News

Fatal Fire at Greek Refugee Camp Sparks Riots

A fire at an overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has sparked riots. The charred remains of an Afghan women were found after the blaze.

Over 13,000 people are crammed into the compound, which has only facilities for 3,000.

“The situation was totally out of control,” said the local police chief, Vasillis Rodopoulos, describing the riot. “Their behaviour was very aggressive, they wouldn’t let the fire engines pass to put out the blaze, and for the first time they were shouting: kill police.”

Riots have increased calls for refugees  to be moved to the mainland.

Many islands in the Mediterranean close to Turkey has seen a sharpe rise in migrants desperate to reach Europe.

Read More: The Guardian 

Science And Technology

How Trustworthy is Science?

Any student of science knows that the first lesson is in scientific method. That this enables us to put our trust in science. Scientific method leads on the idea  of reproducibility. This means that an idea or theory can only be accepted as true if it is proven through experimental means, and those results have to be reproducible, i.e. someone repeating your experiment will get the same result. However a study found that only 25% of papers were reproducible. Why is this the case? And what does it mean for science?

News

Cannabis Cafe Opens in Hollywood

America’s first cafe that allows customers to legally buy cannabis has opened in Hollywood. The Lowell Cafe offers the choice of joints or cannabis that can be vaped. This in the midst of a spike in lung damage cases and deaths linked to vaping.

David Elias co founder of the  Los Angeles-based Lowell Herb Co, was a former stock market trader. The company began in 2017 with five employees, and now boosts Miley Cyrus as one of its investors. Elias says, “Cannabis consumers have always been relegated to getting their cannabis in a plastic bag while you can go to a dinner party with a beautiful bottle of wine…. People want to smoke a joint with their friends in a cafe like they can over a beer — not in the alley or in their car.”

Read More: Bloomberg

Science And Technology

Leading Pioneer in Gender Theory Admits Aspects of His Work “Made Up”

Christopher Dummitt a pioneer in gender theory has come out to say he was wrong about much of his work in gender theory and sex, saying that a lot of what he proposed as truth was “made up”.

He admits that as a young, newly graduated scientist he was “angry and assertive” about his ideas regarding gender theory, and was hiding the fact he had no proof to back up his opinions.

However, his work and others have now been taken to lay the foundation of gender theory. Dummitt says, “[it is] so disappointing to see that the viewpoints I used to argue for so fervently — and so baselessly — have now been accepted by so many in the wider society”.

Indeed, his “flawed reasoning, and other scholarship using the same defective thinking” is now being used by “activists and governments to legislate a new moral code of conduct”.

Dummitt is now arguing for more research into sex and gender from a different ideological background and for the peer review process to be more thorough.

Read More: Christian Institute

News

Iowa Journalist Who Exposed Racist Tweets Fired for His Offensive Tweets

Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin exposed racist tweets made by a sports fan, who’s charity fundraiser had gone viral. Carson King an Iowa State University football fan posed for a photo with himself holding a can of beer asking for money to replenish his beer supply.

What was a joke, took him by surprise when money started to come in. However King said he give the money to a local children’s hospital. That’s when things went viral and serious money began to roll in. Carson King found himself a local celebrity.

However report Aaron Calvin began to look into King’s background, uncovering two racist tweets he made 8 years earlier whilst still in high school.

When the Register reported he story there was backlash. Carson King apologised for the stupid things he found funny and said as a kid. However Calvin found his past tweets came under the same intense scrutiny. he was found to have sent offensive tweets about same-sex couples, domestic abuse as well as racist tweets. The Register  has now fired Aaron Calvin.

Read More: BBC

News

Anti-surveillance Fashion on the Rise

Artists and fashion designers are coming up with ways to remain hidden in a world of surveillance cameras. Artists in London went walking the streets with bold make up across their faces in a bid to outsmart the cities facial recognition cameras. The Dazzle Club as they are called, used their form of camouflage to “reclaim ownership” of their image. Their walk was triggered by news that a private housing development was using sophisticated facial recognition technology to track people walking through its site without peoples permission.

Other companies have designed t-shirts with stylised faces or fake number plates in a bid to feed the surveillance systems with fake data. However, artists say their main purpose is to alert the public to the prevalence of surveillance in our daily lives.

One US artist,  Leonardo Selvaggio,  has even created 3D prosthetic copies of his own face. His reason, as well as disguising the wearers face; was to also feed to system false data- linking his face with multiple other bodies. Selvaggio’s company has since folded.

Read More: Reuters

Justice

De Blasio’s New York Sees Crime and Disorder Increase

New York under Mayor De Blasio is seeing law and order deteriorate.  Some are fearing New York is heading back to the bad years of the 70s and 80s.

Although the crime rates are still low, the trend is worrying, especially the rate at which the crime rate is going up. An 8% increase in shooting from the previous year; with gun arrests up 20%. Hate crimes have increased a startling 41%- with anti-semitic crime by far the most common.

Serious crime is rises alarmingly fast with the first five months of 2019 seeing: 8% increase in homicides, 10% increase in rapes and a 20% increase in shooting victims.

Read More: Judicial Watch

News, Politics

Impeachment Could be Trouble from the Dems

Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi has been rejecting calls within her own party for months to begin impeachment proceedings against the President. However she may now find herself in a high stakes game with could cost her her job and give Trump a second term.

Now that she has began proceedings failure to deliver will be seen has unacceptable by the radicals within her party. And with the President saying he will release the transcript of his conversation with the Ukrainian President things might very soon turn uncomfortable for Pelosi.

Furthermore the first casualty of any investigation may be Biden himself. If it found that he did use his influence to help his son, it will cost him his chance in the 2020 elections. Even if he has done nothing wrong the appearance that his son has built a highly profitable career free-riding on his VP father’s back will sit very uncomfortable with progressives across the nation.

Read More: The New York Post

News

Google Win “Right-to-br Forgotten Case in Europe

Google have won the battle against tougher right-be-be-forgotten legislation in France. The case was a test to see if a nations legislation could be enforced across borders; and whether personal data could be removed without the stifling of free speech.

“Currently, there is no obligation under EU law, for a search engine operator who grants a request for de-referencing made by a data subject… to carry out such a de-referencing on all the versions of its search engine,” the European Court of Justice (CJEU) said.

“However, EU law requires a search engine operator to carry out such a de-referencing on the versions of its search engine corresponding to all the (EU) member states,” it added.

The case arose after google refused to delist sensitive data from global search results.

Read More: CBC

News

Danes Change Banking Rules to Allow Negative Rates on Bank Accounts

In Denmark the banking rules have changed to allow negative rates for accounts with a surplus of $100,000 or more. Previously negative rates could only apply to account with more than $1million.

The change will effectively see the banks charging people to hold their money. The countries of Europe are watching with interest, ready to learn from Denmark’s experience.

“So far, it’s just been a lot of theories about what will happen, but now we get a chance to see it in real life,” said Jan Storup Nielsen, a senior analyst at Nordea,. “For the rest of Europe and the ECB this is perfect, because they can let Denmark learn all the consequences and then see what they should decide.”

Low interest rates have seen householders borrow more money, but they have also been saving a lot as well. Low interest rates are often accompanied by inflation, however this has not been seen in Europe. Thus allowing householders to gain from the low rates; without  the usual pain.

Read More: Yahoo Finance

Random Events, Free Will, Pre-destiny or Something Darker ?