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Joe Quinn
Sott.net 2013-07-19 14:41:00
I find myself agreeing with the sentiments expressed by those people chosen to appear in the mainstream media to express their opinions on the publication of a "fluffed and buffed" image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine. That particular image of Dzhokhar is not representative of the face of terrorism, and certainly not the face of the terrorism that struck the Boston area on April 15th and the following days. I therefore also find myself agreeing with the decision of 'tactical photographer' Sgt. Murphy of the Boston police who, in an effort to "show the true face of terrorism", released three images of the badly injured Dzhokhar crawling out of the boat, sniper rifle dot trained on his head. This, indeed, is the true face of modern-day 'terrorism':
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No new articles. |
| Puppet Masters |
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David Kravets
Wired 2013-07-19 13:25:00
The Obama administration for the first time responded to a Spygate lawsuit, telling a federal judge the wholesale vacuuming up of all phone-call metadata in the United States is in the "public interest," does not breach the constitutional rights of Americans and cannot be challenged in a court of law. Thursday's response marks the first time the administration has officially answered one of at least four lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a secret U.S. snooping program the Guardian newspaper disclosed last month. The administration's filing sets the stage for what is to be a lengthy legal odyssey - one likely to outlive the Obama presidency - that will define the privacy rights of Americans for years to come. The New York federal district court lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, demands a federal judge immediately halt the spy program the civil rights group labeled as "one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government." The Guardian last month posted a leaked copy of a top secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion requiring Verizon Business to provide the National Security Agency the phone numbers of both parties involved in all calls, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number for mobile callers, calling card numbers used in the call, and the time and duration of the calls. The suit, brought on behalf of the ACLU's employees, alleges breaches of the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment and names Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA Director Keith Alexander and FBI Director Robert Mueller, among others. "... the alleged metadata program is fully consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Most fundamentally, the program does not involve "searches" of plaintiffs' persons or effects, because the collection of telephony metadata from the business records of a third-party telephone service provider, without collecting the contents of plaintiffs' communications, implicates no 'legitimate expectation of privacy' that is protected by the Constitution," (.pdf) David S. Jones, an assistant United States attorney, wrote U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley in a Thursday filing. |
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Bruce Schneier
The Atlantic 2013-07-16 16:11:00
NSA apologists say spying is only used for menaces like "weapons of mass destruction" and "terror." But those terms have been radically redefined. One of the assurances I keep hearing about the U.S. government's spying on American citizens is that it's only used in cases of terrorism. Terrorism is, of course, an extraordinary crime, and its horrific nature is supposed to justify permitting all sorts of excesses to prevent it. But there's a problem with this line of reasoning: mission creep. The definitions of "terrorism" and "weapon of mass destruction" are broadening, and these extraordinary powers are being used, and will continue to be used, for crimes other than terrorism. Back in 2002, the Patriot Act greatly broadened the definition of terrorism to include all sorts of "normal" violent acts as well as non-violent protests. The term "terrorist" is surprisingly broad; since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it has been applied to people you wouldn't normally consider terrorists. The most egregious example of this are the three anti-nuclear pacifists, including an 82-year-old nun, who cut through a chain-link fence at the Oak Ridge nuclear-weapons-production facility in 2012. While they were originally arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, the government kept increasing their charges as the facility's security lapses became more embarrassing. Now the protestors have been convicted of violent crimes of terrorism -- and remain in jail. | |
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Comment: The psychopaths in power who instigate and
finance all terrorists acts (creating a few patsies along the way) are
also the ones behind the mass surveillance programs that strip away
individual freedoms. The broader their definition of terrorism, the
broader they will spread their surveillance tentacles gaining thus more
control over every citizen. The following SOTT Focus explains this
really well:
PRISM for your Mind: NSA, WikiLeaks and Israel |
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Toronto Sun
2013-07-18 03:45:00
Blow jobs, cunnilingus and anal sex would all become illegal in Virginia if gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II gets his way. Cuccinelli, the state's attorney general, has made the reinstatement of the Crimes Against Nature Law a focus of his campaign, according to his website. The law, struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003, states: "If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony." While that includes everyone, gay or straight, young or old, married or single, Cuccinelli insists it's all about the kids. His site names 90 child molesters prosecuted under the law. But, according to the Washington Post, he voted against a 2004 measure to amend the law so it would no longer apply to consenting adults because he said "homosexual acts are wrong." |
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Anthony Gregory
The Daily Caller 2013-07-15 15:12:00
In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush guided the Patriot Act through Congress, unilaterally expanded surveillance of Americans, amplified executive detention authority and took other dramatic measures that shifted the balance between liberty and government power significantly, in the name of national security. After the initial Patriot Act was passed, many Democrats perceived the growing threat to civil liberties and started to have misgivings. Now, five years into the Obama presidency enthusiasm for these measures seems to be bipartisan. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama in 2007 and 2008 argued that sacrificing liberties in the name of anti-terrorism posed long-term risks. He condemned military commissions and violations of habeas corpus as serious threats to "the great traditions of our legal system and our way of life." He called the Patriot Act "shoddy" and "dangerous." Senator Obama sharply criticized President Bush's surveillance policies as going beyond the boundaries of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment. He vowed that if elected he would run an administration of unprecedented transparency and vigorously protect whistleblowers. President Obama's deeds have not matched Senator Obama's words. Indeed, he has raised the stakes. |
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Andrew Livingstone and Bob Weber
The Star 2013-07-19 12:59:00
Aboriginal children were deliberately starved in the 1940s and '50s by government researchers in the name of science. Milk rations were halved for years at residential schools across the country. Essential vitamins were kept from people who needed them. Dental services were withheld because gum health was a measuring tool for scientists and dental care would distort research. For over a decade, aboriginal children and adults were unknowingly subjected to nutritional experiments by Canadian government bureaucrats. This disturbing look into government policy toward aboriginals after World War II comes to light in recently published historical research. When Canadian researchers went to a number of northern Manitoba reserves in 1942 they found rampant malnourishment. But instead of recommending increased federal support to improve the health of hundreds of aboriginals suffering from a collapsing fur trade and already limited government aid, they decided against it. Nutritionally deprived aboriginals would be the perfect test subjects, researchers thought. |
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Guardian
2013-07-12 10:46:00
Full transcript of the statement made by Edward Snowden, in which he accepts all offers of asylum he has been given Statement by Edward Snowden to human rights groups at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, posted by WikiLeaks: Friday July 12, 15:00 UTC Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone's communications at any time. That is the power to change people's fates. It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice - that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law. I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." |
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Rebecca Savastio
Guardian Express 2013-07-08 10:11:00
Rick Perry has been trying every trick in the book to pass the new abortion bill in Texas, and now, according to Addicting Info.org, the truth behind his extreme "desperation" has been uncovered. The bill's passage would mean that his sister's company could be poised to make big money from abortions. Milla Perry Jones, Rick Perry's sister, is the Vice President of Government Affairs at United Surgical Partners International. In addition to that plumb position, she is also a board member at the Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center Society. The Houston Chronicle reports the bill's passage would mean that nearly all of the abortion clinics in Texas would close because they would not be able to afford to transform into official ambulatory surgical centers. The bill would restrict abortions to being performed only in clinics that have this designation. The few abortion clinics that would stay open would be the ones that already function as ambulatory surgical centers. It does not seem to be a coincidence that Perry's sister just so happens to work at a company that is already considered to be an ambulatory surgical center. She stands to profit handsomely from the bill being signed into law. |
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Aletho News
2013-07-18 22:09:00
The campaign to re-open the inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly is holding a silent, gagged, protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on Thursday 18th July 2pm, to mark the tenth anniversary of Dr Kelly's death and to demand the re-opening of his inquest. Campaigners demand Dr Kelly's inquest, as his right under British law, to examine all the evidence, including the fresh evidence. The coroner 'speaks for the dead to protect the living.' Campaigners demand due process of British law and transparency, for the clear establishment of truth and justice. All single, unexplained deaths require an inquest under British law. Dr Kelly's unexplained death, according to many centuries of British law, should have been examined in a proper coronial inquest, with the option of a jury, the power to subpoena witnesses, testimony given under oath, with cross-examination and the requirement to establish suicide beyond reasonable doubt. |
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Peter Z. Scheer
Truthdig. 2013-07-17 00:00:00
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has dealt a terrible blow to Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky and the other activists and journalists suing to prevent the indefinite military detention of American citizens. Sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 would allow the military to detain indefinitely persons who are deemed to consort with terrorists or those who commit "belligerent acts" against the United States. Journalists, whose job it is to do just that, would undoubtedly qualify, Hedges has argued. The plaintiffs have had successes and setbacks in court. Here is what Hedges wrote after Wednesday's decision:
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Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone 2013-07-18 20:01:00
During the financial crisis, while Dr. Evil-ish Wall Street villains like Goldman and Lehman Brothers were getting all the bad press, pundits continually referred to J.P. Morgan Chase as the "good bank." The myth of Chase as the finance sector's one upstanding rock of rectitude reached its zenith in July of 2009 with an embarrassingly hagiographic piece in the New York Times entitled, "In Washington, One Bank Chief Still Holds Sway." In that one, the paper breathlessly praised Jamie Dimon for emerging from "the disgrace of his industry" to become Barack Obama's "favorite banker." Chase and Jamie Dimon kept that rep for a good long time. As late as 2011, Dimon's name was being floated around Washington very seriously as a potential replacement for Tim Geithner's Treasury Secretary post. Even when Dimon showed up on the Hill last year to testify (read: obfuscate) about the infamous "London Whale" episode, Senators on the banking committee - who, as writer George Zornick noted, had collected a cumulative $522,088 in donations from Chase - slobbered all over Dimon and shelved the important London Whale matter to ask the great genius's advice on how to fix the economy. Well, there's some more news about the "good bank" - Chase is about to pay yet another ginormous settlement for cheating and stealing from the public. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will fine Chase "close to $1 billion" for manipulating energy prices in Enron-esque fashion in Michigan and California. The story is interesting in itself - and we'll write more about it later - but for now, it's just the fact of yet another massive settlement for this bank that's so interesting. |
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TheSleuthJournal
2013-07-18 19:46:00
Then again, it might be exactly what you thought it would be. The clip below is from a 2007 AKBank convention in Instanbul, Turkey held right before the annual Bilderberg Meeting which took place there that same year. In it, former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, (as well as member of the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Bohemian Grove among others) Henry Kissinger can be seen giving the following speech: Clearly Kissinger is saying that, because many Middle Eastern countries do not have what appears to be in his view the 'historical significance' of older countries, they are wide open for attack, regime change and re-ordering. |
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| Society's Child |
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Bangalore Mirror
2013-07-19 17:47:00
Anand V H was all of 23, and an engineering graduate to boot. But he was superstitious too - so superstitious that he ended his life on Thursday, all because a crow perched itself on his head -- twice -- the previous day. Anand committed suicide allegedly by consuming poison at his rented accommodation on 3rd Cross, 5th Main, Manjunath Nagar in Rajajinagar. The incident came to light Thursday morning after his older brother, who was in Gadag (420 km from Bangalore near Dharwad), got worried and came to check on him. Preliminary investigations revealed that Anand got very upset after a crow sat on his head on Wednesday. He immediately called up his mother and narrated the entire incident to her, expressing fears that it augured ill - a belief among a section of Hindus. His mother tried to allay his fears and told him to visit the Hanumantharaya Swamy temple and light a lamp. Anand, however, was not convinced and went home and locked himself up before taking the drastic step. "My brother had called my mother, Parvathi, and told her about the crow. He was very tense when he spoke. My mother rushed to an astrologer and on his advice told Anand to pray at the Hanumantharaya Swamy temple," V H Hampanna, elder brother of the victim, told Bangalore Mirror. He went on to add that a few minutes later he called up Anand, but didn't get any response. He presumed his younger sibling was resting as he used to wake up by 5.30 am to go to work and take a nap after returning from work around 4.45 pm. |
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RIA Novosti
A 77-year-old man was fatally beaten by the driver of a Lexus in
Novosibirsk because the driver "did not like" that the man "was crossing
the road slowly," police said Friday.2013-07-19 12:53:00 The driver, aged 59, hit the pedestrian several times in the face, inflicting injuries that later proved fatal, police said in a statement posted online. |
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Stefan Steinberg
World Socialist Web Site 2013-07-19 12:42:00
A series of new reports confirm that the policy of austerity dictated by the troika - the European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund - after the financial crisis of 2008 is plunging Europe ever deeper into recession. On Tuesday the European Union's statistics agency issued a report stating that in the month of May, imports to and exports from the euro zone both fell over 2 percent. Euro zone exports to the rest of the world fell by 2.3 percent in May after a sharp decline the previous month. The decline in both imports and exports reflects the contraction of the European economy as a whole. After years of austerity, social spending cuts and growing mass unemployment, the broad mass of European consumers can no longer afford many commodities they took for granted only a few years ago. |
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Tom Dart
Guardian 2013-07-13 10:49:00
Texas governor Rick Perry to sign off law that bans abortions after 20 weeks after senate approves bill in late-night vote Texas politicians have given final approval to one of the US's toughest anti-abortion bills, but opponents are set to challenge the legisation in federal court. More than a thousand pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators packed the state capitol in Austin late on Friday night as senators voted on legislation that has made Texas the focus of nationwide abortion-rights activism. The senate passed House Bill 2 by 19 votes to 11 just before midnight local time. Texas governor Rick Perry is now due to sign it off. Texas is one of several states that have sought to restrict access to abortions this year, but it has attracted the most attention due to the publicity surrounding Democratic state senator Wendy Davis's bid to block the bill with an almost 11-hour filibuster. "The key will be what the courts will do," Sylvia Garcia, a Democratic senator for Houston and a former judge, said before the vote. "I think the Texas proposal is on a path to litigation, to being held unconstitutional. We'll have to wait for the courts to ultimately decide." |
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Stephen Gillam
New Zealand Herald 2013-07-11 10:30:00
Fruit and vegetable prices have spearheaded a 2.1 per cent rise in food prices for June 2013, a 50 per cent increase on June 2012 and 2011, according to Statistics New Zealand's latest Food Price Index. This is the biggest monthly gain since GST was lifted to 15 percent in October 2010. Fruit and vegetable prices rose 13 per cent, compared with 9 per cent in June last year. Some of the big risers include tomatoes - up 99 per cent, nectarines up 64 per cent, lettuce up 55 per cent and avocadoes up 33 per cent. Meat, poultry and fish prices increased by 1.3 per cent against the previous month, influenced by chicken rising 12 per cent - largely due to less discounting, said Stats NZ. |
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Demoracy Now
2013-07-11 10:15:00
Journalist Barrett Brown spent his 300th day behind bars this week on a range of charges filed after he used information obtained by the hacker group Anonymous to report on the operations of private intelligence firms. Brown faces 17 charges ranging from threatening an FBI agent to credit card fraud for posting a link online to a document that contained stolen credit card data. But according to his supporters, Brown is being unfairly targeted for daring to investigate the highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors. Using information Anonymous took from the firm HBGary Federal, Brown helped discover a secret plan to tarnish the reputations of WikiLeaks and journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. Brown similarly analyzed and wrote about the millions of internal company emails from Stratfor Global Intelligence that were leaked in 2011. We speak to Peter Ludlow, professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, whose article "The Strange Case of Barrett Brown" recently appeared in The Nation. "Considering that the person who carried out the actual Stratfor hack had several priors and is facing a maximum of 10 years, the inescapable conclusion is that the problem is not with the hack itself but with Brown's journalism," Ludlow argues. He adds that the case against Brown could suggest criminality "to even link to something or share a link with someone." |
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Hunter Stuart
A recently filed lawsuit alleges that a Texas sheriff's office ran a "rape camp" at a county jail, where numerous male guards repeatedly raped and humiliated female inmates over an extended period of time.Huffington Post 2013-06-18 07:22:00 Two women who were inmates at the jail, which is attached to the county's quaint courthouse building, are now suing Live Oak County and guards Vincent Aguilar, Jaime Smith and Israel Charles Jr. The lawsuit says the three guards forced the women to shave their vaginas in front of them, to perform oral sex on each other and on the guards and sometimes "to conceal [the guards'] ejaculate by way of ingestion," the court documents state. The guards would also pin the women against the wall while verbally berating them, groping them and digitally raping them, the suit says. The documents also say the guards told one plaintiff that she "belong[ed] to [them]" and was their "sex slave or whatever they wanted her to be." During any given attack, there were allegedly anywhere from one to three other guards who watched the crimes as they were committed.
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Noel Sheppard
NewsBusters 2013-07-17 07:02:00
As NewsBusters previously reported, Stevie Wonder on Monday told a Quebec City concert audience that he was boycotting Florida and other states with "Stand Your Ground" laws as a result of the George Zimmerman verdict. Apparently not to be outdone, Bruce Springsteen on Tuesday dedicated a song to Trayvon Martin during a concert in Limerick, Ireland. |
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REALfarmacy.com
2013-07-11 13:26:00
Dustin Theoharis was asleep in his bed when a Department of Corrections officer, and King County Sherriff's deputy rushed into his house, busted into his bedroom and began to unload their pistols on this unarmed man. It is estimated that the two officers fired over 20 rounds of which 16 landed in Mr. Theoharis. According to Theoharis's attorney, Erik Heipt, "Theoharis suffered "a broken shoulder, 2 broken arms, broken legs, he had a compression fracture to his spine, damage to his liver and spleen." The kicker here is that Theoharis was not the guy the police were after. According to King 5 news Seattle, The King County Sheriff's deputy and Washington Department of Corrections officer who shot him were at the house to arrest a man who'd violated his parole. But in a search of the house after the shooting, they surprised Theoharis in the basement room he was renting. Cole Harrison, who was at the house, described it this way: "They (the officers) rushed into that room like they were going to get somebody. I mean they rushed down there and then all of a sudden. Boom, boom, boom, boom." According to a review requested by Charles Gaither, a civilian watchdog of the Sheriff's Office, which was conducted by a police accountability expert, Merrick Bobb, the officers refused to be interviewed on the scene and no internal investigation was ordered. In fact Deputy Aaron Thompson didn't even issue a statement until a month later. |
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RT.com
2013-07-18 11:15:00
Former US President Jimmy Carter lambasted US intelligence methods as undemocratic and described Edward Snowden's NSA leak as "beneficial" for the country. Carter lashed out at the US political system when the issue of the previously top-secret NSA surveillance program was touched upon at the Atlantic Bridge meeting on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia. "America has no functioning democracy at this moment," Carter said, according to Der Spiegel. He also believes the spying-scandal is undermining democracy around the world, as people become increasingly suspicious of US internet platforms, such as Google and Facebook. While such mediums have normally been associated with freedom of speech and have recently become a major driving force behind emerging democratic movements, fallout from the NSA spying scandal has dented their credibility. |
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Mike Masnick
techdirt 2013-06-24 11:46:00
from the say-that-again dept It's been quite incredible to see defenders of the surveillance state attack not just Edward Snowden for leaking information about the NSA's surveillance efforts, but also go after the reporters who broke the various stories concerning what he leaked. While many of the attacks have been focused on Glenn Greenwald, the other journalist who has access to Snowden is the Washington Post's Bart Gellman, and apparently it's his turn to be attacked for doing a good job in reporting. The attacker, in this case, is Stewart Baker, the former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security and former General Counsel for the NSA. He wrote an incredible attack on Gellman, arguing that he has somehow crossed the despicable line from "journalist" to "advocate" in his reporting on Snowden's leaks. |
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Fox News
2013-07-18 00:00:00
More than one million people were murdered in Brazil between 1980 and 2011, making it the world's seventh most violent country, a survey showed Thursday. During the period, homicides soared 132 percent to claim 1,145,208 lives, from a rate of 11.5 murders for 100,000 inhabitants in 1980 to 27 per 100,000 in 2011, according to the Map of Violence report, Among those aged between 14 and 25, homicides skyrocketed 326 percent to reach 53 per 100,000 inhabitants, said the study published by the Latin American Studies Center (Cebela). In 2011, Brazil, now home to 194 million people, recorded 51,198 homicides, ranked seventh among the world's most violent nations after El Salvador, the US Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala. From 2007, the study highlighted a resumption of a surge in violence after a drop in the previous decade, attributed mainly to public disarmament policies. The survey showed that violence in Brazil, once concentrated in major metropolitan areas such as Sao Paulo and Rio, has spread nationwide over the past 10 years to the hinterland of most states, especially in the north, a trend that coincides with the expansion of new economic hubs. | |
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Comment: Brazil is also a country of extreme poverty
and corruption, which accounts for the violence, and it is the reason
its citizens have had enough and are taking to the streets:
Revolution? Brazilian protests swells to millions: government calls emergency meeting 'People Revolution' spreads to Brazil: Thousands take to streets in anti-government protests |
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Sigmund Fraud
Activist Post 2013-07-18 18:18:00
Having recently celebrated their nation's independence on July 4th, Americans were invited to recall the spirit of protest, rebellion, and revolution that marks the popular myth of the birth of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence still stands as an important example of how the tolerance of any man can be exceeded by the actions of an overbearing and intrusive government. Yet, 237 years after the signing of this document, one has to wonder what has happened to the spirit of fearlessness and rugged self-determination that set the American experiment in motion. As a form of redress of grievances by a people to its leadership, protest is as much of a historical part of democracy as voting is. A near-last resort when the populace is bereft of political power, publicly voicing dissent in an organized, peaceful, and constructive manner is a critical and vital sign of life for a society that wishes to be free. Yet, when a ruling elite and political class become too intrusive, parasitic or too dangerous to the population, protest is often a precursor to violence, therefore the outcome of rebellion and protest is never certain and often disastrous. However, the fate of a people without the will to resist encroaching tyranny is just as foreboding. |
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| Secret History |
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Tia Ghose
LiveScience 2013-07-19 15:30:00
A nearly 1,500-year-old Mayan stone monument, inscribed with a story of an ancient power struggle, has been unearthed in Guatemala. The stone slab, which dates to A.D. 564, was found in a small tunnel that adjoins the tomb of an ancient queen beneath the Mayan temple at the site of El Perú-Waka'. The slab, almost 6 feet (2 meters) high and 3 feet (1 m) wide, is carved with the image of a large man in its center, and is inscribed with Mayan hieroglyphics. The text on the monument describes a tumultuous seven-year period when two dynasties battled for rule of the ancient kingdom. Prior to discovering this monument, no one knew the names of Mayan rulers during the sixth century. "It really does advance our knowledge of the history of this royal family and dynasty," said study co-author David Friedel, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Rossella Lorenzi
A fossilized elephant tusk at least 100,000 years old has been
discovered on the seafloor off the Sicilian coast, according to a survey
of underwater archaeologists. Discovered during a series of
archaeological dives in the waters off Torretta Granitola, a village on
the island's southwestern coast, the tusk is more than 3 feet long.Discovery.com 2013-07-19 15:33:00 "It was found embedded on the sea bottom in Pleistocene alluvional deposits," the Superintendency of Maritime Cultural Heritage of Sicily said in a statement.
In the same area, Giampaolo Mirabile, a local diver, found some years ago two molar teeth belonging to the dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis, or Elephas Mnaidriensis, a species that roamed Sicily between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. "The tusk' size confirms the previous finding and points to the same extinct species," Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's superintendent of the Sea Office, said. |
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University of Warwick
2013-07-19 11:59:00
Researchers at the University of Warwick have recovered tuberculosis (TB) genomes from the lung tissue of a 215-year old mummy using a technique known as metagenomics. The team, led by Professor Mark Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics at Warwick Medical School, working with Helen Donoghue at University College London and collaborators in Birmingham and Budapest, sought to use the technique to identify TB DNA in a historical specimen. The term 'metagenomics' is used to describe the open-ended sequencing of DNA from samples without the need for culture or target-specific amplification or enrichment. This approach avoids the complex and unreliable workflows associated with culture of bacteria or amplification of DNA and draws on the remarkable throughput and ease of use of modern sequencing approaches. The sample came from a Hungarian woman, Terézia Hausmann, who died aged 28 on 25 December 1797. Her mummified remains were recovered from a crypt in the town of Vác, Hungary. When the crypt was opened in 1994, it was found to contain the naturally mummified bodies of 242 people. Molecular analyses of the chest sample in a previous study confirmed the diagnosis of tuberculosis and hinted that TB DNA was extremely well preserved in her body. |
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Emma Innes
Daily Mail UK 2013-07-19 10:39:00
Scientists have found a new virus thought to be the biggest ever seen on Earth.The virus, dubbed Pandoravirus, is one micrometre big - up to ten times the size of other viruses - and only six per cent of its genes resemble anything seen on Earth before. This has led French researchers to believe the virus may have come from an ancient time or even another planet, such as Mars. The giant virus is only found underwater and is not thought to pose a serious risk to humans. However, the researchers, who published their findings in the journal Science, believe that the virus opens up a range of questions about the history of life on Earth. Dr Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University in France, who found the virus, told NPR: 'We believe that these new Pandoraviruses have emerged from a new ancestral cellular type that no longer exists.'Many traditional viruses range in size from around 10 nanometres (nm) to around 500nm.The Pandoravirus is around one micrometre big and there are 1,000nm in a micrometre.This means the Pandoravirus is big enough to be seen under the most basic microscopes. | |
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Comment: These 'giant' virus discoveries are not new to science: New giant virus discovered.
Why limit the landing here on earth from Mars - or an 'ancient time'?
Why not consider it could have arrived via comet dust, or impact - and
much more recently? Well, we wouldn't want anyone thinking things are
getting serious here on the BBM: Comets and the Horns of Moses.
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Donna McKinney
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory 2013-07-18 07:00:00
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have determined that there has been an increase in bright polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) in the last two years, an unexpected result since these clouds are generally thought to be less prevalent during conditions of high solar activity which acts to destroy the tiny ice particles. Their research suggests that the man-made effect of water released by exhaust from space traffic during recent years has overwhelmed the effect of higher solar activity. This research was published in the June 6, 2013, issue of Geophysical Research Letters. This new understanding of weather at the edge of space serves to test high altitude weather and climate models of the upper atmosphere, including the co-located D&E-regions of the ionosphere which is critical for improving models of over-the-horizon-radar (OTHR) propagation, explains NRL's Dr. David Siskind, a scientist in NRL Space Science Division and principal investigator for the research. Each summer, the Arctic and Antarctic atmospheres at very high altitudes (the upper mesosphere, 80 to 100 km) become extremely cold with temperatures well below -100°C, despite the presence of 24 hours of sunlight. These very low temperatures allow the atmosphere to become supersaturated, and enable thin, wispy ice clouds to condense on nuclei of meteoric dust and smoke particles. Because of the possibility that this region of the atmosphere may be changing due to man-made effects, NASA launched a dedicated satellite, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission six years ago. Scientists used the AIM data to test atmospheric analyses provided by special high altitude prototype versions of the then-operational Navy Global Forecast System (NOGAPS). Previous studies by NRL scientists had shown this high altitude version of NOGAPS could demonstrate how variations in lower atmospheric weather conditions thousands of miles away might "teleconnect" to the Arctic and cause PMCs to vary. |
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Dr. Dana Ehret
University of Alabama 2013-07-16 19:26:00
Tuscaloosa, Alabama - University of Alabama researchers have discovered the fossilized remains of a large marine reptile that once ruled the open seas 80 million years ago. The initial discovery, made June 20 by middle-school student Noah Traylor during a UA-hosted expedition, was later identified as part of a large neck vertebra of an elasmosaur, which is a subgroup of the late Cretaceous plesiosaurs. Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs are easily recognized by their large body size - some species reach up to 45 feet in length. "Think Loch Ness monster," said Dr. Dana Ehret, UA Museum paleontologist. "They have very large flippers for swimming and extremely long necks, consisting of up to about 70 neck vertebrae." Plesiosaurs became extinct by the end of Cretaceous, or about 65.5 million years ago, and they are generally rare in the fossil record for Alabama. This is only the second elasmosaurid specimen containing more than one or two bones found in the state, Ehret said. The first, which consists of 22 vertebrae, was found in the late 1960s and is now part of UA Collections. This discovery appears to be on par with the first one. To date, about 15 large vertebrae, a few paddle bones and many bone fragments have been collected, but an extensive excavation is still in progress, so Ehret is uncertain how complete this skeleton is. |
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Ker Than
LiveScience 2013-07-18 16:01:00
ISNS -- The discovery of two new jumbo-sized viruses is blurring the lines between viral and cellular life and could point to the existence of a new type of life, scientists suggest. The two large viruses, detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science, have been dubbed "Pandoraviruses" because of the surprises they may hold for biologists, in reference to the mythical Greek figure who opened a box and released evil into the world. The discovery of Pandoraviruses is an indication that our knowledge of Earth's microbial biodiversity is still incomplete, explained study coauthor Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist at the French National Research Agency at Aix-Marseille University. "Huge discoveries remain to be made at the most fundamental level that may change our present conception about the origin of life and its evolution," Claverie said. Eugene Koonin, a computational evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Md., who was not involved in the study, called the Pandoraviruses a "wonderful discovery," but not a complete surprise. "In a certain sense, it's something that we saw coming, and it's wonderful that it has come," Koonin said. |
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| Earth Changes |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-07-19 10:31:00
A 4.3 quake hit the east coast of New Zealand tonight, following a 4.5 magnitude quake in central New Zealand this afternoon, and a 5.7 earthquake that rattled people in Wellington and Blenheim this morning. Geonet reported tonight's quake was 20 km east of Te Araroa, a settlement on the east coast of the north island, near the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty. The quake was 62 km deep and hit at 11.42pm. GeoNet reported this afternoon's was of a "strong" intensity, 35 km east of Seddon, at a depth of 15 km. The quake hit at 3.21pm. The first quake struck at 9.06 am and was centered 30km east of Seddon, south of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km. Rated as severe, it turned Wellington office workers white-knuckled as it swayed high-rises in the capital, with buildings also being rocked in Blenheim. The shallow tremor was felt as far away as Christchurch and New Plymouth. In Wellington it was felt as one jolt, gradually picking up in intensity, while those in Blenheim felt two shakes. GeoNet said it received more than 6000 reports after the jolt. It said the fact it struck off the South Island spared the region from its full force, though there were a few reports that it had a damaging intensity. |
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Keshia Pendigrast
Nourishing The Planet 2012-07-18 04:33:00
In August 2011, Marco Lagi, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and K.Z Bertrand released a report through the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI). The report, "The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East," reveals a link between the background trend of rising global food prices and riots around the globe using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Food Price Index. "When you have food prices that peak, you have all these riots. But look under the peaks, at the background trend. That's increasing quite rapidly, too," said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of NECSI, in an interview with Wired Science. "In one to two years, the background trend runs into the place where all hell breaks loose." Social unrest, the NECSI report explained, often reflects severe cases of poverty, unemployment, and injustice. While food prices might not be the primary cause of protests, it provides a platform for populations to revolt. |
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Janna Sondenaa
Fox12 Oregon/KPTV 2013-07-16 05:10:00
Did you see a strange rainbow-like cloud in the sky on Friday? You weren't alone. A number of FOX 12 viewers shared their photos of the rainbow cloud. Most of the reports centered in the Wilsonville area. FOX 12 meteorologist Stephanie Kralevich said it's a fragment of a circumhorizontal arc, which is an optical phenomenon formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. The clouds are common this time of year when the sun is high in the sky and high, thin clouds move by.
More photos here. |
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John Spink and Cailin O'Brien
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2013-07-11 07:01:00
A water main break in Cherokee County caused a major sinkhole to form under East Cherokee Drive at Holly Springs Road early Thursday morning. Cherokee County Sheriff spokesman Lt. Jay Baker said that the water main break was called in a little after 2 a.m., on Thursday morning. As deputies closed the road, the asphalt began to sink. Then the road collapsed. "Fortunately, we were getting calls about it when water was coming through the road," Baker said. "If it had just happened, it could have been deadly for somebody who drove into it." The Cherokee County Water and Sewage Authority turned off water for about five houses in the area. Spokesman Dwight Turner said a 20-foot section of PVC pipe had split under East Cherokee Drive, causing water to leak out of the road. "[The pipe] is probably 30 years old or older," he said. "We've been replacing PVC pipe with ductile iron pipe for many, many years and we will continue to. But we haven't gotten it all done yet. And that's just one of the things that happens." Ductile iron pipes are thought to last for several decades, Turner said. |
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Brian Stanley
The Herald-News 2013-07-10 18:36:00
One moment Tina Sanchez was standing on the pavement, the next she was in it. Sanchez had to be pulled out of a sinkhole Monday by East Joliet Firefighters when the ground gave way in the mobile home park where she lives at 1703 S. Chicago St. About 6 p.m. Sanchez and her son were walking past a nearby home when she stopped to talk to a neighbor near a parking space and a steel drain, she said. Without warning, she fell into the ground and had to hold on to her son and try to brace her feet against the drain, she said. "I was freaking out," Sanchez said. "The more I kept trying to get up, the more I kept falling in." |
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Matthew Backhouse
The NZ Herald 2013-07-18 20:06:00
People screamed, dived under desks and sheltered in doorways as a "severe" magnitude 5.7 earthquake rocked Wellington this morning. There have been no reports of damage so far, but workers in the central city have described multi-storey office buildings swaying for at least 30 seconds as the quake hit at 9.06am. GeoNet said the "severe" quake struck 30km east of Seddon, in Marlborough, at a depth of 8km. There has been a flurry of smaller shocks since the initial magnitude 5.7 quake, the strongest recorded as magnitude 3.8 at 9.38am. At least 10 other shocks were recorded in the Marlborough area by 9.45am. A Fire Service central communications spokeswoman said there were no reports of damage in the Wellington region so far, although an alarm activation may have been caused by the quake. The quake shook the emergency services communications centre on the seventh floor of the police station on Victoria St in central Wellington for a good 30 seconds, she said. There have also been no reports of damage in the upper South Island, a Fire Service southern communications spokesman said. |
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MD
Breitbart.com 2013-07-18 03:13:00
Researchers said up to 760 people have died due to England's latest heat wave as the country enters its sixth day of temperatures above 86 degrees, UPI reported. Thursday's high temperature is set to hit 88 degrees, following Wednesday's high of 89 degrees. The heat wave marks the longest run of hot weather in Britain in more than seven years, The Independent said. Temperatures are expected to remain high until at least the end of next week, and researchers said the number of heat-related deaths could double. Officials have issued a level-three heat wave alert, which warns social and healthcare workers to focus on the old, young and those with breathing and heart conditions. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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CBC News
2013-07-19 13:09:00
West Nile virus has been detected in Manitoba mosquitoes. The infected Culex tarsalis mosquitoes, the type most common for transmitting WNV, were collected during the week of July 7 from trap in Morris, Man., according to Manitoba Health. No human cases of the virus have been identified, the province said. "Although the numbers of Culex tarsalis mosquitoes trapped during the week of July 7 were relatively low, they are increasing in some localities in southern Manitoba," the province stated in a news release. "Most of the mosquitoes in the traps continue to be nuisance mosquitoes, which do not transmit West Nile virus. Culex tarsalis mosquito numbers are highest in southcentral Manitoba, but the potential for human exposure to infected mosquitoes is present throughout southern Manitoba. |
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Steve Pickett
CBSDFW 2013-07-17 21:40:00
The number of North Texans sick with cyclospora, a rare infection spread through raw fruits and vegetables, is growing. As of Wednesday afternoon, Tarrant County had seen the most cases with 10 people sick. There were nine cases in Dallas County. Six people had been infected in Collin County and Denton County reported five cases. The infection leaves victims with serious gastrointestinal discomfort, which can last for weeks. The parasite cyclospora leaves its waste on the leaves and skin of vegetables and fruit. Health authorities are urging citizens to thoroughly wash and clean their produce. Local organic grower Tom Spicer suggests soaking fruits and veggies in warm water and scrubbing them with a firm brush. "So when you go to scrub it, whatever is on it is loosened up, and rinse it again. Dry it off," said Spicer. |
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Case Adams
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-05-08 17:49:00
Recent research has confirmed and quantified that whole extracts of Garlic and Ginger have the ability to stop several species of multi-drug resistant bacteria. The newest research comes from Italy's University of Pisa. The researchers tested garlic against the infective bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. The research found that all three bacteria species were inhibited by the Garlic extract, which was taken from fresh Garlic bulbs. This research confirmed another recent study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, and conducted by researchers from King Saud University and India's Rangasamy College. This study focused on seven of the most dangerous superbugs - called MDRs or multidrug resistant bacteria. These included E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Enterococcus cloacae and Bacillus subtilis. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Jessica Maki
Brigham and Women's Hospital study examines sustained inattentional blindness in expert observers.Brigham and Women's Hospital 2013-07-19 12:42:00 If you were working on something at your computer and a gorilla floated across your computer screen, would you notice it? You would like to think yes, however, research shows that people often miss such events when engaged in a difficult task. This is a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness (IB). In a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, researchers have found that even expert searchers, operating in their domain of expertise, are vulnerable to inattentional blindness. This study published this week Psychological Science. "When engaged in a demanding task, attention can act like a set of blinders, making it possible for stimuli to pass, undetected, right in front of our eyes," explained Trafton Drew, PhD, post-doctoral researcher at BWH and lead author on this study. "We found that even experts are vulnerable to this phenomenon." |
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| High Strangeness |
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No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Tom Phillips
The Telegraph 2013-07-19 12:57:00
"Among all poultry, geese [are known] for being extremely vigilant and having excellent hearing," Zhang Quansheng, a police chief in Xinjiang's Shawan county, told the newspaper. The People's Daily said the "sharp, keen and brave" animals were proving an invaluable tool in Xinjiang's war on crime and were now being "actively promoted" across the region. Law enforcement agents described the geese as a new "highlight of stability maintenance work" and said they had proved themselves "better than dogs" in tackling crime. "Geese are very brave. They spread their wings and will attack any strangers entering [someone's] home," said Mr Zhang, the local police chief. The birds were like "a radar that does not need power", he added. |
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Josh Cascio
Fox13 News 2013-07-06 15:19:00
Fishhawk Ranch - Eden Sirene moves with an almost "otherworldly" grace. Eden, better known as Jenna Conti, feels at home wearing her custom made silicon mermaid suit. "It makes me feel amazing makes children smile makes adults smile, everybody happy, you don't expect to see a mermaid at the pool," Conti said. "I'm a 48-year-old man and I get a big smile on my face seeing her swim," said bob Abruszzese, a neighbor. The problem is, the tale about her tail doesn't appear to have such a happy ending -- at least not yet. Monday, she learned from her community board that she cannot wear her outfit in the pools at Fishhawk Ranch. The Community Development District saying it's a safety concern, and that there's a "no-fin" policy. Rules are rules, they say. "This can't come flinging off in a pool like swim fin, and it's not made of a hard plastic," Conti said. "We love what's she trying to do, be kind to children and do something good for the community. We love her intentions -- it's simply that it violates rules," said board chair Terrie Morrison. So it looks like this little mermaid won't be able to swim freely, but she says the silver lining is all the support she's received from the community. She says despite the setback, she still plans to reach her ultimate goal of swimming underwater at the Florida Aquarium. Perhaps then, this mermaid will find the fairytale ending. "We just wanted to show some magic here in Fishhawk, that's all," she says. |
