Category: Wat

Media-Mogul Attacks Avaaz

Posted by – 16/09/2010

Avaaz has come under attack from a major media-mogul.

Huge numbers of Canadian Avaazers recently mobilized against government favours for a new radical-right propaganda network run by the Prime Minister’s former spin doctor. The media empire behind the network and its billionaire owner, Pierre Karl Peladeau, has attacked our community with several smear pieces in their own newspapers, and one of their executives admitted insider knowledge of a criminal sabotage of our campaign. Now the mogul has threatened to sue Avaaz if we don’t take down our campaign within 24 hours!

Sharp rise in domestic violence after England knocked out of World Cup

Posted by – 08/07/2010

[via telegraph.co.uk]

Domestic violence incidents increased sharply on the day England were knocked out of the World Cup Photo: PA

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) recorded 353 incidents on June 27, when England suffered their humiliating 4-1 defeat against Germany.

It is the highest number recorded in a day so far this year, save New Year’s Day, the force said.

Kent Police said it witnessed a 400 per cent rise in cases of domestic abuse on the same day.

There were 26 offences reported in the south Kent area, compared to an average weekend total of six.

UK School Wants To Fingerprint Kids Who Take Out Library Books

Posted by – 31/05/2010

[via consumerist.com]

What’s your children’s privacy worth? Should they be subjected to fingerprinting just to take out a library book? That’s the question parents at a school in the UK are grappling with.

From the Telegraph:

Under the scheme, pupils swipe a bar code inside the book they want borrow then press their thumb on to a scanner to authorise the loan. Books are returned in the same way.The scheme is being trialled on junior classes at Higher Lane Primary in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester.

Google Vs Apple: The Same, But Different.

Posted by – 31/05/2010

[via makeuseof.com]

Scenes From The Drug War

Posted by – 05/05/2010

[via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com]

Above is video from a February raid in Missouri. Balko captions:

SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family’s pit bull and corgi (?!) as a seven-year-old looks on. They found a “small amount” of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment.

And advocates:

Wall Streeters’ Chain Email Reveals They’re Even Worse People Than We Thought

Posted by – 05/05/2010

[via disinfo.com]

Think that the financial crash has left investment banking hotshots humbler and wiser? Not likely. The National Review blog The Corner has a defiant email that has been circulating over the last couple days among discontented Wall Streeters. Seriously, these people are as douche-y as you imagined:

We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.

Music industry spokesman loves child porn

Posted by – 05/05/2010

[via boingboing.net]

A music-industry speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Stockholm waxed enthusiastic about child porn, because it serves as the perfect excuse for network censorship, and once you’ve got a child-porn filter, you can censor anything:

“Child pornography is great,” the speaker at the podium declared enthusiastically. “It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites”.The venue was a seminar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm on May 27, 2007, under the title “Sweden — A Safe Haven for Pirates?”. The speaker was Johan Schlüter from the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, a lobby organization for the music and film industry associations, like IFPI and others…

Moscow mourns subway suicide bomb victims

Posted by – 30/03/2010

[via cnn.com]

Relatives of victims of the subway blasts cry outside a morgue in Moscow where they arrived to identify a body

Moscow paused to mourn its dead Tuesday, a day after suicide bombers struck a pair of subway stations in a deadly rush-hour attack.

Flags across the city were lowered to half staff as hundreds of thousands of commuters returned to the transit system where the bombings had claimed dozens of casualties. Authorities said the attacks have killed at least 39 people — an increase of one since Monday — and wounded more than 60 others.

Why is Uganda attacking homosexuality?

Posted by – 30/03/2010

[via cnn.com]

Protesters against a planned anti-homosexuality bill in front of the Ugandan Mission to the U.N. in New York on November 19

As a gay man in Uganda, Frank Mugisha is used to the taunts, the slurs and the daily harassment of neighbors and friends.

But if a new bill proposed in the east African country becomes law, Mugisha could be put away for life, or worse, put to death for having sex with another man.

Fight the Rape Trade

Posted by – 30/03/2010

Amita was a sweet 9 year old girl who loved her family. One day, she was kidnapped, taken to a city far away and put in a cage. She was forced to have sex with dozens of men per day, and brutally beaten when she cried or refused. 5 terror-filled years later, suffering from sexually transmitted disease, she died from a beating at age 14.