Monthly Archives: May 2017

Walking into Build-a-Bear as a child was one of the most exciting times of my life. You chose your bear, gave it a voice, dressed it and even had your own birth certificate for your new-found friend. It was then yours to keep and cuddle for 15 (plus the added expense of buying your bear Ugg boots and a Hannah Montana t-shirt).

Now, the technology geniuses of 2017 bring us the adult version: Build-a-Girlfriend. You choose the breasts, genitals and even the colour of the nipples. With 42 colours to choose from, youre spoilt for choice! You can even detach the parts and wash them in the dishwasher. What more could you want? A measly bear now pales in comparison.

Harmony, the artificial intelligence sex robot, promises to be the girl youve always dreamed of. She remembers your birthday, knows what your favourite film is and, put simply, exists solely for your own pleasure. I absolutely love misogyny; apparently the perfect girl is one that has no backbone, no autonomy and customisable labia. I guess Id better start working on my attractiveness by ceasing my opinionated contributions to the Comment section of Redbrick. Damn.

Maybe Im being too harsh, as customers can dictate their partners character so there is some personality in there somewhere. The client can choose from 18 different personality traits such as moody and shy. Still, the character is being chosen based on the preferences of the customer and isnt representative of a real relationship.

The robots are designed to help the lonely in their quest for companionship, fulfilling not only physical needs but also emotional ones. How can a robot do such a thing? And even if it could, there are detrimental effects attached to portraying women in this way.

Her tiny waist, wide-set hips, and large breasts are features many women desire, and struggle relentlessly to obtain. Perpetuating an ideal body standard doesnt do wonders for teaching men that women dont all come with ridiculous proportions and also fails to reassure women that there isnt a standard body shape we should all be striving for.

The objectification of women has already gone far enough in popular culture, but this is literally degrading the female body to a sex toy. Why would you need a real woman when you can have your customised robot? She wont question your superiority and has your favourite shade of nipple.

Creator Matt McMullen claims that it isnt designed to distort reality to the point where people start interacting with humans the way they do with the robot, but I cant see this is a realistic statement. She is likened to a girlfriend and given human voices and mannerisms. Ive seen TV reports that show men considering a mannequin or sex doll to be their girlfriend, kissing them on their plastic lips and vowing not to be unfaithful. They dream of the day when they can find a lifeless doll that can actually speak back to them.

The ignorance of creators of the dolls to people like this fail to see that these dolls arent going to just be considered a robot to all in fact, its predicted that by 2050 people will be tying the knot with their AI partners. If creators are striving to ensure AI sex robots are seen strictly as objects, why did they include memory of favourite films/music and birthdays? Why does it emulate a human in so many ways if they wanted it to be seen as nothing like one?

Companionship isnt a robot: it consists of friends, family and pets. It doesnt need to come in the form of a partner and especially one with no life of its own.

After all, a mans best friend is a dog and not Harmony the glossy-haired sex robot.

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Post-Human Lovers: How Sex-Bots Degrade and Dehumanise - Redbrick

GENEVA Microsoft announced Tuesday that it intends to contribute $5 million over five years to the United Nations human rights office, assistance the Geneva-based agency called a landmark partnership that could prod other big private-sector donors to follow suit.

The Redmond, Washington-based company plans to develop and use technology to help the U.N. rights office predict, analyze and respond to critical human rights situations at a time of arbitrary killings, rapes, detentions without trial and other abuses around the world.

As a global company that sees the problems of the world, we believe that we have a responsibility to help solve them, Microsoft President Brad Smith said.

The partnership was launched quietly last year. U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said it reflects a commitment to using technology to promote human rights and recognition of the role the private sector can play in advancing that cause.

An example of the technology being developed is an information dashboard, Rights View, to aggregate data on human rights violations by country and type in real time.

Microsoft also pledged to support the U.N.s human rights advocacy and outreach campaigns, including the development of corporate principles for tackling LGBT discrimination in the workplace.

The announcement comes amid uncertainty about the rights offices main funding source: countries and governments. The United States, traditionally a major donor, is considering cuts to its funding for U.N. institutions as part of Trump administration plans to trim the U.S. State Department budget.

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United Nations, Microsoft announce $5 million partnership on human rights - The Denver Post

It was the smell that drew police to the inner Brisbane apartment.

A foul stench no one could quite place. Unmistakably foreign.

But no one could have imagined the true horror that lay behind that apartment door.

Human flesh in a large pot, removed from a nearby stovetop.

Marcus Volke was a chef by trade a chef with a particular interest in bone broth. But the final broth the 27-year-old would make came not from a quest for healthy living.

He made it to conceal a murder, and the sordid double life his family knew nothing about.

The two officers who called at Volkes apartment, ostensibly for a welfare check, thought they had stumbled upon a sick prank.

In the pot he had been using to cook his partner Mayang Prasetyos body parts, they found what appeared to be human feet.

Other parts of Prasetyos dismembered remains were found in a garbage bag near the washing machine.

The inquest into Prasetyos and Volkes deaths heard that Senior Constable Bryan Reid and Constable Luke McWhinney initially were called to conduct a routine welfare check late on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014.

(There) was a bad smell, it was something I hadnt smelt before and cant really describe, Reid said on the opening day of the inquest in Brisbane on Monday.

An electrician had earlier visited to restore power in Volkes apartment, which he had short-circuited when the pot on his stove boiled over.

It was the electrician who raised the alarm.

The building managers called police, concerned about that odd smell and that the woman who lived there with him had not been seen for a couple of days.

Reid said Volke was initially cooperative when they questioned him outside his apartment.

But when he went back inside, telling the officers he needed to secure the pairs dogs, Volke locked the door, self-harmed and jumped his balcony fence to escape to a rear alley.

There was a pool of blood on the floor beside the pot that contained Prasetyos feet.

Volke was later found dead inside an industrial garbage can.

He had been seeking treatment for mental health problems in the weeks leading up to the death, the three-day inquest was told.

Detective Sgt. Joshua Walsh told the court that the couple had met and struck a deal to help each other while working as escorts, according to police interviews ofVolkes former partners.

She provided the information that they were residing together for an extended period of time, Walsh said. During that time, Marcus had accrued a debt of approximately $6,600 in credit cards, with no means of repaying it.

The detective said Volke had worked as a chef part-time but was unable to continue because he had mental health problems. He decided to become a male escort in Melbourne clubs as a way of repaying the debt.

Thats where he met Prasetyo, born Febri Andriansyah in Indonesia, who had begun transitioning into a woman before she moved to Australia.

They came up with an agreement between the two parties that [Volke] would assist with her getting a permanent partner visa for Australia and she would assist him within transgender clubs within Melbourne and overseas, in Europe and Asia.

The pair had traveled through Asia and Europe together, working as escorts in transgender clubs, the court heard.

Walsh said Volke and his former partner later kept in regular contact through emails and Facebook.

She was able to ascertain that he was struggling, with both his identity and his employment, and wanted to break free from that and start as a dog breeder in Brisbane upon his return, he said. On one occasion she stated that he was considering self-harm.

The court was told thatVolke had presented to a doctor with anxiety, depression and a sleep disorder, and had previously been treated by a hospital as a teenager.

The Double One 3 apartment complex in the up-market, riverside enclave of Teneriffe, Brisbane, was so new in early October 2014, a giant banner still hung on the side of the building advertising units for rent.

Finishing touches were still being applied inside.

Pieces of paper taped to walls directed residents to their new homes, for which investors had paid upwards of $450,000.

Volke, who was raised in a small farming community, was among the first to move in.

He and his young Indonesian wife, Prasetyo, had lived in a ground-floor apartment with their three small pugs for just a couple of months.

During their brief tenure in the building, Prasetyo was frequently seen walking the dogs along the riverside paths and in parks nearby.

On the surface, they were a young couple who had recently returned to Brisbane after working on cruise ships, he as a chef, she as a cabaret dancer.

The reality was very, very different.

Volke left his farm life after high school, but he soon discovered a lucrative new profession.

At Pleasure Dome brothel, which promotes itself as having Australias finest selection of male escorts and transsexuals, he was introduced to fellow sex worker Prasetyo.

She was working as a high-class transgender escort, eventually charging her clients $370 per hour.

She sent the funds back to her impoverished mother and two younger sisters at home, paying for the girls to go to school.

They had no idea how she was earning the money that supported them.

The couple moved into private escort services after leaving the brothel and traveled the world plying their trade.

They settled for a while in Denmark, where, under the name Heath XL, Volke advertised himself as a young sexy Australian boy, very friendly and easy going, discreet and professional.

Im open to all kinds of people, ages, and backgrounds but if you are cool, serious and generous, then we can be a match!

In 2013, the couple married in Copenhagen, after Volke asked his prospective mother-in-law for permission to marry her daughter on a return trip the couple made to Indonesia.

While Prasetyos family knew of her marriage, Volkes family were completely in the dark.

As far as they knew, the son who infrequently called home and occasionally visited alone was traveling the world while cooking on cruise ships.

They knew nothing of Prasetyos existence, or of their sons double life.

The extent of his deception was not revealed until after his death.

In addition to coming to terms with the grief of suddenly losing their son, his parents also had to absorb the details of his sordid life being so publicly exposed.

When reporters came knocking at the family property in the days following the deaths, Volkes clearly distressed father, Peter, a karate instructor, chased them away.

The 27-year-old was bid farewell in a small, private funeral service.

Media interest was high but they were told, in no uncertain terms, they were not welcome.

Volke and his new wife returned to Australia nearly a year after their August 2013 marriage in Copenhagen.

Like many affluent young professionals, they chose to live in Brisbane.

Brisbane boasts plentiful cafes, bars and boutiques, among the rustic, riverside red brick buildings that once operated as wool stores, now converted to sought-after apartments.

The couple both continued to work as private escorts.

Friends and family hinted that, despite their recent marriage, their relationship was a volatile one.

None of them could have foreseen the horror to come.

Neighbors heard Volke and his wife fighting inside their apartment late on Oct. 2.

Prasetyo was not seen again.

In the days following the discovery of her remains, Detective Senior Sgt. Tom Armitt said investigators did not believe the murder was a premeditated one, but the tragic outcome of a heated domestic dispute.

The true circumstances of her death may never be known.

But while Volke may not have intended to kill Prasetyo, he went to extreme lengths to cover up her murder.

It was not just the inevitable charges and loss of his liberty that was looming.

The discovery of her death would also expose the life he had so carefully hidden for so many years.

Stuck with his wifes body in a heavily populated area, Volke got to work disposing of it.

He took out a large pot and one of his chefs knives and cut her into pieces.

It is not known exactly when he hatched his disturbing plan.

But by Saturday, there was that distinctive stench pervading the air of the Double One 3 complex. It was the first sign that something was amiss in Volkes apartment.

It was similar to rotting meat, some residents later told police. Like dog food, others reported.

The smell itself may not have ever been enough for residents to call police and Volke may well have gotten away with murder.

But on that Saturday, two days after Prasetyos death, the tide turned.

The pot Volke was using to cook parts of his wifes body boiled over and into the electric oven.

The appliance short-circuited and cut the power supply to the apartment.

To carry out his plan, Volke had no choice but to phone an electrician.

He sounded casual when he called Brad Coyne.

Gday, is this a 24-hour electrician? he asked in that phone call.

Yeah, came Coynes reply.

Ive got a bit of a problem.

Later that day, Coyne knocked on the apartment door.

You have to mind the smell, Volke said to him.

He was cooking pigs broth, he explained to the electrician, who already suspected otherwise.

Garbage bags were strewn around the apartment.

There were bottles of chemicals and rubber gloves, the smell of bleach mingling with that odd, foul stench.

He restored the power and left the apartment.

On the way out, he talked to the building manager and police were called.

Within hours, Volke would also take his own life.

Investigating police officers Reid and McWhinney responded to the building managers request for the welfare check.

The scene that confronted the officers in that nearly new unit was particularly gruesome.

Volke instinctively fled.

He slashed his own throat inside the apartment before jumping his balcony fence, which faced an alley behind the building, leaving it smeared with blood.

He continued to leave a blood trail as he ran and hid in an industrial garbage can in a nearby alley.

With a suspected murderer on the loose, police quickly mobilized and soon an estimated 15 officers swarmed the area.

For years, Volke had successfully concealed his marriage and life as a male sex worker.

As he hid from police in the wheeled garbage can, it was all on the brink of exposure.

It was inside the can that he died, the blood streaming from his throat. Subsequent CPR attempts by police and paramedics were utterly hopeless.

The investigation into Volke and Prasetyos death was a lengthy and painstaking one.

The Queensland Ethical Standards Command, the body reserved for internal police investigations, led the probe, as Volke was on the run from two officers when he took his life.

This week, Coroner Terry Ryan will hear submissions to make the final ruling on one of Brisbanes most gruesome cases of murder-suicide.

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Chef who killed trans wife undone by smell of boiled human flesh - New York Post

Donald Trump has made it clear enough that he has no interest in pursuing the traditional U.S. human rights strategy of pressuring foreign regimes, including U.S. allies, to release political prisoners, stop torture or allow free elections. But what about an America First campaign to deter other governments from mistreating or unjustly imprisoning U.S. citizens in some cases, simply because they are Americans?

A bit haphazardly, the Trump administration has already made a start at such a policy. If it wants to build on it, there is plenty of opportunity.

The start includes Aya Hijazi, a 30-year-old Egyptian American who was freed in late April after Trump raised her case with strongman Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. Hijazi and her husband had been imprisoned for nearly three years on bogus child abuse charges; they had established a nonprofit to help Cairos street children, thus drawing the attention of a security apparatus that targets all civil society groups with American connections.

Releasing Hijazi was an easy way for Sissi to pander to Trump without altering the most repressive regime in Egypts modern history. Trump, in turn, was foolish to embrace the dictator, who is slowly driving his country over a cliff.

Still, Hijazi was freed. So was the family of Xie Yang, a courageous Chinese lawyer who released a damning account of how he was tortured after his 2015 arrest. When his wife and children fled to Thailand, Chinese agents tracked them down and had them arrested. They were on the verge of being forcibly returned to Beijing when U.S. diplomats spirited them out the back door of a local jail, according to a report by the Associated Press. Xies wife, Chen Giuqiu, and her two daughters one of whom is a U.S. citizen arrived in Texas in March.

As The Posts Simon Denyer reported, they are not the only prisoners the administration has sprung from China. In April, American business executive Phan Phan-Gillis was deported two years after being arrested on spying charges. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly raised her case during his first visit to Beijing.

If Trump chooses to make such cases a priority, there are plenty more out there. North Korea is now holding four Americans, including University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier. Iran has at least four, including businessman Siamak Namazi and his 80-year-old father, Baquer, who was jailed when he traveled to Tehran in an attempt to free his son. Venezuela keeps Joshua Holt, who was arrested on bogus weapons charges after he traveled to Caracas to marry a Venezuelan. And at least three more Americans are among the 40,000-plus political prisoners imprisoned by the Sissi regime.

The abuse of Americans abroad is in part the inevitable result of a nation of immigrants and the resulting ubiquity around the world of U.S. passport holders. But its probably been encouraged by the failure of the past several administrations to take it seriously enough.

President Barack Obama, like a couple of presidents before him, preferred to downplay cases where U.S. citizens were held. For more than a year the State Department would not say anything in public about the Hijazi case. When Post reporter Jason Rezaian was arrested in Iran, Obama declined to connect his jailing to the ongoing nuclear negotiations. Rezaian and several other Americans were finally released only after the administration agreed to a prisoner swap.

Obama did manage to free an Egyptian American, Mohamed Soltan. But that took a year, and the administration eschewed some of the tough measures recommended by State Department human rights staff, such as expelling Egyptian military attaches in Washington if a deadline for Soltans release was not met.

Ive always felt we should be more militant about getting unjustly detained Americans out of prison, said Tom Malinowski, the former State Department assistant secretary in charge of human rights during the Obama years. Malinowski defends Obamas record of advocating for imprisoned Americans, but said, I think if we were willing to signal in several such cases that we are prepared to go to war for our people, fewer countries would mess with Americans in the future and quick, quiet diplomatic solutions would become easier when they do.

Of course, Malinowski does not mean actual war, but tough steps such as expelling envoys and holding up aid payments. Neither he nor other human rights advocates see it as a substitute for a global policy. The Hijazi release is not going to change the disastrous situation in Egypt or the threat it poses to vital U.S. interests.

Still, Trump has an opportunity to carve out a role as a fierce defender of Americans abroad, distinguish himself from past presidents and score a few relatively easy wins. If he seizes it, even those of us who despise his values-free foreign policy will have to give him some credit.

Read more from Jackson Diehls archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

Link:
How Trump could lead on human rights. Really. - Washington Post

Ex-prosecutor: But Wheres the Actual Crime?

Andrew McCarthy, a longtime opponent of special prosecutors, notes at PJ Media that their investigations inevitably metastasize far beyond the original inquiry because there is no supervisor to keep them focused on the subject matter. But you dont need a prosecutor unless you first have a crime not just some untoward or sleazy form of behavior. And it is simply not a federal crime for a foreign country to intrude on an American election by spreading information or misleading propaganda that favors one candidate or damages another. Nor is collusion a crime. Yes, a president found to have schemed with a foreign country to corrupt American election processes could be impeached. But thats a political process not a legal one.

Foreign desk: How Trump Can Lead on Human Rights

President Trump has made clear he wont routinely pressure foreign regimes on human rights. But Jackson Diehl in The Washington Post suggests he launch an America First campaign to deter other governments from mistreating or unjustly imprisoning US citizens in some cases, simply because they are Americans. The prez has already won the release of Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American freed last month when Trump raised her case, as well as several Americans held by China. If Trump chooses to make such cases a priority, there are plenty more out there in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. Trump has an opportunity to carve out a role as a fierce defender of Americans abroad, notes Diehl, and if he seizes it, even those who despise his values-free foreign policy will have to give him some credit.

Policing expert: Comey Was Cops Champion

Whatever former FBI Director James Comeys failings in other matters, his firing is a loss for Americas police officers and public order, says Heather Mac Donald at City Journal. Ironically, he gave Donald Trump the most powerful message of his campaign: policing matters. Long before Trump seized the issue, she notes, Comey was virtually the only official in the Obama administration to warn that the chill wind blowing through American law enforcement thanks to anti-cop protests, and that it was resulting in a rising homicide toll among black people. In an eloquent defense of proactive policing in 2015, he rejected the notion that cops target minorities: Law enforcement targeted neighborhoods where people were dying, he said; race had nothing to do with it. That speech was a direct rejection of the Obama administrations line that the criminal-justice system is racist.

Law prof: Be Thankful This Isnt a Constitutional Crisis

Calling James Comeys firing a constitutional crisis is an exercise in crying wolf, even if some serious constitutional experts are saying so, asserts Noah Feldman at Bloomberg. Thats not just analytically mistaken but also potentially dangerous, because a constitutional crisis signals a fundamental breakdown in the structure of government and calls for decisive action to resolve it. And the last thing we need, he says, is for President Trump to step into the breach and violate the Constitution on the theory that hes saving us from a constitutional crisis. In true crises, the resolving action almost always has some features that could be characterized as unconstitutional. So save constitutional crisis for when its accurate and we have no choice but to use it.

From the right: Can Bannon Foil Afghan Plan?

President Trump will decide soon whether to send at least 3,000 US troops to Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the government in Kabul led by President Ashraf Ghani against a resurgent Taliban as well affiliates of ISIS and al Qaeda, reports Michael Warren at The Weekly Standard. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and the entire national-security team are behind the plan but senior White House counselor Steve Bannon heads the list of those skeptical of increasing military action in the region. Indeed, the Afghanistan proposal has been dubbed by its critics in the White House as McMasters war, and Bannon has been the primary force pushing that line. Still unclear: Where do other advisers such as Jared Kushner stand?

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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How Trump can lead on human rights and other comments | New ... - New York Post