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Sott.net Editors
Sott.net 2013-07-29 09:42:00
It has been almost 50 years since the assassination of JFK and 60 years since the 'suicide' of Dr. Frank Olson, two intertwined events that speak volumes about true nature of the so-called Cold War. Our guest on this weeks show is American journalist and author Hank P. Albarelli Jr., whose detailed investigations into these murders have shed much light on the decidedly murky activities of the CIA and friends. Hank Albarelli is a founding member of the North American Truth and Accountability Commission on Human Experimentation, which seeks to raise public awareness about historical and ongoing human rights violations in North America, and works to establish an accurate and truthful historical record of such crimes, including human trafficking, organized ritual crime, child soldiering, mind control experimentation and other forms of torture, in both the private and public spheres. Albarelli is the author of A Terrible Mistake, The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments, which documents and details numerous CIA and Pentagon sponsored experiments on unwitting human subjects, and A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity in the JFK Assassination, which explores the many little-known yet intriguing aspects surrounding the murder of President Kennedy.
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Niall Bradley
Sott.net 2013-07-27 08:06:00
The political circus this week narrowly voted down an amendment to 'rein in the NSA's mass surveillance infrastructure'. As if senators can - or would sincerely wish to - negatively influence the behemoth that is the Global Security State! Ever since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked 'Top Secret' documents to the UK's Guardian newspaper, favorable comparisons have been made with Daniel Ellsberg, whose leaked 'Pentagon Papers' in 1971 revealed that the U.S. government knew, early on, that the Vietnam War could most likely not be 'won' (whatever 'won' means because its strategic goals were never defined), and that continuing the war would lead to many times more casualties than was ever admitted publicly. Like today's circumspect avoidance when it comes to blowing the whistle on 9/11 (with a few honorable exceptions that do not receive widespread coverage), the 'greatest whistleblowers ever' (and I include Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in this category) don't leak the names behind purchases of pre-9/11 airline company 'put options'; they don't leak the voluminous diplomatic cables that would sorely expose the NeoCon-Israeli scheming in the run-up to America's 'New Pearl Harbor'; they don't leak the satellite images that would rubbish the fairytale that 'al Qaeda' was responsible for 'dustifying' the World Trade Center, firing that missile at the Pentagon, and downing Flight 93. Commissioned in 1967 by then U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who was concerned about the disastrous course of the war in Vietnam - or rather, the disastrous press coverage it was receiving - the report that became known as the 'Pentagon Papers' was ostensibly "a comprehensive history of the United States involvement in Vietnam from World War II [1945] to the present [1968, when the report was completed]." Daniel Ellsberg served in the Pentagon from August 1964 under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. In one of those curious synchronicities of history, Ellsberg's first full day as special assistant to McNamara saw the captain of USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin claim that it was under fire from North Vietnamese patrol boats. No such thing happened. According to his Wikipedia page, Ellsberg personally reported the 'incident' to McNamara. The subsequent Gulf of Tonkin Resolution resulted in a huge escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. In fact, it transformed the situation from a 20-year long CIA 'covert war' to a full-scale military invasion and occupation. |
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Damian Carrington
The Guardian 2013-07-29 08:25:00
Extreme weather being driven by climate change is the biggest threat to British farming and its ability to feed the nation's growing population, according to Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union. His comments, in an interview with the Guardian, come after a week of intense weather extremes. Last Monday, west London experienced the hottest day for seven years, while on Tuesday the drought in many parts of the country came to an end with intense thunderstorms that brought almost a month of rain in a day to parts of Worcestershire. Torrential downpours also put a dampener on the first weekend of the school summer holidays, with flash-flooding in parts of the south-east and the Midlands. "The biggest uncertainty for UK agriculture is extreme weather events," said Kendall, who grows wheat and barley on the 250-hectare (620 acre) farm in Bedfordshire he runs with his brother. "I sometimes have a pop at those who say climate change is going to help farming in northern Europe. | |
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Comment: See also: Rising food prices, climate change and global 'unrest'
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Hank P. Albarelli Jr.
Voltairenet 2010-12-07 06:36:00
Marvin Washington Brooks had been terribly ill for nearly three months. A year prior in early-1952, he had been diagnosed with cancer and had been admitted as "a patient for treatment" to the University of Texas Medical School's M.D. Anderson Hospital. Brooks had served as an infantryman in the Army during World War II. He had received a Purple Heart for being wounded during the Battle of the Bulge. Not long after he was admitted to the M.D. Anderson Hospital, Brooks began to receive weekly treatment from a team of physicians led by an older doctor with a heavy German accent and three distinctive scars across his face. Brooks was told the treatment could significantly affect his cancer in positive ways. But Brooks had become increasingly ill, with constant vomiting, weight and hair loss, and patchy skin with large areas appearing as if severely sunburned. Within about six months of the weekly treatment, Brooks was in constant pain. He died the first month of 1955, two days before what would have turned 47 years old. Brooks was never informed that he was one of 263 cancer patients who were secretly being experimented upon with "whole body irradiation." Brooks, nor his wife or family, had ever been consulted about the experiments. Nor had Brooks, or anyone else, given the hospital permission to experiment on him. Nobody ever told Brooks, or anyone in his family, that the German physician who saw him weekly was Dr. Herbert Bruno Gerstner, a former Nazi doctor who had been secretly brought to the United States in 1949. On November 17, 2010 the CIA's Director of Public Affairs, George Little, wrote a short letter to the editor of the New York Times. Little, on behalf of the agency, protested a just published Times article that detailed CIA "interactions with former Nazi officials in the early years of the post World War II era." Mr. Little wrote, "We would like to make clear that the agency at no time had a policy or a program to protect Nazi war criminals, or to help them escape justice for their actions during the war." |
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Michael Byrne
Motherboard 2013-07-27 17:44:00
You should already know the name Yaneer Bar-Yam. He's the founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and made news for a 2011 paper tying global food prices to 2008 and 2011 riot outbreaks in Africa, and the general theory that above a certain benchmark food price, the conditions for rioting become prime. It's not a strict cause and effect relationship - if value x, then riots - simply an observation that the probability of riots spikes at a certain point. Other things, like, say, Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself on fire, might be the actual trigger, but day-to-day survival as it pertains to food is what allows the gun to fire. Bar-Yam's model has another "success," according to a paper posted on the arVix pre-print server last week. Rioting that occurred last year during a platinum miner's strike in South Africa - in which 34 strikers were killed by government forces - coincided neatly with a spike in the global price of maize. Stagnant wages matched with spiking food costs yields unrest. It matches well with a similar spike in 2008 that resulted in another series of riots in the country. |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Stephen Lendman
Global Research 2013-07-22 14:32:00
She's one of thousands of US political prisoners. She's well known. She committed no crimes. She's been brutalized in captivity. Mercy isn't in America's vocabulary. Rogue states operate that way. Washington's by far the worst. It reportedly agreed to Pakistan's extradition terms. Both sides will swap prisoners. Previous articles discussed her 2003 abduction, detention, torture, false charges, prosecution, and conviction. More on that below. On July 20, the Pakistan Observer headlined "US agrees on Aafia's Siddiqui's extradition," saying: "In a major breakthrough, the US has offered Pakistan to sign prisoner swap agreement for the extradition of Dr Aafia Siddiqi, after which the Pakistani scientist will be allowed to serve the remaining part of her imprisonment in homeland." Pakistan foreign office spokesman Uman Hameed said terms include other prisoner swaps. | |
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Hank P. Albarelli Jr.
Voltairenet 2013-07-29 14:33:00 It is nearly two hours past noon, a sunny, warm day on October 9, 2007. The creaky old Oldsmobile, containing a driver and three people returning home from church, is lumbering along at about 15 miles per hour. As it begins to cross a busy intersection in the bustling Karada neighborhood of Baghdad, several rounds of copper-jacketed 5.56mm rounds tear into its windshield sending glass everywhere.
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Information Clearing House
"President Obama Has Very Little Moral Authority"2013-07-22 14:16:00
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Matthew Schofield
McClatchy 2013-07-18 13:35:00
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is backing off his earlier assertion that the Obama administration's NSA monitoring of Internet accounts had prevented five terror attacks in Germany, raising questions about other claims concerning the value of the massive monitoring programs revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Friedrich had made the assertion about the number of attacks that the NSA programs - which scoop up records from cellphone and Internet accounts - had helped to avert after a brief visit to the United States last week. But on Tuesday, he told a German parliamentary panel, "It is relatively difficult to count the number of terror attacks that didn't occur." And on Wednesday, he was publically referring to just two foiled attacks, at least one and possibly both of which appeared to have little to do with the NSA's surveillance programs. The questions about the programs' value in thwarting attacks in Germany come as some members of the U.S. Congress have told Obama officials that the programs exceeded what Congress authorized when it passed laws that the administration is arguing allowed the collection of vast amounts of information on cellphone and Internet email accounts. |
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The Independent, UK
2013-07-29 11:35:00
Crucial evidence against two Libyans for the Lockerbie bombing was planted by the CIA, it was claimed in the Commons yesterday. A fragment of circuit board alleged to have been part of the bomb's timing mechanism is the sole item of physical evidence linking the two Libyans to the December 1988 bombing. But Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, declared: "I have come to suspect that the timing device in question was not that of Pan Am 103 but a different timing device that the CIA had picked up from the Libyans ... I have been driven to the conclusion that the device was a CIA plant." Mr Dalyell, a long-standing critic of US and British government insistence that Libya was behind the attack, said an analysis of the fragment had shown it had been exposed to a temperature of 4,000deg C. But a Swiss police specialist had cast doubt on this, saying the explosion would have lasted only a fraction of a second in outside air temperatures of about minus 40C. |
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Andrew Sparrow
The Guardian 2013-07-29 11:20:00
Document emerges from 2008 showing agreement 'ready for signature' as soon as purchase of air defence system concluded An email has emerged suggesting a connection between the prisoner transfer deal negotiated between Libya and the last Labour government, which ultimately paved the way for the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, and a £400m arms deal. The document, which shows that Sir Vincent Fean, the then British ambassador to Libya, wrote to Tony Blair in June 2008 saying that the prisoner transfer agreement was "ready for signature in London" as soon as Libya went ahead with the purchase of an air defence system, was obtained by the Sunday Telegraph. Blair was no longer prime minister at the time, but Fean mentioned the two issues in a 1,300-word briefing for Blair before a visit to Tripoli where he was meeting Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator. The prisoner transfer agreement was eventually signed in November 2008. It did not directly trigger the release of Megrahi, but it enabled the Scottish government to release him on compassionate grounds in August 2009 because he was suffering from terminal cancer. The arms deal was never concluded. | |
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Comment: Wow, so the Brits exchanged al-Megrahi, in all probability a patsy for the real culprits behind the Lockerbie Bombing - the CIA
- in exchange for an 'air defence system' that cost over half a billion
euros... which just three years later obviously failed pretty
spectacularly as Libya was carpet-bombed with hardly any capability of
defending itself against NATO airpower.
Duplicitous, murderous bastards. |
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Press TV
2013-07-29 08:10:00
At least 65 have been killed in overnight airstrikes carried out by US forces in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. The casualties came after a series of airstrikes happened in an area of Paktia Province on Sunday night. The US military has confirmed separate air raids in three villages, saying those killed were militants. While Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The Taliban have not yet commented on the deadly incident. Just two days ago, at least 60 people were killed and several others severely injured in similar airstrikes. |
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Press TV
2013-07-29 08:16:00
At least 60 people have been killed as a result of separate US-led airstrikes in Afghanistan's provinces of Paktia, Kunar and Helmand, Press TV reports. Local officials in the eastern province of Paktia said 13 Taliban militants were killed in two airborne assaults in the Zurmat district of the province, situated more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital city of Kabul on Saturday. The unnamed authorities noted that two militant commanders -- identified as Abdul Rahman and Jome al-Din -- were also killed in the attacks. The Taliban have not yet confirmed any casualties, and made no comments on the airstrike. On Friday, at least 45 people were killed when foreign forces carried out an airstrike in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand. |
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Jonathan Watts
The Guardian 2013-07-29 06:46:00
Pontiff wraps up first overseas trip as head of Catholic church with address to worshippers on Copacabana beach in Rio Pope Francis wrapped up a triumphant first overseas trip as pontiff with a Sunday mass on Copacabana beach attended by three million worshippers, according to Rio authorities' estimates. In the evangelical, simple and radical style that has characterised his week-long visit to Brazil, Francis made an appeal to pilgrims to return to their home countries and revitalise the Catholic church. He urged followers to be more active in their faith by reach out to "to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent". "The church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you," he told the vast throng, hundreds of thousands of whom had slept overnight on the 4km-long beach. | |||
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Comment: The real Pontifex Maximus must be spinning in his grave!
We recently discussed on SOTT Talk Radio the astonishing discovery that Christianity is based on worship of Julius Caesar: Read Carotta's book to discover the truth about The Big Lie: Jesus Was Caesar: On the Julian Origin of Christianity |
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Henry Samuel
The Telegraph 2010-03-11 17:46:00
A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment. In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted. For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War. The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France. On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire. One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets. | |
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Comment: Listen to the interview with H. P. Albarelli Jr. on SOTT Talk Radio.
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David Edwards
Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald on Sunday revealed that he
would be publishing new details that backed up former National Security
Agency (NSA) contractor Edwards Snowden's claim that low-level analysts
could listen to the phone calls of any American or even read President
Barack Obama's emails.The Raw Story 2013-07-28 16:56:00
"The story that we've been working on for the last month that we're publishing this week very clearly sets forth what these programs are that NSA analysts - low-level ones, not just one that work for the NSA, but private contractors like Mr. Snowden - are able to do," Greenwald told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. "The NSA has trillions of telephone calls and emails in their databases that they've collected over the last several years." |
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Kari Rea
Today on "This Week," Glenn Greenwald - the reporter who broke the story
about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs - claimed
that those NSA programs allowed even low-level analysts to search the
private emails and phone calls of Americans.ABC News 2013-07-28 16:32:00
"The NSA has trillions of telephone calls and emails in their databases that they've collected over the last several years," Greenwald told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "And what these programs are, are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things. It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future." |
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RT.com
2013-07-28 13:41:00
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued certificates for two types of unmanned aircraft for civilian use. The move is expected to lead to the first approved commercial drone operation later this summer. The two unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are the Scan Eagle X200 and Aero Vironment's PUMA. They both measure around 4 ½ feet long, weighing less than 55 pounds, and have a wing span of ten and nine feet respectively. Both the Scan Eagle and the PUMA received "restricted category type certificates"which permit aerial surveillance. Prior to the FAA's decision, the only way the private sector could operate UAS in US airspace was by obtaining an experimental airworthiness certificate which specifically restricts commercial operations. |
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Ronnie Cummins
Alternet 2013-07-22 16:08:00
The anti-GMO movement in the U.S. has achieved some preliminary victories in GMO food labeling but that's not all that needs to be done. "The harder they come the harder they fall, one and all."-- Jimmy Cliff, reggae classic After enjoying a year of maximum profits, record stock prices, the defeat of a major GMO labeling campaign in California, pro-industry court decisions, and a formidable display of political power in Washington, D.C. - including slipping the controversial Monsanto Protection Act into the Federal Appropriations bill in March -- the Biotech Bully from St. Louis now finds itself on the defensive. It is no exaggeration to say that Monsanto has now become the most hated corporation in the world. Plagued by a growing army of Roundup-resistant superweeds and Bt-resistant superpests spreading across the country, a full 49 percent of American farmers are now frantically trying to kill these superweeds and pests with ever-larger quantities of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides including glyphosate (Roundup), glufosinate, 2,4D ("Agent Orange'), dicamba, and neonicotinoids (insecticides linked to massive deaths of honey bees). |
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The Hindu
Talks between Israel and Turkey on compensation for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on Freedom Flotilla
- a Gaza-bound aid flotilla - have stalled over disagreement on the
legal definition of the damages, said Turkey's deputy Prime Minister in
comments published on Thursday.2013-07-25 15:55:00 Bulent Arinc told a group of journalists that Israel wanted to make a voluntary payment out of compassion, while Turkey insists that Israel accept liability for a "wrongful act." His words were reported by Zaman and Hurriyet Daily News newspapers. Israel and Turkey have been working on repairing ties that were frayed after the May 31, 2010 raid which killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American when Israeli commandos stormed a ship bound for the Gaza Strip. Israel maintains a blockade on the territory. |
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| Society's Child |
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Emily Smith
Opposing Views 2013-07-24 14:54:00
A Massachusetts couple could face a $5,000 fine after they rushed to rescue an injured baby seal at a Marshfield Beach. Mark Hodgon was scuba diving at about 1:30 p.m. when he found the baby seal covered in shark bite marks. He said the seal was barely floating and breathing laboriously. "You could just tell his whole body was in the shark," Hodgon said. "It had to have been." Hodgon swam closer with a raft and helped the seal onto it then swam back to shore to take a better look at its injuries. Pictures of the event show the pup kissing Hodgon on the chin. |
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Chris Hedges
Truthdig 2013-07-28 14:58:00
Debbie Bourne, 45, was at her apartment in the Liberty Village housing projects in Plainfield, N.J., on the afternoon of April 30 when police banged on the door and pushed their way inside. The officers ordered her, her daughter, 14, and her son, 22, who suffers from autism, to sit down and not move and then began ransacking the home. Bourne's husband, from whom she was estranged and who was in the process of moving out, was the target of the police, who suspected him of dealing cocaine. As it turned out, the raid would cast a deep shadow over the lives of three innocents - Bourne and her children. The murder of a teenage boy by an armed vigilante, George Zimmerman, is only one crime set within a legal and penal system that has criminalized poverty. Poor people, especially those of color, are worth nothing to corporations and private contractors if they are on the street. In jails and prisons, however, they each can generate corporate revenues of $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This use of the bodies of the poor to make money for corporations fuels the system of neoslavery that defines our prison system. |
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Joseph Ax
Reuters 2013-07-10 14:04:00
A woman who was reunited with her family nearly 25 years after she was kidnapped from a New York City hospital cannot sue the city for damages, a state judge has ruled. Carlina White, whose dramatic story spawned headlines and a Lifetime television movie, was taken from Harlem Hospital in 1987, when she was 19 days old, and raised by her kidnapper in Connecticut. After essentially solving her own case and finding her birth parents, White sued the city for $2 million last year. Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Freed, however, said that White could not sue because her parents had already done so on her behalf in 1988, reaching a $750,000 settlement that included money set aside for White if she were found before her 21st birthday. |
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Russia Today
An obese South African chef weighing 130 kg (286 lbs) is being kicked
out of New Zealand for being too fat - but he's not leaving without a
fight.2013-07-28 13:54:00 Albert Buitenhuis was told his weight may put too much demand on the country's health service - despite his losing 30 kg (66 lbs) since arriving in New Zealand six years ago. Buitenhaus, who stands at five feet ten inches, has a body mass index of 40 - making him clinically obese. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said that an applicant's BMI must be under 35. "INZ's medical assessors have said to consider to what extent there might be indications of future high-cost and high-need demand for health services," a spokesman said, as quoted by the Huffington Post. Both Buitenhaus and his wife are now facing deportation, which they say is unfair. Before arriving to New Zealand, the chef weighed 159 kg (350 lbs). Much of that weight was gained after Buitenhaus quit smoking. His wife Marthie told the media that their visas had been approved every year since they arrived in 2007. |
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Russia Today
The FBI says they've recovered 105 missing and exploited children over
the weekend by orchestrating a massive crackdown on crime rings that
trafficked minors for sex.2013-07-28 18:04:00 The Federal Bureau of Investigation made the announcement Monday morning, and reportedly has arrested 150 pimps involved in selling minors through an underground sex trade that exploited missing children ages 13 through 17 around the country. According to a statement made early Monday by Ronald Hosko, the agency's assistant director of their criminal investigative division, the coordinated raids in more than 70 cities under the name "Operation Cross Country" marked the largest effort of its type ever undertaken by the FBI. |
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Joshua Brustein
Business Week 2013-07-16 12:51:00
Two years ago, when the craze for social media startups was in full swing, a former Facebook (FB) engineer summed up the situation with a memorable lament: "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," the engineer, Jeff Hammerbacher, told Bloomberg Businessweek at the time. "That sucks," he added. It might be over. Social media companies drew only 2 percent of the venture capital headed to Internet-based enterprises last quarter, according to data published on Tuesday by CB Insights, a research firm that tracks venture-capital investment. In the two-year stretch that ended in the middle of 2012, social media companies took in at least 6 percent of overall venture capital invested in Internet companies each quarter. But for three of the last four quarters, those social startups have brought in 2 percent or less (with the outlier quarter largely the result of a huge investment in Pinterest earlier this year). The peak came in the third quarter of 2011, when social companies led by Twitter took in 21 percent of the total $3.8 billion in Internet deals by venture capital firms. |
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John Hooper
The Guardian 2013-07-29 07:23:00
Francisco Garzón was freed on bail after a closed-door hearing at which his passport was taken away The driver of the train involved in Spain's worst rail disaster in almost 70 years was freed on bail on Sunday night after reportedly admitting to a judge that he had behaved recklessly. Police on Friday formally accused 52-year-old Francisco Garzón of manslaughter caused by recklessness. During the closed-door hearing, Judge Luis Aláez took away Garzón's passport and ordered him to report weekly to the court, according to local media. The driver, accompanied by his lawyer, was questioned for around two hours. The reports, citing police and judicial sources, said Garzón had admitted reckless behaviour. But it was not clear whether the judge had laid charges against the driver or, if so, whether they were the same as those levelled by police. Garzón arrived at the court handcuffed and wearing dark glasses. He had a visible bruise on his forehead - the result of a gash that he sustained in the crash and which required nine stitches. | |
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Comment: Indeed, it's starting to look like this was
not the drivers' fault. In addition, we now have a possible motive for
blaming driver - and as usual, it involves big money.
Why the two-hour delay before a state of emergency declared, leaving local residents to carry out rescue operations? Why did the driver call the operator to tell them the train was going too fast and that it was about to derail moments before the crash? Questions are starting to pile up for the Spanish authorities. |
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Adam Aspinall
The Mirror, UK 2013-07-29 04:48:00
UK women are spending their holidays worrying about sex attacks amid claims that three have been raped in the past seven days. With its countless bars flogging cheap booze and all-night party lifestyle, it's easy to see why Malia is a magnet for young Brits wanting to have fun in the sun. But the mix of free-flowing alcohol and girls in skimpy clothing is also attracting a more sinister sort to the crowded resort - rapists. And UK women are now spending their holidays worrying about sex attacks amid claims that three have been raped in the past seven days. The hedonistic party town on the Greek island of Crete is still reeling from the brutal knife murder of British holidaymaker Tyrell Matthews-Burton during a brawl. But on a night out this weekend, the Mirror discovered the fear of violence was being outweighed by that of rape - as it is in other popular seaside resorts across the Mediterranean. Locals claim police are turning a blind eye to the attacks, leading to vigilante justice, and many victims do not even bother to report attacks or were too drunk to remember the details. Londoner Nikki Howarth, who manages Malia's Candy Club bar, is warning girls to stick together. |
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Lizzy Davies
The Guardian 2013-07-29 02:39:00
Coach carrying a group of tourists near town of Avellino careered off a viaduct and plunged down a steep slope. At least 37 people died and many others were injured when a coach carrying a group of tourists through southern Italy crashed into several vehicles, careered off a viaduct and then plunged down a steep slope. As emergency workers contended with the dark and highly precarious terrain to try to pull bodies from the wreckage, firefighters said most of the bodies had been found inside the coach and a few more beneath the vehicle. Eleven people - including three children - were injured and taken to hospitals in the surrounding area, the Ansa news agency reported. Two were reported to be in critical condition. State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead. |
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News.com.au
2013-07-28 11:31:00
DELTA Airlines is being sued after a disabled man claimed he was forced to crawl across the tarmac multiple times after the carrier refused to help him on and off the plane. Baraka Kanaan, a former philosophy professor who now heads a not-for-profit, was scheduled to fly from his home in Hawaii to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts last July to attend a conference. Mr Kanaan was left unable to walk after car crash in 2000 but claimed he contacted the airline weeks in advance to tell them of his disability. According to the Huffington Post, Mr Kanaan said he was assured by Delta staff "that he would be received and given reasonable accommodation for his disability." Yet when his flight touched down in Massachusetts there was no equipment to help him off the airplane and to his wheelchair. When he asked what could be done, a flight attendant allegedly told him, "I don't know, but we can't get you off the plane." According to a law suit filed by Mr Kanaan this month, he said he was left with no option but to crawl in his best suit "hand over hand through the main cabin and down a narrow flight of stairs and across the tarmac to his wheelchair". |
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Hope Yen
The Big Story 2013-07-28 16:48:00
Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend. The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality. Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor." |
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rbth.ru
Sochi Olympic champions that happen to win their medals on February 15, 2014 - one year after the meteor crashed in the Urals - will receive special medals inlaid with tiny pieces of the celestial object.2013-07-27 07:10:00 A select few athletes lucky enough to win gold medals on a specific date at the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will be awarded an extra set of medals with bits of the meteor embedded in them; this is being done for the first anniversary of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteor, the Ministry of Culture of the Chelyabinsk Region reported.
The medals will be crafted at an arms factory in the Urals, the report indicated, citing the region's Minister of Culture Alexei Betekhtin. Apparently, the medals, which have yet to be designed, will be awarded to athletes on February 15, 2014, marking exactly one year since the meteor crash. "We will award our medals to all athletes who win gold medals on that day, because the meteor, just like the Olympic Games, is an event of global significance," Betekhtin said. According to a spokesperson for the regional Ministry of Culture, the meteor-inlaid medals will be awarded in addition to the regular set of Olympic prizes. The medals will most likely be gold-plated. The meteor, dubbed "Chelyabinsk," crashed in Chelyabinsk Region on February 15, 2013, causing a powerful shock wave that damaged buildings and smashed windows in Chelyabinsk, and injured over 1,600 people. First published in Russian in RIA Novosti. |
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Daniel Johnson
The Telegraph, UK 2013-07-26 21:39:00
Labros Hydras, 49, pulled the 'hexapus' from the sea while snorkelling in Greece, and following local tradition he smashed it against a rock to kill it before taking it to a nearby tavern to cook. But after the chef refused to cook the rare animal, the father-of-two fried it for himself before doing some research and realising what he had done. Mr Labros, a mechanical engineer living in Washington DC, said he was "horrified" when he found out what he had eaten. "I wanted to find out more, but there was no internet where we were", Mr Labros said. "I then called my friend who is a biologist and he told me it was true and I was horrified. |
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Monty Pelerin
Monty Pelerin's World 2013-07-26 21:29:00
It is nearly impossible to convince people that an economic collapse is likely, perhaps inevitable. It is beyond anything they have seen or can imagine. I attribute that to a normalcy bias, an inherent weakness of experiential learners. For many, accepting something that has not occurred during their time on the planet is not possible. The laws of economics and mathematics may shape history but they are not controlled by history. The form of cataclysm and its timing is indeterminable. Political decisions continue to shape both. The madmen who are responsible for the coming disaster continue to behave as if they can manage to avoid it. Violating Einstein's definition of insanity, they continue to apply the same poison that caused the problem. These fools believe they can manage complexities they do not understand. We are bigger fools for providing them the authority to indulge their hubris and wreak such damage. |
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Top Information Post
2013-07-27 19:07:00
He's a bona-fide hero who stopped the so-called "Butcher of Brighton Beach" at the end of a 28-hour city killing spree - but a Manhattan judge yesterday said a father of two is entitled to zero from the city for his injuries in the harrowing 2011 subway encounter. Joseph Lozito sued the NYPD in January 2012, claiming police officers did nothing to help him as he confronted violent madman Maksim Gelman on a packed No. 3 train. But Judge Margaret Chan tossed the case yesterday, saying that while she lauded Lozito's bravery, cops did not have a specific charge of saving him from Gelman. Because "no direct promises of protection were made to Mr. Lozito," the police had "no special duty" to protect him. |
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| Secret History |
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Brian Handwerk
National Geographic 2013-07-29 14:24:00
Three Inca mummies found near the lofty summit of Volcán Llullaillaco in Argentina were so well preserved that they put a human face on the ancient ritual of capacocha - which ended with their sacrifice. Now the bodies of 13-year-old Llullaillaco Maiden and her younger companions Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl have revealed that mind-altering substances played a part in their deaths and during the year-long series of ceremonial processes that prepared them for their final hours. Under biochemical analysis, the Maiden's hair yielded a record of what she ate and drank during the last two years of her life. This evidence seems to support historical accounts of a few selected children taking part in a year of sacred ceremonies - marked in their hair by changes in food, coca, and alcohol consumption - that would ultimately lead to their sacrifice. In Inca religious ideology, the authors note, coca and alcohol could induce altered states associated with the sacred. But the substances likely played a more pragmatic role as well, disorienting and sedating the young victims on the high mountainside to make them more accepting of their own grim fates. |
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Yereth Rosen
Reuters 2013-07-10 13:44:00
An Alaska glacier is exposing remains from a military air tragedy six decades later. Relics from an Air Force cargo plane that slammed into a mountain in November 1952, killing all 52 servicemen on board, first emerged last summer on Colony Glacier, about 50 miles east of Anchorage. That discovery, by Alaska National Guard crews flying training missions out of Anchorage, put into motion a sophisticated recovery program carried out by the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. After last year's initial work - when nearly everything that rose to the glacier's surface was picked up - the JPAC team came back this summer to collect additional relics pushed out of the ice since then. "As the glacier melts and the glacier moves, more material comes up to the surface," Dr. Gregory Berg, the forensic anthropologist who leads the team of specialists examining the crevasse-ridden ice field, told reporters at a news briefing last week. |
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CBS News
2013-07-21 12:57:00
A team of Israeli archaeologists believes it has discovered the ruins of a palace belonging to the biblical King David, but other Israeli experts dispute the claim. Archaeologists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Israel's Antiquities Authority said their find, a large fortified complex west of Jerusalem at a site called Khirbet Qeiyafa , is the first palace of the biblical king ever to be discovered. "Khirbet Qeiyafa is the best example exposed to date of a fortified city from the time of King David," said Yossi Garfinkel, a Hebrew University archaeologist, suggesting that David himself would have used the site. Garfinkel led the seven-year dig with Saar Ganor of Israel's Antiquities Authority. |
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John Hooper
The Guardian 2002-08-13 11:42:00
Germany's most notorious postwar neo-Nazi party was led by an intelligence agent working for the British, according to both published and unpublished German sources. The alleged agent - the late Adolf von Thadden - came closer than anyone to giving the far-right real influence over postwar German politics. Under his leadership, the National Democratic party (NPD) made a string of impressive showings in regional elections in the late 60s, and there were widespread fears that it would gain representation in the federal parliament. Yet, according to a report earlier this year in the Cologne daily, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the man dubbed "the New Führer" was working for British intelligence throughout the four years he led the NPD, from 1967 to 1971. | |
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Comment: This certainly puts those reports of British-German collusion before and during World War 2 one giant leap closer to reality...
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Robert McCrum
The Observer 2013-07-29 08:45:00
One of the darkest and most enthralling British espionage stories of the 20th century turns 50 this month, still resonant with sinister meaning. It was on 1 July 1963 that the British government finally admitted what it had known for some time: that Harold Adrian Russell Philby - "Kim" to friends and family - was not merely living in the Soviet Union as a defector and a Russian spy, but was actually the fabled "third man". Later this archetype of treachery would become known, in the words of his biographer, as "the spy who betrayed a generation". Philby was perhaps the most lethal double agent in the annals of British espionage. As a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring and a secret servant of the Soviet intelligence services, Philby was responsible for the betrayal of countless national secrets as well as the brutal elimination of many British agents. At the same time he was a member of the British establishment, with a distinguished literary father and friendships with prominent English literati, such as Graham Greene, as well as with high-flying US spooks such as James Angleton, later to become head of the CIA. If ever there was a member of the club - two, as it turned out - it was Kim Philby, OBE. |
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Nicholas K. Geranios
Huffington Post 2013-07-27 10:21:00
Deep in the mountains of northern Idaho, miles from the nearest town, lies evidence of a little-known portion of a shameful chapter of American history. There are no buildings, signs or markers to indicate what happened at the site 70 years ago, but researchers sifting through the dirt have found broken porcelain, old medicine bottles and lost artwork identifying the location of the first internment camp where the U.S. government used people of Japanese ancestry as a workforce during World War II. Today, a team of researchers from the University of Idaho wants to make sure the Kooskia Internment Camp isn't forgotten to history. "We want people to know what happened, and make sure we don't repeat the past," said anthropology professor Stacey Camp, who is leading the research. It's an important mission, said Charlene Mano-Shen of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle. Mano-Shen said her grandfather was forced into a camp near Missoula, Mont., during WWII, and some of the nation's responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 evoked memories of the Japanese internments. Muslims, she said Thursday, "have been put on FBI lists and detained in the same way my grandfather was." |
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Russia Today
A US writer has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA spiked a French village's food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD2010-03-11 10:14:00 Journalist H P Albarelli Jr came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of a biochemist who fell from a 13th floor window two years after a mystery illness that caused an entire French village to go temporarily mad 50 years ago. Hundreds of residents in picturesque Pont-Saint-Esprit were suddenly struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations on August 16, 1951.
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Melissa Roddy
Huffington Post 2010-03-04 10:08:00
For well over half a century, the CIA (and its predecessor, OSS) has been violating the Geneva Conventions and the United States Constitution, subjecting the guilty and innocent alike to "cruel and unusual" treatment. H.P. Albarelli's A Terrible Mistake -- The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Cold War Experiments, a fascinating and important new work of unprecedented depth (10 years in the making and involving numerous first hand interviews), pulls back the curtain on the Agency's diabolical mind control experiments and extensive efforts to assemble and analyze every known substance that could kill a person relatively easily, quickly and surreptitiously. A Terrible Mistake is the true story of how the CIA drugged one of its own scientists and, when "the little bird" flew through a closed window on the 13th floor of the Statler Hotel in Manhattan, proceeded to publicly insist, for decades to come, that Dr. Frank Olson was mentally unstable and had committed suicide. Albarelli takes us with him as he investigates the question: did Frank Olson jump, or was he pitched? This compelling tale not only reveals the wherefore and how of Frank Olson's murder, but looks behind the scenes at CIA and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, deliciously acquainting us with some of the Agency's darkest characters, including: Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, head of the notorious MKULTRA program, whose mind control techniques included extensive use of LSD; the evil psychiatrist Dr. Harold Abramson; various Corsican mafia kingpins; and the ultimate spy, Pierre Lafitte. Lafitte was not only glamorously descended from the famous pirate captain, Jean Lafitte, he was also a CIA assassin, who just happened to be working as a bellman at the Statler Hotel the night Frank Olson crashed through a closed window and dropped to his death. |
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popular-archaeology.com
Some ancient monumental structures were built to manipulate sound for sensory and mind effects, suggests recent research.2012-03-12 15:41:00 The results of recent research suggests that ancient, or prehistoric, builders of the monumental structures found in such diverse places as Ireland, Malta, southern Turkey and Peru all have a peculiarly common characteristic -- they may have been specially designed to conduct and manipulate sound to produce certain sensory effects. Beginning in 2008, a recent and ongoing study of the massive 6,000-year-old stone structure complex known as the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum on the island of Malta, for example, is producing some revelatory results. Like its related prehistoric temple structures on Malta, this structure features central corridors and curved chambers. But this structure is unique in that it is subterranean, created through the removal of an estimated 2,000 tons of stone carved out with stone hammers and antler picks. Low voices within its walls create eerie, reverberating echoes, and a sound made or words spoken in certain places can be clearly heard throughout all of its three levels. Now, scientists are suggesting that certain sound vibration frequencies created when sound is emitted within its walls are actually altering human brain functions of those within earshot. "Regional brain activity in a number of healthy volunteers was monitored by EEG through exposure to different sound vibration frequencies," reports Malta temple expert Linda Eneix of the Old Temples Study Foundation, "The findings indicated that at 110 Hz the patterns of activity over the prefrontal cortex abruptly shifted, resulting in a relative deactivation of the language center and a temporary shifting from left to right-sided dominance related to emotional processing and creativity. This shifting did not occur at 90 Hz or 130 Hz......In addition to stimulating their more creative sides, it appears that an atmosphere of resonant sound in the frequency of 110 or 111 Hz would have been "switching on" an area of the brain that bio-behavioral scientists believe relates to mood, empathy and social behavior. Deliberately or not, the people who spent time in such an environment under conditions that may have included a low male voice -- in ritual chanting or even simple communication -- were exposing themselves to vibrations that may have actually impacted their thinking." [1] |
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thetruthwillout
Watch as the two secret service men assigned to protect president
Kennedy's motorcade are ordered to stand down just minutes before
entering Dealey Plaza. They are obviously not happy about being given
these orders...YouTube 2006-07-27 06:26:00
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| Science & Technology |
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David Dickinson
Universe Today 2013-07-29 17:23:00
Our nearest star has exhibited some schizophrenic behavior thus far for 2013. By all rights, we should be in the throes of a solar maximum, an 11-year peak where the Sun is at its most active and dappled with sunspots. Thus far though, Solar Cycle #24 has been off to a sputtering start, and researchers that attended the meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division earlier this month are divided as to why."Not only is this the smallest cycle we've seen in the space age, it's the smallest cycle in 100 years," NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center research scientist David Hathaway said during a recent press teleconference conducted by the Marshall Space Flight Center. Cycle #23 gave way to a profound minimum that saw a spotless Sol on 260 out of 365 days (71%!) in 2009. Then, #Cycle 24 got off to a late start, about a full year overdue - we should have seen a solar maximum in 2012, and now that's on track for the late 2013 to early 2014 time frame. For solar observers, both amateur, professional and automated, its seems as if the Sun exhibits a "split-personality" this year, displaying its active Cycle #24-self one week, only to sink back into a blank despondency the next. |
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Yahoo! News
2013-07-29 12:14:00
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory space telescope spotted an enormous hole in the sun's burning atmosphere. Jen Markham explains the phenomena and why such holes really are surprisingly common. |
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Just one small dot on the landscape: the spectacular Earth taken from Saturn, 900 million miles away
Michael Zennie
Mail Online 2013-07-22 13:23:00
Earth appears as an insignificant-looking pale blue dot below Saturn's majestic rings in a breathtaking new image from the Cassini spacecraft. The picture was captured on July 19 by the probe's wide-angle camera from a distance of 900 million miles. Magnifying the image five times reveals not only the Earth but also the moon, a fainter smudge to the right of the planet. |
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Tariq Malik
Huffington Post 2013-07-29 06:02:00
A NASA call for novel ideas on how to tackle its ambitious mission to capture an asteroid and park it near the moon has paid off in spades, with the agency receiving hundreds of proposals from potential partners. NASA has received more than 400 proposals from private companies, non-profit groups and international organizations in response to a call for asteroid-retrieval mission suggestions released last month, agency officials announced Friday (July 26). The space agency will review the submissions over the next month and plan to discuss the most promising ideas in a public workshop in September. "We are really excited about the overwhelming response," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told reporters here at the NewSpace 2013 conference, adding that the ideas were "overwhelmingly positive." NASA put out an official request for information on June 18 to seek input on how to achieve its asteroid retrieval mission. That asteroid capture plan, which NASA unveiled in April, is known as the agency's Asteroid Initiative. |
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Ernesto Guido & Nick Howes
M.P.E.C. 2013-O29, issued on 2013 July 20, reports the recovery of the Apollo asteroid 2003 DZ15 (magnitude 18) by F51 Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala, on images taken on July 19.4 with a 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien + CCD.Remanzacco Observatory 2013-07-28 21:38:00 2003 DZ15 was discovered on February 2003 by 608 Haleakala-NEAT/MSSS and it has an estimated size of 95 m - 210 m (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=22.2) and it will have a close approach with Earth at about 9.1 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0233 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 0037 UT on 2013 July 30. This asteroid will reach the peak magnitude ~16.5 on 29 and 30 July 2013. This is its closest approach to the Earth for this century, although it will make a pass nearly as close to the Earth in 2057 on February 12th. We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, from the Q62 ITelescope network (Siding Spring, AU) on 2013, July 28.6, through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + focal reducer. Below you can see our image, single 120-second exposure, taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~16.6 and moving at ~40.80 "/min. At the moment of the close approach 2003 DZ15 will move at ~52 "/min. Click on the image below to see a bigger version (the asteroid is trailed in the image due to its fast speed).
Here you can see a short animation showing the movement of 2003 DZ15 (three consecutive 120-second exposure). |
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Penn Medicine
2013-07-26 17:30:00
Implications for Deciphering Differences in Disease Susceptibility, Drug Resistance and Effectiveness. Humans are far more than merely the sum total of all the cells that form the organs and tissues. The digestive tract is also home to a vast colony of bacteria of all varieties, as well as the myriad viruses that prey upon them. Because the types of bacteria carried inside the body vary from person to person, so does this viral population, known as the virome. By closely following and analyzing the virome of one individual over two-and-a-half years, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, led by professor of MicrobiologyFrederic D. Bushman, Ph.D., have uncovered some important new insights on how a viral population can change and evolve - and why the virome of one person can vary so greatly from that of another. The evolution and variety of the virome can affect susceptibility and resistance to disease among individuals, along with variable effectiveness of drugs. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most of the virome consists of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria rather than directly attacking their human hosts. However, the changes that bacteriophages wreak upon bacteria can also ultimately affect humans. "Bacterial viruses are predators on bacteria, so they mold their populations," says Bushman. "Bacterial viruses also transport genes for toxins, virulence factors that modify the phenotype of their bacterial host." In this way, an innocent, benign bacterium living inside the body can be transformed by an invading virus into a dangerous threat. |
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Seiichi Yoshida
Discovery Date: July 24, 2013Aerith Net 2013-07-28 14:00:00 Magnitude: 17.7 mag Discoverer: Robert H. McNaught (Siding Spring)
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2013-O54. |
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Seiichi Yoshida
Discovery Date: July 16, 2013Aerith Net 2013-07-28 13:56:00 Magnitude: 20.6 mag Discoverer: Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2013-O53. |
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Ernesto Guido & Nick Howes
Following the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object
Confirmation Page about a possible Supernova in M74 (TOCP Designation: PSN J01364816+1545310) we performed some follow-up of this object remotely through a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD of iTelescope network (MPC Code Q62 - Siding Spring, AU).Remanzacco Observatory 2013-07-28 13:49:00 On our images taken on July 27.7, 2013 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with R-filtered CCD magnitude 13.0 and V-filtered CCD magnitude 12.6 at coordinates: R.A. = 01 36 48.20, Decl.= +15 45 31.0 (equinox 2000.0; UCAC-3 catalogue reference stars). Our annotated confirmation image (single 120-second exposures under a cloudy sky):
An animation showing a comparison between our confirmation image and the archive POSS2/UKSTU plate (R Filter - 1990) can be viewed here. |
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Bob King
Universe Today 2013-07-27 13:02:00
I love this galaxy. Not only does M74 display a near perfect spiral form but if this latest supernova is confirmed, it will be the third to "go boom" in the galaxy in just 11 years. The new object, designated PSN J01364816+1545310, was discovered blazing near 12.4 magnitude by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search at Lick Observatory near San Jose, Calif. "PSN" stands for "possible supernova" and the long string of numbers give the object's position in the sky using the celestial equivalents of latitude and longitude. |
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Mike Wall
Space.com 2013-07-27 06:07:00
A spectacular new photo gives a deep-space view of Comet ISON, which could put on a dazzling show when it zooms through the inner solar system in late November. The image - which researchers stitched together from five photos of ISON taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 30 - shows the icy wanderer blazing against a backdrop of galaxies and bright stars. Read rest of article here. Comment: Note the passing comment about a sharp increase in comet numbers in the following NASA video:
Before 1979, there were less than a dozen known sungrazing comets. As of December 2012, NASA had discovered or knew of over 2,500...
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| Earth Changes |
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John Flesher
Daily Journal 2013-07-29 15:09:00
Traverse City, Michigan - Already ravaged by toxic algae, invasive mussels and industrial pollution, the Great Lakes now confront another potential threat that few had even imagined until recently: untold millions of plastic litter bits, some visible only through a microscope. Scientists who have studied gigantic masses of floating plastic in the world's oceans are now reporting similar discoveries in the lakes that make up nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh water. They retrieved the particles from Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie last year. This summer, they're widening the search to Lakes Michigan and Ontario, skimming the surface with finely meshed netting dragged behind sailing vessels. "If you're out boating in the Great Lakes, you're not going to see large islands of plastic," said Sherri Mason, a chemist with State University of New York at Fredonia and one of the project leaders. "But all these bits of plastic are out there." Experts say it's unclear how long "microplastic" pollution has been in the lakes or how it is affecting the environment. Studies are under way to determine whether fish are eating the particles. The newly identified hazard is the latest of many for a Great Lakes fish population that has been hammered by natural enemies like the parasitic sea lamprey, which nearly wiped out lake trout, and man-made contamination. Through it all, the fishing industry remains a pillar of the region's tourist economy. Until the research is completed, it won't be clear whether the pollution will affect fishing guidelines, the use of certain plastics or cities that discharge treated wastewater into the lakes. |
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Disaster Report.com
A severe hailstorm hit German village of Wassel in Sehnte Saturday evening.2013-07-29 15:37:00 German hailstones were the size of tennis balls. Hailstones damaged roofs, windows and several vehicles, local medias reported. The most catastrophic hailstorm in Europe struck Munich, Germany on July 12, 1984. Germany hailstorm damaged some 70,000 homes and injured 400 people. Germany hailstorm damage was estimated at over US$2 billion. Below is a raw you tube video of German hailstorm by Associated Press.
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Craig Lucie
A sinkhole under the Ivy Ridge Apartments in Cobb County is still
growing this week and residents said they may never be able to live in
their apartments again.WSBTV.com 2013-07-22 14:26:00
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Peter Allen
Seven people died yesterday on a series of beaches in the south of France which are hugely popular with British tourists.Dailymail.co.uk 2013-07-28 11:14:00 High winds which reached speeds of up to 80mph and unpredictable currents were blamed for the so-called 'Black Sunday' in the Herault department, which is on the Mediterranean coast. At least three other people were tonight in a 'serious condition' after escaping from the sea.
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Rob Williams
Kristen Beauregard, 44, was stung about 200 times and her boyfriend
around 50 times as the insects chased and followed them in Pantego,
north TexasThe Independent, UK 2013-07-28 13:02:00
A swarm of around 30,000 bees attacked a couple in Texas as they exercised their miniature horses, stinging the animals so many times they died. Kristen Beauregard, 44, was stung about 200 times and her boyfriend around 50 times as the insects chased and followed them in Pantego, north Texas. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Kristen Beauregard had noticed bees near her home and had tried in vain to get rid of them. On Wednesday evening, as she was exercising one of her two miniature horses, thousands of bees attacked her and her boyfriend. According to reports the horses, Chip and Trump, were so covered in bees they shimmered. Neither could be saved. |
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James Rush
Siberian city which sees snow and ice for most of the year hits record-breaking highs as mercury rises to 32CThe Daily Mail, UK 2013-07-27 07:30:00 Temperatures in Norilsk have hit a record-breaking high of 32C Previous record in the city was 31.9C in 1979, according to reports Average July temperature in Norilsk is 13.6C and lowest ever is -61C Others however have suggested record high still stands at 32.2C One of the coldest and most northern cities in the world has witnessed record-breaking temperatures, reaching heights more usually associated with the Mediterranean. The Siberian nickel capital of Norilsk recently saw temperatures hit 32C, beating the record from 1979. According to reports, the previous hottest temperature in the industrial city in the Kransnoyarsk region, which lies above the Arctic Circle, was 31.9C. |
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Sean Carlin
Why did six dolphins die and wash up along the Jersey Shore over the
past week? Officials are using science to unravel the mystery.The Inquirer 2013-07-26 16:54:00 The first dolphin was found July 18 at Long Beach Township and two more were discovered Monday in Holgate and Barnegat Light. Another two turned up Wednesday in Holgate and Ocean City, and the last washed up Thursday at Ship Bottom. The causes of the deaths will not be known until officials have the results of necropsies, said Bob Schoelkopf, founding director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. That information is expected to begin coming in Monday. "Every year we have dolphin deaths," Schoelkopf said. "We won't speculate on a cause until the lab results come back." |
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Huffington Post
From a frigid winter to an oppressively hot summer, 2013 has had its share of extreme weather. The widest tornado ever recorded in the United States wreaked havoc on Oklahoma. Wildfires ran rampant in the West, claiming the lives of 19 young firefighters in Ariz. The world as a whole experienced one of the hottest Junes ever recorded.2013-07-26 16:09:00 This infographic from the World Resources Institute plots the most extreme weather events from January until now. WRI created a similar infographic last year, focusing on weather events from January 2012 through September 2012. According to their site, the group focuses on the intersection between environment and socio-economic development, topics that come to the forefront in the aftermath of weather-related disasters. "All weather events are affected by a warming planet," President Obama said in his climate change speech on June 25th. "The question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late." |
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SpaceWeather
On July 24th, about an hour after sunset, Gerardo Connon of Rio Grande
city in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, walked outside and witnessed a rare
display of nacreous clouds. The colorful apparition was as bright as the street lights in the city below:2013-07-27 13:12:00
These clouds, also known as "mother of pearl clouds," form in the stratosphere far above the usual realm of weather. They are seldom seen, but when they are, the reports usually come from high-northern parts of our planet. This apparition over Tierra del Fuego was unusual indeed. |
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strangesounds.org
2013-07-26 10:33:00
The Seine-Maritime is known to be frequently affected by erosion. But what happened last monday, July 18, 2013, is almost unbelievable! As shown in this incredible video, a huge cliff just 100 meters from the beach detached and nearly 30,000 tons of rock spread suddenly onto the beach in the municipality of Saint-Jouin-Bruneval. This impressive (it is the least we can say) landslide was caught by a BFM TV witness (76news). You said quiet vacation?
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RTE
2013-07-27 06:32:00
An emergency situation has been declared at Letterkenny General Hospital following flooding in a significant section of the hospital. The facility's emergency department; radiology department; outpatient department; pathology and medical records departments; and several wards and kitchens have all been evacuated. A nearby tributary of the River Swilley overflowed and caused the flooding between 5pm and 5.30pm. In a statement, the HSE confirmed 11 patients have been moved to the day surgery area, which is not in use over the weekend. The executive has said there is no risk to patients currently in the hospital and the emergency service continues to function. |
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Daniel Johnson
Mystery surrounds the death of 25,000 fish in a showpiece ornamental lake, which are thought to have died of mass suffocation. The Telegraph 2013-07-26 17:38:00
Theories for the deaths include thunderstorms and a deadly form of algae, after environment officials found oxygen levels in the lake at Pittville Park, Cheltenham, were unusually low. It thought that thunderstorms in the early hours of Tuesday morning could have stirred up silt, making the lake thick with muck. While it is not thought that the water had been deliberately tampered with, a bloom of blue green algae could also have had a dramatic impact on water oxygen levels. Dog walkers have been warned to keep their pets out of the toxic water while experts carry out tests into why the fish - mainly young roach with a handful of pike - were killed. Janice Peacey, a community ranger, said: "We know that oxygen levels are low but at this stage we don't know more than that. |
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US Geological Survey
2013-07-26 17:55:00
Event Time 2013-07-26 21:32:59 UTC 2013-07-26 19:32:59 UTC-02:00 at epicenter Location 57.789°S 23.959°W depth=10.0km (6.2mi) Nearby Cities 203km (126mi) NE of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands 2715km (1687mi) ESE of Ushuaia, Argentina 2937km (1825mi) ESE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina 2952km (1834mi) ESE of Punta Arenas, Chile 2258km (1403mi) ESE of Stanley, Falkland Islands Technical Details |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com 2013-07-29 17:07:00
Despite what the media preaches to you, your body has no intrinsic need for drugs. Over the course of a lifetime, the average person may be prescribed 14,000 pills (this doesn't even include over-the-counter meds), and by the time you reach your 70s you could be taking five or more pills every day, according to Pill Poppers, a documentary. The featured film asks a poignant question that anyone taking medications should also, which is, are these pills really beneficial, or are they doing more harm than good? |
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Kristin Wartman
Common Dreams 2013-07-24 16:15:00
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) made two moves in recent days that seemingly address consumer concerns on some hot button issues. First, it banned the use of bisphenol A (BPA) based epoxy resins in coatings for baby formula packaging. Second, it proposed a limit on how much arsenic is allowed in apple juice. Looking more closely at these decisions, however, it seems that FDA is really more interested in appeasing industry, than doing its duty to protect the public. So what action is the FDA really taking? Due to intense consumer demand, manufacturers of infant formula packaging have already stopped using BPA. And, based on the new standard for arsenic levels, 95 percent of companies that make apple juice are already in compliance. The FDA's BPA ban is actually an abandonment petition coming from industry stating that it is now illegal to use BPA for those specific products - but it does not say anything about the safety of BPA. |
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Case Adams
Greenmedinfo 2013-07-17 15:40:00
There are three natural catastrophes occurring within nature in slow motion at the moment and they are our fault. All three catastrophes stem from the same kind of mistake made by human science and corporate greed. What are they and what are we doing wrong? The slow-motion catastrophes are:
All three are the result of the application of synthetic toxicity within nature in an attempt to work outside nature's normal processes. The application of toxins meant to inhibit certain organisms produces resistance, because living organisms by nature seek to survive, and will adapt to toxicity in order to continue their survival. This ability to adapt has been studied for many years by scientists and is well known among biology and evolution science. It is one of the foundations of biology taught at the most fundamental levels of instruction for any beginning scientist. Yet the scientific community has failed to understand how this most fundamental part of nature will interact with the toxicity that we have introduced over the past century. Did the scientists who developed these synthetic toxins really believe those toxins would provide a permanent solution? We obviously ignored this most fundamental understanding that living organisms will adapt to toxins. We forgot that organisms will develop defense mechanisms that will override deterrent toxins - producing a stronger organism in the process. |
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Allison Kopicki
New York Times 2013-07-27 14:58:00
Americans overwhelmingly support labeling foods that have been genetically modified or engineered, according to a New York Times poll conducted this year, with 93 percent of respondents saying that foods containing such ingredients should be identified. Three-quarters of Americans expressed concern about genetically modified organisms in their food, with most of them worried about the effects on people's health. Thirty-seven percent of those worried about G.M.O.'s said they feared that such foods cause cancer or allergies, although scientific studies continue to show that there is no added risk. Comment: Scientific Studies continue to show there is no added risk? GMO's are worrisome and there is scientific studies and research that address the fears of consumers when it comes to eating GMO foods. Read the following articles for a more informed perspective on this issue: Latest GMO Research: Decreased Fertility, Immunological Alterations and Allergies GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food in Humans Is Monsanto trying to kill us with GMO frankenfoods? GMO Foods Pose Higher Risks for Children GMOs and Health: The scientific basis for serious concern and immediate action How to Win a GMO Debate: 10 Facts Why Genetically Modified Food is Bad How Biotech Corporations and GMO Crops are Threatening the Environment and Humankind Alike New York Times editors ignore GMO health dangers Think the Anti-GMO movement is unscientific? Think again "Anyone that says, 'Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,' I say is either unbelievably stupid, or deliberately lying. The reality is, we don't know. The experiments simply haven't been done, and now we have become the guinea pigs." ~ David Suzuki, geneticist Among those with concerns, 26 percent said these foods are not safe to eat, or are toxic, while 13 percent were worried about environmental problems that they fear might be caused by genetic engineering. |
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Reuters
2013-07-17 13:04:00
Rochelle Harris, 27, said she remembered dislodging a fly from her ear while in Peru but thought nothing more of it until she started getting headaches and pains down one side of her face and woke up in Britain one morning with liquid on her pillow. Thinking she had a routine ear infection caused by a mosquito bite, she sought medical treatment at the Royal Derby Hospital in northern England, where a consultant noticed maggots in a small hole in her ear-canal. |
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Lewis Panther
The Mirror, UK 2013-07-29 05:03:00
Seanie Nammock suffers from a crippling genetic condition so rare that it affects only 45 people in the UK Fashion-mad Seanie Nammock is spending the summer hanging out with friends and shopping for clothes on a well-earned break from her A-levels. She never goes out without putting on her full make-up and dressing up to look her best. So to most observers she appears like any other attractive sixth-form girl. But Seanie, 17, is suffering from a crippling genetic condition so rare that it affects only 45 people in the UK. Cruelly - it is slowly turning her into a living statue. For five years she has been battling fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, known as FOP or stone man syndrome. It turns muscles, ligaments and tendons into solid bone. This forms a second skeleton on top of the original one, and each section of her body affected becomes solid like a statue. | |
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Comment: From the Wikipedia page on this condition:
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-07-26 15:53:00
A new study published in Letters in Applied Microbiologyshows that a commonly used food probiotic known as Lactobacillus plantarum is capable of degrading dangerous pesticide residues in wheat (pirimiphos-methyl), confirming the traditional fermentation-based food-processing technique known as culturing can significantly improve the safety of conventional food. The researchers found that Lactobacillus plantarum enhanced the degradation of the pesticide from 15-34%, a close to 81% enhancement. The significance and impact of the study was described as follows: Pesticide residues are an unavoidable part of the environment due to their extensive applications in agriculture. As wheat is a major cultivated cereal, the presence of pesticide residues in wheat is a real concern to human health. Reduction in pesticide residues during fermentation has been studied, but there is a lack of data regarding pesticide residues dissipation during cereal fermentation. Present work investigates the dissipation of pirimiphos-methyl during wheat fermentation by L. plantarum. Results are confirmation that food-processing techniques can significantly reduce the pesticide residues in food, offering a suitable means to tackle the current scenario of unsafe food. |
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CBS Local
2013-07-26 18:43:00
The mysterious stomach bug that has sickened hundreds in about a dozen states has local health officials on watch. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported one case in Central Illinois confirmed in a person who traveled to Iowa, where many of the cyclospora infection cases have been reported. There are no confirmed cases in Missouri, where Ryan Hobart is a spokesman for the Missouri Health Department. "We recommend that Missourians who feel they may be ill or have some of the symptoms, they should contact their health care provider to be examined," Hobart says. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Lucy Hyde
How harmful we perceive an act to be depends on whether we see the act as intentional, reveals new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.Association for Psychological Science 2013-07-29 14:05:00 The new research shows that people significantly overestimate the monetary cost of intentional harm, even when they are given a financial incentive to be accurate. "The law already recognizes intentional harm as more wrong than unintentional harm," explain researchers Daniel Ames and Susan Fiske of Princeton University. "But it assumes that people can assess compensatory damages -- what it would cost to make a person 'whole' again -- independently of punitive damages." According to Ames and Fiske, the new research suggests that this separation may not be psychologically plausible: "These studies suggest that people might not only penalize intentional harm more, but actually perceive it as intrinsically more damaging." In their first experiment, Ames and Fiske asked participants to read a vignette about a profit-sharing company in which the CEO made a poor financial investment and cost his employees part of their paycheck. |
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Victoria Woollaston
Mail Online 2013-07-18 13:11:00
According to recent figures people spend up to 40 per cent of their time talking about themselves. Researchers from Harvard University Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab wanted to find out why people like the sound of their own voice so much and if it was linked to the parts of their brain associated with pleasure and reward. After conducting tests using brain scanning technology they found that when people talk about themselves it triggers the same chemical reaction they experience during sex and this motivates them to share personal information more regularly. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to carry out the tests. This imaging tool can identify changes in the level of blood flow to certain parts of the brain when presented with certain stimuli. |
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Richard Gray
The Telegraph, UK 2013-07-26 01:52:00
Psychologists have found that people who are often described as "night owls" display more signs of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathic tendencies than those who are "morning larks". The scientists suggest these reason for these traits, known as the Dark Triad, being more prevalent in those who do better in the night may be linked to our evolutionary past. They claim that the hours of darkness may have helped to conceal those who adopted a "cheaters strategy" while living in groups. Some social animals will use the cover of darkness to steal females away from more dominant males. This behaviour was also recently spotted in rhinos in Africa. Dr Peter Jonason, a psychologist at the University of Western Sydney, said: "It could be adaptively effective for anyone pursuing a fast life strategy like that embodied in the Dark Triad to occupy and exploit a lowlight environment where others are sleeping and have diminished cognitive functioning. "Such features of the night may facilitate the casual sex, mate-poaching, and risk-taking the Dark Triad traits are linked to. "In short, those high on the Dark Triad traits, like many other predators such as lions, African hunting dogs and scorpions, are creatures of the night." Dr Jonason and his colleagues, whose research is published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, surveyed 263 students, asking them to complete a series of standard personality tests designed to test their score for the Dark Triad traits. |
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Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog 2013-07-28 14:27:00
For over 40 years the psychologist Professor John Gottman has been analysing relationships, both good and bad. He's followed couples across decades in many psychological studies to see what kinds of behaviours predict whether they would stay together in the long-term or were soon destined for the divorce courts. Amongst the factors he identified, four have stood out, time and time again. When Gottman sees a couple's communication overrun with these, the chances are they will divorce in an average of around six years from their marriage. |
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Polly Curtis
Male scientists are good at research because they have the same hormone
levels as women, according to new study involving the measurement of
relative finger lengths.The Guardian 2004-10-20 13:38:00 Research into male scientists at Bath University has revealed that they have as much of the female hormone oestrogen as the male hormone testosterone, a combination more usual in women. This, say the researchers, is why they are so clever. Previous research has revealed that this unusual combination of hormones leads to better development of the right side of the brain which is where spatial and analytical skills are governed. The study, which has been submitted to the British Journal of Psychology, also found that women social scientists tended to have higher levels of testosterone, making their brains closer to those of males in general. |
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| High Strangeness |
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Ryan Bakken
StarTribune 2013-07-28 22:10:00
Warren, Minn. - Back home for her 55th class reunion, Janet Anderson visited the Marshall County Historical Society Museum. It's a routine stop whenever she and husband, Lyle, return to their hometown in far northwestern Minnesota from their residence in Sun Valley, Idaho. The top museum attraction for the Andersons - and for many others - is a patrol car from what's commonly known as the "Warren UFO Encounter" of 1979, the Grand Forks Herald reported. "Most of this kind of stuff, I don't believe. But I believe this story," Anderson said. "You have to believe in some things that you don't understand." During county fair week, museum visitors routinely number 5,000. "The car is the single item that most people mention as their reason for coming here," said museum president Kent Broten. Dennis Brekke, the county sheriff in 1979 who is now retired, regaled the Andersons and others about the incident, which involved Deputy Val Johnson, who is believed to now live somewhere in Wisconsin. He had appeared on ABC's Good Morning America soon after the incident, but quickly grew tired of the interviews and attention. |
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Sott Editors
Sott.net 2013-07-27 07:13:00
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Grant Welker
Boston.com 2013-07-28 16:41:00
Only three years or so since first picking up the game of chess, 9-year-old Carissa Yip can already look down at 93 percent of the more than 51,000 players registered with the U.S. Chess Federation. She has risen so far up the rankings that she has reached the expert level at a younger age than anyone since the chess federation began electronic record-keeping in 1991, a new level she reached in recent weeks. Her father, Percy, who taught her until she began beating him within a year, said she could reach master level in as soon as a year. ''Some never reach master level,'' he said. ''From expert to master, it's a huge jump.'' |
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ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Well, at least not all countries on this planet are crazy fascist states
with cops ready to hog-tie you if you're lucky and shoot and ask
questions later, if you're not.YouTube 2013-07-28 16:14:00
This Swedish cop reminds me of films I've seen about what the daytime-beer-swilling NYPD used to be like during the '70s and '80s! Oh, the good ol' days! |
