Bonjour Planet Earth

Monday, January 09, 2017

Indian police accused of mass rape during operation...

India's human rights watchdog said more than a dozen tribal women were raped by police in restive Chhattisgarh state with the victims' lawyer slamming authorities over delays in arresting the accused.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on Sunday at least 16 women were "victims of rape, sexual and physical assault" after it concluded an investigation into reports that police attacked several villages in Bijapur district in the central Indian state during an operation against communist rebels in October 2015.

"Prima-facie, human rights of the victims have been grossly violated by the security personnel of the government of Chhattisgarh, for which the state government is vicariously liable," the government commission said in a statement.

NHRC said it was in the process of recording the testimonies of 20 more victims who were allegedly sexually assaulted during the incident. Full story...

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What privilege looks like in Singapore..

Being of Chinese descent in Singapore breeds a particular kind of blindness. We make up 74.6 percent of the city-state's 5.7 million people, so it's no surprise that ethnic Chinese hold significant political and social dominance in Singapore. Growing up, it was easy to take for granted the fact that people who looked like me were represented in popular culture. I never felt the need to question my identity as a Singaporean.

In school, no one made fun of my name. When I was looking for work, my ethnicity was a bonus. Job interviews were a relatively uncomplicated process. Can I speak Mandarin? Yes. Can I work holidays aside from Chinese New Year? Yes.

But like most Chinese Singaporeans, I couldn't see how my success had anything to do with my race. My friends, on the other hand, clearly saw how race affected their lives. Eden, who is part Eurasian, part Indian, was constantly bullied as a child. Kids made fun of his curly hair, his dark skin, and his body hair. Now an adult, Eden still looks back and thinks about how much if affected him.

"Everything that was different about me was measured against the Chinese normal," Eden said. "And I was always treated as if I was falling short of that standard. It affected the very fabric of my being. For the longest time, I believed that there was something inferior about me." Full story...

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Sunday, January 08, 2017

Daughter records dad singing "Tennessee Whiskey"

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Vaccine-derived polio spreading in 'polio-free' India...

(...)

Despite knowing the facts, both the WHO and the CDC, over the years, have continued to vaccinate tiny children in developing countries with multiple doses of the OPV vaccination. According to the Indian vaccination schedule reproduced by the website Parentree, children in India should receive a total of six doses of the OPV vaccination and four doses of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) by the age of five years.

This means that, before the tender age of five, each child in India, according to the vaccination schedule set by their government, should receive a whopping TEN doses of various polio vaccinations as required by their government.

This is total madness, especially when you consider that Bill Gates has been stating for years that polio has been eradicated in India. Full story...

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Staying off grid when "nearly everything is chipped, almost everything is tracked"

If you weren’t paranoid before, it may be time to start paying attention.

“They” are spying on everything you do, and are collecting information about every purchase, appliance, vehicle or place you make, do or interact with. For the first time in history, we have arrived at a time when nearly everything is chipped, and almost everything is tracked.

It really is true, and it’s no longer a conspiracy theory.

They are spying on everyone, collecting all the available data and tracking you, your family and everyone you know. All the time.

And worst of all, it does matter, it will be used against you – for revenue collection, social control, fines, fees and evidence if necessary – even if you haven’t done anything wrong. Is it any wonder why many states have made living off the grid illegal, and have attempted to get everyone on the grid?

If you don’t conform to the habits of most Americans – and harvest alternative stores of power, fuel, food, water and supplies, then your energy use and digital footprint (or lack thereof) will cast you as a suspicious anomaly, worth of investigation, seizure of goods, subject to violations and codes, and NOT off the radar. Full story...

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Growing number of kids in Denmark change their gender...

Since January, the Sexology Clinic in Copenhagen has offered hormone treatment to minors who feel like they were born in the wrong body.

The clinic anticipated that around 50 minors would take advantage of opportunity to change their gender, but that number was surpassed in just six months and the annual estimate was increased to 130, news agency Ritzau reported on Wednesday.

In Denmark, children as young as 12 can receive hormone suppressors, also known as puberty blockers, to stunt the growth of sexual organs and suppress developments like facial hair for boys and menstruation for girls. The effects of the blockers are reversible.

Once minors reach the age of 16, they can receive full hormone treatment that is largely irreversible.

The demand for gender changes amongst children does not come as a surprise to LGBT Danmark, the national organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Full story...

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Sri Lanka protest over Chinese investment turns ugly...

Several people have been injured in southern Sri Lanka during a protest against allowing China to build a port and industrial zone.

The plan envisages the eviction of thousands of villagers around Hambantota port, 240km (150 miles) south-east of the capital Colombo.

Police used tear gas as the protest delayed a ceremony being attended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe.

Opponents say the area is being turned into what they call a Chinese colony.

The government is finalising a 99-year lease of the port area to a company that is 80% Chinese-owned. Full story...

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Millions in China learn to live with smog 'Airpocalypse'

As smog levels in northern China reach historic levels, millions are learning to live with what has been dubbed "airpocalypse."

"Physically, if I don't wear a [face] mask when I go out I feel dizzy and have problems breathing," Jiang Yuwei, 23, a student at Beijing Foreign Studies University told NBC News. "Even if I wear a mask, I still feel quite depressed. During smoggy days, my mood is ruined and that I don't want to go out or work."

As many as 32 cities in northern China were under "red alert," the most severe pollution warning in the country's four-tier system, earlier this week. Another 27 cities, including Beijing, were under "orange alert."

China uses the Air Quality Index as a measuring stick for gauging the level of air pollution. The levels go from 0-500 and measure six atmospheric pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone among others. Once the Air Quality Index surpasses 200 for three or more days, it's an "orange alert"; once it's surpassed 300 for two consecutive days or 500 for any one 24-hour period, a city is under "red alert" and Chinese authorities recommend all physical outdoor activity be suspended. Full story...

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Saturday, January 07, 2017

Amazon has 45,000 robot employees...

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Digital love: Virtual reality porn on global rise, still lagging in US...

It seems every small step in technology is a giant leap for pornography. With virtual reality gaining global traction, Pornhub’s 2016 roundup found that the is not keeping up with the times.

No country in the world loves pornography more than the US, according to Pornhub’s 2016 insights. Representing 40 percent of the visits to the website, Americans are consuming cheesecake content like no one else, but prefer their porn to be two-dimensional.

Virtual reality porn searches increased by 440 percent in 2016, but the US did not to did not figure high up.

The top ten nations searching for VR porn are a scattering of countries in the Eastern hemisphere, with China being the reigning champ of virtual porn followed by Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Norway, Finland, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt and Chile. Some speculate that it has to do with the fact that the technology is relatively new and still becoming more normalized.

Even Canada has gotten into the trend before the US. “VR” was said to be among their top gaining searches, along with “virtual reality.”

TechCrunch predicts that WebVR will bring VR porn to the masses. The JavaScript API will allow for a more immersive experience while browsing the web in general. Given that Pornhub is the 50th most popular site on the internet, it may translate to increasing traffic and demand for more realistic skin sites. Source...

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Green energy is a charter for crooks and liars. The scam must end now...

(...)

If there’s one thing everyone who thinks of themselves as reasonable and well-informed knows, tidal power is the thing. How do they know this? Well, because they’re aware that wind and solar power have their flaws but their hearts tell them that renewable energy must be a good thing because it’s clean and it’s free so therefore they’ve decided to pin their hopes on the technology whose crapness hasn’t been tested yet – and that means tidal.

Also they’ll have read thinly-disguised press releases like this article First full-scale tidal generator in Wales unveiled: Deltastream array to power 10,000 homes using ebb and flow of the ocean and gone: “Well they wouldn’t print stuff like that unless it were true, would they?”

But now, surprise surprise, this tidal project – subsidised to the tune of £8 million by the European Union, with another £500,000 from the Welsh government – is lying in ruins on the Pembrokeshire sea bed because the company that ran it – Tidal Energy Ltd – has gone into administration. It failed after just three months of operation.

This is a problem all too familiar with so many projects in the renewable energy sector: see also Solyndra and Abengoa, for example. Because the unreliable, expensive power they produce is not commercially viable, they fold as soon as the government subsidies dry up. But we’re not supposed to mind about public money being squandered in this way because, hey, it’s green and the intentions were good. Full story...

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Wikileaks gives CNN ultimatum...

Air 1-hour expose on plot to discredit Assange or face the Consequences...

On Wednesday, WikiLeaks announced its plans to sue CNN after a counter-terrorism analyst called Assange a pedophile, in an act of malicious slandering. In response, the whistleblowing powerhouse issued an ultimatum to the corporate media giant, insisting it either air a “one hour exposé of the plot” or be sued for defamation.

The segment WikiLeaks was referring to was an interview during which CNN had Phil Mudd, the ex-Deputy-Director of the CIA, “falsely calling Assange a ‘pedophile.’ ”

“We have issued instructions to sue CNN for defamation,” another tweet read. “Unless within 48h they air a one hour expose of the plot.”

In the interview, which took place on CNN’s New Day program, Chris Cuomo asked Mudd why he disagreed with Assange’s denial that Russia was the source of the DNC leaks and Podesta documents.

Mudd referenced Sean Hannity’s interview in his response, which he said “skirted the bottom line [of] do you know if the Russian’s were involved?… not ‘where did you get the information.’ ” Mudd continued on to tear down Assange by way of defaming his character, falsely accusing the WikiLeaks founder of being a “pedophile who lives in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.” Full story...

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Those sweet, surly bonds of Earth...

Why is it that all our heroes inevitably try to kill us? From Winston Churchill to Albert Einstein, the people we laud the most were, at one point, responsible for great harm done, and not always by their own intention. “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions,” said T.S. Eliot.

Earlier this month, The New York Times Magazine ran a profile piece on someone who, I predict, will someday become another savior-cum-killer. Sara Seager is a brilliant astrophysicist at M.I.T. who is dedicated to discovering more earthlike planets in the universe. Her life’s work has been committed to finding habitable planets light-years away from our own lowly blue home in the Milky Way.

One of Seager’s many goals is to get in contact with extraterrestrial life. She’s a leading advocate for a project called “starshade,” a sunflower-shaped, shieldlike device that is designed to block out the sun’s light so that other telescopes can better spot life-sustaining planets like our own. A more aesthetically pleasing version of Mr. Burns’ contraption, the starshade will not only blacken the sun for us to see deeper in the universe but also make the earth more visible for anyone looking in. Full story...

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Friday, January 06, 2017

“Asbestos of the Sky” – The aviation industry’s darkest coverup...

In flight, every crew member and passenger relies on an air supply. The assumption, of course, is that this air is filtered if not fresh. Perhaps you have sensed (and promptly dismissed) that there may be quality control issues around cabin air. The problem goes further than that, however, and astoundingly, this is not by accident but by design.

What’s more concerning is the fact that the industry has known about this completely preventable health hazard for at least 40 years, but no attempts have been made to filter this cocktail of hundreds of chemicals (including organophosphates in the same category as toxic nerve agents like Sarin) out of the cabin air before travelers are forced to breath them in. Nor has the root cause of the problem — unsafe aircraft design and the deprioritization of human safety — been effectively addressed.

Essentially, the problem comes from the need to supply the jet airliners with warm compressed air while flying at high altitudes. In order to do so, all planes used by commercial airlines since 1963 inject the cabin with air directly from the compressors of their jet engines in what is known as ‘bleed air.’ In the 50’s, engineers designed airplanes which pulled fresh air into the cabin, but this “modification” was deemed too costly by decision-makers at the time. As a result of poor design, every breath that the crew and passengers take today, consists of a 50/50 mix of recirculated cabin air and bleed air, the latter of which can contains a wide range of synthetic chemicals, such as tricresyl phosphate (TCP or TOCP), an organophosphate which is highly neurotoxic to humans. In fact, the World Health Organisation stated in 1990 that “Because of considerable variation among individuals in sensitivity to TOCP, it is not possible to establish a safe level of exposure” and “TOCP are therefore considered major hazards to human health." Full story...

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The long, slow death of religion...

By now, it’s clear that religion is fading in America, as it has done in most advanced Western democracies.

Dozens of surveys find identical evidence: Fewer American adults, especially those under 30, attend church — or even belong to a church. They tell interviewers their religion is “none.” They ignore faith.

Since 1990, the “nones” have exploded rapidly as a sociological phenomenon — from 10 percent of U.S. adults, to 15 percent, to 20 percent. Now they’ve climbed to 25 percent, according to a 2016 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.

That makes them the nation’s largest faith category, outstripping Catholics (21 percent) and white evangelicals (16 percent). They seem on a trajectory to become an outright majority. America is following the secular path of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and other modern places. The Secular Age is snowballing. Full story...

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Bengaluru molestation: Number of incidents don't matter; India's IT capital now has a sullied image...

Five days after the supposed "mass molestation" in Bengaluru’s upmarket MG and Brigade roads, everyone needs to take a step back and figure out what really happened.

There are two major narratives: One is that, at the stroke of midnight, men in the crowd (more than one lakh according to some estimates) simply went nuts. As if with one mind, Bengaluru’s depraved men started pawing and groping at any girl they could get their hands on. Women ran for their lives, but the police were of no help. This is what breathless anchors on national TV channels will have us believe.

The other narrative is what Bengaluru’s hapless new police commissioner Praveen Sood has been trying to get across. According to him, nothing happened.

Both narratives could be bogus. The truth, as always is in such cases, lies somewhere in between.

Yes, girls were molested by drunken louts, but many eyewitnesses say that the mass molestation as reported in the national press and eagerly picked up by international media (if it shows India in a bad light, that’s news, baby!), may not have happened. But something did happen, according to the Bangalore Mirror, which tracked down ten witnesses who all said they were subject to or witness to molestation. Full story...

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Singapore could face legal action over sand importation...

Environmental NGO Mother Nature has hired a Singaporean law firm to investigate alleged irregularities in the country’s importation of Cambodian sand, the organization’s founder said on Wednesday.

The firm is “looking into the relevant laws that might have been broken there, in relation to the social and ecological destruction the mining has caused, or in relation to the government importing Cambodian sand which is tainted by issues of corruption, smuggling, tax-evasion, etc.,” Mother Nature founder Alex Gonzalez-Davidson said on Wednesday in a Facebook message.

He identified the potential targets as the statutory boards that fall under the purview of several government ministries involved in the import of Cambodian sand.

“Our goal is…that the mining and export of coastal sand from Cambodia is eventually regarded as too toxic by the Singapore government and that they are forced to stop getting involved,” he said.

Authorities from Singapore’s JTC Corporation, which oversees the state’s sand-heavy reclamation projects, and the National Development Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The government, in past statements, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Full story...

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Japanese insurance firm replaces 34 staff with AI...

Science fiction has long imagined a future in which humans are ousted from their jobs by machines.

For 34 staff at a Japanese insurance firm, that vision just became a reality.

Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is laying off the employees and replacing them with an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can calculate insurance payouts.

The firm believes it will increase productivity by 30%.

It expects to save around 140m yen (£979,500 / $1.2m) a year in salaries after the 200m yen AI system is installed later this month. Full story...

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Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Swiss government sings ‘Bernhemian Rhapsody’

When the Swiss Federal Council released its official photo for 2017 on New Year’s Eve it caused quite a stir, becoming a trending topic in Switzerland on Twitter.

Taken by photographer Beat Mumenthaler, the striking black and white composition provoked comparisons with everything from Fifty Shades of Grey to the cover of the album With the Beatles to the video for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Now someone has taken that one step further by adapting the official photo into a video showing the Federal Council singing ‘Bernhemian Rhapsody’.

Journalist and satirist Sabrina Bundi’s creation has been roundly applauded on social media since she posted it on January 1st. Full story...

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Italian Catholic priest accused of hosting orgies in church rectory and pimping out up to 15 women...

Andrea Contin, a Catholic priest in northern Italy’s Veneto region, is under police investigation over allegations of organizing orgies and soliciting about 15 women, according to reports Monday. He is also accused of living off immoral earnings and psychological violence.

The investigation against the 48-year-old was launched after complaints from three of his female parishioners. Police recovered pornographic videos concealed in covers bearing the names of popes, several sex toys and videos showing orgies organized in his rectory on the San Lazzaro church premises, according to the Times.

Contin is also accused of pimping about 15 women on wife-swapping websites and going on lavish holidays with lovers to countries such as Croatia, France and Austria. One of the destinations included a naturist and swingers resort in Cap d’Agde on the southern French coast.

The allegations first came to light when one of the women parishioners complained about Contin to the local bishop last summer. At the time the church authorities did not seek police help pending their own investigation against the priest. Full story...

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Police question Netanyahu as part of graft probe...

Police grilled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for three hours on Monday on suspicion of receiving gifts from businessmen, as part of a graft probe that has shaken the country's politics.

Investigators quizzed Netanyahu at his residence in central Jerusalem under caution "on suspicion of receiving benefits", a police spokesman said afterwards, adding there were no further details to give.

Ahead of the questioning, Netanyahu denied any wrongdoing and told his political opponents to put any "celebrations" on hold.

The justice ministry said in a statement that officers from a police anti-corruption unit carried out the questioning, adding that Netanyahu was "suspected of having received gifts from businessmen".

The long-running graft inquiry has looked into whether wealthy Israeli and foreign businessmen have offered gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars as well as another unspecified issue, according to media reports. Full story...

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Will the world end in October? Conspiracy theorist claims mysterious planet Nibiru will smash into Earth...

The world could be set to end in October this year, when a giant mysterious planet collides with our own - according to a conspiracy theorist.

David Meade, author of the book 'Planet X – The 2017 Arrival', believes a star, which he calls 'a binary twin of our sun', is coming 'at us towards the south pole'.

He says the star will bring with it 'seven orbiting bodies', including Nibiru, a large, blue planet that he also refers to as Planet X hurtling towards our planet.

Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X, is a hypothesised planet on the edge of our solar system.

Conspiracy theorists believe the gravitational influence of the 'rogue planet' Nibiru disrupted the orbits of other planets hundreds of years ago.

David Meade believes the planet is set to hit into our planet in October this year, after being driven here by the gravitational pull from a 'binary star' twinned with the sun - of which there is no evidence. Full story...

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Why Airbnb is not worth it anymore...

We’ve been using AirBNB for almost 5 years now. In these five years, we’ve had some good experiences and some bad. However, every good experience we’ve had has been because we are always very careful with where we choose to stay. We only look for hosts with good reviews, great pictures, and almost always stay in independent apartments. But our bad experiences have always been because of AirBNB’s absolutely terrible customer service. Our AirBNB experience can be summed up as: It’s great when everything goes well, if things go wrong, AirBNB will never help you out and you are on your own. This can be varying levels of scary depending on which country you are in and what your situation at the moment looks like.

That’s pretty sad for a company that is valued at over $25 billion. One would expect that they’d have halfway decent customer service by now.

So far, we’ve had three really bad experiences with AirBNB. The first one was in Mexico when we checked into a house that looked like it was haunted. We contacted AirBNB customer support about the unhygienic conditions and creepy vibes and they couldn’t do anything. Finally, we decided to check out and move to a hotel and after a few days AirBNB refunded our money. Full story...

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No evidence sugar-free soft drinks aid weight loss – study...

Soft drinks made with artificial sweeteners, such as diet colas, do not help people lose weight and may be as big a part of the obesity problem as the full-sugar versions, academics have said.

A paper by researchers at Imperial College London and two universities in Brazil contends that artificially sweetened beverages, often called diet drinks, are just as big a problem as those containing sugar. There is no evidence they help people lose weight, they say, possibly because people assume they can eat more because their drinks are low in sugar.

The report says the combined factors of what goes into artificially sweetened drinks, how they are consumed, and their environmental impact mean that “far from helping to solve the global obesity crisis [they are] a potential risk factor for highly prevalent chronic diseases”.

Sugar-sweetened drinks, including sports beverages, have been identified as one of the major causes of obesity. Many countries, including Mexico and France, have introduced sugar taxes to try to reduce consumption, and the UK plans to do so next year. Full story...

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Germany sees 'overwhelming' sales of Hitler's Mein Kampf...

The German publisher of a special annotated edition of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf says sales have soared since its launch a year ago.

About 85,000 German-language copies of the anti-Semitic Nazi manifesto have been sold. Publisher Andreas Wirsching said "the figures overwhelmed us".

He is director of the Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich.

But the sales are well below those of best-sellers in Germany. It is an academic edition, costing €58 (£49).

At the end of January the IfZ will launch a sixth print run. The book contains critical notes by scholars. Full story...

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India outrage after minister blames 'Western dress' for groping...

An Indian minister who said groping at New Year celebrations in Bangalore was caused by women dressing "like Westerners" has caused outrage.

Reports have emerged on local and social media of women being molested during festivities on Saturday night.

A Bangalore newspaper published photos of women crying and complaining that they had been groped by crowds of men.

Police say they have received no complaints but are scanning security footage for evidence of molestation.

As local media published images of distraught women seeking police help, Karnataka State Home Minister G Parameshwara blamed young people for "copying the Westerners, not only in their mindset, but even in their dressing". Full story...

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Saudi Arabia jails and flogs workers for unpaid wage protests...

Dozens of foreign workers have been sentenced to flogging and jail for unrest during protests over unpaid wages by Saudi Binladin Group several months ago, reports said on Tuesday.

Al-Watan newspaper and Arab News did not give the nationalities of the 49 workers, and foreign embassy staff in the kingdom contacted by AFP could not immediately provide details.

Al-Watan, which has followed the Binladin case since early last year, said an unidentified number were sentenced to four months' jail and 300 lashes for destroying public property and inciting unrest.

Others were jailed for 45 days by a court in Mecca.

Construction sector workers, chiefly at the Binladin Group and Saudi Oger, were left waiting for pay after a collapse in oil revenues left the kingdom unable to pay private firms it had contracted. Full story...

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UK bosses make more in two and a half days than workers earn all year...

The UK’s top bosses will have made more money by lunchtime on Wednesday than the typical UK worker will earn all year, according to an analysis that exposes the gulf between executives and the rest of the workforce.

On “Fat Cat Wednesday” campaigners say that public anger with elites will intensify unless action is taken to tackle excess among executives at a time when pressures on household budgets are rising.

The High Pay Centre calculated that the average FTSE 100 boss now earns more than £1,000 an hour, meaning they will pass the UK average salary of £28,200 by around midday on Wednesday. The thinktank said that after enjoying rapid earnings growth in recent years, leading bosses now typically earn 129 times more than their employees.

It hopes its stark findings will act as a spur to the prime minister, Theresa May, to act on her promises to create an economy that works for everyone. In the political fallout from last year’s Brexit vote that catapulted her to power, May tapped into voters’ frustrations over inequality and since being made prime minister she has vowed to reform capitalism. Full story...

See also: Top Canada CEOs have already earned more than average worker's 2017 salary

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Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Knockout Girls: First female boxing club in Pakistan...

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Prep junior for success ― Teach him how to fail!

You’ve cooed to, cuddled and coddled your baby since birth, but now that he’s growing up, he’s getting familiar with the school of hard knocks. Junior is falling (literally and figuratively), not winning soccer games, failing tests, striking out and forgetting his lines at the school play.

It’s hard to watch him get hurt and you want nothing more than to intervene and make his troubles go away. But as any wise parent knows, one of the kindest things you can do for your kiddo is to prep him for the realities of the real world ― and learning how to manage failure is one of the most vital lessons he’ll acquire.

“Life is all about problem solving and we can only turn into happy adults if we learn how to overcome painful thoughts and emotions and how to heal and move out of unhappiness,” notes Cornelia Dahinten family coach and director of The Parent You Want To Be ― Conscious Parenting Training and Playgroups. “For that to happen, you have to be unhappy first.”

About the biggest disservice you can do for your little one is to fix his problems. This only creates an unrealistic expectation of life, worse, your child will be distressed on entering the real world, only to encounter setbacks, which could be a job loss or getting a divorce. Full story...

Homeless man had worn the soles off his shoes; cops buy him new boots...

A couple of Norridge officers were observed purchasing new shoes for a homeless man and then watching to make sure they fit.

They did this not knowing someone had taken a picture and did not wish to be personally recognized.

WBBM spoke with the two officers by telephone to talk about the good deed.

They said they were called Dec. 29 to a bus shelter, where a homeless man was sitting with a bunch of blankets.

He reportedly said he had wanted to board a bus, but was told he couldn’t do so because he didn’t have shoes. Full story...

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Trump to continue "freaking mainstream media out", will "boldly use" Twitter for policy announcements...

Having drawn the ire of the mainstream press for his extensive use of Twitter in announcing major developments and policy shifts, President-elect Donald Trump will not end the "onslaught" of posts on Twitter that fed his unconventional campaign, even after taking on the formalized duties of the Oval Office later this month, as Bloomberg notes following an announcement by incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer who said he expects Trump "will boldly use" Twitter to make major policy announcements.

Shortly after his victory on November 8, Trump said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he was rethinking his use of social media: “I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all, I’m going to be very restrained,” Trump said. That, however, has not happened and since then, during the countdown to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, he’s shown little sign that he intends to follow that pledge.

In fact, making news and issuing statements on social media sites that also include Facebook and Instagram will “absolutely” continue, despite any prior promises to the contrary, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“You know what? The fact of the matter is that when he tweets, he gets results,” Spicer said. Full story...

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Systematic ‘fake news’ planted by Britain’s intelligence services...

Is the CIA editing your newspaper? Here is a great overview by Ed Jones of OpenDemocracyUK of why corporate media are the arch-exponents of “fake news”. The media are overwhelming owned and controlled by billionaires and gargantuan corporations, who depend on the support of other corporations for ad revenue, and employ journalists from a narrow, privileged class whose careers depend on maintaining access to elite sources. It would be simply astounding in these circumstances if we had anything resembling a pluralistic media.

The data concerns UK outlets, but the same principles apply in the US.

One section makes especially disturbing reading. It is the little-discussed matter of the intelligence services’ deep penetration of most western, and in some cases non-western, media organisations. In short, US intelligence services – and to a lesser extent British ones – have for many decades fed information to sympathetic journalists in key positions inside the “free” media, working with them hand in glove. Additionally, the CIA has sought to put its own people into publications to shape directly editorial content and influence public opinion. In some cases, these people may have reached very senior positions.

Nick Davies, of the Guardian, dedicated a whole chapter of his book Flat Earth News to documenting these practices. Strangely, that chapter is rarely mentioned. Journalists who praise the book instead concentrate on his less revealing concept of “churnalism” – journalism compromised by constraints of time and resources. Full story...

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Philippines’ Duterte a drug user himself...

So now we know what has long been suspected: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has a history of drug dependence greater than that of most of the 6,000 or so murdered during his anti-drug campaign.

Duterte has admitted past regular use (and over-use) of Fentanyl, the most powerful of all the opioids known. It is far more powerful than morphine – not to mention of opium itself. It usually only officially administered under strict control from those suffering the most serious pain from cancer or chronic diseases. Whilst doing the job of pain relief, it also is known to affect the brain in such a way as to alter normal behavior and judgment These latter are clearly evident in Duterte’s erratic lifestyle, many outbursts and some of his decision-making – not least his sudden abandonment of his nation’s victory over China at the Court of Arbitration on its rights in the West Philippine sea.

The line between legal and illegal drugs is a fine one, often defined simply as access to a doctor prepared to sign a prescription. Necessarily this forces other would-be users to buy street products whose strength may be uncertain and which may be mixed with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Full story...

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‘Mass molestation’ in Bangalore blamed on Indians ‘copying’ west...

An alleged “mass molestation” on the streets of one of India’s biggest cities on New Year’s Eve was the result of young people trying to “copy” western mindsets and clothing, an Indian state minister has claimed.

Thousands of people gathered on two central streets in Bangalore on Saturday night to celebrate the new year. Local newspaper reports and witnesses said the crowd became unruly and began to subject women to sexual assault and harassment.

The Bangalore Mirror said its photojournalists were “first-hand witnesses to the brazen, mass molestation of women” on the city’s streets, publishing pictures of one woman pressed in by a crowd of men and another appearing to cower on the shoulder of a female police officer.

One witness told the Guardian: “I saw women being molested in the crowd and people trying to find places where they could hide themselves and not be attacked.” Full story...

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That ‘fake plastic rice’ in Nigeria was actually something much more depressing...

Last week, Nigerian officials seized over 100 bags of what was claimed to be plastic rice. Lab tests have since shown the product isn’t fake, as Gizmodo and other outlets reported. But it is badly contaminated rice that’s unsafe for human consumption. The incident is casting light on the sorry state of the economy and food production in Nigeria—along with a government that’s anxious to deflect the blame elsewhere.

To recap, Nigerian customs officials recently seized over 100 bags of rice in the Ikeja district of Lagos, each weighing about 55 pounds (25 kg). A preliminary analysis suggested the rice was made from plastic, and a suspect was arrested in connection with the apparent scheme.

Following more thorough lab tests, Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says the suspected fake rice is not plastic, but rice contaminated with microorganisms. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, a senior official with the NAFDAC said levels of bacteria, including Coliform, found within the rice were “above permissible limits,” and that the product was unsuitable for human consumption. On its own, this bacteria isn’t usually harmful, but its presence is an indicator of other contaminants, such as microorganisms that dwell in fecal matter, disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Full story...

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French trial reveals vast wealth of Equatorial Guinean president's son...

Teodorin Obiang, accused of plundering $115m, owns luxury properties, yachts, cars – and Michael Jackson’s crystal glove

The days of the Bugattis, the chateau Pétrus and the fine Parisian restaurants may be over for Teodorin Obiang – at least in western Europe.

The son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader is due to go on trial for corruption and money laundering in a landmark case in France.

Obiang, the 47-year-old vice-president of the oil-rich but impoverished African country, faces an array of legal cases across Europe as authorities on the continent investigate the sources of his vast wealth and uncover new and even more extravagant ways that he spent some of it.

US officials have already forced Obiang to forfeit property after accusing him of “shamelessly” looting his country. In a settlement, Obiang agreed to hand over more than $30m (£24.5m) worth of properties, including a vast villa in Malibu, California, and a dozen luxury cars. Full story...

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