 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
Timothy C. Trepanier
Sott.net 2013-09-04 11:30:00
There has been much ado in the press lately about the "alleged" use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces against the so-called "rebels". Not only are these rebels supported, trained and funded by western interests, they also include members of al-Qaeda, who, up until last year were the sworn enemy of these very same western interests. How bizarre is that? Anyone who reads the Sott page regularly will have figured out by now that it was likely the western-backed rebels that were responsible for the attack we see portrayed in the media. But some readers may not be aware that there is also evidence to suggest that chemical weapons weren't even used in the attack. Of course, none of these facts seem to bother the mainstream media, who remain content to parrot the administration lies calling for a U.S. attack on Syria. |
|
|
|
Amb. Craig Murray
The GCHQ listening post on craigmurray.org.uk 2013-09-01 17:24:00
Mount Troodos in Cyprus is arguably the most valued asset which the UK contributes to UK/US intelligence cooperation. The communications intercept agencies, GCHQ in the UK and NSA in the US, share all their intelligence reports (as do the CIA and MI6). Troodos is valued enormously by the NSA. It monitors all radio, satellite and microwave traffic across the Middle East, ranging from Egypt and Eastern Libya right through to the Caucasus. Even almost all landline telephone communication in this region is routed through microwave links at some stage, picked up on Troodos. Troodos is highly effective - the jewel in the crown of British intelligence. Its capacity and efficiency, as well as its reach, is staggering. The US do not have their own comparable facility for the Middle East. I should state that I have actually been inside all of this facility and been fully briefed on its operations and capabilities, while I was head of the FCO Cyprus Section in the early 1990s. This is fact, not speculation. It is therefore very strange, to say the least, that John Kerry claims to have access to communications intercepts of Syrian military and officials organising chemical weapons attacks, which intercepts were not available to the British Joint Intelligence Committee. | |
|
|
|
Ellen Brown
Web of Debt Blog 2013-09-04 14:53:00
Iraq and Libya have been taken out, and Iran has been heavily boycotted. Syria is now in the cross-hairs. Why? Here is one overlooked scenario. In an August 2013 article titled "Larry Summers and the Secret 'End-game' Memo," Greg Palast posted evidence of a secret late-1990s plan devised by Wall Street and U.S. Treasury officials to open banking to the lucrative derivatives business. To pull this off required the relaxation of banking regulations not just in the US but globally. The vehicle to be used was the Financial Services Agreement of the World Trade Organization. The "end-game" would require not just coercing support among WTO members but taking down those countries refusing to join. Some key countries remained holdouts from the WTO, including Iraq, Libya, Iran and Syria. In these Islamic countries, banks are largely state-owned; and "usury" - charging rent for the "use" of money - is viewed as a sin, if not a crime. That puts them at odds with the Western model of rent extraction by private middlemen. Publicly-owned banks are also a threat to the mushrooming derivatives business, since governments with their own banks don't need interest rate swaps, credit default swaps, or investment-grade ratings by private rating agencies in order to finance their operations. |
|
|
|
|
Syria Free Press Network
2013-09-04 03:17:00
President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to the French daily Le Figaro. Below is the full text: |
|
|
|
| Puppet Masters |
|
Fox News
2013-08-14 16:56:00
The central bank in war-torn Syria has lifted restrictions on the sale of dollars to individuals, state news agency SANA said Wednesday, in a bid to curb black market trade. "Citizens may purchase foreign currency at banks, for non-commercial purposes, according to the rates fixed by the central bank," the bank's governor Adib Mayaleh said, quoted by SANA. Allowing banks to sell foreign currency was part of "efforts by the central bank in the domestic market to stabilise the price of the Syrian pound and stop speculation on the exchange rate. "The central bank will continue to finance imports of basic goods through banks operating in Syria at preferential rates," said Mayaleh. The agency said the central bank had sold dollars to 10 private banking institutions at the rate of 173.27 Syrian pounds to the dollar "to cover the needs of the local market between August 13-19". |
|
|
|
|
RT
2013-09-04 14:45:00
Probes from Khan al-Assal show chemicals used in the March 19 attack did not belong to standard Syrian army ammunition, and that the shell carrying the substance was similar to those made by a rebel fighter group, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated. A statement released by the ministry on Wednesday particularly drew attention to the "massive stove-piping of various information aimed at placing the responsibility for the alleged chemical weapons use in Syria on Damascus, even though the results of the UN investigation have not yet been revealed." By such means "the way is being paved for military action" against Damascus, the ministry pointed out. But the samples taken at the site of the March 19 attack and analyzed by Russian experts indicate that a projectile carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin was most likely fired at Khan al-Assal by the rebels, the ministry statement suggests, outlining the 100-page report handed over to the UN by Russia. |
|
|
|
|
Washington Blog
Kerry's claim that Syrian rebels are not associated with Al Qaeda has been thoroughly debunked.2013-09-04 14:36:00 Politico notes: "We certainly don't have a dog in the fight," [Senator Ted] Cruz said, calling it a civil war in Syria. "We should be focused on defending the United States of America. That's why young men and women sign up to join the military, not to, as you know, serve as Al Qaeda's air force." |
|
|
|
|
Julie Wilson
Infowars 2013-09-04 14:12:00 Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh acknowledges building evidence that the chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged to frame President Bashar al-Assad. On Tuesday's broadcast of the Rush Limbaugh show, the talk show host acknowledged reports from the Associated Press that the admitted intelligence on Syria's chemical weapons attack was "no slam dunk."
He also announced he believes Obama may have been "complicit" in the attack and possibly helped plan it. Limbaugh expressed doubt over allegations Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Limbaugh asked if the allegations are true, what does Assad have to gain? On Saturday morning, the talk show host received a note from a friend who spent time in the Middle East. In the note, Limbaugh's friend vouched for Assad, claiming there's "nothing in it for him," and "he's not that kind of guy," describing the note as "almost a personal reference for Bashar." |
|
|
|
|
Yossef Bodansky
Global Research 2013-09-04 13:49:00
There is a growing volume of new evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East - mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its sponsors and supporters - which makes a very strong case, based on solid circumstantial evidence, that the August 21, 2013, chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a pre-meditated provocation by the Syrian opposition. The extent of US foreknowledge of this provocation needs further investigation because available data puts the "horror" of the Barack Obama White House in a different and disturbing light. On August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in Turkey started advance preparations for a major and irregular military surge. Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders and representatives of Qatari, Turkish, and US Intelligence ["Mukhabarat Amriki"] took place at the converted Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, used as the command center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and their foreign sponsors. Very senior opposition commanders who had arrived from Istanbul briefed the regional commanders of an imminent escalation in the fighting due to "a war-changing development" which would, in turn, lead to a US-led bombing of Syria. |
|
|
|
|
James Corbett and Pepe Escobar
GRTV 2013-09-04 05:39:00
Roving correspondent and frequent guest Pepe Escobar of Asia Times Online joins us once again to discuss the geopolitical machinations behind the latest developments in Syria. We discuss the possibility of an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline and how the regional players react to such a proposal, and Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia's role in the current conflict. |
|
|
|
|
Brasscheck TV
2013-09-04 05:19:00
The history of the First Gulf War 1. Reagan and Bush sent Saddam Hussein billions of dollars and literally tons of chemical and biological weapons to kill Iranians. (They did a good job. Iran lost over one million people in the Iran-Iraq War.) 2. Kuwait was stealing oil from Iraq using slant drilling rigs they got from their friends in Texas. 3. Iraq told them to cut it out. Kuwait continued. Iraq told the US they planned to invade. US Ambassador told Hussein: "It's none of our business how you resolve this." 4. Iraq invades Kuwait. 5. Bush whips Americans into a frenzy with the lies above. 6. US attacks Iraqi forces, drives them from Kuwait, kills 135,000 of them including thousands as they were in retreat on their own territory - and establishes bases and supply depots all over the region 7. Mass murdering psychopath Bill Clinton spends eight years destroying basic infrastructure in Iraq leading to the death of at least 500,000 children 8. Son of Bush and his cabinet of lying criminals makes the case to invade Iraq. 9. They do so and deliberately botch the post-invasion occupation to degrade the country even further killing many hundreds of thousands more. 10. Hand picked animatron Bushbama continues the occupation, foments violence through out the region, and now threatens to attack Syria. Deja Vu all over again.
|
||
|
|
|
Max Keiser
Max Keiser Report 2013-09-04 05:15:00
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert present an American Labor Day special in which they compare the situation for the American worker and consumer with that of the Chinese. They also look at the headlines from China regarding 'secret gardens' and contaminated soil. In the second half, Max talks to Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about housing bubbles, infrastructure, food safety and more in China. |
|
|
|
|
Dan Roberts and Spencer Ackerman
The Guardian 2013-09-03 05:10:00
President suggests strikes could lead to longer-term mission as tough White House rhetoric begins to win over Republicans Barack Obama portrayed his plans for US military action in Syria as part of a broader strategy to topple Bashar al-Assad, as tougher White House rhetoric began to win over sceptical Republicans in Congress on Tuesday. While stressing that Washington's primary goal remained "limited and proportional" attacks, to degrade Syria's chemical weapons capabilities and deter their future use, the president hinted at a broader long-term mission that may ultimately bring about a change of regime. "It also fits into a broader strategy that can bring about over time the kind of strengthening of the opposition and the diplomatic, economic and political pressure required - so that ultimately we have a transition that can bring peace and stability, not only to Syria but to the region," he told senior members of Congress at a White House meeting on Tuesday. Obama has long spoken of the US desire to see Assad step down, but this is the first time he has linked that policy objective to his threatened military strikes against Syria. It follows pressure on Monday, from senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to make such a goal more explicit. | |
|
Comment: Could it be any more obvious that the alleged
chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21st was contrived to
justify the pre-planned invasion and occupation of yet another Middle
Eastern country by the United States?
|
|
|
|
|
Press TV
2013-09-04 05:03:00
Recent radiation readings at Japan's crippled Fukushima plant depict that the level of radioactive water leak from the site has reached its highest level ever, officials say. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced the radiation level of the water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was as high as 2,200 millisieverts (mSv) (20 percent) on Wednesday, while it was recorded to be at about 1,800 mSv (18 percent) earlier this week. The radiation level is high enough to kill an exposed person within hours, authorities stated. Fukushima NPP was damaged in a mega-earthquake followed by a tsunami on March 11, 2011. The incident led to the meltdown of three reactors at the plant, radioactive contamination of the air, and sea water. About 160,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the area, north of Tokyo, governmental sources announced. |
|
|
|
|
Maayana Miskin
Aarutz Sheva Israel News 2013-09-04 05:01:00
Syrian president 'has lost the right to be a leader,' Peres declares. President Shimon Peres slammed Syrian President Bashar Assad during a reception Tuesday with foreign ambassadors in Israel in honor of Rosh Hashanah. "Assad has lost the right to be a leader by killing a hundred thousand people. He caused it. He wasn't elected properly, it was never a real democracy but even in a democracy you don't have the right to kill your own people," Peres declared. "Assad will disappear one way or the other," he added. However, he continued, intervention may not be the right path. "War is a very serious business and I would suggest to every leader to think as much as they can before rather than afterwards," he said, adding, "I admire President Obama's attempt to examine every possibility to bring this horrible situation to an end." Peres echoed other Israeli leaders in saying that Israel has no plans to intervene in Syria, but is prepared for any attack. An attack is unlikely, he added, explaining, "If Syria attacks us we will overcome them and that is why I believe it won't happen... We have one of the best security infrastructures and one of the best militaries in the modern world." |
|
|
|
|
RIA Novosti
2013-09-04 04:25:00
Military action against Syria not approved by the UN Security Council would be in violation of international law, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday, comments that came as US President Barack Obama pressed his case to Congressional leaders for a retaliatory strike on Syria over its alleged used of chemical weapons. "As I have repeatedly said, the Security Council has primary responsibility for international peace and security," Ban told a news conference in New York prior to departing for the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, The Associated Press reported. |
|
|
|
|
Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian 2013-08-28 04:15:00
Information passed to US by Israeli Defence Forces' 8200 unit, former official tells magazine A team of United Nations inspectors have resumed their second day of investigations at the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, as western leaders moved towards military action in response to the Syrian regime's reported use of chemical weapons against civilians. The UN team left their Damascus hotel early on Wednesday after the operation was suspended on Tuesday following a sniper attack on its convoy on Monday. The bulk of evidence proving the Assad regime's deployment of chemical weapons - which would provide legal grounds essential to justify any western military action - has been provided by Israeli military intelligence, the German magazine Focus has reported. |
|
|
|
|
Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk 2013-08-30 03:51:00
There is no obvious reason why the Western powers should care whether it was the friends or the family of Mohammed which took over the leadership of his movement upon his death. However there is plainly an agenda led by the USA to support the Sunnis in their spiralling regional conflict with the Shia. This is not hard to rationalise. The ultra wealthy members of the Gulf regimes continue to act as the West's proxies in the region and provide harbour to its neo-imperialist armed forces, while at the same time maintaining themselves an obscurantist version of Islam which would have horrified Mohammed and breaks virtually every precept of the Koran, particularly as regards treatment of women and of minority religions within their territory. In Bahrain the large Shia majority is brutally repressed with active western collusion; in Saudi Arabia the Shia minority in the East is degraded. Iran is the great Shia bogey, and the West is so determined to maintain it as "the enemy" that they refuse the most basic diplomatic openings. The UK turned down an invitation to be represented at the inauguration of a new more moderate President and hold initial conversations. Meanwhile, Shia groups have mustered the only effective military resistance to Israeli aggression, and in Syria a Shia friendly regime is under intense pressure from the West and its Gulf allies. Peculiarly, in Iraq Western invasion resulted in the installation of a Shia regime, but that was only one of the entirely unforeseen consequences of that most stupid of invasions, and the Western response is to try to split up the country and fuel multiple insurgencies. |
|
|
|
|
Forbes.com
2013-09-04 03:16:00
The elected members of the U.S. Congress will soon vote on whether the country should send missiles into Syria, intervening in a war that has already claimed the lives of over 100,000. One would think that the matter before the Congress would at least command their attention. But, as the Senate conducted a hearing today to discuss the details of the strike, and the arguments for and against it, Sen. John McCain took out his iPhone and played poker to pass the time. An image of McCain's phone was captured by Washington Post photographer Melina Mara, and posted to the Post's live blog of the hearing. The photo is blurry, but clearly depicts a game in progress. When he learned of the picture, McCain posted a flippant response to Twitter. While he may have made up his mind on the strike (he said yesterday he is confident in the direction the White House is moving), McCain's game playing projected a certain lack of seriousness about a major strategic military decision. And, when some on Twitter saw his tweet, they lashed out in response: "Haha, you're right!" wrote Digg's David Weiner. "It's absurd to expect someone who pushed us into two, now maybe three wars to give his full attention!" "OUR LEADERS ARE SHAPING THE COURSE OF HISTORY," wrote Carlo Johnson of Brooklyn, New York. "Yes, we shouldn't expect our Senators to pay attention for 3 whole hours. It's just bombing another country, after all!," added astronomer and author Phil Plait. |
|
|
|
| Society's Child |
|
Marcus K. Garner and Ben Gray
16-year-old mistaken for would-be burglar
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2013-09-04 15:21:00
The person a DeKalb County police officer shot Tuesday morning was not a would-be burglar, as police initially believed, police said. DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander on Wednesday said the individual was a 16-year-old Southwest DeKalb High School student skipping school. "It has been revealed to us that the subject shot by one our DeKalb police officers was not associated with the burglary on Streamside Court," Alexander said. "He was truant from school and began running when he saw police officers in the area." The teen tried to hide from a K9 officer and apparently startled the officer as the officer approached him, the chief said. "The K9 officer actually came in contact with the young man, and there was an unintentional discharge when he came up on a subject who appeared to be hiding in the shed," Alexander said. |
|
|
|
|
Avicennesy
2013-09-04 14:57:00
|
|
|
|
|
RT.com
2013-09-04 04:04:00
Ariel Castro, the convicted kidnapper who kept three women captive in his Cleveland home for a decade, has been found hanged in his prison cell. Castro had previously pleaded guilty to the charges against him to avoid the death penalty. Prison officials at the Ohio Correctional Reception Center discovered Castro's body hanging in his cell at 9:20 pm Tuesday local time (01:20 GMT Wednesday). After various attempts to revive him his body was transferred to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead an hour later. "Inmate Ariel Castro was found hanging in his cell this evening at 9:20 pm at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient. He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals," JoEllen Smith of the Ohio Department of Corrections said in a statement. |
|
|
|
|
RT.com
2013-09-04 01:53:00
One woman dies every hour in dowry-related crimes in India, with over 8,000 deaths reported in 2012. The numbers steadily increased between the years of 2007 and 2011, pointing to a rise in the demand for dowries. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 8,233 women died in disputes over dowry payments given by the bride's family to the groom's family at the time of marriage in 2012 - that works out to be one death per hour. The report comes as the world's attention remains on women's rights issues in India after a number of high-profile rape cases shocked the nation and the globe. Thousands of Indian women die every year because the groom's family deemed the dowry amount to be inadequate. Many of the women are doused with gasoline and burned to death. According to AFP, dowry demands continue even years after the marriage ceremony. The number of deaths has been steadily growing, rising from 8,093 in 2007 to 8,618 in 2011. |
|
|
|
|
Terry Firma
Patheos.com 2013-09-02 00:02:00
Pop quiz. Was Mark Twain 1. an atheist, 2. an agnostic, or 3. a deist? Well, the author's name is on Wikipedia's list of agnostics. Also, on its list of deists. Hmm. Now go looking for a list of famous atheists, and yup. So what did Twain believe? Depends on whom you ask. In other words, it's complicated - but not to Colorado pastor Kevin Swanson. Swanson has gotten it into his head that Twain was one of the wickedest men who ever lived, on account of the fact that America's greatest humorist frequently made fun of religious phonies with observations like this one:
|
|
|
|
|
Associated Press
2013-09-03 15:27:00
A man was driving along a Honolulu freeway over the weekend when a surfboard crashed through the windshield just inches from his face, leaving him with only scratches on his face and arms. Jerrin Ching was driving on the H-1 freeway Sunday morning when the red surfboard came out of nowhere and pierced through the glass, he told KHON- TV. "I'm just thankful to be here," he said. "After it hit, I was like what just happened?" |
|
|
|
|
David Edwards
A child who was thought to be no older than 8-years-old shot a SWAT
officer with his service weapon at a literacy fair in California last
week while he was showing off tactical equipment to kids.The Raw Story 2013-09-03 12:23:00
Lodi Police Chief Mark Helms told KMAX that the incident took place at the "2013 Literacy Fair: Little Buckaroos Reading Roundup" on Aug. 24. Helms said that SWAT Officer Robert Rench was in a SWAT vehicle demonstrating equipment to children when a boy, between 6 and 8 years old, walked up behind him and fired his holstered Glock .40 caliber service weapon into his leg. "According to the witnesses, [the child] was able to walk up to the officer, and was able to manipulate his handgun while it was in the holster, causing it discharge," Lodi Police Lt. Sierra Brucia explained to KXTV. "And then the round actually fired down the officer's leg and into the pavement." Brucia said that an internal investigation was focusing on Rench's thigh holster, which may have made it easier for the child to access the weapon. |
|
|
|
| Secret History |
|
Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News 2013-09-04 13:34:00
A boat neck sweater made of warm wool and woven in diamond twill was a dominating fashion trend among reindeer hunters 1,700 years ago, according to researchers who have investigated an extremely well preserved Iron Age tunic found two years ago under melting snow in Norway. Announced last March, the finding has been detailed in the current issue of the journal Antiquity. "Due to global warming, rapid melting of snow patches and glaciers is taking place in the mountains of Norway as in other parts of the world, and hundreds of archaeological finds emerge from the ice each year," Marianne Vedeler, from the University of Oslo, Norway, and Lise Bender Jørgensen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, wrote. |
|
|
|
|
Sarah Neary
Voice of Russia 2013-09-02 16:37:00
Homo sapiens were not the only kind of humans to reside on this planet. Two experts in the field exposed to the Voice of Russia that other forms of humans died out due to poor social networking and climate. Interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals went on hundreds and thousands of years ago, making modern humans around one percent Neanderthal according to the newest book on evolution, Lone Survivors. "There is no single center where we originated even within Africa, our origins were kind of composite, a patchwork, Professor Chris Stringer, author of Lone Survivors and Researcher at the Natural History Museum in London said and added, "So different bits of Africa contributed to what we call today modern humans." The new theory on how present day humans came to be, according to the book Lone Survivors, is that we came from Africa and then journeyed from there. However, we are not full bred modern humans, as we all have a microscopic percentage of Neanderthal DNA in us, if originally from Europe. Though, Australians and New Guineans have an extra ingredient in their DNA, from an archaic human known as the Denisovans. This group was discovered in a cave in Siberia, and those with the Denisovan gene, also have Neanderthal and modern human roots tied to them. It was more than likely that interbreeding made it possible for certain humans, who were not used to the environment, to have offspring that would survive through disease and other possible debilitating factors of the region. |
|
|
|
|
Laura Poppick
LiveScience 2013-09-03 19:01:00
The most precise chronology of Early Egypt yet suggests the country formed much more quickly than previously thought. The new finding reveals a robust timeline for the first eight kings and queens of Egypt, including, in order of succession Aha, Djer, Djet, Queen Merneith, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa'a. The accession of King Aha to the throne is often thought to define the start of the Egyptian state, with the new study suggesting (with 68 percent probability) that he became king between 3111 B.C. and 3045 B.C. Existing timelines of Egypt's transition from a nomadic community along the Nile River to a permanent state are mainly based on changes in pottery artifacts found at various locations around the country. However, such timelines are flawed due to the subjectivity required to distinguish one pottery style from another, and because styles might vary from site to site without signifying a change in time period. To create a more reliable timeline, archaeologists based at the University of Oxford have developed the most comprehensive chronological analyses of Early Egypt artifacts yet based on a computer model of existing and newly measured radiocarbon dates. The analyses suggest the rise to statehood occurred between 200 and 300 years faster than previously thought, beginning between 3800 B.C. and 3700 B.C., rather than the past estimate of 4000 B.C. The findings, which also suggest the preceding Neolithic period lasted longer than thought, are detailed Sept. 4 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. |
|
|
|
| Science & Technology |
|
Mike Wall
SPACE.com 2013-09-04 15:16:00
Dying stars that are among the most beautiful objects in the universe tend to line up across the night sky, and astronomers aren't sure why. These "cosmic butterflies" - actually a certain type of planetary nebula - all have their own formation histories, and they don't interact with each other. But something is apparently making them dance in step, scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope (NTT) have discovered. "This really is a surprising find and, if it holds true, a very important one,"study lead author Bryan Rees, of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "Many of these ghostly butterflies appear to have their long axes aligned along the plane of our galaxy. By using images from both Hubble and the NTT we could get a really good view of these objects, so we could study them in great detail." | |
|
Comment: null
|
|
|
|
|
Anthony Watts
Watts up with that 2013-09-04 12:48:00
Note: Between flaccid climate sensitivity, ENSO driving "the pause", and now this, it looks like the upcoming IPCC AR5 report will be obsolete the day it is released. From a Technical University of Denmark press release comes what looks to be a significant confirmation of Svensmark's theory of temperature modulation on Earth by cosmic ray interactions. The process is that when there are more cosmic rays, they help create more microscopic cloud nuclei, which in turn form more clouds, which reflect more solar radiation back into space, making Earth cooler than what it normally might be. Conversely, less cosmic rays mean less cloud cover and a warmer planet as indicated here. The sun's magnetic field is said to deflect cosmic rays when its solar magnetic dynamo is more active, and right around the last solar max, we were at an 8000 year high, suggesting more deflected cosmic rays, and warmer temperatures. Now the sun has gone into a record slump, and there are predictions of cooler temperatures ahead This new and important paper is published in Physics Letters A. - Anthony |
|
|
|
|
Brett Smith
RedOrbit 2013-09-04 00:18:00
A new international poll from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) found stark differences in sleeping habits among residents of the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan for people between the ages of 25 and 55 years old. While the Americans and Japanese in the study reported having the least amount of sleep during the week on average, Canadians and Mexicans reported the most, at just over seven hours per weeknight. "As the first international public opinion poll on sleep, the National Sleep Foundation 2013 Bedroom Poll makes an important contribution to the field," said Namni Goel, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the NSF 2013 International Bedroom Poll expert panel. "Although we know that everyone sleeps, the rather remarkable cultural differences within this universal experience have not been adequately explored. It is NSF's hope that this initial poll will inspire more research on this critical yet understudied topic." The survey suggested that most people around the world - from the western Pacific to North America to Europe - are not getting enough sleep. Less than one-half of people in Mexico, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany report getting a good night's sleep every night or almost every night on weeknights. Just over half of Japanese participants, 54 percent, said they consistently get a good night's sleep. |
|
|
|
|
Lee Rannals
RedOrbit 2013-09-03 18:12:00
Canines are already powerful weapons against drug smugglers and natural disasters, but man's best friend is about to get a little more help. Scientists writing in the International Journal of Modeling, Identification and Control say they have created a way for humans to control a dog using a remote control. The team created a device equipped with a microprocessor, wireless radio, GPS receiver, and an 'attitude and heading reference system.' This system helps to provide autonomous guidance for a canine using the embedded command module, which utilizes vibration and tones to help guide the canine in the direction it needs to go. Researchers said that preliminary tests in both structured and non-structured environments show obedience accuracy of up to almost 98 percent. They envision this device being particularly useful in search and rescue situations where dogs are able to go into areas that are too narrow or dangerous for humans. "The ability to autonomously control a canine has far reaching [implications]," the team wrote in the journal. |
|
|
|
|
Bahar Gholipour
LiveScience 2013-09-03 15:01:00
Taking hormones to treat the symptoms of menopause is thought to increase women's risk of breast cancer, but this risk doesn't rise equally in all women, a new study finds. The increase in risk varies depending on a woman's race, body mass index (BMI) and breast density, and some women may benefit from hormone therapy while facing little increase in cancer risk, the study found. The researchers looked at nearly 1.65 million postmenopausal women ages 45 and older, and found that leaner women, as well as women with denser breasts, were more likely to see the detrimental effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on their breast-cancer risk. Among underweight and normal-weight women (defined as having a BMI lower than 25) in the study, those who used HRT had a 35 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared with those who did not use HRT. For obese women (those with a BMI of 30 or higher), the risk of breast cancer did not appear to be affected by hormone use. Among women with extremely dense breasts, those who took HRT had a 40 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared with those who didn't take hormones, according to the study. High breast density means the breast is made up of more connective tissue, relative to the amount of fat tissue. |
|
|
|
| Earth Changes |
|
The Siberian Times
Water levels hit record high levels in both Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Tuesday.2013-09-03 16:37:00
Water levels hit record high levels in both Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Tuesday. 'The water continues to rise in the Khabarovsk territory. The Komsomolsk-on-Amur area is at worst risk', presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District Yury Trutnev told a meeting with prime minister Dmitry Medvedev. The water level hit the 805-centimetre mark in Khabarovsk by 9 am and 820 cm in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, he said. 'This will make the additional evacuation of 36,000 people necessary', said Trutnev, as reported by Interfax. Already tens of thousands across eastern Russia have been evacuated due to flooding which some experts blame on global warming. |
|
|
|
|
CBC News
2013-09-04 13:10:00
Several communities must wait a few more days for fuel resupplies. Ice buildup in the Amundsen Gulf is responsible for barge delays that have many Northern coastal communities running short on supplies. Normally, a supply barge arrives in the area in early summer to replenish stocks of fuel and other necessities in those communities. But this year, that trip is being held up by ice. As much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice. "We have not seen ice with this type of coverage in quite a few years and I really don't know how far back we might've seen it," says Bill Smith, a spokesman with Northern Transportation Company Ltd., which services the communities. "It's the opposite of what we've been seeing for the last few years where, generally, ice conditions have been improving from a transportation perspective." |
|
|
|
|
David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-08-27 10:55:00
Even though his state was battered by tornadoes and extreme weather this year, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R) is more convinced than ever that global warming is a hoax, and that this Earth is actually due for a "mini-ice age." In a speech to the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Coburn said that the United States was not growing as fast as it could because "we're not taking advantage of the wonderful natural resources that we have in our country, that we're limiting our capability through over-regulation and interference in the private sector." Although the Chamber told Raw Story that they were only making Coburn's opening remarks available on YouTube, Tulsa World published a few of the senator's thoughts about climate change from the question and answer portion of the event. |
|
|
|
|
Xinhuanet.com
2013-09-04 04:44:00
Floods and heavy rain have affected more than 5.2 million people in the Sino-Russian bordering province of Heilongjiang, local authorities said on Wednesday. As of Monday, residents from 904 towns and townships have been affected by the floods, and among them, 331,000 people have been relocated, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. The floods have also caused 18,300 houses to collapse and roads to be temporarily cut off on 1,315 occasions, according to the headquarters, adding that total economic losses for the province are estimated at 19.1 billion yuan (3.12 billion U.S. dollars). More than 8,000 relief workers are still battling the floods. The Heilongjiang River has swelled since mid-August, with some sections of its middle and lower reaches seeing their worst floods in history. The water levels of Nenjiang River and Songhua River have also exceeded their warning level for weeks. The provincial water resource department estimates the water levels of mainstream Songhua River and Heilongjiang River to recede and return to normal after Sept. 20 and 30 respectively. |
|
|
|
|
US Geological Survey
2013-09-04 01:41:00
Event Time 2013-09-04 06:27:05 UTC 2013-09-03 18:27:05 UTC-12:00 at epicenter Location 51.327°N 174.857°W depth=37.0km (23.0mi) Nearby Cities 106km (66mi) SSW of Atka, Alaska 1559km (969mi) SSE of Anadyr', Russia 1811km (1125mi) E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia 1828km (1136mi) E of Yelizovo, Russia 2641km (1641mi) W of Whitehorse, Canada Technical Details |
|
|
|
|
US Geological Survey
2013-09-03 23:52:00
Event Time 2013-09-04 02:32:33 UTC 2013-09-03 14:32:33 UTC-12:00 at epicenter Location 51.592°N 174.760°W depth=39.9km (24.8mi) Nearby Cities 77km (48mi) SSW of Atka, Alaska 1532km (952mi) SSE of Anadyr', Russia 1809km (1124mi) E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia 1826km (1135mi) E of Yelizovo, Russia 2618km (1627mi) W of Whitehorse, Canada Technical Details |
|
|
|
|
US Geological Survey
2013-09-03 19:38:00
Event Time 2013-09-04 00:18:24 UTC 2013-09-04 09:18:24 UTC+09:00 at epicenter Location 29.986°N 138.811°E depth=404.8km (251.5mi) Nearby Cities 356km (221mi) SSW of Hachijo-jima, Japan 494km (307mi) SSE of Shingu, Japan 514km (319mi) S of Oyama, Japan 515km (320mi) SSE of Owase, Japan 637km (396mi) S of Tokyo, Japan Technical Details |
|
|
|
| Fire in the Sky |
|
Deborah Netburn
Los Angeles Times 2013-09-03 20:21:00
The space rock was about 2 feet in diameter and weighed more than 100 pounds. When it hit the Earth's atmosphere last week, it shone, briefly, 20 times brighter than the moon. NASA's cameras captured the meteor as it zipped over the Southeast United States on Wednesday. In the video above, you can watch as it comes soaring through the sky and explodes in a flash of light. The steady orb of light in the left of the frame is the moon. |
|
|
|
| Health & Wellness |
|
PolicyMic
2013-09-03 20:08:00
Ann Jarrell, a 54-year-old software trainer, received an urgent phone call at work from her 23-year- old daughter, Jennifer, in March of this year. "It smells terrible out here, Mom," she said. "I don't know what's going on, but you need to get home." What was going on was that the Pegasus pipeline, which carried Alabasca heavy crude oil (tar sands) from Illinois to Texas, had ruptured en route and the Jarrell's tiny town of Mayflower, Ark. had a river of oil flowing through its streets. Jarrell has long blond hair and a voice hoarse from coughing. She told me last week that she'd been sharing her home with her daughter and four-month-old grandson, Logan, at the time of the spill. Their first concern was the child, but they couldn't decide what was best for him. Her daughter wanted to pack up the baby and leave, but Ann wasn't sure what they should do. Her first instinct was to call the police. She did so, only to find a frustrating lack of answers. "I asked, 'Do we need to evacuate?' They said, 'Do you have oil on your property?'" Jarrell remembered. When she told them there wasn't, and reported the smell, she says the answering officer was unmoved. She says he told her not to evacuate, and that the smell was the result of some sort of police containment situation. "'The smell's just so we can tell when it breaks,'" he told her. "'Just like they do with the natural gas line." This is not true. No such mechanism existed for the pipeline. |
|
|
|
| Science of the Spirit |
|
Tel Aviv University
2013-09-04 15:36:00
TAU researchers use a zoological method to classify symptoms of OCD and schizophrenia in humans. Because animals can't talk, researchers need to study their behavior patterns to make sense of their activities. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are using these zoological methods to study people with serious mental disorders. Prof. David Eilam of TAU's Zoology Department at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences recorded patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and "schizo-OCD" - which combines symptoms of schizophrenia and OCD - as they performed basic tasks. By analyzing the patients' movements, they were able to identify similarities and differences between two frequently confused disorders. Published in the journal CNS Spectrums, the research represents a step toward resolving a longstanding question about the nature of schizo-OCD: Is it a combination of OCD and schizophrenia, or a variation of just one of the disorders? |
|
|
|
|
Sarah Mandell
Many American parents yell or shout at their teenagers. A new
longitudinal study has found that using such harsh verbal discipline in
early adolescence can be harmful to teens later. Instead of minimizing
teens' problematic behavior, harsh verbal discipline may actually
aggravate it.Society for Research in Child Development 2013-09-04 15:24:00 The study, from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan, appears in the journal Child Development. Harsh verbal discipline happens when parents use psychological force to cause a child to experience emotional pain or discomfort in an effort to correct or control behavior. It can vary in severity from yelling and shouting at a child to insulting and using words to humiliate. Many parents shift from physical to verbal discipline as their children enter adolescence, and harsh verbal discipline is not uncommon. A nationally representative survey found that about 90 percent of American parents reported one or more instances of using harsh verbal discipline with children of all ages; the rate of the more severe forms of harsh verbal discipline (swearing and cursing, calling names) directed at teens was 50 percent. Few studies have looked at harsh verbal discipline in adolescence. This study found that when parents use it in early adolescence, teens suffer detrimental outcomes later. The children of mothers and fathers who used harsh verbal discipline when they were 13 suffered more depressive symptoms between ages 13 and 14 than their peers who weren't disciplined in this way; they were also more likely to have conduct problems such as misbehaving at school, lying to parents, stealing, or fighting. |
|
|
| High Strangeness |
|
Venus Upadhayaya
Epoch Times 2013-08-25 14:30:00
A quaint village in central India has fueled some Facebook discussion on ancient foot prints and an engraved image of a mysterious flying object. In Piska Nagri village, on the outskirts of Ranchi City in Jharkahnd State, geologist Nitish Priyadarshi has been studying large footprints that, according to local lore, may signify the presence of gods from the sky landing on site. The footprints are on a rock and look like they were of those wearing wooden sandals commonly worn thousands of years ago in the region. One set of footprints measures 11 inches in length and 5 inches in width, and another set in the same area measures 10 inches by 4.5 inches. God-kings of Indian mythology Lord Rama and Lord Lakshmana are believed to have spent time in the area in search of Rama's wife, Sita. Priyadarshi said the imprints are on granite rock, and thus were likely carved there rather than imprinted on the hard substance. "It may have been made by the local people manually at that time in memory of the visitors," he said. |
|
|
|
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
|
Kim Willsher
The Guardian 2013-09-04 14:25:00
Two international news agencies are at the centre of a row over self-censorship after withdrawing an unflattering photograph of the French president, François Hollande. Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters were subjected to criticism and widespread ridicule on the internet and social media sites after deciding to pull the picture. The photograph was taken when Hollande visited a school in Denain in northern France where he was presiding over a round-table discussion on recent reforms that changed school hours. It coincided with the start of the new school term for the majority of French schoolchildren. He is pictured sitting in front of a blackboard, on which is written "Aujourd'hui, c'est la rentrée" ("Today it's back to school") with a wide grin and rather gormless facial expression. The original picture was captioned: "During a visit to Denain Michelet school, September 3 2013, François Hollande smiles chairing a panel discussion on the reform of school timetables established by the government." Hollande, who sold himself as Monsieur Normal during his presidential election campaign, once had a reputation for being one of the country's wittiest politicians, but has suppressed his humorous side since being elected, for fear of being perceived to lack gravitas. |
