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Lisa Guliani
Sott.net 2012-10-21 06:34:00
Before leaving for work this morning, I posted a report on my FB profile about the Estelle, a humanitarian aid ship en route to Gaza, which was surrounded and stopped by the Israeli military, having come so close to its final destination. In the report, I read the following comment made by a Senior Israeli Defense Ministry official: We are constantly subjected to similar language coming from the Israeli political leadership regarding who 'hates' Israel. According to the mouthpieces for the Israeli |
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Tyler Durden
Zerohedge 2012-10-21 13:22:00
The last time we checked on the (funding) status of America's real presidential race - the one where America's uber-wealthy try to outspend each other in hopes of purchasing the best president money can buy - the totals were substantially lower. With November 6 rapidly approaching, however, the scramble to lock in those record political lobbying IRRs is in its final lap. And thanks to the unlimited nature of PAC spending, look for the spending to really go into overdrive in the next 2 weeks as the spending frenzy on the world's greatest tragicomedy hits previously unseen heights. |
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Bruce E. Levine
ZMagazine 2012-10-20 10:10:00
By the 1980s, as a clinical psychology graduate student, it had become apparent to me that the psychology profession was increasingly about meeting the needs of the "power structure" to maintain the status quo so as to gain social position, prestige, and other rewards for psychologists. Academic psychology in the 1970s was by no means perfect. There was a dominating force of manipulative, control-freak behaviorists who appeared to get their rocks off conditioning people as if they were rats in a maze. However, there was also a significant force of people such as Erich Fromm who believed that an authoritarian and undemocratic society results in alienation and that this was a source of emotional problems. Fromm was concerned about mental health professionals helping people to adjust to a society with no thought to how dehumanizing that society had become. Back then, Fromm was not a marginalized figure; his ideas were taken seriously. He had bestsellers and had appeared on national television. However, by the time I received my PhD in 1985 - from an American Psychological Association-approved clinical psychology program - people with ideas such as Fromm's were at the far margins. By then, the focus was on the competition as to what treatment could get patients back on the assembly line quickest. The competition winners that emerged - owing much more to public relations than science - were cognitive-behavioral therapy in psychology and biochemical psychiatry. By the mid-1980s, psychiatry was beginning to become annexed by pharmaceutical companies and forming what we now have - a "psychiatric-pharmaceutical industrial complex." Increasingly marginalized was the idea that treatment that consisted of manipulating and medicating alienated people to adjust to this crazy rat race and thus maintain the status quo was a political act - a problematic one for people who cared about democracy. |
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John Vidal
The Guardian 2012-10-13 05:38:00
World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year, the United Nations has warned. Failing harvests in the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has experienced record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to consume in the next year, says the UN. "We've not been producing as much as we are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year," said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). With food consumption exceeding the amount grown for six of the past 11 years, countries have run down reserves from an average of 107 days of consumption 10 years ago to under 74 days recently. |
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| Puppet Masters |
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RT
2012-10-22 17:00:00
Pro-government militias intercept food, fuel and medicine and use grad rockets and gas weapons against Bani Walid, a man whose family remains in the town told RT. He claims the daily shelling of the town is Misrata militias' attempt to eliminate it. Several hundreds of Bani Walid natives marched to the seat of the national parliament in Tripoli on Sunday to protest the assault on their home town, which has been continuing for over two weeks. The protesters demanded a peaceful solution to "the tribal war that is happening in the town." The demonstrators, however, failed to enter the parliament, being dispersed by guards firing rounds into the air. Pro-government forces and militias besieged the hilltop town of Bani Walid following the death of former rebel Omran Shaban. Shaban is credited for capturing the country's ex-leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in October 2011. The Warfalla tribe controlling Bani Walid has been accused of kidnapping and torturing the former rebel. |
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Sheldon Richman
The Future of Freedom Foundation 2012-10-19 16:39:00
Those are the understated opening words of a disturbing, though unsurprising, nine-month study of the Obama administration's official, yet unacknowledged, remote-controlled bombing campaign in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan, near Afghanistan. The report, "Living Under Drones," is a joint effort by the New York University School of Law's Global Justice Clinic and Stanford Law School's International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic. The NYU/Stanford report goes beyond reporting estimates of the civilian casualties inflicted by the deadly and illegal U.S. campaign. It also documents the hell the Pakistanis endure under President Barack Obama's policy, which includes a "kill list" from which he personally selects targets. That hell shouldn't be hard to imagine. Picture yourself living in an area routinely visited from the air by pilotless aircraft carrying Hellfire missiles. This policy is hardly calculated to win friends for the United States. Defenders of the U.S. campaign say that militants in Pakistan threaten American troops in Afghanistan as well as Pakistani civilians. Of course, there is an easy way to protect American troops: bring them home. The 11-year-long Afghan war holds no benefits whatever for the security of the American people. On the contrary, it endangers Americans by creating hostility and promoting recruitment for anti-American groups. |
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Wendy McElroy
The Future of Freedom Foundation 2012-10-14 16:24:00
According to Homeland Security Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has forged "a new partnership" with "the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Amtrak to battle the trafficking of humans." DHS will train "over 8,000 frontline transportation employees and Amtrak Police Department officers" on how to recognize and report trafficking indicators and suspected traffickers. Those frontline employees include anyone who comes into regular contact with the public, including ticket sellers. If Wikipedia can be trusted, there are currently about 450 Amtrak police who handle law enforcement and security for the government-owned passenger train system. Soon, over 8,000 Amtrak employees will overtly or covertly examine passengers for the validity of their identification, their level of stress, how they interact, and their conversations. It is so necessary to treat Amtrak customers as criminal suspects because, according to HS Today, an "estimated 100,000 children are trafficked in the sex trade in the United States each year," with the average age being 11 to 14, and some being as young as 9. This means that passengers - and especially men - traveling with children will be subject to enhanced scrutiny. Perhaps the trained employees will engage children in conversation or demand a statement of their relationship status with the accompanying adults. |
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Tom Kelly, Paul Revoir and Emily Allen
Daily Mail, UK 2012-10-22 15:33:00
David Cameron has today demanded answers over the Jimmy Savile scandal as the BBC admitted the editor of Newsnight's excuses for canning the TV investigation were 'misleading'. The Prime Minister said the nation was 'appalled' by the allegations about the DJ which he said 'seem to get worse by the day'. He called on every organisation involved with the star to get to the bottom of the alleged abuse and work out how it was allowed to happen. His comments come as the BBC revealed today that it knew about allegations of abuse on its premises. The Corporation issued a statement this morning admitting parts of a blog, written by editor Peter Rippon explaining why he canned the Newsnight investigation into the scandal, were 'inaccurate'. | |
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Comment: Right, so the BBC is going to investigate itself?
They have no other choice than to try and keep a lid on things, of course. The alternative is to lift the lid on the inter-connected pedophile networks that control the world. |
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itobin53
AllVoices.com 2012-10-22 14:15:00
Tagg Romney, the son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has purchased electronic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington and Colorado. "Late last month, Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis at FreePress.org broke the story of the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital investment team involved in H.I.G. Capital which, in July of 2011, completed a "strategic investment" to take over a fair share of the Austin-based e-voting machine company Hart Intercivic," according to independent journalist Brad Friedman. But Friedman is not the only one to discover the connection between the Romney family, Bain Capital, and ownership of voting machines. |
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Dan Sabbagh and Josh Halliday
The Guardian 2012-10-22 15:22:00
Corporation says Peter Rippon blogpost is 'inaccurate or incomplete in some respects' and makes multiple corrections Newsnight editor, Peter Rippon, is to step aside, as the BBC was forced to admit that his programme was aware of allegations that Jimmy Savile had abused teenagers on the corporation's premises and had unearthed information not previously known to the police . The BBC said that Rippon's initial explanation as to why he killed off a Newsnight investigation into Savile in December of last year was "inaccurate or incomplete in some respects". The corporation has made three corrections to a blogpost written by Rippon, which was published on 2 October,when the Savile abuse allegations first became public. In one correction, the BBC said that Rippon was wrong to write "we found no evidence against the BBC". In fact, the Newsnight team had uncovered "some allegations of abusive conduct on BBC premises" - although there was "no allegation" that BBC staff were aware of Mr Savile's alleged activities. | |
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Comment: Are we starting to understand why the mainstream media doesn't report about the psychopathic pedophile networks in power?
Beyond the Dutroux Affair: The reality of protected child abuse and snuff networks in a world ruled by psychopaths |
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Kim Sengupta
The Independent 2012-09-14 13:02:00
The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal. American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential. The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe". Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts. According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted. |
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Bob Downing
Ohio.com 2012-10-22 12:56:00
Fracking Has the USGS Been Co-opted? Known for its objective and scientifically rigorous research, the USGS has been pulled into the battle between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry. One skirmish in the larger battle involves the radioactive gas radon in natural gas, and the potential of radon entering consumers' homes through kitchen stoves. When stove burners are turned on, radon, a gas that does not burn, enters a home or apartment. This potential hazard has appeared in the New York City press (The Villager, "A burning issue about pipeline: Will gas pack radon?", October 11, 2012) and energized battles against the Spectra pipeline from Jersey City into New York under the Hudson River. The pipeline would bring natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania and New York State into New York City. In response to a scientific article I authored calculating the possible radon concentrations at the wellhead (Marcellus Radon - Ethics) that has been picked up by the anti-fracking movement, the USGS sought to measure the actual radon concentrations at the wellhead. Preliminary data for two wells allegedly down to the Marcellus shale formation and other wells in Pennsylvania were published by the USGS in September 2012 ("Radon-222 Content of Natural Gas Samples from Upper and Middle Devonian Sandstone and Shale Reservoirs in Pennsylvania: Preliminary Data," Rowan, E.L. and Kraemer, T.F., USGS Open-File Report Series 2012-1159.) |
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Deliberate Security Failure? British firm secured Benghazi consulate contract with little experience
Damien McElroy, Richard Spencer and Raf Sanchez
The Telegraph 2012-10-14 12:55:00
A small British firm based in south Wales had secured a contract to provide security for American diplomatic facilities in Benghazi despite having only a few months experience in the country. Sources have told the Daily Telegraph that just five unarmed locally hired Libyans were placed on duty at the compound on eight-hour shifts under a deal that fell outside the State Department's global security contracting system. Blue Mountain, the Camarthen firm that won a $387,000 (£241,000) one year contract from the US State Department to protect the compound in May, sent just one British employee, recruited from the celebrity bodyguard circuit, to oversee the work. The compound was overrun by a mob of Islamic extremists on the morning of September 12 in an apparent planned attack that resulted in the death by asphyxiation of the ambassador, Chris Stevens. Blue Mountain, which is run by a former member of the SAS, received paper work to operate in Libya last year following the collapse of Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime. It worked on short term contacts to guard an expatriate housing compound and a five-star hotel in Tripoli before landing the prestigious US deal. Other firms in the security industry expressed surprise that Blue Mountain had won a large, high profile contract from the US government. One industry executive said the level of service Blue Mountain provided did not appear adequate to the risks presented by a lawless city. |
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BBC News
2012-10-22 06:39:00
Two convicted women from the Russian punk band Pussy Riot are on their way to two prison camps far from home, their lawyers and supporters say. Conditions are reported to be tough at the camps, in Perm and Mordovia, east of Moscow. Those areas were used for mass prison colonies in the Soviet era. Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were jailed for two years each in August for singing a crude anti-Kremlin song in a cathedral. The jail sentence was widely condemned. They were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" over the obscenity-laced "punk prayer" they performed in Moscow's main cathedral, Christ the Saviour, on 21 February. Two lawyers and activists in the protest group Voina reported the young women's transfer to the camps, far to the east of Moscow, on Monday. Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov is a member of Voina. On Twitter the Pussy Riot group said on Monday: "At the weekend Nadya [Tolokonnikova] was sent on a special flight to Mordovia, while Masha [Alyokhina] was sent to Perm region. Those are cruellest camps of any that could have been chosen." |
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Los Angeles Times
2012-10-22 03:29:00
Ramallah, West Bank - Amid a lackluster voter turnout, Palestinians largely elected the dominant Fatah Party to represent them in local councils throughout the West Bank, election officials said Sunday. But rather than strengthening Fatah's credibility as its leaders had hoped, the election -- the first municipal poll held since 2005 -- exposed internal party divisions and a deep public apathy. Only about 55% of eligible voters went to the polls Saturday, down from 70% when municipal elections were last held seven years ago. Analysts said the low turnout reflected a public frustration over the lack of new leaders and choices. Fatah's main rival -- the Islamist party Hamas, which controls Gaza Strip -- boycotted the West Bank election, saying its members were being harassed. No voting occurred in Gaza. |
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Simon Tomlinson
Daily Mail, UK 2012-10-21 00:00:00
The youngest son of Colonel Gaddafi has reportedly been killed during fighting a year to the day after the former Libyan leader's death. There are conflicting accounts about whether Khamis Gaddafi was killed during conflict or fatally wounded and later died. Libyan national congress spokesman, Omar Hamdan, said the 28-year-old died 'in battle' but gave no further details. His body is said to have been found yesterday after fierce fighting between pro-Gaddafi forces and militias allied to the Libyan government in the town of Bani Walid. The Al Arabiya news agency, however, has been cited on NBC News as saying that sources claim Khamis Gaddafi was found seriously injured, arrested and later died. |
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The Guardian, UK
2012-10-22 03:01:00
Russia's top anti-terrorism agency announces deaths days after Vladimir Putin led meeting of country's security council. Russian security forces have killed 49 militants in an operation across the North Caucasus region, where rebels are fighting to carve out an Islamic state, Russia's top anti-terrorism body has said. The agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for law enforcement agencies operating in the region, gave no time period for the operation, which was launched days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, led a meeting of the country's security council. Putin has pushed the North Caucasus insurgency, rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya, back to the forefront of national politics. He has told security forces to ensure that militants do not launch attacks on the 2014 Winter Olympics and other high-profile events planned in Russia. |
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The Washington Times
2012-10-20 00:00:00
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the 55-year-old filmmaker responsible for the anti-Muslim video that President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice initially and wrongly blamed for inciting the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, is still being held at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) without bond. It has been almost one month since Mr. Nakoula was arrested for allegedly violating the terms of his probation for a 2010 bank-fraud conviction. According to reports, under his probation, Mr. Nakoula was prohibited from using computers and the internet without supervision. According to ABC News: Nakoula had met with federal probation officers on Sept. 14 about whether his involvement in the film violated the terms of his probation, which barred him from accessing the internet without prior approval and from using any name other than his legal name.Nakoula told authorities he was involved in the film and asked law enforcement for help in regards to death threats he received since the film surfaced online. "Nakoula was ordered detained -- held without bond -- by a federal judge, who determined he posed a flight risk," said Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Mr. Nakoula's next court date is on November 9, three days after the presidential election. In the meantime, while the Obama administration passes blame around over who dropped the ball with the attack in Benghazi, Mr. Nakoula remains locked up and muzzled in a Los Angeles detention center until after the ballots for president are counted on November 6. |
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Manuel Rueda
abc News 2012-10-17 00:00:00
A Colombian prostitute that gave the U.S. Secret Service a headache this spring, is once again making headlines around the world. Escort Dania Londoño has announced plans to publish a book, called Room Service, in which she talks about the sex scandal that shook the U.S. Secret Service prior to President Obama's visit to Cartagena, Colombia in April of this year. In Room Service, Londoño reveals the details of a sex party staged by at least 10 agents of the U.S. Secret Service and 8 members of the U.S. military who picked up girls in Cartagena brothels, and took them to their hotel, just two days before President Obama arrived in town for the Summit of the Americas. Londoño claims that one of the agents offered her $800 for her sexual services that night. But when this agent -- whose name Londoño can't remember -- refused to pay up, the escort girl formed a ruckus at Cartagena's Hotel Caribe, which led local police to look into all the misbehavior that was going on that night. Several members of the Secret Service resigned following the incident, which sparked a congressional investigation. |
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| Society's Child |
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Sanjay Pandey
In a shocking incident reflecting prevalence of superstitions, a
10-year-old child was allegedly sacrificed in Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli
district by some people, in their bid to trace a 'hidden treasure' to
become rich.Deccan Herald 2012-10-22 13:35:00 The child, Aman Kumar went missing from his house at Jamunapur village in the district on October 6. He had gone to see Ramlila but never returned home. His body was recovered from a ditch outside the village a few days ago. There were injury marks all over the body. A red colour cloth, incense sticks and other articles were found near the body. It prompted police to suspect sacrifice after an exorcism attempt. On Saturday, police claim to crack the mystery and arrested three persons, including a woman, all residents of the same village. During interrogation, they revealed that they had been told about a hidden treasure in their house by a tantrik - an exorcist. "We were told that if we sacrificed a child, we would be able to find the treasure," they said. The arrested said they had lured Aman to their house on October 6 night. They tied him with rope and gagged him so that he could not shout for help. He was allegedly strangled during the ritual. They dumped the body in a ditch. Police recovered Aman's hair from the house. The killers kept digging for the elusive 'hidden treasure' after murdering the child but could not find. Incidents of sacrifice keep happening in the state, especially in the rural areas, though the urban areas are no exceptions. |
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David Mielach
BusinessNewsDaily 2012-10-22 11:16:00
Missing work to take care of sick kids is a significant challenge to the work-life balance of parents. In fact, it poses such a challenge that 1 in 3 parents say they are concerned about losing their jobs or pay when they have to stay home to take care of their sick children, new research has found. "The results of this poll clearly indicate that illnesses that lead to exclusions from child care are a substantial problem for working parents," said Andrew Hashikawa, a clinical lecturer in pediatric emergency medicine at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., which conducted the research."Improving employee benefits related to paid sick leave appears to be important for many parents." The researchers found that almost half of parents say they had to miss work in the last year to take care of their sick children, while one-quarter of parents say they had to miss three or more days. An additional 31 percent of parents say they don't have enough paid sick time to cover the days needed to take care of ailing children. |
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Harumi Ozawa
2012-10-22 00:00:00
Tokyo - Local lawmakers in Okinawa passed a resolution Monday expressing "overwhelming indignation" at the alleged rape of a Japanese woman by two US servicemen, as temperatures rose over the large US presence. The resolution, passed unanimously by the island chain's assembly, said US military top brass were not doing enough to control their thousands of personnel. "Yet another incident has taken place. In fact, the severity of the incidents is intensifying," it said. "With overwhelming indignation, we must question the present efforts of the US Forces to prevent such incidents from happening." The arrest last week of two 23-year-old sailors for the alleged rape of a local woman worsened already strained ties between the large US military contingent and their reluctant island hosts. The resolution said more than 5,700 crimes had been committed by US military personnel, their family members or employees in the 40 years since the small tropical island chain was handed back to Japan in 1972. Figures from the Okinawa prefectural police show the percentage of crimes committed by this group has fallen from a high in 1973 of 6.9 percent of all crimes to 0.8 percent in 2011. |
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Jamey Keaten
The Associated Press 2012-10-20 02:40:00
Paris - A correspondent for France 24 TV was "savagely attacked" near Cairo's Tahrir Square after being seized by a crowd, the network said Saturday. It was the latest case of violence against women at the epicenter of Egypt's restive protests. The news channel said in a statement that Sonia Dridi was attacked around 10:30 p.m. Friday after a live broadcast on a protest at the square and was later rescued by a colleague and other witnesses. France 24 did not give further details about the attack, but it said its employees were safe and sound, though "extremely shocked," and that it will file suit against unspecified assailants. The network, which receives state funds but has editorial independence, said it and the French Embassy were working to bring Dridi back to France. "More frightened than hurt," wrote Dridi in French on her Twitter page Saturday. Referring in English to a colleague, she tweeted: "Thanks to (at)ashrafkhalil for protecting me in (hash)Tahrir last nite. Mob was pretty intense. thanks to him I escaped from the unleashed hands." Ashraf Khalil, who works with France 24's English language service, said the crowd was closing in on him and Dridi while they were doing live reports on a side street off Tahrir. He said the attack and rescue took about half an hour, but it felt like a lot longer. |
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France 24
2012-10-20 00:00:00
Tens of thousands of people marched through London and other British cities on Saturday in protest against spending cuts by Prime Minister David Cameron's struggling coalition government. Marchers carried signs reading "No cuts" and "Cameron has butchered Britain," condemning the austerity measures introduced by Cameron's Conservative-led coalition in a bid to reduce Britain's huge deficit. Police said the main march was peaceful, but two people were arrested as breakaway anarchist groups protested outside major companies including McDonald's and Starbucks in the Oxford Street shopping hub. Scotland Yard did not provide an estimate for the turnout on the three-mile (4.8-kilometre) march route but organisers said police had told them that around 100,000 people attended. "This is not a crisis that is going to sort itself out through cuts," 19-year-old protester Jonathan told AFP. "We've had a double-dip recession now, and we are here today to show we are not going to stand it any longer." In Scotland's biggest city Glasgow around 5,000 people took part in a separate protest while there was also a march in Belfast, Northern Ireland. |
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Audrey McAvoy
The Associated Press 2012-10-19 06:20:00
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii -- Hawaii is a paradise for most visitors. But it was Wade Hicks Jr.'s prison for five days. The 34-year-old from Gulfport, Miss., was stranded in the islands this week after being told he was on the FBI's no-fly list during a layover for a military flight from California to Japan. The episode left Hicks scrambling to figure out how he'd get home from Hawaii without being able to fly. Then he was abruptly removed from the list on Thursday with no explanation. It also raised questions beyond how he landed on the list: How could someone on a list intelligence officials use to inform counterterrorism investigations successfully fly standby on an Air Force flight? Hicks said he was traveling to visit his wife, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who's deployed in Japan. He hitched a ride on the military flight as is common for military dependents, who are allowed to fly on scheduled routes when there's room. Hicks said that during his layover at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent told him he was on the no-fly list and wouldn't be allowed on a plane. |
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Doug Stanglin
USA Today 2012-10-18 02:11:00
City buses in Baltimore will begin recording the conversations of bus drivers and passengers this week in a security move that has upset privacy advocates and some Maryland lawmakers, the Baltimore Sun reports. The first 10 buses will be expanded to 340 by next summer as a result of a decision by the Maryland Transit Administration. The MTA says the move is aimed at helping investigate crimes, accidents and poor customer service, according to the Sun. The conversations will be recorded by a locked "black box" that can store up to 30 days of audio and video information. It could be opened in the event of an accident, an incident involving a passenger or a complaint against a driver, the newspaper says. The buses will be also marked with signs to alert passengers to the open mics. |
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RT
2012-10-17 21:26:00
Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, has admitted to using underage interns in factories in China, employing children as young as 14. It's the latest in the string of scandals surrounding the company's activity in the country. The violation was revealed during a Foxconn probe over various media reports, which said that interns from 14 to 16 were working at the plant in the eastern Shandong province for about three weeks. The company's administration admitted in a statement that their investigation "has shown that the interns in question ... had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks." The employers were in fact breaching national law, which states the working age starts at 16. |
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abc News
2012-10-22 00:00:00
Inglewood, California - A man found dead at the property where five members of a Southern California family were shot - two fatally - was wearing body armor, clutching a handgun and had a bullet hole in his head, authorities said Sunday. The loaded handgun was a .38 caliber revolver registered to 55-year-old Desmond John Moses, who lived in a bungalow set ablaze before the deadly shooting spree at his neighbor's house in Inglewood, said Police Lt. James Madia. The body, burned beyond recognition, was found inside the bungalow late Saturday and an autopsy will determine whether it is Moses. The dead man had "what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head" and carried additional ammunition in his pockets, a police statement said. He was wearing "bullet-resistant body armor," the statement said. The shooting rampage before dawn Saturday killed 33-year-old Filimon Lamas and his 4-year-old son. The father was shielding two of his children when he was shot, Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta said. Lamas' 28-year-old wife, Gloria Jiminez, was shot in both legs but managed to carry the wounded 4-year-old out of the house. Paramedics found her collapsed on the street. The child, who suffered a bullet wound to the head, died at a hospital. |
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Daily Mail, UK
2012-10-21 00:00:00
Pennsylvania - A nine-year-old girl was accidentally shot outside a home during a Halloween party by a relative who thought she was a skunk. The child was over a hillside and wearing a black costume and a black hat with a white tassel, according to police in western Pennsylvania. Chief Ronald Leindecker says a male relative mistook her for a skunk and fired a shotgun, hitting her in the shoulder on Saturday night. The girl, who has not been identified, was alert and talking when she was flown to hospital in Pittsburgh, about 30 miles away from the home in New Sewickley Township. Her condition was unavailable. The relative who shot her hadn't been drinking and it is not known if he will be charged. The investigation is ongoing and has been turned over to the district attorney's office, authorities said. Source: The Associated Press |
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ABC News
2012-10-21 17:29:00
The man suspected of shooting up a Wisconsin spa, killing three women and injuring four others, later shot and killed himself, police said. Authorities spent the afternoon methodically searching the Azana Salon & Spa in Brookfield, Wisc., in a hunt for Radcliffe Haughton, 45. The search of the 9,000 square foot, two story spa was hampered when authorities found what they believed was a bomb. An urgent manhunt was launched for Haughton, but his body was discovered inside the spa, police said. "The only individual we were seeking has been found and we believe him to be deceased by a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Brookfield Police spokesman Daniel Tushaus said. The shooting erupted 11:09 a.m CT in Brookfield, and shortly after SWAT teams surrounded the spa with their guns drawn, preparing for a tactical situation. Witnesses described screaming women, at least one bleeding, fleeing the spa, with one rolling down a slight hill before police scooped her up and got her out of the area. A "be on the lookout" alert was issued for Haughton. Hours later, a black 2003 Mazda driven by the suspect was recovered outside of Brookfield, however police declined to say where it was found. Authorities swarmed Haughton's home in the suburb, Brown Deer, and sent in a robot to search the residence, ABC News' affiliateWISN reported. |
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RT
2012-10-21 00:00:00
At least seven people have been injured in a shooting spree at a spa near a mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a hospital spokeswoman says. Officials said this is a "mass casualty" situation, local WISN 12 News reports. The shooter remains at large. The shooting occurred at 11:00 am local time on Sunday at the Azana Day Spa near the Brookfield Square Mall., Police told Fox6 News. A spokeswoman at the local Froedtert Hospital says it has received four patients from the shooting, none critical, and expects three more. Area hospitals have been put on alert as more casualties could be coming, though Froedtert said they were unaware of any other local hospitals taking in patients. The identities of the shooting victims have not been released. Authorities are looking for a suspect described as a heavy-set, bald black male in military fatigues who is possibly driving a a 2003 Black Mazda. Other witnesses believe the shooter might still be in the area, possibly in the mall. Several roads in the area have been blocked off and police are holding tactical positions at the scene of the shooting. At least 16 emergency vehicles have been dispatched to the scene. The Brookfield Square Mall and an adjacent country club were initially put on lockdown. As of 1:20 PM local time, however, people were allowed to leave the mall. Several entrances at hte Froedtert Hospital have been blocked off as the location of the shooter remains unknown. Milwaukee FBI spokesman Leonard Peace told AP its SWAT team, hostage negotiators, command staff and victims specialists had been dispatched to respond to the shooting. ATF spokesman Robert Schmidt said 10 agents were at the scene. The area was also swept for bombs. |
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Elizabeth Day
The Observer 2012-10-20 06:15:00
It reads like a real-life Scandinavian crime novel. In the 1990s, Thomas Quick confessed to more than 30 murders, making him Sweden's most notorious serial killer. Then, he changed his name and revealed his confessions were all faked Sture Bergwall resides in a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane three hours' drive north of Stockholm. A high wire fence circles the building. CCTV cameras track the movements of the outside world. The narrow windows - some of them barred - are smudged with dirt and thick with double-glazed glass. In order to visit, you must enter through a succession of automatically locking doors and walk through an airport-style security gate. You must leave your mobile phone in a specially provided locker and hand over your passport in return for an ID tag and a panic alarm. Two members of staff, wearing plastic clogs that squeak across the linoleum, escort you through the corridors. In the visitors' room, Bergwall sits straight-backed on a small red chair, dim light glinting off rectangular-framed spectacles, his feet planted slightly apart in grey socks and Velcro-strapped sandals. He has been a patient in Säter hospital since 1991 and although he is 62, the flesh on his hands is still pink and unworn, the result, one imagines, of a lack of exposure to sunlight. His hair - what is left of it - is white. |
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BBC
2012-10-17 05:19:00
Greece's far-right party, Golden Dawn, won 18 parliamentary seats in the June election with a campaign openly hostile to illegal immigrants - and there are now allegations that some Greek police are supporting the party. Last week Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros led a demonstration that closed down a performance of the Terence McNally play, Corpus Christi. As police stood by, apparently oblivious, Mr Panagiotaros was filmed shouting racist and homophobic insults at the director of the play, and the actors cowering inside the Chyterio Theatre. Newsnight's Paul Mason reports from Athens. |
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David Edwards
The Raw Story 2012-10-19 08:05:00
Tea party-backed Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) suggested on Thursday that exceptions to abortion bans were not necessary to protect the mother's health because science had advanced to the point that pregnant women can't die. In their final debate before the November election, Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth noted that Walsh did not support "exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother" and he "would let a woman die rather than give a doctor the option to save her life." | |
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Comment: The ignorance of these psychopaths is truly stunning!
Maternal mortality shames superpower U.S. U.S. maternal death rate higher than Europe's Rape victims are More - not less - likely to get pregnant |
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| Secret History |
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No new articles. |
| Science & Technology |
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Randy Astaiza
Business Insider 2012-10-22 14:39:00
The data keeps mounting to suggest that the development of cooking played an integral part in human evolution and the development of intelligence. The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, shows that the diet of ancient humans and primates imposes a tradeoff between body size and the number of brain cells the body can support. Generally, larger animals have larger brains, but primates are different. The largest primates, like the gorilla, do not have the largest brains - humans do. Our brains are about three times larger than those of orangutans or gorillas. Big brains Humans first developed their big brains about 2 million years ago, around the same time we developed fire and cooking, though the evidence for fire is limited until about 1 million years ago. Cooking and processing food helps our bodies get more calories from it. The researchers, led by Suzana Herculano-Houzel of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, wondered if this difference in diet could have led humans down the path to big brains. They analyzed data on body size and feeding habits from 11 primate species. They found that our diet sets humans apart from the primate pack. Primates that only eat uncooked food need more to get the same amounts of energy - cooking the food helps make the calories more accessible to our digestive systems. This means humans eat less and invest less time in eating and hunting, which not only helped us develop culture but let our brains think harder, the researchers suggest. |
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Erin Wayman
Smithsonianmag.com 2012-10-22 14:48:00
Everyone's heard of the A, B, AB and O blood types. When you get a blood transfusion, doctors have to make sure a donor's blood type is compatible with the recipient's blood, otherwise the recipient can die. The ABO blood group, as the blood types are collectively known, are ancient. Humans and all other apes share this trait, inheriting these blood types from a common ancestor at least 20 million years ago and maybe even earlier, claims a new study published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But why humans and apes have these blood types is still a scientific mystery. The ABO blood group was discovered in the first decade of the 1900s by Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner. Through a series of experiments, Landsteiner classified blood into the four well-known types. The "type" actually refers to the presence of a particular type of antigen sticking up from the surface of a red blood cell. An antigen is anything that elicits a response from an immune cell called an antibody. Antibodies latch onto foreign substances that enter the body, such as bacteria and viruses, and clump them together for removal by other parts of the immune system. The human body naturally makes antibodies that will attack certain types of red-blood-cell antigens. For example, people with type A blood have A antigens on their red blood cells and make antibodies that attack B antigens; people with type B blood have B antigens on their red blood cells and make antibodies that attack A antigens. So, type A people can't donate their blood to type B people and vice versa. People who are type AB have both A and B antigens on their red blood cells and therefore don't make any A or B antibodies while people who are type O have no A or B antigens and make both A and B antibodies. (This is hard to keep track of, so I hope the chart below helps!) |
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Giovanni Sostero, Nick Howes, Alison Tripp & Ernesto Guido
Our team performed follow-up observations of comet 168P/Hergenrother on 2012, Oct. 22.4, remotely through the 2m, f/10 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD of Faulkes Telescope North
(Haleakala) under good seeing conditions, and a scale of 0.3"/px. Comet
168P has recently undergone an outburst with its magnitude increasing
from ~14-15 to magnituide ~9.5. For more info about the recent outburst
of this comet, see our previous post here.Remanzacco Observatory 2012-10-22 14:09:00 Recent observations posted on comet-images ml were showing a "cloud" of material trailing the nucleus in the anti-solar direction. In our image (stacking of 9 x 30-second exposures) is visible an unresolved and diffuse trail about 6" long and 3" wide in PA145.
Below you can see a graph showing recent magnitude estimates of comet 168P.
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Amber Moore
Out of billions of people, no two faces are exactly the same. How dMedical Daily 2012-10-22 09:10:00
oes this happen? Researchers from Stanford School of medicine say that "enhancers" present in the junk DNA follow an origami-like design while constructing the face, using simple instructions to make an intricate object. During the early stages of the embryo development, a set of cells called neural crest cells drives a process that is required to make the head and face of the baby. Initially an embryo looks like a sheet of flat cells. This sheet eventually folds to form a tube, much of which becomes the spinal column and the brain. The face of the infant develops from an end of this tube. Researchers were studying what guides this specific process. "We were interested in identifying the portions of the human genome that are responsible for the behavior of the neural crest," said one of the study authors Joanna Wysocka, PhD, from Stanford School of Medicine. Wysocka and her colleagues discovered that certain genetic modification can determine which cells become the face. These DNA modifications called "enhancers" can change the shape of a face by manipulating the activity of the genes that are involved in the face-making process. |
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Charles Choi
LiveScience 2012-10-22 11:01:00
Move over, Moby Dick. Scientists have found a white whale capable of imitating human speech. These findings, the first to show that whales can mimic the voices of humans, suggest that researchers might want to analyze other whales for similar abilities. Beluga whales, also known as white whales, are known as "the canaries of the sea" because of how vocal they are. They are not the same kind of whale as the monstrous giant of the story Moby Dick, which was a white sperm whale - belugas are actually among the smallest species of whales. |
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PhysOrg
A fantastic, one-of-a-kind celestial happening will occur on Tuesday,
October 23rd, as Comet 168P/Hergenrother and Comet C/2012 J1 (Catalina)
will pass each other in space like ships in the night - but only during a
very narrow viewing window. Slooh Space Camera will provide live
coverage of this spectacular event on Tuesday, October 23rd, live on
Slooh.com, free to the public starting at 2 p.m. PDT / 5 p.m. EDT /
21:00 UTC - accompanied by real-time discussions with Slooh President
Patrick Paolucci, Slooh Outreach Coordinator Paul Cox, and Astronomy
Magazine columnist Bob Berman. Viewers can watch live on their PC or
iOS/Android mobile device.2012-10-22 11:24:00 Slooh was first alerted to this unusual event by long-time Slooh member Maynard Pittendreig; he and other members have been tracking both comets. The comets will appear close in the sky to fall within the reach of a single field-of-view of Slooh's robotic telescopes. The pair will have an apparent separation of 43.5 arcminutes, as shown in this sky chart: goo.gl/hq8hK Comet 168P/Hergenrother has been through a number of "outbursts" over the last 6-weeks. Each of these unexpected increases in brightness has been witnessed and actively imaged by Slooh members. The outbursts could be a sign that the comet nucleus is starting to break apart, which is why the comet is being observed every night by Slooh members. Comet C/2012 J1 (Catalina) has been a superb contrast to Hergenrother; exhibiting a far more stable and expected increase in brightness as it orbits the Sun. Both comets have shown relatively bright comas and small tails. |
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Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News 2012-10-21 12:06:00
Silver-colored fish, such as herrings, sardines and sprat, are breaking a basic law of physics, according to a new study published in Nature Photonics. The ability allows the fish to become invisible to predators. The physics law has to do with how light reflects. As researchers Tom Jordan and Julian Partridge from Bristol University explain, reflective surfaces polarize light, a phenomenon that fishermen or photographers overcome by using polarizing sunglasses or polarizing filters to cut our reflective glare. Jordan and Partridge, however, found that silvery fish have overcome this basic law of reflection. The fish's skin contains multilayer arrangements of reflective guanine crystals. (Here's a factoid: guanine is also one of the key components of guano, aka bird and fish poop. The terms originate from an ancient word for dung, "wanu.") It was previously thought that fish skin would fully polarize light when reflected. As the light becomes polarized, there should then be a drop in reflectivity. But that's not what always happens, as it turns out. |
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UPI
2012-10-19 15:58:00
Existing Russian rocket carriers could be redesigned to produce a rocket capable of destroying an asteroid, Energia chief Vitaly Lopota told the Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta Friday. "There are three large asteroids, including Apophis, whose orbits cross the Earth's orbit and which could hit the Earth in the next several decades," he said. Astronomers say Apophis, discovered in 2004, could approach Earth as close as 24,000 miles -- one-tenth the distance between Earth and the moon -- in 2029. A 70-ton rocket would be needed to change the orbit of an asteroid of Apophis' size by "towing" it away from Earth or destroying it with a thermonuclear blast, Lopota said. Energia was prepared to construct such a rocket within three to five years, he said. | |
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Comment: Not gonna happen...
8 billion miles from Earth? Even with today's technology they can only
spot extinction level event-sized asteroids the day before they whizz
by...13 June 2012: Huge Asteroid to Fly by Earth Thursday 28 January 2012: Bus-sized asteroid shaves Earth with one day's notice |
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April Flowers
RedOrbit 2012-10-20 13:36:00
It's probably a safe bet that you have never been in a big electronics retailer like Best Buy or Comp USA and seen a sign boasting the percentage of recycled electronic components that a laptop or smart TV uses. This suits the electronics industry, as many of the leading companies make their money selling more and more new components. A new technology from Oxford University, however, may just change this paradigm forever. "It is a technology that is going to fundamentally change the way we build computers," says Dr. Mark Gostock, a technology transfer manager at the University of Oxford's ISIS Innovation. "And there are going to be a lot of people who make a whole lot of money from the way we do it now who aren't going to be happy when they hear what we have got." "The PCB [printed circuit board] industry in particular has already made a big investment in manufacturing infrastructure and they are not going to want to change," said Chris Stevens, engineering lecturer and successful academic-entrepreneur. The team started with the technology behind the Pentagon's cloaking device and came up with a new technology to replace the solder, pins and wiring from conventional computers with LEGO-like blocks of silicon. The blocks are stuck to a Velcro-like metamaterial board capable of wirelessly transmitting or conducting both data and power. This is science fiction transformed into reality, with wallpaper that can connect the components of your entertainment system and computers designed as wristbands. |
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Joe Rao
While the Orionid meteor shower from Halley's Comet has our full
attention this weekend, recent calculations made by meteor experts
suggest there's a far-greater celestial fireworks display coming to in
2014.Space.com 2012-10-20 10:02:00 In May 2014 there appears to be a reasonably good chance that a new, and very significant meteor shower, will take place. At the moment, conservative forecasts suggest anywhere from 100 to 400 meteors per hour may be seen, but the actual rate could peak much higher and potentially reach "meteor storm" levels (1,000 per hour!). The progenitor of this possible display is comet 209P/LINEAR, a periodic comet discovered on Feb. 3, 2004, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project (LINEAR) using a 1-meter (39 inches) reflector telescope. The comet was given the permanent number 209P on Dec. 12, 2008. |
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Comment: A "new very significant" meteor shower, eh? 2014 could certainly turn out to be quite the year...
In the meantime, the show has already begun: Meteorite Impacts Earth in Minden, Louisiana - Media and Government Cover It Up |
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| Earth Changes |
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Dominic Zietsch
The Daily Examiner, Australia 2012-10-22 15:38:00
The Lake Wooloweyah Monster, Baby Nessie, Frankenfish - no matter how you'd describe it, there's no doubt a bizarre creature found near the banks of Lake Wooloweyah on the weekend was an unusual sight Local man Stuart Boxsell came across the fish - about two metres long - in the shallows on Sunday. Unfortunately the fish was in a bad way and died shortly after it was found. It has since been identified as a southern ribbonfish (trachipterus jacksonensis) - a rarely-seen, deep-sea-dwelling creature. While the question of what it is has been solved, what it was doing out of its natural habitat in the shallows of Lake Wooloweyah remains a complete mystery. Anyone who can shed some light on this puzzle can email us on coastalviews@dailyexaminer .com.au. |
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United Press International
2012-10-21 09:25:00
California's central valley was jiggled by a magnitude 5.3 earthquake Sunday, days after the anniversary of the big Bay Area quake of 1987, seismologists said. Sunday's shaker occurred shortly before midnight PDT and was centered outside King City, about 160 miles south-southeast of Sacramento, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no reports of damage or injury in the rural area. The USGS said the quake occurred along California's famed San Andreas Fault, which triggered the famed 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Loma Prieta quake in Oct. 17, 1989, which killed 64 people and caused significant damage in the San Francisco Bay Area. Seismologists said the fault in the King City area has been largely a mystery. "The fault in this region is locked, exhibiting no creep at the surface and generating very few microearthquakes that are associated with minor slipping at depth," the USGS said. |
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BBC News
2012-10-22 06:36:00
Scientists studying the fault beneath the Spanish city of Lorca say that groundwater removal may be implicated in a deadly 2011 earthquake there. Detailed surface maps from satellite studies allowed them to infer which parts of the ground moved where. They report in Nature Geoscience that those shifts correlate with locations where water has been drained for years. The study highlights how human activity such as drainage or borehole drilling can have far-reaching seismic effects. |
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Rebecca Smithers and Fiona Harvey
The Guardian 2012-10-12 06:03:00
Affordability is now the key factor for grocery shoppers, with ethical considerations least important It was the £1.99 Tesco chicken that, four years ago, came to symbolise cheap supermarket food and helped to galvanise consumers into questioning the provenance and economics of the staple items in their shopping basket. In its new branch in Saxmundham - the Suffolk market town that even longer ago famously fought off plans for an out-of-town Tesco superstore - the £4 fresh chickens in the chiller cabinet are being ignored by the late afternoon shoppers who are favouring items covered in "reduced" stickers. Among them is mother-of-two Jackie Long, who has popped in on her way home from work and picked up a 2.5kg bag of Maris Piper potatoes which has been further discounted to 95p. "They'll last another week, mashed, chipped and in stews," she says. "I do my main weekly shop at the Co-op but this is on my way home and around teatime they tend to slash the prices. I have really noticed prices going up in the last six months, particularly of things like bread, coffee and fresh fruit. They've all become a bit of a luxury." |
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Fiona Harvey and Rebecca Smithers
The Guardian 2012-10-21 05:32:00
"It's been the worst year in living memory," says Jonathan Lukies, who farms 288 hectares (720 acres) of arable and fruit orchards near Stansted, Essex. "It was horrific." This year's weather has been a rollercoaster for British farmers that most now just want to forget. With a record drought afflicting most of England in the early spring - one so severe it prompted a series of emergency meetings with government - farmers desperately needed above-average rainfall to replenish the soil for planting. Their prayers for rain were answered - but in the worst possible way, with the wettest early summer ever recorded, followed by a near-sunless summer and torrential downpours in many areas late in the growing season. This combination of extreme weather was disastrous for staple crops such as wheat and vegetables, first putting off growth and then washing out crops and preventing them from ripening. |
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US Geological Survey
2012-10-20 22:00:00
Event Time 2012-10-20 23:00:32 UTC 2012-10-21 10:00:32 UTC+11:00 at epicenter Location 13.565°S 166.601°E depth=35.6km (22.1mi) Nearby Cities 108km (67mi) WNW of Sola, Vanuatu 226km (140mi) NNW of Luganville, Vanuatu 496km (308mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu 816km (507mi) N of We, New Caledonia 857km (533mi) ESE of Honiara, Solomon Islands Technical Details |
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Justin Juozapavicius
Associated Press 2012-10-19 00:00:00
Tulsa - A massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions. In a scene reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days, choking dust suspended on strong wind gusts shrouded Interstate 35, which links Dallas and Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo. Video from television station helicopters showed the four-lane highway virtually disappearing into billowing dust on the harsh landscape near Blackwell, plus dozens of vehicles scattered in the median and on the shoulders. "I've never seen anything like this," said Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff's Office. "In this area alone, the dirt is blowing because we've been in a drought. I think from the drought everything's so dry and the wind is high." The highway patrol said the dust storm caused a multi-car accident, and local police said nearly three dozen cars and tractor-trailers were involved. Blackwell Police Chief Fred LeValley said nine people were injured, but there were no fatalities. |
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The Local
2012-10-20 08:30:00
Sweden could be hit by the meteorological phenomenon "blood rain" over the weekend, so-called due to its distinct red hue, according to forecasters. "It is difficult to say but southern Sweden could well be in the danger zone," said Joakim Langner at Sweden's Meteorological Institute (SMHI) to the Aftonbladet daily. Blood rain is a weather phenomenon first noted in literature in Homer's Iliad in the 8th century BC. Until the 17th century it was widely believed that the red rain from the sky was in fact blood and thus a bad omen. However scientists now believe that the rain's distinct colour is caused by the accumulation of dust and particles gathered from the Sahara desert. According to forecasters in Denmark, the country is set to get doused on Saturday with southern Sweden in line for a blood red shower later over the weekend. The phenomenon is however far from unheard of in Sweden. According to Joakim Langner it occurs around every five years in Sweden, although is most commonly seen in the spring. Langner explained that the blood rain poses no danger to the public, beyond leaving a stain on garden furniture and vehicles. Whether the colour of the coming rains remains uncertain, SMHI is certain that it stands to be a wet weekend. Southern and western Sweden will be hit first, with the rainy from pushing up through Svealand as the weekend progresses. |
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thisisnorthdevon.co.uk
2012-10-20 03:16:00
The soggy aftermath of Britain's record-breaking wet summer will increase the risk of winter floods, say experts. Months of monsoon-like weather has left the ground unusually waterlogged for the time of year. Under the present conditions, any spell of heavy rain might be enough to cause further serious flooding like that which swamped many homes and businesses this summer in the Westcountry and across Britain. In contrast to last winter's drought, November to April is traditionally the wettest time of year, when soils around most of the country are close to saturation. Much of the land in the Westcountry remains usually waterlogged for the time of year - putting areas of the region under further risk of flooding. Homeowners and businesses have been warned to prepare for more flooding misery in the region. About a month's worth of rain has already fallen in Devon and Cornwall during the first half of October. Helen Chivers, of the Exeter-based Met Office, said: "The ground is very saturated following the unusually wet summer. Therefore at the moment there is a heightened risk of flooding. "But things can change very quickly and we are expecting a lot of dry weather over the next week." She said the Met Office does not expect an "unusual" period of rain over the month. Average rainfall nationwide in November is 144mm. |
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BBC News
2012-10-17 00:29:00
An increasing number of rats in areas of the west of England are mutating to become more resistant to commonly sold poisons, a university study has found. Scientists at Huddersfield University said about 75% of rats in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire had built up a resistance. The most serious mutations have affected rats in Bath and Wiltshire. Experts have blamed the rise on the incorrect use of poisons where dosages which are too low have been used. Rats which are resistant to the poison are fattened up by the bait. Those that survive then mate with other resistant rats, allowing a generation of rats resistant to existing poisons to build up. Mutations have previously been found in many parts of the UK but the Huddersfield University study is the first time the extent of resistance has been measured in the West. |
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Miguel Llanos
NBC News 2012-10-19 18:10:00
When a grassfire destroyed most of tiny Bucyrus, N.D., this week, the "perfect firestorm" of conditions served as a reminder that the long-term drought, combined with unpredictable winds, makes for severe fire danger across the central U.S., even in the middle of autumn. Four homes and 20 other structures were lost after the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon. Fanned by winds up to 70 mph, it consumed at least 6,000 acres and traveled 10 miles by Thursday morning, The Dickinson Press reported. "This is like a nightmare," Linda Wiskus told The Dickinson Press. "I wouldn't wish this on anyone. ... We had about 15 minutes to get what we could. I grabbed a safe, a pair of jeans and some socks - I didn't have time to get anything else." The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but Bucyrus is in a county that's been in continued drought since October 2011, Adnan Akyuz, North Dakota's state climatologist, told NBC News. Conditions got even worse starting Oct. 2. "When you combine warm, dry and windy conditions, it creates a perfect setting for elevated fire danger," Akyuz noted. Adding drought to that mix, he said, "makes it more dangerous conditions for fire." |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Laura Anthony
Meteorite hunters are scouring the Bay Area looking for chunks of space
debris. They can be sold for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars
at auction.KGO-TV.com 2012-10-18 09:19:00 Bob Verish is looking for pieces of meteorite in Mill Valley that would be from the meteor that blazed across Bay Area skies Thursday night. Verish drove from Battle Mountain, Nevada Thursday morning. According to his calculations, the debris from last night's car-sized meteor likely landed somewhere between Mill Valley and points north and west. "The reflection from the stones that fell seem to start here in the Mill Valley area. It definitely was flying low and dropping rocks along a path, maybe even 50 miles north of here," said Verish.
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KGO-TV.com
NASA scientists have recovered the first chunk of the spectacular meteor
seen streaking across the Bay Area sky Wednesday night. It apparently
hit the roof of a house in Novato, bounced a couple of times and ended
up on the ground. The homeowner says she heard a loud thud that night.
Lisa Webber says she remembers because the house was quiet, she had just
turned off the TV after the Giants game was in a rain delay.2012-10-22 08:56:00 She found the meteor fragment in her backyard a couple days later. Webber contacted scientists with the SETI Institute in Mountain View who have confirmed the piece of rock is indeed a small chunk of the meteor.
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Nina Golgowski
Daily Mail 2012-10-20 09:58:00
A mysterious ground shake through parts of southern New Jersey rattled residents around 11am this morning leaving bewildered residents still without answers. Both the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Weather Service reported no earthquake having occurred in the area and the nearby military base claiming to have had no training exercises that would have caused the tremors. The USGS has since speculated that the shake felt by residents in southern counties for an estimated 15 seconds was from a sonic boom. The effect would be a 'thunder-like noise a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other type of aerospace vehicle files overhead faster than the speed of sound or supersonic,' according to NASA. | |
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Comment: So if there was no earthquake, what caused the
sonic boom? Elsewhere on the big Blue Marble there have been almost
daily reports of loud booms as well as 'earthquakes' and meteorite
explosions:
Thousands report loud boom and unusual sounds in Northeastern US: USGS classifies it as earthquake, but was it really an overhead meteor explosion? Meteor explodes above Devon, England, blast wave blows open police station doors, tremors felt across wide area Fragmentation and Sonics! Northern California Fireball Meteor +19'42 PDT 17OCT2012 - Unrelated to the Orionids Slow-moving blue-orange fireball reported over Lincolnshire, England Meteor with a long gold tail blazes across Alberta, Canada, 15 October 2012 Large bright fireball with orange-green tail breaks apart over Queensland, Australia, 29 August 2012 Something wicked this way comes? Read our SOTT Focus: Meteorite Impacts Earth in Minden, Louisiana - Media and Government Cover It Up |
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Translation by SOTT.net
Yet another visitor to our already crowded skies...PRACowniA 2012-10-19 10:14:00 Our first detailed eyewitness report of this extraordinary event comes from the Astropolis.pl forum: |
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Comment: These reports from Poland have been further verified by another eyewitness report, sent into thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.jp:
The spectacular fireball seen in San Francisco and beyond on Wednesday 17th October was also, contrary to most reports, not part of the Orionids.
It has been pointed out that these two particular meteors clearly came
from different sections of the sky than one would expect Orionids to
arrive from (i.e., from the direction of the constellation Orion).Calculating distances, trajectories and possible points of origin of such highly unusual events, happening now on a daily basis, and for which we have little to no frame of reference in modern history, in order to assess which annual or bi-annual meteor shower they formed part of, obscures the plain truth of the matter: NONE of these enormous meteor/fireball events have anything to do with the usual background noise of meteor showers, which come and go all year round and produce little flits of 'shooting stars' in the sky, not near-fatal impacts. If the recent series of fireball events are telling us anything, it is that there is surely an enormous quantity of new cosmic debris that has turned up in our inner solar system. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Sam Wong
The number of children admitted to hospital in England for acute throat
infections increased by 76 per cent between 1999 and 2010, according to
new research published today in Archives of Disease in Childhood.Imperial College London 2012-10-19 13:41:00 Acute throat infection (ATI), which includes acute tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis, is one of the most common reasons for consulting a GP. The majority of ATIs are self-limiting and can be managed at home or by the GP, but a small proportion may require hospital admission. This study investigated admission rates for children up to age 17 with ATI alongside trends in tonsillectomy rates, between 1999 and 2010. The study was motivated by concerns that the decline in tonsillectomy rates in recent years has led to an increase in hospital admissions for tonsillitis of increased severity. It also investigated whether performing fewer tonsillectomies is associated with higher rates of complications such as quinsy, an abscess that can occur when an infection spreads from a tonsil to the surrounding area. The research, which was funded by a fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research, showed that the number of children admitted to hospital with ATI increased from 12,283 in 1999 to 22,071 in 2010 - a rise in admission rate of 76 per cent. Short hospital stays, lasting less than two days, increased by 115 per cent over the decade, and accounted for the majority of admissions. Stays of two or more days in hospital for ATI decreased slightly, while quinsy rates remained stable. The authors found no evidence of an association between tonsillectomy trends and admission rates or the severity of ATI or quinsy. |
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Suryatapa Bhattacharya
The National 2012-10-18 16:21:00
India is facing a spike in dengue fever, the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease. There have been 12,500 cases since September, compared with 2,859 in the same period last year, and the virus has killed 77 people in southern India this year compared with 33 last year. Health chiefs are now looking at every way to curb the spread of the disease - even urging children to wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts for three months to limit exposure to mosquito bites. "It is not a panic situation, but we want to ensure that we take adequate prevention measures," the health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said. |
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Dave Mihalovic
Right from the horses mouth, Bill Gates states that "vaccines reduce
population growth." Few can now deny what anti-vaccine advocates have
been saying for years, specifically that vaccines directly and
negatively impact fertility. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will
only be too willing to oblige future generations.PreventDisease.com 2012-10-22 13:58:00
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is committing 10 billion dollars over the next ten years to make it the most aggressive decade ever to roll out new vaccines to poor nations around the world. The commitment will also effectively create widespread fertility problems across vaccinated populations. In the video above, Bill Gates states at 0:11: "Over this decade, we believe unbelievable products can be made both inventing new vaccines and making sure they get to all the children that need them." At 0:20 he continues: "We could cut the number of children who die every year from about 9 million to half of that if we have success on it." Now here is the statement straight from the source which should not leave any doubts on the intention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Listen carefully at 0:28: "The benefits are in terms of reducing sickness, reducing the population growth. It really allows a society to take care of itself once you've made that intervention." Now why would Bill Gates state that vaccines could cut the number of children who die every year in half and then also state literally a few breaths later in the same segment, that vaccines could reduce population growth. Are those two not contradictory? If vaccines were to cut the number of child deaths in half, then this would only increase population growth since these children would presumably then grow to become fertile adults. Ahhhh...do you see the problem? The only way they could not become fertile adults is if the vaccines were to make them infertile. Then it wouldn't matter how many children were saved since they could not reproduce, hence the assertion of reducing population growth. See how it all works? |
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Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society 2012-10-18 22:28:00
A little-known plant with a truly bizarre name is now making headlines as a cancer killer, with the compound of the plant vanishing tumors in mice with pancreatic cancer. Known as the 'thunder god vine' or 'thundelei gong teng, the Chinese plant is actually integrated into Chinese medicine and has been used for ages in remedying a number of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. According to the new research out of the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center, the thunder god plant compound led to no signs of tumors after a 40 day period - even after discontinuing the treatment. Published in the journal Science Translational Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health, even the scientists working on the project were stunned by the anti-cancer properties of the compound. Known to contain something known as triptolide, which has been identified as a cancer fighter in previous research, it is thought to be the key component that may be responsible for the anti-tumor capabilities. Study leader and vice chairman of research at the Cancer Center explained to Bloomberg how he was blown away by the effects of the simple plant: "This drug is just unbelievably potent in killing tumor cells," he said.And just like with numerous other powerful substances like turmeric and ginger, mainstream science is still slowly confirming what many traditional practitioners have known for their entire lives. This is, of course, due to the fact that there is simply no money for major corporations in researching the healing powers of natural herbs and compounds such as the compound found in the thunder god vine. Turmeric and ginger, for example, have been found to be amazing anti-cancer substances that are virtually free compared to expensive and dangerous cancer drugs. |
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Lisa Garber
NaturalSociety 2012-10-21 16:26:00
In May 2004, a Food and Drug Administration investigator triggered a years-long inquiry and trial of Synthes, a multinational medical device manufacturer, uncovering multiple cases of what amounted to human experiments that left five unwitting patients dead. The four business-people found responsible served between five and nine paltry months in prison. The families of the dead were only recently informed that their loved ones had perished on the tables of surgeons using an experimental bone cement. They sued Synthes' elusive yet "forceful," "hands-on," "800-pound gorilla" CEO, Hansjörg Wyss, to no avail. Clinical Trials Shirked Between 2002 and 2004, Synthes - based in Switzerland and West Chester, Pennsylvania - tested a revolutionary product they called Norian XR, a cement which turns into bone when injected into the skeleton. The promising product was more effective than acrylic alternatives, but the FDA demanded clinical trials. Wyss and his executives, whom he hand-picked and groomed for company success, knew this would cost time and money. As it turns out, the FDA's concerns were well-founded. In the spring of 2002, University of Washington orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jens Chapmen sent an email with the results of an animal study. When Chapman injected Norian XR into a pig's bloodstream, "the entire pulmonary artery system had clotted off...We were expecting to kill the pig...but not suddenly and with a relatively small dose." The following month, executives Michael Huggins and Tom Higgins met with Wyss This was neither the first nor the last meeting in which all parties would agree to proceed with illegal testing of a high-risk device on uninformed patients. Market potential was "considerable" enough to incite "excitement about using Norian for vertebroplasties." Whistleblowers and concerned employees like Michael Sharp were at first reassured that the rumors were unfounded and Synthes wouldn't dare flout the FDA. Then they were terminated for, supposedly, other reasons. |
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RedOrbit
2012-10-21 13:38:00
Just as previous research reported that girls in the U.S. were reaching puberty earlier in life, a new study reveals American boys are also showing the first signs of sexual maturity at a younger age than in decades past. The research, which was led by Marcia Herman-Giddens of the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health, discovered that males are beginning to sexually develop six to 24 months earlier than the accepted medical standard, CNN's Jacque Wilson reported on Saturday. Herman-Giddens, who originally documented early puberty in females back in 1997, and colleagues recruited more than 200 medical professionals throughout the U.S. to assist in their research. Between the years of 2005 and 2010, those individuals examined over 4,100 boys, aged six to 16, from 41 different states, Wilson said. They recorded information about the size of the boys' testicles, as well as the growth level of pubic hair, and then "assigned each boy's data to one of five stages - Stage 1 being pre-puberty, Stage 2 being the onset of puberty and Stage 5 being adult maturity," the CNN reporter added. "They then compared the ages and puberty stages of all the boys. The rigorous study was designed to report on only physical changes, not hormonal." |
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Jessica Hamzelou
New Scientist 2012-10-15 06:12:00
Never underestimate the value of a good night's sleep. Not only does a lack of shut-eye leave you irritable, it has been linked to diabetes and weight gain, though no one understood why. To investigate, Matthew Brady at the University of Chicago and his colleagues tested fat cells taken from the bellies of seven adults after four nights of sleeping up to 8 and a half hours, and then again after four nights on a measly 4 and a half hours. The team found that after sleep deprivation fat cells from the same person were on average 30 per cent less responsive to insulin - a hormone that makes muscle, liver and fat cells take up glucose after a meal. High blood glucose levels are linked to diabetes. Fat cells also normally release the appetite-regulating hormone leptin. Brady suggests that if sleep-deprived cells are generally malfunctioning, this mechanism may also be disrupted, affecting weight gain. |
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champress.net
2012-10-14 05:23:00
During a session on Sunday chaired by Speaker Mohammad Jihad al-Lahham, the People's Assembly passed a bill on the law of biosecurity of genetically-modified life forms and their products. The law aims to guarantee the health of humans, animals, plants and protect the environment by setting guidelines for the import, export, transportation, production, circulation and use of genetically-modified life forms and their products, in addition to setting a framework for research and development in genetic engineering. The law also seeks to keep up with advances in genetic engineering, particularly in the field of agriculture such as the production of high-yield crops or ones that can survive in soils with high salinity, in addition to monitoring the use of genetic technology according to the standards and regulations of biosecurity. |
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Dr. Osborne
Gluten Free Society 2012-07-16 01:38:00
A commonly asked question for those embarking on a gluten free diet - "Is quinoa a safe alternative to eat?" What is Quinoa? Quinoa is actually not a grain. It is a pseudo-cereal seed used by many as a gluten free substitute. It is a commonly used staple crop in South America, specifically grown in the Andes. Quinoa has a favorable protein content and contains a number of minerals and B-vitamins. With the popularity of the gluten free diet on the rise, interest in quinoa has skyrocketed, and it is being touted as a safe and healthy alternative to wheat, barley, rye and other gluten containing grains. Ergo the question - Is quinoa a safe gluten free food? The Problem With Quinoa... Technically, quinoa is gluten free. However; the processing of the pseudo grain is often performed in facilities that also process other grain based foods. This is where cross contamination becomes a major issue. A recent study found that 41% of processed products randomly pulled from grocery shelves contain enough gluten to cause damage to those with gluten sensitivity. As stated above, quinoa is a seed. One of the problems with seeds in general, is that they are particular hard to digest. Many seeds contain gluten like proteins and chemical compounds called lectins. Many of the lectins and gluten based components have been shown to created digestive suppression and inflammatory problems in humans, and they are known contributors of autoimmune disease. | |
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Comment: While humans require essential proteins, and
essential fatty acids, there is no scientific evidence for an essential
carbohydrate.
A Real Paleo Diet - Grassfed Meat, Fat, and Organ Meats Paleo Diet: Smart Eating or Latest Fad? Caveman Diet: Grain Free, Disease Free PaleoDiet Works: High Fat Diet reverses the Overloaded,Under-fuelled Condition - A case study |
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Anna Hodgkiss
The Guardian 2012-10-19 07:48:00
Older people who eat a diet high in carbohydrates are four times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment - a precursor to Alzheimer's disease. New research from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in America has found the risk is also higher with a diet high in sugar. On the other hand, proteins and fats appear to offer some protection - people who consumed plenty of them are less likely to suffer cognitive decline. Not everyone with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) develops Alzheimer's disease, but many do, said lead author Rosebud Roberts, a professor in the department of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic. | |
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Comment: In addition to the risk of dementia, there are many other reasons to avoid carbohydrates:
Carbs Against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, Not Fats, Threaten the Heart Can cutting carbohydrates from your diet make you live longer? Carbohydrates Trick Your Body into Stacking on Pounds - Fast Bittersweet Vindication for Atkins Diet A Metabolic Paradigm Shift, or Why Fat is the Preferred Fuel for Human Metabolism |
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Heidi Stevenson
Gaia Health 2012-10-17 20:58:00
One girl's ovaries were destroyed, with Gardasil the only potential cause. Worse, though, is that Merck either didn't bother to examine potential effects on ovaries or hid them - but did examine effects on testes. The BMJ has published the case report of a healthy 16-year-old Australian girl whose womanhood appears to have been stolen by Gardasil vaccinations. She has been thrust into full-fledged menopause, her ovaries irrevocably shut down, before becoming a woman. The authors, Deirdre Therese Little and Harvey Rodrick Grenville Ward1, draw direct attention to the fact that, though the girl has been thoroughly examined and tested, there is no known explanation other than the series of three Gardasil vaccinations she had. Making matters worse is that there may be many other such cases, but most are likely masked by the routine treatment of irregular or scanty menstruation with oral contraceptives. Indeed, it's only because this girl refused them that the truth of her situation was unmasked. Just how many other girls have lost their chance at motherhood, but don't know because their condition is masked? |
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Mike Adams
Natural News 2012-10-13 16:27:00
There is a battle being waged for your mind. To the victor comes influence over your beliefs, you purchase decisions, and even your values. On one side of the battlefield are the so-called 'scientific' poisoners, who are really just proxy scientists and propagandists promoting corporate interests. These 'scientists' want to convince you that there's no such thing as a dangerous pesticide. That GMOs are harmless, in fact healthful. That autism isn't caused by any possibly related to chemical exposure, and that vaccines are a scientific gift to humanity, without which we would have all died from infectious disease. There is no chemical the scientific poisoners do not think is safe to put on your skin or ingest into your body. Hydrofluosilicic acid -- also mistakenly called "fluoride" -- is perfectly safe to drink, they say. Chemotherapy is good for you and doesn't make your hair fall out or damage your kidneys. Psychiatric drugs are more important than vitamins. Pharmaceuticals should be your nutrition! And your immune system is incomplete without vaccine intervention at the tip of a needle. This "cult of scientism" believes that nature is a failure. Your body is a failure. That nothing good happens without chemical intervention. Crops won't grow unless they're GMO. The world will starve without bt insecticides being engineered into the kernels of corn. Humans would be extinct if not for vaccines and pharmaceuticals. There is no God. Instead, we should worship Monsanto, Dupont, Dow Chemical, Merck, Pfizer, and all the other corporate giants that produce the chemicals we're supposed to consume. |
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ScienceDaily
2012-10-20 13:30:00
Teenagers and university students are unaware of the negative consequences of alcohol consumption or the chances of developing an addiction as a result. In addition, they start at a younger and younger age and drink more and stronger alcohol according to a study headed by the University of Valencia. Current drinking trends amongst Spanish youth are characterised by what is known as botellón or drinking in the streets. Researchers at Valencia's universities, Miguel Hernández de Elche and Jaume I de Castellón, have conducted a study funded by the Spanish National Drugs Plan identifying the different types of alcohol consumers and defining the profiles of each. It has been published in the 'The Spanish Journal of Psychology'. "The general tendency is to think that university students drink more alcohol than teenagers as they are older and can access it more easily. But this is not true. Males in secondary school and university drink the same amount of alcohol while practicing botellón. The same is the case for females," as explained by Begoña Espejo Tort, lead researcher of the study at the University of Valencia. The scientists gathered data from 6009 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 25 from 2007 to 2009 in three Spanish cities (Valencia, Castellón and Alicante). For the study they selected those who reported episodes of intensive alcohol consumption. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Steve McGaughey
Beckman Institute 2012-10-19 17:06:00
New neuroscience research is confirming an old adage about the power of a handshake: strangers do form a better impression of those who proffer their hand in greeting. The study was led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research associate Sanda Dolcos. New neuroscience research is confirming an old adage about the power of a handshake: strangers do form a better impression of those who proffer their hand in greeting. A firm, friendly handshake has long been recommended in the business world as a way to make a good first impression, and the greeting is thought to date to ancient times as a way of showing a stranger you had no weapons. Now, a paper published online and for the December print issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on a study of the neural correlates of a handshake is giving insight into just how important the practice is to the evaluations we make of subsequent social interactions. The study was led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research associate Sanda Dolcos. They found, as they wrote, that "a handshake preceding social interaction enhanced the positive impact of approach and diminished the negative impact of avoidance behavior on the evaluation of social interaction." Their results, for the first time, give a scientific underpinning to long-held beliefs about the important role a handshake plays in social or business interactions. Sanda Dolcos said their findings have obvious implications for those who want to make a good impression. |
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Brian Johnston
The Telegraph, Australia 2012-10-22 13:07:00
Are left-handed people smarter, more artistic or just plain clumsier? About 10 per cent of the population is left handed and many more of us switch between our hands for various tasks. Yet left-handers have been discriminated against since ancient times and many myths surround this difference. In fact, most of the popular beliefs about left-handers rarely stand up to close scrutiny, none more so than the belief that they tend to be a little clumsy. It may appear so, but that's only because most of the world's tools, sporting equipment and musical instruments are designed by right handers for use by right-handers. An awkward world Everything from the angle of scissor blades to the turn of corkscrews and the placement of camera buttons favours the right-handed. So do buttons - at least for men. Ever wondered why women's buttons do up on the left side? It's a relic from the time when right-handed maids helped their mistresses to dress. More seriously, many power tools and heavy machines can be dangerous because left-handers find it difficult to reach the on/off switch and hold equipment steady. The upside of this is that many left-handers learn to quickly adapt to items designed for right-handers and this sometimes leads to a heightened manual dexterity in approaching new tasks. Living in a right-handed world can sometimes be a boon for the left-handed. According to the Victorian government's Better Health Channel, "The sporting advantage includes taking the right-handed opponent by surprise. Right-handed athletes aren't used to playing against left-handed opponents." Writing has traditionally been more difficult for left-handers due to smudging. But the modern world favours lefties, who have an advantage with QWERTY computer keyboards. Some 56 per cent of keystrokes are made with the left hand and 3,000 words in English can be typed entirely with the left hand. Only 300 words are entirely right-handed. |
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Abigail Tucker
Smithsonianmag 2012-10-22 14:58:00
In Michelangelo's Expulsion from Paradise, a fresco panel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the fallen-from-grace Adam wards off a sword-wielding angel, his eyes averted from the blade and his wrist bent back defensively. It is a gesture both wretched and beautiful. But what is it that triggers the viewer's aesthetic response - the sense that we're right there with him, fending off blows? Recently, neuroscientists and an art historian asked ten subjects to examine the wrist detail from the painting, and - using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - monitored what happened in their brains. The researchers found that the image excited areas in the primary motor cortex that controlled the observers' own wrists. "Just the sight of the raised wrist causes an activation of the muscle," reports David Freedberg, the Columbia University art history professor involved in the study. This connection explains why, for instance, viewers of Degas' ballerinas sometimes report that they experience the sensation of dancing - the brain mirrors actions depicted on the canvas. |
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Jedidiah Becker
RedOrbit 2012-10-22 13:40:00
One of the many mind-bending lessons that neuroscience has taught us in recent years is that our brains often 'fudge' the picture of reality that they present us with. For a very simple at-home example, stand in front of a mirror and alternate back and forth between looking at your left eye, then your right eye. No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to see your eyes actually moving. And it gets even weirder: Not only can you not see your eyes move, but there doesn't appear to be any gap in your perception during the time it takes for your eyes to change their focus from point A (your left eye) to point B (your right eye). One second you're staring at your left eye and the next moment at your left, and that half second in between seems to simply vanish. What has essentially happened is that your brain has taken a rather complex little scene and 'edited' it in order to present you with a more simplified picture of reality. In essence, your brain is not presenting you with the 'whole truth' but rather with a version of it that is somehow more useful or easier to manage. And modern neuroscience and psychology continue to expose more and more of the human brain's little white lies. In the results of a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, two psychologists have shown that a sense of fear and impending danger can actually change our spatial perception of an approaching object. |
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Michelle Roberts
BBC News 2012-10-17 21:39:00
Creativity is often part of a mental illness, with writers particularly susceptible, according to a study of more than a million people. Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse, the Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute found. They were almost twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves. The dancers and photographers were also more likely to have bipolar disorder. As a group, those in the creative professions were no more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders than other people. But they were more likely to have a close relative with a disorder, including anorexia and, to some extent, autism, the Journal of Psychiatric Research reports. |
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Susan Piver
drweil.com 2012-10-20 16:48:00
We all know that regular, moderate exercise is good for us. But imagine what it would be like if all you did was exercise: if you ran, walked, jumped, or lifted 24 hours a day. After only a very short while, exercise actually wouldn't be that good for you because without rest, exercise becomes counterproductive and even risky...and so it is with your mind. We spend all day (and sometimes all night, too!) in a whirlwind of thought. When there isn't something particular to think about (what to eat for breakfast, the tasks of the day, or what you're going to say in an upcoming meeting), we search restlessly for something to fill the gap-worries, hopes, television, and so on. We never allow our minds to rest. And without this precious self-healing time, our minds become exhausted and thoughts less trustworthy. Just as we need to stop moving our bodies every once in a while, we also need to stop moving our minds. But how? The idea can actually seem terrifying, not to mention impossible. But it is quite possible. The practice of self-healing meditation is just this: resting the mind in silence and space, allowing it time to recover and rejuvenate. Meditation does not mean sitting in a perfect state of peace while having no thoughts. Big misconception! Instead, meditation is about establishing a different relationship with your thoughts, just for a little while. Instead of attention being drawn off by whatever thought happens to present itself, in meditation, you watch your thoughts from a different, more stabilized perspective. You're training yourself to place your attention where and when you want. This is very powerful. It gives you the ability to direct your thoughts (and mood) in more productive and peaceful directions. And, as has been demonstrated in the last few years, this ability has profound self-healing implications for physical and mental health. | |
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Comment: Begin the practice of self-healing meditation with the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program:
The Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is the modern revival of an ancient breathing and meditation program which is being acclaimed around the world as THE TOOL that will help you to:
Éiriú Eolas removes the barriers that stand between you and True Peace, Happiness, and ultimately a successful, fulfilling life. |
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| High Strangeness |
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Daily Mail
A family in Scotland was amazed to see a glowing unidentified flying
object hovering in the sky in the middle of the night above their rural
home -- and it stayed there for hours.2012-10-22 09:18:00 Morag Ritchie first noticed the odd, flickering and rotating lights when she woke up around 2 a.m. early Saturday. "I saw what I thought was a bright star," Ritchie told BBC Scotland. "However, it was a sequence of flashing lights. There was also a darting light coming from the side. There was no sound, either." Watch the video of the UFO that hovered over the family's house for several hours:
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Nunatsiaq On Line
2012-10-21 15:20:00
"This is scary. It has affected my emotions" Maggie Cruikshank of Akulivik has an incredible story to tell. Late in the afternoon on a rainy, windy September Saturday she and a cousin went out from Akulivik to pick berries. "We moved around a lot because we were looking for big berries," said Cruikshank, a 46-year-old language teacher with the Kativik School Board. "My cousin noticed something - she thought it was a hunter, but I ignored her because I wanted to go home while the sun was still up. Then, she started to be scared. I got up and looked to where she pointed. It was a very large animal, a bigfoot." The creature was black, hairy and without any clothes. "Taller and larger than a man," said Cruikshank. "It walks like us but not standing straight like us, it can jump and crawl." And its footprint measures some 40 centimetres. |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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NBC2
2012-10-19 07:08:00
At approximately 12:10 hours a teacher was standing at an area called Oasis observing students during lunch when out of nowhere a flying mackerel came down from the sky and struck her in the head. The teacher sustained minor injuries and was escorted to the clinic, where she was cleaned up. She was complaining of a slight headache and nothing else. The suspect was later identified as Scomberomorus maculatus, (Atlantic Spanish Mackerel) A.K.A "Mack." He was found lying on the ground possibly attempting to conceal himself out in the open. I took control of the suspect without incident and escorted him to the clinic where he was positively identified by the victim. While speaking with the victim she advised: "I was watching students when all of a sudden I was struck in the head by this flying fish. I yelled, 'Holy Mackerel, what just happened?'" The victim was not able to advise how "Mack" got to the school but theorized that he possibly hitched a ride from an unknown accomplice/bird possibly named "Osprey." She doesn't think it was "Eagle," as we are the Eagles at Naples High School. |
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The Onion
2012-10-16 20:08:00
Hempstead, NY - According to reports, millions of viewers across the country are expected to tune in to tonight's town-hall-style presidential debate at Hofstra University in order to determine which complete and utter sociopath they find more likable this time around. "I'm very curious to see which one of these two clinically sociopathic individuals will present the most convincing and authentic approximation of an actual human conscience tonight," said Cincinnati-area voter Miranda Harrick, 40, adding that both candidates, like all successful politicians, were undeniably skilled at such calculated artifice. "I think whoever is able to best manipulate me into thinking they experience normative emotional states such as empathy and regret will probably have my vote come November, so I'm excited to see what happens." The debate figures to be especially important for undecided voters, 91 percent of whom said in a pre-debate poll that they were still waiting for one sociopath to win them over with the perfect combination of superficial charm, deluded grandeur, and pathological lying. |
