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Max Blumenthal
Alternet.org 2013-07-30 08:51:00
Security Forum participants expressed total confidence in American empire, but could not contain their panic at the mention of Snowden. Seated on a stool before an audience packed with spooks, lawmakers, lawyers and mercenaries, CNN's Wolf Blitzer introduced recently retired CENTCOM chief General James Mattis. "I've worked with him and I've worked with his predecessors," Blitzer said of Mattis. "I know how hard it is to run an operation like this." Reminding the crowd that CENTCOM is "really, really important," Blitzer urged them to celebrate Mattis: "Let's give the general a round of applause." Following the gales of cheering that resounded from the room, Mattis, the gruff 40-year Marine veteran who once volunteered his opinion that "it's fun to shoot some people," outlined the challenge ahead. The "war on terror" that began on 9/11 has no discernable end, he said, likening it to the "the constant skirmishing between [the US cavalry] and the Indians" during the genocidal Indian Wars of the 19th century. "The skirmishing will go on likely for a generation," Mattis declared. Mattis' remarks, made beside a cable news personality who acted more like a sidekick than a journalist, set the tone for the entire 2013 Aspen Security Forum this July. A project of the Aspen Institute, the Security Forum brought together the key figures behind America's vast national security state, from military chieftains like Mattis to embattled National Security Agency Chief General Keith Alexander to top FBI and CIA officials, along with the bookish functionaries attempting to establish legal groundwork for expanding the war on terror. | |
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Comment: No, they not ogres, like most psychopaths in
positions of power, they are well-dressed, affable, charming even, but
they can't help exposing their psychopathic nature when they speak with
glee about "exterminating" and torturing normal human beings.
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The Corbett Report
YouTube 2013-07-05 07:25:00
Michael Hastings was that rarest of breeds: a mainstream reporter who wasn't afraid to rail against the system, kick back against the establishment, and bite the hand that feeds him. On the morning of June 18, 2013, he died in a fiery car crash. But now details are emerging that he was on the verge of breaking an important new story about the CIA, and believed he was being investigated by the FBI. Now even a former counter-terrorism czar is admitting Hastings' car may have been cyber-hijacked. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the strange details surrounding the untimely death of Michael Hastings.
Show notes and MP3 | ||
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Comment: It's safe to say that the FBI had a file open
on Hastings long before the day of his 'crash'. So his email to
colleagues and friends shortly before his death suggests that 'the FBI',
or whoever it was, was actually hounding him towards his death, not
just 'investigating' him.
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| Puppet Masters |
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Daisy Luther
Activist Post 2013-07-29 14:08:00
If you had a question about how to protect yourself from a criminal known to break into houses in your neighborhood, would you ask him how to protect your home and then take his suggestions, or would you be suspicious he might be answering them in a way that would make your home even easier to encroach? If you had a question about the honesty and integrity of a person in an authority position, would you ask that person to investigate himself and then accept his findings? (I mean, if you were a normal person, not if your name is Barack or Eric.) If a company came out with a new medication that promised to cure your ills overnight, would you ask the company that produced it whether it was safe and trust them to be honest, or would you feel that their answer might be colored by their urge to make a buck? So why on earth would anyone possibly believe that the likes of Monsanto, Dow, and DuPont would be spreading anything but sales-driven propaganda on their new website GMOAnswers? Are they serious or is this some kind of big public relations joke being played out on a national platform? Are we being punked? What kind of person would look up their answers on a website SPONSORED by the very people who are putting out the toxic garbage they'd like us to believe is food? |
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Peter Dale Scott
Part IVoltaire Network 2012-09-24 00:00:00
LAUNCHING THE U.S. TERROR WAR (1/3)
by Peter Dale Scott
Bush's Terror War and the Fixing of Intelligence On September 11, 2001, within hours of the murderous 9/11 attacks, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney had committed America to what they later called the "War on Terror." It should more properly, I believe, be called the "Terror War," one in which terror has been directed repeatedly against civilians by all participants, both states and non-state actors. A terror war is one in which the major role is played by weapons of indiscriminate destruction, whether they are IEDs planted by the roadside or bombs delivered aerially by a high-tech drone. [2] Bush's war should also be seen as part of a larger, indeed global, process in which terror has been used against civilians in interrelated campaigns by all major powers, including China in Xinjiang and Russia in Chechnya, as well as the United States. [3] Terror war in its global context should perhaps be seen as the latest stage of the age-long secular spread of transurban civilization into areas of mostly rural resistance - areas where conventional forms of warfare, for either geographic or cultural reasons, prove inconclusive. |
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Jonathan Paige
The Independent, UK 2013-07-30 09:27:00
Campaigners had hoped for ruling showing housing benefit regulations unlawfully discriminated against disabled adults in social housing The government's "bedroom tax" does not unlawfully discriminate against disabled adults in social housing, the High Court has ruled. Ten families had brought the case for judicial review, where lawyers argued that the cut in benefit for unoccupied bedrooms in social housing breached human rights. But campaigners said they welcomed court criticism that the Government has been aware since May last year that the law must be changed to provide for disabled children but failed to act early to make the necessary regulations. Lord Justice Laws said that the current state of affairs "cannot be allowed to continue". He added that the Government should alter the regulations "very speedily" to take into account the additional needs of disabled children. |
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Peter Dale Scott
Global Research 2008-07-05 04:26:00
I wish to summarize again the first striking similarity between 11/22/63 and of 9/11/01: the dubious detective work on those two days. Less than fifteen minutes after the President's assassination, the height and weight of Kennedy's alleged killer was posted.1 Before the last of the hijacked planes crashed on 9/11, the FBI told Richard Clarke that they had a list of alleged hijackers.2 In the case of Oswald, within fifteen minutes of the assassination and long before Oswald was picked up in the Texas Theater, Inspector Sawyer of the Dallas police put out on the police radio network, and possibly other networks, a description of the killer - "About 30, 5'10", 165 pounds."3 As noted, this height and weight exactly matched the measurements attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald in Oswald's FBI file, and also in CIA documents about him.4 The announced height and weight were however different from Oswald's actual measurements, as recorded by the Dallas police after his arrest: 5'9 1/2", 131 pounds.5 More importantly, there is no credible source for the posted measurements from any witness in Dallas. (The witness said to have spotted him, Howard Brennan, failed to identify Oswald in a line-up.)6 This leaves the possibility that the measurements were taken from existing files on Oswald, rather than from any observations in Dallas on November 22. If so, someone with access to those files may have already designated Oswald as the culprit, before there was any evidence to connect him to the crime. A similar situation pertains to the alleged hijackers on 9/11. For example, shortly afterwards men in Saudi Arabia complained that "the hijackers' 'personal details'" released by the FBI -- "including name, place, date of birth and occupation -- matched their own."7 One of them, Saeed al-Ghamdi, claimed further that an alleged photograph shown on CNN (of an alleged Flight 93 hijacker with the same name) was in fact a photograph of himself. He speculated "that CNN had probably got the picture from the Flight Safety flying school he attended in Florida."8 |
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Peter Dale Scott
Global Research 2010-04-09 16:45:00
Alfred McCoy's important new article deserves to mobilize Congress for a serious revaluation of America's ill-considered military venture in Afghanistan. The answer to the question he poses in his title - "Can Anyone Pacify the World's Number One Narco-State? - is amply shown by his impressive essay to be a resounding "No!" . . . not until there is fundamental change in the goals and strategies both of Washington and of Kabul. He amply documents that
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Les Leopold
Alternet 2013-07-19 00:30:00
"A particularly troubling and consistent finding throughout the survey is that Wall Street's future leaders - the young professionals who will one day assume control of the trillions of dollars that the industry manages - have lost their moral compass, accept corporate wrongdoing as a necessary evil and fear reporting this misconduct." In a shocking new survey commissioned by the Labaton Sucharow law firm, Wall Street insiders say that breaking the law, screwing your clients and covering up crimes is a way of life on Wall Street. The shock is not that cheating is going on. We all know that. The shock is that these financiers would actually admit it on a survey. This should tell us that the Wall Street culture is so brazenly corrupt, so confident of not getting caught, so certain that a passive public won't fight back that those surveyed didn't even bother to lie about the fact that they were living, breathing sociopaths. Here are some of the key findings of this sample of 250 traders, portfolio managers, investment bankers, hedge fund professionals, financial analysts, investment advisors, asset managers and stock brokers. |
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| Society's Child |
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China Daily/ANN
2013-07-30 15:10:00
A small "unidentified flying object" that has been seen over Shanghai's Huangpu River in recent days has been revealed to be a remote controlled plane being used to deliver cakes, reported Shanghai-based news website eastday.com. The "UFO", which is 1.1 meters long and weighs 10 kg, crossed the Huangpu River in a 45-minute flight to deliver a cake to a customer, according to the bakery that was testing the device, which flies at a maximum height of 100 meters. While some residents applauded the novel delivery service, others worried about its safety as people could be hurt if it falls from the air. Currently there are no regulations on commercial use of remote controlled planes being used for deliveries. More Photos |
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Xinhua
2013-07-30 14:13:00
A flash fire followed by an explosion erupted at a paraxylene (PX) plant in east China's Fujian Province early Tuesday morning, according to authorities in Zhangpu County. The fire that erupted at 4:35 a.m. has been brought under control. No casualties have been reported, according to the county government. The controversial chemical plant was built in 2009 on Gulei Peninsula after the project was called off in the coastal city of Xiamen amid protests over potential pollution and health problems. A Zhangpu county government spokesman said an initial investigation found that a cracked hydrogen pipeline triggered the fire during a pressure test. He said the blast did not heavily damage the plant, nor has it resulted in any chemical leaks. However, windows on a number of residences near the plant were shattered in the explosion. | |
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Comment: A 'flash fire'? Something may have been lost
in translation, but that sounds like a made-up cause for this
explosion... maybe something similar to what happened in Florida on the
same day happened here also?
Explosions rock Florida gas plant, force evacuations |
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krcrtv.com
2013-07-30 12:27:00
The driver of a train that derailed in northwestern Spain last week, killing 79 people, was on a phone call with railway staff when the train crashed, the superior tribunal of Galicia announced Tuesday, citing information from data recorders. The train was going 153 kph (95 mph) when it derailed, the tribunal said. The express train derailed as it hurtled around a curve in northwestern Spain on Wednesday. The state railway, Renfe, said the train crashed on a curve several kilometers from the train station in the city of Santiago de Compostela, a popular tourist destination. The train was nearing the end of a six-hour trip from Madrid to the town of Ferrol in northwest Spain when it derailed at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday, the railway said. | |
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Comment: The part they left out is that he specifically
called the operator to report that he had LOST CONTROL OF THE TRAIN,
i.e. what was about to happen was not his fault:
Spanish train crash driver called operator BEFORE crash to say: "I'm at 190kmph and we're going to derail" |
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CBC News
2013-07-30 11:40:00
While demonstrators protest the weekend shooting of Sammy Yatim on a Toronto streetcar, questions remain about the sequence of events that led police to use deadly force to neutralize a suspect armed only with a knife. Yatim was killed on a streetcar in Toronto's west end just after midnight ET Saturday. Much of the incident was captured on amateur video. What we do know is that the entire incident transpired in about 10 minutes. Just after midnight, Yatim reportedly stood up and brandished a knife on the 505 streetcar on Dundas Street West near Trinity Bellwoods Park. A few minutes later, police arrived at the scene. At that point, Yatim was alone on the stationary streetcar. A standoff quickly ensued, and within the space of 13 seconds one officer had fired nine shots. Yatim was given CPR at the scene and then taken to hospital, where he was declared dead. Here's a look at some of the unanswered questions... |
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Margaret Davis
The Independent 2013-07-19 00:00:00
The body of a stowaway has been found in the landing gear of a plane at Heathrow Airport. A man believed to be Turkish and in his 30s was discovered in the British Airways Airbus A320 that flew from Istanbul to Terminal 5 yesterday. Police were called by airport staff shortly after 11am and are trying to confirm his identity and trace relatives. The airline said it will hold talks with authorities in Istanbul and officers from Scotland Yard as they investigate how the man managed to access the plane. |
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CBC News
2013-07-30 08:22:00
An amateur video that shows Toronto police shooting repeatedly at a teenager armed with a knife is "just one segment" of a broader picture that could look different once Ontario's police watchdog completes its investigation, the head of Toronto's police union says. "I can see why people would have questions, and that's a natural thing, and we're going to get the answers" from the investigation of the province's Special Investigations Unit, said Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association.
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Press TV
2011-01-31 06:20:00
Reports indicate that nearly one third of women serving in the US military have been raped, with over two thirds having been otherwise sexually assaulted. In 2008, 62 percent of those convicted of sexual assault or rape received punishments such as demotion, suspension, or a written reprimand. "Almost a third of all women serving are raped, and over two thirds sexually assaulted, this problem is rampant and systemic," National Public Radio has reported. |
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Brian Ross, Maddy Sauer, & Justin Rood
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She SaysABC News 2007-12-10 12:48:00 A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.
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Susan Jacobson, Lauren Ritchie and Jerry Fallstrom
Orlando Sentinel 2013-07-29 23:08:00
A large series of explosions has rocked a gas plant in Lake County, causing multiple deaths and injuries and forcing the evacuations of residents at least a mile away, authorities said. A night shift crew was working, and many people are thought to have been killed, said Lt. John Herrell, a Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman. "There's going to be a lot," Herrell said. The explosions began a little before 11 p.m. at Blue Rhino, a propane-tank business at 300 C.R. Road 448, and lasted for more than half an hour. All the explosions happened inside the plant, blowing the roof off, Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders said. | |
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Comment: From The Latest Worldwide Meteor / Fireball Reports
And:
At least 10 people from Central America north east to Florida
reported a dazzling meteorite/comet fragment on Monday night around the
time of the explosion at the gas plant in Tavares, north west of
Orlando. Considering the likely electrical effects generated between
meteorites and the surface of the planet, it is possible that the gas
plant explosion was caused by this meteorite.
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Rose Bouboushian
14 police officers with helmets and facemasks and assault rifles stormed in, family says.Courthouse News 2013-07-26 19:38:00 Pittsburgh SWAT officers must face claims that they raided a family's home, violently dragged a child from the bathtub, and "terrorized" them at gunpoint, a federal judge ruled. Georgeia Moreno and her family sued Pittsburgh, its police chief and 14 police officers in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The events unfolded as Georgeia, her husband, William; and her stepfather, Mark Staymates were watching television in their living room as Georgia's sick mother, Darlene, slept upstairs at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2010. They suddenly heard a loud explosion and saw bright lights, "as if grenades were going off," the complaint states. Pittsburgh Police SWAT officers wearing helmets and facemasks then broke and "stormed through" the front and back doors of the home, according to the complaint. Those officers allegedly never identified themselves, pointed assault rifles at the family, shouted obscenities and destroyed their property. Although the team purportedly sought to arrest William for quarreling with a drunk, off-duty police officer at a local veterans club early that morning, the family says that their "terrorization" continued for another 45 minutes after William was apprehended. The officers threw to the floor, kicked and handcuffed Georgeia, her stepfather and her adult son Billy. They also injured Mark's shoulder and forced Billy to lie face down in broken glass, according to the complaint. When Georgeia pleaded repeatedly that she had young children in the house, at least one officer allegedly stated, "You think you can get one of ours, and we won't get one of yours?" The family says the police proceeded to drag Georgeia's 10-year-old son Trentino violently from the bathtub, injuring his ankles. They allegedly then made the boy stand naked at gunpoint next to his 4-year-old sister Briseis. Officers have continued to harass and threaten the family since the raid, telling them "that's how we do things here" and that they should move out of Pittsburgh, the complaint states. |
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Edmond Chikwenhere
The Eye, Zimbabwe 2013-07-29 03:00:00
Villagers in parts of Mhondoro and Chikomba districts are living in fear following the recent falling of foreign objects in their area. Police said they were still to ascertain the origin and type of the objects. National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said investigations were still in progress. "Investigations are still going on at the army engineers. We do not have any conclusions yet," she said. Minister of State Security Sydney Sekeramayi said he was still to receive a detailed report on the investigations. Two objects landed in the Mhondoro area at the Zimplats Mine and at Denya Village in Mamina while one landed in Unyetu in Chikomba district. The object that landed at the Turf Village, Zimplats Mine in the Battlefields area is made of aluminium material and resembles a rocket. It is three metres long and a has 1,8 metre diameter while the spherical objects that landed in Mamina and Unyetu were said to weigh above 10kg. The explanations of the people in all the areas were similar despite the distance between them. People interviewed separately confirmed they heard three loud bursts and hissing sounds that they thought were gun fire followed by jet sound. The sounds were followed by thuds that shook the ground and were felt and heard several kilometres away. Speculation is high that the objects could be from satellite spying on Zimbabwe with residents in the affected areas insisting that the people responsible for launching the objects should be named and made to explain. |
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| Secret History |
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Mae Brussell
maebrussell.com 1976-11-30 15:13:00
Part I - Death, Drugs and Depression American and British pop/rock music during the 60's created an art form that has been described as one of the most important cultural revolutions in history. Within a few years, between 1968 and 1976, many of the most famous names associated with this early movement were dead. Mama Cass Elliott (earlier with the Mamas and Papas), Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Brian Jones (helped form the Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), Janis Joplin were all at the Monterey Pop celebration, summer 1967. Duane Allman Berry Oakley (helped form Allman group with Duane and Gregg Allman), Tim Buckley, Jim Croce, Richard Farina, Donald Rex Jackson (road manager for Grateful Dead) Michael Jeffery (Jimi Hendrix's personal manager), Brian Epstein (Beatles manager), Al Jackson (drummer for Wilson Pickett, back-up drummer for Otis Redding), Vinnie Taylor (Sha-Na-Na) Paul T. Williams (choreographer for the Temptations, and one of the original Temptations), Clarence White (Byrds), Robbie McIntosh (drummer Average White Band), Jim Morrison (Doors), Pamela Morrison (Jim's wife), Rod McKernan "Pig Pen" (Grateful Dead), Phil Ochs, Gram Parsons (Byrds, Flying Burritos, International Submarine Band, singing with Emmylou Harris), Sal Mineo, Meredith Hunter (victim of ritual killing at Altamont Festival), Steve Perron (lead singer of Children, wrote hit songs for ZZ TOP), and Jimmy Reed (influenced many groups, combined harmonica with guitar) were a few possible victims. | |
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Comment: Check out our latest SOTT Talk Radio show on the CIA's sick experiments with hard drugs and mind control since WW2:SOTT Talk Radio: Hank Albarelli Interview - CIA Mind Control, Frank Olson and JFK
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HeritageDaily
2013-07-29 18:48:00
The remains of two large 6000-year-old halls, each buried within a prehistoric burial mound, have been discovered by archaeologists from The University of Manchester and Herefordshire Council - in a UK first. The sensational finds on Dorstone Hill, near Peterchurch in Herefordshire, were thought to be constructed between 4000 and 3600 BC. Some of the burnt wood discovered at the site shows the character of the building's structure above ground level- in another UK first. The buildings, probably used by entire communities, are of unknown size, but may have been of similar length to the Neolithic long barrows beneath which they were found - 70metres and 30m long. They were, say the team, deliberately burnt down after they were constructed and their remains incorporated into the two burial mounds. However- much detail has been preserved in the larger barrow: structural timbers in carbonized form, postholes showing the positions of uprights, and the burnt remains of stakes forming internal partitions. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Rebekah Eliason
RedOrbit 2013-07-30 16:59:00
A recent study from Malmo University's Faculty of Odontology discovered serious illnesses, such as cancer, leave evidence of their existence in saliva. This new information could lead to future tests that allow for early detection of diseases by using a simple saliva sample. Professor Bjorn Klinge, of the Department of Periodontology said, "An early diagnosis has significant implications for both patients and healthcare." In previous studies it was discovered mouth and throat disease can be detected through salivary samples. One study also found a saliva sample detected the autoimmune disease Sjogren's Syndrome, which affects four million US adults. Certain illnesses, such as growth of certain tumors, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, contain an inflammatory component. Klinge and his colleagues have shown diseases with the inflammatory element possibly leave traces of it in saliva. Klinge explained, "We have successfully linked the secretion of substances in patient saliva to these illnesses." He also described how this important discovery could have a monumental effect on the future of medical examinations. "Instead of having to visit the doctor, patients will be able to swab the inside of their mouth with a cotton bud and send it away for analysis. If the test shows signs of illness, the patient will be called in to a doctor." |
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Mike Wall
SPACE.com 2013-07-30 11:00:00
It doesn't look like Comet ISON will live up to the considerable hype, one researcher says. ISON has been billed as a potential "comet of the century," with some experts saying it could blaze as brightly as the full moon around the time of its close solar approach in late November. But the comet's recent behavior suggests that such a dazzling show is not in the cards, says astronomer Ignacio Ferrín of the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. "Comet ISON has presented a peculiar behavior," Ferrín said in a statement Monday (July 29). "The light curve has exhibited a 'slowdown event' characterized by a constant brightness, with no indication of a brightness increase tendency. This slowdown took place around January 13th, 2013. For 132 days after that date and up to the last available observation, the brightness has remained constant." | |
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Comment: Others have a different view - Rumors of Comet ISON 'fizzling' may be greatly exaggerated
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Clara Moskowitz
LiveSciene 2013-07-29 15:41:00
The speed of light is considered to be the ultimate cosmic speed limit, thanks to Einstein's special theory of relativity. But physicists aren't content to assume this limit without testing it. That's where a new experiment with electrons comes in. Physicists measured the energy required to change the speed of electrons as they hopped from one orbital to another inside atoms of dysprosium, all while Earth rotated over a 12-hour period. This allowed the scientists to measure that the maximum speed of an electron, which, according to special relativity should be the speed of light, is the same in all directions to within 17 nanometers per second. This measurement was 10 times more precise than previous tests of electrons' maximum speed. So far, Einstein still comes out on top, and the theory holds. But the researchers hope to follow up the experiment with a more precise trial that might prove capable of poking holes in special relativity. That could actually be a good thing, scientists say, at least in terms of the advancement of physics. "As a physicist, I want to know how the world works, and right now our best models of how the world works - the Standard Model of particle physics and Einstein's theory of general relativity - don't fit together at high energies," physicist Michael Hohensee of the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. "By finding points of breakage in the models, we can start to improve these theories." |
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Bob Berman
HudsonValleyAlmanacWeekly 2013-07-29 18:41:00
We've long known that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with its neighbor Andromeda in about four billion years. But some European astronomers think this is a case of deja vu - that we have collided once before, long ago. This would explain puzzling structures in both our galaxies, and the odd existence of our tiny satellite galaxies like the Magellanic clouds. But it would mean that dark matter does not exist. And our ideas about how gravity behaves on large scales, is wrong. It would change everything. In 1930, the brilliant astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that the way groups of galaxies stay together despite their large individual speeds shows that they contain about six times more gravity than can be explained by all their stars, planets, black holes, and everything else. The way our galaxy spins supports this, too. Some unseen entity that has gravity must dominate the scene everywhere, and we call this dark matter. This is what must be gravitationally pulling us toward Andromeda at 70 mps so that the two of us can overcome the universe's expansion. |
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| Earth Changes |
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The Daily Telegraph, UK
2013-07-30 14:14:00
Dramatic mobile phone footage taken from inside office building shows the moment a tornado hit near Milan, injuring 12 people and filling the air with flying debris. The twister swept through Grezzago, an industrial area of Milan in Italy on Monday, overturning vehicles, uprooting telegraph poles and damaging buildings. Footage uploaded onto social media site www.youreporter.it shows the tornado swirling around the outside of an office building, hurling debris in the air. No causalities were reported but at least 12 people were left injured by the tornado .
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Comment: Comment: To give you an idea
how rare tornadoes are in Italy, four tornadoes in total were recorded
in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and three were recorded in the
20th century.
But then something changed. Four were recorded between 2008 and 2011, two in 2012... and so far this year there have been at least three in the city of Milan alone! 'Rare' tornado hits Milan, leaves utter disaster in its wake |
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Patrick Boehler
scmp.com 2013-07-29 12:55:00
A cement truck proved to be too much for a street section on Xian's outskirts on Saturday, causing a seven-metre-deep sinkhole and raising questions over construction safety in China. In the early morning, a cement truck was swallowed by a sinkhole as it was on its way to its daytime deployment in northern China's Shaanxi province. No one was injured, and the driver was able to escape the vehicle. It took urban authorities until 10pm to remove the truck from the site. |
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Western Morning News, UK
Coastguards have issued a warning to holidaymakers after a cliff fall at a "vulnerable" section of coast in Dorset.2013-07-29 12:43:00 The landslip took place at West Bay, near the area where holidaymaker Charlotte Blackman, 22, died when a cliff collapsed and crushed her last summer.
Heavy rainfall at the end of last week is thought to have made the land unstable and crumbly, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. No-one was injured in the landslip, which happened near Freshwater Beach Holiday Park on Friday and has left the cliff with an overhang. |
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youtube.com
2013-07-29 12:33:00
A driver and his passengers had a lucky escape after the car he was driving was almost buried under a landslide in China. Video of a car almost being washed away by floods and a landslide in northwest China has been released. The footage shows the driver trying to get away from the deluge, but changing his mind when he realises what is happening. All the car's occupants escaped unhurt. Almost a million people have been affected by flooding in the region since the start of July. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Joseph Serna
Los Angeles Times 2013-07-30 12:13:00
Unlike trees, when a meteor falls in the wilderness, everyone can hear it. And some Orange County residents think that's exactly what they heard when a thunderous boom rattled windows, scared pets and startled homeowners from their sleep early Tuesday morning. About 12:15 a.m., the Orange County Sheriff's Department received three or four calls from residents in Lake Forest's Foothill Ranch community about a loud explosion and a flash of light. Several South Orange County residents also tweeted about the incident, asking about the source of the blast. Entire neighborhoods emptied into the streets in the middle of the night, residents said, with some pointing to what looked like a cloudy path overhead as the telltale sign of some galactic visitor. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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The Record
Toronto - A man being treated at a Toronto hospital is believed to be
only the second person in the world known to have developed a rare
neurological condition called synesthesia after suffering brain damage.2013-07-30 17:32:00 Nine months after having a stroke, the anonymous patient began experiencing symptoms of synesthesia, in which certain colours evoked specific feelings. Foods were also associated with various colours. High-pitched brass instruments like those in the theme from James Bond movies elicited euphoria and caused light blue flashes in his peripheral vision. Neurologist Dr. Tom Schweizer of St. Michael's Hospital says it appears that when the man's brain tried to repair the stroke damage, the "wiring" went awry and produced synesthesia. Most synesthetes are born with the condition and include singer-songwriter Billy Joel, composer Franz Liszt and author Vladimir Nabakov. Functional MRI tests showed that many different areas of the man's brain were activated while listening to the James Bond theme compared with healthy control subjects. "The areas of the brain that lit up when he heard the James Bond theme are completely different from the areas we would expect to see light up when people listen to music," says Schweizer. "Huge areas on both sides of the brain were activated that were not activated when he listened to other music or other auditory stimuli and were not activated in the control group." The case is reported in the journal Neurology. Source: The Canadian Press |
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Caitlin Shetterly
Elle Magazine 2013-07-24 14:29:00
With symptoms including headaches, nausea, rashes, and fatigue, Caitlin Shetterly visited doctor after doctor searching for a cure for what ailed her. What she found, after years of misery and bafflement, was as unlikely as it was utterly common. The office of allergist Paris Mansmann, MD, sits on a grassy slope overlooking the Royal River, a wide waterway that originates in inland Maine and winds down across farmland and under train tracks until it hits the coastal town of Yarmouth, where it sloshes into the Atlantic Ocean. When I first came to Mansmann in February 2011, the river was covered with ice, and bare trees stood silver sentry on its shores. I was 36. I'd been sick for three and a half years. During that time, when I wasn't working as a writer and theater director or being a wife and mother, I visited doctors and had tests. I told few friends or members of my extended family how ill I was, because I didn't have any way to explain what was wrong. I had no diagnosis, just a collection of weird symptoms: tight, achy pain that radiated through my body and caused me to hobble around (my ankles, I'd joke to my husband, Dan, felt like they'd been "Kathy Batesed," à la the movie Misery); burning rashes that splashed across my cheeks and around my mouth like pizza sauce; exhaustion; headaches; hands that froze into claws while I slept and hurt to uncurl in the morning; a constant head cold; nausea; and, on top of all that, severe insomnia - my body just could not, would not, turn off and rest. I visited every doctor who'd see me and tried everything they threw at me: antidepressants; painkillers; elimination diets (including a long eight months when I went without any of the major allergens, such as gluten, nuts, dairy, soy, and nightshades); herbal supplements; iodine pills; steroid shots; hormone treatments; Chinese teas; acupuncture; energy healing; a meditation class - you name it, I did it. Nothing worked. After I maxed out the available rheumatologists, endocrinologists, nutritionists, gastroenterologists, Lyme disease specialists, acupuncturists, and alternative-medicine practitioners in the Portland metropolitan area, I was sent to neurologists in Boston. All of my tests came back normal. |
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Jill Carnahan, MD
Primal Docs 2013-07-30 14:15:00
Obesogens are chemicals that can inappropriately alter fat storage and change metabolic set-points. This disrupts energy balance and modifies your appetite to promote fat accumulation. Chemicals in your environment can certainly have an impact on your health and often your weight. Some of these exposures may occur before you're born but there is still a lot that you can control! Exposure to obesogens don't necessary doom you to become overweight, but it's all the more reason to consider ways to avoid exposure and regularly use neutraceuticals and whole foods to aid our body's natural detox mechanisms through our liver, kidneys and bowel. Here's some easy ways to do a quick check of your home a to determine where your greatest exposures may be coming from. Here's 12 simple changes that will significantly reduce your risks: |
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sciencedaily.com
Scientists have long been worried about the possible harmful effects
of regular cellular phone use, but studies so far have been largely
inconclusive. Currently, radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, such as
those produced by cell phones, are classified as possibly carcinogenic
to humans (Group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC). A new Tel Aviv University study, though, may bring bad news.2013-07-19 09:28:00
To further explore the relationship between cancer rates and cell phone use, Dr. Yaniv Hamzany of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Department at the Rabin Medical Center, looked for clues in the saliva of cell phone users. Since the cell phone is placed close to the salivary gland when in use, he and his fellow researchers, including departmental colleagues Profs. Raphael Feinmesser, Thomas Shpitzer and Dr. Gideon Bahar and Prof. Rafi Nagler and Dr. Moshe Gavish of the Technion in Haifa, hypothesized that salivary content could reveal whether there was a connection to developing cancer. Comparing heavy mobile phone users to non-users, they found that the saliva of heavy users showed indications of higher oxidative stress -- a process that damages all aspects of a human cell, including DNA -- through the development of toxic peroxide and free radicals. More importantly, it is considered a major risk factor for cancer. The findings have been reported in the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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No new articles. |
| High Strangeness |
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Lin Liyao
China Org 2013-07-30 15:17:00
A volcano monitoring station worker in Jilin was measuring water temperatures when he saw some kind of "monster" swimming around Tianchi Lake, according to a local media report. Around 5 a.m. on July 27, the worker named Wu Chengzhi arrived at the northern slope of the Changbai Mountains and together with his colleague began conducting their routine measurements of Tianchi Lake's water temperatures. While they were collecting their samples, Wu spotted a V-shaped ripple appear on the lake's quiet and calm surface. At the forefront of the ripple, a "black point" came peeking out of the water and swam forward at relatively high speed. |
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The Daily Telegraph, UK
Hikers in Canada have filmed what crypto-zoologists are hoping is evidence of the existence of the Sasquatch. 2013-07-30 14:22:00
A hiking couple have claimed that new footage they shot while walking in the Canadian wilderness shows the legendary bigfoot. The claim is the latest in a long series of reported sightings in Canada over the past few years. The video, allegedly shot in Mission, British Columbia, shows a large, gangling figure possibly covered in black hair, loping over a forest hilltop. Although filmed from a distance, it is possible to make out the figure emerging from behind a tree. It is visible for around 20 seconds, before appearing to punch a few leaves out of the way and disappearing out of sight. According to crypto-zoology website 'Legend Tracker', the couple were on a hiking holiday when they spotted the mythical creature in the distance and began to film. The tantalising footage has left bigfoot believers hoping that experts can examine it and therefore prove that the legendary ape-like sasquatch does indeed live in the forests of North America. |
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Dana Matthews
WhoForted? 2013-07-29 19:22:00
Did two Bigfoot hunters stumble onto evidence of a long lost race of giant cannibals in a Nevada cave? They believe that their discovery of a huge, charred handprint backs up their claims of legendary "Red-Headed Giants". In 1911 David Pugh and James Hart, two guano miners (yes, mining bat poo is really a thing) were excavating a cave on the eastern side of Nevada when they found something intriguing buried under 250 tons of excrement. According to the men's bizarre tale, hidden beneath six feet of bat crap they discovered several sets of giant bones, remains which many now believe belong to the Si-Te-Cah, a storied Paiute tribe of red-haired cannibal giants. Legend has it that the last remaining giants were burned alive inside the cave thousands of years ago. |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Lindsay Jolivet
Yahoo! News 2013-07-23 18:11:00
Online observers, perhaps seeking a distraction from royal baby ogling, are seeing Devil's horns on the Pope. The cover of Time Magazine's international edition for July 29 features a photo of the pontiff's face in profile superimposed above the magazine's title. The top of his head cuts off part of the "M" in Time, leaving two red spikes poking up from behind Pope Francis' head. Satanic or over-analyzed? |
