Society's ChildS


Nuke

Millions Fewer Girls Born Due to Nuclear Radiation?

Children in Ukraine
© Sergey Ponomarev, APChildren in Ukraine take part in nuclear-safety training in 2006 near Chernobyl.


"Unexpected" findings suggest bomb tests, plant accidents boosted male births.

Nuclear radiation from bomb tests and power plant accidents causes slightly more boys than girls to be born, a new study suggests. While effects were seen to be regional for incidents on the ground, like Chernobyl, atmospheric blasts were found to affect birth rates on a global scale.

The result: Millions fewer females have been born worldwide than would otherwise be expected, researchers estimate. And given Japan's current nuclear troubles, another boy boomlet could be on the way, experts say.

For the new study, scientists analyzed population data from 1975 to 2007 for 39 European countries and the United States.

They found an increase in the number of male births relative to female births in all of the countries investigated from 1964 to 1975 - and in many eastern European countries for several years after 1986.

Handcuffs

US: Three arrested, accused of illegally feeding homeless in Orlando, Florida

Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park.


Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s.

The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall.

Laptop

Best of the Web: Syria Drops off the Internet Amid Turmoil

sorry, no internet
© n/a
In what appears to be the latest bid by a government to throttle access to news and information amid growing civil unrest, the Syrian government Friday shut down all Internet services.

Internet monitoring firm Renesys reported that starting around 7 a.m. EDT today, close to two-thirds of all Syrian networks were suddenly unreachable from the global Internet.

In just 30 minutes, routes to 40 of 59 Syrian networks were withdrawn from the global routing table, said Renesys' chief technology officer, James Cowie, in a blog post.

The shutdown has affected all of SyriaTel's 3G mobile data networks, as well as several of the country's ISPs, such as Sawa, iNet and RunNet.

Light Saber

Canada: 'Stop Harper' placard gets Senate page turfed from Throne Speech

page protest Canada Parliament
© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian PressA Senate page protests against the Harper government from the floor of the chamber as Governor-General David Johnston delivers the Speech from the Throne on June 3, 2011.
A Senate page disrupted the Speech from the Throne by taking out a sign saying "Stop Harper" in the middle of the opening of the new parliamentary session.

She was immediately removed from the Senate chamber and fired from her job.

Brigette DePape, from Manitoba, has been working in the Senate for a year. A statement issued in her name said she opposes the agenda of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which won a majority mandate on May 2.

"This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces," the statement said.

She went on to give a series of media interviews. She explained she feels the Conservative government's policies on the environment, social programs and the military are destructive, and that civil disobedience is needed to try and stop them.

Dollar

US: Slow-moving economy runs into brick wall

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© Randy Bish/Politicalcartoons.com
Policymakers, investors and economic forecasters are hoping that a sharp slowdown in economic growth last month was only a speed bump on an already bumpy road to recovery.

Because otherwise the ride could get a whole lot rougher.

Friday's jobs numbers showed that the economy produced a meager 54,000 new jobs in May with weakness across all sectors. The data capped a week of reports pointing to a sudden, unexpected slowdown in the recovery.

"It is now pretty clear that the economy ran into a brick wall last month," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

Prior to this week most data had been pointing to a slow but steady increase in the economy's momentum. What took the wind out of the recovery's sails so suddenly, and will the doldrums last?

On top of the list is a surge in gasoline prices that has forced consumers to tighten spending on the rest of their household budget. Job growth in the retail, leisure and hospitality industries, which had been showing healthy advances, ground to a halt last month.

Comment: "On Thursday, a second major credit rating agency warned Congress and the White House that if they don't agree on a way to raise the nation's borrowing limit, the U.S. government could lose its top debt rating."

We're not economists, but how does raising the debt ceiling ("top debt rating") fix the credit rating of a country? At this point more debt equals more interest, equals less money (equals lower dollar value, equals hyper inflation, equals..).


Hourglass

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, dies at 83

Dr. Jack Kevorkian
© ReutersDr. Jack Kevorkian poses at the 62nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles

Detroit, Michigan - Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, known as "Dr. Death" for helping more than 100 people end their lives, died early on Friday at age 83, his lawyer said.

Kevorkian died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, where he had been hospitalized for about two weeks with kidney and heart problems, said Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian's attorney and friend.

The Detroit Free Press reported that Kevorkian, previously diagnosed with liver cancer, died from a blood clot that lodged in his heart.

Cult

Flashback Spain - Tenerife's Bishop: 'There's children who want to be abused, they even provoke you"

Sott.net translation.

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© Diocese of TenerifeBishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Álvarez
"There could be children that allow it - referring to abuse - There are 13 year old underage teenagers, who are perfectly in agreement with, and what's more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you," he said." These are the words that the Roman Catholic Bishop Bernando Álvarez, the man in charge of Tenerife's church, used to describe the severe problems of child abuse on Christmas Eve, in an interview given to the local Tenerife newspaper La Opinión de Tenerife.

Additionally, the bishop compares homosexuality with child abuse, and even if he assures that the difference between homosexuality and the abuses are evident, he poses this question: "why does the child abuser have to be considered a sick person?"

Even if Álvares states that he respects the sexual condition of homosexuals, he shows again his most critical side and claims that "the homosexuality phenomenon is something that damages people and society in general".

Gear

Right-wing Alert! US: "I Forged Obama's Certificate" Identity Near Discovery


Comment: The article below comes from a right-wing site. What is the agenda here?


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Dr. Jerome Corsi
Dr. Corsi, author of new book also speaks out on Trump motives

Dr. Jerome Corsi, whose latest book Where's the Birth Certificate stated that since publication of the book he has received many more leads that point to President Obama being ineligible to be Commander-in-Chief.

Dr. Corsi is a senior staff writer with WorldNetDaily, the largest independent news site on the internet. He has spent over three years of research for the book including trips to Kenya and Hawaii. In the past five years, Corsi has written five New York Times bestselling non-fiction books including Unfit for Command and The Obama Nation.

In an exclusive interview with the Greeley Gazette, Dr. Corsi said after only four days of sales the book is already on the New York Times bestseller list. "There is no way this controversy is going to stop" and the mainstream media will have to continue covering the issue.

While the book has been heavily criticized by Obama supporters and the White House, Corsi said no one has offered any specific problems with the book. "They say the book is all lies, but do not offer any specifics. There are over 125 documents in the book. The reader can see it is well substantiated."

Black Cat

Right-wing Alert! US: President Proposes Giving More Power to "Death Panels"


Comment: The article below comes from a right-wing site. What is the agenda here?


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Barack Obama has called for giving an unaccountable "death panel" board even more authority to regulate health care for individuals.

While health care legislation was being debated, critics, including Sarah Palin, warned the law would create "death panels", deciding which elderly would live and which would die. Following her statements, Palin was verbally crucified in the media.

The 2000 page health care bill calls for the establishment of over 150 boards and commissions to administer the program. One of these, the Independent Payment Advisory Board is tasked with overseeing health care costs. The board is tasked with specific target growth rates and is to ensure Medicaid costs stay within these limits.

Ambulance

US: New York City Woman Dies After Fainting Due to Heat, Falls on Subway Tracks

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© Dan BrinzacTragic: Fatoumata Binta Amina Diallo tried to crawl away from the oncoming train.

An aspiring doctor was killed in a horrific subway accident yesterday when she passed out on a sweltering Upper East Side platform and fell onto the tracks -- realizing what happened too late to escape an uptown train bearing down on her.

Fatoumata Binta Amina Diallo, 21, "was cut in half," said one shocked witness.

Diallo fainted at around 3 p.m. at the 77th Street/Lexington Avenue station, which was filled with schoolkids on their way home, said transit and police sources.

The Bronx woman had been returning from a dental appointment, said her family.