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Tommy Paine
Activist Post 2013-06-26 14:06:00
Let's take another trip down the rabbit hole, shall we? Lost in the Edward Snowden debate is a critical look at his former employer, the company doing the spying on Americans in the first place: Booz Allen Hamilton. Booz Allen Hamilton is a government contractor, with 99% of its revenue coming from the US government. Not only does it receive money from the NSA, but also the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and ... the IRS. In addition, Booz Allen is heavily connected to the CIA. Among the individuals involved in running the company, we have: James Clapper - current Director of National Intelligence (DNI), head of NSA, the man who lied to Congress about the fact that NSA is actively spying on Americans, is a former executive Mike McConnell - a current executive of the company, had Clapper's job (DNI) during George W. Bush's administration (keep it in the family, eh?) -- he worked for Booz Allen before Bush, then worked for Bush, then back to Booz Allen after Bush James Woolsey - former CIA Director, current executive (see Jan Helfeld's interview of Mr. Woolsey where it becomes clear that Woolsey has no interest in discussing principles, only war) Melissa Hathaway - former executive, also worked for McConnell during the Bush administration Ian Brzezinski - former executive, son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, central figure in the NWO crowd, and mastermind of Operation Cyclone |
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| Puppet Masters |
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New Zealand Herald
2013-06-26 16:36:00
Admitted leaker Edward Snowden took flight in evasion of US authorities, seeking asylum in Ecuador and leaving the Obama administration scrambling to determine its next step in what became a game of diplomatic cat-and-mouse. The former National Security Agency contractor and CIA technician fled Hong Kong and arrived at the Moscow airport, where he planned to spend the night before boarding an Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government received an asylum request from Snowden, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would help him. "He goes to the very countries that have, at best, very tense relationships with the United States," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., adding that she feared Snowden would trade more US secrets for asylum. "This is not going to play out well for the national security interests of the United States." The move left the US with limited options as Snowden's itinerary took him on a tour of what many see as anti-American capitals. Ecuador in particular has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London. |
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New Zealand Herald
2013-06-20 16:32:00
With massive protests by middle-class Brazilians demanding wholesale government reforms, people all over this continent-sized country have reached a verdict on the streets and online: "The giant has awakened". President Dilma Rousseff has tried to placate the crowds by supporting their right to protest, and the Sao Paulo municipal government has rescinded the 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares that sparked the demonstrations in the first place. But as the protests grow even bigger, with two major marches called for Thursday (local time), the Brazilian government seems at a loss over how to address the sweeping demands of its people. Protesters have presented the government with myriad demands and a growing list of complaints: It can't provide its citizens with basic security, officials are corrupt and inefficient, traffic is bottlenecked on pot-holed streets, and even cellphones don't work. And the investment that should be going into health care and education are pouring into soccer stadiums and airports instead. Rousseff's response has been little more than rhetoric. She hasn't formed any emergency committees to deal with the crisis or offered grand gestures or fresh ideas. And that has further angered Brazilians such as Rosana Reis, a 51-year-old nurse who like millions in the middle class is feeling the pinch of high taxes and perennially poor public services while the country spends billions of dollars to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. |
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Mike Masnick
TechDirt 2013-06-26 12:12:00
The joke around the NSA used to be that the acronym stood for "No Such Agency" as its very existence was denied for years. While the NSA is now very official, it's still probably the most secretive agency out there. That's to be somewhat expected, given its mission, but it appears that when it needs to be transparent, it doesn't do very well at all. We noted yesterday that Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had called the NSA out for flat out lying on a "fact sheet" the agency had posted about its section 702 surveillance efforts. The NSA's response? They quietly deleted the pdf document from their website. Because it's not like the internet notices when you suddenly delete the document you put out to defend your overreaching surveillance techniques... You'd think that, of any agency out there, the NSA would recognize the most that simply deleting something on your local computers doesn't make it actually disappear from the world. But, here's the best part:
Ah, yeah, I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with that whatsoever... In more "unrelated" news, NSA boss, General Keith Alexander has also admitted that perhaps the fact sheet wasn't fully accurate: Oh, I'm sure that the original wording was fairly "precise." It's just that it was precisely misleading, which is the sort of precision that the NSA seems to specialize in when it comes to any sort of public discussion. |
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Michael Snyder
Activist Post 2013-06-26 14:27:00
The vast majority of Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming. They don't understand how our financial system works, they don't understand how vulnerable it is, and most of them blindly trust that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they will be able to fix our problems. As a result, most Americans are simply not prepared for the massive storm that is heading our way. Most American families are living paycheck to paycheck, most of them are not storing up emergency food and supplies, and only a very small percentage of them are buying gold and silver for investment purposes. They seem to have forgotten what happened back in 2008. When the financial markets crashed, millions of Americans lost their jobs. Because most of them were living on the financial edge, millions of them also lost their homes. Unfortunately, most Americans seem convinced that it will not happen again. Right now we seem to be living in a "hope bubble" and people have become very complacent. For a while there, being a "prepper" was very trendy, but now concern about a coming economic crisis seems to have subsided. What a tragic mistake. As I pointed out yesterday, our entire financial system is a giant Ponzi scheme, and there are already signs that our financial markets are about to implode once again. Those that have not made any preparations for what is coming are going to regret it bitterly. The following are 17 signs that most Americans will be wiped out by the coming economic collapse... #1 According to a survey that was just released, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. But most Americans are acting as if their jobs will always be there. But the truth is that mass layoffs can occur at any time. In fact, it just happened at one of the largest law firms in New York City. |
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Duncan Campbell
The Scotsman 2000-03-12 12:55:00
Former United States Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey confirmed in Washington this week that the US steals economic secrets "with espionage, with communications [intelligence], with reconnaissance satellites", and that there was now "some increased emphasis" on economic intelligence. He claimed that economic spying was justified because European companies had a "national culture" of bribery and were the "principle offenders from the point of view of paying bribes in major international contracts in the world". Responding to the European Parliament report on interception capabilities and the Echelon satellite surveillance system, Woolsey said that the "Interception Capabilities 2000" report which had been presented to the parliament's Citizens' Rights Committee on 23 February, was "intellectually honest". In two cases cited in the report, "the fact [is] that the subject of American intelligence collection was bribery." "That's correct", he told a packed audience of foreign press journalists: |
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Bill Morlin
The Spokesman-Review 2012-08-19 12:28:00
Ruby Ridge. Who would have thought 20 years ago this week that those two words would become an icon, a reference point in American culture? More than a deadly siege in North Idaho that claimed the lives of a mother, her son and a federal marshal, the standoff at Ruby Ridge became a rallying point for the extremist movement and made Randy Weaver, the white supremacist at the center of the event, a hero to those groups. It also changed the way federal law enforcement handles standoffs with fugitives. Historians and extremism experts offer varying assessments of the 11-day siege that was named Ruby Ridge after a mountain crest near Naples, Idaho, not far from the hand-built cabin of Weaver and his family. It took years, including a congressional hearing in 1995, to sort out the sequence of events, and there are still points of disagreement. But almost everyone - from anti-government activists and racists to academics and historians - agrees that Ruby Ridge was a big deal, with lasting impacts. |
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Guardian
2013-06-20 12:21:00
Industrial mechanic and engineer were caught in sting after tip-off from Ku Klux Klan, investigators say as duo are charged The FBI has charged two men with making a portable X-ray weapon that they intended to use to secretly sicken opponents of Israel. An indictment charges 49-year-old Glendon Scott Crawford and 54-year-old Eric J Feight with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists with the weapon. Investigators have said Crawford approached Jewish organisations in 2012 looking for funding and people to help him with technology that could be used to surreptitiously deliver damaging and even lethal doses of radiation against those he considered enemies of Israel. He and Feight assembled the mobile device, which was to be controlled remotely, but it was inoperable and nobody was hurt, authorities said. "Crawford has specifically identified Muslims and several other individuals/groups as targets," investigator Geoffrey Kent said in a court affidavit. According to the indictment Crawford also travelled to North Carolina in October to solicit money for the weapon from a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, who informed the FBI. Crawford claimed to be a member. The men appeared separately on Wednesday in federal court and were ordered detained until detention hearings Thursday. They could face up to 15 years in prison. | |
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Comment: Check out these SOTT articles for further reading on Israeli weapons specialization and skullduggery:
http://www.sott.net/article/212776-Ethnic-specific-weapons-The-real-story-behind-the-murder-of-Dr-David-Kelly http://www.sott.net/article/125018-Litvinenko-By-Way-Of-Deception-Part-1 |
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Sott.net
While many look to Vladimir Putin and a strong Russia as a counterweight
to U.S. imperialism, people also tend to forget that Russia's eternal
leader came to power on the back of false-flag bombings carried out in
September 1999 by his colleagues at the FSB (KGB).2013-06-25 17:54:00
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| Society's Child |
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New Zealand Herald
2013-06-24 16:25:00
Police say a 5-year-old girl fatally shot herself when her mother locked her inside their home and went to the store. The New Orleans Police Department said in a news release the girl was home alone Sunday, somehow found her mother's revolver, and accidentally shot herself in the head. |
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Dailymail.co.uk
A six-year-old girl witnessed the horrific moment both her parents were
accidentally killed as her mother tried to reverse into a car-parking
space.2013-06-24 13:23:00 The 41-year-old mother was being directed by her husband when the tragedy happened, in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. According to Qianjiang Evening News, the newly-qualified driver was practicing the manoeuvre in her Lexus RX270 SUV when she accidentally backed up too far, pinning he husband against the wall.
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Andrew Blankstein
LATimes.com 2013-06-25 07:19:00
Journalist Michael Hastings, who died last week in a fiery single-car crash in Hancock Park, was not working on a story about Florida socialite Jill Kelley, his wife said. Elise Jordan posted a message on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "To correct the record, since I've seen it erroneously reported a few times: @mmhastings was not working on a story about Jill Kelley." |
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Keith Jones
SWAT was also at the mall, located at 1267 NW 40th Avenue.nbcmiami.com 2013-06-25 05:04:00
Authorities said two people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries after a fight at the Lauderhill Mall Tuesday. Hundreds of people, mostly teens, swarmed the mall at 1267 NW 40th Ave. and created a chaotic scene, and police from Lauderhill, Plantation and Sunrise as well as the Broward Sheriff's Office responded to break up the crowd. Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Butkus said the incident was the result of a social media message. "What that message was, we don't know. Essentially that's what was used and we believe it was to fight somewhere in the mall, over what, we do not know," Butkus said. The power and reach of social media was evident as police estimate 200-300 kids showed up. Some of them made it inside the mall, where police quickly broke up fights. One of the two people hurt was taken to the hospital for treatment for a punch to the head, according to police. While police and heavily armed SWAT members helped disperse the crowd, a young man who wanted to be called "D" explained to NBC 6 that he heard it started with two girls fighting. Others showed up to settle a "beef" or argument with other kids. "Whatever pressure you had against anybody, you had to come out today," D said. While police made no arrests, they didn't take any chances of amped-up teens sparking a new brawl. Two officers remained on scene to show a presence into the night. |
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Frank Jack Daniel
Reuters 2013-06-24 13:01:00
Islamabad - Pakistan's once thriving mountaineering industry is reeling from the killing by militants of 10 foreign climbers, a massacre likely to drive away all but the hardiest adventurers from some of the world's tallest and most pristine peaks. A tour company present during the attack said gunmen dressed as police ordered tourists out of tents at the 4,200-meter (13,860-foot) base camp of Nanga Parbat, the country's second highest peak, late on Saturday night, then shot them and a Pakistani guide. The attack on the last peak over 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) in the western Himalayas has been claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and a smaller radical Islamist group. The foreign victims included two citizens from China, one from Lithuania, one from Nepal, two from Slovakia, three Ukrainians, and one person with joint U.S.-Chinese citizenship. Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said at least 40 foreigners including citizens from Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and the United States, among several other nationalities, were evacuated from a higher camp. A group of Romanians is believed to be scaling the mountain from another side. Some other groups booked for climbs this summer have already cancelled, one company said. Hussain said the attack was a "fatal blow" for his efforts to attract more climbers to the Hindu Khush, Karakoram and western Himalayan ranges, home to many unexplored summits. |
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| Secret History |
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Popular Archaeology
2013-06-16 09:25:00
Located near the small coastal town of Maryport in northwestern England, remains of the ancient Roman fort of Alauna were first uncovered by amateur archaeologist Joseph Robinson in the late 19th century. Among the finds were an assemblage of no less that 22 stone altars, some bearing inscriptions, that tell a story of successive Roman commanders who commanded this, one of Imperial Rome's northernmost outposts during the height of the Roman Empire's expanse. The altars now grace the nearby Senhouse Museum, which serves as a popular tourist attraction. Now a team of archaeologists and volunteers have returned to the site where the original stone altars were found to uncover more clues about the layout of the fort and its associated settlement, and about the lives of the military officers and soldiers who manned this remote garrison. Led by Newcastle University's Professor Ian Haynes and site director Tony Wilmott, the archaeologists have been here before. Says Haynes: "The last two years' excavations focused on the area in which the altars were discovered in 1870. This year sees some further work at the 1870 site and the start of a three year project focusing on the place where, in 1880, local bank manager and amateur archaeologist Joseph Robinson uncovered further altars and two possible temples. Photographs and other documents from the 1880s indicate that the antiquarian investigation only unearthed part of the site and it is clear that much remains to be discovered." [1] Additional images |
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| Science & Technology |
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MIT Technology Review
2013-06-26 15:18:00
Fairy circles are mysterious barren patches of land that are surrounded by healthy vegetation. The circles are common in many parts of the world but particularly in the arid grasslands of southern Africa where they range in size from 2 metres to 10 metres across (see picture left). Plant biologists know these circles are stable having watched them over periods of decades. So these structures are clearly no accident. Indeed, exactly why fairy circles appear is something of a mystery. In particular, nobody has been able to explain why the patches are circular and not some other shape. That changes today thanks to the work of Cristian Fernandez-Oto at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and a few pals who have used computer simulations to show that fairy circles are emergent patterns that occur naturally when plants compete for water in arid conditions. Their model is relatively straight forward. It is based on the fact that a single plant can generate a root system below ground that is many times larger than the structure above the surface. The size of these roots determines how close together the plants can grow. Next they assume that the land can exist in two stable states: either it is uniformly covered in vegetation or uniformly devoid of vegetation. |
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Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News 2013-06-26 06:40:00
Cats may try to hide their true feelings, but a recent study found that cats do actually pay attention to their owners, distinguishing them from all other people. The study, which will be published in the July issue of Animal Cognition, is one of the few to examine the cat/human social dynamic from the feline's perspective. Cats may not do what we tell them to, but they usually adore their human caretakers. Co-author Atsuko Saito of The University of Tokyo explained to Discovery News that dogs have evolved, and are bred, "to follow their owner's orders, but cats have not been. So sometimes cats appear aloof, but they have special relationships with their owners." "Previous studies suggest that cats have evolved to behave like kittens (around their owners), and humans treat cats similar to the way that they treat babies," co-author Kazutaka Shinozuka of the University of South Florida College of Medicine added. "To form such baby-parent like relationships, recognition of owners might be important for cats." Their study, mostly conducted in the homes of cats so as not to unduly upset or worry the felines, determined just that. The researchers played recordings of strangers, as well as of the cats' owners, to the felines. The cats could not see the speakers. |
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Jim Stone
The Rebel 2013-06-26 12:47:00
A team of hackers from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Washington conducted a study which has proven that all cars equipped with antilock brakes sold in the U.S. can be hacked via remote control and have their brakes entirely disabled with the car in motion, throttle revved, and remain fully operational with the key removed and the car in park with all driver input entirely ignored. Though I myself think Hastings was murdered beforehand, parked and burned because the initial fire pictures showed a car with no front impact damage and a blown up rear end, only to be interspersed with scenes of extreme automotive carnage later, I am going to introduce here an entirely new possibility that could have happened. That Hastings' 2013 Mercedes could have instead been hijacked via remote control, run to full throttle with all driver input disabled, and rammed into a tree. Many people know about GM's Onstar which maintains an always on cellular internet connection to the heart of the engine control system and has been that way since the 90's. But few people know about the Federal mandate, which in 2005 forced manufacturers to include a similar always on internet connection via the cell network in EVERY car sold in America, Onstar or not. And this team of hackers has proven that a remote connection can indeed allow commandeering of these cars (in their case they used a remote controlled laptop plugged into the OBD port rather than the cell connection) that could be used to turn the car into a murder weapon. |
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David Mccormack
The 'Robo Raven' is a lightweight advanced robot that can fly like a birdThe Daily Mail, UK 2013-06-21 06:53:00 It has been developed by searchers at the University of Maryland and received funding from the U.S. Army Has the potential to be used as a drone for reconnaissance and surveillance Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a breakthrough in engineering technology that allows a robot to successfully achieve the complex aerobatic maneuvers of a bird. The artificial bird is destined to have a military or surveillance purpose, the UMD Robotics Center, which sits within the University of Maryland, has received funding from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The robot bird has the potential to become a more advanced type of drone, it includes a tiny video camera and could be used for reconnaissance and surveillance.
'Robo Raven' is much quieter than the helicopter or propeller, so it could get much closer to an adversary without revealing its presence. It is made out of carbon fiber, 3D-printed lightweight thermal-resistant plastic, Mylar foil and foam and weighs less than a can of soda. The bird uses one motor to flap both wings together in simple motions. Robot birds have been a labor of love for University of Maryland Professor S. K. Gupta for nearly a decade.
Along with fellow mechanical engineering professor Hugh Bruck and their graduate students, Gupta first successfully demonstrated a flapping-wing bird in 2007. By 2010, the design had evolved through four successive models to the latest, which carries a tiny video camera. 'Nobody has flown anything with independent wing control,' before, Gupta told The Baltimore Sun. It can also be launched from a ground robot that ARL researchers have created called the Lynchbot, which can fly in winds up to 10 mph. From a distance, the 'Robo Raven' looks like a bird and it has even fooled a hawk, which has attacked the robot in mid-flight on more than one occasion.
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Brandon Keim
Wired.com 2013-03-14 03:14:00
Deep beneath the ocean floor off the Pacific Northwest coast, scientists have described the existence of a potentially vast realm of life, one almost completely disconnected from the world above. Persisting in microscopic cracks in the basalt rocks of Earth's oceanic crust is a complex microbial ecosystem fueled entirely by chemical reactions with rocks and seawater, rather than sunlight or the organic byproducts of light-harvesting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Such modes of life, technically known as chemosynthetic, are not unprecedented, having also been found deep in mine shafts and around seafloor hydrothermal vents. Never before, though, have they been found on so vast a scale. In pure geographical area, these oceanic crust systems may contain the largest ecosystem on Earth. "We know that Earth's oceanic crust accounts for 60 percent of Earth's surface, and on average is four miles thick," said geomicrobiologist Mark Lever of Denmark's Aarhuis University, part of a research team that describes the new systems March 14 in Science. If what the researchers found resembles what's found elsewhere below Earth's oceans, continued Lever, "the largest ecosystem on Earth, by volume, is supported by chemosynthesis." |
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| Earth Changes |
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Clare Lennon
Tampa Bay Times 2013-06-21 15:08:00
Bayonet Point - In the golf course community of Beacon Woods, a few residents are being driven indoors by a stubborn stench. A stretch of road near the 17th hole reeks of something like manure and rotting food, and nobody knows why. Residents started complaining the day after Tropical Storm Andrea blew through two weeks ago, said Beacon Woods Civic Association president Ron Meiczinger. Meiczinger said the smell is concentrated in the creek area right behind three houses on Charter Oak Way. He could still get a whiff on the other side of the canal, he said, although the smell wasn't as strong there. Residents at two houses across part of the golf course reported the stench, too, he said. The smell reminds him of pig manure - worse than horse manure, he said. But the suburban neighborhood doesn't include any farms. No one knows what's causing the smell, but the residents of Charter Oak Way are making their guesses. Carol Hendrickson thinks the weeds that clog Bear Creek are creating the odor. Her neighbor Dee Macartney thinks it's the water itself. |
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Lyn Leahz
vineoflife.net 2013-06-22 14:14:00
Sarasota County - County workers are blaming a combination of factors for the deaths of thousands of fish in a pond off Clark Road this week. Heat, heavy rain, stormwater runoff and bird droppings depleted the oxygen level in Mirror Lake, near the southeast corner of Clark and Beneva roads, according to the county. Workers at nearby offices began to notice the dead fish Monday, but the majority turned up dead Tuesday, according to SNN Local News, Herald Tribune and World Chaos |
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myfoxny.com
2013-06-26 13:08:00
San Antonio - A two-headed turtle has hatched at the San Antonio Zoo and officials have named her Thelma and Louise. The female Texas cooter arrived June 18 and will go on display Thursday at the zoo's Friedrich Aquarium. Zoo spokeswoman Debbie Rios-Vanskike (van SKYKE') said Wednesday that the two-headed turtle appears healthy and is able to swim and walk. She says experts at the zoo don't foresee any health issues for Thelma and Louise, named for the female duo in the 1991 Oscar-winning road movie of the same name. The San Antonio Zoo is no stranger to two-headed reptiles. The facility was home to a two-headed Texas rat snake named Janus from 1978 until the creature's death to 1995. Source: Associated Press |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-06-26 11:53:00
Two Alaskan volcanoes that began minor eruptions weeks ago are showing their strongest seismic activity yet, emitting small amounts of lava and ash along with smoke plumes, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Tuesday. The observatory warned of more vigorous activity with the Pavlof and Veniaminof volcanoes, both on the Alaskan Peninsula - though that will likely just mean more ash. Pavlof, a snow-covered, cone-shaped mountain, has been erupting since early May. While its activity since then has waxed and waned, seismic activity increased since Tuesday morning and the volcano has started continuously shaking, said David Schneider, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Some lava is flowing, and the volcano is spewing a cloud of steam and ash that has risen as high as 28,000 feet, said Schneider, at the observatory in Anchorage. "It's a pretty good size, but not high enough to affect overflying aircraft between America and Asia," he said. "It's more of a problem for local aviation." Pavlof is near the town of Cold Bay, a regional transportation hub whose long World War II-era runway serves flights to area villages, Schneider said. |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-06-26 11:26:00
A ridge of high pressure will cause elevated temperatures across most of the Western United States, from Arizona and California, northward to the US/Canada border. This also may bring the first monsoon storms to the region as this abnormally large ridge of high pressure takes hold. It's that time of the year again, where a hot desert meets the Summer. Temperatures in the 100s across Phoenix will turn to 115+, with 120+ along the Colorado River Valley as a ridge of high pressure builds in the area. This ridge will be very large, bringing temperatures 15-20 degrees higher than normal for Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah. Other areas like Montana, and Wyoming may also be in the outer fridges of the heatwave ridge. With that heat will bring monsoonal moisture into play, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah may see the first monsoonal thunderstorms of the season with this event. More information will be given as the data is compiled, but if in these regions, prepare for increased heat and humidity by the end of the week and into this weekend. There are indications this lasts through next week as well. - Weather Space |
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Yereth Rosen
Reuters via Yahoo News 2013-06-26 06:27:00
An Alaska volcano spewing ash and lava for the past six weeks erupted with new intensity early on Tuesday, belching a plume of cinders 5 miles into sky and onto a nearby town and disrupting local flights, officials said. The eruptions from Pavlof Volcano, on the Alaska Peninsula 590 miles southwest of Anchorage, were its most powerful since its current eruptive phase began with low-level rumblings in mid-May, according to scientists at the federal-state Alaska Volcano Observatory. The latest series of more powerful ash-producing blasts from the crater of the 8,261-foot (2,518-meter) volcano started late on Monday and continued overnight into Tuesday, scientists said. "For some reason we can't explain, it picked up in intensity and vigor," said Tina Neal, an observatory geologist. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Yahoo News
2013-06-26 09:51:00
A mother-of-two told how her young children had a lucky escape - after fragments from a meteor shower rained down in their back garden. Sarah Marston-Jones was playing outside with Harry, two, and Benjamin, four, when asteroid rocks fell behind her house in Shrewsbury. The teacher heard a large 'whooshing' sound and a 'cracking' noise as 15 rocks from the meteorite shower blazed through the earth's atmosphere and onto her lawn at 9.30am on Tuesday. She was forced to rush her two young children off their trampoline to safety indoors as brown and black fragments showered down just inches from where they were playing. The red-hot rocks, some of which were more than an inch wide, even left a strong burning smell in the family's Shropshire garden. Experts advised her to check the shards with a magnet as asteroids often contain iron - and she was stunned when it stuck. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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HispanicallySpeakingNews
Medical personnel in the town of Purranque, Chile have a medical mystery
on their hands, one that is getting a lot of attention outside their
region.2013-06-26 15:42:00 20-year-old Yaritza Oliva has been crying tears of blood starting a month ago. Much of Oliva's crying is not voluntary and occurs several times a day, which she describes as a very painful experience. Oliva's parents do not have the resources to have the condition further diagnosed and are currently treating the bleeding with eye drops. The family is seeking financial help to take Oliva to a larger city for medical attention.
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Tia Ghose
LiveScience 2013-06-26 14:00:00
Refined carbohydrates such as corn syrup could trigger food cravings not unlike the cravings that drug addicts experience, new research suggests. The findings, which are published today (June 26) in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that the quick spike and subsequent crash in blood sugar that comes after eating highly processed carbs activates reward and addiction centers in the brain. The study was small and looked only at overweight and obese men, but if the findings can be replicated in a larger population, they would imply that avoiding refined carbohydrates is a good weight-loss strategy because people would avoid not only the calories, but the strong cravings they induce. "Refined carbohydrates seem to be able to provoke food cravings many hours after consumption, at least in susceptible people," said study co-author David Ludwig, the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center in Boston. "Limiting these foods could help overweight people avoid overeating." Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford University Medical Center who was not involved in the study, said that this study and others looking at the question of whether refined carbs can truly be addictive may have implications for how these foods should be regulated. "If it can be demonstrated that addictive foods are bypassing an individual's ability to regulate their intake, then the possibility of designing, passing and enforcing legislation to help support Americans in making healthier food choices becomes more of a reality," Gardner wrote in an email to LiveScience. |
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Sarah Cain
Life Wise 2013-06-22 20:52:00
Gardasil and Cervarix Don't Work, Are Dangerous, and Weren't Tested Dr. Diane Harper was the lead researcher in the development of the human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. She is the latest to come forward and question the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. She made the surprising announcement at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination, which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2nd through 4th, 2009. Her speech was supposed to promote the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, but she instead turned on her corporate bosses in a very public way. When questioned about the presentation, audience members remarked that they came away feeling that the vaccines should not be used. "I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn't help but question why we need the vaccine at all." - Joan Robinson |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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PsyBlog
2011-04-10 13:52:00
Psychological research on how a simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behaviour, attraction, and signal power. To get around in the world, we mainly rely on our eyes and ears. Touch is a sense that's often forgotten. But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be. 1. Touch for money A well-timed touch can encourage other people to return a lost item. In one experiment, users of a phone booth who were touched were more likely to return a lost dime to an experimenter (Kleinke, 1977). The action was no more than a light touch on the arm. People will do more than that though; people will give a bigger tip to a waitress who has touched them (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984). (Stop giggling at the back there!) |
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PsyBlog
2013-06-24 13:02:00
Are bearded men good with babies? Are beards attractive to women? In a fight, do beards help or hinder? If you're having trouble telling men from women, here's a clue. Men are the ones with hair sprouting from their faces (alright more hair sprouting from their faces). Some men attempt to cover up the effect of all those androgens by shaving off their beards. Others prefer to send out manly signals in all directions (well, either that or they can't be bothered to shave). Who is right? What signal does the beard really send? Here are four very important beard-related facts that every man, woman and child should know. |
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Jeff Anderson
A Place For Mom 2013-03-20 12:38:00
Researchers who tracked 1,500 people over 80 years have come to some surprising conclusions and the factors linked to longevity. Much of what we've been taught about how to live a long life may be mistaken. In 1921, just over 1,500 Californian children were selected to participate in a study led by a Stanford University psychologist, Dr. Lewis Terman. An enormous amount of data on the children was collected and archived. More remarkably, the 1,500 individuals were tracked over decades, with every detail about their lives, and their deaths, duteously noted by Dr. Terman's team. Even after Dr. Terman's own death in 1956, the Terman participants continued to be tracked, with the study lasting over 80 years. Dr. Terman's original intention was to explore the nature of intelligence, but modern day researchers realized that this treasure trove of data could provide unusual insight into the factors associated with longevity. When contemporary researchers, Dr. Howard S. Friedman and Dr. Leslie R. Martin, completed their analysis and number crunching, they came to some extraordinary conclusions. Their findings, outlined in a 2011 book (The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight Decade Study), challenge many of our common assumptions about aging. According to Longevity Project authors, much of what we've been taught about longevity is wrong. Here are seven popular beliefs about longevity that may in fact be misconceptions: |
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| High Strangeness |
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Greg Newkirk
WhoForted? 2013-06-26 15:28:00
After vanishing from the public eye for nearly half a century, one of the most infamous pieces of Bigfoot history has finally been rediscovered, and its heading straight back to the stage. Last October, Sasquatch hunter Lupe Mendonza, reported an intriguing rumor to our friends over at Bigfoot Evidence, news that the famous "Minnesota Iceman" had been "rediscovered" after having gone missing way back in the 70′s. Mendoza claimed that both the original body, which was encased in ice for traveling displays, as well as a duplicate body created by sideshow promoter Frank Hansen, were being whispered about in certain cryptozoology circles and rumored to be making a comeback. It would seem that he was correct, because just a few months later in February of 2013 the following eBay auction was listed: The body was listed for a $20,000 starting bid, but considering the hugely important role this piece of sideshow schlock played in crypto history, it should come as no surprise that the item was snatched up almost instantly by a mysterious buyer. But who was it? |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Amy McRary
KnonNews 2013-06-25 11:10:00
The Knoxville Zoo had an unexpected break-in Monday night - from a wandering black bear. While zoos are always alert to keep their exotic animals safely inside their habitats, they rarely experience a wild animal the size of a bear wanting to get inside their boundaries. It was about midnight when a zoo ranger spotted a young black bear scaling the 10-foot-high chain-link and barbed wire of the zoo's perimeter fence. A neighbor had alerted the zoo a bear had been seen in the Chilhowee Park area, zoo spokeswoman Tina Rolen said today. A zoo ranger headed to the park area near its herpetology building and close to Chilhowee Park's East Tennessee Discovery Center. The ranger saw the bear - described as a youngster weighing maybe 150 pounds - in Chilhowee Park. That's when the bear scaled the fence into the zoo. |
