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| Puppet Masters |
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BBC News
2013-07-04 00:00:00
France's foreign intelligence service intercepts computer and telephone data on a vast scale, like the controversial US Prism programme, according to the French daily Le Monde. The data is stored on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service, the paper says. The operation is "outside the law, and beyond any proper supervision", Le Monde says. Other French intelligence agencies allegedly access the data secretly. It is not clear however whether the DGSE surveillance goes as far as Prism. So far French officials have not commented on Le Monde's allegations. The DGSE allegedly analyses the "metadata" - not the contents of e-mails and other communications, but the data revealing who is speaking to whom, when and where. Connections inside France and between France and other countries are all monitored, Le Monde reports. The paper alleges the data is being stored on three basement floors of the DGSE building in Paris. The secret service is the French equivalent of Britain's MI6. |
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Stephen Lendman
Global Research 2013-06-28 11:13:00
On June 26, it said Obama "arrived in Senegal, the first stop of a three-nation African trip, focused on supporting democratic progress, and increasing US trade and investment." It's his second African trip. He visited earlier as a freshman Illinois senator. He told Kenyans, "I want you all to know that as your ally, your friend and your brother, I will be there in every way I can." He lied. America comes to exploit. At issue is controlling Africa's rich resources. Obama's visiting Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. He'll return July 3. Why these countries? More on this below. Controversy accompanies Obama. His one-week trip costs an estimated $100 million. At the same time, force-fed austerity harms growing millions at home. Poverty, high unemployment, hunger, and homelessness go unaddressed. Obamanomics enriches corporate favorites and wealthy elites. Popular needs go begging to do so. Obama demands sacrifice. It's forced on America's most disadvantaged, unwanted and uncared for. Foreign travel costs plenty. Hundreds of secret service, staff and others accompany Obama. Travel, accommodations, security and other costs are enormous. Military cargo planes brought 56 vehicles. They include 14 limousines and three trucks. They're specially built for security. Bulletproof glass will replace hotel windows where Obama and his family stay. Entire floors are needed to accommodate security and staff traveling with him. |
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Bruno Waterfield
King Albert II of Belgium has announced his abdication, the first time a
Belgian monarch has voluntarily stepped down, amid ill health and a
court case over his alleged paternity of an illegitimate daughter.Telegraph.co.uk 2013-07-03 09:22:00
In an unexpected address to the nation, the king, aged 79, announced that he would formally abdicate in favour of his son, Crown Prince Philippe on July 21, Belgium's national day. |
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Craig Murray
The forcing down of the Bolivian President's jet was a clear breach of the Vienna Convention by
Spain and Portugal, which closed their airspace to this Head of State
while on a diplomatic mission. It has never been thought necessary to
write down in a Treaty that Heads of State enjoy diplomatic immunity
while engaged in diplomacy, as their representatives only enjoy
diplomatic immunity as cyphers for their Head of State. But it is a
hitherto unchallenged precept of customary international law, indeed arguably the oldest provision of international law.craigmurray.org 2013-07-03 00:00:00 To the US and its allies, international law is no longer of any consequence. I can see no evidence that anyone in an official position has even noted the illegality of repeated Israeli air and missile strikes against Syria. Snowden, Manning and Assange all exposed illegality on a massive scale, and no action whatsoever has been taken against any of the criminals they exposed. Instead they are being hounded out of all meaningful life and ability to function in society. I have repeatedly posted, and have been saying in public speeches for ten years, that under the UK/US intelligence sharing agreements the NSA spies on UK citizens and GCHQ spies on US citizens and they swap the information. As they use a shared technological infrastructure, the division is simply a fiction to get round the law in each country restricting those agencies from spying on their own citizens. I have also frequently remarked how extraordinary it is that the media keep this "secret", which they have all known for years. |
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Examiner.com
2013-06-29 00:00:00
Most people think of a psychopath as a rare creature found only in the lowest levels of society. However, the reverse is true. They are not rare, but actually quite common, and you are more likely to find psychopaths in the boardroom than on the wrong side of the tracks. The reason is that, the more competitive a particular environment is, the more ruthless the use of the Cheating Strategy becomes. Within the highest circles of power and wealth, a lack of pity and remorse is practically a prerequisite to success, and only the psychopathic mentality can thrive. Living at the expense of the rest of humanity would be an impossible situation in a rational society." In his book, "Defense Against the Psychopath," author Stefan Verstappen outlines the greatest and stealthiest danger in the human jungle. Leaders throughout history - the people we vote for - are rarely moral leaders. For them, lying is as easy and natural as breathing. They have this extraordinary ability to deceive and manipulate others for their own benefit. Masters at keeping people confused and off balance, they are easily able to take advantage of and traumatize life. Their acting skills are unbelievably masterful. | |
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Comment: For more in depth information on the devastation wrought by the pathological deviants in charge, read:
The Pathocrats Is the world run by Psychopaths? Capitalism: A System Run By and For Psychopaths On the Nature of Psychopathy: A Thought Experiment |
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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts IPE 2013-07-01 00:00:00
No one likes a bully, and Washington's NATO puppets have been bullied for six decades. British prime ministers, German chancellors, and French presidents have to salute and say "yes sir." They all hate it, but they love Washington's money; so they prostitute themselves and their countries for Washington's money. Even a person of Winston Churchill's stature had to suck up to Washington in order to get his bills and his country's bills paid. But what the bought European leaders are finding is that Washington doesn't pay enough for the prostitution required. One year out of office Tony Blair was worth $35 million dollars. But that's not enough to get Blair on the waiting list for $50 million 200 foot yachts, to have a chalet in Gstaad, $50 million penthouses in Paris and New York, and a private plane to fly between them, or to wear a $736,000 Franck Muller watch on his wrist, sign his name with a $700,000 Mont Blanc jewel-encrusted pen, and drink $10,000 "martinis on a rock" (gin or vodka poured over a diamond) at New York's Algonquin Hotel. In a world in which every member of the Forbes Four Hundred is a billionaire plus or multi-billionaire, $35,000,000 just doesn't cut it. In 2006 the manager of one hedge fund was paid $1,700,000,000 for one year's thieving. Another 25 were paid $575,000,000 for their skills in front-running trades. $35 million is probably the annual budget for their household servants. |
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Banoosh
2013-06-28 18:42:00
Hundreds of people gathered in the plazas of the Chilean capital on Wednesday night, banging pots and pans in support of student demands. The demonstration followed a day of protests and violence. Battles between riot police and small groups of hooded protesters also continued into the night, with water cannons being used to try and disperse them. People of all ages took to the streets, banging metal poles with stones, and saucepans and pots with spoons. The protests began early on Wednesday and police have so far arrested 102 people and four officers have been injured. The protest, timed ahead of Sunday's presidential primaries, is aimed at demanding wider distribution of Chile's copper wealth. It also calls for reform of the education system that would put the state back in control of the mostly-privatized public universities. |
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Jim W. Dean
Veterans Today 2013-06-27 18:34:00
Western publics sit like deer in the headlights, unable to move despite the illegal night hunter about to shoot them through the head. But it also could be said we are shooting ourselves in the head. I use that dramatic analogy because that seems to be exactly what is happening to us. A new generation of terror is being created right before our very eyes using our own tax dollars to do so, and the effort led by those sworn to protect us...people we elected.
Let's review the current Syrian mess and how some very evil people, maybe an evil empire really, saw a way to exploit the situation to launch a new generation of terror not only in the Mid East but the Caucus region and Europe and North Africa. The devastation that this will bring upon those areas is so certain I can only conclude that it is actually the purpose of the whole effort. The motivation seems a bit hazy as there is no real understandable beneficial motive for the people of these countries...like a real security threat. A war for commercial interests is the only feasible reason. |
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Nicholas Watt
Guardian 2013-06-29 18:28:00
Senior military sources say Nato will continue to play major role as Afghan forces are unprepared for 2014 withdrawal International forces will provide logistical advice to the Afghan military up until 2020 after concluding that Afghanistan's national security forces will be unprepared for full operations when Nato combat troops withdraw from the country at the end of 2014. As David Cameron paid a visit to British troops in Helmand province on Armed Forces Day, senior military sources indicated that Nato would need to play a major role in Afghanistan until the end of the decade. The prime minister said British forces were reaching the final phase of the 12-year campaign. But senior British military sources said the Afghan forces would need advice on providing close air support, the distribution of food and fuel and on medevac facilities. British military commanders have been able to make their assessments after Nato handed control of security for the whole of the country to Afghan forces this month. The commanders have concluded that a great deal has been achieved but that Afghan forces will not have built their capacity to full operational levels by the time Nato combat troops leave at the end of 2014. |
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Jomana Karadsheh
CNN 2013-06-27 18:23:00
A tense calm prevailed over Libya's capital Thursday after days of chaos left at least seven people dead -- including a 12-year-old boy. But it's unclear if the violence is really over -- or even who the warring groups are. Sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions echoed across Tripoli on Wednesday night, sending waves of confusion and panic as residents weren't sure who was behind the attacks. Medical sources in Abu Saleem Hospital said two people, including a 12-year-old boy, died Wednesday from injuries sustained in the clashes, the state news agency LANA reported. The hospital also said it was treating a number of injured from the violence. LANA said it was not clear what groups were involved in Wednesday's fighting. It quoted witnesses as saying the densely populated Abu Saleem area was in a state of "panic and fear" as fighting closed off main roads in the area, including the one leading to the international airport. |
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| Society's Child |
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Michael Passingham
v3.co.uk 2013-07-04 13:41:00
Many high-profile websites have used US Independence Day to take part in an online protest against the NSA's surveillance of internet use, including email and web browsing history. Organisations such as Mozilla, WordPress and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), as well as websites such as 4chan, Reddit and the Cheezburger network will be prominently featuring Fourth Amendment imagery throughout their pages. The US's Fourth Amendment protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures". The protest, which has been organised by the Internet Defense League, will include pop-up banners promoting the Fourth Amendment as well as blog posts from many of the sites involved. | |
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Comment: For more information about PRISM, please see the Sott focus article:
Through the PRISM of public amnesia |
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Derek J. Anderson
As people gathered around Boston's Old State House to hear the reading
of the Declaration of Independence in celebration of the Fourth of July,
protesters carrying signs stood along the barricaded area, denouncing
recently-revealed secret government surveillance programs.Boston.com 2013-07-04 13:15:00 Spurred by the revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities, about 25 activists gathered at the 9:30 a.m. Restore the Fourth rally. The release of government documents by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden, who is believed to somewhere in a Moscow airport, has sparked protests from various groups and outrage from the Obama administration, which is seeking to prosecute him on espionage and government theft charges. The documents were first published last month by the British newspaper The Guardian. Since the release, President Barack Obama, as well as members of Congress and intelligence officials have told citizens that they are not the target of the agency's surveillance. |
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Wall Street Journal
2013-06-28 11:10:00
Actress Shannon Guess Richardson, who has appeared in very small roles on "The Walking Dead" and "The Vampire Diaries," has been charged with allegedly sending letters laced with the poison Ricin to President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The indictment formally charges Richardson, 35, with one count of threatening the President of the United States along with two counts of mailing a threatening communication. Federal prosecutors say the actress and mother of five was attempting to frame her estranged husband. The actress, from New Boston, Texas, was arrested June 7 and faces up to five years in prison on each of the charges, the Justice Department said in a statement. Tonda Curry, Richardson's court-appointed attorney, did not respond to requests for comment. |
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Stephen Emmott
Guardian 2013-06-29 11:01:00
If population levels continue to rise at the current rate, our grandchildren will see the Earth plunged into an unprecedented environmental crisis, argues computational scientist Stephen Emmott in this extract from his book Ten Billion Earth is home to millions of species. Just one dominates it. Us. Our cleverness, our inventiveness and our activities have modified almost every part of our planet. In fact, we are having a profound impact on it. Indeed, our cleverness, our inventiveness and our activities are now the drivers of every global problem we face. And every one of these problems is accelerating as we continue to grow towards a global population of 10 billion. In fact, I believe we can rightly call the situation we're in right now an emergency - an unprecedented planetary emergency. We humans emerged as a species about 200,000 years ago. In geological time, that is really incredibly recent. Just 10,000 years ago, there were one million of us. By 1800, just over 200 years ago, there were 1 billion of us. By 1960, 50 years ago, there were 3 billion of us. There are now over 7 billion of us. By 2050, your children, or your children's children, will be living on a planet with at least 9 billion other people. Some time towards the end of this century, there will be at least 10 billion of us. Possibly more. We got to where we are now through a number of civilisation- and society-shaping "events", most notably the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution and - in the West - the public-health revolution. By 1980, there were 4 billion of us on the planet. Just 10 years later, in 1990, there were 5 billion of us. By this point initial signs of the consequences of our growth were starting to show. Not the least of these was on water. Our demand for water - not just the water we drank but the water we needed for food production and to make all the stuff we were consuming - was going through the roof. But something was starting to happen to water. | |
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Comment: It's not all of humanity that is the real
threat. It's psychopaths and their destructive actions on the rest of
humanity and the world as a whole that is the real threat to survival.
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Anthony Gucciardi
A gun report ordered in by Obama has ended up highlighting the fact
that legal guns are actually saving lives and diffusing crime.Storyleak 2013-07-04 00:00:00 In a recent study orchestrated by the CDC and carried out by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, it was found that individuals involved in violent crimes who defended themselves using techniques other than carrying a gun were more likely to be injured when compared to those who were carrying a concealed firearm. All-in-all, the Obama ordered report ended up finding more pros than cons in regards to the right to an open or concealed weapon. The report also reminds us of the numerous causes of gun deaths, citing thatmost gun deaths are at the hands of those who used a gun for their suicide - not homicide. The report highlights the poor state of America's suffering mental health. The report states that suicide by guns outweighs the amount of deaths caused by violent crimes by 61%. I recently conducted an interview with Representative Joe Carr from Tennessee on this very issue:
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Patrick Clark
Fox2Now 2013-07-03 17:17:00
West St. Louis County - Strange circles and symbols are taking shape along interstate 44. It's enough to cause some phone calls from curios Google map users. "We've had similar calls and we've explained that what you're seeing from the sky is some of our experimental treatments," says Tiffany Knight, PhD an Associate Professor of Biology with Washington University. What some might suspect is from a UFO is really from a university, as in, Washington University at the Tyson Research Center. That's a 2,000 acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies. "So you don't necessarily think of aloes as living in Missouri but they do," says Knight. "We have cacti living in there." "Really?" asks Patrick Clark. "We have those that are native to Missouri in our glades," adds Knight. "So we do get some of these almost desert like plant and animal species." |
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| Secret History |
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Robert Wenzel
A true character taught about liberty in the 1990s, Andrew J. Galambos. Harry Browne wrote about him:
The entire obituary of Galambos written by Browne is must reading.
Browne says a lot of negative things about Galambos, but at the end of
reading the obituary, the thought lingers: Who was this guy? And the
next thought is: Boy, I wish I could have sat in on one of his courses.
They aren't any notes of his class. Browne reports, Galambos was very
protective of his ideas and never put anything in writing. Indeed,
Browne tells us:
EconomicPolicyJournal 2013-07-04 13:05:00 |
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| Science & Technology |
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University of Oxford Press Office
University of Oxford 2013-07-03 15:14:00
A species of Indonesian parrot can solve complex mechanical problems that involve undoing a series of locks one after another, revealing new depths to physical intelligence in birds. A team of scientists from Oxford University, the University of Vienna, and the Max Planck Institute, report in PLOS ONE a study in which ten untrained Goffin's cockatoos [Cacatua goffini] faced a puzzle box showing food (a nut) behind a transparent door secured by a series of five different interlocking devices, each one jamming the next along in the series. To retrieve the nut the birds had to first remove a pin, then a screw, then a bolt, then turn a wheel 90 degrees, and then shift a latch sideways. One bird, called 'Pipin', cracked the problem unassisted in less than two hours, and several others did it after being helped either by being presented with the series of locks incrementally or being allowed to watch a skilled partner doing it. Watch a video of cockatoos solving the puzzle box: http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/group/kacelnik/lb_movie_s1.mov The scientists were interested in the birds' progress towards the solution, and on what they knew once they had solved the full task. |
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Ron Cowen
Nature 2013-07-04 13:42:00
Astronomers have for the first time detected a population of ultrashort radio bursts with properties that strongly suggest that they originate from outside the Milky Way Galaxy. Lasting for a few thousandths of a second and estimated to erupt roughly every 10 seconds, the mysterious bursts are likely to be caused by a previously unknown class of radio-emitting phenomenon, researchers report in Science1. "This is one of the most important radio discoveries in the last couple of decades," says Scott Ransom, an astronomer at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, who was not part of the study. Although radio signals that vary over days to months have been recorded from distant galaxies for decades, ultrashort signals from beyond the Milky Way had never been definitively detected, notes study co-author Dan Thornton, an astronomer at the University of Manchester, UK. He and his colleagues embarked on a search for extragalactic radio bursts after a report in 2007 suggested that one such signal had been tentatively found2. Using archived data from the 64-metre Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia - the same instrument that had recorded the tentative single burst - Thornton and his collaborators found four bursts that seemed to come from outside the Galaxy. |
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Timothy J. Seppala
engadget 2013-07-02 11:37:00
A unmanned Russian Proton-M rocket exploded moments after leaving the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today, destroying its payload of three satellites intended for Russia's Glonass GPS system. Fortunately nobody was injured, but local news service Interfax is reporting that nearly 500 tons of fuel from the craft has contaminated the crash site. There's no word on what caused the disaster, but this model's recent history is fraught with equipment failures -- so if you'd like to see the latest disaster (spoiler: explosions), the video resides after the jump. | |
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Comment: And we're supposed to believe they're going to defend us from incoming space rocks with these things?
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PopSci.com
Fourth of July is the perfect time to watch fiery masses streak across
the sky. This speedy guy, the comet ISON, looks like it pretty much fits
that bill. Except that it's actually quite icy at its core, and it's
barreling toward the sun at around 48,000 miles per hour, faster than
any firework.2013-07-04 10:25:00 This five-second loop of video is a compression of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over a period of 43 minutes in May, during which ISON covered 34,000 miles.
At the time, the comet was between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, 403 million miles away. As it approaches the sun, it will warm up, and its tail of gas and dust will grow longer as the ice of its nucleus sublimates more quickly. It'll get brighter, and we should be able to see it jaunt across the sky with the naked eye by sometime in November. |
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Allie Bidwell
Daily News 2013-07-02 00:00:00
Sergio Canavero says he has improved on a procedure that has been unsuccessful in animal experiments. Head transplants could be used to treat conditions like muscular dystrophy. In what sounds like a science-fiction novel come to life, one scientist says he is close to being able to affix one person's head to another human body. Italian scientist Sergio Canavero believes he has come up with an outline to successfully complete the first human head transplant in history, which could lead to solutions for those suffering from muscular dystrophy or tetraplegics with widespread organ failure. Head transplants have been attempted since the 1950s, when Russian scientist Vladimir Demikhov experimented with dogs. Twenty years later, American neurosurgeon Robert White conducted a successful head transplant by moving the head of one monkey to the body of another. The monkey lived for several days, but because White could not connect the two spinal cords, the monkey eventually died. Canavero describes in a recent paper a step to connect donor and recipient spinal cords - the one component that was missing from previous procedures. |
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Global Post
2013-07-03 20:06:00
First cousins who marry run twice the risk of having a child with genetic abnormalities, according to the findings of a study in the English city of Bradford, published Friday in The Lancet. The city, which has a high proportion of South Asian immigrants and their descendants among its population, served as a microcosm for examining the risk of blood relative couplings. About 37 percent of marriages among people of Pakistani origin in the study involved first cousins, compared to less than one percent of "British unions", said the researchers. University of Leeds investigator Eamonn Sheridan led a team that pored over data from the "Born in Bradford" study, which tracks the health of 13,500 babies born at the city's main hospital between 2007 and 2011. Out of 11,396 babies for whom family details were known, 18 percent were the offspring of first-cousin unions, mainly among people of Pakistani heritage. A total of 386 babies -- three percent -- were born with anomalies ranging from problems in the nervous, respiratory and digestive systems, to urinary and genital defects and cleft palates. This Bradford rate was nearly twice the national average, said the study. |
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| Earth Changes |
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US Geological Survey
2013-07-04 12:50:00
Event Time 2013-07-04 17:16:00 UTC 2013-07-05 04:16:00 UTC+11:00 at epicenter Location 7.039°S 155.644°E depth=72.0km (44.7mi) Nearby Cities 81km (50mi) SSE of Panguna, Papua New Guinea 92km (57mi) S of Arawa, Papua New Guinea 478km (297mi) SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea 543km (337mi) WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands 630km (391mi) ESE of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea Technical Details |
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Tom Bowdan
The Independent, UK 2013-07-02 07:57:00
More than a third of the world's conifer species are threatened with extinction as a result of urbanisation, logging, disease and feral goats, according to an alarming new report. Some 206 of the world's 606 species of pine, cedar, cypress, fir, yew and other conifer plants could cease to exist in the coming years unless strong measures are taken to conserve them, according to first comprehensive assessment of these cone-bearing plants since 1998. The so-called Red List of threatened species includes California's Monterey Pine, the world's most widely planted pine because it grows quickly and produces good quality pulp to make paper. The species, which is found in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Mexico as well as the US, has gone from a low risk of extinction to being "endangered" in 15 years as a result of disease and feral goats, which eat the seedlings and erode the soil. "The overall picture is alarming. We must use this knowledge to its fullest - making our conversation efforts well targeted and efficient - if we are serious about stopping the extinction crisis that continues to threaten all life on Earth," said Jane Smart, global director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which carried out the assessment. |
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wildlifeextra.com
2013-07-04 07:45:00
July 2013. Declines in birds across the globe are providing evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth - including people. However, birds also tell us that saving the planet comes at a relatively small price - an investment that's vital to secure our own future. These are some of the messages in a new report State of the World's Birds: indicators for our changing world by BirdLife International, an IUCN Red List partner, who gathered last week in Ottawa, Canada to launch the report and unveil their vision for a world rich in biodiversity, where people and nature live in harmony. Many species slipping towards extinction The status of the world's birds continues to get worse with many species slipping towards extinction and others in steep decline. Birds are facing threats on many fronts but habitat destruction and degradation, owing to changes in agriculture, as well as direct impacts from invasive species are the major causes. However, birds also provide a lens through which we can view all nature. "Birds provide an accurate and easy to read environmental barometer that allows us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity", said Dr Leon Bennun, BirdLife's Director of Science, Information and Policy. |
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radionz.co.nz
2013-06-26 07:33:00
A rare dolphin - the same species as the legendary Pelorus Jack - has been discovered off the remote north-west Nelson coast. The Risso's dolphin was discovered stranded by five trampers last weekend at Kahurangi Point. The trampers managed to move the struggling dolphin to a nearby stream but a Department of Conservation ranger who went to inspect it found it dead. The ranger identified it as a Risso's dolphin. Pelorus Jack became famous more than 100 years ago for accompanying ships in the Cook Strait area. He met vessels bound for Nelson at Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds and escorted them as far as the entrance to the treacherous waters of French Pass. He did this for 24 years and was the first dolphin in the world to be protected by law. Only 17 Risso's dolphins are recorded to have been found stranded on the New Zealand coast since 1846. |
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Sky News, Australia
2013-07-03 20:00:00
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) rangers have conducted an aerial survery after seven killer whales became stranded off Queensland's Fraser Island on Wednesday. The survery showed no signs of any whales being re-stranded. Two of the whales died, reportedly a mother and her calf, around 9am (AEST) on Wednesday. Rescuers managed to free the surviving five, including two around 5pm (AEST) on the rising tide. The PWS Acting Regional Director Peter Wright said rangers will continue to monitor a pod of whales that remain deep near Deep Creek. |
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The Independent
2013-07-03 18:19:00
A northwest Ohio sinkhole has swallowed a car traveling down a street and briefly trapped the driver, who climbed out after authorities gave her a ladder. Toledo police Sgt. Joe Heffernan says a water main break beneath the road may have caused the sinkhole Wednesday. The hole is estimated to be at least 10 feet deep. Police say driver Pamela Knox didn't appear hurt but was shaken up and was taken to a hospital as a precaution. Heffernan says Knox saw the vehicle in front of her start to slip into the hole but drive beyond it. He says Knox couldn't avoid it. Officials used a crane to pull the car from the hole. Repairs to the road are expected to take days. Source: The Associated Press |
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Alyssa Danigelis
Discovery News 2013-07-03 13:23:00
The Hitchcock classic The Birds became a little too real in a British seaside town this week. Seagulls there are attacking residents and dive-bombing mail carriers. Perranporth, a small town on Cornwall's northern coast, has seen its share of angry gulls, but attacks on residents seem to be worse than ever. Seagulls are currently nesting and actively protecting their chicks. Apparently bright colors aggravate the birds, causing them to swoop down and target people's heads. "In the past five years the seagulls have become more aggressive," 67-year-old resident Eric Hardinge told the South West News Service. "The birds need to be culled." However, most gulls are protected and require special permitting to target. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo.com 2013-07-04 08:08:00
How much longer will we deny the growing body of research linking Roundup to infertility before calling this chemical a contraceptive? Following closely on the heels of the EPA's decision to allow Roundup herbicide residues in your food at concentrations a million times higher than shown carcinogenic, a concerning new study published in the journal Free Radical Medicine & Biology implicates the herbicide, and its main ingredient glyphosate, in male infertility, at concentration ranges well within the EPA's "safe level" for food.[1] |
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Daily News
2013-07-03 00:00:00
Both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. agreed to change their product formulations nationally after a new California law would have required cans to come with a cancer warning -- but Pepsi hasn't made the change outside of California, according to The Center for Environmental Health. The ingredient in question is 4-Mel, found in caramel coloring. An environmental group said Wednesday that the caramel coloring used in Pepsi still contains a worrisome level of a carcinogen, even after the drink maker said it would change its formula. In March, PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. both said they would adjust their formulas nationally after California passed a law mandating drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label. The changes were made for drinks sold in California when the law passed. The chemical is 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, which can form during the cooking process and, as a result, may be found in trace amounts in many foods. Watchdog group The Center for Environmental Health found via testing that while Coke products no longer test positive for the chemical, Pepsi products sold outside of California still do. Pepsi said its caramel coloring suppliers are changing their manufacturing process to cut the amount of 4-Mel in its caramel. That process is complete in California and will be finished in February 2014 in the rest of the country. Pepsi said it will also be taken out globally, but did not indicate a timeline. |
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Gluten-free common sense: 'Gluten-free' products in stores does NOT mean that they're free of gluten
Dr. Osborne
I was recently featured on Fox News to discuss gluten free foods and the
gluten free aisle in the grocery store. The interview included one of
the most common questions I get asked - What is safe to eat on the
gluten free aisle in the grocery store? Please take a minute to listen
to the discussion below.Gluten Free Society 2013-07-04 00:00:00
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Intellihub
2013-06-27 00:00:00
On his death bed, this psychiatrist and autism pioneer admitted that ADHD is essentially a "fictitious disease," which means that millions of young children today are being needlessly prescribed severe mind-altering drugs that will set them up for a life of drug addiction and failure If you or someone you know has a child that has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chances are the child is actually just fine. At least this is what the "father" of ADHD, Leon Eisenberg, would presumably say if he were still alive. As explained by The Sons of Liberty host Bradlee Dean, who also writes for The D.C. Clothesline, ADHD was merely a theory developed by Eisenberg. It was never actually proven to exist as a verifiable disease, despite the fact that Eisenberg and many others profited handsomely from its widespread diagnosis. And modern psychiatry continues to profit as well, helping also to fill the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry by getting children addicted early to dangerous psychostimulant drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts). | |
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Comment: Many children are wrongly being labelled
hyperactive and given controversial drugs to stop anxious parents
thinking they are to blame for unruly behaviour. Unfortunately there are
serious consequences to drugging children with dangerous
pharmaceuticals:
New Research Fuels Skepticism (and Questions) About ADHD Diagnoses Ritalin Linked With Sudden Death of Children Children 'wrongly given' Ritalin |
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Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com 2011-11-07 00:00:00
To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way. The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against "luxury foods" like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips. So if they're not made of potatoes, what are they exactly? The process begins with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape. This dough-like substance is then rolled out into an ultra-thin sheet cut into chip-cookies by a machine. According to io9: "The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they're pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Panos Mitkidis
Working in a team is not always easy, and achieving our aims often turns
out to be much harder than we thought it would be. What can we do to
increase our chances of gaining ultimate success? A new study from
Aarhus University's transdisciplinary Interacting Minds Centre (IMC)
provides insight into how to improve productivity when members of a
group share a clearly identifiable goal.Aarhus University 2013-07-04 16:17:00 "Our study focused on how to improve levels of cooperation. What we found was that when people know exactly what they're supposed to be doing as members of a team, they are more willing to trust each other and cooperate more in the future," says Panos Mitkidis, a post-doc scholar at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is behind a study published recently in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, and he suggests that levels of cooperation improve when we know exactly what our goals are - instead of just following a process without really knowing where we are going. Sharing clear, identifiable goals The study provides a clue about how science can help us to become more cooperative and productive by switching the focus to goals instead of focusing on processes. Successful cooperation depends on knowing more than just the rules and processes in which we are involved. |
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Michael Harper
RedOrbit 2013-07-04 13:02:00
Good news for those reading and writing this article: a new study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago claims reading and writing may preserve memory into old age. By keeping your brain active, says study author Robert S. Wilson, PhD, you're able to slow the rate at which your memory decreases in later years. This is not the first time researchers have arrived at such a conclusion, of course. Previous studies have also found keeping the brain active by reading, writing, completing crossword puzzles and more can essentially exercise the brain and keep it limber far into old age. One study also concluded that keeping television consumption to a minimal amount may also boost brain power over the years. Wilson's study was recently published in the journal Neurology. "Our study suggests that exercising your brain by taking part in activities such as these across a person's lifetime, from childhood through old age, is important for brain health in old age," said Wilson in a statement. For his study, Wilson gathered nearly 300 people around the age of 80. He then gave them tests which were designed to measure both their memory and cognition each year until they passed away at an average age of 89. The same participants also answered questions about their past, such as whether they read books, did any writing, or engaged in any other mentally stimulating activities. The volunteers answered these questions for every part of their life, from childhood to adolescence, middle age and beyond. |
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| High Strangeness |
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No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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The Onion
2013-07-03 11:15:00
Princeton, NJ - The universe, long known as a bleak and unforgiving place where essentially nothing matters, is in fact even crueler and more heartless than previously thought, according to a startling report published Tuesday by scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study. "That the world we inhabit is brutal, cold, and meaningless has of course been established scientific fact for quite some time," said Dr. Susan Doname, head of the research team that conducted the comprehensive five-year study. "But shockingly, our most recent findings indicate that the brutality, coldness, and meaninglessness are far, far more extreme than we ever realized." "In fact, the utter futility of it all is a staggering 1.43 million times worse than predicted by our earlier estimates," she added. The report explains that when it comes to measuring the complete purposelessness of existence, such impossible-to-reconcile-with-a-caring-God phenomena as earthquakes, disease, famine, and basic human cruelty are "small potatoes, really." It goes on to state that research in the field has long underestimated the grim discoveries of the past century: threats such as global thermonuclear war, manmade super flus, total environmental collapse, an entirely random meteor strike wiping out all life in a single blow, and so on. |
