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Breaking the Set
Abby Martin talks to with investigative journalist, and former host of
'Reality Check', Ben Swann, about the war on journalism, the mainstream
media's failure to hold the establishment accountable, being labeled
fringe for asking questions and his new independent media venture
'Liberty is Rising Truth in Media Project'.Russia Today, U.S. Edition 2013-06-27 16:10:00
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Arthur Silber
Once Upon A Time 2013-06-18 15:26:00
You may at first think the following is a bad joke, but I assure you it is not a joke at all. At the very end of this NYT story about Booz Allen and the complex interconnections between nominally "private" business and the national intelligence community, we read: But the legal warnings at the end of its financial report offered a caution that the company could be hurt by "any issue that compromises our relationships with the U.S. government or damages our professional reputation."Yes, that appears to be Edward Snowden's old job. Crappy spy fiction doesn't look quite so crappy now, does it? In many respects -- in fact, I would argue in every critical respect -- the spy business is actually that dumb. In an earlier post about the NSA/surveillance stories, I discussed the profoundly offensive elitism involved in the argument that "special" people in both government and journalism, people endowed with understanding and judgment that is the envy of the gods and forever denied to all us ordinary schlubs, should decide what information will be provided to the motley mass of humans who merely pay for all of it, and for whose benefit all this godlike work is supposedly undertaken. Talk about idiocies: "We're doing all this for you! You're too stupid to be told most of what we're doing!" Put it on a bumper sticker, baby, so we can throw rotten eggs at it. |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Jamal Kanj
Sott.net 2013-06-27 14:28:00
But for the chap from Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza who emerged earlier this week as the winner of the "Arab Idol," the news from Palestine is grim. The newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister resigned and Israel still insists it should be able to negotiate over dividing the pie while it continues to eat it. By the end of April, US Secretary of State John Kerry succeeded in tailoring another peace plan to entice Israel. Arab ministers supposedly agreed to amend a decade-old peace plan to satisfy Israeli demand for legalising major illegal Jewish colonies in the West Bank. In May 2009, Israel responded to the US mediated overture by issuing permits to build 296 illegal new homes in the Jewish-only colony of Beit El near Ramallah. This week the Secretary of State was scheduled to arrive on his fifth visit since February in an attempt to restart the Palestinian and Israeli negotiation. The visit seems to be on hold to give time to Palestine's President to consider a new US economic peace plan and for Israel to give Abbas a face-saving cover to return to the negotiation table. Israel is already sending mixed messages. |
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RT.com
2013-06-26 18:04:00
Barack Obama is a "war criminal" and a "hypocrite," an Irish politician has said in a damning attack on the US president. The MP slammed the Irish treatment of Obama during his G8 visit as akin to 'prostituting' Ireland for a "pat on the head." Irish MP Clare Daly took no prisoners in her heated attack on the visit of the Obama family to Ireland during this year's G8 summit, which was held in the five-star resort of Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. During a session of the Irish parliament last Tuesday, Daly slammed media coverage of the visit as tantamount to "a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head." "It's hard to know which is worse, whether it's the outpourings of the Obamas themselves, or the sycophantic fawning over them by sections of the media and the political establishment," said Daly, saying that the Irish nation had been subjected to "unprecedented slobbering" over the presidential family. |
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| Society's Child |
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Nick Collins
Brits today will fly into a rage at the slightest inconvenience
because the comforts of modern life have raised our expectations to the
level of irrational toddlers, a psychologist has claimed. The Telegraph, UK 2013-06-21 14:37:00
Whereas people's energies were once focused on keeping a roof over their head and food on their plate, most 21st century Westerners have no concerns about their basic needs. Our comfortable lifestyles may have spoiled us and boosted our expectations to the point where anything short of perfect causes us to act like petulant children, Dr Sandi Mann said. Consciously challenging ourselves by questioning whether things that make our blood boil are actually threatening our survival could help "rein the anger in" and take a more relaxed attitude, she claimed. In an opinion article in July's issue of Reader's Digest Dr Mann, a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire's school of psychology, wrote that anger was once key to our survival but has now become targeted at trivial annoyances. Humans evolved to become angry in certain situations because the emotion motivates us to want things. For example, hunger makes us angry by raising our serotonin levels, prompting us to look for food. |
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Chris Staiti and Barry Bortnick
Sentinelsource.com 2013-06-23 16:08:00
At the state high-school wrestling tournament in Denver last year, three upperclassmen cornered a 13-year-old boy on an empty school bus, bound him with duct tape and sodomized him with a pencil. For the boy and his family, that was only the beginning. The students were from Norwood, Colo., a ranching town of about 500 people near the Telluride ski resort. Two of the attackers were sons of Robert Harris, the wrestling coach, who was president of the school board. The victim's father was the K-12 principal. After the principal reported the incident to police, townspeople forced him to resign. Students protested against the victim at school, put "Go to Hell" stickers on his locker and wore T-shirts that supported the perpetrators. The attackers later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, according to the Denver district attorney's office. |
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Jonathan Brown
75-year-old breaks 47-year silence as he tells mental health
tribunal of mixing with criminals from Krays to Great Train Robbers and
IRA terroristsThe Independent, UK 2013-06-26 11:44:00
Moors murderer Ian Brady denied he was insane as he recalled cooking steaks with Ronnie Kray whilst mingling with some of Britain's most notorious criminals during his half century of incarceration. In an extraordinary four-hour display which veered between vaunting self-aggrandisement and breath-taking callousness towards his victims and their relatives who were watching via video-link, the child killer failed to express any remorse for his crimes. Throughout the long-awaited appearance at the mental health tribunal, which must decide whether the 75-year-old - now the UK's longest serving prisoner - be returned to a normal jail from the secure hospital where he is held, Brady repeatedly stonewalled at suggestions he had a personality disorder or that his five murders were evidence that he was "abnormal". Speaking in a quiet, controlled voice, his Glaswegian accent still pronounced, he hit out at "media fascination" with his past complaining he was demonised and romanticised like Jack the Ripper and comparing reports of the shocking moorland killings to the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Gothic romance Wuthering Heights. He passed judgment on politicians that had considered his case over the years - praising Labour's Roy Jenkins as the "greatest Home Secretary ever" and claimed to have once discussed Russian literature with James Callaghan. Brady was particular scornful of Tony Blair who he accused of getting rich off his "war crimes" in Iraq whilst claiming he was effectively a political prisoner after Margaret Thatcher had intervened in his case. He said Britain was a "psychopathic country" that had been invading other nations for 300 years. | |
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Comment: For the the full horrific story about the notorious Moors murders in 1960's Britain, see this documentary
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Elizabeth Day
Guardian 2013-06-22 09:28:00
The enormously powerful collector has worked hard to guard his privacy. But last week's disturbing photographs of his 'playful tiff' with his wife, Nigella Lawson, have made him the object of relentless speculation and scrutiny When the art collector Charles Saatchi wants something, he knows how to set about getting it. Gallerists and curators are full of stories about the way he walks into an exhibition, fixes on the single best work of art on show and rushes towards it - in the words of one acquaintance, "like a heat-seeking missile". Those who have seen him in action say that when he likes a piece of art, he will do everything he can to have it for himself. For Saatchi, worth a rumoured £135m, the price is irrelevant. "He doesn't care whether it's worth £100 or £100m," says a friend. "It's all about the impact of the work when it is in front of him. When he wants something, he will pay on the day for it. More than that, he will have a truck waiting outside the door. It's a kid in a sweet shop and he just wants it now." But what happens when he doesn't get what he wants? It's a question that many were asking after photographs emerged last weekend of Saatchi, 70, sitting at an outside table of his favourite restaurant, Scott's in Mayfair, with a hand around the throat of his 53-year-old wife, the television chef and former Observer columnist, Nigella Lawson. In some respects, it was difficult to know what to make of the pictures: there was no context for them and no sense, either, of what might go on within their relationship. The next day, Saatchi dismissed the incident as "a playful tiff" and later accepted a police caution because, in his words: "I thought it was better than the alternative of this hanging over all of us for months." | |
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Comment: Charles and his brother Maurice Saatchi were
instrumental in selling Margaret 'The Witch' Thatcher to the people of
Britain in 1979.
The toxic influence of such nasty people really does permeate everything: The Plot Against Art Spitting Mad Jews and Angry Artists |
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RT
2013-06-26 04:07:00
Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial. According to the San Diego Reader, which reported on Tuesday that a judge had opted to prevent Olson's attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial," Olson must now stand trial for on 13 counts of vandalism. In addition to possibly spending years in jail, Olson will also be held liable for fines of up to $13,000 over the anti-big-bank slogans that were left using washable children's chalk on a sidewalk outside of three San Diego, California branches of Bank of America, the massive conglomerate that received $45 billion in interest-free loans from the US government in 2008-2009 in a bid to keep it solvent after bad bets went south. |
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SANA
2013-06-17 00:00:00
President Bashar al-Assad gave the following interview to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper: Interviewer: Mr President, how do you view the situation in your country? The Syrian Army has lost control over large parts of Syria, in other words those areas are outside the control of central government. What's your take on the situation? President Assad: Your question requires us to put things into their proper context: this is not a conventional war with two armies fighting to control or liberate particular areas or parts of land. What we are in fact dealing with is a form of guerrilla warfare. As for the Syrian Army, there has not been any instance where our Armed Forces have planned to enter a particular location and have not succeeded. Having said this, the Army is not present - and should not be present - in every corner of Syria. What is more significant than controlling areas of land, is striking terrorists. We are confident that we can successfully fight terrorism in Syria, but the bigger issue is the ensuing damage and its cost. The crisis has already had a heavy toll but our biggest challenges will come once the crisis is over. |
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RT.com
2013-06-26 18:12:00
A US hospital deported an unconscious stroke victim after noticing that the patient was an undocumented immigrant from Poland. Polish health officials are furious that the man was "dumped on their doorstep" before the transfer was approved. "Imagine being carted around like a sack of potatoes," Polish Consul General Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka told New York Daily News, describing the incident in which 69-year old Wladyslaw Haniszewski was unconsciously deported to his homeland. Haniszewski, who suffers from a blood disease, lived in Perth Amboy, N.J., for 30 years. He recently lost his job, apartment, and health insurance, and was forced to move into a homeless shelter, the Daily News reports. After the man suffered a dangerous stroke, a friend named Jerzy Jedra took him to the New Jersey hospital for treatment. When officials at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital noticed that the patient had no health insurance and lived in the US without documentation, they sent the comatose man to Poland. US hospitals are legally required to provide emergency care to anyone who needs it, but are allowed to deport stabilized undocumented immigrants. But in order to deport someone, a US hospital must first get consent from either the patient, a family member, or a court guardian. Officials at the Polish consulate claim that no one was contacted, and that Haniszewski's family was never informed that the man was deported. |
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| Secret History |
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Miriam Kramer
LiveScience 2013-06-27 13:04:00
Some of the oldest art in the United States maps humanity's place in the cosmos, as aligned with an ancient religion. A team of scientists has uncovered a series of engravings and drawings strategically placed in open air and within caves by prehistoric groups of Native American settlers that depict their cosmological understanding of the world around them. "The subject matter of this artwork, what they were drawing pictures of, we knew all along was mythological, cosmological," Jan Simek, an archaeologist at the University of Tennessee said. "They draw pictures of bird men that are important characters in their origin stories and in their hero legends, and so we knew it was a religious thing and because of that, we knew that it potentially referred to this multitiered universe that was the foundation of their cosmology." Simek and his team studied art from 44 open-air locations and 50 cave sites. The earliest depiction of this kind of cosmological stratification dates to around 6,000 years ago, but most of the art is more recent, from around the 11th to 17th centuries. The researchers noticed that certain kinds of drawings and engravings only appear in specific areas of the plateau. For instance, open-air spots in high elevations touched by the sun feature "upper world" artistic renderings that include depictions of weather forces, heavenly bodies and characters that can exert influence on humans. |
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Megan Gannon
LiveScience via Yahoo News 2013-06-27 14:25:00
A rare, undisturbed royal tomb has been unearthed in Peru, revealing the graves of three Wari queens buried alongside gold and silver riches and possible human sacrifices. Though the surrounding site has been looted many times, this mausoleum has managed to evade grave robbers for hundreds of years, archaeologists say. Long before the Inca built Machu Picchu, the Wari empire flourished between A.D. 700 and 1000 throughout much of present-day Peru. At a time when Paris had just 25,000 residents, the Wari capital Huari was home to 40,000 people at its height, according to National Geographic, which reported the find. Despite their reach, the Wari have remained somewhat mysterious, and it is rare for archaeologists to find burials that have not been ravaged by grave robbers. In hauling away treasures, looters destroy archaeological context and information, leaving researchers grasping for answers about how ancient people lived. Additional images |
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| Science & Technology |
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Alicia Chang
New research pinpoints the current location of NASA's Voyager 1
spacecraft: It's still in our solar system. Since last summer, the
long-running spacecraft has been exploring uncharted territory where the
effects of interstellar space, or the space between stars, can be felt.
Scientists don't know how thick this newfound region in the solar
system is or how much farther Voyager 1 has to travel to break to the
other side.LiveScience via Yahoo News 2013-06-27 16:29:00
"It could actually be anytime or it could be several more years," said chief scientist Ed Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. Stone first described this unexpected zone at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last year. A trio of papers published online Thursday in the journal Science confirmed just how strange this new layer is. Soon after Voyager 1 crossed into this region last August, low-energy charged particles that had been plentiful suddenly zipped outside while high-energy cosmic rays from interstellar space streamed inward. Readings by one of Voyager 1's instruments showed an abrupt increase in the magnetic field strength, but there was no change in the direction of the magnetic field lines - a sign that Voyager 1 has not yet exited the solar system. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 to visit the giant gas planets, beaming back dazzling postcards of Jupiter, Saturn and their moons. Voyager 2 went on to tour Uranus and Neptune. After planet-hopping, they were sent on a trajectory toward interstellar space. |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-06-25 18:00:00
Increasingly science agrees with the poetry of direct human experience: we are more than the atoms and molecules that make up our bodies, but beings of light as well. Biophotons are emitted by the human body, can be released through mental intention, and may modulate fundamental processes within cell-to-cell communication and DNA. Nothing is more amazing than the highly improbable fact that we exist. We often ignore this fact, oblivious to the reality that instead of something there could be nothing at all, i.e. why is there a universe (poignantly aware of itself through us) and not some void completely unconscious of itself? Consider that from light, air, water, basic minerals within the crust of the earth, and the at least 3 billion year old information contained within the nucleus of one diploid zygote cell, the human body is formed, and within that body a soul capable of at least trying to comprehend its bodily and spiritual origins. Given the sheer insanity of our existential condition, and bodily incarnation as a whole, and considering that our earthly existence is partially formed from sunlight and requires the continual consumption of condensed sunlight in the form of food, it may not sound so farfetched that our body emits light. Indeed, the human body emits biophotons, also known as ultraweak photon emissions (UPE), with a visibility 1,000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eye. While not visible to us, these particles of light (or waves, depending on how you are measuring them) are part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum (380-780 nm) and are detectable via sophisticated modern instrumentation.[1],[2] | |
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Comment: Further reading on this subject on Sott can be found as follows:
Biophoton: Communication in Cells More Evidence Confirmed: The Eye Emits Actual Light Biophotons Also, learn how to control emotions through breathing exercises and meditation techniques by utilizing the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program. Visit the Éiriú Eolas website and give it a try! Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is the modern revival of an ancient breathing and meditation program which is being acclaimed around the world as THE TOOL that will help you to: Relax from the stresses of everyday life Gently work your way through past emotional and psychological trauma Release repressed emotions and mental blockages Rejuvenate and Detoxify your body and mind Éiriú Eolas removes the barriers that stand between you and True Peace, Happiness, and ultimately a successful, fulfilling life. |
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RIA Novosti
2013-06-26 11:09:00
Russia and the United States will work together to improve protection against meteorites and other space threats, Russia's emergencies minister said on Tuesday following a joint Russia-US working group meeting in Washington. "We have decided that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Russia's Emergencies Ministry will work together to develop systems to protect people and territory from cosmic impacts," Russia's Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told journalists. The meeting also covered other kinds of natural emergencies, such as recent years' extreme weather in Russia and United States, but it was cooperation to counter space threats that stole the limelight at the news conference. Comment: Extreme weather is the result of cosmic climate change, so one can't be dealt with without examining the other. But no doubt they already knew that... "I believe we can make a technological breakthrough in this area if the Emergencies Ministry and FEMA supervise this project, attracting the finest minds and research groups including in Canada, Europe, China, and Southeast Asia," Puchkov added. | |
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Comment: We feel so much safer now, knowing that our fearless leaders will have "systems" to protect us against space rocks...
Sarcasm aside, the only thing, this far into the unfolding global catastrophe, that could at least mitigate the imminent space threat, is if the U.S. and Russian elites were removed from power by a sweeping tide of peaceful global revolution. With fireballs raining down and extreme weather increasing by the day, it's clear that their 'Mandate of Heaven' has already been withdrawn: |
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| Earth Changes |
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Eleanor Imster
Every summer, above the North Pole, ice crystals begin to cling to dust
and particles high in the atmosphere, forming electric-blue, rippled
clouds - called noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds - that stretch
across the sky at sunset. Their season is eagerly anticipated by
skywatchers in the high latitudes.EarthSky Org 2013-06-27 17:16:00 This year, noctilucent clouds got an early start. NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft first saw them on May 13. The season started a week earlier than any other season that AIM has observed, and quite possibly earlier than ever before, said Cora Randall of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado.
The four images above show Earth's upper atmosphere, centered on the North Pole, as observed by the AIM satellite. The image on the upper right shows noctilucent clouds on May 23, 2013; the upper left image compares the same week from 2012. The two bottom images show the extent of noctilucent clouds in mid-June of each year. The brighter the clouds in each image, the denser the ice particles. Areas with no data appear in black, and coastal outlines are traced in white. You can view a daily composite projection of noctilucent clouds by clicking here during the northern summer months. |
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US Geological Survey
2013-06-27 15:34:00
Event Time: 2013-06-27 02:45:35 UTC 2013-06-26 19:45:35 UTC-07:00 at epicenter Location: 47.824°N 120.689°W depth=9.1km (5.7mi) Nearby Cities: 25km (16mi) N of Leavenworth, Washington 52km (32mi) NNW of Wenatchee, Washington 54km (34mi) NNW of East Wenatchee, Washington 91km (57mi) ENE of Snoqualmie, Washington 188km (117mi) ENE of Olympia, Washington Technical Data |
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Associated Press via Yahoo News
New photographs show that a rare male jaguar apparently has been roaming
in Southern Arizona mountains for at least nine months, indicating the
animals are occasionally moving into their historic range from northern
Mexico and into the American Southwest.2013-06-27 15:22:00
The Arizona Daily Star reports that remote cameras have photographed the big cat in five locations in the Santa Rita Mountains' eastern flank on seven occasions since October. Those photos were taken for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by University of Arizona cameras after a hunter gave state authorities a photo of a jaguar's tail that he took last September in the Santa Ritas. The images were provided to the Star this week by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Federally financed remote cameras photographed the jaguar west of the proposed Rosemont Mine site in the mountains southeast of Tucson. It is the only jaguar known to live in the United States since the 15-year-old cat known as Macho B died in Arizona in March 2009. |
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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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Omar Lewis
Del Valle property owner left with few optionskxan.com 2013-06-21 14:09:00
Thousands of migratory birds have taken over a Del Valle man's property. The egrets set up shop in his back yard on Elroy Road about four weeks ago. Already, there are mounds of feces, dozens of dead trees, and a putrid smell that's leading to health problems. But since the birds are protected by both federal and state law, it's creating a "sticky" situation. "I love birds, I've always loved birds, but there is nothing to love about this," said David Gibson, who lives on the property. Frank Bauer has owned the property for decades, but this is the first year the migrating egrets have decided to nest on his property. Last year, the birds were a mile down the road and completely destroyed Bauer's neighbor's yard. "It's infringing on my rights," he said. "My rights to fresh air, my rights to trees, so its an invasion." At least 50 of Bauer's trees are now dead and the foliage on the ground is completely covered in feces. He usually rents out portions of his property to tenants, but he says with the new, unwelcome guests, no one will rent from the property. |
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iceagenow.info
2013-06-18 00:00:00
"This is a significant event which is expected to persist through until Friday morning," MetService said in a severe weather warning at 9.42am. South Island residents are getting ready for it. Freezing conditions were expected in much of both islands, bringing snow, rain and gale force winds to many areas. Heavy snow was expected about Canterbury and southern parts of Marlborough above 300m. Snow was also expected to low levels about Southland and southern Fiordland. Snow was expected about Banks Peninsula. "A very strong and cold southerly flow spreads over the South Island tonight, with snow expected to lower to near sea level about southern and eastern areas," MetService said. Accumulations of snow were likely to exceed 50cm above 300m, and 100cm above 500m. Smaller amounts of snow were expected below 300m. |
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The Moscow Times
2013-06-27 12:27:00
An ash cloud from the erupting Shiveluch volcano is spreading over the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East covering several local villages in ash and disrupting local aviation services, a news report said Thursday. Showers of ash were reported in the village of Klyuchi in the Ust-Kamchatsky district forcing authorities to distribute gas masks among residents, Interfax said. Local residents said that the streets are covered with a layer of ash and that there is a strong smell of sulphur in the air. The village is located 47 kilometers away from the volcano. The plume of ash, spewed into the air by the Shiveluch volcano Thursday morning, reached a height of 10 kilometers above sea level. All public facilities in the village continue to function despite the ashfall, while local firefighters and rescuers are sending out text messages warning people to stay inside. The Emergency Situations Ministry's local office said the lives of local residents were not in danger. |
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Josh Wingrove and Jeff Jones
The Globe and Mail 2013-06-27 12:00:00
A collapsing Calgary rail bridge appears to have "stabilized somewhat," city officials say, but five cars carrying a flammable, diesel-like substance remain stranded and at risk of falling into the Bow River. Officials now hope to use heavy cables to secure the final five cars, as well as a sixth empty one, and keep them out of the river. "The last thing we want is these cars running down the river, and causing problems downstream at other bridges or anything else," Acting Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc said Thursday morning, after earlier stressing: "Right now, the public is safe." Emergency crews evacuated an 800-metre radius of the site after the 3:30 a.m. derailment. The evacuated section includes a section of Deerfoot Trail, a major Calgary thoroughfare. That closure will further leave traffic in near-gridlock in Alberta's biggest city, as flooding closures were already causing extensive delays. The CP rail train was mostly over the bridge early Thursday morning when its crew noticed it had partially derailed. They called 911. There were no injuries and no leaks are yet reported, CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said in an e-mail. "The cause is under investigation," he added. Crews are setting up booms downstream, to catch some of the diesel-like substance if it is ultimately spilled. |
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Julie Sherwood
An investigation is underway to learn why a greater-than-normal number
of fish for this time of year are washing up on shore around Canandaigua
Lake. During spawning season it is typical to find dead fish washing up
due to various stresses fish experience, such as in defending their
turf and dealing with a rapid increase in temperature, said Canandaigua
Lake Watershed Manager Kevin Olvany.MPNNow.com 2013-06-25 09:33:00
"The usual suspects" in Olvany's words are smaller fish like perch and sunfish. This season, he said, there appears to be a greater quantity of fish washing up of all varieties, which include larger fish - such as large bass. The situation warranted an investigation, Olvany said. Olvany was at Kershaw Park in Canandaigua on Monday looking over the situation, and he said other sections of the lake also appear to have more fish washing up. A fish sample has been sent to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for testing and results should be back soon, he said. |
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Carl Curtain
abc.net.au 2013-06-25 09:11:00
Around 300 cattle, which died on an Indigenous-owned station in the Northern Territory this month, are believed to have contracted botulism. The stock on Warrigundu Station, 300 kilometres south-east of Katherine, were reportedly vaccinated for the disease four days before the first cows started dying. Garry Cook, from the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), says the source of the botulism is still unknown, but it's most likely to have occurred in decaying animal carcasses. "We're are really perplexed about what's happened because these cattle have been vaccinated every year. "They were freshly vaccinated and turned out of the yards into this particular paddock," he said. "So why these particular animals succumbed to something despite vaccination is something the Department of Primary Industry is still working with us on." ABC Rural has obtained photos of some of the dead cattle, which have been buried in ditches. |
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euronews
2013-06-20 09:11:00
Parts of France are on orange alert as savage storms leave a trail of destruction in their wake. The South-west region is on storm watch, as the unseasonal tempest-like weather claims its third life. A 54-year-old woman drowned in her car in the Landes. Overnight a mini-tornado struck the Cote D'or region laying waste to 60 houses and leaving 15,000 homes without electricity. In the French Pyrenees, flash floods showed no mercy sweeping away all in their path. |
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Sarabjit Heera
topnews.us 2013-06-25 08:46:00
As harsh weather continues, hundreds of bait fish were seen washed ashore at South Durras. With many of them still alive, a question that arose was what caused the incident. The reasons behind the same still remained mysterious. The event was something that was never seen before at the place. Hundreds of fishes were seen lying on shore. John Perkins, a Friends of Durras spokesman who snapped the pictures of the fishes, said that the waves came and washed them back. It emerged that Durras Lake's entrance to the sea has been closed recently. Mr. Perkins said that it may be the reason behind unusual event. Stan Gorton, the Editor at Narooma News, said that he had never seen yellowtail scad and slimy mackerel piled up like that earlier. The pictures of the fishes have been sent to NSW Fisheries to find out the reason behind the same. The residents of the Batemans Bay have been asked to stay away from the waterfront as the tides are still hitting the town. "The tide wasn't as big as the same time last year. Climate scientists say this will be 'normal' high tide in couple of decades. It's a bit of a benchmark", said Narooma local Greg Watts. |
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Spaceweather.com
Every day, NASA's AIM spacecraft maps the distribution of noctilucent
clouds (NLCs) around Earth's north pole. The results are displayed on
spaceweather.com in the form of the "daily daisy." On June 20th, pilot Brian Whittaker
flew past a vivid display of NLCs over the North Atlantic Ocean and he
decided to compare his own view to that of AIM. Here are the results:2013-06-27 07:26:00
"Once again, AIM's daily daisy-wheel allowed me to see where the northern horizon noctilucent clouds truly were!" says Whittaker. "This display reached a maximum height of about 10 degrees as seen from 37,000 feet at 50N latitude. It was my 4th and best sighting of 2013 so far." |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Jeffrey Kluger
Time 2013-06-26 14:09:00
A new video tells the tale of an unlikely bit of astronomical forensics. Is there anything sneakier than an asteroid? They run silent, run deep and run very, very fast - hurtling toward Earth from any point in the vast bowl of the sky at speeds that can exceed 40,000 mph (64,000 k/h). They typically whiz right past us or plunge harmlessly and spectacularly into the atmosphere, burning up before they hit the ground - unless, of course, they explode in the sky or collide with the surface, leaving a massive footprint of destruction for miles around. Asteroids - or, in their atmospheric incarnations, meteors or meteorites - don't do that kind of damage very often anymore, perhaps once every 70 to 100 years on average. But when they do, they can spell big trouble. You could ask the folks living in the Tunguska region of Russia in 1908, where a 330 ft. (100 m) rock exploded in the sky one morning, flattening trees in an 830 sq. mi. (2,150 sq. km) radius. You could ask the dinosaurs - if they weren't all dead of course, thanks to a 6 mi. (10 km) rock that struck off the Yucatan 65 million years ago, throwing up a sky darkening debris screen that made the planet too cold for them to survive. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Case Adams
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-06-26 15:02:00
Researchers from Northwestern University's School of Medicine have determined that the use of certain pesticides over a lifetime produces a shortening of chromosome telomeres. The researchers tested 1,234 men as part of a study of 57,310 licensed pesticide contractors - from the Agricultural Health Study, orchestrated by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This particular study was conducted in partnership with the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. The researchers had the subjects - adult males involved with pesticide application on farms or other environments - fill out extensive questionnaires on their pesticide use over their lifetimes. Some 48 pesticides were used and included in the study. The researchers also collected from each subject buccal cells - taken from cheek swabs. Using what is called "Real-time polymerase chain reaction" testing, the researchers analyzed those cells for telomere length. |
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Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri
Wake Up World 2013-06-16 14:18:00
This is one of the most dangerous, covert, and global operations to which we have ever been exposed; and this is very difficult for people to understand: the serious implications of products (cell phones and Smart Meters) and invisible environmental toxins that damage our ability to think clearly. This is a major contributing factor to our diminished cognitive functions. However, it is not the only source of harm. When we begin to connect the dots to the thousands of unsafe and often highly toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and hormone disruptors to which we are exposed daily, we then can collectively see that this is not just a one-issue health crisis we face. Rather, with corporations allowed free reign to poison us with impunity [the new Monsanto protection bill is the latest crime against us], we do not have any way to have any redress of decades of grievances. The ramifications of this are enormous. |
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Joe Martino
Collective Evolution 2013-01-19 13:41:00
Did you know that Aspartame was banned by the FDA twice? How is this product legal now? The bittersweet argument over whether Aspartame is safe or not has been going on for a long time. On one side we have medical evidence that suggests we should avoid using it and on the other side we lean on the FDA's approval that suggests it is safe. Since generally that seems to be the factor that many continue to hold trust based upon, I thought we could look into the Aspartame story to find out how it came to be accepted as safe by the FDA. You would think that something so widely used and so well accepted would have quite the pristine story leading to its acceptance. I imagine one will discover otherwise after reading this post. It all starts in the mid 1960′s with a company called G.D. Searle. One of their chemists accidentally creates aspartame while trying to create a cure for stomach ulcers. Searle decides to put aspartame through a testing process which eventually leads to its approval by the FDA. Not long after, serious health effects begin to arise and G.D. Searle comes under fire for their testing practices. It is revealed that the testing process of Aspartame was among the worst the investigators had ever seen and that in fact the product was unsafe for use. Aspartame triggers the first criminal investigation of a manufacturer put into place by the FDA in 1977. By 1980 the FDA bans aspartame from use after having 3 independent scientists study the sweetener. It was determined that one main health effects was that it had a high chance of inducing brain tumors. At this point it was clear that aspartame was not fit to be used in foods and banned is where it stayed, but not for long. | |
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Comment: Read more 'shocking' information about Aspartame: Toxicology:
ASPARTAME - The Silent Killer Aspartame: The Politics of Food From Aspartame to Political Ponerology Aspartame: Safety Approved In 90 Nations, But Damages Brain A Dangerous Spin On The Cancer Risks Of Sugar-Free Sweeteners Aspartame's Sweet Dreams; Who Are We to Disagree? FDA Hid Research That Damned Aspartame: Fatal Studies Should Have Blocked NutraSweet Approval Aspartame A Risk To Public Health: Made from Genetically Modified Bacteria Waste |
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sciencedaily.com
Consuming highly processed carbohydrates can cause excess hunger and
stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, according to a
Boston Children's Hospital research team led by David Ludwig, MD, PhD
director, New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center. These
findings suggest that limiting these "high-glycemic index" foods could
help obese individuals avoid overeating.2013-06-27 08:33:00
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on June 26, 2013, investigates how food intake is regulated by dopamine-containing pleasure centers of the brain. "Beyond reward and craving, this part of the brain is also linked to substance abuse and dependence, which raises the question as to whether certain foods might be addictive," says Ludwig. To examine the link, researchers measured blood glucose levels and hunger, while also using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to observe brain activity during the crucial four-hour period after a meal, which influences eating behavior at the next meal. Evaluating patients in this time frame is one novel aspect of this study, whereas previous studies have evaluated patients with an MRI soon after eating. Twelve overweight or obese men consumed test meals designed as milkshakes with the same calories, taste and sweetness. The two milkshakes were essentially the same; the only difference was that one contained rapidly digesting (high-glycemic index) carbohydrates and the other slowly digesting (low-glycemic index) carbohydrates. After participants consumed the high-glycemic index milkshake, they experienced an initial surge in blood sugar levels, followed by sharp crash four hours later. This decrease in blood glucose was associated with excessive hunger and intense activation of the nucleus accumbens, a critical brain region involved in addictive behaviors. Prior studies of food addiction have compared patient reactions to drastically different types of foods, such as high-calorie cheesecake versus boiled vegetables. Another novel aspect of this study is how a specific dietary factor that is distinct from calories or sweetness, could alter brain function and promote overeating. "These findings suggest that limiting high-glycemic index carbohydrates like white bread and potatoes could help obese individuals reduce cravings and control the urge to overeat," says Ludwig. Though the concept of food addiction remains provocative, the findings suggest that more interventional and observational studies be done. Additional research will hopefully inform clinicians about the subjective experience of food addiction, and how we can potentially treat these patients and regulate their weight. |
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Alicia Reale
Researchers from UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital report reasons behind the increase are unclear.University Hospitals Case Medical Center 2013-06-25 08:05:00 The largest investigation to date has found a dramatic increase in the number of hospitalizations for children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during the past decade in the United States. The new study, published online and scheduled for the August 2013 print issue of the Journal of Investigative Medicine, found a 65 percent increase in IBD hospital discharges from 2000 to 2009. The number increased from 11,928 discharges in 2000 to 19,568 discharges in 2009. IBD refers to a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The major types of IBD are Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). When looking at these two types of IBD individually, the authors found a 59 percent increase in CD discharges and a 71 percent increase UC discharges. The study looked at more than 11 million hospitalization records of patients 20 years old and younger using a federal children's inpatient database. For the decade, they identified more than 61,000 pediatric discharges with an IBD diagnosis. |
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Comment: Gluten, casein, and vegetables high in fiber
are known to cause IBS, among many other diseases. With carbohydrates
being the main component of the Standard American Diet, no wonder more
and more kids are ending up in the hospital.
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Yasmin Anwar
UC Berkeley 2013-06-25 05:12:00
UC Berkeley researchers have found that a lack of sleep, which is common in anxiety disorders, may play a key role in ramping up the brain regions that contribute to excessive worrying. Neuroscientists have found that sleep deprivation amplifies anticipatory anxiety by firing up the brain's amygdala and insular cortex, regions associated with emotional processing. The resulting pattern mimics the abnormal neural activity seen in anxiety disorders. Furthermore, their research suggests that innate worriers - those who are naturally more anxious and therefore more likely to develop a full-blown anxiety disorder - are acutely vulnerable to the impact of insufficient sleep. "These findings help us realize that those people who are anxious by nature are the same people who will suffer the greatest harm from sleep deprivation," said Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and senior author of the paper, to be published tomorrow (Wednesday, June 26) in the Journal of Neuroscience. |
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CNHI News Service
State health officials continue to quietly investigate what may have
caused one to two dozen students to exhibit unexplained vocal tics or
repetitive hiccups at Essex Agricultural and Technical School in Danvers
and, to a lesser extent, North Shore Technical High in Middleton, this
past school year.2013-06-26 18:20:00 The state is reaching out to more than 2,600 doctors in the region while investigating environmental factors that may have caused the symptoms, including air testing and visual observations inside school buildings. So far, according to a May 10 status report from the state Department of Public Health, air tests did not turn up anything that would contribute to "significant neurological effects." Danvers Health Director Peter Mirandi, in an update to the Board of Health on May 30, said the state is casting a wide net to gather information from doctors and their patients. "They will be looking for correlations between the symptoms and the students," Mirandi said. "The effort from the Department of Public Health is very thoughtful, deliberate, and I wouldn't mind recognizing them for stepping up when we needed assistance." A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health had no update on the investigation. |
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Ying Wu and George F Gao
The outbreak of avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus in eastern China1,2
has reminded the world of the imminent threat of unexpected pathogens,
including an "old" virus, influenza. Recent conversation has centered on
H5N1, H9N2, H7N3, and H7N7, but never before had we considered H7N9 to
be the cause of outbreaks of human infection or the next possible
pandemic. Maybe we have to take a closer look at the possibility of
reassortment among any of the 16 hemagglutinins and 9 neuraminidases
subtypes, and even within the newly identified bat-derived,
influenza-like virus H17N10.3,4nature.com 2013-06-19 00:00:00 A new coronavirus, called human coronavirus Erasmus Medical Center (hCoV-EMC) (with a recent proposed new name as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV in abbreviation), has caused alarm in the Middle East, as human infection was first reported in March 2012.5 In one year, as of May 12, 2013, there have been 34 cases, with 18 fatalities in total (www.who.org). More importantly, human-to-human transmission has been reported, with second-generation infections in France and the UK in those individuals who have had close contact with patients with a history of travel to the Middle East. Less publicized but equally significant, the recently emerged severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) expanded its geographic spectrum in 2012 - 2013, from China to the USA, and now to Japan. SFTSV-induced disease was first suspected in China in 2009, and the virus was isolated and confirmed in 2011.6 SFTSV is a new member of the genus Phlebovirus, with over 70 known members in the genus, which is in the family Bunyaviridae. Although the phlebovirus has been found in Africa and Europe for many years, SFTSV is the first-ever virus of this type isolated in China.6,7,8,9,10 The virus is known as the Heartland virus after the name of the place (Heartland, Missouri) where the virus was first isolated in the USA. The Heartland virus is phylogenetically distinct from SFTSV isolated in China, although similar clinical manifestations have been observed.9 |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Tanya Lewis
LiveScience 2013-06-27 12:01:00
New York - The idea that consciousness arises from quantum mechanical phenomena in the brain is intriguing, yet lacks evidence, scientists say. Physicist Roger Penrose, of the University of Oxford, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, of the University of Arizona, propose that the brain acts as a quantum computer - a computational machine that makes use of quantum mechanical phenomena (like the ability of particles to be in two places at once) to perform complex calculations. In the brain, fibers inside neurons could form the basic units of quantum computation, Penrose and Hameroff explained at the Global Future 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference held here June 15-16. The idea is appealing, because neuroscience, so far, has no satisfactory explanation for consciousness - the state of being self-aware and having sensory experiences and thoughts. But many scientists are skeptical, citing a lack of experimental evidence for the idea. |
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Daniel Stolte
University of Arizona 2013-06-25 05:26:00
While men tend to match their partners' emotions during mutual cooperation, woman may have the opposite response, according to new research. Cooperation is essential in any successful romantic relationship, but how men and women experience cooperation emotionally may be quite different, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona. Ashley Randall, a post-doctoral research associate in the UA's John & Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences and the UA's department of psychiatry, has been interested for some time in how romantic partners' emotions become coordinated with one another. For example, if someone comes home from work in a bad mood we know their partner's mood might plummet as well, but what are the long-term implications of this on their relationship? Randall wondered how the act of cooperating, a beneficial relationship process, might impact emotional coordination between partners. "Cooperation - having the ability to work things out with your partner, while achieving mutually beneficial outcomes - is so important in relationships, and I wondered what kind of emotional connectivity comes from cooperating with your partner?" she said. What she found in her recent study - published in SAGE's Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and featured in the journal's podcast series, Relationship Matters - were surprising gender differences. |
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| High Strangeness |
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No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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