Society's ChildS


Dollar

Finland introducing trial of basic income for unemployed, becoming first country to adopt the policy

Ben Kentish
The Independent
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC
finland basic income
The primary objective of the experiment is to assess whether an unconditional basic income promotes employment.

Scandinavian country becomes first to adopt policy with new trial of 2,000 unemployed people

Finland is to introduce a basic income for some citizens from next month, becoming the first country to adopt the policy.

Two thousand unemployed people will be given €560 (£480) every month for two years, without any restrictions or conditions attached. Leaders hope the move will improve life quality, reduce unemployment and create jobs.

Recipients will not need to prove they are looking for work and the money will be given regardless of any other income the person earns.

The Finnish government is planning to study whether the policy helps recipients find work. It suspects many unemployed people are put off getting a job because they will lose unemployment benefits and therefore be worse off financially - a similar problem to that which tax credits were designed to solve in the UK.
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Monkey Wrench

Disintegrating society: Florida highway shut down by naked man behaving erratically and jumping on cars

Ken Suarez
Fox 13
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 13:49 UTC
naked man shuts down tampa highway
Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa was shut down Wednesday morning by what police say was a naked man running in the road and jumping on cars.
Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa was shut down Wednesday morning by what police say was a naked man running in the road and jumping on cars.

Police say they had to subdue the man, who was acting erratically, running around and jumping on cars in the roadway. The incident began at approximately 5:36 a.m. near Dale Mabry and Spruce Street.

FOX 13's Ken Suarez was there Wednesday morning, and reports 10 cruisers on the scene, blood in the street, and a car with bloody hand prints on it.

Comment: It seems there have been a number of such instances recently where people are disintegrating into animal-like behavior. Is this a reflection of the collective insanity gripping the world, or is it something else?

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Arrow Up

Landmark decision: Canadian government ordered to pay First Nation people $3.3M to settle 131 year old claim


RT
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:22 UTC
Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation Canada
© Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation
The Canadian government has been ordered to pay 4.5 million Canadian dollars (US$3.3 million) to indigenous peoples for failing to pay treaty money following an uprising in 1885.

The North-West Rebellion was a failed insurrection in Saskatchewan against the government of Canada. It largely involved the Métis people, who are of mixed First Nation and European descent, as well as some First Nation groups.

In the wake of the uprising, the government mislabelled many people "rebel Indians" and withheld treaty payments as punishment. Even men, women and children who couldn't possibly have played any part in the rebellion were punished.
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Star of David

Raising tensions: Over 170 Jewish settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 16:56 UTC
Dome of the Rock
© AFP 2016/ AHMAD GHARABLI
More than 170 Jewish settlers on Wednesday stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, trying to perform religious Talmudic rituals there, the mosque director, Sheikh Omar Qiswani, said.

"Some 176 settlers, backed by Israeli special forces, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound since this morning. The Jewish settlers tried to perform Talmudic rituals near the Al-Qibali mosque and the Dome of the Rock but they were prevented from doing so by Muslim worshipers and the mosque guards," Qiswani was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.

He added that the Israeli police forces arrested one of the mosque guards.

Comment: This incident comes on the heels of the latest UNSC resolution: Israel's hysteria is solidifying its status as a rogue nation

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Eye 1

Want to see a U.S. ball game? Iris scan, please

Alan Levin and Jonathan Levin
Bloomberg
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:00 UTC

Comment: An Orwellian society is becoming more real every day due to one of the greatest lies ever told: 9/11.


Lazaro Torres, a die-hard Miami Heat fan, was scurrying to reach his seat before tip-off one night last month when he hit an all-too-common roadblock: Two dozen fans stirring impatiently in the security-check line. Not a problem. He slid into a special entrance line, laid two fingers on a print scanner and, with the Heat's rapid blessing, cruised into the arena.

"It's been great," Torres, a 43-year-old season-ticket holder, said of the service, known as Clear, which offers queue-skipping privileges for six U.S. sports teams including New York's Yankees and Mets baseball franchises. His interview was necessarily brief. "I'm running a little late."
Biometric security clearance
© Scott McIntyre/BloombergClear security clearance
Attending a game used to be a low-tech pleasure: Buy a ticket and grab a bleacher seat. Now, with metal detectors and bag checks standard at almost all major sporting venues, companies have begun offering biometric and other tools to create the equivalent of express security lanes like those in airports. Those fingerprints and iris scans also allow teams to track fans' behavior and purchasing habits, helping them rake in more revenue and fatten profits while triggering at the same time the privacy concerns that dog this sort of technology in other parts of the economy.

Clear, owned by Alclear LLC, also provides similar security services at 16 airports, where passengers can get fast-tracked for $179 a year.At stadiums, teams pay a licensing fee and fans nothing.

Other companies offer streamlining at stadiums and other venues to government-vetted members of PreCheck, the Transportation Security Administration's service for airline travelers. And Walt Disney Co. theme parks offer expedited fingerprint-based identity scanning to customers who've bought certain passes.

Comment: "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." - George Orwell's 1984

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Snowflake

The boors on Ivanka's Airbus

Thomas J. Craughwell
The Spectator
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 16:21 UTC
Ivanka Airbus rude passenger
Ivanka Trump was just the latest air traveler to experience boorishness from passengers.
Just days before Christmas, Ivanka Trump was accosted by a fellow JetBlue passenger who felt moved — no, the correct word is "entitled" — to dump on her his displeasure that her father, Donald Trump, had been elected president. The boor in question is an attorney named Dan Goldstein. His husband, college professor Matthew Lasner, tweeted the play-by-play as Goldstein ambushed the First Daughter-elect. Inside Edition's story on the confrontation featured Lasner's tweets. (You can watch the piece on YouTube).
"Ivanka and Jared at JFK flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them."

"Ivanka and Jared on our flight. My husband expressed displeasure in a calm tone."

"JetBlue staff overheard and they kicked us off the plane."
Lasner posted a photo of Ivanka at the moment Goldstein got in her face, with a caption via Twitter, "Ivanka just before @JetBlue kicked us off our flight when a flt attendant overheard my husband expressing displeasure about flying w/ Trumps."

After the incident, JetBlue released a statement which read in part, "If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight."

Less than eight weeks before this surprise attack on Ivanka, Scott McCartney published a story in the Wall Street Journal on the rise of passengers' bad behavior on commercial aircraft. These public displays of vulgarity include placing dirty shoes on clean seats, kicking, on purpose, the seat of the passenger in front of you, trimming fingernails and leaving the clippings on the floor, and, that perennial favorite, struggling to cram your carry-on into an already overloaded overhead bin.

Comment: All the stress that accompanies the experience of flying these days still doesn't excuse the exceptional rudeness displayed by Daniel Goldstein. It is the very type of 'agressive self-centeredness'.

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Red Flag

Second patsy? Alleged accomplice to Christmas market attack suspect detained in Berlin


RT
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 15:59 UTC
berlin truck attack
German Police have detained an alleged accomplice of Berlin truck attack suspect Anis Amri during a raid in the German capital, the Federal prosecutor's office reported.

The detained is a 40-year-old Tunisian man living in Berlin. The man was taken into custody on Wednesday morning after police raided his apartment and work place in Berlin's district of Tempelhof, the prosecutor's office statement says.

The man' contacts have been retrieved from Anis Amri's mobile phone, which he reportedly left in the truck cabin following the Christmas market attack on December 19.

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Ambulance

Car rolls down ravine in southern Peru - at least 12 people killed


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 16:02 UTC
Peruvian police van
© John Seb Barber/Flicker
At least twelve people were killed after a car rolled down the ravine in Peru's southern region of Ayacucho, local media reported.

The incident occurred on Tuesday when a car with 16 passengers fell 300 meters (about 984 feet) into the abyss, the driver was reported missing, according to La Republica newspaper.

Police forces and firefighters arrived at the scene, while three injured people were taken to a local hospital, the newspaper said. The reason for the incident is under investigation.

According to preliminary data, the driver lost control of the car.
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Cupcake Choco

Washington State teenagers' attitudes toward marijuana shift after legalization


RT
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 15:00 UTC
women dressed marijuana leak
© Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
A nationwide study finds teenagers in Washington State perceive marijuana as increasingly less harmful, following various stages of legalization for recreational use. However, that same effect was not found in Colorado.

A new era is under way for marijuana in the US. It is legally approved for recreational use in six states and Washington, DC, and 28 other states are in some process of decriminalizing the federal Schedule I drug. But as states move to end the prohibition of marijuana, researchers are finally able to study the cultural shifts that result from it.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that from 2010 to 2015, teenagers in Washington viewed marijuana as increasingly less harmful over time. In addition, teenagers began trying pot at higher rates.
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Heart - Black

Saudi man jailed 1yr, fined $8k after calling for end to strict male guardianship over women


RT
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 08:52 UTC
Saudi women
© Faisal Nasser / Reuters
A Saudi Arabian man has been sentenced to one year in jail and fined $8,000 after calling for his country's government to end its system of male guardianship over women.

A court in the eastern city of Dammam found the man guilty of "inciting to end guardianship of women," Okaz newspaper reported on Tuesday, according to AFP. He was also fined 30,000 riyals (US$8,000).

The conviction is in response to posters the man put up inside mosques, which called for the government to abolish strict rules giving men wide control over women.

He was arrested and questioned for the posters, admitting that he put up the flyers in several mosques as part of an "awareness campaign." He said he launched the campaign after finding that some of his "female relatives were facing injustice at the hands of their families."

Police also determined during questioning that the man was also behind an online campaign to end male guardianship over women. That campaign, widely shared on Twitter, included a petition signed by thousands of Saudis in September.

Comment: See also:

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