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Joe Quinn
Sott.net 2013-08-21 06:50:00
The mystery surrounding the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed on August 31st 1997 has been revived recently by the claims of a British SAS sniper whose testimony was part of the trial of another SAS soldier who was convicted of illegal weapons possession. The parents-in-law of the SAS sniper in question, known only as "Soldier N", claim that he boasted to his wife that the "SAS was behind Princess Diana's death". Unsurprisingly, the media reaction to the story has been to dismiss it, citing, incorrectly, that the investigation into Diana and Dodi's deaths was conclusive, that it was an accident, and that there was "no evidence of conspiracy". In fact, this alleged "new evidence" has done little more than provide the media with an opportunity to, once again, ridicule any idea that there was anything strange about the events in Paris that night. It is also interesting to note that, in just a few weeks, a new film about Diana's life, entitled 'Diana', will be released. The general consensus among the great British and world public seems to be that Diana and Dodi and their driver Henri Paul died as a result of a car crash caused by pursuing paparazzi. It's rather perplexing that this should be the case because the jury in the official 3-month-long inquiry into their deaths returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" and the paparazzi were exonerated. How does this happen? Well, how did it come to pass that 50% of American citizens believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks, despite the fact that no one, not one person, ever made such a statement publicly? Answer: The mainstream media's real job is not to report the news but to 'catapult the propaganda' that the 'elite' hope will become the new 'reality' or historical record. |
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Louise Boyle
Daily Mail, UK 2013-01-29 10:51:00
A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme 'approved by Washington' is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons. Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people. | |
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Comment: And now we see today, 21 August 2008, that
they appear to have 'gone for the jugular' with this propaganda trick,
claiming that over 1,300 people have been killed in a gas/chemical
attack perpetrated by Assad's troops in Damascus.
In the meantime, SANA, the Syrian national news agency has refuted these ludicrous lies: |
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William Engdahl
RT.com 2013-08-21 15:15:00
The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the "red line" for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility. The Middle Eastern newspaper, Al Arabiya, reports that "At least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria's Ghouta region, leading opposition figure George Sabra said on Wednesday..." The paper went on to claim that the Government of President Bashar al Assad was responsible for the attacks. If confirmed it could be the "red line" that US President Obama previously stated would tip the US into active military intervention in Syria, using No Fly Zones and active military steps to depose Assad. That in turn could erupt into a conflagration across the Middle East and a Super Power confrontation with Russia and China and Iran on one side, and the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the opposite side. Not a happy prospect for world peace at all. |
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Pepe Escobar
Asia Times 2013-08-21 02:38:00
I have argued that what has just happened in Egypt is a bloodbath that is not a bloodbath, conducted by a military junta responsible for a coup that is not a coup, under the guise of an Egyptian "war on terror". Yet this newspeak gambit - which easily could have been written at the White House - is just part of the picture. Amid a thick fog of spin and competing agendas, a startling fact stands out. A poll only 10 days ago by the Egyptian Center for Media Studies and Public Opinion had already shown that 69% were against the July 3 military coup orchestrated by the Pinochet-esque Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. So the bloodbath that is not a bloodbath cannot possibly be considered legitimate - unless for a privileged coterie of Mubarakists (the so-called fulool), a bunch of corrupt oligarchs and the military-controlled Egyptian "deep state". The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) government led by Mohamed Morsi may have been utterly incompetent - trying to rewrite the Egyptian constitution; inciting hardcore fundamentalists; and bowing in debasement in front of the International Monetary Fund. But it should not be forgotten this was coupled with permanent, all-out sabotage by the "deep state". |
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| Puppet Masters |
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RT.com
2013-08-21 13:39:00
Bradley Manning's defense team will file a pardon request to US president Barack Obama early next week, or will ask to commute the Private's sentence. "Early next week I will file a request to the President for the pardon of Private Manning, or at least [ask to] commute his sentence," Manning's lead attorney, David Coombs, said during a Wednesday news conference. Coombs read a statement from Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking US intelligence to WikiLeaks. In the letter, Manning says that he leaked the information out of love for his country, and that if the President denies him a pardon "he will serve [his] time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a high price." In the statement voiced by the counsel, Manning quoted American historian and social activist Howard Zinn, saying, "there is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." "We did everything to make sure he got a fair trial, but I don't think the public is going to perceive it as such," added Manning's attorney. |
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Julie Lévesque
Global Research 2013-08-16 11:04:00
"The international community is so screwed up they're letting Haitians run Haiti." - Luigi R. Einaudi, US career diplomat, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Assistant Secretary General at the Organization of American States Haitian author and human rights attorney Ezili Dantò heard Luigi R. Einaudi make this shocking comment in 2004, as Haiti was about to celebrate its 200 years of independence with its first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Apart from his efforts to raise the minimum wage and other social measures for the majority of Haitians living in extreme poverty, Aristide planned to nationalize his country's resources, a move which meant more money for Haitians and less for multinationals. One month later, in the name of the "international community", Aristide was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the U.S., France and Canada. Today, the "international community" is running Haiti again, colonial style. One can easily tell by comparing the very slow construction of shelters and basic infrastructure for the Haitian majority with the rapid rise of luxury hotels for foreigners, sometimes with the help of aid funds which, we were told, were going to provide Haitians with basic necessities. |
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Ian Simpson and Medina Roshan
Reuters 2013-08-21 10:43:00
Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history by providing files to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday. Judge Colonel Denise Lind, who last month found Manning guilty of 20 charges including espionage and theft, could have sentenced him to as many as 90 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for 60 years. Manning, 25, will be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military and forfeit some pay, Lind said. His rank will be reduced to private from private first class. Manning would be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, which will be reduced by the time he has already served in prison plus 112 days. |
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RT.com
2013-08-21 07:03:00
Japan will drastically raise the gravity of the latest Fukushima leak to Level Three, which is considered a "serious radiation incident" on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases. "Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked...a Level Three assessment is appropriate," read the document used during Wednesday's weekly meeting of Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) commissioners. Earlier on Tuesday, TEPCO reported that another tank with highly radioactive water had leaked at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The NRA first classified the leak as a Level One "anomaly." The contaminated water contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter - compared to the normal level of around 150 Bq/l. This is considered to be the most serious setback to date for the clean-up of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. |
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Gearóid Ó Colmáin
Global Research 2013-08-21 06:02:00
Fascism has presented itself as the anti-party; has opened its gates to all applicants; has with its promise of impunity enabled a formless multitude to cover over the savage outpouring of passions, hatreds and desires with a varnish of vague and nebulous political ideals. - Gramsci The Working class spontaneously gravitates towards socialism; nevertheless most widespread (and continuously and diversely revived) bourgeois ideology spontaneously imposes itself upon the working class to a still greater degree. - Lenin "It's not just about 20 cents". This was the status message of Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook last week, a message that was relayed through several of Brazil's major cities. The message became one of the initial slogans of what many are now calling the "Vinegar Revolution" which was reportedly triggered by a 20 cent hike in bus fares in the city of Sao Paulo June 20th. |
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Lars Schall
Global Research 2013-08-20 02:17:00
On occasion of the publication of his latest book, German author Mathias Broeckers talks about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, which he sees as a coup d'etat that was never rolled back. Mathias Broeckers, born 1954, is a German investigative journalist and the author of more than ten books, most of them related to the topics of drugs, terrorism and deep politics. He works for the daily German newspaper TAZ and the webzine Telepolis. His latest book, "JFK: Staatsstreich in Amerika" ("JFK: Coup d'Etat in America"), was published this August at Westend Verlag in Frankfurt, Germany. Lars Schall: Mr. Broeckers, a writer who authors a book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy that does not follow the verdict of official history faces the problem of being condemned on an instant basis as a "conspiracy theorist" who engages in "conspiracy theories." May I ask you at the beginning of this interview to explain to our readers that those critics - consciously or unconsciously - are acting exactly according to the "playbook" of the CIA? Mathias Broeckers: In January 1967, shortly after Jim Garrison in New Orleans had started his prosecution of the CIA backgrounds of the murder, the CIA published a memo to all its stations, suggesting the use of the term "conspiracy theorists" for everyone criticizing the Warren Report findings. Until then the press and the public mostly used the term "assassination theories" when it came to alternative views of the "lone nut" Lee Harvey Oswald. But with this memo this changed and very soon "conspiracy theories" became what it is until today: a term to smear, denounce and defame anyone who dares to speak about any crime committed by the state, military or intelligence services. Before Edward Snowden anyone claiming a kind of total surveillance of internet and phone traffic would have been named a conspiracy nut; today everyone knows better. |
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Jonathon Watts
The Guardian 2013-08-19 15:30:00
Partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald gives his first interview on nine-hour interrogation at Heathrow airport David Miranda, the partner of the Guardian journalist who broke stories of mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency, has accused Britain of a "total abuse of power" for interrogating him for almost nine hours at Heathrow under the Terrorism Act. In his first interview since returning to his home in Rio de Janeiro early on Monday, Miranda said the authorities in the UK had pandered to the US in trying to intimidate him and force him to reveal the passwords to his computer and mobile phone. "They were threatening me all the time and saying I would be put in jail if I didn't co-operate," said Miranda. "They treated me like I was a criminal or someone about to attack the UK ... It was exhausting and frustrating, but I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong." Miranda - a Brazilian national who lives with Greenwald in Rio - was held for the maximum time permitted under schedule seven of the Terrorism Act 2000 which allows officers to stop, search and question individuals at airports, ports and border areas. During that time, he said, he was not allowed to call his partner, who is a qualified lawyer in the US, nor was he given an interpreter, despite being promised one because he felt uncomfortable speaking in a second language. "I was in a different country with different laws, in a room with seven agents coming and going who kept asking me questions. I thought anything could happen. I thought I might be detained for a very long time," he said. He was on his way back from Berlin, where he was ferrying materials between Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on stories related to the NSA files released by US whistle-blower Edward Snowden. |
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Spy-coins
2013-08-20 00:00:00
Anyone with data to conceal can get one of these coins and hide a micro-SD card inside that will hold up to 128 GB of data. This is why it was a pointless exercise in Gestapo tactics for the UK government to destroy the computers at the UK Guardian to try to erase the Edward Snowden leaks. That data is out there and there is no way to get it back, ever. Available, here |
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Hamza Hendawi
IndependentMail.com 2013-08-19 19:40:00
Jailed ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could be released later this week, judicial officials said Monday, a move that would fuel the unrest roiling the country after the autocratic leader's successor was removed in a military coup. Underscoring the growing anger over Mohammed Morsi's ouster, suspected Islamic militants ambushed two minibuses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, forcing the men to lie on the sand and shooting 25 of them dead. The brazen daylight attack raised fears that the strategic desert region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip could be plunged into insurgency. The 25 were given a funeral with full military honors after a plane brought their bodies to an air base in eastern Cairo. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, and the army's Chief of Staff, Gen. Sobhi Saleh, led the funeral. |
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Jon Boone
The Guardian 2013-08-20 19:22:00
Pakistan's former military leader Pervez Musharraf was formally charged by a court on Tuesday with murdering Benazir Bhutto, the ex-prime minister who was assassinated at a political campaign rally in 2007. Musharraf was indicted during a short hearing at a court in the city of Rawalpindi, a move that adds to the problems facing the former president who returned from self-exile in March only to be entangled in three legal cases, barred from contesting elections and put under house arrest. Public prosecutor Mohammad Azhar told reporters that the 70-year-old retired general was charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder during a short hearing. | |
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Comment: Read also the SOTT focus from December 27 2007, the day Benazir Bhutto was murdered: Benazir Bhutto - A Warning To Us All
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| Society's Child |
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Times of Israel
2013-08-20 14:21:00
Long-expected letter from Pink Floyd front man to the 'family of Rock and Roll' blasts Israel for 'apartheid' and 'ethnic cleansing' British rocker Roger Waters has published an open letter calling on fellow musicians to join a boycott of Israel. The letter, which condemns Israel for apartheid and ethnic cleansing, has been expected for several months, according to the Electronic Intifada, which first reported on its existence. "I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel," Waters wrote in the letter dated Aug. 18. The letter was drafted in July. The former Pink Floyd front man said he was inspired to release the letter after British violinist Nigel Kennedy called Israel an apartheid state at a recent promenade concert at the Albert Hall in London. The BBC said it would remove his remarks in rebroadcasts of the concert. | |
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Comment: Rock on!
It's time to turn away from Israel and shun it completely.
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Police State USA
2013-08-21 16:13:00
A 44-year-old man climbed onto the roof of his apartment and began acting strangely. Police arrived to help him down, but instead ended up killing him with a series of offensive maneuvers including tasing him while in a choke-hold, and finally dragging his lifeless body down a staircase, with his skull banging against every step. Michael Angel Ruiz is the son of a retired LAPD detective and had a history of drug addiction. On July 28, for reasons unknown, he climbed onto the roof of his apartment. Witnesses called the police to protect his safety. This turned out to have been a fatal decision. |
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RIA Novosti
2013-08-21 14:46:00
Modern Russian residents have largely changed compared to Soviet people, independent pollster Levada Center has said, citing a recent poll. Asked whether the residents of today's Russia are different from people who lived in the Soviet Union, 74 percent of respondents said they are completely or in many respects different. Fourteen percent said Russian nationals today have changed little or have remained the same, and 12 percent said they did not know. Of those who said Russian residents are different, 58 percent said people have become more calculating and colder toward one another, 35 percent said people have grown intolerant, 30 percent said people are poorer and 29 percent called modern Russians freer. |
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Abhrajit Gangopadhyay and Jason Ng
Wall Street Journal 2013-08-21 11:57:00
Malaysian rescuers recovered 37 bodies after a tourist bus plunged into a ravine near a resort outside Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, killing many of the passengers in one of the worst road accidents in many years. "Rescue operation is still on. We think there were 53 passengers on board, but we are not sure," said Che Shaari Abdullah, an assistant director at Kuala Lumpur's Fire and Rescue Department. The cause of the accident is still being probed, he added. Malaysian emergency services personnel work to rescue passengers after a bus carrying tourists and local residents fell into a ravine near the Genting Highlands, about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur. Fire Department spokesman Christopher Chong said that the bus was likely overloaded as it was meant to carry only 44 passengers. The bus was coming back from the Genting Highlands - a patch of hillocks 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Kuala Lumpur and home to Malaysia's only casino - when it skidded off the road Wednesday afternoon. Sixteen passengers were rescued - some with serious injuries - and are being treated in hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, the official said. |
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Kristi Eaton
The Huffington Post 2013-08-20 22:50:00
Duncan, Oklahoma. -- With a motive that's both chilling and simple - to break up the boredom of an Oklahoma summer - three teenagers randomly targeted an Australian collegiate baseball player who was attending school in the U.S. and killed him for fun, prosecutors said Tuesday as they charged two of the boys with murder. Prosecutor Jason Hicks called the boys "thugs" as he described how Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was shot once in the back and died along a tree-lined road on Duncan's well-to-do north side. He said the three teens, from the grittier part of town, chose Lane at random and that one of the boys "thinks it's all a joke." Hicks charged Chancey Allen Luna, 16, and James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, of Duncan, with first-degree murder. Under Oklahoma law they will be tried as adults. Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, of Duncan, was charged with using a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact. He is considered a youthful offender but will be tried in adult court. Jones wept in the courtroom after he tried to speak about the incident but was cut off by the judge who said it wasn't the time to sort out the facts of the case. Jones faces anywhere from two years to life in prison if convicted on the counts he faces. The two younger teens face life in prison without parole if convicted on the murder charge. "I'm appalled," Hicks said after the hearing. "This is not supposed to happen in this community." |
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Marc Santora
An explosion at a Navy base in New Jersey on Tuesday left at least eight
people hurt, one of them seriously, the authorities said.The New York Times 2013-08-21 08:04:00 The Navy said the blast occurred around 9 a.m. in a marine boat repair shop at the Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Monmouth County. Workers were doing routine maintenance at the time of the explosion. Naval officials said that the cause was still under investigation and that the damage was contained in the boathouse area. Seven of those injured were treated at area hospitals - most for smoke inhalation - and had been released by Tuesday afternoon, the Navy said. One person, who suffered a broken arm and underwent surgery, remained hospitalized. |
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Reuters
2013-08-21 07:43:00
An ammonia leak and ensuring explosion in Central American country of Mexico has left at least three people dead and 10 others injured while prompting mass evacuations. Local authorities of the country's southern state of Oaxaca stated Tuesday that the leak occurred after construction equipment operated by a private company struck a pipeline that carries ammonia to a nearby petrochemical plant owned by the state's oil monopoly Pemex. The local government officials further added that the pipeline rupture on Tuesday also resulted in an explosion. All of the three fatalities were reportedly construction workers employed on a highway expansion project. The ten injuries came from the explosion while 40 others reportedly fell ill by inhaling ammonia. |
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NZ herald
2013-08-21 05:45:00
Sweden's justice minister on Tuesday met with activists who convinced prominent Swedes to wear headscarves this week to protest an alleged attack on a Muslim woman who wore a hijab. "We tried to say that there is structural discrimination ...but (Justice Minister Beatrice Ask) kept referring to individual responsibilities," Foujan Rouzbeh, one of the organisers, said at a press conference after the meeting. "I also said that under this government, we've gotten the impression that that this type of crime has increased," she added. |
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Bill Barrow and Kate Brumback
Christian Science Monitor 2013-08-21 02:09:00
A suspect was in custody after shooting into the air at an Atlanta-area elementary school Tuesday, the school chief said. All the children and teachers were safely evacuated from the Georgia school. | |
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Comment: For more on hysterization, read this article: Transmarginal Inhibition
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CBC News
Proposal would give officer discretion, free up court time, chiefs say2013-08-20 14:30:00
Canada's police chiefs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of reforming drug laws in the country. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, meeting in Winnipeg this week, wants officers to have the ability to ticket people found with 30 grams of marijuana or less. Kentville, N.S., police Chief Mark Mander, chair of the association's drug-abuse committee, said Tuesday officers currently have only two choices: turn a blind eye or lay down the law. Mander said officers could "either to caution the offender or lay formal charges resulting in [a] lengthy, difficult process, which results in a criminal charge if proven, a criminal conviction, and a criminal record." Mander said ticketing the offender would be far less onerous and expensive. However, federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay said there are no plans in the works to legalize or decriminalize marijuana. Though McKay had no follow up on the chiefs' recommendation, he said he appreciates their input. "We don't support legalization or decriminalization," Mander said. |
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Lorenda Reddekopp
CBC News 2013-08-19 10:14:00
A Toronto police officer has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Sammy Yatim, the 18-year-old shot and killed in a streetcar last month. A statement issued Monday from Ontario's Special Investigations Unit - the province's police watchdog - says the actions of Const. JamesForcillo in the downtown Toronto incident this summer justify a charge of second-degree murder. Forcillo, the officer who fired the shots, had been suspended from duty during the investigation.
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Comment: It'll be interesting to see if Forcillo gets
away with it like Zimmerman did. Cops are outta control in North
America these days. It might be time for people to shun them - don't
serve them food, deliver their mail, babysit their kids, avoid them in
church, whatever it takes to ostracize them.
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Frances Farmer
12160 2013-08-20 12:59:00
Bales, on his fourth combat deployment, had been drinking and watching a movie with other soldiers at his remote post at Camp Belambay in Kandahar Province when he slipped away before dawn on March 11, 2012. Bales said he had also been taking steroids and snorting Valium. At one point during his plea hearing, the judge asked Bales why he killed the villagers. Bales responded: "Sir, as far as why - I've asked that question a million times since then. There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did." Heartbreaking for all involved. This is who our soldiers HAVE to become to carry out the orders given in this bullshit war on terror. Of course he's fucked in the head. And these soldiers, after several deployments- any expectation that the end product will be anything other than a monster or a irretrievably broken human being should be an insult to all of us. There are more soldier suicides than service related deaths. The unending testimonies of soldiers never being able to be "normal" again- you have to go out of your way not to hear them. And as much as we'd like to think, this isn't just a few rogue units- it is the operating system from the time they enter theater. |
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Kay Steiger
The Raw Story 2013-08-20 08:44:00
A leading Indian rationalist, who was campaigning for a law to eradicate superstition in a country famed for its mystics and gurus, was shot dead on Tuesday, police said. Two gunmen on motorbikes fired at Narendra Dabholkar, a medical doctor who had faced accusations of being anti-religion, as he was taking his morning walk in the western city of Pune, its police chief said. "He was shot dead this morning, our investigations are on," Pune police commissioner Gulabrao Pol told AFP, adding that no suspects have yet been identified. Dabholkar founded more than two decades ago the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti - the Committee for the Eradication of Blind Faith - that aimed to change mindsets of India's deeply superstitious population. Dabholkar, known for his campaigns to promote progressive and scientific thought, had for several years been lobbying for Maharashtra state's parliament to pass legislation banning superstition and black magic. Two years ago, in an interview with AFP, he rejected critics' charges that the bill was anti-religion. "In the whole of the bill, there's not a single word about God or religion. Nothing like that. The Indian constitution allows freedom of worship and nobody can take that away," he said. "This is about fraudulent and exploitative practices," he said. |
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justinwoolie
Now they're brainwashing our KIDS. Kids are now taught to love the SS invasion.Youtube.com 2013-08-19 00:00:00 How they're brainwashing your kids into accepting the Police State. Watch this (6 min. school bus 'hijacking' begins around 1:00):
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Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story 2013-08-19 16:19:00
Members of the U.S. Senate do not respond equally to the views of all their constituents, according to research to be published in Political Research Quarterly next month. Senators overall represent their wealthiest constituents, while those on bottom of the economic rung are neglected. "The fact that lower income groups seem to be ignored by elected officials, although not a new finding, remains a troubling observation in American politics," Thomas J. Hayes of Trinity University wrote in his study. The study used data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey to compare constituents' political opinion to the voting behavior of their Senators in the 107th through 111th Congresses. With more than 90,000 respondents, the NAES is the largest public opinion survey conducted during presidential elections. In all of the five Congresses examined, the voting records of Senators were consistently aligned with the opinions of their wealthiest constituents. The opinions of lower-class constituents, however, never appeared to influence the Senators' voting behavior. The neglect of lower income groups was a bipartisan affair. Democrats were not any more responsive to the poor than Republicans. |
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| Secret History |
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University of Durham
2013-08-20 08:37:00
The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research. New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4th to 6th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The research, directed by Dr Mike J Church from Durham University and Símun V Arge from the National Museum of the Faroe Islands as part of the multidisciplinary project "Heart of the Atlantic", is published in the Quaternary Science Reviews. The research challenges the nature, scale and timing of human settlement of the wider North Atlantic region and has implications for the colonisation of similar island groups across the world. The Faroes were the first stepping stone beyond Shetland for the dispersal of European people across the North Atlantic that culminated on the shores of continental North America in the 11th century AD, about 500 years before Columbus made his famous voyage. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Ria Novosti
2013-08-21 15:04:00
Russian scientists have confirmed the authenticity of a 3.4-kilogram (7.5-pound) fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite - the largest piece found so far from the meteorite that hit the Urals region in February. An unnamed resident of the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Urals found the fragment near the village of Timiryazevsky and submitted it for analysis and authentication to Chelyabinsk State University. "Yes, it is a meteorite. This is the largest [Chelyabinsk] fragment analyzed so far by scientists," Andrei Kocherov, an official from the university, told RIA Novosti. The lucky owner was given an official certificate confirming the authenticity of the celestial fragment, Kocherov said. |
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| Earth Changes |
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Rob Gutro
NASA 2013-08-20 15:50:00
Tropical Storm Trami may not be making landfall in the Philippines, but it was close enough to bring heavy rainfall when combined with monsoon rains. NASA's Aqua satellite captured those extensive rains in an infrared image when it passed overhead from space. Tropical Storm Trami enhanced rainfall from the monsoon, and caused flooding in the northern Philippines, including Manila, the capital city. The northern Philippines were hit with two nights of heavy rainfall, but Trami is now moving to the northwest and away from the northern Philippines. According to reports from the Associated Press, many roadways were flooded. A report from Malaysia's Star on-line noted that three people were killed and two were missing as a result of the flooding. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument known as AIRS that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Trami's cold clouds combined with rainfall from the monsoon on Aug. 20 at 05:05 UTC/1:05 a.m. EDT. Clouds and showers from the combination blanketed the northern half of the Philippines and dropped heavy rainfall. |
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BBC News
Health authorities are trying to find out what poisoned at least 20
condors in the Andes mountain range between Chile and Argentina.2013-08-13 08:46:00
Click here to watch footage of the birds, who experts say are showing "signs of intoxication". The huge endangered birds, with a wingspan of up to 3m, were found near the town of Los Andes, about 80km east of the Chilean capital, Santiago. The authorities say two birds died, but 18 are recovering at a clinic.
They suspect the damage may have been caused by eating carcasses of poisoned cattle, fox or puma. |
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US Geological Survey
2013-08-21 13:35:00
Event Time 2013-08-21 12:38:30 UTC 2013-08-21 05:38:30 UTC-07:00 at epicenter Location 16.917°N 99.381°W depth=20.0km (12.4mi) Nearby Cities 13km (8mi) NNW of San Marcos, Mexico 35km (22mi) SE of Tierra Colorada, Mexico 54km (34mi) E of Acapulco de Juarez, Mexico 71km (44mi) S of Chilpancingo de los Bravos, Mexico 279km (173mi) S of Mexico City, Mexico Technical Details |
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Michelle Lady
wlox.com 2013-08-20 11:26:00
Thousands of fish are dead in Bayou Casotte forcing the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to close the bayou and part of the Mississippi Sound. MDEQ is also advising people to not eat any seafood from the area until further notice. Mississippi Phosphates said a release of water from the plant led to the fish kill. Owner of CC's Bait Shop Charles Williamson Jr. said, "If I continue taking hits like that, I can't stay in business." He said every time the water is contaminated, his business suffers. This time Williamson lost 65 pounds of shrimp. "It will take me about a week to get my stock back up because we haven't been catching a lot of shrimp," Williamson said. "So all that shrimp I had was four days worth of work. That's four days of burning diesel, four days paying help." Five months ago another fish kill forced MDEQ to again close the boat ramps, causing him to lose about $5,000 in bait and business. "It has just been a hard, uphill battle," Williamson said. |
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Hrvoje Hranjski
philstar.com 2013-08-20 11:12:00
Flooding caused by some of the Philippines' heaviest rains on record submerged more than half the capital Tuesday, turning roads into rivers and trapping tens of thousands of people in homes and shelters. The government suspended all work except rescues and disaster response for a second day. Officials reported at least seven people dead, 11 injured and four missing. The dead included a 5-year-old boy whose house was hit by a concrete wall that collapsed. His two adult relatives also were injured. Throughout the sprawling, low-lying capital region of 12 million people, floodwaters made most of the roads impassable and reached waist- or neck-deep along rivers and creeks. Authorities opened more than 200 evacuation centers in Manila and surrounding provinces filled with tens of thousands of people, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said. Overall, more than 600,000 people have been affected by the floods. |
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Geeska
The District Officials of Baligubadle of Hawd Region, issued a public
awareness message to district-residents to refrain from drinking water
from the public water reservoirs were flocks of birds have been
discovered deadThe Horn, Somalia 2013-08-19 03:41:00 These birds, which are a kind new to Somaliland, are believed to have been on their migration-and, somehow resulted in this unfortunate circumstance. The Somali-State of Ethiopia also issued a similar message to residents of Harshin, where a similar occurrence took place.
In an exclusive interview with the Mayor of Baligubadle, he spoke on the flock of birds found dead in the water reservoirs. "We contacted the Ministry of Health as well as The Ministry of Livestock, there have also been public awareness messages on Radio Hargeisa urging citizens to refrain from drinking from those specific locations". The Mayor of Baligubadle also added that the number of birds found in the reservoir were of tremendous numbers. |
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ENE News
2013-08-12 08:56:00
Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing some extremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows. Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussion about whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would be drastic and unprecedented [...] Last month, the department noted returns for the Skeena River sockeye run were dire. [...] [Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] said department scientists don't know why the return numbers are so low. "[...] we think something happened in the ocean." "[...] We've never seen anything like this in all these years I've done this. I've asked the elders and they have never seen anything like this at all." [said Chief Wilf Adam] Source: Associated Press |
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Tony Santaella
WLTX 2013-08-19 19:13:00
Road crews are trying to fix a portion of road that collapsed in Kershaw County. The hole is along the edge of Wildwood Lane, which is near Lugoff-Elgin High School. Crews say water along the road caused a tree on the side of the road to sink in, taking a portion of the roadway with it. Traffic is being diverted in the area. Crews says it could take days to repair the road. |
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Kevin McGeary
The Nanfang Insider 2013-08-19 19:00:00
Shenzhen has had a startling number of sinkholes in recent months, and now it has another to add to the list: the latest opened up in Yantian District on Saturday morning (Aug. 17) swallowing two vehicles. Fortunately nobody was seriously injured. This one was 30 square metres in size and five metres deep and, like the last sinkhole in Shenzhen at the start of this month, locals had previously warned authorities that something similar was liable to happen and were ignored, Southern Metropolis Daily reports. Local residents near the scene of the sinkhole on Yankui Road had noticed several road signs had been collapsing in recent weeks and that sediment had slid onto a nearby basketball court from the road. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Andrew Fazekas
The National Geographic 2013-08-20 15:23:00
A tiny comet's spectacular death dive into the sun has been captured by cameras aboard NASA's SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) sun-monitoring satellite this week.Click here for the animation. In the early hours of Tuesday, August 20, a comet estimated to be only a few tens of meters across made the kamikaze dive and did not seem to survive it's fiery encounter. (See also Comet Seen Vaporizing in Sun's Atmosphere - A First) If you look at the lower right corner of the last few frames in the above movie, which was created from individual snapshots from SOHO, you can watch the icy interloper quickly vaporize while producing a thin-long trail behind it as it plunges into the sun. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Jane Clinton
How did you sleep last night? Are you longing for a nap just to take
the edge off your fatigue? Perhaps you have been burning the candle at
both ends or you may regard sleep as something of an inconvenience in an
age when we are rarely able, or indeed willing, to switch off. The Daily Express, UK 2013-08-18 13:42:00
Margaret Thatcher said she got by on four hours. It would seem then that sleep, like lunch, is for wimps. Indeed Thomas Edison, the developer of the electric lightbulb, insisted: "Sleep is a criminal waste of time." Not so, according to Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He explains: "We squeeze more and more into the day and with the demands of e-mail and work, sleep is always the first victim. "Because we don't really understand the importance of sleep it is so easy not to sleep. "It is all part of the way we essentially marginalise the importance of sleep. Thirty six per cent of our lives will be spent asleep. If you lived to 90 that is 32 years. It is telling us that sleep, at some level, is important, yet we don't give it a second thought. It is remarkable. |
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Cynthia Lee
Findings identify a novel pharmacological target for drug development.McGill University 2013-08-20 05:53:00 Researchers at McGill University have found that sodium - the main chemical component in table salt - is a unique "on/off" switch for a major neurotransmitter receptor in the brain. This receptor, known as the kainate receptor, is fundamental for normal brain function and is implicated in numerous diseases, such as epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Prof. Derek Bowie and his laboratory in McGill's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, worked with University of Oxford researchers to make the discovery. By offering a different view of how the brain transmits information, their research highlights a new target for drug development. The findings are published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Balancing kainate receptor activity is the key to maintaining normal brain function. For example, in epilepsy, kainate activity is thought to be excessive. Thus, drugs which would shut down this activity are expected to be beneficial. |
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Mark Wheeler
Findings challenge conventional thinking about possible causes of disorder.University of California - Los Angeles 2013-08-20 12:04:00 Alzheimer's disease has proven to be a difficult enemy to defeat. After all, aging is the No. 1 risk factor for the disorder, and there's no stopping that. Most researchers believe the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. As we age, most scientists say, these proteins either disrupt signaling between neurons or simply kill them. Now, a new UCLA study suggests a third possible cause: iron accumulation. Dr. George Bartzokis, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and senior author of the study, and his colleagues looked at two areas of the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. They compared the hippocampus, which is known to be damaged early in the disease, and the thalamus, an area that is generally not affected until the late stages. Using sophisticated brain-imaging techniques, they found that iron is increased in the hippocampus and is associated with tissue damage in that area. But increased iron was not found in the thalamus. The research appears in the August edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. |
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Carmel Lobello
localsustainability.streamshare.com 2013-08-19 23:11:00
Tyson Foods, the largest producer of U.S. beef, noticed that cows fed Zilmax, an animal feed additive given to cattle a few weeks before slaughter to increase their weight, were having trouble walking off the truck on their way to meet their maker. Some had trouble moving, and others just laid down with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, or sat in dog-like positions, reports The Wall Street Journal. "I've seen cattle walking down a truck ramp tippy-toed," one industry expert told the paper. A kind of beta-agonist drug originally developed to treat asthma in humans, Zilmax alters the animals' metabolism to make them pack on lean muscle for 20 days leading up to slaughter. Introduced to the U.S. in 2007, about 70 percent of U.S. cattle now take some kind of beta-agonist drug. Tyson has since said it would stop accepting Zilmax-fed cows for slaughter, and Merck & Co, the pharmaceutical company behind Zilmax, announced it would suspend U.S. and Canadian sales of the drug. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Andrea Estrada
University of California - Santa Barbara 2013-08-21 15:08:00
When you share your lunch with someone less fortunate or give your friend half of your dessert, does that act of generosity flow from the milk of human kindness, or is it a subconscious strategy to assure reciprocity should you one day find yourself on the other side of the empty plate? And how do those actions among humans compare to those of our chimpanzee cousins and other nonhuman primates? Through two separate studies, UC Santa Barbara anthropologists Adrian Jaeggi and Michael Gurven found that reciprocity is similar among monkeys, apes, and humans, even when considering other factors that might otherwise predict helping behavior. However, they also found that only humans showed evidence of reciprocity in food sharing. Their research appears in the current issues of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B and of the journal Evolutionary Anthropology. "Reciprocity Explains Food Sharing in Humans and Other Primates Independent of Kin Selection and Tolerated Scrounging: A Phylogenetic Meta-Analysis," the Proceedings of the Royal Society B article, compiles quantitative date on cooperative behavior from all existing studies in a number of primate species. "Natural Cooperators: Food Sharing in Humans and Other Primates," the article in Evolutionary Anthropology, goes into greater detail about the origins and maintenance of cooperation among a wide range of primate species, with particular attention to the human case. |
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Albert Ang
Pro-social spending boosts happiness, especially when spending allows for social connection.Inderscience Publishers 2013-08-20 15:00:00 People usually feel good when they make a charitable donation, but they feel even better if they make the donation directly to someone they know or in a way that builds social connection. Research to be published in the International Journal of Happiness and Development investigates for the first time how social connection helps turn generous behavior into positive feelings on the part of the donor. Lara Aknin of Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Harvard Business School, Massachusetts, USA, wanted to examine when the emotional benefits of giving to charity become manifest. They carried out three studies of charitable donations, or more precisely pro-social spending, and found that spending money on others or giving money to charity leads to the greatest happiness boost when giving fosters social connection. The overarching conclusion is that donors feel happiest if they give to a charity via a friend, relative or social connection rather than simply making an anonymous donation to a worthy cause. |
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| High Strangeness |
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Inexplicata Blogspot
2013-08-17 13:47:00
The photo uploaded to Facebook by a beachgoer captured half the world's attention; the nature of the "critter" is still not known. The photo of a strange creature uploaded by a beachgoer in Villaricos "went around the world" by means of the Facebook network, garnering a multiplicity of comments as it did so. The fact of the matter is that what is believed to be an enormous fish was found by a woman on Luis Siret beach in Villaricos. Civil Protection authorities in Cuevas del Almanzora assisted in removing the nearly 4-meter long "critter" from the water and immediately notified the Guardia Civil's SEPRONA agency as well as PROMAR (Programa en Defensa de la Fauna Marina - Sea Life Defense Program). However, due to the advanced state of decomposition of the enormous "body", as PROMAR's Paco Toledano explained, "it's hard to know what we're dealing with. It's very decomposed and we cannot identify what it is. Perhaps we could learn something more from the bones, but to be precise, it would be necessary to perform a genetic analysis, which is very expensive, and who would pay for it. Anyway, we have submitted the information to colleagues with more experience and knowledge to see if they can tell us something more specific." |
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Alex Wynick
The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in the south-west of England this summer. The Mirror, UK 2013-08-19 11:56:00
Two crop circles that have sprung up in the rolling British countryside just 15 miles apart have been described as the "most elaborate" this year . The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in farmer's fields in the south-west of England this summer. The area is widely regarded as a hotbed for crop circles - with the most recent offerings appearing just days apart. One spotted in Monument Hill, near Devizes, Wilts, shows a cube encased in a circle surrounded by a decorated ring. It is believed to measure around 390 feet in diameter and is first thought to have appeared on August 6. |
