Society's Child

Activists clash with police at massive Catalan pro-independence rally in Barcelona

RT
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 20:03 UTC

Demonstrators have flooded the streets of Barcelona, blocking the city airport and major roads to protest against a rare visit by Spanish government ministers who are set to meet pro-independence Catalan leaders.

Protesters have disrupted railway services and blocked Barcelona airport as well as main roads leading to and from the city. At one point, they began throwing firecrackers and trash cans at riot police. Officers responded by detaining at least 13 of protesters.

A visit by Spanish Cabinet ministers to the city, during which they hope to come to terms with leaders of Catalan independence movement, is thought to have ignited the protest.

Comment:

And prophetically:

Europe will reap what Spain has sown - Catalonia gathers support from secessionist movements around the world

Suspect detained after shootout in Vienna historic center; witnesses say several gunmen involved

RT
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:21 UTC

© REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Police are not treating the incident as a terrorist attack as of yet; witnesses said several gunmen went on shooting spree.

One person has been killed and one injured in a shootout at a popular tourist restaurant in the Austrian capital's historic center. It's yet unclear who is behind the incident and what their motives are.

The incident took place in the traditional Austrian Figlmueller restaurant located just a few hundred meters away from Vienna's iconic St. Stephen's Cathedral. Two people with gunshot wounds were found near the restaurant, the local police department said, adding that the details of the incident are still unclear.

Rescue services said that at least one person was killed in the shooting, dying of a serious head injury. Another injured person is also in critical condition, suffering from a head injury as well.

'Adulting' classes for millennials needed because parents were too lazy to teach them to be adults - Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro
Newsweek
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:15 UTC

© iStock
34 percent of 18-34 adults in America still lived with their parents as of 2015, up from 26 percent a decade before.

This week, America learned about something the millennials l ike to call "adulting." The term started as a sort of quasi-joke-whenever a millennial would do something age-appropriate rather than radically immature, this was an act of "adulting." Now, though, millennials apparently require training in being an adult.

According to CBS News, Rachel Flehinger has co-founded an Adulting School, which now includes online courses. Skills taught include basic sewing, conflict resolution, and cooking, among others. CBS suggests that the need for such classes springs from the fact that many millennials "haven't left childhood homes," given that 34 percent of 18-34 adults in America still lived with their parents as of 2015, up from 26 percent a decade before.

There's a good deal of truth to this. If you're living at home, with mom and dad doing their best to spoil you, you're less likely to know how to do laundry, cook, or balance a checkbook. Dependency breeds enervation.

Comment: Dr. Jordan Peterson has a few comments on the matter::

Data 'sharing': Amazon's Alexa sends thousands of recordings to the wrong user

Joseph Archer
The Telegraph
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 10:30 UTC

Amazon accidentally sent recordings made by its Alexa voice-activated assistant to the wrong user raising fresh privacy concerns about the use of digital devices.

Amazon confirmed what it described as "an unfortunate case that resulted from a human error," adding that it was an "isolated incident."

German magazine c't reported that a user had asked Amazon to send him all of the data the company had stored on him.

The man, who wasn't identified and who had never used one of Amazon's voice-activated assistants, received 1,700 audio files made inside a stranger's home.

Comment: Despite Amazon's assurances, this wasn't an 'isolated' case. Amazon can't be trusted with your privacy:

Berlin police chief creates 'safety feeling', but fears to jog outside own office

RT
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 19:28 UTC

The head of Berlin police publicly claimed the German capital has become more secure, but media reports said not quite - at least outside the official's own office where she doesn't jog fearing for her safety.

Barbara Slowik, chief of the German capital police, tried her best to ensure the public that the 3.7-million city is in safe hands. She told the Die Zeit newspaper that security situation was appalling when she was appointed as the head of Berlin police department.

Now, things have changed after police deployed mobile patrols to various public places, she claimed, adding, "I intentionally created the feeling of safety."

"This was a deliberate measure to ensure that safety feeling," Slowik reiterated, "so that citizens and tourists know - police are here watching." The comment looked robust at a glance, but then something went wrong.

Islamic State threatens US and EU cities with drone attacks in chilling new poster after Gatwick chaos

RT
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 19:24 UTC

Islamic State poster circulating online

Terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has launched a new propaganda campaign against the West, threatening US & EU cities with drones, in a new poster prompted by the travel chaos at London's Gatwick Airport.

The post, circulating on social media, shows a photoshopped image of a drone carrying cargo with the terrorists' logo, ominously flying over New York city, with five separate scenes of carnage at the bottom, seemingly the aftermaths of attacks on Western cities carried out by IS.

Attached is the tagline: "Sender: The Islamic State."

It comes on the back of travel chaos that has brought London's Gatwick Airport to a standstill due to drones hovering in the skies above. All departing flights had to be grounded and incoming planes diverted to other airports, including Dublin, Glasgow, Amsterdam and Paris.

Two Scandinavian backpackers hacked to death in Morocco by 'ISIS terrorists' with one filmed being beheaded

Andrew Koubaridis
news.com.au
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 18:20 UTC

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland

Two Scandinavian backpackers were hacked to death and one beheaded in what is believed to have been a terrorist attack in Morocco.

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were knifed and beheaded on camera while camping in the Atlas Mountains.

Their bodies were found on Monday morning.

Footage of the horrifying attack has been shared on social media and has caused outrage in Morocco. The footage shows a blonde woman screaming while a man cuts her neck with what appears to be a sharp kitchen knife.

Appeals court ruling: Colleges must censor and block online services if they offend someone

Greg Piper
The College Fix
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC

Dissenting judge to university: Appeal this immediately

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, not his death, which happens in the spring. When it comes to dead litigation, it's apparently the opposite. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has resurrected a lawsuit against the University of Mary Washington for not meddling enough in its students' lives.

Here's some background: A location-based social media app called Yik Yak used to exist. It let users post things anonymously in a given geographic area, such as around colleges. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people posted boorish and offensive things. Even less surprisingly, people with fascist tendencies demanded their universities identify and punish those people.

A feminist group at UMW took this to the next level by filing a lawsuit last year alleging the public university failed to protect them from a "sexually hostile environment." Also named as a defendant was the university's former president Richard Hurley, who allegedly retaliated against the plaintiffs ... by publicly defending the school against the students' claims. I'm not kidding.

The lawsuit's other legal reasoning was not particularly convincing. The plaintiffs said UMW should have shut down Yik Yak by banning the app from the campus network. This would not have stopped anyone with a data signal from using the app. Which is basically everyone.

A federal judge knocked down the lawsuit a year ago, saying that implementing the plaintiffs' demands "may have exposed the university to liability under the First Amendment."

Comment: There are several options, but only one 'choice': freedom of speech.

Peter Schiff on US economy: 'This isn't a bear market, we're in a house of cards that the Fed built

Mark DeCambre
Market Watch
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 17:51 UTC

Where in the world is Peter Schiff, as the stock market entered an apparent unraveling phase?

Find the chief executive of Euro Pacific Capital, a longtime gold bug and market pundit, on a beach in Puerto Rico, where he's taken up residence as he watches the equity market get rocked.

"I'm watching the U.S. economy implode from the beach," Schiff told MarketWatch during a recent phone interview. "We're in a lot of trouble," he said.

"This isn't a bear market, we're in a house of cards that the Fed built," he said.

India's drug regulator orders Johnson & Johnson to stop manufacturing baby powder using raw materials

Rahul Singh, Krishna N. Das
Reuters
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 17:46 UTC

India's drugs regulator has ordered Johnson & Johnson to stop manufacturing its Baby Powder using raw materials currently in two of its Indian factories until test results prove they are free of asbestos, a senior official said on Thursday.

The official at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), who declined to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter, said a written order had been sent to the U.S. company telling it to stop using the "huge quantities" of raw materials stocked in its plants in northern and western India.

The company said on Wednesday that Indian drug authorities visited some of its facilities and took "tests and samples" of its talcum powder. It also said that the safety of its cosmetic talc was based on a long history of safe use and decades of research and clinical evidence by independent researchers and scientific review boards across the world.

Comment: Previously:

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Society's Child

Activists clash with police at massive Catalan pro-independence rally in Barcelona

Suspect detained after shootout in Vienna historic center; witnesses say several gunmen involved

'Adulting' classes for millennials needed because parents were too lazy to teach them to be adults - Ben Shapiro

Data 'sharing': Amazon's Alexa sends thousands of recordings to the wrong user

Berlin police chief creates 'safety feeling', but fears to jog outside own office

Islamic State threatens US and EU cities with drone attacks in chilling new poster after Gatwick chaos

Two Scandinavian backpackers hacked to death in Morocco by 'ISIS terrorists' with one filmed being beheaded

Appeals court ruling: Colleges must censor and block online services if they offend someone

Peter Schiff on US economy: 'This isn't a bear market, we're in a house of cards that the Fed built

India's drug regulator orders Johnson & Johnson to stop manufacturing baby powder using raw materials

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