Society's ChildS


Pistol

New crime scene photos from Vegas shooting raise more questions

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 18:23 UTC
stephen Paddock vegas shootings
© The Free Thought Project
Dozens of new photos were just released from the Vegas shooting investigation which provide a chilling look inside the room and vehicle of Stephen Paddock.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department finally released a substantial amount of information this week in the form of 28 crime scene photographs. The photos show the alleged shooter's room, vehicle, security setup, and even the infamous note. While these photos give us more insight into the shooting, they also leave us with many more questions.

Comment:

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Laptop

Leakers will be fired, sued and possibly jailed: Snapchat issues directive to staff via internal memo


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 18:27 UTC
broken screen
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Snapchat employees have been reportedly threatened with jail time in a stark internal memo, warning them of the consequences of leaking confidential information.

Ironically, the memo cautioning employees on leaking was leaked to tech site Cheddar and sent one day before the Daily Beast published a story based on an analysis of five months of Snap's confidential metrics data.
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Handcuffs

Racist assistant police chief caught teaching police candidates to 'kill black people'

Jack Burns
Free Thought Project
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 16:27 UTC
Todd Shaw
An assistant police chief who was being investigated for ties to pedophilia, resigned after private Facebook messages were made public that outed him as a racist.

The assistant police chief in Prospect, Kentucky, who was already under investigation for ties to pedophilia, is now without a job after it was revealed that he was sending racist, violent, and sexual private messages to police recruits on Facebook.

Todd Shaw was "a bit of a character," according to Prospect Mayor John Evans, who appeared visibly upset that his town's reputation has been hurt by Shaw's alleged actions.

The private Facebook messages came to light during a criminal investigation alleging Shaw aided LMPD officer Kenneth Betts who was being investigated for allegedly raping a teenage boy enrolled in the Louisville Metro Police Department's Explorer program.
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Newspaper

100 Europeans who joined ISIS to be tried in Iraq - 'Most of them likely to receive a death sentence'


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 15:12 UTC
ISIS
© Ahmed Saad / Reuters
An Iraqi criminal court has ruled that a German woman of Moroccan descent should incur the death penalty for joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), according to the court's spokesman.

The case marks the first time a foreign woman has been sentenced to death in Iraq for joining the group, as Reuters reports.

The woman, whose name hasn't been disclosed, was guilty of "offering logistic support and helping the terrorist group to carry out criminal acts," as well as "taking part in attacks against security forces," the Supreme Judicial Council's spokesman, Abdul-Sattar Bayrkda, said, according to AP.

Comment: Meanwhile in Sweden they're offering returning jihadis benefits so 'they don't fall back into it'.

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Arrow Up

What's behind the rise of the 'Intellectual Dark Web?'

Jacob Kishere
Conatus News
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 14:56 UTC
jordan peterson pic
© jordanbpeterson.com
Recently, public intellectuals are moving away from university settings to the 'Intellectual Dark Web' to spread their ideas. What is driving this shift?

Public discourse in recent years is increasingly characterised by polarisation and an emotionally divided political landscape. The Right in the Western world struggles to grapple with rampant populism that degrades the political process with nativist sentiment whilst a concurrent fractured identity discourse sees the Left increasingly searching for traitors over converts. Where in the current fraught climate is a space for free dialogue held in good faith? Is the burgeoning 'Intellectual Dark Web' the new forum for intellectual debate that is sorely needed?

For several public intellectuals and pundits, as part of a new digital network of podcasts and talk shows, the 'safe space' for dialogue is not in the universities or mainstream news media outlets but online. Coined by Eric Weinstein, economist and director of Thiel Capital, the term Intellectual Dark Web refers to this emergent space. A veritable Mos Eisley cantina of disaffected leftists, conservatives and liberals are found here conducting their own political discourse. Creating their own podcasts and crowd-funding with supporters through tools like Patreon, these thinkers are subject to no authority but themselves.

Figures of all political and ideological persuasions are found on these podcasts. One of the more well-known podcast hosts, Joe Rogan, comes from the world of MMA, self-described as 'The bridge between the meatheads and potheads.' You certainly would not guess that Rogan and his podcast, 'The Joe Rogan Experience' was pulling in excess of 5 million YouTube views on his most popular content and regularly exceeding a million views. This is not to mention the tens of millions of downloads his podcasts receive monthly on platforms such as iTunes. Symptomatic of shifts from traditional media gatekeepers to independent platforms shows like Rogan's signify a rejection of the trend toward sound-byte analysis. His discussions with guests, ranging typically from 2-4 hours in length, is common to many of the major content producers in this area.

Comment: Intellectual discourse between those on opposing ends has all but dissappeared in the mainstream sphere, and unfortunately from most colleges and universities as well. As sad thing really - the one place where free speech is supposed to reign supreme and where you go to have your beliefs challenged and critiqued are now simply kindergartens for adults, where everything is a 'safe space' and people are left completely unprepared for life in the real world.

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Arrow Up

North Korean delegation arrives in the South to inspect Olympic art performance venues


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 05:01 UTC
North Korean delegation South Korea Olympics
© Shin Joon-hee via Yonhap / ReutersHyon Song Wol, head of North Korea's Samjiyon Orchestra, arrives at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, January 21, 2017.
A N. Korean delegation has travelled to the South to inspect Olympic venues. Pyongyang had earlier indicated the visit would be canceled, raising alarm over the fate of the budding rapprochement in the run-up to the Games.

Accompanying the inspection team is young female artist Hyon Song-wol, who now heads the North's Samjiyon Orchestra. She's known for her part in the Moranbong Band, an all-female music group whose members are allegedly selected by Kim Jong-un personally. The superstar is rumored to be an ex-girlfriend of the supreme leader himself. She now leads her country's efforts to make the so-called 'Peace Olympics' a reality.

Comment: Previously:

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Pistol

All attackers killed after 12-hour siege on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 15:26 UTC
Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
© ReutersIntercontinental Hotel in Kabul
All the attackers on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul have been killed and hostages released, the Afghan government said, announcing the end of a long siege. However, gunshots were still being heard even after the siege ended.

Afghan forces regained control over the Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan and killed four attackers on Sunday morning, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. One foreign citizen was among five people killed in the attack. At least six others were wounded, including four servicemen.

The whole operation reportedly lasted some 17 hours and the death toll could be higher than the government puts it, amounting to 18 people according to TOLOnews citing sources.
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Magnify

Marvel Comics axes every LGBTQ group-nominated comic book title, poor sales

Ian Miles Cheong
The Daily Caller
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 12:56 UTC
comic book SJW character
© Marvel Entertainment
Comic book readers are apparently not fans of progressive politics - a fact no more evident in Marvel's decision to cancel every single one of its comics that has been nominated by the LGBTQ advocacy group, GLAAD.

In December, the publisher announced its decision to cancel many of its comics, citing poor sales. LGBTQ, feminist, and social justice-themed comics involving stories that revolved around Black Lives Matter, illegal immigration, and LGBTQ issues were among those to end up on the chopping block.

At a New York Comic Con panel in October, Marvel executives faced tough questions from retailers who complained about the company's social justice push, with poor-selling products that took up valuable inventory space on store shelves.

Comment: It seems companies like Marvel and DC are finding out that these kind of niche markets are not going to get widespread appeal. Despite the loud chorus of social justice warriors in the public sphere, most people, especially comic book readers, are just not interested in being awkwardly preached at, and will vote with their dollar appropriately.

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Stop

Court rejects school's desperate effort to dismiss free speech lawsuit

Tyler Cochran
Campus Reform
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:06 UTC
stern judge
Pierce College will have to defend the constitutionality of its policies restricting speech to just 0.003 percent of campus after a judge rejected its motion to dismiss a student's lawsuit.

With help from attorneys at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), student Kevin Shaw sued the school in March after administrators refused to let him distribute copies of the Constitution outside of the school's "free speech zone," which encompasses just 616 square feet of the 426-acre campus.

Shaw was also told he must fill out a permit application to use the free speech zone, and that he would have to leave campus if he refused to comply, which the school's defense attorneys have sought to justify by arguing that the campus is a "non-public forum"

According to the court order, the motion was dismissed in part because "given the traditional purpose of the open, outdoor areas of universities, such as the 'Mall' on Pierce's campus, the Court finds that these areas are traditional public fora, regardless of Pierce's regulations naming them non-public fora."

Comment: Funny how the school claims to be "promoting the free exchange of ideas", yet their actions show that they'd rather constrain the free exchange of ideas - to a tiny spot in some unknown corner. Hopefully Shaw wins his case against the school. See also:

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Pistol

Afghanistan: Gunmen attack Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul - All 3 attackers killed - UPDATE


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:01 UTC
View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
© ReutersView of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2016
The Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul is under attack according Reuters, citing an interior ministry spokesman.

The group of "three or four men," who appeared to include suicide bombers, attacked the hotel Saturday and exchanged gunfire with security forces, according to ministry spokesman, Najib Danish.

The attackers have taken several hostages in the hotel, according to local news agency Tolo News who cited Kabul police.

The gunmen entered through the hotel kitchen, before moving to rooms 104 and 105, according to local journalist Bilal Sarwary, who cited an Afghan special forces commander.

Comment: Update (Jan. 21): All three attackers on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul have been killed and their hostages released, the Afghan government has said, announcing the end of a long siege. However, gunshots are reportedly still being heard.
Afghan forces regained control of the hotel and killed the three attackers on Sunday morning following a 12-hour siege, local media reported citing the Interior Ministry. One foreign citizen was reportedly among five killed in the attack. At least six others were wounded according to TOLOnews, while Pajhwok says that 10 people were injured.



Despite officials announcing the end of the siege, there were contradicting reports from local media citing witnesses and reporters on the ground, saying that the attack was not over and gunshots were still being heard. Later a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry clarified that the clear-up operation is ongoing.


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