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| Puppet Masters |
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2013-10-18 16:13:00
Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working to change the law so he can mount a 2016 presidential run, according to a New York Post report. The newspaper quotes unnamed sources who say the actor, who's in New York City to promote his latest movie, "has been talking openly about working on getting the constitutional rules changed." The source said the 66-year-old Schwarzenegger, a Republican, intends to file the necessary paperwork to challenge the rules. The U.S. Constitution forbids foreign-born citizens from holding the chief executive position, but some legal experts have said it's not completely clear that courts would enforce the law instead of letting voters decide. Constitutional amendments require two-thirds majority approval in both the House and the Senate and then must be ratified by at least 38 of the 50 states. |
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Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online 2013-10-18 13:46:00
Life is good if you're a member of the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, officially known as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). You can crush the Arab Spring at will. You can hire goons all across dar-al-Islam to advance a sectarian Sunni-Shi'ite divide. You can be deeply implicated in the destruction of Syria. You can treat a significant part of your own population as third-class citizens. Not only you get away with it; you get rewarded with expensive toys. And in one particular case - Saudi Arabia - even with a two-year seat at the UN Security Council. Not to mention that the House of Saud expertly gets away with manipulating Islam as the pillar of its "legitimacy". The House of Saud controls the Hajj - which took place this week; an enormous logistical operation that "legitimizes" its role as leader of Sunni Islam, and automatically, the whole Islamic world. Well-informed Muslims though are very much aware of the fallacy - as much as they're aware of how the House of Saud is fast transforming Mecca into a Vegas-style pay-per-prayer luxury resort. Who's profiting? Certainly not the pilgrims. This week, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced it had notified congress about selling more state-of-the-art heavy metal for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That breaks down into "various munitions and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support" to Riyadh for US$6.8 billion and to Abu Dhabi for $4 billion. |
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Steve Nolan
The Daily Mail,UK 2013-10-18 11:04:00
The crew of a U.S-owned ship have been arrested by Indian police accused of entering Indian waters illegally with a stockpile of weapons on board. The Indian coast guard stopped the ship, which belongs to security firm AdvanFort, on Saturday and detained 33 crew members. AdvanFort claims that the ship has been supporting an anti-piracy initiative in Asia but Indian authorities say that they found weapons that had not been properly declared.
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Steven Erlanger
Three British organizations said Thursday that they had filed a legal
challenge in the European Court of Human Rights to the online
surveillance programs of the British spy agency the Government
Communications Headquarters. The groups are seeking to have the court
declare the collection of metadata, including e-mails and social media
messages, in secret programs revealed by the American intelligence
analyst Edward J. Snowden to be an illegal breach of the right to
privacy.
The New York Times 2013-10-03 00:01:00 |
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Rasmussen Reports
2013-10-16 10:25:00
Five-year Low: 13% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction The number of U.S. voters who feel the country is heading in the right direction has fallen to the lowest level of the Obama presidency. Just 13% of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending October 13. That's down from 17% the week before and the lowest finding since the week of October 20-26, 2008, when George W. Bush was still president. Confidence in the country's direction has fallen 15 points since the government shutdown began two weeks ago and is down from a high of 43% the week before Election Day last fall. After President Obama assumed office in January 2009, the number of voters who felt the country was heading in the right direction rose to 40% in early May of that year. In 2010 and 2011, confidence fell to the narrow range of 14% to 19%, levels similar to those measured in the final months of the Bush administration. Optimism began easing up again in mid-December 2011. |
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The Globe and Mail
2013-10-16 10:10:00
France's top appeals court on Wednesday upheld a fraud conviction and hundreds of thousands of euros in fines against the Church of Scientology for taking advantage of vulnerable followers. The Cour de Cassation rejected the organization's request that a 2009 conviction for "organized fraud" be overturned on the grounds it violated religious freedoms. The group has previously indicated that it will appeal the conviction to the European Court of Human Rights. The conviction saw Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, ordered to pay 600,000 euros ($838,452) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s. |
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Eric Yoder
Washington Post 2013-10-17 10:05:00
The budget measure that ended the partial government shutdown allows for a 1 percent raise for federal employees in January in addition to providing back pay for those furloughed, according to two Democratic Maryland senators. "The promise of a modest pay raise and back pay for furloughed government employees are good first steps in recognizing the value of federal workers," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in a joint statement with Sen. Ben Cardin. "I'm proud we were able to fulfill our promise to make them whole again with back pay and finally break through the pay freeze with a modest adjustment for next year," said Cardin, a member of the Senate Finance Committee. Federal employee salary rates have not been increased since January 2010. Some employees have had their pay frozen that entire time while some have received raises due to promotion, performance, or on advancing up the steps of their pay grades. |
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Police State USA
2013-10-15 23:59:00
Chicago, Illinois - Continuing the trend of mass-suspension of the 4th amendment at every possible event, police searched the bags of anyone they chose along the 26-mile track of the annual Chicago Marathon. More disturbing than the predictable push to eliminate privacy rights is the public's utter acquiescence in the face of the growing police state. At the annual race on Sunday, October 13th, a legion of police officers lined the streets. Chicago Police sent more than 1,000 officers to the race; some wearing conspicuous yellow vests, others infiltrating the crowd in plain clothes. FBI agents wearing military fatigues held a visible presence throughout the track, along with federal ATF agents and U.S. Marshals carrying rifles. DHS agents littered the scene performing searches with dogs. Department of Homeland Security designated the marathon a "Level Two" event, justifying the massive presence of federal agents at the race. Near the intersection of Michigan and Jackson, a giant Emergency Alert System banner read "EAS: Alert Level Low." "Everywhere you look there's about 20 officers at the corner, about 14 helicopters in the air," said Amie Byrne.
Grant Park was locked down with checkpoints and suspicionless bag searches. To add to the security theater, the race banned costumes for participants and only allowed runners to carry clear plastic baggies. Barriers and fencing were erected in many places, a notable difference from years past. "(Now) you can't run out and say, 'Hi,'" commented one onlooker. Unlike in the past, when police have looked the other way, no one was allowed to help a marathoner finish the run in the last mile or two. |
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Diane Macedo
FOXBusiness 2012-04-05 22:48:00
A new bill making its way through Congress could allow the federal government to prevent Americans who owe back taxes from leaving the country. The provision is part of Senate Bill 1813, which was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in November and passed by the Senate on March 14 "to reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes." Those "other purposes" have come to include a little-known amendment recently introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that would allow the State Department to revoke, deny or limit passports for anyone the Internal Revenue Service certifies as having "a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000." While the provision does make exceptions if the debt "is being paid in a timely manner" or "in emergency circumstances or for humanitarian reasons," it doesn't require that a person be charged with tax evasion before having their passport revoked -- only that the IRS has filed a notice of lien or levy against them. Constitutional Attorney Angel Reyes says that's a violation of due process and is unconstitutional. "It takes away your right to enter or exit the country based upon a non-judicial IRS determination that you owe taxes," Reyes told FOX Business. "It's a scary thought that our congressional representatives want to give the IRS the power to detain US citizens over taxes, which could very well be in dispute." |
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RT
2013-10-16 19:13:00
The government shutdown cannot end soon enough for poor residents of North Carolina, as the state has become the first in the country to cut off welfare benefits due to the gridlock in Washington. The decision came from North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which ordered its local offices on October 10 to stop processing applications for November until the federal government is back up and running. The state's welfare program, called "Work First," services more than 20,000 people, primarily children, and requires participants to reapply for benefits every month. Work First is funded entirely by the federal government, and helps poor residents purchase food and other supplies necessary for day-to-day life. But Work First isn't the only North Carolina service hampered by the government shutdown. According to Reuters, other programs will also be affected - including one that provides childcare subsidies covering more than 70,000 children. In various parts of the state, the delivery of those subsidies has already come to a halt. "I would say this is an emergency," Alexandra Sirota, director of the low-income advocacy group North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, told Reuters. "They're cutting off a lifeline for thousands of North Carolina families who have experienced significant hardships." |
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| Society's Child |
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Alex Napoliello
NJ.com 2013-10-18 16:18:00
Fair Lawn - An increasing number of roadside deer carcasses are being discovered decapitated, authorities told News 12 New Jersey. Department of Transportation workers tell News 12 that many are taking the heads for show. George Dante, the owner of a taxidermy shop in Woodland Park, told News 12 that "When they (sportsmen) see an animal by the side of the road with this magnificent headgear on it, you can't help but stop and take it home." Police want residents to know that taking deer heads is against the law, and those who are caught can be fined $500 the first time and up to $1,000 for a second offense, the report said. Residents in New Jersey are allowed to keep roadkill to eat, the report said, as long as they have a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Commission. "We would love to be able to pick up a roadkill and recycle it and turn it into a beautiful mount, give it to an environmental center," Dante told News 12. "Unfortunately, we're not allowed to recycle our wildlife." |
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EW News Desk Team
2013-10-17 13:42:00
An estimated 30 million people worldwide are currently living as slaves, according to the inaugural Global Slavery Index published Thursday, with India said to have the largest number of enslaved people, though African countries still had the highest proportional figure based on population. The index, compiled by the Walk Free Foundation (WFF), defined modern slavery to comprise of human trafficking, forced labour, and practices such as debt bondage, forced marriage, and the sale or exploitation of children; and found that slaves existed in all of the 162 countries surveyed. "Today some people are still being born into hereditary slavery, a staggering but harsh reality, particularly in parts of West Africa and South Asia," the report said, as cited by Reuters. The countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery were Mauritania (0.4 percent), Haiti (0.2 percent), Pakistan (0.012 percent), India (0.012 percent), Nepal (0.01 percent), Moldova (0.01 percent), Benin (0.01 percent), Ivory Coast (0.01 percent), Gambia (0.01 percent) and Gabon (0.01 percent). In terms of total numbers, the countries with the most people in modern slavery were estimated to be India (13.95 million), followed by China (2.95 million) and Pakistan (2.1 million). |
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Rob Wile
Business Insider 2013-10-09 13:40:00
Things are bad in Detroit. But they're even worse in Puerto Rico. The island's economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism, has been hammered by the drop-off in U.S. discretionary spending in the post-financial crisis era. We recently told you how residents have been leaving the country in droves. The territory's unemployment rate is more than 13%. Now, the yield on the Puerto Rican 5-year note has climbed to a staggering 9.4%. As the New York Times' Mary Williams Walsh notes, Puerto Rico cannot declare bankruptcy - just like a state. The pension fund of the Northern Mariana Islands tried this last year - and failed. A judge ruled that as a "governmental unit" it was explicitly barred from filing for protection under Chapter 11, which applies to corporations. (The NMI's lawyers themselves decided the territory was not eligible for Chapter 9, the bankruptcy statute Detroit and all cities and counties fall under.) So some kind of bailout may be imminent, the president of the Puerto Rican Senate, Eduardo Bhatia, told her: |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-10-18 10:38:00
Pittsburgh, PA police found four baggies of heroin on a 26-year-old substitute art teacher and marijuana in his car after he passed out in front of a roomful of high school students on Wednesday. According to KDKA CBS Channel 2, Christopher Chiappetta admitted that he had used heroin in the morning before reporting to work at Pittsburgh's Northgate High School. KDKA spoke with Northgate school resource officer Sgt. Mike Hudson about the incident, who was on patrol in the school hallway when he heard a commotion. He found Chiappetta slumped unconscious in a classroom with 11 students. "Unfortunately, it was a very realistic show and tell where you can preach the message to students, but they got to see live, firsthand the effects of a drug addiction problem," Hudson said. |
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Jon David Kahn
breitbart.com 2013-10-17 10:32:00
In May of 1986, a 21-year-old woman, Angie Crowley, was kidnapped, raped, beaten and then murdered while on a road trip in Florida. Tuesday evening, 27 years later, her killer was set to be executed by lethal injection in the small northern Florida town of Starke. Seventeen of the victim's loved ones were in attendance and sat shoulder to shoulder to witness the execution of William Frederick Happ at the Florida State Prison. Two brothers, two sisters, a nephew and an aunt waited in silence. Nobody said a word...except William Frederick Happ: "For 27 years, the horrible murder of Angela Crowley has been clouded by circumstantial evidence and uncertainty," Happ said. "For the sake of her family, loved ones and all concerned, it is to my agonizing shame that I must confess to this terrible crime." |
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Walt Hunter
CBS Philly 2013-10-16 10:17:00
Speaking exclusively to CBS 3, a 15-year-old high school student, whose identity we are concealing, described a terrifying attack by a gang of at least nine teenage boys as she was leaving an Interboro High School football game Monday night. The teenage victim described first being taunted by the attackers, who followed her down a neighborhood street, cursing and spitting at her, before she was repeatedly kicked and punched, suffering at least one blow to her head. "It was scary, just horrible, just the worst feeling in the world," she said. "He punched me in my back and then kicked me in the back, and then punched me in the back of my head. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I was just straight crying." |
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| Secret History |
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Paul Rosenberg
FreemansPerspective 2013-10-15 16:49:00
The Armenian Genocide was a systematic extermination that occurred during World War One, mostly in 1915. The killers were Ottoman Turks: agents and soldiers of that government, as well as eager civilians. The slaughter took place in two phases. First was the wholesale killing of able-bodied Armenian males through massacre and forced labor. Afterward came the deportation of women, children, the elderly and the infirm, on death marches into the Syrian Desert. All told, perhaps 1.5 million people were killed. The vast majority of these were Armenians, but the Turks also killed large numbers of Assyrian Christians, Greeks, and other minority groups. In many ways - including that of medical experiments on victims - the Armenian Genocide was the direct forerunner of the Nazi Genocide against the Jews. Here is one miniscule part of the slaughter - a photo taken by an American diplomat, to which he added a commentary:
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Seth Borenstein and Sophiko Megrelidze
Washington Post 2013-10-17 12:10:00
The discovery eight years ago of a 1.8-million-year-old skull of a human ancestor buried under a medieval Georgian village indicates our family tree may have fewer branches than some believe, scientists say. The skull, along with other partial remains previously found at the rural site, offer a glimpse of a population of pre-humans of various sizes living at the same time - something that scientists had not seen before in such an ancient era. This diversity bolsters one of two competing theories about the way our early ancestors evolved, spreading out more like a tree than a bush, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. When examined with the earlier Georgian finds, the skull "shows that this special immigration out of Africa happened much earlier than we thought, and a much more primitive group did it," said David Lordkipanidze, director of the Georgia National Museum and the study's lead author. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Hacker 10
Massachusets and Georgia Insititute of Technology researchers have
developed a method to log computer keystrokes by placing a smartphone
next to a computer keyboard and major its sound and vibration using the
smartphone accelerometer. The researchers employed an iPhone 4 for this
and noted that sensors in older models are not good enough to pick up
remote vibrations.2013-10-08 13:22:00 Mobile devices accelerometers are used to re-orient your screen using a differential capacitor to measure changes in gravitational pull. Researchers used it to listen in to typing sounds and translate them into text by estimating volume and force produced during keystroking.
The phone was enginereed to interpret what dictionary words sounded like and translate them into text. Accuracy was next to 80% and it only went down after an extensive number of dictionary words were added. Since an attacker might now what kind of information they are after, a customised dictionary with likely terms can be built to increase accuracy. |
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Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer
The Conversation 2013-10-10 22:21:00
How will future alien scientists know whether life existed in our solar system? One method may be to sift through the planetary debris left when our sun becomes a white dwarf. Astronomers are doing just that with a far-distant white dwarf, GD 61; in research they've published today in Science they point to an unusually high amount of oxygen among the debris, and discuss what that might mean for life outside our solar system. White dwarfs' meals reveal past solar systems In the very distant future our sun will run out of fuel and, after billions of years of spectacular evolution, it will turn into an extremely hot stellar remnant, a white dwarf. Almost half its current mass will be squeezed into a volume slightly bigger than the Earth. Before reaching that stage the sun will gradually brighten and first become a red giant, with dire consequences for life on our planet. Turbulent events in the final phases of solar evolution will obliterate our inner solar system, leaving behind only the giant planets and their numerous moons. If our star is merciful in this monstrous phase, then the asteroid belt might just survive as well. No guarantees. Given all this cosmic devastation, would future astro-archaeologists even be able to recognise that life once thrived in this stellar system? Or would there be no memory of a long-gone rocky planet that once travelled in orbit around a much younger yellow star? |
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| Earth Changes |
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Dan DePodwin
An eerie sight greeted residents of Rhodes, Greece, early Thursday
morning when a tornado formed just off the coast of the island of
Rhodes. An impressive video was captured of this rare event near Rhodes.
A large rotating column of air is seen in this video and note the
multiple, smaller funnel clouds.AccuWeather.com 2013-10-18 13:37:00
Fortunately, only minimal damage was reported, according to Severe Weather Europe and, judging by the video, the worst of the weather remained off shore. A potent cold front slicing eastward spawned severe thunderstorms Thursday that impacted islands in the Aegean sea as well as parts of western Turkey. The island of Rhodes, located in the southern Aegean Sea, does experience thunderstorms from time to time, but tornadoes are not all that common. YouTube user sandblast basshead captured this video of wind-whipped rain and structural damage. |
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Geraldine Cardozo
The Telegraph, Australia 2013-10-17 12:30:00
A Wamberal man received the shock of his life when he stumbled on a writhing ball of snakes in his backyard. What he did not know was that they weren't interested in him, but in one another. He had stumbled on a bizarre snake mating ritual. Christopher Finch said he had never seen anything like the "hellhole" of diamond pythons, some up to 2.5m long, on his property - just a short stroll from neighbouring houses and the Central Coast Highway.
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Jason Wells
LA Times 2013-10-16 10:43:00
A rare whale known for its saber-like teeth and preference for frigid subarctic waters washed ashore in a highly unlikely place Tuesday night: Venice Beach. The female Stejneger's beaked whale - also known as the Saber-toothed whale - was loaded onto the bed of a truck early Wednesday and taken for an necropsy that will give scientists a rare glimpse into the lives of the elusive mammals. So rare, in fact, it sent Nick Fash, an education specialist for Heal the Bay, pedaling his bike down to the site "as fast as I could." "We were very lucky," said Fash, who works at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. "These whales are incredibly rare and almost never seen in the wild." The roughly 15-foot long whale, he said, was reportedly spotted overnight, sending crews from the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum scurrying to retrieve the carcass. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Rex/Marcus McAdam
AOL Travel News 2013-10-18 15:55:00
A lucky photographer captured the rare moment a fireball lit up the sky above Sligachan on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The rare event was accidentally captured by landscape photographer Marcus McAdam, who has been working on a time lapse video showing a year on Skye condensed into minutes. Recently, he set his camera to record the stars over the Cuillin Mountains overnight. Describing what he discovered the next day, Marcus told Rex Features: "As I was loading the images onto my computer, one thumbnail stood out as being quite different to the others, so I enlarged it and saw a huge streak across the sky". Unsure what he had captured, he asked his Facebook followers and they pointed to a news story about reports of a fireball seen in the sky. Amazingly, he has since discovered that the phenomenon he recorded was a different fireball - meaning there were two within 50 miles of each other at around the same time. Marcus added: "I've since learnt that this is an extremely rare event, and even rarer to be photographed, as the whole thing happens in less than a second". |
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The Telegraph, UK
As reports suggest Earth will have a close shave with a 1,345-foot
(410m) asteroid in 2032, we look back at five that created a stunning
spectacle but left Earth largely unscathed. 2013-10-18 12:23:00
The Chelyabinsk asteroid which caused widespread damage in Russia's southern Urals in February maybe the best known, but it's far from the only asteroid sighting captured for posterity. One of the earliest sightings to be caught on camera was of the Great Daylight Fireball of 1972. Estimated to have been travelling at nine miles per second, it streaked across Utah before flying over Canada. Police officers out on patrol appear to have a good track record in spotting the flaming fireballs - two of the clips featured above were filmed by in-car cameras fitted to police cars. With increasing numbers of CCTV systems and dashboard cameras in vehicles, it seems likely that such sightings will increasingly be captured on video. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Heather Saul
The Independent, UK 2013-10-18 17:08:00
Pharmacologists have discovered one of the mechanisms that triggers Cotard's syndrome, a condition causing people to feel as if they have died, or parts of their bodies are dead or no longer exist. People in the grip of a Cotard's delusion can also believe they have 'lost' their blood and internal organs, such as their brain, and cannot respond to any rational reasoning with them that they are in fact alive. Acyclovir, also known as Zovirax, is a drug commonly used to treat cold sores and the herpes virus, as well as chicken pox and shingles. Just one per cent of people who use the drug will experience some psychiatric effects, including Cotard's. A link between renal failure, using the drug and Cotard's has now been highlighted by pharmacologists pooling data from hospital admission records and Swedish drug databases. In a study published in Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Swedish pharmacologists identified eight people with acyclovir-induced Cotard's from data collected. |
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Rod Bastanmehr
Alternet 2013-10-17 16:09:00
Lab rats in an experiment derived equal pleasure from both. While this might not be news to those of us who can't get enough of America's Favorite Cookie, science has now backed up our Oreo addiction. Students at Connecticut College conducted a study recently, and found that the attraction rats feel for Oreo cookies is equally strong as their attraction to cocaine. | |
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Comment: Don't believe the headline? Read more about how Junk Food is as 'Addictive as Drugs':
Food Addiction And Drug Addiction: Brain Activity Shows Similarities, Study Finds Junk Food-Addicted Rats Chose to Starve Themselves Rather than Eat Healthy Food Junk Food Found to Deteriorate Pleasure Center of Brain Junk Food Nearly as Addictive as Heroin Junk food triggers our 'bliss point' Junk Food Junkies: Dying For a Fix |
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Mary Elizabeth Williams
Alternet 2013-10-01 15:46:00
Headlines declare the practice risky - so why does the data say otherwise? If you're a new parent, the news sounds suitably scary: "Despite risk, more infants sharing beds." "Despite Dangers, Bed-Sharing With Kids Is On The Rise." "Hazardous' infant bed sharing rates double." That's the takeaway from a new study published this week in the JAMA Pediatrics reveals that the percentage of infants who shared a bed with their parents or caregivers has doubled - from 7% to 14% - in the past twenty years. This, despite concerns that co-sleeping increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. | |
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Comment: "Co-sleeping is routinely and safely practiced all over the world. Advocates
say it facilitates easier breastfeeding, helps infants to sleep better
and more deeply, and can even decrease the risk of SIDS. But it's easier to whip up a sensational headline than come to a nuanced conclusion around a hotly debated issue."
Read the following article carried on SOTT about this hotly debated issue: Parents furious after new campaign suggests co-sleeping is as dangerous as babies sleeping with knives |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-10-15 15:22:00
Whereas the quote above could easily be dismissed as the 'progress-denying' sentiment of a disgruntled anti-GMO activist, the fact is that it came from a scientist representing the very epitome of Western rationality and accomplishment. Perhaps Einstein was reflecting on the inevitable existential consequences of the so-called "technological imperative"- whatever can be done, will be done. Fundamentally amoral and irrational economic and political forces drive technology's feverish pace, infusing a certain arbitrary cruelty and disequilibrium into everything it touches. In our continual drive to 'improve upon Nature' in the name of much-hyped, 'life-saving' biotechnological innovations, the line between humane and inhumane eventually is crossed, and there seems no going back. Biopollution from defective or dangerous GMO genes, for example, is virtually impossible to undo once unreleased into the biosphere; you can't "recall" a defective gene like you can an automobile. Nor can we remove from our bodies the surreptitious viruses (e.g. simian virus #40 (SV40)) that contaminated millions of first-generation polio vaccines. In many ways our moral fiber suffers from the same susceptibilities. Once we have crossed a certain line - be it theft, lying, or worse, etc., - it is difficult, if not impossible to 'go back' and regain our innocence. Such is the human condition. And this is why we must carefully consider the medico-ethical implications of new technologies, whose developments we must first be aware of in order to guide, regulate and sometimes terminate. |
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Anne Angelone, L.Ac.
Primal Docs 2013-10-18 10:31:00
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, affecting about 11 percent of the population. For the majority of people, heart disease is driven by diet and lifestyle factors, however research shows an increasing number of heart disease cases can also have an autoimmune component. This means the immune system is mistakenly attacking and destroying heart tissue, causing symptoms and weakening the heart. Typically heart disease is linked with a diet high in processed foods, sugars and refined carbohydrates, lack of activity, and obesity. The good news is that means people who make the effort can ameliorate or reverse their condition through a whole foods diet and exercise. However, when an autoimmune reaction is part of the picture, the approach is more complicated. If the autoimmunity has destroyed enough tissue, it can be too late to reverse the condition and its symptoms. With autoimmune rates exploding in recent years, hopefully more doctors will screen for autoimmunity so an autoimmune heart condition can be caught in time to manage it. | |
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Comment: And this is only the tip of the iceberg. See Opening Pandora's Bread Box: The Critical Role of Wheat Lectin in Human Disease
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Kiley Kroh
Alternet 2013-10-18 07:02:00
Outdoor air pollution has been definitively linked to cancer and is officially classified as a carcinogen, according to research released Thursday by The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization. "The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances," said Kurt Straif, head of the IARC's monographs section, which is tasked with ranking carcinogens. The IARC's research found the toll of air pollution on public health worldwide is significant. In 2010 alone, exposure to ambient fine particles was recently estimated to have contributed to 3.2 million premature deaths, predominantly from cardiovascular disease, and 223,000 deaths from lung cancer. More than half of the lung cancer deaths attributable to ambient fine particles were projected to have been in China and other East Asian countries. Sources of air pollution identified by the agency include emissions from motor vehicles, industrial processes, power plants and household heating and cooking fumes and while the chemical makeup of outdoor air pollution varies around the globe, the IARC was clear that "the mixtures of ambient air pollution invariably contain specific chemicals known to be carcinogenic to humans." |
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Hormones Matter
2013-04-23 06:33:00
I wonder if so many women would "choose" hysterectomy if they knew how it would affect their figure and internal anatomy. I know I would have told my once respected gynecologist "no way" and left never to return if I'd known just a smidgen of what I now know. Here are some of the anatomical and skeletal changes that occur post hysterectomy. Ligament and Skeletal Changes Post Hysterectomy An intact woman's figure has space between the rib cage and the hip bones commonly known as the waist. The waist gives her the curve in her lower back, the natural sway in her hips, her "elongated" torso that's proportionate to her extremities. This all changes after hysterectomy. Four sets of ligaments hold the uterus in place. These ligaments are the "scaffolding" or support structures for the core (midsection). When the ligaments are severed to remove the uterus, the spine compresses causing the rib cage to gradually fall toward the hip bones and the hip bones to widen. This causes a shortened, thickened midsection, protruding belly, and loss of the curve in the lower back, giving the appearance of a flat derriere. In some women, these changes cause those hated rolls of fat (weight gain or not). In others, it looks more like a pregnant belly. This can be particularly distressing for women whose hysterectomies denied them the chance to have (more) children. |
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Seawater bacteria kills 10 in Florida, but authorities say healthy Gulf swimmers should have no fear
The Times Picayune
2013-10-11 06:24:00
Patty Konietzky thought the small purple lesion on her husband's ankle was a spider bite. But when the lesion quickly spread across his body like a constellation, she knew something wasn't right. After a trip to the hospital and a day and a half later, Konietzky's 59-year-old husband was dead. The diagnosis: vibrio vulnificus (vih-BREE'-oh VUHL'-nihf-ih-kus), an infection caused by a bacterium found in warm salt water. It's in the same family of bacterium that causes cholera. So far this year, 31 people across Florida have been infected by the severe strain of vibrio, and 10 have died. "I thought the doctors would treat him with antibiotics and we'd go home," said Konietzky, who lives in Palm Coast, Fla. "Never in a million years it crossed my mind that this is where I'd be today." State health officials say there are two ways to contract the disease: by eating raw, tainted shellfish - usually oysters - or when an open wound comes in contact with bacteria in warm seawater. |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Science Blog
2013-10-17 18:54:00
In findings that give fresh meaning to the old adage that a good night's sleep clears the mind, a new study shows that a recently discovered system that flushes waste from the brain is primarily active during sleep. This revelation could transform scientists' understanding of the biological purpose of sleep and point to new ways to treat neurological disorders. "This study shows that the brain has different functional states when asleep and when awake," said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Center for Translational Neuromedicine and lead author of the article. "In fact, the restorative nature of sleep appears to be the result of the active clearance of the by-products of neural activity that accumulate during wakefulness." The study, which was published today in the journal Science, reveals that the brain's unique method of waste removal - dubbed the glymphatic system - is highly active during sleep, clearing away toxins responsible for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders. Furthermore, the researchers found that during sleep the brain's cells reduce in size, allowing waste to be removed more effectively. The purpose of sleep is a question that has captivated both philosophers and scientists since the time of the ancient Greeks. When considered from a practical standpoint, sleep is a puzzling biological state. Practically every species of animal from the fruit fly to the right whale is known to sleep in some fashion. But this period of dormancy has significant drawbacks, particularly when predators lurk about. This has led to the observation that if sleep does not perform a vital biological function then it is perhaps one of evolution's biggest mistakes. |
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| High Strangeness |
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No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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matthirst
2013-10-16 19:06:00
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