Society's ChildS

Stop

Gulf Air plane skids off runway in India

Image
© Associated PressThe flight was carrying 137 passengers
A Gulf Air plane has come off the runway at Kochi airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala, injuring at least seven passengers.

The flight, coming from Bahrain, was carrying 137 passengers and six crew. An inquiry has begun into the accident.

Officials say the runway is closed and several flights have been diverted.

Reports said some passengers jumped down from the aircraft in panic through the emergency door even before the ladder was brought to the flight.
'Jumped too soon'

"The Gulf Air flight GF270 deviated from the runway at 0355 [2225GMT] this [Monday] morning," news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted airport director ACK Nair as saying.

Question

Arizona, US: Unexplained power outages cause one man concern for his families health

Power outages can be life-threatening with this extreme Valley heat.

It's especially troublesome for the elderly or people with medical conditions.

One Valley man emailed the ABC15 Investigators about unexplained overnight blackouts over a few weeks.

He's mostly concerned because he and his daughter have asthma and need cool temperatures to breathe well.

"It's almost like a drowning feeling and that's what happened the last three weekends for me," he remembered.

The man says it happened on three recent and consecutive Saturday nights.


He says the power was off for a total of about eight hours, and the whole neighborhood was affected, including street lights.

Book

How Disney Instills Greed and Consumerism in Babies as Young as Three Months Old

Image
© Alternet
Few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood. Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. But while it all seems innocent, few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. [Full disclosure: Henry Giroux is a member of Truthout's Board of Directors.]

Bizarro Earth

Local Reporter Covering Hurricane Gets Slathered In 'Sea Foam' (Likely Raw Sewage?)

sea foam,sewage
© Snip/Fox

The image says it all: WTTG Fox D.C. reporter Tucker Barnes braved the beach at Ocean City, Maryland to give a live report of the wind and water power of Hurricane Irene. Except, unlike most of the unfortunate, courageous reporters out tonight braving the elements, Barnes had to suffer neither rain nor water, but what he called "sea foam," which Fox later explained was "probably the remnants of raw sewage."

Barnes was covering the storm Maryland for WTTG, but also reported in live for Fox's New York affiliate - just as many of the media's bravest (and Geraldo Rivera) have been doing all day up and down the East Coast. Barnes explained to the anchors at home, however, that what was engulfing him didn't "taste" or "smell" great and had a "sandy consistency," but he had no idea what it was, other than "some sort of organic batter." At some point, Barnes mostly disappeared under the foam, knee-deep in foam. The worst part? According to WTTF, the "bizarre wild substance that is about to bury you" was "often a toxic mix of pollution and cyanobacteria."

If this isn't award-winning storm coverage, it's at the very least some irrefutable evidence to bring to the table for a worker's comp claim.

The video from WNYW Fox 5 below:

Alarm Clock

US: Texas Boy, 10, Died After Parents 'Refused to Let Him Drink Water for Five Days as Punishment'

A 10-year-old boy collapsed and died in front of his twin brother after his parents refused to let him drink water for five day, it is claimed.

Jonathan James died from dehydration in Dallas after his father and step mother allegedly denied him water as punishment after he took some guitar strings from one of his siblings.

Michael Ray James and Tina Maria Alberson have been arrested and charged with injury to a child.

Briefcase

Altai Ethnic Group to Sue Russian Officials Over Progress Loss

Image
© RIA Novosti/Oleg UrusovThe Progress M-12M
Tubalar - small ethnic group native to the Alati Repubglic's Choya district where Russia's ill-fated Progress space freighter recently fell, will file a lawsuit against officials guilty of the incident, minority's leader Maria Sakova said on Sunday.

The Progress M-12M space freighter, carrying food and other items to the ISS, fell in South Siberia's Altai Republic on August 24 after failing to separate from its Soyuz-U carrier rocket, the first loss of a Progress freighter in the history of Russia's space industry. A rocket engine failure is believed to have caused the accident.

The freighter was carrying toxic heptyl fuel, although experts say it would have burnt up in the atmosphere. Russian medical officials have also said no trace of the fuel has been discovered.

Stormtrooper

Shooting and Crying: Israeli Soldiers After Their Service

Israeli soldiers
© Rina Castelnuovo/The New York TimesIsraeli soldiers and relatives mourn during the funeral of Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali, who was killed in an attack by militants on Thursday, at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Aug. 19, 2011.

"Shooting and crying" is a phrase popular in Israel regarding soldiers and their engagement with civilian life following combat. In this short film, former Israeli soldiers reflect on their service and reintegration into society following their experiences serving in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. From attempting to break their "violent instincts" to grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), from escapism to apathy, the realities of soldiering in an occupying army are explored from the point of view of those who have been there and didn't like what they saw.

Dollar

Canada: British Columbia Votes 55% to Scrap HST

Image
© CBC NewsB.C. Finance Minster Kevin Falcon says it will take the province about 18 months to reinstate the seven per cent PST and five per cent GST.
British Columbians have voted to scrap the province's controversial harmonized sales tax, according to the results of a binding, province-wide referendum.

Elections B.C. announced on Friday morning that 54.73 per cent of the 1.6 million British Columbians who cast a ballot in the mail-in referendum voted to get rid of the tax and 45.27 per cent voted to keep it.

B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said the government will now move to reinstate the PST with all of its previous exemptions. The transition is expected to take at least 18 months he said.

Falcon said eliminating the HST and reinstating the PST will cost the province more than $3 billion, but the province has a plan already in place to manage the change.

Heart - Black

US, West Virginia: Raleigh County Parents Fight Medical Fascists Over Mandatory Immunization

A Coal City family faces penalties and jail time for not meeting enrollment immunization requirements, but they say they're living with an immunization injury that left their first child autistic.


School started this week for students all across our region, but one little boy in Raleigh County has yet to step into his kindergarten classroom.

It's a lack of vaccinations that's keeping the youngster out of school.

His parents said when his older brother was vaccinated, he developed autism within a week and they don't want to see their baby boy go through the same thing.

Book

Mysterious world of Somali pirates

Pirates
© Blitz
Chicago based ex-market researcher Jay Bahadur lived in Somalia for years to break into the information and scoop on Somali piracy racket. Later he wrote a book titled The Pirates of Somalia: Inside their hidden world. The book was published on July 19, 2011 by Phantom.

Commenting on this book, Joshua Hammer wrote in The New York Times, "Bahadur has gone deep in exploring the causes of this seaborne crime wave, charting its explosive growth and humanizing the brigands who have eluded some of the world's most powerful navies . . . [He] captures the inner workings of Somali piracy in extraordinary detail . . . Bahadur seems to admire the pirates' audacity and resourcefulness, yet at the same time he avoids glamorizing them . . . Brave and exhaustively reported."

Giving description of the book, amazon.com wrote: "Somalia, on the tip of the Horn of Africa, has been inhabited as far back as 9,000 BC. Its history is as rich as the country is old. Caught up in a decades-long civil war, Somalia, along with Iraq and Afghanistan, has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Getting there from North America is a forty-five-hour, five-flight voyage through Frankfurt, Dubai, Djibouti, Bossaso [on the Gulf of Aden], and, finally, Galkayo. Somalia is a place where a government has been built out of anarchy.