job at Journey Oil Field Services on Saturday morning.

Ator's employer also tried to call 911, Gerke said, but he had already left his workplace by the time police arrived.
More on the shooter from the New York Post:
A neighbor of the Odessa, Texas, mass shooter says she reported him to police last month — after he threatened her with a rifle for leaving trash near his property — but cops couldn't find his house on account of it having no GPS address or electricity.

The woman told CNN that Seth Ator, 36, would often sit on top of his home and shoot animals at night, which he would then retrieve afterward.

She said cops tried to confront Ator following her report to them last month, but his property didn't show up on GPS and was difficult to find.

Ator would often sleep inside his Toyota Camry with the heat on when the weather would get too cold, the woman said. He also had no running water.

Another neighbor told NewsWest9 that she, too, was visited by Ator — who showed up at her door with his rifle. It was unclear what sparked that incident. The woman said Ator owned at least two guns.

Cops shot and killed the Texas madman following his shooting rampage in Odessa on Saturday. He managed to kill seven people and wounded more than 20 others.


      Read More...
Russian Flag

Hollywood's continued demonization of Russians is worse than during the Cold War

Daniel Chalyan
Russia Beyond
Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:02 UTC
actor soldier
© Donovan Marsh/Millennium Films, 2018
To most of you the portrayal of Soviets (or Russians - who cares!) as backward evil-doers by Hollywood is nothing surprising. A new view is gaining traction that the silly stereotyping is fizzling out. I argue the opposite: it's entered a new, more nuanced phase.

The stereotype of the Russian bad guy in Hollywood is dying. At least, that's what the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian version of The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Maria Lemesheva, boldly proclaimed in 2017: "I've seen... in the movie with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp ('The Tourist') where a Russian general was some sort of a bad guy, the audience was laughing while watching the film. Our public always has a cheerful and philosophical attitude towards such movies. And we also take it as irony. But I think that tendency to portray Russians as the bad guys is dying," she told the Indo-Asian News Service. I gather that these remarks were meant to downplay one of the most enduring creative techniques in Hollywood history. To say that I was taken aback by them is an understatement.

Apparently, because Russians are so giddy and deep with their understanding of other people's motives - or because we can take a punch and treat it 'philosophically' - it makes no sense to treat Hollywood attacks on an entire culture with any real seriousness? The richest film industry in the world doesn't just make movies for the pleasure of it. You may yourself have participated in many a conversation online where somebody says "it's just humor", "it's just a movie" or "it's just a joke." First of all, nothing is "just" anything if there is massive money involved. Do yourself a huge favor and forget the poisonous notion that entertainment is just made for the hell of it. Money has to serve a purpose.
      Read More...
No Entry

'Bastion of bigotry': University of Kansas faculty want Chick-fil-A banned from campus

Caleb Parke
Fox News
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 13:54 UTC
Chick-Fil-A restaurant
A few Kansas University faculty members are not fans of allowing Chick-fil-A to be served on campus because they believe the chain violates "safety and inclusion".

The faculty council, filled with "extreme frustration," wants America's favorite restaurant removed from campus for being a "bastion of bigotry" after KU administrators relocated a Chick-fil-A from a basement to "prime real estate" on campus to the Memorial Union. But worse yet, to the council, is the "Chick-fil-A Coin Toss" at the start of the Jayhawks' football home games.

"The culture of Chick-fil-A fosters hate and discrimination on multiple levels," the Sexuality & Gender Diversity Faculty and Staff Council wrote in a two-page letter, accusing university leaders of being "more concerned about money and corporate sponsorship than the physical, emotional, and mental well being of marginalized and LGBTQ people."

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Music

Roger Waters performs Wish You Were Here in honor of Julian Assange


RT
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 13:40 UTC
Roger Waters
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS / Lexie Harrison-Cripps
Watch rock 'n' roll legend and Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters perform his hit track 'Wish You Were Here' outside the UK Home Office, during a rally in honor of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange.

Taking a makeshift stage right outside the British interior ministry office, the rocker's performance is intended as a message of solidarity with Assange, who was arrested in April and now faces extradition to the United States. A long-standing supporter of Assange and WikiLeaks, Waters said he was "ashamed to be an Englishman" following the transparency activist's arrest.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Newspaper

Sikhs launch massive protest outside Pakistan embassy against forced conversions


India Today
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 13:01 UTC
Sikh
© PTI
The Sikh community launched a protest outside the Pakistan High Commission on Monday.
A group of members of the Sikh community launched a massive protest outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and were seen burning effigies to protest against the forced conversion of Sikh girls in Pakistan.

The protesters are also demanding protection of the Sikh families residing in Pakistan amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Sikh community members were trying to submit a memorandum at the Pakistan High Commission when they were stopped. This irked the Sikhs who launched violent protests near the premises of the Pakistan embassy.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Eye 2

If there's such a thing as a murderous culture, then it exists in Israel

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:19 UTC
Israeli soldier detains Palestinian
© AFP
An Israeli soldier detains a Palestinian man following a weekly protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel, Kfar Qaddum, West Bank, August 23, 2019.
This is what the editor of Haaretz's Culture and Literature supplement, Benny Ziffer, wrote on his Facebook page upon returning from paying a condolence call in the settlement of Ofra: "En route I looked at the Palestinian villages alongside the Jewish communities, and I thought of how for the Palestinians murder is a type of sport or enjoyment, perhaps a substitute for erotica. From that perspective we will never have anything culturally in common with them."

And if that weren't enough, Ziffer also wrote, "Regarding this evil and undignified people living among us, we can only yearn for the land to vomit it out, because it isn't worthy of this land, which is full of Jewish blood that it has spilled."

His post generated no comment. Ziffer has apparently exhausted his allotted attention. By contrast, Yaron London succeeded in raising a bigger momentary storm with less serious remarks: "Arabs are savages ... they don't only hate Jews, they kill their own first and foremost."

More than one straight line connects London and Ziffer. Their comments reflect the spirit of the times in Israel.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Laptop

DARPA unleashes anti-meme militia to fight deepfakes & 'polarizing' viral content

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 08:17 UTC
pepe helmet
© Reuters / Elijah Nouvelage
The Pentagon has unveiled an initiative to fight 'large-scale, automated disinformation attacks' by unearthing deep-fakes and other polarizing content - with the eventual goal of rooting out so-called 'malicious intent' entirely.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking software capable of churning through a test set of half a million news stories, photos, and audio/video clips to target and neutralize potentially viral information before it spreads. In DARPA jargon, the aim is to "automatically detect, attribute, and characterize falsified multi-modal media to defend against large-scale, automated disinformation attacks." "Polarizing viral content," however, includes inflammatory truths, and the program's ultimate goal seems to be to stamp out dissent.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
NPC

YouTube bans Infowars relaunch just days after promising to allow 'controversial' content

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 08:54 UTC
Alex Jones, Infowars
On Tuesday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that the platform would invite "offensive" content back onto the site - writing in an open letter to YouTube creators "Without an open system, diverse and authentic voices have trouble breaking through."

"I believe preserving an open platform is more important than ever," she added.

In response, Infowars relaunched its 'War Room' YouTube channel - which boasted 2.4 million followers before being terminated in August 2018 for "violating YouTube's community guidelines."
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts