Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday 6 September 2012


Wednesday, 05 September 2012

SOTT Focus
No new articles.
--- Best of the Web
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Puppet Masters
Conor Friedersdorf
Atlantic Weekly
2012-09-05 17:07:00
Challenging President Obama on extrajudicial assassinations, a broadcast journalist whips out the "Reality Check."

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Fars News Agency
2012-09-05 07:29:00

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Representative of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khaled Qadoumi called on the world Muslim states to contribute their share to the efforts made for the freedom of Palestine, stressing that the holy land of the Islamic Ummah can only be set free through the collective efforts of the worldwide Muslims.

"Freedom of Palestine is a responsibility which should be shared by all Muslims," Qadoumi said, addressing a gathering on Islamic Resistance in Iran's Central city of Isfahan on Wednesday.

He pointed to the Palestinian nation's continued resistance against the Zionist regime, and noted, "We feel that we are not alone in our resistance because Islamic nations such as Iran and Syria are backing us in this regard."
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Fars News Agency
2012-09-05 04:59:00

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Merlin Miller, the US presidential candidate for the American Third Position Party, underlined that scrutinizing the situation of the Iranian society reveals that the western sanctions have failed to leave an impact on the country.

"I expected to witness the painful effects of sanctions but I was taken aback when I didn't witness such a thing," Miller told FNA in Tehran on Wednesday, adding, "I see no harms of sanctions in Iran."

He also underlined the Iranian people's indifference to the western embargos, and said, "Before I came to Iran, I expected to see hostility from the Iranian people due to the sanctions imposed by my country on the Iranian nation but now that I have come to Iran, my perception has changed."

"Iran is a country with very kind, hospitable and peace-loving people," Miller said.
Comment: While American Third Position Party is not well known, at least they have a candidate that appears to show a level of humanity and awareness vs. the current mainstream (media) candidates.
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Ben Swann
Youtube
2012-09-04 12:00:00
Ben Swann Reality Check talks one on one with President Obama and asks about the so called Presidential Kill List.

Comment: Hat tip to Psychopaths Rule the World on Facebook.
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Antonia Oprita
Emerging Markets
2012-09-05 09:42:00

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The eurozone economic downturn since the start of the crisis looks like the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to one economist

The decline in the economy of the eurozone, sparked by the beginning of the debt crisis with the shocks in Greece two and a half years ago, "seems to be more of a long-distance run than a quick sprint," according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.

One day ahead of a crucial European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy meeting, the composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the eurozone - comprising manufacturing and services - fell to 46.3 from a flash reading of 46.6 and compared with a reading of 46.5 in July, data from Markit showed.

Analysts have told Emerging Markets that September, with its string of events for the eurozone, could bring a shock to emerging markets as any bad news would trigger risk aversion.

Weinberg pointed out in a market note that since the second quarter of 2010 - when Greece admitted lying about its fiscal position and markets started having doubts about its ability to pay back its debts - gross domestic product growth has declined or failed to rise in every quarter but one.

GDP, which has not recovered from the post-Lehman contraction, is falling again and unemployment has risen since the eurozone debt crisis started, he added.
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RT
2012-09-04 00:00:00

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The US government has announced its $16 trillion debt, a landmark number that has more than tripled during the last two presidencies. At 104 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product, the debt is now larger than the US economy itself.

The data released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday showed that the government debt has surpassed $16 trillion for the first time in American history.

The news comes as Republicans and Democrats formally nominate their presidential candidates, and the official announcement comes on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

"This is a grim landmark for the United States. Yet the president seems strangely unconcerned," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of the Senate Budget Committee.

Each day, the debt grows by roughly $3.5 billion, or about $2 million per minute.
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RT
2012-09-04 00:00:00

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Local officials in Yemen say that a United States-led drone strike over the weekend there killed 13 civilians.

Members of the Yemeni government tells reporters that an unmanned aerial vehicle operated remotely by the United States military executed more than a dozen civilians, including three women, near the town of Rada in al-Baitha province on Sunday.

"This was one of the very few times when our target was completely missed. It was a mistake, but we hope it will not hurt our anti-terror efforts in the region," a senior Yemeni Defense Ministry official says to CNN this week on condition of anonymity.

The United States believes that as many as 200 suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization operate out of Yemen, where the US has been linked to carrying out several air strikes.

On the record, however, the US has not officially acknowledged these missions, only further angering the families of the victims, including those who lost loved ones in this weekend's assault.

Fielding a question about the criticism his targeted-kill program has generated during this administration, US President Barack Obama said last year, it's "important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash." Despite this claim, though, civilians on the other side of the world see things differently.
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Mark Karlin
Truthout
2012-09-04 21:19:00

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The most effective and politically potent moment of the GOP convention was not seen by most Americans (and the Tampa conclave had low ratings to begin with). It was a biography of the Romneys that did momentarily bring a Hollywood manufactured aura of personal amiability to the couple. Unfortunately for the hapless Romney campaign advisors, the video was shown before the golden hour of national television coverage - in order to make time for the disastrous appearance known as the "Clint Eastwood Outer Limits Moment."

One quickly glossed over moment in the video, however, is when Mitt Romney states that his father and grandparents came back to the United States to escape a revolution. Yes, they were escaping the Mexican revolution in 1912, but the GOP candidate president omits a bit of the story that is quite telling, according to the Boston Globe:
George Romney was born in Mexico and was 5 years old when a revolution forced his family members in 1912 to flee their Mormon colony and seek refuge in the United States. The Mormon exiles lost their homes, farms, and most of their belongings, were welcomed by the United States, and benefited from a $100,000 refugee fund established by Congress.

But there are other elements to the Romney story that may explain why he doesn't tell the full tale on the campaign trail. The reason that George was born in Mexico is that his grandfather - Mitt's great-grandfather - had taken refuge there in order to escape US laws against polygamy. It was this family patriarch, Miles Park Romney, who established the colony and lived there with four wives.
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Fars News Agency
2012-09-04 20:33:00

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The sharp increase in oil prices following the European Union's oil ban against Iran (July 1) has cost the 27-member bloc nearly $7bln in the past two months.

While the average oil price stood at $95 in June (one month before the EU sanctions were put into effect), the figure increased to $102.5 and $107.5 in the two months after the implementation of the embargos.

The European officials have put the total volume of the EU oil imports at 11mln barrels a day. While the EU members paid $32.4bln for importing 11mln barrels of crude on June 31, they were made to pay $35bln in July and $36.7bln in August for the same volume of crude.

Estimates show that the EU has paid $6.9bln more for buying the same volume of oil during the two months after imposing the sanctions against Iran.
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Glen Greenwald
The Guardian
2012-09-04 19:20:00

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A former CNN correspondent defies threats from her former employer to speak out about self-censorship at the network.

In late March 2011, as the Arab Spring was spreading, CNN sent a four-person crew to Bahrain to produce a one-hour documentary on the use of internet technologies and social media by democracy activists in the region. Featuring on-air investigative correspondent Amber Lyon, the CNN team had a very eventful eight-day stay in that small, US-backed kingdom.

By the time the CNN crew arrived, many of the sources who had agreed to speak to them were either in hiding or had disappeared. Regime opponents whom they interviewed suffered recriminations, as did ordinary citizens who worked with them as fixers. Leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was charged with crimes shortly after speaking to the CNN team. A doctor who gave the crew a tour of his village and arranged meetings with government opponents, Saeed Ayyad, had his house burned to the ground shortly after. Their local fixer was fired ten days after working with them.
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Society's Child
Julie Pace and Steve Peoples
Associated Press
2012-09-05 00:00:00

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Embarrassed by Republicans, Democrats amended their convention platform Wednesday to add a mention of God and declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Many in the audience booed after the convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, ruled that the amendments had been approved despite the fact that a large group of delegates had objected. He called for a vote three times before ruling.

The party reinstated language from the 2008 platform that said "we need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."

It also reinstated its 2008 language that Jerusalem "is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths."

Democrats had approved a platform on Tuesday that made no mention of God or Jerusalem. Instead, it expressed "unshakable commitment to Israel's security."

Republicans pounced quickly on both omissions.
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Emma Graham-Harrison
Brisbane Times
2012-09-05 15:17:00

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About a third of young children in southern Afghanistan are acutely malnourished, with a level of deprivation similar to that found in famine zones, a government survey has found, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that has been poured into the region.

The worst affected area identified by the United Nations-backed survey was the southern region, centred around Kandahar and Helmand. The report found about a million Afghans under five were acutely malnourished.

''What's shocking is that this is really very high by global standards,'' said Michael Keating, the deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan. ''This is the kind of malnutrition you associate with Africa and some of the most deprived parts of the world, not with an area that has received so much international attention and assistance.''
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Paul Thompson
Daily Mail
2012-09-04 21:10:00

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A family have claimed they were stopped from boarding a flight because their son has Down's Syndrome and was not wanted in the first class section.

Joan and Robert Vanderhorst are threatening to sue American Airlines after they say they were victims of discrimination over their 16 year old son Bede.

The couple claim as they waited to board their flight back to their home near Los Angeles they were told by airline staff they were not allowed to take their seats.

Airline staff allegedly told them their son was disruptive and a danger to the flight crew.

But Mrs Vanderhorst told KLTA TV that she began filming her son as he waited in the departure lounge showing him sitting silently waiting to board the flight at Newark, New Jersey.

In the video, she can be heard sobbing and her husband expressing disbelief.

'He's behaving,' Mr Vanderhorst says. 'He's demonstrating he's not a problem.'

'Of course he's behaving. He's never not behaved,' his wife added.

Mrs Vanderhorst told KLTA: 'I kept saying, "Is this only because he has Down's Syndrome?"'
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NBC News
2012-09-05 09:40:00

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Sri Lankan police arrested a Chinese tourist suspected of swallowing a diamond worth $13,600 on Wednesday at the island nation's biggest international gem and jewelry exhibition.

Chow Cheng, 32, is believed to have swallowed the diamond as he inspected it at the exhibition, attended by buyers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Europe, police said.

"His intention was to steal it," police spokesman Ajith Rohana told Reuters. "The x-ray shows the diamond is in his throat."

The Associated Press reported that the diamond was 1.5 carats.

Suresh Christopher Wijekoon, owner of the exhibition stall, said Chow had tried to switch the original diamond with a synthetic one.
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RT
2012-09-05 00:00:00

Canada - Quebec's newly-elected Premier Pauline Marois has been rushed off stage during her acceptance speech, after shots were heard inside Montreal's Metropolis concert hall. One man is reported dead.


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Another person is in a critical condition and one more witness is being treated for shock, Montreal police have informed Canadian media.

Ian Lafrenière stated that the dead man was in his 40s and that two guns were recovered at the scene, but there was no reason to believe there was more than one shooter.

After firing shots the gunman started a fire behind the downtown Montreal venue where Marois' supporters had gathered, Reuters reports.

Video has emerged, reportedly showing a man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava with a gun on the ground surrounded by police. Video footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon.

The gunman is said to be 50 years old and was apparently shouting "the English are waking up" in French with a Canadian-English accent as he was subdued.

Marois heads the separatist Parti Quebecois, which seeks independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec.

The premier-elect returned to the stage a few minutes after she left it, urging her supporters who packed the hall to leave calmly, stating that "there was a little unfortunate incident," so as not to create panic. Everyone was evacuated and police are investigating.

"We don't know what was [behind] that event," police spokesperson Dany Richer told CBC. "Our investigators are going to meet with [the detained] overnight."
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CBS Denver
2012-09-04 02:10:00

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Broomfield, Colorado - Police in Broomfield have identified the man they say set a fire inside a Walmart and threatened customers inside with a knife.

Samuel Maldonado-Tapia, 28, is in custody after he allegedly caused so much panic on Monday in the store that it was evacuated and then closed for several hours.

The crime happened in the early afternoon at the retailer, located near 120th and Sheridan.

Police so far aren't saying much about why the man was so upset, but several shoppers talked with CBS4 about what happened.

"We look over and there's flames going on over by the Kitchen Aid and everybody's like, 'Oh man, what's going on?' " witness Dominique Le'Nior said. "Some people were running, some were freaking out, some were like, 'Can I get my groceries?' "

Witnesses said a child may have been one of the two people the man threatened. The man also allegedly set some clothes on fire.
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Saul Saenz
CFNews13
2012-09-04 03:53:00

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Volusia County, California -- Perhaps it was the synthetic marijuana Mark Welch said he was smoking on Sunday.

But when Welch awoke from a strange dream, convinced that everything he dreamed was actually happening for real, he told his parents about it.

When the 18-year-old's parents said they didn't believe him, he decided to call 911 to report the incident.

The call-taker, from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, briefly tried to make sense of the story before dispatching a deputy to the scene, but was unsuccessful:
911 Call-Taker: "What's happening?"

Mark Welch: "Everything that happened today is actually in my dream, and I want to prove it to everybody."

911 Call-Taker: "What did you dream about that's happening?"

Welch: "It's all on paper. I wrote it down."
A deputy was dispatched to Welch's home, near Orange City, and determined the teen was a little confused -- apparently from the K2 deputies said he had been smoking -- but was not in need of medical attention.

The deputy told Welch not to call 911 again unless he had a genuine emergency, and the Sheriff's Office said the teen's parents even hid his phone to prevent him from calling again.
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CBS Seattle
2012-09-04 10:42:00

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Lynnwood, Washington - Lynnwood police say a mother used her 10-year-old boy to rob a home.

Police tell KOMO-TV that Marie Shafique, 33, made her son climb through an open window, but didn't know that she was being watched by neighbors and the house's security camera.

Michelle Geronimo was inside of her home when the child tried to break in. She told the station that the boy was "peering inside" her open window.

"I was just shocked that it was a little boy, and when you figure out what's going on, it's sad," Geronimo told KOMO.

Shafique and her son ran away but Lynnwood police arrested her. They found a stolen laptop and crack cocaine.

Shafique is being held and her bail is $25,000 the boy and his three siblings are currently under their father's custody.
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Landon Thomas Jr.
CNBC
2012-09-03 08:22:00

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It is, Julio Vildosola concedes, a very big bet.

After working six years as a senior executive for a multinational payroll-processing company in Barcelona, Spain, Mr. Vildosola is cutting his professional and financial ties with his troubled homeland. He has moved his family to a village near Cambridge, England, where he will take the reins at a small software company, and he has transferred his savings from Spanish banks to British banks.

"The macro situation in Spain is getting worse and worse," Mr. Vildosola, 38, said last week just hours before boarding a plane to London with his wife and two small children. "There is just too much risk. Spain is going to be next after Greece, and I just don't want to end up holding devalued pesetas."

Mr. Vildosola is among many who worry that Spain's economic tailspin could eventually force the country's withdrawal from the euro and a return to its former currency, the peseta. That dire outcome is still considered a long shot, even if Spain might eventually require a Greek-style bailout. But there is no doubt that many of those in a position to do so are taking their money - and in some cases themselves - out of Spain.

In July, Spaniards withdrew a record 75 billion euros, or $94 billion, from their banks - an amount equal to 7 percent of the country's overall economic output - as doubts grew about the durability of Spain's financial system.
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Holly Ellyatt
CNBC
2012-09-04 02:28:00

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Europe is approaching a crisis as the region's debt crisis and austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems - just as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent, according to campaigners, policy makers and health organizations.

A growing number of global and European health bodies are warning that the introduction and intensification of austerity measures has led to a sharp rise in mental health problems with suicide rates, alcohol abuse and requests for anti-depressants increasing as people struggle with the psychological cost of living through a European-wide recession.

"No one should be surprised that factors such as unemployment, debt and relationship breakdowns can cause bouts of mental illness and may push people who are already vulnerable to take their own lives," Richard Colwill, of the British mental health charity Sane, told CNBC.

"There does appear to be a connection between unemployment rates and suicide for example," he said, referring to a recent study in the British Medical Journal that stated that more than 1,000 people in the U.K. may have killed themselves because of the impacts of the recession. "This research reflects other work showing similar rises in suicides across Europe."

According to Josée Van Remoortel, advisor to the European organization Mental Health Europe (MHE), the financial crisis is affecting "all areas of life," not just economies, and its impact on mental health is creating a "deep chasm in our society."

"The credit crunch [has] had one unexpected consequence and one that reflects a deep chasm in our society - a sharp rise in mental health problems, largely caused by uncertainty and fear for the future," he writes in a paper entitled "The Sane Approach."

A recent survey of general practitioners (family doctors) in Britain by the Insight Research Group seems to support Van Remoortel's view.

The data showed that out of 300 family doctors surveyed, the majority reported that austerity was damaging their patients' health. Seventy six percent said their patients were unhealthier due to the economic climate and 77 percent said more patients were seeking treatment for anxiety.
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Paul Joseph Watson
Resisting the New World Order
2012-09-03 00:00:00
Federal agency tests drinks purchased inside airport


A video clip shot yesterday at Columbus Ohio Airport illustrates how the Transportation Security Administration has dreamed up a bizarre new way to waste time and taxpayer dollars - by testing drinks purchased by travelers for explosives inside the airport long after they have already passed security.

The footage shows TSA agents walking around a departure lounge asking to test passengers' drinks for explosive residue with a swab they hold over the liquid.

"Now remember that this is inside the terminal, well beyond the security check and purchased inside the terminal...just people waiting to get on the plane," writes the You Tube user who uploaded the video.

"My wife and son came back from a coffee shop just around the corner, then we were approached. I asked them what they were doing. One of the TSA ladies said that they were checking for explosive chemicals (as we are drinking them). I said "really - inside the terminal? You have got to be kidding me." I asked them if they wanted to swab us all. She responded with something like, 'yes sometimes we need to do that'. I then asked if she wanted a urine sample...nonetheless, the TSA is way out of control," he adds, joking that the TSA's next move could be to visit people's homes before they even leave for the airport (they're already in the parking lot demanding to search people who a...)

As we have previously highlighted, the drinks policy was recently introduced with virtually no explanation from the TSA whatsoever. The much vaunted 2006 liquid bomb plot on which this nonsense is all based completely collapsed in court and was revealed to be farcical at best.
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Annie Karni
New York Post
2012-09-02 23:14:00

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They're treating it like a national playground.

At the National September 11th Memorial, tourists balance coffee cups and soda bottles on the parapets bearing the names of the dead.

Parents hoist their children to sit on the bronze plaques, while other visitors splash water from the two waterfalls onto their faces to cool themselves on a hot summer day.

On the plaza, tourists break out lunch foods and lie on their backs.

A year after the memorial's opening, the almost-cheerful atmosphere at what was supposed to be a solemn site has appalled first responders and victims' families.
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Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press
2012-09-04 16:01:00
Philadelphia - Prosecutors believe a Philadelphia man put heroin and methadone in his infant son's bottle to quiet him but instead killed him, two days before his first birthday.

Orlando Rosado will face a third-degree murder trial after waiving his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Rosado, 45, told police he accidentally put drugs in the bottle during a 3 a.m. feeding in May. But Assistant District Attorney Lorraine Donnelly plans to argue the drug mixture - though not baby Christopher's death - was intentional.

"He admits putting it in the bottle. His version is, It must have been accidental because he was high," Donnelly said. "My theory is the baby was fussy, and he was trying to put him to sleep."
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Secret History
Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News
2012-09-05 12:44:00

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A unique Mayan theater has been unearthed in Mexico, according to researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Found at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas, the 1,200-year-old theater did not seem to be a place for art and culture, but was rather used by Mayan elite to legitimize their power and subjugate local minority groups.

"It was a unique theater, since it was found in an acropolis, 137 feet above the other plazas. The stage lay within a palace complex," Luis Alberto Martos López, director of the research project, said in a statement.

Located near the North Acropolis, the theater was enclosed by buildings dating to 250-550 B.C. on all sides. A 26-foot-long façade of one of these buildings was torn down around 850 A.D. to create the forum and make it work as an acoustic shell.

According to Martos López, the unusual architecture makes the theater stand out.
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Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience
2012-09-05 09:39:00

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The hunt for King Richard III's grave is heating up, with archaeologists announcing today (Sept. 5) that they have located the church where the king was buried in 1485.

"The discoveries so far leave us in no doubt that we are on the site of Leicester's Franciscan Friary, meaning we have crossed the first significant hurdle of the investigation," Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the dig, said in a statement.

Buckley and his colleagues have been excavating a parking lot in Leicester, England, since Aug. 25. They are searching for Greyfriars church, said to be the final resting place of Richard III, who died in battle during the War of the Roses, an English civil war. A century later, Shakespeare would immortalize Richard III in a play of the same name.

After his death in the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard III was brought to Leicester and buried at Greyfriars. The location of the grave, and the church itself, was eventually lost to history, though University of Leicester archaeologists traced the likely location to beneath the parking lot for the Leicester City Council offices.

The team announced last week that their first two trenches turned up glazed floor-tile fragments, medieval roof tile and other building fragments, suggesting that they were digging in the right place to find Greyfriars. Now, a third trench has revealed the alignment of the building's walls.
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Science & Technology
NASA Earth Observatory
2012-09-05 16:56:00
They were the subject of perhaps the first scientific discovery of the Space Age, and yet we still don't know much about them. The radiation belts that surround Earth are home to killer electrons, plasma waves, and intense electrical currents that can disrupt and destroy the electronics on satellites. But the behavior of the Van Allen Belts - named for James Van Allen, who led the team that discovered them in 1958 - is wildly unpredictable.

This artist's conception shows the radiation belts (green), which are two doughnut-shaped (torus) regions full of high-energy particles that fill the near-space around Earth. The blue and red lines between and around the belts depict the north and south polarity of the planet's magnetic field. The inner belt, a blend of protons and electrons, can reach down as low as 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) in altitude. The outer belt, comprised mainly of energetic electrons, can swell to as much as 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) above Earth's surface. Both rings extend to roughly 65 degrees north and south latitude.

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Elizabeth Pennisi
ScienceNow
2012-09-05 13:00:00

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The human genome - the sum total of hereditary information in a person - contains a lot more than the protein-coding genes teenagers learn about in school, a massive international project has found. When researchers decided to sequence the human genome in the late 1990s, they were focused on finding those traditional genes so as to identify all the proteins necessary for life. Each gene was thought to be a discrete piece of DNA; the order of its DNA bases - the well-known "letter" molecules that are the building blocks of DNA - were thought to code for a particular protein. But scientists deciphering the human genome found, to their surprise, that these protein-coding genes took up less than 3% of the genome. In between were billions of other bases that seemed to have no purpose.

Now a U.S.-funded project, called the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), has found that many of these bases do, nevertheless, play a role in human biology: They help determine when a gene is turned on or off, for example. This regulation is what makes one cell a kidney cell, for instance, and another a brain cell. "There's a lot more to the genome than genes," says Mark Gerstein, a bioinformatician at Yale University.

The insights from this project are helping researchers understand the links between genetics and disease. "We are informing disease studies in a way that would be very hard to do otherwise," says Ewan Birney, a bioinformatician at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, U.K., who led the ENCODE analysis.

As part of ENCODE, 32 institutions did computer analyses, biochemical tests, and sequencing studies on 147 cell types - six fairly extensively - to find out what each of the genome's 3 billion bases does. About 80% of the genome is biochemically active, ENCODE's 442 researchers report today in Nature. Some of these DNA bases serve as landing spots for proteins that influence gene activity. Others are converted into strands of RNA that perform functions themselves, such as gene regulation. (RNA is typically thought of as the intermediary messenger molecule that helps make proteins, but ENCODE showed that much of RNA is an end product and is not used to make proteins.) And many bases are simply places where chemical modifications serve to silence stretches of our chromosomes.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:44:00

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An international research team including several scientists from the University of Waterloo has achieved quantum teleportation over a record-breaking distance of 143 kilometres through free space.

The experiment saw the successful teleportation of quantum information -- in this case, the states of light particles, or photons -- between the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. The breakthrough is a crucial step toward quantum communications via satellite.

Unlike the teleportation of solid objects popularized in science fiction, the experiment involved the teleportation of quantum states, an essential pre-requisite of quantum computing, quantum communication and other powerful technologies under development at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at Waterloo.

The project, led by researchers from Vienna's Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, relied on algorithms and equipment developed in Waterloo. Their results were published this week in Nature.

Teleportation across 143 kilometres is a crucial milestone in this research, since that is roughly the minimum distance between the ground and orbiting satellites. This achievement leads to the possibility of quantum teleportation between ground stations and orbiting satellites, a key goal in the research of Professor Thomas Jennewein, an IQC faculty member and collaborator on the record-setting experiment.
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Earth Changes
Douglas Main
OurAmazingPlanet
2012-09-05 16:15:00

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A new animation shows the shockwave from the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Costa Rica this morning (Sept. 5) arriving and reverberating through the ground beneath the United States.

The visualization was made by scientists at Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and shows the Earth slowly moving up and down. Red spots show seismometers moving upward; the darker the hue, the higher they are moving up. The opposite goes for blue.

The visualization shows how earthquakes create waves of motion through the Earth's crust, just as a pebble tossed into a pond creates a ripple. "But in this case, the pond is North America," said John Taber, head of outreach for IRIS.
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Jonathan Leake
The Sunday Times
2007-03-29 09:37:00

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Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.

Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.

Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.

The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet's temperature.
Comment: Clearly, if both Earth and Mars are undergoing climate change simultaneously, an external factor is responsible for this.

Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!
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CBC.ca
2012-09-05 11:55:00
Highway 174 eastbound could be closed for days as sinkhole grows to size of 'Olympic pool'

An Ottawa man escaped a highway sinkhole, which has grown to the size of an "Olympic-sized pool", after his car was swallowed during afternoon rush hour yesterday. Juan Pedro Unger told CBC News he was driving home eastbound on Highway 174 in the east Ottawa community of Orleans when he saw a black patch ahead in his lane near the Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard exit.

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At first, Unger said, he thought it was a tarp. But when he discovered it was a large hole, it was too late to stop. "I couldn't make a radical manoeuvre, it could have caused an accident," he said. "I just tried to come to a stop, but I couldn't and it just sunk in."
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NBC News
2012-09-05 10:55:00

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A 3,600-acre fire in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles chewed through thick brush in steep terrain that hadn't burned in two decades amid hot, dry conditions.

But with no serious winds to whip it or push it, the fire made no move toward the Los Angeles suburbs to the south, remaining within the wilderness instead.

Because of the terrain and warm temperatures, it could take a week to contain the blaze, Incident Commander James Smith of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the Associated Press. It had burned about 5 1/2 square miles by late Tuesday. Containment was at 15 percent early Tuesday, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

In an effort to further contain the blaze, firefighters are facing steep terrain with dry brush that has not burned for 15 to 20 years.

"You're going to see an air show out there today," Nathan Judy, Angeles National Forest Fire Information Officer told NBCLosAngeles.com.
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NBC News
2012-09-05 10:10:00


A major earthquake hit northwestern Costa Rica on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake -- initially given a magnitude of 7.9 but then revised to 7.6 -- struck at 10:42 a.m. ET at a depth of about 25 miles and about seven miles southeast of Nicoya, a town of some 15,000 people on a coastal area on the Pacific about 90 miles from the capital San Jose.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, after initially issuing warnings for a much larger area.

"It is not known that a tsunami was generated. This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation. An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the PTWC said.
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US Geological Survey
2012-09-05 09:59:00

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Event Time:
2012-09-05 14:42:09 UTC
2012-09-05 08:42:09 UTC-06:00 at epicenter
2012-09-05 07:42:09 UTC-07:00 system time

Distances:
8km (5mi) NE of Samara, Costa Rica
24km (15mi) S of Nicoya, Costa Rica
38km (24mi) SSE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
68km (42mi) W of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
151km (94mi) W of San Jose, Costa Rica
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US Geological Survey
2012-09-05 08:46:00

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Event Time
2012-09-05 13:09:09 UTC
2012-09-06 00:09:09 UTC+11:00 at epicenter
2012-09-05 06:09:09 UTC-07:00 system time

Nearby Cities
196km (122mi) NW of Sola, Vanuatu
344km (214mi) NNW of Luganville, Vanuatu
613km (381mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
783km (487mi) ESE of Honiara, Solomon Islands
935km (581mi) N of We, New Caledonia
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The Extinction Protocol
2012-09-05 08:43:00
The Fuego volcano in central Guatemala is continuing to erupt, shooting lava and columns of ash into the air, and causing concerns of a possible ash cloud that could halt flights in the area. The volcano overlooks the tourist city of Antigua and is one of central America's most active volcanoes. Lava flows of around 1000m are being spewed out down the west and east sides of the volcano. No evacuations have been ordered, but aviation authorities have been alerted about a potential ash cloud, and air traffic is expected to be hindered. - AOL News

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The Extinction Protocol
2012-09-05 08:41:00

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The VIDN say on August 30, 2012: "The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency said that V.I. Alert subscribers who have noticed a recent increase in earthquake notifications from the service should not be alarmed. Between 3 a.m. Monday and continuing throughout the day Wednesday, more than 50 very minor to moderate earthquakes were recorded near Latitude 19 degrees north, north of the Virgin Islands, according to a statement VITEMA issued Wednesday. Those tremors included a 5.2-, 4.6- and 4.7-magnitude earthquake between 3 and 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Victor Huerfano, director of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, confirmed that the increase in earthquake activity is a swarm of tremors, a phenomenon that occurs four or five times a year in different parts of the Caribbean region, according to VITEMA. A swarm is defined as three or more earthquakes occurring within an hour, and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has been recording these instances since Saturday. "It is normal but we cannot say what it means," Huerfano said. "It is more important that we make sure we are calm and prepared, and that emergency systems are in place in case a major earthquake happens." The Virgin Islands is located in a seismically active region, which has a potential for a major earthquakes to occur at any time, according to VITEMA's statement." - VIDN
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TuoiTreNews.com
2012-09-05 08:36:00

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A series of tremors along with underground explosions that were heard from above and caused walls to crack occurred yesterday in the area of the Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant in Quang Nam Province's Bac Tra My District.

Experts at the plant are analyzing data collected from earthquake observation stations in the area but have yet to announce how powerful the quake was on the Richter scale, said Tran Van Hai, head of the Management Board of Hydropower Project 3.

The incident happened from 7 to 9 pm Monday at the Bac Tra My Town and several communes nearby, causing thousands of locals to rush out of their houses in panic after they heard loud blasts and found the ground shaken, houses' walls cracked and things inside the houses falling.

Ho Van Loi, chairman of the Tra Doc commune People's Committee said his house's floor was shaken five times during last night, with the most powerful seismic intensity occurring at 9 pm.
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Richard Wilcox
Counterpunch
2012-09-04 21:22:00

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A Deteriorating Situation
"End of the day, factory whistle cries, Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes" - Bruce Springsteen, Factory1

"Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss." - Fukushima official's request to Yakuza2

"TEPCO's involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue ... Nuclear energy shouldn't be in the hands of the yakuza. They're gamblers and an intelligent person doesn't want them to have atomic dice to play with." - Japanese Senator3
The technological issue of nuclear energy is intertwined with the exploitation of human labor in a hierarchy of interests, and how human labor is expended is an economic and moral issue. The Grand Scientific Project from the time of Francis Bacon up to the Manhattan Project of Oppenheimer and Fermi has been a dangerous gamble for humanity even though the advertised purpose is that progress is good.

The exploitation of labor at nuclear plants depends on the tools of social engineering, of government, mass media and schools. This is the hidden and shameful side of today's materialist society and belies our complicity in a criminalized culture.

Inefficient and corrupt employment practices at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) are prolonging the disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) outsources 90 percent of the work to subcontractors, mainly utilizing Japan's criminal syndicates, "the Yakuza." Japan is still a middle class society and most people will not volunteer for nuclear work. Japan risks running out of workers who have not exceeded their legal radiation limits.

Considered to be "Japan's largest organized crime group" - who are on the radar of the US Treasury Dept. (another big crime group)4 - the Yakuza offer a service to society by sopping up its losers and giving them a dodgy occupation.

Journalist Jake Adelstein, an expert on the Yakuza, risked his life as a reporter on the crime beat in Japan. Not because of shoot outs or knife fights, but because he had to take up smoking cigarettes in order to fit in with police and yakuza! These short video interviews offer a useful introduction into how the Yakuza operate5,6. Tepco's relationship with the Yakuza is a cesspool of corruption from the highest to the lowest levels in its organization. "A senior National Police Agency officer, speaking on grounds of anonymity said, 'TEPCO has a history of doing business with the yakuza that is far deeper than just using their labor' " (Op. cit. "The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia").
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Fire in the Sky
Patrick O'Sullivan
Hawkes Bay Today
2012-09-05 06:04:00

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Another witness to the "fireball with a tail" that appeared in Hastings skies on Tuesday last week has come forward, saying he's surprised no other witnesses have come forward.

Ross, who would not give his surname because "people will just think I'm mad" said he was sitting in his spa pool when he saw a huge orange/red fireball going toward Te Mata Peak.

"It was the most amazing thing I have seen in my 61 years," he said.

"I thought, shit. I yelled out to my wife but she just thought I was just ranting and raving as usual.

"I came racing out and said something is going to be on the news - something like that is going to cause a tidal wave or something. I rang up all my mates and they said, you've been taking drugs.
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space.com
2012-09-04 00:00:00

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Rare and mysterious clouds that are so bright they can be seen at night have mystified people since they were first observed more than a century ago, but scientists have now discovered a key cosmic ingredient for these night-shining clouds: "smoke" from meteors as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Blue-white clouds that eerily glow in the twilight sky are called noctilucent clouds, or NLCs. They typically form about 50 to 53 miles (80 and 85 kilometers) above ground in the atmosphere, at altitudes so high that they reflect light even after the sun has slipped below the horizon.

In a new study, scientists found that noctilucent clouds have an extraterrestrial link.
Comment: Indeed they are, they're telling us that something wicked this way comes...
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Health & Wellness
Wiley
2012-09-05 16:27:00
It has long been believed that drinking green tea is good for the memory. Now researchers have discovered how the chemical properties of China's favorite drink affect the generation of brain cells, providing benefits for memory and spatial learning. The research is published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

"Green tea is a popular beverage across the world," said Professor Yun Bai from the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China. "There has been plenty of scientific attention on its use in helping prevent cardiovascular diseases, but now there is emerging evidence that its chemical properties may impact cellular mechanisms in the brain."

Professor Bai's team focused on the organic chemical EGCG, (epigallocatechin-3 gallate) a key property of green tea. While EGCG is a known anti-oxidant, the team believed it can also have a beneficial effect against age-related degenerative diseases.

"We proposed that EGCG can improve cognitive function by impacting the generation of neuron cells, a process known as neurogenesis," said Bai. "We focused our research on the hippocampus, the part of the brain which processes information from short-term to long-term memory."
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Emily Sohn
Discovery News
2012-09-05 14:52:00

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Alongside the growing realization that football players often suffer numerous concussions that can permanently affect learning and memory, a new study suggests that NFL pros may also have an increased risk of dying from Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.

For the study, researchers looked at the health of nearly 3,500 National Football League players who had competed in at least five seasons between 1959 and 1988. The average age of the players was 57, and about 10 percent had died.

Of those, death certificates showed that NFL players were nearly four times more likely than the general population to die from Alzheimer's disease or Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS.

Seven of the 334 deceased players had Alzheimer's and seven had ALS, the researchers report today in the journal Neurology.
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Sacramento Bee
2012-09-05 16:30:00

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With the West Nile Virus outbreak set to be the worst in U.S. history, the nation's emergency physicians urge the public to take precautions now to protect from being infected.

"Right now, the CDC is seeing cases in practically every state in the country," said Dr. David Seaberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "This is a problem that affects everyone, everywhere. But simple steps can stand in the way of a person being infected with West Nile."

West Nile Virus, which is a disease spread by mosquitos, causes only mild, flu-like symptoms in 20 percent of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most people (about 4 out of 5) who are infected show no symptoms at all. But in rare cases, some will develop severe symptoms that can include high fever, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, vision loss, along with several others. It can cause permanent neurological damage and even death.

So far in 2012, 47 states have reported more than 1,100 cases West Nile cases, including 41 deaths, according to the CDC, with 75 percent of the cases reported in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota and Oklahoma.
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Elizabeth Weise
USA Today
2012-09-05 16:25:00

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Health officials report record numbers of West Nile virus this year, 2,118 cases and 92 deaths as of Wednesday, a jump of 25% from last week.

Cases will continue "probably into October," said Lyle Petersen, director of the division of vector-borne infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is the highest number of cases reported to CDC through the first week in September since West Nile virus was first detected in the United States."

There have been human cases in 44 states. The mosquito-borne disease is hitting Texas hardest, with 1,013 cases and 40 deaths - nine more than last week.

"2012 is now officially our worst year ever for West Nile disease," said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. The worst year before this was 2003, when Texas had 439 cases and 40 deaths, he said.
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Kathi Baker
Emory University
2012-09-03 12:55:00
Researchers at Emory University have found that a medication that inhibits inflammation may offer new hope for people with difficult-to-treat depression. The study was published Sept. 3 in the online version of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Inflammation is the body's natural response to infection or wounding, says Andrew H. Miller, MD, senior author for the study and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. "However when prolonged or excessive, inflammation can damage many parts of the body, including the brain."

Prior studies have suggested that depressed people with evidence of high inflammation are less likely to respond to traditional treatments for the disorder, including anti-depressant medications and psychotherapy. This study was designed to see whether blocking inflammation would be a useful treatment for either a wide range of people with difficult-to-treat depression or only those with high levels of inflammation.
Comment: The article fails to mention the obvious connection between inflammation and diet. Instead of inventing new biologic drugs to treat depression, better work on fixing with the core problem - diet high in carbohydrates, gluten, casein, and vegetables.

Depression - Caused by Inflammation, Thus Like Other Diseases of Civilization
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Sayer Ji
GreenMedINfo
2012-09-05 05:00:00

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You've heard for decades about the dangers of high cholesterol, but did you know that LOW cholesterol can lead to violence towards self and other, and has been linked to premature aging, death and other adverse health effects?

In a world gone mad with anti-cholesterol anxiety, and where gobbling down pharmaceuticals designed to poison the body into no longer synthesizing it is somehow considered sane behavior, it is refreshing to look at some of the research on the health benefits of cholesterol, or conversely, the dangers of low cholesterol.

Benefits of Cholesterol
  • Cholesterol Is Needed To Prevent Aggression: It has been known for almost 30 years that low serum cholesterol levels are associated with habitually violent tendencies of homicidal offenders under the influence of alcohol.[i] Since then, there are at least 8 other studies that have either confirmed or explored the cholesterol-violence link, including both violence towards self and other. One of the possible explanations for this association was discussed in an article published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1993: "One of the functions of serotonin in the central nervous system is the suppression of harmful behaviour impulses...Low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors. Since membrane cholesterol exchanges freely with cholesterol in the surrounding medium, a lowered serum cholesterol concentration may contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poorer suppression of aggressive behaviour".[ii] Not surprisingly, several reports have now surfaced on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs contributing to irritability and/or aggression.
  • Cholesterol Is Needed To Fight Cancer: The inverse relationship between cholesterol levels and the risk for a variety of cancers, and mortality associated with cancer, has been known about since the late 80's.[iii] Since then, the cholesterol-cancer connection has been confirmed over and over again. It is to be expected, therefore, that statin drug use would be linked with increased cancer incidence, which indeed it is.[iv] Even when you take so-called "bad" LDL-cholesterol and administer it to a culture of highly malignant, multi-drug resistant leukemia cells, the cells lose their resistance to chemotherapy. Not exactly what can be characterized as a "bad" substance, now is it? [v]
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Andy Coghlan
NewScientist
2012-09-05 10:47:00

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The fortunes of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) are about to be transformed with the help of the magical waters of homeopathic medicine. Top marks to The Telegraph's science writer Tom Chivers for quickly picking up on talk that the UK's new health minister, Jeremy Hunt - who replaced Andrew Lansley yesterday in a government reshuffle - thinks that homeopathy works, and should be provided at public expense by the NHS.

Since news of his appointment emerged, senior scientists have spoken up. John Krebs, professor of zoology at the University of Oxford, said: "There is overwhelming evidence that homeopathic medicine is not effective. It would be a real blow for those who want medicine to be science-based if the secretary of state were to promote homeopathy because of his personal beliefs."

Edzard Ernst, former director of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, UK, added: "To praise the positive contribution of homeopathy to the NHS does not bode well for the new person in charge of UK healthcare. One can only hope that with the reality of the new job, there will be a more rational insight in the actual evidence on this topic."

How did Hunt's views on homeopathy emerge? Firstly, he signed a parliamentary document called an Early Day Motion back in 2007, supporting the provision of homeopathic medicine by the NHS. Such motions are used routinely as barometers of parliamentary interest in issues - in this case, spending public money on treating people with aqueous solutions so diluted that they no longer contain a trace of the supposedly active ingredients they began with.

By signing the motion, along with 205 other MPs, Hunt agreed that parliament "welcomes the positive contribution made to the health of the nation by the NHS homeopathic hospitals", and "calls on the government [then Labour] to support these valuable national assets".
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:40:00
A new University of Wisconsin-Madison imaging study shows the brains of people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have weaker connections between a brain structure that controls emotional response and the amygdala, which suggests the brain's "panic button" may stay on due to lack of regulation.

Anxiety disorders are the most common class of mental disorders and GAD, which is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry, affects nearly 6 percent of the population.

Lead author Dr. Jack Nitschke, associate professor of psychiatry in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, says the findings support the theory that reduced communications between parts of the brain explains the intense anxiety felt by people with GAD.

In this case, two types of scans showed the amygdala, which alerts us to threat in our surroundings and initiates the "fight-or-flight" response, seems to have weaker "white matter" connections to the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the center of emotional regulation.

The researchers did two types of imaging -- diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) -- on the brains of 49 GAD patients and 39 healthy volunteers. Compared with the healthy volunteers, the imaging showed the brains of people with GAD had reduced connections between the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala via the uncinate fasciculus, a primary "white matter" tract that connects these brain regions. This reduced connectivity was not found in other white matter tracts elsewhere in their brains.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:33:00
Fanconi anemia is a recessive genetic disorder affecting 1 in 350,000 babies, which leaves cells unable to repair damaged DNA. This lack of repair puts Fanconi anemia patients at high risk for developing a variety of cancers, especially leukemias and head and neck cancer.

Cruelly, the condition also nixes the use of an entire class of cancer drugs, namely drugs like mitomycin C, by encouraging DNA to crosslink together like sticky strands of bread dough -- generally, healthy cells can repair a few crosslinks whereas cancer cells cannot and so are killed. However, Fanconi anemia patients are unable to repair the damage done to healthy or cancerous cells done by these drugs and so treatment with mitomycin C is frequently fatal.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study funded by the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund explored the effectiveness of a novel agent in preventing cancer in this population -- namely, resveratrol as found in red wine. The results of this study will be presented at the 24th annual Fanconi Anemia Research Fund Scientific Symposium, September 27-30 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Denver, Colo.

In fact, the findings may go far past Fanconi anemia.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:28:00
The rate of pregnancy-associated cancer is increasing and is only partially explained by the rise in older mothers suggests new research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

A large Australian study looked at 781,907 women who gave birth in New South Wales (NSW) between 1994 and 2008 which corresponds to 1,309,501 maternities. Women with pregnancy-associated cancer, where the initial diagnosis of cancer is made during pregnancy or within 12 months of delivery, are compared to women without cancer.

A total of 1,798 pregnancy-associated cancers were identified from the total number of maternities corresponding to an overall incidence rate of 137.3 per 100,000 maternities. The research found that between 1994 and 2008 the incidence rate of pregnancy-associated cancer increased from 112.3 to 191.5 per 100,000 maternities.

During this period maternal age also increased. The percentage of women aged 35 years and over increased from 13.2% to 23.6% in New South Wales.

Despite this the research found that only 14% of the increase was explained by increasing maternal age. The research looked at independent risk factors for pregnancy-associated cancer including older maternal age, Australian-born, socio-economic status, multiparity, multiple pregnancy and prior diagnosis of cancer.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:18:00
In about half of all prostate tumours, there are two genetic areas that are fused with one another. When this is not the case, the exact way cancer cells originate in prostate tumours was not clear until now.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, in cooperation with a team of international researchers, were able to show that the genesis of this fusion-negative prostate cancer has epigenetic causes: methyl groups are distributed differently over the DNA in the cancer cells than in healthy cells. Thanks to this knowledge, physicians may be able to achieve greater specificity in treating prostate tumours in future. In addition, the aberrant DNA methylations can be used as a potential biomarker for identifying prostate cancer.

About half of all cases of prostate cancer originate through fusion of two genetic areas. As a result, the ERG gene is activated in these fusion-positive cells and prostate cells propagate, leading to tumourigenesis. Fusion-positive prostate cancer can be treated with PARP1 inhibitors that turn off the repair system of the tumour cells.

However, it has not been clear how prostate tumours without a fused ERG gene acquire their tumourigenic potential. Now, a team of Max Planck scientists headed by Michal-Ruth Schweiger from the Department of Vertebrate Genomics have investigated the global DNA methylation pattern -- i.e. at which locations the DNA possesses methyl groups -- in fusion-negative tumours. They have discovered that, compared to fusion-positive tumours, the fusion-negative tumours display more aberrant DNA methylations, which are most likely causative for the malignant transformation of prostate cells.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:01:00
Children exposed in the womb to the widely used pesticide additive piperonyl butoxide (PBO) have heightened risk of noninfectious cough at ages 5 and 6, according to researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health and of Columbia University Medical Center.

The findings, which appear in the August 31 online edition of the journal Environment International, support the premise that the children's respiratory system is susceptible to damage from toxic exposures during the prenatal period. A common symptom, childhood cough can disrupt normal daytime activities and interrupt sleep for both child and parent.

Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is an organic compound used to bolster the effects of pyrethroid pesticides. Pyrethroids are the most commonly used pesticides for both professional pest control and non-professional residential use, according to a 2011 study by Mailman School researchers. Exposure to one pyrethroid, a variation of permethrin, was linked with increased risk for cough by age 5 in a 2009 study by Rachel Miller, MD. In the current study, Dr. Miller and colleagues sought to build on these findings by exploring the effects of subsequent exposure during childhood, looking specifically at the effects of PBO exposure.

Researchers looked at 224 mother-child pairs enrolled in the CCCEH birth cohort study of environmental exposures, examining measures of PBO and pyrethroid in personal air monitors worn by the mothers during pregnancy. Air samples also were collected from the home over the course of two weeks when children were between 5 and 6 years old. Questionnaires were used to evaluate respiratory outcomes.
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ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 12:58:00
Rheumatoid arthritis alone is painful and disabling, but it also puts patients at higher risk of death. The greater susceptibility to infections that accompanies the autoimmune disorder is one reason. Assessing the danger of infection a particular patient faces so it can be addressed can prove challenging for physicians. A Mayo Clinic study finds that a risk score can be developed to predict a patient's chances of having serious infections. The score uses information about how rheumatoid arthritis is affecting a patient, plus factors including age, corticosteroid use and the presence of other illnesses.

The findings are published online in the American College of Rheumatology journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Using the National Institutes of Health-funded Rochester Epidemiology Project, researchers studied medical records of 584 rheumatoid arthritis patients diagnosed between 1955 and 1994 and followed up on until January 2000. Of those, 252, or nearly half, had more than one serious infection requiring hospitalization and/or intravenous antibiotic; those 252 collectively racked up 646 infections.

The Mayo team developed an infection risk score based on those and other rheumatoid arthritis patients they studied. Factors in the calculation include age; previous serious infections; corticosteroid use; a low white blood cell count; elevated results in a blood test used to detect signs of inflammation, called an erythrocyte sedimentation rate; signs of rheumatoid arthritis outside joints; and the presence of other serious conditions such as heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, lung disease, vascular disease and alcoholism. They confirmed the usefulness of the risk score in a second group of patients with rheumatoid arthritis from the same population.
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Michelle Roberts
BBC News
2012-09-04 19:49:00

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Experts say more research is needed into a disease spread by cats after figures show an estimated 350,000 people a year in the UK become infected with toxoplasmosis.

Although only a minority of people - between one and two in every 10 - has symptoms, advisers say extra measures to control the disease may be needed.

The disease is spread by direct contact with cats or eating contaminated food.

The Food Standards Agency has released an official report.

Cat owners are assured that the risks can be managed with good basic hygiene and common sense.
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Science of the Spirit
ScienceDaily
2012-09-05 13:52:00

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"Give sorrow words." -- Malcolm in Shakespeare's "Macbeth"

Can simply describing your feelings at stressful times make you less afraid and less anxious?

A new UCLA psychology study suggests that labeling your emotions at the precise moment you are confronting what you fear can indeed have that effect.
The psychologists asked 88 people with a fear of spiders to approach a large, live tarantula in an open container outdoors. The participants were told to walk closer and closer to the spider and eventually touch it if they could.

The subjects were then divided into four groups and sat in front of another tarantula in a container in an indoor setting. In the first group, the subjects were asked to describe the emotions they were experiencing and to label their reactions to the tarantula -- saying, for example, "I'm anxious and frightened by the ugly, terrifying spider."

"This is unique because it differs from typical procedures in which the goal is to have people think differently about the experience -- to change their emotional experience or change the way they think about it so that it doesn't make them anxious," said Michelle Craske, a professor of psychology at UCLA and the senior author of the study. "Here, there was no attempt to change their experience, just to state what they were experiencing."
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High Strangeness
Craig Woolheater
Cryptomundo
2012-09-04 09:54:00
Using DNA to track the mythical yeti

Tales of the giant, mountain-dwelling yeti have been told for decades, but is it just a myth or does the creature exist? To get answers, Oxford professor Brian Sykes is using DNA analysis to test material connected to the yeti. NBC's Keith Miller reports.

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Jordan Bontke
KCEN TV
2012-09-03 10:09:00

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If a pipe breaks you call a plumber, if your car breaks down you take it to a mechanic, so who do you call if you think your house is haunted?

One store is actually selling what they believe is a haunted piece of furniture.

Consignment Furniture in Waco has a couch from the 50's they say erased information from a computer and possibly even caused a death.

When it comes to paranormal activity, there are two types of people, believers and skeptics.

Dean McNeil is a believer.

"My close friend of 30 years, he passed away not long after we took in the couch, it's a bad luck couch," says McNeil co-owner of Consignment Furniture.

He believes this sofa, with three cushions and six legs, is more than just that.

So he brought in the McLennan County Paranormal Investigators to see if they could answer some questions.
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National Atomic Testing Museum
2012-09-05 02:02:00

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Source: National Atomic Testing Museum (PDF)