Society's ChildS


Book

Bogus book reviews get the axe by Amazon

Book Reviews
© Amazon
According to a report by the New York Times, Amazon has started to crack down on thousands of fake book reviews that have popped up on the site in recent years.

Some writers on the online retailer rely on fake reviews to help sell copies of their books, but Amazon is laying down the hammer in an attempt to stop this.

The New York Times reports Amazon will not say how many reviews it has erased so far, and it has also declined to offer any public explanation.

Several writers have sounded off to express their frustrations with the move, some saying the reviews cause zero harm.

"Over the last few days, quite a few reviews have disappeared from books on Amazon," blogger Ed Robertson wrote in October. "I was alerted to this by someone who had reviewed Breakers and was upset to see their review had been pulled. This is a fellow KB author, but I don't know them. I'm not sure we've ever spoken directly before."

USA

America's culture of "Me, Myself, and I"- Discussion with Dr. Morris Berman


Dr. Morris Berman
© The Washington Times CommunitiesCultural, as well as scientific, historian and social critic Dr. Morris Berman.
Florida - Many Americans think that their culture is on a downward spiral; Morris Berman thinks that Americans can't think.

Our economy is weak, our education system is failing, and we've substituted the internet for real social interraction and real thought. We live in an ocean of information and have lost the capacity to pull knowledge from it, the critical capacity to test information for truth.

Morris Berman is a prominent cultural and scientific historian, and also a well-known social critic. He's written extensively about everything from the values of Western civilization to our country's financial woes. His work challenges us to look at facts from a far more comprehensive perspective.

In this first part of our discussion, Dr. Berman shares his views about contemporary American thought - or lack thereof - as well as the relationship between personal responsibility and individualism.

Pistol

Update: Two West Webster, New York firefighters shot dead while trying to battle blaze by 'man brandishing assault rifle' - 'one or more shooters'?

Two brave volunteer firefighters were shot dead today and two injured when a lone gunman started a blaze as a trap to lure the men and opened fire on Christmas Eve.In addition a single police officer from the West Webster police force in New York was hit by shrapnel during the shooting which comes just ten days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre rocked the nation.

The firefighters were called out to the fire on the shores of Lake Ontario at around 5.35 a.m. and the unidentified shooter immediately opened fire and initial reports claimed he was using an assault rifle - before a police SWAT team arrived and soon after the gunman died from a gunshot would. It is unclear if the wound was self-inflicted.

The unidentified man opened fire as soon as the firefighters arrived, killing police lieutenant Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka, a 911 dispatcher, who had both volunteered with the West Webster fire department. In addition, two full time fire men, Joseph Hofsetter and Theodore Scardino were shot and injured by the gunman and are currently in nearby Strong hospital along with John Ritter, an off duty police officer who was hit by shrapnel from the volley of bullets.

All three men are in a guarded condition according to West Webster fire Chief Gerald Pickering, who confirmed that there was only one gunman and that it appears the fire was started as a trap.'It does appear it was a trap set for first responders,' said a visibly emotional Pickering at a press conference this morning. 'These people wake up in the middle of the night to fight fires , they don't expect to get shot.'

After the firefighters were shot police SWAT teams were called to the scene and they engaged managed to recover the dead and injured firefighters who had been shot.They then engaged in a pursuit of the unidentified suspect which ended in the shooter losing his life near to the home which he had set ablaze.


People

Update: Looting sweeps Argentina, spreads to Buenos Aires

At least two people were killed and dozens of others injured on Friday as looters targeted supermarkets and petrol stations across Argentina, including the capital Buenos Aires. The looting began on Thursday and has led to at least 500 arrests.


Looters ransacked supermarkets in several Argentine cities Friday, causing two deaths and evoking memories of widespread theft and riots that killed dozens during the country's worst economic crisis a decade ago.

Santa Fe Province Security Minister Raul Lamberto described the attacks on stores as simple acts of vandalism and not social protests.

Lamberto said two people were killed by a sharp object and gunfire after attacks early Friday on about 20 supermarkets in the cities of Rosario and Villa Gobernador Galvez. He declined to identify the victims or the attackers, but said 25 people were injured and 130 arrested during the looting about 190 miles northeast of Buenos Aires.

Closer to the capital, riot police fired rubber bullets to drive off a mob that was trying to break into a supermarket in San Fernando, a town in Buenos Aires province.

A police lieutenant was hit on the head with a crowbar and suffered severe injuries during the clashes in San Fernando, authorities said. Officials said 378 people had been arrested in those confrontations.

Some shops closed in several cities despite the busy Christmas shopping season, worrying that the looting might spread.

The troubles followed a wave of sporadic looting that began Thursday when dozens of people broke into a supermarket and carried away televisions and other electronics in the Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche. The government responded by deploying 400 military police to that southern city.

Eye 2

Child porn charges shock Montreal church

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© Montreal police/Canadian PressWilliam Kokesch is shown in this undated police handout photo. The Montreal deacon has been accused of producing and distributing child pornography.
Deacon was 'a big part of the church,' parishioner says.

Some parishioners at a Montreal Catholic church were shocked to learn Sunday that a deacon is being charged with producing and distributing child pornography.

William Kokesch, 65, was arrested Friday morning and charged on Saturday via video link at the Montreal courthouse.

Police said they found more than 2,000 images of children on a computer. His bail hearing will be held Monday at the Montreal courthouse.

Kokesch, who lives in Pointe-Claire, was a deacon for the St-Edmund of Canterbury parish in Beaconsfield on Montreal's West Island.

Carmella Guerriero told CBC News she was mortified by the news.

"I'm here this morning without my kids," Guerriero said on her way into the church.

"I just want to see if they have anything to say about what's happened. It's horrible," she said, adding that she is no longer comfortable having her children attend the church.

Birthday Cake

Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

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© The Associated Press/Shakh AivazovUshangi Davitashvili kisses the bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that stands in the courtyard of his apartment building in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.
Tbilisi, Georgia - People across the vast territory where Josef Stalin once imposed his terror have marked the 133rd anniversary of the dictator's birth, some in hatred but others in reverence.

In Moscow, several hundred Russian Communists led by their leader Gennady Zuyganov laid flowers at Stalin's grave at the Red Square Friday, while smaller rallies were held across Russia and several former Soviet republics.

Leftists in neighboring Belarus said they found a Stalin statue that was buried after denunciation of his personality cult in 1956, but refused to specify its whereabouts because they fear authorities will order its destruction. Authorities in Stalin's hometown of Gori, Georgia, they will reinstall his statue that was removed in 2010.

In southern Ukraine, several ethnic Crimean Tatars trashed a small street exhibition on Stalin. The entire Crimean Tatar population of Ukraine was hastily deported in cattle trains on Stalin's orders in 1944 for their alleged collaboration with Nazi Germans during World War II. Of the 200,000 Crimean Tatars, almost a fifth died of starvation and diseases, and the survivors were allowed to return only in the late 1980s.

Pistol

Man shot to death at 'end of the world' party

San Bernardino, California - Authorities Saturday continued to investigate the circumstances surrounding a fight at an "End of the World" party in San Bernardino that turned deadly.

A statement by the San Bernardino Police Department says as many as 100 people had attended the party at a home on 7th Street on Friday evening.

At some point during the party, a 29-year-old man was stabbed and police were called to the scene to investigate.

Upon arriving on scene, authorities say a shooting occurred nearby.

The shooting victim, identified as 20-year-old Felipe Jason Moreno, suffered fatal injuries. His 22-year-old cousin was also wounded in the shooting, authorities said.

"The reason for the shooting appears to have stemmed from a fight that had occurred at the party location," the statement said.

The man, who was stabbed, is expected to survive.

Anyone with more information about the incident is asked to contact Detective John Munoz at (909) 384-5630 or Sergeant Gary Robertson at (909) 841-5361.

Stormtrooper

Police State is here: New Jersey town plans to place armed guards in schools

The mayor of Marlboro Township in New Jersey said Friday there would be armed security guards at the district's nine schools starting in January.

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On the same day the National Rifle Association spoke publicly for the first time since last week's elementary school massacre in Connecticut, one local school district announced plans to place armed police officers in every school.

The mayor of Marlboro Township in New Jersey said Friday there would be armed security guards at the district's nine schools starting in January.

"This is not such a major change-- we're not putting in SWAT teams," said Mayor Jon Hornik.

Hornik, who has three school-aged children, told NBC 4 New York he was still shaken from the Newtown shooting, and he "hasn't stopped hugging" his five-year-old.

He statements about safety and protecting children echoed those made by the NRA earlier in the day.

Ambulance

Journalist Nanao Singh killed as India gripped by anti-rape and anti-molestation protests


A reporter was killed in eastern India as police fired on a violent rally which called for the arrest of a man accused of molesting a film star. In New Delhi, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters angered over a recent gang-rape.

­For a second consecutive day, India was gripped by protests over widespread violence and abuse against women in the country. The rallies continued despite a government-imposed ban on gatherings of five or more people in areas of unrest.

In India's eastern state of Manipur, local reporter Nanao Singh, 26, died at a hospital after sustaining deadly wounds from police gunfire. Security forces fired tear gas and rifles to break up a strike called by a film union, India's NDTV reported. The strikers torched a police car, lit tires on fire, hurled stones at police and obstructed roads in a popular Christmas shopping area.

News of the death sparked further unrest across the state, and more vehicles were set ablaze. Authorities responded by re-imposing a just-lifted curfew.
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© Agence France-Presse/Sajjad HussainIndian police fire tear gas at demonstrators during a protest calling for better safety for women following the rape of a student last week, in front the India Gate monument in New Delhi on December 23, 2012
Demonstrators in Manipur called for the arrest of militant Livingstone Anal, who allegedly molested local film star Momoko right on the stage as she performed at a concert on Tuesday. The strike began on Saturday and resulted in a curfew being imposed until Sunday morning.

In the capital New Delhi, thousands gathered for a second day of protest after police arrested six men who brutally beat and gang-raped a 23-year-old student.

Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons to hold back the swelling crowds, which consisted mostly of students and women. Around 35 people were injured in the New Delhi protests on Sunday, including several police officers.

Heart - Black

Massive Protest in New Delhi over gang rape; reporter shot dead

Police say a TV reporter has been killed during protests over sexual attacks in India as a public outcry continues.
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Water cannon were fired on the crowds
A journalist has been killed in violent demonstrations against sex attacks in India as police failed to contain fresh violence.

A television reporter, 36, was reportedly shot dead when officers opened fire on a protest in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, over an attack on a film actress.

The star, known as Momoko, was dragged from stage in full public view last week by an armed militant who tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off and fled.

Momoko, also a popular model, has waived her right to anonymity to make a public appeal for her attacker's arrest.

Crowds in Manipur pelted police with stones on Saturday, prompting a curfew to be imposed for parts of the state.

This was relaxed on Sunday but soon a huge crowd assembled again to confront police who opened fire in retaliation, according to police spokesman A. Singh.

A women's rights activist Bala Bedi said: "We want a strong message to be sent that perpetrators of such crimes have no place in our society."