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Harrison Koehli
Sott.net 2007-10-29 17:36:00
Martha Stout's newest book, The Paranoia Switch, is a welcome addition to the new and growing science of ponerology: the study of the root causes and genesis of evil, on both the social and interpersonal levels. Stout uses her years of experience as a trauma therapist to clinically diagnose the sickness of our 'terror culture,' and those who would manipulate this trauma for their own self-interest. The paranoia switch Traumatic events overload our limbic system. The heightened response of our amygdala, which registers the emotional significance of the event, leads to a decreased response in the hippocampus, which usually prioritizes information and allows the higher brain centers to create coherent memories, based on their emotional importance. So, traumatic events do not get integrated by the higher brain centers as true memories, but instead leave us with non-integrated fragments of memory: isolated images and sensations. These memories can then be "triggered" by similar images. In this way, a backfiring car can trigger a war vet into a state of paranoia. His "paranoia switch" has been flicked. As Stout explains later in her book, fear brokers maintain their power through the exploitation of human weaknesses. Ironically, it is often the very people we are genetically "programmed" to fear (i.e. psychopathic individuals), that exploit this fear by focusing it on an arbitrary and convenient group. Hitler used anarchists, communists, and Jews. Our leaders are using "terrorists", Muslims, and critics of his policies. | |
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peaceteam.net
2013-02-08 14:26:00
This week, an unclassified memorandum prepared by the Justice Department for members of Congress on the drone killings accidentally became public. The actual Office of Legal Counsel opinion which purports to authorize this program is still a wrongfully classified secret, and a federal judge just refused a FOIA request from the New York Times for release of the document. This is exactly how the infamous torture memo came into existence during the Bush administration, a secret OLC opinion, the legal reasoning of which was so flimsy that it could not survive the light of day. So not only are we not supposed to question the murder of people in multiple countries, we are not even allowed to question the legal basis for it. It is sheer lunacy that LEGAL arguments need to be classified. | |
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Marshall Masters
YOWUSA.com 2001-02-20 01:14:00
This weekend I happened upon a publisher's closeout sale at a local mall. A Tom Clancy hard cover dominated the first clearance table past the front door and his 500-page Into the Storm was slashed to $2.00 (publisher's price $27.50.) On the next table, another thick stack of fire sale hard cover books rose above all others. It was the The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell, Whitley Strieber for $7.00 (publisher's price $23.95.) In terms of effort and value, Clancy deserved a better break because Superstorm is long on speculation and short on value. However, the rapidly fading interest Superstorm is more than a failed publishing venture, because it also serves as a fitting tombstone for the cold corpse of millenniumitis. The Decade of Millenniumitis During the last decade, the prospect of end-times catastrophes in the year 2000 plagued many with fear about an uncertain future. Yet, there was a tangible public concern that the year 2000 would bring disaster. This fostered a consensus of fear that was aptly coined "millenniumitis" by the media and this social event was focused on a set date. As we came closer our fears escalated at a geometric rate. In the midst of all this came books like Superstorm, which offered a loosely structured, populist speculation that relied more on the public notoriety of the authors for credibility than upon quality research and organization. Nonetheless, the central premise ofSuperstorm still remains a valid point of discussion for those interested in the process view of catastrophe, as opposed to those who prefer the populist event-driven view. | |
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William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report 2013-02-08 14:27:00
American Foreign Policy - Have our war lovers learned anything? Over the past four decades, of all the reasons people over a certain age have given for their becoming radicalized against US foreign policy, the Vietnam War has easily been the one most often cited. And I myself am the best example of this that you could find. I sometimes think that if the war lovers who run the United States had known of this in advance they might have had serious second thoughts about starting that great historical folly and war crime. At other times, however, I have the thought that our dear war lovers have had 40 years to take this lesson to heart, and during this time what did they do? They did Salvador and Nicaragua, and Angola and Grenada. They did Panama and Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan and Iraq. And in 2012 American President Barack Obama saw fit to declare that the Vietnam War was "one of the most extraordinary stories of bravery and integrity in the annals of military history".1 So, have they learned nothing? When it comes to following international law, is the United States like a failed state? The Somalia of international law? Well, if they were perfectly frank, the war lovers would insist that the purpose of all these interventions, and many others like them, was to keep the atheists out of power - the non-believers in America's god-given right to rule the world - or to at least make life as difficult as possible for them. And thus the interventions were successful; nothing to apologize for; even the Vietnam War achieved its purpose of preventing that country from becoming a good development option for Asia, a socialist alternative to the capitalist model; precisely the same reason for Washington's endless hostility toward Cuba in Latin America; and Cuba has indeed inspired numerous atheists and their alternatives for a better world. | |
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RT.com
2013-02-08 17:40:00
A former US ambassador claims that France shoveled out $17 million to free a group of hostages held in Mali, only to have the money up in the hands of al-Qaeda militants and significantly strengthen the terrorist group. And the hostages were never freed. Former US Ambassador to Mali Vicki Huddleston told iTele that the alleged $17 million ransom payment funded the very militants that France is now fighting against in Mali. In 2010, four French citizens were kidnapped from their guarded villas in Arlit, where they were employed at the French nuclear company Areva. According to Huddlestone, the French government made the ransom payment, only to lose the $17 million while the hostages remained captive. In early 2011, two other French hostages were taken and a seventh was taken in late 2012. Despite the alleged ransom payment made after the kidnapping of the first four, the hostages remain in the hands of al-Qaeda sympathizers. | |
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RT.com
2013-02-08 17:37:00
After being hauled away from New York's LaGuardia Airport for making a wisecrack about his jar of peanut butter, an Arizona man is suing a TSA agent and a Port Authority cop for $5 million. Frank Hannibal, 50, is seeking millions of dollars according to a recently filed lawsuit that has been uncovered by the New York Daily Mail. In the complaint, Hannibal recalls a failed attempt to pass through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint with a jar of gourmet peanut butter. By the time the incident was over, he says he spent over 24 hours in a jail cell. "It sounds laughable now but at the time to be led out of there like a terrorist was unbelievable," Hannibal tells the Daily News. "My whole life was up in the air. It was a nightmare. My children were overwhelmed. It was crazy." Hannibal's troubles began when a TSA agent questioned him about his jar of "Crazy Richard's Natural Peanut Butter," a spread sold at supermarkets across the country and marketed by Ohio's Krema Products Company. Speaking to the paper, Hannibal says the TSA agent appeared confused by the natural separation of oil inside the jar of peanut butter, which retails typically at around $7 a pop. | |
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RT.com
2013-02-08 17:35:00
A 10-year veteran of the US Air Force is once again unable to return to his home after being mysteriously added to a federal no-fly list for a second time. Saadiq Long, a Muslim American born in the state of Oklahoma, is stranded near his hometown despite having purchased a plane ticket to return to Qatar, a small Arab nation where he teaches English and lives with his wife and children. Long has been visiting his family in the United States to tend to his ailing mother, who still lives in the small Midwest town of McAlester, Oklahoma, and intended on leaving on Wednesday to return to Qatar. He tells the Associated Press that while attempting to catch his flight, however, he was refused a boarding pass and was referred by the TSA to a group of armed police. "I think about three police officers arrived after that," Long, a US citizen, tells the AP. "It was very, very strange, by the way, and very intimidating." | |
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Eric W. Dolan
Raw Story 2013-02-08 17:30:00
The escalating controversy over President Barack Obama's policy on the use of drones, W. Kamau Bell said on Thursday, made him sick of people calling him a socialist, or comparing him to Adolf Hitler. "Obama's not Hitler - he's [George W.] Bush," Bell said, setting off a round of confetti and celebratory music as he entered the rarified territory of a Black Comedian Criticizing a Black President. "That's right, black liberal guy going at Obama," he whooped to the audience, before realizing that all that confetti was made out of his invitation to the White House. | |
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Adele M. Stan
AlterNet 2013-02-05 16:22:00
With his new Conservative Victory Project, Rove seeks to knock off Tea Party candidates in GOP primaries. Tea Party leaders are crying treaso The Tea Party Express, a political action committee famous for its traveling shows of right-wing agitators and entertainers, is warning its members of a terrifying new threat -- no, not Obamacare, or black helicopters, or gun-seizures. It's something far more frightening: "We are under attack by Karl Rove," reads the subject line of a fundraising e-mail from Tea Party Express. That's right: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is lumbering through the streets of the Real America, terrorizing the denizens of Tea-Partyville. At issue is a new political action committee formed by Rove and his associates at American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, the superPAC and related group that were supposed have been the unstoppable, big-money juggernaut that would win Mitt Romney the presidency. | |
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Democracy Now!
Premiering this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the new documentary "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill to Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen as he chases down the hidden truths behind America's expanding covert wars. We're joined by Scahill and the film's director, Rick Rowley, an independent journalist with Big Noise Films. "We're looking right now at a reality that President Obama has essentially extended the very policies that many of his supporters once opposed under President Bush," says Scahill, author of the bestseller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and a forthcoming book named after his film. "One of the things that humbles both of us is that when you arrive in a village in Afghanistan and knock on someone's door, you're the first American they've seen since the Americans that kicked that door in and killed half their family," Rowley says. "We promised them that we would do everything we could to make their stories be heard in the U.S. ... Finally we're able to keep those promises."2013-01-22 14:57:00
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Ranker
Opposing Views 2013-02-07 19:48:00
Rudy Giuliani Ex-wife Donna Hanover accused him of "notorious adultery"; he's now married to Judith Nathan, his girlfriend at the time. | |
Comment: This is the political party that considers its views "God given" and therefore attempts to remove reproductive choices from women and opposes gender equality. Obviously these sociopaths feel that laws and morality do not apply to them - only us sheeple who are forced to live under their rules.
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Eric Boehlert
Media Matters 2013-02-07 14:07:00
With declarations of a conservative civil war being proclaimed this week, political combatants on the right are picking sides between Tea Party activists hungry for radical change within the GOP, and the Republican Establishment, which seeks to regain control of the party's message and improve upon 2012's election setbacks. This week Karl Rove and his allies at the American Crossroads super PAC launched the "Conservative Victory Project," a group that plans to support more traditional Republican candidates in an effort to end the streak of undisciplined Tea Party hopefuls who blew Republican-leaning races with controversial campaign comments. (Think: Todd Akin.) Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Canton (R-Va) just launched an effort to rebrand brand the Republican Party and broaden its appeal by softening the harsh rhetoric and, theoretically, seeking common ground. That kind of bipartisan, bridge-building rhetoric is precisely what the Tea Party labels as conservative heresy. | |
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Peter Allen
Daily Mail 2013-02-06 14:03:00
A baby camel presented to French President Francois Hollande for 'liberating' Mali was stolen and will not be allowed to stay in Paris, it emerged today. In a plot straight out of a madcap Gallic comedy film, a Malian refugee said he wanted the young dromedary back. Mr Hollande was hailed a hero on Saturday when he arrived in Timbuktu, Mali, which until a few days before had been in the hands of Al-Qaeda backed terrorists. As a token of thanks for the part French troops played in defeating the Islamist radicals, Mr Hollande was presented with the camel. The pair were pictured together, although the camel screeched constantly, and was far from impressed with the portly French head of state tried to pat him on the head. Now it has emerged that the camel, who had not been named, actually belonged to a farmer, whose house was destroyed by French shelling during their attack on Timbuktu. | |
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The Memoirs of a Refugee
2013-02-08 13:52:00
In the aftermath of the elections in Israel, only one person is laughing hard. On January 11, 2013, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave an interview to Channel Two's "Friday's Studio." He accused Netanyahu of spending $3 Billion on "hallucinated adventures that were not implemented and would not be implemented." As described in Israel Spent $3 Billion on Iran Attack, the sum went missing on preparations of an attack on Iran. Most Israelis are naive, but not naive enough to believe that military exercises for an airstrike can cost so much. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had been recently acquitted after having been forced to leave office, used his regained innocence to hit the most probable figure behind his impeachment: Netanyahu. Olmert's careful whisper destroyed Netanyahu's dreams. Instead of increasing his power as polls predicted, Netanyahu lost 11 seats in the Knesset, giving place to the current Treason Season. However, Olmert's achievement went beyond that. He opened the gate for other corruption cases to be exposed. On February 6, Yedioth Aharonot exposed a case that led on the next day to the banning of six communication equipment suppliers by the IDF, following the acknowledgment of a non-commissioned officer to have robbed the army. | |
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Eric Peters
How long will it be before they actually start shooting us from helicopter gunships a la The Running Man?EricPetersAuto 2013-02-08 13:38:00 In that movie, Arnold Schwarzennegger plays Ben Richards - pilot of a gunship who actually refuses to spray a crowd of helpless people with his mini-gun. For his refusal to be brutal, he is turned into a contestant on The Running Man, where he must fight for his life against a series of gladiators for the amusement of the crowd. Is it not amazing how predictive so many mass-market films have proved to be? Only in this case, the real-life 'copter pilots are itching to mow us down. See, for instance, the recent "drills" in Florida and Texas - video seen below, for instance- where civilian areas were overflown by military choppers firing blanks. To train them. More precisely, to acclimatethem to the idea of raining death down on Americans.
Everything's ramping up; you have to be willfully oblivious to not see it. | |
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YouTube
Outside support for the myriad of Syria's armed groups is no secret. Saudi Arabia and Qatar alone funnel millions of dollars to the rebels every month. But, as Gayane Chichakyan reports, it's not just cash and weapons being smuggled into Syria, but suicide bombers and ideology too.2012-06-02 13:39:00 |
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Washington's Blog
2013-01-28 13:21:00
Department of Energy Wants to Let Radioactive Scrap Metal Back into Consumer Products The overwhelming scientific consensus is that any amount of radiation - no matter how small - can cause cancer and other serious health effects. (Current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s - and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body. In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation - called "internal emitters" - which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. See this and this. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.) | |
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Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research 2013-02-08 13:02:00
"Everything the [Ford] Foundation did could be regarded as "making the World safe for capitalism", reducing social tensions by helping to comfort the afflicted, provide safety valves for the angry, and improve the functioning of government (McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (1961-1966), President of the Ford Foundation, (1966-1979)) "By providing the funding and the policy framework to many concerned and dedicated people working within the non-profit sector, the ruling class is able to co-opt leadership from grassroots communities, ... and is able to make the funding, accounting, and evaluation components of the work so time consuming and onerous that social justice work is virtually impossible under these conditions" (Paul Kivel, You Call this Democracy, Who Benefits, Who Pays and Who Really Decides, 2004, p. 122 ) | |
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Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research 2013-01-29 12:59:00
In August 2010, the Yesha Council together with Israel Sheli (My Israel), organized a workshop in Jerusalem to teach people how to edit Wikipedia articles in a pro-Israeli way. (Wikipedia) The Yesha Council which is the Hebrew acronym for Yehuda Shomron, Aza, lit. "Judea Samaria and Gaza Council") is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank (and formerly in the Gaza Strip), known by the Hebrew acronym Yesha. (ibid) My Israel (Israel Sheli) is "an Israel right wing extra-parliamentary Zionist movement", which "deals with PR across the internet and especially social networks". We bring to the consideration of Global Research readers this short video which features the Yesha Council-Israeli Sheli training program, pertaining to the art of manipulating online content on Wikipedia entries.
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RT.com
2013-02-08 03:16:00
A former manager for one of the biggest US defense contractors says he was removed from his job after accusing his higher-ups of defrauding the government. Cornelius Hosch, the one-time head of counter-IED intelligence for BAE Systems Information Solutions' eastern Afghanistan office, sued his former employer in federal court on Tuesday. Hosch, a US Army veteran with nearly 20 years of experience in the military, says his problems with BAE began after he alerted his supervisor to what he considered fraud in December 2011, just days after he started his employment with the company. During his tenure with BAE, Hosch says the company overcharged the US government for services they were contracted to do. | |
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RT.com
2013-02-08 16:16:00
The Fourth Amendment no longer means what you once thought it did: A new report reveals that the government has shrugged off concerns over the alleged constitutional infringements of its own citizens near international crossings. An internal review of the US Department of Homeland Security's procedures regarding the suspicionless search-and-seizure of phones and laptops near the nation's border has reaffirmed the agency's ability to bypass Fourth Amendment-protected rights [.pdf]. In a two page executive summary published quietly last month to the official DHS website, the agency explains that a civil rights and civil liberties impact assessment of the office's little-known power to collect personal electronics near international crossings has passed an auditor's interpretation of what does and doesn't violate the US Constitution. Since 2009, the DHS has been legally permitted to seize and review the contents of personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, portable computers and data discs, even without being able to cite any reasonable suspicion that those articles were involved in a crime. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-02-08 17:25:00
Prince George's County Public Schools on Wednesday decided to drop the use of a video that promoted so-called "ex-gay" therapy as one possible solution to the bullying of LGBT students. According to a report published on Thursday by Washington City Paper, students in at least six middle-school health classes were shown the 21-minute film "Acception," which disguises talk about gay-to-straight therapy within a larger message about bullying. The film's creator, Christopher Doyle, is a board member of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX). | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-02-08 17:23:00
Police in Philadelphia said on Thursday that they were called to an elementary school after a second grader found a loaded gun in his backpack. Officials at Universal Samuel Daroff Charter School told law enforcement that the 7-year-old boy noticed the gun when he was putting a folder in his backpack around 4 p.m.,according to the Philadelphia Daily News. | |
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Guardian
2013-02-08 17:17:00
Prosecutors had sought life sentence for Samuel Mullet Sr, found to have committed a hate crime over religious differences The ringleader in a series of unusual hair- and beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish religious followers in the US was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison. Before his sentencing, Samuel Mullet Sr told the judge that he had been blamed for running a cult and was ready to take the punishment. The judge also sentenced 15 other members of the deeply traditional group to prison terms ranging from one to seven years. Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards once they marry. Cutting it would be offensive to the group. | |
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David Smith
Guardian 2013-02-08 17:09:00
At least nine health workers gunned down in northern city of Kano amid increasing hostility towards polio immunisation drive At least nine women who were vaccinating children against polio have been shot dead in northern Nigeria by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamist sect. The killings drew comparisons with a series of incidents in Pakistan last December where five female polio vaccinators were gunned down, apparently by Islamist militants. It also signalled a fresh wave of hostility towards immunisation drives in Nigeria, where some clerics have claimed the vaccines are part of a western plot to sterilise young girls and eliminate the Muslim population. The attacks took place in Kano, the biggest city in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, where families generally feel more comfortable allowing women inside their homes than men. On Friday morning gunmen arrived by motor tricycle and opened fire in the Hotoro Hayi neighbourhood, killing at least eight female vaccinators, witnesses told Associated Press. Four people were killed in a second attack, in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, according to witnesses. | |
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Meredith Bennett-Smith
A young mother was burned alive in Papua New Guinea this week after townspeople accused her of being a witch.Huffington Post 2013-02-08 17:00:00 According to multiple reports, Kepari Leniata, 20, was tortured and killed in front of a mob of hundreds in the town of Mount Hagen. The woman, stripped naked and covered in gasoline, was burned alive on a pile of trash by relatives of a young boy who had died earlier in the week. The relatives had accused Leniata of killing him with sorcery. WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO FOLLOWS Police and firefighters who tried to save Leniata were chased away by an overwhelming crowd. Agence France-Press writes that the woman "admitted to killing the boy, who died after being [hospitalized] with stomach and chest pains on Tuesday."
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KTVU
2013-02-08 16:16:00
A San Jose man who purportedly wanted to spark a civil war in the U.S. was arrested by federal agents Friday after he allegedly attempted to detonate a car bomb at a bank in Oakland, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Authorities arrested Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, for allegedly trying to bomb a Bank of America branch at 303 Hegenberger Road, federal prosecutors said. According to a press release, the arrest came as the result of an months-long undercover operation during which Llaneza was closely monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's South Bay Joint Terrorism Task Force. The press release details a plot being executed by Llaneza and an undercover FBI agent to detonate a bomb in an SUV parked outside the targeted bank on Thursday night. | |
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Evan Bleier
Opposing Views 2013-02-07 14:00:00
An 8-year-old girl with Down syndrome recently came home from elementary school with her shoes duct-taped to her feet and ankles. For obvious reasons, the girl's parents, Nate and Elizabeth Searcy, wanted to know why their daughter Shaylyn arrived from her life skills program at Westlake Elementary in such a manner. They have yet to receive an answer. | |
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Jonathan Weiss
Medical Daily 2013-02-08 09:42:00
As we reported yesterday, a 9-year-old girl in Mexico gave birth in Zoquipan Hospital, in western Mexico over the weekend. News reports today indicate that she has been sterilized by doctors and will no longer be able to conceive children for the rest of her life. Doctors went against family wishes when they performed the operation. Dafne, the mother, was eight years old when she became pregnant, but did not know she was expecting until she was 7 months along. It is still undetermined who the father of the newborn is. Authorities originally suspected her boyfriend, who is believe to be between 15 and 17 and fled two months ago when the mother to be refused to move in with him. Doctors were performing DNA tests on all of Dafne's male family members in order to determine who the actual father is, amongst allegations that her step-father may have physically and sexually abused the new mother. | |
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Heath Aston
The Age 2013-02-08 13:46:00
A morbidly obese man dying of liver cancer has been awarded more than $350,000 from his doctor because the GP failed to refer him to a weight-loss clinic or send him for lap-band surgery. Medical experts say the case of Luis Almario is a legal landmark and will force doctors to ensure overweight patients shed kilos or risk being sued. Dr Emmanuel Varipatis, a Sydney GP, is appealing the Supreme Court ruling that he was negligent in not sending Mr Almario, 68, to an obesity clinic or arranging for a bariatric surgeon to assess his suitability for gastric band surgery. Colombian-born Mr Almario was in the care of Dr Varipatis from 1997 to 2011. During that time he weighed 140 kilograms despite being only 154 centimetres tall. The court found Mr Almario has terminal liver cancer as a result of liver disease brought on by his obesity. He has been given 40 weeks to live. | |
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Kenji Minemura
The Asahi Shimbun 2013-02-06 13:23:00
Caoshi, China--While China's military prowess has long been a source of concern for other nations, there are signs that all is not well within the armed forces. The posturing by China on the Senkaku Islands issue, for instance, suggests a state of readiness that could result in a call to arms at a moment's notice. But an incident in late 2011 that was never publicly disclosed by China but uncovered byThe Asahi Shimbun suggests the central leadership is being forced to re-evaluate recruitment to the People's Liberation Army/Navy. The facts of the matter are this: Four soldiers deserted from their unit armed with automatic weapons and stolen ammo. A dragnet was set up and a fatal shootout followed. It emerged that the soldiers had racked up sizable gambling debts and armed themselves so they could rob a bank and become solvent again. But as often happens in reporting on China, the gravity of the situation faced by security authorities at the time was not immediately apparent until long afterward. On the morning of Nov. 9, 2011, police in Jilin province, northeastern China, issued an emergency notice to all financial institutions in the province. It said, "Four soldiers armed with model 95 automatic rifles have stolen 795 rounds of ammunition and deserted their unit." The soldiers, aged between 19 and 24, belonged to a unit based in Jilin city. Photos of the four men, along with their physical characteristics, were issued. | |
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Agence France-Presse
2013-02-08 13:00:00
A stock market slide, escalated conflict between Japan and China and more Gangnam-styled success for South Korean singer Psy will shape the incoming Year of the Snake, say Asian soothsayers. Those who make predictions according to the study of feng shui -- or literally "wind-water" -- are influential in many parts of Asia, where people adjust their lives or renovate houses and offices based on the advice. As they bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon, the fortune tellers warn that the "black water snake" that emerges to replace it on February 10 -- the first day of the Lunar New Year -- could be a venomous one that brings disaster. Previous Snake years have been marked by the September 11, 2001 terror strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people, the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The 1929 stock market plunge that heralded the Great Depression also occurred in a snake year. | |
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Zak Stone
Co.Exist 2013-02-08 12:45:00
Stranger Visions is an art project which tries to determine what we look like based on a single strand of hair. How much information about ourselves do we leave behind in public, as we shed saliva, hair, and sweat throughout the day? It's a question that drives the artwork of Heather Dewey-Hagborg, whose project Stranger Visions reconstructs the faces of the anonymous as 3-D printed sculptures, using genetic detritus found in chewing gum, cigarette butts, and wads of hair around New York City. "I started fixating on this idea of hair and what can I know about someone from a hair," explains Dewey-Hagborg, a Brooklyn-based information artist. Her faces were determined based on looking at just three traits--gender, eye color, and maternal ethnicity--an admittedly simplified look (but still more advanced than police forensics labs which use a kit to determine hair and eye color from a sample). Plugging that information into software she wrote herself, she could spin up different 3-D versions of a face--eventually settling on the ones she finds most interesting aesthetically--and bring them to life with a 3-D printer. The resulting busts may bear, at most, a "family resemblance" to the original person, Dewey-Hagborg says. "Part of that is that I need to do more experiments," to incorporate more traits. "Part of that is that it's just impossible." | |
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Megan Gannon
LiveScience 2013-02-08 09:11:00
In a chilling case report, doctors in Turkey have described what they claim to be a real-life vampire with multiple personalities and an addiction to drinking blood. The 23-year-old married man apparently started out slicing his own arms, chest and belly with razor blades, letting the blood drip into a cup so he could drink it. But when he experienced compulsions to drink blood "as urgent as breathing," he started turning to other sources, the doctors said. The man, whose name and hometown were not revealed in the report, was arrested several times after stabbing and biting others to collect and drink their blood. He apparently even got his father to get him bags of the ghastly drink from blood banks, according to the report announced today (Feb. 8) by the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The case study was published last fall. The doctors said they found traumatic events in the man's life leading up to his two-year bloodsucking phase. His four-month-old daughter became ill and died, he witnessed the murder of his uncle, and he saw another violent killing in which "one of his friends cut off the victim's head and penis," the report said. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Wynne Parry
Discovery News 2013-02-08 16:46:00
Modern-day science has little room for the likes of Galileo, who first used the telescope to study the sky, or Charles Darwin, who put forward the theory of evolution, argues a psychologist and expert in scientific genius. Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California, Davis, says that just like the ill-fated dodo, scientific geniuses like these men have gone extinct. "Future advances are likely to build on what is already known rather than alter the foundations of knowledge," Simonton writes in a commentary published in today's (Jan. 31) issue of the journal Nature. | |
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Irene Klotz
Discovery News 2013-02-08 16:42:00
Earth's gravity may not have the gravitas of Jupiter, but the planet regularly plucks small asteroids passing by and pins them into orbit. The mini-moons don't stay for long. Within a year or so they resume their looping, twisting paths like crazy straws around the sun. But others arrive to take their place. Simulations show that two asteroids the size of dishwashers and a dozen half-meter (1.6 feet) in diameter are orbiting Earth at any given time. Every 50 years or so something the size of a dump truck arrives. So far, there's been just one confirmed sighting. "We'd eventually like to see a mission to a mini-moon," astronomer Robert Jedicke, with the University of Hawaii, said this week at a workshop in Huntsville, Ala., to discuss proposals for two spare Hubble-class spy telescopes donated to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office. | |
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Anthony Watts
From Rice University comes this study that tries to equate an analog circuit component onto a climate forcing component. It is an interesting approach. The idea that plate tectonics serves to modulate episodic volcanic activity also makes sense.Watts Up With That? 2013-02-08 16:11:00 Volcano location could be greenhouse-icehouse key Study: Episodic purging of 'carbonate capacitor' drives long-term climate cycle, greenhouse-icehouse oscillations are a natural consequence of plate tectonics.
Carbonate Capacitor
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Bridie Smith
The Age 2013-02-08 13:33:00
A new leg? New heart? No problem. They will just grow one. Scientists think the Mexican walking fish may hold the key to regeneration in humans. They are masters at regenerating their own limbs, tails, jaws, retina and heart. They can recover from spinal cord and brain injury and can easily tolerate organ transplants. And to top things off, they don't get cancer. Meet the axolotl, otherwise known as the Mexican walking fish.. ''This animal guards so many interesting biological secrets,'' says James Godwin, a senior research fellow at Monash University's Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute. ''Things that would leave humans in a wheelchair or dead they can just repair in no time at all.'' And there's more to this extraordinary amphibian, which was named after an Aztec god who transformed into a water animal to avoid being sacrificed. The skin of the albino axolotl is transparent enough so that you can actually watch the organs and blood vessels as they pump and pulse under the surface. In juveniles, it is possible to distinguish between the left and right hemispheres of the brain when peering thorough the translucent skin. But what most excites researchers working with the Mexican walking fish is the amphibian's regenerative capabilities. Regeneration - the faithful replacement of damaged or missing tissue - is not uncommon in invertebrates. Worms and starfish are just some that can re-grow body parts and organs. But axolotls are in a league of their own because they, like us, are vertebrates. This makes them the closest thing to humans that are able to regenerate. | |
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Nicky Phillips
Tragedy for dinosaurs, opportunity for mammalsThe Age 2013-02-08 13:17:00 New research pinpoints how the torch passed from one dominant type of creature on Earth to another
It's the world's coldest case. For decades scientists have argued over what caused the almost overnight demise of land roaming dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Was it climate change, a violent volcanic eruption, a giant meteorite impact - or a combination of all three? | |
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Pat Loeb
CBS Philly 2013-02-07 20:26:00
Judges in the Philadelphia court system are now taking advantage of powerful new computer models to help determine how much jail time an offender should get. Computers have been forecasting weather and economic trends for years, but applying algorithms to human behavior is relatively new. "This all comes about because of new developments in statistics and computer science that are available to us that really weren't five or ten years ago," says University of Pennsylvania professor Richard Berk, a pioneer in the field. His forecasts, which use an algorithm to predict whether someone will offend again, have been used by city probation and parole officers for about three years, to decide how much supervision a defendant needs. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court administrative judge Pamela Dembe says the results there convinced her that the computer model could also be a useful tool in determining sentences. "It's not an automatic sentencing project or anything like that," she explains. "We're just looking for additional sources of information in hopes that we get the sentencing right." Berk, the Penn professor, says the process is not perfect but he believes it will be better than current court practice. | |
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Alyssa Danigelis
Discovery News 2013-02-06 08:50:00
Anyone remember that TV show Early Edition, where the main character mysteriously received the following day's newspaper every morning? That was pure fiction, but present day computer scientists are working on a real version. A team from Microsoft Research and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology recently created powerful software that mines decades of old newspaper articles along with online data to predict future disasters. Their prediction system was able to forecast significant numbers of deaths with 70 percent to 90 percent accuracy, Tom Simonite reported in MIT Technology Review. The scientists, led by Microsoft Research co-director Eric Horvitz, fed New York Timesarticles from 1986 to 2007 into their system. They also mixed in crowd-sourcing and other data from the sites DBpedia, WordNet and OpenCyc. Mining that data brought patterns to light, such as droughts preceding cholera epidemics in Bangladesh during the 1970s and 1980s. Then the scientists tested the pattern they uncovered on other data and found it was remarkably accurate in forecasting large numbers of deaths. Unlike past work in this area that focused on mining the past, the BBC pointed out that this has the potential to be used in real time to forecast future events. The methodology and algorithm descriptions can be found in their research paper (PDF). Although the group doesn't have current plans to commercialize the research, Horvitz told Simonite that a refined version of their system could eventually be used by government aid agencies and groups involved in disaster response. That could make for some incredibly useful government alerts: "Hey citizen, you might want to put some protective gear on right now." | |
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EarthSky Org
2013-02-08 12:35:00
Scientists examined 56 years of fisheries data documenting the return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in British Columbia - and the route they chose showed a correlation with changes in the intensity of the geomagnetic field. The mystery of how salmon navigate across thousands of miles of open ocean to locate their river of origin before journeying upstream to spawn has intrigued biologists for decades, and now a new study may offer a clue to the fishes' homing strategy. In the study, scientists examined 56 years of fisheries data documenting the return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in British Columbia - and the route they chose around Vancouver Island showed a correlation with changes in the intensity of the geomagnetic field. Results of the study, which was supported by Oregon Sea Grant and the National Science Foundation, were published this week in the journal Current Biology. "What we think happens is that when salmon leave the river system as juveniles and enter the ocean, they imprint the magnetic field - logging it in as a waypoint," said Nathan Putman, a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University and lead author on the study. "It serves as a proxy for geographic location when they return as adults. It gets them close to their river system and then other, finer cues may take over." Earth has a predictable, consistent geomagnetic field that weakens as you move from the poles toward the equator. The magnetic North Pole has an intensity gradient of roughly 58 microtesla, while the equator is about 24 microtesla. | |
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Guardian
2013-02-08 08:28:00
Rock measuring 46 metres across is expected to come within 17,100 miles but will not hit Earth, says Nasa A small asteroid will pass closer to Earth next week than the TV satellites that ring the planet, but there is no chance of an impact, Nasa has said. The celestial visitor, known as 2012 DA14, was discovered last year by a group of amateur astronomers in Spain. The asteroid is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool at 46 metres (150ft) in diameter and is projected to come as close as 17,100 miles (27,520km) from Earth during its approach on 15 February. That would make it the closest encounter since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago. Television, weather and communications satellites fly about 500 miles (800km) higher. The moon is 14 times farther away. | |
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Claire Bates
The Daily Mail, UK 2013-02-07 00:00:00
The device - which 'looks like something out of Star Trek' - delivers electric impulses to the supraorbital nerve that controls sensation in and around the eye. A study found those who used it were suffering about a third fewer debilitating headaches after a couple of months. The number of people whose migraines were reduced by half or more were also tripled, according to the findings published online in Neurology. Professor Jean Schoenen said: 'The device consists of a thin silver band that looks like something out of Star Trek. 'It is hooked over the ears and worn across the forehead like futuristic sunglasses. Patients don it once daily for 20 minutes.' A similar technique has worked on patients with pain in other parts of the body such as the back. It involves connecting the device to the nerve responsible and sending an electronic pulse to prevent it from causing pain. Prof Schoenen, of Liege University in Belgium, was also pleased there were no side effects from the treatment. | |
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Lee Rannals
RedOrbit 2013-02-07 19:53:00
A strange beacon of light has been captured, for the third time, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Far away, on a protostar called LRLL 54361, a flashing light takes place every 25.34 days, like fireworks. New images and video released by NASA and taken by the Hubble show the cause of these fireworks can bee seen hidden behind a dense disc and an envelope of dust. Astronomers believe the strobe effect is due to periodic interactions between two newly-formed stars that are gravitationally bound to each other. These stars drag material inward from a surrounding disc of gas and dust, and astronomers believe the light flashes seen are due to the material being dumped onto the growing stars as they near each others orbit. "This protostar has large brightness variations with a precise period that it is very difficult to explain," James Muzerolle of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who has recently studied this fascinating object using Hubble and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, said in a statement. | |
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SpaceWeather
Comet ISON, which is plunging toward the sun for a bright and fiery encounter in late 2013, has just sprouted a tail. It's not much--yet--but that is because the comet is still in deep space near the orbit of Jupiter. On. Feb. 3rd, amateur astronomer Rolando Ligustri photographed the development using a robotic telescope in New Mexico:2013-02-07 19:01:00
Comet ISON doesn't look very impressive now as it glides through the cold vacuum more than 600,000 km from Earth, but its appearance will improve later this year. On Nov. 28th, ISON is going to glide through the sun's atmosphere only 1.1 million km above the stellar surface. It could emerge from the encounter glowing as brightly as the full Moon, visible in broad daylight near the sun. If so, today's budding tail would likely grow into a garish appendage that wows observers in both hemispheres--no telescope required. Stay tuned for updates. Update: NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has also observed Comet ISON's sprouting tail.Click here for a video. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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John R. Ellement, Peter Schworm, Michael Levenson and Martin Finucane
Boston Globe 2013-02-08 17:04:00
A potentially historic blizzard swept into Massachusetts today and is expected to dump more than 2 feet of snow, whip winds up to 70 miles per hour, and batter the coast with giant waves. Roads are emptying out now as drivers heed an order issued by Governor Deval Patrick that all vehicles be parked by 4 p.m. Sideways-blowing snow is adding to the falling darkness. More than 5,000 power outages have already been reported as winds down tree limbs and wires. In Marshfield, officials said they expected to ask shorefront residents to evacuate themselves because of concerns about storm-driven tides tonight and Saturday morning. | |
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Neetzan Zimmerman
Gawker 2013-02-08 15:30:00
What's that? You're worried about a little snow falling on your head? How adorable. Meanwhile, in Brazil, it's raining spiders. Footage posted online yesterday shows thousands of spiders "falling from the sky" in the southern Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina. "Still do not know what causes such behavior," writes the video's uploader. "We are researching and will post the answer to the question here." I know exactly what causes such behavior. A little something called the end of the world. | |
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Scoop Independent News
2013-02-08 14:23:00
The Government today has officially declared a State of Disaster for Santa Cruz Islands in Temotu Province following Wednesday's deadly 8.0 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami that claimed lives and property. The Minister for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, Hon Bradley Tovusia made the declaration following a decision reached by the National Disaster Council on February 7. | |
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Robert Felix
Due to heavy snowfall a state of emergency was imposed in 20 towns at the Polish-Slovakian Border, near to Orava. Last night it was seen 75 cm of snow!IceAgeNow 2013-02-08 13:59:00 More than 1200 residents of the region were left without electricity after heavy snowfall knocked out power lines and substations. I've never seen such big flakes of snow. They are as big as the coin two euros. Within 24 hours as much snow fell as usual throughout the winter. Snow cover in some places more than five feet, the governor said. Plows can not keep up with snow removal routes. Source: WP.PL (In Polish) |
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Tu Thanh Ha
Globe and Mail 2013-02-08 11:35:00
The worst of a winter storm into southern Ontario landed during morning rush hour, covering the region in a white shroud of snow flurries and sleet, forcing schools to close and disrupting land and air traffic. (For a list of school closures, transit delays and flight information,click here.) Other vehicles were reported to be stuck in snowbanks, in ditches or blocking lanes after spinning out of control. At the Bayview entrance of the southbound Don Valley Parkway, cars had trouble negotiating the icy in-ramp. The DVP's Bayview off-ramp was reported to be closed because of slippery conditions. On Highway 401, the eastbound collector off-ramp at Allen Road was also closed because of the road conditions. On the Queen Elizabeth Way, near Fort Erie, a snowplow fell into a ditch and, a few kilometres further north, a salter truck had rolled. More than 150 highway car collisions had been reported, said Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Dave Woodford. There were only minor injuries, mostly from fender benders, he said. | |
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Christina Cherneskey
Have you ever heard of a pig spleen being able to predict the weather? You can call it folklore - but what do you call it when it works?The Old Farmers' Almanac 2013-02-08 10:47:00 Legendary forecaster Gus Wickstrom of Tompkins, Saskatchewan
Gus, a man of Swedish descent who lived in this prairie province all of his life, was a weather forecaster. He predicted weather conditions six months in advance, yet his technology required no fancy equipment, no high-tech razzle-dazzle. All Gus needed was a barn and a farmhand or two standing by. . .because he predicted the weather by looking at a pig spleen. Every 6 months or so, Gus slaughtered a pig, and in the frugal way of farm families, he found a way to use everything but the squeal, as they say. Gus closely scrutinized the spleen, using a method he learned from his father and Harold Pearson, a neighbor. Gus's method (See image to the right.) Gus divided the spleen into six areas, each representing 1 month. The top of the spleen (closest to the pig's head) shows the current month. The bottom indicates the end of the upcoming six-month period. Where the spleen thickens, a change in the weather is indicated, usually pointing to a cold spell. Where there's a pronounced bulge, expect even more inclement weather. Gus could even read wind and rain into the variations in the spleen. | |
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NASA
A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. A satellite image from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on Feb. 8 shows a western frontal system approaching the coastal low pressure area.2013-02-08 10:23:00
The satellite image, captured at 9:01 a.m. EST, shows clouds associated with the western frontal system stretching from Canada through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, into the Gulf of Mexico. The comma-shaped low pressure system located over the Atlantic, east of Virginia, is forecast to merge with the front and create a powerful nor'easter. The National Weather Service expects the merged storm to move northeast and drop between two to three feet of snow in parts of New England. | |
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John Flesher
Yahoo!News 2013-02-06 09:49:00
Two of the Great Lakes have hit their lowest water levels ever recorded, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, capping more than a decade of below-normal rain and snowfall and higher temperatures that boost evaporation. Measurements taken last month show Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have reached their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918, and the lakes could set additional records over the next few months, the corps said. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012. The other Great Lakes - Superior, Erie and Ontario - were also well below average. "We're in an extreme situation," said Keith Kompoltowicz, watershed hydrology chief for the corps district office in Detroit. The low water has caused heavy economic losses by forcing cargo ships to carry lighter loads, leaving boat docks high and dry, and damaging fish-spawning areas. And vegetation has sprung up in newly exposed shoreline bottomlands, a turnoff for hotel customers who prefer sandy beaches. | |
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Scott Sutherland
Yahoo! Canada News - Geekquinox 2013-02-07 00:00:00
The Friday morning commute is looking to be an ugly one for Southern Ontario as the Alberta Clipper swinging through the area today is amplified by moisture from another storm system moving up from the United States. "It might be the biggest storm since 2011," said Rob Khun, a severe weather meteorologist with Environment Canada, referring to the March 2011 storm that dumped 12.5 cm of snow on the GTA. Snow from the storm system has begun to fall in southwestern Ontario this morning as theAlberta Clipper tracks through the area, and it should arrive in the GTA by this afternoon. This will leave about 2 cm of accumulation on the ground, however the added moisture arriving from the south this evening will turn this to heavy snowfall overnight and into Friday morning. Total accumulations for southern Ontario are expected to be between 15 and 25 cm of snow, and strong winds will add blowing snow to the mix, making for hazardous driving conditions tonight, through the Friday morning commute, and possibly into tomorrow afternoon as well. Eastern Ontario is expected to be even harder hit, as snowfall accumulations already forecast to be up to 25 cm from the Alberta Clipper are pushed up to 35 cm or higher by the approaching storm from the south and local amplification due to winds blowing in off of Lake Ontario. Environment Canada has issued Snowfall Warnings from London-Essex to Kingston-Prince Edward regions, and from Niagara region up into Grey-Bruce along the shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. | |
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Matt Daniel
EarthSky Org 2013-02-08 01:59:00
A significant snowstorm is expected, which can be compared to the 1978 blizzard. Snowfall could exceed two feet (.6 meters) in some areas. The northeastern United States is preparing for a monster storm, which many are calling Nemo, expected on February 8, 2013. It could easily produce over two feet of snow (.6 meters) and wind gusts over 60 miles (96 km) per hour, causing zero visibility and bringing cities to a standstill. In many ways, we are looking at an historic storm that could paralyze cities such as Boston, Providence, and Hartford. We're expecting blizzard conditions in eastern and southeastern Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Northeastern New Jersey, Long Island, southeastern Maine, and New York City. Moderate to major coastal flooding is also possible. Two storm systems will phase together to create a large pressure gradient that will result in winds sustaining around 35-50 mph with gusts over 74 mph. Tonight is the last night to get ready for a significant snowstorm that can be compared to the 1978 blizzard.
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EarthSky Org
Our friend on Facebook, Rick Trommater in St. Peterburg, Florida, captured this beautiful photo of crepuscular rays at sunset on the evening of February 5, 2013.2013-02-08 01:54:00
Crepuscular rays are columns of sunlit air, streaming through gaps in clouds or other objects (for example, mountain peaks). Darker cloud-shadowed regions lie between the sunlit columns. These rays are really parallel to each other. But they appear to diverge, much as a road that looks narrow in the distance appears wide beneath your feet. This beautiful photo of a winter sunset over the Gulf of Mexico shows them clearly. | |
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Radio New Zealand International
The National Disaster Management Office in Solomon Islands says volcanic activity has increased on an island in Temotu province since the magnitude 8.0 earthquake two days ago.2013-02-07 18:54:00 Sipuru Rove says the uninhabited island of Tinakula, which is about 50 kilometres north of Lata, has being making loud and strange sounds. He says help and information is needed from technical experts to assess the risk posed to the local community by the volcano as they are worried an eruption could be near.
Sipuru Rove says there are also significant aftershocks which meant a plane with supplies and medical staff couldn't land and was forced to return to Honiara. |
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Brittany Green-Miner
Fox13 News 2013-02-07 19:42:00
Salt Lake City - A researcher at the University of Utah is making waves in the scientific community with a discovery deep within the Earth that could cause extinction. Michael Thorne, a seismologist and assistant professor at the University of Utah, has discovered a dark red blob in the Earth's core that could prove devastating. Research shows that two rock piles the size of continents are colliding, creating a molten rock the size of Florida that could eventually cause a giant eruption. "Something like the size of Alaska eruption probably coming out in the Pacific Ocean. This is something that might be down the road some 100 million years or so," Thorne said. "This is the kind of eruption that would make a super volcano eruption look pretty small." | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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EarthSky Org
2013-02-07 01:45:00
Is it possible to hear a meteor as it streaks past? Some report hearing meteors with a sizzling sound - like bacon frying. There might be a scientific explanation ... Sometimes, after a meteor shower, people report hearing the meteors. Some exceptionally bright meteors have been reported as being accompanied by a low hissing sound - like bacon sizzling. For years, professional astronomers dismissed the notion of sounds from meteors as fiction. Typically, a meteor burns up about 100 kilometers - or 60 miles - above the Earth's surface. Because sound travels so much more slowly than light does, the rumblings of a particularly large meteor shouldn't be heard for several minutes after the meteor's sighting. A meteor 100 kilometers high would boom about five minutes after it appears. Such an object is called a "sonic" meteor. The noise it makes is related to the sonic boom caused by a faster-than-sound aircraft. | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Stephanie Stahl
CBS Philly 2013-02-07 17:07:00
Young women dazed, restrained in hospital beds, acting possessed and then becoming catatonic. They'd been so normal, when suddenly their lives went haywire. "One minute I'd be sobbing, crying hysterically, and the next minute I'd be laughing, said Susannah Cahalan, of New Jersey. | |
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Christine Hsu
Council & Heal 2013-02-08 15:41:00
Like most people Mike and Trina can't live without coffee, but it's safe to say their love for coffee goes way beyond the norm. On the new season of TLC's My Strange Addiction, the St. Petersburg, Florida couple takes their coffee addiction to the bathroom, where they spend the majority of their days preparing and administering coffee enemas. On the show, Mike and Trina are seen injecting the brown liquid into their colons with a hose to clean out their lower intestines. Mike sears by a "saturated" blend "on the cold side" whereas Trina enjoys a fine espresso grind that is "warm and thicker". While the couple each have at least 100 coffee enemas a month, and 6,000 in total since their addiction began two years ago, both Trina and Mike refuses to drink the caffeinated beverage, saying that it is bad for their health. "I started the whole debacle," Trina told ABCNews.com . "Then it took on a life of its own. I twice tried to stop and felt worse, so I do this every day and as much as I can. But it's very time-consuming." "I love the way it makes me feel," said Trina, who did not want to reveal her last name. "It gives me a sense of euphoria." The couple performs the enemas by first heating up the coffee on a stove, and then they each take a 32-ounce bucket of it into the restroom and empty it into their lower intestines using a Vaseline-coated hose. The whole enema procedure takes about five hours each day, which they can do with ease because they both work from home. Mike and Trina are so addicted to their time-consuming coffee enemas that they refuse to travel or leave their home for long periods of time. | |
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Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo 2013-02-07 14:00:00
Mammograms are in the news again, and it doesn't look good for those who continue to advocate using them to "detect cancer early" in asymptomatic populations. The science increasingly runs directly counter to the screening guidelines produced by both governmental and nongovernmental health organizations claiming to be advocates for women's health. Remember that only last November, the New England Journal of Medicine published a shocking analysis of the past 30 years of breast screening in the US, finding that 1.3 million women were overdiagnosed and overtreated for breast cancer - euphemisms formisdiagnosed and mistreated.1 This finding, released cunningly from scientific embargo to the media on the eve of Thanksgiving, was so devastating in its implications that many either did not understand its meaning, or could not bear to accept the truth that the quarter of a century clarion call ofbreast cancer awareness month - get your annual mammogram or lose your life! - caused more unnecessary suffering, pain and harm to women than it is possible to calculate. The only calculable dimension of this world-historical failure is the billions of dollars that were made in the process of converting healthy, asymptomatic women into "patients", and if fortunate enough to make it through treatment, "survivors". | |
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Marty Kaplan
We're not getting sicker by accident.
AlterNet 2013-02-07 11:48:00
That stark sentence appears in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it comes from the authors of a landmark report -- "Shorter Lives, Poorer Health" -- on differences among high-income countries. You probably already know that America spends more on health care than any other country. That was one of the few facts to survive the political food fight pretending to be a serious national debate about the Affordable Care Act. But the airwaves also thrummed with so many sound bites from so many jingoistic know-nothings claiming that America has the best health care system in the world that today, most people don't realize how shockingly damaging it is to your wellness and longevity to be born in the U.S.A. This is made achingly clear in the study of the "U.S. health disadvantage" recently issued by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, which was conducted over 18 months by experts in medicine and public health, demography, social science, political science, economics, behavioral science and epidemiology. | |
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Barry Groves Phd
Barry Groves Blogspot 2013-02-07 18:05:00
I have been extolling the virtues of butter over margarines made with linoleic acid-rich vegetable oils ever since 1971. Now, the medical fraternity is finally getting the message - and, more importantly, publishing it! This week, not only the BMJ but many UK Newspapers have published articles which vindicate my stance. But, as you will read, there are some who really don't want to know. Swapping butter for margarine and vegetable oils could trigger a heart attack, scientists have warned. Decades of dietary advice has been turned on its head after experts uncovered startling new evidence about the dangers of eating "healthy" spreads. A study revealed an ingredient in vegetable fats triggers inflammation - which plays a major role in chronic illnesses from heart disease and cancer to arthritis and Alzheimer's. The findings will have major implications for millions of Britons who have stopped using butter in favour of trendy, and less fatty, spreads and oils following healthy-living guidance. Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Our understanding of the effect of different fats on the heart develops all the time as research into this complex issue is published. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated alternatives is a well-known recommendation for your heart which is based on many large and in-depth studies. "However, this research highlights the need for us to further understand how different unsaturated fats affect our risk of heart disease. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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PsyBlog
2013-02-08 13:46:00
I'll admit it. A few of the techniques for persuasion I've covered here on PsyBlog have been a little outlandish and impractical. Things like swearing, talking in the right ear and pouring coffee down someone's throat. The studies are interesting and fun but not widely useful. The question is: which persuasion technique, based on psychological research, is most practical, can easily be used by anyone in almost any circumstances and has been consistently shown to work? The answer is: the 'But You Are Free' technique. This simple approach is all about reaffirming people's freedom to choose. When you ask someone to do something, you add on the sentiment that they are free to choose. | |
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Valerie Tarico
AlterNet 2013-02-05 12:13:00
Many religious people believe giving to the church is the be-all and end all of generosity. The story has gone viral: A group got together at Applebees. When the tab came the minister wrote on the ticket, "I give God 10 percent, why should I give you 18?" She scratched through the automatic large-group tip and substituted a fat zero and signed it with the word "Pastor" in front of her name. The waitress posted an image on Reddit. The pastor called to complain. The waitress got fired. The internet went wild. Last I saw, one story had 80,000 comments and counting. In reality, the pastor simply exposed something that is all too common to Christian thinking: the sense that giving to the church and to religious charities is the be-all and end all of generosity. As indignant reactions to the Applebee's incident show, service workers sometimes pay the price: "I worked at the Outback Steakhouse for 3 years and we ALL dreaded Sundays." | |
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Psyblog
2013-02-06 00:00:00
New evidence supports a hundred-year-old technique for tackling unwanted thoughts. Have you ever said a word over and over again until it lost its meaning? It's a trick many discover in childhood which can provide the first inkling that words aren't the solid, dependable, unchanging labels they seem. Instead words start to feel slippery, open to interpretation and (whisper it) interchangeable. Anyway, it's a fun game: if you like, try it again now: say your own name over and over again out loud until it loses all meaning. This is an effect that psychologists have been studying, on and off, for at least a hundred years. The hope is that if words can come to have no meaning through repetition then perhaps negative ideas and thoughts can be tackled in the same way. Nowadays repeating words over and over again is part of a therapeutic technique called cognitive defusion. The theory goes that if you have negative habitual thoughts going around in your head all the time, then perhaps their power can be defused through repetition. | |
Comment: Eiriu Eolas is another proven technique that can assist you with reducing your stress, calming and focusing your mind, increasing your sense of connection with others and helping you to heal emotional wounds. Visit the Éiriú Eolas site or participate on theforum to learn more about the scientific background of this program and then try it out for yourselves, free of charge.
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| High Strangeness |
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Greg Newkirk
A man in Ontario believes he has captured the not only the usual footprints of Bigfoot, but handprints as well. As if that isn't enough, he's posted videos of the find that include a bonus: a Sasquatch speaking it's own language.WhoForted? 2013-02-08 13:09:00 YouTube user "Sasquatch Ontario" made the find on February 2nd. The evidence consists of a string of footprints through the snow, the size and shape of which seem fit the standard for most Bigfoot sightings. More interesting though, is the discovery of what look to be Bigfoot handprints, something we don't see too much of. The handprints measure almost 7 inches in length, with an incredibly ape-like "thumb" that sits a good deal lower than a humans. The video containing the tracks was uploaded to YouTube just yesterday, and includes audio of what the user believes to be actual Sasquatch language captured in the Ontario, Canada forest. The enhanced audio features a grumbling and howling reminiscent of the infamous "Sierra Samurai" recordings captured in California in the 70s. Read the rest of the story at WhoForted? |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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The Daily Mash
2013-02-08 07:01:00
Mandatory microchipping is a serious erosion of civil liberties, according to dogs. Dogs believe government plans to microchip them all by 2016 are a step towards a totalitarian state. Three-year-old Cairn terrier Rocky said: "Cameron is using the whole 'dangerous dogs' thing as a smokescreen. He just wants to know which dogs are members of subversive political groups. "I can't believe a Western democracy is doing this, it's like North Korea or something. "Well, if anyone comes near me with a hypodermic and a pair of tweezers, they're getting bitten. You can take my balls, but you can't take my freedom." |
