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Chris Hedges
Truth Dig 2012-08-20 17:31:00
A Swedish documentary filmmaker released a film last year called Last Chapter - Goodbye Nicaragua. In it he admitted that he unknowingly facilitated a bombing, almost certainly orchestrated by the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, which took the lives of three reporters I worked with in Central America. One of them, Linda Frazier, was the mother of a 10-year-old son. Her legs were torn apart by the blast, at La Penca, Nicaragua, along the border with Costa Rica, in May of 1984. She bled to death as she was being taken to the nearest hospital, in Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica. The admission by Peter Torbiornsson that he unwittingly took the bomber with him to the press conference was a window into the sordid world of espionage, terrorism and assassination that was an intimate part of every conflict I covered. It exposed the cynicism of undercover operatives on all sides, men and women who lie and deceive for a living, who betray relationships, including between each other, who steal and who carry out murder. One knows them immediately. Their ideological allegiances do not matter. They have the faraway eyes of the disconnected, along with nebulous histories and suspicious and vague associations. They tell incongruous personal stories and practice small deceits that are part of a pathological inability to tell the truth. They can be personable, even charming, but they are also invariably vain, dishonest and sinister. They cannot be trusted. It does not matter what side they are on. They were all the same. Gangsters. Comment: Such individuals could more accurately be described as Psychopaths, a pathology far deeper than an inability to tell the truth. The picture should also to be expanded beyond the low level thugs on the ground to include the equally pathological individuals that are pulling the strings. For a better understanding of the scale and depth of the problem read Political Ponerology. |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Mirror
The ground-to-air weapons have been delivered across the Turkish border and were partly paid for by Saudi Arabia2012-08-21 17:48:00
CIA spies have smuggled up to 14 Stinger missiles into Syria so rebels can defend themselves from air strikes. The ground-to-air weapons have been delivered across the Turkish border to the Free Syrian Army and were partly paid for by Saudi Arabia, a security source claimed. | |
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The Australian
2012-08-18 16:17:00
Australia confirmed that its diplomatic post in Washington had been preparing for Julian Assange's possible extradition to the US but played it down as "contingency planning". Trade Minister Craig Emerson said that the Australian embassy in Washington had been "getting prepared for the possibility of an extradition'' but stressed that there was nothing unusual in diplomats bracing for all eventualities. "The embassy is doing its job, just to be in a position to advise the government if it believed that an extradition effort was imminent. There is no evidence of such an extradition effort,'' Emerson told ABC television. |
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James Rainey
Los Angeles Times 2012-08-20 16:15:00
The man trying to provide Rep. Todd Akin the softest possible landing after the congressman's foolish comments about pregnancy and rape was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Akin during his run to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate. In the furor over Akin's remarks and increasing pressure for him to drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, Huckabee used his syndicated radio program Monday to give the embattled candidate a safe venue to express remorse and his determination to remain in the race. Huckabee also took the opportunity to cast the best possible light on Akin's awkward position. The former Arkansas governor and onetime GOP presidential contender suggested a couple of cases in which he suggested that rapes, though "horrible tragedies," had produced admirable human beings. "Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape," Huckabee said of the late American gospel singer. One-time presidential candidate Huckabee added: "I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things." |
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Philip Dorling
The Age 2012-08-18 16:07:00
Australian diplomats have no doubt the United States is still gunning for Julian Assange, according to Foreign Affairs Department documents obtained by The Saturday Age. The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Photo: Reuters The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information laws, show Australia's diplomatic service takes seriously the likelihood that Assange will eventually be extradited to the US on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents. This view is at odds with Foreign Minister Bob Carr's repeated dismissal of such a prospect. |
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Evan McMorris-Santoro
TPM 2012-08-21 13:59:00
Rep. Steve King, one of the most staunchly conservative members of the House, was one of the few Republicans who did not strongly condemn Rep. Todd Akin Monday for his remarks regarding pregnancy and rape. King also signaled why - he might agree with parts of Akin's assertion. King told an Iowa reporter he's never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest. "Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way," King told KMEG-TV Monday, "and I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter." A Democratic source flagged King's praise of Akin in the KMEG interview to TPM. But potentially more controversial for King is his suggestion that pregnancies from statutory rape or incest don't exist or happen rarely. A 1996 review by the Guttmacher Institute found "at least half of all babies born to minor women are fathered by adult men." Contacted by TPM, King's office said that King didn't mean he had never heard of pregnancy resulting from statutory rape or incest but that he had no direct, personal knowledge of such instances. "What he was saying was, he personally does not know a girl who was raped," Brittany Lesser, a spokesperson for King said. "He never says, 'I've never heard of that.' There's a fine line between 'I've never heard of that' and 'I don't know personally anybody who's been raped. There's a difference. There is a difference." |
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Tom Chivers
The Telegraph 2012-08-21 11:52:00
There are some things in life you never want to know. I was going to write a list of them, but most of them are sordid and unpleasant and since by their nature you don't want to know about them, I thought I'd leave it. But very, very high on such a list would be George Galloway's views on sex. Unfortunately, the MP for Bradford West has been holding forth on precisely such matters. If it were merely a matter of him telling us his peccadilloes, that would be one thing. But no: Gorgeous George has gone further, and decided to tell us what is, and what is not, rape. |
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The Guardian
2012-08-21 02:16:00
US president Barack Obama bluntly warned Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Monday not to cross a "red line" by using chemical or biological weapons in his country's bloody conflict and suggested that such action would prompt the United States to consider a military response. Pointing out that he had refrained "at this point" from ordering US military engagement in Syria, Obama said that there would be "enormous consequences" if Assad failed to safeguard his weapons of mass destruction. It was Obama's strongest language to date on the issue, and he warned Syria not only against using its unconventional weapons, but against moving them in a threatening fashion. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised," Obama said. "That would change my calculus." "We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama told an impromptu White House news conference. He acknowledged he was not "absolutely confident" the stockpile was secure. |
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Lawrence Davidson
Information Clearing House 2012-08-20 00:00:00
In the 132 years between 1797 and 1929, there was no effective regulation of U.S. economy. No federal agencies existed to control corruption, fraud and exploitation on the part of the business class. Even during the Civil War, economic management on a national level was minimal and war profiteering common. As a result the country experienced 33 major economic downturns which impacted roughly 60 of the years in question. These included 22 recessions, 4 depressions, and 7 economic "panics" (bank runs and failures). Then came the Great Depression starting with the crash of the New York stock market in 1929. This soon became a worldwide affair which lasted until the onset of World War II. Millions were thrown out of work, agricultural production partially collapsed, and the fear of rebellion and revolution was palpable both in the U.S. and Europe. |
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Times of Israel staff
TV reporter adds: 'I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince PM to delay a possible attack'Times of Israel 2012-08-20 18:07:00
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is determined to attack Iran before the US elections," Israel's Channel 10 News claimed on Monday night, and Israel is now "closer than ever" to a strike designed to thwart Iran's nuclear drive. The TV station's military reporter Alon Ben-David, who earlier this year was given extensive access to the Israel Air Force as it trained for a possible attack, reported that, since upgraded sanctions against Iran have failed to force a suspension of the Iranian nuclear program in the past two months, "from the prime minister's point of view, the time for action is getting ever closer." Asked by the news anchor in the Hebrew-language TV report how close Israel now was to "a decision and perhaps an attack," Ben-David said: "It appears that we are closer than ever." | |
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Comment: Sounds a lot like an ultimatum for Obama - even a threat.
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| Society's Child |
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Common Dreams staff
Common Dreams 2012-08-20 17:19:00
A recent US State Department terrorism report listed violence by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank as "terrorist incidents," for the first time, following a recent upsurge in such attacks. "Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents, property and places of worship in the West Bank continued," said the Country Reports on Terrorism 2011. According to the UN, violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property, mosques and farmland has increased by almost 150% since 2009. | |
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Comment: Words which are not followed by actions are
only that: words; particularly if they come from governments notorious
for their history of state terrorism and which have done all in their
power to stimulate violence against the innocent as described in the
article. Israeli officials are the major hypocrits, since Jewish
settlements were always intended by the government as a weapon to
fragment and destroy Palestinian society and steal their land, or to
"change the facts on the ground", as they call it. The fact that they
are now using the 't' word on the settlers may simply be an indication
that the public is not buying the usual lies anymore. Change of
rhetoric, but don't expect anything else. We are not holding our breath
for a "war on terror" against the real terrorists.
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DailyMail.co.uk
2012-08-21 16:47:00
A Santa Monica, California, woman claims that the city's new parking meters are causing her to have ear infections and tightness in her neck - so she wants the city to pay her billions for the inconvenience. Denise Barton has demanded the city pay her $1.7billion for the damage done since the new meters were installed in April and $1.7million every month thereafter. The city has denied the meters emit dangerous levels of radiation, saying the WiFi 's range is only five to eight feet and is on par with other consumer electronics. 'I know it seems a little big,' said Barton, a well-known local activist, to the Santa Monica Daily Press. 'But they can't do things that affect people's health without their consent. I think that's wrong.' She says the city began rolling out the new meters in April and her problems started shortly thereafter. The smart meters use wireless signals to process credit cards and monitor when a car arrives or departs. A month after the devices were installed, Barton went to a doctor for an ear infection and needed antibiotics. Barton believes that the radiation emitted by the smart meters is harming her health. |
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Fox News Atlanta
2012-08-17 00:00:00
A Georgia college student who cared for abandoned animals for nearly a decade was attacked and killed by a dog, police said. Rebecca Carey, 23, was killed at her Decatur home sometime over the weekend, MyFoxAtlanta.com reports. Authorities said Carey, who worked with dogs since she was a young teenager, had five dogs living with her at the time of her death. They included a pit bull, which she had owned for six years, a boxer mix and a Presa, a large Spanish breed. She was also dogsitting another Presa for a friend. Carey's body was discovered Sunday afternoon after she failed to show up for work at Alpharetta's Loving Hands Animal Clinic. The dogs that she was caring for in her home were euthanized on Wednesday. It was unclear which dog killed Carey. |
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NBC News
A Massachusetts couple boating on a pond drowned Monday trying to rescue their dog, The Associated Press reported. 2012-08-21 13:30:00 Authorities said Daniel Cyr, 64, and his wife, Patricia, 61, were on their pontoon boat at Hampton Ponds State Park when their female terrier dog ended up in the water around 6:25 p.m. The Westfield News reported that Daniel Cyr jumped in after the dog and became distressed, prompting Patricia to go in after him and she then ran into trouble herself. Boaters in the area heard screams and came to assist the couple. Witnesses said a boat pulled Patricia out of the water while a jet skier pulled Daniel to the surface so a second boater could take him to shore. |
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Lydia Polgreen
The New York Times 2012-08-17 15:21:00
South Africa's police commissioner on Friday defended the actions of officers who opened fire on miners a day earlier during a wildcat strike at a platinum mine. She said the episode left 34 people dead and 78 wounded, a sharply higher toll than initially reported. The commissioner, Riah Phiyega, described a desperate struggle by the police to contain the machete-wielding crowd of thousands of angry miners who broke through two lines of defense, leaving officers with no choice but to open fire with live ammunition. "The militant group stormed toward the police firing shots and wielding dangerous weapons," Ms. Phiyega said at an emotional news conference here, using an extensive array of aerial photographs and video to demonstrate how the violence unfolded. Previous attempts by the 500-strong police force to repel the crowd with rubber bullets, water cannons and stun grenades had failed, she said. |
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Associated Press
2012-08-21 13:42:00
A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights. Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia's Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads." Police -- acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional -- took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime. A Virginia-based civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, dispatched one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said. "For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon," Whitehead said. Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas, said by telephone that the government had overstepped its bounds. "The bottom line is his freedom of speech has been violated," she said. |
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Ethan Sacks and Nancy Dillon
New York Daily News 2012-08-20 08:12:00
On Sunday afternoon Scott, 68, parked his car at the crest of the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge in San Pedro, scaled a towering 18-foot barrier fence and - as witnesses looked on in horror - jumped some 185 feet to his death in Los Angeles Harbor. An element of mystery surrounded Tony Scott's suicidal leap from a Los Angeles bridge as authorities Monday shot down a report that the action movie maestro had suffered from inoperable brain cancer. "Through a family spokesperson, we have been advised that Mr. Scott did not have brain cancer or (an) inoperable tumor," Chief Coroner Investigator Craig Harvey told the Daily News late Monday. ABC News had reported the dire health diagnosis earlier in the day, citing a source close to the famed director of Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and Crimson Tide. An autopsy was begun Monday. "We will look at any medical history," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told The News. "We don't have anything medically confirmed at this time." |
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Information Clearinghouse
Six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot.2012-08-17 00:00:00 A police investigation into alleged police brutality is underway in Michigan after six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot. Amateur video captures the fatal exchange between Saginaw police and 49-year-old Milton Hall after he called the police following an argument with a convenience store clerk. Refusing to drop a knife after repeated requests, the video shows officers unleash a volley of bullets at the agitated Hall in a move his mother, Jewel Hall Milton, described as a 'firing squad dressed in police uniforms.'
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Adam Martin
The Atlantic Wire 2012-08-14 00:00:00
William Sylvester, the judge presiding over the criminal case against James Holmes decided on Monday that most of the documents in his case should remain sealed, but he did release some documents, which at least provide a clue to what evidence is going to come into play during the trial of the accused Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooter. A cadre of news organizations filed a motion (PDF here) last week asking Judge Sylvester to lift a gag order he's placed on the University of Colorado preventing the sharing any information related to Holmes, and to open sealed court documents, but the judge largely refused the request, and only allowed the release of 34 documents in the case, mostly boilerplate motions or motions already discussed publicly, the Denver Post's Jessica Fender reported. But there is some interesting stuff in the limited document release, at least insofar as it suggests much more that has yet to be disclosed. |
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Michael Allen
In Virginia, the Greene County Republican Committee sent out a
newsletter that reportedly calls for an armed revolution if President
Obama is re-elected this November.Opposing Views 2012-08-20 00:00:00 Greene County rests in central Virginia and sits north of Charlottesville, Virgiana According to politicususa.com, the newsletter says that President Obama "shuns biblical praise, handicaps economic ability, disrespects the honor of earned military might," but does not present any actual proof of these claims. |
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Beyond Nuclear
2012-08-20 18:51:00
JOLT (Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade) reports the horrific news that, four days after conducting a press conference to warn that 180 tons of dangerous chemical and radioactive industrial waste had arrived at the city of Kryvyi Rih (in the Dnipropetrovsk area of Ukraine), which was likely to be "recycled" into the consumer product stream, 57 year old Volodymyr Goncharenko (photo, left) was brutally beaten to death. He was the Chairman of Social Movement of Ukraine: For the Rights of Citizens to Environmental Security. As reported by EJOLT, "According to Goncharenko, during the past several years, scavengers have removed from the Chernobyl exclusion zone 6 million metric tons of scrap metal that was subsequently smelted at metallurgical combines and reprocessed into new metal. While in theory each metallurgical combine should be equipped with radiation-monitoring equipment to check all incoming scrap, financial shortfalls have meant this was rarely the case. In 2007 Ukraine ranked eighth in global steel production and steel is Ukraine's leading export. One can only guess how much radioactive scrap metal has ended up in exported steel." |
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RT
2012-08-20 17:49:00
Hundreds of people watched but did not intervene as a gang of Israeli youths attempted to "lynch" a group of Palestinian children in the center of Jerusalem's Zion Square, police said on Sunday. Five suspects have been arrested so far. Four Palestinian youths were badly beaten in the incident in central Jerusalem on Friday. The attack was short and the gang fled after knocking one victim to the ground and kicking him unconscious before police arrived. There were several dozen attackers, according to witnesses, who say that the Jewish youths were shouting "death to the Arabs" and seemed to be on the hunt for Palestinian victims. Some witnesses described the attack as a "lynch," while Israeli authorities claimed the attack was a typical brawl between Israeli and Palestinian young people. However, on Sunday, police called the event a "lynching," Haaretz reports. Comment: See Horror: Jewish teens lynch Arab youth in Jerusalem, which includes an eye-witness testimony leaving no doubt that this was a lynch. It was the Israeli media and authorities who decided after the fact that "brawl" would sound a little better to Zionist ears. |
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| Secret History |
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Jason Mick
Find could lend credence to idea that man evolved in Asia, rather than AfricaDailyTech 2012-08-21 16:52:00 For scientists the evolution debate regarding man is far from over. No, not that debate -- the debate among researchers largely involves where the earliest primates (which predate the hominids that surveyed the Pleistocene plains of Africa) evolved, and also where humans migrated early in their history. A newly published study [abstract] in the prestigious peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal offers both the oldest confirmed human skull fossil, and evidence of early migration from mankind's likely evolution location (in Africa) to a new home in Southeast Asia. Researchers traveled to a cave near Tam Pa Ling in the Annamite Mountains where a 16,000-year-old human skull was discovered in the early 1900s. Searching deeper, they found a skull that was dated (using direct uranium dating) to a maximum age of 63,000 years ago. Combined with luminescent (which measures stored energy from solar heat/radiation in the crystalline component of soil buried in dark locations) and carbon dating of the surrounding sediments, it was determined that the individual -- whose gender was not determined in the work -- lived between 46,000 and 51,000 years ago. |
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Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News 2012-08-21 14:12:00
An ancient Roman lead scroll unearthed in England three years ago has turned out to be a curse intended to cause misfortune to more than a dozen people, according to new research. Found in East Farleigh, U.K., in the filling of a 3rd to 4th Century AD building that may have originally been a temple, the scroll was made of a 2.3- by 3.9-inch inscribed lead tablet. Popular in the Greek and Roman world, these sorts of "black magic" curses called upon gods to torment specific victims. Rolled up to conceal their inscriptions, the tablets were either nailed to the wall of a temple or buried in places considered to be close to the underworld, such as graves, springs or wells. The scroll, unearthed in the Kent village had been carefully rolled up and buried, most likely in the third century AD, similar to other curse tablets found throughout Europe. The researchers tried to read the fragile scroll without unrolling it by using a technique called neutron computed tomography imaging at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, but "the resolution was not sufficient to discern any writing on it," said the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group, which made the finding. |
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Amy Hubbard
The Telegraph 2012-08-20 06:19:00
In July, a team searching for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane was wrapping up an expedition and feeling downhearted. They had come away with apparently little to show for their $2.2 million worth of efforts. But now those searchers says high-definition video from that trip shows promising evidence. "We have man-made objects in a debris field," Ric Gillespie told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Monday morning. And those objects are "in a location where we had previously reasoned where airplane wreckage should be." Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were lost on their July 2, 1937, flight from New Guinea to Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. Earhart was trying to become the first woman to fly around the planet. "We don't want to oversell this," Gillespie cautioned. "We have lots of clues. ... It looks like it might be the right stuff, but we need a lot more work done, and ultimately we're going to have to go back and recover it." |
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| Science & Technology |
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Alan Boyle
NBC News Cosmic Log 2012-08-21 15:30:00
More than two weeks after landing in Mars' Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity rover has wiggled its wheels to warm up for its first honest-to-goodness drive, just hours from now. Mission manager Mike Watkins said that the wiggle tests, which involved twisting the rover's four turnable wheels to the left and to the right in place, were done successfully overnight. "We wanted to test the steering, because otherwise we would be driving in whatever direction we landed in," Watkins explained today during a teleconference that originated from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Everything's in fine shape, and that means we are 'go' for our first test drive tomorrow." Watkins said the commands will be sent up tonight for a drive of just a few yards (meters), incorporating a turn to the right and a backing-up maneuver. That initial movement should occur "in the middle of the night our time" and last about a half-hour, he said. |
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Becky Oskin
OurAmazingPlanet 2012-08-21 10:40:00
Earthquakes in Europe have influenced everything from its legends to its languages. According to Greek mythology, the Oracle at Delphi spoke through women who inhaled delirium-causing vapors; now, modern geologists say these vapors were hydrocarbon gases released along earthquake faults and fractures crisscrossing the site of the Delphi temple. In Italy, a magnitude-6.7 quake in 1638 permanently tweaked the Calabria region's dialects, according to a study published in the journal Annali di Geofisica in 1995. For example, the town of Savelli, founded after the quake, was linguistically isolated from its neighbors because it was settled by refugees from villages far to the west. About 45,000 earthquakes large enough to feel have rocked the continent in the past 1,000 years, according to a newly updated catalog of earthquakes in Europe and the Mediterranean. Combining this historic information with modern-day geologic investigations is the first step in forecasting Europe's future risk of earthquakes, researchers say. "One has to bring together the information from very old times, and from very modern times," said Gottfried Grünthal, of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany. Estimating earthquake risk requires "good knowledge about the seismological past. That means we have to extend our knowledge of the seismicity of an area as long into the past as possible," Grünthal said. |
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Douglas Main
OurAmazingPlanet 2012-08-20 16:41:00
Maars are not your typical volcanoes. These explosive geological oddities don't form neat, cone-shaped mountains. Rather, they can crop up just about anywhere within certain volcanically active areas. Maars are created when a rising plume of magma interacts with underground water, creating a mixture that bursts out of the ground without much warning. To get a better idea of where and when these eruptions might strike, Greg Valentine, a researcher at SUNY Buffalo, is trying to recreate his own miniature maars. A better understanding of this phenomenon could lead to better warnings before explosions, and could also help geologists locate hidden sources of diamonds, which can form in maars, Valentine said. The problem is, there are very little data on maar eruptions, which happen worldwide about once every 20 years, he said. They are also short-lived; after forming, they are active for a few weeks to a few years before disappearing. |
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John Naughton, The Observer
The Raw Story 2012-08-19 14:55:00
Microsoft is suffering a slow death by committee as bureaucracy stifles the company's core creativity Here's a question you don't often hear asked: whatever happened to Microsoft? To many people, it will seem a silly question. Microsoft, they point out, is still around - with a vengeance. It's a huge company worth $250bn (£160bn) that employs 94,000 people worldwide and earns vast profits. (OK, it made a loss last quarter for the first time in its history, but that's because it had to write off $6bn it blew in 2007 on a company called aQuantive which turned out to be a turkey.) Microsoft dominates the market for PC operating systems and Office software, products that are still licences to print money: its Xbox game console sweeps all before it; its server software is a big seller in the corporate world. In 2012, the company's net revenues totalled $74bn. Sure, there are some flies in the ointment. Microsoft's search engine, Bing, has failed to break Google's stranglehold on search. The company's repeated attempts to break into the smartphone market have been failures, and its new partnership with Nokia hasn't changed that. Its effort to get into the music business with the Zune player (remember that?) turned out to be an embarrassing farce. |
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| Earth Changes |
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Sky News
2012-08-21 16:44:00
The Greek secret service is called in to investigate arson as firefighters tackle blazes that are raging across southern Europe. Wildfires have been spreading across southern Europe, fuelled by the hot, dry climate. Firefighters in Spain are struggling to cope with the country's worst blazes in a decade while thousands of acres of forest are being destroyed by fires spreading across Greece. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, a state of emergency has been declared around a town in the northeast of the country, as fires have left many residents suffering heat exhaustion. |
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The New York Times
French authorities are fighting wildfires, keeping an eye on isolated
elderly populations and advising people to drink fluids as temperatures
soar. Heat wave warnings were issued for a swath of central and southern
France, from Burgundy to the Pyrenees. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 104 degrees in some areas.
2012-08-17 16:38:00 |
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Anthony Watts
Like the erroneous graph at California Governor Jerry Brown's climate denier slam site,
here's another one of those things that I've been sitting on for about a
week, waiting for somebody to fix it. Since they haven't, and I've
given adequate time, I suppose it is time to bring this latest GISS miss
to the global attention of everyone.Watt's Up With That? 2012-08-21 16:13:00 Last week during my email group exchanges, somebody (I forget who) pointed out this graph from NASA GISS:
Source: That is part of the GISTEMP graphs page here. I chuckled then, because obviously it is some sort of data error, and not worth reporting since I figured surely those RealClimateScientists would notice in a day or two and fix it. Nope. But still there a week later? Now it is newsworthy. |
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Watt's Up With That?
With Joe Bastardi stating an opening for an east coast hurricane is
possible the next three weeks, it might be timely to submit this
semi-humorous look at the dangers of an east coast hurricane versus the
dangers of heeding Bill McKibben's Alarmism, from the view of a writer
criticizing a writer, rather than a scientist criticizing a scientist.2012-08-21 16:04:00 Guest post by Caleb Shaw I would like to venture two predictions which I believe have a, (as they say,) "high degree of probability" of proving true. The first is that a terrible hurricane, as bad as the ferocious 1938 "Long Island Express," will roar north and bisect New England. True, it might not happen for over a hundred years, but it also might happen this September. The fact is, 1938 showed us what could happen. 1938 set the precedent.
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Phys.org
2012-08-21 14:45:00
A pair of greenlings have shown the highest level of radioactive caesium detected in fish and shellfish caught in waters off Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, its operator said Tuesday. The fishes, captured 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) off the plant on August 1, registered 25,800 becquerels of caesium per kilo, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said -- 258 times the level the government deems safe for consumption. The previous record in fish and shellfish off Fukushima was 18,700 becquerels per kilo detected in cherry salmons, according to the government's Fisheries Agency. TEPCO said the greenlings might have fed in radioactive hotspots and that it would sample more of the fish, their feed and the seabed soil in the area in the coming weeks to determine the cause of the high radiation. Fishermen have been allowed since June to catch -- on an experimental basis -- several kinds of fish and shellfish, but only in areas more than 50 kilometres off the plant. Those catches have shown only small amounts of radioactivity. Greenlings have not been caught by fishermen off Fukushima since the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 triggered meltdowns in reactors at the plant. |
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Pravda
2012-08-21 14:48:00
In the Kursk region of Russia, a flash of lightning killed two people. Another one was injured. Officials at the regional EMERCOM said that the tragedy occurred in the village of Begosha. It was not raining that day, but flashes of lightning would occasionally flare up the sky. Two men and a teenager were walking along the road when they were hit by lightning, reports Rosbalt. The adults were killed on the spot, whereas the injured 14-year-old teenager was taken to the regional hospital. The boy has already come to his senses; his health is improving, Life News said. Experts said the three men became victims of a pinpoint lightning strike. "The people died as a result of a tragic combination of circumstances. There were no extremely dangerous factors nearby, which could become a "magnet" for the lightning," officials said. RIA New Region said that in early August, in the village of Bolshaya Gryaznukha, the Sverdlovsk region of Russia, lightning killed a 35-year old woman, a mother of four. The woman came to the meadow to help her 14-year-old son, who was grazing cattle there. It started raining, and the mother and son decided to take shelter under a tree. The tree was struck by lightning in a few moments. The teen was thrown aside; he lost consciousness. The woman died on the spot. |
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BBC.co.uk
2012-08-20 14:38:00
US backpacker Joshua White, 36, his brother Colton, 23, and friend Ian Richmond, 26, are recovering after they were all struck by lighting while sharing a tent near Mount Whitney in California. Their lucky escape comes shortly after US weather body, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, revealed that at least 21 people died across the United States after they were struck by lightning in the year to date. |
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NBC News
Ecuadorian authorities are encouraging residents living near the
Tungurahua volcano to evacuate due to increased activity, according to
local media reports cited by Reuters. The volcano has been in an active
state since October 1999.
2012-08-21 06:30:00
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Associated Press
Military officials say a lightning strike has injured 10 soldiers from a
New Jersey Army National Guard unit who were training at Fort Drum in
northern New York.2012-08-15 04:57:00 First Sgt. David Moore tells The Associated Press that the soldiers from the Lawrenceville-based 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were on a training ground on the Army post when the lightning struck around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Moore says six of the soldiers were checked out by medical staff and have returned to duty. He says the other four are under the care of the unit's medics and are expected to resume their duties. |
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KTAR.com / Associated Press
2012-08-21 10:07:00
Aided by a shift in wind direction, firefighters made a stand against a huge lightning-sparked wildfire burning on the edge of three small Northern California towns. The blaze, which has destroyed seven homes and threats continued to threaten thousands of homes, as fearful residents sought safety miles away at an emergency shelter. The fire that started Saturday had grown to more than 30 square miles and was 35 percent contained Tuesday morning. "All we can do is pray," evacuee Jerry Nottingham told reporters. Still, with more firefighters arriving on the scene and shifting winds helping to keep the blaze away from homes, officials said fire crews were able to improve their lines around the wildfire. "We definitely made some good progress today building around this fire," state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said late Monday. The fast-moving Ponderosa Fire was one of many burning across the West, where lightning, dry temperatures and gusting winds have brought an early start to fire season. Nearly 1,900 firefighters were battling the blaze in rugged, densely forested terrain as it threatened 3,500 homes in the towns of Manton, Shingletown and Viola, about 170 miles north of Sacramento. "These are the largest number of homes we've had threatened so far this year," state fire spokesman Berlant said. "The grass, brush and timber up here are so dry, and once the lightning with no rain struck, the flames began to spread quickly." Melted satellite dishes, the remains of burned furniture and charred refrigerators could be seen in some homes in the rural area. |
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AZCentral.com
Minnesota authorities have identified a 9-year-old Wisconsin boy who was
fatally injured by a lightning strike on a Lake Superior beach.2012-08-21 08:50:00 The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office says Luke Voigt, of Iron River, Wis., was flown to a Duluth hospital after the lightning strike on Saturday, but was pronounced dead after efforts to revive him failed. The sheriff's office also says his 7-year-old brother, Daniel Voigt, was on shore during the lightning strike and was not injured. The boys were among eight family members and friends who were on a sailboat that took refuge from a rapidly approaching thunderstorm on the end of Minnesota Point, near the Superior Entry to the Duluth-Superior harbor. Four others in the group were taken to Duluth hospitals with what authorities described as severe but not life-threatening injuries. |
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Master Blaster
RocketNews24 2012-08-21 00:34:00
In addition to two months of temperatures over ３５℃, Japan has recently been hit with a spate of lightning storms. In fact, when writing a previous story my building was hit by lightning knocking out my computer and forcing a rewrite. The son of a... Anyway, with all this lightning around and pretty much the entire population carrying cameras built into their phones, a person's natural inclination is to try and take a picture of a bolt. One person though was not only lucky enough to actually be able to catch a bolt in a photo, but found something far stranger. If you're jaded like me you'd probably just assume this is a Photoshop job. But for the sake of science and wonder let's explore some other possibilities. I once saw something like this before where a beam of light was shining after a bolt of lightning hit the ground. Afterwards I heard on the news that a gas main was hit and exploded. In that case though the light wasn't a perfectly straight pillar like that. The other possibility is that this is a lens flare. Lens flares are those little spots or lines that appear in pictures or video when the light source is too strong. Lightning could certainly be strong enough to cause that, but in that case the buildings wouldn't be in front of the beam since the flare occurs inside of the camera. |
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Jude Ehebna
Sudden emergence of a river along Shaka Avenue in Irrua, Esan Central
Local Government Area of Edo State is currently causing panic amongst
inhabitants of the community.The Nigerian Observer 2012-08-15 14:41:00 The mystery river has already destroyed several houses and farmlands on its channels. It was gathered that the river emerged when water suddenly started gushing out from the ground. Some residents who described the river as mysterious said they woke up to discover a river had emerged from no where. An elderly man in the community, Mr. Stephen Ibhade told The Nigerian Observer that the area used to be a river, called "Obiemen" in the days of old. He said due to the history of the very ground, water usually come out from the ground in small quantity, and dry up after a while. |
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Sara Malm
Mail Online 2012-08-19 18:23:00
While thick black smoke billows from the mountains and acres of forest go up in flames, these two girls can only watch helplessly from the beach. The Greek holiday island of Chios has been hit by wildfire, with villages evacuated and tourists forced to flee as strong winds fan the flames. More than 200 firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are battling to control the devastating blaze, which began in the early hours of Friday. At least three villages and tourist resorts have been evacuated and residents can only watch from the beach as fire consume the island. |
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Michael Snyder
EFT Daily News 2012-08-15 00:00:00
Michael Snyder: The worst drought in more than 50 years is having a devastating impact on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi has become very thin and very narrow, and if it keeps on dropping there is a very real possibility that all river traffic could get shut down. And considering the fact that approximately 60 percent of our grain (NYSEARCA:JJG), 22 percent of our oil (NYSEARCA:USO) and natural gas (NYSEARCA:UNG), and and one-fifth of our coal travel down the Mississippi River, that would be absolutely crippling for our economy. It has been estimated that if all Mississippi River traffic was stopped that it would cost the U.S. economy 300 million dollars a day. So far most of the media coverage of this historic drought has focused on the impact that it is having on farmers and ranchers, but the health of the Mississippi River is also absolutely crucial to the economic success of this nation, and right now the Mississippi is in incredibly bad shape. In some areas the river is already 20 feet below normal and the water is expected to continue to drop. If we have another 12 months of weather ahead of us similar to what we have seen over the last 12 months then the mighty Mississippi is going to be a complete and total disaster zone by this time next year. Most Americans simply do not understand how vitally important the Mississippi River is to all of us. If the Mississippi River continues drying up to the point where commercial travel is no longer possible, it would be an absolutely devastating blow to the U.S. economy. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Sheena Barnett
NEMS Daily Journal 2012-08-20 18:11:00
Something went "boom" across at least part of Northeast Mississippi on Monday, but no one knows what it was. Lee County dispatchers received calls about a loud noise and vibrations on Monday afternoon, but there was no sign of any explosion, earthquake or anything else that could cause such a noise, said Lee County E911 Director Paul Harkins. Lee County dispatchers received "no more than five or 10 calls," he said, and Itawamba County dispatchers also received calls, he said. Several fire crews checked the area for signs of smoke or debris, but found nothing. "This happens every so often. We have a little something like this and we can't figure out what it is," he said. |
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Prensa Latina
2012-08-20 21:40:00
Tegucigalpa - Specialists with the Permanent Contingency Commission (COPECO) are now in Trojes area, in the eastern Honduran department of El Paraíso, to investigate the alleged crash of a meteorite. According to the inhabitants of that region near the border with Nicaragua, a fireball crossed the sky on Saturday night and then they heard a loud explosion. A COPECO statement clarified that no specialized agency reported a meteorite passing by the Central American region, nor has reported the loss of an aircraft. Copeco and the astronomical observatory of the National Autonomous University of Honduras said their experts in the field are investigating what happened in that region and will report as soon as possible, while they called on people not to generate speculation to avoid uncertainty |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Kerry Mcdermott
Daily Mail 2012-08-21 17:22:00
Exposure to a common parasite hosted by cats could make people more likely to attempt suicide, according to new research. Toxoplasma gondii - which can cause toxoplasmosis - is easily transmitted to humans and has already been linked to a series of personality and behavioural changes. A recent study found that people who tested positive for exposure to toxoplasmosis were seven times more likely to have a history of suicide attempts. |
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Tony Leys
State medical regulators have warned a Dubuque "alternative health care
consultant" that she has been illegally practicing medicine without a
license.DesMoines Register 2012-08-19 11:12:00 The Iowa Board of Medicine, which licenses physicians, sent a letter this month warning Erin Gotz that she is breaking state law. "The information reviewed by the board indicates that you use tuning forks and specialized crystals to diagnose health conditions and prescribe a high-dose vitamin regimen to your clients," regulators wrote to Gotz. "The board has serious concerns that the use of such high-dose vitamins may be toxic and could cause serious harm to your clients." The letter says that if Gotz fails to heed the cease-and-desist order, the state could seek a court injunction against her or refer the case to the Dubuque county attorney for possible prosecution. Gotz, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said alternative medical techniques, including sound therapy and Chinese medicine, helped her overcome anxiety and panic attacks as a teenager. |
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Source
2012-08-21 03:00:00
Regardless of how much a high school student generally studies each day, if that student sacrifices sleep in order to study more than usual, he or she is more likely to have academic problems the following day. Because students tend to increasingly sacrifice sleep time for studying in the latter years of high school, this negative dynamic becomes more and more prevalent over time. Those are the findings of a new longitudinal study that focused on daily and yearly variations of students who sacrifice sleep to study. The research was conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and appears in the journal Child Development. "Sacrificing sleep for extra study time is counterproductive," says Andrew J. Fuligni, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and a senior scientist at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, who worked on the study. "Academic success may depend on finding strategies to avoid having to give up sleep to study, such as maintaining a consistent study schedule across days, using school time as efficiently as possible, and sacrificing time spent on other, less essential activities." For 14 days in each of the 9th, 10th, and 12th grades, 535 students from several Los Angeles-area high schools reported in diaries how long they studied, how long they slept, and whether or not they experienced two academic problems - they didn't understand something taught in class or they did poorly on a test, quiz, or homework. The students represented a mix of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. |
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The New York Times
2012-08-19 22:36:00
Earlier this month, a federal magistrate judge in New York told the Food and Drug Administration to quit dillydallying on its three-decade effort to curb indiscriminate use of antibiotics in farm animals to spur their growth. He set a timetable for the agency to follow in withdrawing two important drugs - penicillin and two forms of tetracycline - from widespread use in animals. The trouble is, that timetable will give the F.D.A. five more years to complete the process. The feeding of antibiotics in small doses to entire herds or flocks to promote rapid weight gain poses a serious threat to human health. The constant dosing promotes the emergence of germs that are resistant to veterinary drugs and to the very similar drugs used in humans. That raises the risk that when humans are infected by the germs, the medicines they rely on will be less effective. The F.D.A. had proposed long ago to start proceedings to remove antibiotics from use on farms (except to treat sick animals) unless manufacturers could prove that such usage would not promote drug-resistant microbes. But no hearings were ever scheduled. Then the agency decided that it could make faster progress against a broader range of drugs by gaining the voluntary cooperation of drug makers and animal producers to limit usage. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Megan Gannon
LiveScience 2012-08-21 14:14:00
Damage to the brain's frontal lobe is known to impair one's ability to think and make choices. And now scientists say they've pinpointed the different parts of this brain region that preside over reasoning, self-control and decision-making. Researchers say the data could help doctors determine what specific cognitive obstacles their patients might face after a brain injury. For the study, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) examined 30 years worth of data from the University of Iowa's brain lesion patient registry and mapped brain activity in almost 350 people with lesions in their frontal lobes. They linked these maps with data on how each patient performed in certain cognitive tasks. With this information, the researchers could see exactly which parts of the frontal lobe were critical for different tasks like behavioral control (refraining from ordering a chocolate sundae) and reward-based decision making (trying to win money at a casino), a statement from Caltech explained. |
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Stephanie Gold
Psychology Today 2007-07-01 00:00:00
You're under pressure. Deadlines are looming. Everyone is making demands on your time. Your anxiety level is rising. Your stomach is in knots. So you do what you've been well-trained to do. You make sure you get in your gym time. But if neuroscientist Steven W. Porges is right, there's an even better way to counter stress. Exercise has its uses, but as a stress fighter it works primarily at a visceral level - and the operative word is fight. You're basically combating excess levels of cortisol, the hormone that spreads news of danger through your body and readies it to fight or flee. You're better off working through higher - and more direct - channels, like the brain. The most efficient stress-reducer might just be a smile. Engaging socially with others triggers neural circuits that calm the heart, relax the gut, and switch off fear, Porges says. | |
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Comment: There are others methods that naturally stimulate vagus nerve for relaxation.Éiriú Eolas stress-control, healing, rejuvenation Program is a proven program that stimulates the vagus nerve to control stress, pain relief and rejuvenate body/mind
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Society for Research in Child Development
Ethnic and political violence in the Middle East can increase violence
in families, schools, and communities, which can in turn boost
children's aggressiveness, especially among 8-year-olds. Those are the
findings of a new study that examined children and their parents in the
Middle East.2012-08-21 03:08:00 "The study has important implications for understanding how political struggles can spill over into the everyday lives of families and children, and suggests that intervention might be necessary in a number of different social areas to protect children from the adverse impacts of exposure to ethnic-political violence," according to Paul Boxer, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University and adjunct research scientist at the University of Michigan, who led the study. The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research, and the New School for Social Research. |
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Princeton University
2012-08-20 01:32:00
A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton Univ. researchers have found. The researchers report in the journal Science that an area of our brain called the pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells as our brain focuses on the people and objects that need our attention. Like a switchboard operator, the pulvinar makes sure that separate areas of the visual cortex - which processes visual information - are communicating about the same external information, explains lead author Yuri Saalmann, an associate research scholar in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI). Without guidance from the pulvinar, an important observation such as an oncoming bus as one is crossing the street could get lost in a jumble of other stimuli. Saalmann says these findings on how the brain transmits information could lead to new ways of understanding and treating attention-related disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia. Saalmann worked with senior researcher Sabine Kastner, a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute; and PNI researchers Xin Li, a research assistant; Mark Pinsk, a professional specialist; and Liang Wang, a postdoctoral research associate. |
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Peter Reuell
Harvard Gazette 2012-08-19 23:37:00
It's one of the most common plot twists in Hollywood - caught red-handed, the murderer claims to suffer from multiple personality disorder, says he has no memory of the crime, and points the finger at an alternate personality. A new study, however, suggests such a scenario belongs strictly to the realm of fiction. The study - conducted by Harvard's Richard J. McNally, Rafaele Huntjens of the University of Groningen, and Bruno Verschuere of the University of Amsterdam - casts doubt on the "amnesia barrier" that has long been a hallmark of what is now called dissociative identity disorder (DID) by demonstrating that patients do have knowledge of their other identities. Huntjens was lead author of the study, which was reported in a paper published in PLoS ONE on July 17. "Ultimately, this disorder is a way of expressing distress," said McNally, a professor in the Department of Psychology. "What we have shown is that a fundamental idea behind the concept of DID - that there is amnesia between identities - there's no convincing evidence for that." About a century ago, Morton Prince, a Harvard-educated neurologist working in the Boston area, coined the phrase "multiple personality disorder" to describe the case of Sally Beauchamp, an Arlington woman who appeared to have two personalities. Reports of DID, which is sometimes confused with schizophrenia, were rare in the 20th century, with only a few dozen cases appearing in the literature. With the publication of Sybil (1973), however, the condition entered the mainstream. The story of Sybil Dorsett, a woman who claimed to have as many as a dozen personalities, became an international sensation. There were two film adaptations. |
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| High Strangeness |
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EinEngelSchuetzeDich
This UFO, or whatever it is, flew this morning at about 10 am (August
18, 2012) over the mountain "Achalm" in Reutlingen, Germany. Extremely
strange!YouTube 2012-08-18 08:27:00
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Tom Rose
Gather 2012-08-21 08:13:00
A video posted to YouTube shows the real danger astronauts face when they undertake a spacewalk, as a flashing, spinning UFO buzzes the ISS, coming a bit too close for comfort. The short clip included here, taken from a six-hour video of the spacewalk conducted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday, shows cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko as he performs, appropriately enough, the task of affixing debris barriers on the ISS, designed for greater safety against floating, lethal objects. As he converses with ground control, a spinning, flashing, unidentified flying object whizzes past at incredible speed. It's kind of unnerving because scientists are very good at pointing the ISS into areas of space safer from that kind of hazard. It's not known exactly what this UFO is, but it's a sure bet that if it had crashed into the space station, or worse, hit the astronaut, it would have been a monumental disaster. |
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Holly Brantley
Source 2012-08-21 07:28:00 Some are saying there are unexplained lights around the Jackson area. So far people can't point to something like a weather balloon or falling star or even a plane to explain it. Now they wonder could it be related to incredible tales from Cape Girardeau dating back decades. Some say a bar of red and white lights was hovering recently above homes in Jackson. People tell us they were mesmerized by beams and light shooting from either end. Chris Clifton and others say the lighted craft showed up for at least five minutes twice over the last week around the Bent Creek area of Jackson. Recent sightings prompted Clifton and others to do some research and they learned our area is no stranger to the unexplained. Now they wonder if all these close encounters of the Heartland kind could be the product of something out of this world. |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Liz Roberts
Grough 2012-08-19 20:38:00
Groups of UFO believers will make the trip to two British hills next weekend to pray for peace and spiritual uplifting. The members of the Aetherius Society will gather at Pen y Fan, south Wales's highest mountain and The Old Man of Coniston, once the highest point in Lancashire, for ceremonies at the sites they regard as holy mountains. The society members are advocates of the late George King, who believed there are 17 other holy mountains throughout the world, charged with spiritual energy by extraterrestrials from Venus and Mars, and by other highly evolved spiritual intelligences. Society spokesman David Trimble said: "Members believe that by chanting mantras and saying prayers on the mountain they can access this energy, and send out light to bring about peace, healing and much-needed spiritual upliftment in the world." The meetings will be held next Saturday, 25 August, at the sites in the Brecon Beacons and Lake District, where followers of the society believe the hills have been charged with spiritual energy by a cosmic being known as The Full Aspect of Nixies Zero Zero Two. Mark Bennett, an international director of the Aetherius Society, plans to take part in the pilgrimage to Pen y Fan. |
