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Joe Quinn
Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, and the people of the US East Coast,
in particular those living on the NY and NJ coastlines and the people of
NYC itself, are left to pick up the pieces.Sott.net 2012-11-02 10:21:00 Right now, 250,000 people in lower Manhattan are without power. The prognosis for reconnection is not good. As the sea poured over the banks of the East River near the ConEd electricity substation on 13th Street, the transformer blew in spectacular fashion.
With the underground circuitry still under water, those 1/4 million people are looking at 10 days without power, despite promises that it would take just three days. Among the powerless are many elderly and disabled people on medication. Brooklyn resident Jonathan Maimon provided the following report on the situation in his area: At times like these, before, during and after a natural disaster, the most politicians seem able to do is to point out the obvious and try to create the impression that it is they who are mostly responsible for 'getting the country back on its feet'. Obviously, this is bullshit. It's the ordinary people of any society or country that drive the bulldozers, manually pick up the pieces, rebuild homes and fix damaged infrastructure. Yet politicians would like us all to believe that, without their leadership, nothing would get done. Obviously, this is more bullshit. Yet people believe it, mainly because the media provides them with images of presidents taking to the skies to survey the scenery and polls stating that x% of people think that the president or mayor "did a good job" in "dealing with the crisis". They do a good job at capitalizing on a crisis, but that's about it. The truth of the matter is that, more often than not, in exercising their power in such situations, politicians tend to impede the most effective, efficient and humane response to a disaster. The reason is clear: politicians do not, and never have, worked in the public interest. They have their own vested interests and those of their corporate cronies that always come first. |
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James Corbett
GRTV.ca 2012-10-29 08:07:00
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| Puppet Masters |
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Paul Joseph Watson
Furious that state involvement in major terror attacks is being exposed
to a wider audience than ever before via the Internet, a UK think tank
closely affiliated with the Downing Street has called for authorities to
infiltrate conspiracy websites in an effort to "increase trust in the
government".12160 Social Network 2012-11-01 17:27:00 "A Demos report published today, The Power of Unreason, argues that secrecy surrounding the investigation of events such as the 9/11 New York attacks and the 7/7 bombings in London merely adds weight to unsubstantiated claims that they were "inside jobs," reports the London Independent. In other words, the fact that the overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that both 7/7 and 9/11 were "inside jobs" of one form or another, and that huge numbers of people are now aware of this via the increasing influence of the Internet, is hampering efforts to commit more acts of terror, therefore the government needs to change its strategy. In the report, Demos, "recommends the Government fight back by infiltrating internet sites to dispute these theories." One of the tools Demos already employs to "fight back" against conspiracy theories is by labeling anyone who challenges the government's official story as an extremist or a terrorist recruiter. |
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Comment: The problem is compounded by the fact that many 'conspiracy websites' were set up for the very purpose of having something to attack.
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Michael Peck
Forbes 2012-11-01 13:01:00
The Taliban IED exploding in the faces of the U.S. soldiers wasn't the surprise. It was the zombie assault that came afterwards. The War on Terror and the Zombie War on Humanity met Halloween night as an American patrol confronted IEDs, wounded civilians and waves of zombies. The setting was the parking lot of the HALO Corporation's counter-terrorism conference in San Diego, and the soldiers and zombies came from Strategic Operations, a private company that uses Hollywood special effects and actors to train U.S. soldiers. But as you can see from the video, this wasn't training Marines how to make friends with Afghan villagers. The scenario starts with an American VIP - the dude in the black shirt and sunglasses - visiting a village (Strategic Operations describes it as a Third World village, but the keffiyeh/shemagh scarf worn by the village elder suggests Iraq or Afghanistan). He is escorted by a Personal Security Detail of American soldiers. As the team prepares to leave the village, they are attacked by insurgents driving a truck carrying an IED. The soldiers destroy the vehicle and detonate the IED.
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Comment: We too thought this had to be a joke, but it looks like it was conducted in all seriousness. Here's more from Fox News:
They can't be serious, can they?Then there's this: Feds vs. Zombies: CDC officially denies 'Zombie Apocalypse' |
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Matthew Boyle
The Daily Caller 2012-11-01 00:00:00
Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year. In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100. The women spoke through a translator in the company of their attorney, Melanio Figueroa. Both asked that their identities remain obscured for fear of reprisals in the Dominican Republic. When shown a photograph of Sen. Menendez, the women said they recognized him as the man with whom they'd had sexual relations at Casa de Campo this spring. Both said they were brought to the resort with the understanding they would be paid for sex. Neither knew the identity of the man at the time. Both claimed to recognize him later as Sen. Menendez. "He called him[self] 'Bob,'" said one. |
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Declan McCullagh
Cnet 2012-10-30 00:00:00
In latest case to test how technological developments alter Americans' privacy, federal court sides with Justice Department on police use of concealed surveillance cameras on private property. Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday. CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown. This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy rights are protected by law. In January, the Supreme Court rejected warrantless GPS tracking after previously rejecting warrantless thermal imaging, but it has not yet ruled on warrantless cell phone tracking or warrantless use of surveillance cameras placed on private property without permission. Yesterday Griesbach adopted a recommendation by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan dated October 9. That recommendation said that the DEA's warrantless surveillance did not violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and requires that warrants describe the place that's being searched. "The Supreme Court has upheld the use of technology as a substitute for ordinary police surveillance," Callahan wrote. |
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Alicia A. Caldwell
My Fox New York 2012-11-01 05:18:00
A senior Secret Service agent who was being investigated by the government for failing to disclose a long-standing relationship with a foreign citizen killed himself last week in Washington, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Rafael Prieto, a married father assigned to the security detail for President Barack Obama, had acknowledged to U.S. investigators that he had been having an affair for years with a woman from Mexico, these people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Prieto's death or the investigation. Prieto's relationship was revealed to Secret Service investigators by an agent who had been entangled in the Colombian prostitution scandal earlier this year, these people say. That agent was concerned that the Secret Service wasn't enforcing its rules consistently. Secret Service rules require that employees with a security clearance notify the agency about any relationship with a foreign citizen to ensure that the person is not a risk to national security. There is no evidence that Prieto's relationship posed any security threat. Failing to disclose such a relationship would be a violation of the agency's administrative rules, not a crime. Prieto was serving on the protective detail for Obama, though he was not on duty at the time of his suicide. As recently as 2009, he was identified as the resident agent in charge at the Secret Service's office in White Plains, N.Y. He had worked for the Secret Service for 22 years. He was 47, according to public records. |
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Greg Palast
Source 2012-10-31 21:43:00
Broke ethics law hiding millions, say good government groups For Mitt Romney, it's one scary Halloween. The Presidential candidate has just learned that tomorrow afternoon he will charged with violating the federal Ethics in Government law by improperly concealing his multi-million dollar windfall from the auto industry bail-out. At a press conference in Toledo, Bob King, President of the United Automobile Workers, will announce that his union and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics in Washington stating that Gov. Romney improperly hid a profit of $15.3 million to $115.0 million in Ann Romney's so-called "blind" trust. The union chief says, "The American people have a right to know about Gov. Romney's potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue," "It's time for Gov. Romney to disclose or divest." "While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation's most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others," King added. |
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RT.com
2012-11-01 14:39:00
A military strike on Iran by way of Israel could still occur at a moment's notice, but the US is now warning its allies that any action overseas would jeopardize America's ability to assist in a Middle East war. Although US President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney both say the next administration will be aligned with any Israeli efforts to prevent Iran from procuring a nuclear weapon, any unilateral strike on the Islamic Republic could prevent America from offering its service in the event of a war. The United States currently has military bases across much of the world, including key stations in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Should Israel decide to strike Iran, instability in the region is expected to become rampant and American officials fear they won't be able to rely on troops stationed overseas to come to their ally's aid. "The Gulf states' one great fear is Iran going nuclear. The other is a regional war that would destabilize them," a source in the region tells the UK's Guardian. "They might support a massive war against Iran, but they know they are not going to get that, and they know a limited strike is not worth it, as it will not destroy the program and only make Iran angrier." |
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RT.com
The United States is doing everything possible to salvage 'operation
Syria' and in doing so hedging all their bets on its success, says Eric
Draitser, geopolitical analyst from stopimperialism.com. But that
strategy, Draitser believes, will fail.2012-11-01 16:04:00 Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US no longer sees Syria's foreign-based National Council as a leading opposition force, due to its lack of support on the ground. The Syrian opposition consists of various rebel militias, many of which have been infiltrated by radical Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda. A new 51 member "National Initiative Council" is due to be unveiled in Doha next week, and will include only 15 seats for the SNC. Meanwhile, the SNC is planning to base itself inside Syria, in an attempt to prove its relevance to skeptical international backers. But as Eric Draitser told RT, these efforts may be too little too late to fit into US plans for the region. |
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Raymond Hernandez
The New York Times 2012-11-01 18:57:00
In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result he was endorsing President Obama. Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in his third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of both Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president's Republican rival, saying that both men have failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the best candidate to tackle the global climate change that the mayor believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 38 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage. "The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast - in lost lives, lost homes and lost business - brought the stakes of next Tuesday's presidential election into sharp relief," Mr. Bloomberg wrote in an editorial for Bloomberg View. "Our climate is changing," he wrote. "And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be - given the devastation it is wreaking - should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action." | |
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Comment: Surprise? No. Just another prime example of
how politicians capitalise on disaster with some climate change
propaganda thrown in for good measure. Straight out of the book of
Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel who said. "You never want a serious
crisis to go to waste,"
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Source
2012-10-31 18:28:00
Iraqi sources revealed on Wednesday that a Mossad terror squad has infiltrated into Iraq to assassinate the country's scientists. "The Mossad team which includes 30 to 40 members with Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi nationalities is led by a person named al-Bir who bears a Lebanese/Palestinian nationality," an informed source told the Iraqi UR News Agency on Wednesday. According to the source, the hideout of the terrorist group is located behind a church in Salman Fayeq street in Baghdad. The members of the terror squad have killed over 1,000 Iraqi scientists in Baghdad and other cities so far and still have a blacklist to go ahead. In 2011, reports revealed that US Department of Defense (Pentagon) and US forces in Iraq have collaborated with the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, to assassinate over 550 scientists and academic figures after the occupation of Iraq in April 2003. "Mossad in collaboration with American forces in Iraq killed 350 Iraqi nuclear scientists and 200 university professors in Iraq from 2003 to 2008," International Reality, a Jordanian daily, said quoting a special security report prepared by US State Department in 2008 and delivered to President George W. Bush at the time. |
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| Society's Child |
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National Public Radio
Update at 5:17 p.m. ET. Marathon Cancelled: 2012-11-02 16:40:00 After receiving withering criticism, officials have decided to cancel the New York City Marathon, the largest 26.2 mile road race in the world. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had insisted on allowing the marathon to continue, issued a statement saying he did not want to taint the event with shroud of controversy. "While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division," Bloomberg said in a statement emailed to reporters. "The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination. We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it." NBC News points out that just hours earlier, Bloomberg asserted that the marathon would go on. "If you think back to 9/11, I think Rudy [Giuliani] made the right decision to run the marathon," Bloomberg said. "It pulled people together and we have to find some ways to express ourselves and show solidarity to each other." The mayor said New York Road Runners would issue more information later for the 45,000 runners. |
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Tom Eames
Digital Spy 2012-10-31 13:21:00
A producer has held a mass exorcism at a London cinema, claiming his film was being haunted by evil spirits. Filmmaker Bill Bungay blamed several strange occurrences connected with his film When the Lights Went Out on "the effects of a demonic possession". Two showings of the horror film at the Soho Screening Rooms were hit by blackouts, with Bungay deciding to hold an exorcism to cleanse the cinema. Using the help of 100 male and female religious friends, he felt that exorcism needed to be held as it could not have been a "coincidence". Bungay's film is based on the supposed haunting of a Yorkshire home that belonged to director Pat Holden's aunt Jean Pritchard in the 1970s. The producer said: "It was one thing to put the first power failure down to a bit of bad luck. "But to move cinemas and have exactly the same thing happen 20 minutes into the movie when the evil presence is first felt was beyond coincidence, and has caused much concern for the production." However, cinema projectionist Paul Speed stated that the incidents were likely more technical than paranormal. "In Soho, we get outages when there is a big demand for power for heating when the temperature drops," he said. |
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CNN
As Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York, Glenda Moore drove frantically
across Staten Island in an attempt to get her sons to safety.2012-11-02 11:56:00 Instead, Moore found herself and her boys -- Connor, four and Brandon, two -- caught in the full fury of the storm. Buffeted by torrential rains and winds of up to 90 miles per hour, her Ford Explorer plunged into a hole. According to the account she would later give police, Moore carried her sons to a nearby tree, gripping branches along with her boys as she tried to shelter them from the storm surge. She told police they clung together for hours, before Moore managed to make her way to a nearby property, and pleaded to be let inside. But according to her police account, rather than sheltering the desperate strangers, the occupant refused to let them enter. In desperation, Moore told police she then went to the back of the house, and tried to break in using a flower pot, but was unable to do so. As the storm raged on, her sons were swept away by flood waters. The bodies of the boys were found near each other Thursday, about a quarter of a mile from where Moore last held them. Meanwhile, public anger has been directed at the homeowner who allegedly failed to help Moore and her children. The man, who told CNN's Gary Tuchman that his name is Alan but did not want his full name used, disputed Moore's account, saying he saw only a man outside. |
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Comment: A man's refusal to help a woman and her two
young sons directly results in the death of the children and all he can
do is blame the mother. This is everyday pathological behavior in
action. This is the type of pathology that repulses normal human beings
and is normalized by far too many people as the status quo.
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Zoe Wood, Julia Kollewe and Nadine Schimroszik
The Guardian 2012-11-02 08:50:00
Retailer Comet was plunged into chaos on Thursday as its looming administration led to suppliers commandeering stock, its website crashing and shoppers being urged to spend vouchers soon to become worthless. The company said a notice of intent to file for administration had been handed in at the high court with the formal appointment of administrators expected early next week. The crunch puts 6,500 jobs at risk and raises the spectre of one of the darkest days for the high street since the collapse of Woolworths in 2008. In an email to staff, Comet chief executive Bob Darke said the board was "urgently working with its advisers to seek a solution to secure a viable future". The 80-year-old company started as Comet Battery Stores, which charged batteries for wireless sets, and pioneered out-of-town retailing, opening its first superstore in Hull in 1968. In the first of a series of ownership changes, Comet was bought by B&Q owner Kingfisher in 1984 for £129m and, by the mid-1990s, had become a national chain. Amstrad founder Lord Sugar tweeted: "Sad to see the demise of Comet. They were my first serious trade customer when I started my first electronics factory in the early 70s." |
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RT
2012-11-01 00:00:00
Social media giant Facebook has removed a message by the Special Operations Speaks PAC (SOS), which shed negative light on US President Obama for denying a request for military support in Benghazi before the deadly attack on the consulate. The message came in the form of a meme, accompanied by an image of Obama, smiling while holding his ears, next to an image of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Obama called the SEALs and THEY got bin Laden," the meme states. "When the SEALs called Obama, THEY GOT DENIED." The message sheds light on Obama's failure to provide backup when the SEALs called for it in Benghazi, shortly before four Americans were killed in an attack that killed the US Ambassador to Libya. Sources who were present during the six-hour assault claim that military assistance, which was only two hours away, was requested and denied even when the CIA safe house was under attack. The assault has become a controversial topic, with the White House having been unclear about how much it actually knew about the attack and the motivations behind it. SOS is an anti-Obama group consisting of "veterans, legatees, and supporters of the Special Operations communities of all the Armed Forces," the Facebook page states. After the page garnered 30,000 shared and 24,000 likes for the meme in just 24 hours, it was deleted by Facebook. |
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RT
2012-11-01 00:00:00
A federal judge is considering how legitimate users of the Megaupload online storage site may be allowed access to files hosted on seized servers, but Hollywood is still adamant about doing everything possible to prevent that from happening. Kyle Goodwin says he uploaded personal files to the Megaupload.com cyber locker that were vital to his small business, but he's been unable to access that data ever since authorities shut-down the site and arrested its founder, Kim Dotcom of New Zealand, in January. Ten months after the fact, Goodwin can't access his files and is now being represented by attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The government engaged in a overbroad seizure, denying Mr. Goodwin access to his data, along with likely millions of others who have never been accused of wrongdoing," EFF staff attorney Julie Samuels says in a statement this week. "Access to the government's warrant application and related materials can help us learn how this could have happened and provide assistance in our efforts to get Mr. Goodwin his property back." A judge is now being tasked with deciding if those court files can be opened to assess the situation fully, but the Hollywood bigwigs who were opposed to the site say that might not be the best idea. |
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RT
2012-11-01 00:00:00
As New York City remains devastated from the destruction brought on by Superstorm Sandy, officials are optioning the installation of barriers that could prevent further catastrophes - at a cost estimated in the billions. Now that this week's storm has proven that Manhattan and the other boroughs of New York aren't impermeable to Mother Nature, scientists are looking to find solutions that could keep another Sandy from shutting down the city. The answer, some say, might be a system of barriers jetting into the bodies of water surrounding New York that could help stop any future frankenstorms. "With the kind of protection that has been considered so far, you cannot protect a multimillion-inhabitant city that runs part of the world economy," Piet Dirck of the Dutch engineering firm Arcadis tells the Associated Press. Oceanography professor Malcolm J. Bowman from Long Island's Stony Brook University tells the AP that he has warned what could happen to New York for years if a storm such as Sandy moved up the East Coast. He's also advocated for a barrier and implies now that the time is finally right for officials to start heeding his call. "The time has come. The city is finally going to have to face this," he says. |
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My Fox DC
Warning: Video Contains Graphic Content2012-11-01 10:48:00
Disturbing video posted online shows a man being beaten by a group of men as Hurricane Sandy struck New York City. The incident happened Monday in the Crown Heights section of New York. NyDailyNews.com identified the victim as 21-year-old Jeremy Furchtgott. Furchtgott can be seen in surveillance video posted by CrownHeights.info being assaulted by at least five men. According to the article, Furchtgott was forced to turn over his iPhone and money to the assailants. Police, at this time, have no suspects. |
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Ben Giles
The Washington Examiner 2012-10-31 00:00:00
A 43-year-old Department of Homeland Security worker allegedly used Facebook to solicit more than 70 area children for sexual acts, according to authorities. Robert B. Rennie Jr., a Loudoun County resident, was charged Oct. 24 with five counts of using a computer to solicit a child under the age of 15, after a school resource officer was tipped off to suspicious activity on a Mercer Middle School student's Facebook page. The student, a young girl, had accepted a friend request from someone she believed was a fellow Mercer student: an account under the name Kyle Kirts, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. The girl's parents alerted school officials that "Kirts" had solicited sexual activity from the girl in conversations on Facebook, authorities said. The school in turn alerted the Sheriff's Office. An investigation revealed that Rennie, who worked for the agency's National Protection and Programs Directorate, was the sole user of the fictitious account, which under the name Kirts had friended mostly young girls. |
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Patti Domm
CNBC 2012-11-01 11:36:00
Power outages at hundreds of gas stations and a distribution bottleneck due to flooding damage and power loss has caused a gasoline shortage in the New York metropolitan area that may not be cleared up for at least a week, according to industry experts. What was a problem for drivers when Super Storm Sandy ended two days ago has become a nightmare for frazzled motorists who find themselves in gas lines that can stretch on for hours. Some lines were hundreds of cars long in sections of New Jersey and New York Thursday, and in a number of locations police monitored the lines which interfered with traffic flow in some areas. The problem is not gasoline supplies, but the ability to distribute it, especially from the critical terminal area around Linden, N.J., which lost power and was hit by storm surge. An estimated 75 percent or more of the gas stations in New Jersey were closed either because they had no gasoline, no power or both, said Sal Risalvato, executive director of the N.J. Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association. His organization represents about 1,000 gasoline stations in N.J. "What I'm seeing is there's a combination of problems. Power is at the root of it. That means gasoline that is already in inventory, already refined in those big tanks you see along the side of the turnpike, they can't get that gasoline into the delivery trucks without power," said Risalvato. |
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Vasili Sushko
The Voice of Russia 2012-11-01 00:00:00
New York is still struggling with getting back to work and cleaning up. Here are some of the more notable stories from the storm: Crystal Park interviews New York correspondent Vasili Sushko on the state of the city: With limited metro access, New Yorkers had some of the worst commutes imaginable today. Thousands of people lined up at bus stops to try to get into Manhattan, and cars without three passengers weren't allowed into the city to try and cut down on traffic. As of this recording, 600,000 in New York City are still without power. The local power company, Con Edison, is working on areas with the highest population first. Looters have taken advantage of the confusion and desperation by dressing as Con Edison workers and breaking into houses on the pretext that they were doing electrical repairs. Sushko reports that around 15 people have been arrested for looting. |
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Colin Campbell
Observer.com - Politicker 2012-11-01 09:46:00
At a press conference this morning on Staten Island, a host of local officials, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gathered to highlight the needs of the hard-hit borough in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. And, although many pols spoke, no one was more impassioned than Borough President James Molinaro, who called the Red Cross an "absolute disgrace" and even urged the public to cease giving them contributions. "Because the devastation in Staten Island, the lack of a response," Mr. Molinaro said to explain his comment to NBC after the press conference. "You know, I went to a shelter Monday night after the storm. People were coming in with no socks, with no shoes. They were in desperate need. Their housing was destroyed. They were crying. Where was the Red Cross? Isn't that their function? They collect millions of dollars. Whenever there's a drive in Staten Island, we give openly and honestly. Where are they? Where are they? I was at the South Shore yesterday, people were buried in their homes. There the dogs are trying to find bodies. The people there, the neighbors who had no electricity, were making soup. Making soup. It's very emotional because the lack of a response. The lack of a response. They're supposed to be here....They should be on the front lines fighting, and helping the people." Several other local officials agreed with Mr. Molinaro's rage over Staten Island's situation, although they did not call out the Red Cross specifically. |
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Jennifer Abbey
ABC News 2012-11-01 20:00:00
The residents of Staten Island are pleading for help from elected officials, begging for gasoline, food and clothing three days after Sandy slammed the New York City borough. "We're going to die! We're going to freeze! We got 90-year-old people!" Donna Solli told visiting officials. "You don't understand. You gotta get your trucks down here on the corner now. It's been three days!" Staten Island was one of the hardest-hit communities in New York City. More than 80,000 residents are still without power. Many are homeless, and at least 19 people died on Staten Island because of the storm. One of the devastated neighborhoods was overwhelmed by a violent surge of water. Residents described a super-sized wave as high as 20 feet, with water rushing into the streets like rapids. |
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David Blair
The Telegraph 2012-11-01 16:04:00
At least 500 people have been uprooted from their homes to make way for luxury villas where European Union foreign ministers, including William Hague, will stay during a summit in Laos on Monday. The "Asia-Europe Meeting" will bring together 48 EU and Asian countries on Don Chan island in the centre of Laos's capital, Vientiane. To allow the construction of 50 villas and two conference centres, the authorities have moved 102 families who once lived on the island and worked its green paddy fields. The new facilities will be used for this and future summits. The former inhabitants have been dumped 15 miles away, with minimal compensation, at a new location without enough fertile land to replace their old livelihoods. "I cannot produce rice and other crops for survival," said one person who was displaced. "How can my family and I live? Other people have the same problems as well. I do not have a stable income - my land is grabbed and I cannot grow crops." Land seizures of this kind are a growing problem in Asia, where booming economies have spurred unchecked development. In total, about 15 per cent of the entire surface area of Laos, a country of 6.2 million people in South-East Asia, has been seized for development. In the process, tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced. |
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Tom Phillips
The Telegraph 2012-11-01 13:30:00
It is billed as the "final offensive" against extreme poverty in China's poorest province. Between now and 2020, two million people are to be moved from their isolated mountain homes in Guizhou province as part of one of the single largest relocations in recent Chinese history. It is a gargantuan task and one that will cost billions. But provincial authorities claim resettlement is the only way to eliminate the grinding rural poverty that continues to blight China's countryside even after one of the greatest economic booms in human history. "Even if we build roads to reach them, provide drinking water to them and work to alleviate poverty there for another 50 years, the problem might not be addressed," Guizhou's party secretary, Zhao Kezhi, said earlier this year. "[The mountains] ... barely provide the conditions for sustaining life." |
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| Secret History |
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The Telegraph
Bulgarian archaeologists claim to have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town in the north-east of the country. 2012-11-01 14:50:00
The town, near the salt pans of Provadia, in the Varna region of Bulgaria, is located in the same area as Europe's first salt factory. The archaeology team, led by Professor Vasil Nikolov from the National Archaeology Institute and Museum, have been studying the area for many years and believe the key to the town's success was its natural abundance of salt which, at the time, was as valuable as gold. Professor Nikolov said: "Now we can say that the Provadia salt pans' location is the oldest town in Europe, it existed between years 4700 to 4200 BC, in the second half of the fifth millennium before Christ." "What makes a difference here from all the other ancient villages in south-east Europe are the salt springs ... the salt produced was used as money because salt was essential for humans and animals as well. "So salt production was what made this village different from others and gave it prosperity," Nikolov added. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Giovanni Sostero, Nick Howes & Ernesto Guido
Following our team's detection of a fragmentation event with comet 168P/Hergenrother on October 26, 2012, we requested via the Faulkes Telescope Education project
that further observations be taken. Today, two UK Schools using the
Faulkes Telescope kindly assisted in obtaining additional observations
for us. The two schools (Queens College and the Dollar Academy)
performed follow-up observations of this comet on 2012, Nov. 2.4,
remotely through the 2m, f/10 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD of Faulkes
Telescope North (Haleakala).Remanzacco Observatory 2012-11-02 13:30:00 Stacking of 26 R-filtered exposures, 35-sec each, obtained remotely, from the Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North on 2012, Nov. 2.4, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD, under good seeing conditions, confirms the presence of a secondary nucleus, or fragment, now placed about 3.3" in PA 165 with respect to the main central condensation of comet 168P. This fragment is now fainter, compared to our previous Oct. 26.4 detection, having R magnitude about 18.7; its diameter is still about 2", but now it appears more diffuse, without a clear central condensation (this hampers a precise determination of its photocenter). This fragment appears to have developed its own tail, nearly 4" long in PA 113 (about parallel to the main tail originating from the central condensation of 168P). Below you can see our rendition of today imaging session. Through some image processing, the tail of the fragment became easily visible.
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The Physics arXiv Blog
2012-10-31 13:13:00
The strange behaviour of spacecraft as they fly past Earth has astrophysicists scratching their heads. Now space scientists are developing a mission that could measure the phenomenon in detail Last year, physicists solved one of the great problems in modern space science--the Pioneer anomaly. This leaves them free concentrate on another myserious phenomenon associated with spacecraft trajectory. Space scientists first become aware of it in 1990 when NASA's Galileo spacecraft swung past Earth en route to a gravitational slingshot towards Jupiter. As they examiend the data afterwards they discovered that the spacecraft's speed suddenly jumped by 4 mm per second during the flyby. The change attracted little attention at the time. But when a similar thing happened during flybys of the NEAR, Cassini and Rosetta spacecraft, astrophysicists began to sit up and take notice. Nobody knows what could cause a sudden step change in momentum. But the prospect that this may be new physics has attracted an increasingly interested group of astrophyscists. We've looked at various explanations on this blog here, here and here. |
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Fariss Samarrai
Vision may be less important to "seeing" than is the brain's ability to
process points of light into complex images, according to a new study of
the fruit fly visual system currently published in the online journal Nature Communications.University of Virginia 2012-11-01 18:40:00 University of Virginia researchers have found that the very simple eyes of fruit fly larvae, with only 24 total photoreceptors (the human eye contains more than 125 million), provide just enough light or visual input to allow the animal's relatively large brain to assemble that input into images. "It blows open how we think about vision," said Barry Condron, a neurobiologist in U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences, who oversaw the study. "This tells us that visual input may not be as important to sight as the brain working behind it. In this case, the brain apparently is able to compensate for the minimal visual input." Condron's graduate students, Elizabeth Daubert, Nick Macedonia and Catherine Hamilton, conducted a series of experiments to test the vision of fruit fly larvae after they noticed an interesting behavior of the animals during a different study of the nervous system. They found that when a larva was tethered to the bottom of a petri dish, other larvae were attracted to it as it wiggled attempting to free itself. The animals apparently saw the writhing motion and were attracted to it, willingly traveling toward it. After several further experiments to understand how they sensed the motion, the researchers learned that the nearly blind animals likely were seeing the action, by wagging their heads side-to-side in a scanning motion to detect it, rather than by only hearing it or feeling vibration or by smelling the trapped larva. This was a surprise because of the very simple and limited vision of fruit fly larvae. |
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| Earth Changes |
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Fox News/YouTube
2012-11-02 17:47:00
Wednesday on The O'Reilly Factor, two weather experts debated Al Gore's claims that global warming was to blame for Hurricane Sandy's wrath. Gore said, "The storms are getting stronger. The stronger storms are getting more frequent. And you know, this is the second time in two years that part of Manhattan has been shut down ... But the evidence is now so overwhelming." Joe Bastardi, chief meteorologist at WeatherBell Analytics calls Gore's claims "stunningly ignorant or stunningly deceptive." According to Bastardi, such storms are nothing new, "In the 1950s 10 major hurricanes ran the eastern seaboard. Six hit the Carolinas northward in two years." |
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Michael Zennie
The East Coast is still reeling from the devastation brought on by
Superstorm Sandy. But as the mass clear-up begins, forecasters are
already warning of a powerful new nor'easter storm front coming in from
the Atlantic, bringing 45mph gusts of wind mixed with snow and rain.Daily Mail 2012-11-02 14:19:00 The beleaguered coast line is expected to face the storm from Tuesday to Thursday - potentially casting a shadow over Election Day. At least New York City and the surrounding area may escape a beating, as forecasters expect most of the severe weather will hit northern New England - meaning it should land hundreds of miles north from where Sandy reached the continent.
However, New York and New Jersey can expect frigid winds and rain as hundreds of thousands remain without power and homeless. A nor'easter is a powerful storm that thrives on cold air. Severe nor'easters can bring hurricane-force winds and blizzards. |
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News24.com
2012-11-02 13:18:00
Warsaw - Sub-zero temperatures coupled with early snowfall have killed 14 people in Poland over the past week, national police said on Wednesday. "In eight days we've recorded 14 deaths associated with freezing weather in Poland," Krzysztof Hajdas, a spokesperson for police headquarters told AFP. "The bodies of these people, mostly men, were found in various regions of the country," he said without elaborating. A weekend cold snap and heavy snowfall across Poland caused chaos on the roads and left about 70 000 people temporarily without electricity in the region surrounding the capital Warsaw. Last winter, over 100 mostly homeless people and alcoholics died of exposure in Poland. |
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The Guardian
2012-10-30 08:47:00
Wet, cold summer saw honey yields from hives fall by almost three-quarters, the British Beekeepers Association says Rain and cold weather this summer saw honey yields from hives fall by almost three-quarters, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said today. The average crop per hive was down 72% compared to 2011, with just 3.6kg (8lb) of honey produced compared to an annual average of 30lb (13.6kg), the annual honey survey by the BBKA revealed. The survey of 2,712 beekeepers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales found that 88% said this summer's bad weather caused the fall in honey yields. The cold, wet conditions forced the BBKA to issue a midsummer warning to feed colonies if necessary to avoid starvation. But in London, which recorded the worst results with just 2.5kg (5.6lb) of honey harvested on average, beekeeping experts said that in addition to the bad weather there was a lack of food for bees in the city. |
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Adam Clarke
Farmers Weekly 2012-10-31 08:39:00
The struggle continues for our Crop Watch agronomists this week, particularly in Scotland where ware potato crops are at risk of being left in the ground to rot. SAC senior potato consultant Matthew Smallwod was driving through snow, against the backdrop of growers trying harvest their crops. "It's been a fight between the elements and the grower," he says. "The elements have won by knockout against growers under contract. Those on the open market are awaiting the judges' decision." Growers that gambled on late burn-offs of their crops will now be playing cat and mouse with the weather, desperately trying to finish harvest before it is too late. |
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JKM Varna
DNA India 2012-10-31 09:00:00
An earthquake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale hit a central China region where the world's biggest water reservoir the Three Gorges Dam is located, though no harm to the structure was reported. The tremor hit Zigui County of Yichang City in Hubei Province at 3:42 am and its epicentre was located at five km below ground, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. No casualties were reported though the earthquake was felt across Zigui, state-run Xinhua news agency said. "The minor earthquake has not affected the Three Gorges Dam, which can endure far stronger earthquakes," Hu Xing'e, vice head of the management bureau of the project with the China Three Gorges Corporation said. She said that no earthquake-triggered landslides have been reported in the reservoir area and all power generating units and ship locks are working normally. |
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The Jakarta Globe
2012-11-01 20:03:00
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck the district of Bandung, West Java, Thursday night shaking buildings as far away as Jakarta and Banten, according to data released by the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake's epicenter was 163 kilometers below ground, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). The Indonesian agency reported the earthquake's epicenter as 28 kilometers southeast of Cianjur, West Java. |
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RT.com
2012-11-01 14:46:00
Water levels rose to critical levels overnight in Venice, as a high tide forced tourists to wait it out in knee-deep water. The city was put on high alert as water was not expected to recede for at least 15 hours. Over half the city was flooded, with water reaching above 140cm, making it the highest tide since December 2010. Chioggia, a town on the southern edge of the Venice lagoon, was the worst hit, with water levels reaching 160cm. The flood was caused by wind and rain combined with periodic tidal phenomenon unique to the region, AFP reported. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Dr. Mercola
The greatest opportunity to give people the right to know if their food
is genetically engineered will occur with the California ballot
initiative - officially known as Proposition 37 - which is coming up
for vote on November 6. Proposition 37 will require labeling of
genetically engineered foods, and end the routine industry practice of
labeling and marketing such foods as "natural."foodfreedomgroup.com 2012-10-20 16:22:00 Your support, regardless of what state you live in, can make all the difference between winning and losing. The information in the below video is based on the new report "GMO Myths and Truths" by EarthOpenSource.org. You can find more information here
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Patricia Hunt
Environmental Health News 2012-11-02 15:06:00
The paternalistic assertion that labeling of genetically modified foods "can only serve to mislead and falsely alarm consumers" is an Orwellian argument that violates the right of consumers to make informed decisions. Civilization rests on the confidence that an individual's basic human rights will be respected by the government, including the 'right to know.' The AAAS board failed to note that the FDA's testing program for GM foods is voluntary. As a group of scientists and physicians that includes many long-standing members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), we challenge the recent AAAS Board of Directors statement opposing efforts to require labeling of foods containing products derived from genetically modified crop plants. Their position tramples the rights of consumers to make informed choices. | |
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Comment: Is the statement released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Serving Science or Monsanto?:
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uprisingradio.org
2012-10-31 14:34:00
One of the world's most renowned scientists and environmental activists, Vandana Shiva, is speaking out on behalf of proposition 37. Long a thorn in the side of Monsanto, Dr. Shiva has taken on big bio-tech and agribusiness companies in her home country of India and works with farmers groups all over the world to protect their right to farm using their traditional methods and seeds. Trained as a physicist, Vandana Shiva is the founder of Navadanya, "a movement which aims to protect nature and people's rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food," by creating community seed banks among other things. She just concluded a two week long global action called "seed freedom." She has written nearly two dozen books, including Democratizing Biology: Reinventing Biology from a Feminist, Ecological and Third World Perspective, and Soil Not Oil. Her forthcoming book out next year is entitled Making Peace With the Earth: Beyond Land Wars And Food Wars. Vandana Shiva has won a number of awards including the Sydney Peace Prize and the Right Livlihood Award and was named by the Guardian newspaper as one of their Top 100 most inspiring women. | |
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Comment: Read the following articles written by Dr. Vandana Shiva about the numerous
Myths, Falsehoods, Superstitions regarding GMO's: Great Seed Robbery Vandana Shiva: Corporate monopoly of seeds must end Vandana Shiva: Understanding the Corporate TakeoverVandana Shiva on the Problem with Genetically Modified Seeds |
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Science Codex
There are a growing number of clues that immune and inflammatory
mechanisms are important for the biology of schizophrenia. In a new
study in Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Mar Fatjó-Vilas and
colleagues explored the impact of the interleukin-1β gene (IL1β) on
brain function alterations associated with schizophrenia.2012-11-01 15:10:00 Fatjó-Vilas said that "this study is a contribution to the relatively new field of 'functional imaging genetics' which appears to be potentially powerful for the study of schizophrenia, where genetic factors are of established importance and cognitive impairment - affecting particularly executive function and long-term memory - is increasingly recognized as a core feature of the disorder." To conduct this study, they recruited patients with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers, all of whom completed a working memory task while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan in the laboratory. This allowed the researchers to determine which areas of the brain became activated during the task. Each participant was also genotyped to determine which allelic combination of the -511C/T polymorphism at the promoter region of the IL1β gene they carry: CC, TT, or CT. Patients who were homozygous for the C allele (CC) showed reduced prefrontal cortex activation associated with working memory than patients who had at least one copy of the T allele. Among the healthy volunteers, frontal brain activation did not differ according to genotype. "The analyzed genetic variant exerts an influence on prefrontal cortex function and this influence is different in healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia," summarized Fatjó-Vilas. |
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Madeline O'Leary
Reuters 2012-10-30 14:14:00
More than a thousand potentially hazardous chemicals often found in cosmetics and cleaning supplies remain unregulated on the European market, environmental activists say. Green campaigners ClientEarth and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) say there has been little progress by the EU chemicals regulatory agency in tightening up oversight of the industry - a task it was charged with six years ago. There are more than 30,000 chemicals used throughout Europe with little regulatory control and many pose a potential threat to the health of consumers, said Tatiana Santos, policy officer at the EEB. "Incomplete, incorrect and irrelevant information is commonly found in the registration dossiers," ClientEarth and the EEB found in a study. |
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Susan Martonik
Society of Nuclear Medicine 2012-11-01 18:47:00
Scans allow researchers to study the link between caffeine and neurodegenerative disorders. Molecular imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) has enabled scientists for the first time to visualize binding sites of caffeine in the living human brain to explore possible positive and negative effects of caffeine consumption. According to research published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, PET imaging with F-18-8-cyclopentyl-3-(3-fluoropropyl)-1-propylxanthine (F-18-CPFPX) shows that repeated intake of caffeinated beverages throughout a day results in up to 50 percent occupancy of the brain's A1 adenosine receptors. "The effects of caffeine to the human body are generally attributed to the cerebral adenosine receptors. In the human brain the A1 adenosine receptor is the most abundant," said David Elmenhorst, MD, lead author of "Caffeine Occupancy of Human Cerebral A1 Adenosine Receptors: In Vivo Quantification with F-18-CPFPX and PET." "In vitro studies have shown that commonly consumed quantities of caffeine have led to a high A1 adenosine occupancy. Our study aimed to measure the A1 adenosine receptor occupancy with in vivo imaging." Fifteen male volunteers participated in the study. They abstained from caffeine intake for 36 hours and then underwent a PET scan with F-18-CPFPX. Caffeine was then introduced in short intravenous infusions, increasing in amount. To estimate the occupancy of A1 adenosine receptors by caffeine, the distribution volume at the baseline period of the PET scan was compared with the distribution volume after caffeine administration. Researchers determined that the concentration of the caffeine that displaces 50 percent of the binding of F-18-CPFPX to the A1 adenosine receptor was 13 mg/L, or approximately four to five cups of coffee. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Manfred Dworschak and Johann Grolle.
Can doctors and investment advisers be trusted? And do we live more
for experiences or memories? In a Spiegel interview, Nobel Prize-winning
psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses the innate weakness of human
thought, deceptive memories and the misleading power of intuition.Spiegel 2012-05-25 17:47:00 Spiegel: Professor Kahneman, you've spent your entire professional life studying the snares in which human thought can become entrapped. For example, in your book, you describe how easy it is to increase a person's willingness to contribute money to the coffee fund. Kahneman: You just have to make sure that the right picture is hanging above the cash box. If a pair of eyes is looking back at them from the wall, people will contribute twice as much as they do when the picture shows flowers. People who feel observed behave more morally. Spiegel: And this also works if we don't even pay attention to the photo on the wall? Kahneman: All the more if you don't notice it. The phenomenon is called "priming": We aren't aware that we have perceived a certain stimulus, but it can be proved that we still respond to it. Spiegel: People in advertising will like that. Kahneman: Of course, that's where priming is in widespread use. An attractive woman in an ad automatically directs your attention to the name of the product. When you encounter it in the shop later on, it will already seem familiar to you. |
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Ekaterina Pesheva
Parents with social anxiety disorder are more likely than parents with
other forms of anxiety to engage in behaviors that put their children at
high risk for developing angst of their own, according to a small study
of parent-child pairs conducted at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.Children's Hospital at Johns Hopkins 2012-11-02 14:59:00 Authors of the federally funded study say past research has linked parental anxiety to anxiety in children, but it remained unclear whether people with certain anxiety disorders engaged more often in anxiety-provoking behaviors. Based on the new study findings, they do. A report on the team's findings appears online ahead of print in the journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development. Specifically, the Johns Hopkins researchers identified a subset of behaviors in parents with social anxiety disorder - the most prevalent type of anxiety - and in doing so clarified some of the confusion that has shrouded the trickle-down anxiety often seen in parent-child pairs. These behaviors included a lack of or insufficient warmth and affection and high levels of criticism and doubt leveled at the child. Such behaviors, the researchers say, are well known to increase anxiety in children and - if engaged in chronically - can make it more likely for children to develop a full-blown anxiety disorder of their own, the investigators say. "There is a broad range of anxiety disorders so what we did was home in on social anxiety, and we found that anxiety-promoting parental behaviors may be unique to the parent's diagnosis and not necessarily common to all those with anxiety," says study senior investigator, Golda Ginsburg, Ph.D., a child anxiety expert at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. |
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Bev Betkowski
Couples about to tie the knot shouldn't ignore nagging doubts about getting married, warns a University of Alberta researcher.University of Alberta 2012-11-02 14:43:00 "If you are having doubts about the relationship, just ignoring them may make a difference years down the road," said Matthew Johnson who co-authored the study while at Kansas State University. Johnson is now an assistant professor in the University of Alberta Department of Human Ecology. The study, published recently in the journal Family Process, found that couples who were more confident as they exchanged vows also spent more time together 18 months into the marriage, and were still happy sharing life with their spouses at the three-year mark. The study used existing research data to weigh the marital confidence of 610 newlywed couples over a period of four years. Those who were most confident at the outset of matrimony were still showing their happiness by sticking together as a couple after the honeymoon was long over. |
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Jason Boardman
University of Colorado at Boulder 2012-10-31 18:32:00
"Nature teaches beasts to know their friends," wrote Shakespeare. In humans, nature may be less than half of the story, a team led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers has found. In the first study of its kind, the team found that genetic similarities may help to explain why human birds of a feather flock together, but the full story of why people become friends "is contingent upon the social environment in which individuals interact with one another," the researchers write. People are more likely to befriend genetically similar people when their environment is stratified, when disparate groups are discouraged from interacting, the study found. When environments were more egalitarian, friends were less likely to share certain genes. Scientists debate the extent to which genetics or environmental factors -- "nature" or "nurture" -- predict certain behaviors, said Jason Boardman, associate professor of sociology and faculty research associate with the Population Program in CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science. "For all the social demographic outcomes we care about, whether it's fertility, marriage, migration, health, it's never nature or nurture. "It's always nature and nurture," he said. "And most of the time it has a lot more to do with nurture." Boardman's team included Benjamin Domingue, research associate in the Population Program at IBS; and Jason Fletcher, associate professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health. Their research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
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| High Strangeness |
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Dave Ward
KTRK-TV/DT 2012-11-01 23:30:00
Houston -- Big Foot, the Chupacabra and the Loch Ness Monster -- they're all creatures of lore that have captivated mankind for centuries. But did you know that Houston has a legend of its own? We go back in time for a closer look at the case of the Houston Batman. While most people are heading home, others gather for a different purpose -- to catch a glimpse of something hidden in the shadows. "You can kind of see the awe on their faces when the bats come out en masse," said Suzanne Jurek, a zookeeper at the Houston Zoo and bat specialist. The bats of the Waugh Street bridge are just getting up. It's a colony of 250,000 and every one of them is a nocturnal hunter. "They fly for miles and they eat. It's all about the food," Jurek said. "The most notorious reports of a flying humanoid is that of the Houston Batman," professional cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard said. This tale takes us to Houston back in the 1950s, when it was a boomtown bursting at the seams. It was 2:30am on June 18, 1953 in the Houston Heights. Three neighbors claimed they saw something extraordinary just a few feet from their home. Hours later, the unearthly encounter was front-page news in the Houston Chronicle. "There's really only one account that I'm aware of and it's a very chilling encounter," Gerhard said. "Subsequently, they were so horrified by their experience that they contacted the local police." |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
| No new articles. |
