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US: Diet Book for Girls as Young as SIX Branded 'Irresponsible' by Nutrition Experts

Chris Brooke
The Daily Mail
Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:07 UTC
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Healthy: Anna Wood before her anorexia and then 'ravaged' by the illness
A controversial children's book tells how a girl 'transforms' her life and becomes a school hero by losing weight.

The work, called Maggie Goes on a Diet, is written in verse and aimed at those as young as six.

Last night it was condemned by parents and experts for sending a dangerous message to vulnerable youngsters and encouraging eating disorders.

Although it won't be published until October, Amazon is taking orders for the 44-page book written by U.S. author and father Paul M. Kramer.

A summary on the website says the plot features 'a 14-year-old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal-sized girl who becomes the school soccer star'.

It continues: 'Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self-image.'
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Camera

UK: Study Finds That Speed Cameras CREATE Accidents

Jason Groves
The Daily Mail
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:50 UTC
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Many speed cameras have not cut accident rates, figures show (a speed camera pictured on the A14 in Cambridgeshire)
Many speed cameras have not cut accident rates and may even have increased them, figures reveal for the first time today.

Statistics published by the Department for Transport show many cameras have done little or nothing to improve accident rates, but have proved highly effective in clocking up speeding fines.

Only a small number of councils have agreed to publish the full data on each speed camera in their area.
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Vader

Million dollars not enough for brutal police slaying of Kelly Thomas, says family

Rady Ananda
Activist Post
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:40 UTC
The surviving family members of Kelly Thomas, who was brutally murdered by Fullerton Police (Orange County, California) in July, rejected an offer of $900,000 not to pursue civil action.

On July 5, 2011, closed circuit TV caught six Fullerton cops brutally murdering a homeless, mentally ill man. Kelly Thomas, age 37, died after being taken off life-support five days later.

A whistleblower who viewed the unreleased city-owned video of the event says an officer crushed Thomas' windpipe by "drop-kneeing" him "more than once.

His last words are heard on this CCTV video where he's screaming, "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!"
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Wolf

US: Rick Perry holds record on executions

Andrew Jones
Raw Story
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:45 UTC
rick perry
© NA
Advocates against capital punishment will not find an ally in Rick Perry anytime soon.

The Washington Post has reported that the Texas governor holds the record for most executions ever for a governor, and by a large margin. Perry has presided over 234 executions, increasing Texas' reputation by far as the #1 state in executing people.

George W.Bush reportedly presided over a higher rate of executions than Perry in his five years as governor before becoming President, while Democratic governor Ann Richards had 50 executions in her one term. Thanks to its size and lack of appeals from lower courts, the overall structure of support for the death penalty is a constant in Texas, no matter who is governor.

However, Perry has been even more aggressive in pushing for capital punishment than his predecessors.
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Evil Rays

US: Quake sensors removed around Virginia nuke plant due to budget cuts

David Edwards
Raw Story
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:31 UTC
anna nuke plant
© NA
A nuclear power plant that was shut down after an earthquake struck central Virginia Tuesday had seismographs removed in 1990s due to budget cuts.

U.S. nuclear officials said that the North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, had lost offsite power and was using diesel generators to maintain cooling operations after an 5.9 earthquake hit the region.

The North Anna plant, which was near the epicenter of Tuesday's quake, is reportedly located on a fault line.
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USA

Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse

Dmitry Orlov
Energy Bulletin
Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:50 UTC
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© Munkee
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am not an expert or a scholar or an activist. I am more of an eye-witness. I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.

My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse. The rhetorical device I am going to use is the "Collapse Gap" - to go along with the Nuclear Gap, and the Space Gap, and various other superpower gaps that were fashionable during the Cold War.

The subject of economic collapse is generally a sad one. But I am an optimistic, cheerful sort of person, and I believe that, with a bit of preparation, such events can be taken in stride. As you can probably surmise, I am actually rather keen on observing economic collapses. Perhaps when I am really old, all collapses will start looking the same to me, but I am not at that point yet.

And this next one certainly has me intrigued. From what I've seen and read, it seems that there is a fair chance that the U.S. economy will collapse sometime within the foreseeable future. It also would seem that we won't be particularly well-prepared for it. As things stand, the U.S. economy is poised to perform something like a disappearing act. And so I am eager to put my observations of the Soviet collapse to good use.
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Binoculars

Big Brother UK: 'Smart' CCTV could track rioters


BBC
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:47 UTC
camera screens
© UknownThe system is able to track suspects across multiple cameras
CCTV that can automatically monitor criminal behaviour and track suspects is being developed by UK scientists

Researchers at Kingston University have created a system that uses artificial intelligence to recognise specific types of behaviour, such as someone holding a gun.

The technology is capable of following a person across multiple cameras.

Privacy campaigners warned that it might be used to target groups such as political protesters.
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Stop

Russia: Unidentified hooligan tries to blind pilot at Moscow airport


RIA Novosti
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:57 UTC
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© RIA Novosti. Dmitriy PetrochenkoThe captain of the A320 plane flying from Moscow to Kemerovo said an intense green light was shone into his face at an altitude of 600 meters
Moscow police said they were searching for a person who tried to blind a passenger jet pilot with a powerful pen laser when the aircraft was taking off from Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow.

"The captain of the A320 plane flying from Moscow to Kemerovo said an intense green light was shone into his face at an altitude of 600 meters," a police source said.

The hooligan had allegedly been located in Moscow's Novo-Peredelkino district.
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Radar

RFID Implants Won't Rescue the People Kidnapped in Mexico

Kwame Opam
United Press International
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:55 UTC
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© Associated Press/Diario de Nuevo Laredo
Kidnappings in Mexico have worsened in the last 5 years, sky-rocketing by 371%. So too have the demand for those RFID implants that were said to allow authorities to find the victims. Except for one thing: they don't work.

The main problem is that the technology, for a number of reasons, couldn't have worked in the first place. For one, the implants are much too small for a satellite to pick up. And that's without taking into account the barriers the implant's signal would have to overcome - that is, metal, concrete, and the water of the human body. For another, the implants can't be trusted to broadcast a signal without losing its teeny tiny charge.

And even if the police did manage to pick up the signal, there'd be no time to mount a raid to save you. All told, you're probably only about 1% less screwed.
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Cow Skull

USA Becomes Food Stamp Nation but is it Sustainable?

Kristina Cooke
Reuters
Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:18 UTC
Food stamp family
© Reuters/Lucy NicholsonThelma Zambrano eats lunch with her husband Jesse Torres and daughter Vida Torres, 2, at their home in Santa Ana, California, December 10, 2009.
Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, California, but her wages aren't enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son.

Saucedo, who earns $9.70 an hour for about 26 hours a week and lives with her mother, is one of the many Americans who survive because of government handouts in what has rapidly become a food stamp nation.

Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That's an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.

At the same time, the cost doubled to reach $68 billion in 2010 -- more than a third of the amount the U.S. government received in corporate income tax last year -- which means the program has started to attract the attention of some Republican lawmakers looking for ways to cut the nation's budget deficit.
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