Society's Child

Investigation into missing airline MH370 to be suspended when 120,000-km search is completed

BBC
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 16:10 UTC

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be suspended rather than shut down if the plane is not found in the current search area, officials say. China, Malaysia and Australia had previously agreed to end the search in the southern Indian Ocean if no "credible new information" was found. The plane, with 239 passengers and crew, disappeared in March 2014. Many of their relatives have long pleaded with authorities for the search to continue until the plane is found.

The announcement came after a meeting of ministers from the three countries in Malaysia in which they acknowledged that with less than 10,000 square kilometres of the search area remaining "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading". Almost 180m Australian dollars ($135m, £101m) has been spent on the search so far, making it the most expensive in aviation history.

No consolation: Cop who shot behavioral therapist claims he was trying to shoot the autistic man instead

Clair Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 16:10 UTC

An as-yet unnamed North Miami Police officer who shot a behavioral therapist attempting to calm a distressed autistic man who was carrying a toy truck, was apparently aiming for that autistic patient, a union official said Thursday.

How, exactly, this new information should quell public outrage over the already wholly unjustified shooting remains to be explained.

Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist, was seen in cellphone video lying on his back with his hands stretched above his head in the air as he attempted the dual task of calming both the distressed autistic patient, who had run away from a group home, and several police officers who had their rifles trained on the impromptu counseling session.

According to the New York Daily News, the officer who fired the shot intended to hit the autistic man who was holding a toy truck because he feared the therapist's life was threatened.

Majority of US troops see Trump and Clinton as total losers

Leo Shane III and George R. Altman
Military Times
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 15:57 UTC

Who wants to choose between two idiots?

American military personnel favor Donald Trump for president over Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin in an exclusive survey conducted by Military Times ahead of the Republican and Democratic national conventions, but a strong majority of respondents say they are wholly unimpressed with both candidates.

More than 61 percent indicated they are "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with Trump as the Republican nominee, including 28 percent of those who intend to vote for him. More than 82 percent said the same about Clinton, the Democratic nominee, with 30 percent of those pledging to vote for her voicing displeasure with the choice.

"This is the worst presidential election I have ever seen," said one Air Force master sergeant who responded to the survey. "How in the world could we only have Hillary and Trump as the options?"

Such displeasure reflects the candidates' high unfavorability ratings among the American public at large, despite both convincingly winning their party's primary contests. More than half of registered voters in a recent New York Times/CBS poll had negative views of Trump (55 percent) and Clinton (52 percent).

Turnaround: Church-going Republicans now support Trump

Gregory Smith
Pew Research Center
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

As Donald Trump accepts the GOP's presidential nomination during a sometimes contentious convention, some have wondered whether he will be able to bridge the party's primary divides by Election Day. But recent Pew Research Center studies find that while many GOP voters - especially regular churchgoers - were skeptical of Trump even as late as April 2016, well into primary season, most are now ready to support him in the general election.

An analysis of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters at three points over a roughly five month period shows that by April, Trump was the preferred nominee of just 34% of those who attend religious services weekly, including 15% who had been steady supporters (i.e., had consistently supported him across the three separate surveys in December 2015, March 2016 and April 2016). Two-thirds of regular churchgoing Republicans were not supporting Trump for the GOP nomination even in April. This includes 57% who were Trump "skeptics," having not expressed support for Trump as the GOP nominee in any of the three surveys conducted mainly online among participants in the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel between December and April.

Comment: All this shows is that religious influence is manipulable by election frenzy. People in general do not listen to their inner voice and instead, follow the herd. Given the choices, perhaps a sermon on 'the psychopathic manifestations in today's society and the evil around us' would be useful.

Oliver Stone on Pokemon Go: You'll see a new form of robot society - it's called totalitarianism

Ned Ehrbrar
CBS News
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 15:51 UTC

© Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Director/writer Oliver Stone attends the "Snowden" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego.

Oliver Stone is clearly not a fan of Pokemon Go.

The controversial filmmaker appeared at San Diego Comic-Con Thursday for a panel discussing his new film, "Snowden" -- starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden. But the discussion veered off-topic when a fan asked what the director and his cast thought of the hugely popular new mobile game.

Stone, as it turned out, had plenty to say on the matter.

"It's a new level of invasion," Stone said of the game. "Nobody has ever seen, in the history of the world, something like Google, ever. It's the fastest-growing business ever, and they have invested huge amounts of money into what surveillance is, which is data-mining. They're data-mining every person in this room for information as to what you're buying, what it is you like, and above all, your behavior."

So what does all that have to do with Pokemon Go? Stone was happy to elaborate.

"Pokemon Go kicks into that. It's everywhere. It's what some people call surveillance capitalism. It's the newest stage," he said. "You'll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society, where they will know how you want to behave and they will make the mockup that matches how you behave and feed you. It's what they call totalitarianism."

Comment: It's easy for many to dismiss the nature of Pokemon Go as a meaningless game that can be used to get outside and have fun. The thing is that it is so meaningless that it removes people's minds from society and replaces it with Nintendo's robots. People are not using Pokemon Go to walk their dogs more - Pokemon Go is using mass dissociation to walk people.

Five facts about the size and makeup of Europe's Muslim population

Conrad Hackett
Pew Research Center
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

Recent killings in Paris as well as the arrival of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim refugees in Europe have drawn renewed attention to the continent's Muslim population. In many European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, concerns about growing Muslim communities have led to calls for restrictions on immigration. But just how large is Europe's Muslim population, and how fast is it growing?

Using the Pew Research Center's most recent population estimates, here are five facts about the size and makeup of the Muslim population in Europe:

1. Germany and France have the largest Muslim populations among European Union member countries. As of 2010, there were 4.8 million Muslims in Germany (5.8% of the country's population) and 4.7 million Muslims in France (7.5%). In Europe overall, however, Russia's population of 14 million Muslims (10%) is the largest on the continent.

Pokémon Go launch doubles market value of Nintendo

RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 15:31 UTC

© Toru Hanai / Reuters
Grown 'men' play the augmented reality mobile game "Pokemon Go" by Nintendo on their mobile phone as they walk at a busy crossing in Shibuya district in Tokyo, Japan, July 22, 2016.

The phenomenal success of augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go has doubled the market value of Japanese firm Nintendo which launched the game just two weeks ago. The game's popularity has triggered massive buying in Nintendo shares adding as much as $20 billion to the company's market capitalization which is now at almost $40 billion, even more than Sony. Nintendo shares rose almost seven percent on Friday to 28,220 yen.

"I've never seen the trend of such a big company's shares changing so quickly in such a short period of time," said Takashi Oba, senior strategist at Okasan Securities as cited by the Guardian.

Pokémon Go was first released in Australia and the US on July 6, and is now available in more than 30 countries. The game has become the most successful mobile-based app in US history with 21 million daily active users. On Friday, the game was launched in Japan - the home of the Pokémon characters. Within two hours of the release, dozens of people could be seen playing it around Tokyo railway station.

Comment: You know it's bad when a government agency has to issue a warning about paying attention to tsunamis while playing Pokemon Go. This doesn't exactly jive with 'getting outside and having fun with your friends'. That's just a narrative that these gamers are latching on to excuse such mass dissociation from the world. Welcome to the new unreality.

See: Pokémon Go and mass dissociation: Anchoring the frequency of chaos and destruction

7 injured after car drives through crowd and crashes into Erawan Shrine in Bangkok

RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 15:38 UTC

Footage has emerged showing the moment a car drove into Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, injuring seven people.

The video shows a blue Toyota Soluna tearing through the gate and plowing down a crowd of people before crashing into the shrine at around 8:20pm local time on Friday.

"I ain't voting.": Some Black Lives Matter activists plan to boycott election in November

Leo Hornak
PRI
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:28 UTC

© Leo Hornak/BBC
Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome is calling for people to abstain from voting until the major parties listen to African American concerns.

Hawk Newsome cares deeply about America's presidential election.

He and other activists in the Black Lives Matter movement have this week driven all the way from New York to Cleveland to demonstrate outside the Republican National Convention, couch-surfing with friends along the way. Next week, they'll be doing the same in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention.

But one thing that Newsome and his friends say they won't be doing in November is voting. For anyone.

"Neither party has stepped to the front and made Black Lives Matter a priority," he says. "Hillary Clinton has the votes of millions of African Americans in her hands. But she's promoting herself. And the problem is that we are settling [for that]!"

Newsome is leading a new campaign to get African Americans to do something that few civil rights leaders have recommended: stop voting. He believes that only by withdrawing support from the major parties can black communities force politicians to address their concerns about police brutality.

He calls it "I Ain't Voting" — and he says he's aware that it could be seen as a rejection of the struggle that a previous generation went through.

Democratic delegate's 'sex tape' makes shocking appearance online - FBI investigating

RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 15:08 UTC

A "sex tape" of a Democratic delegate to Congress has leaked online, exposing Stacey Plaskett's intimate moments with her husband. Capitol Police and the FBI to are investigating, as the Virgin Islands politician blames "enemies" hacking her computer.

"I am shocked and deeply saddened that someone would stoop to such a level as to invade my marriage and the love of my family in an attempt to besmirch me politically," Plaskett, the Virgin Islands delegate, said in a statement.

She has confirmed that the "private" content that was briefly shared on a Facebook account were real pictures and "a playful video" showing both her and her husband.

"Private photographs shared between my husband and me, as well as a private playful video of our family, including one of our children, were illegally obtained and disseminated via the internet," Plaskett said.

Comment: Stacey Plaskett is a relatively minor member of Congress and as a convention delegate, she has endorsed Hillary Clinton. So whom did Ms. Plaskett upset?

"I got the vaccine in February, it was my own choice and I thought it would stop the virus. But it hasn't. And now I have people resigning because...

ReRan

There is evidence all over the internet that people do not believe the man being called Joe Biden is really Joe Biden. Many of the physical...

TJ1776

I can think of a few corporations that could use a good hack about now!

InfoWithJo

"Comment: "even in the years when we don't have pandemics," - it's beginning to sound like, for people like Gates, a planet ravaged by relentless...

ReRan

It's also an indication of underactive Thyroid gland, which is absolutely rampant now.

bentpenny

Society's Child

Investigation into missing airline MH370 to be suspended when 120,000-km search is completed

No consolation: Cop who shot behavioral therapist claims he was trying to shoot the autistic man instead

Majority of US troops see Trump and Clinton as total losers

Turnaround: Church-going Republicans now support Trump

Oliver Stone on Pokemon Go: You'll see a new form of robot society - it's called totalitarianism

Five facts about the size and makeup of Europe's Muslim population

Pokémon Go launch doubles market value of Nintendo

7 injured after car drives through crowd and crashes into Erawan Shrine in Bangkok

"I ain't voting.": Some Black Lives Matter activists plan to boycott election in November

Democratic delegate's 'sex tape' makes shocking appearance online - FBI investigating

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