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http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."
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Sorry for the double post, but there's one ex-head of JPMorgan who was chosen as the sacrifial lamb, going to jail.

It was not that long ago that a veritable army of trolls would emerge upon our merest mention that precious metal markets (like all other markets) are manipulated, whether by commercial or central banks, or by random assorted hangers on.

Today, we can table that particular debate in perpetuity, after US District Judge Edmond Chang sentenced the former head of JPMorgan’s precious-metals desk and his top trader to prison for spoofing, fraud and market manipulation.

Michael Nowak, whom we first highlighted back in 2019...

... and most recently profiled last year, and who once upon a time was not only an LBMA board member but also ran gold and silver trading at JPMorgan, as well as his top trader Gregg Smith were sentenced Tuesday in Chicago with Nowak receiving a term of one year and one day while Smith was given two years, the stiffest sentence yet in a recent government crackdown on questionable trading practices.
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Pennsylvania 6-year-old crowned 2023 kids mullet champion (Archive)
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It’s a party all around for this 6-year-old.

Tiny trendsetter Rory Ehrlich took out the top spot for this year’s Kids Mullet Championships, with his hairstyle dubbed the “Cheddar Wiz.”

A Pennsylvania kid’s professional-in-the-front, party-in-the-back hairstyle won in a hairy competition between 300 kids ages 3-8.

“He was invited to the Phillies game and he got to meet with John Kruk and talk mullets,” Airen Ehrlich, Rory’s mother, told WPVI-TV. “Rory now thinks that John Kruk is his bestie.”

In addition to becoming Kruk’s best friend, the 6-year-old won $5,000 in prize money. He has big plans for his winnings, including buying his sister an alpaca and “[going] to wing night again.”

Rory also said he will “save a little money for Wounded Warriors,” a charity for veterans which the proceeds of the competition go toward.

The second-place award went to 3-year-old Ezekiel Arita from Hawaii, with his creative look titled “Mr. Aloha Mullet.” The third-place finisher was 5-year-old Kamden Cunningham, also from Pennsvylvania, whose ‘do was dubbed “The Kammander

Registration is currently open for this year’s men’s and over-55 mullet contests.

According to the website, the Mullet Championships began in 2020 with an adult competition, held locally in Michigan.

Now a nationwide contest, the scope has expanded to include separate categories for kids, teens and an “open division” for men and women ages 19 and up.
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He went Instagram official with his new girlfriend Rorie Buckley on Thursday evening.

And Robert Irwin copped the wrath of his female fans, who left some truly bizarre comments under the Wildlife Warrior's loved-up photo with the niece of Heath Ledger.

The teen's followers were outraged by the post, while several parents told Rob he had broken their daughters' hearts.
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Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/lawsu...exhibits-racial-bias-is-dismissed-2023-08-21/

Lawsuit claiming Apple Watch sensor exhibits 'racial bias' is dismissed
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A customer browses Apple watches at the new Apple Store on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles
A customer browses Apple watches at the new Apple Store on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 24, 2021. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/file photo Acquire Licensing Rights

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NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) on Monday won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming that the blood oxygen sensor on its Apple Watch exhibits "racial bias" against people with darker skin tones.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan dismissed the proposed class action with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. He plans to explain his reasons by Aug. 31.

The plaintiff Alex Morales, a resident of Manhattan's Upper East Side, said he paid an inflated price for his Apple Watch based on his mistaken belief that its blood oxygen app would measure blood oxygen levels "without regard to skin tone."

His amended complaint, filed in May, cited decades of reports that similar pulse oximetry devices were "significantly less accurate" when measuring blood oxygen levels of nonwhite people.

Morales said the real-world impact of this bias was not addressed until the COVID-19 pandemic led to "greater awareness of structural racism" in society.

Apple said Morales failed to make any allegations supporting his fraud claim, or show that it exposed him to anything misleading before his purchase.

Morales' lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Doctors have long known that pulse oximeters, which help assess potential heart and respiratory problems, are less accurate in estimating blood oxygen of non-white patients.

The pandemic exposed some of the devices' shortcomings, with some patients facing treatment delays or being discharged from emergency rooms too soon.

The case is Morales v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10872.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andy Sullivan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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France To Pour Away £170 Million Of Wine Following Sales Crash (Archive)​

The French government is poised to dispose of millions of litres of wine in an effort to counter the steep decline in prices resulting from plummeting sales.

Attributed to the surge in craft beer’s popularity, the cost-of-living crisis, and the lingering effects of Covid lockdowns, the sharp decrease in sales has been a cause for concern.

This downward trajectory has been exacerbated by an ongoing increase in production, leading to an overwhelming surplus of unsold wine, posing a significant threat to price stability.

Prominent wine-producing regions, notably the renowned Bordeaux area of France, find themselves grappling with this predicament.​

In response, the French government has unveiled a substantial £170 million initiative to acquire enormous quantities of this surplus, with the intent of its eventual destruction.

The alcohol content from these excess quantities will be repurposed for the creation of hand sanitizers, cleaning products, or even perfumes, reported the Daily Mail.

Marc Fesneau, the French agriculture minister, articulated that the fund’s purpose is to “prevent a collapse in prices and to offer wine-makers avenues for generating revenue once again.”

He emphasised, however, that the industry must also “gaze into the future, contemplate shifts in consumer preferences, and adapt accordingly.”

A significant proportion of the funding, amounting to £135 million, is sourced from the European Union.​

As per data from the European Commission, wine consumption estimates for the current year reveal a decline of 15 per cent in France, seven per cent in Italy, 10 per cent in Spain, and an astonishing 34 per cent in Portugal. Conversely, production within the EU has seen a four per cent increase.

The Commission highlighted that the sectors worst impacted were those responsible for producing reds and rosés in regions spanning France, Spain, and Portugal.

The shift in consumption patterns towards beer and other cheaper alcoholic drinks has contributed to this decline.

Moreover, the recovery of sales has been sluggish post-pandemic, particularly due to the extended closure of many restaurants and bars.
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As per data from the European Commission, wine consumption estimates for the current year reveal a decline of 15 per cent in France, seven per cent in Italy, 10 per cent in Spain, and an astonishing 34 per cent in Portugal.
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If this is a "secular" vs. a "cyclic"change in habits subsidizing the industry really shouldn't be happening. They're either just kicking the can down the road or will have to do it in perpetuity. Maybe they can be like the USDA does and pay vintners NOT to make wine. Might even be cheaper than buying the wine and getting rid of it.

Conversely, production within the EU has seen a four per cent increase.
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I swear I saw something relatively recently about how muh climate change™ was going to make growing grapes in France untenable, and drive wine-making into extinction. 'Course this is EU production, not just France.

A significant proportion of the funding, amounting to £135 million, is sourced from the European Union.​

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OTOH, this doesn't really bother me, since France and Germany basically fund the whole EU enterprise at this point, the Frogs might as well get something back. Even if it is an industry in decline.
 
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AnOminous said:
That's like suing the Sun because it doesn't give you enough Vitamin D if you're black.
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It would be cool if we lived in a society that was mature enough to acknowledge racial differences and do things like have the ability to customize devices like this for skin tones, but instead we end up with "remove all gorillas" instead.
 
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Putin Leaving Russia for First Time Since Prigozhin's Death, Kremlin Says​

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Any trip he makes will be his first since the death of Wagner Group head, Yevgeny Prighozhin, who died in a plane crash on August 23.
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Wait, what? Prigozhin [allegedly] died five days ago. It's like "At noon I ate for the first time since 7 AM". Well, duh.

Note the discrepancy in the url, the headline used to say "Putin Leaving Russia For First Time in Over a Year, Kremlin Says". The Kremlin didn't say this either, because Putin visited five CIS countries late last year. But the journo, the fucking journo, thought the CIS countries were part of Russia. Community Notes flare up, Margot creams her panties, Newsweek scrambles for a way to save face -- they could've corrected to "for the first time in 2023", but they're journos, so they produce this abortion instead.
 
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Danger across the border: Nine Mexican cities place among the top 10 deadliest in the world (Archive)​

  • Nine Mexican municipalities ranked in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world in 2022
  • Colima, the second largest city in the Pacific state of Colima, was the murder capital of the world in with 181.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants
  • The data also shows two additional cities, Irapuato and Cuernavaca, placing 13th and 14, respectively
Newly released data shows that nine Mexican cities rank among the 10 deadliest in the globe in 2022, according to World of Statistics.

The report listed the western Mexico municipality of Colima as the murder capital in the world with 181.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

The city is the second largest in the state of Colima and placed first in the list in 2021 with 196.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

Murders are on pace to equal or slightly surpass in 2023 with 512 homicides registered through the first seven months of the year, an average of 73.1 per month, after 887 people were murdered the previous year at a clip of 73.91 homicides a month.

New Orleans, the only non-Mexican city in the list, was ranked eighth with 70.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants

The municipality of Zamora, located in the western state of Michoacán, came in second, with 177.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants while Ciudad Obregón, the second largest city in the northwestern state of Sonora, recorded 138.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

Zacatecas, the capital and largest city of the north-central state of Zacatecas, came in fourth with an average of 134.6 per 100,000 inhabitants and the Pacific border city of Tijuana, across from California, ranked fifth 105.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

The cities of Celaya and Uruapan in the central state of Guanajuato placed fifth and sixth, respectively. Celaya registered 99.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and Uruapan followed with 78.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

The top 10 list is rounded out by Ciudad Juárez at nine. The border town, located in the northwestern state of Chihuahua and south of El Paso, Texas, registered 67.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. It was second in 2019 with 104.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

Once a top destination for the Hollywood elite, the beach resort town of Acapulco placed 10th, tallying an average of 65.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Guanajuato municipality of Irapuato ranked 13th with 61.60 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and the city of Cuernavaca in the central state of Morelos was listed in 14th place with 60.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

Each of the cities listed in the report are within the Mexican states that the U.S. Department of State has issued travel advisories due to crime and kidnapping.

María del Carmen López, 63, a Mexico-U.S. dual citizen, has been missing since February 9 when gunmen kidnapped her home in the Colima municipality of Pueblo Nuevo.

In June, one of her seven children held a press conference in Los Angeles and pleaded with President Joe Biden to help find her.

She revealed that the kidnappers had sent the family an audio in which the woman can be heard begging to be brought back home.

Her daughter, Zonia López, said her mother asked them to ‘please hurry, act quickly, my children, and give them what they want. My life depends on it.'
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Hard to know if Erdogan did a joke or a Freudian slip when he talked recently to Putin.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared to accidentally declare war on Russia due to a translation blunder during a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

‘There is war between Russia and Turkey,’ the Turkish-Russian translator announced during a meeting between the two leaders at a summit in Sochi.

Turkey is a Nato state, and if true the declaration would plunge the entire world into war.

But Putin, who was there to discuss the Black Sea Grain deal, appeared nonplussed by the apparent blunder.

It was unclear if the male interpreter was Russian or Turkish, but the official record of the meeting showed it was the translator who made the mistake- not Erdoğan.
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This is a German article, so I'm relying on Google Translate.

When the asylum home meets a gay club (archive)

This week, 650 migrants are moving in opposite a Berlin gay and lesbian club. Panic breaks out there because of the asylum home. The operator defends herself against accusations of being right-wing.

BERLIN. The opening of an asylum seekers' home with 650 migrants this week is causing excitement even in the left-wing Berlin district of Friedrichshain. Because right opposite, near the world-famous Eastside Gallery, there is a club for gays and lesbians. The area is also considered a party mile for queer people.

The operator of "Die Busche", Carla Pahlau, is now afraid for her audience because of the huge asylum home and is placed in the right corner. In the federal election, the Greens won the direct mandate there with 37.9 percent of the vote. This was followed by the Left and the SPD with a total of 35.1 percent.

"It's just a fact," Pahlau told Die world, "that the home is located directly on a party mile where, in addition to young women, transgender people and many other people from the queer scene are out and about." You don’t have to worry about anything pretend and be out of touch with reality." The club owner: "Refugees with a Syrian, Afghan or Turkish background come from an area where being gay is not accepted at all."

She made it clear that she had "nothing against refugees" and that she would "under no circumstances allow herself to be pushed into a right-wing extremist corner." But that is apparently exactly what is happening. To the objections that everyone must show "acceptance and tolerance" towards migrants and asylum centers, she replied: "Ultimately, I am responsible for the safety of my shop, my employees and my guests – not for integration."

It is a "sad development that some things are no longer allowed to be discussed". She has the "feeling that whenever you say something in society that is not mainstream, you are very quickly pushed into a corner." Many business owners in her neighborhood encouraged her "to continue to stand up for my position, but they themselves are afraid that their names will be associated with right-wing radical tendencies."

She accuses Berlin politicians of having hidden the planned asylum center from business people for a long time. This has been clear since February, she discovered when inspecting the files at the State Office for Refugee Affairs. She has now written a letter of protest to the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner ( CDU ).

It wasn't until mid-August that she had a flyer in her mailbox inviting people to an "open day" in the still-empty former hostel a day later. Pahlau: "Then why didn't we just sit down at a table with all the traders and ask us how we feel about it? Then we could have talked about our fears."
 
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Wallace said:
It is a "sad development that some things are no longer allowed to be discussed". She has the "feeling that whenever you say something in society that is not mainstream, you are very quickly pushed into a corner." Many business owners in her neighborhood encouraged her "to continue to stand up for my position, but they themselves are afraid that their names will be associated with right-wing radical tendencies."
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"B-b-b-but you were supposed to put these rabid ape people we imported next to like poor people and working class people not my posh neighborhood!"
Omen_Sulk said:
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The screen shot doesn't have anything particularly creepy on it.
 
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