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Ken O'Keefe - 1WorldCitizen
YouTube 2013-05-18 13:31:00
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| Puppet Masters |
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RT.com
2013-05-20 16:45:00
America's ticking debt bomb has been reset. Washington has suspended the debt ceiling, setting a date, and not a concrete dollar sum as a deadline, an unprecedented first in US history. Citing 'extraordinary measures', the US Treasury has further delayed tackling America's debt, and will wait until Labor Day, September 2nd, to revisit the burgeoning crisis. The ceiling has been lifted, and the Treasury has promised it will keep cash pumping into government spending programs beyond the debt limit through a series of emergency cash tools. "It will not be until at least after Labor Day" when Washington will have reached their full borrowing capacity, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, told CNBC television on May 10th. |
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Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online 2013-05-20 14:37:00
So Bashar al-Assad has spoken - exclusively, to Argentine daily El Clarin (there's a huge Syrian diaspora in Argentina, as well as in neighboring Brazil). Cutting through the fog of Western hysteria, he made some valuable points. The record shows that, yes, the regime has agreed several times to talk to the opposition; but myriad "rebel" groups with no credible, unified leadership have always refuted. So there's no way a ceasefire, eventually agreed on a summit - such as the upcoming US/Russia Geneva conference - can be implemented. Assad makes some sense when he says, "We can't discuss a timetable with a party if we don't know who they are." Well, by now everyone following the Syrian tragedy knows who most of them are. One knows that the Un-Free Syrian Cannibals, sorry, Army (FSA) is a ragged collection of warlords, gangsters and opportunists of every possible brand, intersecting with hardcore jihadis of the Jabhat al-Nusra kind (but also other al-Qaeda-linked or inspired outfits). It took Reuters months to finally admit that jihadis are running the show on the ground.[1] A "rebel" commander even complained to Reuters, "Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al Qaeda's agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad." What he didn't say is that the real effective outfit is al-Qaeda-linked. Syria is now Militia Hell; much like Iraq in the mid-2000s, much like the Western-imposed, "liberated" Libyan failed state. This Afghanization/Somalization is a direct consequence of NATO-GCC-Israel axis interference. [2] So Assad is also right when he says the West is adding fuel to the fire, and is only interested in regime change, whatever the cost. |
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CBS News
2013-05-16 15:34:00
The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any longer. Even if your picture isn't plastered all over social networking and photo-sharing sites, facial recognition technology in public places is making it harder if not impossible to remain anonymous. Lesley Stahl reports on the new ways this technology is being used that even has one of its inventors calling it too intrusive. Her 60 Minutes report will be broadcast Sunday, May 19 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Professor Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon, who researches how technology impacts privacy, stunned Stahl with an experiment. He photographed random students on the campus and in short order, not only identified several of them, but in a number of cases found their personal information, including social security numbers, just using a facial recognition program he downloaded for free. Acquisti says smart-phones will make "facial searches" as common as Google searches in the future. And nearly everybody can be subject to such prying, even those who are careful about their Internet use. |
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Glenn Creenwald
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or twotheguardian 2013-05-17 00:00:00
Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack: Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight. . . . That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism."On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on whether the statutory basis for this "war" - the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) - should be revised (meaning: expanded). This is how Wired's Spencer Ackerman (soon to be the Guardian US's national security editor) described the most significant exchange: "Asked at a Senate hearing today how long the war on terrorism will last, Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, answered, 'At least 10 to 20 years.' . . . A spokeswoman, Army Col. Anne Edgecomb, clarified that Sheehan meant the conflict is likely to last 10 to 20 more years from today - atop the 12 years that the conflict has already lasted. Welcome to America's Thirty Years War."That the Obama administration is now repeatedly declaring that the "war on terror" will last at least another decade (or two) is vastly more significant than all three of this week's big media controversies (Benghazi, IRS, and AP/DOJ) combined. The military historian Andrew Bacevich has spent years warning that US policy planners have adopted an explicit doctrine of "endless war". Obama officials, despite repeatedly boasting that they have delivered permanently crippling blows to al-Qaida, are now, as clearly as the English language permits, openly declaring this to be so. It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purpose other than its own eternal perpetuation. This war is not a means to any end but rather is the end in itself. Not only is it the end itself, but it is also its own fuel: it is precisely this endless war - justified in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism - that is the single greatest cause of that threat. |
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Rob Kall
OpEdNews 2013-05-18 11:39:00
This morning, I found a little green caterpillar crawling on my arm, in bed, as I was waking up. I took it outside so it could become a butterfly or moth. If it had been a mosquito or tick, I would have killed it so it wouldn't hurt me or my family later. One shoe bomber terrorist inspired the US to invest billions in airport security, required hundreds of millions of shoes to be removed. That's because there was a risk that was known. But there are a million psychopaths and over eight million sociopaths who we know are out there, predators, doing damage, hurting people, killing people, bullying, stalking, stealing, corrupting. A small percentage get caught. Most of the ones who get caught are the low functioning, stupid ones, the violent ones, the ones who have co-morbid problems like drug addiction or alcoholism. The smart ones, the higher functioning ones get jobs at big corporations, in city, state and federal government. They even become judges and certainly become lawyers too. Some speculate that it takes a sociopath to become a CEO of a major fortune 1000 company. One commenter on a previous article in the series suggested
Given the current situation, there's no protection from sociopaths who navigate the system avoiding arrest. They break rules but then intimidate or bully or charm people to cut them slack. They turn on their interpersonal intelligence to gain sympathy from those who say we should show them compassion. The best current defense may indeed be to leave. That's not acceptable to me, and of course, killing is not acceptable. That's why I'm engaging in writing this series. Good people should not have to leave to be safe from sociopaths. |
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Al Jazeera
Activists protest outside White House calling for immediate closure of controversial jail.2013-05-18 16:01:00
Activists demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison have marked the 100th day of a hunger strike there by submitting a petition to the White House containing some 370,000 signatures. A group of activists wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods like those used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay gathered outside the White House on Friday to call for the immediate closure of the controversial jail. "Immoral, illegal, ineffective," a banner read. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said that "years of detention without charge or trial have created a sense of desperation and hopelessness among the men at Guantanamo, which has led over 100 of them to join a hunger strike". |
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| Society's Child |
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Andrea Koskey
SFxaminer.com 2013-05-15 17:17:00
Few food items have enjoyed a more surprising recent resurgence than the savory strips of pig fat known as bacon. It is being wrapped around entrees, used to swizzle cocktails, and even serves as a flavor of ice cream. But now a popular pork-focused restaurant in the Upper Haight must close its doors Friday following months of failed negotiations with neighbors over neighborhood concerns about porcine aroma and grease disposal. Department of Public Health officials say the owners of Bacon Bacon, located at 205A Frederick Street, have had months since opening the space to address these and other concerns. But following their failure to do so, the restaurant must shut its doors. |
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Sam Adams
Elvira Campos killed on Saturday night near Sacramento, CaliforniaThe Daily Mail, UK 2013-05-20 10:33:00 Died after gunmen walked up to front door and opened fire Father and mother were also injured in the attack
A 10-year-old girl was shot dead while watching TV after gunmen opened fire on her family's home. Elvira Campos was killed when at least two suspects sprayed the property with bullets, in North Highlands, near Sacramento, California. Her father and mother were also injured in the attack, on Saturday night. At least two gunmen are believed to have carried out the shooting, which took place at around 10.30pm. About a dozen shots are believed to have been fired at the home from two different weapons. Four holes were clearly visible in the living room window of the property, where the girl is believed to have been sitting. Bullet holes could also be seen in the property's front door and in the frame around the front window. Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said the youngster's parents are expected to recover from their wounds, the Sacramento Bee reports. Detective Scott Swisher said the family were innocent victims and that they were not involved in any disputes that the police are aware of. |
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Mychal Denzel Smith
Femenisting 2013-05-17 10:13:00
I appreciate pieces like Lauren Rankin's "Feminism Needs Men, Too" over at PolicyMic and interviews like this one Brittney Cooper (of Crunk Feminist Collective) did with The Feminist Wire because they force me to consider more deeply what it means when I identify as a male feminist. I come into this space with a set of privileges (cis, male, hetero) that are in constant need of interrogation, so it's important to take some time to reflect on that a bit. I'm deliberate about saying I'm a feminist for a couple of reasons. I believe in equality and tearing down the systems of oppression that stand its way, so identifying as a feminist signals my dedication to radical change. But one can be invested in that work without applying the label. I choose it because I always want to be held accountable. The line that struck me the most in Brittney's interview is when she said: "The thing that we aren't saying about male feminists is that they have to do the emotional work." Relatively speaking, the politics is easy. The emotional work? That shit is hard, but is some of the most important work we're charged with doing. Because after the dust has settled, the reproductive rights have been won, the pay is equal, and there's equal representation in Congress, the mission is only half complete if sexism still dominates our social spaces. You can say the structural stuff is more important, but it's the everyday stuff that reinforces the structural stuff that adds up to a clusterfuck of mind-numbing oppression. And so many of us are guilty of allowing ourselves to perpetuate it without ever taking a moment to see the damage we're doing. |
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Fox News
2013-05-18 16:20:00
A Philadelphia teenager with cerebral palsy is recovering after a brutal attack in which she was bitten across her back and shoulders. However, from where the bites originated remains a mystery. 16-year-old Ariel Alexander's condition has confined her to a wheelchair for most of her life, leaving her unable to communicate to authorities about who committed the savage act, MyFoxPhilly.com reported. Yet the human bite marks across her left shoulder and upper back are clearly visible. Ariel's parents reportedly believe that the incident occurred at MLK High School, where Ariel is a student in a special needs classroom. Her parents say that a few days after the attack, which they claim took place on May 1, a male teacher took them to one side and informed them that a fellow student was responsible. The school rejects the notion that it occurred on school property, stating that all teachers interviewed have denied seeing anything. |
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RT.com
2013-05-19 16:00:00
Not only has social inequality risen in the industrialized nations over the past three decades, the economic crisis of 2008-09 sped up the deterioration as "pain of the crisis was not evenly shared," a new report says. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which unites the world's most developed countries, has published an update to its report 'Divided We Stand'. The report published in December 2011 showed that by 2008 the industrialized nations had the worst situation with inequality in three decades. According to the new data, the gap between the rich and the poor in most of its 34 members has been getting wider since the crisis started at a higher pace than it did before. Inequality grew more over the three years between 2007 and 2010 than it did over the 12 years before that. Among OECD countries, it appears that "the top 10 percent has done better than the poorest 10 percent in 21 countries," with the widest gaps seen in the United States, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. In the three years described above, their income status had been continuously plunging by 2 per cent every year. |
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Marc Santora and Joseph Goldstein
The New York Times 2013-05-17 06:48:00
A 21-year-old college student was shot and killed early Friday on Long Island after an armed man broke into the home she shared with her twin sister, held her hostage and then engaged in a gun battle with the police, the authorities said. The man who forced his way into the home was also killed It was not immediately clear who fired the fatal shots, the police said. The violence played out in the middle of the night on an ordinarily quiet residential street, only blocks from Hofstra University, where the victim went to school. Students who were preparing for their last day of exams awoke to the news that one of their own had been killed, and the normally festive atmosphere that comes with the end of the academic year turned terribly sad. |
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Martin Weil
Washington Post 2013-05-18 18:58:00
As many as 50 or 60 people were injured Saturday in southwest Virginia when a car plowed into the annual Appalachian Trail Days parade in the town of Damascus, sending hundreds of people scattering amid shouts and screams. Nine of the injured were taken to hospitals after the incident at the annual trail festival, but none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, authorities said. "Reports to us indicate that no one was injured beyond stable" said Pokey Harris, director of emergency management in Washington County, Va. where Damascus is located, about 300 miles southwest of the District. |
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Jason Hanna and Greg Botelho
CNN News 2013-05-18 18:49:00
Train service in the busy New York-to-New Haven corridor may be restricted for days as officials investigate Friday's rush-hour collision of two trains in Connecticut -- an incident that sent dozens to hospitals -- officials said Saturday. Officials from the federal National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the site Saturday morning to begin their investigation of the Metro-North train crash in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The wreckage won't be removed until investigators finish examining it on site -- possibly Sunday, NTSB member Earl Weener said -- and then two tracks will have to be repaired before they can be reopened. |
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BBC News
2013-05-18 18:37:00
France's president has signed into law a controversial bill making the country the ninth in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage. On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the bill. He said: "I have taken [the decision]; now it is time to respect the law of the Republic." The first gay wedding could be held 10 days after the bill's signing. But Parliamentary Relations Minister Alain Vidalies told French TV he expected the first ceremonies to take place "before 1 July". |
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Andy Kroll
This piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt's introduction.moyers & company 2013-05-16 00:00:00 Billionaires with an axe to grind, now is your time. Not since the days before a bumbling crew of would-be break-in artists set into motion the fabled Watergate scandal, leading to the first far-reaching restrictions on money in American politics, have you been so free to meddle. There is no limit to the amount of money you can give to elect your friends and allies to political office, to defeat those with whom you disagree, to shape or stunt or kill policy, and above all to influence the tone and content of political discussion in this country. Today, politics is a rich man's game. Look no further than the 2012 elections and that season's biggest donor, 79-year-old casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He and his wife, Miriam, shocked the political class by first giving $16.5 million in an effort to make Newt Gingrich the Republican presidential nominee. Once Gingrich exited the race, the Adelsons invested more than $30 million in electing Mitt Romney. They donated millions more to support GOP candidates running for the House and Senate, to block a pro-union measure in Michigan, and to bankroll the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative stalwarts (which waged their own campaigns mostly to helpRepublican candidates for Congress). All told, the Adelsons donated $94 million during the 2012 cycle - nearly four times the previous record set by liberal financier George Soros. And that's only the money we know about. When you add in so-called dark money, one estimate puts their total giving at closer to $150 million. It was not one of Adelson's better bets. Romney went down in flames; the Republicans failed to retake the Senate and conceded seats in the House; and the majority of candidates backed by Adelson-funded groups lost, too. But Adelson, who oozes chutzpah as only a gambling tycoon worth $26.5 billion could, is undeterred. Politics, he told the Wall Street Journal in his first post-election interview, is like poker: "I don't cry when I lose. There's always a new hand coming up." He said he could double his 2012 giving in future elections. "I'll spend that much and more," he said. "Let's cut any ambiguity." |
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Arrianne Talma
Red Alert Politics 2013-05-18 16:14:00
Turns out that the underground smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt have been used to transport more than weapons lately. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can now be supplied with Kentucky Fried Chicken delivered via the tunnels, as CNN reported. The American fast food is brought into the Palestinian territory by Al-Yamama, a delivery service that advertises on Facebook. The "finger lickin' good" chicken doesn't come easily to Palestinians in the Strip, however. A 20-piece bucket can cost about $30, which is about three times the amount it sells for in Egypt. The delivery also takes about three hours to travel 35 miles from the KFC branch in al-Arish, Egypt, to Gaza, sometimes being stopped by Hamas policemen who check the deliveries for other prohibited items. "Sometimes Hamas checks meals, sometimes the taxi picking up Sinai orders is late," a spokesman for the delivery company told The Mirror. Palestinians don't seem to be thrown off by the higher prices and lengthy time it takes the food to be delivered, however. |
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Rebecca Fishbein
Gothamist 2013-05-18 14:10:00
Yeah, your trad demon-eating snake tattoo is really edgy and all, but if you're looking to take your body art to the next level, why not ditch the black ink and use hypertrophic scar tissue instead? Apparently, slicing your skin into bloody tattoos is totally a thing now, and you can go get your very own "I Love Mom" heart made out of your own mutilated skin in (where else?) Williamsburg. Called "scarification," the practice has deep roots in ancient tribal arts, but it feels creepier now that it's headed West. Having said that, it's certainly an art form: just check out the scar work done by Brooklyn resident Brian Decker, who runs Pure Body Arts in Williamsburg. He's been cutting elaborate symbols, designs and seahorses into people's skin for the past thirteen years, and told DNAinfo the practice has become more popular over the years. "People started to implement the ideas of tattoo reference to the design, which made them more extravagant, more detailed," he said. "You were able to build much more beautiful designs, which I'm sure caught more people's eyes." Then again, some people just think scar tattoos do a nice job highlighting their Alice in Chains Hot Topic tees: "Someone who is freshly 18 probably relishes the idea of someone being repulsed by that," Chris Beierschmitt, who works at Pure Body Arts, told DNAinfo of the practice. But is a scar tattoo really any more frightening in theory than shooting possibly cancerous black ink into your skin? Even if that ink is shaped like Rex Ryan's wife? Plus, scar tattoos are great for sending scary messages to time-traveling law breakers. |
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Tracy Mehan
Nationwide Children's Hospital 2013-05-17 17:07:00
This summer, millions of people will head to the nation's amusement parks. Many might assume that the bigger and faster rides account for the most amusement ride-related injuries to children, but that's not always the case. My colleagues and I at the Center for Injury Research and Policy, Nationwide Children's Hospital, did the first study that looks in detail at children who are injured on amusement rides, which includes rides at amusement parks (fixed-site rides), rides at fairs and festivals (mobile rides) and rides found at local malls, stores, restaurants or arcades (mall rides). From 1990 to 2010, 92,885 children under age 18 were treated in U.S. emergency departments for amusement ride-related injuries for an average of 4,423 injuries each year. More than 70 percent of the injuries happened during the warm summer months of May through September - averaging more than 20 injuries a day during those months. [Killer Thrills: How Safe Are Amusement Parks?] We found that most children were injured in the head and neck region, followed by the arms, face and legs. Soft-tissue injuries like bruises were the most common type of injury, followed by strains and sprains, cuts and broken bones. |
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| Secret History |
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Barbara Barkhausen
Australian Associated Press 2013-05-19 21:13:00
Remember when you were taught that Australia was discovered by James Cook in 1770 who promptly declared it "terra nullius" and claimed it for the British throne? Turns out that could be completely and utterly wrong. Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an "X" might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia's history. Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, is planning an expedition in July that has stirred up the archaeological community. The scientist wants to revisit the location where five coins were found in the Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1000 years old, opening up the possibility that seafarers from distant countries might have landed in Australia much earlier than what is currently believed. Back in 1944 during World War II, after Japanese bombers had attacked Darwin two years earlier, the Wessel Islands - an uninhabited group of islands off Australia's north coast - had become a strategic position to help protect the mainland. Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg was stationed on one of the islands to man a radar station and spent his spare time fishing on the idyllic beaches. While sitting in the sand with his fishing-rod, he discovered a handful of coins in the sand. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Sciencedaily.com
Individuals who learn two languages at an early age seem to switch back
and forth between separate "sound systems" for each language, according
to new research conducted at the University of Arizona.2013-05-20 17:12:00 The research, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, addresses enduring questions in bilingual studies about how bilingual speakers hear and process sound in two different languages. "A lot of research has shown that bilinguals are pretty good at accommodating speech variation across languages, but there's been a debate as to how," said lead author Kalim Gonzales, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Arizona. "There are two views: One is that bilinguals have different processing modes for their two languages -- they have a mode for processing speech in one language and then a mode for processing speech in the other language. Another view is that bilinguals just adjust to speech variation by recalibrating to the unique acoustic properties of each language." |
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P Gosselin
NoTricksZone 2013-05-20 14:57:00
The Latest On The CLOUD Experiment at CERN By Sebastian Lüning and Fritz Vahrenholt On May 10, 2013, at the online Austrian ORF, there was a rare interview with the CLOUD Experiment director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Jasper Kirkby. Within the scope of the CLOUD project, it is being investigated to what extent solar activity has on cloud formation via the mechanism of cosmic radiation and the impact this could have on the Earth's climate (see Chapter 6 of our book Die kalte Sonne). Here's an excerpt of the worthwhile interview: |
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Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today 2013-05-20 14:15:00
In April, when the Hubble Space Telescope looked out towards Jupiter's orbit and observed what has been billed as the "Comet of the Century" - Comet C/2012 S1 ISON - the space telescope photographed a unique feature in the comet's coma. Now, a team of ground-based astronomers have performed follow-up observations, imaging Comet ISON as it heads towards the Sun and was just outside the orbit of Mars. They, too, have seen this unique feature, which is thought to be a jet blasting dust particles off the sunward-facing side of the comet's nucleus. These very useful follow-up observations are providing more insight on this highly anticipated comet, as well as helping to predict what might happen it makes its closest approach to the Sun in November 2013. |
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Nick Howes and Ernesto Guido
Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) was discovered on September 21, 2012 by Vitali Nevski
and Artyom Novichonok on CCD images obtained with a 0.4-m f/3 Santel
reflector of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) near
Kislovodsk, Russia.Remanzacco Observatory 2013-05-20 14:05:00 Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) will get to within 0.012AU of the Sun (extremely close) at the end of November 2013 and then to ~0.4AU from Earth at the end of December 2013! According to its orbit, this comet might become a naked-eye object in the period November 2013 - January 2014. And it might reach a negative magnitude at the end of November 2013. For more info about the discovery please see our previous post here. While here & here you can read our October 2012 updates about comet ISON. Our Team working with a suite of Hubble sized telescopes in Australia, Hawaii and the Canary Islands is collaborating with a range of professional scientists in an attempt to get high spatial resolution data on comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). Supported by the Liverpool John Moores Astrophysics Research Institute and the Faulkes Telescope Project we have been imaging C/2012 S1 ISON since the day it was discovered, being part of the discovery MPEC for the comet ourselves. |
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Jason Major
Universe Today 2013-05-20 13:58:00
Last Monday, May 13, the Suomi NPP satellite captured a fascinating image of Tropical Cyclone Mahasen as it moved northeast over the Bay of Bengal. The clouds of the storm itself weren't optically visible in the darkness of a nearly new Moon, but lightning flashes within it were... as well as the eerie ripples of atmospheric gravity waves spreading outwards from its center. According to the Space Physics Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley: Atmospheric gravity waves aren't to be confused with gravitational waves in space, which are created by very dense, massive objects (like white dwarf stars or black holes) orbiting each other closely. |
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Tia Ghose
LiveScience 2013-05-20 12:54:00
Infinity down, only 69,999,997 to go. New research has proven that prime numbers don't just disappear as numbers get larger - instead, there is an infinite number of prime numbers separated by a distance of at most 70 million. The new proof, accepted this month for publication in the journal Annals of Mathematics, takes the field one step closer to solving the twin prime conjecture, a famous mathematical idea that suggests the existence of an infinite number of prime numbers separated by a distance of 2 (for example, the prime numbers 11 and 13, which are separated by 2). Prime numbers are those that are divisible by only themselves and 1. Prior to this discovery, mathematicians suspected there were infinitely many twin primes, or prime numbers separated by two, but proofs hadn't set bounds on how far apart primes could be separated. [The 9 Most Massive Numbers in Existence] "It's a huge step forward in terms of showing that there are primes close together," said Daniel Goldston, a mathematician at San Jose State University in California. "It's a big huge step toward the twin prime conjecture." |
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Objective Science
Henrik Svensmark's documentary on climate change and cosmic rays. Henrik
Svensmark (born 1958) is a physicist and professor in the Division of
Solar System Physics at the Danish National Space Institute (DTU Space)
in Copenhagen.2013-03-03 00:00:00
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| Earth Changes |
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Eyder Peralta
A tornado emergency was issued for the south side of the Oklahoma City
metro area, Monday afternoon.This is a rare warning from the weather
service, which says
it issues one "when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic
damage from a tornado is imminent or ongoing." The National Weather
Service in Norman, Oklahoma is tweeting updates. At 4:22 p.m. ET. they tweeted:
NationalPublicRadio.org 2013-05-20 16:11:00 "the tornado is so large you may not realize it's a tornado. If you are in Moore, go to shelter NOW!"This story is breaking. We'll update this post as we get more. KFOR is streaming its live coverage.
Update at 4:44 p.m. ET. Devastated Neighborhoods: Helicopter images of Moore, Oklahoma from KFOR show tracts of devastated neighborhoods. The images show homes missing their roofs, some of them completely leveled. The reporter on the helicopter said one school was razed by a mile-wide tornado. KFOR showed people walking listlessly through the streets, surveying the damage and reuniting with their families. Update at 4:38 p.m. ET. Reminiscent Of 1999 Tornado: Kurt Gwartney of NPR member station KGOU in Oklahoma City said one of the issues with today's tornadoes is that people are at work and school. "What we're seeing from helicopter coverage," Gwartney tells our Newscast unit, "is very reminiscent of the May 1999 tornado that killed lots of people especially in the Moore area of the Oklahoma City metro. A report from USA Today at time, put that 1999 tornado's top winds at 318 mph. |
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Accuweather.com
2013-05-20 13:06:00
A record-smashing snowstorm has buried parts of Newfoundland under about 2 feet of snow. There were no reports of serious damage or disruption. Gander tallied a heavy, wet snowfall of 69 cm (7 inches) between Saturday morning and Sunday night, weather data accessed by AccuWeather.com showed. Of this amount, 46 cm fell (18 inches) within only 12 hours on Sunday. The snow depth reached at least 55 cm (22 inches) on Sunday and still stood at 51 cm on Monday morning. |
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The Daily Mail, UK
Sandor Horvath, 65, was attacked by donkeys in Hungary2013-05-20 10:47:00 Bitten and trampled on so much looked like he had been attacked by wolves Postmortem revealed the bites and markings had come from the donkeys Pair responsible for killing him are now waiting to be put down
Killed: Sandor Horvath, 65, was chased and pulled off the scooter at a farm in Magyarszecsod A Hungarian pensioner was dragged off his mobility scooter and mauled to death by a pair of killer donkeys. Sandor Horvath, 65, was bitten and trampled on so much that when his body was found it was believed had been torn apart by wolves. Mr Horvath, was chased and pulled off the scooter at a farm in Magyarszecsod where he was visiting his farmer friend. His mutilated remains were found by the farm owner who called the police, believing his friend had been attacked by wild dogs. But a postmortem revealed the bites and markings had come from the donkeys. Police who pieced together the evidence said it appeared that the donkeys had chased the man and dragged him off the scooter before killing him. The farmer's daughter Csikos Darda said: 'I had noticed that the donkeys were becoming increasingly aggressive and I'd asked my father to do something about it, but he'd said they were fine.' A vet told local media: 'Donkeys aren't usually aggressive towards humans. 'They probably reacted like this as they thought the victim was intruding upon their territory.' The pair are now waiting to be put down. A police spokesman said: 'If these were dogs then they would also be put to sleep. 'We can't allow animals to go around killing people. Putting them to sleep is the best thing for everyone.'
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Reuters via Yahoo News
The central United States braced for violent thunderstorms on Monday
that could bring more hail, heavy rain and tornadoes to the region
stricken by a deadly twister over the weekend. The National Weather
Service said severe storms would likely pummel the Ozarks and the middle
Mississippi Valley, with northwest Arkansas, far southeast Kansas,
southern Missouri, most of Oklahoma and northern Texas facing the
greatest risk.2013-05-20 10:09:00 "A very moist atmosphere will become quite unstable again today," the forecasters said. "This combined with strong favorable winds aloft will result in a risk of a few strong tornadoes, very large hail and damaging winds in the most intense storms." A massive storm front hammered the region on Sunday with fist-sized hail, blinding rain and tornadoes, including a half-mile-wide twister that struck near Oklahoma City. One man was killed at a mobile home park in the town of Bethel Acres near Oklahoma City and 21 people were injured in storms throughout the state, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management. |
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The Extinction Protocol
232 days - it took over 30 years for Anchorage to set a new record for
the longest snow season on record. The National Weather Service
measured 2/10ths of an inch just after 9 p.m. Friday and 1/10th Saturday
morning - breaking the old record of 230 days set in 1981-1982.
Anchorage police responded to 22 crashes, 4 with injuries and 37
vehicles in distress between midnight and noon Saturday. Police say
roads were wet and not icy midday and "motorists should use caution if
the temperatures drop below freezing. Other parts of the city had much
higher amounts of snow, however official measurements must be consistent
and observed at the Sand Lake forecast office. The recent snowfall also
broke the daily record for liquid precipitation, lowest maximum
temperature for May 17, and a host of other records. NWS says Saturday
evening's forecast calls for "mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers
in the evening...then partly cloudy after midnight - lows in the upper
teens to mid 20s and north wind to 15 mph." For Sunday, the forecast
will be mostly sunny, highs in the 40s, and light winds, according to
NWS. -NBC2013-05-20 09:43:00
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-05-20 09:31:00
The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude-6.5 earthquake has struck off the coast of Chile. The quake was recorded at 5:49 a.m. local time (EDT; 0949 GMT) Monday, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, some 600 kilometres from the city of Puerto Quellon. No tsunami warning was issued. Chile's naval seismology office says it was not felt on land. U.S. seismologists originally estimated the magnitude at 6.8. Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake and the tsunami it unleashed in 2010 killed 551 people and destroyed 220,000 homes. It was so strong it changed time, shortening the Earth's day slightly by changing the planet's rotation. The strongest earthquake ever recorded also happened in Chile, a magnitude-9.5 in 1960. - CTV News USGS Technical data |
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The Extinction Protocol
Tornadoes touched down in three states on Sunday, ripping roofs off
homes and turning trees to matchsticks, as severe weather swept the
region. A large "violent and extremely dangerous" tornado was spotted on
the southwest side of Wichita, Kansas, the National Weather Service
said. A second confirmed tornado was seen near Edmond, Oklahoma, said
the weather service. Another tornado was spotted in nearby Luther,
Oklahoma, but it was not immediately clear whether that was the same
twister. A third tornado touched down near Wellston, Oklahoma, taking
out power lines and damaging several homes, according to video from CNN
affiliate KFOR. The affiliate's helicopter pilot estimated the funnel
cloud to be about a half-mile wide. "It's tearing up everything," the
pilot said. "Just ripping everything up in its sight."2013-05-20 08:50:00
Aerial video from KFOR and CNN affiliate KOCO showed severe damage near Wellston and near Carney, Oklahoma. Roofs were ripped from homes, branches stripped from trees and roads were filled with debris. Tornadoes were also reported east of Dale, west of Paden, and near Prague in Oklahoma. Part of Interstate 40 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, was shut down in both directions Sunday night after a tornado touched down, overturning multiple tractor-trailers. Still more tornadoes were spotted in Iowa, near Earlham, Huxley and east of Dallas Center, according to the weather service. It did not mince words, telling people to take cover there, as elsewhere. "You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter. |
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The Extinction Protocol
A massive earthquake swarm has occurred in the region of
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia. More than 20 earthquakes have struck
the region in the last 22 hours- the strongest of which was a 5.9
magnitude earthquake, which rattled the seafloor at a depth of 16.5 km
deep. The latest seismic flare-up along this region reflects growing
agitation on one of the planet's largest tectonic plates- the Pacific
plate. Increasing seismic volatility along this region of Kamchatka
could have serious ramifications for every tectonic plate that comes
into contact with the Pacific plate- from the South Pacific to South
America. A similar, more intense earthquake swarm occurred along the
periphery of the Pacific Plate near the Santa Cruz Islands in February
of this year. Is the Pacific plate on the verge of a large-scale change?2013-05-20 08:47:00
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wildlifeextra.com
Migratory murder on Egypt's coast2013-05-19 10:15:00
May 2013. Disturbing evidence has emerged from the Mediterranean coast of Egypt: Bavarian Broadcasting have documented a total of 700 kilometres of nets set to catch birds. The birds are then offered as a delicacy in markets and restaurants across Egypt. The nets are very difficult to avoid for many migratory birds as they form a barrier across their flight path either across the Mediterranean or the Sahara when they are looking for a place to rest. The exact number of birds caught in this way can only be estimated, but experts believe that tens of millions are killed each year. That songbirds are on the menu (and targeted by many hunters) in many countries of southern Europe and North Africa is nothing new. The existence of fishing nets on the coast of Egypt has long been known, but what is new is the scale of netting, which now extends from Libya across almost the entire coastline of the Egypt to the Sinai - interrupted only in a few places by military installations or major cities. |
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Douglas Main
Red tide' and a loss of sea grass account for some manatee deaths,
but researchers believe undiscovered factors are also at play.takepart.com 2013-05-02 05:02:00
A record number of endangered manatees are dying in Florida's algae-choked waterways. So far this year, 582 manatees have died, more than any year on record, according to preliminary numbers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Pat Rose is an aquatic biologist and the executive director of the Save the Manatee Club, an organization devoted to preserving the animal. In his interview with TakePart, Rose reports the estimated minimum population of these gentle beasts is only 3,100 adults. That means their population has decreased by more than 10 percent in just four months. A total of 247 of these have died in the southwest of the state due to an explosion of a red-hued algae called Karenia brevis, also known as a red tide. This pesky microorganism produces neurotoxins that can kill manatees by causing them to seize to the point where they can't make it to the surface - or even lift their head out of the water - to breathe. The large marine mammals are also dying in the eastern part of the state, in Brevard County near Orlando. Rose says a gradual die-out of sea grass, upon which the manatees feed, has combined with blooms of brown algae and likely other unknown factors to kill nearly 150 more manatees. Since 2010, about 30,000 acres of sea grass have been wiped out. Luckily, it appears that both events are winding down, and the rate of manatee deaths appears to be slowing. But that's cold comfort for Rose, since the number of threats to manatees appears to be growing, and little is being done to address the problem. Traditionally, boat collisions have been the biggest killer of manatees; they're vulnerable since they're large, slow-moving and often hang out on the surface. Until this year, at least 41 percent of all manatee deaths resulted from these collisions, and likely more, because not all of these deaths are reported or detected. | |
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Comment: The one of the other supposedly 'undiscovered
factors that are also at play', but nevertheless well reported, are the
unusually cold water temperatures experienced along the Florida coast in
recent winters.
See - http://www.sott.net/article/221068-279-Manatees-die-of-cold-chill-in-Florida |
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Greg Newkirk
WhoForted? 2013-05-18 00:59:00
When it comes to mysteries, there's no better place for hiding them than the bottom of the ocean. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as much as 95% of the world's oceans remain unexplored. And yet some people don't believe in sea monsters. Well, thanks to the advent of the internet, we can do some of that exploring from the comfort of our computer chairs, and you never know what sorts of strange stuff will turn up. Our pal Samuel Burgan (AKA IceBurg) was doing just that, and found a bunch of bizarre markings on the ocean floor, so he sent a few snapshots our way. |
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Jordan Greene
Santiago Times 2013-05-16 18:08:00
Chilean Navy discovers more than 600 dead animals in Punta de Choros, a small fishing town north of La Serena. The bodies of sea lions, cormorants and penguins littered a seven mile stretch of beach in Punta de Choros, northern Chile on Sunday. The crime scene is in close proximity to the Humboldt Penguin Nature Reserve. Two days prior the Movement in Defense of the Environment (MODEMA) reported a band of ten fishing boats off the coastline of Punta de Choros. MODEMA and other environmental groups accused the boats of blast fishing - using explosives to catch mass quantities of fish. Sernapesca, Chile's National Fishing Service, investigated the scene and determined that all the animals were killed by the same incident. Autopsies report animals with fractured skulls, missing rib cages and multiple abrasions. Local authorities promptly called in the Investigative Police's (PDI) Environmental Crime Brigade for further investigation. Microbiological and chemical analysis tests are currently being run to determine if blast fishing is the cause of death. In Chile, blast fishing is illegal. Companies caught fishing in this manner face prison time and fines. The monetary amount depends on the damage to the ecosystem. However, causing the death of penguins during commercial activities is a jailable offense. Officials from Sernapesca told The Santiago Times that the combined offenses amount to a "serious crime." |
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Beth Peluso
Fairbanks Daily News - Miner 2013-05-16 12:24:00
Fairbanks - Birds of all kinds are arriving in dizzying numbers and many long-time birders say they have never seen such a concentrated wave of migrating birds in the Tanana Valley. Bud Johnson in Tok estimates there were 100,000 sparrows descending on that area Tuesday. He reported seeing continuous flocks along the sides of the highway, and came home to hundreds of songbirds in his yard. White-crowned, golden-crowned, fox and tree sparrows mixed with juncos, rusty blackbirds and Lapland longspurs. Other viewers saw Lincoln's and Savannah sparrows and gray-crowned rosy-finches. "I have never seen anything like this ever," Johnson said. "The ground is just in constant movement and the singing (mostly from the white-crowned sparrows) is insane." Among bird-watchers, there is a phenomenon called "fallout," which is when a large number of migrating birds make landfall because they run into storm systems. Usually this happens along the coast, where exhausted birds touch down on the first solid ground they find. It's possible a combination of the late spring breakup and a current weather front has caused this unusual spring gathering. "This is turning out to be the most spectacular spring migration I think the Tanana Valley has seen in recent memory," Fairbanks birder Nancy DeWitt wrote in an email. "First, there were the unprecedented numbers of swans and white-fronted geese in the Delta barley fields (many of which are still there) accompanied by the biggest flocks of Canada geese and pintails I've ever seen, now followed by what Steve Dubois says is the largest concentration of sandhill cranes he's seen in his 28 years there. "Add in the numerous bluebird sightings (I've lost count), cloud after cloud of Lapland longspurs moving through the valley, thick groups of varied thrush at Fort Greely on Saturday night, and now the sparrow fall-out in Tok Bud describes, and I am just beside myself with glee," she said. "I assume most of this is weather related, but what happened and where along the migration route that balled up all these birds? I suppose the fact that a lot of the valley is snow-covered and many ponds and lakes are still frozen is also concentrating birds, but would sure love to know if anyone tracked migration radar data over Canada in the past month. |
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Kris Capps
Fairbanks Daily News - Miner 2013-05-17 12:00:00
Christmas music played Friday in the lobby of the McKinley Chalet Resort, just outside Denali National Park and Preserve. It was fitting, considering the weather outside. A heavy spring snowstorm dumped enough snow in the area to cancel some local events, keep people from driving and surprise a few tourists. A winter storm watch remained in effect until this morning. "The guests are actually enjoying the experience," said Craig Pester, district manager of Aramark's Denali resorts. "We had to change a couple tours around so they didn't get the full experience, but all the guests are very happy. They're kind of making it part of their adventure." Indeed, the Elliotts who are visiting from South Carolina thought the snow was pretty exciting, as they huddled behind an umbrella. What an Alaska experience, they said. A visitor from Germany came north for better weather and ended up camping in the snow at Riley Creek Campground. He took it all in stride. |
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Sean Doogan
alaskadispatch.com 2013-05-18 11:46:00 Cold air across so much of Alaska, so late in the year, has delayed summer for the winter weary and left thousands of international travelers in holding patterns. An unexpected bonanza of migrating birds are reportedly hunkered down northwest of Denali National Park and Preserve. In the Delta-Tok region, thousands more cranes, swans, geese, and swallows than usual are waiting out conditions unusual even for Alaska. Birds often "ball-up" in foul weather, congregating along coastlines and then fly over vast Interior Alaska in waves. Not this year. One local birder told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner he'd never seen so many stopped over, all at once, in more than 20 years. Arctic air pushing southward and smaller low-pressure systems have kept cold weather lingering. Up to 6 inches of snow was forecast over the weekend in Anchorage, with accumulation likely in Fairbanks as well, the National Weather Service predicted, though ground temperatures would melt most of it. Normally, late May sees warmer air from the Gulf of Alaska pulled north across the state, but for now, at least, much of Alaska remains near freezing or colder. "It is a real fluke. We just haven't gotten into our summer pattern yet," meteorologist Dan Peterson said. Next week, forecasts called for highs in the 50s and 60s from Anchorage, in Southcentral Alaska, north to Fairbanks. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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The Extinction Protocol
In the last 24 hours the AMS has received confirmed reports about 4
unique fireball events all occurring near 4:00 AM UTC time. The most
recent event occurred in Arkansas and Missouri on May 19th near 3:37
UTC. At the same time 3:37 UTC 4 witnesses reported a fireball in
Arizona. The distance between these two locations would inhibit
witnesses from observing the same fireball from both locations. On May
18th two large fireball meteors were also spotted within an hour of each
other, one over the central east coast and another in Colorado. -AMS2013-05-20 09:34:00 Google Earth users can download a KMZ file containing the trajectory estimates for these four events (you must unzip the file before opening in Google Earth). If you witnessed any of these fireball events please fill out an official fireball report.
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Zoe Hunter
SunLive 2013-05-17 19:02:00
A Whakamarama man has geologists excited after a meteorite soared into his garage moving buckets and narrowly missing his head. The man, who does not wish to be named, was in his garage talking with his neighbour last Monday when a meteorite soared past his head. "It must have missed me by a couple of feet. I thought it was a gun shot." He didn't hear or see the meteorite, but noticed the buckets were moving in the garage. Together with his friend the pair began searching. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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moyers & company
In this 2001 Moyers Moment from Bill's documentary Trade Secrets,
Bill examines the many chemicals that have been introduced into our
environment over the last few decades. To find out just how pervasive
these chemicals were, Bill volunteered to get his blood tested.2013-05-17 00:00:00
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eurekalert.org
New imaging study of combat veterans shows that brain regions linked
to PTSD function abnormally even in the absence of external stress2013-05-18 04:33:00 Chronic trauma can inflict lasting damage to brain regions associated with fear and anxiety. Previous imaging studies of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, have shown that these brain regions can over-or under-react in response to stressful tasks, such as recalling a traumatic event or reacting to a photo of a threatening face. Now, researchers at NYU School of Medicine have explored for the first time what happens in the brains of combat veterans with PTSD in the absence of external triggers. Their results, published in Neuroscience Letters, and presented today at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatry Association in San Francisco, show that the effects of trauma persist in certain brain regions even when combat veterans are not engaged in cognitive or emotional tasks, and face no immediate external threats. The findings shed light on which areas of the brain provoke traumatic symptoms and represent a critical step toward better diagnostics and treatments for PTSD. A chronic condition that develops after trauma, PTSD can plague victims with disturbing memories, flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability. Among the 1.7 million men and women who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an estimated 20% have PTSD. Research shows that suicide risk is higher in veterans with PTSD. Tragically, more soldiers committed suicide in 2012 than the number of soldiers who were killed in combat in Afghanistan that year. "It is critical to have an objective test to confirm PTSD diagnosis as self reports can be unreliable," says co-author Charles Marmar, MD, the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Psychiatry and chair of NYU Langone's Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Marmar, a nationally recognized expert on trauma and stress among veterans, heads The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center for the Study of Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury at NYU Langone Medical Center. The study, led by Xiaodan Yan, a research fellow at NYU School of Medicine, examined "spontaneous" or "resting" brain activity in 104 veterans of combat from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars using functional MRI, which measures blood-oxygen levels in the brain. The researchers found that spontaneous brain activity in the amygdala, a key structure in the brain's "fear circuitry" that processes fearful and anxious emotions, was significantly higher in the 52 combat veterans with PTSD than in the 52 combat veterans without PTSD. The PTSD group also showed elevated brain activity in the anterior insula, a brain region that regulates sensitivity to pain and negative emotions. Moreover, the PTSD group had lower activity in the precuneus, a structure tucked between the brain's two hemispheres that helps integrate information from the past and future, especially when the mind is wandering or disengaged from active thought. Decreased activity in the precuneus correlates with more severe "re-experiencing" symptoms - that is, when victims re-experience trauma over and over again through flashbacks, nightmares and frightening thoughts. Key scientific contributors include researchers at NYU School of Medicine, the University of California at San Francisco, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and the Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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No new articles. |
| High Strangeness |
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Joel Gould
The Queensland Times 2013-05-18 06:00:00
A green UFO that lit up the night sky over Ipswich has the man who saw it and experts in the field baffled. "I've never seen anything like it before," UFO Research Queensland president Sheryl Gottschall said. Booval's Arthur Sollitt took a video recording of the bizarre object and after replaying the video many times he is still none the wiser. "As far as I am concerned it is an unidentified flying object, but whether it is earth-made or something from outer space... you just wouldn't know," he said. The QT has seen Mr Sollitt's video recording and it can be found on our website. The green UFO swoops across the sky with what appears to be a set of wings at times before morphing from other angles into a saucer shape. A white light moves around the UFO. Mr Sollitt, a former speedway racer who won the world derby in 1980, was moved to come forward with the recording after the QT received texts and a letter about strange lights in the sky. |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat 2013-05-18 17:03:00
We always talk about and are lectured to about how "weather is not climate". Of course that's a flexible meme, because now when the weather turns hot or bad, climate is to blame. I had to go to Walmart today to pick up something, and as I walked down the aisles looking for things, this jumped out at me. Unfortunately, it was so ridiculous, it made me laugh out loud, and I got stares. So, I'm sharing this humor with you. I suppose it was only a matter of time before some enterprising company did this. Gotta love that "defend your hair against bad weather" line. Now even when CO2 or weather modification driven hordes of tornadoes descend upon us in retaliation for our climate sins, we can avoid bad hair days. Of course, shampoo only goes so far. They need "climate control body spray" to really be effective. |
