Friday, February 6, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/04/fcc-chief-strong-open-internet-protections-net-neutrality-shift

'Awe-inspiring' FCC internet protections could alter landscape for net neutrality
Tom Wheeler pens op-ed in Wired magazine to declare support for ‘strongest open internet protections ever’ in what could be titanic shift on hot-button issue

Dominic Rushe in New York
Wednesday 4 February 2015 

Proposing a titanic legislative shift on net neutrality after a years-long push from internet activists, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to push through “the strongest open internet protections ever”.

“The internet must be fast, fair and open. That is the message I’ve heard from consumers and innovators across this nation,” FCC chair Tom Wheeler wrote inan editorial for Wired magazine published on Wednesday. “The proposal I present to the commission will ensure the internet remains open, now and in the future, for all Americans.”

Wheeler’s proposals – to all but reclassify the internet as a public utility – come after the FCC has received more than 4m public comments on its proposals, the biggest overhaul of US regulation of the internet since the presidency of George W Bush.

The new rules will be sent to the regulator’s commissioners on Thursday, before a crucial vote at the end of the month. While the FCC has the support of president Barack Obama, the proposals have stoked Republican ire about over-regulation and will face intense lobbying from the cable industry in the coming weeks.

FCC officials, speaking on background, said the new rules would:
ban blocking, preventing broadband providers from blocking access to legal content, applications or services;
stop throttling, preventing broadband providers from degrading lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, applications, services or non-harmful devices;
outlaw paid prioritization, preventing broadband providers from favoring certain internet services with so-called “fast lanes” or from prioritizing the content and services of their affiliates.

Activists hailed the decision as “historic”, while critics called Wheeler’s proposals “unjustified, overblown”.

Wheeler is set to press for broadband internet to be regulated under Title II of an overarching communications act. Under Bush, broadband was classified as an “information service” and escaped the regulatory burden associated with telecommunications, which are considered a utility.

The shift would give the FCC far greater powers to step in and act if it spots potential broadband abuses – and hand the FCC oversight of mobile broadband, a fast growing area, for the first time.

However, officials said the FCC would not set prices or force cable companies to share their networks and would “forbear” parts of the act they believe would hamper innovation.

Last May, Wheeler proposed regulating broadband under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, a move supported by the cable companies. Such a policy shift could have allowed cable operators to create “fast lanes” for some users in return for higher fees – a move critics charged would kill “net neutrality”, the concept that all traffic should be treated equally online.

While Section 706 only allows fast lanes that are “commercially reasonable”, Wheeler wrote in Wire that he became concerned “that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers.”

Wheeler said he now believed the FCC needed to use Title II to protect an open internet. On Thursday, he is expected to release draft orders to his fellow commissioners from the United States’ top telecommunications regulatory agency, ahead of a landmark vote on 27 February.

“Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” Wheeler wrote. “These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply – for the first time ever – those bright-line rules to mobile broadband.

“My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.”

Wheeler’s proposals come as Republican critics work on their own legislation, which could effectively stymie his efforts. Senator John Thune is proposing legislation that would ban fast lanes and throttling but would not increase the FCC’s regulatory authority over the cable industry.

Last month Thune, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called Title II a “desperate path” that would upset the “light touch” regulation he said had allowed innovation to flourish online.

Objections to the proposals were swift. Michael Powell, CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, cable’s biggest lobby group, said Wheeler’s went “far beyond the worthy goal of establishing important net neutrality protections”.

“The cable industry has repeatedly voiced our support for sensible net neutrality rules which accomplish the important protections that president Obama and others have supported – no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization and transparency of business practices – and can be enacted without the significant regulatory baggage that comes with public utility regulation,” he said.

Doug Brake, a telecommunications policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, an industry lobby group, said the shift to Title II was an “unjustified, overblown response to what has in actuality been a by-and-large hypothetical concern”.

But activists – who have bombarded the FCC with demands for stronger regulation – continue to charge that cable companies will stifle innovation by “picking the winners” if they are allowed to charge those who can pay more for faster access.

The FCC was effectively left without rules to govern broadband after a court sided with Verizon’s successful challenge to its authority to regulate the industry in January 2014. Officials said they expected fresh legal challenges but were confident they could be overcome.

Chris Lewis, vice president of government affairs at advocacy group Public Knowledge, commended Wheeler for his support of Title II authority. “This is a historic announcement by chairman Wheeler, and a decision that consumers have been demanding for some time,” he said.

Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future, which has organised a series of protests for net neutrality, said: “We’ll be ramping up the pressure to make sure the details are right, but the significance of the FCC moving to use Title II rules to protect net neutrality is undeniable – it is an awe-inspiring, unprecedented victory for the public and the internet freedom movement against DC’s fiercest lobbies.

“Every internet activist who has signed a petition, made a call or showed up at a protest deserves to celebrate. It’s crucial that we keep the pressure on both the FCC and Congress to make sure they get the details right, but no matter what happens from here, we’ve already accomplished more than any pundit, lobbyist or cable CEO thought was possible.”




“Wheeler’s proposals – to all but reclassify the internet as a public utility – come after the FCC has received more than 4m public comments on its proposals, the biggest overhaul of US regulation of the internet since the presidency of George W Bush. The new rules will be sent to the regulator’s commissioners on Thursday, before a crucial vote at the end of the month. While the FCC has the support of president Barack Obama, the proposals have stoked Republican ire about over-regulation and will face intense lobbying from the cable industry in the coming weeks.... Activists hailed the decision as “historic”, while critics called Wheeler’s proposals “unjustified, overblown”. Wheeler is set to press for broadband internet to be regulated under Title II of an overarching communications act. Under Bush, broadband was classified as an “information service” and escaped the regulatory burden associated with telecommunications, which are considered a utility. The shift would give the FCC far greater powers to step in and act if it spots potential broadband abuses – and hand the FCC oversight of mobile broadband, a fast growing area, for the first time.... While Section 706 only allows fast lanes that are “commercially reasonable”, Wheeler wrote in Wire that he became concerned “that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers.”... “Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” Wheeler wrote. “These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply – for the first time ever – those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. “My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.”... Chris Lewis, vice president of government affairs at advocacy group Public Knowledge, commended Wheeler for his support of Title II authority. “This is a historic announcement by chairman Wheeler, and a decision that consumers have been demanding for some time,” he said. Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future, which has organised a series of protests for net neutrality, said: “We’ll be ramping up the pressure to make sure the details are right, but the significance of the FCC moving to use Title II rules to protect net neutrality is undeniable – it is an awe-inspiring, unprecedented victory for the public and the internet freedom movement against DC’s fiercest lobbies.”

I have signed many of these requests for the FCC to do this, so I'm delighted with Wheeler's decision. I understand there will be lawsuits from the right on the matter. Our next hurdle will be a matter of what judges decide on the move to Title II and higher FCC control. I'll collect other articles as I see them.





http://www.theonion.com/articles/gop-builds-fullscale-replica-of-struggling-ohio-to,37948/

GOP Builds Full-Scale Replica Of Struggling Ohio Town To Train Presidential Hopefuls
NEWS • Politics • Politicians • ISSUE 51•05 • 
Feb 5, 2015

Photograph – Officials say the fabricated town of Stocktonville, OH provides a controlled setting in which to familiarize GOP candidates with convincing imitations of blue-collar voters and middle-American culture.

MARTINSDALE, MT—In an effort to improve the party’s chances in the 2016 election, GOP officials announced Thursday that the Republican National Committee has built a functional full-scale replica of a struggling Ohio town in which to train presidential hopefuls.

Top-level Republican sources told reporters they have been using the fake town of Stocktonville, OH, which is located in a remote stretch of central Montana, to rigorously prepare candidates since completing construction of the 18-square-mile facility last month. According to GOP leaders, the recently erected village, which is inhabited by 33,000 actors coached to portray middle-class Americans such as small-business owners and auto workers, replicates every location and personal interaction a candidate could expect to encounter while campaigning in a critical Rust Belt swing county.

“Every morning, we start running our candidates through their itinerary of simulated voter meet-and-greets at Stocktonville’s mock schools, shopping centers, and town squares, having them redo each leg over and over until they get it right,” said Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, noting how the locality has been meticulously crafted to reflect an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, a median income of $38,000, and a sense of uneasiness about the direction of the country. “So, whether it’s learning to naturally put on a hardhat and Carhartt jacket to impress the workers at one of our six artificial factories, or tossing out the first pitch at our life-size double-A baseball field, our fully immersive training grounds provide a safe place for candidates to work out the kinks before running for office.”

“With enough repetition in here, they’ll soon be interacting with real voters on the campaign trail based on nothing but pure muscle memory,” Priebus continued.

While project leaders reportedly designed over 70 unique whistle-stop stations within the training facility, RNC sources said the centerpiece of the constructed town is Elle’s Place, a fully operational roadside diner where candidates repeatedly rehearse the key steps of casually rolling up their sleeves, removing their necktie, and unfastening their top two shirt buttons before sitting down to talk about the economy with blue-collar workers.

Reports indicated that the facility’s design team employed regional experts to ensure the authenticity of every aspect of the faux restaurant, from the wardrobe of truck drivers at the counter who must be greeted with a hearty “Morning, fellas” and slapped on the back, to the recipe for the unpalatable World-Famous Chili, which candidates must learn to choke down while maintaining an approving smile.

GOP operatives confirmed that, once the candidate waves goodbye to patrons before slipping back onto the campaign bus, site technicians quickly reset the props and return the actors to their starting positions in order for the presidential hopeful to run through the course once again from the top.

“It took me a while, but I’ve become pretty comfortable serving meals at the homeless shelter portion of the course,” said former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has reportedly been extremely committed to the training program, oftentimes returning late at night to put in extra effort posing confidently yet casually in photo ops with the facility’s fake eighth-grade civics class and with the actors playing the staff of Stocktonville’s artificial mom-and-pop store. “But when I drive over to the VA hospital to talk with veterans, I always screw up my one-on-one with the guy playing a young soldier back from Afghanistan who is going through his physical therapy session. I know I’m supposed to start by putting my hand on the veteran’s shoulder and saying ‘Thank you for serving our country,’ but I never know when to say how he exemplifies the best qualities of America.”

“I always forget and start stumbling over my words, and then all of a sudden the air horn goes off and they stop the simulation,” Bush added. “I must have messed that up at least 20 times by now.”

Despite a number of initial successes, including teaching every candidate the exact pacing at which to drink a single beer while chatting with patrons at the custom-built local bar, a number of insiders confirmed that the Stocktonville facility has experienced several setbacks. The fake town has reportedly suffered countless mechanical malfunctions in its animatronic county fair simulation, and potential candidates are said to have repeatedly failed to show any believable empathy during town hall meetings when fake residents explain how they lost their jobs during an economic downturn, both problems that technicians on the ground have yet to be able to remedy.

GOP sources were quick to point out, however, that the current facility is still a vast improvement over the single ropeline of mannequin voters that served as a practice ground in 2012.

“What’s most important is that the Stocktonville Complex provides a protected, controlled environment for candidates to attempt to connect with our simulated middle-class Americans,” said RNC co-chairman Sharon Day, who often takes time to watch for herself from the facility’s various observation posts. “Rand Paul has probably separated himself as the best at reading a passage of Scripture during our mock church service, and Marco Rubio was the first to master deftly handling the heckler we choreographed for the rally. Rob Portman, however, is still making mistakes talking about Social Security with the actors at our senior citizen home, which at this point in his training is simply unacceptable.”

“We’re thinking Friday might be his last day with the program,” Day added. 


At press time, RNC leaders confirmed they had discontinued the leg of training that involved entering Stocktonville’s African-American neighborhood, saying it was simply too difficult for all of the candidates.




“Officials say the fabricated town of Stocktonville, OH provides a controlled setting in which to familiarize GOP candidates with convincing imitations of blue-collar voters and middle-American culture.... Top-level Republican sources told reporters they have been using the fake town of Stocktonville, OH, which is located in a remote stretch of central Montana, to rigorously prepare candidates since completing construction of the 18-square-mile facility last month. According to GOP leaders, the recently erected village, which is inhabited by 33,000 actors coached to portray middle-class Americans such as small-business owners and auto workers, replicates every location and personal interaction a candidate could expect to encounter while campaigning in a critical Rust Belt swing county.... “So, whether it’s learning to naturally put on a hardhat and Carhartt jacket to impress the workers at one of our six artificial factories, or tossing out the first pitch at our life-size double-A baseball field, our fully immersive training grounds provide a safe place for candidates to work out the kinks before running for office.” “With enough repetition in here, they’ll soon be interacting with real voters on the campaign trail based on nothing but pure muscle memory,” Priebus continued.... GOP operatives confirmed that, once the candidate waves goodbye to patrons before slipping back onto the campaign bus, site technicians quickly reset the props and return the actors to their starting positions in order for the presidential hopeful to run through the course once again from the top.... At press time, RNC leaders confirmed they had discontinued the leg of training that involved entering Stocktonville’s African-American neighborhood, saying it was simply too difficult for all of the candidates.”

I always knew Republicans lie on a daily basis, but I didn't know they practiced how to do it in front of the non-wealthy – their target audience in the last few years. They have come to realize that there are a good many Americans who simply will never vote for them unless they appear to change their stripes. How to roll up their sleeves is something they stole from Barack Obama, however, and they haven't given him the credit. One real problem with this artificial town is that it is made up of actors, not citizens, so they are going on their perceptions of Middle and Lower Middle Class people. They want to know how to lie to them and be believed. They won't really learn anything until they face the public, however. A few comments like Romney has made and their facade of empathy and working for all American citizens will be destroyed. This highly expensive training system for their politicians is truly shameful. Thank goodness for the free press. Without news medias like The Onion, Huffington Post, and Daily Kos no stories like this one would be aired. I have looked under several search terms and I can't find where CBS has published a version. Why not? The GOP has announced the existence of the town, so they can't punish CBS for writing about it. Things like this are the most important reason why a free USA needs an equally free and open Internet. There are things you just won't read in the newspapers.





https://finance.yahoo.com/news/newly-unearthed-writings-isaac-newton-215938520.html

Newly unearthed writings show that Isaac Newton figured out how trees work 200 years before botanists
Business Insider
By Jessica Orwig
February 4, 2015

Isaac Newton is best known for "discovering" gravity and co-inventing calculus. But newly unearthed writings from Newton's college days show he was equally adept at unlocking the mysteries of plants.

During his days as an undergraduate student in the 1660s at Trinity College, Newton kept a notebook for some of his philosophical thoughts. One researcher who analyzed Newton's writings has uncovered a single passage titled "Vegetables" buried deep inside.

In the passage, Newton offered an early explanation for how water and nutrients in plants — especially trees — seemingly defy gravity when they move from the roots to the leaves.

According to David Beerling, a professor of palaeoclimatology at the University of Sheffield in England and author of a paper describing the passage, Newton's description is remarkably accurate.

A longstanding mystery

From a lifetime of experience, people in the 17th Century knew that objects moved down — like water flowing downstream or rocks tumbling downhill. Yet, somehow, trees were miraculously moving nutrients and fluid tens and hundreds of feet in the opposite direction: up to the tips of their high-hanging branches.

How trees did this was a mystery that stumped botanists until 1895 — more than 200 years after Newton wrote his "Vegetables" passage at Trinity College. Unfortunately, the notebook wasn't publicly available until 1872, when it was donated to the Cambridge University Library, otherwise botanists might have solved the mystery much sooner.

In his notebook, Newton theorized that plants have fluid-filled pores in their leaves, Beerling writes in his Feb. 2 paper in the journal Nature Plants. Newton thought that when light shines on these pores, the light particles push water particles away from the plant, which then lets the tree move water and other nutrients up through its trunk to replace the lost water particles.

Newton's explanation is surprisingly similar to the evaporation process botanists first proposed in 1895 and is still the leading theory today. Below is a photo of the journal entry, which is transcribed below.

Today, botanists know that trees harbor long columns of nutrient-rich water. Like a chain, each column is a series of connected water molecules that are strongly bound together through a chemical process called hydrogen bonding. These chains run from the high-hanging leaves to the underground roots.

The trick to understanding trees lies within the leaves' stomata — small pores that plants use as breathing holes, opening them to release oxygen and closing them after inhaling carbon dioxide. When a stoma opens, heat from sunlight can enter and make the leaf give up some of its water in the form of evaporation.

As the water leaves the tree leaf, it tugs on the molecules nearby, which tug on their nearby molecules, and so on, all the way down the tree into the roots, which then extracts water from the soil.

Newton suggested a very similar process in his own 17th Century words (where "particle b" is a droplet of water and "Globule c" is light):
Suppose a b the pore of a Vegitable filled with fluid mater & that the Globule c doth hitt away the particle b, then the rest of subtile matter in the pores riseth from a towards b & by this meanes juices continually arise up from the roots of trees upward leaving dreggs in the pores & then wanting passage stretch the pores to make them as wide as before they were clogged. which makes the plant bigger untill the pores are too narow for the juice to arise through the pores & then the plant ceaseth to grow any more.

Like many discoveries, Beerling's fascinating find raises more questions than answers.

"Frustratingly, the context of Newton's notes on plant juices is unknown," Beerling wrote. "We have no idea how long Newton spent thinking about the working of plants of what prompted these thoughts. No other pages in the notebook report comments on plants," Beerling wrote in his paper.

But one thing is likely certain: Newton didn't steal the idea Beerling writes: "Reclusive and secretive, it's doubtful he gained botanical inspiration from conversations with others at Cambridge University interested in plants."

NOW WATCH: Bill Nye Reveals The Huge Problem With How We Teach Science




“But newly unearthed writings from Newton's college days show he was equally adept at unlocking the mysteries of plants. During his days as an undergraduate student in the 1660s at Trinity College, Newton kept a notebook for some of his philosophical thoughts. One researcher who analyzed Newton's writings has uncovered a single passage titled "Vegetables" buried deep inside. In the passage, Newton offered an early explanation for how water and nutrients in plants — especially trees — seemingly defy gravity when they move from the roots to the leaves. According to David Beerling, a professor of palaeoclimatology at the University of Sheffield in England and author of a paper describing the passage, Newton's description is remarkably accurate.... Unfortunately, the notebook wasn't publicly available until 1872, when it was donated to the Cambridge University Library, otherwise botanists might have solved the mystery much sooner.
In his notebook, Newton theorized that plants have fluid-filled pores in their leaves, Beerling writes in his Feb. 2 paper in the journal Nature Plants. Newton thought that when light shines on these pores, the light particles push water particles away from the plant, which then lets the tree move water and other nutrients up through its trunk to replace the lost water particles. Newton's explanation is surprisingly similar to the evaporation process botanists first proposed in 1895 and is still the leading theory today. Below is a photo of the journal entry, which is transcribed below.... When a stoma opens, heat from sunlight can enter and make the leaf give up some of its water in the form of evaporation. As the water leaves the tree leaf, it tugs on the molecules nearby, which tug on their nearby molecules, and so on, all the way down the tree into the roots, which then extracts water from the soil.... "Frustratingly, the context of Newton's notes on plant juices is unknown," Beerling wrote. "We have no idea how long Newton spent thinking about the working of plants of what prompted these thoughts. No other pages in the notebook report comments on plants," Beerling wrote in his paper. But one thing is likely certain: Newton didn't steal the idea Beerling writes: "Reclusive and secretive, it's doubtful he gained botanical inspiration from conversations with others at Cambridge University interested in plants."

I believe high intelligence is the result of high curiosity. Many such people are “reclusive and secretive” as Newton is described here. They don't think much about what team sport is being played or some other matter which the highly social will follow, therefore they are “odd” and may be non-conformist. They are entertained instead by thinking and learning. They are “nerds.” If they do have financial backing so that they can attend college, they can succeed to a high degree and bloom into the highly creative people they are supposed to be. All this question of how water is drawn up through plants to the leaves required observation and persistent thought, not a teacher.

This is why I believe in thought over faith or patriotism in the forming of my religious and social ideas. People like Newton are the reason why society has progressed from the cave man stage. When our society teaches kids not to think for themselves, it is “dumbing down” our future generations. That is being done, I fear, because those who want to dominate us want to keep us from thinking. Their motive is money and power. They are putting through laws that prevent high school kids from being taught about ideas like evolution and empathy for the downtrodden. They want a controlled and obedient society. It is sad.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-is-killing-torturing-and-raping-children-in-iraq-u-n-says/

ISIS is killing, torturing and raping children in Iraq, U.N. says
CBS/AP
February 5, 2015

BERLIN -- The United Nations says the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is systematically killing, torturing and raping children and families of minority groups in Iraq, and it is calling on government forces there to do more to protect them.

In a report issued Wednesday in Geneva, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said it has received reports of "several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive."

Iraq's military has been struggling in its fight against ISIS, and the government has pleaded repeatedly for more weapons and training.

Still, the U.N. agency urged that more be done, saying Iraq needs to "take all necessary actions to ensure the safety and protection of children and their families."

Renate Winter, an expert with the U.N. agency, told Reuters that the "scope of the problem is huge."

"We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding," Winter told Reuters. "There was a video placed (online) that showed children at a very young age, approximately eight years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers."

The U.N. Security Council has previously expressed its "deep outrage" at the killings, kidnapping, rapes and torture in Iraq and said the militant group's actions "may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity."

In December, Amnesty International released a report saying that girls from Iraq's Yazidi minorityendured horrors at the hands of ISIS extremists after they were taken as slaves last summer, leaving them deeply traumatized.

The report was based on interviews with over 40 former captives who were among hundreds of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority captured by ISIS fighters in early August when the militants overran their hometown of Sinjar. Hundreds were killed in the attack, and tens of thousands were either stranded in nearby Mount Sinjar or fled mostly to the Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq.

A displaced Iraqi girl from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between ISIS jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits near muddy shoes at Dawodiya camp for internally displaced people in the Kurdish city of Dohuk, in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region, on January 14, 2015.

The London-based group said the captives, including girls aged 10-12, faced torture, rape, forced marriage and were "sold" or given as "gifts" to ISIS fighters or their supporters in militant-held areas in Iraq and Syria. Often, captives were forced to convert to Islam.

Another report released in November said that ISIS militants tortured and abused Kurdish children captured near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, beating them with hoses and electric cables.




“In a report issued Wednesday in Geneva, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said it has received reports of "several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive." Iraq's military has been struggling in its fight against ISIS, and the government has pleaded repeatedly for more weapons and training.... "We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding," Winter told Reuters. "There was a video placed (online) that showed children at a very young age, approximately eight years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers."... The report was based on interviews with over 40 former captives who were among hundreds of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority captured by ISIS fighters in early August when the militants overran their hometown of Sinjar. Hundreds were killed in the attack, and tens of thousands were either stranded in nearby Mount Sinjar or fled mostly to the Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq.... The London-based group said the captives, including girls aged 10-12, faced torture, rape, forced marriage and were "sold" or given as "gifts" to ISIS fighters or their supporters in militant-held areas in Iraq and Syria. Often, captives were forced to convert to Islam. Another report released in November said that ISIS militants tortured and abused Kurdish children captured near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, beating them with hoses and electric cables.”

I wonder if the UN could send some ground troops into Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS on the ground. So far all we have is the Kurds and now another Islamic group to oppose them. Western countries are bombing ISIS, but more is needed. The situation is truly horrifying. ISIS uses such brutal techniques that it is unspeakable. This is one more report of bad news without any sign of relief on the horizon.





http://www.sltrib.com/news/2136918-155/utah-lawmaker-questions-whether-sex-with

Utah lawmaker questions whether sex with an unconscious person is rape ‘in every instance’
The Salt Lake Tribune
By ANNIE KNOX 
First Published Feb 03 2015 05:27PM    •   
Last Updated Feb 04 2015 12:40 pm

Photograph – (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, speaks during the legislative session on the House floor on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015.

Lawmakers question the implications, but they give early OK to proposed legal changes.

If someone can't consent, it's rape.

A Utah measure seeking to make that legal clarification won early approval in a state legislative committee Tuesday, but some lawmakers qualified their support, questioning whether the law would designate sex with an unconscious spouse as rape.

"If an individual has sex with their wife while she is unconscious ... a prosecutor could then charge that spouse with rape, theoretically," said Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove."That makes sense in a first date scenario, but to me, not where people have a history of years of sexual activity."

Others disagreed. If a person is unconscious, having sex with him or her "is rape. Period. End of story," said Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City. "Let's make the statute clear. Let's not dance around it."

According to prosecutors, "consent is a decision that has to be made at the time of the act," said attorney Donna Kelly from the Utah Prosecution Council. "You cannot give consent to sexual activity if you're unconscious."

Utah's current law doesn't adequately protect victims, advocates and others told the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol on Tuesday.

"This is something that's been a long time coming," bill sponsor Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said after the meeting. "At the end of the day, if someone's unconscious or they're a vulnerable adult, then the logical answer is: Don't try to have a sexual relationship with them."

Lawmakers parsed HB74 to understand the implications for sex between partners, husbands and wives and those who may be incapacitated by mental disabilities, medication or surgery. The legislation aims to clarify the definition of consent in sexual assault cases.

"I'm not at all trying to justify sexual activity with an unconscious person. It's abhorrent to me," Greene said. But he questioned whether sex with an unconscious person should be "rape in every instance — dependent only upon the actor's knowledge that the individual is unconscious. That's the question. That's what I struggle with."

Holly Mullen, director of the Rape Recovery Center, said the Tuesday debate sidestepped a more important discussion.

"Instead of dicing and parsing and saying, 'Well, what about a wife if she's asleep?' just look at what is happening and the prevalence of sexual assault in our world. It's a tool of power. That might be why they're parsing. They don't want to look at what is really going on around them."

For Derek Deitsch, a University of Utah student and fraternity member who spoke in favor of the bill, the difference was clearer.

"As a male, I think it's important to hold other males accountable for the decisions that they make," said the vice president of Beta Theta Pi, which has partnered with the Rape Recovery Center to raise awareness about sexual assault. "Regardless of their relationship with somebody, that does not imply consent."

Kim Fischer, who is an anchor at KTVX-Channel 4, told lawmakers the bill was important. Fischer was sexually assaulted in college, she said, and decided in recent days to speak publicly about the assault.

Fischer was conscious when a member of her ex-boyfriend's fraternity tried to rape her, she said. She managed to fight off the attacker.

"If I were your daughter, your niece, a friend, how would you want this law written?" she asked the panel.

Rep. LaVar Christensen said the current statute is sufficient. He questioned if simplifying the notion of sexual consent would make the statute more ambiguous.

"You can have the unintended consequences of being so vague and so broad that we can go backward instead of forward," the Draper Republican said. He later added: "It's an uncomfortable discussion to even have."




“Lawmakers question the implications, but they give early OK to proposed legal changes. If someone can't consent, it's rape. A Utah measure seeking to make that legal clarification won early approval in a state legislative committee Tuesday, but some lawmakers qualified their support, questioning whether the law would designate sex with an unconscious spouse as rape. "If an individual has sex with their wife while she is unconscious ... a prosecutor could then charge that spouse with rape, theoretically," said Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove."That makes sense in a first date scenario, but to me, not where people have a history of years of sexual activity."... Utah's current law doesn't adequately protect victims, advocates and others told the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol on Tuesday. "This is something that's been a long time coming," bill sponsor Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said after the meeting. "At the end of the day, if someone's unconscious or they're a vulnerable adult, then the logical answer is: Don't try to have a sexual relationship with them."... "Instead of dicing and parsing and saying, 'Well, what about a wife if she's asleep?' just look at what is happening and the prevalence of sexual assault in our world. It's a tool of power. That might be why they're parsing. They don't want to look at what is really going on around them." For Derek Deitsch, a University of Utah student and fraternity member who spoke in favor of the bill, the difference was clearer. "As a male, I think it's important to hold other males accountable for the decisions that they make," said the vice president of Beta Theta Pi, which has partnered with the Rape Recovery Center to raise awareness about sexual assault. "Regardless of their relationship with somebody, that does not imply consent."... Rep. LaVar Christensen said the current statute is sufficient. He questioned if simplifying the notion of sexual consent would make the statute more ambiguous. "You can have the unintended consequences of being so vague and so broad that we can go backward instead of forward," the Draper Republican said. He later added: "It's an uncomfortable discussion to even have."

Men can and do rape their wives every day across the country, especially if you include the practice of wife beating as a part of the sexual act. When I was in my twenties a man said to me that, technically, it is impossible for a man to rape his wife. She is his to do with as he pleases. In those days women were taught to always give in sexually to their husbands – that's “the wifely duty.” When I contemplate things like this I am really glad that I haven't been married in many years now. I'm absolutely unwilling to be in a state of bondage, whether the Church approves it or not.





http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/oliver-burkeman-column/2015/feb/03/believing-that-life-is-fair-might-make-you-a-terrible-person?CMP=fb_gu

Psychology
Oliver Burkeman column
Believing that life is fair might make you a terrible person
Tuesday 3 February 2015

Faced with injustice, we’ll try to alleviate it – but, if we can’t, we’ll do the next best thing, psychologically speaking: blame the victims of the injustice

Photograph – How much sympathy you have for this woman probably depends on whether you feel the universe is a just place. Photograph: Alamy

If you’ve been following the news recently, you know that human beings are terrible and everything is appalling. Yet the sheer range of ways we find to sabotage our efforts to make the world a better place continues to astonish. Did you know, for example, that last week’s commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz may have marginally increased the prevalence of antisemitism in the modern world, despite being partly intended as a warning against its consequences? Or that reading about the eye-popping state of economic inequality could make you less likely to support politicians who want to do something about it?

These are among numerous unsettling implications of the “just-world hypothesis”, a psychological bias explored in a new essay by Nicholas Hune-Brown at Hazlitt. The world, obviously, is a manifestly unjust place: people are always meeting fates they didn’t deserve, or not receiving rewards they did deserve for hard work or virtuous behaviour. Yet several decades of research have established that our need to believe otherwise runs deep. Faced with evidence of injustice, we’ll certainly try to alleviate it if we can – but, if we feel powerless to make things right, we’ll do the next best thing, psychologically speaking: we’ll convince ourselves that the world isn’t so unjust after all.

Hence the finding, in a 2009 study, that Holocaust memorials can increase antisemitism. Confronted with an atrocity they otherwise can’t explain, people become slightly more likely, on average, to believe that the victims must have brought it on themselves.

The classic experiment demonstrating the just-world effect took place in 1966, when Melvyn Lerner and Carolyn Simmons showed people what they claimed were live images of a woman receiving agonizing electric shocks for her poor performance in a memory test. Given the option to alleviate her suffering by ending the shocks, almost everybody did so: humans may be terrible, but most of us don’t go around being consciously and deliberately awful. When denied any option to halt her punishment, however – when forced to just sit and watch her apparently suffer – the participants adjusted their opinions of the woman downwards, as if to convince themselves her agony wasn’t so indefensible because she wasn’t really such an innocent victim. “The sight of an innocent person suffering without possibility of reward or compensation”, Lerner and Simmons concluded, “motivated people to devalue the attractiveness of the victim in order to bring about a more appropriate fit between her fate and her character.” It’s easy to see how a similar psychological process might lead, say, to the belief that victims of sexual assault were “asking for it”: if you can convince yourself of that, you can avoid acknowledging the horror of the situation. 

What’s truly unsettling about the just-world bias is that while it can have truly unpleasant effects, these follow from what seems like the entirely understandable urge to believe that things happen for a reason. After all, if we didn’t all believe that to some degree, life would be an intolerably chaotic and terrifying nightmare in, which effort and payback were utterly unrelated, and there was no point planning for the future, saving money for retirement or doing anything else in hope of eventual reward. We’d go mad. Surely wanting the world to make a bit more sense than that is eminently forgivable?

Yet, ironically, this desire to believe that things happen for a reason leads to the kinds of positions that help entrench injustice instead of reducing it.

Hune-Brown cites another recent bit of evidence for the phenomenon: people with a strong belief in a just world, he reports, are more likely to oppose affirmative action schemes intended to help women or minorities. You needn’t be explicitly racist or sexist to hold such views, nor committed to a highly individualistic political position (such as libertarianism); the researchers controlled for those. You need only cling to a conviction that the world is basically fair. That might be a pretty naive position, of course – but it’s hard to argue that it’s a hateful one. Similar associations have been found between belief in a just world and a preference for authoritarian political leaders. To shield ourselves psychologically from the terrifying thought that the world is full of innocent people suffering, we endorse politicians and policies more likely to make that suffering worse.

All of which is another reminder of a truth that’s too often forgotten in our era of extreme political polarization and 24/7 internet outrage: wrong opinions – even deeply obnoxious opinions – needn’t necessarily stem from obnoxious motivations. “Victim-blaming” provides the clearest example: barely a day goes by without some commentator being accused (often rightly) of implying that somebody’s suffering was their own fault. That’s a viewpoint that should be condemned, of course: it’s unquestionably unpleasant to suggest that the victims of, say, the Charlie Hebdo killings, brought their fates upon themselves. But the just-world hypothesis shows how such opinions need not be the consequence of a deep character fault on the part of the blamer, or some tiny kernel of evil in their soul. It might simply result from a strong need to feel that the world remains orderly, and that things still make some kind of sense.

Facing the truth – that the world visits violence and poverty and discrimination upon people capriciously, with little regard for what they’ve done to deserve it – is much scarier. Because, if there’s no good explanation for why any specific person is suffering, it’s far harder to escape the frightening conclusion that it could easily be you next.




“Faced with injustice, we’ll try to alleviate it – but, if we can’t, we’ll do the next best thing, psychologically speaking: blame the victims of the injustice.... These are among numerous unsettling implications of the “just-world hypothesis”, a psychological bias explored in a new essay by Nicholas Hune-Brown at Hazlitt. The world, obviously, is a manifestly unjust place: people are always meeting fates they didn’t deserve, or not receiving rewards they did deserve for hard work or virtuous behaviour. Yet several decades of research have established that our need to believe otherwise runs deep. Faced with evidence of injustice, we’ll certainly try to alleviate it if we can – but, if we feel powerless to make things right, we’ll do the next best thing, psychologically speaking: we’ll convince ourselves that the world isn’t so unjust after all. Hence the finding, in a 2009 study, that Holocaust memorials can increase antisemitism. Confronted with an atrocity they otherwise can’t explain, people become slightly more likely, on average, to believe that the victims must have brought it on themselves.... “The sight of an innocent person suffering without possibility of reward or compensation”, Lerner and Simmons concluded, “motivated people to devalue the attractiveness of the victim in order to bring about a more appropriate fit between her fate and her character.” It’s easy to see how a similar psychological process might lead, say, to the belief that victims of sexual assault were “asking for it”: if you can convince yourself of that, you can avoid acknowledging the horror of the situation.... these follow from what seems like the entirely understandable urge to believe that things happen for a reason. After all, if we didn’t all believe that to some degree, life would be an intolerably chaotic and terrifying nightmare in, which effort and payback were utterly unrelated, and there was no point planning for the future, saving money for retirement or doing anything else in hope of eventual reward. We’d go mad. Surely wanting the world to make a bit more sense than that is eminently forgivable? Yet, ironically, this desire to believe that things happen for a reason leads to the kinds of positions that help entrench injustice instead of reducing it.... people with a strong belief in a just world, he reports, are more likely to oppose affirmative action schemes intended to help women or minorities. You needn’t be explicitly racist or sexist to hold such views, nor committed to a highly individualistic political position (such as libertarianism); the researchers controlled for those. You need only cling to a conviction that the world is basically fair. That might be a pretty naive position, of course – but it’s hard to argue that it’s a hateful one. Similar associations have been found between belief in a just world and a preference for authoritarian political leaders. Facing the truth – that the world visits violence and poverty and discrimination upon people capriciously, with little regard for what they’ve done to deserve it – is much scarier. Because, if there’s no good explanation for why any specific person is suffering, it’s far harder to escape the frightening conclusion that it could easily be you next.”

Humans really are primitive beings, despite our elevated view of our intelligence and virtue. I have noticed that most conservative people are religious, and most religious people believe that everything that happens is “God's will.” A number of fundamentalist Christians in the last few years have voted for very harsh penalties on LGBT citizens because they believe that God hates gays. A Christian girl on the playground in the 8th grade said that she hates Jews because “they killed Jesus.” A female co-worker of mine a couple of years ago became enraged at me because I said that if I won the lottery I would try to help the homeless. They had been walking across her property at the beach, and she hated them.

It's the belief that the life situation we find ourselves in is due to a act of judgment on the part of God, and not misfortune or disability. Republicans pretty generally believe that the poor just “don't want to work.” When you mention poverty programs in the deep South someone is likely to call those who get money from the government “welfare queens.” If you point out that big businesses get money from the government all the time, they will say that's a good thing – anything that helps businesses is good.

One theory is that people just can't face the fact that really terrible things happen to virtuous people, and that therefore those people aren't actually virtuous. Another – my own personal belief – is that those who haven't faced something like poverty and had to suffer themselves, just don't care about those who do. A great many people in our society are very self-centered and lacking in empathy with others. That's what all the bullying on the playgrounds is all about. They just aren't being taught to be caring individuals by their parents. Lynchings of black people used to be attended by crowds of onlookers, just like it was a party. In one of my history books there was a news photo of such a crowd and the poor man hanging from the tree. The crowd were not crying, and many were laughing. Conformity, conformity, conformity – that is the rule. Some people become heroes by standing up for a victim, but that may mean they will be dead heroes, so most people simply do not have the courage to lend aid when it is needed.





http://news.yahoo.com/911-dispatcher-tells-caller-stop-whining-fatal-maryland-172004558.html

911 dispatcher tells caller 'stop whining' after fatal Maryland accident
Reuters
February 5, 2015

(Reuters) - An incident in which a 911 emergency dispatcher told a young caller to "stop whining" after her father was struck and killed by a car along a Maryland highway while changing a flat tire is under investigation, a fire official said on Thursday.

Anne Arundel County Fire Captain Russ Davies said the dispatcher "used a poor choice of words." He will not work directly with the public until the investigation is complete, Davies said.

The incident took place on Sunday night when Rick Warrick, 38, of Washington, and his fiancée were taking his teenage children to dinner. The car got a flat tire on Interstate 295 near Baltimore and Warrick and his fiancée were struck by a vehicle while changing the tire. The vehicle sped away.

In the 911 call released on Tuesday, a girl tells the dispatcher her father and his fiancée were lying motionless by the side of the road.

"OK, let's stop whining. OK, let's stop whining. It's hard to understand you ... two people were struck, correct?" the dispatcher says.

"Is there someone else there I can talk to, because it's so hard..."

The driver of the hit-in-run vehicle has not been found.
(Reporting by John Clarke in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)


Comments


I 4 hours ago

Not as bad as the lady who hung up on the young lady who used a bad word while reporting an accident. She got hung up on by the operator multiple times. A person's life was on the line and all she cared about was a bad word. People have no common sense!


MaryD 1 hour ago
1 
I could understand her just fine. And I do not believe this didn't slow down the response time. Of course it did. These dispatchers are supposed to know how to handle people who are distraught. I mean, come on, nobody calls 911 over spilled milk. Everyone who calls should be near or in complete distress. I find it hard to believe someone was put on the phones who never received training in how to deal with an upset kid who's just watched their parent killed. He was just being a jerk. Terrible.
Expand Replies (2) Reply


vin 1 hour ago
1 
I am an immigrant ( legal ;) ) from a different country. English is not my first or native language. I started speaking in English when I moved here when I was 28 before than I NEVER spoke in English or rarely watched any Hollywood movies. I used to listen sports commentary though. However when I heard this conversation here on yahoo, there was not a SINGLE word I couldn't understand. So in my opinion this dispatcher was not only fully in-competent but in-humane as well. He should have been fired. period.




“An incident in which a 911 emergency dispatcher told a young caller to "stop whining" after her father was struck and killed by a car along a Maryland highway while changing a flat tire is under investigation, a fire official said on Thursday. Anne Arundel County Fire Captain Russ Davies said the dispatcher "used a poor choice of words." He will not work directly with the public until the investigation is complete, Davies said.... "OK, let's stop whining. OK, let's stop whining. It's hard to understand you ... two people were struck, correct?" the dispatcher says. "Is there someone else there I can talk to, because it's so hard..."

The Fire Department official defended his worker rather than facing the potential scandal here. He also didn't say the man would be fired or “retrained.” Meanwhile numerous people who listened to the taped conversation said that they could, in fact, understand the girl perfectly well.

This is depressing. People who are hired to those human service jobs, including paramedics and their telephone operators, should be very empathetic and respectful. Nobody needs that worse than someone who has just encountered a shocking event like seeing her parent killed on the highway. Workers should be carefully vetted before they are hired and then carefully trained/supervised afterwards. A supervisor should be listening in on the conversations and intervene if necessary to get the help quickly routed to the place of need.