Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, January 26, 2015
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - respect is due.
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: I Fought the Law by Dead Kennedys
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Top News |
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Canada short-changed First Nation children - court ruling
By (BBC)
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. . .
The report found that the way the government runs First Nations family and child services "resulted in denials of services and created various adverse impacts for many First Nations children and families living on reserves."
. . .
"This is a great day for First Nations children and all Canadians who believe in justice and fairness," said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the group. "Racial discrimination against children must not be tolerated."
Canadian officials said they welcomed the decision and they believe First Nation communities deserve adequate funding.
. . .
Mr Trudeau has also promised to fulfil recommendations of a study that found Canada required aboriginals to attend state-funded schools, resulting in "cultural genocide".
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Report on child refugees highlights 'unacceptable' risk
By (Al Jazeera)
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. . .
"The rights of refugee children are merely a footnote in the European Union-agenda on migration, whereas they should be at the core of it," said Marc Dullaert, the chairman of the Network of European Ombudspersons for Children, during the presentation of the report, yesterday in Amsterdam. . . .
According to the report, the situation in the transit centres along the Western Balkan route is often deplorable. Only 22 to 45 percent of the centres have been 'winterised', which means children have to sleep in unheated tents or sheds at temperatures below zero.
. . .
Some children face sexual abuse and violence in the transit centres. At the chaotic border controls children run the risk to be separated from their parents. Unaccompanied children are prone to become victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation or extortion by smugglers. They also run the risk to be placed in detention, in some cases even for several months.
. . .
On a political level the report urges European countries to an increase the possibilities for family reunification, instead of decreasing them as some states are now trying to do.
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International |
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The world of Nigeria's sex-trafficking 'Air Lords'
By (BBC)
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Last year, the BBC's Sam Piranty was given access by the Catalan police, Mossos D'Esquadra, to an investigation into a Nigerian sex-trafficking gang. He spoke to traffickers and women rescued from sexual slavery before filming an early morning raid in November, which led to 23 arrests. He also discovered that the gang is now using London as a gateway into Europe.
. . .
"If you live in Benin, there are many girls who came back from [Spain] with lots of money. They told us they had to have sex sometimes," she says. "We are not stupid but I did not know I would be beaten and raped and have to have sex every night of the week."
. . .
Most of the women that make it to Europe live in flats with a few other women and their madame - almost always a trafficked woman, who has managed to pay off her debt. Girls arrive knowing they must earn a sum, which may be from 30,000 to 60,000 euros (£22,000 to £44,000), before they will be free.
. . .
Ibakkas make sure that if any of their girls step out of line, their families back home are threatened. Family members have been known to be abducted and "disappeared" when girls refuse to pay their madames.
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USA |
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Florida mayors to Marco Rubio: Stop ignoring climate change
By Katie Herzog
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. . .
The mayors of 15 South Florida towns, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, have reached out to Rubio, asking him to consider the costs of climate change in the region. They wrote in a open letter:
. . .
We are already experiencing the effects of a changing climate. Sea levels off the coast of South Florida rose about eight inches in the twentieth century. As a result, we have seen more tidal flooding, more severe storm surges, and more saltwater intrusion into aquifers. By 2050, mean sea level around Florida is expected to rise about a foot, a shift which could wipe out as much as $4 billion in taxable real estate in the four-county region of Southeast Florida. At three feet of sea level rise, the loss could total $31 billion, with large sections of the Everglades, the Florida Keys and the Miami metropolitan region under water.
It’s a salient point: Even if Rubio doesn’t care about the suffering of people or of ecosystems, surely he cares about money — and with losses in the billions, the costs aren’t easy to ignore.
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Until the US Fixes its Backwards Transportation Spending It Should Stop Building New Roads
By Alissa Walker
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Hey, remember back when the US allocated $305 billion for roads we almost certainly don’t need? It’s no secret that the US needs a total overhaul of its transportation finance system, and a new movement wants a moratorium on all road-building projects until we get it under control.
. . . #NoNewRoads is asking Americans to document places where cities and states have committed to big transportation projects like widening freeways, which continue to degrade the quality of life in our cities without providing any tangible benefit. Most importantly, there is no evidence that adding capacity in the form of more lanes actually improves vehicular congestion—in fact, it makes it worse. And all at a tremendous cost for taxpayers.
. . .
1. Let’s prioritize fixing what we have. We should not build anything new until we’ve figured out how to pay to maintain what we’ve already built. . . .
3. The users of the system should pay for the system. That includes those hauling freight as well as those hauling kids to soccer practice. . . . 5. We cannot ignore the complex relationships—positive and negative—between the way we approach transportation and the impact that has on our cities, towns and neighborhoods. Allowing these to continue as separate undertakings—transportation and land use in different silos—is self-defeating and economically suicidal.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
The one song that I know of that put the plight of Harvey Milk and George Moscone into verse at the time that it happened. That alone makes it great. Then you look to the fact that the cover art of 'Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables' depicts the burning of cars following the verdict in the Dan White case, the "White Night Riots". It also draws into question the real role of the SFPD, as Dan white had been a Police officer before becoming a City Supervisor; it draws into question whether the police bureaucracy may have had a larger role in the entire plot (being that the SFPD was considered a Reactionary, anti-Left/Liberal, anti-gay organization). Many people at the time felt that this was a police hit on two of its main political enemies (Moscone and Milk) i.e. "you can get away with murder if you have a badge" and "I AM the law! SO I WON!!!" Again, as in so many DK songs, this is Biafra taking the part of the Devil's Advocate, he is (VERY Ironically) speaking from Dan White's POV in the song…
. . .
This is also a remake of the Bobby Fuller Four song of the same name, and signifigantly different style.
Back to what's happening:
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Environmental |
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Natural' gas not as good as solar – despite the gas industry's best efforts
By Stephen Bygraves
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The future for gas doesn’t look good. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has outlined that new technologies and changing consumer behaviour are behind the flat forecasts for residential and commercial gas consumption over the next five years.
. . .
Compare a typical ducted gas heating system to a reverse-cycle air conditioner. Research has shown that to deliver 10MJ (mega joules) of useful heat in a home, the ducted gas system will waste almost 25MJ of energy, while the air conditioner will wast e just over 2MJ. The efficiency of a heat pump reverse-cycle air conditioner can exceed 400% as it captures free renewable ambient heat from the air around your home, compared to a ducted gas heating system where efficiency can be as low as 29%.
. . .
As for the gas industry’s claims that gas is required for the production of fertilisers and the manufacture of bricks, steel and glass, zero emissions agriculture is the new paradigm with no tillage farming and nutrient recycling, reducing the need for fertilisers. High temperature solar thermal is also showing potential to be used in multiple industrial processes.
Renewables will always beat coal and gas, and new solar and wind are cheaper than new coal and new gas. The world has reached a turning point, and is now adding more power capacity from renewables every year than from coal, natural gas and oil combined.
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Science and Health |
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In the Con We Trust: A Q&A with Confidence Game Author Maria Konnikova
By Jordana Cepelewicz
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. . .
Did your opinion about con artists and how they operate change as you wrote your book? Yes. There’s a very popular media portrayal of the con artist. It’s almost like you’re watching a film noir. You know what you’re looking for. Before [my research] I was expecting to find a bunch of, you know, evil psychopaths. That’s not what I found. They don’t look or talk like con artists, they’re just nice, very charming people you really like and who are quite like you. The very surprising thing was just how ordinary they were.
[While writing the book] it was difficult to stay objective. A lot of the con artists are very charismatic, and you do start sympathizing with them. I had to keep reminding myself that they’re really bad people who do bad things to others and that we can’t glamorize them. I think I’m guilty for glamorizing them a little bit—I really tried not to. And that’s the one thing I was really struggling with throughout the entire process.
. . .
On that note, there are clearly similarities between traits that con artists display and traits that you see in journalists, lawyers, marketers, businesspeople. Where can we actually draw the line between con artistry and legitimate professions? This question is one that I wrestle with. It’s obviously shades of gray. There’s no black-and-white divide. To me, at the end, it’s a question of intentionality—whether your intent is nefarious or not. Are you intentionally deceiving, setting out to dupe people for your own personal ends, whether those ends are financial or not? Or is your intent kind of more benign—where you’re not setting out to dupe people and really think that what you’re doing is something that’s worthwhile? So yes, on some level every single profession that uses the tools of persuasion has a bit of the con in it, but I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss all lawyers, all businessmen, all politicians and all writers as con artists. I think that then, the term stops meaning anything.
You discuss this idea of the con being predicated on narrative. What are the implications of that—that con artistry is inevitable? Yes. That there will always be con artists, and we can’t inoculate ourselves against them, no matter what. I have spent multiple years researching this and written a book about it, yet I’m still a wonderful target. In fact, I’m probably a better target. And I think they will still be able to con me, because that’s the power—the good story. You’re going to fall for it because you want to believe it.
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Technology |
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Uber monitoring drivers in US in attempt to flag dangerous driving
By Danny Yadron and Nellie Bowles
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. . .
Uber did not explicitly tell drivers that their movements are being tracked, but the company says it is informing users only when it needs to access the data after a company complaint. Selected drivers in Houston have been monitored for the trial since it started in late 2015.
. . .for all its success, one major stress point for the company has been its reliance on human drivers because, unlike computers, they are unpredictable and hard to monitor.
. . .
If a consumer unfairly complains that a driver was speeding when he wasn’t, data from the tracking programme could exonerate the driver. On the flip side, there’s nothing to stop Uber from proactively looking at the data to identify speeders and tailgaters. The company says people who consistently drive unsafely shouldn’t be driving.
. . .
Uber drivers can see that the company logs their trips and the company’s privacy statement says it has the right to access their geolocation data. “They know we’re trying to make the product better,” Sullivan said. “Drivers are used to us doing experiments in different contexts.”
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Cultural |
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How has the US gun lobby been so successful?
By (BBC)
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. . .
"The nine justices of the US Supreme Court divided five to four along perfectly ideological lines. The conservatives said it grants an individual right, and the liberals all said, no, it grants a collective right.
"The individual rights view promoted by the NRA became embedded within the modern conservative movement, and therefore the Republican party.
. . .
"I might, in meeting with a congressman, say 'Look, Congressman, I have two letters here, the letter that will go out to 15,000 of our members in your congressional district if you vote this way saying you're a fellow NRA member. The other letter, Congressman, reads pretty much the opposite'. Is that hardball? You bet.
. . .
"Gun culture turned from this bunch of duck hunters to this annoyed mass of people."
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already.