Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29765623

Above par BBC article on the history of Contract Children in Switzerland. It's pretty long and covers various aspects I had no idea about. There's a huge sack of fucked up here.

[Junkenstein]

Shit's going down in Burkina Faso:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29840100

Burkina Faso's military has announced emergency measures - including the formation of a transitional government - after a day of violent protests.

Demonstrators angered by President Blaise Compaore's bid to extend his 27-year rule earlier set fire to parliament and government buildings.

Protesters in the capital, Ouagadougou, are calling for him to resign.

The emergency moves announced by army chief Gen Honore Traore did not say who would lead the interim administration.

At a press conference, he declared the imposition of an overnight curfew, as well as the dissolution of parliament.

Gen Traore announced that a "transitional body [would] be put in place in consultation with all parties".

"A return to the constitutional order is expected in no more than 12 months," he said.

Mr Compaore first took power in a coup in 1987, and has won four disputed elections since then.

The protests forced the government to suspend Thursday's parliamentary vote on a constitutional amendment that would have lifted the limit on presidential terms so that Mr Compaore could run for office again in 2015.

Mr Compaore is a staunch ally of the US and France, which uses Burkina Faso as a base for military operations against militant Islamists in the Sahel region.

I'm assuming that sooner or later extremist groups are going to make a play for something here. How well they'll do, I'm not sure but an attempt at something would seem inevitable.

[Junkenstein]

While we're in this part of the world, What's Boko Haram been up to lately?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN0IJ21820141030

(Reuters) - Islamist Boko Haram militants have seized control of the northeast Nigerian town of Mubi, killing dozens of people and forcing thousands to flee, witnesses said.

The insurgents stormed Mubi on Wednesday. [ID:nL5N0SO57O] Gunfire has been heard in the town ever since, witnesses told Reuters.

A security source on Thursday confirmed the town had fallen to the insurgents. Witnesses said they hoisted their black flag over the palace of the traditional ruler.

Witnesses said the insurgents robbed banks, burned down the main market and sacked the palace. One saw them kill a university lecturer and his entire family

Violence in Nigeria's northeast has been on the rise since the government announced a ceasefire with the rebels nearly two weeks ago to pursue talks in neighboring Chad aimed at freeing more than 200 girls kidnapped in April.

Boko Haram's five-year-old campaign for an Islamic state, which has killed thousands, is seen as the main security threat to Africa's biggest economy and leading oil producer.

err

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29801187

A presidential spokesman said he was optimistic that something "concrete and positive" would come out of the talks.

There has been no comment from Boko Haram, and violence in northern Nigeria has continued.

More than 200 schoolgirls are still being held by the group, which has been fighting an insurgency since 2009.

The military had said they were expecting the schoolgirls' release by 24 October.

At least 2,000 civilians have been killed by Boko Haram this year.

The group has taken more than 500 women and girls hostage since it began its insurgency in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.

Many Nigerians do not believe the government's claims of a ceasefire with Boko Haram.

Mr Abati responded to criticism of the military by saying: "We must realise that what the Nigerian military is facing is an unusual situation."

"I think that what the Nigerian military deserves and requires at all times is encouragement."

The usual, in short.

[Junkenstein]

Today's barking lunacy:

UKIP MEP David Coburn has described some supporters of gay marriage as "equality Nazis".

Mr Coburn, who is himself gay, told the Huffington Post the "militant equality lobby" had caused more homophobic sentiment in Britain.

He said that "everyone had agreed and been quite happy with the idea of a civil partnership".

Those in favour of gay marriage, he said, were simply "trying to give Christianity a jolly good kicking".

During the interview Mr Coburn, who reportedly described himself as "spectacularly homosexual", said the changes to marriage law only mattered to someone who "wants to dress up in a bridal frock and dance up the aisle to the Village People".

He added that some gay rights groups were "professional bombs" primed to "explode" with outrage in response to any perceived slight to gay rights.

Mr Coburn described UKIP as a "gay-friendly" party, and said he had never had any problem with its members over his sexuality.

Mr Coburn is apparently claiming to represent of the entire UK Gay community.

I have a sneaking suspicion of the following:

1 - There are no (or a negligible minority) other gay people involved in UKIP.
2 - This is mainly posturing and soundbites to keep themselves in the papers and such.
3 - I wouldn't be shocked to learn that Coburn is in fact not gay but has been instructed to claim to be so by Farage. It's just the kind of benny hill type idiocy I can see these cretins thinking up at their strategy meetings. "We need the gay vote. Dave, you're gay now. Spectacularly gay. Act accordingly, right? Mince a bit, yeah? Now someone find me a woman so we can do this whole equal ops bullshit thing"

[Junkenstein]

Daily sigh:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-29880418

A former Mr Wales who falsely claimed £28,332 in disability benefits whilst competing in bodybuilding contests has been jailed for six months.

Peter Beddoe, 49, of Aberdare, claimed he was too weak to walk, but went to the gym almost daily and competed all over the country.

I swear, there's swathes of people wandering around totally fucking ignorant of the cardinal rule. There's no other explanation.

[Doktor Howl]

Today's barking lunacy:

UKIP MEP David Coburn has described some supporters of gay marriage as "equality Nazis".

Mr Coburn, who is himself gay, told the Huffington Post the "militant equality lobby" had caused more homophobic sentiment in Britain.

He said that "everyone had agreed and been quite happy with the idea of a civil partnership".

Those in favour of gay marriage, he said, were simply "trying to give Christianity a jolly good kicking".

During the interview Mr Coburn, who reportedly described himself as "spectacularly homosexual", said the changes to marriage law only mattered to someone who "wants to dress up in a bridal frock and dance up the aisle to the Village People".

He added that some gay rights groups were "professional bombs" primed to "explode" with outrage in response to any perceived slight to gay rights.

Mr Coburn described UKIP as a "gay-friendly" party, and said he had never had any problem with its members over his sexuality.

Mr Coburn is apparently claiming to represent of the entire UK Gay community.

I have a sneaking suspicion of the following:

1 - There are no (or a negligible minority) other gay people involved in UKIP.
2 - This is mainly posturing and soundbites to keep themselves in the papers and such.
3 - I wouldn't be shocked to learn that Coburn is in fact not gay but has been instructed to claim to be so by Farage. It's just the kind of benny hill type idiocy I can see these cretins thinking up at their strategy meetings. "We need the gay vote. Dave, you're gay now. Spectacularly gay. Act accordingly, right? Mince a bit, yeah? Now someone find me a woman so we can do this whole equal ops bullshit thing"

What I like about your villains is that they look like villains.

[Junkenstein]

You give him too much credit. The man is barely a tea boy for the henchmen. He'll never be a real villain, despite how much he may dream of it.

[Junkenstein]

In other dreary UK politics new, The only Lib dem in the home office has resigned about a week after making noise about drugs policy.

And so the depressing spectacle that the lib dems will engineer their election hopes on takes shape. Almosts, if's and minor achievements will dance and beg for a real go at the wheel. Rather unlikely, though desperate people act in desperate ways.

In the meantime, we can all carry on pretending that a change in policy means anything at all in fixing the countless shitty number of wrongs perpetuated daily. Let's all wring hands and write white papers and green papers and all sorts of other fucking colours of papers on the policy stance of wasting fucking paper. Oh, sorry, wrong bill. Drugs policy. Start the procedure again and have an audit about why that happened.

Context:

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said Mr Baker had been considering resigning for some time but had been persuaded to stay in post by Mr Clegg.

In his resignation letter to his party leader, Mr Baker said being the only Lib Dem in the Home Office had been "particularly challenging".

He said: "Despite these challenges, I am pleased with what I have been able to achieve, not least to have been the first minister with responsibility for drugs to have put prejudice aside and published an evidence-based approach to this important issue, despite repeated Conservative efforts to block release."

To my knowledge, this is his only "Achievement" and his spine/will to turn up enough to push it though has now left him entirely. In other news, I'll bet you a fiver that you'll never hear about this guy again after this week. I'd probably be safe saying Wednesday.

[Doktor Howl]

You give him too much credit. The man is barely a tea boy for the henchmen. He'll never be a real villain, despite how much he may dream of it.

Yes, but he LOOKS like one.  Very frog-like.

And isn't that what's really important?

[Junkenstein]

Hmm:
http://www.vox.com/2014/11/1/7136343/gamergate-and-the-politicization-of-absolutely-everything

3. In another experiment, Iyengar and Westwood set up a game wherein player one received $10 and could give any amount they wanted to player two. Here, race didn't matter. But political affiliation did. People gave 24 percent more to their fellow partisans than they did when they didn't know anything about the other player.

4. Iyengar and Westwood's conclusion is stark. "Partisans discriminate against opposing partisans, and do so to a degree that exceeds discrimination based on race," they write. Think about that for a moment: at least under certain experimental conditions, our political identities now trump our racial identities.

Some potentially interesting implications, if accurate. The most immediate would be related to election counters and the various fuckups you've seen of this nature. Most poll workers tend to be older or retired and it's not a huge stretch to say that the politics of this demographic tend to run conservative.  It certainly explains a lot about the Florida decisions over the past few years though.

[Junkenstein]

This is quite likely to be financial fuckery:

http://news.yahoo.com/oil-prices-4-lows-saudi-115049363.html

Oil prices slumped to multi-year lows on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia cut the price of oil sold to the U.S., a move that is shaking an already volatile market but will likely give the world economy an unexpected stimulus.

The 25 percent or so slide in oil prices since the summer could boost consumer spending and business investment in many economies around the world as fuel bills fall.

But not everyone's a winner. Oil producing countries like Russia and Venezuela, which have high extraction costs and whose budgets rely on assumptions of relatively high energy prices, stand to lose out. And lower prices could eventually slow down booming production in the U.S., offsetting the benefit of lower energy costs for consumers and businesses.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for the Price Futures Group, said Saudi Arabia's move was directly aimed at those U.S. producers, who have boosted U.S. oil output to the highest level in decades. As a result, U.S. imports of crude oil from Saudi Arabia dropped to 894,000 barrels a day in August, down from 1.3 million barrels a day in the same month a year ago.

Saudi Arabia is "threatened by U.S. oil production and they are acting to try to break the U.S. producers back," Flynn wrote in a daily newsletter to clients.

Optimistic.

Russia and Venezuela are two countries that are considered particularly vulnerable to a sustained fall in prices as their economies are highly dependent on oil. And because their costs of production are high and baseline budget plans are considered optimistic, analysts say they stand to lose more than, say, the Gulf states.

It's difficult not to see something a little sinister in the background. Saudia Arabia have been fucking with Russia for a while now and this seems like another dig.

OPEC members are due to meet on Nov. 27 in Vienna, Austria, but investors doubt the cartel will be able to agree to any reduction in production quotas given Saudi Arabia's actions.

It's a minor thing nowadays, but I'm still somewhat dismayed about OPEC actively and openly acting as a cartel with no repercussions. It's another great example of X being bad unless X is done by those with enough power and cash.

[Cain]

Called this on FB a while ago:

https://www.facebook.com/cain.aerte/posts/10152820922224393

My response to the Saudis deciding to drive down global oil prices?

"Clever girl."

Iran, Iraq and ISIS take a hit in earnings. So does Russia, limiting their support to Syria. Fracking in America becomes less financially tenable, weakening the American position vis-a-vis Riyadh.

Of course, the Saudi treasury will be running at quite a loss doing this...I'm almost tempted to see which wins, between Saudi contempt for the rest of the world, Saudi love of the world's money, or the world's tolerance for Saudi Arabia's blatant bullshit.

[Junkenstein]

Ah, excellent. Good call that man.

[Junkenstein]

Good Article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-unclaimed-dead-20141109-story.html#page=1

Clear shipping tape covers the oversized ledger, holding together the corners. Its 1,000 pages threaten to overwhelm the three large flat-head screws that clamp the spine. Inside, names and dates fill row after row in near-perfect script.

This is the book of the unclaimed dead.

[Junkenstein]

Articles where two/three words tell the entire tale 5/222/fff/2C:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-30001656

A court will decide whether wheelchair users have priority over pushchairs on buses, but how do you decide who is more entitled to the space?

In February 2012, wheelchair user Doug Paulley was not allowed to board a bus in Leeds because the wheelchair space was taken by a pushchair. The mother, not wanting to wake her sleeping baby, refused to move.

Paulley was left with no choice but to get off and wait for the next bus. That one was an hour away, and took him to the wrong side of the city. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. "That day in February resulted in me not using a bus again for a year. I lost all confidence and couldn't face it anymore," he said last year.

But did he have more of a right to the space than a mother not wanting to wake her sleeping child?

The law says he did because disabled people are a "protected group" under the Equality Act 2010.

But Claire Muller, a mother who recently had to get off the bus for a wheelchair user, feels as entitled to that space as a wheelchair user. She says that people could end up resenting disabled people. "At the moment you're firstly hoping there's not another pushchair on there, and then at every stop you're hoping there's not a wheelchair user," she says. "It shouldn't be the case, but it is."

Remember Kids, if you feel entitled to something, you should get it. Always. Even at the expense of the disabled.

As a total aside, this is somewhat typical of the UK at large. People feel astonishing levels of entitlement to things that they have no right to in any way, shape or form. As a result you get the Entitlement fight and "who's more important: X or Y group?" The reality is that all of these groups are important and should be working together to get better transportation for all instead of defending their niche interest. Instead we prefer this charming system that pits Mothers against the disabled over an issue that could be very easily fixed for relatively little cost.